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Iraqi troops roll into Sadr City
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Page 5: Russia-Former Soviet Union
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Drag Queen Robs Burger King
Guess they'll have to dust for Prince.
Posted by: Mike || 05/20/2008 16:50 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


Woman dancing on bar sets customer on fire
Another Late Night Tale of Florida Saloon Life...
A woman dancing on a bar accidentally set a man on fire early Sunday after noticing her foot was in flames, Miami-Dade Fire-Rescue said.
Damn, Vern! Ya said that wasn't sposed to happen!
The woman, described as in her 20s, was at Drake's Bar in Kendall when she agreed to help out with a display involving liquor and fire, authorities said.
Oh, boy! Now there's a combination that has "fun" written all over it...
According to Fire Rescue, she hopped on the bar, started dancing, then realized her foot was engulfed in flames.
Is my foot on fire, or am I just glad to see youze?
She reacted by accidentally kicking the flaming mixture into a passer-by, Fire-Rescue said.
Woah. Sorry, buddy. You should put some ice on that. A lotta ice...
Paramedics arrived at the bar, 13758 SW 88th St., about 2 a.m.
Got a report that some women set a guy on fire with her foot?
Yep. Right over here.
Oh. It's not a joke...

The man suffered burns to about 20 percent of his upper body, authorities said. Paramedics took him to Ryder Trauma Center's burn unit. The woman was taken to a hospital.
I think that drunk chick that set me on fire really liked me...
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/20/2008 12:04 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  She was trying to hot-foot it out of there. The guy was engulfed in a flaming passion.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 05/20/2008 12:44 Comments || Top||

#2  Good thing it wasn't a lap dance.
Posted by: Perfesser || 05/20/2008 12:50 Comments || Top||

#3  "Duude, the dancers in this joint are really hot!"
Posted by: Mike || 05/20/2008 17:29 Comments || Top||

#4  OBAMA GIRL goes FORD FAIRLANE???

/gut nuthin'.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 05/20/2008 19:58 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Democrats set tough preconditions in negotiations with . . . their caterers!
Fried shrimp
mmmmm . . . shrimp!
on a bed of jasmine rice and a side of mango salad, all served on a styrofoam plate. Bottled water to wash it all down.

These trendy catering treats are unlikely to appear on the menu at parties sponsored by the Denver 2008 Host Committee during the Democratic National Convention this summer.

Fried foods are forbidden at the committee's 22 or so events, as is liquid served in individual plastic containers. Plates must be reusable, like china, recyclable or compostable. The food should be local, organic or both. And caterers must provide foods in "at least three of the following five colors: red, green, yellow, blue/purple, and white," garnishes not included, according to a Request for Proposals, or RFP, distributed last week.

The shrimp-and-mango ensemble? All it's got is white, brown and orange, so it may not have the nutritional balance that generally comes from a multihued menu. . . .
Posted by: Mike || 05/20/2008 16:54 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It's won't be the first time. Nancy Pelosi will be reporting for duty, right after she blackmails the Air Force into giving her her own private Boeing 757.
Posted by: ed || 05/20/2008 17:18 Comments || Top||

#2  Google is a wonderful thing.
Pelosi Outsourcing House Cafeteria to Foreign Company with Oil-for-Food ties
Posted by: ed || 05/20/2008 17:24 Comments || Top||

#3  I'm surprised they didn't add a provision that all meals must be halal.
Of course, the provision that all food should be local is laughable - with thousands of people jetting in from all over the country, many in private jets, the carbon saved by using local foods will be minuscule in comparison. Not that saving carbon is really important - the plants use it. The symbolism is what is important to the Democrats.
Posted by: Rambler in California || 05/20/2008 17:31 Comments || Top||

#4  It continually surprises me that these wankers clowns are still breathing - they really are too stupid to live.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 05/20/2008 18:45 Comments || Top||

#5  And none of that evil booze, right?
Heh heh heh. Yeah, right...
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/20/2008 21:24 Comments || Top||


Marines are tough, example #237
Emphasis added.

The high school athlete whose javelin went through the leg of a newspaper photographer won the Utah 4-A title. The throw was long enough to earn first place. But Anthony Miles' next heave -- 170 feet, 9 inches -- was even a few inches better and gave him the title Saturday.

"My heart just stopped. ... It was just a nice relief that he was going to be all right," said Miles of Provo High School.

Ryan McGeeney of the Standard-Examiner was struck just below the knee. He was taking pictures of the discus event and apparently wandered into the javelin area, which was off-limits. "He never saw it hit him," said Dave Wilkey of the Utah High School Activities Association.

