'Suit & tie' jailbreak guy caught

By LARRY CELONA, PHILIP MESSING and LAURA ITALIANO

“An inmate who casually walked out of a Manhattan courthouse posing as a lawyer was nabbed last night, as new details emerged indicating a correction officer's stunning breach of protocol could have allowed the escape.

Ronald Tackman, 56, was arrested as he got off a bus near a friend's house in Washington Heights just before 9 p.m. sources said.

Officers received a tip he'd be in the area, and he was arrested without incident.

Earlier yesterday, sources revealed that on Wednesday, a guard removed Tackman's handcuffs and those of eight other arrivals from Rikers Island as they stood in the 12th-floor hallway at 100 Centre Street.” Click here to read the rest at The New York Post.

Technorati Tags: jailbreak,rikers island,manhattan courthouse

Dwarves found 'theme park' commune to escape bullying

A community of dwarves has set up its own village to escape discrimination from normal sized people.

Everyone in the mountain commune in Kunming, southern China, must be under 4ft 3 ins tall and they run their own police force and fire brigade from their 120 residents.

Now the group has turned itself into a tourist attraction by building mushroom houses and living and dressing like fairy tale characters.

"As small people we are used to being pushed around and exploited by big people. But here there aren't any big people and everything we do is for us," said spokesman Fu Tien.

The idea of housing dwarves in special compounds would be anathema in the West, and the village has sparked fierce debates among expats living in China.

"When I first heard this I pictured myself obscure freak shows from a hundred years back," wrote one commenter on the GoKunming website. "Pay the entrance fee and you can watch these people perform."

But others said that it was the dwarves' best chance of employment given the surplus of labor in China.

"We might feel aghast at treating humans this way but this is the best way the Chinese government can deal with the situation right now," wrote Tonyaod.

"Go back a hundred years or so in our culture and we will see that we did the same thing à la the freakshows and the circus."

Photo and story via The Telegraph

Technorati Tags: dwarves,freakshows

Farmer's daughter disarms terrorist and shoots him dead with AK47

An Indian farmer’s daughter disarmed a terrorist leader who broke into her home, attacked him with an axe and shot him dead with his own gun.

By Dean Nelson in New Delhi

Rukhsana Kausar, 21, was with her parents and brother in Jammu and Kashmir when three gunmen, believed to be Pakistani militants, forced their way in and demanded food and beds for the night.

Their house in Shahdra Sharief, Rajouri district, is about 20 miles from the ceasefire line between Indian and Pakistani forces.

It is close to dense forests known as hiding places for fighters from the Lashkar-e-Taiba group, which carried out the Mumbai terrorist attack last November.

Militants often demand food and lodging in nearby villages.

When they forced their way into Miss Kausar’s home, her father Noor Mohammad refused their demands and was attacked.

His daughter was hiding under a bed when she heard him crying as the gunmen thrashed him with sticks. According to police, she ran towards her father’s attacker and struck him with an axe. As he collapsed, she snatched his AK47 and shot him dead.

She also shot and wounded another militant as he made his escape.

Police have hailed the woman’s bravery.

They said she would be nominated for the president’s gallantry award.

She may also receive a £4,000 reward if, as police believe, the dead terrorist is confirmed as Uzafa Shah, a wanted Pakistani LeT commander who had been active in the area for the past four years.

Supt Shafqat Watali said Miss Kausar’s reaction was “a rude shock” for the militants. “Normally they get king-like treatment but this was totally unexpected,” he said.

Miss Kausar said she had never fired an assault rifle before but had seen it in films and could not stand by while her father was being hurt. “I couldn’t bear my father’s humiliation. If I’d failed to kill him, they would have killed us,” she said

Text and story via The Telegraph

Technorati Tags: militants,ak 47,pakistan

Cannibals, presidential alien abduction, and clowns in space

By Lili Ladaga

On the menu for the latest edition of Weird Science: Cosmic cannibals, a presidential alien abduction and clowns in space. Bon appétit!

You gonna eat that? The Andromeda galaxy, our nearest neighbor in space, turns out to have a nasty appetite. Using a telescope scan, astronomers have found evidence of Andromeda's galactic meals. From the AP:

"What we're seeing right now are the signs of cannibalism," said study lead author Alan McConnachie of the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics in Victoria, British Columbia. "We're finding things that have been destroyed ... partly digested remains."

