In Dire Straights...

Sorry for the lack of posts. I've had a severe computer crash and won't be up and running again until Monday. Had no idea I was so computer dependent. It's driving me nuts.
So, until Monday...

Little Shrunken Sings the Blues

YouTube - Little Shrunken Sings The Blues

Important Information about 2010 US Federal Census Scam

www.census.gov
October 21, 2009
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Phishing, Email Scams & Bogus Census Web Sites
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'Phishing' is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, social security numbers, bank account or credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Phishing is typically carried out by email and it often directs users to enter sensitive information at a fake web site whose look and feel are almost identical to the legitimate one.
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The Census Bureau does NOT conduct the 2010 Census via email or the Internet.
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You may receive an email from the Census Bureau regarding your participation in a survey, however:
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The Census Bureau does not request detailed personal information through email.
The Census Bureau does not send email requesting PIN codes, passwords social security numbers or similar access information for credit cards, banks or other financial accounts.
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How to report phishing, email scams and bogus Census web sites:
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If you receive an email or find a web site that you suspect is falsely representing the Census Bureau:
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Do not reply or click on any links within the email.
Do not open any attachments. Attachments may contain code that could infect your computer.
Forward the email or web site URL to the Census Bureau at itso.fraud.reporting@census.gov.
After you forward the email to us, delete the message.
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You will not receive a confirmation email after forwarding the information to us. However, the Census Bureau will investigate the information and notify you of its findings. The Census Bureau can use the information, URLs and links you forward to trace the hosting web site and alert authorities to help shut down the fraudulent site.
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Is your survey legitimate?
If you have questions regarding the legitimacy of a survey questionnaire received in the mail, a phone call or visit by a Census Bureau employee, or other concerns of a non-cyber nature, please visit our Are You In a Survey? page.

Santa, elves at shoddy English theme park 'bashed' by angry parents

NEWS.com.au
December 03, 2008

A SANTA and his elves have been attacked by parents furious over exorbitant entry prices and long queue times at a shoddy Christmas theme park.

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Blows were reportedly exchanged after Santa stopped allowing children to sit on his knee and charged parents an extra $23 to have photos taken at the theme park at Matchams Leisure Park on the Dorset-Hampshire border, England.

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The Sun reported that a dad was so angry at queuing for hours he hit Santa. Three elves and three security guards were also attacked in other incidents.

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“The final straw for one dad came when after four hours he was told he would have to join another queue for his child to get a present – so he marched up and punched Santa on the chin,” former staff member Adrian Wood told The Sun.

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The theme park, described as a "glorified car-boot" sale has been blasted for charging a "rip-off" $69 entrance fee.

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(Read More) Debbie of Brisbane Disappointed customer Claire Harnett, and five-year-old daughter Tierney, said they spotted Santa with his beard off having a smoke. “The whole experience was appalling, especially for the cost,” Mrs Harnett said.

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The RSPCA has launched an investigation after dozens of complaints about the treatment of husky dogs, reindeers and donkeys on the site.

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Recruitment agency Richards Events told The Sun that they advised the 25 workers they supplied to quit working at the theme park. “We can’t expect our staff to take constant abuse and do not want to put their safety at risk," managing director Sue Holzher said.

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Advertisements promised a place “where dreams really do come true” – with a tunnel of light, an ice rink and a nativity scene. But families found the fairy lights switched off and no rink as the generator was broken. The nativity scene was painted on a billboard.

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The Dorset County Council's trading standards has received more than 1300 complaints about the park.

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Read the rest of the story, and see pictures, at The Sun

Deaths in Guatemala trash avalanche

Rueters

At least three people have died and at least 10 others are missing after a mountain of rubbish near the Guatemalan capital collapsed on them, emergency workers have said.

The rubbish pile, which contained broken glass, tyres and human remains, disintegrated on Friday while people were foraging at the dump, the emergency services said.

Hundreds of police and bystanders are searching for those missing after the incident near Guatemala City, Jose Victor Chavez, one of the rescue workers, said.