The tip of the javelin went through the skin and emerged on the other side of his leg. "It wasn't real painful. ... I was very lucky in that it didn't hit any blood vessels, nerves, ligaments or tendons," McGeeney said. Much of the javelin was cut at the scene. The piece in McGeeney's leg was removed at a hospital, and he received 13 stitches.

"One of the first things that came to my mind was, 'Good thing we brought a second javelin,'" Miles' coach, Richard Vance, said Monday. He said Miles was "in a little bit of shock," but he assured the athlete that it was not his fault.

McGeeney, 33, who was in the Marines and spent six months in Afghanistan, took a picture of his leg before the javelin was removed. "If I didn't, it would probably be my editor's first question when I got back," he said.
Posted by: Mike || 05/20/2008 10:18 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  At least everyone had a sense of humor about it.
Posted by: DarthVader || 05/20/2008 10:35 Comments || Top||

#2  "It wasn't real painful. ... I was very lucky in that it didn't hit any blood vessels, nerves, ligaments or tendons," McGeeney said.

Achilles couldn't be reached for comment ;)
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/20/2008 11:42 Comments || Top||

#3  See photo at Link
Posted by: Lone Ranger || 05/20/2008 12:54 Comments || Top||

#4  Awww...just walk it off....
Posted by: crazyhorse || 05/20/2008 13:34 Comments || Top||

#5  See what happens when you let servicemen become media reporters!
Posted by: Menhadden Snogum6713 || 05/20/2008 13:47 Comments || Top||

#6  Just another link in the long line of sprots photographers in the wrong spot at the wrong time: a cameraman for FOX wears a batting helmet after nearly getting it by a broken bat the other day and there are numerous images of cameramen getting hit by race cars in various venues trying to get that perfect action shot.
Javelin catching however.....
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 05/20/2008 14:42 Comments || Top||

#7  HAHA I can not resist the comment...

"See what happens when you let marines operate cameras"

Blackvenom-2001
Posted by: Blackvenom-2001 || 05/20/2008 14:58 Comments || Top||

#8  Ouch. THAT had to hurt!
Posted by: ptah || 05/20/2008 15:50 Comments || Top||

#9  #3 Lone Ranger: You can use the Link feature below the comments box instead of pasting in the whole link.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 05/20/2008 18:42 Comments || Top||

#10  He's lucky he was not getting irradiated by a cell phone at the time....just sayin'......
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/20/2008 20:51 Comments || Top||

#11  People, people. It's no big deal, just a scratch really.
Posted by: Ryan McGeeney || 05/20/2008 22:23 Comments || Top||

#12  'Good thing we brought a second javelin,'"
lol
Posted by: Jan || 05/20/2008 22:48 Comments || Top||


Skunkworks seems to have developed boomless supersonic plane . . .
Click on the link to view a three minute "sales" video.

I've heard nothing about this before. :-|

Suppose this might already be out there in one form or another? ;-)
Posted by: gorb || 05/20/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Looks a bit like the mystery aircraft recently featured by Aviation Leak & Space Mythology.
Posted by: AzCat || 05/20/2008 11:04 Comments || Top||

#2  I suspect they have concepts rather than any kind of working prototype. Still if this is real it'll change a lot. I already believe the Popular Science suggestion that we will start to move away from big airplanes and hubs for domestic travel and towards a more aircab type approach of flying from smaller airport to smaller airport. This sort of plane would extend that in a number of positive ways.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 05/20/2008 12:15 Comments || Top||

#3  I've long pointed out the obvious about the "Phoenix Lights", basically that the only peculiar thing about them was that it was an aircraft that could hover, and was very quiet.

Phoenix is *the* route aircraft take from the Skunkworks to off the coast of San Diego, about the only place in CONUS where aircraft can go supersonic.

This still annoys the San Diegans, because they get hit with the occasional sonic boom, and they have officially asked the AF to either cut it out, or go further out to sea.

Truthfully, I would be very happy if the R&D guys have made a very quiet aircraft that can hover as well. I'm not going to get real excited about it, because it is just a neat innovation, nothing magical about it. That sort of thing happens all the time.

Posted by: Anonymoose || 05/20/2008 12:24 Comments || Top||

#4  Most UFO lights can be traced to blimps. The goodyear blimp location is one of the first things law enforcement checks. Silent, slow moving lights that may appear to move in formation as a blimp rotates.

