Cyclists Killed On Cross Country Trip To Raise Funds For Diabetes Research In Canada

Two men were using their bikes to cross Canada to raise money for diabetes research. Their mission ended on the Trans-Canada Highway by a Honda Civic car near Virden when a Honda Civic hit the men and two children.

On June 14 a group had left Vancouver’s Stanley Park with “Ride of a Lifetime” to cross Canada. They planned on raising $500,000 to fund research for Type 1 Diabetes. The trip should have ended in St. John’s Newfoundland by August 12.

Fifty-year-old Daniel Hurtubise from St.-Bruno-de-Montarville, Quebec had lived with diabetes for 35 years. He and his two children 16-year-old daughter, Sonia, and 19-year-old son, Alex had been journaling online about their cross country adventure.

CTV Winnipeg printed the last journal ending.

The sun is shining it’s a beautiful day. Each cyclist is looking at their odometer and cannot believe that we have covered 2,000 km since the launch in Vancouver. Tonight we have celebrated that special occasion around a good table at a very nice restaurant in Moosomin. Tomorrow we will enter in Manitoba. … We have received donations from people who heard our interview on the radio. Thanks and please keep on supporting our cause…

Along with a 45-year friend from Kelowna, BC the group was struck down Sunday afternoon just outside of Virden. Hurtubise was killed instantly as was his friend. The Hurtubise children were taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

The 27-year-old driver of the Honda Civic was not injured. It is not thought that alcohol was a factor in the crash.

Did Medieval Monks Get Poisoned While Writing The Bible?

Writing biblical texts may have exposed monks to mercury poisoning reveals a study due to be published in the August issue of Journal of Archaeological Science.

During the medieval period diseases like leprosy and syphilis were treated with medicines containing mercury. Monks had neither of these conditions were their remains show the tell tale signs of exposure to the toxic chemical.

Mercury is retained in the bones even after death. Scientists who studied the bones from six different Danish cemeteries believe that the monks had been exposed to mercury.

The researchers believe that the monks exposure came from two source. The preparation and administration of medicines to those who had leprosy and syphilis is one logical answer. The other possibility is that using ink in the colour red while scribing Biblical texts. The bright beautiful red on the texts was made with mercury. It is thought that the monks may have licked the brushes while they were at work.

The researchers also studied bone samples from others who showed no sign of mercury poisoning.

Georgia Sex Offenders Soon Will Not Be Allowed To Volunteer At Church

Sex offenders are suing in Georgia for the right to help out at church. The Southern Center for Human Rights based in Atlanta filed a lawsuit on Tuesday on behalf of 15,400 sex offenders on Georgia’s state registry.

Georgia has some of the toughest sex offender statutes in the United States. The group is hoping to stop one more measure that is set to be placed on July 1, 2008.

That new provision will make it illegal for those convicted of sexual crimes to volunteer at church. That means they will not be allowed to prepare for events, cook meals at a church kitchen or even sing in adult choirs. If a sex offender breaks the laws they face a prison term of 10 to 30 years. The laws are in place to keep children safe says sponsors of it.

David Ralston, a Republican state representative and one of the measure’s sponsors is quoted at Fox News:

“It’s designed to protect children, to keep people who have a history of pedophilia or sex crimes against children away from children so they’re less likely to repeat. This latest filing is simply another tactic by those people who disagree with the whole purpose of the law and try to chip away at it until it’s abolished.”

Other lawmakers though oppose the bill stating the positive effects of religion.

“Thieves, robbers, murderers — we give them all a second chance,” said Mark Hanson, senior pastor at New Beginnings Tabernacle, a small evangelical ministry in Buchanan, Ga.

“It seems like under the sex offender law you’re banned permanently from society,” he said. “Without forgiveness and mercy, how do we expect anyone to start over?”

The state stresses that the laws on board for those who are sex offenders are necessary to prevent future crimes.

Sex offenders are allowed to attend church in Georgia they just will not allowed to volunteer. The laws are written to prevent volunteering at in any area where children are present.

Two Medical Helicopters Crash Midair In Arizona

At least six people are dead after a midair crash between to medic helicopters crashed midair in Arizona on Sunday. One more person was critically injured in the crash near Flagstaff Medical Center in Flagstaff.

The fallen helicopters set a 10 acre area a blaze. The blaze was the cause for two additional rescue workers who were on the ground to be injured when a secondary explosion happened after the crash.

The crash took place at 3:45 p.m. according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The original death toll of seven was revised to six after investigators spent time at the scene.

The helicopters were both on route to the hospital when the crash occurred. One of the rescue aircraft had a patient on it.

There were three people killed on board a Bell 407 helicopter operated by Air Methods Corporation. The other helipoter, also a Bell 407 was operated by Classic Helicopter Service of Utah. Four other victims were aboard that aircraft.

Inspectors from Washington are due to arrive on Monday to join investigators at the scene. A probe will be lead by the National Transportation Safety Board as to the cause of the crash.

Names of the victims have not been released.

Using Dolls To Reduce The Stigma Of Down Syndrome

Little girls love toting around dolls that look like themselves. Desi McKenzie’s eldest daughter had that doll but when Aubrey was born the Hawaiian mother couldn’t provide the same for her. Aubrey has Down syndrome.

The mother recently found that a few doll makers in the United States and Europe do make the dolls. Ms. McKenzie plans on getting one for Aubrey who is now 10.

Donna Moore is the CEO of Downie Creations, a manufacturer of dolls with Down syndrome. Before an eye disease forced her to stop working outside of the home Ms. Moore had worked with special education students as told to ABC News.

“I just realized that there was a huge need for these dolls because in our society today, so many people put a high emphasis on perfection,” Moore says. “When these children pick up a doll such as a Barbie … they can’t see themselves, and they needed something to identify with.”

The dolls have features that are common among those with Down syndrome; almond shaped eyes, a small mouth, a slightly protruding tongue and low set ears. Since 1996 the product has been a favorite with children with the disorder with about 2,500 dolls ordered so far.

A designer, Jerri McCloud worked with composite pictures of youngsters with the disorder to design the dolls for an realistic look. Because many with the condition have to undergo heart operations the dolls have an “incision scar”

There are more than 350,000 people in the United States alone that were born with Down syndrome. In 1983 the actual lifespan of those with the syndrome was just 25 years because of the complications associated with the genetic disorder. Children with Down have an increased risk of heart defects, breathing problems and childhood leukemia. The survival odds have increased today with newer treatments giving longevity a jump to the age of 56.

A few critics have said that the dolls are exploiting the condition for profit but the majority of feedback has been positive.

The dolls are not cheap at $174.95 but they do have a three monthly payment plan.

Actress Demi Moore is a customer. All of her girls have one of the dolls. Colleges and universities are also big buyers of the Downi dolls.

Dr. Susan Anderson, director of the Down Syndrome Program at the University of Virginia Children’s Hospital, who uses the dolls to teach pediatric residents about the syndrome was one of the first to purchase a doll.

“I think this is an acknowledgement that this is an important group of children that we have in our community,” she says.

China Has Reclosed Beichuan Because of Epidemic Fears

China’s Beichuan town has been sealed off to prevent any possible epidemics from happening. The town lost half of its 12,000 residents during the May 12 earthquake that killed 69,186 and left 18,457 people missing.

The reason behind the town being sealed off is the number of missing residents. Officials fear that surviving family members would start epidemics as they dug with their bare hands trying to find missing relatives.

The city had been briefly opened to allow for people to find possessions left behind after the devastating quake. The scene that followed the reopening though was chaotic, forcing authorities to close the town down again.

600 armed police officers have been posted around the town to prevent anyone in.

“Some local residents were digging for their family members with their bare hands, which can easily cause infection,”
Tan Jiamin, Beichuan county’s head of police told Xinhua.

The rising summer temperatures increase the risk of epidemics from contaminated remains. Possible diseases that could arise include avian influenza, encephalitis B and rabies. The earthquake itself increased the risk of anthrax and tetanus viruses.

The Toronto Transit Commission Goes To This Year’s Pride Parade

This year the TTC hit the Pride Parade in style with a pimped out pink bus looking like the bus that carried a group of drag girls around in the movie The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

That’s right it’s time for Pride Week again in Toronto. The Pride Parade is always a time for fun and showmanship.

The TTC in the past has been involved by transporting the celebs that are in town for the week long event but they had never before made a splashy show during the parade.

Al Pritchard headed the TTC shop workers in applying the coats of “Strawberry Crush” to the exterior of the bus. He told The Star that he and his crew now know a lot more about pink paint than they did a week ago. The chief designer for the project was volunteer Vincent Pincente. Vincent is more well known to local drag show fans as Donnarama. The group had one problem with the design though. A sandal that was to top the bus was deemed a hazard with the overhead streetcar wires. On Friday the plan was to mount the shoe to a platform on the back of the bus.

TTC driver Kathy Furtado steered the bus used as a float this year.

Susan Bigioni was the DJ on board spinning her regular flair of TTC stop announcements with songs from the Priscilla soundtrack.

Mark Lunsford Takes On Massachusetts Senate For ‘Jessica’s Law’

Mark Lunsford is giving a piece of his mind to Rep. James Fagan. Jessica Lunsford was killed by a child rapist in Florida and the name behind Jessica’s Law. Rep. James Fagan believes it is okay to torment children on the stand to defend clients.

According to a report in the Boston Herald Lunsford shows his anger about lawyers who want to skirt the law when it comes to the rights of a child.

Why doesn’t he figure out a way to defend that child and put these kind of people away instead of trying to figure ways for defense attorneys to get around Jessica’s Law?” Mark Lunsford fumed, slamming recent remarks by Rep. James Fagan. “These are very serious crimes that nobody wants to take serious. What about the rights of these children?”

Jessica was raped and murdered in Florida by a repeat sex offender. The law named for her is being presented in Massachusetts this week. The base of the law would require a 20-year sentence for rape of a child under 12. While a watered down version of the law was passed last week victims’ rights groups are pushing the Senate to include mandatory prison time be part of the final law.

“I’ve read the bill and it’s worthless. They know they can do more. They know they can pass more,” Lunsford told the Herald. “We have an obligation to children to hand out the stiffest, most powerful sentence we can for raping a child.”

At the present time the version that has been approved gives a minimum sentence only if force is used on a child during a crime.

“If this bill is not going to put these people away, don’t disrespect me by putting my daughter’s name on it,” Lunsford told the Herald last night. “You have to put these guys in prison and admit these people are uncurable.”

Fagan is on record as saying that he personally would torture child witnesses on the stand in the defense of a client accused of such crimes.

In a fiery soliloquy on the House floor, Fagan said he’d grill victims so that, “when they’re 8 years old they throw up; when they’re 12 years old, they won’t sleep; when they’re 19 years old, they’ll have nightmares and they’ll never have a relationship with anybody.”

Hagan went on to state that laws that are named for someone have always been a failure.

Throw Out The Geneva Convention, 44% Of Americans OK With Torture

A new poll out says that 44 per cent of Americans think torturing terrorists is fine. The poll was conducted in 19 nations and found that Americans were the most accepting of the practice.

What’s more disturbing is that one in 10 believe that torture should generally be allowed.

Compared to Mexico where only 17% of those polled believe that limited torture is acceptable to save innocent lives when dealing with terrorists the United States appears down right blood thirsty.

Now there are other countries that view torture more acceptable then the U.S. Those countries are Egypt, Turkey, Nigeria, South Korea, Thailand and India.

The countries most opposed to the use of torture were Spain, Great Britain and France, all at 82 per cent and believing that all forms of torture should be banned.

The poll was released in advance of Victims of Torture Day which was on Thursday.

Vote it up! WorldPublicOpinion.org (All Rights Reserved)

The poll surveyed a total of 19,063 people and conducted in 19 countries. The nations represent 60% of the world’s population. It was funded by the Oak Foundation.

Each country polled is a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and party to the Geneva Convention.

The survey posed the following statements to responders to gauge their response:

“Terrorists pose such an extreme threat that governments should now be allowed to use some degree of torture if it may gain information that would save innocent lives.” In fourteen nations, a majority or plurality rejected this argument in favor of the unequivocal view: “Clear rules against torture should be maintained because any use of torture is immoral and will weaken international human rights standards against torture.”

Body Snatching Dentist Michael Mastromarino Jailed In New York

Michael Mastromarino, a United States dentist will be spending a lot of time in jail for stealing body parts and selling them to doctors for transplantation.

The scam made the body parts ring a net of $4.6 million dollars. Now it’s time for Michael Mastromarino to pay. He plead guilty in March to body stealing, reckless endangement and enterprise corruption in March. For his crimes the New Yorker will spend between 18 and 54 years in jail.

The body organs that were not medically screened were stolen from funeral homes in New York New Jersey and Pennsylvania from 2001 to 2005.

The parts were then used for as many as 10,000 operations including knee and hip replacements.

The BBC quotes Mastromarino as saying;

“I am truly sorry for the pain that I have caused,” he said. “May God have mercy on my soul.”

One of the bodys that had been tampered with was that of BBC presenter Alistair Cooke. Cooke died in March 2004 in New York at the age of 95.

Impaired Drivers Will Have A Tougher Time If Caught In Canada Starting Wednesday

Canadian drivers who think they can get away with drinking beware, the laws have changed. If a police officer tells you to walk the line you had better comply.

Longer jail terms and stiffer fines are all part of a drive to get those who drive impaired off of the road.

During a press conference held at John Quay on the Toronto waterfront Friday morning Rob Nicholson, along with the Ontario Provincial Police, Toronto Police Service and Mothers Against Drunk Driving made sure the message was clear, don’t drink and drive. If you get caught breaking the law you are going to pay for it.

In the past those who wanted to refuse the roadside sobriety test they could. That is no longer an option for drivers believed to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol. In addition urine and blood tests that are refused will grant a driver charges.

The police now have the right to demand blood, urine or saliva samples of those suspected to be driving after partying.

fines have also changed. A minimum of $1,000 awaits you if you choice to endanger others behind the wheel of your car after indulging. If you get busted again you will be sitting in a cell for a month.

The new laws will go into effect on Wednesday.

Miami Hospital Refused To Allow Lesbian Partner To Stay With Dying Lover

Last February Janice Langbehn and her partner Lisa Marie Pond had planned to take a vacation cruise heading out from Miami with their children. That dream ended when Pond suffered a massive stroke before the ship sailed.

The couple from Washington had been together for 18 years. They had planned to celebrate that with three of their four children when joy turned to sorrow.

Pond was transported to Miami’s Jackson Memorial Hospital after suffering the stroke was prior to the ship leaving port.

Langbehn was not allowed to spend more than five minutes with the woman she had loved for almost two decades. A social worked told the grieving woman that they were in an “anti-gay city and state.”

Pond died alone 18 hours after arriving at hospital.

Langbehn has filed a suit in the U.S. District Court in Miami. She is seeking at least $75,000 and lays accusations that physicians Alois Zauner and Carlos Alberto Cruz and social worker Garnett Frederick were negligent in their care of her partner. She has also made charges that they inflicted intentional emotional distress.

Toronto’s Kensington Market Is Still A Great Show To Catch

During the late 1960’s Toronto had its share of rock bands. One of those just recently released a new CD. The band is called Kensington Market, named after a downtown Toronto neighbourhood, and they’re back and better than ever.

Playing at Hugh’s Room in West Toronto, the boys showed that they can still rock. The June 17 show was sold out. I was one of the lucky few who was able to delight in the sounds this band puts out.

The original band consisted of singer/songwriter and guitarist Keith McKie, guitarist and pianist Gene Martynec, bass player Alex Darou and drummer Jimmy Watson brought together by Bernie Finklestein in May 1967. Later singer/songwriter Luke Gibson joined in 1967 and then in 1969 synthesizer player John Mills-Cockell was brought in.

Vote it up! David Lister (All Rights Reserved)

McKie had been around the music world for a while prior to helping form the band. Nick Warburton captured a reflection on the time from McKie.

Vote it up! Keith McKie David Lister (All Rights Reserved)

“At one point I was living with Steve Gervais, who was later a successful actor, in a station wagon and he wanted to be my manager,” says McKie. “But it seemed like Bernie was the better deal. In retrospect, and in spite of the fact that Bernie was really good, I probably should have stayed with the guy I was with at the time because it would have been more fun in the long run and more organic. Bernie had a lot of experience and that was probably a smart move to make if you were being a business person.”

Their name came from a popular area in Toronto close to China Town. Lined with vintage clothes stores now the area still retains a bit of a 60’s feel.

“sell everything and we wanted to do everything”.

The first gig was at the Night Owl on June 4, 1967.

Writing in the Toronto Star, Sid Adilman reported that the group was “the brightest and most inventive band ever grouped together in Toronto”.

The boys played at Toronto coffeehouses and at high schools in the beginning. Finklestein was able to get them a contract with Warner Brothers in New York City. In 1968 the group did the soundtrack for the film “The Ernie Game.” They later released the album Avenue Road and toured the United States. They followed up that record with Aardvark and had a second tour. Sadly that was the end of the band until now.

Vote it up! Kensington Market David Lister (All Rights Reserved)

Kensington Market had a unique sound, separate from that of the US and British bands of the time. Both Keith McKie and Luke Gibson went on to have minor solo careers since the band broke up in 1969.

The Tuesday night show brought that time back to the future. As they jammed on stage the crowd took in the distinctive sound that is all theirs.

Vote it up! Kensington Market David Lister (All Rights Reserved)

I was too young to have seen them when they were hitting the Toronto coffee house trail but I am glad I was able to capture the show.

Vote it up! Luke Gibson David Lister (All Rights Reserved)

Rock on boys.

Vote it up! Kensington Market David Lister (All Rights Reserved)

All pictures are by the talented David Lister of Toronto.

Opinion: So How Much Will It Cost To Call Family On Mars?

The Phoenix lander is probing Mars to see if someday primitive live could live there. With the discovery of ice and soil compatible for some of Earth’s plants how long before we have family on the Red Planet?

Now don’t get me wrong, I can see the advantages of settling Mars. I am just trying to figure out if the true necessities of life are being thought about. Can you imagine the cost of calling kin folk when they are settlers of oh say Toronto, Mars?

While the first settlers will be scientists and brainy types in the future families will be setting down roots. That is if you can confuse the masses that they love asparagus, green beans and turnips. Those plants could easily grow in the soil on Mars now. The pH of Martian soil is between 8 and 9. David Paige, a planetary scientist at the University of California says right now its too early to tell if the minerals could support life but its possible. The Phoenix found traces of magnesium, sodium, potassium and chloride in its soil samples.

I am thinking ahead though past the need of food, past the need for clean air (come on if the Chinese can adapt to their air it’s not such a huge problem) and past the need for water. I am thinking about the important things like TV, computer service and Wii. Can Mars support such things?

Trust me there are going to be settler mothers who are pulling their hair out if it can’t.

“No Johnny there aren’t cartoons here only the science channel.”

There will be bonus advantages though of living on Mars. Those pesky family members that you would rather undergo waterboarding than have over have too far to come for a quickie visit.

“Yes, Mom, I know we moved to far away. (aside) “Honey quit smiling so wide.”

Come to think about it, Mars just may be the kind of planet to pitch your tent on.

As the Globe and Mail reports Samuel Kounaves of Tufts University saying the planet may be a friendly place to inhibit.

“There’s nothing about it that would preclude life. In fact, it seems very friendly,” mission scientist Samuel Kounaves of Tufts University said of the soil. “There’s nothing about it that’s toxic.”

North Korea Keeps Promise, Blows Up Nuclear Reactor Tower

Yesterday’s announcement of the United States lifting sanctions against North Korea has resulted in the television airing of the destruction of a water cooling tower at the Yongbyon facility.

Three minutes after a warning flare was fired the tower came down in a cloud of smoke.

The United States Department officials and observers for the International Atomic Energy Agency were on hand about 1,000 yards from the site.

According to a CNN report the time it will take to rebuild such a tower is at least a year. This is a huge step in disablement.

“This is a critical piece of equipment for the nuclear reactor,” said analyst John Wolfsthal, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, who has been following North Korea since the 1980s. “Without this facility, the reactor can’t operate and can’t produce more plutonium for weapons.”

North Korea has been under watchful eyes concerning their nuclear weapons program. On Thursday they handed over to China a 60 page declaration written in English of the Yongbyon’s plutonium production dating back to 1988.

The document confirms that there was enough plutonium made to service about seven nuclear bombs.

Bush had stated on Thursday that these actions would result of a lifting of sanctions and removing North Korea from the list of nations sponsoring terrorism.

“The United States has no illusions about the regime in Pyongyang,” Bush said. “We remain deeply concerned about North Korea’s human rights abuses, uranium enrichment activities, nuclear testing and proliferation, ballistic missile programs and the threat it continues to pose to South Korea and its neighbors.”

Opinion: Geez Mr. Bush, You’re Right – Let’s Trust North Korea Now

The United States is posed to lift trade sanctions that they leveled against North Korea President Bush announced on Thursday. This is a major turnabout considering he once labeled the communist nation an “axis of evil.”

How did a nation make such a drastic turn that the United States is backing off on its choice to sanction them?

According to a yahoo report Bush believes that easing up on sanctions to the regime will help in the denuclearization process.

This is a nation that has long lied about its nuclear weapons programs.

According to a report at the International Institute for Strategic Studies:

“They have certainly produced enough plutonium since that time to make a number of more weapons,” said a U.S. defense official familiar with the intelligence on North Korea.

A report that was written by The Washington Post quoted David Albright, the president of the Institute for Science and International Security:

“These advanced nuclear weapon designs may have long ago been sold off to some of the most treacherous regimes in the world.”

It’s a well known fact that North Korea has supplied Libya in the past with weapons. There are 30,000 documents that link the nation to a smuggling ring run by Pakistan’s “father” of their atomic weapons project, Abdul Qadeer Khan.

“These would have been ideal for two of Khan’s other major customers, Iran and North Korea,” Mr Albright wrote. “They both faced struggles in building a nuclear warhead small enough to fit atop their ballistic missiles and these designs were for a warhead that would fit.”

And now Bush believes them? What happened? What does North Korea have in their pocket that is making George Bush willing to jump through their hoops?

“We will trust you only to the extent you fulfill your promises,” Bush said in the Rose Garden. “I’m pleased with the progress. I’m under no illusions. This is the first step. This isn’t the end of the process. It is the beginning of the process.”

Or is it an act of giving someone just enough rope to hang themselves? Knowing that the North Korean have produced enough plutonium to make a half-dozen bombs is the easing of sanctions a ploy?

On October 9, 2006 North Korea conducted their first nuclear test. That test resulted in an earthquake measuring 4.2 on the Richter scale.

Are we to believe that they honestly plan to stop production at all their locations like their Yongbyon facility? Last year they said they had but have failed to provide complete accounting of all of their nuclear activity. They didn’t shut it down until the United States had put $25 million into an account at a Macau bank.

Of course they plan on blowing up the 65-foot-tall cooling tower on television. That will make a nice day of reporting when they do.

It’s good enough for Bush it appears. He plans to erase trade sanctions under the Trading With the Enemy Act for that little show. He will also notify Congress that in 45 days North Korea is off the list of nations that sponsor terrorism.

Isn’t that special?

Okay let’s face it, the chances are slim that North Korea could nuke the world. That said they could still use those long-range missiles if so inclined. Those suckers have a range of several thousand kilometres.

But golly gee whiz Bush trusts them now I guess so should the rest of us.

Toronto-Area Residents Want Swinger’s Clubs Ousted From Their Neighbourhood

At Club Hers, Jay-Jay’s and Menage A Quarte consenting adults have a grand old time exploring their partners and the partners of other members. Neighbours of the swinger clubs want them to get the heck out of their Etobicoke neighbourhood.

City Hall is not happy with the swinging clubs being in their town, close to Toronto. they say the rampant sexual desire brings out a vibe that isn’t wanted in the neighbourhood.

