News Of The Weird!

[Aedh]

Express Mail!

HUDSON, Ohio -- A woman's postcard bearing greetings from Montana has finally arrived in northeastern Ohio - 47 years later.

Insurance agent Dave Conn opened his post office box in the community of Hudson last week and found the mailing sent from Helena, Mont., in 1962.

It was sent to Marion White, the previous renter of the box, who had died in 1988. The writer signed the postcard "Fran" and mentioned having "had a marvelous time in Montana."

After asking around, Conn says he determined the card must have come from White's well-traveled friend Frances Murphey, a longtime reporter at the Akron Beacon Journal. She died in 1998 at age 75.

U.S. Postal Service spokesman Victor Dubina says the postcard may have been stuck in equipment or lost behind a mail chute.

[Aedh]

"I either had way too much tequila last night--or the couch is miaowing!"[/b]

SPOKANE, Wash. -- The mysterious mewing in Vickie Mendenhall's home started about the time she bought a used couch for $27. After days of searching for the source of the noise, she found a very hungry calico cat living in her sofa.

Her boyfriend, Chris Lund, was watching TV on Tuesday night and felt something move inside the couch. He pulled it away from the wall, lifted it up and there was the cat, which apparently crawled through a small hole on the underside.

Mendenhall contacted Value Village, where she bought the couch, but the store had no information on who donated it. So she took the cat to SpokAnimal CARE, the animal shelter where she works, so it could recover, and contacted media outlets in hopes of finding the owner.

Sure enough, Bob Killion of Spokane showed up to claim the cat on Thursday after an acquaintance alerted him to a TV story about it. Killion had donated a couch on Feb. 19, and his 9-year-old cat, Callie, disappeared at about the same time.

[Mirabilis]

From the BBC News website...

10 stories that could be April Fools... but aren't!

It's the day when some news stories are a little bit "out there", when jokers spring traps to make fools of the rest of us. But not every weird report is an April Fool. Here is a round-up of some of the day's seemingly hoax news stories which are actually true.

1. PE in schools is embracing yoga, martial arts and cheerleading because pupils don't like being outside in the rain. Some schools are also putting on Krypton Factor-style problem solving for pupils more interested in maths than sports, according to a report by Ofsted.

2. Porsche has announced a four-fold rise in profits, recession or no recession. The German car maker bucked the bad news coming out of the industry through its lucrative stake in Volkswagen, and despite selling 27% fewer cars.

3. Pubs are telling expectant mothers when they've had enough to drink. A pregnant woman was thrown out of a pub for ordering an alcoholic drink. Caroline Williams, on a night out in Hove, had drunk one pint of beer but was refused another half-pint. The brewery has apologised and is investigating.

4. Glamour model Jordan will run the London Marathon. She hopes to raise £250,000 for charities NSPCC and Vision.

5. Alan Shearer is manager of Newcastle United. Despite repeatedly being linked with the post in the past and resisting the temptation to leave the BBC's Match of the Day comfy sofa, the Toon footballing hero finally returns. But if Kevin Keegan was touted as the new Messiah, it's not clear what further superlatives can be used to describe the coming of the city's prodigal son.

6. The lottery tells jackpot winners by e-mail. Lottery winner Graham Forrest found out he had won £2.7m when he opened an e-mail sent to him at work. When the message from the National Lottery said it had some "exciting news" for him, Mr Forrest from Cumbria thought he had won £10. He rang his wife but at first she refused to believe him.

7. A man has won £400,000 in compensation after cutting his finger. Police mechanic Alexander Darg was checking an air bag fault in a police car when he accidentally slid his hand across a knife that had been left behind. He told the court he had been terrified of contracting the HIV virus.

8. Miss Universe says Guantanamo Bay is a "relaxing place, so calm and beautiful", after a five-day trip there. Dayana Mendoza, a model from Venezuela, visited the US base in Cuba as a morale-booster for troops and blogged about the experience.

9. A "magic torch" detects drug use. The torch, costing only £40, works when it is shined in the face of night clubbers. It uses UV light to detect the tiniest traces of cocaine or amphetamine on nasal hair and police in Blackburn are using it to stop drug users from entering clubs.

