PROVO, Utah - Hundreds of small mouse-like creatures known as meadow voles are infesting a Utah county town where rapid growth has inadvertently created a haven for the rodents. The voles in north Lehi, about 30 miles south of Salt Lake City, are nesting in cars, climbing into window wells, scurrying down road gutters, running across feet and in general creating havoc. They're coming from empty fields, which used to be plowed and planted every year. Now the property is unused, waiting for development. That creates a problem, said Pat Fugal, Utah State University Extension Service senior horticultural assistant. "The tilling kills the voles and destroys their habitat, controlling the population," Fugal said.
The brown furry rodents appear to be larger-than-average chubby mice with short tails. They are about six inches long and they do not know the meaning of shy.
"The weird thing is they aren't afraid of you," resident Jill Clemens said. "They totally have run across my feet. They are fat and slow."
My cats are pestering me to buy the plane tickets
She has tried a mice-killing chemical to get rid of the voles, but when some die, others invade her property replacing them.
Her husband, Dave Clemens, rode a minibike into the neighboring field to see if he could figure out where the pests were coming from. "That entire field is infested with them," he said. "They are not timid. I pick them up with a shovel, bounce them around and chuck them back into the field."
While the fields are untouched, the voles reproduce rapidly. Voles have 10-12 litters a year with 5-10 young in each litter. Chris Burningham said she sees seven to eight voles on her property each day and has a neighbor who shoots at the invading voles with his BB gun.
Make sure you drop them with the first shot. Nothing more dangerous than having to follow a wounded vole into the bush......oh, wait, that's a wounded cape buffalo.
"We called the health department and they said to call animal control," Burningham said, adding that animal control couldn't help them either.
Fugal said zinc phosphide, a poison for voles available at outdoor supply centers, will do the job. There are a few in the area who have already been able to use this method and put a stop to their vole problem. Scott Sampson found 20 voles dead in the window well of his home. He surfed the Internet to identify the little beasts and went to Intermountain Farmers Association for a cure. The clerk gave him a topical pellet poison which he used liberally.
"The chalice from the palace holds the pellet with the poison......"
The result: No more voles.
"We could actually see furrows in our lawn and they were getting in the window wells, from time to time running along the concrete," Sampson said.
And then there are the cat owners who are enjoying an influx of cat "gifts."
"They're doing great. There are dead carcasses everywhere," Danielle Wilson said of her three cats. "I've got one cat that killed eight in one day."
Voles, the other white meat
Posted by: Steve ||
05/10/2006 14:26 ||
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#7
Guess I've got to find some more small rocks for my slingshot. We have small gray field mice and squirrels, but no voles. I don't shoot the squirrels - my dogs love to chase them. Maybe Utah needs to import a few dozen of our hawks and falcons to help them out.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/10/2006 20:15 Comments ||
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#8
What about the blue-tongued mango voles?
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
05/10/2006 21:14 Comments ||
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PORTLAND, Ore - Most adults can remember the carefree days of childhood, climbing trees and jumping from swings, often on schoolyard playgrounds. Climbing, swinging and sliding was once a rite of passage during recess, a time for adventure, to see how high, how far and how fast we could go as a kid. Today, kids find themselves grounded, victims of a culture of fear and injury litigation. A growing number of school districts are going so far as to ban the game of tag and are even posting signs that read "no running on the playground." Is there real danger on the modern playground? Safety advocates say yes and want to eliminate it.
Their first target:The Evil machines formally known asswing sets. They've convinced Portland Public Schools to remove all swings from elementary schools playgrounds. But even a playground inspector finds the removal of swing sets a little over the top. He says that swinging creates motion and is an important part of childhood development.
But the safety advocates don't stop there. Why? because they just cant stop themselves.
Portland Public Schools have also rejected merry go-rounds, tube slides, track rides, arch climbers, and teeter-totters. Oh My!
At Grant Park in Northeast Portland, some parents embrace a new plastic enclosed play area, noting that the construction of the play equipment does not have sharp corners, and soft surfaces are used in many areas. No doubt it comes fully equipped with helmets, Ritalin dispenser, and a large multilingual precaution sign.
As for the disappearing swings at school playgrounds, some parents say the kids won't miss them, while others decry the move as overprotective.
#1
Idiots. My kid broke/sprained his foot (xray was inconclusive) "flying" off a swing at a day camp for autistic kids last summer. He was fine my biggest worry was that the insurance co. would sue the camp.
People have got to get a grip and freeze these weenies out of the process.
#8
The 'modern' Western perception of risk is one of its most critical weaknesses. It is endemic. Examples:
1) See above comment.
2) New prescription drugs - don't consider the harm of not having them; emphasize the harm they sometimes cause.
3) War can be less risky in the long run than 'not war' - see WWII, and perhaps soon Iran?
War happens when both sides think they will win. Peace happens when one side knows it will lose (or chooses to lose even though it could win.) Peace through superior firepower is true.
Rapper Snoop Dogg held in London
LONDON (Reuters) - American rapper Snoop Dogg was arrested with five other men during a disturbance at London's Heathrow airport but was later released on bail, his lawyer said on Thursday.
The 34-year-old former member of the notorious Los Angeles Crips gang was held after a fight broke out when police escorted him and his entourage out of the airport on Wednesday evening.
