Eideard

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Actually, I like this moose from Finland

A baby born to a Muslim couple having an affair had to be adopted to save it from being murdered by its mother’s family in a so-called honour killing, senior judges have ruled.

The unmarried woman was said to have told the married father of her child that it had died to keep him away, and wore loose clothes and visited a hospital far from her home so relatives would not learn she was pregnant.

The father got hold of the baby girl’s birth certificate and tried to get legal rights to visiting her, even though he had by then had a newborn with his own wife. But a judge ruled that the love child should stay with its adoptive parents, and not meet its father, because of the danger that its mother’s family would kill it, and her, because of the shame of their secret relationship…

“As soon as [the baby] was born, she was relinquished for adoption because [the mother] genuinely feared for [the baby's] safety should [the grandfather] become aware of or be forced to acknowledge her existence.

“[The mother's] evidence, supported as it was by her actions and the evidence of [the father] and an experienced police officer, drove the judge to conclude that refusal of the order would carry with it a significant risk of physical harm. In our judgment this conclusion cannot be criticised.”

The judgement, in which all of the parties are kept anonymous for their safety, tells how the baby’s parents are both Muslims from foreign countries “but their cultures differ”…

The woman later told social services she wanted to have the baby adopted because she was “scared” that her father “would hurt her and the family would reject her”.

After the birth, her mother was quickly discharged from hospital and a year ago her daughter was placed with another Muslim couple…

In July a High Court Family Division judge, Mrs Justice Parker, ruled that the baby would be at “very significant risk” if it were placed with its natural father and his wife, while it might “provoke action to preserve the family’s honour” if the mother’s relatives found out about the child…

The judge concluded that the baby had had a “very unfortunate start in life” and that consideration of its lifelong welfare required its adoption.

Why – oh, why – must a soap opera court trial about adoption and parental rights have to include the likelihood of murder and infanticide. This is not about honour. This is about demented people stuck into a barbaric belief.

Possible in any number of backwards religious sects. None the less barbaric.

Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

The Environmental Protection Agency finalized new federal standards on toxic pollutants and mercury emissions from coal power plants Wednesday, a move being praised by environmentalists but criticized by others, who predict lost jobs and a strain on the nation’s power grid.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, at an event at the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, announced that for the first time U.S. coal and oil-fired power plant operators must limit their emissions of mercury and other hazardous air pollutants.

“I am glad to be here to mark the finalization of a clean air rule that has been 20 years in the making, and is now ready to start improving our health, protecting our children, and cleaning up our air,” Jackson said. “Under the Clean Air Act these standards will require American power plants to put in place proven and widely available pollution control technologies to cut harmful emissions of mercury, arsenic, chromium, nickel and acid gases. In and of itself, this is a great victory for public health, especially for the health of our children…”

All qualities which mean nothing to people who paper their souls with greenbacks and pimp for profits above all else on this tawdry planet.

“These standards rank among the three or four most significant environmental achievements in the EPA’s history,” said John Walke, clean air director of the National Resources Defense Council. “This rule making represents a generational achievement.”

The new regulations are among the most wide-reaching to come from the EPA during Barack Obama’s administration. They include separate limits for mercury emissions, acid gasses, and other pollutants from several metals…

According to an EPA analysis, the larger economic benefits of the reduced pollution will more than pay for the short-term clean-up costs. The EPA also predicts more jobs will be created than lost as power plants invest million of dollars in upgrades.

It also estimates health costs — as a result of less exposure to these toxins — will be reduced to between $59 billion and $140 billion by 2016, and the new regulations will prevent 17,000 premature deaths each year…

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a group traditionally sympathetic to Republicans, has aired ads urging listeners not to “let the EPA turn out the lights on the American economy…”

If memory serves me right, the US Chamber of Commerce didn’t spent a cent on whining about sub-prime derivatives and sleazy Wall Street practices that dumped the world’s economy into the crapper a few years back. Anyone sense something hypocritical about that?

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Advert for campaign to get clothing-optional voting

A west Florida community is spending $3,800 in tax dollars to entice naked Germans to spend their summer vacations there.

The advertising grant was awarded Tuesday by the Pasco County commission to Pandabare, a local nudist organization representing 16 resorts, campgrounds and clubs located in the largely rural county north of Tampa.

The ads, to be placed in European publications, will promote the county’s longstanding reputation as the nudist capital of America.

“The idea is to create a Euro-bird season in July and August which are our worst two months of the year,” said Eric Keaton, public communications manager for the Pasco County tourist development agency. Keaton said nudism contributes to the county’s economy, but he had no figures to quantify its impact.