10. The White House is comparing the UK to Oregon. A briefing booklet accompanying Barack Obama on his European tour equates each country to a US state - Germany to Montana, the Czech Republic to Virginia and so on.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7976288.stm

[Aedh]

Paying for the bullet ...

In December, Idaho State University sent certified-mail letters to its adjunct faculty to disclose (as required by law) that some of them would soon be laid off. However, only the first-class mail fee was billed to the university, leaving each professor to pay on receipt the certified-mail surcharge in order to find out what the university would send them that was so important. (The Idaho State Journal reported that it was the Postal Service's error.) [The Olympian, 12-25-08]

[Aedh]

Possibly the weirdest story yet reported here ...

London's Royal Opera House announced in February that its next biennial original production will be a libretto based on the life of the late Anna Nicole Smith. [Daily Telegraph, 2-12-09]

[BlackDragon]

Apr 1, 2009 8:39:39 GMT -5 Aedh said:

Possibly the weirdest story yet reported here ...

London's Royal Opera House announced in February that its next biennial original production will be a libretto based on the life of the late Anna Nicole Smith. [Daily Telegraph, 2-12-09]

Weird indeed!

[Aedh]

Weirder and weirder ...

Like it or loathe it, agree or disagree, one thing is a simple fact. The border wall between the USA and Mexico has generated millions of words of controversy and cost nearly $50 billion so far. And according to Roger Barnett, a rancher on the Arizona border whose land is a popular corridor for do-it-yourself immigration, the wall has been dealt with by a weirdly simple and effective method. Are you ready for this ...?

Says Barnett ... some enterprising persons have built an automobile bridge over it.

[BlackDragon]

Ah...

Enterprising persons indeed!

[clericjay]

I know that your southern border is huge, but don't you have any border patrols? How is this possible?
_{I'd like to see a picture of that bridge...}

[Aedh]

Apr 2, 2009 11:25:43 GMT -5 clericjay said:

_{I'd like to see a picture of that bridge...}

Here you go. Not so much of a formal "bridge" like on a motorway, but informal structures ... nevertheless so effective that it's been suggested that the military study them for useful ideas.

subtopia.blogspot.com/2007/06/extreme-border-sports.html

[Aedh]

Noted ...

No joke. Our local cinerama--or the nearest one anyway--has a reader board flashing the names of whatever's on. As I went by last time, I saw an interesting pair of titles back-to-back ... "Knowledge" and "Doubt."

[BlackDragon]

Apr 2, 2009 11:42:45 GMT -5 Aedh said:

Apr 2, 2009 11:25:43 GMT -5 clericjay said:

_{I'd like to see a picture of that bridge...}

Here you go. Not so much of a formal "bridge" like on a motorway, but informal structures ... nevertheless so effective that it's been suggested that the military study them for useful ideas.

subtopia.blogspot.com/2007/06/extreme-border-sports.html

Woho nice!

[Aedh]

Not necessarily weird ... but ...

Chinese drywall causing health concerns

PARKLAND, Fla. - At the height of the U.S. housing boom, when building materials were in short supply, American construction companies used millions of pounds of Chinese-made drywall because it was abundant and cheap.

Now that decision is haunting hundreds of homeowners and apartment dwellers who are concerned that the wallboard gives off fumes that can corrode copper pipes, blacken jewelry and silverware, and possibly sicken people.

Shipping records reviewed by The Associated Press indicate that imports of potentially tainted Chinese building materials exceeded 500 million pounds during a four-year period of soaring home prices. The drywall may have been used in more than 100,000 homes, according to some estimates, including houses rebuilt after Hurricane Katrina.

"This is a traumatic problem of extraordinary proportions," said U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, a Florida Democrat who introduced a bill in the House calling for a temporary ban on the Chinese-made imports until more is known about their chemical makeup. Similar legislation has been proposed in the Senate.

The drywall apparently causes a chemical reaction that gives off a rotten-egg stench, which grows worse with heat and humidity.

Researchers do not know yet what causes the reaction, but possible culprits include fumigants sprayed on the drywall and material inside it. The Chinese drywall is also made with a coal byproduct called fly ash that is less refined than the form used by U.S. drywall makers.

Dozens of homeowners in the Southeast have sued builders, suppliers and manufacturers, claiming the very walls around them are emitting smelly sulfur compounds that are poisoning their families and rendering their homes uninhabitable.

