Those Russians! These people do things right - when y'alls boys were coming down soft on water, they seriously hit the turf! Straight drop orbit to soil! And they work on getting this giant swimming launch pad together, supposedly because some functionaries don't fancy Baikonur weather anymore. Plus they seem to know how to party REAL hard.

which is almost always a plus

LENA, MISS. - The Associated Press via NewsEdge Corporation : A stage collapsed during a festival bikini contest at a drag race, injuring at least seven people. Witnesses said a man in the crowd tried to climb onto the stage to get to the contestants Sunday just before the front half of the stage caved in, sending bikini-clad women and other performers crashing to the ground. The contest was part of the Pre-Memorial Day Street and Strip Grudge Match Shootout at Lake Slipaway Drag Strip in Leake County. Bobby Cleveland, a sports reporter for The Clarion Ledger of Jackson, who was there, said 31 women were competing in the beauty contest. ``They had announced at least five or six times that there were too many people on the stage and people were going to have to get down,'' said Cleveland. Cleveland said when the unidentified man in the crowd climbed on the stage, two security guards moved toward him and the stage collapsed. Malone Ambulance Service transported at least seven people, including members of a band that had been performing, who had leg, back and other injuries, Teresa Malone said. Four were treated at a local hospital and three others, including one contestant, were taken to Jackson hospitals, she said. The injuries were not life-threatening. [Copyright 1999, Associated Press]

Just incredibly embarrassing.

The straw that broke the donkeys back?

Police nab fugitive from group that kidnapped Patty Hearst � CNN's Charles Feldman looks back at the history of the SLA Kathleen Soliah found after more than 20 years in hiding June 16, 1999 Web posted at: 9:32 p.m. EDT (0132 GMT) --------------------------------------- In this story: Husband says he didn't know about her past Hearst saga sensational story of 1970s Soliah accused of putting bombs under police cars RELATED STORIES, SITES --------------------------------------- ST. PAUL, Minnesota (CNN) -- An alleged member of the Symbionese Liberation Army, the 1970s radical group that gained fame by kidnapping newspaper heiress Patty Hearst, was arrested Wednesday after more than two decades in hiding. Kathleen Ann Soliah, 52, who married a doctor and now has three daughters, was arrested on charges that she conspired with other members of the SLA to plant bombs and kill police officers in Los Angeles. FBI officials said Soliah, who had been living under the alias Sara Jane Olson, was taken into custody at a stop sign while driving a mini-van near her home in St. Paul's fashionable Highland Park neighborhood. Los Angeles police Det. Tom King, who was with the arresting officers, described Soliah as "surprised and relieved." Last month, on the 25th anniversary of a shoot-out in Los Angeles in which six SLA members were killed, the FBI offered a $20,000 reward for Soliah's capture. She was also featured on an episode of the television program "America's Most Wanted," and tips from viewers led authorities to her. Husband says he didn't know about her past St. Paul police spokesman Michael Jordan said Soliah's husband, Gerald Peterson, has told authorities he was unaware of his wife's past. Her daughters are ages 12, 17 and 18. Soliah, in black dress, acted in many plays at a local theater in Minneapolis � "He had no idea what was going on here," Jordan said. "I feel sorry for the guy." During her life in Minnesota, Soliah became involved in community theater and was described by one friend as a "great actress." "It's not like she paraded around in a beret or anything," said Steve Antenucci, manager of Theater in the Round in Minneapolis, where Soliah performed in eight shows. "Everyone liked her. She was very nice, very intelligent and had a great sense of humor." Her most recent performance -- for which she won an award -- was in a one-act play called "Tall Tales." Neighbors describe her as a well-spoken and friendly woman, an avid jogger and gardener. "She seemed very classy," said Gary Price, the neighborhood's regular mailman since 1983. Hearst saga sensational story of 1970s The leftist radicals of the SLA gained fame in 1974 when they kidnapped Hearst, then 19, from an apartment in Berkeley, California. They demanded that her wealthy parents, Randolph and Catherine Hearst, distribute $6 million worth of food to the needy to secure her return. Hearst as SLA member "Tania" � Two months after the kidnapping, Hearst, who had adopted the name Tania, was photographed carrying a weapon during an SLA holdup of a San Francisco bank. After police captured Hearst in 1975, she claimed that she had been brainwashed into participating in the SLA's crimes. Hearst's ordeal and trial became one of the most sensational news stories of the 1970s. She was convicted of bank robbery and served two years of a seven-year prison term before President Jimmy Carter commuted her sentence. Today, she's a married mother living in Connecticut. "This is all so old," she told WCBS-AM radio when asked for a response to Soliah's arrest. "I don't want to be drawn into all of this." Soliah accused of putting bombs under police cars Soliah was indicted in 1976 by a Los Angeles grand jury on charges of conspiracy to commit murder of police officers and possession of explosives for allegedly placing pipe bombs under two police cars. The bombs did not go off. The FBI has also accused her of committing other bombings and bank robberies as a member of the SLA. King said Soliah left the United States at some point and lived in Africa for nine years. A warrant for her arrest drawn up in March said that her parents told the FBI in 1984 that she was living outside California, had a new identity, two children and was married to a man who knew both her true name and fugitive status. It is unclear whether she was married to Peterson at the time. The warrant, which also charged Soliah with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution, said that in 1989 she attempted to negotiate a surrender through her lawyer. But those negotiations failed because she requested complete immunity. At least one other former SLA member is still at large -- James Kilgore, Soliah's boyfriend during her SLA days. He was profiled on the same "America's Most Wanted" program, but FBI spokeswoman Coleen Rowley said Wednesday she wasn't aware of any leads on Kilgore. The Associated Press contributed to this report. ---------------------------------------

Guess who the following paragraph reminded me of: "Everyone liked her. She was very nice, very intelligent and had a great sense of humor." [...] Neighbors describe her as a well-spoken and friendly woman, an avid jogger and gardener. "She seemed very classy," said Gary Price, the neighborhood's regular mailman since 1983. End of quote.-

who, alex?

Uh, I get it. A bit of it fits all of us, and we wished, the other bit would, too. The gardening-jogger-w/-humour thing originally reminded me of our Colorado range raider. Wonder what skeletons she got in her closet. (*shudder*)

Probably nosy publisher hung to dry, or the like...

