he lives!!

birder proves existence of "lord god bird"!!

Woodpecker Thought to Be Extinct Is Sighted in Arkansas
By JAMES GORMAN

Published: April 28, 2005

LITTLE ROCK, Ark., April 28 - The ivory-billed woodpecker, a magnificent bird that ornithologists had long given up for extinct, has been sighted in the watery tupelo swampland of a wildlife refuge in Arkansas, scientists announced today.

The birders, ornithologists, government agencies and conservation organizations involved had kept the discovery secret for more than a year, while efforts to protect the bird and its territory went into high gear. Their announcement today provoked rejoicing and excitement among birdwatchers, for whom the ivory bill has long been a holy grail: a creature that has been called the Lord God bird, apparently because when people saw it they would be so impressed they would utter an involuntary "Lord God!"

"This great chieftain of the woodpecker tribe," as John James Audubon described the ivory bill - with its 30-inch wingspan, stunning black and white coloration with red on the male's cockade and a long, powerful bill - was once found in hardwood swamps and bottom land through the Southeast. As the forests were logged the numbers of birds decreased, until the ivory bill, the largest American woodpecker, faded from view. The last documented sighting was in Louisiana in 1944.

Though it appeared lost, the ivory bill haunted birders and ornithologists and others, and over the years there were dozens of reports of sightings. But each effort was unmasked as a hoax or wishful thinking - until Feb. 11, 2004.

On that date Gene M. Sparling III, an amateur birdwatcher from Hot Springs, Ark., sighted a large woodpecker with a red crest in the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge, about 60 miles northeast of Little Rock. Tim W. Gallagher at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, author of a new book about the ivory bill, "The Grail Bird," saw Mr. Sparling's report on a Web site, and within two weeks he and Bobby R. Harrison of Oakwood College in Huntsville, Ala., were in a canoe in the refuge, with Mr. Sparling guiding them.

Mr. Gallagher said he expected to camp out for a week but after one night out, on Feb. 27 he and Mr. Harrison saw an ivory bill fly in front of their canoe.

When they wrote down their notes independently and compared them, Mr. Gallagher said Mr. Harrison was struck by the reality of the discovery and began sobbing, repeating, "I saw an ivory bill."

Mr. Gallagher felt the same. "I couldn't speak," he said.
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study links fat, dementia

Study Links Middle Age Obesity to Dementia

By EMMA ROSS, AP Medical Writer
1 hour, 31 minutes ago

LONDON - The most convincing research so far suggests that being fat in your 40s might raise your risk of developing dementia later in life.

In a study that followed more than 10,000 Californians for almost 30 years, researchers found that the fatter people were, the greater their risk for
Alzheimer's disease or other forms of dementia. The results were published online Friday by the British Medical Journal.

"This adds another major reason for concern about the obesity problem and it now unfolds yet another area where ... we have to say, 'for God's sake, we better get cracking,'" said Philip James, an obesity expert who was not connected with the research and who heads the International Obesity Task Force.

The study data showed that roughly 7 out of 100 normal-weight people developed dementia. Among overweight people, the risk was almost 8 out of 100; and for obese people, it was 9 out of 100.
...

Adjusting for conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and other factors, the study found a higher risk of dementia for heavy people. Using the body-mass index, which measures height and weight to classify how fat people are, obese people were 74 percent more likely to develop mind-robbing dementia than normal weight people. Overweight people were 35 percent more likely to develop it.

The effect was more profound for women than men. Obese women were twice as likely as women of normal weight to develop Alzheimer's disease or other types of dementia, while for men the risk increased by 30 percent.
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he promised what?

another empty bush promise...

Bush Faces Hurdles on Energy Agenda
Apr 23, 11:16 PM (ET)
By TOM RAUM

WASHINGTON (AP) - Running for president five years ago, George W. Bush pledged to jawbone energy-exporting nations to keep oil prices low and to win passage of legislation to spur more domestic energy production.
...

nrc imposes record wrist-slap

this could have been another chenobyl, and they fine them a few million lousy bucks?!

NRC Slaps FirstEnergy With Record Fine
Fri Apr 22, 5:33 AM ET
U.S. National - AP
By JOHN SEEWER, Associated Press Writer

TOLEDO, Ohio - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission proposed a record $5.45 million fine against a nuclear plant operator where inspectors found the most extensive corrosion ever seen at a U.S. nuclear reactor.