According to a report from CityNews.ca Etobicoke-Lakeshore Coun. Mark Grimes wants the clubs to get out.

“I certainly don’t want them in my ward and my community does not want them.”

There have been protests when Jay-Jay’s, a former country-western bar turned swinger’s club, opened in May. at least 2,000 have signed a petition that expresses their displeasure at the zoning loopholes that allow sex clubs to operate in their neighbourhoods.

“This is not what we want the area to become,” claims area resident Scott Waddell. “We think they need to be zoned outside of residential areas and there’s droves of people that I think agree with this.”

The owner of Menage A Quatre Richard Polara counters with the fact that his club brings young, elegant, affluent, beautiful people to the neighbourhood.

Not all of the residents are as concerned about the sex clubs as they are about the other crimes that take place in their part of town.

“It’s not causing any problems. They should deal with all the rest of the problems around here,” insisted local Lori-Ann Houston. “The crack dealers and the prostitution.”

City Hall voted on Tuesday to look for ways to close down the clubs or at the very least have them moved out of residential areas.

Global Climate Changes Could Strain U.S. Military In The Future

Global climate changes over the next twenty years could strain the United States military according to a report delivered to Congress on Wednesday.

The U.S. report states that although it is not believed that the climate change alone will collapse any one country the effects of those changes may make for chaos. With the threat of advancing poverty, social tensions, the degradation of the environment and political institutions weakening the military could become very strained.

In a article on Reuters Thomas Fingar, deputy director of national intelligence for analysis, outlined the findings to two House of Representative committees.

“As climate changes spur more humanitarian emergencies, the international community’s capacity to respond will be increasingly strained,” Fingar said in prepared testimony, “significantly tax U.S. military transportation and support force structures, resulting in a strained readiness posture and decreased strategic depth for combat operations.”

The fear is that people will quickly begin to migrate from all nations regardless of their economic standings.

While areas such as sub-Saharan Africa are likely to face even greater crop yields North American crops are expected to increase by five to twenty percent.

The findings show that reducing greenhouse gas emissions is one key in tackling climate change.

The study that looks at the security risks of climate change through 2030 is known as a national intelligence assessment. The study relied on open sources instead of spies for its information.

Another Medical Use For Marijuana Is Discovered Without The High Effect

It’s not just the THC in marijuana that is beneficial for medical use scientists have discovered, cannabinoid helps combat inflammation without getting you high. The active ingredient of the plant could help sufferers of arthritis and other ailments.

It’s long been known that THC, a property of marijuana can help with pain and nausea. The concerns though from some have been the fact that it can also get you “high.” Researchers have now found another property of marijuana that could do much of the same thing without the added high effect.

Researchers say that cannabinoid, called beta-caryophyllene, or (E)-BCP helps battle inflammation without making a person have a fit of the giggles.

The average person is already consuming (E)-BCP in their daily diet. The property is found in black pepper, oregano, basil, lime, cinnamon, carrots, and celery. The essential oils of the cannabis plant contain up to 35 percent of the property.

According to a report in the National Geographic;

“This is because the focus was on the classical cannabinoids [rather than (E)-BCP],” said lead study author Jürg Gertsch of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology

Cannabinoids affect two of the molecular receptors in the human body. One of those is the CB1 receptor in the brain and central nervous system. Those receptors are where the drug interacts to give the “high” feeling. Now in the CB2 receptor which is found in the tissues of the rest of the body, the drug attacks inflammation.

“Targeting the CB2 receptor could be a therapeutic strategy to prevent or treat diseases like Crohn’s disease [inflammation of the intestinal tract], liver cirrhosis, osteoarthritis, and atherosclerosis.”

THC activated both the receptors while (E)-BCP only works on the CB2 ones. This means that the medical community has a new possible natural drug in the fight of inflammation.

A study using mice was just published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
By engineering a strain of mice that lacked the CB2 receptor researchers were able to conclude that (E)-BCP does indeed work at producing anti-inflammatory effects via that receptor.

Can they be further developed and modified into better anti-inflammatory drugs?” Stephen Safe, director of the Texas A&M University’s Center for Environmental and Genetic Medicine asked. “Maybe. [(E)-BCP] could be a new model [compound] for drug design.”

Still in the research process there could be hope to many on the horizon.

The John Lecky House Is For Sale For A Dollar

Here’s a deal for you if you’re in Canada, the historic John Lecky house in Prince Edward Island is on the market for only a dollar.

Of course there is a little thing like removing the home build in the 1920’s from its property on Water Street in Summerside according to a CBC report. Right now the car dealership D. Alex MacDonald has the deed on the home.

At first the company was going to tear it down and had filed a demolition application with the city. That’s when some of the members of the council’s heritage board stepped in and voiced their concerns. It seems the bungalow is a part of the town’s history.

The John Lecky house was once owned by a well known farmer and fox rancher. The board asked the dealership if they would be willing to let someone buy the vacant home for a dollar.

This one is a handyman’s special. Most of the original character remains in the home as it has not been updated since it was built.

“It’s just getting to be an eyesore, and it needs a lot of renovation. We’ve actually had no plans for the land; we just thought it was getting to be an eyesore for the city,” D. Alex MacDonald manager Ron MacDonald told CBC News Tuesday.

Steve Whissell’s Final Act Showed He Was A Hero

Fathers are looked up to as heroes in their children’s eyes. Steve Whissell of Quebec died on Saturday being a true hero as he saved his children’s lives from a runaway car.

The 33-year-old father of five was crushed to death on Saturday after he shoved at least two of his children out of harm’s way.

The runaway car was barreling down a steep slope in Huberdeau, Quebec on Saturday in the path of the young family readying to watch the annual St-Jean-Bapiste Day parade.

A crowd was seating on the grassy area near the city’s town hall to view the parade.

As screams of “Watch out” rang on the hill the young Whissell family’s life was changed forever. A unmanned car was racing down the hill towards the family. Wife Johanne Coursolle, 39, holding the couple’s youngest child was sent flying as the car clipped her. Whissell was able to push their three-year-old twins out of the way before the car slammed into him. In the end Steve Whissell laid dead under the car.

the car had been parked legally in the town hall parking lot. For some reason the car began to roll about 35 metres. The manual transmission vehicle hit two other cars on its path down the hillside.

Firefighters that were part of the parade were quickly by Mr. Whissell but it was too late.

Steve Whissell leaves behind wife Johanne Coursolle and their five children, two sets of twins 10 and three and the baby at two.

The devoted father will be remembered as the hero that saved his family from certain death.

Steve would have turned 34 on Thursday.

Gordon Wheeler, Sr. Fatally Shot After Taking Board Meeting Hostage

Gordon Wheeler, Sr.,60, took a board meeting in Little Falls, Minnesota hostage after years of disagreements about his sex shop. The adult business owner had about 10 hostages until the police fatally shot him.

Some of those who had been attending the meeting were able to escape when Wheeler pulled out a handgun on Tuesday. Those who fled called the Morrison County sheriff’s office. Moments later Sheriff Michel Wetzel, a deputy and a state trooper took charge of the situation by firing on the man. Wheeler was pronounced dead at hospital.

An autopsy is scheduled to be performed on Wednesday.

It is unclear if Wheeler fired his weapon. None of the hostages were harmed during the crisis.

Investigators are unclear of Wheeler’s motives for the Tuesday incident. In the past the man had problems with officials in Morrison County. the rural area is about 100 miles northwest of Minneapolis.

Best known as the childhood home of Charles Lindbergh, Little Falls has a population of 8,000.

Wheeler has owned at least 3 adult related businesses that have since closed due to regulations from the county. The county in 2003 made its land-use ordinance for sex-related businesses stricter. That move forced an adult book store and a video store to be shut down. Wheeler also owner the strip club, Camp Bar, until 2006 when he was convicted of promoting and profiting from prostitution. At that time the bar was ordered to be shut down also.

Charges of county and country officials of being corrupt were then leveled by Wheeler. Those lawsuits were dismissed by a judge this year.

Indian Journalists And Editor Arrested

Two journalists and their editor were arrested on Tuesday night in Hyderabad, India for publishing an allegedly offensive story on Dalit organizations and its leaders.

The editor and two journalists who write for Andhra Jyothi were taken into custody after the high drama and tensions arose over the story.

The police took Editor K Srinivas and two journalists, Vamsi and Srinivas, into custody from the Jubilee Hills office where the story was published. The police team was led by assistant commissioner of police Ramakrishnaiah.

The police cited the provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Act as the cause of the arrests. The paper had run an article last month that criticized Dalit leaders and their organizations.

The staff of the paper voiced their protest of the arrests by squatting in the staircase and tried to prevent the police from removing their fellow journalists from the office.

As reported in Sify News:

Condemning the arrests, Radhakrishna said, “This is a gross misuse of SC/ST Act.”

He said, “Already our office has been attacked and now our journalists are arrested. After this, what fundamental rights do we journalists have?”.

Dalit outfit Madiga Reservation Porata Samithi (MRPS) was the one that issued a complaint to the police. He is spearheading a movement for increasing reservations for Madigas.

NASA Expert: We Have One Last Chance to Deal With Global Warming

According to a NASA scientist the humans walking the planet today may be a dying breed. James Hansen told Congress on Monday that greenhouse gases are long past the dangerous level.

If the trend doesn’t go back to 1988 levels then the human race may face mass extinction. Hansen also warns of ecosystem collapse and sea levels raising to dramatic levels.

“We’re toast if we don’t get on a very different path,” Hansen, director of the Goddard Institute of Space Sciences who is sometimes called the godfather of global warming science, told The Associated Press. “This is the last chance.”

Hansen has been warning the public since June 1988 about global warming. On Monday he testified again before the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.

So what can humans do to stop the end of the world for the human race?

Coal-fired plants that don’t capture carbon dioxide should be banned in the United States by 2025. The rest of the world needs to be rid of the energy plants by 2030.

According to Hansen burning fossil fuels like coal is the main cause of greenhouse gases that humans produce. To survive the Earth needs to have a level of 350 parts of carbon dioxide per million. In May that level was at 386.7 per million.

Critics say that Hansen shows his expertise in the matter is beyond his ability with his “stop them all” approach to coal plants.

That said when Hansen started preaching about the need to curb the amount of man-made greenhouse gases emitted into the ozone it was the world’s hottest year on record. Since 1988 that record has been beaten 14 times.

“We see a tipping point occurring right before our eyes,” Hansen told the AP before the luncheon. “The Arctic is the first tipping point and it’s occurring exactly the way we said it would.”

Hansen now warns, like other scientists, that within five to ten years the Arctic will have summers without sea ice.

One critic, Senator James Inhofe, R-Okla. says that Hansen, Al Gore and the media have been sounding the man-made climate doom since the 1980’s and that the American people aren’t buying it.

Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass. countered that sentiment with:

“Dr. Hansen was right. Twenty years later, we recognize him as a climate prophet.”

As the ice caps melt, storms increase in strength and the world gets hotter should we wait another twenty years to see if Hansen is right? Or perhaps we should go with the theory that he is and start to change things in time just in case he is on to something.

Michigan And Ohio E. coli Outbreaks Linked

An outbreak in both Ohio and Michigan of E. coli have been linked to the same source. There have been 17 confirmed cases between the two states. Ohio is also investigating an additional two cases.

Ten of those affected in Michigan are in hospital. It appears all of the cases are linked by ground beef purchased at the Kroger grocery chain. Kroger Food Stores are the largest U.S. grocery chain.

A sample by one of those who have been infected tested positive for the E. coli virus at the Michigan agricultural lab. That sample was forwarded to the Ohio lab to test for genetic fingerprinting.

E.coli is most often a result of contaminated beef.

“It is a multi-state outbreak involving both Ohio and Michigan,” said Kristopher Weiss, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Health.

Road Rage Claims Innocent Victims In San Francisco

On Sunday a father and two of his children were attacked during an outburst of road rage. In the end a child and his oldest son were dead and the youngest son was left clinging to life.

The family had been enjoying a picnic in Fairfield, California when Tony Bologna,49, left early to get a little sleep before he went to work. He was due in at a San Mateo grocery store by midnight where he was the night-shift supervisor.

At 3 p.m. he was at Congdon Street. It’s narrow and he had to stop. When he stopped he blocked the path of a Chrysler 300M that had up to three people in it. Bologna had to put his car in reverse to try to let the other car go by on the narrow street.

The SFGate reports:

“The driver started giving Tony dirty looks, so Tony drove back,” said Lt. Mike Stasko, who heads the police homicide detail and coached youth basketball with Bologna. “The man drove alongside him and started shooting.

“If Tony never backed up, they would still be nose to nose,” Stasko said, drawing a map and showing how the two cars had been facing each other, each unable to pass. “He backed up to let the guy complete the turn. (The gunman) opened fire without saying anything.”

Tony Bologna was dead. son Michael, a 20-year-old athlete, was also dead. In the back seat Matthew, 16, was hit by the random bullets several times. He now lies in critical but stable condition at San Francisco General Hospital.

The men who killed Tony and his son had made gestures before pulling out a gun. According to his family it was something Tony would not have returned the intimidation.

The men got away.

The police are investigating if these men could be the same ones that were involved in another shooting earlier on Sunday.

The surving members of Tony Bologna’s family include Matthew, his wife, another son and his lone daughter.

Dogs Poisoned During High Park Walks In Toronto, Ontario

Five dogs have been poisoned after drinking water that contained antifreeze in Toronto’s High Park. Police are trying to find out how the toxic chemicals were able to get into the off leash area’s water supply.

Police confirm that there were five separate incidents this past weekend of dogs being poisoned at the park. One of the dogs is not expected to survive the poisoning.

Dogs will drink water contaminated with antifreeze because it tastes sweet.

According to a report in the CBC;

“I think that dog owners will be a little bit more cautious from now on, but I don’t see it having a big impact on activities,” said Paul Cleary, the co-chair of the park’s off-leash canine committee.

“We’re out here every day. A lot of people will probably stay away from ‘dog hill’ for a bit and not use the drinking fountain. But I don’t really think it will impact how we come out to the park.”

Four years ago Withrow Park in the city’s east end had a number of pet poisonings. At that time the source was hot dogs that had been laced with insecticide. The party/parties responsible were never apprehended.

Police are warning that not only pets are at risk but small children must be watched so they do not drink the water at High Park until the investigation has been completed.

Reporter Vlado Taneski Commits Suicide

Vlado Taneski has committed suicide. He drowned himself in a bucket of water in his jail cell. the journalist was arrested on Friday after being accused of kidnapping, abusing and sexually assaulting three women.

The reporter for Utrinski Vesnik in Macedonia fell under suspicion after his articles on the crimes of the women included details that had not been released by the police.

Arrested Journalist Vlado Tanevski Reported On The Horrific Crimes He Committed

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Vlado Tanevski has been charged with raping and torturing four elderly women in Macedonia. He then is alleged to have killed them and dumped their bodies wrapped in plastic bags.

The 56-year-old reporter from Kicevo in Macedonia was arrested after DNA evidence was found on the last two victims.

The Telegraph reports:

“All victims were found naked, strangled, wrapped with phone cables. The women were sexually and physically abused. For example, the last victim, a 65-year old female, was found with 13 deep wounds on her skull and multiple rib fractures,” a Macedonian police spokesman said, confirming that Mr Tanevski visited the homes of his victims during his coverage of the crimes.

The reporter went to the homes of at least one of his victims to obtain information on an article he wrote.

The first female victim was reported missing in 2003. Her body has yet to be found. the three victims that have been recovered were all strangled with a telephone cord after they had been raped and tortured.

Vlado Tanevski is being held in police custody and should be charged later this week.

Police believe the motive of the murders arose from Vlado Tanevski’s hatred of his own mother who worked in a hospital as a cleaner. All of the victims held the same position.

Vlado Tanevski is a married father of two. He was a highly respected member of his community.

According to his editor at Utrinski Vesnik nation newspaper,”We are all shocked with this. I know him as an exceptionally quiet man and I would never believe that he is capable of doing something like that.”

Last year a similar case involved a best selling novelist who wrote of the murder he committed of a young woman. The novel he penned went on to become a bestseller.

Are You Taking The Drugs That Doctors Refuse To?

Do you trust your doctor? There are certain drugs that are fairly common that they won’t take. Should you take them or reconsider if they are indeed safe for you?

There will always be some drugs on the market that aren’t safe. Doctors generally know which of these drugs may pose a danger. The following are eight medicines you may want to reconsider if you are on them. As always if you are taking a prescription medicine check with your own doctor about going off of one before you stop abruptly.

Advair

An asthma medicine that kills asthmatics? That’s the warning on this medicine. Each year 5,000 people die after taking this drug. In 2006 the FDA tagged this medicine with a “black box” warning.

The drug contains that long acting beta-agonist slameterol. Long term use of this drug can increase the severity of an asthma attack.

If you are taking this medicine you may need to start a different medical regiment. Often taking just Flovent is all the medicine you need in mild asthma. There are other drug combinations for more severe asthma.

As reported on MSN.com:

“Patients can also consider an inhaled corticosteroid paired with a leukotriene modifier,” says Dr. Rodgers. This combo won’t create dangerous inflammation, and according to a Scottish review, it’s as effective as a corticosteroid-and-LABA combo.

Avandia

If you are taking Avandia for diabetes you could be risking the health of your heart. A Journal of the American Medical Association report found that those on this drug for at least a year increased their chance of heart failure by 109 percent and of a heart attack by 42 percent.

The medicine may cause fluid retention and raise LDL cholesterol levels. Still scientists are not sure what the actual reasons behind the higher increase in heart disease.

Your new strategy: Stick with a proven performer. “I prefer metformin, an older, cheaper, more dependable medication,” says Sonal Singh, M.D., the lead author of the JAMA study. “Avandia is now a last resort.”

Celebrex

Celebrex was once marketed as a super aspirin. Today it is known for the multiple side effects that come hand in hand when taking the medication such as stomach bleeding, kidney trouble, and liver damage and more importantly heart damage. Taking 200 mg a day can double your risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.

A safer alternative for reducing pain is acupuncture. The closest medicines to Celebrex are Bextra and Vioxx, both of which have been removed from the market because of their risk to the heart.

Ketek

This antibiotic has been used to kill bad bacteria in the lungs and sinuses with a horrible little side effect, by killing those bacteria it just may kill you in the process by damaging your liver.

“Ketek can cause heart-rhythm problems, can lead to liver disease, and could interact poorly with other medications you may be taking,” says Dr. Rodgers. “Unfortunately, it’s still available, and although many doctors are aware of the risks, some may still prescribe it without caution.”

In February 2007 the FDA limited this medicine’s usage to the treatment of pneumonia.

Think you’re safe from the dangers because of that limitation? Pneumonia is on the top ten of causes of death for men. The smart way to avoid this lung infection is to have your annual flu shot. If you do come down with pneumonia a safer drug course would be Augmentin or the antibiotics doxycycline or Zithromax.

Prilosec and Nexium

Prilosec and Nexium are used to treat heartburn but they have come under the microscope after being linked to cardiac trouble. While the scientific jury is still out on these two medications on heart damage there are more concerns on taking theses little pills. They are proton-pump inhibators. That means they stop acid production in the stomach and they are very effective at that.

a lack of stomach acid can raise your chances of getting pneumonia. Yes that lovely stomach acid that gives you heart burn actually can be doing your body some good by killing bacteria and viruses that come their way.

Would you like another reason to reconsider these drugs? How about the fact that calcium may not be absorbed while on the medication.

“The risk of a fracture has been estimated to be over 40 percent higher in patients who use these drugs long-term, and the risk clearly increases with duration of therapy,” says Dr. Rodgers.

Instead of these heavy guns fighting heartburn consider taking Zantac 150 or Pepcid AC. The bad news on these though are they are not a long-term fix.

“To really cure the problem, lose weight,” says Michael Roizen, M.D., chief wellness officer at the Cleveland Clinic and co-author of “YOU: The Owner’s Manual.”

Visine Original

These well known eye drops that get “the red out” can shrink your eye’s blood vessels. Overusing this product will actually increase the redness in your eyes.

Your eye doctor should be consulted if you have red and itchy eyes. Allergies and dryness have different types of eye drops that don’t harm the blood vessels.

Pseudoephedrine

Let’s think about this drug that is also used by meth labs. If you have heart disease or high blood pressure you could be setting yourself up for a vascular catastrophe.

Most decongestants on the market also contain phenylephrine which isn’t that effective in stopping your nose from dripping during a cold.

The smart move for keeping a runny nose clear? No drugs at all. If you have a constant problem flushing your sinuses with saline can help.

A cold won’t kill you, the medicines you take to feel better from a cold just might though.

Her Name Was Raven

Raven lived on the mean streets of Hollywood. A lone teen trying to make a life and a family with the others whose home life was so dire that the streets were their salvation.

A year ago she vanished from those streets. A trial will soon begin for the man who snuffed out her short life. She was fifteen.

She began life as Alyssa Gomez according to the LA Weekly story about her life . She started her street life as CODE, short for “Cause of Death: Ecstasy,” a name that she attached to herself after watching a friend overdose on the drug.

She was beautiful with long black hair and a dark humour.

In a world filled with yuppies and rich kids out to get high she lived in the shadows. A runaway.

On her MySpace page she listed her age as 101. She grew up fast. She looked 30. She last wrote on her blog on July 11, 2007.

“Im the maggot in ever dead”

Her MySpace is now a memorial page to a dead child. Comments are written, in a sense she lives on through their words.

“Paxil” penned: “To My Beautiful Morbid Angel. Forever I will hold you in my heart. I’m sorry I wasn’t out of jail to keep you with me. I’ll never forgive myself.”

Her downward spiral started at eight. Her home gone she went to live with her aunt and uncle. That didn’t work. She went to Hollygrove Home for Children. By the age of 12 she was a gothic street kid. Her older sister Brittany (not her real name) remembers the time:

“We were always looking for her,” says Brittany. “We would find her and turn her in [to child services]. Then she would leave again…. I realized it didn’t matter what I do … I didn’t want her to not talk to me at all. I saw that I was pushing her more and more away.”

The hard cement was her bed. She showered at Teen Canteen, a homeless teen drop in on Gower Street. she hung out at places like My Friend’s Place or the Salvation Army’s The Way In among the yuppies on Hollywood Boulevard. She made a living panhandling at Hollywood and Cahuenga or Hollywood and Vine.

A good night fetched $50. She was beautiful after all.

She used it to escape, get stoned.

She turned tricks.

She did meth.

She fell in love with Jimmy. Jimmy was another street kid who had caught the eye of actress Dyan Cannon. She has been making a documentary about Los Angeles teens.

Raven showed up one day when Cannon was following Jimmy. “She tried to come off as a smart-ass — a know-it-all,” Cannon smiles, but “she wouldn’t talk a lot.” One day, Raven said something that “stopped me in my tracks…. I would have my Chihuahuas with me. I would have them on the street with me. And she looked at my dog one night and said, ‘I wish I was one of your dogs.’ Because she saw the way I was petting Trudy. That was one of the first things she ever said to me.”

By the time she was fifteen she didn’t look the same. Her hair was dyed purple and in a strange Mohawk. She was cutting herself. Living in an apartment in Hollywood she had a sometime boyfriend named Curly. He was 25.

Three days before she was murdered looking rough she saw Cannon.

I begged her to let me take her to a rehab,” Cannon says. “She was afraid she would have to be there for a year, or they would put her in jail. She was afraid. I said, ‘So that’s a year. You’re 16. It doesn’t matter. That year will go quickly.’”

The day she died she had hang out with Curly and Joel Eliseo. Gilton Pitre approached her and she agreed to hang out with him. That was the last time Joel saw his friend Raven.

On June 4, 2007 Julio Cesar Carbajal Cunca was leaving his job at El Cid restaurant on Sunset Boulevard in Silver Lake when he came across a dead woman wrapped in a green comforter.

It was Raven.

I could tell you about her death. It’s harsh. As was her life. The point is she was murdered.

