The World of Homis

Heroin seized in Waterville

2008-04-11T08:56:00.001-04:00

WATERVILLE -- A Connecticut man who showed up Wednesday at District Court to face an assault charge was arrested by police in connection with heroin found last month near the Head Start school in the South End.
As an added bonus, police said, Darryl Copeland, 25, of Hartford, had 98 bags of heroin on him Wednesday, adding new, more serious charges.

Police had been waiting for Copeland to return, Deputy Chief Charles Rumsey said.

Nine packets of Blue Magic heroin were found March 4 behind the Kennebec Valley Community Action Program building.

Police said the discovery could have saved the life of a child who might have found the pretty packets and tasted the contents.

"It didn't take us very long to discover that the night prior to that heroin being discovered, Waterville police had actually detained Mr. Copeland right there on that corner for suspicion of an assault that had taken place in a cab," Rumsey said.

Copeland was interviewed and issued a summons to appear in court related to a fight that allegedly took place in the cab that night.

"His court date was today," Rumsey said.

He said investigators "put two and two together" after realizing that police had spoken to Copeland near where the heroin had been found.

Police ran Copeland's name and found he had arrests and convictions in Connecticut in 2002 for possession and sale of heroin, Rumsey said. A search warrant for Copeland and the vehicle in which he was a passenger was secured and police waited for the court date to arrive.

"When he came back up to Waterville for his court appearance today, we were watching and waiting for him," Rumsey said. "When he left the courthouse this afternoon Detective Chris Paradis and Office Dwayne Cloutier and a number of other police officers tailed him in the vehicle he was in from the courthouse down to the South End."

The car was parked near The Chez on Water Street, where police converged on the vehicle and searched Copeland and the car.

"In his right front pocket officers located 10 bundles of heroin -- there was 98 bags of heroin -- they are usually bundled 10 bags to a bundle," he said. "All marked Blue Magic and all packaged the very same way as the heroin that was recovered by KVCAP, which is a very unusual method of packaging heroin. We haven't seen it like this before."

He said the heroin is packaged in small glassine bags and stamped Blue Magic, then are encapsulated in black plastic, almost like a bubble pack.

Each bag is about one-tenth of a gram and sells for $25-30. Ten bags make up one gram of heroin. Copeland is charged with aggravated trafficking in heroin, a Class A felony, punishable by up to 30 years in prison for the 98 bags seized Wednesday. The charge is aggravated by the amount of heroin -- valued at about $3,000 -- and by its proximity to the Head Start school and the alternative education school on Silver Street, Rumsey said. He is charged additionally with possession of about three grams of cocaine and prescription pills. The charge related to the March 4 heroin case is Class B felony, furnishing drugs, punishable by up to 10 years. The charge is not aggravated further due to the relatively small quantity of drugs -- nine bags -- in that case, according to Rumsey said.

Bail was set at $31,500 cash.

Waterville Police Chief Joseph Massey said he was pleased with the resolution of the case. He said heroin found within 20 feet of any school touches a nerve.

"Officers Paradis and Cloutier have done a lot of work over the last month on this particular case and it all came together for them today," Massey said. "In addition, patrol officers were instrumental in being kind of the eyes and ears, relaying information to them as to what they were looking for -- how and who to identify when he came back to the city.

"What I like is the good, consistent effort to get drugs off the street, to arrest drug dealers and I think it's working," he said.

Copeland is scheduled to appear in Kennebec County Superior Court on July 8, but his initial appearance could be sometime this week.

Quoted from http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/4952592.html:

Heroin seized in Waterville

Technorati Tags: Justice,Maine,Sad

Smelly stuff smears road Trail of cow manure is talk in 3 towns

2008-02-05T14:26:00.001-05:00

By Morning Sentinel Staff

A 4-mile cow manure spill through three towns kept residents plugging their noses Monday and sent motorists to area car washes.

The mystery of who spilled the manure on Route 100A from Winslow to Benton and into Clinton remained unsolved as of Monday night.

But Benton Road Commissioner Kenneth Dudley tried to figure it out. He followed the manure spill, hoping to find the source -- or the destination -- and used his plow truck to scrape it off the road even though he isn't responsible for the state-owned highway.

"The Town Office called me and said that somebody'd come in there and complained in there and he called it 'cow poop,' so I thought I'll go look -- I'm coming into town anyways," Dudley said.

"I was down to Waterville and I came through and it was quite messy in the road just about where the town line was and it disappeared on that flat. I lost it near Bellsqueeze Road. I don't really know where it went to. I didn't smell nothing at first. I had a guy with me and he said he could sure smell it."

The trail of manure in the northbound lane of Route 100A started in Winslow, just south of the Benton town line, continued past Libby's Variety store, the Town Office and Dan's Used Cars, then headed toward Clinton.

Once in Clinton it traveled another couple of miles and turned west off the paved road just before a red farmhouse.

The manure followed a snowy field up to the red horizon where the sun was setting around 4:45 p.m. Farm equipment was parked next to a big pile.

At Libby's store, owner Bob Libby was eating a sandwich for supper and hadn't counted on it being accompanied by the odor of manure.

"I just got in and I said, 'What in hell smells?'" he recalled.

His wife, Diane, came into the store after walking the dog. She said people had been talking about the manure spill all day.

"Some lady came in and she had a sizable amount on her car," she said. "She got some coins to go to the car wash."

Stopping at Libby's on her way home from work, Pamela Hall, like everyone else in town, was talking about the stench in the road. She said she drove for what seemed like miles, with the odor never letting up.

"It's like, phew," Hall said. "I began to think maybe I stepped in something. I couldn't imagine what it was because the smell went on so long."

Diane Libby preferred to look at the positive side of the situation.

"It's good country air, that's all," she said. "We're going to have some good green grass along the side of the road."