*cackle* skeletons, schmeletons! 'sides I talk TOOOOO much to ever keep a secret like that! (but thanks for thinking of me!)

Please notice, dear Everybody, that "classy" basically applies to everybody around this side of town, but Wer ("A league of his own") and me (won't ever make the grade...).

ha-ha! Of you two the mailman will say, "He seemed so fey..."

?

Murder suspect says he fathered child with intent to kill the infant Ronald Shanabarger confessed to suffocating his infant son June 28, 1999 Web posted at: 8:23 AM EDT (1223 GMT) FRANKLIN, Indiana (AP) -- Ronald L. Shanabarger planned his revenge against his wife for several years: He wanted to father their son and then kill him, police said. Shanabarger told police he planned the crime as a way of exacting punishment on his wife, Amy, who had refused to cut short a vacation to comfort him when his father passed away. "Shanabarger said he planned to make Amy feel the way he did when his father died," according to an affidavit prosecutors filed to support a murder charge. Last Tuesday, just hours after the funeral of his seven-month-old son, Tyler, Shanabarger confessed to his wife that he'd killed their son. A coroner had ruled the infant died from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. The next day, Shanabarger allegedly told police he suffocated his infant son with plastic wrap. He told officers he dreamed up the crime after his father died in 1996. The affidavit said Shanabarger's plan included marrying Amy and getting her pregnant. He then "allowed time for her to bond with the child, and then took his life," the affidavit said. Shanabarger, 30, who begged officers to shoot him after he confessed last Wednesday, is being held without bail. He is due in court Monday. Johnson County Prosecutor Lance Hamner hasn't decided whether to seek the death penalty because the investigation is ongoing. Tyler Shanabarger was seven months old when he was killed "It's the most bizarre case that I've ever had any dealings with and probably the most bizarre motive I've ever heard of," Hamner said Sunday. In his confession, Shanabarger said that on the evening of June 19, he wrapped plastic wrap around his son's head and face, then left the boy's nursery to get something to eat and brush his teeth. Twenty minutes later, he said, he returned, removed the plastic and placed Tyler face down in the crib before he went to bed. Amy Shanabarger, 29, had been working that night at her job as a cashier at a grocery store. When she came home, she went straight to bed, assuming that Tyler was asleep, and found the boy's body the next morning -- Father's Day. Shanabarger, who worked at a tire retreading center, told police he confessed because the image of his son's face -- flat and purplish from rigor mortis -- haunted him. Since then, he's confessed at least three times, Police Chief Harry Furrer said Sunday. Each time, the story has been the same -- that he hatched his plan because he was enraged by his then-girlfriend's refusal to cut short a cruise and return home after his father's death in October 1996. The Shanabargers were married the following May. Detectives, who have interviewed relatives, confirmed that Shanabarger had long resented Amy's refusal to cut the cruise short, Furrer said. "Their statements substantiate his confession," he said. The Rev. Randy Maynard, a volunteer chaplain for Franklin police, accompanied officers to the couple's home in this town south of Indianapolis on Father's Day. While most parents of children who die from SIDS are weeping and consoling each other when authorities arrive, Maynard said Shanabarger was cold, distant and offered no comfort to his sobbing wife. And after Mrs. Shanabarger's parents arrived later that morning, Shanabarger gave his father-in-law a Father's Day gift -- a gift-wrapped commemorative knife -- Maynard said. Shanabarger then passed the knife around, showing it to the officers. "That really struck me as odd," he said. Maynard said he's still troubled by the image of Tyler's tiny face. "He was a beautiful boy," he said. "Even in death, he was just the most beautiful boy. I'm still getting goose bumps thinking about this guy." Shanabarger's father-in-law, Robert Parsons, wears a tiny gold cherub pin to remind him of his grandson, who was born Thanksgiving Day. He won't discuss his son-in-law, but says his daughter, an only child, is devastated. "I don't want people to just to talk about a six- or seven-month-old infant -- a nameless, faceless infant. He was a little boy, he played, he laughed, he loved. We loved him dearly and that's what this is all about," said Parsons, 52. "We don't want vengeance, but we do want justice." Neil S. Kaye, a forensic psychiatrist who specializes in investigating infanticide cases committed by fathers, said he's never heard of a similar crime. "A lot of times people say this or that crime was just too complicated of a plan to be anything other than a sign of pure wickedness," said Kaye, of Wilmington, Delaware. "But science would say otherwise, that this man was delusional and you have to wonder about his overall mental state, his mental capacity," said Kaye.

geez louise..... a guy here suffocated his baby son by stuffing a paper towel down his throat. they're having trouble finding a jury to hear the trial. the man said he was drunk when it happened. it took three tries to get all the paper towel out. people are nuts.....

that's gross...

i know, but they finally got a jury and the man was convicted with a death sentence tonight (his name is deal) and his son was only 11 weeks old. ok, so like, where was his mother? first, deal said he was cleaning out the baby's mouth, then the news folks said deal wanted the crying to stop. geez.... sick people, uneducated. but that guy who plotted the whole thing is really just plain wacked. alright, can we have some happy news now?

Like the WWII-collectible (aka bomb) that blew up in a strawberry field near a village about 20 kilometers from here? A happy thing is, there are only strawberry casualties... Another old bomb was found this week beneath railway tracks and properly detonated after evacuating the area. Talking of collectibles: the first KFOR-soldiers killed in the mission died in the attempt of defusing a NATO splitter bomb. More fun to come, as the military will clean out the land mines.