Scotland Yard said seven police officers suffered minor injuries, among them a fractured hand, after being called to the airport in the early evening to deal with a disturbance involving some 30 people in a British Airways business lounge.
"Members of the group became abusive," said a police spokesman, after officers told them to reclaim their baggage.
"Six members of the group, all aged in their 30s, were subsequently arrested on suspicion of violent disorder and affray."
Dogg, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, became one of rap's biggest stars after his debut album "Doggystyle" topped the charts in 1993.
He and the other men, all Americans, were taken to two London police stations where they were held in custody and later released on bail.
"Snoop Dogg was released from Heathrow police station on police bail, he will now continue his onward travel to South Africa to complete his concert commitments there," his lawyer Peter Binning told reporters at Heathrow.
"He has not been charged with any offence."
Police bail -- the amount was not disclosed -- means Dogg could be called back for further questioning over the incident.
#4
News comes slow from the Mother Country, y'know. I spent my entire twelve years in Delhi reading the same edition of the Times. Knew it front to back.
When my replacement arrived, I stole his three-week old copy for the voyage home...
#5
Snoop better watch it in SA. Better not give him the upper floor suite in his hotel, as he and his bro's may push a refrigerator off the balcony for sport.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/10/2006 21:29 Comments ||
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President Vladimir Putin used the pomp and circumstance of Russia's World War II Victory Day military parade Tuesday in Red Square to warn neo-Nazis and other nationalist extremists that they faced a "dead end" and must not be tolerated in Russia.
"Those who are again trying to raise the defeated flags of Nazism, who sow ethnic hatred, extremism and xenophobia, are leading the world to a dead end, to thoughtless bloodshed and cruelty," Putin said in a brief speech at the start of the massive military parade. "For this reason, the defeat of fascism must be a lesson and a warning against the irreversibility of vengeance." Putin said solidarity of the peoples of the world in the face of today's threats to peace was a "decisive, priceless resource. A world of freedom and good-neighborliness among peoples is the stronghold of a just, democratic world order and of global security."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/10/2006 00:00 ||
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PRAVDA > only the USSR defeated Nazism. Sorry, Pravda, thats NOT what Stalin and his Generals claimed.
By Colin Randall in Paris
President Jacques Chirac took the exceptional step last night of denying allegations that he had a secret Japanese bank account into which £30 million had been paid over a number of years.
Mr Chirac, who rarely responds to allegations questioning his financial propriety, "categorically" rejected the suggestion in the satirical weekly Le Canard Enchainé that he had ever possessed such an account.
A French intelligence chief, Gen Philippe Rondot, was alleged to have told investigating judges that the large amounts were paid by a "cultural foundation" into an account in the president's name at the Tokyo Sowa Bank.
Gen Rondot is at the centre of an investigation into who ordered intelligence checks on Nicolas Sarkozy, the interior minister and presidential hopeful. Mr Sarkozy had been falsely accused in poison pen mail of holding secret overseas accounts to launder kickbacks from the sale of French warships to Taiwan.
The judges, who are seeking to identify the whistleblower, were reportedly told by the general that he was personally ordered by the prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, to investigate Mr Sarkozy.
Both the prime minister and Mr Chirac, who was said to have sanctioned such inquiries, deny the charges.
Le Canard said Mr Chirac's alleged account in Japan had been mentioned incidentally during Gen Rondot's questioning. But a close confidant of the president was quoted as saying: "The President of the Republic categorically denies the information reported by the Canard Enchainé. The president has never had an account at the Sowa Bank."
Btw, Japan is where shirak supposedly (according to a political gossips book) keeps his secret second family, complete with a love children, and where he frequently travels, with airplane fare being paid in cash, from an unknown source IIRC (one of his arab bankers?).
Italian politicians have again failed to elect a new head of state for the second day running. The centre-right opposition refused to back the incoming government's preferred candidate, a former communist. No candidate obtained the required two-thirds majority in a fresh vote in Tuesday's second round and Silvio Berlusconi, the outgoing prime minister, said there was currently no room for agreement with the centre-left.
Barring any last-minute deal, the third ballot on Tuesday night was also almost certain to be inconclusive. The developments mean Romano Prodi's centre left will have to decide whether to push its candidate through, starting with Wednesday's fourth ballot - when the majority needed to elect is greatly reduced - or continue to seek a compromise. The parliamentary election for Italy's 11th postwar head of state is the first test for Prodi since he narrowly won last month's general election. It has underscored the difficulty he will have in pushing through his agenda with a slim majority.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/10/2006 00:00 ||
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What's the over/under on timing for a new general election?
Serbia-Montenegro has asked the International Court of Justice to reject Bosnia's claim that Belgrade committed genocide during the Bosnian war. Radoslav Stojanovic, Serbia's representative, said: "If Serbia-Montenegro were to be found guilty of genocide, the consequences would be disastrous... I ask the court to rule in favour of reconciliation not the continuation of conflict." He was recalling the fact that Bosnia's Serb entity did not support the International Court of Jusitce (ICJ) case against Belgrade.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/10/2006 00:00 ||
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It's the fact that Serbia IS guilty of genocide that the results are ALREADY disastrous.
