Eideard

Dunno what you two want; but, I’m waiting for lunch

Warmer temperatures and lack of snow in parts of North America are setting the stage for what could be a most intriguing 15th annual Great Backyard Bird Count coming up Feb. 17-20.

Bird watchers across the United States and Canada are getting ready to tally millions of birds in the annual count coordinated by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Audubon and Canadian partner Bird Studies Canada.

In past counts, participants were most likely to report American robins in areas without snow. Will more robins be seen farther north this year? Will some birds, such as Eastern Phoebes, begin their migrations earlier? And where will the “Harry Potter” owl turn up next? Snowy owls have dazzled spectators as these Arctic birds have ventured south in unusual numbers this winter — an unpredictable occurrence that experts believe is related more to the availability of food than to weather…

Participants count birds at any location they wish for at least 15 minutes on one or more days of the count, then enter their tallies at birdcount.org. Anyone can participate in the free event, and no registration is required.

Last year, participants submitted more than 92,000 checklists with more than 11 million bird observations. These data capture a picture of how bird populations are changing across the continent year after year — a feat that would be impossible without the help of tens of thousands of participants.

“This is a very detailed snapshot of continental bird distribution,” said John Fitzpatrick, director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. “Imagine scientists 250 years from now being able to compare these data with their own..?

Visit birdcount.org to learn more about how to join the count, get bird ID tips, downloadable instructions and more. The count also includes a photo contest and a prize drawing for participants who enter at least one bird checklist online.

It’s fun to log back in a few days after all the info is online to compare changes, see what other folks in your region have posted. We now have redwing blackbirds wintering over, experienced the din of returning robins earlier than ever this week, saw Canadian geese heading north last week.

His favorite Xmas Card photo

He rubbed elbows with some of the country’s highest politicians, and promised to help out America’s heroes. But, officials said he stole from veterans to the tune of nearly $100 million .

He went on the run and there is good information that he’s hiding here in New Mexico.

“He’s definitely a business man,” Deputy Ben Segotta said. A business man whose Christmas card included a picture with President George W. Bush. But the man who’s been going by the name Bobby Thompson is also a fake…

Thompson started a phony organization called the U.S. Navy Veterans Association. It raised about a $100 million which he promised would be used to help veterans. But, investigators claim he contributed some of it to high profile republican politicians, and pocketed the rest.

U.S. Marshals said he has lived in Albuquerque and knows the area. Recently new information pointed to him hiding out here.

“He is known for his ability to blend in or change his appearance or something. So he may not really be low profile he may just be using an alias.”

Segotta said they want him in handcuffs badly, “He solicited hundred of millions of dollars from people in order to help veterans and betrayed that trust between people and our military.”

Thompson is a fake name and officials don’t really know who this guy is…He’s 5 feet 8 inches about 160 pounds and said to be a heavy and often violent drinker.

If you suspect you know where this thug is – call your local coppers. Don’t be silly enough to try to take him down on your own.

Looking for a last-minute baby sitter? Want to let your neighbors know about a break-in? Wondering whether anyone else received an unexpectedly high water bill?

A number of people are logging on to private neighborhood websites to ask questions like these, get advice and share information through an electronic version of the backyard fence.

A company called Nextdoor, which offers a free online platform that enables people to create social networks for their own neighborhoods has launched.

Today, more than 800 neighborhoods in 43 states plus the District of Columbia have set up local websites where they can communicate one-on-one, as well as with the people nearby. There are five Nextdoor websites here in New Mexico, including three for Santa Fe neighborhoods: Los Milagros, Sol y Lomas and Talaya Hill.

Each website includes a neighborhood map, member postings, a directory of residents (including brief profiles), links to resources and reports of interest, and photographs of community events…

Access to each Nextdoor website is password-protected, and only verified residents can become members, log on and post messages. No one else has access to the content, so that people can safely share information on neighborhood topics…

Neighbors log on to the site, using their own user ID and password, to read postings, but they can also elect to receive posts instantly via email…

There are currently no advertisements on the websites, but the revenue model calls for eventually working with local businesses to provide special offers to website members — Groupon meets Facebook — according to Nextdoor spokeswoman Whitney Swindells.

It all sounds useful, practical and positive.

Hermit that I am, I probably would remain mostly as unresponsive to dialogue in the neighborhood as I am at the blogs I contribute to. But, I can think of the few times that my curiosity while out and about – spotting someone I thought might be a gangster preparing to burglarize or vandalize someone – would be useful to everyone in the neighborhood. After I called the Sheriff.