Sorry, but that's as cheerful as it gets around these premises at the moment. .=/

ok, well, i've got some good newsworthy news: a two year old girl in nothing but her diaper was sitting on her porch in texarkana arkansas this morning. her parents were still asleep (how did she get out you ask?). a guy riding a bike snatched her off the porch. a neighbor saw it happen and ran to wake up the parents to call 911. (why didn't he call 911 himself?). they found her this evening and took her to a hospital. it doesn't look like she was harmed. the kidnapper was found several minutes later via helicopter. turns out the man had been seen by the child's parents the night before prowling about the victim's home and the neighborhood. he was asking about the family that lived there. hmmmm....i guess people prowl about yards all the time up there, nothing to worry about. but, i'm glad the baby girl is safe none-the-less and hope that the parents remember to lock the door tonight.

hey alexander... strawberries have souls to... *grin*

Don't tell us! Marcia might use it as another argument against unfortunate people with ideals... And we must, repeat WE MUST, preserve idealism, innocence and protect the weak UNDER A L L CIRCUMSTANCES. Oh, forget the part about the weak, but let's defend for others what we have lost ages ago - a cause we believe in. Gives us something to do, too, for the time being. Can't just sit around and watch the telly till I pass away.- Anyway, ladies and gentlemen - the odds get even, as the youth of the US gets to explain how they feel about things: ------------------------------------------------------ Woman dies two days after traffic fight with teens July 2, 1999 Web posted at: 4:40 AM EDT (0840 GMT) DALE CITY, Virginia (AP) -- A 25-year-old woman who authorities say had her head smashed repeatedly into the street during a traffic argument with two teen-age girls has died from her injuries. Natalie Davis died Thursday, two days after police say she was attacked while driving to a church service with her children, ages 2 and 4, and four other relatives. Prosecutor Paul Ebert said Teresa Dixon, 18, and a 16-year-old girl will now face murder charges. Both suspects were held without bond and a preliminary hearing was set for Aug. 10. Ms. Dixon had been charged with aggravated malicious wounding. Information about the 16-year-old was withheld due to her age, but Ebert said he will seek to try her as an adult. Police say Ms. Davis and her family encountered a car blocking the entrance to the cul-de-sac where they lived Tuesday night. Several girls had gathered around the car to talk. Ms. Davis asked the teens to move the car, but the driver of her car managed to maneuver around it. Two teens followed the family in another car, police Sgt. Kim Chinn said. Words were exchanged, and after a short distance, Ms. Davis and the 16-year-old girl left their cars to argue, Ms. Chinn said. The teen eventually grabbed Ms. Davis by her hair and pounded her head into the pavement, she said. Dixon allegedly joined in, stomping on Ms. Davis' head, police said. One of Ms. Davis' relatives flagged down a police officer. Copyright 1999 The Associated Press. ------------------------------------------------------- Makes the offshore US-watcher wonder who'll score next, and why ARE you folk drawn to violence like moths to light? "It's the man, not the plastic bag" and "It's the teen, not the tarmac", the next thing after "It's the trench coat, not the kid" ? Wow. These are the nineties, that is your society. Tell me more about it at http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/public/read/cultures/27 .

please, please watch the overgeneralizations... I don't believe all Germans were and supported Nazism... yet is was indeed 'your' society... and I'm not sure there were many sensical answers to the question 'why' fifty years ago... perhaps I am willing to believe it may get worse before it gets better (like WWII) and after such 'atrocities' as you just mentioned are so widely rampant, perhaps we will realize the insanity and lunacy involved thus becoming a more tolerant and less violent country... if you have suggestions though... feel free!

"feel free!" - just the thing I've done... ;=} Interesting reply, let's look at it: "I don't believe all Germans were and supported Nazism" - but the great majority WAS all faschist, many before and most after the Nazis took over, and there was a great strain of antisemitism, which since the Middle Ages had led to pogroms, though not on as large a scale. So, yes, chauvinism and faschism WAS a general trait of German society since the early thirties (as was a certain mysticism...). Of course not EVERYBODY was a party member or liked the faschists, but these either shut up, emigrated or were "taken care of", as we all know. Socialists, union members, devout christians, etc. who were e.g. in state-employment got early retirement (police officers, mayors, bureaucrats) or else. And the people of Germany didn't do anything about it, because the majority liked what they got out of the deal, and any minorities were silenced. "yet is was indeed 'your' society" - not likely, Stacey. I wasn't born then, and I do not believe in inheriting guilt and debts from the ancestors. I do derive from the fact that I know about these things and how the mechanics of this worked, and that I live in this historically charged-up area, a certain OBLIGATION to warn, make aware of, flap the clap, mouth off, whatever somebody might call it. Something like a duty, to not let the victims be for nothing - there is a lesson in the story. Gotta learn it, gotta have more people understand something about people. Duty for the Future NOW! (to quote DEVO) Something that might help us all to improve the human condition by changing the way we interact. See the personality in the opposite person, not just some impersonal opposition. Our society, Stacey, is where we live NOW. We are part of a global, cooperating new society. We will have to learn new rules for this; meanwhile, we live in our communities in our respective countries and I guess, yea! we share responsibility with the other folks there to have things work out alright. We work this by voting, saying what's on our mind, participating in the society's rituals of decision-finding. Or just accept things as given. Now think of environmental problems or gun-laws, tax or education problems, and you see what I mean. It is YOUR country, and it is is YOUR society, and yea! again (plus excuse me for shouting, but I feel so dramatic: ) - IT IS YOUR THING TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! Or not, if you're happy with it. "I'm not sure there were many sensical answers to the question'why' fifty years ago" - but there were! Look at what was published in the Twenties, and what has happened to the country in the aftermath of WWI, it may not be obvious that things HAD to turn this way or that (I think they never had to), but many things and ideas that the faschists used were widely accepted by most people. Patriotism, the punishing Versailles Treaty, losing parts of the country, losing the army, losing the head-of-state and the monarchy, racism - even based on fake science, unemployment after the big Black Friday crash on Wallstreet - which destroyed lots of German capital invested in the States, inflation (got some old bank notes from that time, made out to billions...)... The Nazis' ideas of a national socialism appealed to many. Empower the lower classes, create jobs, stop war reparations, find a new national identity (in a country that only existed since the end of the French-German war of 1870/71), become a sovereign country with own armed forces again. Heroic ideals, new architecture, a new age. Progress! Wellbeing! (By the way, did you know the Nazis had a BIG purge themselves in the mid-thirties? Killed or degraded the whole more socialist wing, and developed a more mystic programme - that's when the SS came up bigtime.) Think of your country's New Deal era, and how everybody loved state intervention suddenly... Same time, same problem, same solution. Just to serve different means in the end. All based on different interests - the big capital wanted the monarchy back, so did the military and aristocracy (who all hated Hitler as low caste without style, as being pathetic, but nevertheless tried to utilize him for their benefit and got run over on the way). The workers wanted food and homes. The businesses wanted competitio taken care of. Big opportunities for many people - and the party offered even working-class folks a rise to power just by being hard-working and loyal... Afterwards, everybody had good excuses and didn't know about any untoward things at all. Heard about something, perhaps, but seen...? Never! Or look at the McCarthyism in the US. There are some similarities in how the people perceived and supported or ignored these things, and how afterwards nobody really knew a thing about it. Nobody was really responsible, only the bad guy. One (1) person. Even forced Charly Chaplin (!) to leave the States as suspected communist. Repeating patterns... "perhaps we will realize the insanity and lunacy involved thus becoming a more tolerant and less violent country..." - so, what's this, do I have a point here or what! Stacey, I DO hope it will not get any worse before there is a catharsis. I would not happily live in such times. But yes, it looks very different from the outside, compared to what you see in other places. Serbia and Rwanda, for example - anybody understands easily that the massacres and cruelties aremotivated by ethnic chauvinism. It is not all gang fights in the States, supremacism, there is no war declared on the offspring, nor do husbands kill their wifes (or vice versa) as members of a "Singles Liberation Front". And yet - why is so much happening? What is the lowest common denominator in the US, I wonder? Also be aware that the US sets an example to the world. Many things are copied all over the world, and yes, the rise of violence in the US is mimicked in other places, too. It's not only Coke, Rock 'n' Roll and Levis, or for the younger folks, baggys, hiphop and Coke. How and when did e.g. the heroin consumption in Europe escalate (which was not THAT heavy a problem in itself, as heroin's a downer - crack and cocain are the current dope, and they make users more, ahem, lively...)? And may I point out that any possible "Millenium" hysteria is still - as I see it - no excuse for running around and doing stupid things? Nobody "forces" the aggresssors to do something. They are fully responsible for their beliefs, and acts, and the results of these. There is more, but it's so hard for me to express without running danger of being seriously misunderstood - something I have lots of experience with, especially with US citizens involved (Springizens excluded). Hmh, so many characters. And what does all this teach us in the end? (a) Don't overgeneralize, else you gotta type a lot. (b) And people might think you don't respect them, though respect them you do (if I wouldn't, the post above wouldn't be there). Let's continue this in the topic I put up, to keep to the point easier.