I'm not saying skunworks isn't the source of a number of sightings in the American Southwest, just saying.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 05/20/2008 14:00 Comments || Top||

#5  Ticket prices will go through the roof. Only Nancy Pelosi Saudi sheiks will be able to afford one. I paid $5.00 per gallon for 100 octane Low Lead avgas on Friday.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/20/2008 20:56 Comments || Top||


Study: Using a mobile phone while pregnant can seriously damage your baby
Women who use mobile phones when pregnant are more likely to give birth to children with behavioural problems, according to authoritative research.

A giant study, which surveyed more than 13,000 children, found that using the handsets just two or three times a day was enough to raise the risk of their babies developing hyperactivity and difficulties with conduct, emotions and relationships by the time they reached school age. And it adds that the likelihood is even greater if the children themselves used the phones before the age of seven.

The results of the study, the first of its kind, have taken the top scientists who conducted it by surprise. But they follow warnings against both pregnant women and children using mobiles by the official Russian radiation watchdog body, which believes that the peril they pose "is not much lower than the risk to children's health from tobacco or alcohol".
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: gorb || 05/20/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Russian version of GW?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/20/2008 7:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Oops, wrong analogy. A better one would be Lysenko Lives!
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/20/2008 7:47 Comments || Top||

#3  This can only mean......more government funded studies!
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/20/2008 9:05 Comments || Top||

#4  Why would y'all dismiss this out of hand? The brain a) works via electrical signalling and b) develops through reinforcement of signals in given frequencies / areas of the brain. Seems pretty likely that there are subtle effects over time, especially on kids whose brains are still developing.

-- lotp, who does some artificial neural modeling and other types of machine pattern recognition machine lus reasoning too ....
Posted by: lotp || 05/20/2008 9:32 Comments || Top||

#5  Why dismiss it out of hand? Because wolf has been called too many times. What else does cell phone usage correlate? Working mothers?
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 05/20/2008 10:43 Comments || Top||

#6  A first sceptical look at claims is one thing. Knee jerk rejection of well-performed studies done by people who are NOT known to "cry wolf" about cell phone use is quite another -- especially when, as the article notes, there are animal studies showing physical brain structure changes in response to proximity of low-strength radio waves.

It's bad enough we get junk science with a left wing tilt. But I'm seeing far too much deliberate Know Nothing ignorance from the right for my tastes. And as far as other correlations go,

a) Not necessarily working mothers - a fair number of families have no land lines at all, relying on cell phones & sometimes also Internet phone service.

and b) The authors themselves are clear on what is and is not established by this study alone, as one of the paragraphs in the excerpt above makes clear.
Posted by: lotp || 05/20/2008 11:28 Comments || Top||

#7  lotp: But I'm seeing far too much deliberate Know Nothing ignorance from the right for my tastes.

Actually, "Know Nothing ignorance" is another name for the null hypothesis, which - in this case - would presumably state that the frequency of behavioral problems is the same for both users and non-users of cell phones, all other things being equal. The problem with a lot of these studies is that in disproving the null hypothesis, the researchers have missed some vital X factor, that is not equal between the two populations. (At the same time, let me just say that if the sacrifice required to stay on the safe side of this recommendation is trivial with respect to your daily routine, then why the heck not).
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 05/20/2008 11:43 Comments || Top||

#8  Nope, ZF. I'm not talking about a correctly formed hypothesis. I'm talking about a deliberate rejection of science, critical thinking and academic studies. I'm talking about museums that teach children that Adam and Eve walked among the peaceful dinosaurs. And about knee jerk rejection of even well-structured and run studies.
Posted by: lotp || 05/20/2008 11:51 Comments || Top||

#9  Lotp, afaict there isn't anything in particular "right-wing" about the skepticism in this case.

Over the last decade or so I've seen people become increacingly skeptical of this apparent push from the medical establishment to reclassify various behaviors as medical or psychiatric conditions, with ADD as the prime example.
Posted by: Abdominal Snowman || 05/20/2008 12:09 Comments || Top||

#10  Most of the commenters here are right wingish. And moonbat conspiracy theories are savagely and joyfully critiqued. I'm just pointing out that it's no virtue to develop a parallel anti-science allergy.
Posted by: lotp || 05/20/2008 12:19 Comments || Top||

#11  Lotp, take a look at the physics of the problem. Cell phones radiate 2W or less (.25W avg I think). A fetus is about 20 inches from the phone. The electric field there is 400 times weaker than that 1 inch away (caller's brain). In addition, cell phone frequencies are chosen for their long range transmission (i.e. are not easily aborbed by the atmoshphere, including the all important O-H bond).

