Pirates Attack Cruise Ship

NAIROBI, Kenya — The pirates who attacked a luxury cruise liner off Somalia's coast were likely to have been from the same group that hijacked a U.N.-chartered vessel in June and held its crew and food aid hostage for 100 days, a maritime official said Sunday.

Two boats full of pirates approached the Seabourn Spirit about 100 miles off the Somali coast Saturday and fired rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles while the heavily armed bandits tried to get onboard.

The ship escaped by shifting to high speed and changing course. Its passengers, mostly Americans with some Australians and Europeans, were gathered in a lounge for safety, and nobody was injured, said Bruce Good, spokesman for the Miami-based Seabourn Cruise Line, a subsidiary of Carnival Corp.

Andrew Mwangura, head of the Kenyan chapter of the Seafarers Assistance Program, said the location of the attack would indicate the pirates were probably from a group that seized a U.N.-chartered ship on a humanitarian mission on June 27.

Somalia has had no effective central government since opposition leaders ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. The leaders then turned on each other, transforming the nation of 7 million into a patchwork of battling fiefdoms ruled by heavily armed militias.

AP Polkonline.com, 2005.

Giants of Potsdam

"[King Frederick William I of Prussia]'s most famous obsession was his collection of giants, for which he was renowned throughout Europe. Known as the Blue Prussians or the Giants of Potsdam, there were over 1,200 of them, organized into two battalions of 600 men each. None was under six feet tall, and some, in the Special Red Unit of the First Battalion, were almost seven feet tall. The King dressed them in blue jackets with gold trim and scarlet lapels, scarlet trousers, white stockings, black shoes and tall red hats. He gave them muskets, white bandoleers and small daggers, and he played with them as a child would with enormous living toys. No expense was too great for this hobby, and Fredrick William spent millions to recruit and equip his giant grenadiers. They were hired or bought all over Europe; especially desirable specimens, refusing the offer of the King's recruiting agents, were simply kidnapped. Eventually, recruiting in this way became too expensive--one seven-foot-two-inch Irishman cost over 6,000 pounds--and Frederick William tried to breed giants. Every tall man in his realm was forced to marry a tall woman. The drawback was that the King had to wait fifteen to twenty years for the products of these
unions to mature, and often as not a boy or girl of normal height resulted. The easiest method of obtaining giants was to receive them as gifts. Foreign ambassadors advised their masters that the way to find favor with the King of Prussia was to send him giants. Peter [the Great] especially appreciated his fellow sovereign's interest in nature's curios, and Russia supplied the Prussian King with fifty new
giants every year.

Needless to say, the King never risked his cherished colossi in the face of enemy fire. In turn, they provided the ailing monarch with his greatest delight. When he was sick or depressed, the entire two battalions, preceded by tall, turbaned Moors with cymbals and trumpets and the grenadiers' mascot, an enormous bear, would march in a long line through the King's chamber to cheer him up."

From Peter the Great: His Life and World by Robert K. Massie.

Let the Ladies Rule

". . Peter the Great's overturning of the laws of succession and his proclamation that every sovereign should have the right to designate the heir led to an anomaly in Russian history: Since the distant days of the Kievan state, no woman had reigned in Russia; after his death in 1725, four empresses reigned almost continuously for the next seventy-one years. They were Peter's wife (Catherine I), his niece (Anne), his daughter (Elizabeth) and his grandson's wife (Catherine the Great). The reigns of three pitiable males (Peter the Great's grandsons Peter II and Peter III and his brother's great-grandson Ivan IV) were interspersed among these women, but their three reigns encompassed only forty months."

From Peter the Great: His Life and World by Robert K. Massie.

brnd ldy GR8!! >:) - CUL8R

Rioting gangs of Arab and African youths, mostly Muslims, torching cars, schools, and buses in Paris suburbs for eight days, have just committed their most gruesome act.

Attackers doused a 50-year-old woman on crutches with a flammable liquid and set her afire as she tried to get off a bus in the suburb of Sevran.

The bus had been forced to stop because of burning objects in its path. The woman was rescued by the driver and hospitalized with severe burns.

