toothdigger's comeback

Glory For God by Carley Evans

2009-07-11T16:17:00.000-04:00

Spend Time With A Power: Jovelyn Animation Rough

2008-12-29T20:44:00.000-05:00

Spend Time With A Power: Jovelyn Animation Rough

Health Tip In A Nutshell

2008-12-10T15:52:00.000-05:00

Here's a health tip in a nutshell: Eating a handful of nuts a day for a year — along with a Mediterranean diet rich in fruit, vegetables and fish — may help undo a collection of risk factors for heart disease.

Spanish researchers found that adding nuts worked better than boosting the olive oil in a typical Mediterranean diet. Both regimens cut the heart risks known as metabolic syndrome in more people than a low-fat diet did.

"What's most surprising is they found substantial metabolic benefits in the absence of calorie reduction or weight loss," said Dr. JoAnn Manson, chief of preventive medicine at Harvard's Brigham and Women's Hospital.

In the study, appearing Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine, the people who improved most were told to eat about three whole walnuts, seven or eight whole hazelnuts and seven or eight whole almonds. They didn't lose weight, on average, but more of them succeeded in reducing belly fat and improving their cholesterol and blood pressure.

Mumbai Massacre

2008-11-27T09:10:00.002-05:00

MSNBC is reporting that only 3 Americans have been injured in the Mumbai attacks; yet, yesterday evening, CNN was reporting that Americans and Britons were being targeted by terrorists. Odd mismatch, in my opinion.

We have to be very careful when watching news organizations as the constant stream of half-information and misinformation can confuse even them.

Ponder This: "Thoughts From Within" Woody's Poem

2008-11-26T21:37:00.001-05:00

82 Tourists Murdered in India

2008-11-26T21:23:00.002-05:00

Teams of gunmen stormed luxury hotels, a popular restaurant, hospitals and a crowded train station in coordinated attacks across India's financial capital Wednesday night, killing at least 82 people and taking Westerners hostage, police said. A group of suspected Muslim militants claimed responsibility.

Hold Your Breath! Don't Sell Your Stock!

2008-11-21T19:38:00.002-05:00

I'm no expert, but I am holding onto my small stock portfolio. Until I sell it, I have (in my mind) only lost money on paper. Once I sell, that loss is realized. Who wants to sell low!? I'd rather wait it out. My financial advisor reminded me not long ago that the longest 'bear' market in U.S. history was '30 months.' Well, this bear market may be one of, if not the, worst bear markets in U.S. history, but it certainly hasn't come close to being as long as 30 months!

Hold your breath. Don't sell.

Vetting Clinton

2008-11-20T09:10:00.002-05:00

Seems rather odd to me that suddenly, Hillary Clinton has to be vetted because she might be considered for the appointment of Secretary of State. What, pray tell, would have happened if the Democrats had selected her as their candidate for the presidency of the United States? Would we not have had the SAME issues with Bill Clinton's connections around the world? Sheesh.

New Hope

2008-11-09T20:19:00.002-05:00

Someone I sort of know said that government can not save us. I never thought that it could. But, I have new hope that our election of Barack Obama is the beginning of a better way of life for Americans. Surely, we can work together to make this country more respected in the rest of the world.

Look at us: we are so hated by so many countries. This is just sad. We are a generous people; a giving nation. Yet, people around the world burn our flag! or stomp on the image of our president.

We have turned our eyes inward to a point that we have failed to see that the world has turned its face against us.

Let's support our president-elect, and make the world a better place to be.

Let's support our president-elect, and make our country the greatest place to be.

Spend Time With A Power: Lindsay

2008-08-13T14:38:00.000-04:00

Spend Time With A Power: Lindsay

Spend Time With A Power: Jovelyn 2

2008-08-09T19:33:00.000-04:00

Spend Time With A Power: Jovelyn 2

Spend Time With A Power: Peter

2008-08-04T08:09:00.000-04:00

Spend Time With A Power: Peter

For Love of Ants: Edward O. Wilson

2008-07-15T09:08:00.002-04:00

Taking a Cue From Ants on Evolution of Humans
By NICHOLAS WADE
Published: July 15, 2008
Edward O. Wilson has become one of the world’s best-known biologists through his urge to create large syntheses of knowledge and his gift for writing

Beautiful World

2008-07-14T11:37:00.003-04:00

Sitting in my brother's living room, looking out at Mount Evans in the close distance, thinking about how beautiful the world actually is. From the airplane yesterday, I remember seeing the fields laid out like verdant squares and circles and odd trapezoids, thinking the same thing: the world is a gorgeous place, green and blue with grass, trees and waterways.

I haven't quite figured out whether we human beings as a species will recognize, really realize, that this is the only home we have.

I hope so.

Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch

2008-07-10T21:50:00.002-04:00

Charles Moore, captain of the private research vessel Alguita

"An Ideal Husband"

2008-07-06T18:31:00.000-04:00

Garden Girl: "Urban Sustainable Living"

2008-07-04T14:29:00.000-04:00

Rice Field Art

2008-07-04T14:24:00.001-04:00

The Angry Faces In China: Govermental and Public

2008-07-04T12:01:00.004-04:00

In the May 3rd - May 9th, 2008 issue of the ECONOMIST is a report on China's recent descent into anger. The ECONOMIST writes that even as the Chinese government is angry at the West, the Chinese people are angry at their government...

"Chinese rage has focused on the alleged "anti-China" bias of the Western press... China's defenders have gone on to denounce the entire edifice of Western liberal democracy as a sham.... China's rage is out of all proportion to the alleged offences [of the West]. It reflects a fear that a resentful, threatened West is determined to thwart China's rise. The Olympics have become a symbol of China's right to the respect it is due... China, like India, is a land of a million mutinies now. Legions of farmers are angry that their land has been swallowed up for building by greedy local officials. People everywhere are aghast at the poisoning of China's air, rivers and lakes in the race for growth. Hardworking, honest citizens chafe at corrupt officials who treat them with contempt... and the party still makes an ass of the law and a mockery of justice.
Herein lies the danger for the government. Popular anger, once roused, can easily switch targets."

The government of China, according to the Economist, is hoping to "restore its rightful place at the center of world affairs" and gain its people's loyalty and respect through nationalistic pride. The government is trying to "distract Chinese people from their domestic discontents by breathing fire at foreigners." But, the Economist also strongly suggests eventually the Chinese government will have to tackle its internal problems: pollution, human rights abuses, and corruption. "The Chinese people will demand it."

Jesus Breaks Bread Before His Death

2008-07-04T07:01:00.000-04:00

Big Cross In Texas

2008-07-04T06:55:00.001-04:00

Blind Climber "Sees" With His Tongue

2008-07-02T19:44:00.001-04:00

Photo credit: Beth Wald

Terrorist's House Must Be Destroyed

2008-07-02T18:34:00.002-04:00

Hours after three people were killed when a terrorist in a bulldozer went on a rampage in downtown Jerusalem, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that the attacker's east Jerusalem home must be destroyed.

Olmert held consultations in his office following the attack and Jerusalem officials said that the prime minister was expected to discuss the possibility of destroying the terrorist's home with Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann. He is also set to discuss taking away National Insurance Institute (NII) rights from the terrorist's family.

Following the attack, US President George W. Bush phoned Olmert and offered his condolences to the Israeli people.

Olmert received news of the attack while in the Knesset plenum. Incidentally, the Knesset approved the first reading of a bill to take away rights and even Israeli citizenship from terrorist's families.

Hamas: "A Natural Reaction To The Daily Aggression Against Our People"

2008-07-02T18:21:00.002-04:00

MSNBC reports:

JERUSALEM - A Palestinian man plowed an enormous construction vehicle into cars, buses and pedestrians on a busy street Wednesday, killing at least three people and injuring at least 45 before he was shot dead by an off-duty soldier.

Traffic was halted and hundreds of people fled in panic through the streets in the heart of downtown Jerusalem as medics treated the injured.