A panel investigating allegations of plagiarism against University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill submitted its report to a faculty committee on Tuesday, but the findings won't be made public until next week, a spokesman said. The Standing Committee on Research Misconduct could release the report on May 23 or later, university spokesman Barrie Hartman said. The standing committee will recommend to the chancellor whether Churchill should be cleared or dismissed or face some other discipline. Hartman said he did not know what the report said and that neither the Investigative Committee nor the standing committee would have any comment.
Fire his ass for lying about his background and qualifications, as well as for academic violations like his ripping off others artwork and words and claming it as his own.
#6
Fire his ass for lying about his background and qualifications, as well as for academic violations like his ripping off others artwork and words and claming it as his own.
Not enough, sue his ass for all the above plus get a class action for students whose money was squandered and lost their time on his "classes".
Yes, your honor, hundreds of students had to divert time from real instruction in order to be forcefed the propaganda dispensed by the Mr Ward Churchill. As a conseuence now they have poorer jobs. I demand a million dollars as compensation per student
(CBC) - The DNA of a bear shot in the Northwest Territories in April shows it was a hybrid of polar bear and grizzly - perhaps the first ever seen in the wild. Interspecies luuuv-child.
Scientists with the territory's Department of Environment and Natural Resources compared the animal's genetic makeup with samples taken from polar bears in the area and with DNA previously collected from grizzly bears along the coast to the south.
They concluded that the bear shot by Jim Martell was indeed a rare hybrid of the two types of bear. Officials say it could be the first recorded polar-grizzly bear hybrid found in the wild.
Martell, a sport hunter from the United States, was on a guided hunt when he shot the bear on April 16 near Nelson Head on southern Banks Island. Wiki description and map HERE.
Since it looked like a polar bear but had strange colouration, the hide was turned over to the Environment and Natural Resources department for testing.
It was considered nearly impossible for the two species to mate, since polar bears mate on the ice, while grizzlies mate on land. But Love conquers all. My money is on a polar bear male meeting up with a griz female.
"It's a total surprise," said Roger Kuptana, Martell's guide.
He said the relationship between polar and grizzly bears is usually more adversarial. Except during estrus.
"Some of the elders here in town say in the past there's been grizzly sightings but usually they fight."
Additional analyses are underway to determine whether the mother was a grizzly bear or a polar bear and to determine the age of the bear.
Martell had a tag that allowed him to hunt polar bears, but conservation officers were threatening to charge him with shooting a grizzly. It could have landed him 12 months in jail. Bloody bureaucrats, no imagination and no neat boxes to classify this one. Easiest thing to do was to charge the human.
Martel wasn't very happy, having spent $50,000 on his trip. He was also worried he wouldn't be able to take the hide back home with him to Idaho.
ENR will return the hide to Martell, who is already back in the territory - on a grizzly hunt. Watch your six, Martell.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/10/2006 20:57 ||
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Imagine how, erm, "exciting" that coupling was, LOL.
EFL N.Kentucky - 76 arrested from home construction company
ICE agents detained 76 suspected illegal immigrants, raided the Crestview Hills headquarters of Fischer Homes and arrested four construction site supervisors for the home builder. The four appeared in U.S. District Court in Covington, where they pleaded not guilty and were released from custody on their own recognizance.
"This was not a random roundup of illegal aliens," Dean Boyd, spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said. "These were arrests that were conducted as a result of a criminal investigation that has been carefully planned . . . for some time." The four construction site supervisors - Timothy Copsy, Doug Witt, William Allison and Bill Ring - are each charged with harboring illegal aliens for commercial advantage or private financial gain. The maximum possible punishment for the charge is 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
The 76 suspected illegal immigrants remained in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service on Tuesday night. Each is charged with entering the country illegally, a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail. U.S. Marshal John Schickel said 66 were being held at the Boone County jail in Burlington and 10 at the Grant County jail in Williamstown. Boyd said the suspected illegal aliens were working as laborers at three Fischer Homes developments in Hebron, Union and Florence.
A representative for Fischer Homes released a written statement as local, state and federal law-enforcement officials, including the IRS, were seen coming and going from the building.
"Fischer Homes utilizes a rigorous screening process for all of its employees, including citizenship verification," Fischer Homes president Robert Hawksley wrote. "We require all subcontractors to sign a document promising they will use no illegal aliens as employees. Fischer Homes does not, in any way, condone the hiring or use of illegal immigrants."
Boyd said the case was initiated more than a year ago and was not in response to the public protests in connection with the immigration debate on Capitol Hill. "On the national level, we are really stepping up our efforts to investigate illegal employment schemes," he said. "Expect more investigations like this. We are bringing criminal charges against employers, seizing assets and using all the tools at our disposal to target employers who are illegally hiring, harboring or laundering the proceeds of those schemes."
Ariz. Posse to Round Up Illegal Immigrants
The four Mexican immigrants had been on their way to build a dairy farm in this town about an hour southwest of Phoenix. But after a traffic stop for a faulty brake light, members of a sheriff's task force targeting human and drug smugglers found they were not U.S. citizens. Now they were bound for federal custody.
Beginning Wednesday, more illegal immigrants coming through Maricopa County could meet the same fate as the sheriff's department beefs up its efforts to find illegal immigrants. A 250-member posse that will operate similarly to the anti-smuggler task force will patrol the area for illegal immigrants who pay smugglers to cross through Arizona, the busiest illegal entry point along the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border. The posse will be made up of existing sheriff's deputies and members of the department's 3,000-member posse reserve of trained, unpaid volunteers.