A national police spokesman, Patrick Hamon, said rioters were communicating by cell phone text messages or e-mail -- arranging meetings and warning oeach other about police operations.

From The Washington Times, November 5, 2005.

Snakeheads Colonize States

The 300 snakeheads caught in a Potomac River tributary last month were more than an anomaly. They were proof, biologists say, that the predatory Asian fish has bred its way to the top of the river's food chain.

The snakeheads caught in just a few days numbered more than four times the total ever found in the river -- evidence that not only are they thriving, but they also appear to be breeding faster than the river's most beloved game fish.

"I caught 62 in two hours, they were that thick," said John Odenkirk, a Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries biologist. Worse, he said, "there's not a lot we can do."

Having lost the battle to eradicate the snakehead, Virginia and Maryland biologists and federal wildlife officials have recruited a team of researchers to study its adaptation. They hope that the fish will find a place in the Potomac's ecosystem without damaging the other species there.

What they know so far is this: The freshwater northern snakehead was probably introduced into the Potomac about three years ago, perhaps by someone who imported it from Asia, where it is a popular food.

With a mouth as big around as a fist and lined with rows of teeth and an ability to grow to three feet over an estimated life span of a decade, the adult fish has no known predators in the Potomac.

Their apparent quick adaptation shows the northern snakehead . .

". . would have the ability to colonize a large portion of the U.S. and even southern Canada," so says Steve Minkkinen, a snakehead expert at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

In 2002, this region's first snakeheads were found in a fetid pond in Crofton. Wildlife experts poisoned the pond and counted the fish. Six adults and more than 1,000 juveniles were proof that the fish bred successfully even in the pond's poor habitat. Already, they outnumbered the bass there.

In May 2004, an angler caught the Potomac system's first snakehead, in Little Hunting Creek near Alexandria. Biologists and anglers caught 20 snakeheads in 2004. This year, they've caught more than 300, 270 during the week-long run at Dogue Creek. DNA tests showed that the juveniles among the 20 fish caught in the Potomac in 2004 were all descended from one or a few related females, making it possible that the Potomac's snakehead problem originated with the introduction of only a few fish.

"It grows fast, bites anything that comes by, fights hard and taste great," with firm, white flesh similar to perch, Odenkirk said.

And that's a bad thing, because when anglers grow fond of a fish they introduce it elsewhere. That is how the walleye, a Midwestern game fish, invaded the Columbia River.

From The Washington Post, November 5, 2005.

Nano Beats Cancer

Experiments on mice have shown promise for the future of nanotechnology in treating cancer. The research brings doctors one step closer to being able to inject patients with nanoparticles that bore inside tumors and release powerful doses of cancer-killing drugs while leaving the rest of the body unscathed.

Nanotechnology is the science of manipulating matter smaller than 100 nanometers and taking advantages of properties that are present only at that level, such as conductivity. A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter, or about one-millionth the size of a pin head. The prefix comes from "nanos," the Greek word for dwarf.

Nanotech has been around for several decades, but only now is its potential starting to be realized. Medicine is expected to be one of the fields to benefit most. In cancer, it is hoped the technology will allow for more precisely targeted drugs and surgery and less toxic chemotherapy.

The study, conducted by scientists at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which are pioneering cancer nanotechnology, involved engineering nanoparticles embedded with the cancer drug Taxotere. The particles were then injected directly into human tumors created from prostate cancer cell lines and implanted into the flanks of mice.

The technology being tested involves a nanoparticle made of a hydrogen and carbon polymer with bits of drug bound up in its fabric and attached to a substance that hones in on cancer cells. The polymer gradually dissolves, exposing the nuggets of drug little by little.

In mice scientists injected the targeted nanoparticles containing the drug into . .

"The tumor completely disappeared," a researcher said.

Injecting targeted nanoparticles into the bloodstream and having them seek out tumors and get inside on their own is still the ultimate goal, but direct injection is also promising for cancers where the tumor is accessible and hasn't spread, such as in early prostate cancer.

Researchers say they hope to be able to test this approach on prostate cancer patients within two years.

Pravda, November 1, 2005.

