Eideard

The burial site near Huddersfield
Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

A father who attacked his fiancée with a Taser gun before burying her alive in a cardboard box because he was “bored” with her was facing jail today after being found guilty of attempted murder.

Marcin Kasprzak attacked Michelina Lewandowska, 27, the mother of his young son, with the electric shock device at their home and then bound and gagged her with tape. He stuffed her into a cardboard box and later buried in a wood near Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, leaving her to suffocate.

The 25-year-old launched the attack because their relationship had ended and he feared she would take their three-year-old son Jakub back to their native Poland, the court heard.

Despite being trapped in a hole, beneath a pile of earth and the branch of a tree, Miss Lewandowska managed to escape by using her engagement ring to cut herself out of the box.

She was later found in a distressed state at the side of a road after flagging down a passing motorist.

Kasprzak denied attempted murder but was found guilty by a jury at Leeds Crown Court today after three days of deliberation…

Miss Lewandowska described how she feared she would die inside the box and still has nightmares about her ordeal. She said the thought of her young son gave her the strength to save herself…

Meanwhile, her former fiancé took her bank card and withdrew £500 before returning to his accomplice’s home, where they were arrested about nine hours later…

Jonathan Sharp, prosecuting, had told the jury that the case was about a young man who had become “bored” with his partner, and had “decided to get rid of her”.

Throw away the key!

Click photo to enlarge.

One of the delights of living in high desert country is the frequency of beautiful sunsets and sunrises. This was this morning.

Dangerous uppity woman, Tanya Rosenblit

When Tanya Rosenblit boarded an inter-city bus bound for Jerusalem from her native Ashdod Friday morning, she did not anticipate the storm it would spark within Israel. The public bus she boarded normally carries ultra-Orthodox passengers and travels to an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood in Jerusalem.

As a matter of custom women sit in the back portion of the bus, because the ultra-Orthodox avoid mingling of the sexes according to their beliefs. She was the first passenger that morning on the bus and took a seat behind the driver. As the bus took on more passengers along its route, an ultra-orthodox man demanded she should sit in the back of the bus as is the custom on that route.

“I heard him call me ‘Shikse,’” Rosenblit wrote on her Facebook page, referencing a Yiddish term for a non-Jewish woman. “He demanded I sit in the back of the bus, because Jewish men couldn’t sit behind women (!!!). I refused…”

An argument ensued and ultimately the bus driver called the police to intervene…The responding police officer tried to talk to everyone and calm things down. Rosenblit said he asked if she was willing to show respect for the objectors and move to the back of the bus. She refused and, after a 30-minute delay, the bus moved on to Jerusalem with her sitting up front…

A spokesman for Egged, the transportation company that runs the bus line, told CNN in a statement that it “does not deal with seating arrangements” on its buses and that “even if there are population groups that prefer to sit separately due to their beliefs, it is a voluntary choice and does not bind the other passengers.”

Rosenblit describes herself as secular and said she did not ride the bus looking for a confrontation…

“It is wrong to use religion as an excuse to eliminate people’s basic rights: the right for freedom and the right for dignity.”

I couldn’t agree more. One more great reason to separate civil law and the operation of a state or nation from religion.

A prickly new arrival made its first public appearance at Perth Zoo yesterday. The Echidna Puggle, the latest breeding success at the zoo, was given a quick weigh and inspection by keepers, before being placed back in its nursery burrow where it will spend the next two to three months. The youngster weighed in at 526 grams and will continue to grow over the next three to four years before reaching the normal adult weight of around 4 kg.

The Puggle, named Kai (Nyoongar for surprise), weighed less than one gram when it hatched in September and spent the first two months of its life in its mother’s pouch. “Once the puggle’s spines started to emerge the mother deposited it in the nursery burrow,” Perth Zoo’s Australian Fauna Supervisor Arthur Ferguson said…

…“Once Kai leaves the nursery burrow, we will take a couple of small hairs for DNA sexing,” Mr Ferguson said “The previous five echidnas born at Perth Zoo were all females, so we are hoping that Kai is a male.” Echidnas are very difficult to breed in captivity. Perth Zoo began studying their secretive breeding habits and reproductive biology a few years ago…

The work undertaken with Short-beaked Echidnas may also help in conserving its endangered cousins, the Long-beaked Echidnas, which are facing extinction in the wild. Perth Zoo’s research provides a solid foundation for a captive breeding program to be established for Long-beaked Echidnas if required.