Overgeneralization also makes a statement come across as ignorant and not well thought out. You obviously thought out your response. Here's mine. I do think it will get worse before it gets better. People in our country are fumbling around for answers but refusing to listen to the answers that don't appeal to them. Guns-- can of worms, a citizen's right? the root of all evil? merely a machine? Television -- can of worms, window to a global perspective? mechanism for free thinking creativity? scandal box? sex box? root of all evil? merely a machine? Desintigration of family units -- can of worms, women seeking independence from their formerly oppressive life of home and children? ramifications of a finiancially focused society? people are lazy? the root of all evil? I personally think that the changes that have taken place in this country over the past twenty years with respect to violence cannot be attributed to ONE culprit. Individuals seem to me to feel less responsibility for building a society in which they desire to live and feel less (in any at all) accountability for their actions. In a country that prides itself on its freedoms and rights, the difficulty appears to lie in where one man's freedom violates another man's human rights. We are fortunate to have those principles/ideas that other countries do not have, but crossing those fine lines seems to be a unwanted side affect. I do not like, actually I abhor, statements made generalizing this country as violence accepting... I believe the statement is false and made by people who really have no idea what the society over here believes. If you want to learn something about someone else's life and society, ask questions, don't make offensive statements. In the past 2 1/2 months I've watched an entire city from very up close try and come to terms with an act of extreme violence. I've watched the cycle of mourning and blame and forgiveness and questioning and I've watched people turn to a god to look for answers because they feel so helpless to find them in this reality. When you or anyone else makes statements about 'accepting violence' I know that you are not talking about MY reality and certainly not MY society. When I go home, I return to a televisionless house prompted by a disgust for the horror and ridiculousness I find in even the daily news. To throw up your hands in frustration and not be able to give an answer to the why does not imply acceptance. I believe it implies fatigue and sadness and frustration and fear. Certianly keep this topic open. Everyone is certainly aware of my pet peeve (one of many, to be sure!) and I will continue to call anyone on the overgeneralization bit...

i'll go back and read all of that. so if i repeat ideas presented above, my apologies. i think something we're forgetting is all the good people out there. do you know that the summer before last, i was driving home with some friends and witnessed an assault in broad daylight. we pulled over and called the police, the attacker started to run off, we took the victim and sheltered her. do you know 4 more cars stopped by? and one man took off after the attacker to try to sustain him for the police (the attacker managed to get away). race was not a factor although the attacker was black and t e victim was white. black and white folks were among the mix of witnesses. so i'd like to say that there are good people in the world and in the U.S. and i'd also like to say that there are things that go on here that i don't agree with, but also there are things that go on elsewhere that i don't believe in. but i don't hate the people who are ruled by those governments. and i can't assume that because some things are going bad (which, of course, is highly publicized) makes the whole place rotten.

And some beautiful good news to brighten this day... (sorry if it's too long... it's worth reading!) August 26, 1999 Web posted at: 11:05 AM EDT (1505 GMT) SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Her poignant e-mail messages from Kosovo chronicled her family's desperate situation much in the same way that Anne Frank's diaries put a human face on the Holocaust. Now the girl's real name and face are no longer a mystery. "Adona," a 16-year-old ethnic Albanian whose Internet missives were read to thousands of listeners over National Public Radio, flew Wednesday to meet her e-mail pen pal from Berkeley. Kujtesa Bejtullahu kept her identity secret while her family hid from Serbians in the Kosovo capital of Pristina. She shared her thoughts and fears by e-mail with Finnegan Hamill, a 16-year-old Berkeley High School student and Youth Radio reporter. The correspondence began in January after a peace worker who had just returned from Kosovo visited Hamill's church and gave him the address. Bejtullahu's messages often were filled with disturbing and violent accounts of the war. The girl said she regularly saw people being killed, routed from their homes and moved from place to place as they tried to stay alive. In mid-March, the messages suddenly ceased, presumably because the electricity at her family's home had been cut off. Hamill kept a worried vigil as reports of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo increased. Hamill was able to make contact with Adona a few days later over the phone. She told him her family was huddled in their home with little food or water. Wednesday night, Hamill said he had butterflies in his stomach as he met her face-to-face with flowers and a hug. Bejtullahu came to the United States along with three other teens from Pristina to complete her high school education. She is part of a group known as the PostPessimists, which campaigns against ethnic rivalry. While in Berkeley, Bejtullahu will stay with Gretchen Carlson, who heard the girl's messages on the radio. "I feel differently about Kujtesa, because I heard her words on NPR," Carlson said. "I don't think any woman alive, especially a mother, didn't feel a helplessness at not being able to protect a child in circumstances like that." The First Congregational Church of Berkeley has raised $25,000 to support the teens during their stay, but $50,000 more is needed for tuition, clothing and health insurance.