The four illegal immigrants pulled over Monday will be turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and sent back to Mexico. But those that are captured by the posse may end up in jail, charged under a state law that has been used against more than 100 illegal immigrants in Maricopa County this year. The law made human smuggling a state crime in Arizona - it was already a federal crime - allowing local law enforcement agencies to arrest suspected smugglers. It was meant to crack down on smugglers, but under a disputed interpretation, County Attorney Andrew Thomas argues the law can be applied to the smuggled immigrants themselves.
Thomas maintains illegal immigrants who pay smugglers to enter the United States are committing conspiracy to smuggle and can therefore be prosecuted under the state law. The sheriff's office began arresting illegal immigrants under that interpretation in March, and with the new posse, will continue doing so by patrolling desert areas and main roadways in the southwestern part of the county.
It remains to be seen whether a judge will uphold the smuggling law as applicable to illegal immigrants. Lawyers for some arrested illegal immigrants have filed motions to have the charges dismissed. A Los Angeles attorney brought into the case by the Mexican Consul General's Office in Phoenix filed another motion claiming Thomas and Arpaio are violating state and federal law and are using the conspiracy charges to control illegal immigration, which is the federal government's job.
#2
A Los Angeles attorney brought into the case by the Mexican Consul General's Office in Phoenix filed another motion claiming Thomas and Arpaio are violating state and federal law and are using the conspiracy charges to control illegal immigration, which is the federal government's job.
The Mexican government as no standing in this matter, as they have abdicated control of their side of the border.
(IMHO, they're actually promoting illegals, and are fully aware of the "extracurricular" activities of many in their police and military.)
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
05/10/2006 14:46 Comments ||
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#3
"Fischer Homes does not, in any way, condone the hiring or use of illegal immigrants." And then his lips fell off.
Perfect case of someone getting rich while hiring illegals for work people like me can do. Construction job are not jobs no one wants to do. It's like this at construction sites all across this nation.
This is part of a PR operation. No serious mass arrests and deportations will take place. This is part of a "same old thing different day" that the INS does from time to time. It's a drop in the bucket.
I am still waiting for that trickle down. I'll vote Republican and hold my nose. I'll only be doing for the good of those serving our country and what little security or elected government provides at our borders. On almost every other important issue the Republicans have failed to do anything positive. At least they haven't meddled in the economy and raised taxes.
Posted by: SPoD ||
05/10/2006 15:25 Comments ||
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SPoD - You really don't need mass arrests of the illegal aliens. That's expensive, and even in an ideal world would totally clog the judicial system. What you want is enough arrests - and successful prosecutions of - those HIRING the illegal aliens. THAT could seriously discourage others from hiring illegals. And that should cause many of them to head on back home on their own. (The other necessary element to achieving success in this manner is reduction of social aid - the most that should be available is a free bus ticket to the border.)
#5
The key to solving the illegal alien problem is fairly straightforward:
1. Secure the borders.
2. Take the money out of hiring illegals. That means enforcing the existing laws against employers hiring illegals.
3. Deny social services to illegals.
4. Give them a free trip back to the border and $50 travel money. Take fingerprints and iris ID. Open the door and hope that it does not hit their a$$es on the way out.
5. Get rid of the Anchor baby provision in the law. Just because they were born here does not mean that they get to become citizens here.
6. Nobody who has entered illegally gets to be a citizen. They violated the law. They lose.
Look into the immigration law and determine a reasonable annual immigration rate that the country can do to successfully assimilate the LEGAL immigrants. Set up a point system for encouraging people with marketable skills to get preference.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/10/2006 22:04 Comments ||
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AP - Excellent start. Lets add a few...
7. Deny federal funds to so-called 'sanctuary cities' and counties. Sorry but you can't pick and choose which laws you will enforce.
8. If they get deported and come back they get to spend some time in a 'relocation camp' out in the middle of nowhere - at least until the migrant seasons are over.
9. If you want to have a guest worker program fine. First they must apply from their own country. Open it up to all countries. and if they are here illegally they are disqualifed for *life*.
10 Fines and prosecution for hiring illegals pierce the corperate veil. That means that Mr. walmart can find his ass bunked up with bubba for 5-10 years.
#7
The common claim is that there are currently 12 million Mexican illegals. Seems to me that number would fill Mexico's legal quota for, say, the next 24 years....
A B-1B Lancer made a wheels-up belly landing at Diego Garcia Monday, skidding down the runway for 7,500 feet, according to Air Force reports. The four-person aircrew escaped from the plane. The B-1B was home based with the 7th Bomb Wing, Dyess Air Force Base, Texas. Any landing you can walk away from is a good one.
The 20-year-old bomber was landing at Diego Garcia, a remote base in the Indian Ocean, at the end of a ferry mission that started at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam. The Air Force wont say why the crew landed the plane with its landing gear retracted. They drew the short straw.
During the landing, the B-1B caught fire and emergency crews extinguished the flames.
Because damage estimates are more than $1 million, separate Air Force accident and safety investigation boards will look for the cause of the accident. Under a million and they just ignore the whole thing?
Production of the supersonic bombers ended in the mid-1980s. With inflation taken into account, today the planes would cost more than $283 million each. I saw one on e-bay for a lot less than that.
#1
Comments on the in-line:
1) Any landing where you can reuse the airplane is a great one.