Many studies and large amounts of money have been spent trying to link cell phones with user damage (think of the giga-dollars lawsuits would rake in). Yet there is no conclusive study showing cell phone use damages any part of the caller's head, even the eyes which are very close to the source and have minimal perfusion.

I would more concerned with wireless home networking and cordless phones (2.4GHz) and especially leaky microwave ovens (2.45) which by design generate microwaves at an O-H absorption peak.
Posted by: ed || 05/20/2008 12:26 Comments || Top||

#12  ed, what do electric blankets radiate?
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 05/20/2008 12:29 Comments || Top||

#13  ed, consider the chemistry of it. Even minute amounts of EM affect the valence of neurochemicals. And those cascade to control other metabolic signals which do reach the fetus.

Your model is woefully restricted in its mechanics.

That said, did anyone actually read the full article carefully? Because the authors of the study explicitly stated that they were not proposing causality was established by this study. They WERE stating that the correlation was unexpected, very large and sufficiently disturbing to warrant a closer look.

That's what responsible scientists do. And the first reaction here wasn't hmmm , it was to invoke Lysenko.

Although, that might have inadvertently been more correct that the commenter realized, given the very preliminary insights we're gaining into the way in which the environment around a cell's membrane influences major metabolic expressions of genes. It's becoming clear that genetic management of cellular processes is far from being a simple mechanical cause/effect linkage.

But at any rate, guys, at least read the whole news article before dismissing the study. Sigh.
Posted by: lotp || 05/20/2008 12:41 Comments || Top||

#14  Oh, and those studies that established no "user damage" to adults using cell phones? Kindly note that one of the key contributors to those earlier studies is an author of this study.
Posted by: lotp || 05/20/2008 12:42 Comments || Top||

#15  Lotp, microwaves don't effect valence electrons. That occurs at much higher fequencies (think near IR and above). At microwaves freqs, the mechanism is dipole alignment with the electric field (i.e. the molecule vibrates with the electric field and heats up). Any damage with be thermal (e.g. denatured proteins). Any damage will be about 3 orders of magnitude greater in the cell phone user than a fetus. (e.g. damage to a transport protein

As you said the study is stating a possible correlation. Unless this or follow on studies can show a plausible mechanism, this study resides in the bad science drawer. Useful only to sensationalist journalists and neo-Luddites.

One proposal I will toss out is the study participants have higher incomes and smaller families than average. They are more likely to notice Johnny is "hyperactive" and equate it it some dysfunction than a "normal" family with several kids.
Posted by: ed || 05/20/2008 13:03 Comments || Top||

#16  Unless this or follow on studies can show a plausible mechanism, this study resides in the bad science drawer.

And aren't follow-on studies exactly what these scientists say are needed?

Sheesh. And double sheesh.
Posted by: lotp || 05/20/2008 13:06 Comments || Top||

#17  Lotp, I'm uncertain the backlash is right-wing or left-wing per se, people are just getting tired of hearing how we're all Sinners In The Hand Of An Angry God biochemistry.... down here in the basement of society, the average working person is going to see the phrase "behavior problems" or worse "ADD" and they're going to tune the whole thing out.

They're not going to know beforehand any reasons why this study is more likely to be right than the many other studies that turned out to be bogus.
Posted by: Abdominal Snowman || 05/20/2008 13:07 Comments || Top||

#18  I threw that line as a throw away, being a former research scientist, in the field of EM-tissue interaction by the way. Going by previous studies, I think the odds of finding cell phone causing developmental defects is very low. My bet is on socioeconomic differentiators of the study population.
Posted by: ed || 05/20/2008 13:16 Comments || Top||

#19  AS, I understand where you're coming from.

Do you see where I'm coming from?

The answer to politicized science is good science. And when it's performed it deserves recognition. The authors of this study (which has to suffer the depredations of journalistic reporting) have done many things right, the lack of which has been appropriately criticized in other reports.

* Their data sets are large and cover a wide range of ages within a culture whose members are mostly homogeneous in terms of ethnic background, economic status etc.
* They do not claim more than their data shows - i.e. statistical correlation
*They do not claim to have discovered causal mechanisms -- and the article is, therefore, to be published in the journal Epidemiology not Neuroscience

Moreover, the study team has earned the right to be taken seriously on this issue. Kheifets

wrote three and a half years ago that the results of studies on people who used cell phones "to date give no consistent evidence of a causal relationship between exposure to radiofrequency fields and any adverse health effect".

Now he's found some suggestive correlation and many are taking it seriously enough to begin thinking about how to study potential causal mechanisms.

