Related News Stories

[Origen]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/20/AR2006122000229.html

Mexico Troops Find Hybrid Marijuana Plant

By MARK STEVENSON
The Associated Press
Wednesday, December 20, 2006; 5:35 AM

LAZARO CARDENAS, Mexico -- Soldiers trying to seize control of one Mexico's top drug-producing regions found the countryside teeming with a new hybrid marijuana plant that can be cultivated year-round and cannot be killed with pesticides.

Soldiers fanned out across some of the new fields Tuesday, pulling up plants by the root and burning them, as helicopter gunships clattered overhead to give them cover from a raging drug war in the western state of Michoacan. The plants' roots survive if they are doused with herbicide, said army Gen. Manuel Garcia.

A Mexican army soldier carries a bunch of marijuana at a seized field near the town of Aguililla, in the western Mexican state of Michoacan on Tuesday Dec. 19, 2006. Thousands of soldiers sent to seize control of one of Mexico's top drug-producing regions have found widespread cultivation of a hybrid marijuana plant that is easy to grow and difficult to kill. (AP Photo/Mark Stevenson) (Mark Stevenson-stf - AP)

"These plants have been genetically improved," he told a handful of journalists allowed to accompany soldiers on a daylong raid of some 70 marijuana fields. "Before we could cut the plant and destroy it, but this plant will come back to life unless it's taken out by the roots."

The new plants, known as "Colombians," mature in about two months and can be planted at any time of year, meaning authorities will no longer be able to time raids to coincide with twice-yearly harvests.

The hybrid first appeared in Mexico two years ago but has become the plant of choice for drug traffickers Michoacan, a remote mountainous region that lends to itself to drug production.

Yields are so high that traffickers can now produce as much marijuana on a plot the size of a football field as they used to harvest in 10 to 12 acres. That makes for smaller, harder-to-detect fields, though some discovered Tuesday had sophisticated irrigation systems with sprinklers, pumps and thousands of yards of tubing.

"For each 100 (marijuana plots) that you spot from the air, there are 300 to 500 more that you discover once you get on the ground," Garcia said.

The raids were part of President Felipe Calderon's new offensive to restore order in his home state of Michoacan and fight drug violence that has claimed more than 2,000 lives in Mexico this year.

In Michoacan, officials say the Valencia and Gulf cartels have been battling over lucrative marijuana plantations and smuggling routes for cocaine and methamphetamine to the United States. In one incident, gunmen stormed into a bar and dumped five human heads on the dance floor.

The president, who took office Dec. 1, sent 7,000 soldiers and federal officers to Michoacan last week.

Officials have arrested 45 people, including several suspected leaders of the feuding cartels. They also seized three yachts, 2.2 pounds of gold, bulletproof vests, military equipment and shirts with federal and municipal police logos. More than 18,000 people have been searched, along with 8,000 vehicles and numerous foreign and national boats.

"We are determined to shut down delinquency and stop crime in Mexico because it is endangering the lives of all Mexicans, of our families," Calderon said, calling the operation a "success" so far.

In the past week, soldiers and federal police have found 1,795 marijuana fields covering 585 acres in Michoacan, security officials said.

Officials estimate the raids could cost the cartels up to $626 million, counting the value of plants that have been destroyed and drugs that could have been produced with seized opium poppies and marijuana seeds.

On Sunday, federal authorities announced the capture of suspected drug lord Elias Valencia, the most significant arrest since the operation began.

Calderon's predecessor, Vicente Fox, started out with enthusiastic U.S. applause for his own fight against drug trafficking. U.S. officials called the arrest of drug bosses early in his six-year term unprecedented, while Fox boasted that his administration had destroyed 43,900 acres of marijuana and poppy plantations in its first six months and more than tripled drug seizures.

Yet drug violence has spiked across the country in recent years, with gangs fighting over control of routes following the arrest of drug lords, authorities say.

Mexico has also continued to struggle with corruption among its law enforcement ranks. Garcia said authorities did not tell soldiers where they were being sent on raids and banned the use of cell phones and radios.

[Origen]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Mae_Pictou_Aquash

[Origen]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20070102/wl_csm/ogoddess

Nepal's goddesses: religious abuse?
By Bikash Sangraula, Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

KATHMANDU, NEPAL - Receiving goddess-treatment in this Himalayan nation is not always as good as it may sound. The tradition of isolating and worshipping prepubescent girls as living goddesses - a practice that dates back centuries among Nepal's Newar community - has recently become controversial.

In a practice that is long believed to support Nepal's king, Buddhist girls as young as 4 years old have been selected in this kingdom to serve as Kumaris, the incarnations of the Hindu goddess Taleju.

But two petitions filed at Nepal's Supreme Court, one against and one in favor of the ritual, have placed Kumaris at the center of a tug of war between religion and human rights.

In a case filed in May 2005, lawyer Pun Devi Maharjan said the practice violates child rights and women's rights. In April 2006, Chunda Bajracharya, professor of culture at Tribhuvan University, the country's oldest, filed another petition demanding the tradition be preserved.

A committee, constituted in mid-November 2006 by a court order, will report by early February 2007 on whether the practice violates basic human rights.

But for most Newars, the indigenous ethnic group of the Kathmandu Valley, the practice of selecting girls from Buddhist families to represent the Hindu goddess Taleju is a symbol of unity between Hindus and Buddhists. While almost 80 percent Nepalese are Hindus, the country's more than 1 million Newars are both Hindu and Buddhist.

Twelve goddesses today

There are currently 12 sitting Kumaris, a word that means "virgin" in Nepali. But it is the Kumari of Basantapur who is the most important of all the worshiped virgins. She is worshiped by the king of Nepal and is believed to bestow strength on his monarchy.

A committee of Buddhist priests selects each Kumari through a process that begins once a young candidate has lost her first baby tooth. The Kumari's time in the spotlight is short: She must abdicate immediately after her first menstruation. At that point, the Kumari is expected to transition back to a normal childhood. .

The debate and its implications have hardly impressed Rashmila Shakya, who was a principal Kumari from 1984 to 1992. Being worshiped as a living goddess, Ms. Shakya says, was a privilege.

"It was fun. No one was mad at me. I didn't have to work either. I spent my days playing with dolls," Shakya says in her freshly cemented four-story house in central Kathmandu.

But when asked about the court case, her answer is just as simple: "That's politics. I don't want to get into that." Soft-spoken and shy, Shakya says she feels fortunate to have experienced both the lives of a goddess and a mortal. Her only regret is that she was not able to receive a formal education. "I used to get books used in the school curriculum. But there was no one pushing me to study, and I didn't sit for exams either," she says.

During her Kumari years, Shakya was allowed to meet with her biological family several times a year. She liked living with her caretaker family despite having to always wear makeup and the stiff, formal gown of the goddess.

After returning home in 1992 at the age of 12, she found the transition difficult. But a meeting with another former Kumari - a decade after returning to society - deepened her resolve to lead a normal, educated life. "I saw her sitting in her room, quietly, all made-up the way we used to be at the Kumari House. She still believed she was a goddess," she says. "I told myself this is not the way I am going to spend the rest of my life."

At the age of 26, Shakya recently took her final exams to receive her Bachelor of Science in Information Technology at a college in Kathmandu.

How the practice began

Historians say the living goddess practice dates back to the 17th-century reign of Kathmandu's King Pratap Malla. Legend has it that the king used to play dice in secret with the goddess Taleju. One night, when lustful thoughts entered the king's mind, Taleju vanished. Later, she appeared to the king in a dream and told him to select a young Buddhist girl who would bless the king with the strength to rule.

Every year, during the Indra Jatra festival, the reigning monarch receives the auspicious tika on his forehead from the principal Kumari and takes her sword in a ritual that is believed to give the king the power to rule for another year.

The Kumari tradition will face a tough test in 2007 because the fate of Nepal's monarchy is now at the mercy of a soon-to-be-elected special assembly. In addition to what the court decides, Kumari believers will be watching to see whether the goddess is able to protect Nepal's monarchy.

Lawyer Maharjan's main concern, she says, is that the tradition denies a normal childhood to young girls. "The education given to them is a sham. They are separated from parents. The meager salary they get goes to the caretakers," she says. In her petition, Ms. Maharjan demands that the tradition continue but only after ensuring that the "best interest" of the girls is protected.

Dr. Bajracharya, like Maharjan, is a member of the committee convened to advise the Supreme Court. Both women belong to the Newar community. "This is an attack on religious freedom," says Bajracharya. "Even if the court rules that it violates human rights, the tradition will continue. These are things that can only be reformed, not stopped."

[Mouser]

A UFO at O'Hare? Some pilots thought so Mon Jan 1, 7:02 PM ET



Federal officials say it was probably just some weird weather phenomenon, but a group of United Airlines employees swear they saw a mysterious, saucer-shaped craft hovering over O'Hare Airport last fall.

The workers, some of them pilots, said the object didn't have lights and hovered over an airport terminal before shooting up through the clouds, according to a report in Monday's Chicago Tribune.

The Federal Aviation Administration acknowledged that a United supervisor had called the control tower at O'Hare, asking if anyone had spotted a spinning disc-shaped object. But the controllers didn't see anything, and a preliminary check of radar found nothing out of the ordinary, FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory said.

"Our theory on this is that it was a weather phenomenon," Cory said. "That night was a perfect atmospheric condition in terms of low (cloud) ceiling and a lot of airport lights. When the lights shine up into the clouds, sometimes you can see funny things."

The FAA is not investigating, Cory said.

United spokeswoman Megan McCarthy said company officials don't recall discussing any such incident from Nov. 7.

At least one O'Hare controller, union official Craig Burzych, was amused by it all.

"To fly 7 million light years to O'Hare and then have to turn around and go home because your gate was occupied is simply unacceptable," he said.

[StarkDaddy]

http://www.iranian.ws/iran_news/publish/article_20107.shtml

Jan 10, 2007

An Unidentified Flying Object crashed in Barez Mounts in the central province of Kerman Wednesday morning. Deputy Governor General of Kerman province Abulghassem Nasrollahi told that the crash which was followed by an explosion and a thick spiral of smoke has caused no casualties or damage to properties.

He further denied earlier reports that the explosion has been the result of a plane or chopper crash, reminding that all the passing aircrafts have been reported as sound and safe.

The official further stated that investigations are underway by police and other relevant authorities in this regard.

While other reports spoke of meteors, Nasrollahi said there were no conclusive witnesses in this regard but he did not dismiss the possibility that the crash has been caused by a meteor.

Eye-witnesses assure that the explosion has been caused as a result of the crash of a radiant unidentified flying object onto the ground.

Meantime, an informed source told that the object has been on fire and there has been thick smoke coming out of it prior to the crash, concluding that the object couldn't have been a meteor as meteors do not smoke.

The source also said that the crash has been witnessed by people in several cities, and mentioned that the rendezvous point is located 100 kilometers from the provincial capital city of Kerman.

He said that people in the city of Rafsanjan also reported to have witnessed a similar incident several days ago.

Similar crash incidents have been witnessed frequently during the last year all across Iran, and officials believe that the objects could be spy planes or a hi-tech espionage device.

[Origen]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Alexandria

[Origen]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masque_of_the_Red_Death_%28Ravenloft%29

An adventure entitled Dark Magic in New Orleans, written by Randy Richards, appeared in Dungeon #71 (Nov/Dec 1998). The adventure concerns the machinations of Voodoo King Doctor John and Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau in 1890s New Orleans. The players must discover who is behind a series of murders in old New Orleans, while avoiding their own deaths. The adventure introduces players to wraith roaches, zombie animals, undead snakes, half-gators, and evil cypress trees.

[Origen]

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=186348

Lovecraft Storytelling:

1) The repeated assurance of the accounts credibility and the competance of the narrator.
2) The preparation for a journey, usually with the intention of assuring to the reader its completeness.
3) The journey into the unknown and away from the modern world.
4) Isolation of the narrator.
5) The road which can only be travelled in a single direction. The return path - if possible at all - must be by another means, and only after some unimaginable loss.
6) The presence of unexplainable dread.
7) The insignificance of humanity and all of its achievements. This is probably the most important one and it involves rejection of both humanism (man is important because of his singularity) and traditional religion (man is important because the universe cares about him). In Lovecraftian horror, man is not alone and not unique but the universe does not care about him, and does not even really acknowledge his presence any more than it acknowledges an insect or a mouse.
8) The dawning comprehension and the accompaning panic rather than solace which understanding brings.
9) The inescability of the horror. Any escape is only temporary, because once the horror has been awakened it pursues the narrator endlessly.
10) The eventual release and acceptance of oblivion as preferable to the torment.

