Weird News Thread ....

[Jolie Rouge]

Louisiana Jail Escapee Caught; Other at Large

http://channels.netscape.com/ns/news...18.htm&sc=1110

LIVINGSTON, La. (AP) - One of two men who escaped from jail by slipping under a chain-link fence and then scaling a ladder over razor wire was captured Sunday after a motorist spotted him walking along a highway. The second escaped inmate remained at large.

The two men, accused in separate killings, broke out of jail Saturday while they were out of their cells for an hour of exercise, Sheriff Willie Graves said.

Gerald Bordelon was captured by Livingston Parish sheriff's deputies and Louisiana State Police less than a mile from the prison, said sheriff's Det. Stan Carpenter.

``They got the bloodhounds in on him, and with the helicopters on him they just went in and picked him up,'' Carpenter said.


Bordelon awaits trial on murder and kidnapping charges in the death of his 12-year-old stepdaughter.


John Priest, who was still at large Sunday morning, was convicted Thursday night of manslaughter and obstruction of justice for killing a man and burning his house. Priest has said he killed Ralph Noland Jr. in self-defense.


Police continued their search for Priest in the woods around Interstate 12 and along railroad tracks where Priest's black-and-white prison shirt was found discarded.


Graves said Priest is considered dangerous, and police told residents to lock their cars and their homes.



10/19/03 18:32

[Jolie Rouge]

Boy finds two-headed snake
Friday, October 17, 2003 Posted: 10:17 AM EDT

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/science....ap/index.html


CENTERTOWN, Kentucky (AP) -- Hunter York was afraid of snakes, but he couldn't resist the two-headed reptile he found.

The 10-year-old said he picked up the black king snake with a stick, then noticed it grabbed the stick with two heads.

"I ran in the house and said, 'Dad, this snake has two heads.' And he said, 'What?"' Hunter said. It "kind of freaked me out a little bit."

The 81/2-inch female reptile hasn't eaten since Hunter found it October 4.

Hunter's father, Rodney York, loaned the snake Tuesday to snake hobbyist Scott Petty to see whether he could induce it to eat.

"We couldn't force-feed it, because we don't know which head eats," York said.

York said he jokingly named the snake Mary-Kate and Ashley, after the teenage TV and movie stars, the Olsen twins.

York says he's considering a brief stint in show business for the snake once he learns more about it.

"If they're that rare, I'm going to hit up [talk-show hosts David] Letterman, [Jay] Leno and everybody I can think of," he said. "I'm going to milk it for all it's worth."

Ed Zimmerer, a Murray State University biology professor and herpetologist, estimated the occurrence of a two-headed snake at 1 in 10,000. "They usually don't live too long," he said.

The snake might be unable to determine which is the dominant head or have some internal problems that interfere with eating, Zimmerer said.

[Jolie Rouge]

http://channels.netscape.com/ns/cele...rrent=19Prince Spreads the News

The eccentric musician has been surprising citizens of his home state Minnesota by knocking on doors as a mission of his Jehovah's Witness religion. In 2001 the singer released "Rainbow Children" as a mix of biblical references and sensual grooves. Imagine the surprise if you opened the door to Prince with a Watchtower in hand.



Princes' Bio http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/...7&cf=377Prince


Prince is, without a doubt one of the most influential figures in modern rock history. His unparalleled ability to fuse funk, pop and rock helped redefine the boundaries of musical genres. As a songwriter, Prince has certainly earned his tenure, penning countless hits--trashy, eloquent, fragile and blustering--for himself and many other musicians.

Prince's first two albums, For You (1978) and Dirty Mind (1979), though impressive efforts for an unknown Midwestern teenager, failed to foreshadow his impending brilliance. "I Feel For You," off the second release is perhaps the best track of the lot. The song is both delicate and sleazy with a funky pop melody--a combination Prince honed in his two next releases, Dirty Mind (1980) and Controversy (1981).