Dozens of people search the rubbish tip every day to take jewellery from bodies dumped there when their relatives cannot afford to pay for the upkeep of their graves, Chavez said.

At least six children searching for valuables in the dump are among the missing, he said.

Foraging commonplace

A police spokesman put the death toll at four and said 14 people had disappeared.
Scores of poor people forage for scrap metal and other recyclables despite dangers of landslides during seasonal rainfall.

"Yesterday it rained all afternoon and into the night, saturating the land and causing the landslide," Gerson Contreras, a police spokesman, said.

"Because of the rains and what happened before, the authorities have been trying to stop people from going there, but their need is so great they just kept coming," Contreras said.

Last month, eight people were killed in a similar collapse at Guatemala City's main rubbish dump, located to the south of the capital.

Angry man shoots lawn mower for not starting

Associated Press

MILWAUKEE - A Milwaukee man was accused of shooting his lawn mower because it wouldn't start. Keith Walendowski, 56, was charged with felony possession of a short-barreled shotgun or rifle and misdemeanor disorderly conduct while armed.

According to the criminal complaint, Walendowski said he was angry because his Lawn Boy wouldn't start Wednesday morning. He told police quote, "I can do that, it's my lawn mower and my yard so I can shoot it if I want."

A woman who lives at Walendowski's house reported the incident. She said he was intoxicated.
Walendowski could face up to an $11,000 fine and six years and three months in prison if convicted.

A call to Walendowski's home went unanswered Friday morning.

Plumbing service rescues kitty from drainage pipe

Roto-Rooter Rocks!

They'll clean your pipes, check the house for ghosts, and save your cat...

BRECKSVILLE, Ohio - It was Roto-Rooter to the rescue for an unlucky black kitten that got stuck in an outdoor drainage pipe near Cleveland.
The plumbing and drain service was called in Friday by workers at an Ohio firm. Someone spotted the kitten down an outside pipe, but other agencies either declined to help or didn't answer their phones.
Enter Roto-Rooter.
A crew used a drain snake equipped with a remote camera to keep the scared kitty in its sights. It took six hours to rescue the cat.
The kitten was examined by a vet and then taken home by Larry Ozanick (oh-ZAN'-ick), one of the rescuers.
He says he plans to name the kitten "Roto."

Voters to decide on naming sewage plant for Bush

I love San Francisco!

SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- A measure seeking to commemorate President Bush's years in office by slapping his name on a San Francisco sewage plant has qualified for the November ballot.

The measure certified Thursday would rename the Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant the George W. Bush Sewage Plant.

Supporters say the idea is to commemorate the mess they claim Bush has left behind by actions such as the war in Iraq.

The Joy of Gift Giving

Yes, I'm no spring chicken but I remember not too long ago when a gift to another was chosen with thought and care and consideration for the recipient, and its bestowal on the recipient was a moment of joy and surprise. It might even be (horror’s of horrors) hand-made.


Somewhere along the line, giving and receiving of gifts has become a greedy faux of tradition that now breeds expectation, obligation, stress and even resentment.


Nothing accentuates the sad incursion of blatant greed into the world of gift-giving worse than the gift registry.


I wouldn’t be writing about this if the registries stopped at weddings and baby showers. After all, there are still some young couples who really need to outfit a home, and the generosity of the friends and relatives at this special time is a long-standing tradition, even if the ‘white wedding’ is not. A couple facing their first child appreciated the gifts of small items that the experienced parents knew they would need.


Greed, however has taken the gift registry to new levels. Today registries exist for every occasion: birthdays, baby showers, anniversaries, graduations, you name it. Kids today can go to their favorite toy store, and with a scanning gun, scan in all the goodies they want for their birthday, and include the list with the party invitations.


Expectant moms do the same thing- create registries for their upcoming showers, and get whatever they want. This might be tolerable but the new generation has ‘serial’ shower: moms who already have kids having showers for their next kid. I very recently attended a shower for a young woman who is due to deliver her fourth child. Fourth. When I asked about a registry I was told she just wanted gift-certificates from a certain store. Money.