Smelly stuff smears road Trail of cow manure is talk in 3 towns

Technorati Tags: Funny,Maine,Weird

Men who use mobile phones face increased risk of infertility

2008-01-29T10:53:00.001-05:00

by JENNY HOPE - Last updated at 21:01pm on 23rd October 2006

Phone the doctor: Men who use mobile phones could face increased risk of infertility. Men who use mobile phones could be risking their fertility, warn researchers.

A new study shows a worrying link between poor sperm and the number of hours a day that a man uses his mobile phone.

Those who made calls on a mobile phone for more than four hours a day had the worst sperm counts and the poorest quality sperm, according to results released yesterday at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine annual meeting in New Orleans.

Doctors believe the damage could be caused by the electromagnetic radiation emitted by handsets or the heat they generate.

The findings suggest millions of men may encounter difficulties in fathering a child due to the widespread use of mobile phones and offers another possible explanation for plummeting fertility levels among British males.

Sperm counts among British men have fallen by 29 per cent over the past decade, a drop which has also been blamed on increasing obesity, smoking, stress, pollution and 'gender-bending' chemicals which disrupt the hormone system.

The latest study backs up previous research which indicated a link between mobile phone use and sperm quality, but it is the biggest and best designed to date.

US researchers in Cleveland and New Orleans, and doctors in Mumbai, India, looked at more than 360 men undergoing checks at a fertility clinic who were classified into three groups according to their sperm count.

Men who used a mobile for more than four hours a day had a 25 per cent lower sperm count than men who never used a mobile.

The men with highest usage also had greater problems with sperm quality, with the swimming ability of sperm - a crucial factor in conception - down by a third.

They had a 50 per cent drop in the number of properly formed sperm, with just one-fifth looking normal under a microscope.

Professor Ashok Agarwal, director of the Reproductive Research Center at the Cleveland Clinic, Ohio, who led the study, said "Almost a billion people are using cell phones around the world and the number is growing in many countries at 20 to 30 per cent a year.

"In another five years the number is going to double. People use mobile phones without thinking twice what the consequences may be.

"It is just like using a toothbrush but mobiles could be having a devastating effect on fertility. It still has to be proved but it could have a huge impact because mobiles are so much part of our lives."

Altogether 361 men in the study were divided into four groups, with 40 never using a mobile, 107 men using them for less than two hours a day, 100 men using them for two-four hours daily and 114 making calls for four or more hours a day.

The main finding was that on four measures of sperm potency - count, motility, viability and morphology, or appearance - there were significant differences between the groups.

The greater the use of mobile phones, the greater the reduction in each measure. Prof Agarwal said "This was very clear and very significant. Many in the lowest group for sperm count would be below normal as defined by the World Health Organization."

The WHO says a normal sperm count is above 20 million per millilitre of seminal fluid. "There was a significant decrease in the most important measures of sperm health with cell phone use and that should definitely be reflected in a decrease in fertility" he said.

Motility measures the swimming ability of sperm, viability measures whether non-swimming sperm are still alive while morphology is the appearance compared to the norm.

Although the men were seeking fertility treatment at a clinic in Mumbai, not all would have had a problem - it could be their partners, he added.

Prof Agarwal said the most likely mechanism was damage to sperm-making cells in the testes caused by electromagnetic radiation or heat, although a fall in hormone production could also affect sperm motility and sperm DNA.

He said: "These cells in the testes have been shown to be susceptible to electromagnetic waves in previous research in animals.

"Somehow electromagnetic waves may be causing direct damage to these cells and that perhaps causes a decrease in sperm production."

Mobiles may also increase temperature in the groin, if a man was wearing it on a belt or carrying it around in a pocket.

Prof Agarwal said it was too early to advise men trying to start a family about whether they should limit their mobile phone use. He said "We still have a long way to go to prove this but we have just had another study approved."

More than 40 million people in Britain are thought to use mobile phones. Alasdair Philips, director of the consumer pressure group Powerwatch said "It's a plausible link between the amount of time spent using a mobile phone and a possible effect on male fertility.

"The eyes, breasts and testicles are the areas of the body most likely to absorb the energy and many men carry their mobiles attached to their belt."

Sending text messages uses less power than talking but it can be a more intense emission of radiation, especially on trains, he said.

"I've seen men on trains spending two or three hours continually texting with their mobile phones held in their laps, and they press Send in the same position when it starts to seek a signal.

"This needs a considerable amount of power within what is effectively a metal box. We advise people to send a text with their arm outstretched next to the window when traveling on a train" he added.

He said local heating of the groin triggered by a mobile phone might also be involved in affecting sperm quality.

"Sperm is very temperature sensitive as shown by many studies, and a short-term rise in temperature could be responsible" he added.

However, Dr Allan Pacey, senior lecturer in andrology at the University of Sheffield, said "This is a good quality study but I don’t think it tackles the issue.

"If you’re using your phone for four hours a day, presumably it is out of your pocket for longer. That raises a big question: how is it that testicular damage is supposed to occur?"

He said mobile phone use may be a marker for other lifestyle factors known to affect sperm quality.

"Maybe people who use a phone for four hours a day spend more time sitting in cars, which could mean there’s a heat issue. It could be they are more stressed, or more sedentary and sit about eating junk food getting fat. Those seem to be better explanations than a phone causing the damage at such a great distance" he added.

Men who use mobile phones face increased risk of infertility | the Daily Mail

Technorati Tags: Cell Phones,Health,Scary

Fire officials seek ban of novelty lighters

2008-01-21T09:54:00.001-05:00

By Morning Sentinel Staff
The State Fire Marshal's Office will hold a news conference Tuesday to support a ban of the sale of novelty cigarette lighters in Maine, according to the Department of Public safety.

A collection of novelty lighters was purchased at Maine stores during the past year.

Some emit a flame four inches high, and adults and children have been burned using them, department spokesman Stephen McCausland reported Friday.

The news conference will take place in the Statehouse, Hall of Flags, at 2:30 p.m.