Sitting in the living room watching what passes for local news – and turned, looked out the courtyard doors to the sunset – and realized what a lovely crisp composition there was with the silhouette of a Siberian elm against the mackerel sky.

Took a number of photos – didn’t even take time to throw on a sweater – and this is our favorite.

A Las Cruces woman was jailed after allegedly stabbing her boyfriend for not buying her another 40-ounce bottle of Olde English 800 malt liquor.

Dona Ana sheriff’s deputies were called to a house on the 9500 block of Butterfield Boulevard around 5:30 p.m. Thursday after Alexa Monet Rodriguez, 22, allegedly became enraged at her boyfriend and stabbed him in the arm with a 14-inch stainless steel knife, according to sheriff’s office spokeswoman Kelly Jameson.

Rodriguez also allegedly had thrown a 3-pound weight at her boyfriend so hard it got lodged in the wall, then struck him in the back with a TV tray and a chair, Jameson said. After the alleged stabbing, Rodriguez allegedly threw the knife at the victim and fled.

She was arrested soon after and charged with aggravated battery against a household member with a deadly weapon, aggravated assault against a household member with a deadly weapon and two counts of battery against a household member. Magistrate Judge Richard Silva set Rodriguez’s bond at $15,000 cash.

The victim, a Farmington man who just moved to Las Cruces three months ago, was transported by ambulance to an area hospital to be treated for non-life-threatening injuries.

I don’t know about that last paragraph. Looks to me like she tried like hell to threaten his life!

VLA at sunset
Image courtesy of NRAO/AUI

The most famous radio telescope in the world is about to get a new name. The Very Large Array, known around the world, isn’t what it used to be. The iconic radio telescope…is nearing the completion of an amazing transformation. More than a decade of effort has replaced the VLA’s original, 1970s-vintage electronics with modern, state-of-the-art equipment.

“The VLA Expansion Project, begun in 2000, has increased the VLA’s technical capabilities by factors of as much as 8,000, and the new system allows scientists to do things they never could do before,” said Fred K.Y. Lo, Director of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. “After more than three decades on the frontiers of science, the VLA now is poised for a new era as one of the world’s premier tools for meeting the challenges of 21st-Century astrophysics,” he added.

And so it’s time, the Observatory has decided, to give this transformed scientific facility a new name to reflect its new capabilities.

The Observatory is seeking ideas for a new name from the public and the scientific community. Here’s the online entry form.

Entries will be accepted until December 1, 2011, and the new name will be announced at NRAO’s Town Hall at the American Astronomical Society’s meeting in Austin, Texas, in January…

RTFA for details and history of the facility. I can tell you from experience it is a wonderful place to visit. You feel like you’re being watched from outer space every minute you spend wandering the site – watched in a friendly sort of way.

An argument over a Facebook status update resulted in battery charges for a Pecos, Texas, man on Monday.
According to documents filed in Carlsbad, NM, magistrate court…Benito Apolinar, 36, pleaded not guilty to one charge of battery on a household member.

At 12:08 p.m. on Monday, Carlsbad police officers were dispatched to the 2300 block of West Church in reference to a fight in progress…

Police arrived to find several people outside of the residence, and a woman yelling inside of the home. The woman, later identified as Dolores Apolinar, was taken aside by police to get her statement. She was observed to have a red mark on her left cheek, said police.

The woman told officers that she and Apolinar had been married for 15 years, and have children together, but were recently separated. He was in Carlsbad to drop off his children with their mother, where he allegedly arrived drunk.

According to the complaint, Dolores Apolinar would not let him into her home because she is on house arrest and feared she would get in trouble.

An argument ensued when Benito Apolinar refused to leave the home. The two reportedly yelled at each other before Apolinar came into the residence and allegedly pulled Dolores Apolinar’s hair before punching her in the cheek…

He told police that…the whole incident began with a Facebook status update.

According to the complaint, Benito Apolinar posted a comment on his Facebook page about the anniversary of his mother’s passing, but Dolores Apolinar did not click on the “like” button beneath the update…

“That’s amazing everyone ‘likes’ my status but you, you’re my wife. You should be the first one to ‘like’ my status,” he allegedly told his wife…

The bond was set at $3,000.

Add a laugh track to the courtroom appearance and sell it as “Like” Gone Wild.

He will NOT be missed

Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born cleric linked to al Qaeda, was killed in a CIA drone strike in Yemen on Friday, U.S. officials said, removing a “global terrorist” high on a U.S. wanted list.

Awlaki’s killing deprives the Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) of an eloquent propagandist in English and Arabic who was implicated in attacks on the United States.