We'll Buy Your Strip Club Says Church

PAINESVILLE, Ohio (AP) - The owner of a strip club says he's considering a six-figure offer from a church to buy and shut down the location.

Bill Martin, owner of the Just Teazin club in Painesville Township, 25 miles northeast of Cleveland, declined Thursday to identify the church or when he might decide whether to accept the unsolicited offer.

His club has been the target of protesters who object to it operating in the community.

Martin said it was a legitimate business protected by the Constitution. "I'm a strong believer in the U.S. Constitution. Until we become more like the Taliban, I don't see why people have a problem with upholding the Constitution," he said.

Martin said the Union Congregational Church bought a former club of his in the township. The building was bought in 1996 for $36,000 and became a recreation center and eventually was sold for use as a homeless shelter, the Rev. Roderick Coffee said.

Union Congregational isn't the church seeking to buy Just Teazin, Martin and Coffee said. Martin said he didn't know if he would open another club if Just Teazin was sold.

Township Trustee Jeanette Crislip said strip clubs bring problems to a community and Trustee James S. Falvey said he hoped the club would be sold and shut down. The township's legal attempt to close the club failed.

The Associated Press, November 3, 2005.

Deer Almost Takes Out Governor

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - He was antlered and dangerous - and he almost took out Gov. Tim Pawlenty. As Pawlenty arrived for work at the Capitol Thursday, he and his entourage heard shattering glass and then saw a big buck charge past about five feet from them. The deer broke two windows at the Capitol before bounding off.

The state's deer hunting season officially opens Saturday, and Pawlenty is headed to the northwestern Minnesota city of Perham for his annual kickoff event.

Pawlenty said the parking lot incident was a good omen.

"We could have had the governor's deer opener right here at the Capitol," Pawlenty said. "If that's any indication, the deer hunting is going to go well this year."

State natural resources officials say the urban deer herd is much larger than usual this year. Ramsey County, which includes St. Paul, is considering hiring sharp shooters to thin the deer population along freeways and other well-traveled areas.

It's the mating season for deer, when rutting bucks sometimes charge their own reflections in windows.

The Associated Press, November 3, 2005.

The Cat Made Me Do It

EVERETT, Wash. - A man was convicted of murder after witnesses testified that he relied on his cat's behavior to decide the victim deserved to die.

A jury Wednesday deliberated for about three hours before convicting 40-year-old Clayton Edward Butsch of shooting Chad J. Vavricka in 2004 as the man slept in a folding chair in Butsch's trailer. Vavricka, 30, was shot twice in the head.

Prosecution witnesses, many of them drug users with criminal records, testified that Butsch said he relied on his cat, Sam, to determine who was good and who deserved to die. When Sam refused to go near the sleeping Vavricka, Butsch shot him, they said.

Butsch's lawyer argued that the witnesses framed Butsch and made up the cat story.

He faces 38 to 50 years in prison at sentencing Tuesday.

(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Burglar Makes Pizza, Flees with $3,000

SAN CLEMENTE, Calif. (AP) -- A pizza parlor burglar paused to make a pizza before fleeing with $3,000.

A security camera showed the intruder playing pizza chef after breaking into Sonny's Pizza and Pasta through a bathroom window early Monday, said Lt. Ted Boyne of the Orange County Sheriff's Department.

The burglar put on an employee's shirt after entering the pizza parlor about 2 a.m., then he made a pizza, spreading sauce, cheese and pepperoni over the dough and placing it in the oven, the lieutenant said.

Employees arriving about 3 a.m. apparently scared him off before the pizza was ready, Boyne said. The burglar fled with about $3,000.

"We found the pizza burned in the oven," he added.

Source, November 2, 2005.

He Lived on Mars

When 'Boriska' turned two, he started drawing pictures, which looked abstract at first: they were mixtures of blue and violet colors. When psychologists examined the drawings, they said that the boy was probably trying to draw the auras of people, whom he could see around him. Boris was not even three, when he started telling his parents of the Universe.

"He could name all the planets of the solar systems and even their satellites. He was showering me with names and numbers of galaxies. At first I found it very frightening, I thought that my son was out of mind, but then I decided to check if those names really existed. I took some books on astronomy and I was shocked to find out that the boy knew so much about this science," his mother Nadezhda said.