It's a decent picture of GOOD science, not junk science. And unless we want to revert to living in superstition good science is worth defending. Because G*ds know, we've got plenty of supersitition and conspiracy thinking and just plain old intellectual laziness eroding the basis of western prosperity these days.
Posted by: lotp || 05/20/2008 13:20 Comments || Top||

#20  ed, the studied population is Danish. Even with recent immigration that is likely to be pretty homogeneous in terms of ethnic background, economic status etc.
Posted by: lotp || 05/20/2008 13:23 Comments || Top||

#21  The basic belief is no matter what we do, or how we do it, or when we do it, or where we do it, we are all going to die anyways.
If grants are available for me to prove my hypothesis, I'm all ears...
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/20/2008 13:28 Comments || Top||

#22  I didn't mention anything about race and immigration. I was thinking more in terms of income, family size and child rearing.

Specifically, cell phone users have higher incomes. Higher incomes correlates with higher intelligence. Intelligent kids more likely to exhibit the symptoms of hyperactivity.

Higher incomes correlates with smaller family size. Smaller family size correlates with increased individual supervision. Too much supervision (e.g. keeping track of your kids by cell phone) leading to symptoms of neuroses in the children.
Posted by: ed || 05/20/2008 13:39 Comments || Top||

#23  Anyone have any data or information related to breast cancer in young women (under 35) and the use of computers?
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/20/2008 13:46 Comments || Top||

#24  Specifically, cell phone users have higher incomes

Do you have current, well documented validation for that assumption? Because a quick look around the inner city slums in my part of the US does NOT suggest that's true here.

Moreover, income disparities are much smaller in Denmark than in the US -- and Denmark is where the study was performed.
Posted by: lotp || 05/20/2008 14:19 Comments || Top||

#25  So, here's why this matters so much to me (and why I've cluttered Master Fred's site with this many comments on the thread):

I spend a chunk of my rather rare free time working to attract kids to math, science and engineering. Not by dumbing it down, but by offering them challenging but doable activities like programming robots and analyzing their sensor data.

Every person I work with in this - like my colleague who heads a major lab at IBM - knows that a big factor in our ability to get kids into these disciplines is the public image that scientists and engineers have. In the 50s and 60s that image was good. Today it's pretty ragged as a result of many years of attacks, mostly from those who assert that there is no objective truth but also from those who prefer superstition to science.

Without those kids in those disciplines our future lifestyle and even military security is under serious threat. Not only because of China etc. but also because kids who can't analyze facts and know the limits of an analysis end up swooning for the likes of Al Gore and O'bama.

There's LOTS at stake here.

So trash away when the science is junk. But for all our sakes, recognize when it's not!!

Let's see, where does this soap box go when we're not using it? ....
Posted by: lotp || 05/20/2008 14:31 Comments || Top||

#26  ADD is real. Sometimes it is caused by significantly slower than normal maturation of that part of the brain which thinks before action, and some 25% of those catch up with the normal population by age 25 or so, recent fMRI studies have shown. In those cases Ritalin or caffeine help the child maintain concentration. In some number of cases it is caused by lack of sleep or ongoing stress which, when dealt with, cause the ADD behaviour to evaporate. In such cases the administration of Ritalin or caffeine, while enabling short-term concentration, will exacerbate the underlying problem(s). ADD is in actuality a description of a behavioral issue, but not a diagnosis of the underlying problem, and a good therapist will explore the possibility that the problem is not simply a physical brain issue. "Boys will be boys" is all very well, but only those boys and girls with a real physical brain problem will benefit from a prescription of Ritalin -- the rest will be obviously made worse, something I've seen in my own circle, so the child was taken off the medication at her own request.

As for the study in question, I'd like to see further longitudinal studies undertaken, but it does make sense to me that fetal development would be responsive to... just about anything. Even slight vitamin deficiencies can cause significant outcomes if occurring at a critical stage of fetal development.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/20/2008 14:37 Comments || Top||


#28  No doubt that our journalists are scientifically illiterate and prone to bad reporting of such studies.

Even the Independent did report the authors' caveats, tho, the histrionic headline notwithstanding. ;-)
Posted by: lotp || 05/20/2008 15:08 Comments || Top||

#29  I don't know enough about the science to take a position on this issue, but I agree with much of what lotp says re: knee-jerk reactions to scientific studies on both extremes and the corrosive affect this can have on the sciences as a profession.