1999, released in 1982 made Prince a star. The album, which sold over 3 million copies, was a whirlwind of sexual fantasy, catchy lyrics and electronic funk. From the anthemic "Free" to the mantra in D.M.S.R. ("Dance, Music Sex...") to the perfect pop sounds in "Delirious" and "Little Red Corvette," 1999 quickly sped to the top of the stacks of wax.

If 1999 made Prince a star, then Purple Rain made him a king. Recorded, in part, with his band The Revolution, this album sold over 10 million copies and spent twenty weeks at the top of the charts. "When Doves Cry," "I Would Die 4 U" and "Purple Rain" were defining moments in '80s music.

After the bounding success of Purple Rain Prince took a bizarre turn down the path of pop-psychedelia with Around The World in a Day (1985). "Raspberry Beret" and "Pop Life" were brilliant, if unsettling, and definitely ahead of their time.


After releasing the marginal Parade and roosting permanently in Minneapolis with his own record label (Paisley Park), Prince came out with his second masterpiece of the decade. Sign O' the Times. At once sexy and messy, tight, forlorn and ecstatic, Sign O' the Times came together both as a complete work and as a series of great singles. "I Could Never Take The Place of Your Man", a heartwrenching score, the wistful, electronic "If I Was Your Girlfriend" and the cocksure "U Got The Look" are all winners. "Starfish and Coffee" is perhaps the unsung hero of this 1987 collection.

In lieu of the hastily shelved Black Album (unreleased until 1994, either due to Prince's dissatisfaction or the controversy-wary label), Prince followed up Sign O' the Times with the stripped down and relatively serene Lovesexy. While it was a cathartic break from the emotional buildup of his last three albums, Prince's spark on Lovesexy was noticeably missing.

After a contrived Batman soundtrack and the gospel-tinged Graffiti Bridge, where he wrote all, but only sang about half of the songs, Prince teamed up with the New Power Generation. Conceived as a return to urban R&B, Prince and the NPG released two albums, each of which contained flashes of brilliance but ultimately failed to live up to the larger body of work. After the second one, marked by the "The Symbol," Prince had his name officially changed to "The Symbol."

While the NPG continued to perform on the remaining Prince albums, its name was dropped from the main titles. Come was essentially a rehash of earlier sounds, and released under the old "Prince" name. 1994 saw the official release of The Black Album as well as a three-disc "greatest hits" set.

Gold Experience and Chaos & Disorder were released in 1995 and 1996, respectively. These two albums ended Prince's long-standing relationship with Warner Bros. Records. In spite of the bitter quarrels between artist and label, the albums feel fresh and new--a renaissance of creativity for Prince.

Emancipation, released in late 1996 on EMI is another three disc set--this time comprising a bevy of new music. The album is well composed and stylistically diverse. Though not as wild as his earlier releases, it stands on its own right, proving that Prince, a.k.a "The Symbol," a.k.a. "The Artist Formerly Known As Prince" can mature gracefully.

In the spring of 1998, the Artist released Crystal Ball, a four-CD set comprising three discs of previously unreleased tracks and a fourth disc, subtitled "The Truth," containing a collection of acoustic ballads.

The vexing question of what to call a man whose name is an unpronouncable symbol came to an official end in May 2000, when The Artist Formerly Known As Prince announced that since his Warner/Chappell publishing contract expired on Dec. 31, 1999 he would formally be taking back the name Prince.

[Jolie Rouge]

Politicians Love This ZIP Code the Most

The one ZIP code politicians love the most--no matter their party affiliation--is 10021. New York City. Just north of Bloomingdale's on Manhattan's Upper East Side. It even has a nickname among all the presidential wannabes: Piggybank Central.

Citing a new analysis of campaign donations, The New York Post reports that residents and businesses in this posh area, which include the designer shop Giorgio Armani, The Carlyle and The Regency hotels, and the townhouse residence of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, have given more cash to re-elect President Bush than any other ZIP code in the United States. Bush's take from 10021--so far-- is $712,505.