2)a) anybody can land on the rollers and b) really hard to get a B-1 to hold a hover long enough to pull the gar down by hand.
3)No longer front line sexy, not with F22 on the ramp and the JSF warming up.
4) was that the 'buy it now? feature????
Seriously, bringing something that big down and keeping it more or less toether until all the grinding stops AND be able to escape with all body parts together took a lot of skill, some amount of luck and the real Copilot was obviously on board!
#2
The Air Force wont say why the crew landed the plane with its landing gear retracted.
Journalists are idiots.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
05/10/2006 14:48 Comments ||
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#3
Aviation mishaps are investigated by different folks seperated by dollar thresholds. I'm not sure what the exact amounts are for the Air Force but low costing mishaps can be investigated by a safety officer from the unit, larger dollar amounts mean higher up the chain of command goes the investigation. It sounds like the million dollar mark is is where it becomes a class A misshap and where big Air Force steps in to run the investigation.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
05/10/2006 14:52 Comments ||
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#4
Only one runway on DG. I hope the airfield is back up soon. Back in the 1980's an Egyptian C-130 closed Bermuda's national airport for weeks after it was stuck on the runway after a wheels up landing. (word has it that they FERGOT! to put em down) Not good.
#5
Gear up landings: those that have and those that will. The key to avoiding this is tight crew coordination (drill drill drill) and religiously adhering to the Landing Checklist. You can go through the motions and put the gear lever down, but you HAVE to see those three Green lights that tell you that the gear is Down AND Locked. I wonder if fatigue had anything to do with it.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/10/2006 16:33 Comments ||
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#6
When I was at Travis AFB in the mid 80's, some lucky pilot landed wheels up on a C-5. Forgot to put them down. Needless to say the Wing Commander and Base Commander were pissed. A C-5 pilot neighbor of mine said the crew had been doing touch and go's that day and ignored the audible warning in the cockpit. I'm pretty sure his flying days were over.
#9
Back in the 1980's an Egyptian C-130 closed Bermuda's national airport for weeks after it was stuck on the runway after a wheels up landing. (word has it that they FERGOT! to put em down) Not go
That is why there are checklists. But it does not
mean that the crew was incompetent: during a landing involving a very heavy storm (the company lied to the crew about the weather), a landing circuit usnuaually short (ie the workload was bigger than usual), the crew of an american liner forgot the line of the check list about arming the spoilers. Meaning that brakes had no effect since only 20% of its wight was on the wheels, the reamining 80% was being taken off by the lift generated by the wings. The plane went out of the lane and many died.
#11
We had a series of accidents (eight in 13 months) at Holloman in the late 1960's, including one wheels-up landing with an F-4 (a possum climbed into the nose-wheel well at night, not spotted when the bird took off). Standard procedure is foam the runway, have every crash vehicle standing by, and pray. Worked for the guys at Holloman, and obviously worked for the B-1 crew.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/10/2006 21:08 Comments ||
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The mayor of Fort Lupton, who operates two funeral homes, has been afforded police protection after receiving death threats following a 7NEWS investigation that revealed he has refused to repay money illegally kept from the family of a U.S. Marine who died. "I've been getting a lot of phone calls from a lot of different people, a lot of threats," said Jim Bostick, the mayor of Fort Lupton. Bostick is worried about his personal safety and that of his business and he now admits he made a big mistake.
"It's my fault ... I will try to do whatever I can with Mrs. Sepulveda to get this issue put to bed," Bostick said. "As soon as I get the money, it's hers. I mean, fast. Because, you know, I can't keep putting up with the threats against myself and my family."
While he may be sincere this time, Bostick claims he doesn't have the $7,500 a Weld County court said he owes Elis Sepulveda, the mother of a U.S. Marine who was killed in a car accident and brought back to Fort Lupton for burial. Jason Sepuldeva's savings were sent to Bostick's funeral home. It was money Bostick had no right to but he refused to return it. "He was the person who received the money," said Magistrate Rebecca Koppes Conway. Conway assessed the judgment against Bostick in small claims court but can't force him to pay. Bostick has many outstanding debts, including more than $11,000 he owes in child support. 7NEWS has learned his mayoral paycheck is garnished monthly.
But he said he hasn't decided yet if he is going to resign as mayor. "My personal financial issues have nothing to do with my job as mayor," Bostick said. "My intentions were not to screw over a Marine veteran. You know, I'm a veteran myself. I take care of veterans every day."
"So why didn't you just pay it?" 7NEWS Investigator John Ferrugia asked.
After a long pause, Bostick said, "I should have."
#1
It's times like this you start to wonder if having the concept of seppuku in your culture isn't such a bad idea after all.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/10/2006 6:27 Comments ||
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#2
No. This turd belongs in the the Jail. Locked up. The Judge could have put him there. How guys like this get elected is beyond me but it's a perfect example of why our political system is broken. It's a differnt set of rules. One for the elected and Wealthy and one for the rest of us.
This guy is a waste of skin.
Posted by: SPoD ||
05/10/2006 6:40 Comments ||
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#3
Thanks for the update. This guy is scum and deserves the threats and follow through on those threats if hes does not pay. The news report sounds like he is only going to pay because of the threats and not because it was the right thing to do. Provong yet again to all watching that violence trumps greed.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
05/10/2006 8:05 Comments ||
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#4
Then throw the bum in jail for theft and seize his house for collateral. Simple.