All that said: AFAIK the only definitive studies linking cell phone use to actual damage was that conducted by the Mossad a few years ago, though the data set was quite small.
Posted by: xbalanke || 05/20/2008 15:30 Comments || Top||

#30  Not sure on the back and forth here, but Ed is exactly right on the physics discussed. As far as women(and men) with cellphones, I would like to snatch them away before they park their behinds under a steering wheel. There seems to be a direct correlation on attention loss when they drive with their mouths(brains) distracted.
Posted by: Woozle Elmeter 2700 || 05/20/2008 16:58 Comments || Top||

#31  Thank you for working with our future scientists and engineers and I agree there is a lot at stake here. But recognize that a lot of the damage to the reputation of scientists has been done by educationists, journalists, politicians and scientists themselves. They joined the war effort in WWII, made great contributions and fell under the spell of federal funding. Now they too often play the tune they're paid to, not the truth. And too often the tune they play is distorted when amplified by the journos and politicos. It should be no wonder if the initial reaction to any sweeping PC pronouncement like "Using a Mobile Phone while Pregnant can" (not may, CAN) seriously damage your baby is strong skepticism and cynical searching for ulterior motives. Scientists need to clean house. I'd prefer they start on AGW and CO2.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 05/20/2008 17:02 Comments || Top||

#32  I still call bullshit until some very, very, VERY strong and solid evidence is presented. Most of studies like this one have a tendency to be complete crap and proven as such 10 years down the road after everyone freaks out and legislation is passes to "protect" us. Of course, once it is proven to be crap, the law is never removed.

Plus, my wife used her cell-phone 10-20 times a day during her pregnancy and our son is one of the most well behaved kids out there.
Posted by: DarthVader || 05/20/2008 17:14 Comments || Top||

#33  Well, maybe the hypothesis is true, maybe it's not. There is no dishonor in proposing an incorrect hypothesis as long as it's done with practical and honest intentions in mind.

So until someone or history disproves this hypothesis which doesn't seem to be founded on any kind of bad intentions, I will continue to carry my cell phone in my pocket in vibrate mode. You can call me to talk about it if you wish at 555-1212.
Posted by: gorb || 05/20/2008 19:19 Comments || Top||

#34  A hypothesis cannot be tested by means of correlative analysis, even by (as attempted in the study) partialing out some variables -- unless you have a large enough (and appropriately constructed) data set so that you can apply hierarchical linear modeling. What the study says at this point is that you can't rule out that cell phones may pose problems, you just can't determine that they do.

Makes me want to cut down on using my cell phone, but not certain that I must . . .
Posted by: cingold || 05/20/2008 19:34 Comments || Top||

#35  555-1212

Isn't that like 867-5309?
Posted by: DarthVader || 05/20/2008 20:25 Comments || Top||

#36  No, it's like BE-4-5789.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 05/20/2008 20:47 Comments || Top||

#37  I'm just a poor little civil engineer, who happens to be one of those among the 30,000 who disagree with global warming, but I have the same opinion about both MMGW and MCPUWP -

It may be cause for concern, but it is not cause for alarm.

*MCPUWP = Mobile Cell Phone Usage While Pregnant
Posted by: Bobby || 05/20/2008 20:59 Comments || Top||

#38  One of the most overlooked factors I've found in "diagnosing" ADD is accounting for stress. Stress, especially prolonged stress, can do all kinds of nasty things to the human body, including changing the chemical composition of some of the enzymes essentila for good physical and mental health. One of the major problems with all the "scientific outrage" is that it induces stress where there's no need for it. As someone else said, it seems like we're trying to frighten ourselves to death. People who use cell phones may be more inclined to engage in stressful behavior. Stress is just ONE of more than 40 different conditions that can affect fetal development. Blaming it on an outside stimulus may make the authors of this report feel better, but it may not be entirely accurate. I react with skepticism because I've read too many of these kinds of reports - many of which turned out later to be totally bogus. The mane-steamed-media is part of the problem, but so are some scientists. Too many people want to blame their or their children's problems on some outside agent, instead of accepting that their behavior was the most significant contributing factor. I'd be willing to bet a bag of fresh bagels against this proving legitimate over the long run.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 05/20/2008 23:50 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Dupe entry: 20 commercial farms seized by communnists in Mashonaland.
By Bernard Mpofu

Suspected war veterans and Zanu PF loyalists have seized over 20 commercial farms in Mashonaland West in the past fortnight, amid reports that a countrywide new wave of farm invasions was looming ahead of a presidential election run-off between President Robert Mugabe and the MDC’s Morgan Tsvangirai. The most high-profile person to occupy a farm in Mashonaland West was the Reserve Bank’s deputy governor Edward Mashiringwana. Last month Mashiringwana allegedly invaded a farm owned by South African farmer Louis Fick in the same province.