Quoted from http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/4671857.html:

Fire officials seek ban of novelty lighters

Technorati Tags: Lame,Maine,Sad

Sex toy triggers bomb scare in Sweden

2008-01-17T15:01:00.001-05:00

Vibrating sex toy triggers bomb scare in Swedish apartment garage

updated 4:55 p.m. ET, Wed., Jan. 16, 2008
STOCKHOLM, Sweden - A Swedish bomb squad called out to disarm a suspicious package on Wednesday did not find a ticking bomb. But they did find a vibrating sex toy.
A janitor alerted police after he found the package in a garage of an apartment building in Goteborg, the country's second-largest city, police spokesman Jan Strannegard said.
The package was humming and vibrating suspiciously, so police took no chances and sent out a team of explosives experts. After having cordoned off the area, they opened the package with bomb disposal equipment, only to find the battery-operated device inside.

"The package was vibrating when the janitor found it, but I think it had sort of died out by the time it was disarmed," Strannegard said.

Sex toy triggers bomb scare in Sweden - Weird news- msnbc.com

Technorati Tags: Funny, International

ABC News: 50-Pound Face Tumor: One Man's Nightmare

2008-01-11T16:03:00.001-05:00

By DAN CHILDS
ABC News Medical Unit
Jan. 11, 2008

To see the face of 32-year-old Huang Chuancai is to witness a rare genetic condition in its most terrible form.

Chinese doctors say Huang, of China's southern Hunan province, suffers from a disease known as neurofibromatosis, a genetic disorder of the nervous system that primarily affects the development and growth of neural cell tissues.

For many of its sufferers, the disease means abnormal growth of these tissues and, as a result, facial disfigurement. But Huang's case could well be the most extreme case of such disfigurement in the world today.

Before surgical intervention, 50 pounds of tumor tissue had pulled and twisted Huang's face into a distorted form, nearly unrecognizable as human. According to wire reports, doctors found that the heavy mass that droops from his head and face had deformed his backbone, stunting his growth. The tumor had totally covered his left eye, while his left ear hung down to his shoulder, and his right ear and jaw were completely engulfed.

Now, after more than two decades of suffering the horrific advance of his tumor, Huang is recovering from a second round of surgery on Monday to remove the massive growth. The initial operation, which took place last July, was a risky one-and-a-half-hour procedure that removed the largest of Huang's tumors, which weighed about 33 pounds.

While many more operations will be needed to remove all the excess tissue, Huang is reportedly hopeful that the treatments will allow him to lead a more normal life.

"I hope that when my illness is cured, I can go back home and have a nice spring festival with my family," he told Reuters.

Unfortunately, plastic and cosmetic surgeons say, it is highly unlikely that the surgeries will result in a normal appearance.

There is "zero chance of [Huang] looking normal, since the muscles, nerves, eye, bone and sometimes brain can be involved," notes Dr. Henry Kawamoto, clinical professor of plastic surgery at UCLA and director of the university's craniofacial clinic.

"I doubt that this patient will look 'normal' as suggested by [past media coverage]," agrees Park Avenue plastic surgeon Dr. Darrick Antell. "The patient would certainly be substantially better, but the degree of the problem is so large that 'normal' is unlikely in my opinion."

ABC News: 50-Pound Face Tumor: One Man's Nightmare

Technorati Tags: Health,International,Scary,Science,Weird

Officer Helps Stranded Motorist, Then Arrests Him

2008-01-09T14:56:00.001-05:00

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. -- A Portsmouth police officer helped a stranded motorist get his car started, then arrested the driver for marijuana the officer said he found in the car.

Patrick Kimball, 21, of Eliot, Maine, pleaded guilty on Monday to two misdemeanor counts of drug possession. Prosecutors said that in November, an officer helped Kimball pour gas into his car, then got in and helped start it up.

While in the car, the officer said he saw a bag of marijuana in plain view. Police said several more bags were found in a later search of the car and of Kimball.

Prosecutors asked for a one-year jail sentence with six months suspended. A sentencing hearing will be held in one month.

Officer Helps Stranded Motorist, Then Arrests Him - Portland News Story - WMTW Portland

Technorati Tags: Justice,Maine,Sad

Atheist Files Discrimination Suit Against Wal-Mart

2008-01-04T21:20:00.001-05:00

SANFORD, Maine -- A Lebanon man said he was fired from Wal-Mart for refusing to dress up as Santa Claus.

Christopher Nolan, 27, claimed he was asked to dress as Santa last month at the Sanford Wal-Mart but would not, saying he was an atheist and didn’t believe in Christmas.

Nolan has filed a discrimination claim against the store with the Maine Human Rights Commission.

The commission’s investigation into the allegation could take as long as two years.

Quoted from http://www.wmtw.com/news/14971563/detail.html:

Atheist Files Discrimination Suit Against Wal-Mart - Portland News Story - WMTW Portland

Technorati Tags: Lame,Maine,Sad,Walmart

Cost of coitus: Male monkeys pay for sex

2008-01-03T14:58:00.001-05:00

PARIS (AFP) - Selling sex is said to be humankind's oldest profession but it may have deep evolutionary roots, according to a study into our primate cousins which found that male macaques pay for intercourse by using grooming as a currency.

Michael Gumert of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore made the discovery in a 20-month investigation into 50 long-tailed macaques in Kalimantan Tengah, Indonesia, New Scientist reports on Saturday.

On average, females had sex 1.5 times per hour.

But this rate jumped to 3.5 times per hour immediately after the female had been groomed by a male -- and her partner of choice was likely to be the hunky monkey that did the grooming.

Market forces also acted on the value of the transaction.

If there were several females in the area, the cost of buying sex would drop dramatically -- a male could "buy" a female for just eight minutes of nit-picking.

But if there were no females around, he would have to groom for up to 16 minutes before sex was offered.

The work supports the theory that biological market forces can explain social behaviour, the British weekly says.

"There is a very well-known mix of economic and mating markets in the human species itself," said Ronald Noe of France's University of Strasbourg.