But 10021 is not a Republican stronghold. That same small area is also the top donor to all six Democratic candidates: Howard Dean, Wesley Clark, Rep. Dick Gephardt, Sen. John Kerry, Sen. Joe Lieberman, and Sen. John Edwards. The only one who hasn't done well in 10021 is the Rev. Al Sharpton, who raised a measly $500 from a single donor in this ZIP. Kerry has gotten the most bucks from 10021 of any Democrat: $322,125.

[Jolie Rouge]

Sci-Fi channel may sue NASA for UFO documents
Tuesday, October 21, 2003 Posted: 12:25 PM EDT

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/1...eut/index.html

NEW YORK(Reuters) -- The truth is out there, and the Sci-Fi Channel is determined to find it, even if that means suing NASA, the Department of Defense, the U.S. Army and Air Force for documents related to unidentified flying objects.

Sci-Fi, a cable channel that airs fictional programming such as Battlestar Galactica, as well as documentaries that explore the line between fact and science fiction, is part of a group pressuring the federal government to de-classify UFO information.

Last year Sci-Fi joined forces with an investigative journalist, a Washington, DC law firm, and former President Clinton chief of staff John Podesta, to gain release of documents relating to an incident it calls "the new Roswell," a UFO sighting in Kecksburg, Pennsylvania in 1965.

"Now, one year later, despite serious effort to uncover the facts, NASA and the Department of Defense are still maintaining their wall of silence," said Sci-Fi Channel president Bonnie Hammer. "Whether or not this has anything to do with UFOs the public has the right to know."


Now the Sci-Fi Channel is supporting what could turn into a series of lawsuits, first against NASA and then against the Department of Defense, the Army and Air Force, to get classified documents released to the public.

The group said it expects to file the suit against NASA within a week. Representatives from NASA and the Department of Defense were not immediately available for comment.

NASA was chosen as the first agency to be sued because Sci-Fi and the groups' attorney, Lee Helfrich of the Washington, DC-based firm, Lobel, Novins and Lamont, believe that they've fully exhausted their administrative options with the agency, a prerequisite for a judge to agree to hear the case.

While news organizations routinely pursue Freedom of Information Act requests with the government, it's relatively rare for a cable channel, especially one focused on fantasy, not the gathering of news, to pursue such a course of action.

But Hammer sees a great deal of programming potential in pursuing government documents related to UFO sightings, part of the channel's effort to "find the line between science fiction and science fact."

"As we grow the channel, this will become more and more important," Hammer said.

In December 1965, residents of Kecksburg, Pennsylvania watched a fireball descend into a heavily-forested area 40 miles from Pittsburgh. That night the area was cordoned off by the military, trucks and helicopters came and went, and the town was briefly placed under martial law.

The next day, headlines in the Greensburg, Pennsylvania Tribune-Review read "Unidentified Flying Object Falls Near Kecksburg" and "Army Ropes Off Area," but residents of Kecksburg were never told why the military cordoned off the area and what, if anything, was found.

The results of Sci-Fi's new investigation into the incident will air Friday in a documentary hosted by Bryant Gumbel called "The New Roswell: Kecksburg Exposed."

In Kecksburg it hired a forestry expert from West Virginia University who discovered growth patterns and core damage to trees there that support a "traumatic event" in 1965.

Sci-Fi, a unit of Vivendi Universal, is among the assets recently sold to General Electric Co.'s NBC. Hammer sees the integration with a network news operation as a potential boon for Sci-Fi's newsgathering efforts.

"If it's something that seems credible, absolutely," said Hammer on the potential of working with NBC journalists. "But we're not going to do it just to create buzz."

[Jolie Rouge]

Drink Up! Coffee's Surprising Benefit

Coffee may be the new health drink. Researchers from the University of Munster in Germany have shown that coffee--even decaffeinated and instant coffee--may prevent colon cancer.

HealthDayNews reports that the magic ingredient is a highly active compound called methylpyridinium. This potent antioxidant seems to increase the activity of phase II enzymes, which are believed to protect against colon cancer. This is the first study to identify a specific, highly active anticancer compound in coffee. Methylpyridinium, which is found almost exclusively in coffee and coffee products, is formed when the coffee beans are roasted. It is most prevalent in espresso.