Three Palestinian militant groups took responsibility for the attack, but Israeli police referred to the attacker as a "terrorist" acting on his own.

The attack took place in front of a building housing the offices of The Associated Press and other media outlets. A TV camera captured the huge front loader crushing a vehicle and an off-duty soldier killing the perpetrator by shooting him in the head several times at point-blank range as onlookers screamed.

A half-dozen cars were flattened and others were overturned by the Caterpillar vehicle. A bus was overturned and another bus was heavily damaged. Israel's national rescue service confirmed three deaths, and the bodies lay motionless on the ground covered in plastic.

A woman sprinkled water over a baby's bloodied face, a rescue worker stroked the hair of a dazed elderly pedestrian and a loved one raised the bleeding leg of a woman sitting outside the overturned bus.

"I saw the bulldozer smash the car with its shovel. He smashed the guy sitting in the driver's seat," said Yaakov Ashkenazi, an 18-year-old seminary student.

The attack occurred in an area where Jerusalem is building a new train system. The project has turned many parts of the city into a construction zone.

Wednesday's attack represented a departure from militants' previous methods, which were mostly suicide bombings and shootings.

The three organizations that took responsibility for the attack included the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, which is affiliated with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The other two are the Galilee Freedom Battalion, which is suspected of being affiliated with Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a fringe left-wing militant group.

The Hamas militant group, which runs the Gaza Strip and is currently maintaining a fragile cease-fire with Israel, said it did not carry out the attack but nevertheless praised it.

"We consider it as a natural reaction to the daily aggression and crimes committed against our people in the West Bank and all over the occupied lands," said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri.

Newest Medical Technology Promotes Indiscriminant Spending

2008-07-01T18:24:00.002-04:00

Increasing use of the scans, formally known as CT angiograms, is part of a much larger trend in American medicine. A faith in innovation, often driven by financial incentives, encourages American doctors and hospitals to adopt new technologies even without proof that they work better than older techniques. Patient advocacy groups and some doctors are clamoring for such evidence. But the story of the CT angiogram is a sobering reminder of the forces that overwhelm such efforts, making it very difficult to rein in a new technology long enough to determine whether its benefits are worth its costs.

Some medical experts say the American devotion to the newest, most expensive technology is an important reason that the United States spends much more on health care than other industrialized nations — more than $2.2 trillion in 2007, an estimated $7,500 a person, about twice the average in other countries — without providing better care.

No one knows exactly how much money is spent on unnecessary care. But a Rand Corporation study estimated that one-third or more of the care that patients in this country receive could be of little value. If that is so, hundreds of billions of dollars each year are being wasted on superfluous treatments.

Barack Obama Supports Faith Based Groups in Community Service

2008-07-01T17:28:00.003-04:00

Obama unveiled his approach to getting religious charities more involved in government anti-poverty programs during a tour and remarks Tuesday at Eastside Community Ministry, which provides food, clothes, youth ministry and other services.

Bear Attacks Girl During Alaska Bike Race

2008-06-29T21:49:00.001-04:00

...the (14 year old) girl was fortunate to be wearing a bike helmet because the bear had bitten her head.

The animal attacked the girl around 1:30 a.m., during the darkest part of the morning.

"It's not light enough to read, but it's light enough to see your way," Hill said of the conditions one week after the summer solstice. Riders could see rocks, trees and the trail but may have been using headlamps or a bike headlight, Hill said.

The girl called 911, and dispatchers heard someone struggling to breathe. She whispered one word — "bear" — and the line went dead, Hill said.

Following procedure for when an emergency call is cut off, dispatchers called the number back. Another rider heard the phone ringing, stopped to investigate and spotted the teen off the trail.

"That rider was able to pick up the phone and talk with the police department," Hill said.

One more rider appeared and stayed until emergency workers arrived. That took courage in the darkened forest, knowing a bear had attacked and could again, Hill said.

"It had to be extremely unnerving, if not terrifying," Hill said.

Honeybees Are Disappearing: Is the Human Race Doomed?

2008-06-29T11:50:00.002-04:00

Honey, I'm Gone
Abandoned Beehives Are a Scientific Mystery and a Metaphor for Our Tenuous Times

By Joel Garreau
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 1, 2007; C01

Urban Waterfalls In New York City

2008-06-28T18:01:00.000-04:00

Tomatoes Tainted With Many More Cases Resulting

2008-06-26T19:07:00.002-04:00

The outbreak’s source remains a mystery. Food and Drug Administration investigators have spent the past week inspecting farms in parts of Florida and Mexico and the warehouses and other stops those farms’ tomatoes made on the way to market.

The government continues to urge consumers nationwide to avoid raw red plum, red Roma or red round tomatoes unless they were grown in specific states or countries that FDA has cleared of suspicion. Check FDA’s Web site — http://www.fda.gov — for an updated list. Also safe are grape tomatoes, cherry tomatoes and tomatoes sold with the vine still attached.

Latvia Un-Earths Tetrapod Skull From 365 Million Years Ago

2008-06-26T03:55:00.002-04:00

The 365 million-year-old fossil skull, shoulders and part of the pelvis of the water-dweller, Ventastega curonica, were found in Latvia, researchers report in a study published in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature. Even though Ventastega is likely an evolutionary dead-end, the finding sheds new details on the evolutionary transition from fish to tetrapods. Tetrapods are animals with four limbs and include such descendants as amphibians, birds and mammals.

Harsh Interrogations and the CIA

2008-06-18T07:30:00.001-04:00

A senior CIA lawyer advised Pentagon officials about the use of harsh interrogation techniques on detainees at Guantanamo Bay in a meeting in late 2002, defending waterboarding and other methods as permissible despite U.S. and international laws banning torture, according to documents released yesterday by congressional investigators.

Torture "is basically subject to perception," CIA counterterrorism lawyer Jonathan Fredman told a group of military and intelligence officials gathered at the U.S.-run detention camp in Cuba on Oct. 2, 2002, according to minutes of the meeting. "If the detainee dies, you're doing it wrong."

The document, one of two dozen released by a Senate panel investigating how Pentagon officials developed the controversial interrogation program introduced at Guantanamo Bay in late 2002, suggests a larger CIA role in advising Defense Department interrogators than was previously known. By the time of the meeting, the CIA already had used waterboarding, which simulates drowning, on at least one terrorism suspect and was holding high-level al-Qaeda detainees in secret prisons overseas -- actions that Bush administration lawyers had approved.

Konami's METAL GEAR Training Missions

2008-06-11T20:23:00.001-04:00

An Egyptian Asks 'Will America Really Elect A Black Man Of Muslim Descent?'

2008-06-11T20:02:00.002-04:00

"Obama? Do you think they will let him win?” (It’s always “let him win” not just “win.”)

It would not be an exaggeration to say that the Democrats’ nomination of Obama as their candidate for president has done more to improve America’s image abroad — an image dented by the Iraq war, President Bush’s invocation of a post-9/11 “crusade,” Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo Bay and the xenophobic opposition to Dubai Ports World managing U.S. harbors — than the entire Bush public diplomacy effort for seven years.

Of course, Egyptians still have their grievances with America, and will in the future no matter who is president — and we’ve got a few grievances with them, too. But every once in a while, America does something so radical, so out of the ordinary — something that old, encrusted, traditional societies like those in the Middle East could simply never imagine — that it revives America’s revolutionary “brand” overseas in a way that no diplomat could have designed or planned.

'Blowing the Whistle' in Japan

2008-06-08T11:33:00.003-04:00

TOKYO — A car company that hid dangerous flaws to avoid embarrassing recalls. A meat processor that sold ground pig hearts as beef. A fancy restaurant chain that served customers leftover sashimi from other diners.

In recent years, Japan’s faith in its corporate establishment has been shaken by a series of scandals in which companies of all sizes have been caught in frauds ranging from the merely nauseating to the patently dangerous. More shocking than the misdeeds is the fact that employees are blowing the whistle.