The police have surveillance footage of the man who allegedly killed her dumping her body.

Instead I will leave you with just this.

There was a girl. Her name was Raven. She was fifteen.

She is dead.

Brothers Kept In Cellar Skinned And Eaten By Cannibalist Relatives

7-year-old Ondrej Mauerova was kept in a closet in Kurim near Brno, in the Czech Republic as his relatives hacked his flesh off eating him alive along with his brother until last May when a neighbour viewed graphic pictures picked up on her baby monitor.

The family are members of the religious cult, Grail Movement. The boys, Ondrei and his nine-year-old brother Jakub were locked and chained up in their cellar by their 31-year-old mother Klara.

According to reports the children were beaten and gagged so they wouldn’t scream out in pain. their mother had a monitor set up in her kitchen in order to watch the abuse. That monitor is what in the end stopped the horrific existence that the boys had been living.

A neighbour that used the same type of monitor for her newborn baby picked up images of the horrors the boys were enduring. The police were called in to stop the suffering.

At first it appeared that there were three children being chained in the home’s basement; the boys and what appeared to be a 13-year -old girl. After the three were freed the girl turned out to be one of the abusers, 34-year-old Barbora Skrlova.

Skrlova fled to Norway but was captured and brought back to the Czech Republic earlier this year.

The accused are Klara Mauerova, her sister Katerina, 34; Barbora Skrlova, 33; her brother Jan Skrla and a friend Jan Turek.

Eating At McDonald’s Helps Virginia Man Lose 80 Pounds

Could Subway’s Jared be getting a run for his diet tips by McDonald’s Chris? Chris Coleson lost 80 pounds eating at McDonald’s in six months.

The 5-foot-8 Quinton, Virginia man started his marathon McDonald’s diet at a weight of 278. Eight months later he is a suave 199 with a 36 inch waist.

Coleson didn’t rely on Big Macs to drop the pounds though. Instead of the fattier fare the Golden Arches offers he dined on salads, wraps and apple dippers sans the caramel dip.

Coleson’s inspiration came from his two children and a story of a blind war veteran who rode his tandem bicycle across the United States.

He has 14 more pounds to go before he hits his goal on Saturday. He aims to weigh the 185 pounds he weighed ten years ago when he married his bride Tricia Summer. The 42-year-old businessman just might hit his target.

Martha Stewart Banned From England

When Martha Stewart was convicted of white collar crimes she was subject to different nations not allowing her to enter their countries. The UK is one of those that is keeping her out.

The 66-year-old millionaire spent five months in 2004 in the slammer for lying about a share sale.

She was denied entry to the UK and hopes that the situation can be resolved stated her spokesman.

The BBC reports that the UK Border Agency says that they oppose the entry to the UK of anyone convicted of “serious criminal offences abroad”.

Stewart was posed to speak at the Royal Academy of Arts in London and carrying out other engagements had she been allowed to cross the border.

The Academy has canceled the visit.

Her spokeswoman told the Daily Telegraph newspaper: “Martha loves England and hopes this can be resolved and that she will be able to visit soon.”

Military Steps up Exercise Drills In Denver

As preparations are made in Denver for the Democratic National Convention the city is host to military exercise drills. Those drills have been captured on video by We Are Change Colorado.

We Are Change Colorado consists of Jonathan, Turtle, Jason, Josh, Rob, Shannon, Nick, and Brian. The group has captured video for possible detention centers, staging areas and police HQ for the convention. They speculate that Denver should be preparing for Martial Law.

Denver residents have been treated to un-marked, black military helicopters flying above their heads this week. Special operation forces have been conducting landings and maneuvers within the downtown city limits this week.

These exercises are expected to wrap up on Friday. According to AP:

MacDill Air Force Base, Fla.-based U.S. Special Operations Command spokesman Lt. Steve Ruh says the flights are a culmination of a two-week training exercise that is part of the “war on terror.” One official told KDVR-TV the flights are not security preparations for the Democratic National Convention in August.

Two of the major staging areas for these exercises have been at an abandoned rubber factory on the south side of Denver and at the former Children’s Hospital at Downey and 21st Street. The city gave its blessing for those facilities to be placed under military control.

It has not been disclosed which branch of the military is conducting these drills.

As We Are Change Colorado had their cameras rolling they witnessed an extremely low pass by a MH-6 “Little Bird”. The military members on board dropped a red glow stick on top of the parking garage the group was located.

Safe Sex In A Can Tops Google Search Items

The television show CSI may be responsible for the most searched item on Google. Spray-on condoms were talked on the show as a clue to the motive of a violent murder. That mention on-air sent thousands to their computers to research the product.

The spray on condoms even shot up to second place in Google Trends.

According to Sify News the line in the show that prompted the search engine to go into overdrive was;

Demonstrating it on a model, the character Lindsay Monroe said: “Simply apply like so. Allow a few moments for maximum drying time and, boom. Instant condom.”

The truth is though that the instant sperm blocker never made it to the shelves. The German inventor admitted that he and his team were never able to overcome technical problems with the product.

The inventor had hoped to have the product for sale by 2008. He appealed for tester to come forward promising that the spray on condom provides a better, safer fit for men of all sizes.

“Whether we can solve the technical problems, and whether the advancement of the idea is financially viable, remains uncertain,” the Telegraph quoted Krause, as stating.

Firefox 3.0 Has Bug, Classified as ‘High Severity’

It only took five hours after the release of Firefox 3.0 for researchers to find a vulnerability in the new browser. Tipping Point has verified the bug and reported it to Mozilla, owner of the Firefox browser on Wednesday.

The details on the problem have not been shared and will not until a fix has been made. Mozilla is working on the bug which Tipping Point classified as a high severity. Most will not be affected as they would have to click on a link in an e-mail or visit a malicious Web page to be affected. The issue also affects those using Firefox 2.0 as well.

As soon as the problem is fixed Tipping Point will publish an advisory about it on its site.

Tipping Point discovered the bug through its Zero Day Initiative. The program earns cash for researchers who submit new vulnerabilities to the company. When Tipping Point validates the problem it pays the person for that information and notifies the software vendor of the details.

Teen Dropped Into Dumpster Like Trash After Beating

A thirteen year old boy from Winnipeg is fighting for his life after being beaten and dropped into a dumpster. He is in critical condition at Children’s Hospital.

The child suffered severe head trauma in the inner-city crime that took place Friday morning. The police were called to 660 Furby St. at 4 a.m. after the child was found in a city autobin. Police believe that the child was beaten inside the home at the Furby St. address.

The Winnipeg Sun reports that people living nearby said that the boy was beaten by a group of people at the house and then thrown into the bin that was overflowing with garage and flies.

“That’s sick. They just threw him in there like he was nothing to them,” said a young mother who lives in the area. “How come someone would do that? It’s like they left him there to die.”

In the past police have been called to the address. The area is tagged with gang graffiti and is a known hangout for gang members. The residents moved into the home last winter.

Be Aware Of A New Storm Worm Tactic Using Chinese Earthquake and Olympics

A new malicious web site that will infect your computer with a Trojan has sprung up using the recent earthquake in China and the Summer Olympics as bait.

The Storm Worm social-engineering tactic is using malicious sites that speculate that the Beijing games will be under the threat of failure because of May’s earthquake. It turn tricks the viewer into clicking on what appears to be an embedded flash video player. Instead of watching a video the visitor has just opened a file on their desktop that is infected with a Trojan.

Websense Security Labs ThreatSeeker technology has detected email lures containing links to these malicious sites spamming email accounts.

The Trojan is then spread to your contacts via your address book by sending an email our with a link to the sites. The file that contains the Trojan is called “beijing.exe”.

These following subject lines are to be considered part of the phishing campaign;

# The most powerful quake hits China
# Countless victims of earthquake in China
# Death toll in China is growing
# Recent earthquake in china took a heavy toll
# Recent china earthquake kills million
# China is paralyzed by new earthquake
# Death toll in China exceeds 1000000
# A new powerful disaster in China
# A new deadly catastrophe in China
# 2008 Olympic Games are under the threat
# China’s most deadly earthquake

To avoid such a Trojan US-Cert recommends that you install anti-virus software and keep its files up to date. Do not follow unsolicited web links received in email messages. Refer to the Avoiding Social Engineering and Phishing Attacks document for more information about these types of Storm Worms.

If you are a subscriber to Websense you are protected from this virus.

DWI Shock Tactic Defended At California School

Highway patrol officers went to El Camino High School in Oceanside, California with horrible news one Monday morning this May. Twenty classrooms heard the heart breaking news that 26 students had died over the weekend because of car wrecks.

It was an emotional day as the students dealt with the news that their classmates had died.

It was a lie.

A few hours later the teens were told that this had been an exercise in the consequences in drinking and driving. The scared straight tactic was designed by school officials to get the point across.

The students were furious.

School officials are now defending their motives as allegations rush in that they went too far.

As MSNBC reports:

At school assemblies, some students held up posters that read: “Death is real. Don’t play with our emotions.”

One of the students that was used in the tactic was named David. He is a popular kid at school. Michelle de Gracia, 16, recalled that when she heard the news that he was dead she was too stunned to cry instead she felt nauseated.

“They got the shock they wanted,” she said.

One teacher had to tell her students that it was staged after her students became too upset. The students yelled at her. Other students had to wait until the 26 missing students appeared hours later to know that the morning upset was a hoax to scare them straight.

“You feel betrayed by your teachers and administrators, these people you trust,” said 15-year-old Carolyn Magos. “But then I felt selfish for feeling that way, because, I mean, if it saves one life, it’s worth it.”

The school admits that they wanted the teens to be traumatized. They received the message that was aimed loud and clearly.

“They were traumatized, but we wanted them to be traumatized,” said guidance counselor Lori Tauber, who helped organize the shocking exercise and got dozens of students to participate. “That’s how they get the message.”

As harsh a lesson as it was the school may have saved a life or two. In the end it accomplished the lesson plan.

Research Finds Evidence of Why Mothers Get Morning Sickness

Early pregnancy is often known for morning sickness. While women who experience it may disagree, doctors like hearing that their patients are undergoing the condition. It turns out that it serves an important purpose in protecting an unborn child.

Scientists have long wondered why two-thirds of healthy pregnancies start off with morning sickness. It had been thought that the quick rush to the washroom to throw up was because of a conflict between mother and embryo. That idea has been dismissed after noticing it is a human condition and not one that is prone to other mammals.

According to a new study in the July issue of the journal American Naturalist Samuel Flaxman, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Colorado at Boulder and his colleague Paul Sherman at Cornell University has some new findings about the conditions that make sense.

What is now understood is that morning sickness is triggered by the sight, smell, or taste of meats and strong-tasting vegetables that can harbour microbes or birth defect inducing chemicals and alcohol and cigarette smoke.

The condition of morning sickness peaks between the sixth week and the eighteenth week of pregnancy where the embroy is most susceptible to chemical disruption. Humans tend to have a wide range of diet which other mammals do not and the pregnant woman has evolved to rid herself of dangerous chemicals before they can harm their unborn child.

“To say that morning sickness is uncomfortable is a real understatement, and a lot of people are looking at ways to deal with it. But if nausea and vomiting truly serve a useful function, then one has to look more carefully at strategies for dealing with these symptoms,” Flaxman told LiveScience.

While these ideas may be a start at understanding the complexities of morning sickness little is honestly known on the condition.

“We’re really interested in a more exhaustive analysis to see if morning sickness really does only occur in human beings, or whether there are other animals out there,” Flaxman said.

Opinion: The Girl Effect

Would you like to change the world? It’s not a hard venture if you think about it. All it takes is a girl. One girl. In a developing country.

Think about it.

One girl can change the world that she knows.

Give a girl an education. Give her a cow. Multiply that girl by more.

That girl raises a herd. She becomes part of the governing force of her village. She changes the course of her history.

And her village changes along with her.

The world just changed.

All it took was one girl.

It’s easy if you think about it.

And the world’s history just changed.

Cement Falls From The Skies

A suburban Moscow home was treated to an instant sunlight last week by Russian air force planes mistakenly dropping a 55 pond sack of cement out of the sky. The cement was meant to prevent rain from messing up a holiday.

Before major public holidays its typical for the Russian Air Force carrying silver iodide, liquid nitrogen and cement powder to stop rain clouds in their tracks.

June 12 is Russia Day which celebrates the country’s independence after the Soviet Union broke up.

The home’s 2.5-3 foot hole in the roof is the first goof up in a 20 year history of attempting to change the weather.

Luckily the home owner was not injured. She refused the $2,100 the government offered her to repair the damage. In the golden era of capitalism she is planning on suing for damages and compensation for the moral suffering she has had to deal with.

Device Invented That Quickly IDs Gases In The Event Of Chemical Warfare

Chemical terrorism has been a concern since the 1995 sarin attack in Tokyo’s subway system. With that threat the need for quick identification of what chemical is being used in another attack is something scientists have been trying to devise.

That device may have finally been achieved by a team of chemical engineers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT), led by Michael Strano. Their device can detect chemical agents in concentrations as low as 25 parts in a trillion.

Dr. Strano’s invention was written up in Angewandte Chemie. The device contains an array of treated carbon nanotubes, each with a layer of carbon atoms that have been coated with nitrogen-containing molecules called amines and rolled into a cylinder with the amines on the outside. Each of the tiny tubes run between pairs of tiny electrodes. The entire device when activated carries an electric current with the power of about 300 microwatts.

A silicon chip passes the gases to be analysed to the nanotubes, which are 1/50,000th the size of a human hair, by way of a miniature column. Gases tend to stick to the sides of the column as they make their way to the nanotubes. Some gases stick more than others slowing the speed they travel down the column. As the components of the gases is puffed into the nanotubes it sticks to the carbon atoms. Those components then cause the conductivity of the nanotubes to change. Each gases changes the tubes in a different way.

The amines now go to work. Each nitrogen atom of amines have what chemists call a lone pair of electrons. This is what attaches each amine molecule to the nanotube. The lone pair interactions are what changes the chemical characteristics of the carbon.

If these gases stuck indefinitely to the nanotubes the device would have a short life as a detector. What makes Strano’s device perfect in the fight against chemical warfare is that the amine-plastered carbon is not so sticky so that the gas molecules soon detach from it. The device is quickly able to start detecting the next errant gases that comes its way.

The small size of the device and the minute amount of power it requires to operate makes it a perfect match for the type of places a gas attack would be the most successful like in subways. It’s even been suggested that policemen can carry one in their pocket.

While the device doesn’t take away the threat it does speed up the time it takes to detect one and IDs the gas involved. That quick process could save countless lives if an attack were to occur in a busy subway station.

United States Hid Detainees From The Red Cross

Documents have revealed that the United States hid suspected terrorist detainees from the International Committee of The Red Cross. the documents that were released by a Senate committee on Tuesday also show that harsh treatment was concealed.

As McClatchy reports:

“We may need to curb the harsher operations while ICRC is around. It is better not to expose them to any controversial techniques,” Lt. Col. Diane Beaver, a military lawyer who’s since retired, said during an October 2002 meeting at the Guantanamo Bay prison to discuss employing interrogation techniques that some have equated with torture. Her comments were recorded in minutes of the meeting that were made public Tuesday. At that same meeting, Beaver also appeared to confirm that U.S. officials at another detention facility — Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan — were using sleep deprivation to “break” detainees well before then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld approved that technique. “True, but officially it is not happening,” she is quoted as having said.

Jonathan Fredman, the chief counsel for the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center admitted that the detainees were often moved to avoid the watchful eye of the ICRC. The International Red Cross keeps up with prisoners around the world that are being held due to conflicts.

Not only were the whereabouts of the detainees hidden away from the protective shield that the Red Cross tries to enforce the methods of interrogation were concealed from the group.

Administration officials at the top of the government pushed for tougher and tougher methods in which to interrogate the detainees.

what is unclear is if the detainees were actually moved from one site to another or if officials outright lied to the ICRC about the locations of detainees.

“If the detainee dies, you’re doing it wrong.”

Fredman of the CIA

The minutes of the Guantanamo meeting were among 25 documents that were released by Senator Carl Levin, D-Michigan on Tuesday. He chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee and is the one leading a probe of where the origins of cruel and unusual punishments of the detainees in George Bush’s “War on Terrorism” started.

The Bush administration ignored and overrode objections of all four branches of the United States military and criminal investigators who warned that the treatment of detainees would in the end impair the ability to prosecute suspects captured thought to be terrorists.

Navy Captain Jane Dalton who was the legal advisor to the then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard Myers wanted to begin a review of the proposed techniques for interrogating the detainees. That review was shelves when Myers informed her that then-Defense Department general counsel William Haynes “does not want this … to proceed.”

Officials in Rumsfield’s office and at Gitmo designed their interrogation program by reversing the long standing military programs used to train U.S. soldiers to resist interrogation if the are captured.

The program called Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape was never meant to be a guide for the United States to interrogate foreign detainees.

“The truth is that senior officials in the United States government sought information on aggressive techniques, twisted the law to create the appearance of their legality and authorized their use against detainees.” The documents confirm that a delegation of senior administration lawyers visited Guantanamo in September 2002 for briefings on intelligence-gathering there. The delegation included David Addington, a top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney; Haynes; acting CIA counsel John Rizzo; and Michael Chertoff, then the head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and now the homeland security secretary. Few of the Republicans at Tuesday’s hearing defended the Bush administration’s detainee programs. Guidance provided by administration lawyers “will go down in history as some of the most irresponsible and shortsighted legal analysis ever provided to our nation’s military intelligence communities,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C..

If another nation detained U.S. military detainees or citizens that were thought to have terrorist ties in the manner that the U.S. has during this “War On Terror” that nation would be brought up on war crimes.

At this time the ICRC believes that the United States are no longer concealing the whereabouts of detainees.

Bernard Barrett, the ICRC’s Washington spokesman, said, “We knew that we did not always have full access to all detainees. It was a fairly serious issue.” “It’s been addressed,” he said. “We are confident we now have access to all detainees at Guantanamo.”

Three Days Of Car Free Zones Coming To New York City This Summer

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Department of Transportation (DOT) Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan announced on Monday that for three Saturdays this summer car traffic will be closed from the Brooklyn Bridge to 72nd Street.

Parks & Recreation Commissioner Adrian Benepe, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, Lance Armstrong and David Byrne looked on as the mayor and transportation commissioner explained to New Yorkers the [url=http://www.nyc.gov/portal/site/nycgov/menuitem.c0935b9a57bb4ef3daf2f1c701c789a0/index.jsp?pageID=mayor_press_release&catID=1194&doc_name=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nyc.gov%2Fhtml%2Fom%2Fhtml%2F2008a%2Fpr229-08.html&cc=unused1978&rc=1194&ndi=1 t=_blank]Summer Streets plan for August 9,16 and 23.

“We anticipate that hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers and visitors will take advantage of streets temporarily opened for recreation,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “We hope the Summer Streets experiment will become as much a part of the New York experience as strolling the Coney Island boardwalk, participating in the 5-borough bike tour, or listening to the Philharmonic in the park.”

“In Bogotá, they call it Ciclovia, or bikeway. In Paris, it’s the Plage, or beach. Here in New York, Summer Streets will literally turn the streets of our city into a pedestrian park,” said Commissioner Sadik-Khan. “The streets themselves are among the most valuable public space that the City has to offer, and finding the room within our existing street space for those on two feet or two wheels is a true application of our goals for a sustainable future under the Mayor’s PlaNYC initiatives and the DOT’s strategic plan.”

The plan is to redirect traffic in the 6 mile zone so that cyclists and pedestrians have free range for the three August Saturdays. In true New York style there will be a central stage along the route featuring fitness, dance and yoga classes. At select cross streets exercise and health activities will be hosted by community groups. If you feel like riding a bike on those days there will be bike rentals on the route.

At the 72nd Street link to Central Park only half of the road will remain car free. The north side will open to two way vehicle traffic.

The Police Department will be directing traffic around the route. Parking may be a nightmare on these three days with restricts starting at midnight on the day of the event.

Car free zones have appeared during in Bogotá, Paris, Tokyo and London with much success. In the United States El Paso, Tex., Cambridge, Mass. and soon also Portland, Ore. and Chicago, Ill. have held similar events. In Toronto Kensington Market holds several car free zone days during the summer.

The open roads planned are:

Chambers Street
Worth Street
Canal Street
Broome Street
East Houston Street
W.8th Street
14th Street
23rd Street
36th/37th Streets
49th/50th Streets
53rd/54th Streets
57th Street
59th Street

Dead Mayor Re-Elected In Romania

When Neculai Ivascu, 57, died just after voting began in a village in Romania it looked like the election would go to his opponent Gheorghe Dobrescu. Not so fast, the dead man won by 27 votes.

The polls were kept open after Ivascu passed away from liver disease just in case his opponent won. He had been the village’s mayor for almost two decades.

The villagers knew that their mayor was dead but still they voted for the dead man.

“I know he died, but I don’t want change,” a pro-Ivascu villager told Romanian television.

For the time being Dobrescu will govern the town. some of the villagers and the Social Democrat Party which Ivascu belonged to have asked for a new vote.

4 v

Escaped Robbery Suspect Seeks Police Help To Free Him

Not everyone is a bright guy but some crooks just take a piece of the dunce cake. A robber along with three others who were caught in Frankfurt, Germany by a security guard escaped capture only to show up at the police station.

The bumbling crook had been handcuffed by the security guard and couldn’t figure out how to get free of his cuffs. Figuring no one would know cuff removal better than the local cops he trotted on down to the station.

The 19-year-old robber told the station house that his buddies had played a prank on him and locked him up. He then asked sweet as you please to be freed of his restraints.

It seems the police in Germany have a sense of humour as they went along with the boy’s story knowing all the while the truth they unlocked the man and started pressing him for the real story. When the teen realized he was up the creek with no paddle he confessed his crime.

“It was stupid of him,” a police spokesman notes. “They took the cuffs off, but they kept him.”

The teen now sits with the other three who didn’t run off into the night.

Large Trucks Subject To speed Limiters In Ontario

Ontario passed a bill on Monday making most large trucks have to have speed limiters on board. The devices cap the maximum speed to 105 km/h.

The legislation will an effort to bring safety to the roads while reducing pollution at the same time.

Speed limiter devices have been proven to not only cap the top speeds of large trucks but tp lower their maintenance costs. They also improve fuel economy which is a needed feature considering the rising cost of fuel.

“This is another step forward in our plan to build a cleaner, greener and stronger province,” said Transportation Minister Jim Bradley.

The mandatory use of speed limiters could happen as soon as this fall in Ontario.

Cyber Attack In Toronto? It’s Doable Says Expert

If cyber terrorists were to hit Toronto experts admit they could achieve their goals. So far an all out cyber attack of a major city in North America is the work of Hollywood but those theories could wreck havoc if done in a major city.

A think tank in the United States, Technolytics Institute helps governments and companies manage their security and risks of such an attack.

There are 300 million cyber attacks on the U.S. Department of Defense every single day. In 2007 Estonia dealt with a three week long cyber way that disabled the country’s news, banks and government websites.

“If the (U.S. defence department) can be hacked, it’s disingenuous for any organization to think that they’re better than those guys are,” said Coleman, who warns that even cars are at risk to cyber-terrorism. Newer cars that have an “average of 50 microchips” that are especially vulnerable. One compromised chip could set off thousands of cars on a driving spree, or get them to halt in the middle of traffic.

“It can hit every part of your life. We even have refrigerators that are connected to the Internet.” said Coleman, who spoke yesterday at the city’s annual World Conference on Disaster Management at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

In Toronto this week are representatives from 42 countries trading tips on how to avert disaster in the event of a cyber attack. The conference lasts until Wednesday.

Anything that is based on the Internet would be in danger. That includes your money.

Terrorists could shut down Toronto but at least the city is trying to keep on top of it before it happens.

