__________ Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it, And spills the upper boulders in the sun, And makes gaps even two can pass abreast. The work of hunters is another thing: I have come after them and made repair Where they have left not one stone on a [...]
Archive for February, 2009
Mending Wall
Posted in Poetry on February 24, 2009 | Comments Off
Germans Sexually Unpermissive during Carnival
Posted in Popular culture on February 24, 2009 | Comments Off
A woman eyeing her next victim on Old Wives’ Day. __________ Carnival has a reputation for being little more than a giant, costume-adorned and beer-fuelled flirt fest. But most Germans, as it turns out, look down on carnival season cheating. Those over 60, though, are twice as likely to look the other way. Throw a [...]
Their sorrows, his cause
Posted in History, Politics, tagged 7, Edward Kennedy on February 24, 2009 | Comments Off
7 It is one thing about Ted Kennedy no one doubts: His gift for consolation, for somehow always being there Three-year-old John F. Kennedy Jr. salutes his father’s casket in Washington on Nov. 25, 1963, three days after the president was assassinated in Dallas. Jacqueline Kennedy and daughter Caroline Kennedy are accompanied by Edward [...]
He couldn’t be saved
Posted in Living on February 23, 2009 | Comments Off
Left to right, parents Susan and Jeff Jones and sister Amanda with Mike Jones. __________ Everybody’s best guess is that Mike Jones went into the river on the Friday before Thanksgiving, because that was the last time anybody saw him. He didn’t show up for dinner with his parents at the Bugaboo Creek in Watertown [...]
Time for a muzzle
Posted in Computers, Law, tagged Internet on February 23, 2009 | Comments Off
The online world of lies and rumor grows ever more vicious. Is it time to rethink free speech? HERE ARE TWO stories about the Internet. The week before last, the crippled economy coughed up a gift for picked-on college students across the country: It shut down Juicy Campus, a notorious website where campus gossips nationwide [...]
Monumental egos
Posted in History, Politics on February 23, 2009 | Comments Off
A radical plan for Obama’s presidential library: Let’s cancel it ALTHOUGH BARACK OBAMA has been president for little more than a month, that doesn’t mean it’s too early to start talking about his presidential library. After all, once election to the presidency puts someone in the White House his thoughts inevitably turn to another location. [...]
The window owned by Aubrey Mayhew. A decades-long dispute over who owns the authentic “sniper’s perch” — the window where Lee Harvey Oswald propped his rifle to take his fatal shots at President John F. Kennedy — lands Monday in a Dallas court. The dispute centers on the origins of windows removed at separate times [...]
How heart deals with anger may predict arrhythmia
Posted in Health on February 23, 2009 | Comments Off
Researchers tie irate feelings to cardiac arrest How the heart handles anger seems to predict who is at risk for a life-threatening irregular heartbeat. Negative emotions like hostility and depression have long been considered risks for developing heart disease, and deaths from cardiac arrest rise after disasters such as earthquakes. But research released Monday goes [...]
Federal Judge Pleads Guilty to Obstruction
Posted in Law, tagged Houston, Samuel Kent on February 23, 2009 | Comments Off
a U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent had pleaded not guilty to all charges. Judge Kent, 59 years old, appointed in 1990 during President George H.W. Bush’s administration, was indicted in federal court in Houston for allegedly sexually abusing two court employees and for failing to fully disclose the extent of the alleged abuse to a [...]
Dying TV star Jade Goody’s marriage grips Britain
Posted in Arts and Entertainment on February 23, 2009 | Comments Off
Cancer-stricken reality TV star Jade Goody and her fiance Jack Tweed, right, share a kiss on the drive way of her home in Upshire, southern England Saturday Feb. 21, 2009. The couple are scheduled to marry Sunday in a lavish ceremony at a country house hotel just eight miles from her home. The ceremony will [...]
The Cat that Walked by Himself
Posted in Poetry on February 23, 2009 | Comments Off
Pussy can sit by the fire and sing, Pussy can climb a tree, Or play with a silly old cork and string To’muse herself, not me. But I like Binkie my dog, because He knows how to behave; So, Binkie’s the same as the First Friend was, And I am the Man in the Cave. [...]
Jury out in inflatable sculpture death trial
Posted in Law on February 23, 2009 | Comments Off
Maurice Agis: the artist whose giant inflatable sculpture Dreamspace tipped up killing two people saw another of his creations cause injury to visitors 20 years earlier. _________ The jury was sent out today in the manslaughter trial of an artist whose inflatable sculpture blew away, killing two women inside. Maurice Agis, 77, denies killing Claire [...]
Footage of US troops training for D-day uncovered
Posted in Conflicts and wars, History, tagged World War II on February 23, 2009 | Comments Off
The 10-minute reels feature the wartime leaders Winston Churchill and Dwight Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe and future American president. The clips show Churchill and Eisenhower visiting the 101st Airborne which was stationed in North Devon. There is also film footage of Russians at Putsborough beach. The Russians can be [...]
What’s Wrong With Summer Stiers?
Posted in Health, Living on February 23, 2009 | Comments Off
Her breasts are beautiful. This is a surprise. Seeing them looking so healthy and normal reminds you how young this patient is and what her life might be like if her body hadn’t started to disintegrate in her childhood. If all you could see were her breasts, you would think she were perfectly fine. [...]
Exploring a ‘Deep Web’ That Google Can’t Grasp
Posted in Computers on February 23, 2009 | Comments Off
At the University of Utah, Prof. Juliana Freire is working on DeepPeep, an ambitious effort to index every public database online. __________ One day last summer, Google’s search engine trundled quietly past a milestone. It added the one trillionth address to the list of Web pages it knows about. But as impossibly big as that [...]