The Hunger Site at the U.N..... All you do is click a button and somewhere in the world some hungry person gets a meal to eat at no cost to you. The food is paid for by corporate sponsors. All you do is go to the site and click. But you're only allowed one click per day so spread the word to others. Visit the site and pass the word. http://www.thehungersite.com

And it's legit too!

d'ya think I'd send anything otherwise??? *smile* BTW... what's with the dead dolls on the Spring Cam... they're scary...

What dead dolls?

From the BBC: Japanese officials struggling to contain the worst nuclear accident in the country's history say they believe the situation has now stabilised. More than 300,000 people living in the area have been told they can leave their homes but there is still a 350-metre "exclusion zone" around the plant. However, fears persist over the effects of fallout from the accident. Officials told residents caught out in Thursday evening rain showers to wash their clothing and said locally grown vegetables should not be eaten. Radiation levels soared to 15,000 times the normal level just after the accident - schools were shut, train services halted and farmers were warned not to harvest their crops until safety checks had been carried out. But officials say radiation levels outside the plant have now returned to normal, and local residents are no longer at serious risk. They issued the statement after operators drained coolant water and carried out a number of other measures to reduce the risk of contamination resulting from a leak inside the uranium processing plant. The Governor of Ibaraki Prefecture, Masaru Hashimoto, said he had received confirmation at 0615 (2115GMT) that the nuclear chain reaction at the uranium processing plant had stopped. The aftermath of the accident coincided with the arrival on Friday of a second British ship carrying a cargo of plutonium for Japan's nuclear power industry. The Pacific Pintail docked in Takahama, 400km (248 miles) southwest of Tokyo. More than 30 workers at the Tokaimura plant are thought to have been exposed to radiation. Two are in a critical condition and are expected to be given bone marrow transplants. The victims include builders who had been working at the plant, people who live nearby and firemen who helped in the rescue. Human error Officials said workers had caused the accident at the plant by pouring too much uranium solution into a tank. Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi criticised the response to the accident, saying it had taken too long for experts to assess the seriousness of the situation. He also held an emergency meeting of the cabinet which set up a special task force - the first time it has taken such a measure after a nuclear accident. Washington has meanwhile announced that a joint American and Russian team is being sent to Japan. Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka said it was very likely there had been a "criticality incident" at the plant. Criticality is the point at which a nuclear chain reaction becomes self-sustaining. The French nuclear institute said the incident was the 60th in the world since 1945, following 33 such accidents in the United States and 19 in the former Soviet Union. One of the workers reportedly told an official that he had used about 16kg of uranium - nearly eight times the normal amount - during the process just before the accident. Workers normally use up to 2.3kg of uranium in each procedure to prevent a criticality accident, officials said.

This is a really terrific thing. The Hunger Site at the U.N. This is a really cool website. All you do is click a button and somewhere in the world some hungry person gets a meal to eat at no cost to you. The food is paid for by corporate sponsors. All you do is go to the site and click. But, you're only allowed one click per day so spread the word to others. Visit the site and pass the word. http://www.thehungersite.com

Yup...thanks for posting it. Stacey posted it, too. I think I will post it in Drool, also

Thanks for sending it. I got it from three sources today. I have a feeling that cyber button is going to be punched a lot in the near future. At least, I hope so!

Yes! It is too important to leave unforwarded and unheralded. Thanks for doing your part!

They're legalizing marijuana in Switzerland? You know the Ricola commercial, they had a takeoff on Leno the other night of the guy blowing the huge horn, and he stopped and exhaled smoke.

Well, probably just grant growing certain sorts for fibers or oil (both extremely low on THC). This has happened over the last two-three years in Germany, too. A new cash crop - will feed, clothe and can be used to make paper. I have driven by hemp fields every year since 1996, I think. There's always a farmer somewhere trying it out (like they did with sweet corn and pumpkin in the last few years, too).

I gather hemp cultivation is not illegal in Germany as it is in the US (so we do it in lava tubes here and under grow lights and it is 9' tall when mature!) This Springeur and others in Hawaii moved 1000 miles closer to the Mainland US and our Mother, Spring. (The time change, dontcha know!)

In case I missed anyone with Email, the shooting at the Xerox facility was in Honolulu on Oahu, 5 islands away from us and 200 miles west. Thanks for expressing your concern - I am fine, thank you!

Just two days ago a sixteen year old in Bavaria shot three people out of his parents house, hurt several others and then killed his sister and himself. It's the first time I heard of something like this happening in Germany...

oh my.....

ahhh... seems everyone has been sucked into the bad news... well... READ THIS... GOOD NEWS

