Whale vs. rescuerer July 26, 2007
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TOKYO (Reuters) – A Japanese fisherman drowned on Tuesday after a whale he was trying to rescue capsized his small fishing boat, a coastguard official said.
Three fishermen tried to rescue the sperm whale, about 10-meter (yard) long, after it strayed into a bay off the southwestern island of Shikoku, about 800 km (500 miles) southwest of Tokyo.
But the panicked creature turned on them and struck the vessel, the coastguard official said.
A 58-year-old fisherman drowned while two other fishermen were rescued, he added.
Followup to Squid Octopi . . . July 25, 2007
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MONTEREY, Calif. – Jumbo squid that can grow up to 7 feet long and weigh more than 110 pounds are invading central California waters and preying on local anchovy, hake and other commercial fish populations, according to a study published Tuesday.
An aggressive predator, the Humboldt squid — or Dosidicus gigas — can change its eating habits to consume the food supply favored by tuna and sharks, its closest competitors, according to an article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal.
“Having a new, voracious predator set up shop here in California may be yet another thing for fishermen to compete with,” said the study’s co-author, Stanford University researcher Louis Zeidberg. “That said, if a squid saw a human they would jet the other way.”
The jumbo squid used to be found only in the Pacific Ocean’s warmest stretches near the equator. In the last 16 years, it has expanded its territory throughout California waters, and squid have even been found in the icy waters off Alaska, Zeidberg said.
Zeidberg’s co-author, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute senior scientist Bruce Robison, first spotted the jumbo squid here in 1997, when one swam past the lens of a camera mounted on a submersible thousands of feet below the ocean’s surface.
More were observed through 1999, but the squid weren’t seen again locally until the fall of 2002. Since their return, scientists have noted a corresponding drop in the population of Pacific hake, a whitefish the squid feeds on that is often used in fish sticks, Zeidberg said.
“As they’ve come and gone, the hake have dropped off,” Zeidberg said. “We’re just beginning to figure out how the pieces fit together, but this is most likely going to shake things up.”
Before the 1970s, the giant squid were typically found in the Eastern Pacific, and in coastal waters spanning from Peru to Costa Rica. But as the populations of its natural predators — like large tuna, sharks and swordfish — declined because of fishing, the squids moved northward and started eating different species that thrive in colder waters.
Local marine mammals needn’t worry about the squid’s arrival since they’re higher up on the food chain, but lanternfish, krill, anchovies and rockfish are all fair game, Zeidberg said.
A fishermen’s organization said Tuesday they were monitoring the squid’s impact on commercial fisheries.
“In years of high upwellings, when the ocean is just bountiful, it probably wouldn’t do anything,” Zeke Grader, the executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations. “But in bad years it could be a problem to have a new predator competing at the top of the food chain.”
Need a compliment? July 25, 2007
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WASHINGTON – People walking by a bright red-and-white striped box on a busy street in the nation’s capital may be surprised to hear a reassuring voice say, “You have nice eyes.” Or, “People are drawn to your positive energy.”
“The Compliment Machine” is the work of Tom Greaves, 46, a Washington artist. It’s part of an exhibit of public art called SitesProject D.C.
Greaves compared the machine to children’s soccer teams, where “win or lose, everyone gets a trophy.”
He recorded 100 compliments, and an iPod Nano inside the machine plays them at random over a speaker — like a mechanical, speaking fortune cookie.
Greaves tweaks the compliments every night, adding some and removing others. The iPod is removed at night so it doesn’t get stolen.
The machine operates from about 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. each day through July 27.
GOP wants you at a fundraiser “shoot”. July 25, 2007
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BOSTON (Reuters) – A planned Republican fundraiser in New Hampshire aims to promote gun ownership in America by letting supporters fire powerful military-style weapons — from Uzi submachine guns to M-16 rifles.
The Manchester Republican Committee is inviting party members and their families to a “Machine Gun Shoot” where, for $25 (12.12 pounds), supporters can spend a day trying out automatic weapons, said organizer Jerry Thibodeau.