Earth's galaxy, the Milky Way, is next on Andromeda's snack list. John Dubinksi, co-author of the project, says the two galaxies are headed toward each other at a rate of 75 miles per second. But not to worry: We won't be dinner for another few billion years.

Click here to read the rest of this article.

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PHOTO: M31: The Andromeda Galaxy
Credit and Copyright: Jason Ware

Technorati Tags: andromeda galaxy,astronomers,cannibalism,alien abduction,clowns

Trouble getting up in the morning?

The best morning alarm in the world is a sneaky elbow in the ribs – but if you are a singleton or have a partner even more sleepy-headed than yourself, you will be the owner of a digital waking assistant, better known as an alarm clock.

The first thing you want to do with your alarm clock when it starts warbling is, of course, batter it to a pulp. (You’re only human). This alarm – called Smash – encourages such “percussive maintenance” by having the switch buried underneath a deformable top. Hammer it with your fist and blessed tranquility will return. Go to WebUrbanist to see more alarm clocks.

(Image via: Hometone)

Technorati Tags: alarm clocks

Desert Rats and other Folk

“Clearly I remember it was in early December of 1983, when I met an old Desert Rat named Harry who took a liking to me. 
He lived in Wonder Valley
and was a WWII veteran naval captain whose name was Harry Malley.
We drank ouzo on his back porch watching the sun slowly slip into bloody orange hues on hot desert nights when he turned the clock back with his tales of tanker ships and whales.
One day Harry walked into a dream and forgot who and where he was.
And all the doctors and his two friends, Ralph and I, watched his brain slowly die.
In the end there was no one.
Only one sister who lived in Greece and who sent back any correspondence from him unopened, unloved…
Years of sad letters left behind unopened never told the story why A mystery about Harry.

Poor old Harry, who to everyone’s amazement left behind over a million dollars in three banks!
I sometimes wonder why Harry was so alone and why he had to die
by his own hand with a gun Ralph and I
didn’t know he had.
So damn sad.
A lonely old man who built a house that had a circular hall
who also must have had a story he didn’t want to share
and by pulling that trigger he no longer had to care.”

Dave Stancliff 

-excerpt from my unpublished book - “Desert Rats and other Folk” 

ABOVE PHOTO: Old Gold by Alan Brown

Accepting Emptiness

´All form is empty´. These words of the Buddha are not a philosophy. It is not some sort of postmodern credo avant la lettre, meant to show that there is no meaning, no value or purpose in life; that in the end there is only a mere nothing as life is concerned.

The Sunyata, the Emptiness, which is at the center of the Buddhistic doctrine, is often not adequately understood.

It is not a pessimistic or fatalistic doctrine, coined by a depressed mind prone to heavy drinking and on the verge of suicide. No, it is the total and deep experience of a very healthy consciousness. For Sunyata is one of the deepest realizations of meditative consciousness. It is what we all experience when we close our eyes and study the interiority of life.

Click here to read the rest at Home Planet

Scientists say plutonium shortage could stall space exploration

by NELL GREENFIELDBOYCE

NASA is running out of the special kind of plutonium needed to power deep space probes, worrying planetary scientists who say the USA urgently needs to restart production of plutonium-238.

But it's unclear whether Congress will provide the $30 million that the administration requested earlier this year for the Department of Energy to get a new program going.

Nuclear weapons use plutonium-239, but NASA depends on something quite different: plutonium-238. A marshmallow-sized pellet of plutonium-238, encased in metal, gives off a lot of heat. Click here to read the rest at npr.

Technorati Tags: plutonium shortage,space travel,department of energy,nuclear weapons,NASA,congress

Food for thought: the 20 FUNNIEST RESTAURANT PUN NAMES

Posted by Jillian Madison of Food Network Humor

Click here to see the other 18 “punny”names!

Technorati Tags: restaurants,pun names

 

Secrets of the brain: The grey matter that makes us who we are

From shyness and moral judgment to creativity and sexual preference, a fascinating new book shows how our personalities and human traits are written on our brains. Jeremy Laurance reports

The brain is our most complex but least understood organ. We can name its parts but our knowledge of what each part does, or how, is rudimentary. In The Brain Book, journalist Rita Carter has assembled what is known about the nerve centre of each individual and explains with the aid of images and graphics its structure, function and disorders. Click here to read the rest at The Independent

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Iran flips off the world

Iran missile test by J.D. Crowe, Mobile Register

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Spider Wranglers Weave One-Of-A-Kind Tapestry

by CHRISTOPHER JOYCE

This week in New York, the American Museum of Natural History unveiled something never before seen: an 11-by-4-foot tapestry made completely of spider silk.