These, like the serial wedding showers of divorcees, or multiple showers for first timers, are nothing but blatant displays of naked greed. Quite often the gifts given are returned to get the cash value. Years ago I was pointed in the direction of two registries for the same bride, both at reasonable stores, not high-end. At the first store there was a registry with maybe 40 items, averaging about $50 each.


But at the next store I noticed that she had registered for the exact same gifts, different brands here and there, but the same items, again about $50 per. In a chat with a relative I learned that they didn’t want any of it—that every item would be returned in hopes of getting enough cash for an island honeymoon. Am I wrong to feel dupped? I don’t think so, since if truth be told, I hate shopping and I also hate showers.


And "bon voyage", or off to school celebrations. Now come on. To a kid, a registry might seem like an ideal way to get your dorm room decorated—maybe a new laptop, not for things like computer game systems, skates, sports gear, clothes, and of course, the almighty gift card. My experience has seen that many kids head off to college, only to drop out due to laziness, or excessive night life, or both. Let’s wait and present the student with a graduation gift instead. One that I pick out.


Don’t get me wrong- I see nothing wrong with gift-giving. There is nothing more delightful for me than to be handed a beautifully wrapped little morsel when I least expect it, and find a delightful surprise within- or do the same for a close friend.


But today that isn’t really the case- the exchange of gifts often is a cover for barely restrained hostility in some places.





Christmas has become the worst, with weddings following a close second. Got something you want to get rid of, and can’t afford the stuff on the registry, and resent the feeling of being shaken down? Re-gift. That's another post, I guess.


Another thing, do these people give any thought to the finances of the people they are requesting gifts from? Do you really have to spend that much? It should go without saying that a person having trouble making ends meet, or on a fixed income maybe can’t afford to spend $120 on a vase or $400 for a place setting of china or stemware at $80 and up per stem.


It’s enough to turn one’s heart against gift giving completely. And finally, one would think that people who are old enough to be receiving a wedding or shower gift would be able to muster up the manners to thank the giver in a genuine and gracious manner, regardless of what the gift is, or how much it cost. If you are the receiver, be sincere in your thanks, generous with your friendship, and gracious in your kindness.


Gifts are, after all, a small token of friendship, celebration, appreciation, love. They should not be objects of obligation and greed. Remember that it is the presence of friends and family that is the greatest gift of all...right?

George Carlin 1937-2008

George, thanks for the laughs.

Rest in Peace.

Border-fence dispute snares rare jaguars

By Rusty Dornin

CNN

DOUGLAS, Arizona (CNN) -- It's a tale of homeland security concerns blocking wildlife management, and the hue and cry that ensues. When most people think of jaguars, they think of the jungles of Central and South America, not the remote desert ranges between the United States and Mexico.

That region is known as mountain lion country, and that's what rancher Warner Glenn thought he was tracking when he saddled up his mules on a summer day 12 years ago near Douglas, Arizona.

Glenn has hunted mountain lions for 60 years, since he was eight years old. But Glenn was stunned when he saw what his hunting dogs had chased up to a high mountain perch.
The rancher took what's believed to be the first photo of a live jaguar in the United States. But it wasn't his last. In 2006, some 40 miles away, Glenn and his hunting party again cornered a jaguar -- a different one.

Jaguars, an endangered species, have a breeding population in northern Mexico. Scientists believe there are no more than 120 left in the wild there. It's believed that since 1910, the cats are only visitors north of the border. They have been virtually unstudied here until recently.

But Glenn and other conservationists worry that the possible return of breeding jaguars to the United States could be stopped in its tracks. The reason: the border fence. Last month the Department of Homeland Security waived 30 environmental laws to finish 470 miles of the fence by the end of the year.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told Congress that the agency continues to talk to some 600 landowners along the border to get their input. But in order to comply with the congressional mandate, he said, there is no time to deal with "unnecessary delays caused by administrative processes or potential litigation."