“It’s a fun day. It’s a family day,” said Thibodeau of the August 5 event. “It’s quite exciting.”
Local Democrats say the event is in poor taste amid a spike in violent crime in Manchester and seeks to glorify the use of machine guns for political gain. The right to own guns has come under heightened scrutiny since the April shooting at Virginia Tech where a gunman killed 32 people.
“It is downright offensive,” Chris Pappas, the Manchester Democratic party chairman, told the Union Leader newspaper.
Thibodeau said he invited all the Republican candidates in the 2008 presidential race to the event at Pelham Fish and Game Club outside of Manchester, the state’s largest city, but he said they declined. He said all shooters would undergo training.
Buying a gun in New Hampshire, whose official motto is “Live Free or Die,” is relatively easy.
The state does not require buyers to obtain a handgun license or undergo safety training before buying a handgun, according to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, a gun-control lobby group.
Make money by telling yuppies names! July 23, 2007
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Parents who pay hundreds of dollars just to find the coolest name for their kid.
Parents who pay hundreds of dollars just to find the coolest name for their kid.
Plus a lower class in India fights to get even lower, Japanese restaurants prepare for horse sushi, the Lord turns amalgam dental fillings into gold, those incompetent suicide bombers, and more in this week’s News of the Weird.
Some parents feel “unprecedented levels of angst” to pick cool enough names for their kids, with some even hiring consultants, according to a June Wall Street Journal report. Baby-book authors charge clients $50 for a list of “special” names, and half-hour phone consultations go for $95. Another adviser charges $350 for three calls plus a comprehensive linguistic history of the selected name, and one California mother paid $475 to a numerologist to “test” the name Leah Marie for “positive associations.” The Journal blames the problem on too much information about names (from the Internet), as well as parents’ fear of dooming their child for life by insufficiently distinguishing their kid from others. [Wall Street Journal, 6-22-07]
Politicans already tired of ‘08 still in ‘07! July 23, 2007
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The Democratic presidential candidates will line a stage in Charleston, S.C., tonight for their first official debate.
And already, debate fatigue is setting in.
The Democratic contenders have taken part in three “unofficial” debates this year, on top of numerous other “forums” sponsored by various political constituencies. The schedule is only going to get more demanding: After tonight’s debate, sponsored by CNN and YouTube and the first of six sanctioned by the Democratic National Committee, there will be a crush of events, culminating in one week in early August when unofficial debates are planned in Detroit, Chicago and Los Angeles.
At the end of a recent gathering in Detroit sponsored by the NAACP, former senator John Edwards (N.C.) and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) were overheard discussing their desire to limit the number of participants in the process, as well as the number of debates themselves.
The conversation, which the two candidates appeared to think was private but was caught on an open microphone, captured what strategists, particularly in the top campaigns, have been saying privately all year. Other candidates outside the top tier, particularly Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (Ohio), blasted the discussion as a slight.
“Everyone is afraid to say no,” said Democratic strategist Steve Elmendorf, who is backing Clinton but not working for the campaign.
“Some group is sponsoring it who is an important constituency, and they don’t want to get in trouble,” he said. “The staff all sit around and wring their hands and say, ‘We wish we weren’t doing all these.’ “
The problem is not, Elmendorf said, “the debate itself.”
“It is the debate prep, it is the travel,” he said. “The problem with debates is you don’t control your fate or your schedule. If you’re a candidate, you want to be the one to decide when you go to Los Angeles or Miami. You don’t want to be told you have to be there.”
The next DNC-approved debate is scheduled for Aug. 19 in Iowa, followed by an official debate in New Hampshire in late September and four more debates in early-primary states after that. With the candidates already spending so much time in the early-voting states, those debates are considered the least disruptive to meeting the other demands of campaigning.
But some of the others — for example, a debate focusing on gay and lesbian issues in Los Angeles on Aug. 9 — are putting strains on the campaign schedulers, who are already caught between finding time for the candidates to spend in early states and finding time for fundraising. The evolving and ever advancing primary calendar has made the crunch worse, several strategists for Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they did not want to be seen as complaining about the debates.