The first target market for the ad campaign will be Germany which, according to Pandabare’s application, is “a large and lucrative market whose millions of nudists are among the world’s most prolific travelers.” The group also anticipates a campaign aimed at British nudists.

Keaton said the advertisements…will be very clean, and somewhat funny…”

I always fall apart over states well-known for bible-based reactionary politics…which haven’t any problem with one part of the state making money from freedom-based lifestyles they would generally arrest folks for in another part of the state.

A man has praised surgeons after his missing thumb was replaced with one of his toes.

Fisherman Donald Gunn lost his right thumb while at sea when his hand got caught in rope. Surgeons at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary used the second toe from the Caithness man’s left foot.

He said: “The difference it has made to me already is unbelievable. I am delighted with the result and cannot thank the team enough.”

Consultant plastic surgeon Amir Tadros had believed the toe transplant was a viable option. Mr Tadros said: “This is a very complex procedure but the difference it could make to Mr Gunn’s life convinced me it was worth trying.

“By using the second toe from his left foot we ensured that the patient’s balance wasn’t affected and the cosmetic appearance was almost the same as a normal foot…

He explained: “It’s a rare operation, it’s been around since the 60s, but is not very often done…

Mr Gunn added: “It’s hard to explain the impact of losing my thumb had on my life. “It might only be a small part of the body but it’s only when you lose it that you realise how important it is.

Folks don’t need to study evolution and the progress brought by the opposable thumb to realize the value of that little bit of structure. Bravo to the physicians and surgeon involved in aiding Donald Gunn.

Photo taken when Kruger was surrendering to the FBI
Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

State Senator Carl Kruger, who for months had insisted on his innocence, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to federal corruption charges, admitting that he conspired to accept nearly $500,000 in bribes, which prosecutors have said supported a lavish lifestyle.

Mr. Kruger, an influential Democrat and 16-year legislator, stood before Judge Jed S. Rakoff in United States District Court in Manhattan and pleaded guilty to four of the five counts in the indictment against him. He sobbed and mumbled unintelligibly as he admitted his crimes. The charges included two counts of fraud conspiracy, for which he could face up to 20 years in prison each, and two counts of bribery conspiracy, which carry a maximum term of five years each…

The broad corruption investigation, which also resulted in the arrests of Assemblyman William F. Boyland Jr., two hospital executives, a lobbyist and a developer, indicated that Mr. Kruger used the money to live beyond his means; a prime example of that, prosecutors said, was his mansion in Mill Basin, Brooklyn, where he lived with two gynecologist brothers and their mother…

And the schemes were lucrative, according to the charges. Mr. Kruger collected at least $1 million in bribes, the authorities initially said, in return for all manner of political favors, like helping hospitals seeking to merge, getting state money for real estate developers and even expanding the business hours of liquor stores. The bribes, according to prosecutors, financed a four-door Bentley Arnage and the Mill Basin home, which was originally built for a boss of the Luchese crime family…

Mr. Boyland, a Democrat, who was tried separately before Judge Rakoff last month, was acquitted of conspiring to take $175,000 in bribes in return for using his influence on behalf of a health care organization that operates hospitals in Queens and Brooklyn…

In September, another defendant, David P. Rosen, the former chief executive of the health care organization, MediSys, was convicted of conspiring to bribe Mr. Boyland — as well as Mr. Kruger and a third legislator, Anthony S. Seminerio, a Democratic assemblyman from Queens — in return for favorable treatment for MediSys.

Poisonally, I would throw away the key. This man crapped on the voters who elected him. He conspired to break the law to benefit medical corporations feeding off the healthcare of Brooklyn taxpayers.

My only regret is that the scumbags who lobbied the healthcare changes to drug regulations through Congress for George W. Bush – before officially going to work for the Pharmaceutical industry – aren’t going to be sharing a cell with Kruger.

Not my recording; but, familiar enough to be outside my window

Conservation charities and scientists are beginning a research project to find out whether birdsong has any impact on people’s mental wellbeing. Surrey University, in conjunction with the National Trust and Surrey Wildlife Trust, will look for effects on mood, creativity and behaviour.

Though many people say they enjoy birdsong and other natural sounds, there is a lack of academic evidence…

Although there has been a lot of research on responses to nature in vision – for example, showing that hospital patients respond to treatment better if they see images of landscapes rather than urban walls – relatively little has been done on sound.

“There have been a studies showing for example that natural sounds can help people recover physiologically from stress,” said Eleanor Ratcliffe, the psychologist from Surrey University in Guildford who will lead the project. “I’m interested in breaking that down, finding out what sorts of natural sounds and even what species people prefer listening to and find most interesting…”

“I’m really interested in how people rate and respond to different types of song, for examples comparing a crow with a wren,” Ms Ratcliffe told BBC News. “There’s also the issue of the symbolic associations people have with different bird sounds – for example, if they associate hearing a particular species with a nice holiday.”