"We are currently in a lawless situation at the border," says Chertoff. "I feel an urgency to get this tactical infrastructure in. And although we're going to be respectful of the environment, we're going to be expeditious."

Two environmental groups, Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club, have filed appeals with the U.S. Supreme Court, claiming the waivers are unconstitutional and set a dangerous precedent.

"National security and environmental protection do not have to be at odds with each other," says

Defenders of Wildlife spokesman Matt Clark. "If we can drop this arbitrary deadline for constructing the fence and go through the proper procedures, then there are inevitably ways to minimize environmental impact, but as it is now it's throwing all of those laws out the window."
Mountain lion tracker Jack Childs also worries about the impact of the fence on local wildlife, especially the jaguar.

Childs captured the first video of a live jaguar in the late summer of 1996, a few months after Warner Glenn. "I knew historically there had been a few jaguars sighted in Arizona but in the last hundred years never in any numbers."

His encounter sparked a passion for the big cats. Along with wife Anna and biologist Emil McCain, he created the Borderlands Jaguar Detection Project. Childs and McCain hike into remote mountain areas where the jaguars roam and have placed more than 50 motion sensor cameras near the border. They've taken 69 photos of three different jaguars since 2001, including several of the same cat Childs first saw in 1996.

He has nicknamed that cat Macho B.

A jaguar's spots are like fingerprints -- each cat has a unique set. One of the spots on Macho B resembles a Pinocchio cartoon figure, and that's how they identify him. "We spend a lot of time walking along the border during the daytime, and we actually find his tracks going through the fence, so we know for sure that he crosses back and forth," says Childs.

"A fence like that is going to inhibit wildlife movements and migrations back and forth. It's not going to effectively stop human traffic. They've got wire cutters and torches." Childs says the fence also has an impact on wildlife because drug runners and human traffickers have been pushed up into the mountain areas to avoid the fence in the lowland valleys.

"It's impacting the animals number one, what's going on down there. It's almost brought my wildlife study to a stop because they (the traffickers) are tearing down my cameras as fast as I'm putting them up because they think we're taking pictures of them."

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service finds itself in a unique position. Its mission is wildlife and habitat protection, but it must uphold another federal agency's mission to override environmental concerns. Bill Radke, manager of the San Bernardino Wildlife Refuge, says the Border Patrol is trying to work with his agency.

"The hope is that by working with Border Patrol that we can meet the national security mandate and at the same time protect the wildlife," says Radke. "Border Patrol is putting up camera towers but are putting them up on areas that are off the refuge. They're working on barriers but not barriers that would impede wildlife and large animals like jaguars."

At 6 foot 6, with steely blue eyes, dressed in leather chaps astride his mule, rancher Warner Glenn is every inch the American cowboy. And he is a man forever changed by his encounters with the jaguar. He has written a book, "Eyes of Fire," about his experience. He says he'd like to "invite Mr. Bush to come out on a mule" so he can see "what's going on here in these mountains."
For Glenn, the cat represents all that is wild about the Southwest.

"It would be a loss to me that maybe my granddaughter or my daughter wouldn't be able to see one like I have. It's just an animal that's a beautiful, magnificent cat and they're having a little bit of trouble surviving. But they're doing it, and I would hate to see us do anything that would cause the survival of that cat to go backwards.

"I'm a livestock rancher, but I wouldn't mind donating a few calves to that jaguar, so to speak."
Biologist Emil McCain agrees. "They are part of our natural heritage. They are part of the American West. They are part of the American wild as much as the bald eagle or the grizzly bear, and the jaguar is really special because it is such an elusive and beautiful creature [that] it evokes a sense of imagination and curiosity about the natural world."

Though the jaguar is elusive, conservationists say the animal is caught -- in the political crossfire at the border.

362-pound Oregon hiker rescued in Tennessee on Appalachian Trail

Apr 29, 2008

GREENEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- A 362-pound hiker from Oregon became ill while hiking the Appalachian Trail and had to be rescued.