I often wonder how much of Lovecraft's narratives were inspired be the journals of artic explorers, especially the failed expeditions.

---

Saying "cyclopean" a lot.
Tentacles. Lots of Tentacles.
The answer to this question is unutterable due to the inconceivable, unguessed horrors that may be unleashed from the unimaginable blackness beyond space.
You forget eldritch, Cyclopean and blasphemous.

---

As far as adventures go here are a few aspects off the top of my head(in no particular order):
1. Strange Tomes or artifacts
2. Strange and isolated people. Isolation can come from any number of things. It could be villagers in a geographically remote town, a the inhabitants of a single house, or even just a reclusive person.
3. Strange and isolated places. A cave, an island, a strange mountain, the artic, Pluto. Just somewhere that people dont go and feels like people dont belong.
4. A slow realization that what you face is beyond your understanding or ability to deal with.
5. Cults or at least cultic activity of a single person or persons, usually related to 2.
6. Strange or unnatural creatures. This really isnt 100% neccesary IMO, but is fairly common.
7. A feeling of ancient and vast history, typically hightened by 1. and 3., that goes beyon human history and may lead to 4.

---

Celebrim brilliantly summarized the elements of a Lovecraftian story; but I would suggest that what makes a great short story and what makes a great RPG adventure are two separate things. Here's a few thoughts about what makes a Lovecraftian RPG adventure:

1. Protagonists are ordinary people (exception: Delta Green, which Lovecraft would probably have hated).

2. A sanity mechanic.

3. Set in the 1920's/30's (for "canonical" Lovecraft, anyway).

4. Opponents that are so powerful that melee combat will usually mean death; characters must succeed by some means other than combat. [Exception: some low-level cultists that can be bitch-slapped by the characters early on is usually a good idea.]

5. Spells that character can cast, but that will harm them whether or not they succeed.

---

A lot of excellent things have already been said. For me it is ...

1. The isolation of characters or character in a setting that is familiar or foreign.

2. A sense of ever present foreboding that is miniscule at first but grows upon the setting as the character realizes something dangerous is going on, happening, but explanation is missing of how, what, and when.

3. Valiant hopelessness; rage against the machine.

4. The facade of structured reality in the presence of hidden chaos that threatens to break through.

5. Will saving throws for sanity checks.

---

Here's a list of things I made when I was looking at various prefab scenarios to select one as my first scenario to run, ever. I wanted as broad a range of things as possible:

(no particular order)
1. PCs dealing with strange/magical objects.
2. Investigating someone or something through local sources (records, word of mouth, interviews, etc.).
3. Attacking/being attacked by monsters/cultists
4. PCs encountering tomes and spells
5. Gathering Evidence via B&E at someone's home
6. Considering/dealing with the attention of the authorities.

I happened to get all six elements in the adventure I ran (Spirits over Arkham, which you can find at Yog-Sothoth.com).

I run games in the modern day--it is, IIRC, November 4th, 2006 in game right now. The PCs are regular people...mostly.

The current roster includes a car photographer (who runs a chop shop and is hunted by the Yakuza), a doctor, an epileptic private eye, a demolition expert, an archaeology professor, a Catholic priest, a generic ex-military guy, as well as an retired machinist NPC. Also, a stage magician PC will be entering the fold soon, to replace the Catholic priest's character.

Next game I think I'm going to stress a more middle class vibe.

---

1 There's more going on in the universe than most people know.
2 Knowledge of this can only bring madness and doom.
3 There's no hope.
4 Magic = Madness
5 Humankind is an insect in the cosmic schema of things

Those are the basic trends of reality.

6 Don't trust anyone over 40.
7 Don't read anything that's not from Amazon.com
8 Guns are useless
9 Don't ask yourself, "what does this button do?"
10 If you receive a piece of mail or telegram from an old colleague,...get your affairs in order.

Those are the typical ingredients of a CoC sandwich.

[Origen]

Conan storytelling:

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=186347

Some fist sized rubies and a hot wench as a reward in the end.
Magic is evil and strength will win the day. Always getting rich and spending it on ale and whores.

1) Evil magic
2) Some sort of monster or embodied god
2.5) Power hungry, evil, or just mad humans.
3) Treasure
4) An all or mostly naked woman or women
5) A culture not the barbarian's own
6) An exotic location
7) Sailing a road of blood and slaughter
8) All or mostly naked women.
9) Vengeance (not alway's Conan's)
10) Sometimes, a foe that cannot be defeated by sword and sinew.

Huge amounts of violence being visited upon people with ridiculously sharp and oversized weapons, and lots and lots of treasure being looted, hoarded and then squandered invested on wine, women (or if you prefer, men) and song. Oh yes, and Warrior Women (at least some, if not all, of whom should be wearing Chainmail Bikinis) are always a plus point.

A temporary alliance with a foe, born out of the immediate necessity of banding together to defeat a more threatening common foe. The allied foe usually gets wasted in the process.

I would also point out that along with the scantily clad women, Conan seems to lose his own clothes pretty often in the fighting and running, often being reduced to belt and loincloth. Read into it what you will...

From what I recall from reading the comic book series (Thomas & BW Smith) - succeeding by the skin of your teeth. There's plenty of narrow escapes and snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. In the middle of the action Conan always seems to have the deck stacked against him because he underestimates the challenge, but somehow his strength and a good amount of luck pulls him through. I think it's all part of this "you have a greater destiny" that always is on the periphery of the story.

[Origen]

http://www.wood.army.mil/CmdGrp/

http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A150350b.htm

[Origen]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clyde_Barrow

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Bc10.jpg

[Origen]

http://www.novaroma.org/wiki/Choosing_a_Roman_name

[Origen]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fu_Dog

[Mouser]

Honeybees Vanish, Leaving Keepers in Peril
By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO
VISALIA, Calif., Feb. 23 — David Bradshaw has endured countless stings during his life as a beekeeper, but he got the shock of his career when he opened his boxes last month and found half of his 100 million bees missing.

In 24 states throughout the country, beekeepers have gone through similar shocks as their bees have been disappearing inexplicably at an alarming rate, threatening not only their livelihoods but also the production of numerous crops, including California almonds, one of the nation’s most profitable.

“I have never seen anything like it,” Mr. Bradshaw, 50, said from an almond orchard here beginning to bloom. “Box after box after box are just empty. There’s nobody home.”

The sudden mysterious losses are highlighting the critical link that honeybees play in the long chain that gets fruit and vegetables to supermarkets and dinner tables across the country.

Beekeepers have fought regional bee crises before, but this is the first national affliction.

Now, in a mystery worthy of Agatha Christie, bees are flying off in search of pollen and nectar and simply never returning to their colonies. And nobody knows why. Researchers say the bees are presumably dying in the fields, perhaps becoming exhausted or simply disoriented and eventually falling victim to the cold.

As researchers scramble to find answers to the syndrome they have decided to call “colony collapse disorder,” growers are becoming openly nervous about the capability of the commercial bee industry to meet the growing demand for bees to pollinate dozens of crops, from almonds to avocados to kiwis.

Along with recent stresses on the bees themselves, as well as on an industry increasingly under consolidation, some fear this disorder may force a breaking point for even large beekeepers.

A Cornell University study has estimated that honeybees annually pollinate more than $14 billion worth of seeds and crops in the United States, mostly fruits, vegetables and nuts. “Every third bite we consume in our diet is dependent on a honeybee to pollinate that food,” said Zac Browning, vice president of the American Beekeeping Federation.

The bee losses are ranging from 30 to 60 percent on the West Coast, with some beekeepers on the East Coast and in Texas reporting losses of more than 70 percent; beekeepers consider a loss of up to 20 percent in the offseason to be normal.

Beekeepers are the nomads of the agriculture world, working in obscurity in their white protective suits and frequently trekking around the country with their insects packed into 18-wheelers, looking for pollination work.

Once the domain of hobbyists with a handful of backyard hives, beekeeping has become increasingly commercial and consolidated. Over the last two decades, the number of beehives, now estimated by the Agriculture Department to be 2.4 million, has dropped by a quarter and the number of beekeepers by half.

Pressure has been building on the bee industry. The costs to maintain hives, also known as colonies, are rising along with the strain on bees of being bred to pollinate rather than just make honey. And beekeepers are losing out to suburban sprawl in their quest for spots where bees can forage for nectar to stay healthy and strong during the pollination season.

“There are less beekeepers, less bees, yet more crops to pollinate,” Mr. Browning said. “While this sounds sweet for the bee business, with so much added loss and expense due to disease, pests and higher equipment costs, profitability is actually falling.”

Some 15 worried beekeepers convened in Florida this month to brainstorm with researchers how to cope with the extensive bee losses. Investigators are exploring a range of theories, including viruses, a fungus and poor bee nutrition.

They are also studying a group of pesticides that were banned in some European countries to see if they are somehow affecting bees’ innate ability to find their way back home.

It could just be that the bees are stressed out. Bees are being raised to survive a shorter offseason, to be ready to pollinate once the almond bloom begins in February. That has most likely lowered their immunity to viruses.

Mites have also damaged bee colonies, and the insecticides used to try to kill mites are harming the ability of queen bees to spawn as many worker bees. The queens are living half as long as they did just a few years ago.

Researchers are also concerned that the willingness of beekeepers to truck their colonies from coast to coast could be adding to bees’ stress, helping to spread viruses and mites and otherwise accelerating whatever is afflicting them.

Dennis van Engelsdorp, a bee specialist with the state of Pennsylvania who is part of the team studying the bee colony collapses, said the “strong immune suppression” investigators have observed “could be the AIDS of the bee industry,” making bees more susceptible to other diseases that eventually kill them off.

Growers have tried before to do without bees. In past decades, they have used everything from giant blowers to helicopters to mortar shells to try to spread pollen across the plants. More recently researchers have been trying to develop “self-compatible” almond trees that will require fewer bees. One company is even trying to commercialize the blue orchard bee, which is virtually stingless and works at colder temperatures than the honeybee.

Beekeepers have endured two major mite infestations since the 1980s, which felled many hobbyist beekeepers, and three cases of unexplained disappearing disorders as far back as 1894. But those episodes were confined to small areas, Mr. van Engelsdorp said.

Today the industry is in a weaker position to deal with new stresses. A flood of imported honey from China and Argentina has depressed honey prices and put more pressure on beekeepers to take to the road in search of pollination contracts. Beekeepers are trucking tens of billions of bees around the country every year.

California’s almond crop, by far the biggest in the world, now draws more than half of the country’s bee colonies in February. The crop has been both a boon to commercial beekeeping and a burden, as pressure mounts for the industry to fill growing demand. Now spread over 580,000 acres stretched across 300 miles of California’s Central Valley, the crop is expected to grow to 680,000 acres by 2010.

Beekeepers now earn many times more renting their bees out to pollinate crops than in producing honey. Two years ago a lack of bees for the California almond crop caused bee rental prices to jump, drawing beekeepers from the East Coast.

This year the price for a bee colony is about $135, up from $55 in 2004, said Joe Traynor, a bee broker in Bakersfield, Calif.

A typical bee colony ranges from 15,000 to 30,000 bees. But beekeepers’ costs are also on the rise. In the past decade, fuel, equipment and even bee boxes have doubled and tripled in price.

The cost to control mites has also risen, along with the price of queen bees, which cost about $15 each, up from $10 three years ago.

To give bees energy while they are pollinating, beekeepers now feed them protein supplements and a liquid mix of sucrose and corn syrup carried in tanker-sized trucks costing $12,000 per load. Over all, Mr. Bradshaw figures, in recent years he has spent $145 a hive annually to keep his bees alive, for a profit of about $11 a hive, not including labor expenses. The last three years his net income has averaged $30,000 a year from his 4,200 bee colonies, he said.