Air Canada To Cut 2,000 Jobs This Fall

Air Canada is having to reduce 2,000 positions this fall to deal with the rising cost of fuel. There are also warnings that more cuts can be expected.

The largest airline in Canada made the announcement on Tuesday that it was having to make some drastic measures to keep up in spite of the rising cost of fuel.

Not only will jobs be cut but flights will be taken off the schedule by seven percent coming this fall and winter.

“The loss of jobs is painful in view of our employees’ hard work in bringing the airline back to profitability over the past four years,” president and CEO Montie Brewer said in a statement.

“I regret having to take these actions but they are necessary to remain competitive going forward. Air Canada, like most global airlines, needs to adapt its business and reduce flying that has become unprofitable in the current fuel environment.”

“If fuel prices remain at current levels, we can anticipate further capacity reductions.”

For every dollar increase per barrel it costs the airlines over $26 million a year. That increase has been reflected in tickets, an average round trip ticket costs $230 compared to last year’s $146.

Scientists Have Located A Batch Of Super-Earths

Researchers from Europe have found a batch of “Super-Earths” orbiting a nearby star along with two other solar systems containing small planets.

The findings from these scientists show that Earth-like planets may be fairly common.

“Does every single star harbor planets and, if yes, how many?” asked Michel Mayor of Switzerland’s Geneva Observatory. “We may not yet know the answer but we are making huge progress towards it,” Mayor said in a statement.

The three planets that the researchers found are about 42 light years away. They are towards the southern Doradus and Pictor constellations. The three planets are larger than the Earth at 4.2 times the mass, 6.7 and 9.4. They move at a rapid speed around their star. One of the planets moving in four days compared the Earth’s 365 days around the Sun. The slowest of the three takes 20 days to orbit their light source.

The scientists found the planets using the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher or HARPS, a telescope at La Silla observatory in Chile. That source has helped locate more than 270 exoplanets. Most of the planets that have been found are giants like our solar system’s Jupiter or Saturn. It is much more difficult to find smaller planets that are the size of the Earth.

As science makes advancements in instruments that view the heavens though more smaller planets have been found.

“With the advent of much more precise instruments such as the HARPS spectrograph … we can now discover smaller planets, with masses between 2 and 10 times the Earth’s mass,” said Stephane Udry, who also worked on the study.

The HARPS uses spectrographic measurements to locate orbs in deep space. Direct images can not be directly made by these instruments.

The Flood Waters In Iowa Hold A Chemical Stew

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As the flood waters start to recede in Iowa residents have more to worry about then just flooded houses. What is in the water and is it safe enough to even walk in?

Iowa is farm land. Those farms use can use use mighty strong chemicals to keep crops growing and animals healthy. Add those chemicals to the water and you have a contaminated mess. Add in the other by products of humans and animals to that chemical soup and you have water that isn’t even safe to wade through.

In Oakville, Iowa the flood waters have turned the town into a lake. One that reeks of pig feces and diesel fuel.

The chairman of emergency management and homeland security in the area, LeRoy Lippert is warning folks to avoid the floodwater.

“If you drink this water and live, tell me about it. You have no idea. It is very, very wise to stay out of it. It’s as dangerous as anything.”

All the chemicals, sewage and animal waste floating around have made a perfect breeding ground for another possible medical disaster; mosquitoes. Millions are spawning in the acres of standing water ready to attack the victims of this flooded area.

Some towns in Iowa are beginning the clean up process but others are still at risk of the cresting waters of the Mississippi River. They are expected to crest on Wednesday.

The death toll stands at five now.

In Cedar Rapids its a ghost town. The damage sustained by the flood has made it hazardous for people to return home even as the waters recede. Broken gas lines, sink holes and buildings that are no longer structurally sound require that the town remains without its residents for the time being.

The unsafe water is having the people still in town line up to get a free tetanus shot on Sunday.

Dead birds and fish sitting on the city’s 1st Avenue Bridge are joined by drums with label warning “corrosive”, propane tanks, fences and railroad ties.

“We don’t typically see mass cases of disease or illness coming from floodwater, but under any circumstance like this, we want people to avoid it because we don’t know what’s in there.”

Ken Sharp, environmental health director for the Iowa Department of Public Health,

Still Sharp does admit those waters have the potential to make for some sick people.

It’s iffy on how safe the water is in rural Iowa where the rivers overflow mixed with pesticides, herbicides and fertilizer. the best bet is to use bottled water for their needs.

As people start to sort through their remaining belongings they have to face the fact that most things they owned before the flood are to damaged or too contaminated to keep.

Recently Discharged Disabled Veterans Making Due With Next to Nothing

They served their country with their all. Now that they are disabled soldiers risk it all to stay above water awaiting a disability check that could take up to a year to activate.

Disabled soldiers have to make due on a fraction of their salary when they are discharged because of injuries. Not only do they have to deal with the loss of wages but to add insult on injury the first check takes at least six months to get to them.

those who live pay check to pay check can understand the desperation these patriots must go through.

More than 20,000 disabled soldiers in the United States were discharged in the past two fiscal years. As they wait for their claims to process they face financial ruin.

The disabled vets do have medical benefits coming in but that doesn’t pay rent. The only pay many draw during the time prior to disability pay is a very reduced Army paycheck. How reduced? A typical disabled vet who was getting by on $3,400 a month has to squeeze their new paycheck of $970 to make ends meet.

Most disabled vets qualify for Social Security and payments from the military or Veterans Affairs. Those payments are about two-thirds of their active pay.

Veterans without a nice sized nest egg or such massive injuries that they have to remain in inpatient care face a hard road.

The Army is trying to ease the burden after the scandals plaguing them over the care vets received at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. As of last August the Army is allowing wounded soldiers to draw full pay for up to 90 days after they have been discharged. They are also attempting to speed up the time that it takes to get disability claims processed.

Still that doesn’t help the veterans weave through the time it takes to gather the information they need for their disability claims. If they fail to complete all the forms or move to another state the wait for that first check is even longer.

It’s a shame that those who serve their country only to face a lifetime of disability does not receive help to first navigate the red tape of paper work and second to be able to pay the bills after they leave the military.

“A veteran goes and serves and does what the country asks them to do,” Rep. John Hall, D-N.Y., who heads a subcommittee on veterans disability benefits said. “But when they come back they’re made to jump through these hoops and to wait in line for disability benefits.”

Amber Alert For Colin Custer

Four-year-old Colin Custer is the focus of an Amber Alert issued Monday morning. The child is from Florida. He is thought to be in North Carolina on Monday.

William Custer, 45, abducted the child and his mother Renee Pennell-Rashell in Ocala. Custer is considered to be armed and dangerous.

Custer is the ex-boyfriend of little Colin’s mother. He was to bring the child to his mother in Ocala, Florida on Sunday night after a visitation but instead kidnapped both the mother and child.

According to deputies Custer put a cloth over the mouth and nose of Pennell-Rashell causing her to lose consciousness. When she came to she discovered that she and Colin were in Custer’s vehicle. Pennell-Rashell’s wrists were tied to one knee using a plastic tie-lock.

Pennell-Rashell managed to escape alone in Lexington, South Carolina. She ran from the car and locked herself in a restroom. The fire department had to open the door because she was too afraid to unlock it. she was taken to hospital for injuries to her leg and wrist.

From accounts that Pennell-Rashell gave this kidnapping is a long time in coming. Custer has been planning on an abduction for two years with plans to take the mother and child to either Maryland or Canada.

Custer is known to have firearms, the woman reported seeing who may have been a pistol and bullets in the car.

Custer has been reported as saying that he planned on killing both himself and Colin.

Custer is thought to be driving a white 1988 Chevrolet conversion van with a Florida tag:[center]

Q57-7ZE.[/center]

Vote it up! amber alert (All Rights Reserved)

Pennell-Rashell said that the man has additional tags and vehicles to change into as to avoid being captured.

Lexington County Sheriff James Metts said, “We consider him to be armed and very dangerous. He told Pennell-Rashell that he would not live on the run and he would kill himself and the child rather than go to jail.”

At 10:30 a.m. Monday the cell phone Custer is using pinged at a cell tower in Hendersonville.

Colin Custer is four years old. He is blond with hazel eyes. He was wearing a gray short sleeve shirt with blue and red stripes, navy shorts and tan shoes with blue stripes the last time he was seen.

If you see this child or Custer please call 911 or the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department at 803-785-2400. Remember that Custer is considered armed and dangerous. Do not approach the man on your own.

Rachelle Jackson Awarded $7 Million For Her False Arrest Case In Chicago

When Officer Kelly Brogan’s squad car crashed near Rachelle Jackson 6 years ago in Chicago she ran over to be of help. The nurse took care of Brogan and her partner pulling Brogan from the car.

She never thought that her act of kindness would result in an arrest or jail time but it did when the officer’s gun came up missing. The Good Samaritan ended up in jail for more than ten months charged with robbing, battering and disarming a peace officer.

Thursday a federal jury found against the city of Chicago and several of the city’s police officers giving Jackson a $7 million award for false arrest, malicious prosecution, coercive questioning and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

The case was the result of a car crash in November 2002 that happened in Jackson’s neighbourhood.

She had helped get Officer Brogan out of the car and to a nearby stoop. A little bit later the police approached the trained nurse and asked her to go to the station for questioning because the driver’s weapon had been stolen. Jackson thought nothing of it as she had been a witness to the accident.

For two days the now 41-year-old Jackson was held with very little food or water and threatened with violence until she signed a statement that had been prepared by the police for her to sign. From there she was charged and sat in Cook County Jail for ten months awaiting her trial.

Her case was thrown out by the Circuit Court. In 2003 Jackson sued the city, Brogan and the two officers involved with her interrogation.

Andrew Hale of the defense says the award is excessive and is filing a post-trial motion to have it reduced.

“The officer said [Jackson] came at her, tried to get her gun and put her in a full-Nelson hold,” Hale said. “I’m disappointed the jury could think that would be a legitimate rescue technique.”

Jackson’s attorneys say that it was clear that their client was doing what she had to do to help a wounded officer.

This was an innocent woman who saved a police officer from a burning car,” said Chris Smith, who tried the case with Dan Alexander. “There were many heroes out there who helped the police, but they all turned into suspects because some guy ran away with the gun.”

It’s Time For The First Lady Bake Off

Family circle knows what makes America tick. It’s the cookie and who makes the yummiest one rules the roost. For the past four elections Family Circle has held a cookie cook off between the ladies who will rule the White House.

Chocolate has been the winning theme for the past four elections but this time around the Obama and McCain camps wanted to shake things up.

Michelle Obama went with the classic shortbread cookie adding a little kick with some almond liqueur Amaretto.

She gave credit to Mama Kaye who serves as the godmother to her girls, Sasha and Malia.

Cindy McCain who already has had to deal with a bit of recipe plagiarism for a passion fruit mousse from Food Network aimed to please with her take on the oatmeal butterscotch cookie.

They are “an absolute must whenever the whole family gets together,” says the multi-millionaire heiress to a large beer distribution firm, married to Republican presidential hopeful John McCain

As it stands right now McCain is in the lead. Readers can vote their favorite cookie up at the magazine’s website. The results will run right before the election in the mid-October.

Had Hillary Clinton remained in the race her two time winning cookie may have tipped the scale. She has a chocolate chip cookie that is to die for. Bill though put in his recipe for oatmeal cookies that showcases the talent of long time cook, Oscar Flores.

Elian Gonzalez Joins The Young Communists

Eight years ago a 6-year-old named Elian Gonzalez survived a brutal sea crossing that claimed his mother, Elizabeth Broton’s life to get to America from Cuba. Today that boy joined Cuba’s youth Communists.

Elain is now 14 and living with his father who regained custody of his son in a heated battle. He was among 18,000 people who joined the youth communist group on Saturday.

As the law is written a person from Cuba who makes it to US soil can assert a claim to refugee status. That was the dream of young Elian’s mother when she and her son joined twelve others in a small aluminum boat for Miami. When the boat’s engine failed all but three died in the ocean. Elian adrift on an inner tube was fished from the sea by two fisherman who handed him over to the U.S. coast guard.

The INS released the little boy to his paternal great uncle Lazaro Gonzalez of Miami. On November 22, 1999 Miguel González-Quintana, Elian`s father, called his uncle and asked for the child to be returned to Cuba. Miguel stated that Elian`s mother removed their son from Cuban soil without his permission.

Thus began a huge custody battle between the relatives and in effect Cuba and the United States.

In the end Elian`s father won the battle and his son was flown to Cuba from Dulles International Airport on June 28, 2000.

Winter Haven, Town Of Dry Canals

Once upon a time Winter Haven, Florida was a boater’s dream with many lakes connected by canals that made for long days on the water going from here to there. Heck Burt Reynolds and Sally Fields both had a place side by side separated by a canal.

That was before the latest drought.

Today those canals are dried up or drying up. Chrysa Emmerich and her husband, “Wild Bill” Stowell’s Aloha Rainbow Marina on Lake Eloise has not had any traffic since April 2007.

Low water. It makes that fun in the sun just about impossible for boaters who can’t go from one lake to another because of dry canals.

“The only person who has come in a year was a kayaker,” Emmerich said. “We were so excited. We cheered her on.”

Emmerich survives only on those who make it to the marina on land to buy their live bait, tackle, gas and food stuffs.

Roger Griffiths, executive director of the Lake Region Lakes Management District says that its nearly impassible to navigate the 60 lakes and 18 canals in the Winter Haven area.

“From our standpoint, we are telling people they (canals) are not navigable, but that doesn’t mean boaters are not making it through,” Griffiths said. “It’s almost something each boater needs to check out from himself.”

The canals vary in water depth from one end to the next. The agency doesn’t have the manpower or money to keep records of the true water depths although the district does keep daily measurements of the average lake surface level.

During the summer when boating is a favorite pastime the weather, hot and dry, makes for low lake levels.

The lakes have been lower in the past. There were record lows in 2001. Today they aren’t as low but they are lower than just a year ago.

The measurements on Friday showed lake levels measured 128.48 feet. At this time a year ago, the lakes stood at 129 feet. That is three feet below the levels that is considered desirable.

The canals are a different story. They are getting bone bone. Hardest hit are the canals between lakes Cannon and Mirror and lakes Conine and Smart. Those canals can’t support boat traffic of any kind.

Local businesses are feeling the pinch of the dry canals. Mark Mercier is in the construction stage of adding a dock, convenience store and gas station to his Marine Storage Center on Lake May. When the grand opening happens in August he’ll need 125 boats stopping by a day.

“We’ll need to find the money somewhere to take care of this,” Mark Mercier said. “It’s a big economic boost to all of Polk County.”

You know it’s bad when the locals are hoping for a tropic storm to pour the rain down on them.

“I hate to say it but we need to have a tropical storm to sit on top of us and rain for a couple of days,” said Jeff Windisman, who owns a bass boat.

Boaters who run aground face huge bills to get their watercraft working again. The low water levels can cause the motors to suck up mud and plug the water pumps.

The Lakes Management District, also known as the Canal Commission, is in the process of installing bigger seawall sheets so that canals can be dug deeper and hold more water. That costs money though and with a annual budget of $1 million and only $50,000 allotted to seawalls it will take time. Plus there’s the dirt. Lots of dirt needs to be dug up and there is no where to put it. Dumping it in the lakes is out, that is illegal. There are no devices like a barge that could carry it out to do that anyway.

“The canals are as deep as we can dig them without expecting a failure at the bottom of the seawalls,” Griffiths said.

Officials in Winter Haven know that improving the canal problem is paramount to its tourism survival. The town is known as “Chain of Lakes City.”

“Our stated goal is accessibility to all lakes within five years and a partnership with other agencies such as the Canal Commission is a viable one,” said Potter, who is the city’s liaison to the Canal Commission.

This is a town that is in need of Mother Nature making a pit stop and pouring rain down on it.

Cheering On Grads In south Carolina Leads To Arrests

The authorities that be at Rock Hill in Columbia, South Carolina meant it when they told the audience to hold their applause until the end. Seven people were arrested for loud cheering during this year’s graduation ceremony.

On Friday one person was charged with disorderly conduct at the ceremonies at York Comprehensive High School while six more had handcuffs attached to their wrists at Fort Mill High School on Saturday.

“I just thought they were going to escort me out,” Jonathan Orr told The Herald of Rock Hill, about 70 miles north of Columbia. “I had no idea they were going to put handcuffs on me and take me to jail.”

The 21 year old spent two hours in the slammer for yelling for his cousin at York’s commencement.

The Rock Hill police started the heavy handed tactics several years ago at the request of school districts. The schools complained that the happy cheers were a disruption at the ceremonies. Rock Hill police spokesman Lt. Jerry Waldrop explained that those who cheer during the commencements will be prosecuted for bad behavior.

One of those arrested William Massey, 19, admitted that there were warnings prior to the ceremony but he didn’t realize that he could be arrested. He said that he clapped and gave a small whoop for which he will fight.

“There’s a lot more people that did it than six or seven,” said Massey, who graduated from Fort Mill last year.

The principal at Fort Mill says that while he asked for the police presence he did not ask for offenders to be arrested. He does though plan on using the police patrols at future graduation ceremonies.

“We think it’s important for every graduate’s name to be heard and for every person in the arena to be able to see that student cross the stage. … That’s why we have disruptive guests removed,” he said.

And The Grooms Were Priests

The Church of England is letting it be known that two priests that recently got married were breaking the “rules.” Peter Cowell and David Lord were joined as husband and husband at Saint Bartholomew the Great in London last month.

The marriage is said to be the first church wedding in Britain for a same-sex couple. The newlyweds had registered their legal civil partnership status before the ceremony took place.

The Church of England does not all for same-sex ceremonies held within the church setting although some blessings have happened in the past.

While the Church is not denying that the ceremony took place they have stated that it is a serious breach of the rules.

The Church of England is already have troubles within its ranks over the issue of homosexuality, particularly as to where it stands on homosexual clery members. The more conservative churches mostly located in Africa have been at odds with the more liberal Western churches in the sect since the ordination of Gene Robinson an openly gay US priest as a bishop in 2003.

Concerning the news of the recent marriage of two gay priests the Archbishop of Uganda, the Most Reverend Henry Orombi, has called the ceremony blasphemous. He has called upon Williams to take decisive action in order for the Anglican communion not to “disintegrate.”

The Bishop of London, Richard Chartres, has not been available to speak on the ceremony that took place in his diocese.

Jamelao, Brazilian Music Legend Dies At the Age Of 95

He was named Jose Bispo Clementino dos Santos but his fans knew the man as Jamelao. A recording legend in his native Brazil he recorded more than 20 records. He passed away at the age of 95 in Rio three days after being admitted to hospital.

Jamelao was a leader of Mangueira, one of Rio de Janeiro’s more well known samba schools.

Born in Rio in 1913 Jamelao started using his musical talent at an early age. He was the official singer at Mangueira carnivals.

Jamelao’s voice allowed him to roam Europe singing as a solo artist. When asked at the age of 90 what he most loved about singing Jamelao replied:

“The music. The music. I love the music,” he said. “And the women I can get, too.”

The burial has been scheduled for Sunday.

He Gets The Cane Because He Sniffed The Pits

A man in Singapore is facing 14 years in prison and 18 strokes of the cane because of his love of smelling ladies armpits. Convicted for molesting his victims the 36-year-old has been described as being mentally unstable.

For a 15 month period the man smelled the pits of 23 women. In elevators he sniffed and touched, in stair landings he savored their aroma and going into their homes his nose snorted their essence. Finally his aroma seeking was halted when a housewife reported him to the police.

While it may seem like a harsh sentence for a little nasal offense the court believed that the man would continue to molest women if he wasn’t given the severe punishment.

In Singapore men can get the additional punishment of caning on the bum for offences ranging from vandalism to illegal possession of drugs and rape.

When Daddy Is Mommy What Goes On The Birth Certificate?

In a few weeks transgender Thomas Beatie is due to deliver his and his wife’s child. While Beatie is legally listed as a man he will be on the birth certificate as the mother of the little tyke that pops out. Talk about a kid with built in issues.

Although the child’s original birth documents will list Beatie as his mother it is likely that the couple will petition the court to have a new birth certificate issued labeling him as the father.

This is a common enough procedure in legal terms. A person’s first birth certificate lists the mother as whomever “expulsion or extraction [of the living child] from its mother.” This is often changed later in the case of adoptions and surrogate mothers. In the case with Beatie he is acting as his own child’s surrogate mother.

Lesbian couples in Oregon have also used the birth certificate switch. It allows for both women being equal parents for their child.

This practice though may soon be a thing of the past as same-sex couples gain more rights. A 2007 state amendment outlaws discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, defined to include “gender identity, regardless of whether the individual’s gender identity, appearance, expression or behavior differs from that traditionally associated with the individual’s sex at birth.” This provision may in fact help Beatie. Legally it could be argued that calling Beatie the mother of the child would be discrimination because of his legal status as a man.

It is safe to assume the birth certificate that the child will have will state Beatie is his father. No matter what Beatie will be this child’s parent and in the end that is all that matters.

Best Friends Killed During Possible Carjacking Gone Wrong In Toronto

Best friends Dylan Ellis and Oliver Martin of Toronto met in Grade 1. They were best friends from that time forward. Thursday night the best friends became the 24th and 25th murder victims this year in Toronto as they died during a possible car jacking.

The two along with a female friend who survived the carnage had just finished watching the NBA finals at another friend’s home. They had to return to that friend’s home “for an innocent reason” according to the police. That innocent act was the last one they ever made. A blaze of bullets cut down the two friends as the sat in their black Range Rover parked on Richmond Street West, near Bathurst Street.

“They were certainly, in my opinion, targeted,” said the detective, who is leading the investigation.

“You know, as it stands right now … it’s a high-end motor vehicle that’s in this particular area. Until otherwise, I’m looking at it being the most marketable thing to steal,” Det.-Sgt. Gary Giroux of the Toronto Police Department said.

A black man fled on his bicycle from the scene. He is believed to be familiar with the Niagara and Bathurst area.

The co-op buildings that are in the area have security cameras. Police are viewing the films of images captured prior to and after the shooting.

These two young men were in the wrong place at the wrong time. They were on their way with life, being productive with bright futures ahead.

“These two victims are not at all known – and I repeat are not at all known – to the Toronto police or any police agency in Canada. And they have, certainly, based on the limited amount of information I have, are not and never have been living any kind of a high-risk criminal lifestyle whatsoever,” Det.-Sgt. Gary Giroux said.

Dylan Ellis, 25, was an artist. A graduate of a Quebec college he was pursuing a career in photography.

Oliver Martin, 25, had graduated from university in southern Ontario. He worked in the Toronto financial district.

Their killer caused them to leave behind two families who are devastated.

Kelly Mayo Graduates In Style

High school senior Kelly Mayo was this year’s top student in everything at Broadway Christian School in Hopewell, Virginia. She was also the only student to get a diploma on thursday.

Broadway Christian School had only 18 students this year with Kelly Moya being the oldest. Next year there will not be a graduating class even.

Still Rev. Jerry Davis wanted to make sure that Kelly had the works when it came her time to graduate including a full ceremony. He was the speaker of the ceremony that included a procession and a presentation of colours.

I’m nervous to be the centre of attention,” Kelly told the Richmond Times-Dispatch. “It’s exciting, but it makes me nervous.”

Police Say Boys Sleepover Party Turned Sex Party

Two Pennsylvanian women, Angela Honeycutt, 38, and Lynne Long, 45, are out on bail after being charged with a series of allegedly sexual incidents April 14 involving six teenage boys aged 14 to 16.

Honeycutt is accused of having sex with a 14-year-old boy and performing sex acts with a 15 year old. She is also accused of open-mouth kissing some of the minors, flashing her boobs, going into the shower with one of the teens and talking dirty, according to CBS3.com. She is also accused of statutory sexual assault, unlawful contact with a minor and related charges. she is the mother of two young children.