KATHMANDU - A top United Nations official met Nepals new Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala on Tuesday and offered to help the Himalayan kingdoms efforts to end a decade-old Maoist insurgency in which thousands have died. Tamrat Samuel, a special adviser to the UNs department for political affairs, met Koirala at his official residence in Kathmandu and conveyed Secretary General Kofi Annans message. They (the UN) want to help Nepal establish peace, Suresh Chalise, Koiralas spokesman told reporters after the meeting. They want to know what can the UN do in this process.
"He says he's from the U.N."
"Great. We're toast. Where's my kruggerrands?"
Samuels visit came days after Nepals new multi-party government matched a Maoist ceasefire and called the rebels for peace talks to which the guerrillas agreed. Nepals mainstream parties and the Maoist rebels, who entered into a deal in November to oust the king, are now preparing for elections to an assembly charged with writing a new constitution and deciding the monarchys future.
The Maoists have been fighting since 1996 to set up communist rule in Nepal, but now say they are willing to accept the make-up of the assembly and the decisions it takes.
Today. Tomorrow they take over. Day after that the other parties become enemies of the people.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/10/2006 00:00 ||
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SIALKOT: The district government has displayed the world's largest Quran for public view in Sialkot city made by a Gujranwala-based engineer, Javaid Iqbal. Talking to reporters, Javaid Iqbal said the total weight of the 202-page holy book, which is made of stainless steel, is 9,000 kilogrammes, while the weight of each page is 70 kilogrammes. The book is eight feet long and four feet wide. Iqbal said it took two and a half years to prepare it in collaboration with philanthropists from Sialkot and Gujranwala at a total cost of Rs 8.5 million. An audio system is also installed. He said the Quran would soon be sent to Masjid-e-Nabvi as a gift to Saudi Arabia.
"Yo! Abdullah! Where y'want us to put this nine-ton Koran?"
"Put it over there, with the others!"
Is it blasphemy if it rains and the sucker begins to rust?
Posted by: Fred ||
05/10/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Rains? In Soddy Ah-Rabies?
Though, some H2SO4 rain would be nice for a change. ;-)
Posted by: ed ||
05/10/2006 0:26 Comments ||
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#3
SACRILEDGE! (If mo coudn't carry it, it's an abomination!) Time to seethe! Death to the infidel stainless steel metal workers! A fatwa on Iqbal and the philanthropists!
#11
It would be amusing if the text is the original version, not the modified version now imposed by the Saudis on all who come for the Haj. We've seen articles here about the thousands of Korans/Qurans/Qur'ans carried by hajjis that are destroyed every year because they contain illustrations or passages the Wahhabis have decided are unacceptable.
#13
Just think, some day some of our military youths will be shooting 50 cal holes in it. And a future president may demand; Mister Abdul-a-dulha-dulhabulha, tear down that quran.
#14
It does rain in Arabia. Not often, but... Mr. Wife had a colleague they called the Rain Godd. Every time he went over there, it would rain. We're talking soil so dry that nothing was absorbed, a foot or more of water running in the streets. And all the production chemicals were stored in the open next to the production area -- either rained upon from above or soaked from below.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
05/10/2006 6:02 Comments ||
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Its a PR release but I love the fact that they quote a 'friend of the earth'...Our problem with erosion...to produce one ton of grain in Brazil, we lost 10 tons of soil per hectare per year. We solved this problem by eliminating tillage, says Almir Rebelo, grower advisor and president of Friends of the Earth, a Brazilian grower organization.
Israel on Wednesday gave the Palestinians until the end of the year to prove they are willing to negotiate a final peace deal, or prepare for the Israeli government to unilaterally set final borders by 2008, said Justice Minister Haim Ramon, a close associated of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. "Through the end of this year, 2006, there will be honest attempts to talk to the other side. If it becomes clear by the end of the year that we really have no partner, and the international community is also convinced of this, then we will take our fate into our own hands and not leave our fate in the hands of our enemies," he told Israel's Army radio.
Ramon was the first Israeli official to set a deadline for the Palestinians' militant Hamas government to renounce violence and recognize the Jewish state. Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, of the rival Fatah party, has tried to persuade Israel to bypass Hamas and talk peace with him, but Olmert has said he wouldn't negotiate with Abbas if the group didn't change its violent ways.
Olmert, who was a major force behind Israel's Gaza Strip withdrawal last year, has said he intends to pull Jewish settlers out of heavily populated Palestinian areas in the West Bank while fortifying major settlement blocs and retaining the West Bank's Jordan River Valley. He has said Israel prefers to negotiate, but would act on its own if Hamas didn't moderate.
"If we wait a month, two months, three months, half a year and we don't see any change, then most likely we are going to move forward even without an agreement, without negotiations, in order to define the border lines which are acceptable for Israel," Olmert told an international conference of mayors on Tuesday.
Olmert originally had set a 2010 deadline for the pullback, but a top aide said last month that Israel planned to conclude the process before the end of President Bush's term in 2008.
Ramon said it wouldn't take more than 18 to 24 months. "I would like to believe that by the end of 2008 we will be deployed on a line that will signify Israel's final borders and guarantee our existence here as a Jewish democratic state." The borders, he said, "will first and foremost include the settlement blocs and the regions that are necessary for our security."
