I see an NEA grant in this guy's future...
BAKER, Calif. - An artist who chained his legs together so that he could accurately render a picture of his legs wrapped in chains hopped 12 hours through the desert after realizing he lost the key and couldnât unlock the restraints, authorities said. Mapplethorpe would be so proud of you...
Trevor Corneliusien, 26, wrapped and locked a chain around his bare ankles Tuesday while camping in an abandoned mine shaft about 5 miles north of Baker, San Bernardino County sheriffâs Deputy Ryan Ford said. Corneliusien often sketches inside mines in the Southwest. Hmmmmm. Them's mighty big lines I'm reading between here... Might wanna get a cadaver dog in for a sniff around maybe?
When he finished his chain drawing, he realized he had lost the key to his shackles and would have to seek help in Baker, the deputy said Wednesday.âIt took him over 12 hours because he had to hop through boulders and sand,â Ford said. âHe did put on his shoes before hopping.â That's good. But then them artist's are smart guys...
Corneliusien finally made it to a gas station on the edge of Baker. He called the sheriffâs department, which sent paramedics and deputies with bolt cutters. Walked out of the desert with chains around your legs and need them cut off? Sure, no problem. No, no need to explain...I believe ya.
Corneliusienâs legs were bruised, but he was otherwise in good health, Ford said. The artist did not have a listed phone number and could not be reached for comment. Too bad. I'd love to hear his side.
And the drawing?
âHe brought it down with him,â Ford said. âIt was a pretty good depiction of how a chain would look wrapped around your legs.â Then it was all worth it...
#3
These kinds of artists pull in tens of thousands from such "projects", while realist/classical artists like myself are religated to the dustbin. The reasoning goes something along these lines:
"If I don't understand what it is or what it means, it must be art!"
Just goes to show that public gullibility exists everywhere.
Posted by: Jan ||
01/05/2006 18:18 Comments ||
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#6
Too bad he lived, now he is only a runner up for a Darwin award.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/05/2006 18:47 Comments ||
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#7
Baker is a little burg about halfway between Las Vegas and San Bernardino, on the I-15 in the middle of the Mohave desert... a couple of gas stations, an auto junkyard, some streets of sun-blasted houses, two restaurants and a hundred-foot tall thermometer. We used to stop for breakfast at one of the eateries, on road trips between Utah and California to visit my family, and note that the temperature at sunrise in the winter was already pushing the high nineties.
PS: the best food then was at the "Bun Boy", great burgers since about 1935 or so. They have (or had) another outlet in Barstow. Just pull off the highway, it's a small place, you'll find it easily, that is if it is still there...chat up the truck drivers, they can tell you where the speed traps are.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/05/2006 21:39 Comments ||
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#10
Well I would say that the guy has a future, but to be really real artist, he would have to depict the legs in chains while urinating on them.
What, that it does not make sense? Of course not, that is the point, isn't it?
Have to agree with Jules. Long time ago, I thought I am a decent painter. Then I realized I simply don't have it and don't stand a chance. It could never come up with the idea of chaining my legs and urinating on them. ;-)
#12
A good college friend was a pretty good painter. In college he was getting $5,000 per oil. Then he realized it worked out to about $1.20 per hour. He became a printer.
[T]he G.I. pamphlet series was prepared under the direction of the Armyâs Division of Information and Education between 1943 and 1945 âto increase the effectiveness of the soldiers and officers as fighters during the war and as citizens after the war.â
There are some great titles here that give insight as to what the Army felt weighed highly on GIs' minds, such as:
Is Your Health the Nation's Business?
Will the French Republic Live Again?
Can the Germans Be Re-educated?
The Balkans--Many Peoples, Many Problems
Can War Marriges Be Made to Work?
Do You Want Your Wife to Work After the War?
and
Will There Be a Plane in Every Garage?
Posted by: Dar ||
01/05/2006 16:13 ||
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#2
These pamphlets are excellent! Well written, high educational, easy to read, and surprisingly informative. I expected to be amused. Instead I am impressed.
I wonder if OJ, who lives near to this, found the "real killer" and took justice into his own hands -- He understands death by beheading so well...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- A human head was discovered off Jupiter Island by two teenagers who were fishing, authorities said.
Michael Puscani and Rocke Greco, both 17, spotted the head about 4 p.m. Wednesday.
