Yeesh! This is a series of five pics. Nothing too graphic but not for little kids. The pics are tiled out in reverse order, so start at the bottom right.
#1
Geez, even back in the 1960s, lunchrooms had a staffer with a money box who would take a students lunch money, given them a ticket, which in the same line they would redeem for lunch. If they bought a bag lunch, they would just go to the lunch table and eat. And it was the same line you would wash your hands in first. If you left the line and wanted back in, you had to wash your hands again, and go to the back of the line.
And any little racketeer who thought he could steal somebody else's lunch money and get away with it didn't try more than once. If the other students didn't beat him up, then the principal would. And then probably tell their parents, who would also beat him.
#2
The Administrative Court of Appeal already gave the go-ahead to the schools to use fingerprints, but the board argues that the school should find another way to identify pupils.
Wow! fingerprints aren't enough and they have to bump it up to eye scanners. Tough crowd :)
Ever wondered what is so great about those black GMCs that escort POTUS around? Maybe a big engine? Maybe some armor? Well, wonder no more about this piece of the puzzle.
It's one of Minnesota's greatest mysteries. It's something that puts settlers in America well before Columbus. A Minnesota geologist thinks the controversial Kensington Runestone is the real thing and there is evidence that he says backs up the theory.
The Kensington Runestone is a rock found near Alexandria a century ago. It's inscription speaking of Norwegians here in 1362. It begs the question. Were Vikings exploring our land more than 100 years before Columbus? Or is it just an elaborate hoax?
New research shows that the stone is genuine and there's hidden code that may prove it. It contains carved words that have haunted these hills and the Ohman family for more than 100 years, yet their faith has never wavered.
"I just never had any doubt. I mean I was very emphatic about it. Absolutely it's real. There's no doubt," said Darwin Ohman. His grandfather found the Runestone.
Darwin's grandfather Olof Ohman has been considered the author of Minnesota's most famous fraud, the Runestone. He says he found it buried under a tree in 1898. Critics say the language on the stone is too modern to be from 1362, that some of the runes are made up. They say this simple farmer carved it himself to fool the learned.
"You're calling him a liar. If this is a hoax he lied to his two sons, he lied to his family, lied to his neighbors and friends and lied to the world," said Scott Wolter a geologist and researcher of the Runestone.
Wolter and Texas engineer Dick Nielsen are sharing for the first time new evidence about the hidden secrets they say are carved in this stone.
"It changes history in a big way," Wolter said
In 2000 he performed one of the very few geological studies on the stone. He says the breakdown of minerals in the inscription shows the carving is at least 200 years old, older than Olof Ohman. Those findings support the first geological study in 1910 that also found the stone to be genuine.
"In my mind the geology settled it once and for all," he said.
Linguistic experts are not convinced. They say runes like those on the stone are made up. But Nielsen has now found the same one here in an old Swedish rune document dating back to the 1300's.
"It makes me ask the question if they were wrong about that what else were they wrong about?" Wolter said.
For the first time Wolter has documented every individual rune on the stone with a microscope. He started finding things that he didn't expect. He was the first to discover dots inside four R shaped runes on the stone. He said they are intentional and they mean something. So Wolter and Nielsen scoured rune catalogs.
"We found the dotted R's. It's an extremely rare rune that only appeared during medieval times. This absolutely fingerprints it to the 14th century. This is linguistic proof. This is medieval, period," Wolter said.
They traced the dotted 'R' to rune covered graves inside ancient churches on the island of Gotland off the coast of Sweden. What they found on the grave slabs were very interesting crosses. They were Templar crosses, the symbol of a religious order of knights formed during the crusades and persecuted by the Catholic Church in the 1300's.
"This was the genesis of their secret societies, secret codes, secret symbols, secret signs all this stuff. If they carved the rune stone why did they come here and why did they carve this thing?" Wolter asked.
He has uncovered new evidence that has taken his research in a very different direction. Wolter now believes that the words on the stone may not be the record of the death of 10 men but instead, a secret code concealing the true purpose of the rune stone.
Two runes in the form of an L and a U are two more reasons why linguists say Olof Ohman carved the stone. They are crossed and linguists say they should not be.
A third rune has a punch at the end of one line. Each rune on the stone has a numerical value. Wolter and Nielsen took the three marked runes and plotted them on a medieval dating system called the Easter Table.
"When we plotted these three things we got a year, 1362. It was like 'oh my god is this an accident? Is this a coincidence?' I don't think so," Wolter said.
They wondered why Templars would come to North America, carve the stone and code the date.
"If it's the Templars that were under religious persecution at the time, that would be a pretty good reason to come over here," Wolter figured.
"I'm sure a lot of people are going to roll their eyes and say oh it's the Davinci Code and if they do they do. This is the evidence. This is who was there. This is what the grave slabs tell us. It is what it is," he said.