Long is accused of watching, listening and telling the boys to keep quiet about the incident. She is also charged with endangering the welfare of children and corruption of minors.

What is so particularly outrageous about this is the violation of trust,” Lower Makefield Twp. Police Chief Ken Coluzzi told CBS3.com. “You think you’ve seen everything and then all of a sudden, another report of an outrageous crime comes in.”

One of the boys involved told his parents what happened. They went to authorities.

On Wednesday they women surrendered to authorities. They have been released on bail.

Babies Paying the Price: Iraq Bombings May Be Causing Birth Defects

Babies in Fallujah, Iraq are being born showing illnesses and deformities on a scale never before witnessed say doctors and residents. Since “special weaponry” first was used in 2004 in Fallujah’s massive bombing the death rate of children has increased.

Although the Pentagon first denied the use of white phosphorous, a restricted incendiary weapon at first it later admitted that the chemical was used in 2004. In addition to the phosphorous at least 1,200 tonnes of depleted uranium (DU) munitions, which contain low-level radioactive waste have been used in the area.

Doctors believe the use of DU is one cause of increased cancer cases in Iraq and among U.S. troops that served during the 1991 Gulf War.

“We saw all the colours of the rainbow coming out of the exploding American shells and missiles,” Ali Sarhan, a 50-year-old teacher who lived through the two U.S. sieges of 2004 told IPS. “I saw bodies that turned into bones and coal right after they were exposed to bombs that we learned later to be phosphorus.

“The most worrying is that many of our women have suffered loss of their babies, and some had babies born with deformations.”

“I had two children who had brain damage from birth,” 28-year-old Hayfa’ Shukur told IPS. “My husband has been detained by the Americans since November 2004 and so I had to take the children around by myself to hospitals and private clinics. They died. I spent all our savings and borrowed a considerable amount of money.”

Doctors in the area will admit orally to the parents of these children that restricted weapons are the root of their conditions but not on paper. The Fallujah General Hospital administration refused to give any stats on infants born with deformities. Doctors that did speak feared reprisals if it was revealed that they gave information out.

“Many babies were born with major congenital malformations,” a paediatric doctor, speaking on condition of anonymity, told IPS. “These infants include many with heart defects, cleft lip or palate, Down’s syndrome, and limb defects.”

The doctor added, “I can say all kinds of problems related to toxic pollution took place in Fallujah after the November 2004 massacre.”

The hospitals in the area are struggling to keep up with the stresses that injuries have put on them. Basic supplies like water is a matter of concern in certain areas.

The government is trying to make changes.

Iraqi Health Minister Salih al-Hassnawi highlighted the shortage of medicines at a press conference in Arbil in the Kurdistan region in the north Feb. 22. “The Iraqi Health Ministry is suffering from an acute shortage of medicines…We have decided to import medicines immediately to meet the needs.”

Those changes though will not help those that have already had to pay the high cost of this war, the children born with special needs.

The Fringe 2008: A Hit Show Must See ‘Casa De Los Fantasmas’

Returning for the 20th year The Fringe 2008 will hit Toronto from July 2 until July 13. One of the must see shows this year is Casa De Los Fantasmas: The Golden Age of Radio Returns brought to you by The Canadian Space Opera Company.

With 148 productions this year being held during The Fringe in Toronto it may be hard to pick and choice just which productions to include on your must see list. One of those shows though should include Casa De Los Fantasmas by The Canadian Space Opera Company. Quite fitting the production is being held at the U of T campus radio station CIUT.

The Canadian Space Opera Company does a take on the classic radio theater like nobody else. Taking you to a different era your host The Closet Case allows you to go back in time to experience a hilariously eerie program.

When newlyweds Duke and Emily Dane honeymoon at the luxurious Hacienda De La Hoya in remote Argentina they get to experience the beginning of their blissful marriage until the rude interruptions of hotel guests start to die off. What will be their fate?

With some of Toronto’s best improv artists the cast delights their audience from start to finish. The cast includes Nike Abbott, Sam Agro, Paul Koster, Jorge Moreira, Rhonda Riche, Tracy Shea-Porter, Dave Till, Scott Watkins, Cary West and music by Jeff B. Santos.
The Canadian Space Opera Company was founded in 2004. Veterans of the Toronto comedy and improv scene the company members know their stuff.

The play was first seen in Toronto at The Bad Dog Theatre which Now magazine calls “the improv club” of Toronto. I was lucky enough to be able to attend it at that time and ended up with laughter pains. The entire cast worked the play to perfection taking the viewer back to the Golden Age of radio.

If you only have space on your play card this year for one comedy Casa De Los Fantasmas is the one not to miss.

Child’s School Beating May Change How Attacks Are Reported In Toronto Schools

The beating of a Grade 1 student earlier this year in Toronto is leading to change in the way abuse is being reported at schools. Ontario is now urging schools to report when students assault each other.

At the present time if a child suffers abuse from a parent, guardian or person of authority it is required that Children’s Aid be notified. Progressive Conservative critic Frank Klees admits that there is a loophole in the existing legislation and that some children have suffered because of that.

“There’s no requirement under law for a duty to report student-on-student assault or abuse and that is what has to be addressed,” he said.

“Every parent in this province wants to know that when their kids are in school, the administration of that school will take every possible step … to report any assault that’s taken place to the parents immediately, and then to the police if in fact it’s required.”

The change is being brought forth after a Grade 1 student was beaten by belts welded by 2 13-year-olds outside a school washroom at a York Catholic District School. The incident was not reported to either police nor the child’s parents. When the parents found out what had happened they went to the police and the teens were charged.

“The Minister (of Education) needs to take a step to ensure something like this will never happen again,” said Klees, who wants the changes implemented before classes begin in the fall.

“It’s a simple thing. Move forward with an amendment to the existing legislation that will make it mandatory for school administrators to report this kind of assault.”

Education Minister Kathleen Wynne agrees that Ontario should be reporting these type of situations and is looking in on how best to process with the idea. The A Safe Schools Action Team program has been looking on how to fix the reporting gaps that are in place at this time. There should be a report back from that group by the Fall.

“We’re absolutely clear that there needs to be rules in place about who gets informed, when and how that works,” Wynne said.

“That shouldn’t be up to the discretion of an individual principal. There needs to be protocols in place.”

At this time each individual school has their own policy on how and when to report incidents.

Brownwood State School In Texas Charged With Abuses Of Girls Housed There

Do girls housed at a detention center in Texas deserve to have their 4th, 5th,8th and 14th Amendments taken away from them? The Brownwood State School is under the microscope with charges from the ACLU that they have been abusive with five girls.

The American Civil Liberties Union say that girls have suffered sexual, physical, or emotional abuse at Brownwood State School. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas.

The ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) says that Texas is not only denying teen girls those constitutional rights but also violating international standards protecting children from abuse and prohibiting torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

The ACLU has alleged that the detention center has subjected the five girls to unwarranted solitary confinement, routine strip searches and brutal physical force.

“Throwing children into cold, bare solitary confinement cells is profoundly damaging, especially to children who previously have been abused,” said Mie Lewis, staff attorney with the ACLU Women’s Rights Project. “The ACLU has closely monitored developments in the Texas Youth Commission over the last year, and although we see some improvements, TYC’s reliance on solitary confinement has to stop.”

It is not uncommon for residents of Brownwood to have to endure solitary confinement in cold cells that are bare other than a metal slab that is meant to be a bed. To get into solitary a girl only has to commit a minor infraction. Once they are in solitary they can be held there for months.

The residents are also subject to invasive strip searches when they enter or exit solitary and if the finish a work assignment within the prison walls. Girls who resist the searches are forced to comply with the use of pepper spray, physical force, hand cuffs and leather straps. Those tactics are also used on girls who are in solitary if they harm themselves, shout or bang on the walls. Often those girls report memories of childhood rapes after the assaults. they also report feelings of degradation, humiliation and fear.

“The link between psychological trauma and delinquent behavior is well established,” said Lisa Graybill, Legal Director of the ACLU of Texas. “Instead of helping girls learn to cope with their experiences, TYC is re-traumatizing them through the use of solitary confinement and strip searches. TYC must do better, for the sake of our clients and all children in the state’s custody.”

Brownwood houses up to 150 girls at a time.

Study Suggests Higher Intelligence Decreases Belief In God

The higher an IQ level people have the less likely they are to believe in God. That is the finding of a paper written by Professor Richard Lynn, emeritus professor of psychology at Ulster University that was published by the academic journal Intelligence.

Critics has branded the paper simplistic but could Lynn be on to something?

[url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2111174/Intelligent-people-%27less-likely-to-believe-in-God%27.html t=_blank]Lynn[/url] cites that the decline in religious observance has been affected by a rise in average intelligence over the last century.

In the past Professor Lynn has had some controversial studies with research that links intelligence to race and sex. This time around he claims that those who are university academics are less likely to believe in God than the rest of the population.

Lynn found that while most young children have a belief in God in primary school that fades by adolescents as their intelligence increases. The doubts that teenagers have is often heightened as they head off to university.

A survey of Royal Society fellows saw that only 3.3 percent believe in God. The rest of the general UK population tends to describe themselves as believers (68.5 percent).

During the 1990’s a different poll carried out using members of the American National Academy of Sciences showed that a mere seven percent believed in God.

[quote]Lynn told Times Higher Education magazine: “Why should fewer academics believe in God than the general population? I believe it is simply a matter of the IQ. Academics have higher IQs than the general population. Several Gallup poll studies of the general population have shown that those with higher IQs tend not to believe in God.”[/quote]

Lynn concludes that religious belief in 137 developed nations declines as people became more intelligent.

Professor Gordon Lynch, director of the Centre for Religion and Contemporary Society at Birkbeck College says that Lynn’s paper does not take into account the full range of factors that include social, economic and historical factors.

[quote]“Linking religious belief and intelligence in this way could reflect a dangerous trend, developing a simplistic characterization of religion as primitive, which – while we are trying to deal with very complex issues of religious and cultural pluralism – is perhaps not the most helpful response,” he said.[/quote]

Dr Alistair McFadyen, senior lecturer in Christian theology at Leeds University believes that Lynn’s study has a tinge of an anti-religious sentiment.

What do you think? Does the more a person learns the less likely that they believe in a higher source?

Marijuana Is Getting Stronger, Does That Mean You Can Get Hooked On It?

In the past year, marijuana’s potency has increased to the highest levels the happy herb has seen in the past 30 years. According to the White House, that may mean it’s not as harmless as it used to be.

The psychoactive ingredient THC in marijuana has been monitored in batches from 1975 to 2007 by the University of Mississippi’s Potency Monitoring Project. The samples are from drugs seized by law enforcement agents. The THC level found in the 2007 samples reached 9.6 percent, compared to just the prior year’s 8.75 percent levels.

In 1983 the THC levels were at about 4 percent so the 2007 samples showed a huge increase. The question now is does that increase make for greater health concern issues. The White House says that it does.

“Today’s report makes it more important than ever that we get past outdated, anachronistic views of marijuana,” said John Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

The fear is that the parents of today underestimate the drugs effects for their children, after all many of those parents are baby boomers who did breath in during their youth.

Marijuana potency has grown steeply over the past decade, with serious implications in particular for young people,” Walters said. He cited the risk of psychological, cognitive and respiratory problems, and the potential for users to become dependent on drugs such as cocaine and heroin.

The increases to the potency in marijuana appears to be that the growers are getting more sophisticated in both the United States and in Canada believes those in the government.

a report out from the white House office last month stated that teens who are depressed are twice as likely to use marijuana than teens that aren’t experiencing depression. the study also stated that the use of the herb could increase the risk of developing mental disorders by 40 percent.

“The increases in marijuana potency are of concern since they increase the likelihood of acute toxicity, including mental impairment,” said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which funded the University of Mississippi study.

“Particularly worrisome is the possibility that the more potent THC might be more effective at triggering the changes in the brain that can lead to addiction,” Volkow said.

Dr. Mitch Earleywine, who teaches psychology at the State University of New York in Albany and serves as an adviser for marijuana advocacy groups though says that there is no evidence that one can become addicted to marijuana. While food cravings are common having to have a hit is not something that is a problem.

“Mild irritability, craving for marijuana and decreased appetite — I mean those are laughable when you talk about withdrawal from a drug. Caffeine is worse.”

BBC Is Given Top Secret Documents Left Behind On London Train

A police inquiry is being launched after top secret files on al-Qaeda were left behind on a train in London on Tuesday. The sensitive documents were handed over to the BBC by a passenger on the train.

Another passenger of the train from Waterloo in London to surrey spotted the envelope the papers were in and handed those documents to the BBC.
The files were the property of a very senior intelligence official who works within the Cabinet Office.

The missing documents were already being looked for in a full-scale search by the Metropolitan Police. The documents are only seven pages long but the information inside are so sensitive that every document is numbered and marked “for UK/US/Canadian and Australian eyes only”, BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner said. The missing document shows a serious breach of security. they were removed from Whitehall on Tuesday and left unattended on the train.

The documents are an assessment of the Iraq security forces that were made by the government’s Foreign Office and the Home Office.

Whitehall is in shock that the security breach happened and that documents of such importance were mislaid.

A spokesman for the Cabinet Office said: “Two documents which are marked as ’secret’ were left on a train and have subsequently been handed to the BBC.

“There has been a security breach, the Metropolitan Police are carrying out an investigation.”

Scholarship Is Part Of The Heath Ledger’s Legacy

A scholarship fund for Australian actors trying to make it in Hollywood has been established in the name of Heath Ledger. Ledger died at the age of 28 in January from an accidental overdose.

Ledger was an ambassador of Australians in Film, or AiF until his death. The board of the organization wanted to honor him after his death, this scholarship is their way of doing so.

The fund will help support actors as they pursue their dreams. The scholarship will help cover the costs of acting classes and rent. Director Gregor Jordan announced the establishment of the Heath Ledger Scholarship fund last week at the annual Breakthrough Awards.

Australians in Film was started seven years ago. Some of the members that belong to the organization include Australians such as Nicole Kidman, Geoffrey Rush, Cate Blanchett, Russell Crowe and Mel Gibson.

“Although reluctant to lend his name to anything commercial, we know Heath would be proud of his attachment to this scholarship,” Kim Ledger’s statement said. “This scholarship in part does what Heath has done personally during the last 10 years and supported financially or in kind many friends, Australian actors, singers, directors or writers seeking to ply their talents in the USA.”

The first amount to be awarded will take place in 2009.

Wanted For War Crimes, Stojan Zupljanin Arrested After 13 Years on the Run

Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Stojan Zupljanin has been arrested in Belgrade. He is one of the four top Serb leaders that wanted for war crimes by the United Nations tribunal in the Hague.

Zupljanin was a commander in Banja Luka during the Bosnia War from 1992-1995. He has been charged with killing Muslim and Croat civilians.

He had been wanted for 13 years. He was arrested at an apartment just 5 miles from the center of Belgrade. He will now be sent to the Hague tribunal to stand trial for trial on charges of crimes against humanity after he is taken to an investigative judge in Belgrade.

“Stojan Zupljanin was arrested today [Wednesday] near Belgrade… Police and security agents took part in the operation. He should be extradited to The Hague in the next 72 hours,” a spokesman for Serbia’s special war crimes prosecutor’s office told Reuters news agency.

Bosnian Serb military commander Gen Ratko Mladic, Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and Goran Hadzic, wartime president of the self-proclaimed Serb republic of Krajina are still at large and wanted for their role in war crimes during the war.

His arrest will help advance Serbia’s quest for EU membership.

Laborer Necropolis Gives Experts A Look Into Rome’s Early Work Force

Laborers in ancient Rome toiled years doing heavy labor according to researchers investigating an ancient laborer burial ground found in Rome.

The first-century burial grounds are located near the main airport in Rome. The necropolis was discovered last year when customs police noticed grave robbers seeking ancient Roman artifacts.

More than 300 skeletons have since been unearthed. Most of the laborers found have been males who showed heavy wear and tear on their remains.

Sandy sediment preserved the bodies that suffered joint and tendon inflammation, compressed vertebrae, hernias and spinal problems from the hard work they spent their lives doing. The archaeologists believe that the men carried heavy loads on their backs from nearby ports during the early years of Imperial Rome.

{quote]Many ailments “seem to hark back to work as laborers, in transport and carrying of heavy loads, in an especially humid environment, circumstances that makes one think of the burial of individuals who worked in port areas of the city,” the office said in a statement.

while necropolises are not uncommon in Rome finding one that belonged to the lower classes is. The Ponte Galeria is invaluable to experts in that it shows how the lower classes lived.

The dig also is enlightening researchers on how the disabled may have been cared for during this time period. A man who survived into his 30s was found with a fused jaw. The man was likely fed by his family by a tube that would have contained liquids or semisolids that went through a hole made in his teeth.

This is one of the most extensive digs of a necropolis in recent time in Rome.

The archaeologists believe that the burial grounds are that of laborers because of the type of construction materials. The graves were covered with wooden boards and roof type tiling.

Earliest Known Christian Church May Have Been Found

A cave in Rihab, Jordan that archaeologists have just discovered could be the oldest Christian church in the world. The cave is an underground chapel dating back to AD33-70.

The scientists say that the cave would have functioned as both a church and a home. It is thought that the cave was used by 70 Christians that fled persecution in Jerusalem.

Before the Roman Empire embraced Christianity early believers had to practice their faith in secret are risk death. The Romans did not embrace the faith for several hundred years after the death of Christ.

The cave sits under the ancient church of St Georgeous, one of the known oldest places of Christian worship itself.

Inside of the cave there is evidence of early rituals used by those practicing the faith according to Dr Abdul Qader Al-Hassan, the director of the Rihab Centre for Archaeological studies.

The worship area is separate from the living areas. A circular area called an apse was found in the cave.

Dr Al-Hassan said: “We found beautiful things. I found the cemetery of this church; we found pottery shards and lamps with the inscription ‘Georgeous’”.

This discovery could bring forth many answers of the earliest practitioners of the Christian faith.

Water was available to those who lived below the earth’s surface by a cistern.

An inscription on the floor of the church tells of those who dwelled below.

“70 beloved by God and the divine”

The researched intend to make an excavation inside the cave to clearly date the evidence within. Prior to this discovery the earliest known church dates to the third century.

The Smurfs Are Going Hollywood

The Smurfs of cartoon fame are going Hollywood. Papa Smurf, Smurfette and their blue buds are going to be appearing on the big screen, thanks to the writers of the Shrek films.

Those merry blue little creatures of the forest first appeared in a Belgian comic strip in 1958. Since that time they moved to the small screen as a children’s animation. Mutant Smurfs have also appeared on the television show Robot Chicken.

Now a new generation of fans will see the Smurfs in the cinema.

Created by Pierre Culliford (known as Peyo) they are best known from the show bearing their name produced by Hanna-Barbera.

The film will be a hybrid live-action and animated piece that will soon go into production. The writers are David Stem and David Weiss. They wrote the second and third “Shrek” films.

“The Smurfs are one of the best-known franchises and among the most beloved collection of characters in the world,” Columbia president Doug Belgrad said in a statement.

“We’re very excited to introduce a new generation to Papa Smurf, Smurfette and the other Smurfs in all of their ‘three apple tall’ glory.”

Reports Allege Paul Newman Has Lung Cancer

Paul Newman appeared frail as he made a public appearance for fund raising for his The Hole In Wall Gang children’s cancer charity. The actor is battling lung cancer himself according to some reports.

Newman’s health issues forced him to pull out of a directing job for John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men according to various reports. There are reports though denied from the Newman camp that he has been undergoing treatment at New York’s Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre.
If the reports are correct he has been struggling for quite some time with the disease.

His spokesperson played down his hospitalization, insisting Newman was ‘being treated for athlete’s foot and hair loss’.

Newman denied that he has cancer when he missed another fund raising event for the charity in March. He also had to cancel an appearance that month on The Late Show With David Letterman.

Newman lives in Connecticut with his wife Joanne Woodward.

Sudan Airways Jetliner Crashes While Landing In Thunderstorm

There has been an airplane explosion at Khartoum, Sudan’s airport. The Sudan Airlines jetliner exploded as it touched down late Tuesday during a thunderstorm. It is thought that about 100 people were killed during the incident.

The plane was arriving from Amman, Jordan when it appears to have left the runaway. The head of the Sudanese police, Mohammad Najib is citing bad weather as the cause of the crash. The plane was split into two and on fire as a result of the accident.

It is thought that 200 passengers were aboard the plane when it landed. There are reports of survivors but actual numbers are unclear.

Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board in Washington are monitoring the situation but have not made any announcements about the details of the crash.

The Sudan’s aviation safety record is poor. The country blamed the United States on a July 2003 crash where all 115 passengers died saying that sanctions had restricted vital aircraft parts. the United States denied that claim stating that there was no ban on equipment required for aviation safety.

Best Flats in Britain Rent For Just 75 Pounds

A brand new property in Poole Harbour, Dorset has views that rival the millionaire’s playground of Sandbanks but the rent is one of the best deals in the nation. For a mere 75 Pound a week you can reside like a Hilton.

The flats include en-suite bathrooms, walk-in closets and fully equipped kitchens in the two bedroom apartments. They are being sold for 525,000 Pound or rented out at 9oo Pound per month unless you are among the council tenants.

This great deal is the result of government legislation that states that any residential development with more than 15 homes must have a certain percentage set aside for social housing.

Harbour Reach was built by Bryant Homes. The property has 12 five storey blocks of flats and 10 rows of town homes. The percentage of the 340 home leaves a total of 115 for social housing. This is not going over well with some tax payers who can only dream of living in such splendor.

Nor are estate agents happy about the properties having social housing tenants. They believe the prices will drop if other tenants find out that their next door neighbours are paying a mere 350 Pound a month for their homes.

“You have to ask the question is it right to have an unemployed person paying £75 a week for the same flat somebody is paying £500,000 for?,” Tom Doyle, of Lloyds estate agents said.

“People thinking about buying there will be thinking ‘do I want to spend so much and have some unemployed person in the next block giving me grief?’

“If you are a young couple working your butts off to get on the property ladder, is it fair to have unemployed people living in a luxury flat with stunning sea views for very little?

“On Sandbanks people pay twice as much for a sea view. People pay £1,000 per square foot for a flat with a view.

“I’m all for social housing but it should be in a less salubrious area where you can get twice as much accommodation for your money.”

Mark Wallace, spokesman for campaign group Tax Payers Alliance is one of those outraged that social housing is being included in such a prime location. His group doesn’t think that the development should have to be the location of where council tenants are placed but rather in a different location with perhaps not quite as pricey specs.

The social housing flats though were part of the condition of the planning requirements set by Poole Borough Council according to Raglan Housing Association .

“Raglan offers affordable homes both to purchase on a shared ownership basis and rent through the local authority.

“These rents are set to government guidelines and are based on property values and local earnings levels.”

When asked about the quality of the properties, he said: “I think we should let the scheme speak for itself.”

Veteran’s Lost Watch Returned 67 Years Later Still Ticking

A Bulova watch lost during World War II has been returned to Royal Navy veteran Teddy Bacon still working. The gold watch was lost in the Gibraltar Harbor in 1941.

At the time the timepiece was worth $55. Bacon sent divers to look for the watch after it had slipped off his wrist while he was throwing line from ship to shore. The divers were unable to locate the item at the time.

In 2007 the harbor was dredged and the watch was found and turned over to the deputy harbor-master. Authorities checked the log and found the 1941 claim that Bacon had filed. The now 90-year-old veteran was then returned his still working gold watch.

To say I was stunned could be considered a major understatement,’ he said. “It truly was a miracle that I had been reunited with that watch after a lifetime. Now I wear it every day and it keeps perfect time, even after all those years in the water. It is absolutely excellent and I consider it a long-lost friend.’”

Florida Likely To Take A $40 Million Hit While Waiting Clearance For Their Tomatoes

The salmonella outbreak in the Western U.S. has caused a ripple effect to growers in Florida who stand to lose $40 million unless the federal officials clear them quickly.

