‘A Georgia judge ordered the release Monday of a man sentenced to 10 years in prison for consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girl when he was 17, a sentence that had been widely criticized as grossly disproportionate to the crime.
Several influential people, including former President Jimmy Carter, publicly supported Genarlow Wilson’s appeals, and state lawmakers voted to close the loophole that led to his 10-year term. [..]
Monday’s ruling doesn’t ensure Wilson’s freedom, though.
Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker said Monday afternoon that he had filed notice of appeal, arguing that Georgia law does not give a judge authority to reduce or modify the sentence imposed by the trial court. He said he would seek an expedited ruling from the Georgia Supreme Court.’
Followup to Unfair: 10 years for consensual oral sex.
‘The way Hollywood tells the story, if you step through a laser beam then you should expect and alarm to go off and everybody laughs or something. But the way the defense company Ionatron tells the story, if you step through a laser beam things are a lot worse than some bells ringing in your ears.
That’s because this laser is really a laser-induced plasma channel (LIPC) that can conduct electricity. You break the stream and—ZAP—you wake up behind bars to the smell of burnt hair and another man’s aftershave. And that’s what we are calling a best case scenario.
For those interested in purchasing units for home use, remember that all the really cool technology is controlled by the US government…and to stay clear of their buildings after 5pm.’
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‘Two Thai street mutts who became ace sniffer dogs at an airport near the notorious “Golden Triangle” opium-producing region have been fired for urinating on luggage and sexually harassing female passengers. [..]
“He liked to pee on luggage while searching for drugs inside,” Mok’s former handler, Police Lieutenant Colonel Jakapop Kamhon, said. “He also liked to hold on to women’s legs.”
“Both were just as good as foreign dogs trained for use in drug missions.
“But they were stray dogs, so their manners were worse than those of foreign breeds,” he said.’
‘Contrary to the conventional wisdom, scientists have found that logging big dead trees after a wildfire and planting young ones makes future fires worse, at least for the first 10 or 20 years while the young trees create a volatile new source of fuel.
The findings by scientists from the U.S. Forest Service and Oregon State University raise questions about the long-standing practice of salvage logging on national forests at a time when global warming is expected to increase the size and numbers of wildfires and the annual cost of fighting them is running around $1 billion. [..]
They suggested that the large stands of closely packed young trees created by replanting are a much more volatile source of fuel for decades to come than the large dead trees that are cut down and hauled away in salvage logging operations.’
‘The Port Arthur killer should be allowed to die following several attempts to kill himself in his prison cell, euthanasia advocate Dr Philip Nitschke says.
Martin Bryant, Australia’s worst mass murderer, is serving 35 life sentences for the 1996 killings of 35 people at Tasmania’s historic Port Arthur penal settlement, in the world’s worst mass murder by a lone gunman.
Bryant has made at least five suicide attempts in Tasmania’s Risdon Prison and has been treated at hospital twice this year after slashing himself with disposable razor blades. [..]
“The sole goal of his (Bryant’s) imprisonment is punishment and punishment without hope of release is tantamount to torture,” Dr Nitschke said.
“As a society we should admit we are sanctioning torture here and in those circumstances we should allow him to die or provide him with the means to obtain a peaceful death.”
He said that giving Bryant an opportunity to end his life would quickly determine if he wants to kill himself.’
‘The CIA has dismissed a Council of Europe report alleging that it ran secret jails for terror suspects in Europe after the 11 September attacks.
A CIA spokesman said the report was biased and distorted, and that the agency had operated lawfully.
Swiss Senator Dick Marty, who wrote the report, said secret CIA prisons “did exist in Europe from 2003 to 2005, in particular in Poland and Romania”.
The charge was denied by both Polish and Romanian officials.’
Followup to Secret CIA jails hosted by Poland, Romania.
‘After checking in at the Mukti Bhawan hostel, guests have two weeks to die or else they are gently asked to leave.
The hostel — a short walk from the Ganges river in the northern Indian city of Varanasi — is a final stopover for elderly Hindus hoping they will shortly end up on one of the hundreds of funeral pyres lit on the riverbank each day.
“While the rest of the world celebrates a new life when a child is born, similarly we celebrate death,” said Bhairav Nath Shukla, the cheerful manager of Mukti Bhawan, one of several places offering shelter to outsiders wanting to die in the city.
Hindus believe that dying in Varanasi and having their remains scattered in the Ganges allows their soul to escape a cycle of death and rebirth, attaining “moksha” or salvation.’
‘An Army Corps of Engineers report found mechanical and contracting problems with drainage pumps installed by the corps before the start of the 2006 hurricane season, prompting a Louisiana senator to call for a Justice Department investigation.
Although the pumps have been extensively overhauled, critical flaws remain a year later, according to the report, which was released Friday.