A decade ago, corporate whistle-blowing was almost unheard-of in Japan. A person’s place of employment was part of his identity, and unflinching company loyalty was the highest of virtues. But the unquestioningly obedient salaryman is becoming a relic, the result of a broader transformation of Japan and the global economy.

Stabbing Rampage in Tokyo Leaves 7 Dead

2008-06-08T11:15:00.003-04:00

TOKYO - A Japanese man rammed a truck into a crowd of shoppers, jumped out and went on a stabbing spree in Tokyo's top electronics district Sunday, killing at least seven people and wounding 10 others.

The deadly lunchtime assault paralyzed the Akihabara neighborhood, which is wildly popular among the country's cyber-wise youth. The killings were the latest in a series of grisly knifings that have stoked fears of rising crime in Japan.

A 25-year-old man, Tomohiro Kato, was apprehended in the attack.

'I Believe' License Plate Offered In South Carolina At Cost

2008-06-07T12:24:00.002-04:00

South Carolina is to offer an "I Believe" license plate to drivers with a cross in front of a stained glass window, essentially advertising the religious bent of the driver. Why anyone would sue South Carolina for allowing an individual to select this plate is beyond me. For 70 dollars, you can show your support for the arts, the Boy Scouts, teachers, etc. No one has sued South Carolina saying that this is unconstitutional!

'Things About America I Didn't Know While Lived There'

2008-06-07T11:11:00.001-04:00

Check this list out! Some eye-opening, intriguing information about us (i.e. the US) and other places in the world (i.e. Japan).

US Stock Market Falls 400 Points

2008-06-07T09:58:00.001-04:00

NEIL KING JR. writes:

Crude oil notched its largest price jump ever on Friday, leaping nearly $11 to more than $138 a barrel, on news of a weakening dollar and continued jitters over the reliability of world supplies.

The surge, coming just as many analysts thought oil prices were set to fall, sent stocks plunging amid fears that the U.S. economy could be in for a combined bout of inflation and slow growth. The skyrocketing price of oil, now up more than 44% so far this year, is battering the airline and auto industries and causing consumers to cut back on driving and nonessential spending.

Going After The Women's Vote

2008-06-07T09:46:00.001-04:00

NY Times reports:

With Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s ending her campaign for the Democratic nomination, the presumptive nominees are moving to claim her followers, especially her signature bloc, the millions of women who cast primary votes for her.

'Quake' Lake in China Drains; Orphans Remain

2008-06-07T08:47:00.002-04:00

The quake centered in Sichuan province killed 69,127 people, with 17,918 still missing, according to the latest government figures.

The provincial government has estimated about 7,000 of the victims were children with no siblings. The National Population and Family Planning Commission will send a medical team to the quake zone to perform reverse sterilization operations on couples that want to have another child, Xinhua reported.

China's family planning policies restrict most couples to one child, although rules allow for another baby if their child is killed, severely injured or disabled.

Authorities said they had recorded 4,700 unclaimed children whose parents presumably died in the quake. But Civil Affairs Ministry official Zhang Shifeng said the final number of orphans was expected to be about 1,000 to 2,000, as children were gradually handed over to members of their extended families.

Zhang said parents from around China were showing huge interest in adopting quake orphans, with 10,000 families registering for adoption in one province alone. He indicated the ministry could give priority to parents who (lost) children in the quake.

Barack Obama Takes Democratic Party Nomination

2008-06-04T07:19:00.001-04:00

MSNBC reports:

Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois claimed the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday night, NBC News projected based on its tally of convention delegates.

By doing so, he shattered a barrier more than two centuries old to become the first black candidate ever nominated by a major political party for the nation’s highest office.

Mirena: Catering to Men, Mucking with Women

2008-06-01T12:29:00.007-04:00

A new drug, Mirena is being marketed to married women (or to women 'in a stable relationships') as a means to decrease the number of normal menstrual cycles during the years of childbirth.

Drug researchers and manufacturers continue to alter a woman's body for the convenience, ultimately it seems, of men. What drug manufacturer or researcher is looking for a pill designed to decrease the number of sperm a man produces or to decrease the quality of a man's sperm so that impregnation is less likely or even impossible? We continue to muck with a woman's physiology without any concern at all for the long-term consequences to her health and well-being. We also continue to cater to men.

Monkeys Learn to Control Mechanical Arm Via Sensors Implanted in Brain

2008-06-01T10:33:00.002-04:00

BENEDICT CAREY reports: Two monkeys with tiny sensors in their brains have learned to control a mechanical arm with just their thoughts, using it to reach for and grab food and even to adjust for the size and stickiness of morsels when necessary, scientists reported on Wednesday. The report, released online by the journal Nature
(i.e. Cortical Control of a Prosthetic Arm for Self-Feeding (Nature), is the most striking demonstration to date of brain-machine interface technology.

United Nations Looks Closely at Iran's Nuclear Program

2008-06-01T10:14:00.002-04:00

After challenging Iran’s atomic efforts with everything from diplomatic crusades to shows of military force, the Americans backed off late last year, based on a new intelligence finding that Tehran had suspended work in late 2003 on the design of nuclear arms. Now, in the waning days of President Bush’s second term, it would be difficult — politically, diplomatically and militarily— for them to try to press for a new confrontation.

But early this year, Washington also turned over a trove of its own intelligence to the atomic investigators in Vienna, who put it together with clues gathered from many foreign capitals and findings from their own long years of inquiries.

On the basis of that combination of new and old evidence, over the last few months, the inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency have come to worry that Iran — before suspending its work nearly five years ago — may have made real progress toward designing a deadly weapon.

Barack Obama Says 'Good-bye' To Long-Time Trinity Church Membership

2008-06-01T09:58:00.002-04:00

My question is: Didn't Mr. Obama hear any of this abhorrent rhetoric from the pulpit in the 20 years he and Mrs. Obama attended Trinity? Surely, he was aware of the views of his pastor prior to this election year? Why did he tolerate it then? Or did he? I think this is the more important question - are we, as members of a church, accountable for the beliefs of our pastors?

'Half-Votes' Given to Michigan and Florida Delegates in Compromise

2008-06-01T09:32:00.002-04:00

Democratic Party leaders agreed Saturday seat Michigan and Florida delegates with half votes into this summer's convention with a compromise that left Barack Obama on the verge of the nomination but riled Hillary Rodham Clinton backers who threatened to fight to the August convention.

'The Worst Is Over': U.S. Economy

2008-05-31T06:22:00.003-04:00

Barton Biggs, 75 years old, believes the worst is over for the economy and for the stock market. While the market is likely to move sideways for the rest of 2008, he says there will be no recession -- and with the remaining poisons purged from the system, stocks should move upward next year.

He left Morgan Stanley in 2003 to start a hedge fund, Traxis Partners LLP, where he is a managing partner. Traxis has $1.7 billion under management. It's down 4% so far this year after posting a 25% gain last year. Mr. Biggs, his hair still reddish, is an intense fellow who follows the world from the modernistic Traxis office towering over New York's Rockefeller Center.

A creative-writing major at Yale, Mr. Biggs peppered his investor notes at Morgan Stanley with literary references from Shakespeare and other authors. Mr. Biggs's latest book, "Wealth, War and Wisdom," studies the rise and fall of international markets from 1935 through 1945, and focuses on the role of public psychology in driving market performance.

Angelina and Brad Deny Twins' Births in France

2008-05-31T06:15:00.001-04:00

Quake Lakes in China

2008-05-31T06:11:00.000-04:00

Divers Stranded Off Great Barrier Reef Tell All

2008-05-31T05:57:00.002-04:00

Guest Blogger On 'Indiana Jones' And That Crystal Skull

2008-05-28T07:38:00.001-04:00

It is odd that Putin has taken issue with the fourth Indiana Jones film, with its Communists as bad guys flick. It's obviously that although the film has updated the antagonists from Nazis to the Red Menace, the film's heart isn't in it.