Palestinian government spokesman Ghazi Hamad said that Hamas was prepared to grant a long-term truce if Israel would agree to retreat to the lines it held before the 1967 Mideast war - a condition Israel categorically rejects.
International Mideast peacemakers, including the U.S., haven't rejected the notion of unilateral Israeli moves in the West Bank, but say Israel can't draw its final borders on its own.
How about throwing a water buffalo steak on the barbeque to impress your friends? Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar would not object, he might even dig himself. After two years of deliberations, Amar ruled Tuesday that water buffalo (jamoose in Arabic) is kosher.
But before ruling the buffalo fit for the most pious Jew's table, the chief rabbi meticulously investigated the bovine's culinary history, anatomy and eating habits with the aid of Dr. Zohar Amar [no relation to rabbi Amar] and Dr. Ari Zivotofsky of Bar Ilan University.
Shmuel Friedman, head of the Agriculture Ministry's grazing division, also helped Amar reach the bottom of the water buffalo quandary.
As required by the bible [Leviticus 11], the water buffalo has split hooves and chews its cud.
Also, Amar knew, with Amar's and Zivotofsky's help, that Rome's Jewish community had an ancient tradition of buffalo eating [water buffalo milk is used to make the finest Mozzarella cheese]. He was also made aware that veteran Israeli shochets slaughtered water buffaloes here for popular consumption as late as the 1940's. But koshering the buffalo was not so simple. The souls of millions of Jews might suffer if the chief rabbi erred. Amar was cautious - and strict.
Amar wanted to know whether water buffaloes have upper front teeth. The Talmud says animals with them may not chew their cud.
The red deer has the teeth. Because of them Amar ruled the red deer is not kosher. Amar's decision torpedoed an attempt by farmers to market red deer meat in Israel.
As the Agriculture Ministry's Friedman explained, "trying to market meat without rabbinic approval is a no win situation. That's why we went to great lengths to get Amar's approval before allotting more grazing land to buffaloes."
But six months ago another piece in the water buffalo's kosher puzzle was solved. While touring the Hula Valley, Israel's largest grazing range for wild buffalo, Amar was presented with a water buffalo skull that lacked the incriminating teeth. This last piece of evidence seemed to clinch the decision to kosher the buffalo. But Amar wanted to cover all his bases.
The chief rabbi felt the skeleton was not good enough. He wanted a freshly slaughtered head, not a skeleton.
On Tuesday, three water buffalo heads were delivered to Amar's office in the Chief Rabbinate. The buffalo was declared kosher.
Amar's decision was a blessing for Buffalo Farm, located on Moshav Bitzaron near Gadera. Buffalo Farm began marketing buffalo milk and cheeses less than a year ago in supermarket chains across the country under the kosher suprevision of a local rabbi.
Buffalo Farm CEO Avi Zaltz said that Amar's halachic decision opened the way for the marketing of buffalo meat.
"We are negotiating with a few different people and we should start selling the meat in stores in a few months."
Zaltz said buffalo meat, which has a lower fat content than beef, was likely to cost more.
The USA Network is headed off to war, sort of. The cable channel says it's developing a limited-run series set in post-Saddam Iraq with Icon Productions, the company headed by actor-director Mel Gibson. The project, called "Peace Out," is one of several original shows USA hyped at its upfront presentation Tuesday.
"Peace Out," the showbiz trade papers report, is a fact-based tale of two guys who travel to Baghdad following the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime in search of thrills. It's projected as a six-hour limited series and will combine drama with dark comedy, a la "M*A*S*H."
Six hours is about how long they'd live
It's unclear whether Gibson would take an active role in producing the series. The "Passion of the Christ" director, who's currently filming "Apocalypto" in Mexico, has had varying levels of involvement on Icon shows in the past, ranging from directing and guest-starring on ABC's sitcom "Complete Savages" to not even taking an exec producer credit on the UPN series "Kevin Hill."
"Peace Out" would be the second Iraq-war series to make it to cable, after FX's "Over There," which focused on soldiers. HBO is also reportedly considering a comedy called "Hotel Palestine" about journalists covering the war.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/10/2006 15:24 ||
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#1
Well, Gibson makes some good war flicks... but I'll wait and see if USA network f00ks it up as badly as they did on "Over There".
A woman accused of keeping an Indonesian nanny as a virtual slave for four years pleaded guilty Tuesday to a federal charge of harboring an illegal immigrant. Sarah Khonaizan, 35, faces a sentence ranging from probation to a year in prison and a fine of up to $20,000, attorneys said. In exchange for her guilty plea, prosecutors dropped charges of forced labor and document servitude.
Why? Why on earth drop these charges? Why not put the her and her Saoooodi husband on trial for the max? The Feds need to send a message here.
Prosecutors and FBI agents accused Khonaizan and her husband, Homaidan Al-Turki, both Saudi citizens, of hiding the woman's passport and forcing her to cook, clean and care for their five children in their suburban Aurora home.
Confiscating the employee's passport, just like back home.
She slept on a mattress on the basement floor and was paid less than $2 a day, an FBI affidavit said. State prosecutors also alleged that Al-Turki sexually abused the woman repeatedly. The Associated Press is not identifying her because of the sexual assault allegations.