“A couple of farmers have asked me, ‘Why are you doing this?’ ” Mr. Bradshaw said. “I ask myself the same thing. But it is a job I like. It is a lifestyle. I work with my dad every day. And now my son is starting to work with us.”


Almonds fetch the highest prices for bees, but if there aren’t enough bees to go around, some growers may be forced to seek alternatives to bees or change their variety of trees.

“It would be nice to know that we have a dependable source of honey bees,” said Martin Hein, an almond grower based in Visalia. “But at this point I don’t know that we have that for the amount of acres we have got.”

To cope with the losses, beekeepers have been scouring elsewhere for bees to fulfill their contracts with growers. Lance Sundberg, a beekeeper from Columbus, Mont., said he spent $150,000 in the last two weeks buying 1,000 packages of bees — amounting to 14 million bees — from Australia.

He is hoping the Aussie bees will help offset the loss of one-third of the 7,600 hives he manages in six states. “The fear is that when we mix the bees the die-offs will continue to occur,” Mr. Sundberg said.

Migratory beekeeping is a lonely life that many compare to truck driving. Mr. Sundberg spends more than half the year driving 20 truckloads of bees around the country. In Terra Bella, an hour south of Visalia, Jack Brumley grimaced from inside his equipment shed as he watched Rosa Patiño use a flat tool to scrape dried honey from dozens of beehive frames that once held bees. Some 2,000 empty boxes — which once held one-third of his total hives — were stacked to the roof.

Beekeepers must often plead with landowners to allow bees to be placed on their land to forage for nectar. One large citrus grower has pushed for California to institute a “no-fly zone” for bees of at least two miles to prevent them from pollinating a seedless form of Mandarin orange.

But the quality of forage might make a difference. Last week Mr. Bradshaw used a forklift to remove some of his bee colonies from a spot across a riverbed from orange groves. Only three of the 64 colonies there have died or disappeared.

“It will probably take me two to three more years to get back up,” he said. “Unless I spend gobs of money I don’t have.”

[Origen]

http://www.thememoryhole.org/memoryblog-april03.htm

[BattleNymph]

Hmmmm...I have an idea what I'm going to do if I survive this current difficulty.

[BattleNymph]

http://paranormal.about.com/library/weekly/aa062600a.htm

http://www.lorencoleman.com/chupacabra_1.html

[Origen]

http://archive.greenpeace.org/comms/nukes/ctbt/read10.html

World Nuclear Arsenals 1996
Greenpeace April 1996
At the beginning of 1996, there were some 21,000 operational nuclear weapons in the world. Divided among six countries, nearly 95 percent of the world's nuclear weapons are in the possession of the U.S. and Russia.

Half a decade after the ending of the Cold War, none of the nuclear powers display any willingness to give up their nuclear arsenals. Instead, all are consolidating their nuclear forces at lower levels, adjusting their nuclear strategies to new post-Cold War missions, and all continue to modernize their nuclear forces.

Sea-based nuclear forces are attaining a new prominence in the post-Cold War era. While all U.S. and Russian land-based missiles (ICBMs) will be limited to carrying one nuclear warhead under the START II Treaty, strategic submarines will continue to carry offensive submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) with multiple warheads. The sea is the only place where strategic nuclear operations continue largely as they did during the Cold War. The U.S. and Russia both plan to put about half of their future deployable strategic nuclear warheads at sea; France nearly 90 percent; while Britain will have its entire nuclear arsenal on submarines.

Since the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) was signed in 1987 and the Bush-Gorbachev proposals of 1991, there have been no new arms control agreements or initiatives to constrain or prohibit non-strategic nuclear forces although they represent almost a quarter of the world's nuclear stockpile and proliferant states are more likely first to develop tactical rather than strategic nuclear weapons.

The United States
The U.S. has some 9,150 nuclear weapons in its operational arsenal. This includes approximately 8,000 strategic warheads of nine different types (deployed on nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, ICBMs, and bombers), and 1,150 non-strategic warheads of five types. Another 1,100 strategic and non- strategic nuclear warheads are thought to be held in reserve.
The U.S. continues to modernize its nuclear arsenal, albeit at much lower rate than during the Cold War. New Trident nuclear- powered ballistic missile submarines and B-2 long-range bombers continue to enter service, and major upgrades are underway on both the Trident SLBMs and land-based Minuteman ICBMs. Moreover, the U.S. plans to "reproduce" hundreds of nuclear warheads to replace aging or "unsafe" warheads in the stockpile. This includes a new version of the B-61 air-dropped nuclear bomb to replace the older B-53 bomb in the year 2000 for the purpose of being able to destroy underground facilities.

Under START II, it is widely perceived that the number of U.S. nuclear weapons will be reduced to 3,500 warheads by 2003. But the reality is different: the Clinton administration plans to retain a nuclear arsenal more than twice that size. START II does not require nuclear warheads to be destroyed, so the Clinton administration will keep another 2,500 intact warheads in reserve as a "hedge" which can be "uploaded" onto operational platforms (e.g. submarine missiles and bombers) to quickly "reconstitute" the force level back to the START I treaty size if this is deemed necessary. Moreover, the START II treaty will only affect deployed strategic nuclear warheads, but the U.S. will also keep 950 warheads for non-strategic forces (these will be a combination of air-dropped bombs and submarine fired sea-launched cruise missiles (SLCMs)).

Russia (CIS)
Russia's nuclear arsenal consists of more than 10,400 nuclear warheads, of which 7,235 are strategic (deployed on nuclear- powered ballistic missile submarines, ICBMs, and bombers), and approximately 3,200 are non-strategic warheads. Another 7,000 - 13,000 nuclear warheads are thought to be in reserve or awaiting dismantlement.
Russia continues to try to upgrade the SS-N-20 SLBM on board the six Typhoon class (Project 941) nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines with a new SLBM, the SS-N-26. A new nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine has been designed, and the Russian Navy is hoping to receive financing to proceed with its construction. Also, SS-25 (Topol) ICBMs continue to be produced and deployed; plans call for several hundred more to enter service by 2003.

In addition to the 3,500 operational warheads permitted under START II, like with the U.S.'s arsenal, the actual size of Russia's future nuclear stockpile will be much larger. Russia may keep approximately an additional 3,000 non-strategic nuclear warheads which are not counted under START II. Russia also may chose to retain a reserve of thousands of additional warheads.

France
As the largest of the "smaller" nuclear powers, France has an arsenal of nearly 500 operational nuclear warheads deployed on nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, on land-based aircraft, and with aircraft on board an aircraft carrier.
French President Jacques Chirac announced in February 1996 that France will scrap its land-based nuclear missile force, thus making France the second nuclear power after the U.K. to abandon a "triad" of nuclear forces. This plan will eliminate the 18 operational SSBS S3D missiles deployed in southern France as well as 30 Hades missiles and their associated TN90 warheads held in storage.

Yet at the same time, President Chirac disclosed plans to modernize France's sea- and air-based nuclear forces. This includes deployment in 2010-2015 of a new SLBM, designated the M51, on board four new Triomphant class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, scheduled to enter service between 1996 and 2005. A new nuclear air-launched missile, designated the ASMP+, will also be built for entry into service around 2007. It is thought that the six nuclear tests conducted by France in the South Pacific between September 1995 and January 1996 were partly used to complete the development of the new warheads for the M51 and ASMP+ missiles.

China
China has almost 450 nuclear weapons in its arsenal. The weapons are deployed in on triad of nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, ICBMs, and bombers. The arsenal also includes about 150 nuclear weapons for non-strategic use, including nuclear artillery shells and atomic demolition munitions.
Unlike the other nuclear powers, China has not announced any reductions in its nuclear stockpile as a result of the end of the Cold War.

Modernization of Chinese nuclear forces includes development of two new ICBMs (the DF-31 and DF-41) which are expected to be deployed in the late 1990s and around 2010, respectively. The DF-41 will be China's first missile with multiple warheads. A new SLBM, the JL-2 (CSS-N-4), is also under development for deployment in the late 1990s. It has a range of nearly five times that of China's current SLBM.

United Kingdom
The U.K. nuclear arsenal consists of approximately 392 nuclear warheads, deployed on nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines and with Royal Air Force (RAF) fighter-bombers.
The U.K. government has decided to phase out all air-delivered nuclear bombs by 1998. After that, the entire operational nuclear stockpile will be deployed on board a fleet of four new nuclear-powered Vanguard class ballistic missile submarines carrying U.S.-made Trident SLBMs. The second of the class, the HMS Victorious, recently entered service. This arrangement will slightly reduce the U.K. nuclear arsenal to a maximum of 384 nuclear warheads.

In addition to a strategic role with multiple warheads, Trident SLBMs on board U.K. ballistic missile submarines will also have a tactical mission, replacing or augmenting that of the RAF bombs being phased out. According to press accounts, the HMS Victorious deployed in January 1996 with a mix of single-warhead "sub-strategic" and multiple-warhead strategic Trident missiles.

Other Nuclear Powers
In addition to the five declared nuclear powers, Israel has developed nuclear weapons, and is thought to have an operational stockpile of some 200 warheads. India, which conducted a nuclear test in 1974, may also have developed a limited nuclear arsenal. Pakistan may also to be capable of building nuclear weapons, but it is unclear if it has done so.
Main Sources: Robert S. Norris, et al., Nuclear Weapons Databook Volume V: British, French, and Chinese Nuclear Forces (Westview Press: Colorado, 1994); Robert S. Norris and William Arkin, "Russian (C.I.S.) Strategic Nuclear Forces, End of 1995," Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, March/April 1996; Robert S. Norris and William Arkin, "U.S. Strategic Nuclear Forces, End of 1995," Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, January/February 1996,; Thomas B. Cochran, "U.S. Inventories of Nuclear Weapons and Weapon-Useable Fissile Material," Natural Resources Defense Council, September 1995; Jane's Defence Weekly articles.

WORLD OPERATIONAL NUCLEAR ARSENALS, 1996*
Country Strategic Non-Strategic Total
The Five
United States ~8,000 1,150 ~9,150
Russia/CIS 7,235 ~3,200 10,435
France 462 20 482
China 284 150 434
United Kingdom ~292 ~100 ~392
Subtotal 16,273 4,620 20,893
Others
Israel n.a. ~200** ~200
India n.a. n.a. n.a.
Pakistan n.a. n.a. n.a.
Total 16,273 4,820 21,093

* Thousands of additional nuclear warheads are held in reserve or awaiting dismantlement.
** Details of the Israeli arsenal are not known, but it is assumed only to consist of shorter range nuclear weapons and is thus counted as non-strategic.

[Origen]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Trident_system

[Origen]

Look at this later for possible modification of Action Points:

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=186805&page=2&pp=40&

Also, look at Action Points in UA.

[Origen]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akashic_Records

[Chimaera]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akashic_Records

That was very cool... The Akashic remains one of my favourite d20 classes.

[carmachu]

Very cool. I like this thread. I've been scrolling through the links.

[Origen]

Archbishop Joachim of Nizhny Novgorod: reportedly crucified upside down, on the Royal Doors of the Cathedral in Sevastopol, Ukrainian SSR in 1920.

[Origen]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_IV_of_the_United_Kingdom

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porphyria

[Origen]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070407/ap_on_re_mi_ea/holy_land_holy_fire

Easter 'holy fire' ritual draws crowd By DIAA HADID, Associated Press Writer
Sat Apr 7, 1:33 PM ET

JERUSALEM - Worshippers filled Christianity's most revered church on Saturday, lighting rows of candles, dripping hot wax on their faces and dancing in celebration of the Orthodox Easter 'holy fire' ritual.

Orthodox Christians believe Jesus Christ was crucified and buried where the Church of the Holy Sepulcher now stands, and the fire appears spontaneously from his tomb on the eve of Easter as a message that he has not forgotten his followers.

The fire ceremony started with the entrance of Jerusalem's Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theofilos III, dressed in his robes and a large yellow-and-white cowl, and carrying a large staff.

He descended into the church's underground tomb to bring out the flame. When he emerged, church bells pealed and flames were passed around to the thousands of faithful, filling the church with light and smoke.