"It's like your hopes and dreams are just gone," said Mary Ann Schultheis, who has suffered burning eyes, sinus headaches, and a general heaviness in her chest since moving into her brand-new, 4,000-square foot house in this tidy South Florida suburb a few years ago.

She has few options. Her builder is in bankruptcy, the government is not helping and her lender will not give her a break.

"I'm just going to cry," she said. "We don't know what we're going to do."

Builders have filed their own lawsuits against suppliers and manufacturers, claiming they unknowingly used the bad building materials.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission is investigating, as are health departments in Virginia, Louisiana, North Carolina, Florida and Washington state.

Companies that produced some of the wallboard said they are looking into the complaints, but downplayed the possibility of health risks.

"What we're trying to do is get to the bottom of what is precisely going on," said Ken Haldin, a spokesman for Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin, a Chinese company named in many of the lawsuits.

The Chinese ministries of commerce, construction and industry and the Administration of Quality Supervision Inspection and Quarantine did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Chinese news reports have said AQSIQ, which enforces product quality standards, was investigating the complaints but people in the agency's press office said they could not confirm that.

Meanwhile, governors in Louisiana and Florida are asking for federal assistance, and experts say the problem is only now beginning to surface.

"Based on the amount of material that came in, it's possible that just in one year, 100,000 residences could be involved," said Michael Foreman, who owns a construction consulting firm. The company has performed tests on some 200 homes in the Sarasota area and has been tracking shipments of the drywall.

Federal authorities say they are investigating just how much of the wallboard was imported. Shipping records analyzed by the AP show that more than 540 million pounds of plasterboard - which includes both drywall and ceiling tile panels - was imported from China between 2004 and 2008, although it's unclear whether all of that material was problematic or only certain batches.

Most of it came into the country in 2006, following a series of Gulf Coast hurricanes and a domestic shortage brought on by the national housing boom.

The Chinese board was also cheaper. One homeowner told AP he saved $1,000 by building his house with it instead of a domestic product.

In 2006, enough wallboard was imported from China to build some 34,000 homes of roughly 2,000 square feet each, according to AP's analysis of the shipping records and estimates supplied by the nationwide drywall supplier United States Gypsum.

Experts and advocates say many homes may have been built with a mixture of Chinese and domestic drywall, potentially raising the number of affected homes much higher.

So far, the problem appears to be concentrated in the Southeast, which blossomed with new construction during the housing boom and where the damp climate appears to cause the gypsum in the building material to degrade more quickly. In Florida alone, more than 35,000 homes may contain the product, experts said.

In Louisiana, the state health department has received complaints from at least 350 people in just a few weeks. Many of the affected homeowners rebuilt after Hurricane Katrina only to face the prospect of tearing down their houses and rebuilding again.

In another cruel twist, some of the very communities that have been hit hardest by the collapse of the housing market and skyrocketing foreclosure rates are now at the epicenter of the drywall problem.

Foreman warns of a "sleeping beast" in the thousands of bank-owned condos and houses across the country, with no one in them to complain.

Outside the South, it's harder to pinpoint the number of affected homes. And in drier climates such as California and Nevada, it may be years before homeowners begin to see - and smell - what may be lurking inside their walls.

The drywall furor is the latest in a series of scares over potentially toxic imports from China. In 2007, Chinese authorities ratcheted up inspections and tightened restrictions on exports after manufacturers were found to have exported tainted cough syrup, a toxic pet food ingredient and toys decorated with lead paint.

Scientists hope to understand the problem by studying the chemicals in the board. Drywall consists of wide, flat boards used to cover walls. It is often made from gypsum, a common mineral that can be mined or manufactured from the byproducts of coal-fired power plants.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuits, as well as U.S. wallboard manufacturers, say the tainted drywall was made with fly ash, a residue of coal combustion more commonly used in concrete mixtures.

Fly ash can be gathered before it ever reaches the smokestack, where technology is used to remove sulfur dioxide from the emissions. The process of "scrubbing" the smokestack emissions creates calcium sulfate, or gypsum, which can then used to make wallboard, experts say.

Haldin, the Knaupf Tianjin spokesman, says some domestic drywall is also made from the less-refined fly ash.