Delightful. And cuter than some humans.

Thanks, Ursarodinia

 
Thanks, Ursarodinia

By 2100, global climate change will modify plant communities covering almost half of Earth’s land surface and will drive the conversion of nearly 40 percent of land-based ecosystems from one major ecological community type – such as forest, grassland or tundra – toward another, according to a new NASA and university computer modeling study.

Researchers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., investigated how Earth’s plant life is likely to react over the next three centuries as Earth’s climate changes in response to rising levels of human-produced greenhouse gases…

The model projections paint a portrait of increasing ecological change and stress in Earth’s biosphere, with many plant and animal species facing increasing competition for survival, as well as significant species turnover, as some species invade areas occupied by other species. Most of Earth’s land that is not covered by ice or desert is projected to undergo at least a 30 percent change in plant cover – changes that will require humans and animals to adapt and often relocate.

In addition to altering plant communities, the study predicts climate change will disrupt the ecological balance between interdependent and often endangered plant and animal species, reduce biodiversity and adversely affect Earth’s water, energy, carbon and other element cycles…

When faced with climate change, plant species often must “migrate” over multiple generations, as they can only survive, compete and reproduce within the range of climates to which they are evolutionarily and physiologically adapted. While Earth’s plants and animals have evolved to migrate in response to seasonal environmental changes and to even larger transitions, such as the end of the last ice age, they often are not equipped to keep up with the rapidity of modern climate changes that are currently taking place. Human activities, such as agriculture and urbanization, are increasingly destroying Earth’s natural habitats, and frequently block plants and animals from successfully migrating.

RTFA to learn more about how these scientists developed the software and models to produce this analysis. That it all is understandable is another topic. That doesn’t mean it makes sense to screw up the environment, of course.

Chevy Volt belonging to Lyle Stuart, founder of GM-Volt.com

My Chevrolet Volt was delivered on December 17th 2010, and as of today I have owned and operated the vehicle for a full year.

It is nearly five years in fact since I first founded this website in an effort to gain and sustain national attention on electric cars and this vehicle in particular, and to push GM to develop it…

To this day I still get a thrill when I jump in and power it up. I drive often with a smile on my face. I thoroughly love not using gas almost of of the time, and having the safety and freedom to kick in the gas generator when needed.

I have found the car of impeccably high quality and 100% reliable performance in all kinds of driving situations and environments. The car is worthy of all the awards it has received.

Thus far I have put on 8,635 miles and used a paltry 36.6 gallons of gas with a lifetime fuel efficiency of 237 miles per gallon…

My oil life still says 56% and I haven’t changed it. I rotated the tires at 7,500 miles and had a software upgrade performed…

Though perhaps not important, I am a bit surprised GM won’t meet its first year target of 10,000 cars. Considering all the attention and robust discussion I observed while running this site, and the calls by many for great volumes, I was sure demand would be higher. Eventually I still think it will. A lot of it is economic. In these tough financial times with gas prices stable, the $41,000 without tax break price tag remains out of reach for many. It is great though that the car is on the road so that in the future, through economies of scale the price will drop and more will be sold. As well, surely some are waiting for the first generation to work out its kinks and are watching on the sidelines eventually planning to buy a next generation model.

There were naysayers ever since the Volt concept was announced in January 2007, and many are still here today and will be ad infinitum. They may never be silenced, but the reality is GM has made the dream come true of a mass production electric car with range extender and it is an awesome thing indeed. I also think its fair to say the company ushered in a new era of accessible electric transportation as essentially every automaker has followed suit with electric cars of their own.

Lyle is right about the price. Certainly in my family. I’d love to have a Volt be our next car; but, the cost/benefit ratio just ain’t worth it – yet. We’d need an extra 10 years beyond the 10 year minimum we look at when purchasing a vehicle. Even though – we buy good enough designs and practice sufficient maintenance – we have gone well beyond that 10 year number with our existing passenger car and pickup truck. The Volvo has almost 30 years and 280,000 miles on it. The Dodge pickup is a 1994 and has gone over 220,000 miles.

Right now, the leading contenders to replace the Volvo are the Prius Aqua – landing next year, the VW Golf diesel and the electric Mitsubishi i-Miev. After federal tax credits – we get squat from the state of New Mexico – they would cost $9-14K less than the Volt.