The review by three corps engineers from outside the New Orleand district office backed up findings of a May 2006 memo by a corps mechanical engineer working on the $32 million pump project. The memo warned the pumps were faulty and would not work during a hurricane.’
These people seem to have rigged up some sorta robot to steer their motorcycle by remote control.
(10.1meg Windows media)
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‘Scientists working to build a life form from scratch have applied to patent the broad method they plan to use to create their “synthetic organism”.
Dr Craig Venter, the man who led the private sector effort to sequence the human genome, has been working for years to create a man-made organism.
But constructing a primitive microbe from a kit of genes is a daunting task.
Dr Venter says, eventually, these life forms could be designed to make biofuels and absorb greenhouse gases.
The publication of the patent application has angered some environmentalists.’
‘Thirty-one dirty and disorientated workers have been rescued from a brickwork factory in China, where they were being held as virtual slaves.
Eight workers were so traumatised by their experiences that they were only able to remember their names.
The labourers had to work unpaid for 20 hours at a time, and were only given bread and water in return.
The brickworks, in the poor inland province of Shanxi, is owned by the son of the local Communist Party secretary.’
‘Paris Hilton has not eaten or slept since arriving at the medical ward of a Los Angeles jail and is being given psychotropic drugs, celebrity Web site TMZ.com reported on Saturday, citing law enforcement sources.
Nevertheless, the socialite and hotel heiress said late on Saturday afternoon that she had told her attorneys not to appeal the order that sent her back to jail on Friday after a day of house arrest.
“Being in jail is by far the hardest thing I have ever done,” Hilton, 26, said in a written statement issued by her attorney, Richard Hutton. “During the past several days, I have had a lot of time to think and I believe that I am learning and growing from this experience.”‘
‘MyFreeImplants.com is an online community. Through this website and our street team, we bring together two groups of people:
* Women that have a strong desire to enhance their physical appearance through cosmetic surgery
* Benefactors who wish to help these women improve their self esteem and confidence through cosmetic surgery’
People are idiots. Funny idiots.
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‘A mother is upset after a 14-year-old babysitter engaged in sexual conduct with her eight-year-old boy, and the eight-year-old was charged with lewd conduct.
Prosecutors have since dropped the charges against the boy, but his mother is still concerned.
The sexual conduct occurred during a game of “truth or dare” while the boy was being watched by the babysitter.
Prosecutors say that, while the babysitter initiated the contact, the young boy was a willing participant.
“She dared my son to touch her breasts,” says Michelle Grosbeck, the boy’s mother.’
‘A medical examiner blamed a 17-year-old track star’s death on the use of too much anti-inflammatory muscle cream, the kind used to soothe aching legs after exercise.
Arielle Newman, a cross-country runner at Notre Dame Academy on Staten Island, died after her body absorbed high levels of methyl salicylate, an anti-inflammatory found in sports creams such as Bengay and Icy Hot, the New York City medical examiner said Friday.
The medical examiner’s spokeswoman, Ellen Borakove, said the teen used “topical medication to excess.” She said it was the first time that her office had reported a death from using a sports cream.’
‘One robber’s list of things to steal included whiskey, a thermometer and lettuce.
Police were called to a grocery store late Thursday after witnesses said a 46-year-old man from Brown Deer threatened employees. The workers said the man gestured as though he had a concealed gun and told them he would shoot.
The man left with 12 bottles of whiskey, two heads of lettuce and a digital thermometer, police said.
Officers found a vehicle in a nearby neighborhood that matched a description given by store employees. The man was taken into custody and identified from store surveillance video.’
‘The US military is developing a robot with a teddy bear-style head to help carry injured soldiers away from the battlefield.
The Battlefield Extraction Assist Robot (BEAR) can scoop up even the heaviest of casualties and transport them over long distances over rough terrain.
New Scientist magazine reports that the “friendly appearance” of the robot is designed to put the wounded at ease. [..]
While the existing prototype slides its arms under its burden like a forklift, future versions will be fitted with manoeuvrable hands to gently scoop up casualties.
The Bear is controlled remotely and has cameras and microphones through which an operator sees and hears.’
This walrus has grown very attached to her trainer, and gets jealous when real women get too close to him.
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‘The green blood came as a bit of a shock to Dr. Alana Flexman and her colleagues when they tried to put an arterial line into a patient about to undergo surgery in Vancouver’s St. Paul’s Hospital. [..]
As surgical staff prepared the man for the middle-of-the-night emergency operation, Flexman and a colleague attempted to insert a line into a wrist artery.
Arterial lines are used to monitor blood pressure during an operation; any blood that flows when the line is inserted into the artery should be vivid red, the sign it has been oxygenated in the heart.