Worshippers quickly lit their candles — many of them carrying bunches of long tapers tied up with string and decorated with pictures of Jerusalem. Arab Christian women ululated and others beat out drum rhythms. One youth bounced up and down on another's shoulders, waving a candle.

Other celebrants dripped candle wax onto their faces.

The "holy fire" is taken aboard special flights to Athens and other cities — connecting many of the 200 million Orthodox worldwide to their spiritual roots.

Outside the church in Jerusalem's Old City, Israeli police helped worshippers light candles from the flame, many of the faithful stretching their arms across barricades erected to keep back the surging crowd.

Tens of thousands of pilgrims packed into the walled Old City for Easter, and many said they had been unable to get past the barriers to reach the ceremony.

A local Greek Orthodox woman, Reem Carmi, 27, said she and two friends shouldered their way through police lines and into the crush of candle-waving celebrants.

"This is a beautiful occasion for me," she said. "Christianity is based on light and resurrection."

Although police could not give an exact figure, the number of Easter pilgrims in Jerusalem was higher than normal because the calendars of five major Christian faiths coincided this year, bringing Orthodox and Western Christians to the cramped Old City at the same time. This happens only once every four years.

Among those unable, or unwilling, to brave the crush, 70-year-old Athena Kiraguzion, from Thessaloniki, Greece, sat with friends watching live coverage of the ritual on a TV set placed on a chair in one of the Old City's cobbled lanes.

In addition to a crucifix around her neck she also wore several religious icons and an eye-shaped blue pendant to ward off misfortune.

"I wanted to go to the church but...it was difficult," she said, speaking through an interpreter. "There were many people and I'm sick. I wanted to see but I can't."

The event dates back at least 1,200 years.

Last year, tempers flared as thousands of people waited to pass through security barricades into the Old City. Some priests and pilgrims shoved and punched police, and there were scuffles inside the church. There were no reported disturbances this year and regular worshippers said the police presence was heavier than it had been previously.

Police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said in a statement that several thousand police officers were deployed in the area, alleys around the church were blocked off and police barred traffic from the area. He did not give further details.

[Origen]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20070410/sc_livescience/earlyearthwaspurplestudysuggests

Early Earth Was Purple, Study Suggests Ker Than
LiveScience Staff Writer
LiveScience.com

The earliest life on Earth might have been just as purple as it is green today, a scientist claims.

Ancient microbes might have used a molecule other than chlorophyll to harness the Sun’s rays, one that gave the organisms a violet hue.

Chlorophyll, the main photosynthetic pigment of plants, absorbs mainly blue and red wavelengths from the Sun and reflects green ones, and it is this reflected light that gives plants their leafy color. This fact puzzles some biologists because the sun transmits most of its energy in the green part of the visible spectrum.

“Why would chlorophyll have this dip in the area that has the most energy?” said Shil DasSarma, a microbial geneticist at the University of Maryland.

After all, evolution has tweaked the human eye to be most sensitive to green light (which is why images from night-vision goggles are tinted green). So why is photosynthesis not fine-tuned the same way?

Possible answer

DasSarma thinks it is because chlorophyll appeared after another light-sensitive molecule called retinal was already present on early Earth. Retinal, today found in the plum-colored membrane of a photosynthetic microbe called halobacteria, absorbs green light and reflects back red and violet light, the combination of which appears purple.

Primitive microbes that used retinal to harness the sun’s energy might have dominated early Earth, DasSarma said, thus tinting some of the first biological hotspots on the planet a distinctive purple color.

Being latecomers, microbes that used chlorophyll could not compete directly with those utilizing retinal, but they survived by evolving the ability to absorb the very wavelengths retinal did not use, DasSarma said.

“Chlorophyll was forced to make use of the blue and red light, since all the green light was absorbed by the purple membrane-containing organisms,” said William Sparks, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Maryland, who helped DasSarma develop his idea.

Chlorophyll more efficient

The researchers speculate that chlorophyll- and retinal-based organisms coexisted for a time. “You can imagine a situation where photosynthesis is going on just beneath a layer of purple membrane-containing organisms,” DasSarma told LiveScience.

But after a while, the researchers say, the balance tipped in favor of chlorophyll because it is more efficient than retinal.

“Chlorophyll may not sample the peak of the solar spectrum, but it makes better use of the light that it does absorb,” Sparks explained.

DasSarma admits his ideas are currently little more than speculation, but says they fit with other things scientists know about retinal and early Earth.

For example, retinal has a simpler structure than chlorophyll, and would have been easier to produce in the low-oxygen environment of early Earth, DasSarma said.

Also, the process for making retinal is very similar to that of a fatty acid, which many scientists think was one of the key-ingredients for the development of cells.

“Fatty acids were likely needed to form the membranes in the earliest cells,” DasSarma said.

Lastly, halobacteria, a microbe alive today that uses retinal, is not a bacterium at all. It belongs to a group of organisms called archaea, whose lineage stretches back to a time before Earth had an oxygen atmosphere.

Taken together, these different lines of evidence suggest retinal formed earlier than chlorophyll, DasSarma said.

The team presented its so-called “purple Earth” hypothesis earlier this year at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS), and it is also detailed in the latest issue of the magazine American Scientist. The team also plans to submit the work to a peer-reviewed science journal later this year.

Caution needed

David Des Marais, a geochemist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California, calls the purple Earth hypothesis “interesting,” but cautions against making too much of one observation.

“I’m a little cautious about looking at who’s using which wavelengths of light and making conclusions about how things were like 3 or 4 billion years ago,” said Des Marais, who was not involved in the research.

Des Marais said an alternative explanation for why chlorophyll doesn’t absorb green light is that doing so might actually harm plants.

“That energy comes screaming in. It’s a two-edged sword,” Des Marais said in a telephone interview. “Yes, you get energy from it, but it’s like people getting 100 percent oxygen and getting poisoned. You can get too much of a good thing.”

Des Marais points to cyanobacteria, a photosynthesizing microbe with an ancient history, which lives just beneath the ocean surface in order to avoid the full brunt of the Sun.

“We see a lot of evidence of adaptation to get light levels down a bit,” Des Marais said. “I don’t know that there’s necessarily an evolutionary downside to not being at the peak of the solar spectrum.”

Implications for astrobiology

If future research validates the purple Earth hypothesis, it would have implications for scientists searching for life on distant worlds, the researchers say.

“We should make sure we don’t lock into ideas that are entirely centered on what we see on Earth,” said DasSarma’s colleague, Neil Reid, also of the STScI.

For example, one biomarker of special interest in astrobiology is the “red edge” produced by plants on Earth. Terrestrial vegetation absorbs most, but not all, of the red light in the visible spectrum. Many scientists have proposed using the small portion of reflected red light as an indicator of life on other planets.

“I think when most people think about remote sensing, they’re focused on chlorophyll-based life,” DasSarma said. “It may be that is the more prominent one, but if you happen to see a planet that is at this early stage of evolution, and you’re looking for chlorophyll, you might miss it because you’re looking at the wrong wavelength.”

Why is Grass Green?
How Life Began: New Research Suggests Simple Approach
Early Earth Not So Hellish, New Study Suggests
Original Story: Early Earth Was Purple, Study Suggests
Visit LiveScience.com for more daily news, views and scientific inquiry with an original, provocative point of view. LiveScience reports amazing, real world breakthroughs, made simple and stimulating for people on the go. Check out our collection of Science, Animal and Dinosaur Pictures, Science Videos, Hot Topics, Trivia, Top 10s, Voting, Amazing Images, Reader Favorites, and more. Get cool gadgets at the new LiveScience Store, sign up for our free daily email newsletter and check out our RSS feeds today!

[Origen]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_books#Works_invented_by_Frank_He rbert

[Origen]

http://www.cocaine.org/cokecrime/index.html

http://www.prism-magazine.org/april00/html/compromising.cfm

[Origen]

http://mmtaylor.net/Holiday2000/Legends/Atlantis.html

[Origen]

There are black zones of shadow close to our daily paths, and now and then some evil soul breaks a passage through. When that happens, the man who knows must strike before reckoning the consequences. - H.P. Lovecraft

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. - Hamlet Act I, scene 5

You better wake up. The world you live in is just a sugar-coated topping! There is another world beneath it - the real world. And if you want to survive it, you better learn to pull the trigger! - Blade

In the absence of light, darkness prevails. There are things that go bump in the night, Agent Myers. Make no mistake about that. And we are the ones who bump back. - Professor Trevor 'Broom' Bruttenholm, Hellboy

[Paulypalooza]

There are black zones of shadow close to our daily paths, and now and then some evil soul breaks a passage through. When that happens, the man who knows must strike before reckoning the consequences. - H.P. Lovecraft

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. - Hamlet Act I, scene 5

You better wake up. The world you live in is just a sugar-coated topping! There is another world beneath it - the real world. And if you want to survive it, you better learn to pull the trigger! - Blade

In the absence of light, darkness prevails. There are things that go bump in the night, Agent Myers. Make no mistake about that. And we are the ones who bump back. - Professor Trevor 'Broom' Bruttenholm, Hellboy

I like to think this quote sums up our role in the game
Men in Black (1997)

Kay: There's always an Arquillian Battle Cruiser, or a Corillian Death Ray, or an intergalactic plague that is about to wipe out all life on this miserable little planet, and the only way these people can get on with their happy lives is that they Do... Not... Know about it

[Parzival]

It may or may not be relevant, but this news story seems to fit the thread. http://en.rian.ru/world/20070607/66833897.html

[Origen]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20070608/sc_livescience/ancientegyptiancityspottedfromspace

Ancient Egyptian City Spotted From Space Heather Whipps
Special to LiveScience
LiveScience.com

Satellites hovering above Egypt have zoomed in on a 1,600-year-old metropolis, archaeologists say.

Images captured from space pinpoint telltale signs of previous habitation in the swatch of land 200 miles south of Cairo, which digging recently confirmed as an ancient settlement dating from about 400 A.D.

The find is part of a larger project aiming to map as much of ancient Egypt's archaeological sites, or "tells," as possible before they are destroyed or covered by modern development.

"It is the biggest site discovered so far," said project leader Sarah Parcak of the University of Alabama at Birmingham. "Based on the coins and pottery we found, it appears to be a massive regional center that traded with Greece, Turkey and Libya."

Another large city dating to 600 B.C. and a monastery from 400 A.D. are some of the four hundred or so sites that Parcak has located during her work with the satellites. The oldest dates back over 5,000 years.

Egypt contains a wealth of already identified archaeological tells like these, but even they represent only about 0.01 percent of what is out there still uncovered, Parcak said.

Most of the ancient settlements still buried are at risk of being lost to looting and urban sprawl. Residential sites, where the Egyptian empire's millions of citizens lived during its heyday, are especially vulnerable, archaeologists say.

"There are thousands of settlements that Egyptians don't even know are there," Parcak told LiveScience. "Nothing will ever destroy the Pyramids or the Temple of Luxor, but these huge settlement sites where we get a lot of information are being threatened. And that's how we find out how people lived."

The satellite technology lets archaeologists such as Parcak—the first to use space imagery in Egypt—identify points of interest on a large scale.

"Basically, I'm trying to distinguish the ancient remains from the modern landscape," she said. "A site is going to appear very differently from space." Archaeological sites absorb moisture in a different way, she explained, and tend to be covered with specific types of soil and vegetation.

The subtle differences would take much longer to identify on the ground, said Parcak, so Egypt's government uses her catalog to identify sites and excavate there before development takes over and destroys the site for good.

[Origen]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070730/ap_on_go_su_co/scotus_roberts

Chief Justice Roberts suffers seizure
By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Chief Justice John Roberts suffered a seizure at his summer home in Maine on Monday, causing a fall that resulted in minor scrapes, Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said.

He will remain in a hospital in Maine overnight.

Roberts, 52, was taken by ambulance to the Penobscot Bay Medical Center, where he underwent a "thorough neurological evaluation, which revealed no cause for concern," Arberg said in a statement.

Roberts had a similar episode in 1993, she said.