Greeneville Emergency and Rescue Squad member Kevin Ayers said 62-year-old Ross John Sieja was on a two-to-three-day hike when he became sick and had to take refuge at a shelter.

It was not immediately clear how long Sieja had been at the shelter when other hikers found him on Saturday and used a cell phone to call for help.

Rescuers from Tennessee and North Carolina were able to bring Sieja out the same day using an all-terrain vehicle.

Ayers says they had a mule standing by in case the terrain proved too rough for all-terrain vehicles.

Sieja told rescuers he was "just tired" and did not want to go to the hospital. Instead, they took him to Hot Springs, N.C., which was hosting its annual "Trailfest" celebration.

Newspaper carrier finds woman pinned by dead husband's body

ST. LOUIS, Missouri (AP) -- Newspaper carrier Bruce Pitts knew the elderly couple only by the prayers the wife made for him while he was working at night and in bad weather, but he felt something was wrong when the papers piled up outside their home.

"It was never like them to leave a newspaper in their tube," Pitts said Tuesday. "That wonderful, small voice inside me said, 'This isn't right."'

After his route early Sunday, Pitts went home, napped briefly and, with his wife, returned to Blanche and Fred Roberts' home, just outside Marion, Illinois.

They repeatedly rang the doorbells but got no answer. Pitts then eased open an unlocked side door and saw the couple about two feet inside, 84-year-old Blanche Roberts helpless looking right back at Pitts.

Her right leg was pinned beneath the body of her 77-year-old husband Fred, who apparently had died last Wednesday evening of a heart attack after mowing the lawn.

"The good Lord was with her. She was not scared, wasn't panicking," Pitts said during a telephone interview. "She was conscious, talking. Just peaceful. It was remarkable."

Her only request was for water. She knew her name and her relatives, but described her husband as "sleeping," said Pitts, who delivers the Southern Illinoisan, published in nearby Carbondale, Illinois.

Pitts described Blanche Roberts as frail and petite. Fred Roberts was a "good-sized man," according to Williamson County, Illinois, coroner Mike Burke, though he declined to be specific.
The coroner said Fred Roberts likely died of a heart attack, based on accounts from the Roberts' visitors that day.

"They said he was really beet-red in the face, that he didn't look good," Burke said.
Blanche Roberts was taken to a hospital in nearby Herrin. The hospital on Tuesday wouldn't confirm whether she still was being treated there; Pitts said the couple's relatives told his wife Monday that she was doing fine.

Pitts has delivered on that route for three years but said he never met the Robertses before Sunday. But he thinks fondly of Blanche Roberts, who often tipped him in letters and was known to Pitts and his wife as "The Prayer Lady."

In her missives, "Blanche would say, 'I've been praying for you at night whenever the weather's bad, realizing you're out in it delivering our papers,"' Pitts said. "We'd always say a little prayer back."

Autistic children linked to same sperm donor

By Randi Kaye
CNN

NEW YORK -- He's only 5½ years old, and yet he's practically memorized the entire New York subway grid.

He reads at the fourth-grade level, plays two-handed piano compositions and is better versed than most adults about the Fibonacci code, a complex mathematics sequence.

Dylan loves Italian music and draws pictures that artist Jackson Pollock would be proud of.
He also happens to be autistic.

Gwenyth Jackaway, Dylan's mother, is a professor at New York's Fordham University. She's single but had always wanted to have a child. So she contacted one of the largest sperm donor banks in the country.

The sperm bank doesn't reveal the identities of donors but allows people to choose based on the traits they'd like their child to have. Jackaway decided on "Donor X" because he appeared philosophical and intelligent on paper. He liked music, loved to travel and had a high IQ and a degree in economics.

What she couldn't know then is that her son would have autism. So she started to wonder whether Donor X might carry a gene that could have contributed.

The cause or causes of autism are not known and are hotly debated. Most experts believe that genetics are a component, making a child predisposed to autism or responsive to an environmental trigger.

"It's a combination of being genetically vulnerable and then having some kind of social or toxicant exposure that tips you over," according to Dr. Gary Goldstein of the Kennedy Krieger Institute.