But in this case, which occurred in October 2005, it was not.’
‘A man who waved a chain saw over his head, threatened motorists and did some impromptu pruning of local shrubbery was arrested at gunpoint.
Lionel Dube Jr., 47, of Argyle, was charged with disorderly conduct, criminal threatening and violation of bail conditions after police responded to reports that he was waving the chain saw at passing motorists late Tuesday.
“You know how in the ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ the guy raised his chain saw up and revved it? That’s what he was doing,” Deputy Sheriff Michael Knights said. “Alcohol was involved.”‘
‘A court decision reached last month but under seal until Friday could force Web sites to track visitors if the sites become defendants in a lawsuit.
TorrentSpy, a popular BitTorrent search engine, was ordered on May 29 by a federal judge in the Central District of California in Los Angeles to create logs detailing users’ activities on the site. The judge, Jacqueline Chooljian, however, granted a stay of the order on Friday to allow TorrentSpy to file an appeal.
The appeal must be filed by June 12, according to Ira Rothken, TorrentSpy’s attorney.
TorrentSpy has promised in its privacy policy never to track visitors without their consent.’
‘A seventy year old lady gets pulled over by a cop and while he attempts to radio in to dispatch she reaches her hand in his pocket. He explains that she should not do that with a swift knee to the forehead.’
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Careful preparation has served me well. I’ve overcome many obstacles to get where I am. A new relationship is just around the corner.
‘A study in which teetotal Spanish nuns drank a regular half-liter of beer showed that beer may help reduce cholesterol levels, a group financed by the Spanish Beer Makers’ Association said on Thursday.
The study also showed that the beer did not need to contain alcohol or to be drunk in large quantities to be good for you.
The “magic” ingredient is hops.
“Hops, one of the basic components of beer, may provide benefits … in reducing levels of total cholesterol and triglycerides,” the Centre for Information on Beer and Health said in a statement.
The experiment did not appear to have won many new beer fans among the teetotal Cistercian nuns who took part, chosen on the basis of their steady lifestyle and balanced diet.’
‘An Ohio charter school that emphasizes African history and culture served gin to sixth graders at a graduation ceremony and state education officials said they plan to investigate.
Four students were given a teaspoon of gin mixed with water in a ceremony modeled on a Ghanian rite of passage event, said Kwa David Whitaker, a Phoenix Village Academy official.
The ritual was intended to teach truthfulness, said Whitaker, who oversaw the Tuesday ceremony.
The students were blindfolded, giving them the uncertain feeling that goes with moving from one stage of life to another, he said. Each student was given a teaspoon of water and a teaspoon of the gin-water mix, and then asked to identify which contained water.
The students recognized that the gin wasn’t water and spit it out before swallowing, Whitaker said. The point is to teach the children to be honest, he said.’
‘National spelling bee champion Evan Odorney took time off from his busy schedule of hooking up with girls to appear on CNN. And he proves that he is also a champion of social skills.’
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‘A clean-cut vision of a future freed from the rat’s nest of cables needed to power today’s electronic gadgets has come one step closer to reality.
US researchers have successfully tested an experimental system to deliver power to devices without the need for wires.
The setup, reported in the journal Science, made a 60W light bulb glow from a distance of 2m (7ft).
WiTricity, as it is called, exploits simple physics and could be adapted to charge other devices such as laptops. [..]
Measurements showed that the setup could transfer energy with 40% efficiency across the gap.’
‘They say they have built a prototype high-speed quantum key distribution (QKD) system that can perform a theoretically unbreakable “one-time pad” encryption, transmission and decryption of a video signal in real-time over a distance of at least 10 kilometers. [..]
One important requirement for any candidate system is that it be compatible with existing fiber-optic telecom networks that transmit at wavelengths of either 1550 or 1310 nanometers (nm) to reach the greatest distance. Another requirement is a highly efficient photon detector that can detect single photons reliably without introducing significant amounts of “noise.” One of the best low-noise detectors, a silicon-based avalanche photo diode (Si-APD), does not function at the telecom wavelengths. Instead, it operates best at much shorter wavelengths around 700 nm. To take advantage of the Si-APD, the NIST group designed a sub-system to “up-convert” single photons from a transmission wavelength of 1310 nm to 710 nm for high-efficiency detection.’
‘A major advance in understanding the genetics behind several of the world’s most common diseases has been reported.
The landmark Wellcome Trust study analysed DNA from the blood of 17,000 people to find genetic differences.
They found new genetic variants for depression, Crohn’s disease, coronary heart disease, hypertension, rheumatoid arthritis and type 1 and 2 diabetes.
The remarkable findings, published in Nature, have been hailed as a new chapter in medical science.
It is hoped they will pave the way for research into new treatments and genetic tests.’