The incident occurred around 2 p.m. EDT on a dock near the home in Port Clyde on Maine's Hupper Island. Port Clyde, which is part of the town of St. George, is about 90 miles by car northeast of Portland, midway up the coast of Maine.

Roberts was taken by private boat to the mainland and then transferred to an ambulance, St. George Fire Chief Tim Polky said.

"He was conscious and alert when they put him in the rescue (vehicle)," Polky said. The hospital, in Rockport, did not immediately return a call from The Associated Press.

Named to the court by President Bush in 2005, Roberts is the youngest justice on a court in which the senior member, John Paul Stevens, is 87. Bush was informed of the hospitalization by his chief of staff, Josh Bolten, the White House said.

Roberts is the father of two young children.

Doctors called Monday's incident "a benign idiopathic seizure," Arberg said. The White House described the January 1993 episode as an "isolated, idiosyncratic seizure."

Larry Robbins, a Washington attorney who worked with Roberts at the Justice Department in 1993, said he drove Roberts to work for several months after the incident. Robbins said Roberts never mentioned what the problem was and he never heard of it happening again.

In 2001, Roberts described his health as "excellent," according to Senate Judiciary Committee records.

Roberts became chief justice after the death of William Rehnquist in September 2005, although Bush had first chosen him to take Sandra Day O'Connor's seat when she announced her retirement earlier that year.

He had served as an appellate judge in Washington and spent more than a decade before that as a lawyer at the Hogan and Hartson law firm, where he specialized in arguing cases before the Supreme Court.

Roberts also served in the Reagan and Bush administrations in the 1980s and '90s. He was a clerk for Rehnquist after graduating from Harvard Law School.

Roberts spent a couple of weeks in Europe in July, teaching a course in Vienna and attending a conference in Paris. He was at the court in Washington late last week.

[Origen]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070807/ap_on_re_us/bridge_collapse

Navy divers join Minn. bridge search
By PATRICK CONDON, Associated Press Writer

MINNEAPOLIS - An elite team of Navy divers joined the search for victims of the interstate bridge collapse Tuesday, bringing to the job lessons learned from such disasters as TWA Flight 800 and the loss of the space shuttle Columbia.

The team of 16 divers and a five-member command crew arrived a day earlier. Once their gear arrived before dawn Tuesday, several divers immediately entered the Mississippi River even though local officials encouraged them to wait until daybreak.

"Two in the morning, they dove into the water," Minneapolis Police Capt. Mike Martin said, calling them "the best divers in the world."

"These guys make our SWAT guys look humble," Martin said.

Navy Senior Chief David Nagle said the divers wanted to get a feel for the area and were in the water for about two hours. Divers were back in the river by late morning, removing concrete rebar and other debris.

Also Tuesday, state officials laid out tentative plans for the bridge reconstruction, and Gov. Tim Pawlenty said his office was considering a victims' compensation fund.

The dive team's arrival raised hopes of speeding up the recovery operation. At least eight people are missing and presumed dead in last week's collapse, with perhaps more still in the river. Five people are confirmed dead.

Joining the Navy team was an FBI dive crew, doing forensic work for the investigation. Their tools included a small unmanned submarine equipped with a robotic arm. "It's basically crime-lab-underwater kind of work," Martin said.

The Navy and FBI team bring experience and technology far beyond what's been available to local search crews, who complained they have been hampered by dangerously unstable wreckage and a rapid current.

The Navy divers will be tethered to above-ground oxygen tanks, so they can stay in the water much longer than local divers, who had been using scuba tanks. Heavy-duty equipment will allow divers to cut through steel wreckage. The Navy also has sophisticated sonar to scan for bodies.

Mark Phillips, owner and publisher of PS Diver Monthly, a newsletter for public safety divers in Lumberton, Texas, called Navy divers "the big guns."

A disaster "as monumental as the Minnesota bridge collapse is going to be above and beyond any local agency's capacity, regardless of where they are," he said.

Phil Newsum, executive director of the Association of Diving Contractors International, said searching a river such as the Mississippi is tough for divers. The current can knock loose and carry pieces of debris, and it stirs up mud that makes visibility nearly zero.

The Navy team will likely use its sonar to identify objects in the river that roughly match the size of a human body.

"Their imaging technology is tremendous, but once you identify where something is, you go in and you're essentially diving by Braille," Newsum said. "You're going by feel only. That's tremendously challenging."

It's also emotionally difficult work, Newsum said. "You have to get your head right before you go down there, because you're recovering a human being."

Navy divers assisted in the reclamation of historic sunken ships including the ironclad Civil War ship the Monitor. After the 1996 crash of TWA Flight 800 off Long Island, N.Y., they made more than 700 dives to recover bodies and reclaim wreckage to help the government investigation. Navy divers recovered both the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder.

The city asked residents to observe a moment of silence Tuesday evening at the minute the bridge fell six days earlier. Bells at churches and City Hall were to toll immediately after.

Four people still hospitalized with injuries from the collapse improved Tuesday to serious condition, leaving only one person in critical condition. About 100 people were hurt in the disaster.

State officials announced tentative plans for the replacement bridge, with five lanes each way instead of four. The new bridge also might be built to accommodate bus rapid transit or light rail in the future.

Officials said that they will start narrowing the field of potential contractors this week, and that they hope to select the builder by Sept. 1. The deal will include incentives for early completion.

But Pawlenty said the aggressive timeline — the goal is to have it open before the end of next year — won't mean corners are cut.

"We are going to get this bridge built safely, No. 1," he said at a news conference. "So we're not going to go so fast or emphasize speed that the bridge isn't done well or done correctly."

Pawlenty had no details of how a victims' fund might work, saying only that his office was exploring it.

[Origen]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070806/sc_afp/hungaryarchaeologyforests_070806074129

Archaeologists discover 8-million-year-old forest in Hungary
by Geza Molnar

BUKKABRANY, Hungary (AFP) - Archaeologists have found an eight-million-year old forest of cypresses, well preserved and not fossilised, in Bukkabrany in north eastern Hungary.

"The discovery is exceptional as the trees kept their wooden structure, they neither turned into coal nor were petrified," Tamas Pusztai, the deputy director and head of the archaeological department at the local Otto Herman museum who oversaw the excavation, told AFP.

Archaelogists announced the find last week after uncovering the mysterious forest of taxodiums, a kind of swamp cypress, after a few days of digging.

Miners working in a brown coal mine had first uncovered several tree trunks that had been turned into coal, a common occurrence in this kind of environment.

"But further down, we found 16 trees that had remained where they had grown some eight million years ago and that are very well preserved," Pusztai said.

Catching a glimpse of these ancient tree trunks, which look like they belong on the set of a science-fiction film, requires descending about 60 metres (200 feet) into a 3,500-square-metre (37,670-square-foot) large open mine.

All that is left of the trees is their trunks, two to three metres in diametre and six metres in height, although the original taxodiums must have reached to between 30 to 40 metres.

"The trunks were preserved in their original form and material," said Miklos Kazmer, the director of the paleontology department at the Loran Eotvos Natural Science University in Budapest. During the Miocene period, which began over 10 million years ago, the region was covered by a giant lake with muddy and marshy shores, Lake Pannon, he added.

"The exceptional state of preservation of the trees is due to a sudden sandstorm which covered the forest (with sand) up to a height of six metres," Kazmer said.

All that was above perished but "the part that was buried under the sand remained beautifully intact," he added.

The eight-million-year old tree trunks still feel like wood to the touch, as an AFP journalist was able to attest for himself.

Although 60 metres underground, the trunks cannot be moved as they "crumble" when exposed to air and sunlight, which are especially harmful given the wood's age, the site's chief archaeologist Janos Veres said.

As a result, strict security measures have been put in place: access to the mine has been limited to journalists and archaelogists, and forbidden to locals from nearby villages, intrigued by images shown on Hungarian television of the "lunar landscape" in their backyard.

The site is to close again soon and the archaelogists have started taking measures to preserve the trees.

Veres said the taxodiums were drying up before his eyes as the trunks "have lost their cellulose, which worked as a glue for the trees' cell membranes."

Since the trunks are made of organic material, it is possible to conduct dendrochronology tests, which study tree rings to determine climatic changes during a tree's life, a visibly enthusiastic Veres said.

The trees were probably 300 to 400 years old when they died "but since the trees did not (all) sprout on the same day, it is possible to study a period spreading over 1,000 to 1,500 years," he added.

A similar forest was already found in Japan, where archaelogists preserved it in a cement sarcophagus.

For the Bukkabrany site, between 40 and 50 million forint (160,000-200,000 euros, 220,000-270,000 dollars) would be needed to preserve the taxodiums, scientists said.

[Origen]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070807/ap_on_re_us/mine_collapse_earthquake

Scientists, executive clash over quake
By ALICIA CHANG, AP Science Writer

LOS ANGELES - Did an earthquake cause a Utah coal mine to cave in, or did the mine collapse trigger the tremors?

A fierce dispute erupted over that question Tuesday, with a top mine executive declaring on national television that he has the science to prove a quake caused the collapse. But seismologists said their instruments recorded shaking from the cave-in and not a natural temblor.

Scientists believe the seismic waves in the area of the Crandall Canyon mine were "the signature of the collapse and that the collapse was not caused by an earthquake," said James W. Dewey, a seismologist at the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo.

Scientists have not ruled out a natural earthquake since the region surrounding the mine is seismically active, and they do not know the exact time the mine collapsed.

But, Dewey said, "the data we have seen seem more consistent with the collapse being the cause of the 'earthquake' rather than the other way around."

On Monday, University of Utah seismographs recorded seismic waves of 3.9 magnitude near the mine. At least 10 aftershocks were felt more than 24 hours after the collapse, with the strongest registering 2.2 magnitude.

Scientists say quakes caused by mine collapses tend to occur at shallower depths and at different frequencies than natural earthquakes.

The first motions of the Utah disturbance indicated a downward movement consistent with a collapse, scientists said. If it was a natural quake, it would have produced up and down motions on the seismograms. The quake occurred anywhere from 2,000 to 8,500 feet underground.

Mine officials insisted Monday's accident was caused by a natural disaster.

"This was caused by an earthquake, not something that Murray Energy ... did or our employees did or our management did," an irate Robert E. Murray, chairman of mine owner Murray Energy Corp. of Cleveland, said at a televised news conference. "It was a natural disaster. An earthquake. And I'm going to prove it to you."

The company released a statement saying the depth of the earthquake occurred in a region that was 3,500 feet deeper than where the miners were.

The company also claimed the shaking lasted four minutes. Utah and USGS scientists don't know exactly how long the shaking lasted, but they said a 3.9 magnitude quake would cause jolts of just a few seconds.

By contrast, the 9.0 magnitude quake in 2004 in the Indian Ocean caused six minutes of shaking, USGS geophysicist John Bellini said.

There have been numerous examples of mine collapses triggering ground vibrations sometimes confused with quakes. The USGS has recorded at least seven such instances since 1994, including last year's collapse of an abandoned mine in Virginia that registered a 4.3 magnitude.

Although mining activities have been shown to produce quakes, the opposite is rare. Scientists say it's unusual for a temblor to damage a mine unless it was a big one. In 1976, a 7.8 magnitude quake in China wreaked havoc on coal mines beneath the city of Tangshan.

There are no recorded cases in Utah's history of a natural quake triggering a mine collapse, said Walter Arabasz, director of the University of Utah's seismograph stations.

The Crandall Canyon mine is built into a mountain in the rugged Manti-La Sal National Forest, 140 miles south of Salt Lake City, in a sparsely populated area. The region is crisscrossed with geologic faults, and in 1988, a 5.2 magnitude temblor struck 25 miles southeast of the mine.

[Origen]

A quote from Mouser I wanted to preserve:

The Difference Between Your World and The Real World

In the real world, there are mountains.

In your world, there are mountains.

In the real world, there are deserts.

In your world, there are deserts.

In the real world, there are oceans.

In your world, there are oceans.

The difference is:

In our oceans in the real world, there are many types of herring.

In your oceans in your world, all the herrings are red.

[Origen]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070816/ap_on_re_as/malaysia_movie_piracy

Malaysian award for DVD-sniffing dogs
By JULIA ZAPPEI, Associated Press Writer

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Two American sniffer dogs who found millions of pirated DVDs while on loan to Malaysian authorities will receive medals of honor when their six-month assignment ends next week, an official said Thursday.