High-flying at 100, Ohio man still enjoys getting up there Ralph Charles stands next to his plane November 9, 1999 Web posted at: 2:42 p.m. EST (1942 GMT) SOMERSET, Ohio (AP) -- Ralph Charles has been around airplanes long enough to have known Charles Lindbergh, flown with Eleanor Roosevelt and caught a glimpse of Orville Wright. And at 100, he's still able to enjoy planes from the vantage he loves most: the cockpit. "When I saw my first airplane, I thought it was like a magic carpet," Charles said. "I still think of planes that way." About 300 people showed up Sunday to celebrate his centennial a day early at his Somerset home, about 39 miles east of Columbus. Fellow aviation buffs arrived in 13 planes and two helicopters that flew in to a landing strip on the 23-acre site. Charles had stopped flying in the 1940s at his late wife's request. But he bought a plane two years ago, and received a student pilot's license from the Federal Aviation Administration last year. Now he goes on joyrides and attends aviation events every week. He's probably the nation's oldest student pilot, and perhaps its oldest licensed pilot of any kind. FAA spokesman Roland Herwig said that, as far as he can determine, the agency's oldest fully licensed pilots are both 96. The love affair with flying began long ago. Charles enlisted in the Army during World War I in hopes of learning to fly, but the war ended before he got the chance. His welding skill got him a job at the Rinehart-Whelan Aviation School in Dayton, where he repaired and maintained planes. "There were maybe 10 pilots in the whole state back then, and I got acquainted with them while working on their planes," he said. It was there that he occasionally saw Orville Wright working in the shop, though he never spoke to the aviation pioneer, who lived in Dayton. "Orville lived in seclusion and didn't like people to know where he lived," he said. Charles said he wanted to fly so badly he built his own plane, but didn't know how to fly it. Eventually, he talked Bernard Whelan, one of Wright's first trained fliers, into giving him lessons. "I had about four hours of training before my first flight," Charles said. "After showing I could take off and land three times with success, they let me go and fly the plane I built." He made his share of mistakes -- including a landing made with his gear left up. "I realized my mistake when I saw the propeller getting shorter," he said. In the early 1920s, steel-bodied planes were replacing wooden-bodied aircraft and steel repair experts were in demand. So when Rinehart-Whelan folded, Charles got a job with Consolidated Aircraft at Wright Field. He married in 1925, and said he got through the Depression by building airplanes such as the high-wing two-seater he owns today. He also began flying charter planes based at the Standard Oil hangar in Newark, New Jersey, where Lindbergh kept a plane in the years following his 1927 solo flight from New York to Paris. "I'd talk to him at times, but this was after his baby was murdered and he was the saddest person you'll ever see," Charles said. Eleanor Roosevelt was a passenger on an excursion he flew from Newark in the 1930s while her husband was in office. "I took her back a box lunch, then went back up and flew the plane," he said. Charles went to the Caribbean in 1940 to run a charter service in the Virgin Islands. Three years later, he and his wife, Leona, moved to Columbus, where he tested Helldiver bombers built for the Navy by the former Curtiss-Wright company. He said he stopped flying because Leona was tired of transferring from state to state. But for the roughly 20 years he owned an auto repair shop -- and the years that followed his 1965 retirement -- the thought of flying again stayed with him. "Imagine not driving a car for 50 years, only worse," Charles said. "Sometimes when I would mow, I would imagine my tractor was a plane and I was rising up into the sky." Leona died in 1995 at age 94. They had been married 70 years. Charles, having kept his promise, was ready to return to the skies. Other than a physical exam every six months, he has no restrictions beyond those of other student pilots. "I'm not allowed to take passengers and I can only fly 25 miles away from home," he said. "But I don't give a hoot. I just enjoy flying."

that's great!! i hope i'm as active when i'm 100! (not dog years, mind you)

It is a little like lifting the calf each day from the time he is born, and when you are finished you will be able to lift a full-grown bull...but i don't think it works like that.

Bonfire Collapse Kills Five Up To 30 Injured Taken To Area Hospitals At least five college students were killed and several others injured early Thursday after logs they were stacking for an annual bonfire collapsed and crushed them, reports CBS affiliate KBTX-TV in Bryan, Texas. University President Dr. Ray Bowen said up to 30 other individuals were transported to area hospitals with various injuries. As many as 50 Texas A&M university students were on top of the stack of logs when the accident happened, according to university officials. The collapse occurred at about 2 a.m. local time. The bonfire is a yearly event that has been going on since 1909. The bonfire is built prior to the Thanksgiving game with the University of Texas. The Aggies are set to play archrival Texas on Nov. 26, the day after Thanksgiving. The bonfire ceremony usually features performances by the Aggie band, school cheers called "yells," and pep talks by administrators, football players and coaches. But the project hasn't always been trouble-free: One stack collapsed in 1994, but a second was built and ignited. The accident was the third disaster related to the 43,000-student Texas A&M this fall. On Sept. 18, five people were killed in the crash of a plane used by the Aggies Over Texas skydiving club, often used by Texas A&M University students and alumni. On Oct. 10, six college students walking to a fraternity party about two miles west of the campus were killed by a pickup truck driver who had fallen asleep, police said. The victims were four students from Baylor University, one from Texas A&M and one from Southwest Texas State.

Tragic. A fun thing turns into a disaster. The sports talk shows are full of it this morning, mostly on http://www.sportsradio1300.com/ on their realaudio server.

...even in Hawaii we saw a lengthy report on the news, including comments from the President of the University. Tragic, Indeed!

The BBC Online site has a lengthy story and photographs...terribly sad... I'd rather not cut ans paste to here - this is something which should be read there...I am so sorry. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_525000/525625.stm

Now eleven dead. Victims: Miranda Adams, a sophomore in biomedical sciences from Santa Fe, Texas Christopher Breen of Austin, Texas -- 1997 graduate Michael Ebanks, a freshman in aerospace engineering from Carrollton, Texas Jeremy Frampton, a senior psychology major from Turlock, California Christopher Lee Heard, a freshman in pre-engineering from Houston, Texas Jamie Hand, a freshman in environmental design from Henderson, Texas Lucas Kimmel, a freshman in biomedical science from Corpus Christi, Texas Bryan McClain, a freshman agriculture major from San Antonio Chad Anthony Powell, a sophomore in computer engineering from Keller, Texas Jerry Self, a sophomore engineering technology major from Arlington, Texas Nathan Scott West, a sophomore oceanography major from Bellaire, Texas

and if you'd like to put faces to the names... http://www.tamu.edu/aggiedaily/students.html

This, from Reuters, belongs somewhere in Spring but I am not sure where...Something is terribly wrong here... Man Jailed for Stealing to Feed 15 Children NAIROBI (Reuters) - A 60-year-old Kenyan pleaded guilty in court to stealing food worth 20 U.S. cents to feed his 15 children and two wives, a local newspaper said on Thursday. Thomas Ogero, a casual laborer, told the court in a preliminary hearing that he stole maize, beans and cabbages from a food kiosk because his family was starving, the East African Standard reported. ``Your honor, you know life is hard and many people are dying of hunger,'' he told magistrate Gladys Ndeda. ``I did not want my 15 children to die that way.''