Al-Turki's case is still pending. He faces federal charges of forced labor, document servitude and harboring an illegal immigrant and state charges of sexual assault, kidnapping, false imprisonment, extortion and theft. Khonaizan also faces state charges of kidnapping, false imprisonment, extortion and theft. Her attorney, Forrest Lewis, told the judge his client will enter a guilty plea in Arapahoe County District Court on Friday, but he declined further comment after the hearing.
Attorneys made no mention of Al-Turki's case Tuesday and it was not clear whether Khonaizan's plea agreement requires her to cooperate with prosecutors. U.S. District Judge Walker Miller scheduled a July 28 sentencing hearing, but said he wanted to review a pre-sentencing report on Khonaizan before deciding whether to accept her plea. Lewis said that was not unusual.
Lewis said after the hearing Khonaizan's concerns about her children prompted her to accept the plea deal. "Bringing it to a conclusion in a way that allows the family to get back to normal and for her to care for her children was a main motivation," he said. Lewis said Khonaizan would not fight any deportation order and plans to voluntarily return to Saudi Arabia after completing her federal and state sentences.
Khonaizan and Al-Turki agreed to settle a separate civil lawsuit filed by the Labor Department by paying their former nanny about $64,000. Prosecutor Brenda Taylor told the judge there might be additional restitution included in Khonaizan's plea agreement.
Al-Turki, a linguist, worked at a Denver publishing and translating company and is a doctoral candidate at the University of Colorado.
Okay Buffaloes, here's your chance to do the right thing and kick his woman-abusing tucchus out of your grad school.
/who am I kidding?
UPDATE: Also this, from the CU campus paper:
Defense attorney John Richilano has said in court that Al-Turki has been a "person of interest" to federal authorities since 1995 for allegedly "having ties to terrorist organizations." In a court filing, prosecutors acknowledged that Al-Turki and his family have been under surveillance for reasons unrelated to housekeeper case but said information Al-Turki's attorneys sought "constitutes classified national security information." They argued they should not have to turn over any information about the surveillance to the defense.
#2
So Mrs. Al-Turki may well go to prison for this as well as future charges. Mr. Al-Turki will go to prison for kidnapping, rape, and theft of wages, after which he will be deported with extreme prejudice, his name added to the list of undesirables, which I imagine is shared with other sympathetic governments. Likely he will find it difficult to again enjoy living in Western comfort. Their five children will be sent back to the care of relatives in Saudi Arabia, where no doubt they will not deal well with the situation, poor things. And no doubt the nanny will get to go home.
#4
so the feds ignored the housekeeper being kept as a slave in order to "watch" these people with terrorist ties. And while the FED watched the terrorists grew their organizations right under their noses.
Posted by: john ||
05/10/2006 22:40 Comments ||
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Homaidan bin Ali al Turki is 36 years old, and a father of four. Homaidan and his wife, Sarah Khonaizan, aged 35, arrived in the US in 2000.
Al-Turki is a graduate student in linguistics at the University of Colorado, specializing in Arabic intonation and focus prosody. He donates money to the Linguistic Society of America and is CEO of Al-Basheer Publications and Translations, a bookstore specializing in titles about Islam.
Homaidan and Sarah, were arrested in November 2004 due to an expired visa. His wife was released but Homaidan was released only after he paid 25,000 US bond.
Posted by: john ||
05/10/2006 22:41 Comments ||
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Why is a Saudi studying Arabic pronunciation in Colorado?!?
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.
PORTLAND, Ore - Most adults can remember the carefree days of childhood, climbing trees and jumping from swings, often on schoolyard playgrounds. Climbing, swinging and sliding was once a rite of passage during recess, a time for adventure, to see how high, how far and how fast we could go as a kid. Today, kids find themselves grounded, victims of a culture of fear and injury litigation. A growing number of school districts are going so far as to ban the game of tag and are even posting signs that read "no running on the playground." Is there real danger on the modern playground? Safety advocates say yes and want to eliminate it.
President Vladimir Putin used the pomp and circumstance of Russia's World War II Victory Day military parade Tuesday in Red Square to warn neo-Nazis and other nationalist extremists that they faced a "dead end" and must not be tolerated in Russia. 
Italian politicians have again failed to elect a new head of state for the second day running. The centre-right opposition refused to back the incoming government's preferred candidate, a former communist. No candidate obtained the required two-thirds majority in a fresh vote in Tuesday's second round and Silvio Berlusconi, the outgoing prime minister, said there was currently no room for agreement with the centre-left.
Serbia-Montenegro has asked the International Court of Justice to reject Bosnia's claim that Belgrade committed genocide during the Bosnian war. Radoslav Stojanovic, Serbia's representative, said: "If Serbia-Montenegro were to be found guilty of genocide, the consequences would be disastrous... I ask the court to rule in favour of reconciliation not the continuation of conflict." He was recalling the fact that Bosnia's Serb entity did not support the International Court of Jusitce (ICJ) case against Belgrade.
A panel investigating allegations of plagiarism against University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill submitted its report to a faculty committee on Tuesday, but the findings won't be made public until next week, a spokesman said. The Standing Committee on Research Misconduct could release the report on May 23 or later, university spokesman Barrie Hartman said. The standing committee will recommend to the chancellor whether Churchill should be cleared or dismissed or face some other discipline. Hartman said he did not know what the report said and that neither the Investigative Committee nor the standing committee would have any comment.