Black Labradors Lucky and Flo will be celebrated at an awards ceremony Monday before they return home to New York, said Nor Hayati Yahaya, the Motion Picture Association's manager for Malaysia.

Lucky and Flo — on loan from the U.S.-based association — have helped uncover pirated DVDs and equipment worth $6 million since they came to Malaysia in March, Nor Hayati said. The cases led to 26 arrests.

She said that the two female dogs seized 2 million of the 2.7 million discs seized this year.

The dogs are trained to sniff chemicals in the discs. They cannot distinguish between pirated and legal discs, but that part of the job is easily done by enforcement officers once the dogs have unearthed the caches. In at least one instance, the dogs were able to uncover secret rooms behind a false wall.

Nor Hayati said the dogs have raised awareness about movie piracy because the local media reported on almost every raid they were involved in, she said.

The Motion Picture Association and Malaysia's Domestic Trade Ministry are selecting two new dogs to be trained in Ireland by the same trainer who taught Lucky and Flo.

Nor Hayati said the dogs could arrive in Malaysia this year to form the country's first permanent canine unit to fight movie piracy.

Illegal movie disc production is a big problem in Malaysia, where fake DVDs are easily available. According to the Malaysian government, 5 million discs were seized in more than 2,000 raids nationwide last year.

[BattleNymph]

Not a news story per se, but a very informative site on DNA and it's manipulation.

http://www.dnai.org/b/index.html

[Parzival]

<evil laughter>
http://www.slate.com/id/2173108/fr/flyout

(Yes, I *am* an evil bastard.)

[Wook]

Heads up America... (http://www.coasttocoastam.com/gen/page2194.html?theme=light)

Enjoy!!!

[Wook]

Becasue I know ldygmr1 will just love the description of these monsters when they come up... (http://www.trendonyms.com/2007/08/lake-tawakoni-state-park-giant-spider.html)

[Detritus]

http://scienceblogs.com/intersection/2007/09/a_troubling_hurricane_humberto.php

BASED ON OPERATIONAL ESTIMATES...HUMBERTO STRENGTHENED FROM A 30 KT DEPRESSION AT 15Z YESTERDAY TO A 75 KT HURRICANE AT 09Z THIS MORNING...AN INCREASE OF 45 KT IN 18 HOURS. TO PUT THIS DEVELOPMENT IN PERSPECTIVE...NO TROPICAL CYCLONE IN THE HISTORICAL RECORD HAS EVER REACHED THIS INTENSITY AT A FASTER RATE NEAR LANDFALL. IT WOULD BE NICE TO KNOW...SOMEDAY...WHY THIS HAPPENED.

[Origen]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070920/sc_nm/arctic_crops_vault_dc

Arctic vault takes shape for world food crops
By John Acher

LONGYEARBYEN, Svalbard (Reuters) - In a cavern under a remote Arctic mountain, Norway will soon begin squirreling away the world's crop seeds in case of disaster.

Dynamited out of a mountainside on Spitsbergen island around 1,000 km (600 miles) from the North Pole, the store has been called a doomsday vault or a Noah's Ark of the plant kingdom.

It is the brainchild of a soft-spoken academic from Tennessee who is passionate about securing food for the masses, and will back up seed stores around the world that are vulnerable to loss through war or disaster.

A 20-metre (66-foot) long concrete entrance, still under scaffolding, juts out of the snow-dusted mountain above the coal-mining town of Longyearbyen.

It is reached by a switchback road rising to 120 meters above sea level, offering spectacular views of the fjord below and snow-capped Arctic mountains beyond.

Visitors descend through the mouth of a gently sloping 40-metre steel tube into the frosty cavern which smells of new cement and is dotted with portable lamps as work progresses for February's opening.

"There aren't going to be any better storage conditions than what we will provide here," founder Cary Fowler told reporters during a recent visit to the site in the Svalbard archipelago off northern Norway. "This is a safety deposit box, like in a bank, where you put your valuables."

Although this is one of the world's most northerly settlements, an electric freezer will be used to keep the seeds in the three-chambered concrete-lined vault at minus 18 degrees Celsius (minus 0.4 Fahrenheit).

If the power fails, permafrost will still keep them frozen, but not as deeply.

The project is at the heart of an effort by Fowler's foundation, the Global Crop Diversity Trust, to safeguard strains of 21 essential crops, such as wheat, barley and rice.

Rice alone exists in about 120,000 different varieties.

Ultimately, it is part of the world battle against hunger, as crop insecurity mainly hurts poor nations.

"Crops important to the poorest of the poor have really been neglected," said Roy Steiner, an official at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has provided financial support.

"Millet and crops like cow pea receive so little attention."

Fowler calls such varieties "orphan crops" because they have no one to take care of them.

DIVERSITY FOR EVOLUTION

The aim is to preserve genetic diversity, needed by plant breeders in the future to produce varieties able to adapt to challenges like climate change.

Crops consist of numerous species, some as different from each other as a "Dachshund from a Great Dane," Fowler said.

If such a store had existed 10 years ago, he said, the seeds would have been needed about once a year as seed collections have been wiped out -- for instance by a typhoon in the Philippines and war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"I'm sorry to say we will be using it a lot," Fowler said.

Eventually, the vault will have capacity for around 4.5 million bar-coded seed samples and it hopes in its first year to collect half a million.

Not all seeds can be stored by freezing. Banana, the world's fourth or fifth most valuable crop, is one example.

"The longest viability under these conditions would be that of sorghum -- about 19,500 years," Fowler said. Other varieties will need to be replaced more frequently.

"We're trying to capture the diversity not just between different species but within different species -- that's the basis for evolution," said Fowler, an official of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization but his own boss at the Trust.

"Extinction happens when a species loses the ability to evolve."

SEED PACKETS

Norway is contributing some 50 million crowns ($8.6 million) to build the cavern, a sum which Development Aid Minister Erik Solheim said was a pittance for what is gained.

"I consider it a development issue ... Poor African countries have fewer resources to protect their genetic heritage than rich countries," he told Reuters at the site.

The Gates Foundation, the philanthropic giant created by the founder of Microsoft, has given a $30 million grant to Fowler's effort, including money for packaging seeds in their countries of origin and shipping them to the vault.

Some of Gates' money has gone to develop a new style of seed packet, a small silver-colored pouch made of a special foil and layers of other advanced materials to keep seeds dry and frozen -- the "Rolls Royce of seed packets," Fowler said.

The Gates Foundation is also helping develop two software systems, one to help manage seed banks and another to link them globally so that plant breeders can find what is available.

"Seeds are almost the software of the natural world that has taken millions of years to develop, and we don't know how we will need them in the future," the foundation's Steiner said.

[hidufel]

Eh a side note... thought id mention one of the project managers here at the workplace lost a 2nd cousin to this very specific cult in oregon that cell 2 ran through, and cell one is going through now...

small world.

[Origen]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071024/sc_nm/saturn_rings_dc

Chunks of smashed moon detected in Saturn's rings
By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Big chunks of a moon that was smashed long ago perhaps by a comet have been detected in Saturn's outermost ring, shedding light on the formation of the planet's grand ring system, scientists said on Wednesday.

A camera on NASA's Cassini spacecraft spotted wakes ahead of and trailing behind these fragments, where other ring material has been affected by the gravitational forces exerted by the pieces, they said.

The rings encircling Saturn are one of the most dramatic features of the solar system. The other gaseous planets in the solar system -- Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune -- also are encircled by rings, but they are not as spectacular.

The scientists called the fragments seen in this relatively narrow belt within Saturn's outermost ring "moonlets." They were not directly observed by Cassini, but the scientists inferred their existence because of the eight propeller-shaped wakes.

It appears some of the fragments are as big as a sports stadium, the scientists said.

"There was probably a bigger moon of at least 20 miles (32 km) in diameter or larger orbiting at that place," Miodrag Sremcevic of the University of Colorado at Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, one of the researchers, said in a telephone interview.

"And that moon had the unfortunate fate to be struck by a large meteoroid or comet and was destroyed into pieces. And now what we see today are the remaining shards of that moon," said Sremcevic, whose findings appear in the journal Nature.

The findings represent the first evidence of a "moonlet" belt in any of Saturn's rings, according to Sremcevic.

Saturn's innermost moon, Pan, is about the same size as the doomed moon, Sremcevic said. The collision that shattered it took place perhaps 100 million years ago.

There is a scientific debate over the origins of Saturn's rings. These findings support the idea that the material that makes up the rings is debris from collisions involving moons orbiting the giant planet that has spread out over time, said Nicole Albers, another researcher at the University of Colorado who worked on the study.

"This is another piece of the puzzle," Albers said.

Another theory holds that the rings were formed at the same time as Saturn and from some of the same material that created the second-largest planet in the solar system.

[Origen]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071214/ap_on_sc/japan_fearless_mouse

Japan scientists develop fearless mice
By KAORI HITOMI, Associated Press Writer

TOKYO - Cat and mouse may never be the same. Japanese scientists say they've used genetic engineering to create mice that show no fear of felines, a development that may shed new light on mammal behavior and the nature of fear itself.

Scientists at Tokyo University say they were able to successfully switch off a mouse's instinct to cower at the smell or presence of cats — showing that fear is genetically hardwired and not learned through experience, as commonly believed.

"Mice are naturally terrified of cats, and usually panic or flee at the smell of one. But mice with certain nasal cells removed through genetic engineering didn't display any fear," said research team leader Ko Kobayakawa.

In his experiment, the genetically altered mice approached cats, even snuggled up to them and played with them. Kobayakawa said he chose domesticated cats that were docile and thus less likely to pounce.

Kobayakawa said his findings, published in the science magazine Nature last month, should help researchers shed further light on how the brain processes information about the outside world.

Kim Dae-soo, a neural genetics professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in Seoul, who was not involved in the research, said Kobayakawa's research could explain further what fear is, and how to control it.

"People have thought mice are fearful of cats because cats prey on them, but that's not the case," Kim said.

"If we follow the pathway of related signals in the brain, I think we could discover what kind of networks in the brain are important for controlling fear."

___

Associated Press Writer Jae-soon Chang in Seoul contributed to this report.

[Parzival]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080101/ts_nm/ghana_us_navy_dc
Two U.S. sailors found dead in hotel room in Ghana

ACCRA (Reuters) - Two U.S. Navy sailors were found dead on Tuesday in their hotel room while on shore leave in the West African country of Ghana, the U.S. Navy said.

The cause of death was unknown and was being investigated by Ghanaian authorities in cooperation with U.S. Navy officials, the Navy said in a statement.

"Currently there is no suggestion of foul play," Lieutenant Patrick Foughty, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy Sixth Fleet, told Reuters by telephone from Naples, Italy.

The sailors, who were not identified, were stationed aboard the Fort McHenry, a 600-foot (185-metre) dock landing ship based in Little Creek, Virginia.

The vessel was docked in the Ghanaian port of Tema, some 18 miles east of the capital Accra, as part of a U.S. naval partnership program in West Africa.

During a six-month mission, the Fort McHenry will train West African navies to fight drug smuggling and maritime security threats in a region which supplies nearly a fifth of U.S. oil imports.

Foughty said the sailor's deaths would not prevent the training mission from going ahead.

[Origen]

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2001/1001/108.html

Size Matters
Silvia Sansoni, 10.01.01

Ronnie Barrett built the biggest, meanest gun civilians can own. That alone won't help him defend his turf.

During the Gulf war an Iraqi armored vehicle traveling with a convoy across the Kuwaiti desert exploded in a fireball. Clambering out of their vehicles, Iraqi soldiers thought they had been struck by a missile and surrendered, lying facedown in the sand. It wasn't a rocket. They were on the wrong end of a Barrett M82A1 .50-caliber semiautomatic rifle fired by a single U.S. Marine nearly a mile away.

Barrett rifles have become the darlings of the Marine Corps' Scout Snipers and the Army's Special Forces because they can knock out targets up to 2 miles away and have enough firepower to take down a helicopter, wipe out radar installations or blast through a reinforced bunker. Military contracts have helped push sales of Barrett Firearms Manufacturing from $1 million in 1988 to $8 million last year. All this while the U.S. gun industry has been shrinking--firearms production has fallen 30% to 3.5 million units since 1994.