This was despite a Chinhoyi magistrate’s court interdict barring the deputy central bank boss from occupying the property. Mashiringwana reportedly invaded Friedawill Farm in Lions Den, 20km west of Chinhoyi. Fick told the Zimbabwe Independent yesterday that Mashiringwana had seized his farm.

"Let me say this in short, our workers are being locked outside the farm and they are not being allowed access to the animals," Fick said. "We have lost pigs and crocodiles. Mashiringwana - the deputy governor - is behind this." Reports from the farm have graphically described the squeals of piglets devoured by sows driven insane by lack of food and water. The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals which tried to take food and water to the farm was denied access. Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) president Trevor Gifford told the Zimbabwe Independent this week that a group of white commercial farmers in Chegutu made reports to the police that war veterans and Zanu PF supporters have forcibly taken over their farms. "We have reports that over 20 farms have been invaded," Gifford said. "The owners made reports to the police, but they got no assistance."

He alleged that the police displayed a lackadaisical attitude towards the invasions, which he claimed were also spreading to Mashonaland Central. "The situation is so severe, police in Mashonaland West are reluctant to deal with the invasions," Gifford said. "It is only in a few cases that the Police Support Unit reacted." Impeccable sources in the province said police officers were declining to enter their names in the Report Record Book (RRB) once a farmer made a report for fear of victimisation by their superiors. Police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena said he was not aware of the new wave of farm invasions. "We are not aware of those (invasion) reports at the moment," Bvudzijena said. On why police officers were not writing their names on RRBs, Bvudzijena said it was an administrative issue that must be dealt with by a police station officer-in-charge. However, he said with or without officers’ names on the RRBs, the cases would be investigated. Gifford alleged that a white couple in Chegutu was assaulted by Zanu PF youth militia on Monday after resisting the seizure of their farm and were later admitted at a private hospital in Harare.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/20/2008 13:59 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:


Wife of Zimbabwean general on warpath over website report
Hans Pienaar

The wife of a top Zimbabwean general, Jocelyn Chiwenga, has stoked the Internet flames with her threat to sue a Zimbabwean website for publishing responses to a report on how she assaulted an international news agency photographer. Entries on the foreign-based website of ZimDaily.com referred to her as a former prostitute, while an article carried lurid details of her activities as a frequenter of nightclubs before she was married to General Constantine Chiwenga, head of Zimbabwe's armed forces. One participant wrote, against a background of warnings of a coup by former information minister Jonathan Moyo: "If army commander General Constantine Chiwenga happens to do the right thing to save Zimbabwe by deposing Mugabe through a military coup, which he can easily do without firing a bullet like Musharraf of Pakistan, then Jocelyn will be our first lady." He signed his entry as "lance-corporal, HQ presidential guard". Jocelyn Chiwenga wants US$1- billion (about R7,1-billion) from the website. Both Chiwengas are blacklisted by the US government, and so the proceeds of a suit would not be able to be given to her.

The website also published an e-mail she wrote to the website, which is so ridden with expletives of a sexual nature that Web masters refuse access to the entry. "Her e-mail was pregnant with spelling errors and the worst of grammatical errors reminiscent of Idi Amin's dinner speech organised in his honour by the Queen in 1972. (It is said that after the speech, the Queen asked the journalists present what on earth Amin had said. They replied that it was in a language similar to English.)" The trouble started in a supermarket last week when Jocelyn Chiwenga, out to scour empty supermarket shelves with a bodyguard in tow, bumped into opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai. The Movement for Democratic Change leader was there to inspect the effects on President Mugabe's latest economic edicts. Before the startled eyes and cameras of the international media, Chiwenga began shouting at Tsvangirai, calling him the "dog who has caused all the suffering in the country".

According to reports, she then ordered the managers of the Makro shop to close, threatening to call in soldiers via her husband to deal with Tsvangirai and the journalists following him. Later, on the Voice of America, she boasted about "Tsvangirai running from me". Photographer Tsvangirai Mukwazi is reported to have been trapped in the supermarket, where he was allegedly slapped and insulted by Chiwenga. State radio said the army commander's wife was furious to hear Tsvangirai, who she said had called for sanctions on Zimbabwe, referred to as the president. The MDC leader is regularly referred to as "president" by his bodyguards and fellow MDC members. Chiwenga has announced she will sue the MDC leader and independent news services that have carried reports on the alleged incident.