"We didn't know if it was real or not, so we came around again and we were like, 'That's a human head,'" Puscani said. "I was just in shock, and it's a story that's kind of hard for people to believe."
The teens radioed to the Coast Guard and authorities came and picked up the head, said Palm Beach County spokesman Paul Miller.
It was so deteriorated that authorities were not able to determine its sex or race, only that it belonged to an adult, Miller said.
#4
Fast forward, 40 years to 2046. Over drinks and Arugula pasta at Zuccarelli's...."Hey Mike, yea Rockee, you remember that day we was fishin off the point and found that ****ing head?" "Do I ****ing remember? Hell yes, I called my ole man on the cell, and he told me shut up, forget about and just get the **** back home wahhahahaa."
Wow. They're soooooo much smarter then us up there...
TORONTO (Reuters) - Giving homeless alcoholics a regular supply of booze may improve their health and their behavior, the Canadian Medical Association Journal said in a study published on Tuesday. ...and the Wino-Canadian Association for Homeless Alcoholic Rights wholeheartedly concurs!
Seventeen homeless adults, all with long and chronic histories of alcohol abuse, were allowed up to 15 glasses of wine or sherry a day -- a glass an hour from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. -- in the Ottawa-based program, which started in 2002 and is continuing. On the Canadian taxpayers dime, no doubt...
After an average of 16 months, the number of times participants got in trouble with the law had fallen 51 percent from the three years before they joined the program, and hospital emergency room visits were down 36 percent. It's a miracle, eh?
"Once we give a 'small amount' of alcohol and stabilize the addiction, we are able to provide health services that lead to a reduction in the unnecessary health services they were getting before," said Dr. Jeff Turnbull, one of the authors of the report. Like whether or not they need clean syringes and free heroin...
"The alcohol gets them in, builds the trust and then we have the opportunity to treat other medical diseases... It's about improving the quality of life." Keep 'em shitfaced, eh? So what if regular people gotta trip over them all day, eh? We're talking wino self esteem issues here, eh?
Three of the 17 participants died during the program, succumbing to alcohol-related illnesses that might have killed them anyway, the study said. Yeah, they probably woulda died anyways, eh? But we creamated them quick, just in case...
The report showed that participants in the program drank less than they did before signing up, and their sleep, hygiene, nutrition and health levels all improved. Sounds like they're about ready to run for prime minister up there...
The per capita cost of around C$771 ($660) a month was partially offset by monthly savings of C$96 a month in emergency services, C$150 in hospital care and C$201 in police services per person. ...and whatever they picked up shaking empty Tim Horton coffee cups for change.
Turnbull said some of the people enrolled in the program had stopped drinking altogether, although that was not an option for many of the participants. Wouldn't want to force our social morays on them, eh? It's not aboot that, eh?
"We agree 100 percent that abstinence is the most appropriate route," he said. "But in this subset of people where abstinence has failed, there is still a need to provide care." So drink up, eh? Our government funding depends on you. Even if it is in Canadian money...
#2
There may be some logic to this. First of all, alcohol is dirt cheap. Second, if left to their own devices, alkies can be very, very expensive to both jails and the health care system.
If you can put them in a semi-institutional setting, you might end up saving a lot of money. No illusions about curing their addiction, just getting them off the street, and out of the ERs and jails.
#4
They should now begin distributing rigs, clean needles, and smack. Oh, a bent spoon, some surgical tubing to tie off with, and a big box of kitchen matches, too. Hell, I'd throw in a toe tag they can fill out in advance. Everything will progress more rapidly toward the desired conclusion, thereafter.
If people want to drop out of society, you can't stop them. If they want to poison themselves, you can't stop them. If they want to die, you can't stop them. Facilitate them, keep them out of the jails and ERs - those are needed for real people, not the self-made ex-people, whatever suicide route they've chosen.
#5
.com: well said. I long suspected that there are a large number of people with a "suicide" switch in their heads. They are bound and determined to self-destruct, and if denied their preferred means, will then choose alternate ones.
Gonna be kinda tough to run that "Allah punishing the wicked" line on this one.
MECCA, Saudi Arabia - A hotel at the gates to the shrines in Islam's holiest city collapsed Thursday, and pan-Arab television reported dozens of casualties.