"There are many examples of rich old men getting young attractive ladies."

Cost of coitus: Male monkeys pay for sex - Yahoo! News

Technorati Tags: Animals,Funny,International,Weird

Man thrown through window of watering hole

2007-12-28T20:37:00.001-05:00

By Bill Trotter
Friday, December 28, 2007 - Bangor Daily News

BAR HARBOR, Maine— A local man is facing a criminal charge after allegedly throwing another man through a window at a bar, according to police.

Marty Sherwood, 25, has been charged with aggravated assault, police Sgt. David Kerns said Thursday.

The incident occurred early Saturday at Little Anthony’s on Cottage Street. The victim, whose identity police did not disclose, was taken to Mount Desert Island Hospital in Bar Harbor and treated for a laceration to his face. He was released later that morning, Kerns said.

Police were called to the hospital after the incident as people connected with the fight created a scene by allegedly refusing to leave, threatening staff and damaging doors, according to dispatcher records.

Kerns said both the victim and Sherwood were intoxicated at the time of the altercation. Police were told it had been precipitated by the victim allegedly knocking a drink out of Sherwood’s hand, then escalated, he said.

The officer said he did not have an estimate of the damage from the fight or of the cost of the victim’s medical treatment. Police still were trying to determine what, if any, relationship existed between the two men, he said.

Sherwood is scheduled to appear in court in Ellsworth on Feb. 15, Kerns said.

Quoted from http://bangornews.com/news/t/hancock.aspx?articleid=158272&zoneid=178:

Bar Harbor: Man thrown through window of watering hole

Technorati Tags: Justice,Maine

Indiana Man Buys Truck With $25,000 In Change

2007-12-24T11:03:00.001-05:00

FRANKFORT, Ind. -- Frankfort resident Paul Brant considers himself a penny pincher. But it's his passion for saving quarters and gold dollar coins that's really paid off. The 70-year-old used more than $25,000 in change Friday to buy a new Dodge Ram half-ton pickup truck.

That purchase comes 13 years after he bought another truck using spare change. Brant stored his change in coffee cans, water jugs and piggy banks over the years. He said he got so much change by using vending machines at Chrysler in Kokomo, where he works. Brant was escorted Friday by sheriff's deputies as he brought the rolled coins to the dealership. He said he was raised to be thrifty. His father always paid in cash and saved up loose change to take vacations.

Quoted from http://www.wlky.com/news/14913765/detail.html:

12/22/07: Indiana Man Buys Truck With $25,000 In Change - Louisville News Story - WLKY Louisville

Technorati Tags: Cool,Cars

Why four little letters mean so much

2007-12-19T20:49:00.001-05:00

It's rude, it's obscene and it may even be like hitting someone in the face without damaging your knuckles – it's swearing.

According to psychologists, yelling 'f**k off' is a powerful form of assault, especially if the intended victim cannot avoid hearing you.

A US research team also suggested swearing evolved as a way to emotionally injure someone without getting into a fight.

'It's a substitute for physical violence,' said psychologist Dr Timothy Jay. 'From an evolutionary point of view, it's an advantage for us to be able to say “f**k you” from across the street.'

He believes swearing is also a form of social bonding. 'In the locker room, the guy who doesn't swear is a weirdo,' said Dr Jay.

He has heard 10,000 people swear in public, with the f-word and sh*t making up half of US curses.

Meanwhile, British linguist Tony McEnery admires the f-word's ability to be inserted into words such as 'absolutely', as in 'abso-f**king-lutely'.

To make a good swear word, say experts, it has to be frowned upon, be insulting and have a powerful sound. That's why the f-word works so well.

Despite efforts by moral crusaders to stamp out swearing, the scientists say it is hard-wired into people's brains.

Some hospital patients have been able to say only swear words after a stroke.

At one point, French poet Charles Baudelaire could say only 'Cré nom', meaning 'God damn'. His nurses sent him home and asked for an exorcism

Quoted from http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=80579&in_page_id=34&ito=newsnow:

Why four little letters mean so much | Metro.co.uk

Technorati Tags: Science,Weird

Monkeys and college students equal at mental math?

2007-12-18T16:21:00.001-05:00

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Monkeys performed about as well as college students at mental addition, U.S. researchers said on Monday in a finding that suggests nonverbal math skills are not unique to humans.

The research from Duke University follows the finding by Japanese researchers earlier this month that young chimpanzees performed better than human adults at a memory game.

Prior studies have found non-human primates can match numbers of objects, compare numbers and choose the larger number of two sets of objects.

"This is the first study that looked at whether or not they could make explicit decisions that were based on mathematical types of calculations," said Jessica Cantlon, a cognitive neuroscience researcher at Duke, whose work appeared in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Biology (www.plosbiology.org).

"It shows when you take language away from a human, they end up looking just like monkeys in terms of their performance," Cantlon said in a telephone interview.

Her study pitted the monkey math team of Boxer and Feinstein -- two female macaque monkeys named for U.S. senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein of California -- with 14 Duke University students.

"We had them do math on the fly," Cantlon said.

The task was to mentally add two sets of dots that were briefly flashed on a computer screen. The teams were asked to pick the correct answer from two choices on a different screen.

The humans were not allowed to count or verbalize as they worked, and they were told to answer as quickly as possible. Both monkeys and humans typically answered within 1 second.

And both groups fared about the same.

Cantlon said the study was not designed to show up Duke University students. "I think of this more as using non-human primates as a tool for discovering where the sophisticated human mind comes from," she said.

The researchers said the findings shed light on the shared mathematical abilities in humans and non-human primates and shows the importance of language -- which allows for counting and more advanced calculations -- in the evolution of math in humans.

"I don't think language is the only thing that differentiates humans from non-human primates, but in terms of math tasks, it is probably the big one," she said.

As for the teams, both were paid. Boxer and Feinstein got their favorite reward: a sip of Kool-Aid soft drink. As for the students, they got $10 each -- enough for a beer or two.