For whatever reason, the movie is not interested in showing anything truly frightening about Communism. The flick is too focused on a US-centric viewpoint, concerned almost exclusively with the effect Cold War paranoia had on American society. But unfortunately it doesn't put this fear in context. We see protests against the Reds on a college campus, but we don't hear anything about the formation of the Warsaw Pact (in fact the film omits the very existence of the countries that were Soviet satellites.

Apparently the Reds are a bunch of Russians, one Ukrainian woman and a British turncoat). We see academic intimidation, but the fact the Soviets had "The Bomb" during this time period is also omitted (it is actually implied that only the US had atomic bombs). However the film can't quite bring itself to condemn McCarthyism with anything other than light tones.

The Nazis in Raiders had Toht the vile Gestapo agent, but the Communists have no political officers in their ranks. There is no spying within the Soviet ranks, no fear of surveillance. The Russian soldiers are faceless grunts, and not even stereotypically evil ones at that. There is no corruption or ideological rigidity or group-think constraining their combat progress.

The film cannot bring itself to really show even a resemblance of reality within the Soviet forces, but neither can it exaggerate them to Cold War-era levels. The movie seems desperate to prove it is not Cold War right-wing propaganda, that this film can't be used by the Right to showcase the negatives of Communism, as if the Right was the only critic of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union's own treatment of dissident academics is omitted, there are no dissenting Soviet citizens in this movie who want out. Every Red is a happy little minion of Stalin-ville. The villainess seems untouched by any past hardship, which is amazingly unlikely due to Stalin's paranoia. Surely some people she cared about were mistreated in the past, she doesn't seem heartless enough.

Cate Blanchett's villain is a cipher: she's got medals aplenty from Stalin, but she's not a believer. Where is the indoctrination? The ideology? For Communists, they seem remarkable devoid of any interest in the working class. They don't even cloak their true interests in Marxist ideology, in fact Marx is omitted. Unlike Last Crusade, there are no scenes within the Sovet Union, let alone the Warsaw Pact. We see nothing of life behind the Iron Curtain, or any of the countries that were within The Second World.

The film dodges all the misery or even the visions that drove the Soviets during that time period. It is a Cold War-era movie without much in the way of conviction: it can point out McCarthyism on the most superficial of levels but it can't seriously condemn or explore it, nor can it even begin to speak ill of the Sovet Union for a movie that is supposedly old-fashioned "Indy against the Reds". Indiana Jones fights the Soviet Union in name only, these villains are faint shadows of what the Soviets were. Our hero doesn't even seriously speak ill of his Red opponents, and these are the people he is fighting. The Soviets don't even threaten to send him to the Gulag, or do anything ill to those he associated with! What nice people, heh. They probably sent enemies of the working class to summer camp.

And so it does a disservice to even the pulp history (which wouldn't even think twice about exaggerating Communism's danger) on which Indiana Jones is inspired by, yet alone actual history. Indiana Jones would not mince words when talking about what was wrong with Communism or Cold War Paranoia, and neither should this movie. With all we do know about the Soviet world, you would think we'd depict it with at least a bit more historic accuracy than this whitewash.

Hollan M Kreil

Going Home: Ted Kennedy Diagnosed With Malignant Brain Tumor

2008-05-21T13:29:00.002-04:00

NBC News, BOSTON - Sen. Edward M. Kennedy walked out of the hospital accompanied by family members on Wednesday, one day after being diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor that experts say is almost certainly fatal.

A square bandage at the back of his head marked the spot where doctors performed a biopsy Monday that led them to diagnose him with malignant glioma.

The 76-year-old senator, the last son in a famed political family, was diagnosed with a malignant glioma in his left parietal lobe — which helps govern sensation, movement and language — after suffering a seizure in his home Saturday morning. Malignant gliomas are diagnosed in about 9,000 Americans a year.

Quake in China - Ian Williams Reporting

2008-05-17T13:11:00.002-04:00

Graduation From College of Charleston

2008-05-17T13:00:00.001-04:00

My son, Hollan, graduates from College of Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina!

Graduation From Earlham

2008-05-17T12:57:00.001-04:00

My daughter, Kim, graduates from Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana!

Surviving Fall Into Strip Mine Pit

2008-04-26T22:17:00.002-04:00

ALLENTOWN, Pa. - A man survived a 500-foot fall into a strip mine Friday, astounding rescuers who spent hours on a risky descent into the abyss to bring him back out.

Police said Nathan Bowman was trespassing on coal company property around 1 a.m. Friday when he slipped and fell into the Springdale Pit, an inactive mine about 700 feet deep, 3,000 feet long and 1,500 feet wide.

Bowman tumbled down a jagged slope and then free-fell several hundred feet, his descent broken by a rock ledge not far from the bottom of the pit.

Wall Street Rallies Up Fourth Straight Day

2008-04-18T20:25:00.002-04:00

Earnings Relief Rallies Stocks
By Peter A. McKay

Stocks leapt as investors hailed both Citigroup's horrid but not as bad as expected earnings report and surprisingly strong results at bellwethers in industries away from Wall Street.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose for a fourth straight day, finishing up 228.87 points, or 1.8%, at a three-month high 12849.36, down 3.1% on the year. The blue-chip indicator was boosted by a 4.5% jump in its component Citigroup after the banking giant announced early Friday that it swung to a $5.11 billion first-quarter loss as it booked more than $13 billion in write-downs amid surging credit costs.

416 Children Taken By The State

2008-04-18T20:17:00.001-04:00

The 416 children, ranging from infants to 17 years old, were removed from the communal ranch near Eldorado starting April 3, after authorities said they had received a phone call from a 16 year old girl saying she had a child and had been beaten and raped by her 50-year-old spiritual husband. During Thursday’s hearing, authorities admitted that they had not identified the girl among the children removed from the ranch.

Ms. Voss, the state investigator, testified that several girls said they knew the caller, who had identified herself as Sarah. But they were uncooperative under further questioning, Ms. Voss said.

The children were taken from the 1,691-acre Yearning for Zion ranch operated by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which long ago broke away from the mainstream Mormon Church.

The question facing Judge Walther is whether the children on the ranch were abused or whether they are at risk of being abused. Among the difficulties facing authorities was identifying which children were abused. And the judge might have to decide whether the community’s practice of under-age marriage meant the entire culture constituted a danger to children.

Not A Corporate Deer Hunting Retreat: Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints

2008-04-10T19:11:00.003-04:00

The men in Western shirts and jeans who appeared in the west Texas town of Eldorado in 2003 said they were shopping for land to build a corporate hunting retreat. The 1,691-acre former exotic game ranch was just what they were looking for. Set amid rolling hills of rocky scrub dotted with mesquite trees, oil rigs and goat ranches, it was remote, and the land was cheap.

But the sheriff and other residents of Schleicher County soon discovered that their new neighbors had much more on their agenda than deer hunting. Leaders of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-day Saints (FLDS), a renegade sect that broke with mainstream Mormons (who banned polygamy in 1890), were under siege by authorities in Utah and Arizona. Their enclave of 10,000 based in the twin cities of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., openly practiced "plural marriage"—their ticket to heaven, they believe—via clandestine ceremonies for "celestial" brides to circumvent bigamy laws.

Yet polygamy, though illegal, didn't spark the crackdown in recent years. Church members, including their prophet Warren Jeffs, were under investigation for marrying off girls as young as 13. Women and girls who fled the group, and boys pushed out or abandoned, told stories of forced marriages, incest and abuse. Some who left called it a destructive cult.

Airline Inspections Cause Massive Flight Cancellations

2008-04-10T11:15:00.002-04:00

American Airlines canceled another 900 flights on Thursday, or about 40 percent of its daily total of 2,300, after making only slight progress in getting its 300 MD-80 jetliners flying again.

