3
POPSFlags Were Key Link to Cop Slaying, Bombings
slaying last Saturday night A search of Monfort's apartment this morning turned up evidence that police say connects the man to the Oct. 22 bombing and arson of the maintenance yard, where three police cars and an RV used as a mobile precinct were damaged, according to Assistant Seattle Police Chief Jim Pugel. A note threatening to kill police officers was left at the bombing site, sources had said earlier. Pugel said an item found at the maintenance yard was similar to one found near the shooting scene. Law-enforcement sources said the item was an American flag. News reports at the time said fliers also were left at the maintenance yard referring to an anti-police-brutality rally and citing the case of a King County sheriff's deputy accused of assaulting a teenage girl in a SeaTac holding cell. An American flag left at the scene of Officer Timothy Brenton's slaying on Halloween and at a city maintenance yard where four police vehicles were torched on Oct. 22 gave
9
POPSPlaya Cofi Jukebox: Best of the Top 100 Golden Years Pop Music Choose a year from 1952 through 1982 and the top 100 popular tunes will play in the background as you work or play online! Additional collections include Caribbean Rhythms, Movie Themes, Classical, Long Play 100, TV Themes, Heart Felt, Bakersfield, Nat King Cole, Christmas, Piaf and Friends, Pop Gospel, Show Tunes, Vieques Wake, and Requests.
13
POPSUm, Kenya? You guys OK? Finishing fourth in the men's category was another American, Ryan Hall. Hall, 27, is a rising star on the world running circuit and made headlines last year by running the London marathon in a stunning 2:06:17. Americans once dominated long-distance running, bringing home consecutive gold medals from 1970-82. Marathon legend Bill Rodgers won the New York City four years in a row from 1976 to 1979, and Alberto Salazar took walked away with successive victories from 1980-82. The marathon, which began in 1970 with a mere 127 runners, now hosts 38,000 athletes from around the globe, according to the marathon's Web site. Known for its diverse, punishing terrain, the annual event spans all five of New York's City's boroughs, finishing in the heart of Central Park. Keflezighi and Tulu will each receive $130,000 in prize money.
2
POPSThe Crash 80 years later, could it happen again? (Note: Don't say it happened in the 1980's. That wasn't a crash, exactly)
9
POPSMore facts on mud volcanoes In 2001, an eruption of a large underwater mud volcano off Baku created a new island, which is now almost one sq. km in size. Another volcano not far from Baku have erupted at least ten times since 1980, with flames reaching 300 m (1000') height.
7
POPS Blaming the Poor
A paper published yesterday in the journal Environment and Urbanization shows that the places where population has been growing fastest are those in which carbon dioxide has been growing most slowly, and vice versa. Between 1980 and 2005, for instance, sub-Saharan Africa produced 18.5% of the world's population growth and just 2.4% of the growth in CO2. North America turned out only 4% of the extra people, but 14% of the extra emissions. Sixty-three percent of the world's population growth happened in places with very low emissions. Even this does not capture it. The paper points out that about one sixth of the world's population is so poor that it produces no significant emissions at all. This is also the group whose growth rate is likely to be highest. Households in India earning less than 3,000 rupees (£40) a month use a fifth of the electricity per head and one seventh of the transport fuel of households earning 30,000 rupees or more. Street sleepers use almost nothing. Those wh
18
POPSWho Are We? Coming of Age on Antidepressants The reason has to do with the way drugs are tested and approved. To get F.D.A. approval, a drug has to beat a placebo in two randomized clinical trials that typically involve a few hundred subjects who are treated for relatively short periods, usually 4 to 12 weeks.So drugs are approved based on short-term studies for what turns out to be long-term — often lifelong — use in the world of clinical practice. What do I say to a depressed patient who is doing well after five years on such a drug but can’t stop without a depressive relapse and who wants reassurance that the drug has no long-term adverse effects?I usually say that we have no evidence that the drug poses a risk with long-term use; and since the risk of untreated depression is much greater than the hypothetical risk of the drug, it makes sense to stay on it.
2
POPSBig Government's Intrusion Into Blogger Content, Free Speech Decisions about violations will be made on a case-by-case basis, but if someone receives cash or an in-kind payment to review a product, it’s considered an endorsement. The government is attempting to put all website, both personal and professional, under its thumb under the guise of protecting consumers from dishonest bloggers and bloggers from dishonest companies. It shows a lack of faith in both the public and the blogging community which has been doing just fine and doesn’t welcome the bureaucracy. This is all about the Benjamins in the name of regulation. Uncle Sam saw a way to make money while controlling speech. I myself receive free items regularly and it’s always been my own personal policy to disclose this, which I have. I’ve refused offers from companies who’ve suggested that I act otherwise. I created this self-policing policy because I, like most other bloggers, realize that our reputations are virtual currency.
3
POPSTaxpayers Get Soaked Private insurance companies were reluctant to sell insurance to those of us who build on the edges of oceans, and were they to offer it, they'd charge an arm and a leg to cover the risk. But this wasn't a problem for me, because you offered to insure my house. I know you didn't do it personally, but you, as a taxpayer, are the guarantee behind federal flood insurance. Should a big storm wipe out half the coast, you'll cover our losses — up to a quarter-million dollars. Thanks — we appreciate it — but what a dumb policy. The subsidized insurance goes to affluent homeowners on both coasts — from Malibu Beach, where movie stars live, to Kennebunkport where the Bush family has a vacation home, to Hyannisport, where the Kennedy family has a summer home, to the Hamptons, where I bought my house. There is no limit on how many times the government will pay if a house keeps washing away.