#1
Maybe not as ridiculous as it sounds. Greenland was both occupied by Norway around that time, and had a Bishop located there. So if some Knights Templar were bugging out, it would not be a big stretch to imagine them sailing all the way to the South side of the Hudson bay.
And it's a straight shot to Minnesota, between Lake Winnipeg and Lake Superior. If they brought horses with them, it would just be a matter of steering around the minefield of lakes from James Bay to Minnesota.
#8
i did not use the "L" woid, and would beg off any Swede from doing so, thank youse.
*
Did yo'all ever hear the one about the Runestone Cowboy?
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
08/25/2007 21:10 Comments ||
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#9
Upper Minessota has copper all over it, in the form of nuggets, but there are also very old mines. Some of them were dated to 1400 BC, based on dating of remain of wooden supports. Now, the local natives did not use copper, they stuck to stone industry. I would understand if they picked up some nuggets and used them for trade with southern tribes some of which used copper. But mining? Not their cup of coffee it was. So the question is, who the hell mined copper there 1400BC? There were some inscriptions found in the vicinity of the mines that look Phoenician. These were considered hoaxes. But were they?
#10
Try to remember that the Vikings explored a huge swath of turf that stretched from Russia in the eastall the way down to the Black Seaand extended into the Mediterranean and regions of North Africa, plus Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland. It would have been no great shakes for them to transit the St. Lawrence and then gone across all the Great Lakes.
#11
twobyfour: People did get around. One Indian tribe in New Mexico, with a language and art very different from the typical in that region, was found to have some genetic traits common with ancient Japanese. Only after they found that out did they realize that their art looks a lot like primitive Japanese art.
And down in South America, archaeologists were startled to find poured metal brackets between large construction stones, to hold them together. At first they realized that this meant the society was far more advanced then they thought, having to have had portable bellows furnaces. But then they tested the alloy used, and found that it was almost the same as one used by the Egyptians for that same purpose.
And the odds of duplicate alloys independently achieved are minuscule. There are just too many variables, unless you are using the same recipe.
To make matters even weirder, this same ancient city had a solar observatory that was wrong. Its solstice points were outside of where they were supposed to be. Then one of the archaeologists realized that the Earth's axis shifts have been slowly decreasing for eons.
Calculating out when that solar observatory would have been accurate, they estimated that it had been so about 12,000 years ago.
Finally, a couple of genetic discoveries, one in a small tribe in South Africa. That their ancestors had been from the Jewish Priestly tribe whose home was in Yemen. Their mythology even retained the approximate name of the city of their origin, which still exists in Yemen, and the name of the guy who led them out of there in the manner of Moses.
The other is a village in China that looks somewhat Caucasian, and claim to be descended from some of Alexander the Great's army. They may actually be.
#12
Moose__ going back to the original story.... there has always been a lot of controversy about the Mandan indians in the upper midwest. Grey eyes, reddish hair, dwellings that look like Norse huts and an apparent shaman's lodge roughly shaped like a longship. Of course, they all died out in the early 1800's due to smallpox and you'd think anyone decended from Europeans would have retained a bit more resistance to the disease....
Posted by: Prince Madoc ||
08/25/2007 23:54 Comments ||
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A troop of pervert vervet monkeys is giving Kenyan villagers long days and sleepless nights, destroying crops and causing a food crisis.
Earlier this month, local MP Paul Muite urged the Kenyan Wildlife Service to help contain their aggressive behaviour.
But Mr Muite caused laughter when he told parliament that the monkeys had taken to harassing and mocking women in a village.
But this is exactly what the women in the village of Nachu, just south-west of Kikuyu, are complaining about.
Sexual harassment
They estimate there are close to 300 monkeys invading the farms at dawn. They eat the village's maize, potatoes, beans and other crops.
And because women are primarily responsible for the farms, they have borne the brunt of the problem, as they try to guard their crops.
They say the monkeys are more afraid of young men than women and children, and the bolder ones throw stones and chase the women from their farms. Intifada!
Nachu's women have tried wearing their husbands' clothes in an attempt to trick the monkeys into thinking they are men - but this has failed, they say.
"When we come to chase the monkeys away, we are dressed in trousers and hats, so that we look like men," resident Lucy Njeri told the BBC News website
"But the monkeys can tell the difference and they don't run away from us and point at our breasts. They just ignore us and continue to steal the crops."
In addition to stealing their crops, the monkeys also make sexually explicit gestures at the women, they claim.
"The monkeys grab their breasts, and gesture at us while pointing at their private parts. We are afraid that they will sexually harass us," said Mrs Njeri. Call the sexual harassment panda!
The Kenyan Wildlife Service told the BBC that it was not unusual for monkeys to harass women and be less afraid of them than men, but they had not heard of monkeys in Kenya making sexually explicit gestures as a form of communication to humans.