The MD-80s, used mainly on domestic routes, account for nearly half of American’s total fleet of full-size passenger jets. They were grounded Tuesday afternoon for re-inspection of the wiring bundles in their wheel wells, after the Federal Aviation Administration said that some bundles were not secured properly.

The airline, the nation’s largest, canceled 460 flights on Tuesday and 1,094 flights on Wednesday, stranding thousands of travelers and affecting the plans of more than 100,000 people.

Red Drum Caught Off Hilton Head Island, South Carolina

2008-04-05T15:17:00.001-04:00

Baghdad and Other Iraqi Cities Calmer

2008-03-31T14:52:00.001-04:00

Iraqis returned to the streets of Baghdad after a curfew was lifted, and the southern port city of Basra appeared quiet on Monday, a day after the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr called for his followers to stop fighting and in turn demanded concessions from Iraq’s government.

Hundreds of Flights Canceled Today for Inspection of Planes

2008-03-27T14:58:00.001-04:00

American Airlines and Delta Air Lines canceled hundreds of flights Thursday as they continue their inspections of wiring bundles on some of their planes.

American, the nation's largest airline, canceled 132 flights of its estimated 2,300 flights scheduled for Thursday, spokesman Tim Wagner said. That was about 6 percent of American's Thursday schedule after the Fort Worth, Texas-based airline canceled 325 flights on Wednesday.

Delta expects about 275 cancellations through early Friday, affecting about 3 percent of Delta's worldwide flight schedule, said spokeswoman Chris Kelly. About 70 percent of Delta's MD-88 fleet was to be inspected by early evening Thursday, with normal operations planned by early Friday, she said.

American said it began its inspections after an audit of the carrier by a joint team of inspectors from the Federal Aviation Administration and the Fort Worth-based airline. The inspections focus on proper spacing between two bundles of wires in the plane's auxiliary hydraulic system, and those wires must be installed exactly according to an FAA directive, American said.

10 Million Baby Boomers At Risk of Developing Alzheimer's Disease

2008-03-27T08:00:00.002-04:00

MEDSCAPE report by Susan Jeffrey

A new report released by the Alzheimer's Association includes new estimates that show the lifetime risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD) is 17% in women and 9% in men who live to age 55 years. The figures mean that 10 million of the 78 million baby boomers alive today can expect to develop AD in their lifetime; this number increases to 14 million if other dementias are included.

The new numbers outlining remaining lifetime risk at age 55 years were provided to the Alzheimer's Association by authors of the Framingham Heart Study, and the data appear in the association's report, 2008 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures, released this week.

Alzheimer's Association president and CEO Harry Johns said in a statement that the information in this report "makes it clear that the crisis cannot be ignored, not when 10 million baby boomers are at risk of developing this fatal disease. Unchecked, this disease will impose staggering consequences on families, the economy, and the nation's health and long-term care infrastructure."

The report includes information ranging from prevalence, to mortality, to costs for direct care, to indirect costs to caregivers. The document also includes a special report on remaining lifetime risk, based on data from the Framingham Heart Study, authored by Alexa Beiser, PhD, Sudha Seshadri, MD, Rhoda Au, PhD, and Philip A. Wolf, MD, from Boston University Schools of Medicine and Public Health, in Massachusetts.

Other data included in the report:

Currently, 5.2 million Americans of all ages have Alzheimer's disease. About 1 in 8 people older than 65 years (approximately 13%) have the disease.
Women are more likely to develop AD than men, although this is principally because they live longer on average than men.
As many as a half-million new cases will develop every year by 2010; by 2050, that number is expected to grow to 1 million.
Alzheimer's disease is among the top 10 leading causes of death for people of all ages, and number 5 for those 60 years and older. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, although mortality rates for heart disease, breast cancer, prostate cancer, and stroke declined between 2000 and 2005, rates for AD increased by almost 45%, the report notes. This decline in death rates in other causes of death might be expected to further increase rates of dementia as people live longer, the report points out.
Direct costs to Medicare and Medicaid for the care of people with AD and other dementias and indirect costs to businesses with employees who are caregivers for someone with AD amount to more than $148 billion annually. In 2000, total Medicare costs per beneficiary for beneficiaries with AD 65 years and older were on average 3 times higher than for other beneficiaries.
In 2007, nearly 10 million Americans 18 years and older provided 8.4 billion hours of unpaid care to people with AD (valued at $89 billion), 4 times what Medicare pays for nursing-home care for AD and other dementias.
About 250,000 children between the ages of 8 and 18 years are also providing care for loved ones with AD, and about 1 million caregivers have to provide that care from a distance of more than 2 hours away.

Malignant Hyperthermia Kills Teen During Elective Cosmetic Surgery

2008-03-26T21:21:00.006-04:00

A rare condition, difficult to detect, killed 18 year old during an elective surgical procedure to correct asymmetrical breasts.

Usually genetic and very difficult to detect, the condition [malignant hyperthermia] causes the body temperature to spike as high as 112 degrees and salts to precipitate out of the blood. If the reaction is not recognized almost immediately and an antidote given, it is fatal.

Dr. Richard D’Amico, the president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, told TODAY’s Matt Lauer on Wednesday that what happened to [Miss] Kuleba could happen to anyone.

“This young lady’s death is a tragedy. Our hearts go out to her family. It’s a devastating event,” he said. But, he added, “this is something that can happen in any surgery, on any part of the body, in any setting.”

D’Amico encountered it once during what should have been routine nasal surgery on a male patient. He said he was lucky; his anesthesiologist immediately recognized the signs of malignant hyperthermia and took remedial action quickly enough to save the man’s life.

“There’s a medication for this that needs to be given very quickly, which was done,” D’Amico said.

The problem is that there’s no easy way to identify people who are at risk of the syndrome.

'Welcome Home, Endeavour': Space Shuttle Lands in Darkness of Night

2008-03-26T21:06:00.002-04:00

The space shuttle Endeavour and its crew of seven returned to Earth on Wednesday, making a rare nighttime touchdown to wrap up "a two-week adventure" at the international space station.

The shuttle swooped through the darkness and landed on NASA's illuminated runway at 8:39 p.m., an hour after sunset.

"Welcome home, Endeavour," Mission Control radioed. "Congrats to the entire crew."

The Rest of the World Votes for the U.S. President

2008-03-26T20:37:00.001-04:00

Taiwan: No Independence In Its New President's Lifetime

2008-03-26T20:21:00.003-04:00

Taiwan’s voters have given themselves and China a chance for a healthy, new start. Last week, they elected a president who promised to strengthen relations with the mainland — while ensuring the autonomy of Taiwan’s vibrant democracy. That should be a relief for both sides of the straits.

Over the last decade, Taipei’s push toward independence and Beijing’s rhetorical bullying and real military buildup — including 1,000 missiles pointed at the island — fanned tensions and fears of war. The two governments must now seize this opportunity to build a productive new relationship.

Ma Ying-jeou, the Nationalist Party leader and Harvard-educated lawyer, won 58 percent of the vote by arguing that Taiwan’s best hope of boosting economic growth lies in closer relations with the mainland. He has advanced an ambitious agenda that includes regular direct flights, increased tourism and expanded commercial ties.

He is also talking about confidence-building measures — a hot line is one idea — that would reduce the chance of an accidental military confrontation. In the longer term, he says the two governments should negotiate a peace accord that would formally end hostilities dating from 1949 when the Nationalists fled to Taiwan after the Communists took over Beijing.

As for independence, Mr. Ma has sensibly said the issue would probably not be settled in his lifetime and has called for a diplomatic framework in which the two sides simply acknowledge each other’s existence.

Belly Fat? Dementia In Your Future

2008-03-26T20:11:00.002-04:00

SHIRLEY S. WANG writes:

People who have more belly fat during middle age, even those considered to be of normal weight, have higher rates of dementia when they reach old age, according to a study in the journal Neurology. The link highlights a body of work showing that health is affected by not just overall body weight but how the weight is distributed.