6
POPSIsraeli offensive causes birth defects in Gaza Medical experts had earlier predicted that the illegal use of the chemical weapons in the densley-populated area would cause a long-lasting tragedy and plauge the future generation. According to Gaza health officials and human rights groups, Israeli forces killed over 1,400 Palestinians, including more than 900 civilians, in the offensive. The revelation comes shortly after a UN Human Rights report accused Israel of deliberately violating international humanitarian law and using disproportionate force during its "Operation Cast Lead" against the people of Gaza at the beginning of the year. "The Israeli operations were carefully planned in all their phases as a deliberately disproportionate attack designed to punish, humiliate and terrorize a civilian population," the fact-finding mission --led by former South African constitutional court judge, Richard Goldstone-- said.
1
POPSEver Wish Obama Was More Like Reagan?
Even Ford and Carter did a better job at cutting government. Their combined presidential terms account for an increase of 1.4%—compared with Reagan's 3%—in the government's take of "national income." And in nominal terms, there has been a 60% increase in government spending, thanks mainly to Reagan's requested budgets, which were only marginally smaller than the spending Congress voted. The budget for the Department of Education, which candidate Reagan promised to abolish along with the Department of Energy, has more than doubled to $22.7 billion, Social Security spending has risen from $179 billion in 1981 to $269 billion in 1986. The price of farm programs went from $21.4 billion in 1981 to $51.4 billion in 1987, a 140% increase. And this doesn't count the recently signed $4 billion "drought-relief" measure. Medicare spending in 1981 was $43.5 billion; in 1987 it hit $80 billion. Federal entitlements cost $197.1 billion in 1981—and $477 billion in 1987. (Written in 1988)
7
POPSHow to handle a heckler, Reagan-style Looks like Joe Wilson took a page from the Gipper’s playbook. Some might say Reagan wasn’t very presidential in handling the guy at this campaign event in 1980, but then again he wasn’t the president . . . until the next day.
3
POPSWILL OBAMA SAVE AMERICA AS PRESIDENT? "In the Carter administration, he and 26 appointed members of his administration were former commission members. In the 1980 election, Carter and his major opposition were former members of this commission. The politics of America are being steered in a direction the commission chooses."
5
POPSWelfare, Thomas Sowell This was in 1980 when the collapse of the black family was fairly non-existent and the entrapment was not near as severe.
1
POPSTexas DNA exonerees find prosperity after prison More: Two who served about 26 years in prison for rape will receive lump sums of about $2 million apiece. Another, Steven Phillips, who spent about 24 years in prison for sexual assault and burglary, will get about $1.9 million. The biggest compensation package will likely go to James Woodard, who spent more than 27 years in prison for a 1980 murder that DNA testing later showed he did not commit. He eventually could receive nearly $2.2 million but first needs a writ from the state's Court of Criminal Appeals or a pardon from the governor. McGowan and the others are among 38 DNA exonerees in Texas, according to the Innocence Project, a New York legal center that specializes in overturning wrongful convictions. Dallas County alone has 21 cases in which a judge overturned guilty verdicts based on DNA evidence, though prosecutors plan to retry one of those.
30
POPSThe most important telescopes in history In celebration of the International Year of Astronomy in 2009, New Scientist takes you on an armchair tour of some of the most important telescopes ever built. For more information on these and other pioneering telescopes, read Eyes on the Skies: 400 Years of Telescopic Discovery by Govert Schilling and Lars Lindberg Christensen (Wiley-VCH, 2009). More interesting stuff on site
4
POPSMeet Phillip Craig Garrido [UPDATED] CNN reports that Garrido has been charged with "kidnapping, rape, lewd behavior, sexual penetration and conspiracy." Nancy Garrido faces charges of "kidnapping and conspiracy." Public records show that Phillip Garrido was born in Contra Costa, CA on April 5, 1951. Carson City, Nevada records indicate a marriage between Garrido and Christine Perreira in March, 1973. The marriage lasted just 7 years, and the couple's divorce was final in October, 1980. It may be remarkable that the union lasted that long, for in 1977, Phillip Garrido was convicted of kidnapping a woman on November 23, 1976. From the Reno Evening Gazette, February 12, 1977: Garrido was convicted of abducting the woman at a South Lake Tahoe grocery store parking lot then driving her to Reno, where she was kept for several hours in a mini-warehouse. faces Washoe County charges of possession of a controlled substance, rape and sex perversion. Garrido was 25 and working as a musician
1
POPSFamily care 'tied to sect gag order'sects This group was sanctioned by the previous Govt (Liberals) after political donations hit the right spot. I think they are treated as a religion, as a result. The sect has had a lot of bad publicity.
1
POPSTed Kennedy Dies at 77 Everyone has forgotten about Mary Jo Kopeckne...if anyone else had been driving the car, they would have been imprisoned for leaving the scene, DUI and failure to notify authorities of an accident involving a fatality etc etc
5
POPS Letter Details Kennedy Offer To USSR
to the General Secretary of the Center Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Y. Andropov. Kennedy believes that, given the current state of affairs, and in the interest of peace, it would be prudent and timely to undertake the following steps to counter the militaristic politics of Reagan and his campaign to psychologically burden the American people. In this regard, he offers the following proposals to the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Y.V. Andropov: 1. Kennedy asks Y.V. Andropov to consider inviting the senator to Moscow for a personal meeting in July of this year. The main purpose of the meeting, according to the senator, would be to arm Soviet officials with explanations regarding problems of nuclear disarmament so they may be better prepared and more convincing during appearances in the USA. He would also like to inform you that he has planned a trip through Western Europe, . . .
3
POPSGOP Senators used to defend 'reconciliation' process "The fact is, all this rule of the Senate does is allow a majority of the Senate to take a position and pass a piece of legislation, support that position," said Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH), who now bemoans the idea, in 2005. "Is there something wrong with majority rules? I don't think so."