While the world's leading space agencies are trying to find traces of life on planet Mars, eight-year-old Boriska tells his parents and friends everything he knows about the Martian civilization. Boriska remembers his past life.

A Russian journalist has recently talked to the boy about his unique knowledge and experience:

- Boriska, did you really live on Mars as people say around here?
- Yes, I did, it is true. I remember that time, when I was 14 or 15 years old. The Martians were waging wars all the time so I would often have to participate in air raids with a friend of mine. We could travel in time and space flying in round spaceships, but we would observe life on planet Earth on triangular aircrafts. Martian spaceships are very complicated. They are layered, and they can fly all across the Universe.
- Is there life on Mars now?
- Yes, there is, but the planet lost its atmosphere many years ago as a result of a global catastrophe. But Martian people still live there under the ground. They breath carbonic gas.
- How do they look those Martian people?
- Oh they are very tall, taller than seven meters. They possess incredible qualities.

"When we showed our boy to a variety of scientists, including ufologists, astronomers and historians, all of them agreed that it would be impossible to make all those stories up. Foreign languages and scientific terms, which he says, are usually used by specialists studying this or that particular science," Boriska's mother said.

From Pravda, October 29, 2005.

You Wouldn't See It

When the makers of dandruff shampoo Nizoral decided to launch an ad campaign featuring a black-robed Lutheran minister recommending the dandruff shampoo, they failed to win favour with one target group - the Danish clergy.

Denmark's priests call the advert poorly done and have complained to the shampoo's producer.

The priests' problem with the advert - in addition to the bogus recommendation - is that the female priest pictured is not a Danish priest at all. Her vestments, which lack the Danish collar, indicate that she is more likely a Swede, the Danish priests' organisation says.

After learning of the advert for 'the one true dandruff shampoo', the foreman for the Danish Association of Priests, Helle Christiansen, contacted its producers, international pharmaceutical producer Jannsen-Cilag, to find out whether any priests had actually tried the shampoo.

They hadn't, and Christiansen said that discredited the advertising technique.

"The advertisement indicates that our priests have taken an active position regarding Nizoral shampoo, and that isn't the case," she said. "Therefore, the advert is misleading - and laughable. Danish priests have such a big white collar that you'd never see their dandruff - if they had it."

Jannsen-Cilag marketing manager Jens Sandstrøm said to Ritzau that the advert was created by a Swedish agency as part of a joint-Scandinavian campaign, and that it had not caused any problems in either Norway or Sweden.

He pointed out that the detail about the Danish priests' collars meant that the message might have been lost on some Danes.

"The intention was to use the metaphor of the black outfit - but we made the mistake of not considering Danish priests' white collar," said Sandstrøm, a Dane who lives and works in Sweden.

He said the advert would continue its run as scheduled.

The Copenhagen Post, November 1, 2005.

Worth Being a Witch?

In Britain, Mother Shipton is considered to be one of the famous old witches. The woman was born in 1490 in a cave close to the village Knaresborough where many witches and sorcerers were living in that time. Locals believed the girl's mother was a witch; she died as soon as gave birth to the daughter. The girl, Ursula, began to cry loudly and a woman going by the cave heard the crying and took the newborn girl.

When the girl grew up she became a very kind sorceress. She always cured people of the neighborhood for free and warned them of various natural disasters. The Royal Court also knew about the girl because she exactly predicted when the huge Spanish fleet would approach the English coast in 1588 and when London would be gripped with fire.

The legend says the young witch loved men. When still young she married carpenter Tony Shipton, but he died several years later. Then the widow began to seduce young handsome men. Though an old woman now, she met boys in the forest and seduced them as a young beautiful girl. Villagers said they often saw young men having sex with the old lady in the forest.

From an article by Alexander Zotov in Pravda.

It's Just Fine, Thank You

Franklin Roosevelt vetoed 635 bills during his presidency. Lyndon Joyhnson vetoed 30, and Jimmy Carter 31.

President Bush has yet to veto a single bill.

The Washington Post