“The fact that the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) has not located the cause of the outbreak has caused havoc in the marketplace,” said Reggie Brown, manager of the Florida Tomato Committee, a federal marketing agency that regulates the state’s fresh tomato growers.

The outbreak of salmonella has appeared in three types of tomatoes: round red tomatoes and the smaller Red Plum and Red Roma tomatoes. Cherry and grape tomatoes and those that are sold in bunches attached to a vine are unlikely sources of the infection.

As of Saturday there have been 145 cases of poisoning by the uncommon “Salmonella Saintpaul” strain. Those poisoning have resulted in 23 hospitalizations since April.

Round, Red Plum and Red Roma tomatoes have been cleared for use in Georgia, both of the Carolinas and Canada by the FDA. Florida was not part of that clearance.

If the Florida tomatoes are not cleared within two days spoilage will cause major losses. What’s more the ripe tomatoes on Florida farm vines will not be harvested in time causing even larger losses.

Most of the salmonella outbreaks occurred in western states where the tomatoes come from Mexico and other western states. The market for Florida tomatoes is east of the Mississippi River.

There has been three cases though (two in Virginia and one in Connecticut) that are being investigated.

Tomato production in Florida produces 1.3 billion pounds annually. Most of the 39,000 acres of the fruit are for the fresh market.

Bob Goddard, president of John Goddard Produce Inc. is one wholesaler having to deal with the effects of the outbreak. Major restaurant chains have stopped buying his product including Arby’s, Bennigan’s and Steak & Ale. His company has had to stop purchasing tomatoes until they have FDA clearance.

Lakeland, Florida based Publix Super Markets Inc. is another major company affected. They have halted the sale of the three varieties of tomatoes since this past weekend. That is a total of 936 stores that no longer have the produce available to their clientele.

Evicted Tenants’ Landlord Has Power Turned Off

The evicted tenants at a Bartow, Florida apartment building got a hot wake up call Monday. Their landlord had the city turn off the electricity to the units of the motel-turned-apartments.

“When I got a second call from the Police Department last week about the problems there, that was the last straw,” Betty Claytor, who owns the property at 245 W. Van Fleet Drive said. “People are just gouging the building there, taking the copper wiring and pipes. They’ve even torn out a sliding glass door so they could get the aluminum frame around it. I can’t let that go on.

“I think I’ve given the tenants plenty of time to find another place to live,” she said. “I’ve tried to help them out, but it’s getting to be too much now.”

Three tenants are still residing in the building even after being evicted on May 13. Claytor, who resides in Virginia, then gave the residents a week to find another place to live. she agreed to give them free rent while they searched for a new home but encouraged them to move quickly.

Most of the tenants in question were renting by the week. Nine families had already moved out of the twelve unit dwelling. One of the residents still on the premises Patricia Via has plans to move to a place in Tampa this weekend.

“We didn’t know she was turning the power off,” Via said. “We didn’t see this coming at all.”

Tonya Scarbrough is another resident being affected by the loss of electricity. she and her husband had just gotten their groceries over the weekend and the lack of refrigeration is making for a major problem.

“Everything in the refrigerator will be ruined,” she said. “I don’t know what we’re going to do.”

Scarbrough’s husband was laid off at the same time the eviction notice appeared. She works at a fast food place in Bartow providing their only income. While they have been looking for another place to live they have yet to find something within their price range.

Claytor is not without sympathy for those who have had trouble finding a new place to reside but is also having to protect her own investment.

“To me, they are trying to hang on and gouge the place for everything they can,” she said. “I feel like I have given them adequate time to do something. They just need to move on now.”

Claytor and her investors have plans to convert the motel built in 1960 into a office complex. They have the funding to move forward with those plans and its time for those that who had made the place their home to get out.

Get Married Or Get Fired

A company in Iran is giving all of its single employees until September 21 to be married. State run Pars Special Economic Energy Zone Company, the owner of Iran’s gas and petrochemical facilities of the Gulf has a rule that employees must be married.

In Iran sexual relations outside of marriage are illegal and most marry in their 20s.

Not only does Pars Special Economic Energy Zone Company except its workers to be married but they expect that bundles of joy (babies) be quickly made.

The company will annul employee contracts if they are found to be single by October 22.

Those employees are typically young men wanting to have a good income who are willing to work in refiners in Assalouyeh. The temperature during the summer can reach 50 Celsius. Not exactly a great environment for raising a family.

The company believes that marriage will ensure that the men will not look for sexual temptations while they stay at the energy hub.

“Unfortunately some of our colleagues did not fulfil their commitments and are still single,” Etemad newspaper quoted the company’s directive as saying.

“As being married is one of the criteria of employment, we are announcing for the last time that all the female and male colleagues have until September 21 to go ahead with this important and moral religious duty.”

The country is undergoing a strict moral crackdown. Women by the tens of thousands are being warned by law enforcement if their dress is not deemed to be Islamic.

Condoms Aboard Last Supply Shipment To McMurdo, Antarctica Before Winter Hits

As winter darkness sets in at the U.S. research base in Antarctica a last shipment containing 16,500 condoms was delivered last month. The McMurdo base station offers their residents the safe sex protectors free of charge.

During the long winter only a small staff of about 125 scientists remain at the compound. It is still the largest community in Antarctica.

Winter at the bottom of the Earth means constant darkness. The sun will rise again on August 20 when the population will increase to around 1,000.

Supply flights are halted during the bitter cold not resuming until September.

Op-Ed: Children Removed From Neo-Nazi Home In Winnipeg

Two children are in the custody of child welfare workers in Winnipeg Monday after a seven-year-old girl went to school with a swastika on her body.

The girl and her two-year-old brother were removed from their home because of concerns of their parents beliefs. The children’s parents are neo-Nazis. Drug use and alcohol was also cited as a reason for the children’s removal.

“The children may be at risk due to the parents’ behavior and associates. The parents might endanger the emotional well-being of the children,” the Child and Family Services agency said, according to court documents.

The parents have yet to file court documents but plan on fighting for their children.

I personally think that the neo-Nazi movement is horrible but is it enough of a reason to remove a child from their parents? If governments start using what groups a parent aligns itself with many could be at risk.

In this case other factors were measured in for the removal of the children, drug use for one. But after the fever pitch of the children that were removed in a mass exodus from the Eldorado ranch in Texas could child services in North America be testing the waters?

If that is the case where will the line be drawn?

Blog Warned Of Sunday’s Violent Tokyo Attack

On Sunday a man stabbed people at random on a busy Tokyo street killing seven. Tomohiro Kato had written warnings on his blog prior to driving a truck into a crowd of shoppers and then walking down the street stabbing at random in Akihabara.

As Can Tran reported earlier on Digital Journal Akihabara, Tokyo’s biggest electronics shopping district was the scene of random violence this weekend when Kato attacked random strangers at will as he had written on his blog.

“I will kill people in Akihabara.”

“I will crash my car and when the car becomes unusable, I will use a knife. Good-bye, everyone!”

“I’m used to acting like a good person. I can fool everyone easily,” Kato wrote, adding he was struggling to make friends.

“The time has come.”

Kato had left at least twelve posts online that the police were aware of but they could not stop the attacks.

The Sunday murder spree was committed by a man who lived alone and had a temp job at a car factory. Sadly, it illustrates the emerging violence that has taken hold of Japan. The crime rate in Tokyo has recently changed. The nation used to be proud of the nation’s safety.

Another attack in January at a train station was eerily similar. In that attack Taishi Ikeda randomly stabbed people outside of the station hurting five people and killing one.

In March a teenager wanting to kill someone pushed a stranger under a train.

There have been several reports of suicides that have used chemical gases that stricken others that are in the area of the deaths.

Jinsuke Kageyama, a criminal psychologist at Tokyo Institute of Technology cites the obsession with exam grades and decline of the extended family as factors for the violent behaviors that are emerging in Japan.

“Japan has entered a period of selfishness. People have the feeling that they can do anything,” he said.

“But when these people fail to fulfill themselves in socially acceptable ways, they are treated as losers and their frustration builds up,” he added.

“A series of disappointments can lead them to try to regain their sense of self through crime.”

Japan’s top government spokesman, Nobutaka Machimura believes that his nation should be considered for survival knives like the one that was used in the Sunday attack. The government has not pinpointed a motive for the attack yet.

One theory of the increased violence is that its a means of suicide. Japan has capital punishment. Committing acts that will result in a death sentence could be a way of not pulling the trigger on one’s own death but still being the root cause of it.

“If they have the urge to commit suicide, people will do these things in countries that have the death penalty,” Kageyama said.

World Naked Bike Ride Sees Ottawa Cyclists In The Buff

About 75 nude cyclists wore cyclists donned their shades and a layer of sunscreen to ride home the point of pollution. Their protest in an Ottawa part was for the “indecent exposure” of pollution in the world.

This was the fourth annual World Naked Bike Ride. Tourists and passerbys were in the minority as the naked bums rode by. Cell phone cameras were snapping the action as the bikes whizzed by.

Some elderly tourists seemed to be in shock but most of those who were in view of the action appeared to have a good time.

The cyclists were protesting oil dependency and the dangers of cycling in the city.

Capt. Jonathan Snyder Is The 85th Canadian Soldier To Die In Afghanistan

Canadian Captain Jonathan Snyder died while on a night-time patrol west of Kandahar on Saturday night. A member of the 1st Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, based in Edmonton Snyder fell into a well called a kariz.

Snyder was bogged down with at least 34 kilograms of equipment on including his flak vest when he fell into the kariz. That weight hindered him from being able to stay afloat as his patrol attempted to rescue him from the well that may have been as deep as 20 metres.

Snyder was rushed to the NATO hospital at Kandahar Airfield after he was taken out of the well where he was pronounced dead.

Snyder was both a mentor and a role model to the members of the Afghan National Army. His service served both the lives of Canadians and Afghans in his most recent field work.

He leaves behind his parents and fiancee.

Source Of Modern Day Philosophy: Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Could the source to the philosophy of modern day life come from a teenage who fights vampires? That is what the focus will be at a three-day conference that began on Friday at Henderson State University in Arkansas.

Kevin Durand, an associate professor of philosophy says that the series has created enough academic books on philosophy to fill a bookshelf at the college in Arkadelphia.

“It has staying power,” Durand said. “It’s like I tell my students in philosophy a lot of times: We’re not so much about necessarily finding all the answers as wanting to ask better questions. ‘Buffy,’ I think, does that. ‘Buffy’ never really leaves you with nice, pat answers. You have even more questions than when you started.”

The series was on The WB and UPN for seven seasons starring Sarah Michelle Gellar.

Durand said that over 90 academic papers will be reviewed during the weekend’s conference. There is about 150 people expected to attend to discuss matters dealing with “Buffy” and the other works of creator Joss Wheldon including television series “Firefly” and “Angel.” Also in line for the discussion is that screenplay of “Toy Story,” a lesser known portion of Wheldon’s work.

Some of the topics up for grabs will be; “Buffy and Feminism,” “Buffy and Identity,” “Gender Stereotypes and the Image of Domesticity in ‘Firefly,’ ” and “Hero’s Journey, Heroine’s Return: Buffy, Eurydice and the Orpheus Myth.”

Nobel Prize Winner Discovered By Long Lost Sister

Mario Capecchi, Nobel Prize winner for medicine has been reunited with his sister who thought he had died during World War II. Capecchi’s sister Marlene Bonelli was separated from her big brother when he was just a toddler.

The two were the children of Lucy Ramberg, a left-leaning American artist who spent most of the war in prison.

When Bonelli saw her brother’s name in the media after his Nobel Prize win this past year she contacted the Austrian media. Newspaper Dolomiten sent University of Utah geneticist Capecchi pictures of his long lost sister Bonelli.

Looking at the pictures, it was obviously my sister,” Capecchi said, noting her resemblance to their mother.

The pair met at a hotel on May 23 where they shared photos and spoke with the aid of an interpreter.

“She doesn’t speak English and I don’t speak German, and neither of us speaks Italian, although I can get away with it in a restaurant,” Capecchi said.

Capecchi was born in 1937. When he was just a toddler his mother gave birth to Marlene. When their mother was sent to prison Marlene was sent to a family in Austria. She grew up thinking her mother and brother has died during the war.

Capecchi meanwhile had been reunited with his mother at the end of the war when he was nine. They moved to the United States.

Capecchi’s academic career started at an early age. He won the Nobel Prize this past fall on his work with genes. His gene manipulation techniques in mice has advanced the understanding of killer diseases.

Indian School Really Believes In Monkey Business

The Sardar Bhagat Singh College of Technology and Management in northern India has named Hanuman as its official chairman. For those not up to speed on Hindu Gods Hanuman is the Monkey God.

That’s right a money god is in charge of a school of higher learning in India. The position comes with an office. Hanuman who is said to have moved mountains and fought the demon King Ravana to rescue a kidnapped princess will have a desk and laptop if he decides to come down to the school. All visitors to his office will enter barefoot where four chairs will be facing the empty seat reserved the the god.

When we were looking for a chairman for our institution, we scanned many big names in the field of technology and management. Ultimately, we settled for Lord Hanuman, as none was bigger than him,” Vivek Kangdi, the school’s vice chairman said.

The Sardar Bhagat Singh College opened last year in Lucknow. It awards bachelor’s degrees in engineering and management.

Surgical Towel Left Behind 25 Years Ago Causes Man Pain

A Japanese patient who presented with a tumor in May had a 25-year-old surgical towel removed. Doctors were able to give him the good news that he didn’t have cancer before explaining that his abdominal pain was a 25-year-old medical mistake.

In 1983 the patient had an operation to treat an ulcer at the Asahi General Hospital in Chiba prefecture near Tokyo. During that operation a surgical cloth was accidentally left behind.

The man, now 49, went to another hospital in late May in pain. Examinations showed that he had an eight centimeter tumor. An operation was quickly scheduled. During the operation to the doctors horror they found the towel.

“The towel was greenish blue although we are not sure about its original color,” the Asahi General Hospital spokesman said, adding it had been crumpled to the size of a softball.

Officials from Asahi General Hospital visited the man and apologized for the mistake. The man has no plans to sue the hospital. There will be compensation or other measures taken in this case of medical malpractice.

According to the Japanese media the man had his spleen removed during the most current operation.

Drunk Mommy Needed A Little Help Steering

Marya Green of Goshen Township, Ohio was arrested after a patrol officer stopped her for suspicious driving. To his surprise he found her one-year-old son at the wheel.

Green was well over the legal blood alcohol level at 0.11 percent. The legal limit is 0.08 in Ohio.

This wasn’t Green’s first drunk driving offense, she was traveling with a suspended licence Tuesday night when she was arrested.

Besides her driving infant Green had her two other children in her car. They are five and eight. Perhaps they didn’t think they had as many driving skills as their little brother.

“Let’s be honest, a one-year-old child doesn’t have the skill to drive a car. We all know that,” Ms Storer said police department spokeswoman Mandy Storer.

“But he was riding, the hands were on the wheel. She was allowing him to steer.”

The children were released into their father’s care.

This was Green’s third drunk driving offense in six years. There’s no word on if her infant son was charged with under aged driving.

Zero Gravity Trips Won’t Make For A Good Romp In The Hay

There is no sense in packing a frilly nightie for a late night romp in outer space says space medicine expert Dr. James Logan. The act would not be that satisfiing, more like flailing about.

As time speeds up on space rides going into zero gravity the so has the desire to get it on. Virgin Galactic has had couples querying about a little sex romp on his proposed missions into the heavens.

“We’ve had a variety of people inquire about it,” Daily Star quoted Will Whitehorn, president of Virgin Galactic, whose boss Richard Branson hopes to put tourists into space next year, as saying.

“One got in touch about a charter flight so they could be the first to have intercourse in space and get in the Guinness Book of Records. We’ve also had an approach from people wanting to make a movie,” Whitehorn added.

Sorry to disappoint all those mile high lovers but sex without gravity just isn’t going to be a special feature on these little jaunts.

Of course if you want to wait a few more years Dr. Logan thinks that sex in Martian gravity might be your ticket.

So set aside your sexual kinks and just enjoy the view if you have the money to shell out for a little space trip.

Bon Voyage.

Where’s Spellcheck When You Need It?

The long awaited diplomas for some Cleveland, Ohio students displayed a little typo this past weekend. Westlake High School officials misspelled the word “education” on the diplomas distributed last weekend.

Students at the school received their diplomas saying they had proof of their “educaiton”.

Principle Timothy Freeman admits when the diplomas were returned after an initial typo that no one bothered to make sure that the second time around they were free of errors. After all the first time the company they were being supplied from hadn’t misspelled the word.

The published has since reprinted the diplomas a second time. The 330 students have been sent their spellchecked documents.

Martial Law Sweeps Have Already Taken Place In Three States

In April an operation that was described by one sheriff’s deputy as “martial law training” took place. It was given the title of “Operation Sudden Impact.”

“Operation Sudden Impact” and involved more than 50 federal, state and local agencies in what local media deemed “an anti-crime and anti-terrorism initiative.”

“The recent disclosures underscore the Bush administration’s extraordinarily sweeping conception of executive power,” said Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU’s National Security Project. “The administration’s lawyers believe the president should be permitted to violate statutory law, to violate international treaties, and even to violate the Fourth Amendment inside the U.S. They believe that the president should be above the law.”

Authority for Use of Military Force to Combat Terrorist Activities Within the United States.

This action took place in Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas. The initiative given the military name of “Operation Sudden Impact” rounded up fugitives, conducted traffic checkpoints, climbed on board boats on the Mississippi River and more actions that were labeled “crime-abatement.” This is America’s new target of “anti-terrorism”, it’s own backyard.

In Memphis is was reported by WREG that 332 people were arrested. 142 of those were fugitives. Those fugitives now have a new title, they are terrorists.

In Shelby County, Tennessee 71 people were arrested during the 24 hour sweep.

“Our community is considered an international distribution center and is a possible target for terrorists,” said Capt. Dale Lane, commander of the Sheriff’s Office Homeland Security Bureau.

The government took possession of hundreds of dollars and drugs that were recovered. Over 1,290 tickets were handed out to speeders and those illegally parked.

“Newly unredacted documents released today reveal that the Department of Defense is using the FBI to circumvent legal limits on its own NSL power,” said the ACLU.

Businesses and stores were raided and their computers and paperwork was confiscated. One business owner was told that the FBI agents that raided his establishment was looking for stolen electronics. They are trying to track down possible terrorists before “something big happens.”

“What we have found traditionally is that terrorists are involved in a number of lesser known type crimes,” said Mark Luttrell, Shelby County sheriff.

There is no word if any of the goods confiscated led to arrests.

Those arrested by a federal law enforcement agency were subject to give over DNA samples. Gone are the days when fingerprinting was the standard of booking, now if you are arrested you are subjected to a cheek swab for the collection of DNA. The Justice Department has seen Congress expand their authority in two different laws passed in 2005 and 2006.

The DNA database, CODIS is being expanded. It is estimated that every year an additional 1.2 million people will be added to the database.

According to the Washington Post:

Dozens of the organizations known as fusion centers were created after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to identify potential threats and improve the way information is shared. The centers use law enforcement analysts and sophisticated computer systems to compile, or fuse, disparate tips and clues and pass along the refined information to other agencies.

Martial law is already in the landscape of the United States. It’s quiet and rarely written about but operations such as this one are taking place. Perhaps one of the most frightening aspects of the FEMA programs is the training of pastors and other religious officials to teach their flock to “obey the government.”

Op-Ed: Have You Drawn Your Line In The Sand?

The recent news that Washington D.C. is planning on putting checkpoints in various violent areas brings up questions of how close the United States is to becoming a nation under martial law.

What is your personal breaking point?

At what point will the citizens of the United States say enough? At that point will their voices be heard or will it be a moot point?

Looking back at the recent administration of the present administration one has to question what the heck is going on. The line was cast in the sand a long time ago. Politically the residents of the United States don’t have a foot to stand on if the government decides that martial law is needed to govern its people. The laws are already in place. It just needs that inky signature on the dotted line to enforce.

The John W. Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2006 was signed, sealed and delivered on October 17, 2006 by George Bush. It looks good. If you read the lines it appears that the powers that be will be ready and able to move in and “protect” its people in case of a natural emergency like Hurricane Katrina. Just don’t read it closely and you won’t have anything to fear.

“But on closer inspection, its language also alters the two-centuries-old Insurrection Act, which Congress passed in 1807 to limit the president’s power to deploy troops within the United States … ‘to suppress, in a State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy’,” Stein wrote.

“But the amended law takes the cuffs off” and “critics say it’s a formula for executive branch mischief,” Jeff Stein, CQ National Security Editor wrote, as “the new language adds ‘natural disaster, epidemic, or other serious public health emergency, terrorist attack or incident’ to the list of conditions permitting the President to take over local authority — particularly ‘if domestic violence has occurred to such an extent that the constituted authorities of the State or possession are incapable of maintaining public order.’”

That’s right Congress has set up the government to put martial law into place when it deems it is needed. Wait, take that back a step. When the President deems it is needed. One man.

How’s it feel to know just where that line in the sand is drawn?

The United States has never been as close to complete chaos as it is today. Okay, if you go back a hundred years and more there was that little incident of civil war. Brothers killing brothers and so on. But in “modern” time this is a new one. It’s also been done right under the nose of your average Joe. Nifty, huh?

Let’s not just put this at the feet of Bush though. Jimmy Carter had a little piece of the action way back in 1976.

“FEMA’s powers were consolidated by President Jimmy Carter to incorporate: The National Security Act of 1947, which allows for the strategic relocation of industries, services, government and other essential economic activities, and to rationalize the requirements for manpower, resources and production facilities; The 1950 Defense Production Act, which gives the President sweeping powers over all aspects of the economy; The Act of August 29, 1916, which authorizes the Secretary of the Army, in time of war, to take possession of any transportation system for transporting troops, material, or any other purpose related to the emergency; and The International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which enables the President to seize the property of a foreign country or national. These powers were transferred to FEMA in a sweeping consolidation in 1979.”

That little rule means if the Prez says state of emergency Congress has to respect that order for SIX months. A lot can happen in six months. Detention Camps anyone?

So what could happen? The list is scary. You’ve been warned.

EO 10990: “allows the government to take over all modes of transportation and control of highways and seaports.”

Ready for checkpoints everywhere? Having to have a special pass to travel on the road?

Federal seizure of all communications media in the US.

CNN, FOX,NBC,ABC,CBS are all locked lipped. They have to have permission as to what the American people are allowed to hear. Outside sources are intercepted. CBC and BBC are outlawed. Journalists risk detention if they do not go through the proper channels.

Federal seizure of all electric power, fuels, minerals, public and private.

You are rationed your fuel. The government owns it all.

Federal seizure of all food supplies and resources, public and private and all farms and equipment.

Your local farmer is not going to be impressed by this one.

Federal seizure of all means of transportation, including cars, trucks, or vehicles of any kind and total control over all highways, seaports and water ways.

Read this one carefully. Yes that means the car you worked so hard for can be seized for no reason other than the government decrees it.

Federal seizure of American people for work forces under federal supervision, including the splitting up of families if the government so desires.

Think this won’t happen? Hear of a little place in Eldorado, Texas? How easy was it for the government to enter and remove 450 or so children?

Federal seizure of all health, education and welfare facilities, both public and private.

Does this mean the citizens of the United States would finally have universal health care coverage? I don’t think so.

Empowers the Postmaster General to register every single person in the US.

The local post office is going to have it’s hands full. Thought postmen were a little uppity before? You haven’t seen anything yet.

Federal seizure of all airports and aircraft.

Well the airlines are all shutting down anyway……..

Federal seizure of all housing and finances and authority to establish forced relocation. Authority to designate areas to be abandoned as ‘unsafe,’ establish new locations for populations, relocate communities, build new housing with public funds.