It is a much smaller problem on the Republican side, where there has not been a debate since June 5 and where there are fewer advocacy groups demanding attention from the field. The next GOP debate is scheduled for early August, when all the candidates will appear on ABC’s “This Week,” hosted by George Stephanopoulos.
Even Clinton, a disciplined and experienced candidate with a polished delivery on policy matters, sets aside time to prepare for each debate, underscoring how none of the campaigns treat the forums as toss-away events.
As the Democratic Party did in 2004, DNC Chairman Howard Dean tried at one point to intervene in the process, brokering the deal that resulted in six debates this fall (the same number held in the last election cycle). Yet there is nothing to stop the candidates from signing up with every special interest group that makes an offer, and the lesser-known candidates, such as Kucinich and Sens. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Del.) and Christopher J. Dodd (Conn.), often do, forcing the front-runners’ hands.
Edwards, frustrated by the time restrictions forced on the candidates when so many are on the stage, has offered to participate in a smaller, three-person event with Clinton and Kucinich, if the other candidates will accept similar events.
“Senator Edwards feels strongly that voters deserve more substantive debates between the candidates,” Eric Schultz, a campaign spokesman, said yesterday. “One way to do that would be to break up the field into smaller groups for real debates. You cannot explain how you will end the war in Iraq or solve the climate crisis in 60 seconds.”
Geoffrey Garin, a Democratic pollster who is not affiliated with any campaign, said part of the problem for the campaigns is that the significance of each debate is diminished by having so many, and each one offers an opportunity for the candidates to make mistakes. Still, he said, “these are not the functional equivalent of the Lincoln-Douglas debates. It’s just another venue where voters have a chance to hear and see how the candidates handle themselves.”
But Rep. James E. Clyburn (D) of South Carolina — home to tonight’s debate — said the process itself is to blame. “I think there may be some danger of campaign fatigue, but I don’t think anybody will get all that upset about the debates,” he said. “I think they get upset about being in campaign mode for such a long period of time.”
How to put the TSA and airport security to sleep: July 23, 2007
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It’s what you have to do when you fly – use X-ray machines, metal detectors, and deal with liquid restrictions in your carry-on luggage. You know the drill.
Security checkpoints are just part of travel these days. They’re supposed to keep us safe, so we use them – but not all of us and not all the time.
We’ve discovered a 4.5 hour time frame each night when virtually anything can be brought into the secure side of Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. There’s no metal detector, no X-ray machine, and it’s apparently not a problem.
Afraid to show her face, one long time Sky Harbor employee talks about the security most people don’t see.
Lisa Fletcher: “You’re telling me Sky Harbor’s not safe?”
Employee: “I’m telling you Sky Harbor’s not safe and hasn’t been for a long time.”
It’s what we discovered in the middle of the night – TSA agents going away, and security guards taking over. It’s 4.5 hours - every night – when an employee badge becomes an all-access pass.
Night after night, our hidden cameras captured what security experts tell us is a disaster waiting to happen.
The X-ray machines were off, the metal detectors were closed, and bags with unknown contents were carried to the secure side of the airport where the planes are.
We watched as a security guard let people with purses, coolers and suitcases
walk right through – bags unchecked.
Even more surprising, some of the people you trust to keep you safe planned it this way.
Larry Wansley is widely regarded as one of the nation’s top airline security experts. “It’s a frightening situation, I’ve just simply never seen anything like it,” he said. “I really honestly have not.”
He’s the former head of security for American Airlines, and currently consults the U.S. Government and airports around the world. We brought him in to take a look at what we found.
“It is not security,” he said. “It truly is not security. Anything can be going through there. I don’t get it.”
Larry watched for hours and saw the same thing we did – guys with huge backpacks showing their ID and walking through without ever opening their bags.