Penn State Buses Crash; 106 Hurt, Two Killed STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (Reuters) - Two people were killed and 106 injured when four charter buses carrying Pennsylvania State University students and three passenger cars collided early on Sunday, a state police spokeswoman said. Six buses were ferrying students from a field trip in New York City back to the Penn State campus at State College just after midnight when the accident involving four of the buses occurred on Interstate 80 in Kidder Township, Pennsylvania, said Pennsylvania State Police spokeswoman Shannon Yates. Yates said a bus driver and one student were killed and 106 people were injured. Five of the injured are in serious condition. ``Scores of students were taken to about a half dozen hospitals throughout the northeast area of the state,'' said a statement released by Penn State University. Penn State spokesman Alan Janesch said most of the students have been treated and released. More than 100 students were taken to three area churches in White Haven, Pennsylvania, near where the accident occurred, for emergency shelter. The students had been out of state as part of a ``Spend a Day in New York'' trip. School officials said about 280 students were on the buses. Yates said Interstate 80 has been closed while accident investigators at the scene try to determine what caused the crash. ``It was very foggy. Whether that was a factor in the accident, I don't know,'' Yates said. Janesch also cited the foggy conditions. ``The buses apparently hit a very thick patch of fog and put on their emergency flashers,'' School officials said plans were under way for counselors and medical staff to meet with students as they return to campus on Sunday. ``We offer our condolences to the families of the deceased and we want to do everything possible to assist the other students who made this trip,'' said Penn State University president Graham Spanier.

And in my quest to bring more good news to the forefront... check out THIS warning you... I cried...

I did as well, and I remember them from the event in Kona...incredible. Thanks for bringing this wonderful story to the attention of readers here.

For those who like their news from WAY outside the Spring...this regarding the Mars landing today from the BBC Online: Nasa engineers are searching for the Mars Polar Lander (MPL). The spacecraft was supposed to have touched down on the surface of the Red Planet at 2015GMT. Final data from the spacecraft suggested all systems were working properly and the entry procedure would go well. But there was no signal from the MPL at 2039GMT, the first opportunity it had to contact mission controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, US. The delay began what could be a long and anxious wait for scientists who have spent years working on the $165m probe. Nasa stressed the lack of a call did not mean the spacecraft was lost. "This is not entirely unexpected," said Richard Cook, MPL's Project Manger. "Obviously we're a little disappointed not to see a signal (right away). But we were prepared for this, and we're going to go ahead and execute our plan as we described it." One possibility was that the lander's computer slipped into protective safe mode immediately after landing, in which case it would delay sending its first signal. Another scenario was that the probe did not correctly predict where to point its antenna. As it descended through the atmosphere, the lander had to keep track of every twist and turn to keep its bearing. The first data sent to Earth was supposed to include information about MPL's health and a black and white image of the landing site. Scientists sent MPL to Mars to learn about the planet's climate by studying layers of dust and possibly ice during the 90-day mission. It incorporated Instruments that would measure vapour in the atmosphere and a claw that could collect samples to be cooked and analysed for water. It even had a microphone on board to record the first sounds form another world. Loss of the lander would be a devastating blow to Nasa. Only 10 weeks ago, the lander's sibling spacecraft, the $125m Mars Climate Orbiter, burned up in the planet's atmosphere because of an embarrassing mix-up over English units (pounds, feet and inches) and metric units.

Is this under the heading of "The Wages of Sin"??? Retiree Blows Pension on One-Night Stand NAIROBI (Reuters) - A sugar company employee who took early retirement lost his $3,600 pension in a one-night orgy of beer, women and song, Kenyan newspapers reported Thursday. The man, who was unnamed, cashed his 270,000 shilling pension check as soon as he stopped work and headed for a bar. ``Feeling thoroughly liquid and hence unstoppable, he set to conquer a woman from a neighboring country,'' the Kenya Times said. ``The retiree, together with his newfound lover... proceeded to drown other revelers in free beers for hours on end.'' When the bars ran out of beer the couple staggered to a hotel. ``I shall now go for the real thing since the hours seem to be running away,'' the pensioner declared. When he woke, the woman and the last of his pension were gone. She was last seen boarding an early-morning long-distance bus.

Yep, he blew it.

Probably not the first or last time that a guy will do something like that...Unfortuantely!

stacey, thanks for the father-son story. that's a great thing to see! and that guy deserved what he got. blowing away all that hard earned pension money. geez louise, he'd probably do it again too.

...a fool and his money...and all that, no?! Could not resist posting it for all to enjoy (and / learn from)

ok you guys, look up at the sky. you see that huge bright full moon? it's the closest the moon has been to the earth for a whole century! yup, which is why it looks so big. it's beautiful!!

Yup...full story http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/geo/24.27 Just before the moon set behind the snow-crowned Mauna Kea this morning I could have read newspapers by it. Very Bright, indeed!

Wow, that's news outside the Spring for sure, I'll take a look out in Cedar Creek tonight if possible, where it's usually clear skies unfettered by too much city haze.

i tried to get a pic of the newly risen moon (when it appeared to be at it's largest). put fresh film in my rewind challenged camera and we'll see after about 22 more frames!

I should get it setting over the snow tomorrow morning as it sinks slowly behind Mauna Kea...

Send Page Last updated: Thursday - 16:23 Judge Allows Wife to Fulfill Adultery Bet LUSAKA (Reuters) - High court judges say a Zambian housewife is free to be adulterous until February 22, 2000, in a bizarre bet to prove she can have a baby, newspapers reported on Wednesday. The marriage of 37-year-old Dorothy Mapani and her 56-year-old husband Effas Ondya has been childless and the couple have accused each other of being infertile, the Times of Zambia newspaper reported. It said Ondya had asked his wife to have sex with other men and conceive by February 22, 2000. He claimed his wife could not conceive and staked $200 that no child would show up within the agreed time. ``There is clear indication that you have allowed your wife to have sex with other men. The bet remains a bet,'' judges Sainet Chiutambo and Joseph Mumba said in a ruling. The pair had approached Zambia's High Court to rule if their union should continue or if they should separate. The papers did not say how long they had been married.

wow. so who are the lucky adultees? and then imagine the paternity suits to be filed after. *woohoo*, only in Zambia, i guess!

I did not know whether to put that under Ree's topic in Travel or not, so I put a really nasty one in there and this out here where more people would see it. Interesting, no?!

indeed! what happened to going to the sperm bank, you know? well, she'd be getting the stuff fresh, no? *snicker*

Hey, a deal is a deal. *snicker* indeed! No frozen stuff for me - I'd wanna stare the owner straight in the eyes first, and the very least...