But Michael Gardner, executive director of the U.S. Gypsum Association, said American manufacturers gather the gypsum from the smokestacks after the scrubbing, which produces a cleaner product.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has dispatched teams of toxicologists, electrical engineers and other experts to Florida to study the phenomenon. The commission is also working with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to determine whether there is a health hazard.

A Florida Department of Health analysis found the Chinese drywall emits "volatile sulfur compounds," and contains traces of strontium sulfide, which can produce the rotten-egg odor and reacts with air to corrode metals and wires.

But the agency says on its Web site that it "has not identified data suggesting an imminent or chronic health hazard at this time."

"We're continuing to test," said Susan Smith, a spokeswoman for the department, which has logged 230 complaints from homeowners.

Dr. Patricia Williams, a University of New Orleans toxicologist hired by a Louisiana law firm that represents plaintiffs in some of the cases, said she has identified highly toxic compounds in the drywall, including hydrogen sulfide, sulfuric acid, sulfur dioxide and carbon disulfide.

Prolonged exposure to the compounds, especially high levels of carbon disulfide, can cause breathing problems, chest pains and even death; and can affect the nervous system, according to the CDC.

"It is absolutely shocking what is happening," Williams said.

Dr. Phillip Goad, a toxicologist hired by Knaupf Plasterboard Tianjin, sampled drywall from 25 homes, some that contained the company's wallboard and some that did not.

"The studies we have performed to date have identified very low levels of naturally occurring compounds," Goad said. "The levels we have detected do not present a public health concern. The chemicals are naturally occurring. They're produced in ocean water, in salt marsh air, in estuaries."

But those who are living with it are convinced that something is making them sick, including dozens of homeowners in a single subdivision in Parkland, about 50 miles north of Miami. They are now faced with a daunting choice: Tear down and rebuild, or move out and be stuck with a mortgage and a home they cannot sell.

"We are particularly concerned about the safety and well-being of our children," said Holly Krulik, who lives down the street from Mary Ann Schultheis.

She and her husband, Doug, are suffering sinus problems and respiratory ailments, and their young daughter has repeated nose bleeds.

"If a shiny copper coil can turn absolutely black within a matter of months, it certainly can't be good for human beings," Krulik said.

Neighbor John Willis is moving out, even though he can hardly afford to walk away from a house he's owned for just three years. He cries as he speaks of his 3-year-old son's respiratory infection, which eventually required surgery.

"They basically took out a substance that looked like rubber cement out of my 3-year-old son's sinuses," he said. "My wife and I are now faced with the choice between our children's health and our financial health. My children are always going to win on that."

The subdivision's builder, WCI Communities, is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring and can do little more than log complaints, said spokeswoman Connie Boyd.

The federal government does not regulate the chemical ingredients of imported drywall.

Plasterboard Tianjin said it has been making drywall for 10 years in accordance with U.S. and international standards.

Another Chinese company facing lawsuits, Taishan Gypsum Ltd., also insists that it meets all U.S. standards.

Determining what is causing the problems could take months. Researchers will try to recreate in a lab the conditions that caused the sulfur compounds normally found in drywall to give off noxious gases.

Meanwhile, people like Lisa Sich, 43, are left with more questions than answers. Sich has not felt well since moving into the Henderson, Nev., apartment she rents less than a year ago, and her silverware quickly tarnished.

"I can hear myself wheezing," said Sich, who is having environmental experts test the apartment, built in 2007. "My eyes are constantly itchy, extreme fatigue."

And while Sich is not even certain she's got the bad wallboard, she has not felt like herself in months. She's missed five weeks of work just since Thanksgiving.

"I'm just tired all the time," she said. "It doesn't make sense."

---

Associated Press Writer Joe McDonald in Beijing contributed to this report. Burdeau reported from New Orleans.

[Aedh]

What's the tenant's name ... 'Doctor?' Doctor who??

A former police box in Hove, England, could be turned into a one-bedroom flat if planning permission is granted.

An application has been submitted to Brighton and Hove City Council seeking permission to turn the box, in Margery Road, Hove, into a studio flat and to build a conservatory extension.

In 2004 the box was bought for £71,000 when it was sold by Sussex Police Authority.

The application to turn the police box into a flat follows a similar proposal last year to convert one at the corner of Stanford Avenue and Ditchling Road, Fiveways.