Last year, the National Trust launched a scheme encouraging people to listen to birdsong for five minutes each day, as a way of combatting the “winter blues”…”It’s a simple pleasure that most of us can enjoy, even if we live in towns and cities.”

The new study will find out whether this mood enhancement is a reality for people who are not already bird or nature enthusiasts.

I’m not certain if I’d want to be around someone who can’t appreciate a part of natural life like birdsong.

Every species plays a part in the seasons and our enjoyment of life as natural beings.

Frankincense – a traditional staple of the Christmas story – faces an uncertain future, according to researchers. Ecologists have warned that the production of the fragrant resin could decline by half over the next 15 years.

The festive fragrance is produced by tapping the gum of trees in the Boswellia genus…

“There are several reasons why [the tree species Boswellia papyifera] it is under threat,” explained co-author Frans Bongers, an ecologist at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. “The forests that remain are declining because the old individuals are dying continuously, and there there no new individuals coming into the system. That means that the forests are running out of trees.”

“In places like Oman and Yemen, it is being cut down systematically. Now, in Ethiopia, it is being cut down as land is being turned over to agriculture…”

“Current management of Boswellia populations is clearly unsustainable,” Prof Bongers warned. “Our models show that within 50 years, populations of Boswellia will be decimated, and the declining populations mean frankincense production is doomed. This is a rather alarming message for the incense industry and conservation organisations…”

In order to ensure future rejuvination, he suggested that areas should be set aside for up to a decade so young Boswellia trees can become established.

Not especially different from scientists suggesting similar practices at sea to protect fishing stocks. Think farmers will be any brighter than factory fisherman?

Norway’s holiday butter shortage leads to criminal solutions

Two Swedes have been arrested by Norwegian police for smuggling more than 250kg of butter into the country, offloading one consignment for more than £25 a packet.

The two men, from the Northern city of Umea, managed to make their first delivery before a police patrol stopped their van on Saturday evening.

“They allegedly sold the coveted butter packets in Beitstad Steinkjer before they drove north along the county road 17,” police officer Lars Letnes told Norway’s Adresseavisen newspaper.

“Then they were stopped by a police patrol, which found 250kg of butter in the small van.” A sudden spike in demand has left Norway with a butter shortfall of between 500 and 1,000 tonnes, leaving the country’s citizens facing Christmas without their seven traditional varieties of home-cooked biscuit…

The arrests follow the seizure earlier this month of a 90kg consignment found stashed in the car of a Russian man at the Norwegian-Swedish border. The Norwegian police plan to destroy the confiscated butter.

They could always switchover to lard. That’s the traditional way to handle shortages of plaque in your circulatory system in New Mexico.

Steam Punk brain eater robot by CatherinetteRings

Last week, Louisiana’s Department of Health and Hospitals issued a warning to residents: Don’t use tap water to rinse your nasal passages.

The warning came after a 51-year-old woman in the state died after she was infected with the “brain-eating” amoeba Naegleria fowleri, which enters the body through the nose and sometimes causes devastating meningitis. Apparently, the amoeba lurked in tap water the woman used in her neti pot, a pitcher-like device used to rinse nasal passages.

“Tap water is safe for drinking, but not for irrigating your nose,” Louisiana’s state epidemiologist, Dr. Raoult Ratard, said in a statement. He urged those who want to rinse their sinuses to use distilled, sterile or previously boiled water, and to rinse their neti pot (or other irrigation device) after each use and allow it to air dry.

If you’re anything like me and have always used tap water to rinse your sinuses, the warning is a bit scary. Naegleria fowleri infection is very rare — only 32 people in the U.S. were affected between 2000 and 2010, the Louisiana warning noted — but it’s also very deadly, causing the destruction of brain tissue and usually death within a couple of weeks…

Naegleria “is generally harmless when ingested by mouth, so [the Louisianans] got it because it was pushed directly into the area behind the nose close to the brain,” Dr. Otto Yang said of the woman and a 20-year-old man who apparently died the same way in June. Yang said he believed that these to be the first reported cases of transmission through tap water.

Like the Louisiana health officials, Yang said it’s probably “best to use distilled or boiled water to play it safe,” when rinsing the sinuses…

Or live somewhere with cleaner water. When I lived in New Orleans we were assured safety because we were drinking Mississippi River water with enough chlorine in it to turn your bathtub green for a century.

Of course, that amount of chlorine may have been as dangerous as the critters it was killing.