But what keeps Barrett profitable is a different kind of customer: gun collectors and long-range target shooters who fancy "bold weapons that can do bold things," says Ronnie G. Barrett, the affable 47-year-old founder. His .50-caliber rifles are the largest firearms that can be legally owned by civilians. Although commercial sales make up only 30% of the total business, they keep production lines humming between government contracts, which can take up to a decade to hash out. Walking through his tiny factory in Murfreesboro, Tenn., Barrett waves at the 35 workers meticulously carving and welding glistening steel parts. "If the military had to support me," he says, "I wouldn't be here. None of this stuff would be here."

His survival is far from bulletproof. In recent years low-priced competitors have been gunning for Barrett's commercial business. When Barrett dreamed up his big gun in 1982, no one else made more than a handful of guns that fired .50-caliber bullets (half an inch wide by 2.5 inches long). Today he has a 50% share; more than two dozen manufacturers make .50-caliber rifles that anyone over the age of 18 with a clean record can buy. Competitors are undercutting Barrett's top-of-the-line $7,300 semiautomatic with more affordable, manually loaded models--from ArmaLite's single-shot AR-50 rifle ($2,600) to Watson's Weapons' the Boss ($1,600).

Barrett is fighting back with the M99, an entry-level rifle with fewer moving parts that retails for $3,100. But his boldest move will come later this year when he steps out of the .50-caliber niche with a new .30-caliber tactical rifle designed for police SWAT teams. Barrett hopes that market will boost annual sales to $20 million over the next three years. The police, though, are a tough target for a marketer. The country has 18,769 state and local law enforcement agencies that each do their own buying.

When Barrett built his first semi-automatic in 1982 it was so powerful that few people took it seriously at trade shows. "People would ask, ‘Does that shoot a deer and skin it automatically?'" he recalls. Business was no laughing matter: Barrett had piled up $1.5 million in debt to banks and friends before landing his first government contract--an order for 100 guns from the Swedish Army in 1989.

Then came the Gulf war and Barrett's big break. Until then the military didn't have much call for a .50-caliber weapon; it wouldn't take out a Soviet tank, and it wasn't well known enough at the time for light and quick raids like those in Panama and Grenada. But when the Marines needed an emergency supply of 300 guns for operation Desert Storm, the supersize semiautomatic M82A1 was the only commercially available .50-caliber rifle.

Barrett barely broke even on the sale but used the U.S. military's endorsement to win contracts from foreign governments. Today exports to 35 countries account for 50% of sales. A savvy promoter, Barrett wooed civilians by promoting the 30-pound, 5-foot-long rifle as "battle-proven" and the "most widely used .50 caliber by military organizations around the world." Gun buffs like weapons adopted by the military because they have an easy time scoring spare parts--and appreciate the whiff of patriotism. "Americans fall in love with the cartridge that saved their country," says Barrett.

Then, of course, there is the notorious boy-toy appeal of big guns. No one knows this better than Barrett, who hunted small rodents and shot tin cans on the farm where he grew up. A onetime commercial photographer, he never lost his fascination for the mechanics of firearms, "how the different parts link and leverage off each other, how the springs store energy and release it," he rhapsodizes. He built his first gun after a local gunmaker dared him to design a .50 caliber for recreational use.

Now the dare comes from competitors. Barrett is hoping to widen his lead with a helping hand from the State Department, which recently gave him the okay to sell rifles to civilians in Europe, a market that was off-limits under the Clinton Administration. He is also working on interchangeable components that can turn the .50-caliber semiautomatic into a grenade launcher. That one's for the military alone. For now.

[BattleNymph]

http://www.coe.berkeley.edu/labnotes/1202/lee.html


Lee's approach is to replace the optics with electronics. Using novel nanotechnology batch-fabrication techniques, Lee creates polysilicon chips riddled with nanogap junctions, chasms just 50 nanometers wide. Immobolized within each nanogap is a single strand of reference DNA. A voltage is then applied across the nanogap and a measurement is taken of the capacitance — the ability of the conductors to store charge. The capacitance is determined by the dielectric (insulating) property of the material in the nanogap, which changes as a result of hybridization.

"Then you add the sample DNA and measure the difference after hybridization," Lee says. "You look for a complementary match based on the electrical signal."

Currently, Lee and his team are working to improve the sensitivity of their device. The next step in the research, he says, is to design a nanofluidic system, essentially nanoscale plumbing, to control the flow of the DNA samples through the nanogap junction arrays.

"Our work," Lee says, "is really at the interface between solid-state electronics and soft-state biopolymers," molecules formed by living organisms.

[Wook]

Duh DUH duhn!!! (http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/MediaAlerts/2008/2008012026062.html)

January 20, 2008

FIRST EVIDENCE OF UNDER-ICE VOLCANIC ERUPTION IN ANTARCTICA

The first evidence of a volcanic eruption from beneath Antarctica's most rapidly changing ice sheet is reported this week in the journal Nature Geosciences. The volcano on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet erupted 2000 years ago (325BC) and remains active.

Using airborne ice-sounding radar, scientists from British Antarctic Survey (BAS) discovered a layer of ash produced by a 'subglacial' volcano. It extends across an area larger than Wales.

Lead author, Hugh Corr of the BAS says, "The discovery of a 'subglacial' volcanic eruption from beneath the Antarctic ice sheet is unique in itself. But our techniques also allow us to put a date on the eruption, determine how powerful it was and map out the area where ash fell. We believe this was the biggest eruption in Antarctica during the last 10,000 years. It blew a substantial hole in the ice sheet, and generated a plume of ash and gas that rose around 12 km into air."

The discovery is another vital piece of evidence that will help determine the future of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and refine predictions of future sea-level rise. Co-author Professor David Vaughan (BAS) says,

"This eruption occurred close to Pine Island Glacier on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. The flow of this glacier towards the coast has speeded up in recent decades and it may be possible that heat from the volcano has caused some of that acceleration. However, it cannot explain the more widespread thinning of West Antarctic glaciers that together are contributing nearly 0.2mm per year to sea-level rise. This wider change most probably has its origin in warming ocean waters."

[BattleNymph]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgaihUBaTIM&feature=related

[BattleNymph]

http://paranormal.about.com/od/trueghoststories/a/aa012708.htm?nl=1

[BattleNymph]

http://www.slocartoon.net/slike/recenzije/vampire_hunter_bloodlust/wolf1.jpg

[Origen]

http://www.slocartoon.net/slike/recenzije/vampire_hunter_bloodlust/wolf1.jpg

I love - LUV - Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust.

[BattleNymph]

I love - LUV - Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust.

Was that where you got the inspiration for the mouth in the abdomen monster?

[Origen]

Was that where you got the inspiration for the mouth in the abdomen monster?

Not consciously. I also had that particular image before I saw Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust.

I'm sure it helped cement the image in my mind, imaginatively, but I don't think it was the origin.

[Mouser]

There was also a character with a mouth in the stomach in the reboot of the Eternals by Neil Gaiman.

[Mouser]

Vietnam reports "UFO" explosion off Cambodia coast Wed May 28, 4:24 AM ET



An unidentified flying object exploded in mid-air over a southern Vietnamese island, state media said on Wednesday, a day after Cambodia's air force retracted a report of a mysterious plane crash.

The Vietnam News Agency said residents of Phu Quoc island, 10 km (6 miles) off the coast of the Cambodian province of Kampot, found shards of grey metal, including one 1.5 meters (1.5 yards) long.

"The explosion happened at about 8 km (5 miles) above the ground, and perhaps it was a plane, but authorities could not identify whether it was a civil or military aircraft," VNA said in a report headlined "UFO explodes over Phu Quoc Island."

Soldiers were sent out to look for wreckage and survivors, and local authorities contacted airlines in Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand, but received no reports of missing aircraft, the official state news agency added.

Villagers in Kampot said on Tuesday that they had heard a loud explosion. On Wednesday they told Reuters they had found small chunks of metal near the coastline.

Kung Mony, deputy commander of Cambodia's Air Force, said on Tuesday he had been told of a foreign plane crashing in Kampot province, but later backed off his claims of an aircraft accident.

(Writing by Grant McCool and Ed Cropley in Bangkok; Editing by Bill Tarrant)




Copyright © 2008 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.


Copyright © 2008 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.

[Origen]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080606/ap_on_re_mi_ea/egypt_missing_pyramid;_ylt=AiyTSRoSqnPQv5viWnXWVw. s0NUE

[Origen]

http://gizmodo.com/5022355/crowd+controlling-medusa-ray-gun-puts-voices-inside-your-head

Crowd-Controlling MEDUSA Ray Gun Puts Voices Inside Your Head

The Sierra Nevada Corporation claimed this week that it is ready to begin production on the MEDUSA, a damned scary ray gun that uses the "microwave audio effect" to implant sounds and perhaps even specific messages inside people's heads. Short for Mob Excess Deterrent Using Silent Audio, MEDUSA creates the audio effect with short microwave pulses. The pulses create a shockwave inside the skull that's detected by the ears, and basically makes you think you're going balls-to-the-wall batshit insane. The MEDUSA can also "produce recognizable sounds" and is aimed primarily at military uses, but New Scientist revealed there are other uses in the works, too.

And if you're thinking ear plugs are this thing's Kryptonite, think again. Lee Sadovnik of Sierra Nevada Corp. said normal audio safety limits are off the table since the sound bypasses the eardrums and emanates from within the skull. "The repel effect is a combination of loudness and the irritation factor," he said. "You can’t block it out."

Wet blanket James Lin of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Illinois in Chicago wants more testing done, however, because of the perceived health ramifications of such a device. Lin said lower, whisper-level intensities work fine, but the higher incapacitating levels expected by the military could fry more than a few brains out on the battlefield. "I would worry about what other health effects it is having," Lin said. "You might see neural damage."

And those "other uses" hinted at above? Try subliminal advertising; or suggestive subconscious comments that you don't really "hear" but can influence decision-making anyway. Or, alternatively, the beam can be ramped up to 11 and just kill you outright. WIN!

Fun Gizmodo Fact: The MEDUSA is useless against a raging pack of schizophrenics. [New Scientist via Danger Room]

[BattleNymph]

Fun Gizmodo Fact: The MEDUSA is useless against a raging pack of schizophrenics. [New Scientist via Danger Room]

Then Aefe should be safe. :D

[Mouser]

Is anybody else thinking "Scanners?"

[Chimaera]

Is anybody else thinking "Scanners?"

That's Lucien's job ;)

[Origen]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/namibiaportugalarchaeologyshipping

Namibia: Race against time to save ancient Portuguese shipwreck
by Brigitte Weidlich

ORANJEMUND, Namibia (AFP) - Archaeologists are racing against the little time left to salvage a fortune in coins and items from a 500-year-old Portuguese shipwreck found recently off Namibia's rough southern coast.

Despite its importance, the project, in a restricted diamond mining area, is itself costing a fortune in sea-walling that cannot be sustained after October 10.

"The vast amounts of gold coins would possibly make this discovery the largest one in Africa outside Egypt," said Francisco Alves, a Lisbon-based maritime archaeologist.

"This vessel is the best preserved of its time outside Portugal," he said.

"But the cultural uniqueness of this find is priceless."

Alves is part of a multi-national team combing the seabed where the wreck was discovered six months ago.

The 16th-century "Portuguese trade vessel was found by chance this April as mine workers created an artificial sand wall with bulldozers to push back the sea for diamond dredging," Namibian archaeologist Dieter Noli told reporters invited to view the site.

"One of them noticed an unusual wooden structure and round stones, which turned out to be cannon balls," he said.

The abundance of objects unearthed where the ship ran aground along Namibia's notorious Skeleton coast, where hundreds of vessels were wrecked over the centuries, has amazed even hardened experts.

Six bronze cannons, several tonnes of copper, huge elephant tusks, pewter tableware, navigational instruments, and a variety of weapons including swords, sabres and knives have all been tugged out of the beach sand.