The tragedy occurred as millions of Muslim faithful poured into Mecca for the annual hajj pilgrimage that peaks on Monday with the Eid al-Adha, a four-day feast. Is it Eid already? Man, it just kinda sneaks up on ya, doesn't it?
The massive gathering has been hit with tragedies frequently in recent years. The worst hajj-related tragedy occured in 1990 when 1,426 pilgrims were killed in a stampede in an overcrowded pedestrian tunnel leading to Mecca's holy sites. In 2004, on the final day of the ceremonies, 251 people were trampled to death when the crowd panicked during the ritual stoning of the devil. Three years earlier, 35 hajj pilgrims were killed in stampede the same ceremony. Vegas now posts over and unders on it.
Islam asks Muslims to travel to Mecca at least once in their lifetime and the number of pilgrims has increased elevenfold over the past 15 years. The Saudi government has spent billions of dollars in recent years to improve accommodations, transportation and medical facilities for the "guests of Allah." Sounds like they might've funded it by cutting back on building inspectors.
#8
The massive gathering has been hit with tragedies frequently in recent years. The worst hajj-related tragedy occured in 1990 when 1,426 pilgrims were killed
Funny how that corralates to Bin Laden's own rise. Now we have tsunamis hitting hyperIslamic Aceh and Earthquakes crushing Kashmir and the Northwest Province. Hotels collapsing in Mecca is just a warning shot. Allah is pissed and they still don't get it.
#9
There were some evil people, some decent people, and some little kids in this disaster.
We hate it when the paleos cheer at our losses. Why should we behave like them?
Because it's a numbers game. I don't see them as evil people, decent people, children, baby ducks or fluffy bunnies. I see them as hosts for an idea which I despise. And now that idea has less hosts.
#11
The remarkable thing about this is that an event that could be an economic bonanza to the Saudis is, because of the virtual abscence of recreational facilities, an economic loss to the Saudis; because of the lack of adequate logistics, a burden to the locals; and, because of a lack of crowd management and safety awareness, a personal risk to the practitioners of the haj.
Another interesting thing is that because most of the world's muslims do not speak the arabic dialect used in Mecca, the universal signing is English.
Still another interesting factoid is that many muslims bring their own personal Q'ran. The Saudis inspect all personal items and confiscate tens of thousands of personal Q'ran each year because they violate the Wahabi standards (which restrict calligiography and other ornamental devices). Those personal Q'ran which are confiscated are then burned and the ashes buried.
#12
I would issue a fatwa against Saudi shoddy building code practices, but everyone just says "Insh'Allah" and ignores me. Imr so cnfuzr. [/Mucky channeling]
Posted by: Al Aska Paul ||
01/05/2006 11:46 Comments ||
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#13
mhw: Another interesting thing is that because most of the world's muslims do not speak the arabic dialect used in Mecca, the universal signing is English.
Most of the world's Muslims don't speak Arabic. The majority of Muslims in the world isn't in the Middle East. Indonesia, Iran, Bangladesh, Turkey, India, Nigeria and Pakistan are the homes of some of the largest populations of non-Arab Muslims. Some of them might know Arabic to the extent that it is necessary to memorize the Koran. But the vast majority of non-Arabs know it in the same way that someone who doesn't understand English can be taught the Roman alphabet, and use that to memorize the contents of the English Bible.
#14
Sounds like they might've funded it by cutting back on building inspectors.
And I may have been right...
A civil defense official told government-run Al-Ekhbariya television that the 40-year-old building's foundation was cracked and too weak to support its weight.
#15
The other thing to remind people is the big stampede death mentioned in the article was caused by Iranian agents. I don't remember the details but it wasn't exactly an accident.
#16
I agree with mom! It isn't funny and I'm tired of these comments that attempt to "get even" with Muslims who celebrate the deaths of our innocent civilians just minding their own business and having a good time. How does that make you any different from them? Didn't your mothers ever tell you that just because Johnny is a horse's ass that you don't need to be one too?
It just isn't funny. Stop it.
Posted by: Party Pooper ||
01/05/2006 12:18 Comments ||
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#17
I've said this before, and I'll say it now, and (sigh) I suppose I'll be saying it in the future:
pig jokes, lard jokes, and wishing for the deaths of innocents just because they're Muslim are inappropriate. It's inappropriate in general and it's inappropriate for Rantburg.