“He planned and directed attacks against the United States,” one U.S. official said. “In addition, Awlaki publicly urged attacks against U.S. persons and interests worldwide and called for violence against Arab governments he judged to be working against al Qaeda.”

Earlier in his career, Awlaki preached at mosques in the United States attended by some of the hijackers in the September 11, 2001 attacks by al Qaeda, whose leader, Osama bin Laden, was killed in a U.S. raid on his hideout in Pakistan in May…

A Yemeni government statement said Samir Khan, an American of Pakistani origin, and two others were killed with Awlaki. Khan, from North Carolina, was an editor of AQAP’s English-language online magazine Inspire, which often published Awlaki’s writings…

U.S. drone aircraft targeted but missed Awlaki in May. The United States has stepped up drone strikes in Yemen to try and keep al Qaeda off balance and prevent it from capitalizing on the strife and chaos gripping the nation that borders oil giant Saudi Arabia and lies near vital shipping routes…

AQAP, which established itself in Yemen after Saudi Arabia defeated a violent al Qaeda campaign from 2003-6, has emerged as one of the network’s most ambitious wings, attempting daring, if unsuccessful, attacks on U.S. and Saudi targets.

“If he is dead, Awlaki will be difficult to replace,” said Jeremy Binnie, a terrorism and insurgency analyst at IHS Jane’s in London. “It’s a blow for AQAP’s international operations. Awlaki has helped the group build its international profile.”

Overdue.

A Las Cruces woman has been charged $1,122 by a local hospital for a forcible body cavity search ordered by the Metro Narcotics Agency that did not turn up any illegal substances.

She is now asking the county to pay her hospital bill.

The woman, who is not being named because she was not arrested or criminally charged, was searched at Memorial Medical Center on July 1, according to a tort claim notice Las Cruces attorney Michael Lilley served to the county this week.

The woman is refusing to pay the $1,122 she was subsequently billed for the body cavity search, the tort claim notice shows.

Metro Sgt. Mike Alba said agents had “credible information from a reliable source” that the woman was concealing up to an ounce of heroin, leading to the search warrant from Magistrate Court. The woman, who has no criminal history in New Mexico, was in custody for several hours…

The county has a policy of not commenting on threatened or pending litigation.

Idiots. So much for what coppers in Las Cruces consider credible and reliable. Try requiring some old-fashioned legwork before putting someone through body probes based on some paid informant.

Thanks, Cinaedh

Armond and Dorothy Rudolph had talked about their plans for more than a decade. They had a mutual horror of a lingering decline in their final years. They’d joined an organization that supports the right to end life when illness or pain becomes overwhelming; they’d attended meetings and given both their children literature on the subject. They’d drafted advance directives.

“Their great fear was that they’d end up in a nursing home,” their son, Neil Rudolph, told me. “That was hell for them, to have people waiting on them, to have no independence…”

As it happened, the elder Rudolphs had a long and satisfying old age in Albuquerque, N.M., where they lived for 60 years; they gardened and volunteered with the Boy Scouts and served as leaders in their Presbyterian church. When their large house and gardens became difficult to maintain, they built a smaller one in a neighboring town, then moved again to a retirement community…

In October, they entered an assisted living facility called The Village at Alameda, thinking it would be their last home.

The Rudolphs faced increasing pain and debility. Mr. Rudolph, 92, suffered from spinal stenosis; Mrs. Rudolph, 90, had become largely immobile. Both showed symptoms of early dementia. So in January, they set in motion their plan to stop eating and drinking.

And the facility tried to evict the couple. The administrators, apparently on orders from the corporate legal department in Maryland, told the family the Rudolphs had to leave the next day.

[Fundamental Long Term Care, the firm that owns the facility and more than 100 others in 14 states, did not respond to requests for interviews.]

As Neil Rudolph recalls the events, he protested that the couple — already on Day 4 of their fast — had nowhere to go. He also pointed out that their contract required 30 days’ notice of discharge. The following day, administrators called 911, reported a suicide attempt and told the paramedics to take the elder Rudolphs to a hospital.

So much for the peaceful passage…

RTFA. There was an enormous hassle involving 2 emergency squads – who called an emergency consultation with an ER doctor – all because the “assisted living care center” was ruled by their lawyers and their fears even though New Mexico like all 50 states allows for VSED, voluntary stopping eating and drinking.

“Those who oppose the act for religious or ethical reasons (or fear of lawsuits) can throw up roadblocks…” regardless of an individual’s wishes, regardless of law. There’s always some way a lawyer, a corporate flunkey can interfere.