Researchers have found some genetic areas associated with autism, but it could take years before the gene or genes that cause autism or contribute to it will be determined.

Until then, Geri Dawson, chief science officer for the Manhattan-based advocacy group Autism Speaks, says there's no way to screen for those genes and prevent them from being passed to a child.

"We wouldn't be able to screen a donor for autism because we don't yet know the specific genes that are contributing to autism," Dawson said. "But there is a lot of research going on, and I would say in the next five to 10 years, we will have identified between five and 10 genes that we know raise the risk for autism."

Once the autism gene or genes have been identified, it would theoretically be possible to screen for those genes, according to Dawson.

Jackaway says she went into a period of mourning when Dylan's autism was diagnosed at age 2.

"When you're handed a diagnosis of some sort of developmental disorder, you have to let go of the child you thought you were going to have," Jackaway said. "There's a sense of loss of the child, a grieving process. There's denial, there's rage, and then there's the tremendous sadness, and hopefully you get to a place of accepting."

Jackaway says she had to accept that "I don't have that child I thought I was going to have. But I have this child instead, who's right here in front of me."

Through a Web site called Donor Sibling Registry, she reached out to other women who used Donor X. She found six families who had used the same donor.

Two years ago, she visited Theresa Pergola in the New York area; she had given birth to triplets using sperm from Donor X. Just minutes into their meeting, Jackaway noticed Pergola's son, Joseph, 2, exhibiting some of the same behavior as her son.

"He was walking on his toes; he was flapping his hands. There seemed to be eye contact issues," recalled Jackaway, who immediately suggested screening Joseph for autism.

"She told me that she saw characteristics of autism, and it was very upsetting to me at that time," Pergola said. "I didn't know what to expect from that point on. I know I was scared, and she was there to let me know that it was going to be OK."

Pergola says she was afraid because she had an image of autism in her head and believed her son would be "in the corner and rocking and not talking."

She says Jackaway reassured her that wouldn't be the case.

One month later, a test confirmed what Pergola already knew: Joseph was autistic. The diagnosis brought her to tears, and now these two women whose sons share a father were immediately connected by another bond: autism.

"She was terribly upset," Jackaway remembered. "That moment is a terribly frightening moment. You get handed a diagnosis, and you get handed an entirely new future."

In six families Jackaway contacted that had used Donor X, three of the children are autistic, and one is showing signs of autism.
But would Jackaway be happier today if there had been a way to screen Donor X for an autism gene?

"I've done a lot of thinking about this, and to say yes to that is to say that I wish Dylan isn't Dylan," Jackaway said. "I love my son and everything about him, and that means loving his autism also. Loving your children means loving everything about them. Our children don't have autism; they are autistic. It's part of who they are."

Pergola says she's still uncertain about an autism screening process, if and when it becomes available.

"It can go either way. On the one hand, it could be helpful so that people could make choices about what risks they want to take," Pergola said. "On the other hand, it's like, what else are they going to screen for, you know? Are they going to screen for certain personality traits? It's hard to say. It's really hard to say."

The families don't blame the sperm bank. Since the discovery of autism in the families that used Donor X, his samples have been removed and are no longer available for reproduction.

Laci Peterson's Creme Brulee French Toast

INGREDIENTS


1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons corn syrup
6 (1 inch thick) slices French bread , day old
5 eggs
1 1/2 cups half-and-half cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon brandy (optional)
1/4 teaspoon salt



DIRECTIONS
1. Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Mix in brown sugar and corn syrup, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Pour into a 9x13 inch baking dish.
2. Remove crusts from bread, and arrange in the baking dish in a single layer. In a small bowl, whisk together eggs, half and half, vanilla extract, brandy, and salt.
3. Pour over the bread. Cover, and chill at least 8 hours, or overnight.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
5. Remove the dish from the refrigerator, and bring to room temperature (to avoid breaking your dish).
6. Bake uncovered 35 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven, until puffed and lightly browned.