Weavers in Madagascar took four years to make it, and the museum says there's no other like it in the world.

A stunning golden tapestry woven from spider silk is unveiled at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City after four years of work — and the help of more than 1 million spiders.

i

Photo by R. Mickens/AMNH

It's now in a glass case at the museum. The color is a radiant gold — the natural color of the golden orb-weaving spider, from the Nephilagenus, one that's found in several parts of the world.

Simon Peers, a textile maker who lives in Madagascar, conceived the project. Weaving spider silk is not traditional there; a French missionary dreamed it up over a century ago but failed at it. The only known spider silk tapestry was shown in Paris in 1900 but then disappeared. Click here to read the rest at npr

PHOTO ABOVE: by Simon Peers and Nicholas Godley

Two Nephila madagascariensis spiders that were used to create the golden tapestry.

Technorati Tags: tapestry,spiders,museum

 

5 Things the Corporate Media Don't Want You to Know About Cannabis

Recent scientific reports suggest that pot doesn't destroy your brain, that it doesn't cause lung damage like tobacco -- but you won't hear it in the corporate media.

Writing in the journal Science nearly four decades ago, New York State University sociologist Erich Goode documented the media's complicity in maintaining cannabis prohibition.

He observed: "[T]ests and experiments purporting to demonstrate the ravages of marijuana consumption receive enormous attention from the media, and their findings become accepted as fact by the public. But when careful refutations of such research are published, or when later findings contradict the original pathological findings, they tend to be ignored or dismissed."

A glimpse of today's mainstream media landscape indicates that little has changed -- with news outlets continuing to, at best, underreport the publication of scientific studies that undermine the federal government's longstanding pot propaganda and, at worst, ignore them all together.

Here are five recent stories the mainstream media doesn't want you to know about pot: Click here to read the rest at AlterNet.

Technorati Tags: marijuana,tabacco companies,cancer studies,propaganda

History shows why we should get out of Afghanistan

By Dave Stancliff/For the Times-Standard

Posted: 09/27/2009 01:30:17 AM PDT

Here we are. A country immersed in other nations' affairs for all the wrong reasons. We're deeply mired in wars with no clear-cut exit plan from either country we invaded, and now occupy. What happened to learning from history?

Remember Vietnam? The obvious similarity seems to escape our politicians and military. Historians agree that Vietnam shouldn't have happened and someone should have reined in McNamara before he led our military and country into the quicksand.

There are men and women in our military who remember helping the Taliban fight the Russians during their decade-long occupation of Afghanistan. We looked upon the Taliban as nationalists back then, people fighting for their freedom.

To prove we haven't learned our history lesson, we invaded Afghanistan and chased the Taliban out, calling them terrorists. They let our enemy Osama Bin Laden and his Al Qa'eda terrorists train there. Our politicians needed some measure of revenge for the 9/11 attack to show Americans, and the world, that we would not tolerate international terrorists. Click here to read the rest.

Technorati Tags: afghanistan's military history,al qa'eda,taliban,terrorists

Medical pot proposal erases compassion

L.A. needs to regulate pot dispensaries, but this plan goes too far.

By Sandy Banks

“She didn't know whether she'd have the nerve to speak. But Judy Bowen signed the list and took a seat amid the pot smokers and growers, the lawyers and doctors, the Rastafarians and AIDS patients crowded into the Los Angeles City Council hearing room.
And when her turn came, she gripped her cane, made her way to the microphone and joined a chorus of would-be lawbreakers, there to fight a proposed ordinance that would ban the sale of medical marijuana in Los Angeles.
Bowen showed up at the council hearing because renegade marijuana shops have become the scourge of neighborhoods like hers in South Carthay, where a dozen storefront dispensaries have sprouted along Pico Boulevard between La Cienega and La Brea.” Click here to read the rest of the story at The LA Times.

Technorati Tags: medical marijuana,los angeles

Judo For Junkies…

A new, and highly controversial treatment for people who are addicted to things, is sweeping the country.

Judo For Junkies is knocking the bejeezus out of people with no self- control. Got hang-ups? See Judo For Junkies - coming in a side street near you soon!

Technorati Tags: judo,humor

Pointless research: silly science hopefully coming to a stop…

By Tom Chivers

The government has unveiled plans to allocate research funding according to how much “impact” the research has.