Hey isn’t that part of what those blasted Red Coats did during the American Revolution? Hmm, history does repeat itself.

Seizure of all railroads, inland waterways and storage facilities, both public and private.

What better way to move people like cattle from point A to point B.

Provides FEMA complete authorization to put above orders into effect in times of increased international tension of economic or financial crisis (FEMA will be in control in case of ‘National Emergency’).

Umm….FEMA? Oh now we can all feel safe. Trailer parks that give cancer is a little trick of this agency. Ready for them to be full scale and serving you?

“Apparently Allows Cabinet Heads to Make Direct Loans to Government Contractors.”

Good to know that Halliburton will still be going strong.

So where is that line in the sand? It could just be getting a little worn down if the government thinks it needs to.

Left Behind, The Service That Delivers

If you believe that you’ll have loved ones remaining on Earth after the rapture there is a service that allows for you to send them a message from the great beyond.

Left Behind is a company that stores electronic documents for delivery for those who weren’t saved during the Rapture. The company contends that your words may be needed to save their souls .

We have set up a system to send documents by the email, to the addresses you provide, 6 days after the “Rapture” of the Church. This occurs when 3 of our 5 team members scattered around the U.S fail to log in over a 3 day period. Another 3 days are given to fail safe any false triggering of the system.

There is a portion of accounts that allows for those who are taken away to leave their banking, brokerage, hidden valuables and powers of attorneys. Because it is said that all bodies will simply vanish it would take 7 years for Probate Courts to clear your assets. According to theology after the Rapture there would only be seven years left on Earth.

If you think this site is a great idea stop and consider that all of your personal info is stored there. It’s a perfect way for a hacker or an unscrupulous person to have a field day.

Welcome To Martial Law: Checkpoints Coming This Weekend To Washington D.C.

On the news we see checkpoints in war zones but who would have thought an area in the United States would require ID to enter. Starting this weekend checkpoints will be in place in high-crime areas of Washington D.C.

The new directive has a name of course; “Neighborhood Safety Zones.” This initiative will allow for D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier to set up a checkpoint in any area of the city that has had an outbreak of violence.

When an area has been designated signs and checkpoints will be erected. The neighborhood will then be notified. To enter the area a car will be stopped and everyone inside of it will have to produce identification and explain what their motives are for entering said area.

Those who are on foot will not have to go through the checkpoints.

The checkpoints will be manned 24/7 for a maximum of 10 days after they have been approved by Lanier. The checkpoints will be on major roads and operate at random hours while they have been designated.

“We’re not going to be predictable,” says Lanier.

First up for this policy will be Trinidad in Northeast, D.C. near Florida Avenue.

According to Interim D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles this policy is fully constitutional.

Last weekend eight people were killed in a spree of violence in the nation’s capital. That brings up the death count by homicide to 73 for D.C. Most of the killings happened in the 5th Police District in Northeast.

“Welcome to Baghdad, D.C.,” says Art Spitzer with the ACLU. “In this country, you don’t need identification papers and to give an explanation for why you want to go from one neighborhood to another.”

Researchers From Northeastern Ignore Privacy Issues To Conduct Cell Phone Study

Researchers in the United States secretly tracked the locations of 100,000 people by their cell phones outside of the country. They were able to conclude that most people stayed within miles of their home. But did their study skirt ethical boundaries?

The study by Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts has raised both privacy and ethical questions by using monitoring methods that are illegal in the United States.

The researchers are not disclosing which nation that they tracked cell phone calls and text messages for a period of six months.

A second phase of the study used 206 cell phones that had tracking devices. Those tracking devices sent information to the researchers every two hours for a week’s time period.

The university used phone records from an undisclosed private company.

Co-author of the study Cesar Hidalgo says that the research team did not know who the individuals were in the study. The physics researcher said that numbers were disguised into “ugly” 26-digit-and-letter codes.

The research would have been illegal in the United States because of privacy laws according to Rob Kenny of the Federal Communications Commission. While consensual tracking is legal and offered as a special feature by some United States cell companies non consensual tracking without a warrant is illegal.

The study was published on Thursday by the journal Nature. It draws attention to the emerging issue of locational privacy.

“This is a new step for science,” said study co-author Albert-Lazlo Barabasi, director of Northeastern’s Center for Complex Network Research. “For the first time we have a chance to really objectively follow certain aspects of human behavior.”

Barabasi said that he struggled with the issue of privacy during half of his time working on the research. They had a total of 6 million phone numbers that they narrowed down to 100,000 at random to add an extra layer of anonymity for the research subjects. According to the researchers they were not able to say where the subjects they were studying were precisely. That said, they were able to know their location within a matter of blocks or miles from the cell phone tower that was relaying the calls.

Barabasi said that the researchers did not bother to check with any ethics panels while they were doing their research. The belief that because they were conducting physics not biological research made that requirement not needed in their ideals. They may have not been allowed to conduct their study had they gone to the ethics panel believes Arthur Caplan a bio-ethicist at the University of Pennsylvania.

“There is plenty going on here that sets off ethical alarm bells about privacy and trustworthiness,” Caplan said.

Studies done on normal behavior at public places is “fair game for researchers” as long as no one can figure out identities, Caplan said in an e-mail.

“So if I fight at a soccer match or walk through 30th Street train station in Philly, I can be studied,” Caplan wrote. “But my cell phone is not public. My cell phone is personal. Tracking it and thus its owner is an active intrusion into personal privacy.”

While Hidalgo admits that in the wrong hands this type of information could be misused he insists that in the hands of scientists it can be used for good.

We’re not trying to do evil things. We’re trying to make the world a little better.”

Knowing people’s travel patterns can help design better transportation systems and give doctors guidance in fighting the spread of contagious diseases, he said.

For at least six months of the year most who use a cell phone remain within a 20 mile radius of their homes. It also revealed that less than 1 percent of the population studied went beyond a 621-mile radius from their homes.

What do you think? If the research obtained was from the cell phone company that you use would you be outraged? Do you think that the researchers have used the shield of research as a way to skirt the laws that are used to protect the citizens from privacy crimes?

Another Day, Another Airline Posts Cuts, This Time It’s Continental

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Continental Airlines has announced that it will be slashing 3,000 jobs and reducing its capacity by 11 percent in the latest of the mega airlines that not streamlining their fleets.

The company now employs 45,000 people. The layoffs will affect 6.5 of its workforce.

The Houston based company will begin pulling back on flights in September.

The company cites fuel costs have brought forth this crisis within the company.

The shares for rose 68 cents this morning in the first minutes of trading. It is up to $15.18 per share.

Chairman and Chief Executive Lawrence Kellner and President Jeff Smisek will not be seeing a raise this year. Kellner’s salary for 2007 was listed at $712,500 with a total compensation package valued at nearly $6 million. That is a decrease in salary of 9.3 percent from 2006. The company files have listed the 2008 salary for Kellner will be $296,875 and $240,000 for Smisek.

Because of high fuel costs Continental has taken a loss of $80 million in the first quarter of 2008. The company is putting 67 of its planes out to pasture. That will give it a working fleet of 375 aircraft.

In a memo to employees, Kellner and Smisek said at current fuel prices Continental is losing money on “a large number of our flights.” As fares rise, fewer customers will fly, and “we will need fewer employees to operate the airline,” they wrote.

Because of the fuel cost increases ticket prices can be expected to soar.

In April Continental walked away from talks with United that would have created the world’s largest airline.

Jan Morris And Elizabeth Tuckniss, A Love Story

In 1949 James Humphrey Morris married Elizabeth Tuckniss. They had five children together and then James became Jan Morris. Because of that the couple had to divorce but the story doesn’t end here.

The couple have never separated other than signing on the dotted line when it came to legal matters for their divorce. They continued to lived together for the past almost sixty years.

81-year-old Morris, the first reporter to report the conquest of Everest has made an honest woman of her/his ex-wife. The two have joined together in a civil union last week. She made the announcement on BBC Radio 4’s Bookclub.

She said: ‘I haven’t told this to anybody before.

‘I’ve lived with the same person for 58 years. I married her when I was young and then this sex-change thing – so-called – happened and so we naturally had to divorce but we’ve always lived together anyway.

‘So I wanted to round this off nicely so last week Elizabeth and I went to have a civil union.’

After Oxford grad Morris had completed his military service as an intelligence officer in Italy and Palestine
he took an Arabic course in London. There he met pretty Elizabeth Tuckniss. The couple married and quickly had five kids in the 50s and 60s. Their daughter Virginia died at the age of two months.

Elizabeth realized even before James that a sex change operation was in the works. The surgery that changed her husband from a man to a woman took place in Morocco in 1972 after years of hormone treatments.

Because of the law the couple had to become divorced. They continued to live together in the Wales village of Llanystumdwy in a converted stable. Morris called Elizabeth his “sister in law.”

Elizabeth never stopped loving James or Jan.

Elizabeth said yesterday: ‘I made my marriage vows 59 years ago and still have them.

‘We are back together again officially. After Jan had a sex change we had to divorce.

‘So there we were. It did not make any difference to me. We still had our family. We just carried on.’

The ceremony was held on May 14 at council offices in Pwlheli, Wales.

The couple plans to be joined forever, even in death. They have already planned to be buried on a small island on the River Dwyfor. Their planned headstone says it all:

‘Here are two friends, at the end of one life.’

Scientific Research Has Suffered During The Bush Years

The medical research world will not be missing President George Bush when he exits the office at the beginning of next year. Once a world leader for the funding of medical research and regulation that field has seen a decline during the Iraq War effort.

“I think there’s a loss of American power and prestige that came about as a result of our anti-science policies,” said biologist David Baltimore, a Nobel laureate and the chairman of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Last week a panel discussion at the first World Science Foundation in New York told the stakes for United States in the field of medical research. The past five years has seen the level of funding freeze up to a point that if you calculated the population that relies on that research in a dollar sense funding is down to less than 10 bucks a head. The scientists are worried that the candidates have yet to add campaign promises for the science community after an era were funding has been decreased.

Last spring the American Association for the Advancement of Science concluded that five years of budgets that were reduced has pushed the United States further behind in biomedical research. Last week the Senate voted to add $400 billion for research to the 2009 budget presented by President Bush. That is $200 less than was budgeted for 2007 or 2008. Still that is better than what Bush had wanted to spend. That figure was zero.

Reduced funding has a huge cost in the long run.

The report, issued by the agency’s Subcommittee on Science and Technology in January, said that the F.D.A. “cannot fulfill its mission” in part “because its scientific workforce does not have sufficient capacity and capability.”

The lack of funding for the national agency that regulates virtually all of the food and medicines the American public consumes has a budget that broken down equals to about $7.50 per citizen.

The budget of $2.4 billion budget does not even cover the salary increases for the department. Part of that budget includes the user fees that are paid by drug companies asking for FDA approval of new drugs.

Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach had to ask Congress for a raise to his budget of $275 million over what Bush asked for. Von Eschenbach may be Bush’s political appointee but that hasn’t helped when it comes time for funding.

Earlier, von Eschenbach faced a maelstrom of criticism of the administration’s meager budget increase. He sent the request and detailed plan for spending it to Senator Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican who had asked von Eschenbach provide him with this information “to protect the public health.”

According to The New York Times, Specter added in a handwritten note in the letter’s margins: “Andy, I know the situation is extreme. I want to get you financial help now.”

The next person residing in the White House will have the task of rebuilding the United States scientific community. Without the funding breakthroughs can not take place that will benefit its citizens and the world at large.

In The End How High Will The Final Cost Of The FLDS Be?

The Department of Family and Protective Services removed the children on April 3 from the ranch owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It was believed that rampant sexual and physical abuses were ongoing.

The claim and fear has proven not to be the case. At least on a mass order. By not taking only children that the state could prove were being abused Texas violated their power and voided a possible chance to stop child abuse for the children that may have been in danger.

The state is now having to pay for the DNA testing of each of the children they detained from the ranch along with other costs. The state spent over $5.2 million dollars for the basic care and counseling to the children of the sect while they have been in state custody. Much of those costs were from transportation and employee overtime hours.

The legal fees have cost the state $2.2 million dollars. Most of those fees will have to be picked up by Tom Green County where the district court hearings took place and Schleicher County where the ranch is located.

Neither of those counties have the funds in which to pay those court costs.

Neither county, Woodward said, has the money to cover the legal costs. “We’re at a point now where we’re going to start limping along pretty badly,” he said.

There were 599 DNA tests that have not finished being processed. The results will be ready on Tuesday.

The final costs though may loom much higher than the estimated figures at the present time. It is safe to say that those at the ranch will not be required to foot any of the financial costs of taking care of the children while they were in state custody.

“I said from the word go, if there’s sex with underage girls, nail their butt,” Curtis Griffin, owner of the local fuel depot, told the Los Angeles Times. “But nail the right people. We’re going to wind up with a $30 million bill here in this little county because these people didn’t have their ducks in a row.”

The one cost factor that hasn’t been added into account is the lawsuits that the ranch could be drawing up. By the mass exodus removal of their children they have a heck of a case. Is it possible Texas could be heading to bankruptcy court soon?

Lawsuit Tossed Out Against Fox News

A lawsuit brought forth by a school official against Fox news has been tossed out of court. School superintendent Leon Levesque sued the news giant for reporting a spoof of an incident at his middle school in Lewiston, Maine.

The case stems from a 2007 “prank” where a middle school student tossed a slab of left over Easter ham onto a table with Somali Muslim youngsters at a Lewiston, Maine middle school. The student was fully aware that ham is considered to be unclean and offensive to Muslims.

A few days later a parody story spoofing the lunchroom controversy was posted online with made up quotes attributed to Superintendent Leon Levesque. The jesting quotes included “ham is not a toy” and “anti-ham response plan.” The story was written by freelance journalist Nicholas Plagman who falsely listed the Associated Press as the source of his information.

The spoof was reported as fact on “Fox and Friends” on April 23, 2007. Levesque contacted Fox and the network aired a retraction.

Among other things, the anchors had quoted Levesque as saying, “All our students should feel welcome in our schools, knowing that they are safe from attacks with ham, bacon, pork chops or any other delicious meat that comes from pigs.”

The anchors also told viewers several times, “We are not making this up.”

The slander suit that Levesque had asked for $75,000 in damages. He claimed that he endured days of phone calls and hate mail with threatening calls to his home.

While Fox News was unprofessional about reporting the incident and not checking out the story for accuracy they did not do so in an act of malice according to U.S. District Judge D. Brock Hornby, who sits in Portland.

The Fox co-hosts “were certainly gullible,” Hornby wrote, adding that portions of the fake story were “so absurd that they should have raised the defendants’ truth-seeking antennae and caused them to question the accuracy of the article.”

But failure to investigate before publishing, “even when a reasonably prudent person would have done so, is not sufficient to establish reckless disregard,” the judge concluded. “The First Amendment protects journalists even when they are gullible.”

Op-Ed: The Menu At U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization’s Summit Tastes Divine

As world leaders discuss what can be done about the global food crisis they gorge themselves on the best that Rome has to offer. While people across the globe can only hope for a cup of rice they are indulging on puff pastries with mozzarella and shrimp.

Something seems wrong when those in charge of sorting out how the world will feed its people use their time to sample some of the world’s finest fare and drinking it down with a fine wine from Orvieto.

“Leaders can eat what they want as long as they take decisive action to deliver the policies and the aid in agriculture that is needed to ensure that poor people who are suffering from high food prices are helped,” said Alexander Woollcombe, a spokesman for the British aid group Oxfam.

But will they? Could the gluttonny of food before them blind them to the real needs of those that they are serving?

[center]Menu
Tuesday:

• Vol-au-vent (pastry puffs) with corn and mozzarella

• Pasta with a sauce of pumpkin and shrimp in cream

• Veal rolls with cherry tomatoes and basil

• Spinach Roman-style

• Fruit salad with vanilla ice cream

• White wine from Orvieto

Wednesday:

• Cheese mousse

• Pasta with vegetables and cherry tomatoes

• Chopped beef

• Butter beans

• Pineapple with ice cream

• Cabernet

Thursday:

• Zucchini pie

• Parmesan Risotto

• Ragout of veal with legumes

• Sauteed potatoes

• Lemon mousse with raspberry sauce.

• Pinot Grigio[/center]

The foreign minister addressed a nearly deserted conference hall about the severe famine in his homeland of Bangladesh. Most though were attending a cocktail party and nibbling the hors devours.

Perhaps to have the crisis that many in the world are living with day to day these leaders are fed on the daily fare of those who are surviving most.

Do you think they would stand for a cup of dirt and muddied rice?

Do you think within weeks the prices that have been driven sky high would start to drop as a bitter taste of hungry reality sat in? Or do you think they would nod to each other politely before retiring to their rooms and ordering enough room service to break their countries banks to fill up?

Pig Nailed To Door Latest In Racist Attacks For Asian Community Centre

A former Methodist chapel in Quenchwell in Cornwall, England is the scene of a racist attack. The building is now an Asian community centre. A pigs head was nailed to the door in the latest in a string of attacks over the last two weeks.

The pig’s follows graffiti instructing Leave Now that started two weeks ago. The owner Tipu Choudhury, a Muslim, says he is saddened and shocked by the attacks. He had hoped that the centre would not just be about religion but also enable people to celebrate their faith and culture.

“I think they have misunderstood the intentions behind the centre,” he said, adding that it would not be a mosque.

The centre’s group is made up of Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and Christians. The plans for the centre will continue but it is being reassessed on a daily basis.

Insp Mark Richards of Devon and Cornwall Police said: “The graffiti is offensive not only to Asians, Asian religions, but also to Christians and Cornish nationalists whose name is taken in vain.

“It is totally out of order.”

Pole Dancer Entertains Passengers In Bucharest

Police are looking for an exotic dancer who does her performing while riding the subway in Bucharest, Romania. She has been photographed by passengers as she uses the trains poles to dance.

The young woman is said to be a “well-dressed, attractive, student-like young woman”.

Her MO is to dance to the tune of Tom Jones’ ‘You Can Leave Your Hat On’ playing on a portable CD player.

When she finishes her dance she puts her clothing back on and passes around a container for tips if the other passengers want to reward her dancing.

One passenger, George Stancu, who witnessed the act, said: “I can’t say I didn’t like the show but I found it unusual. There are lots of kids who travel by underground and I just don’t think it’s proper.”

There is no word on whether George put a token of appreciation in her tin though.

If the lady in nothing is caught she will face charges of indecent exposure and public begging.

The police say she’s a hard one to get though as she only performs when the police, guards or CCTV cameras are not available on the subway trains.

Canadian House Says Let The US Deserters Stay

The three opposition parties which hold a majority in the House have backed a motion that would allow for those who are conscientious objectors of the war in Iraq to stay in Canada.

During the Vietnam War draft dodgers fled to Canada in droves. This time around there have been an estimated 175 to 200 Americans who are resisting the Iraq conflict who have crossed the border to Canada to escape fighting in a war that is not sanctioned by the United Nations.

“I think Canada has always been a place which has welcomed those who seek peace and seek freedom,” Bob Rae, foreign affairs spokesman for the main opposition Liberal Party, told reporters outside the Commons after the vote.

The minority Conservative government though opposes the idea of allowing those who are in the United States military from escaping service by crossing the border.

People do not join with their eyes closed. If they do, then they have their own problems,” Conservative Member of Parliament Laurie Hawn, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Canadian Air Force, said during debate on the motion.

The Conservatives contend that because today’s military in the United States is made up of volunteers that the policies from the Vietnam Era do not apply. They also state that Washington D.C. allows for people to apply for conscientious objector status.

Still the House voted Tuesday in a nonbinding motion to allow for those soldiers to stay in Canada. The Supreme Court of Canada refused last November to hear appeals of two U.S. deserters. There is no telling what future will hold for those in question.

The Zac Browser Helps Some Autistic Kids Use The Web

John LeSieur has created a new Web Browser for autistic kids so his grandson could enjoy the Internet. The Zac Browser For Autistic Children is free and named after the child it was designed for, his grandson Zackary.

The browser was written after LeSieur scoured the web searching for something that didn’t frustrate Zackary. Too many options made the computer a hardship for Zak when he went on. LeSieur looked for a simple browser that could guide Zak’s trips online but discovered that there wasn’t anything that streamlined things for someone with autism.

While the Internet can open up worlds for those with disabilities it can also be a headache for them without the proper navigation tools.

The Zac browser helps by simplifying the experience of the computer. Most sites are sealed off blocking violent, sexual or otherwise adult-themed material. The browser then presents a small selection of free, public Internet sites that have an emphasis on educational games, music, videos and visually entertaining images. There are other programs that give children the “walled garden” approach to Web surfing but the Zac Browser goes a step further by reducing the controls for kids like Zackary who find too many choices confusing.

Vote it up! http://www.zacbrowser.com/ (All Rights Reserved)

The right button on the mouse is disabled and “Print Screen” is gone from the menu. Commands that most children have no need for are also eliminated. What it does do is make the Internet a fun place with just a few choices and gives more confidence in the experience to an autistic child.

The browser has large icons with simple designs like a soccer ball for games that guide a child. There are no advertisements or flashing distractions to confuse the experience.

“We’re trying to avoid aggressive or very dark or complicated Web sites, because it’s all about self-esteem,” LeSieur said from Las Vegas, where he lives. “If they’re not under control, they will get easily frustrated.”

The child’s mother Emmanuelle Villeneuve says that her son can now start the browser himself enjoying music and tries out puzzles. While he acts out aggressively against the television he doesn’t try to harm the computer.

The Zac Browser is on the small software company that LeSieur runs, People CD Inc. It was not made with consultation of experts in the disorders on the autism spectrum, rather simply for the needs of Zackary. Early reports have been positive and LeSieur intends to tweak the program so parents can suggest new contend to add.

Several experts on autism were not surprised to hear of Zackary’s problems before his own browser was made. Creating a browser that works for an autistic child that works for another is a tall order, what helps one person with the disorder might be the opposite of what another person with the condition needs.

“Some parts of the Web have so much extraneous material that it can be distracting, and for the nonverbal child, there might not be an ability to negotiate that information,” added Stephen Sheinkopf, an autism researcher at Brown University.

Still the Zac Browser is a step in the right direction with a price tag that doesn’t hurt to try it out. Many assistive programs cost as much as $5,000 and require specialized devices to use. The Zac Browser does what it does for free and increases the chance that a child’s ability will allow for a bit of independence on the Web.

Madame Tussauds Will Include Hitler At Berlin Museum

The mayor of Berlin Klaus Wowereit had asked Mamade Tussauds to reconsider a planned Hitler display in its new Berlin museum. The museum is standing firm saying that leaving Hitler out would not make sense when it comes to his role in German history.

The museum has issued a statement about Hitler’s rule in Germany:

“stands for an important, though also appalling, turning point in the development of modern Europe.”

“To ignore Hitler’s role in this era would allow a strange gap to develop in the German and Berlin history that we show from (19th century chancellor Otto von) Bismarck to the present day,” the museum added, stressing that Madame Tussauds is “nonpolitical.”

Opening July 9,2008 Madame Tussauds Berlin will feature prominent Germans including Hitler and Albert Einstein who fled Germany before Hitler took power in 1933.

The Hitler display will present the ruler as he looked shortly before his 1945 suicide. He will not be glorified in the display and will remain behind glass to prevent visitors have having a picture taken with the Nazi leader.

Stephan Kramer, general secretary of Germany’s Central Council of Jews said that the figure of Hitler must have information on the man and the Nazi era with it. He hopes that the exhibit will help “demystify” the man.

“Trying to erase Hitler from history doesn’t work and is counterproductive,” he said.

It’s Pays To Be A Simpson

The actors who make up the cast of the cartoon show The Simpsons will have a little extra in their pay cheque next season. The stars have been given a rise to $400,000 an episode.

The voice actors and 20th Century Fox TV had been in talks over salaries. Those talks have delayed production so much that instead of 22 shows this coming season only 20 will be made.