Justice for American Indians
Posted in Editorials and opinion, Law, tagged American Indians on February 23, 2009 | Comments Off
The federal government has a long history of cheating American Indians, and not all of this dirty dealing is in the distant past. On Monday, the Supreme Court hears arguments in a suit by the Navajo, who lost millions of dollars’ worth of coal royalties because the government helped a coal company underpay for their [...]
Hit ‘send,’ then hit the door
Posted in Living on February 23, 2009 | Comments Off
‘SO LONG, SUCKERS!’ Jason Shugars, who left Google for the website Imeem, said, “I didn’t want to send out a stale ‘good working with you, please reach me here’ e-mail.” It was not the most eloquent subject line for a farewell e-mail to 5,000 co-workers: “So long, suckers! I’m out!” But Jason Shugars worked [...]
Bubbles of warming, beneath the ice
Posted in Energy and Environment on February 23, 2009 | Comments Off
Ground-truthing Methane Ice Bubbles On Lake Claudi in Bering Land Bridge National Preserve on the Seward Peninsula in Alaska in November 2008. Researchers cleared a large section of recently frozen lake where they suspected finding high concentrations of methane ebulition indicated by bubbles in the ice. They DGPSed all bubbling hotspots here and then [...]
What Sweden means by Davis Cup shutout
Posted in Politics, tagged Israel, Sweden on February 23, 2009 | Comments Off
Baltiska Hallen, Malmö Every so often, there’s a controversial matter out there that can end in a way that exalts saying what you mean and doing what you say. Such conclusions are rare. If the issue involves avoiding a conflict with a new kind of political correctness, who’s to worry much these days if the authorities [...]
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Posted in Poetry on February 23, 2009 | Comments Off
An ancient Mariner meeteth three Gallants bidden to a wedding-feast, and detaineth one. It is an ancient Mariner, And he stoppeth one of three. `By thy long beard and glittering eye, Now wherefore stopp’st thou me ? The Bridegroom’s doors are opened wide, And I am next of kin ; The guests are met, the [...]
Mystery endures in Brazilian town of twins
Posted in Other, tagged Brazil on February 23, 2009 | Comments Off
Tânia Moelmann holding Kiara, left, and Yasmin. High atop a hill behind his family’s home, Derli Grimm knelt and took a sip from a thin black tube leading from a natural spring. Like so many in this farming town, populated almost entirely by German-speaking immigrants, Grimm, 19, believes that something in the water – a [...]
In turnabout, children take caregiver role
Posted in Living on February 23, 2009 | Comments Off
Michael Anderson II, 12, giving his mother, Iris Santiago, a B12 injection. “I don’t really talk to people about it,” Michael said of his caregiver responsibilities. Partly paralyzed, with diabetes and colitis, Linda Lent needs extensive care at home. But with her husband working long hours at a bowling alley, Lent, 47, relies on a [...]
Barack Obama to set out high-risk financial agenda for the US
Posted in Economy and business, Politics on February 23, 2009 | Comments Off
In an important prime-time speech to Congress tomorrow, Mr Obama will outline his intention to press ahead with extensive and costly policies on education, healthcare and climate change. President Obama will this week make an enormously ambitious and high-risk promise to the American people that he can not only spend the US out of recession [...]
Animated witnesses
Posted in Law, Weird cases on February 23, 2009 | Comments Off
A judge in Germany is forced to halt proceedings to avoid fits of giggles A feud between two neighbours in Düsseldorf, Germany became so daft that the judge had to vacate the bench in order to avoid breaking down in fits of giggles. Judge Brigitte Koppenhoefer normally presides over commercial cases worth millions of euros [...]
Cardinals turn on Pope Invisible
Posted in Politics, Religion on February 23, 2009 | Comments Off
In the hushed Apostolic Palace off St Peter’s Square, Pope Benedict XVI starts the day with a 7am mass in his private chapel, followed by a lone breakfast. No press summary is brought to him. He meets a few visitors in the morning and then, after a lunch served on gold-rimmed plates bearing his seal, [...]
Portrait of Leonardo da Vinci discovered in Basilicata
Posted in Arts, History, tagged Leonardo, Leonardo da Vinci on February 23, 2009 | Comments Off
Initial examination of the painting showed it was a Renaissance era original and not a later copy. What may be a hitherto unknown portrait of Leonardo da Vinci in middle age shows that the Renaissance genius had piercing blue eyes, a long nose and long greying hair with a droopy moustache. The damaged oil-on-panel portrait [...]
Decision time
Posted in Uncategorized on February 23, 2009 | Comments Off
Even professional investors can struggle to make decisions Standing at a personal or professional crossroads, do you try to think rationally or go by gut feeling. It might be time to start thinking about the way you think, writes Jonah Lehrer. ___________ Ever since Plato, humans have thought of ourselves as rational creatures. When [...]
Child abuse ‘alters stress gene’
Posted in Health on February 23, 2009 | Comments Off
Child abuse has long-lasting effects Abuse in early childhood permanently alters how the brain reacts to stress, a Canadian study suggests. Analysis of brain tissue from adults who had committed suicide found key genetic changes in those who had suffered abuse as a child. It affects the production of a receptor known to be [...]
Lifeline for endangered albatross
Posted in Energy and Environment on February 23, 2009 | Comments Off
The outlook for endangered seabirds looks better thanks to a scheme that reduces the numbers accidentally killed by the fishing industry. Three-quarters of albatross species are at risk of extinction, largely due to the way long lines are deployed to catch fish such as tuna. The birds are attracted to the baited lines and can [...]
Hope Is a Strange Invention
Posted in Poetry on February 22, 2009 | Comments Off
Hope is a strange invention – A Patent of the Heart – In unremitting action Yet never wearing out – Of this electric Adjunct Not anything is known But its unique momentum Embellish all we own – _________________ Emily Dickinson