The planning application is likely to be dealt with this week.

[Aedh]

One-Armed Robber Breaks Arm!

from Brighton, England ...

A one-armed robber jumped from a window to escape police – and broke his arm.

James Deacon, 28, of Tristram Close, Sompting, was carrying a baseball bat when he burst into a firstfloor flat in Shelley Road, Worthing, on January 26, with another man who was carrying a shotgun.

They threatened three men and a woman living in the flat and demanded drugs and cash.

The alarm was raised and police were called. Both men escaped by climbing out of a window and jumping on to the concrete below.

Deacon injured his leg and broke his arm when he landed and was arrested.

He admitted aggravated burglary when he appeared at Chichester Crown Court and was sentenced to four and a half years in prison.

The other man has never been traced.

Police said they found no evidence of drugs inside the flat.

[Aedh]

Your Tax Money At Work![/b]

A FIRE in the men's toilets at Lamb Park, Durrington [Sussex], is believed to be arson.

Worthing firefighters were called out to the toilets in Durrington Lane, at 5.07pm yesterday (Sunday, May 10).

The fire was small enough to be put out with a bucket of water but the crew used a thermal imaging camera to make sure it was out.

[Aedh]

Your Tax Money At Work! Part 2[/b]

The same food bureaucrats who at enormous expense of time and money force intricate labelling of the nutrition content of almost everything, go to very same lengths to prevent nutrition content labelling of other things.

Beer and ale have vitamins and minerals. Some have lots of them, in fact, a hefty portion of your US RDA, that is "Recommended Daily Allowance" which medical people have established as a standard for good nutrition. However, beer must not be labelled with that information. Brewers are allowed to put on discouraging information such as the number of calories, but not nutritional information.

One plucky local brewer decided to try it. These are people well-known around here for having been thoroughly professional brewers with an excellent reputation. That didn't save them.

It's too long to put all of it here, but here's a link: www.atfabuse.com/atfabuse-16.html. It requires very little imagination to see Grammaton Clerics and Sweepers in action.

[Aedh]

Your Tax Money At Work! Part 3

In a move worthy of the fictional bureaucrats of "Nonstop Murder & Lust," the U.S. government has appropriated $2.6 million to teach Chinese prostitutes how to handle their booze on the job. I am not making this up...



(CNSNews.com) -- The National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAA), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will pay $2.6 million in U.S. tax dollars to train Chinese prostitutes to drink responsibly on the job.

Dr. Xiaoming Li, the researcher conducting the program, is director of the Prevention Research Center at Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit.

The grant, made last November, refers to prostitutes as "female sex workers"--or FSW--and their handlers as "gatekeepers."

"Previous studies in Asia and Africa and our own data from FSWs [female sex workers] in China suggest that the social norms and institutional policy within commercial sex venues as well as agents overseeing the FSWs (i.e., the 'gatekeepers', defined as persons who manage the establishments and/or sex workers) are potentially of great importance in influencing alcohol use and sexual behavior among establishment-based FSWs," says the NIH grant abstract submitted by Dr. Li.

"Therefore, in this application, we propose to develop, implement, and evaluate a venue-based alcohol use and HIV risk reduction intervention focusing on both environmental and individual factors among venue-based FSWs in China," says the abstract.

The research will take place in the southern Chinese province of Guangxi.

Guangxi is ranked third in HIV rate among Chna's provinces--and is a place where the sex business is pervasive, Li said.

“The purpose of the project is to try and develop an intervention program targeting HIV risk and alcohol use,” Li told CNSNews.com. “So basically, it’s an alcohol and HIV risk reduction intervention project."


Full article available here: www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=47976



No matter how outrageous I try to make my satire, the RW keeps surpassing it.

I always suspected I was doing something wrong ... now I know. If only I were a Chinese prostitute ...

[Aedh]

Love ballad by Al Capone due for CD Release[/b]

A tender love song called "Madonna Mia," written by famed gangster Al Capone while he was in Alcatraz, has been recorded after 70 years, and is due out for release this month according to the Huffington Post. I knew about this earlier, but now that we have a jazz fan checking in, I thought I'd mention it. You know who you are.