The Simpsons is the longest running show on prime time. The will be the 20th season for the show that highlights Homer Simpson and his family. Castellaneta, who is the voice of Homer has also been named a consulting producer on the show. He will also be one of the writers this coming season.

Men In the Neolithic Age Fought For Women

The scent of a woman. It can cause men to tremble in their shoes or fight to the death to make sure she is theirs. Since the Neolithic age men have fought over the prettier sex to make sure they have the partner they want.

Archaeologists have thought for years that women may have been the motivator for violence and blood feuds but until recently they didn’t have the proof that a little lady walking around could make cavemen, well cavemen.

A new method of research though has shown that some 7,000 years ago male tribe members were killing other tribes for the women in them. Mass grave sites were often the result.

A study featured in the journal Antiquity by Durham University focused on 34 skeletons found buried in Talheim in Germany.

By using Geographic “signatures”, chemically derived from the skeletons’ teeth researchers were able to tell that rival tribes in approximately 5000 BC were fighting for the ladies. The mass grave held everyone in the community except for adult women. That fact leads researchers to believe that they were spared death and taken to another village.

“It seems this community was specifically targeted, as could happen in a cycle of revenge between rival groups. Although resources and population were undoubtedly factors in central Europe around that time, women appear to be the immediate reason for the attack.

“Our analysis points to the local women being regarded as somehow special and were therefore kept alive.”

What’s more those who were killed for the prized females did not always die in battle. Their skeletons show that they were bound and killed by a blow to the left side of the head. Others were slaughtered by arrows as they attempted to run away.

Bunk Beds Can Have More Dangers Than Just Your Standard Bed Bug

Bunk beds house many children throughout the night, but how safe are they? In the United States about 36,000 kids a year injured in accidents on bunk beds that end up in the emergency room.

Bunk bed injuries from 1990 to 2005 saw almost 573,000 kids visit an emergency room according to the Center for Injury Research and Policy of the Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. Those in the study were between infants and up to age 21.

It seems the safest years for bunk bed living are between the ages of 14 to 17. Almost half of the injuries happened to the under 6 crowd and surprisingly the college years are almost as dangerous.

The most common injury when it comes to bunk beds are serious cuts resulting from falling off of the beds. Concussions happen 10 percent of the time and broken bones are set at 20 percent.

The part of the body that is injured most often is the neck and face. Allowing children under the age of 3 on the top bunk gives them an increased risk of head injuries because they have a higher center of gravity. When they fall they tend to fall head first.

When it comes to which gender is most often hurt it isn’t surprising that boys take the lead.

The study understands that their figures are low. Many of those injured visit private practice doctors instead of the emergency room.

The study recommends that children under the age of six shouldn’t sleep in bunk beds. Kids entering college should have the sturdiness of their bed checked out and be reminded that the beds are not an area for ‘extreme sports.”

— Don’t let children younger than 6 sleep in the top bunk.
— Make sure there are guardrails on both sides of the upper bunk, even if one side is against a wall.
— Make sure that gaps in the guardrails are no bigger than 3.5 inches to prevent entrapment and strangulation.
— Use the proper size of mattress in the bunk bed.
— Don’t place the bunk too close to ceiling fans or furniture such as dressers.
— Make sure bunk beds and ladders are sturdy and secure.
— Don’t let kids play on the bunk beds.
— Make sure bunk bedposts don’t have knobs or finials that can catch clothing and other objects.
— Use night lights to help children find ladders in the dark.

Source: Consumer Products Safety Commission, ASTM

Sheela Basrur, Chief Medical Officer During SARS Ourbreak In Toronto, Dead At 51

Ontario’s chief medical officer during the SARS epidemic in 2003, Sheela Basrur died on Monday at the age of 51 from a rare form of cancer. She was a general practitioner in Guelph, Ontario.

“We have ultimately, entirely and only ourselves the ability to choose where we want to shine our light. I choose to shine mine on those that are the gifts and the joys and the rose petals in my life, and when I do that, I see gifts in abundance.” – Basrur, describing the awareness she’d gained through battling her cancer.

Sheela Basrur stepped down from her position of chief medical officer in December 2006 when she was diagnosed with leiomyosarcoma.

Sheela Basrur was born into a house of doctors. Her mother was a professor at the Ontario Veterinary College at the University of Guelf and her father was a radiation oncologist at the same Kitchener, Ontario hospital that Basrur died at. She attended the University of Western Ontario and the University of Toronto where she earned her Masters in health sciences.

Basrur was divorced with a seventeen-year-old daughter, Simone Koves.

She was well enough to attend a ceremony in April where a new Ontario arms-length public health agency was named in her honour, the Sheela Basrur Centre.

“She was one of those people who can take the information and understand the implications of it and be able to convey that to people in a way that they understand,” said Dr. Bonnie Henry, a friend who also served as an associate medical officer of health in Toronto during Basrur’s tenure as medical officer of health for the city.

“To me, her greatest skill was being a passionate and very good communicator with people.”

Basrur was instrumental along with George Smitherman in the Smoke Free Ontario Act. The Act banned smoking in enclosed work places and public spaces across Ontario.

Her composure during the SARS crisis in Toronto earned her the respect of many.

“Her unique ability to distill complex medical issues at a time of distress brought much needed reassurance to the Canadian and international communities,” Federal Health Minister Tony Clement – who was the provincial health minister at the time – said in a statement.

Kelsey Grammer Had Mild Heart Attack This Weekend

Kelsey Grammer is recovering in hospital from a mild heart attack. The “Frasier” star was paddle-boarding in Hawaii when he felt symptoms.

Grammer and his wife Camille live in Kona when he is not in production. The couple were paddle-boarding just before he went to a Hawaii hospital.

The 53-year-old actor is expected to be released from hospital early this week.

This is the first sign of heart trouble for Grammer.

Girl Dead After Being Stabbed Ten Times In London

A young teenager is dead after being stabbed at least 10 times in her front, back and neck as she walked home from school today. The young girl was dead by the time London paramedics reached her.

Left to die alone she was discovered by a woman and her eight-year-old as they returned to their flat near Waterloo Station at 3:45 PM The girl was on the lift for the apartment building.

The girl still had the knife embedded in her body when the door to the elevator opened.

Knife crime is becoming an epidemic among youth in England. The girl in the lift is the 16th teen to have been murdered this year in London alone. She is the first female. Last year 27 teens died as a result of murder in London.

The girl has been described as well behaved and polite. An arrest has already been made in her death, a man in his 30s on Hungerford Bridge who knew the girl. He is being held in London. The murder is not thought to be gang related.

A spokesman from London Ambulance Service said: ‘We sent a fast response car, an ambulance, the air ambulance and an officer to the scene, the first of which arrived in under four minutes.

‘Sadly, despite extensive efforts to resuscitate the patient, she was pronounced dead at the scene.’

The Metropolitan Police said last night that the murder was not believed to be gang-related.

A spokesman said: ‘Officers from the Homicide and Serious Crime Command are investigating.

Bo Diddley Dead at 79

He was there from the beginning, a founding father of the world of rock and roll. Bo Diddley passed away on Monday at the age of 79 in Archer, Florida.

Diddley had been ill for months. His heart failed on Monday ending a lifetime of rock and roll.. In August he suffered a stroke while on tour. The stroke affected his abilitiy to speak.

Diddley toured with his homemade square guitar almost until he died. His legenacy included being a member of the Rock and Rock Hall of Fame, a lifetime achievement award at the Grammy’s and a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. He entertained presidents from both George Bushs and Bill Clinton.

“I don’t know where the kids got it, but the kids in grammar school gave me that name,” he said, adding that he liked it so it became his stage name. Other times, he gave somewhat differing stories on where he got the name. Some experts believe a possible source for the name is a one-string instrument used in traditional blues music called a diddley bow.

His first single was titled “Bo Diddley” in 1955. His earliest records were on the Chess-Checkers label who also recorded Chuck Berry.

He had many hits including “Say Man,” “You Can’t Judge a Book by Its Cover,” “Shave and a Haircut,” “Uncle John,” “Who Do You Love?” and “The Mule.”

His style on the electric guitar has been copied by Bruce Springsteen and Elvis Costello. Diddley even rigged some of his instruments himself to get the extra sounds he wanted.

“I don’t like to copy anybody. Everybody tries to do what I do, update it,” he said. “I don’t have any idols I copied after.”

“They copied everything I did, upgraded it, messed it up. It seems to me that nobody can come up with their own thing, they have to put a little bit of Bo Diddley there,” he said.

Diddley never made a fortune as a rock star. He claimed that he only made a small portion of money for all of his success. The need to make a living was part of the reason that he continued to tour until he no longer could due to the stroke.

“Seventy ain’t nothing but a damn number,” he told The Associated Press in 1999. “I’m writing and creating new stuff and putting together new different things. Trying to stay out there and roll with the punches. I ain’t quit yet.”

United States Has Floating Prisons, Alleges Human Rights Group

The U.S. is housing prisoners of the “war on terror” on “floating prisons,” according to human rights lawyers. This allegation puts a further dent in the relationship between the UK and the U.S.

They claim that the U.S. is still attempting to conceal the number and whereabouts of those they have detained even after George Bush has stated that practice has stopped.

As the debate on both sides of the Atlantic intensifies over secret detention centres it has been revealed that the U.S. is up to their old tricks by hiding away detainees on board prison ships according to the human rights group Reprieve.

Sources have confirmed details about these floating vessels that house detainees. Some of the sources include US military, the Council of Europe and related parliamentary bodies, and the testimonies of prisoners. Yesterday the U.S. government was urged to list all of those that they have in detention.

According to Reprieve there have been more than 200 new cases of rendition since 2006. That is after George Bush announced that the practice of detaining prisoners secretly had been stopped.

The group contends that the U.S. has used up to 17 ships as floating prisons since 2001. It is being alleged that the detainees are interrogated on board of these ships and then sent elsewhere to undisclosed locations.

Both the USS Bataan and USS Peleliu have been reported to have been used in this practice. Another 15 ships operating around Diego Garcia, a British territory have also been used according to reports.

It is believed that these ships are being used routinely by the CIA and FBI for interrogations. More than 100 people have “disappeared: to secret prison locations in areas such as Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Guantánamo Bay.

Reprieve’s study includes one account of a former Guantanamo Bay detainee who at one time was held aboard one of the ships in question.

“One of my fellow prisoners in Guantánamo was at sea on an American ship with about 50 others before coming to Guantánamo … he was in the cage next to me. He told me that there were about 50 other people on the ship. They were all closed off in the bottom of the ship. The prisoner commented to me that it was like something you see on TV. The people held on the ship were beaten even more severely than in Guantánamo.”

Clive Stafford Smith is the legal director of Reprieve. He claims that the ships are used as to keep the media at bay about the misconduct of these detentions.

“By its own admission, the US government is currently detaining at least 26,000 people without trial in secret prisons, and information suggests up to 80,000 have been ‘through the system’ since 2001. The US government must show a commitment to rights and basic humanity by immediately revealing who these people are, where they are, and what has been done to them.”

The British government is interested in this information because it is being alleged that their military spaces were used in some of the detentions.

The Liberal Democrat’s foreign affairs spokesman, Edward Davey, said: “If the Bush administration is using British territories to aid and abet illegal state abduction, it would amount to a huge breach of trust with the British government. Ministers must make absolutely clear that they would not support such illegal activity, either directly or indirectly.”

According to Commander Jeffrey Gordon, a US navy spokesman, there are no detention centres on naval ships. He did admit though some prisoners have been on board for a “few” days at the beginning of their detentions.

Malaysian Health Minister Tells Women to Carry a Condom

The health minister in Malaysia is urging women to carry condoms to protect them from HIV. Saturday was the first AIDS Memorial Day that was out in the open in the mostly Muslim country. In the past the memorial was behind closed doors.

Abdul Latiff’s comments coincided with the Memorial Last year 745 Malaysian women were diagnosed as being HIV-positive and 193 women were diagnosed as having AIDS.

Malaysia has almost 81,000 people infected with HIV. 10 percent of those are women, but that number has risen.

Those in the sex trade represent most of the women who have HIV but many are also housewives who have gotten the virus from their husbands.

“This is not to debase them but to protect them. Women are the first ones to get exploited by their (HIV-positive) partners,” Abdul Latiff Ahmad was quoted as saying by the Sunday Star newspaper.

“But this is just a suggestion, it’s up to them.”

Tatum O’Neal Arrested Buying Drugs In NewYork City

Tatum O’Neal has fallen off the wagon. She was arrested for buying crack cocaine in New York on Sunday. The actress was married to John McEnroe at one time, having three children with him. She is the daughter of Ryan O’Neal.

O’Neal was arrested after police witnessed her making a purchase from a drug dealer. She was charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance, a misdemeanor.

O’Neal has struggled with drug abuse for a long time. She lost custody of her three children with McEnroe in 1998 because of those issues of heroin abuse. She penned a book about her struggle for sobriety in 2004.

At the age of ten she won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in the movie “Paper Moon” which starred her father Ryan O’Neal. She went on to star in movies including The Bad News Bears, Nickelodeon, International Velvet, and Little Darlings. Recently she has appeared on the shows Rescue Me and Wicked Wicked Games on television.

Get Ready For Possible Taxi Fare Increases In Toronto

Come August taxis in Toronto will be charging a little more for a ride across town if a proposal passes this week with the city’s Licensing and Standards Committee. The pick up rate will go up to $4 instead of the $3 we pay now.

As gas prices soar taxi drivers are seeing their wallets shrink when they go to the gas pumps. The fare raise reflects that cost. Cabbies are seeing an increase of operating costs of $400 to $600 a year because of the over increasing crude oil costs.

The increase will also shorten the distance that each quarter is charged from 155 meters instead of the 170 meters that it currently is.

The increase will only slightly raise the fares though, making a $10 trip go to $11.25. This is the first increase asked for since 2005. In that time fuel has increased by 28 percent.

It will take time for the cabs to have their meters changed and then taken to the city to have a tamper proof lock installed.

Pharmacists May Soon Prescribe Medicine In Ontario

Ontario is conducting a study to see if using other professional medical personnel including pharmacists, nurses and non-physicians could help deal with the burden of crowded emergency rooms and doctor offices.

Ontario pharmacists may soon have the power to prescribe medicine to their customers. In Alberta they already are able to prescribe some drugs, give drug refills and inject vaccinations.

Some doctors in Ontario are not keen on this idea saying that pharmacists don’t have the training to diagnose patients.

“My father was a pharmacist and he had a great knowledge of drugs but he was never trained in diagnosis,” said Brian Day, head of the Canadian Medical Association, adding prescribing pharmacists isn’t the solution to the doctor shortage either.

“To say this is an answer to the doctor shortage is ludicrous. The answer to a shortage of doctors is to produce more doctors.”

Still the Ministry of Health believes that pharmacists do have the knowledge of medicine that is needed to make simple decisions when it comes to prescribing drugs. Being able to use their knowledge could possibly free up space in emergency rooms and doctor’s offices for simple illnesses.

“Pharmacists go to school for just about as long as doctor does so if we can deploy them more effectively as a front-line health-care provider, that could be advantageous to patients,” Health Minister George Smitherman said.

Executive Director Jeff Poston says that pharmacists could help reduce the need for trips to the hospital for those who have chronic illnesses. In some rural areas people have a much easier access to their local pharmacist than a doctor’s office.

Customers already routinely ask their pharmacist’s advice on which over the counter drugs would be best for ailments like coughs, colds and diarrhea.

What do you think? Would you trust your local pharmacist to give you the right m

Universal Studios Ravaged By Fire On Sunday

A sound set at Universal Studios in Los Angeles was the scene of a large fire on Sunday. The first reports of the blaze came in before dawn. The fire burnt down several buildings and destroyed the King Kong attraction.

A video library vault was damaged in the fire but nothing was lost that could not be replaced. There were 40,000 to 50,000 videos in the vault but none of the tapes were irreplaceable. Duplicates of the videos are kept in another location.

Three people suffered minor injuries during the fire.

Helicopters dropped water on the structures that were burning as television cameras rolled showing the details. A thick smoke covered the area.

“It moved through that area extremely fast,” Los Angeles fire department chief Michael Freeman said. “Those are basically building fronts with some walls but they’re very susceptible to rapid burning… it also burned courthouse square and then it got into the King Kong building. That building is totally destroyed.”

The amusement park remained open on Sunday but the tours to the areas hit by the fire were cancelled.

The quick actions of the fire department helped to save much of the studio.

[quote"They are real heroes, I mean they were here in record time," head of Universal Studios, Ron Meyer said. "They contained the fire that could've really burnt horribly out of control."]

A possible propane fuel tank explosion is being investigated as a possible cause of the fire.

Yves Saint Laurent Dead At 71

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Designer Yves Saint Laurent has died at the age of 71 in Paris. His longtime friend and partner, Pierre Berge made the announcement on Sunday without giving any details.

Saint Laurent had been ill for a long time. He was the last of his generation of high fashion clothing designers that included Coco Chanel and Christian Dior. He and his contemporaries helped make Paris the fashion capital of the world.

Saint Laurent retired at the age of 65 in 2002. His clothing house was also closed the same year.

He was born in Oran, Algeria on August 1, 1936. At the age of 17 he won first place in a contest sponsored by the International Wool Secretariat for a cocktail dress design.

In 1954 he went to Chambre Syndicale school of haute coutre. He lasted only 3 months. Introduced to Christian Dior he was hired on the spot. When Dior died in 1957 Saint Laurent was named the head of the House of Dior. He was 21.

In 1960 Saint Laurent was drafted into the military service. At the end of the first year he was given a medical discharge for nervous depression.

In 1962 Saint Laurent re-entered the fashion scene by opening his own haute coutre fashion house with his partner Berge.

In 1985 the Metropolitan Museum of Art devoted a show the Saint Laurent, the first for a living designer.

In 1999 he sold the rights to his label to Gucci Group NV for $70 million in cash and royalties.

He struggled throughout his life with depression, drugs abuse and loneliness but his partner Berge was beside him all the way.

I’ve known fear and terrible solitude,” he said. “Tranquilizers and drugs, those phony friends. The prison of depression and hospitals. I’ve emerged from all this, dazzled but sober.”

Queen Tells Kate To Get A Real Job

The tabloids are all betting on when it will be announced that Prince William and Kate Middleton are engaged but before that can happen his Grandmum wants her to have a proper job.

Last year Middleton quit her job as an accessories buyer for Jigsaw to try out a life as a photographer. She has worked at the family mail-order company, Party Pieces, snapping the stock for the website the past three months. The job is relaxed and passig her time while William finishes up his attachment with the Royal Navy.

According to a senior aide, “Although they are not yet engaged, it seems more likely than not that Kate will be a Royal bride one day, and the Queen is of the opinion that Kate should be working.”

The Queen is concerned that public image of the young prince could suffer if Middleton isn’t considered a working girl.

Hidden Cigarettes Are Now The Law For Ontario Store Owners

As of June 1 store owners have to have their cigarettes hidden away between “power walls.” This added expense is hoped to curb teenage smoking but is it needed or is it just an added expense for those who own the stores.

As the cigarettes started to go into hiding this week I asked numerous store owners what their feelings about the added doors hiding their smokes. The overall consensus was it was that the added expense was not needed.

Smokers will now be given a binder to look at when it comes to picking a pack of cigarettes. The money for that pack has to exchange hands before a customer can even touch the cigarettes.

10,000 convenience stores across the province have had to install these power walls throughout the last week of May to be in compliance with the new law.

The ban also went into effect in Quebec on June 1. Some provinces have already hidden away their tobacco including Manitoba, the Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Nunavut, and Prince Edward Island.

XBox Brings Out The Caveman In Males

There is a very real reason why high-tech games are mostly marketed to the male population. Playing and winning at Playstation 3 or any of the other brands out on the market activates parts of the male brain.

The brain has little areas that are preprogrammed from centuries old DNA. Afraid of heights? It’s a rational fear coming back to primitive men.

Kicking bum and taking no prisoners on Nintendo Wii brings back that primitive desire to conquer.

Scientists wired up men and women to an MRI scanner for a series of studies while they played a video game. The researchers were able to study what parts of the brain was being activated. While women got the game and could win it they were not as driven to win at all costs.

The high-tech games stimulate the brain’s mesocorticolimbic centre. That is the area of the brain most associated with reward and addiction. Males in the study had a greater activation of their brain’s mesocorticolimbic centre and the more they won the more active that part of the brain became.

There are three parts of the brain structure that deals with the reward circuit; the nucleus accumbens, amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex. The better that circuit connected the better males did at the games.

Dr Reiss added: ‘These gender differences might help explain why males are more attracted to, and more likely to become “hooked” on, video games than females.

‘I think it’s fair to say that males tend to be more intrinsically territorial. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out who historically are the conquerors and tyrants of our species.’

That’s right boys, games bring out the cavemen in you.

Ladies, it may be a good idea to just toss them raw meat and lock up the clubs when they are in game mode!

Japanese Crime Bosses Get Livers In The United States

Tadamasa Goto isn’t allowed into the United States because of his criminal activity but he was able to receive a liver in Los Angeles while local residents on the donor list were awaiting a liver died.

Ronald Busuttil, a doctor at UCLA Medical Center performed a total of four liver transplants on Japanese men alleged to be part of organised crime groups within their country. None of the four are allowed into the United States at this time because of their criminal records.

It doesn’t appear that Busittil knew of the criminal background of his patients. It is not against US regulations to prohibit transplants on foreign patients with criminal records.

“The four surgeries were done between 2000 and 2004 at a time of pronounced organ scarcity. In each of those years, more than 100 patients died awaiting liver transplants in the Greater Los Angeles region,” the paper added.

A Grandson’s Joint Is The Root Of An Eviction For Frances Johnson

How could smoking a joint and your grandparents losing their home have anything in common? If your grandparents live in public housing in some of the United States and you are arrested for that joint they fall under the “one strike and you’re out” policy.

That is the case of Frances Johnson of Washington, D.C. The 68-year-old is battling the D.C. Housing Authority as strongly as she is fighting the cancer that could kill her. Her grandson got busted for a small amount of marijuana last year. Because he lived at her home she is liable for eviction even though she had no idea that he had brought the stuff into her home.

Within weeks the D.C Housing Authority was in action bringing forth legal proceedings to oust Johnson from her home. This is not a woman who sits back and lets things happen without fighting though. She is a staunch volunteer of at-risk children. Several of the D.C. Council members backed her and wrote to the Authority Board to stop that action. As of May 27 she was re-certified for eligibility for the Housing Choice Voucher Program.

She’s not out of the woods yet. There are two more lawsuits that could get her evicted still in court because of the “one strike” policy.

“I feel the pressure, but I’m staying prayerful,” Johnson told me recently. “It does make it hard to sleep sometimes, not knowing if I’m staying or going and if I have to go, will I have a place to go to.”

Her grandson Ernest isn’t a criminal type. He’s a highly regarded employee at the local supermarket. He is also Johnson’s primary caretaker. In September he was arrested for gambling in the street. He plead guilty to the marijuana possession and was sentenced to four months in jail. His store is holding his job until he can return next month when he leaves the penal system.

Two weeks after his arrest Johnson’s home was raided. It allegedly scored a cuff link box with a small amount of pot in it. Those charges were dropped. That was enough though to set forth the “one strike” policy.

“This is a law that has no defense, except for the raw fact that it is unconstitutional,” said Pat O’Donnell, a lawyer with the firm Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis, who is representing Johnson pro bono. “There is no due process under the law when the law treats people who have done nothing wrong like criminals.”

Frances Johnson has had to agree not to allow her grandson back home when he gets out of jail.

Something stinks here. Yes, breaking the law is a bad thing. But there’s one little tidbit I didn’t mention at the beginning of this piece. Not all crimes are considered equal here. Some more violent crimes are ignored when it comes to this policy.

But smoke a joint and get caught.

It may not just be you paying the piper.