The predominantly farming community is now having to receive famine relief food.
The residents report that the monkeys have killed livestock and guard dogs, which has also left the villagers living in fear, especially for the safety of their babies and children.
All the villagers' attempts to control the monkeys have failed - the monkeys evade traps, have lookouts to warn the others of impending attacks and snub poisoned food put out by the residents. IED are next.
"The troop has scouts which keep a lookout from a vantage point, and when they see us coming, they give warning signals to the ones in the farms to get away," said another area resident, Jacinta Wandaga.
'Monkey squad'
The town has been warned by the Kenya Wildlife Service not to harm or kill any of the monkeys, as it is a criminal offence.
Running out of options, residents are harvesting their crops early in an attempt to salvage what they can of this year's crop.
Unfortunately, this only invites the monkeys to break into their homes and steal the harvested crops out of their granaries.
Even the formation of a "monkey squad" to keep track of the monkeys' movements and keep them out has failed.
The area is simply too large for the few volunteers to cover, they say.
Some residents have lost hope and abandoned their homes and farms, but those who have stayed behind, like 80-year-old James Ndungu, are making a desperate plea for assistance.
"For God's sake, the government should take pity on us and move these monkeys away because we do not want to abandon our farms," he said.
"I beg you, please come and take these animals away from here so that we can farm in peace."
Two Egyptian workers who claimed they were tortured by Kuwaiti police were re-arrested by authorities here Friday after a prosecutor had ordered them released, their attorney said. The case of Hossam Saleem, 27, and Gamal Abdel Shafi, 35, has drawn media attention and official condemnation from Egypt.
The two laborers were first arrested July 24 on charges of forging work permits. Their lawyer Tariq al-Khars said that a preliminary forensic report issued Thursday supported their claims of being tortured by police at the time. A prosecutor ordered their release Thursday but police then re-arrested them on charges of violating residency laws, he added. Al-Khars alleged that acid was used to burn the men during their interrogation.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/25/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
I suspect there is a lot more to this story than is given. Perhaps they were cheeky to the constabulary, or were caught doing something more akin to spying, or other criminal activity. I doubt they were just minding their business.
A wealthy Russian tried to buy a U.S. B-52 bomber from a group of shocked American pilots at an airshow near Moscow, a Russian newspaper reported Friday.
The unidentified Russian, wearing sunglasses and surrounded by bodyguards, approached the U.S. delegation and asked to buy the bomber, the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper said.
An astounded member of the U.S. delegation said the bomber was not for sale but that it would cost at least $500 million if it were to be sold on the spot.
"That is no problem. It is such a cool machine," the Russian was quoted as saying by the newspaper, which said its reporter overheard the conversation. The bomber was not sold.
Russia's new rich, who built fantastic fortunes trading commodities and contacts after the fall of the Soviet Union, have made a name for themselves as ostentatious purchasers of everything from British football clubs to Faberge eggs.
#7
I'm wondering what this guy has in his collection... I can imagine that certain Russian local officers would not turn down such an offer... he seems quite used to buying stuff from the military
A Tu-22 Backfire perhaps?
Posted by: john frum ||
08/25/2007 21:10 Comments ||
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#8
I hope he was told to go to hell; or better yet, to seek out his 'Task Master', R. Chicom Dragon for advice!
Japan on Thursday hanged three convicted murderers in their 60s as the country stepped up the pace of executions, officials and activists said.
A justice ministry spokeswoman said the prison system hanged three criminals but declined to provide any further details, in line with standard procedure in Japan.
Amnesty International and media reports said the three were convicted murderers aged between 60 and 69.
Japan is the only major industrialized nation other than the United States to practice the death penalty.
Despite enjoying one of the world's lowest crime rates, opinion polls show Japanese overwhelmingly support capital punishment amid growing public concern about violence.
The executions bring to 10 the number of inmates hanged since December, when Japan ended a 15-month halt in executions which was due to a previous justice minister's opposition to the death penalty.
The current justice minister, Jinen Nagase, took office last year when conservative Prime Minister Shinzo Abe came to power and may lose his job on Monday when the embattled premier reshuffles his cabinet.
Amnesty International, which keeps records of death-row inmates and stays in contact with their families, identified the executed inmates as Hifumi Takezawa, 69, Kozo Segawa, 63, and Yoshio Iwamoto, 60.
Makoto Teranaka, the secretary general of Amnesty International Japan, said the three inmates, unlike many on death row, had not protested their death sentences after they were finalized.
"These three inmates were the ones we were worried about," Teranaka told AFP.
"It's a grave problem for Japan to maintain the death penalty despite rising opposition to it all over the world," he said. "The government's targeting of people in weak positions such as these three inmates is also problematic."