[Father]

May 16, 2009 16:08:10 GMT -5 Aedh said:

Love ballad by Al Capone due for CD Release

[/b]

A tender love song called "Madonna Mia," written by famed gangster Al Capone while he was in Alcatraz, has been recorded after 70 years, and is due out for release this month according to the Huffington Post. I knew about this earlier, but now that we have a jazz fan checking in, I thought I'd mention it. You know who you are. [/quote]

I didn't know that, so I googled it.
It seems Capone had quite an influence on music in the 20's & 30's. And later formed a band in Alcatraz.
I must admit I'm curious to hear that song.

[Aedh]

Another Montauk Monster![/b]

Remember the Montauk Monster story from last year? Well, another specimen has been found.

There is speculation that the Monsters may hail from Plum Island, where there is a government biological research lab, and which is near where both remains washed ashore.

This carcass has not been officially reported to authorities but remains on ice at the property of the Long Island couple who found it. They are aiming to sell it to a reputable independent lab for testing, and not do a repeat of last year, where the authorities were notified of it and then it was shuffled around before being mysteriously "stolen."

Speculation that this is a Photoshop hoax or a viral marketing ploy is less this time than it was last year. Whether or not it really is some mutant creature or not ... something's going on. That much can now hardly be doubted.

Link and pic here: Montauk Monster 2!

Official MM website with video ... www.montauk-monster.com/

[Aedh]

"Call an ambulance!" "We did!" "Well, call another one!!"

From Hassocks, Sussex, England ... [/i]

SOUTH East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAmb) has said it is looking into why an ambulance crashed in Hassocks last night (Friday May 29).

The ambulance was on its way to a crash involving a car and a motorbike when it collided with two cars, a Peugeot and a Fiat Punto, in Hurst Road.

Police cars and another ambulance rushed to attend to the scene during the rush hour accident which occurred just after 6pm.

Both the ambulance driver and a driver of one of the cars involved suffered minor injuries including neck pain and were treated at the scene.

[Aedh]

World's greatest 'Up Your Boss' story. And it's true!

From National Review, 20 April 2009 ... [/i]

Nagasaki resident Mr. Tsutomu Yamaguchi was on a business trip in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. The atom bomb caught him in the open, and he was badly burned. After stumbling through the shattered city and its horrors for some hours, Mr. Yamaguchi managed to get on a train back to his home town. After treatment for his injuries, he dutifully reported back to work at his company in Nagasaki on the morning of August 9.

His boss demanded an explanation for his bandaged appearance, and was incredulous when told of the destruction of Hiroshima (of which the Japanese media had said nothing). He had just lost his temper and accused Mr. Yamaguchi of lying when there was an almighty flash ...

Mr. Yamaguchi, now 93 years old, has been formally certified as one of the very few to have survived both nuclear blasts; and, of that few, to have been closest to both--about two miles in each case.

A more in-depth account here.

[Aedh]

"Hello, 'Papa Juche,' may I take your order?"

From the Telegraph ....

It has taken almost 10 years of work, but North Korea has acquired the technology to launch a project very dear to its leader's heart - the nation's first "authentic" Italian pizzeria.

The launch of Pyongyang's first Italian restaurant meanwhile brings to fruition a ten-year effort by Kim Jong-il - a renowned gourmand and lover of western food - to create the perfect pizza and pasta in his homeland.

Last year a delegation of local chefs was sent by Kim to Naples and Rome to learn the proper Italian techniques after their homegrown efforts to mimic Italian cuisine were found by Kim to contain "errors".

In the late 1990s Kim brought a team of Italian pizza chefs to North Korea to instruct his army officers how to make pizza, a luxury which is now being offered to a tiny elite able to afford such luxuries in a country that cannot feed many of its 24 million inhabitants.

Despite the food shortages high-quality Italian wheat, flour, butter and cheese are being imported to ensure the perfect pizza is created every time.

"Our people should be also allowed to enjoy the world-famous food," the manager of the Pyongyang eatery quoted Kim as saying, according to the Tokyo-based Choson Sinbo newspaper.

[Aedh]

Bureaucratic Trivia!

In the USA, supposedly a high-tech, can-do country ...

1. Only 2% of doctors use email to communicate with each other about medical matters. Why? Medical insurance won't pay for doctors to write emails.