(Editing by Sandra Maler)

Monkeys and college students equal at mental math? | Oddly Enough | Reuters

Technorati Tags: Animals,Science,Weird

Congress Likely to Pass Incandescent Bulb Ban

2007-12-18T15:15:00.001-05:00

Congress is getting close to passing an energy bill that contains a little-known provision designed to phase out the 125-year-old incandescent light bulb in the next four to 12 years. Instead the future will be lit with next generation energy-efficient lighting.

read more | digg story

Hillary Clinton Farts

2007-12-18T14:58:00.001-05:00

Technorati Tags: Celebrity,Funny,Video

12 Reasons Why You Should Have Sex Tonight

2007-12-18T14:12:00.001-05:00

A hot, sweat-inducing sex session may be far more beneficial to your overall health than the time you spend on the treadmill.

read more | digg story

Doing his Civic duty in a snowstorm, City man fits Honda sedan with custom snowplow hardware

2007-12-18T08:34:00.001-05:00

WATERVILLE -- You'd think that a man who has had three strokes, chronic pain in his hands and been advised to take it easy would sit back indoors and watch the snow pile up during a winter storm. Not Keith Inman.
Instead of relaxing in a recliner, when the snow begins to fall, Inman, 58, heads outdoors and fires up his 1998 Honda Civic. Then the work and fun begins. Mounted in the front of the small sedan is a homemade snowplow he uses to clear the large parking lot behind the apartment building where he and his wife, Irene, live on Summer Street. It is a labor of love and Yankee ingenuity.

Inman paid a man $30 for an old scrap snowblower body and attached a pair of $13 wheels he bought at Mardens. He then screwed aluminum to the inside of the contraption so snow would not stick to the 49- inch plow. Using a garden tractor frame, Inman then bolted the rig to the front of his car. Inman said it is easy to remove the plow and reinstall it when it snows. "Two bolts hold it on -- that's it," he said.

Staff photo by David Leaming YANKEE INGENUITY: Keith Inman on Sunday cleans snow from his homemade snow plow that he built and mounted on his Honda Civic. Inman was clearing snow behind his apartment on Summer Street in Waterville. Inman said he used a snowblower housing attached to a tractor frame and bolted to his car. The unit has wheels and can effectively push snow. "The only drawback is I can't hit a snowbank hard or the car airbags could go off," Inman said. It works OK."

The front-wheel-drive car pushes the snow well because the plow wheels take most of the weight, he explained.

"I push the snow to a bank, back up and the snow falls out," he said. It plows along like a grocery cart." Inman then backs up for a new row and continues until the lot is plowed free of snow to about two inches off the ground.

"This last storm I finished plowing with my car before the landlord arrived with his plow truck," Inman said. There is one potential problem with a plow mounted to a car: "I can't hit the snowbank hard because it could set off the car airbags."

Inman said he could let the landlord clean out the lot but the seasonal chore is something he looks forward to.

"I'm handicapped, so I have to have something to do," he said a day after a nor'easter dumped 10 inches of snow.

"I plow often, a little at a time," Inman said.

"He is supposed to take it easy but this gives him something to do," Irene Inman added.

Quoted from http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/4574298.html:

Doing his Civic duty in a snowstorm<br>City man fits Honda<br>sedan with custom<br>snowplow hardware

Technorati Tags: Cool,Maine,Weird

Music makes children brainier, more agile, expert stresses

2007-12-17T20:12:00.001-05:00

Hamburg, Germany - Not only does it soothe the savage beast, but music also makes unruly children calmer while at the same time honing their facilities for cognitive skills and physical coordination, according to a leading expert. A mother's soft lullaby, granddad's whistling or granny's humming in the kitchen or the dulcet tones of father singing in the shower - all of these seemingly innocuous musical activities serve to help an infant not only in acquiring linguistic skills, but also in learning how human beings interact on a social level.

"Experiments have shown that unborn babies in the womb appear to relax in response to certain music and also that they seem to recognize this music after birth," says Professor Michael Schulte- Markwort, head of child psychology at Hamburg's University Hospital in Germany.

"From the outset, music helps the language centres in the brain to develop so that children who have been exposed to music at an early age tend to learn to speak earlier than those who are born into non- musical homes," he says.

"Music also helps in the development of motor skills while at the same time reducing tension," says Dr Schulte-Markwort.

"Learning the tunes and lyrics to songs also aids in developing memory skills for other tasks," he adds.

Rhythm and dancing also skills young muscles in coordination so that musical children are healthier and better coordinated than children whose parents never teach them to sing and dance and play a simple drum or other instrument.

"Children develop a feel for musical tones and associate certain tone patterns with certain rhythms," he points out.

"As soon as they learn to walk, they also begin to move rhythmically in time to musical stimuli and thus automatically begin to dance. Good and attentive parents naturally encourage their offspring to sing and dance rhythmically," he adds.

"That is why pre-schoolers should engage in games involving rhythmic movement and dancing, games that encourage children to clap in time with the beat or to beat out the rhythm on simple percussion instruments such as bells and chimes and little drums," says Schulte- Markwort.

Age five or six is ideal for teaching children to play a musical instrument because their minds are most receptive to learning the skills involved.

"If they have already been exposed to music and to rudimentary instruments, then at about age five or six they will think of learning to play an instrument as a kind of a game," he says.

"We are not talking about the violin or bassoon, which involve very fine motor skills, and we are also not talking about tedious piano lessons which bore young minds. But instead we are talking about simple flutes and other instruments which produce a melodic sound easily and enjoyably," he says.

"It is important to remember the fun factor. Singing, dancing and playing musical instruments must first and foremost be fun for children," he stresses.

Quoted from http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/159814.html:

Music makes children brainier, more agile, expert stresses : Health

Technorati Tags: Health,International,Science

James Daley: Insurers are cannier than you think

2007-12-10T20:52:00.001-05:00

The amazing story of John Darwin's "resurrection" and arrest on suspicion of fraud made for captivating reading this week. I should be clear from the outset that there is no evidence that Mr Darwin or his wife have committed any kind of fraud, but the whole episode left me wondering just how common deception really is in the insurance world.