There is a difference between a Muslim and a 'Moose-Limb', as we use the term here. I have no quarrel with the former, and I despise the latter.
There's no need for us to act like the DU. So let's not do so.
AoS -- co-moderator
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/05/2006 12:54 Comments ||
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#18
"...because of the virtual abscence of recreational facilities..."
I know, we could call it Haji-Land, and there could be rides (camels), and catch the greased goat contests and all sorts of fun Islamic things!
I could go on and on, but I'll leave some fun for the other R'burgers.
#21
Question for the scholars out there. Islam demands one Haj to Mecca. Do a lot of folks Haj multiple times? Does everyone who Hajes get to put Haji in their name? Is it a requirement, mark of pride, totally seperate? Enquiring minds want to know.
#22
Question for the scholars out there. Islam demands one Haj to Mecca. Do a lot of folks Haj multiple times? Does everyone who Hajes get to put Haji in their name? Is it a requirement, mark of pride, totally seperate? Enquiring minds want to know.
#27
I can't help with all your questions but yes there are people who perform the haj more than once. Some who do this are pilgrimage leaders. Some do this as a messager e.g., whereby X gives Y a rock to throw at the devil stone. The Saudis have tried to discourage multi hajers.
The number of people who can attend the haj in any given year is limited to fewer than 5 million or so (for the greater haj - there is also a lesser haj that can be done in almost all the other months but has less spiritual significance). If you do the math, its obvious that relatively few muslims will perform this ritual.
Partly because of the relative scarcity of people who have carried out the greater haj, people who do it get a nickname which means 'great pilgrim' or 'righteous pilgrim' of something similar and carries at least one word for which the root is haj.
Kuwait's newly-enfranchised women have been added to the voter rolls for the first time, and the country now has more women voters than men, the interior ministry said on Wednesday. The government decided to register the women as voters automatically because it feared February, the only month during which voters can register, would not give sufficient time to enroll the country's women in time for the 2007 parliamentary elections, Brig. Khaled Al Osaimi, told reporters. No date has been set for next year's elections, but should the 50-seat men-only house have been dissolved before women were registered, they would not have been able to run for office or cast ballots.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Well there goes the country. Next thing you know they will want to make booze illegal, er...
#3
This is extremely big news in the Gulf, and is being watched very closely by every country in the region.
When that first election is held, everybody will get to see what for them will be a startling result:
The women will vote almost identically to the way their fathers and husbands vote.
This will especially impress the Saudis, who, more than anything else are terribly conservative and afraid of change. If they suspect that Saudi women will be just as conservative as Saudi men, then Saudi women will get the vote much faster.
#6
TW...I'm not sure if you are addressing me or not. But... I think we are saying the same thing :-)
The good news in Kuwait is that the current crop of candidates will recognize that the first women will indeed vote with their husbands and fathers and the current politicians will want to get the increased votes. As for 50-100 years from now - that will be somebody else's problem, not theirs.
#2
So in other words, russia is still going to raise european gas prices four fold. This bullshit with gasoline is bad, but screwing with heating oil and natural gas markets to drive the price up is really a dog act.
Urbano Lazzaro, a resistance fighter credited with arresting fascist dictator Benito Mussolini at the end of World War II, has died at age 81, officials said Wednesday. Lazzaro died Tuesday after being hospitalized in Vercelli, a town between Milan and Turin, officials at St. Andrea hospital said, refusing to be identified further because they were not authorized to give the information. Lazzaro, known to his comrades as "Partisan Bill," fought with a communist resistance group in northern Italy and is known as the man who captured Mussolini in the dying days of the war, Italy's National Partisan Association said.
And Europe is left with one less man...
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2006 00:00 ||
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yeah...but heaven has one more helping hand with a birds eye view.