2. A similarly small percentage of doctors have their patients' records in digital format, to enable computer cross-checking for allergic reactions, complications, resistances to medications, etc. Why? Medical insurance won't pay for computerisation of records either.

3. Nearly 20% of all Medicare ( = Government health insurance) patients are readmitted to hospital within thirty days of release. Why? One thing that medical insurance WILL pay for is further surgeries to correct complications from botched past ones. So, surgeon, go ahead and leave a clamp inside your patient. You got paid to leave it there, and you'll be paid again to go in and remove it in a few weeks.

4. Military veterans who are blind, crippled, etc., are often turned down on their first few applications for disability payments. Why? Because the Veterans' Administration have periodic quotas on how many dossiers they must complete. Four turndowns followed by one acceptance equals five dossiers, which goes a lot further toward meeting your quota than just doing one acceptance.

No wonder Government and health care are eating our economy alive. In what other sector do you get a fat paycheque with benefits for committing screwup after screwup? Oh! Yes--higher education, that's right.

I'd like to say our system, in 2009, is no better than Ireland's but that's probably an insult to the Irish. Unless you say, maybe, Ireland in 1909.

[Mirabilis]

Aug 7, 2009 16:12:56 GMT -5 Aedh said:

Bureaucratic Trivia!

In the USA, supposedly a high-tech, can-do country ...

1. Only 2% of doctors use email to communicate with each other about medical matters. Why? Medical insurance won't pay for doctors to write emails.

2. A similarly small percentage of doctors have their patients' records in digital format, to enable computer cross-checking for allergic reactions, complications, resistances to medications, etc. Why? Medical insurance won't pay for computerisation of records either.

3. Nearly 20% of all Medicare ( = Government health insurance) patients are readmitted to hospital within thirty days of release. Why? One thing that medical insurance WILL pay for is further surgeries to correct complications from botched past ones. So, surgeon, go ahead and leave a clamp inside your patient. You got paid to leave it there, and you'll be paid again to go in and remove it in a few weeks.

4. Military veterans who are blind, crippled, etc., are often turned down on their first few applications for disability payments. Why? Because the Veterans' Administration have periodic quotas on how many dossiers they must complete. Four turndowns followed by one acceptance equals five dossiers, which goes a lot further toward meeting your quota than just doing one acceptance.

No wonder Government and health care are eating our economy alive. In what other sector do you get a fat paycheque with benefits for committing screwup after screwup? Oh! Yes--higher education, that's right.

I'd like to say our system, in 2009, is no better than Ireland's but that's probably an insult to the Irish. Unless you say, maybe, Ireland in 1909.

Yep...land of the free...provided I never get sick!
Goodbye NHS...America here I come!

[Aedh]

Aug 7, 2009 17:58:34 GMT -5 Mirabilis said:

Aug 7, 2009 16:12:56 GMT -5 Aedh said:

Bureaucratic Trivia!

In the USA, supposedly a high-tech, can-do country ...

1. Only 2% of doctors use email to communicate with each other about medical matters. Why? Medical insurance won't pay for doctors to write emails.

2. A similarly small percentage of doctors have their patients' records in digital format, to enable computer cross-checking for allergic reactions, complications, resistances to medications, etc. Why? Medical insurance won't pay for computerisation of records either.

3. Nearly 20% of all Medicare ( = Government health insurance) patients are readmitted to hospital within thirty days of release. Why? One thing that medical insurance WILL pay for is further surgeries to correct complications from botched past ones. So, surgeon, go ahead and leave a clamp inside your patient. You got paid to leave it there, and you'll be paid again to go in and remove it in a few weeks.

4. Military veterans who are blind, crippled, etc., are often turned down on their first few applications for disability payments. Why? Because the Veterans' Administration have periodic quotas on how many dossiers they must complete. Four turndowns followed by one acceptance equals five dossiers, which goes a lot further toward meeting your quota than just doing one acceptance.

No wonder Government and health care are eating our economy alive. In what other sector do you get a fat paycheque with benefits for committing screwup after screwup? Oh! Yes--higher education, that's right.

I'd like to say our system, in 2009, is no better than Ireland's but that's probably an insult to the Irish. Unless you say, maybe, Ireland in 1909.

Yep...land of the free...provided I never get sick!
Goodbye NHS...America here I come!