She has courted controversy for several years. She first made headlines when her business partner in the Zimsafe company, a Dutch national, was deported for a crime that many say he did not commit. Zimsafe was the supplier of luminous clothing for Zimbabwean police and soldiers manning roadblocks. Shortly afterwards, she married General Chiwenga. In 2002 she allegedly told a farmer she had not tasted white blood in years, before seizing his land at gunpoint. She gained further notoriety when she assaulted media lawyer Gugulethu Moyo at a police station. Today, she is at the centre of the controversial hunting industry, in which unknown Zimbabwean landowners earn up to US$30-million by allowing US hunters to shoot big game.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/20/2008 13:54 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Wow. This gal makes Michelle Obama look tame by comparison.
Posted by: Rambler in California || 05/20/2008 18:02 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Two suspected criminals killed in Bannu
Two suspected criminals were killed in exchange of fire with the police in Bannu district of NWFP on Sunday, police said. The shootout took place in the precincts of Mandan police station when a police party asked four people in a car to hand themselves over to the law enforcers, local journalist Inayatullah told Daily Times. Quoting the Bannu Police Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Masood Afridi, the journalist said the four people opened fire on the police party instead of surrendering their arms. The police retaliated, which resulted in the death of two of the attackers while their other two colleagues managed to escape, the officer said. He said the exchange of fire occurred near the Kinger Pul. Hospital sources, on the other hand, said they had received one dead body and one injured. Condition of the injured is critical, they added. Police officials said four Kalashnikovs, two hand grenades and 300 bullets were recovered from the car used by the alleged criminals.
Posted by: Fred || 05/20/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Culture Wars
News crew attacked during report at Islamic TiZA charter school, Police Don't Arrest
In an attempt to report about the new findings from the Department of Education Monday, 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS went to Tarik ibn Zayad Academy in Inver Grove Heights.

While on school grounds, our crew was attacked by school officials. Our photographer was injured while wrestling with the two men over the camera.
Video at link

Our photographer was examined by paramedics and suffered minor shoulder and back injuries.
Inver Grove Police refuse to arrest. How typically Minnesotan

The state education department on Monday directed the charter school to "correct" two areas related to religion at the school on Monday.

Tarik ibn Zayad Academy, which focuses on Middle Eastern culture and shares a mosque with the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, came under fire after a teacher alleged that the school was offering religious instruction in Islam to its students.
And the ACLU is where?

Page 2
"The Minnesota Department of Education goes to great lengths to make clear to charter schools and their sponsors that, while schools should appropriately accomodate students' religious beliefs, they must be 'nonsectarian' under the state's charter school law," said the state's education Deputy Commissioner Chas Anderson.

The allegations first surfaced after an article by a columnist for the Star Tribune. The Education Department subsequently began a review of the south metro school and released its findings Monday.

The agency said it was concerned about the school, with about 300 students, accommodating communal prayer and providing transportation to an after-school religious program.

"We have directed the school to take appropriate corrective actions regarding these matters and will continue to provide oversight to ensure that the school is in compliance with state and federal law," Anderson said.
Good luck with that
Posted by: Icerigger || 05/20/2008 09:19 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Forget it, Jake. It's Minnesota...
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/20/2008 10:54 Comments || Top||

#2  Give Muslims an inch and they will take a mile.
Posted by: Mad Eye Gluck2704 || 05/20/2008 14:16 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2008-05-20
   Iraqi troops roll into Sadr City
Mon 2008-05-19
  Boomer kills 11, maims 24 near Pakistan army centre
Sun 2008-05-18
  Tater under arrest in Iran?
Sat 2008-05-17
  Ten held in Europe for Al Qaeda ties
Fri 2008-05-16
  Burqaboomer kills 18 near crowded bazaar
Thu 2008-05-15
  Dozen militants killed in suspected US strike on Damadola
Wed 2008-05-14
  Commander Says al-Qaida ''Virtually Destroyed'' in Kirkuk
Tue 2008-05-13
  Sudanese troops hunt for rebels in Khartoum
Mon 2008-05-12
  Hezbollah foiled US-planned coup. Really.
Sun 2008-05-11
  Army sides with Nasrallah against Leb govt
Sat 2008-05-10
  Leb coup d'etat: Hezbollah seizes control of west Beirut
Fri 2008-05-09
  Hezbollah seizes large parts of Beirut
Thu 2008-05-08
  Hezbollah at war with Leb
Wed 2008-05-07
  Hezbollah telecom network shut down
Tue 2008-05-06
  3500 U.S. troops surge home


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