According to a recent report by the Association of British Insurers, more than one in 10 general insurance claims have a fraudulent element to them. Most of these are car or homeowners inflating the value of the items that have been lost, stolen or damaged. For example, when their house is burgled, a sizeable proportion of people will happily throw in a few extra items on to the list of stolen goods, or will claim that their Casio watch was in fact a Rolex.

The report also reveals that certain demographic groups are more likely to make fraudulent claims than others. People who live in the north of England, for example, are 1.7 times more likely to commit insurance fraud than the average person. Men, as well as people with unsecured debts of over £1,000, are also more likely to exaggerate or falsify a claim.

But perhaps more surprisingly, the ABI discovered that people with high levels of savings are also more likely than the average person to make a fraudulent insurance claim, illustrating the fact that modern-day insurance fraud has become a very middle-class crime.

According to the Financial Ombudsman Service, one of the most common types of deception these days is a practice called "fronting", where families name one of the parents as a primary driver on their child's car, and put the teenager down as a secondary driver. This dramatically reduces what are usually punitively expensive premiums for younger drivers – but is totally fraudulent and illegal. According to Zurich insurance, more than one in 10 (predominantly middle-class) families are now guilty of fronting, many of whom are not even aware that they are in breach of the law.

As fraud levels have grown over the past few years, insurers' techniques to catch the perpetrators have become all the more ingenious. A number of insurance companies now regularly use lie-detector technology to analyse customers' voices when they call in to make a claim, referring them to a specialist investigator for an hour-long interrogation if they fall foul of the test.

One of the insurers most vocal about its use of such techniques has been Esure. The company claims that it has had great success with its lie-detector software (technology that was originally designed for Israeli border-control guards, no less).

Once it has singled out someone using its software, Esure gets one of its investigators to spend an hour getting the customer to tell the story again. Then the investigator goes back to somewhere in the middle of the timeline and asks the customer to talk about what happened just before. This jumping around almost always trips up fraudsters.

Disappointingly, very few perpetrators of insurance fraud are ever actually prosecuted. With the average fraudulent claim coming in at around £800, it's not worth the insurer's costs to take a civil case – after all, they've already saved themselves having to pay the claim.

The Crown Prosecution Service is also reluctant to take on such cases because of a lack of resources, even though the insurers have usually already done most of the work for them. This means that, perversely, there's no real incentive to not give relatively small-time insurance fraud a go. Fortunately for the insurance companies, the vast majority of people are too honest to try it on.

Quoted from http://money.independent.co.uk/personal_finance/invest_save/article3231443.ece:

James Daley: Insurers are cannier than you think - Independent Online Edition > Invest & Save

Technorati Tags: Business,International,Privacy,Scary

Brain 'irrelevance filter' found

2007-12-10T20:40:00.001-05:00

Scientists believe they have located a new brain area essential for good memory - the "irrelevance filter".
People who are good at remembering things, even with distractions, have more activity in the basal ganglia on brain scans, the Swedish team found.

The work in Nature Neuroscience could help explain why some people are better at remembering things than others.

Clinically, it could also aid the understanding of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

The ability to hold information in the mind so that it is immediately accessible is known as working memory.

We use working memory all of the time - for example, when doing a simple maths calculation in our head or recalling a telephone number.

There will be many brain regions that filter irrelevant information, so it is too early to tell if these findings will have a bearing on conditions such as ADHD

John Duncan
Medical Research Council scientist

Working memory is important because it gives a mental workspace in which we can hold information whilst mentally engaged in other relevant tasks, which is crucial for learning.
Its capacity is limited and seems to vary from person to person.

These variations are not just due to having a larger or smaller memory store, but also due to differences in how effectively irrelevant items are kept out of memory, the Karolinksa Institute researchers believe.

Distracters

Dr Torkel Klingberg and colleague Fiona McNab used a special brain scan called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to track what was happening in the brains of 25 healthy volunteers.

The volunteers were asked to perform a computer-based task that required them to respond to target visual images, with or without distractions.

A noise informed subjects when an upcoming visual display would contain irrelevant distracters along with the targets.

When this cue occurred, neural activity increased in the basal ganglia and the prefrontal cortex before the visual display appeared, suggesting the brain was preparing to "filter out" the upcoming distracters.

Also, greater activity in a specific part of the basal ganglia - the globus pallidus - correlated with less unnecessary storage in another part of the brain, the posterior parietal cortex, which is sensitive to the amount of information held in memory.

The team is currently investigating methods of improving attention and working memory in children with ADHD and monitoring any changes with fMRI.

Medical Research Council scientist John Duncan said: "This is very interesting work and gives a window on important parts of the brain.

"The basal ganglia are very strong candidates for involvement in brain disorders where people have difficulty with attentional control.

"But there will be many brain regions that filter irrelevant information, so it is too early to tell if these findings will have a bearing on conditions such as ADHD."

Quoted from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7132829.stm:

BBC NEWS | Health | Brain 'irrelevance filter' found

Technorati Tags: Health,International,Science

Man freed after 100 hours trapped in a lavatory

2007-12-10T20:32:00.001-05:00

LONDON (Reuters) - A retired Scottish school teacher was recovering on Monday after spending nearly four days trapped inside a men's toilet with no food or mobile phone.

David Leggat was locked inside the bathroom at a lawn bowling club near the Scottish city of Aberdeen after the door jammed and the handle on the outside fell off.

The 55-year-old kept warm by dipping his feet in hot water but only managed to get about three hours' sleep a night in the freezing temperatures, the local Evening Express newspaper reported.

He was rescued when the cleaner at the club, which is little used in winter, turned up to collect her cleaning equipment.

Leggat said a survival course he had once done had helped him endure his captivity. The cleaning lady said he looked shaken and grey when he emerged. Leggat was stoical.