The NRC said Thursday that FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co. restarted the Davis-Besse plant in 2000 without completing a cleaning and inspection of the reactor vessel head, then misled the agency about what it had done.

Leaking boric acid was found two years later during a routine inspection. The acid ate nearly all the way through a 6-inch-thick steel cap.

"This substantial fine emphasizes the very high safety and regulatory significance of FirstEnergy's failure to comply with NRC requirements," said Luis Reyes, NRC executive director for operations.

The NRC also said it is banning one of the company's former engineers from working in the nuclear industry for five years. The agency said that Andrew Siemaszko was responsible for making sure the reactor vessel head was cleaned and inspected and that he deliberately provided false information.

The damage at the plant along the Lake Erie shore, 30 miles east of Toledo, ranks among the nation's worst nuclear problems since the accident at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania in 1979. It led to a review of 68 similar plants nationwide.

The Davis-Besse plant was closed for two years but returned to full power last April.

The fine more than doubles the previous record of $2.1 million handed down by the NRC in 1997 against the operators of the Millstone nuclear plant in Connecticut for safety violations.

FirstEnergy spokesman Richard Wilkins said the company had no immediate comment. The plant operator and Siemaszko have 90 days to appeal.

A federal grand jury is investigating whether the company provided false statements to the NRC, and the utility said in December that it probably would face charges.

bush nominee caught in lie

in other news, bush strongly defends his nomination of col. sanders as ambassador to the henhouse...

Testimony of U.N. Nominee Is Disputed
Fri Apr 22, 7:55 AM ET
Top Stories - Los Angeles Times
By Paul Richter and Sonni Efron
Times Staff Writers

WASHINGTON — A former U.S. ambassador to South Korea said Thursday that John R. Bolton, President Bush's choice for U.N. ambassador, might have misled the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about a provocative and controversial 2003 speech on North Korea.

The former ambassador, Thomas Hubbard, also described Bolton yelling and slamming down a telephone on him during a confrontation. It was the latest example of the allegedly confrontational behavior that had helped stall Bolton's nomination.
...

Bolton, who has served since 2001 as undersecretary of State, has been hobbled by opposition to his critical views on the United Nations, his use of U.S. intelligence assessments in high-profile speeches and testimony, and his reportedly harsh treatment of intelligence analysts and others.

In July 2003, Bolton attracted widespread attention with a speech in South Korea in which he leveled repeated personal attacks on North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. Some U.S. diplomats feared the speech would lead North Korea to pull out of international talks on its nuclear weapons program.

In testimony last week, Bolton implied that Hubbard, former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, had approved of the speech in advance and that he had thanked Bolton for his comments afterward.

But Hubbard, a career diplomat who was Bush's ambassador to South Korea from 2001 to 2004, contradicted Bolton, saying in an interview that he had not expressed gratitude for the speech and that he had disapproved of it.

"I didn't approve personally of the tone of the speech, and had urged him to tone it down," said Hubbard, now retired from the foreign service.

Bolton testified that the night before the speech, Hubbard had "reviewed it one last time and made a few more changes." After the speech, Bolton testified, Hubbard had praised him.

"And I can tell you what our ambassador to South Korea, Tom Hubbard, said after the speech," Bolton said under questioning by Sen. Lincoln Chafee (news, bio, voting record) (R-R.I.). "He said: 'Thanks a lot for that speech, John; it will help us a lot out here.' "

Hubbard disputed Bolton's testimony.

Before the speech, Hubbard said, he had urged Bolton and his staff "to tone it down, on grounds that it would be counterproductive to getting the North Koreans to the negotiating table."

But Bolton "rejected that suggestion," Hubbard said.

He said that Bolton did agree to accept some recommendations on factual errors, and on some phrases that Hubbard "thought would be taken badly or misunderstood by the South Koreans." When he offered thanks, it was for those changes, Hubbard said.
...

unknown species lurk in human gut

hey, my stomach is like the amazonian rainforest...

Gut-Level Census Surprises
Sat Apr 16, 7:55 AM ET
Top Stories - Los Angeles Times
By Rosie Mestel
Times Staff Writer

Scientists have discovered a trove of life-forms lurking in the human gut — 395 different bacteria, 60% of which had never been described, according to a report published Thursday in the online edition of the journal Science.

The study analyzed samples of stool and mucous from six parts of people's colons. The results were surprising and "a bit sobering," said the paper's lead author, Stanford University researcher Dr. Paul Eckburg.