Sock it to ‘em, Howard!

Virgin TV have apologised after new profanity checking software starred out perfectly innocent TV and film titles for containing ‘inappropriate language’.

The new system, which automatically checks the Virgin TV programme guide, went into over-drive over the weekend with programmes such as the BBC Four show: The History of Canals showed up as ‘The History of Ca**ls’.

The censorship also spread to the Will Smith film ‘Hancock’ – which became ‘Hanc**k, the popular BBC Two show, ‘Never Mind the Buzzcocks’ – which showed up as ‘Never Mind the Buzzc**ks’ and even the middle of the name of London football club, ‘Arsenal’, was blocked out in a bid to remove inappropriate language from the TV menu.

Even in the description of a BBC Victoria comedy adventure, The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff, which is in the style of Charles Dickens, the famous author’s name was censored, appearing as ‘Charles D***ens’ on the menu…

The piece of software is understood to have now been fixed, allowing Virgin Media’s 3.8 million television customers to see the titles of all TV shows in full…

A Virgin Media statement said: “Over the weekend a temporarily over-zealous profanity checker took offence at certain programme titles.

“The altered titles have been swiftly an*lysed and we’re fixing any remaining glitches.”

Har!

Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and President Barack Obama
Daylife/Getty Images used by permission

Iraq is today a shattered society, shaped by two major international wars, bombings, debilitating sanctions, civil war, emigration of millions of its best-educated people, deadly insurgency and counterinsurgency and foreign occupation over 20 years.

While Iraq never achieved full unity after it was cobbled together by the British in 1920 from three large and mutually alien communities — the Sunni Muslim Kurds in the northern highlands, the Sunni Muslim Arabs in the central plains and the partly Farsi-speaking Shia Muslim Arabs in the southern lowlands — Iraq had made great social and economic progress. By 1990, it was the most advanced of the Arab countries. Now that is all gone.

Yet, even today, there is a memory of collective statehood, or Iraqiyah. Some of us who have lived among the Iraqis believe they have a chance to invigorate a new beginning of Iraqiyah but that the return to something like the state that existed before will take years.

How is the American withdrawal regarded? My hunch, from having known Iraq and Iraqis of all persuasions for more than half a century, is that most will be happy to see us leave. But, at the same time, they have learned to fear one another, so their politically effective attitudes will vary from one community to the next.

Read the rest of this entry »

Medicines experts are calling for a review of the 50-year-old guidelines on prescribing antibiotics to children, warning that the rise in overweight and obese youngsters may mean that some get a less than adequate dose. While they stress that there is no evidence that children are suffering as a result of under-treatment, they say there should be better guidance than the rule of thumb that has applied for half a century.

Since the 1960s, doctors have worked on the principle that a big child is equal to half an adult, a small child is equal to half a big child and a baby is equal to half a small child, say a group of doctors and scientists in the British Medical Journal.

The problem lies with the prescription of oral penicillin, such as amoxicillin which is widely used against bacterial infections in children. They make up 4.5m of the total 6m annual antibiotic prescriptions for children…

If children get less than the dose they need, there is a possibility that their infection will not clear up easily. It also raises the risk of antibiotic resistance developing. If the bug is not successfully eliminated by the antibiotic, it may mutate into a new form that is resistant to the drug – and be passed on to other children.

Dr Paul Long, senior lecturer in pharmacognosy at King’s College London, who is one of the authors, said: ‘We were surprised at the lack of evidence to support the current oral penicillins dosing recommendations for children, as it is such a commonly used drug. Children’s average size and weight are slowly but significantly changing, so what may have been adequate doses of penicillin 50 years ago are potentially not enough today.

“It is important to point out that this study does not provide any clinical evidence that children are receiving sub-optimal penicillin doses that lead to harm, and we want to reassure parents of that. But what we are saying is that we should ensure that children with severe infections who need these antibiotics the most are still receiving an effective dose …

I’ve had this discussion with local physicians over the last couple of years. Mostly, it evokes mild – and short-lived – curiosity.

As practicing GP’s they haven’t the time for detailed and scientific studies. They’ll wait for the evidence and recommendations from peer-reviewed journals, medical associations. Still, it sounds as if it’s time for some serious research on the topic. Since we’re stuck into growing obesity as thoroughly as declining education.