Too much abdominal fat, which extends into the body cavity around major organs, is known to be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease and diabetes. These new findings, published Wednesday, show that large amounts of belly fat are associated with declining cognitive function as well.

"There is something very potent about collecting fat in your belly," said Rachel Whitmer, lead study author and a scientist at the research division of Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, Calif.

Belly Fat? Dementia May Be In Your Future

2008-03-26T20:03:00.002-04:00

Previous research has shown that having an apple-shaped body increases the risk of diabetes, stroke and heart disease, but this is the first time it has been linked to dementia and Alzheimer’s.

In the study, which was published Wednesday by the journal Neurology, people who were both obese and had a large belly were three times more likely to be diagnosed with dementia in later years than those of normal weight and belly size. The risk of dementia nearly doubled in those who were a healthy weight but still had a bulging waist, suggesting that fat accumulated around the midline is particularly unhealthy for the brain.

Lost and Found: Message Floating in Ocean Since 1987

2008-03-26T12:02:00.002-04:00

"This letter is part of our science project to study oceans and learn about people in distant lands," she wrote. "Please send the date and location of the bottle with your address. I will send you my picture and tell you when and where the bottle was placed in the ocean. Your friend, Emily Hwaung."

Unable To Get Aid Projects Underway in Afganistan Due to Poor Security

2008-03-24T20:39:00.002-04:00

By Alastair Leithead
BBC News, Kabul

Many Afghans are disappointed by a lack of tangible progress. Some $10bn (£5bn) in aid promised to Afghanistan has still to be delivered, aid organisation Oxfam has said.

It also finds that two-thirds of aid is not spent through the government and 40% goes back to donor countries in consultant fees and ex-patriot pay.

Oxfam says the prospects for peace in Afghanistan are being undermined because what has been donated is not being used effectively. Oxfam carried out the report on behalf of 94 aid agencies in Afghanistan.

"Western countries are failing to deliver" is the clear message of the Oxfam report for the umbrella group Agency Co-ordinating Body for Afghan Relief (Acbar).

It shows a disparity between what has been promised and what has been delivered.

And the way in which the money is used is also criticised.

Different countries have different ways of spending. Some countries channel donations through the government to help their civil service manage and decide on the funding of development programmes but two-thirds of the international aid misses out the government altogether.

America is the biggest donor by far.

But a USAid official confirmed that since 2001 it had only spent two-thirds of the money it pledged - a shortfall of $8.5bn - blaming poor security for an inability to get projects under way.

And the official said only 6% of the overall budget was spent through the Afghan government "to ensure US taxpayers' money could be accounted for" - implying a lack of trust in the government system.

Men Cheating: Arrogance Is Blind

2008-03-24T19:58:00.005-04:00

DAVID ZINCZENKO writes of why supposedly faithful men cheat on their wives. Here's one of the silliest, at least if these men can be called 'normally faithful':

It's not to say that entry-level men who make minimum salaries don't cheat, but it's also pretty clear that powerful men with the means to withdraw hefty sums of cash (for hotels, gifts, prostitutes) are often candidates. It's not just because they have more options; it's also because they think their invincibility in the office will also extend to their private lives, which they assume will remain private no matter how high-profile they may be. Arrogance is a form of blindness, after all.

The other reasons Mr. Zinczenko gives for supposedly faithful men cheating are equally cliche: the internet makes it easier, ego stroking at work by a pretty colleague, problems at home, etc. What Mr. Zinczenko fails to reckon is that men who cheat on their wives in the manner he describes are not 'normally faithful' husbands. They are normal cheaters who have the same old excuses.

Protesting China: Doused in Red at Site of Ancient Olympic Games

2008-03-24T19:34:00.003-04:00

The brief disruption [by Reporters Without Borders] occurred as Liu Qi, president of the Beijing Organizing Committee, was addressing thousands of spectators and dignitaries at the site of the ancient Olympic Games. It was broadcast live by Greek television, but China state television cut away to a prerecorded scene.

The Athens chapter of the rights group Reporters Without Borders said three of its members had staged the protest.

Moments after the disruption, a Tibetan woman doused herself in red paint and lay in the road in front of a torch runner while police officers arrested two other Tibetan protesters planning a peaceful demonstration about a mile from the old sanctuary.

Challenging China's Rule

2008-03-24T19:07:00.001-04:00

The Communist leadership has faced the biggest challenge to its rule in the Himalayan area in nearly two decades after protests in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa exploded into violence on March 14, sparking sympathy protests in the neighboring provinces of Sichuan, Gansu and Qinghai.

Protests also have spread to Nepal and India.

In Nepal on Monday, police arrested about 475 Tibetan refugees, monks and their supporters as they gathered in Katmandu, the capital, to protest a crackdown on Tibetans in China, the U.N. said.

Chanting “China, stop killings in Tibet. U.N., we want justice,” protesters were marching toward U.N. offices when police stopped them about 300 feet away, beat them with bamboo sticks and snatched their banners.

Fighting For Her Life: University of Georgia Murder Victim

2008-03-23T20:48:00.003-04:00

Meredith Emerson used her wits and martial arts training when she was attacked in the north Georgia mountains by a drifter who eventually killed and decapitated her, the convicted killer told investigators.

Gary Michael Hilton described his four days with Emerson, and how she fought him from the moment he tried to overpower her as she hiked with her dog, Ella, according to the interviews that The Atlanta Journal-Constitution obtained from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

"She was doing everything she could to stay alive," GBI Director Vernon Keenan told the newspaper. "It's not something you can train for. Instinct kicks in ... She nearly got the best of him. She's very much a hero."

Blessed Easter!

2008-03-23T15:08:00.000-04:00

Serial Execution-Style Killings at Boca Raton Shopping Mall

2008-03-23T14:42:00.006-04:00

BRIAN SKOLOFF writes:

[In December, 2007,] The 911 call lasted a split second. Not even a breath was heard.

It was Nancy Bochicchio's last desperate plea for help.

The single mom and her 7-year-old daughter, Joey, would soon be dead, each bound and shot in the head in the back seat of their black Chrysler Aspen.

March 23, 2007

Randi Gorenberg, 52, heads to the mall to do some shopping. It's a typical day for the bubbly, outgoing doctor's wife and mother of two.

Surveillance video shows her leaving the mall at about 1:16 p.m. She walks into the parking lot to her black Mercedes SUV.

Just over a half-hour later, at 1:54 p.m., witnesses spot her car driving through a park in nearby Delray Beach.

Then a gunshot.

Gorenberg's body falls limply from the passenger door, shot in the head.

Her Mercedes is found a few minutes later abandoned behind a Home Depot. Her purse and cell phone are missing. So are her black and white Puma shoes.

No one sees the killer. To this day, he's a ghost.

"It's been a very hard and sad year for me," said Gorenberg's mother, Idey Elias. "And whoever he is, he's still out there doing these evil things."

___

August 7, 2007

A 30-year-old woman and her 2-year-old son leave the Town Center mall on a balmy afternoon and head for their black Lincoln Navigator in Nordstrom's parking garage.

The woman puts her son in his car seat and loads her purchases in the back.

She gets behind the wheel and is startled to see a man sitting beside her child with a gun to his head. The gunman is dark-skinned, about 5'11", 180 pounds, wearing sunglasses and a full-brimmed floppy hat, possibly with a ponytail.

"Take whatever you want, just don't hurt us," she tells him.

The man orders the woman to drive to an ATM where she withdraws $600.

He then orders her into the back seat, where he binds her feet with plastic ties, secures her hands with cheap novelty handcuffs and fixes her neck to the headrest with another tie.

He's calm but threatens to kill her. She doesn't resist. They drive back to the mall where he puts a pair of blacked-out swim goggles over her eyes.

He asks if she's OK, even gets her a drink of water and her inhaler for asthma. Then he disappears.