The plans have come under fire from academics, who say that curiosity-driven, speculative research has led to some of the most important breakthroughs in scientific history, including penicillin, relativity theory and the theory of evolution.

More than that, though, it might bring an end to the quirky, sometimes daft, sometimes weirdly inspired research that brings harmless entertainment and occasional enlightenment to armchair buffoons and science nerds everywhere.

Below, take a look at some of the best.

Chinstrap penguins can squirt poo up to 40cm, winner, Fluid Dynamics, 2005
"Pressures Produced When Penguins Pooh -- Calculations on Avian Defecation", Polar Biology, 2003

Rather sweetly, the researchers end their conclusions by saying: “Whether the bird deliberately chooses the direction into which it decides to expel its feces or whether this depends on the direction from which the wind blows at the time of evacuation are questions that need to be addressed on another expedition to Antarctica.” No doubt governments will be falling over themselves to fund that trip.

Click here to read more silly science projects from the Telegraph

Technorati Tags: sily science,penquins,research

42 college/school-related viewers have checked in during the last 24 hours

Worldwide:

Derwentside College-Durham, United Kingdom; University of Newcastle Upon Tyne-United Kingdom; New Brunswick Department of Education-Dalhousie, Canada; Toronto District School Board-Canada; Alberta College of Art & Design-Canada; Durham District School Board-Whitby, Ontario, Canada; Fernandez College of Arts & Technology-Bulacan, Davao Del Sur, Philippines.

Across the USA:

 University of Massachusetts-Amherst; University of Wisconsin-Menomonie; Stamford Public Schools-Connecticut; Merrimack Education Center-Brockton, Massachusetts; People’s Academy-Morrisville, Vermont; Mason Consolidated Schools-Temperance,Michigan; Iowa State University-Ames; Claremore Public School-Coweta, Oklahoma; Broward County Public Schools-Sanford, Florida; Kentucky Department of Education-Owensboro; Washington School Information Processing Corporation-Valley; Austin Independent School District-Texas; University of Illinois At Chicago; San Diego County Office of Education-Poway, California; Utah Education Network-Monument Valley; Winston-Salem State University, North Carolina; High Desert Education Service District-Sisters, Oregon; Purdue University Calumet-Hammond, Indiana; Los Alamos Public Schools-New Mexico; San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools-Upland, California; State University of New Yory At Stony Brook; King’s County Office of Education, Fresno, California; University of Maryland-Hyattsville; Georgia Department of Education-Zebulon; Gwinnett County Public Schools-Lawrenceville, Georgia; North Carolina Research & Education Network-Concord; Georgia Perimeter College-Decatur; Maine Libraries/Department of Education-Turner; Colleges of the Fenway-Boston, Massachusetts; Osseo School District-Minneapolis, Minnesota; Lincoln Intermediate-Unit 12-Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; Montclair State University-New Jersey; and the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education-Lexington.

Technorati Tags: foreign schools and colleges,colleges and schools in the united states

Obama charges Iran with hiding nuclear plant

By Richard Wolf, USA TODAY

PITTSBURGH — President Obama and the leaders of Britain and France revealed this morning that Iran has been building an underground nuclear fuel enrichment facility for years without informing international inspectors.

The revelation, coming as world leaders began meetings here on the global economic crisis, was sure to put new pressure on Iran to come clean about its nuclear ambitions at a meeting next week or risk tough sanctions.

"The size and configuration of this facility is inconsistent with a peaceful program," Obama said. "Iran is breaking rules that all nations must follow."

Two senior administration officials confirmed the existence of the secret facility to USA TODAY early this morning. It was first reported by The New York Times. Obama, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy then accused Iran of repeated efforts to hide its nuclear sites, including this one south of Tehran.

Click here to read the rest.

PHOTO: Obama with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, right, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy leave the stage after making a joint statement on Iran's nuclear facility. Photo by Charles Dharapak, AP

Technorati Tags: iran,secret nuclear site,president Obama,global economic crisis,president nicolas Sarkozy

Mysterious Crop Circles appear in Arcata

Pilots flying over the Pifferini Ranch have recently reported seeing these mysterious crop circles. It’s a first on the north coast where we seldom see UFOs (it’s either too foggy or raining too hard). This stark evidence isn’t as sinister as it may appear however…

Check out upcoming editions of The Times-Standard to get the story.

Photo taken by Richard R. Stancliff (my eldest son)

Technorati Tags: crop circles,arcata,Pifferini Ranch