Eckburg and his team used DNA analysis to identify the bacteria in samples harvested from three middle-aged Canadians during colonoscopy examinations.

About 80% of the bacteria had never been cultured in a laboratory, probably because they need the oxygen-free conditions of the gut to grow.

The scientists also found that the species of bacteria varied from one gut to the next, perhaps because of dietary differences or because people are exposed to different microbes when their guts — sterile at birth — are first colonized.

Most of the bacteria belong to two groups known as Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes. Some of the bacteria are thought to feed the gut wall, stimulate the growth of nutrient-supplying blood vessels and prevent disease-causing germs from taking up residence in the colon.

Samples from more than 300 people remain to be analyzed, so the census may be far from complete, Eckburg said.
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myth of liberal courts

surprise, surprise, the courts are already dominated by republican-appointed judges, even as the bush administration rails against the bogeyman of an "activist judiciary" in an effort to overturn the last remaining shred of checks and balances on judicial appointments.

Judges Battle Transcends Numbers
Sun Apr 17, 7:55 AM ET
Top Stories - Los Angeles Times
By David G. Savage
Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — The looming battle over President Bush's nominees to the U.S. appeals courts might derail the Senate, but it probably won't make much difference in the federal courts. That's because Republican appointees already dominate them.

Ninety-four of the 162 active judges now on the U.S. Court of Appeals were chosen by Republican presidents. On 10 of the 13 circuit courts, Republican appointees have a clear majority. And, since 1976, at least seven of the nine seats on the U.S. Supreme Court have been filled by Republican appointees.

Even if Bush wins approval for the dozen disputed nominees who have been blocked by Senate Democrats, only one circuit would change its ideological balance — hardly a seismic shift. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, now evenly divided, would become 10-6 Republican.

Though it remains a staple of conservative rhetoric that the courts are "out of control" and driven by "liberal activists," the GOP's control of the White House for 24 of the last 36 years has given Republicans — if not conservatives — a firm grip on the federal judiciary.

But the fact is that party labels don't necessarily mean much on the bench.

For Republicans, that has become especially clear as the party has moved further to the right, in some cases leaving "conservative" judges looking "moderate."

That's why last year's Republican Party platform took aim at the GOP-dominated federal courts and pledged to "stop activist judges from banning the Pledge of Allegiance and the Ten Commandments."
...

bush attempts coverup of williams-gate

White House Curbs Probe of Commentator's Hiring
Fri Apr 15, 7:55 AM ET
Top Stories - Los Angeles Times
By Tom Hamburger
Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — Education Department investigators looking into the administration's controversial hiring of commentator Armstrong Williams were denied the opportunity to interview some White House personnel because of a White House claim that such interviews could breach long-standing legal traditions.

"By statute, an inspector general's jurisdiction is limited," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Thursday. "An IG can request information from other federal agencies but not from the White House office."

She said the White House did allow the investigators to interview one White House employee who had been on loan to the Education Department when Williams was hired. But it has not granted permission for other interviews.

The White House refusal came to light Thursday after Rep. George Miller (news, bio, voting record) (D-Martinez) said he was told about it by Inspector General Jack Higgins. Miller wrote to the White House asking that investigators have full access to White House personnel so they could get to the bottom of the hiring of Williams.

Williams, a television and newspaper commentator, received $240,000 in federal funds last year to promote the president's No Child Left Behind initiative. Williams did not disclose the payments made to him through a public relations firm hired by the Education Department, even as he appeared on television promoting the president's work.
...

bushco hypocrisy on fairness

Administration Stifles Dialog on Social Security

The Bush administration has denied use of public facilities to a group critical of its version of Social Security reform, while using federal resources to pay for propaganda and promotion of its agenda. It refused to allow a women's group to hold a conference on Social Security at the National Archives because they did not have a speaker supporting private accounts. The same week three people were ejected from a federal government supported town hall meeting on Social Security in Colorado because their car had an anti-war bumper sticker.
...

caltech student sentenced to 8 yrs for vandalizing suv's

Caltech Student Gets Prison for SUV Arson
Apr 19, 10:44 AM (ET)

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A Caltech graduate student convicted of helping to firebomb scores of sport utility vehicles was sentenced to more than eight years in federal prison and ordered to pay $3.5 million in restitution.
...

Cottrell, 24, was convicted in November of conspiracy to commit arson and seven counts of arson for an August 2003 vandalism spree that damaged and destroyed about 125 SUVs at dealerships and homes in the San Gabriel Valley east of Los Angeles.