A flight attendant, with three suitcases in tow, flashed her badge and breezed by. A huge load of newspapers on a cart was also pulled right passed the guard and a floor cleaner was pushed by without any inspection. Even a guy with his bike just showed his ID and was able to ride through with his crate on the back, never checked.
In the time we watched, dozens made it past this checkpoint, bags unchecked.
Larry Wansley couldn’t believe it.
Clearly this is a very, very imminently dangerous situation,” he said. “You’ve got the front door, TSA that has locked it up for the better part of the day, the majority of the day. And then you throw open the back door to be exploited by those that would simply destroy us. And I simply do not understand it and I’m appalled. I’m shocked and I’m amazed.”
The airport employee we talked with said she is afraid.
“No one’s doing anything about it,” she said. ”Management knows. I know management knows. I know my superiors know. I know the security guards know. Everybody knows what’s going on, but nobody’s doing anything about it.”
You would think the director of Sky Harbor, or even a spokesperson from the TSA, would trip over themselves to talk about this issue, but you would be wrong.
All of them have refused on camera interviews to talk about the kind of security they’ve employed to keep us safe.
Documents obtained by the ABC15 Investigators show they’ve known for two years that this is going on.
In 2005, airport officials hired an outside company to handle security during the times when passenger flights are done for the day. The documents said the guards would not search personal items or the people.
Here’s the rub: A TSA memo we obtained requires whoever controls airport access to follow federal guidelines that, “provide security against an unauthorized weapon, explosive, or incendiary onto an aircraft.”
It’s tough to prevent that if you’re not checking bags. It’s even tougher if you’re asleep.
One on-duty security guard we talked to said it was hard sometimes to keep from falling asleep. In fact, a document we obtained, given to the airport from law enforcement – proves one guard did fall asleep for nearly 20 minutes.
Our airport source said it happens a lot.
“I’ve seen security guards fast asleep where they’ve not even looked up to see somebody walk through the checkpoint,” she said.
Airport officials told ABC15 that not checking employee bags is a common practice.
So why then, when the clock strikes 4:30 a.m. does it all change back? TSA takes over, the X-ray machines are back on, the metal detectors are working, and everyone, including incoming employees just like the ones we watched all night long, are screened.
We asked one of the TSA employees that question when we were at Sky Harbor.
“We have no control over what the City of Phoenix does,” the employee said.
So we then asked him if passengers should feel safe.
“That’s up to the passengers to determine that,” he said.
The airport employee we talked to said passengers never had a choice in this.
“I’m trying to explain how unsafe Sky Harbor Airport is so that you and I and everyone else don’t get blown up on a plane that everyone else seems to have access to,” she said.
Airport security expert Larry Wansley said this needs to be fixed immediately.
“You’ve got all sorts of items that are going into the secure part of an airport unchecked,” he said. ”I think that presents a very, very dangerous situation that can be exploited that can lead to disaster. That concerns me.”
Lisa: Are there any reasons that the airport management could give you that could change your mind and make this acceptable?”
Larry: “I can’t think of any.”
Lisa: ”We’re essentially a ticking time bomb?”
Larry: “Bingo.”
1,234 pounds in Monterrey July 23, 2007
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chihuha saves baby from rattler July 23, 2007
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Tats, heels, bracelet and set to go July 23, 2007
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BERLIN (Reuters) – A mysterious blonde paid a visit to a petrol station shop in the small eastern German town of Doemitz on Sunday — wearing nothing but a pair of golden stilettos and a thin gold bracelet.
The tall, slender woman strolled into the shop in the town of Doemitz on the warm afternoon and bought cigarettes, petrol station employee Ines Swoboda told Reuters on Monday.
“I wasn’t surprised because she’s come in naked before — she’s a very nice woman,” Swoboda said, adding none of the other customers was bothered. The woman could have faced charges of creating a public disturbance if anyone had complained.
A quick-witted customer did, however, snap pictures of the woman believed to be about 30 years old as she walked back to a waiting Ferrari and climbed into the passenger seat. Several of those photos appeared in the German media on Monday.