"At least there was a toilet to use," he said. "The only thing I regret is not getting trapped behind the bar."

(Reporting by Luke Baker; Editing by Elizabeth Piper)

Quoted from http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSL1032522120071210?rpc=92:

Man freed after 100 hours trapped in a lavatory | Oddly Enough | Reuters

Technorati Tags: International,Scary,Weird

China cremator dumps half-burnt bodies to save fuel

2007-12-09T13:40:00.001-05:00

HONG KONG, Dec 7 (Reuters) - China's worst fuel crunch in years has led a crematorium to dump half-burnt corpses to try to save on diesel costs, a Hong Kong newspaper said on Friday.

Villagers in Hengyang county, in the southern province of Hunan, discovered the practice when an "unbearable stench" started coming from the site, and tried to block a road on Wednesday to stop funeral vehicles from delivering more bodies.

The village sent people to investigate the smell and the South China Morning Post said they saw "crematorium workers putting half-burnt human remains and organs in plastic bags and throwing them into a nearby ditch".

"As the price of diesel rose, we saw more and more bags thrown out from the crematorium," the paper quoted Xiao Gaoyi, a village representative and one of the witnesses, as saying.

China was hit by its worst fuel supply crisis in four years from October to November, as a widening gap between low, state-regulated domestic prices and market-driven international prices forced Chinese refiners to cut output.

Fuel in many parts of the country was rationed and there were long queues at petrol stations.

An increase of nearly 10 percent in the prices of domestic diesel and gasoline from Nov. 1, the first in almost a year and a half, failed to lift refining margins back into the black. (Reporting by John Ruwitch; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

Quoted from http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKHKG6025220071207?rpc=92:

RPT-China cremator dumps half-burnt bodies to save fuel | Markets | Reuters

Technorati Tags: International,Scary

Kangaroo farts could ease global warming

2007-12-06T08:57:00.001-05:00

AUSTRALIAN scientists are trying to give kangaroo-style stomachs to cattle and sheep in a bid to cut the emission of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, researchers say.

Thanks to special bacteria in their stomachs, kangaroo flatulence contains no methane and scientists want to transfer that bacteria to cattle and sheep who emit large quantities of the harmful gas.

While the usual image of greenhouse gas pollution is a billowing smokestack pushing out carbon dioxide, livestock passing wind contribute a surprisingly high percentage of total emissions in some countries.

"Fourteen per cent of emissions from all sources in Australia is from enteric methane from cattle and sheep,'' said Athol Klieve, a senior research scientist with the Queensland Government.

"And if you look at another country such as New Zealand, which has got a much higher agricultural base, they're actually up around 50 per cent,'' he said.

Researchers say the bacteria also makes the digestive process much more efficient and could potentially save millions of dollars in feed costs for farmers.

"Not only would they not produce the methane, they would actually get something like 10 to 15 per cent more energy out of the feed they are eating,'' said Mr Klieve.

Even farmers who laugh at the idea of environmentally friendly kangaroo farts say that's nothing to joke about, particularly given the devastating drought Australia is suffering.

"In a tight year like a drought situation, 15 per cent would be a considerable sum,'' said farmer Michael Mitton.

But it will take researchers at least three years to isolate the bacteria, before they can even start to develop a way of transferring it to cattle and sheep.

Another group of scientists, meanwhile, has suggested Australians should farm fewer cattle and sheep and just eat more kangaroos.

The idea is controversial, but about 20 per cent of health-conscious Australians are believed to eat the national symbol already.

"It's low in fat, it's got high protein levels it's very clean in the sense that basically it's the ultimate free range animal,'' said Peter Ampt of the University of New South Wales's institute of environmental studies.

"It doesn't get drenched, it doesn't get vaccinated, it utilises food right across the landscape, it moves around to where the food is good, so yes, it's a good food.''

It might take a while for kangaroos to become popular barbecue fare, but with concern over global warming growing in the world's driest inhabited continent, Australians could soon be ready to try almost anything to cut emissions.

Quoted from http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22879895-13762,00.html:

Kangaroo farts could ease global warming | NEWS.com.au

Technorati Tags: Animals,Cool,Funny,International,Science,Weird

Officials to consider reforms in handling arrest warrants

2007-12-05T08:36:00.001-05:00

Administration, DAs react to Tavares case

By Shelley Murphy Globe Staff / December 5, 2007

The state's top prosecutors and Governor Deval Patrick's administration will scrutinize the state's system of handling arrest warrants and consider statewide reforms after David T. Tavares Jr., a convicted killer, jumped bail in Massachusetts and allegedly killed a newlywed couple in Washington state last month.

Kurt N. Schwartz, the governor's public safety undersecretary for law enforcement and fire services, said there are no statewide standards dictating who should be returned to Massachusetts. He said the state cannot mandate the return of everyone who flees because there are so many of them. He said the administration and the district attorneys will look at who makes the decision on whether someone should be sought nationwide, and how it is made.

"The priority is public safety so we need to make sure that we have a system that ensures public safety," Schwartz said. "The priority isn't cost savings."

Michael O'Keefe, president of the Massachusetts District Attorneys Association, said prosecutors grapple with limited resources and difficult choices each time they have to decide whether to seek the return of someone who has failed to show up in court after being charged. As of last week, there were 213,424 outstanding warrants in Massachusetts for people who had skipped their criminal hearings, according to court officials.

O'Keefe said the decision on who should be returned to Massachusetts to face charges is based on the severity of the crime they committed, with those wanted for murder, rape, and other violent crimes being the highest priority. When a warrant is issued, the district attorney's office that brought the case generally pays the cost of bringing suspects back and decides whether to seek their return if they are captured out-of-state.

"The cost is staggering to even think about getting them all back, even if you were to find them, so there has to be prioritization," O'Keefe said.

In Tavares's case, prosecutors indicated they would have sought his return to Massachusetts to face assault and battery charges only if he had been caught in New England, despite information he had taken a flight to Seattle.