Cottrell was acquitted of using a destructive device - Molotov cocktails - in a crime of violence. That was the most serious charge he faced and it carried a sentence of at least 30 years in prison.

At his trial, the prosecution had accused Cottrell of "arrogance" and a "towering superiority" toward people who did not share his environmental views. Cottrell had testified that SUV dealers were evil.

The judge said he felt sorry for Cottrell, a doctoral candidate in the physics department at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, but he had only himself to blame.

"What a talent to have wasted," Klausner said.

Vandals used spray-paint to deface the vehicles with slogans such as "Fat, Lazy Americans,""polluter" and "ELF," for Earth Liberation Front, a radical environmental group.

Prosecutors estimated the total damage at $2.3 million.

Defense lawyers argued that Cottrell had agreed with two friends to spray-paint vehicles, but was surprised when they began to hurl Molotov cocktails.

Federal prosecutors have identified former Caltech students Tyler Johnson and Michie Oe as "fugitive co-conspirators" in the case. It is believed that both have fled the country.

Cottrell was arrested in March 2004 after authorities tracked e-mails sent to the Los Angeles Times. The sender said he was involved in the SUV attacks and affiliated with the Earth Liberation Front.

data theft larger than first revealed

DSW Data Theft Much Larger Than Estimated
Apr 19, 9:06 AM (ET)

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Thieves who accessed a DSW Shoe Warehouse database obtained 1.4 million credit card numbers and the names on those accounts - 10 times more than investigators estimated last month.

DSW Shoe Warehouse said Monday that it has contact information for about half of those people and started sending letters notifying them of the thefts, which happened at 108 stores in 25 states between November and February. A list of the stores is available on the company's Web site.

The stolen information did not include home addresses or personal identification numbers, the Columbus, Ohio-based company said in a statement.

The company, a subsidiary of Retail Ventures Inc. (RVI), announced the thefts last month after notifying federal authorities and credit card companies. At the time, the Secret Service said only that information involving more than 100,000 people had been compromised.

Besides the credit card numbers, the thieves obtained driver's license numbers and checking account numbers from 96,000 transactions involving checks, the company said. Customer names, addresses and Social Security numbers were not stolen, DSW said.
...

the gift that keeps giving

imagine that! nukes causing cancer.

US study finds H-bomb tests still causing cancer in Marshalls 50 years on
Sun Apr 17, 4:49 PM ET
Health - AFP

MAJURO (AFP) - A US study has found that the number of cancers caused by hydrogen bomb testing in the Marshall Islands is set to double, more than half a century after the tests were conducted in the tiny Pacific nation.

The study by the US governments National Cancer Institute (NCI) estimated 530 cancers had already been caused by the tests, particularly the explosion of a 15 megaton hydrogen bomb codenamed Bravo on March 1, 1954.

It said another 500 cancers were likely to develop among Marshall Islanders who were exposed to radiation more than 50 years ago.

"We estimate that the nuclear testing program in the Marshall Islands will cause about 500 additional cancer cases among Marshallese exposed during the years 1946-1958, about a nine percent increase over the number of cancers expected in the absence of exposure to regional fallout," the NCI study said.

The study said because of the young age of the population when exposed in the 1950s, more than 55 percent of cancers have yet to develop or be diagnosed.

The NCI completed the study in September last year but it was only publicly released last week after officials from the Marshall Islands noticed a reference to it in a US Congressional report and requested a copy.

It was prepared for the US Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, which is scheduled to launch hearings next month to review a petition from the Marshall Islands seeking more than three billion dollars in additional compensation for nuclear test damages and health care.

At the time of the Bravo test at Bikini Atoll, US officials played down the health implications for islanders.

Bikini Islanders were not evacuated despite their land's being engulfed in snow-like radioactive fallout for two-to-three days after the Bravo bomb, which was equivalent to 1,000 Hiroshima bombs.

Although many islanders developed severe radiation burns and had their hair fall out as their land was engulfed in fallout, US Atomic Energy Commission authorities issued a statement following the test saying "there were no burns" and the islanders were in good health.

US officials later allowed islanders to return home to live in radioactive environments without performing any cleanup work on their islands.

The US paid 270 million dollars in a compensation package in the mid-1980s part of which went to the Majuro-based Nuclear Claims Tribunal.

But the tribunal says only a limited amount was made available for payouts and has described the original settlement as "manifestly inadequate".