#2
"It's a grave problem for Japan to maintain the death penalty despite rising opposition to it all over the world," he said. "The government's targeting of people in weak positions such as these three inmates is also problematic."
What a load of crap. I say bravo for the Japanese.
AI Index: ASA 22/009/2002 (Public)
News Service No: 211
20 November 2002
Japan: prison abuses must stop
Amnesty International called today on the Japanese authorities to initiate a thorough, public and independent investigation into the recent ill treatment of a 30 year old man, the death of another prisoner in May in Nagoya Prison, as well as prisoners' complaints regarding the use of force and ill-treatment by prison officials.
"Prison abuses" have obviously ended for Hifumi Takezawa, Kozo Segawa, and Yoshio Iwamoto. It's all good.
#4
Despite enjoying one of the world's lowest crime rates, opinion polls show Japanese overwhelmingly support capital punishment amid growing public concern about violence.
Despite enjoying one of the world's lowest crime rates, this article fails to concede Japan's low crime rate might have something to do with hanging criminals.
#5
There is a very good reason that there is a low crime rate in Japan (actually several). First Japan lets very few non-Japanese people live in the country permanantly. Seciond their culture is VERY strict and they are taugth from very young to follow the rules or else. Finally they are SUPER tough on criminals. Stiff sentences and harsh treatment in prison are meant to deter crime.
#6
Despite enjoying one of the world's lowest crime rates, this article fails to concede Japan's low crime rate might have something to do with hanging criminals.
James Taranto at Opinion Journal calls this the Fox Butterfield Effect. Butterfield's a NYT reporter who has written a few articles that can be summed thusly: 'U.S. prison populations are at an all-time high, but crime rates are near historical lows.' Go figure.
#7
The problem in Japan isn't the death penalty, it's there is no presumption of innocence. I've read conviction rates are an incredible 99.9% and is almost always based on a confession.
CALGARY (ALBERTA): The reading skills of young male students may improve more when boys are tutored by women, a Canadian study shows, contradicting some school policies to hire male teachers to improve boys literacy.
Herb Katz, an education professor at the University of Alberta, took 175 boys in the third and fourth grades, identified as struggling readers, and paired them with a research assistant who worked on their reading skills for 30 minutes a week over 10 weeks.
On average, the boys paired with female tutors felt better about their reading skills after the 10 weeks than those who were coached by a male research assistant.
Katz said the study, published in the US journal Sex Roles, may prompt educational policy-makers in countries such as Australia and Britain to rethink directives that call for more male teachers to be hired to provide role models for boys whose reading skills lag their peers.
It tells us that the way governments respond with policy is maybe a little too quick and a little too simple, Katz said.
Boys and girls enter kindergarten with reading similar skills, Katz said, but by the end of the third grade, boys have lower reading scores than girls. The reasons behind that difference are not entirely clear.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/25/2007 10:07 ||
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#1
heard a little radio humor the other day:
"I had sex with my 7th grade teacher....pretty hot, huh? ....unfortunately, I was home-schooled"
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/25/2007 12:24 Comments ||
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#2
The reading skills of young male students may improve more
On average, the boys paired with female tutors felt better about their reading skills
Jordan has charged five men with killing a female relative who allegedly had an affair, according to a court document obtained Friday.
The 22-year-old woman's father, three uncles and a fifth relative were charged with premeditated murder Thursday by Jordan's criminal court.
The 22-year-old woman's father, three uncles and a fifth relative were charged with premeditated murder Thursday by Jordan's criminal court, according to the indictment sheet made available to The Associated Press.
The charge sheet said one of the uncles confessed to shooting his niece in the head six times for allegedly having an affair with a man she eventually married. The others were reportedly involved in planning the "honor crime," and all were also charged with illegal possession of weapons. The court did not release the names of the individuals involved in the case, and a trial date has not been set.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/25/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Jordan charges five men in honor killing case
It took five of them?!? No wonder they're being charged!
#2
You know, the term "honor killing" suggests to me that someone was killed to reclaim a family's honor. Given that it was probably a secret affair (if there was any affair at all), I doubt that anyone knew about it. So why would someone kill in this case? Just shut your trap and all will be well. Now the whole place knows what happened. Oh the shame. Or maybe not, I don't know.
Now suppose the whole place knew what happened before this girl was murdered. Do they really look down on the family in a way that makes their life hard? Are their children unmarriageable or something? Do the vendors at the markets refuse to sell them food? Is someone going to kill the father and the uncles unless they kill the girl? Now that the girl is dead, do they get preferential treatment or something?
I notice there was no mention about the guy. I suppose that it was OK for him because there was uncovered meat laying around or something.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
By Juliet Njeri 
Jordan has charged five men with killing a female relative who allegedly had an affair, according to a court document obtained Friday. 