The woman eventually frees herself.

"He took my license and told me if his picture was on the news that he would come after me ... and my son," she would later say. "I'm terrified."

She has concealed her identity from the public out of fear for her own and child's safety, appearing before reporters on the condition that her name and face not be shown.

Three days after she was attacked, the same man is believed to have robbed a woman at gunpoint in a parking garage at another nearby shopping area.

___

Dec. 13, 2007

It's just after midnight at the mall. A security guard making his rounds notices a black SUV idling in the parking lot and calls police.

The Bochicchios are dead inside.

Just 10 hours earlier, Nancy Bochicchio picked up Joey from her second grade class for a doctor's appointment. The inseparable pair then hit the mall.

They enter between Neiman Marcus and Sears and come out the same way less than an hour later, spotted on surveillance video, their long shadows trailing them in the afternoon light.

Video from a nearby bank then shows their car at a drive-through ATM.

Bochicchio withdraws $500. No one knows what happens next but the killer.

Both are bound in the exact manner as the August victim. Their eyes, too, are covered with blacked-out goggles.

A Dozen Recommendations by Chinese Intellectuals Urging Dialogue Between China and Dalai Lama

2008-03-23T14:29:00.004-04:00

A group of prominent Chinese intellectuals has circulated a petition urging the government to stop what it has called a “one-sided” propaganda campaign and initiate direct dialogue with the Dalai Lama.

The petition, which was signed by more than two dozen writers, journalists and scholars contains 12 recommendations which, taken together, represent a sharp break from the Chinese government’s response to the wave of demonstration that have swept Tibetan areas of the country in recent days.

Not God: Dalai Lama

2008-03-22T19:06:00.002-04:00

Last October, when the Congressional Gold Medal was awarded to the Dalai Lama, monks in Tibet watched over the Internet and celebrated by setting off fireworks and throwing barley flour. They were quickly arrested.

It was for the release of these monks that demonstrators initially turned out this month. Their brave stand quickly metamorphosed into a protest by Lhasa residents who were angry that many economic advantages of the last 10 or 15 years had gone to Han Chinese and Hui Muslims. A young refugee whose family is still in Tibet told me this week of the medal, “People believed that the American government was genuinely considering the Tibet issue as a priority.” In fact, the award was a symbolic gesture, arranged mostly to make American lawmakers feel good.

A similar misunderstanding occurred in 1987 when the Dalai Lama was denounced by the Chinese state media for putting forward a peace proposal on Capitol Hill. To Tibetans brought up in the Communist system — where a politician’s physical proximity to the leadership on the evening news indicates to the public that he is in favor — it appeared that the world’s most powerful government was offering substantive political backing to the Dalai Lama. Protests began in Lhasa, and martial law was declared. The brutal suppression that followed was orchestrated by the party secretary in Tibet, Hu Jintao, who is now the Chinese president.

A Movie For All Times: 'Stranger Than Fiction'

2008-03-22T18:45:00.004-04:00

Up until I saw (multiple times) 'STRANGER THAN FICTION' with Will Ferrell, Emma Thompson, and Dustin Hoffman I would have emphatically stated that 'THE FOUR SEASONS' with Alan Alda and Carol Burnett (among others) and 'ORDINARY PEOPLE' with Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore, and Timothy Hutton were my favorite movies.

Of course, for me at least, 'Ordinary People' is about accepting one's strength to survive and living with one's disappointment in others. 'The Four Seasons' is about maintaining a group integrity through tolerance of others' and of one's own weaknesses.

Now, I have to say that one of my favorite movies ever is this quirky film 'Stranger than Fiction' in which the little, seemingly insignificant events and even objects in our lives take on enormous import in saving us.

I love these three movies, teaching me to accept my strength, tolerate my weaknesses and tolerate the weaknesses of others. The last continues to teach me that 'all things work together for good to those who love the Lord and are called according to his purpose.' Funny, I doubt the screenwriter had this in mind. But, who knows?

Hispanic High Schoolers Fly Mexican Flag Above American Flag Flying Upside-Down

2008-03-22T10:38:00.008-04:00

I received this piece of information from a friend who presently lives and works in California. What's up with this? Is this an act of 'free speech?'

The protestors put up the Mexican flag over the American flag flying upside down at Montebello High School in California.

Speaking of free speech, does anyone remember the screenplay of THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT in which Andrew Shepherd states:

Everybody knows American isn't easy. America is
advanced citizenship.
You gotta want it bad, 'cause it's
gonna put up a fight. It's gonna
say, "You want free speech? Let's
see you acknowledge a man whose words
make your blood boil, who's standing
center stage and advocating, at the
top of his lungs, that which you
would spend a lifetime opposing at the
top of yours. You want to claim
this land as the land of the free,
then the symbol of your country can't
just be a flag; the symbol also has
to be one of its citizens exercising
his right to burn that flag in
protest." Show me that, defend that,
celebrate that in your classrooms.
Then you can stand up and sing about
the land of the free.

Amanda Baggs' IN MY LANGUAGE

2008-03-22T09:31:00.004-04:00

In the March 2008 issue of WIRED magazine, David Wolman has written an article "The Truth About Autism: Everything You Know Is Wrong" which I highly recommend.

Too Sick Or Not Sick Enough: Waiting For Organ Transplants

2008-03-22T08:54:00.007-04:00

Rob Stein of THE WASHINGTON POST reports:

"The wait list is dishonest," said Donna L. Luebke, a nurse who said she was rebuked by UNOS [United Network for Organ Sharing] officials when she complained about the list near the end of the three years she served on the organization's board of directors. "The public deserves to know the true numbers."

The revelation comes at a time when advocates of organ donation have come under fire for using increasingly aggressive strategies to obtain organs, justifying their efforts by citing the long and steadily growing waiting list.

"Part of the argument for the push to get more people to be donors, and for expanding the types of procedures that we do to get organs, is there's all these people waiting for organs and dying in the meantime," said Joan McGregor, a bioethicist at Arizona State University. "If the number is not accurate, that's giving people the false impression that the situation is more serious than it is. It's deceptive."

Most inactive patients had been ineligible for at least a year -- and often for more than two years. More than 55 percent of the patients on the list for hearts, and nearly 49 percent waiting for livers, had been inactive for more than two years. Nearly half of those waiting for kidneys had been inactive for at least a year -- and nearly a third for more than two years.

"I could expect people to be on there for months potentially," said Arthur L. Caplan, a University of Pennsylvania bioethicist. "But more than two years? What's that about?"

"The list is what they use for propaganda. It's the marketing tool. It's always: 'The waiting list. The waiting list. The growing waiting list,' " Luebke said. "It's what they use to argue that we need more organs. But it's dishonest."

The size of the list could be particularly important to people who are considering becoming a "living donor" by donating a kidney or a piece of their lung, liver or pancreas -- a practice that has spurred intense debate over whether such donors are fully counseled about the risks.

Exaggerating the size of the list is also unfair to active recipients, said Luebke, who donated a kidney to her sister in 1994.

A Darker Side: Aggressive Breast Cancer

2008-03-21T21:48:00.001-04:00

A protein that triggers aggressive breast cancer from PhysOrg.com

SATB1 is a nuclear protein well known for its crucial role in regulating gene expression during the differentiation and activation of T cells, making it a key player in the immune system. But SATB1 has now revealed a darker side: it is an essential contributing factor in the most aggressive forms of breast cancer.

[...]

African Daisy: Photo At Capnbob

2008-03-21T20:24:00.001-04:00

Exposed Passport Files: 'Imprudent Curiosity'

2008-03-21T19:55:00.003-04:00

Those few incidents [of accessing passport data] were likely "imprudent curiosity," [McCormack, State Department spokesman] said.

"I don't have exact numbers for you, but every single year there's probably a handful of cases where you have unauthorized access to passport data," McCormack told a news briefing.