US Ambassador John Bolton wants the five Security Council powers to have a seat on a still-disputed new UN human rights body, a move bound to anger nations who believe the five already are too dominant. Bolton told reporters on Tuesday that past traditions in the United Nations permitted the five powers to be included âon any UN body they think it is important to serve on.â He said he did not think that including the permanent five Security Council members - the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China - on the new human rights body should be written into its bylaws. But he said, âWe will have to address the circumstances as the negotiations on the reform of the human rights commission proceed.â
At issue is the next big reform of the United Nations, a proposed human rights council that would replace the discredited Geneva-based 53-nation Human Rights Commission, which often includes the worldâs worst rights offenders. Bolton, who first mentioned including the five, known as the âperm fiveâ or âP-5,â to the Washington Post and quietly to some diplomats, has been striving to place the five at the center of UN decision-making.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2006 00:00 ||
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A landslide unleashed by heavy rains in Indonesia's Central Java Island on Wednesday has killed 16 people but hundreds were feared dead as rescuers called off a search for survivors amid safety concerns. A torrent of mud slammed into dozens of homes in Sijeruk village, 370 kilometres (230 miles) east of Jakarta, in the second disaster to hit Java island this week caused by monsoon rains and, activists charged, deforestation. "We suspect there are about 300 people in 120 houses buried in the mud," local chief of police operations Budi said, adding that about 150 police and soldiers were involved in rescue operations.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Punished by god for being muslim. That's what it has to be.
Let's see, since the Islamist media mocked the USA over the suffering in New Orleans, we've had an earthquake in Pakistan that killed 80,000, another one in Iran that killed about 1,000, and now these landslides that take out over 300.
See what happens when you suggest Allan punishes those you dislike? It can always rebound in your direction because Allan Acts In Mysterious Ways.
The Florida Supreme Court struck down a statewide voucher system Thursday that allowed children to attend private schools at taxpayer expense - a program Gov. Jeb Bush considered one of his proudest achievements. It was the nation's first statewide voucher program. In a 5-2 ruling, the high court said the program violates the Florida Constitution's requirement of a uniform system of free public education.
About 700 children are attending private or parochial schools through the program. But the ruling will not become effective until the end of the school year. Voucher opponents had also argued that the program violated the separation of church and state in giving tax dollars to parochial schools, and a lower court agreed. But the state Supreme Court did not address that issue. Under the 1999 law, students at public schools that earn a failing grade from the state in two out of four years were eligible for vouchers to attend private schools.
Chief Justice Barbara Pariente said the program "diverts public dollars into separate private systems parallel to and in competition with the free public schools," which are the sole means set out in the state constitution for educating Florida children. The ruling was a victory for public schools across the state and nation, said Ron Meyer, lead attorney for a coalition that challenged the voucher program. "Students using vouchers will now be welcomed back into Florida public schools," Meyer said in a statement. "It decides with finality that the voucher program is unconstitutional."
Unconstitutional according to the Florida state constitution, that is.
The governor had no immediate comment on the ruling. Anticipating the possibility of such a decision, Bush has been working on a backup plan to keep voucher students in private schools by providing tax credits to corporations that give students scholarships.
Clark Neily, an attorney who argued the case for voucher advocates, called the decision "a setback for those parents and children trapped in failing schools." The U.S. Justice Department filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support the state. Voucher opponents included the state teachers union, the Florida PTA, the NAACP and the League of Women Voters. The ruling did not directly affect nearly 30,000 students in two other voucher programs for disabled and poor children, but it could be cited as a precedent.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Kuwait's newly-enfranchised women have been added to the voter rolls for the first time, and the country now has more women voters than men, the interior ministry said on Wednesday. The government decided to register the women as voters automatically because it feared February, the only month during which voters can register, would not give sufficient time to enroll the country's women in time for the 2007 parliamentary elections, Brig. Khaled Al Osaimi, told reporters. No date has been set for next year's elections, but should the 50-seat men-only house have been dissolved before women were registered, they would not have been able to run for office or cast ballots.
US Ambassador John Bolton wants the five Security Council powers to have a seat on a still-disputed new UN human rights body, a move bound to anger nations who believe the five already are too dominant. Bolton told reporters on Tuesday that past traditions in the United Nations permitted the five powers to be included âon any UN body they think it is important to serve on.â He said he did not think that including the permanent five Security Council members - the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China - on the new human rights body should be written into its bylaws. But he said, âWe will have to address the circumstances as the negotiations on the reform of the human rights commission proceed.â 
The Florida Supreme Court struck down a statewide voucher system Thursday that allowed children to attend private schools at taxpayer expense - a program Gov. Jeb Bush considered one of his proudest achievements. It was the nation's first statewide voucher program. In a 5-2 ruling, the high court said the program violates the Florida Constitution's requirement of a uniform system of free public education.