Could also be that the Sperm Bank is what is being carried around by each man over there where refrigeration is scarce. You know, those....(do I gotta draw you a .....?!)

please do, if you ask AM, you'd think i forgot all about that stuff!

Cannot be as bad as all that *lol* I am holding up my etch-a-sketch so you can see what I mean...I am better at the actuality than the drawing, but I remember where everything is and what each likes the best...*sigh* Wolfie, it will come swarming back into your conscious mind just as soon as all of those little ears and eyes grow up and vacate the premises. (Yeah, I know...a difficult trade-off and all that.)

hmmm....

Of course, AM can give you an private show-and-tell session starting with champagne and candle light...

Under the Category of Bah! Humbug! Children Stone Santa Claus Who Ignored Them SANTIAGO, Chile (Reuters) - A group of children in northern Chile stoned and robbed Santa Claus after he ignored their pleas to toss them candies from his truck as he drove past them, local press reported on Thursday. Santa-suited Cristian Parenti, 28 was pelted with rocks by the children as they ran alongside his truck after he refused to share his load of candies, daily Las Ultimas Noticias reported. Some of the youngsters climbed aboard the moving truck and stole toys out of his sack before running away. The 300-pound Parenti was heading to a neighborhood in Tocopilla, 960 miles north of Santiago, to deliver boxes of candies that the local government planned to give out later. The unemployed father, hired by the city to don the Santa outfit, was hit twice in the head, in his chest and in his eye, forcing him to seek medical attention at which time him learned that the glue he used to attach his beard had burned his skin, the paper said. ``They left me full of goose eggs,'' he said.

well, did he have candy in his sack? (don't go there marcia *grin*) next time he'll keep extra to deliver on his way to the real destination.

Don't BS with little kids. They knew he was a bogus santa and was being mean. Still, I never have stoned Santa (and I would never have taken candy from a stranger - like my Momma said!)

I think I knew somebody who was a stoned Santa, too...

In the 60's probably most were! *lol*

News from W a y outside the Spring: The next total lunar eclipse is coming on January 21, 2000 a Lunar Calculator is located on the site so you can calculate when and how to see it: http://aa.usno.navy.mil/AA/data/docs/LunarEclipse.html

btw, Thanksm Maggie, for alerting me to this coming astronomical event *grin* It'll be raining here that night...*sigh* Is Austin really having terrible drought conditions?

Currently, the sky is overcast 24/7, so I don't expect it to be visible by then - no change in weather expected for Central Europe.

Sounds like Hilo weather. It has absolutely deluged since the relatives arrived and looks not to clear till they all leave! Kinda curious, isn't it!

the lunar eclipse was groovy here... not as red as in some of the pictures but reddish and intriguing.

What relies Marci? Austin has had a bit of rain lately, but not enough to cure this drought. It's not "terrible" but it's pretty bad, I'd say. Where did you watch the eclipse, Stace?

According to weather stats, you are in the 4th (or is it 5th?) year of drought. (Terry)What relies Marci? I wish I knew to what this refers...I could tell you, perhaps!

What Was He Thinking Dept: Man Kills Policeman to Avoid Traffic Penalty FRANKFURT (Reuters) - A German who killed a traffic policeman after he was caught speeding said the killing was a bid to avoid penalty points on his licence. The 45-year-old unnamed assailant, who was arrested earlier this week, said he was worried that penalty points from previous speeding offences would mean he would be stripped altogether of his licence. The attack happened last month on a highway 60 miles northeast of Frankfurt after the policeman used a radar gun to record the speed of the attacker's vehicle. The driver stopped, approached the police car on foot and fired once, hitting the 41-year-old father-of-two in the chest and killing him instantly. The bullet then hit a second policeman in the arm. The radar measurement showed the attacker's vehicle to be travelling at 80 miles per hour in a 63 miles per hour zone.

in my driveway Paul... REALLY clear night! bad news Marcia.

There is an even better on in Travel/England (but it does not show up on the unread list on main)

MIAMI (CNNSI.com) -- Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Derrick Thomas died Tuesday morning at Jackson Memorial Hospital where he was recovering from a car crash that left him paralyzed from the chest down, a hospital spokeswoman said. Details of his death were not immediately available, said spokeswoman Lorraine Nelson. Thomas, 33, was injured last month when he and two companions were heading to the Kansas City airport to fly to St. Louis for the NFC Championship game. Their car flipped on an icy road. Team president Carl Peterson, who will fly to Miami early this afternoon, offered this statement upon hearing news of Thomas' death: "It's a devastating tragedy to the Kansas City Chiefs family, the people of Kansas City, the fans of the National Football League and to me personally. Derrick Thomas has been such an important part of the Chiefs family for the past 11 years. He has done so much for this team and our city during his time with us. He had so much love for the game, for his teammates and for our town. Our prayers go out to Derrick's family, to his fellow teammates and to our fans who knew Derrick. A light has gone out."

... I thought he was doing well... ???

The last any of us heard he was doing ok. Apparently that broken neck was not all that was wrong with him. Being thrown from a crash is not a good thing!

no, it was just crash injuries... he had a heart attack and they could not bring him back. Possible suspects include a massive blood clot...

As I suspect as well. Internal injuries do that.

That guy who attacked police? He snug up to their van, and fired into the windows, killing one, injuring a second. Within the next two weeks, there were many more police officers injured on duty, a unusual high rate for Germany. I believe that there is a certain copy cat effect at play, like with the teenage violence... After the Columbine event, we had some pretty heavy things ourselves, too - on much smaller scale, but still... Knifes or one rifle suffice, as does one victim to qualify for total horror. I just wish the gun control stuff would get through US American congress. You perhaps don't think so, but people in other countries look to what happens around y'all - courtesy of all the news and entertainment companies that sell the coverage to the world - and not few think that some weird crap were rather cool.

You will not get an arguement from me on gun control of some sort here. I also wish the media (and I am part of that august tradition) would do their part by not making such a publicity thing out of it. Here, in Hilo, they are finally convicting murderers for running over, bludgeoning and raping a young woman and leaving her to die on Christmas Eve a few years ago. While the verdict was being read, movie deals were being made and script writers were being hired. This is definitely a movie I will avoid at all costs. I dread the thought of copy cat incidents.