The issue of exposed passport files came to light during the past two days as the State Department revealed the files of the three presidential contenders, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-New York, and Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, had been accessed without authorization.

A State Department source said passport files contain scanned images of passport applications, birth date and basic biographical information, records of passport renewal and possibly citizenship information.

McCormack called the incidents "inexplicable" and "over the line."

He said whatever the circumstances, those responsible had ample warning to stay out of the files.

"Every single time they access a computer there's a reminder that comes up that says: The information you are about to access has Privacy Act restrictions on it and you are acknowledging that you have a need to know in order to do your job to access this file; and that if you are accessing it in an unauthorized manner, then there are potential penalties."

McCormack said the files of politicians and celebrities are flagged for extra attention on unauthorized access, but "the same kind of vigilance applies to every other passport application that we handle."

Clinton's file was accessed in a training situation as the passport office handled a "surge" of applications last summer, McCormack said, when a trainee was "encouraged to enter a family member's name, just for training purposes."

"This person chose Sen. Clinton's name. It was immediately recognized, they were immediately admonished. And it didn't happen again," he said.

The circumstances of the Obama and McCain incidents were under investigation.

In each instance, a computer-monitoring system, triggered when employees access the file of a high-profile person, caught the breaches, McCormack said, emphasizing the department's system "worked."

Star Explodes

2008-03-21T19:46:00.001-04:00

Jesus and Self-Esteem

2008-03-21T19:29:00.004-04:00

This morning as I drove to work in the early minutes prior to sunrise, I thought of Jesus. I wondered if Jesus ever regretted something he said or something he did. Immediately, I realized that the answer is 'of course not.'

Think about it: Jesus never felt remorse. He never said to himself, 'I wish I'd handled that differently; I wish I hadn't said that. I wish I hadn't felt or thought that.' He always felt, thought, said and acted perfectly. Every time. Every situation.

I think perfection is hard to imagine. So, think of this: Jesus had no pride. He was meek, gentle, humble. Yet, he also had perfect self-esteem. He never hated himself, never looked down upon himself or wondered why he was born. He always knew that he was of value. He never looked in a mirror and questioned himself. Yet, he also never looked in a mirror and said 'I am better than anyone else.' He never looked down on others. Instead he loved himself and others perfectly.

Waterboarding Continues Under George Bush

2008-03-08T19:09:00.002-05:00

George W Bush said today that he

vetoed legislation that would ban the Central Intelligence Agency from using harsh interrogation methods such as waterboarding to break suspected terrorists because it would end practices that have prevented attacks.

"The bill Congress sent me would take away one of the most valuable tools in the war on terror," Mr. Bush said in his weekly radio address taped for broadcast Saturday. "So today I vetoed it."

Barack Obama Takes Wyoming

2008-03-08T19:04:00.002-05:00

The victory [by a very wide margin] while in a state with only 18 delegates, was welcome news for the Obama campaign as it sought to blunt Mrs. Clinton’s momentum coming off her victories in Ohio and Texas on Tuesday.

Mariology: My First Forage Into This Mystery

2008-03-08T16:47:00.004-05:00

A quick read of several chapters in 'In Search of Mary' to try once more to understand something of the Roman Catholic view of Mary and perhaps some of the Christian (Protestant) view of her revealed that it was in the early 2nd century that three men (early Church fathers) began to call Mary 'the new Eve.'

Justin Martyr (d.c 165) appears to be the first of the Church fathers to state the Eve-Mary relationship in his 'Dialogue with Trypho.' He saw Eve as the one who introduced sin into the world by succumbing to Satan's sexual advance. Eve then became a threat to male Christian virtue, at least according to the author of 'In Search of Mary.'

The other two early Church fathers who called Mary the new Eve were Irenaeus and Tertullian.

And that's the extent of my notes...so far.

Southwest Airlines Fined For Operating Flights Without Mandatory Inspections

2008-03-06T21:22:00.005-05:00

Andy Pasztor writes:

Accusing Southwest Airlines Co. of serious and deliberate safety violations, federal aviation regulators proposed a record $10.2 million civil penalty against the carrier for operating more than 61,000 flights over nearly a year without performing mandatory inspections for potentially hazardous structural problems.

The penalty is believed to be the largest such fine ever imposed by the Federal Aviation Administration on a major U.S. passenger carrier. The maintenance problems have prompted investigations by the Department of Transportation and a congressional committee, which are looking at both the low-fare carrier and allegations of lax oversight by the FAA.

I can't remember if I've ever flown on a Southwest Airline. I am now hoping that I never have, at least not in the past year!

Calling Mike Huckabee To Set His Sights On 2012

2008-03-06T21:13:00.001-05:00

I think Mike Huckabee should start thinking ahead to the presidential election of 2012!

More On the Killings of Israeli Students by a Terrorist Group

2008-03-06T20:47:00.002-05:00

Witnesses said the gunman went into a crowded hall during dinner at the Mercaz Harav seminary in the city's Kiryat Moshe quarter and opened fire.

The assailant, who Israeli police said was a resident of East Jerusalem, was shot dead by an Israeli army officer.

The attack is the worst of its kind in Israel for a number of years.

The White House has led international condemnation but the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas called the attack "heroic" while not claiming responsibility.

When we got in... we saw young, 15-, 16-year-old guys lying on the floor with their Bibles in their hands - all dead on the floor

A previously unknown group called the "Jalil Freedom Battalions - the Martyrs of Imad Mughniyeh and Gaza" claims to have carried it out, according to Lebanese Hezbollah media.

'We Did It' Re: NY Bombing

2008-03-06T20:20:00.002-05:00

Police are investigating letters that arrived Thursday at Capitol Hill offices containing a photo of the Times Square military recruiting office before it was bombed and including the claim "We Did It."

The manila envelopes contained a photo of a man standing in front of the recruiting station, according to a Democratic aide who spoke on condition of anonymity because the matter is under investigation. The photo was the kind commonly sent as a holiday greeting card.

The message on the card: "Happy New Year, We Did It."

Curse-Free Town Proposed By 14 Year Old Teen

2008-03-06T20:10:00.002-05:00

SOUTH PASADENA, Calif. - This tranquil community on the edge of Los Angeles has become a cursing-free zone.

Under a City Council proclamation approved Wednesday, those who use profanity or make rude gestures could find themselves shamed into better behavior by the unsettling glances of South Pasedena residents who take their reputation for civility seriously.

Havoc in Israeli School: Eight Killed

2008-03-06T19:55:00.003-05:00

A gunman entered a prominent Jewish seminary in the heart of Jerusalem Thursday night, killing at least eight students and wounding at least nine others, three of them seriously, the Israeli police said.

In a scene of havoc and confusion while the students prayed, the gunman killed two people at the entrance to the Mercaz Harav yeshiva and then entered the first-floor library, spraying the religious students with gunfire from a Kalashnikov rifle, according to the Israeli police.

The gunman, who has not yet been identified, was thought to be either a Palestinian or an Israeli Arab living inside Jerusalem. The dead were thought to be mostly between 20 and 30 years of age.

Humble and Perplexed: NASA Scientists Seek To Understand Space Probes' Anomalous Movements

2008-02-29T20:39:00.003-05:00

Now Jet Propulsion Laboratory astronomer John Anderson and his colleagues — who originally helped uncover the Pioneer anomaly — have discovered that five spacecraft each raced either a tiny bit faster or slower than expected when they flew past the Earth en route to other parts of the solar system.

The researchers looked at six deep-space probes — Galileo I and II to Jupiter, the NEAR mission to the asteroid Eros, the Rosetta probe to a comet, Cassini to Saturn, and the MESSENGER craft to Mercury. Each spacecraft flew past the our planet to either gain or lose orbital energy in their quests to reach their eventual targets.

In five of the six flybys, the scientists have confirmed anomalies.

"I am feeling both humble and perplexed by this," said Anderson, who is now working as a retiree. "There is something very strange going on with spacecraft motions.