On Nov. 17, Tavares, 41, who had already served 16 years in prison in Massachusetts for stabbing his mother to death, killed his neighbors, Beverly and Brian Mauck, in Graham, Wash., after bursting into their home, police contend.

"I hope that when we look at this systemically we'll be able to find some ways to shore up and patch some of the cracks through which this person fell," said O'Keefe, who is also district attorney of the Cape and Islands.

Instead of issuing a nationwide warrant for Tavares, the office of Worcester County District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. entered Tavares's name in a national database. Early has said he thought that if police somewhere stopped Tavares, they would search the database, discover he was wanted in Massachusetts, and call Early's office. If that had happened, Early says, he would have dispatched officers to pick up Tavares.

But Washington police did not apprehend Tavares until the Maucks had been killed.

They say Early's office should have issued a nationwide warrant for Tavares, because of his violent history. He was found guilty of manslaughter in the killing his mother at her home in Somerset, Mass., and he was wanted on charges of assault against correctional officers. He also allegedly wrote letters threatening to kill his father, former Governor Mitt Romney, and other public officials while in custody.

Tavares finished his sentence for the slaying of his mother, then was released on personal recognizance in July while awaiting trial on the assault charges. The arrest warrant was issued when he failed to appear in court July 23.

Ed Troyer, a spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff's office in Washington, which arrested Tavares in the double murder last month, said it was a mistake that Early's office did not issue a nationwide warrant.

"If he's dangerous enough not to be walking the streets of Boston or Massachusetts, he's dangerous everywhere," Troyer said.

Washington authorities also say Massachusetts State Police asked them to help look for Tavares a month before the Maucks were slain, but told them not to arrest him because the warrant had been issued only for New England.

Early has said he was unaware that Massachusetts authorities had told Washington police not to arrest Tavares. Last week, he defended his handling of the case, saying he had followed standard practice. He said that Tavares had been a priority, but that his office's best information was that Tavares was headed for Rhode Island.

"You can't get a manhunt for everyone," Early said last week. "With the resources that you have you are making decisions to evaluate cases and how to best use your resources."

O'Keefe defended Early's handling of the case and said the district attorneys association had launched its review of the warrant system at Early's urging.

"I know everybody likes bright line rules and standards, but that's not how it works," said O'Keefe, adding that this is not a problem limited to Massachusetts.

"I'll tell you another hard reality," O'Keefe said. "As you get to May and June of any given year when your budget is running into its last gasps so to speak . . . that's when the decisions become even harder because it's a very costly business to fly out to California or down to Florida with two armed police officers and bring people back."

Quoted from http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/12/05/officials_consider_arrest_warrant_overhaul/?page=full:

Officials to consider reforms in handling arrest warrants - The Boston Globe

Technorati Tags: Justice

Ban on sex toys targeted

2007-12-04T15:37:00.001-05:00

Rogers tries again to revoke ban

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

By BRIAN LYMAN

Capital Bureau

MONTGOMERY -- A Birmingham legislator has filed a bill that would revoke the state's 10-year ban on the sale of sex toys, a prohibition that has drawn national attention and led to lengthy court battles.

It's the second attempt by state Rep. John Rogers, D-Birmingham, to strike the 1998 prohibition on the sale of such devices.

"A shower head could be considered a sex toy," he said. "It's just bringing the state into the 20th century."

Dan Ireland, executive director of the Alabama Citizens' Action Program, a Baptist group, said it would oppose any effort to overturn the law.

"Laws are made to protect the public," he said. "Sometimes you have to protect the public against themselves."

The 2008 regular session is scheduled to begin Feb. 5.

The law prohibits the sale and manufacture of items "designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs." It does not prohibit the possession of those items and provides an exception for devices sold for medical purposes.

The statute drew national attention and led to a nine-year court struggle over its enforcement. A series of lawsuits were filed against the state by civil libertarians, store owners and women who said the law violated privacy rights.

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ban in 2004, ruling there was no law guaranteeing sexual privacy for citizens and that states could pass laws regulating the sale of sex toys.

The justices added that legislators could repeal the law if they found the "prohibition on sex toys is misguided or ineffective or just plain silly."

A final attempt to overturn the law was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court in October, seemingly removing the final roadblock against enforcement of the ban. However, a Circuit Court last month rejected an attempt by the city of Hoover to close a store selling sex toys, saying the law is too vague.

Attorney General Troy King's office has suggested that the vagueness in the bill should be addressed by the Legislature. A message left with spokesman Chris Bence Monday afternoon was not returned.

State Sen. Tom Butler, D-Madison, sponsor of the 1998 bill, did not return a message Monday seeking comment.

Ireland said the ban is a "good law" that has bolstered public safety.

"Sexual matters are not to become a nuisance to people and the community," he said. "We have enough problems with sexual-oriented crimes without enticing or promoting it."

Randy Brinson, chairman of the Christian Coalition of Alabama, did not have any comment. "It seems we have better things to deal with than that, but I need to study it more," he said.

Loretta Nall, the 2006 Libertarian gubernatorial nominee, recently began a "Sex Toys for Troy King" drive in protest of the law, which she called a waste of time and an invasion of privacy.

She called Rogers' bill "absolutely superb" and hoped her drive would help it pass.

"If anything, it will make the Legislature and Troy King aware that we want repeal," she said. "My gut feeling is we won't see a lot of people pushing to make it tougher."

Rogers first introduced a repeal measure in 2003, but the bill made so little progress that it won the House of Representatives' "Shroud Award," an annual prize given to the legislation considered the "deadest" of the session.

Despite that and the rulings in federal court, Rogers said Monday that he believes the ban is unconstitutional and embarrassing to the state. He is optimistic about getting the repeal passed.

"I intend to pass this bill this year," he said. "I want it to be one of the first bills on the calendar."

Ban on sex toys targeted- al.com

Technorati Tags: Lame,Laws,Weird