"Over 2,300 gold coins weighing some 21 kilograms (46 pounds) and 1.5 kilograms of silver coins were found -- worth over 100 million dollars," Alves said, adding that the ship's contents suggest it was bound for India or somewhere in Asia.

"About 70 per cent of the gold coins are Spanish, the rest Portuguese," Alves said. Precise dating was possible thanks to examination of the coin rims that showed "some of them were minted in October 1525 in Portugal."

About 13 tonnes of copper ingots, eight tonnes of tin and over 50 large ivory elephant tusks together weighing some 600 kilograms have also been excavated from the seabed.

-- This discovery is the largest in Africa outside Egypt --

"The copper ingots are all marked with a trident indent, which was used by Germany's famous Fugger family of traders and bankers in Augsburg, who delivered to the Portuguese five centuries ago," said South African archaeologist Bruno Werz.

The team also includes experts from the United States and Zimbabwe, and the salvation efforts were made possible by the erection of sea walls to keep back the fierce Atlantic surf.

Namibia's culture ministry and Namdeb, the state diamond mining company, have shared the enormous expense, which "costs some 100,000 Namibian dollars (12,500 US dollars, 8,500 euros) per day," according to Peingeondjabi Shipoh, the culture ministry expert in charge of the recovery project.

But that is shortly coming to an end, even though "I believe there is still more to be found," he told reporters.

"From October 10, the walls will not be maintained anymore and the ship's remnants left to the elements again."

At one point it was thought the wreck was that of legendary Portuguese explorer Bartolomeo Diaz, the first known European to sail around the southern tip of Africa in 1488.

In line with the custom of Portuguese explorers of the time, Diaz left a huge stone cross to the glory of his country's king, called a "padrao", that same year at what is today's harbour town of Luderitz, which Diaz baptised Angra Pequena or "small cove", 750 kilometres (465 miles) southwest of the capital Windhoek.

Around 1500, he and his sailing vessel went missing and were never found.

But hope that the Oranjemund find might end the mystery was laid to rest when it was established that the coins on the shipwreck were put into circulation 25 years after Diaz' disappearance.

Under international maritime laws, a wreck and its treasures belong to the country where they were found, and all the coins are now locked in the vaults of the Bank of Namibia in Windhoek.

The government said it plans at some point to mount an exhibition of the findings and later erect a special museum in Oranjemund to house the incredible collection.

[Origen]

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_32/b3996068.htm?chan=tc&campaign_id=rss_tech

Body Armor Fit For A Superhero
New, high-tech "liquid" gear could keep troops, police, and prison guards safer

It seems crazy, Robert R. Schiller admits: the notion that you could shield yourself from bullets, shrapnel, and knives by donning the equivalent of a wet suit. But by early next year the president and chief operating officer of Armor Holdings Inc. (AH ) aims to be selling what he describes as "liquid armor" -- garments constructed from layers of tough fibers and fluid polymers -- to prison guards. By the end of 2007, he hopes, police and maybe soldiers will begin wearing the company's new protective gear as well. For the corrections market in particular, Schiller says, "it has the potential to be a breakthrough product."

Today's versions of body armor are composed mostly of 20 to 30 layers of synthetic fibers. And while there is no question the death toll for American troops in Iraq would be far higher without it, the gear is bulky and can't stop high-velocity bullets, for example, or all bomb fragments. Even as DuPont (DD ) was field-testing the original Kevlar jackets in the early 1970s, researchers were hunting for lighter, tougher ballistic fabrics. Since then, companies have investigated a chemist's kit of exotic materials, from cloned spider silk -- a wonder of lightness and strength -- to newfangled sheets of carbon nanotubes that are among the toughest structures in nature. Israeli researchers at one company, ApNano Materials Inc. in New York, have shown off a breastplate of nanometals said to be five times as strong as steel.

Armor Holdings' product is different from all of the above. Developed by Norman Wagner, a professor of chemical engineering at the University of Dela-ware's Center for Composite Materials, it's a mix of polyethylene glycol, a polymer found in laxatives and other consumer products, and nanobits of silica, or purified sand. Together they produce a "sheer-thickening liquid" that stiffens instantly into a shield when hit hard by an object. It reverts to its liquid state just as fast when the energy from the projectile dissipates.

LIKE PEANUT BUTTER

Initially, Wagner and his collaborators envisioned armor that could be spread on a person, almost like peanut butter on bread, says Eric Wetzel, a researcher at the Army Research Laboratory in Aberdeen, Md. But in tests co-sponsored by the Army Lab, they found that the materials worked best when painted on Kevlar in ultrathin coats. By holding the fibers tight like a flexible glue, the compound spreads out the impact of a blow better than fibers alone. "The search in the past has been for stronger and stronger filaments," says Wetzel. "We've tried to change how the fabric interacts with the projectile."

The liquid has other pluses. It's lighter than Kevlar and other widely used fabrics. That means Armor Holdings' new vests, in which the substance would be sandwiched between layers of ballistic fibers, might be lighter than current versions, which weigh four pounds or more. It also should be cheaper to manufacture, says Schiller. The Jacksonville (Fla.) company wants to continue to sell entry-level garments for $500 to $600.

Any minuses? No one knows yet how well the material will hold up after years of wear and tear.

Armor Holdings, which bought the rights to Wagner's discovery last February, pulls in the bulk of its $1.64 billion in annual sales from selling vehicle armor to the U.S. Army. While liquid armor seems tailor-made for combat personnel or police, the company is initially targeting prisons because the fabric resists punctures. That means it can protect guards from stabbings, something even a top-of-the-line bulletproof vest can't do.

[BattleNymph]

http://paranormal.about.com/od/paranormalgeneralinfo/a/aa042505.htm?nl=1

The Other Halloween

Although not widely known in the US, this May-Eve night shares many of the traditions of Halloween and is, in fact, directly opposite Halloween on the calendar.

According to the ancient legends, this night was the last chance for witches and their nefarious cohorts to stir up trouble before Spring reawakened the land. They were said to congregate on Brocken, the highest peak in the Harz Mountains – a tradition that comes from Goethe's Faust. In the story, the demon Mephistopheles brings Faust to Brocken to consort with the coven of witches:

The witches t'ward the Brocken strain
When the stubble yellow, green the grain.
The rabble rushes - as 'tis meet -
To Sir Urian's lordly seat.
O'er stick and stone we come, by jinks!
The witches f..., the he-goat s...
...
The broomstick carries, so does the stock;
The pitchfork carries, so does the buck;
Who cannot rise on them tonight,
Remains for aye a luckless wight.


(more info on this lesser known holiday at the link)

[Origen]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090702/wl_asia_afp/nkoreamissileskorea

NKorea likely to fire short-range missiles: report

SEOUL (AFP) – North Korea is "highly likely" to fire short-range missiles off its east coast after issuing a fresh warning to shipping to stay clear of some areas, according to a South Korean newspaper.

"It is highly likely that the North will launch missiles" from bases in the eastern provinces of Kangwon and South Hamkyong, the JoongAng Ilbo quoted an intelligence source as saying.

The communist state has responded defiantly to UN condemnation of its long-range rocket launch in April and of its May nuclear test, vowing to bolster its defences.

The source said the North is likely to fire Scud-B missiles with a range of 340 kilometres (212 miles), or Rodongs whose 1,300-km range would likely be shortened to some 400 km for this round of testing.

Ground-to-ship missiles with a range of 140 km may also be fired, the source said. Defence Ministry officials declined to comment.

A military official quoted by Yonhap news agency said there are no signs of preparations to fire mid-range missiles in the near future.

Vehicles with movable launchers have not been seen at a missile base in Anbyon county, the unidentified military official was quoted as saying.

"They are carrying out the usual command post exercises at missile bases but we're watching closely as they can fire short-range missiles at any moment," the official said.

The North issued a fresh warning to Japan on Wednesday to stay clear of some coastal areas during military exercises until July 11, the Japan Coast Guard said.

It issued navigation bans for 10 areas in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) and the Yellow Sea, citing "military gunfire and bombardment training".

US defence officials also said in early June that the North appears to have transported a long-range missile to a new base in the west of the country in preparation for a possible launch.

But there have been no recent reports of preparations for a launch there.

Pyongyang tested long-range missiles in 1998, in 2006 and on April 5 this year when it fired a Taepodong-2 to put a satellite into orbit.

The US and its allies said the real purpose of the launch was to test a ballistic missile theoretically capable of reaching Alaska or Hawaii.

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said last month the military has beefed up its defenses in Hawaii as a precaution.

[Origen]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backpacker_murders

[Origen]

Kal El flies for the first time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAc7EbygoTI

The loneliness of the hero:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w43zpxscOU0

[Origen]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_martial_arts

[Origen]

http://atlasobscura.com/

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Confidence_trick

Skinwalker:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin-walker

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dies_Irae

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Christian_heresies

[Origen]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_knight-errant

The Chinese knight-errant or Yóuxiá (Traditional: 俠客 Simplified: 侠客) was a type of chivalrous hero, similar to the Knight-errant of Medieval Europe, which came into existence during the Han Dynasty (202 BC - 220 AD) and disappeared during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912).

Youxia literally means ‘wandering force’, but is commonly translated as ‘knight-errant’ or less commonly as ‘cavalier’, ‘adventurer’, ‘soldier of fortune’, and ‘underworld stalwart’. The term ‘wandering force’ refers to the way these men solely traveled the land using force (or influence through association with powerful people) to right the wrongs done to the common people and the monarchy if need be. Chinese knights-errant did not come from any social class in particular. Various historical documents, wuxia novels, and folktales describe them as being princes, government officials, poets, musicians, physicians, professional soldiers, merchants, and butchers. Some were just as handy with a calligraphy brush as others were with swords and spears.

According to Dr. James J.Y. Liu (1926 – 1986), a professor of Chinese and comparative literature at Stanford University, it was a person's temperament and need for freedom, and not their social status, that caused them to roam the land and help those in need. Dr. Liu believes this is because a very large majority of these knights came from northern China, which borders the territory of "northern nomadic tribes, whose way of life stressed freedom of movement and military virtues." Many knights seem to have come from Hebei and Henan provinces. A large majority of the characters from the Water Margin, which is considered one of China's best examples of knight-errant literature, come from these provinces.[1][2]

[edit] In Poetry
The deeds of historical knights-errant have been told and retold in the form of prose throughout Chinese history. One good example of knight-errant poetry is The Swordsman by Jia Dao:

For ten years I have been polishing this sword;
Its frosty edge[3] has never been put to the test.
Now I am holding it and showing it to you, sir:
Is there anyone suffering from injustice?[1]

According to Dr. Liu, Jia’s poem "seems...to sum up the spirit of knight-errantry in four lines. At the same time, one can also take it as a reflection of the desire of all those who have prepared themselves for years to put their abilities to the test for some justice."[1]

[Origen]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_Margin

http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/45981

[BattleNymph]

Does this mean we're ready to start up again? :D

[Origen]

Does this mean we're ready to start up again? :D

Yeah. My creative juices are starting to flow again.

[BattleNymph]

Yeah. My creative juices are starting to flow again.

*bites tongue on obvious comeback, or would that be cumback*

[hidufel]

http://www.wired.com/politics/security/magazine/17-10/mf_deadhand?currentPage=all

[Origen]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etheric_plane

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etheric_body

[Origen]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tok_Janggut

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhou_Tong_%28archer%29

[Chimaera]

9 extraordinary human abilities (http://listverse.com/2008/06/28/9-extraordinary-human-abilities/)

[carmachu]

http://amightywind.com/hell/aboutsounds.htm

Researchers drilling in Russia 14.4 kilimeters down record he sounds of the damned being tortured in hell.(link includes audio).

[carmachu]

Woman appearing to talk on a cell phone in a 1928 charlie chaplin film.

http://www.urlesque.com/2010/10/27/time-traveler-cell-phone-1928-charlie-chaplin-film/?icid=main%7Caim%7Cdl6%7Csec1_lnk3%7C180672

[carmachu]

http://www.aolnews.com/2011/01/10/chinas-huang-yuanfan-sprouts-3-inch-horn-from-head/?test=latestnews

Chinese man sprouts 3 inch horn from head.