*hums ... slightly altered lyrics*

O Canada!
Our near-by neighbour land--
True common sense in all thy sons command!
Just north of us thy blue hills peep,
Good healthcare quick and cheap!

From far and wide, O Canada,
We keep an eye on thee.
Please keep your care glorious and free!
O Canada, we keep an eye on thee.
O Canada, we keep an eye on thee.

[Aedh]

Canadian University Introduces Grade Worse Than "F!"

We all know that academics aren't what they used to be. Here's proof, from a CTV story. At Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia, you can now get a grade worse than a 'fail.'


It used to be that the worst grade you could receive in school was an F, and that was bad enough. But B.C.'s Simon Fraser University is taking punishment to a whole new level, introducing a grade of FD -- meaning failure with dishonesty -- the worst possible grade a student can receive.

Dr. Rob Gordon, director of criminology at SFU and acting chair of the senate committee on academic integrity, says the new grading is intended to curtail cheating using the internet.

"What used to be a lot of cheating in libraries has changed quite significantly," he told ctvbc.ca.
"We now have to be concerned about cheating during exams with high-tech devices and the inappropriate use of internet sources and downloading, including online companies offering services to students that promote academic dishonesty."

University department chairs can impose the FD grade if they feel the incident warrants a severe penalty, or if the student has landed themselves in academic hot water in the past. "They only use this grade in particularly egregious cases of dishonestly or in cases when they've committed acts of dishonesty several times and haven't learned from their lesson," Gordon said. "It's more than a fail, it's a failure with a particular reason that is publicly announced that may well be seen by potential employers." The mark, which has yet to be used in its introductory semester, will stay on the student's transcripts for two years after graduation.

Some students say it's unfair to carry that stigma into the working world. "Two years loss of your life that is a bit too far," Olid Amid said. But although some consider the new grading heavy handed, others say the punishment is just in a time where internet cheating is increasing at Canadian post-secondary institutions.

"A student would seriously need to re-evaluate their intentions at university and what they are hoping to get out of it," University of Alberta student Patrice Strate said.

"It makes it a lot easier for those of us who don't cheat to get good grades and to not worry about the people who are cheating," student John Aubrey said.

The University of Alberta uses a similar system where cheaters are given an F8 or F9 grade, which is reduced to an F after three years. "In our case we give the students a chance to redeem themselves," Dean of Students Frank Robinson said. "[In] three years they can graduate and have a clean record and get on with life."

[Aedh]

From Crawley, England ... welcome confirmation that there's someone more absent-minded than me on the planet.


Lost ... one safe![/b]

POLICE are looking for the owner of a lost safe.

It is believed to have gone missing about three months ago and has recently been recovered in Carwley, although it possible it was taken from outside that area.

Contact PC Michael George of Crawley CID on 0845 60 70 999.

The large, light grey, empty safe is one of many items, which are believed to be stolen, and have been recovered following a warrant being executed at an address in Crawley.

The recovered safe is approximately 30 inches by 23 inches.

PC George said: "So far, we have not identified who the safe belongs to, or potentially which business premises it could have come from. The owner, or company, will know it has been taken, but not that police have recovered it. We would like its rightful owner to get in touch."

On second thought, make that two people more absent-minded than me. No, three. The owner who hasn't yet realised it's missing; the policeman who evidently hasn't tried to trace it through the serial number that all safes have to carry ... and the reporter who can't spell the name of his own town correctly.

[Aedh]

From the Associated Press ...

Kittie Porn![/b]

JENSEN BEACH, Fla. (Aug. 7) -- Florida investigators say a man accused of downloading child pornography is blaming his cat.

Keith Griffin of Jensen Beach is charged with 10 counts of possession of child pornography after detectives found more than 1,000 images on his home computer.

According to a sheriff's report Friday, Griffin told investigators that his cat jumped on the computer keyboard while he was downloading music. He said he had left the room and found "strange things" on his computer when he returned.

Griffin is being held on $250,000 bond in the Martin County jail. It is unclear if he has an attorney.

Quite a 'cat-astrophe' for Mr Griffin. Guess he thought he had the 'purr-fect' home hobby. Well, sir, when it comes to these matters, the cops aren't 'kitten' around! We will now 'paws' for some meditation ...