"Until human studies are done, no one knows exactly how much coffee is needed to have a protective effect against colon cancer," study co-leader Thomas Hofman, professor and head of the Institute for Food Chemistry at the University of Munster, said in a prepared statement. "However, our studies suggest that drinking coffee may offer some protection, especially if it's strong." The study findings have been published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

[Jolie Rouge]

Corn Cobs Solve Ancient Indian Mystery

http://channels.netscape.com/ns/news.../indianmystery

In the desolate Chaco Canyon in northern New Mexico there is abundant evidence that as many as 6,000 to 10,000 ancient native Americans lived and worshiped there at one time. The remains of elaborate buildings--some as high as four stories and containing 800 rooms--indicate the location was used for rituals and ceremonies. Extensive villages were also built nearby.

Why is this of special interest to historians? Because the land is so barren it's virtually uninhabitable. How did the people eat? How did they survive?

Researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey have solved the mystery. Call it the ultimate take-out food. After analyzing the chemical isotopic ratios of ancient corn cobs found on the site and the soil of fields at the foot of the Chuska Mountains 50 miles to the west and the San Juan River flood plain 56 miles to the north, scientists realized that these ancestral Pueblo people who lived between 850 and 1250 A.D. carried food on their backs for about 50 miles in the hot sun, navigating treacherous trails and even scaling cliffs. A network of roads and trails has been detected in aerial surveys to back up the claim, reports The Associated Press.

This was long before Christopher Columbus arrived and brought the return of the horse to North America. "They had to haul it in on their backs," lead researcher Larry Benson told AP. He suspects that some food was produced in the canyon, but rainfall would have been sparse and the agricultural season so short that growing enough food to sustain that many people would have been impossible. "We suspect that during major construction, food had to be imported in order to support the laborers," Linda S. Cordell, director of the University of Colorado Museum in Boulder and a study co-author, told AP. The chemical analysis of the corn cobs confirms this theory as fact.

The ancient people most likely carried corn meal, rather than the entire cob, because it would have been lighter. Good thing because they had to save their strength to also carry timber that was 10 to 20 feet long, as well as pottery a full 50 miles. "They were carrying trees all that way," Benson marveled to AP.

There is one mystery that still remains unanswered:

Why did they choose Chaco as a place for such elaborate construction? "It looks like that in whatever organization existed then, the place had some kind of power," Cordell speculated to AP. "It became an important place and subsequently an important ritual area."

The research findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[Jolie Rouge]

'Dilbert' Award: No. 1 Weasel Is WHO?

George W. Bush may be the president of the United States, the leader of the free world, and the most powerful man on Earth. But he's also a weasel. And he's getting an award for it. Our president has been voted the "Weaseliest Individual" in the 2003 Dilbert Weasel Awards poll. He won by a landslide of 13,959 votes, more than the second and third place vote-getters Michael Moore and Yasser Arafat received combined.

What's a weasel?"

A weasel is someone who is trying to get away with something," Scott Adams explained to CNN on Tuesday. In his new book, "Dilbert and The Way of the Weasel," he goes even further, describing a weasel as someone who is manipulative, scheming, misleading, cheating, and blame-shifting. Ouch. .....


The 2003 Dilbert Weasel Awards Poll also names the following weasels:

Weaseliest Organization: Recording Industry Association of America

Weaseliest Country: France

Weaseliest Company: Microsoft

Weaseliest Profession: Politician

Weaseliest Behavior: Blaming fast food restaurants for making you fat

[Jolie Rouge]

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/sto...&idq=/ff/story /0001%2F20031022%2F081992457.htm&sc=1120

Cat Burglar Actually Steals Cats

HUMMELS WHARF, Pa. (AP) - Talk about a cat burglar! Police in Synder County, Pennsylvania, are looking for someone who's stealing cats.

Police aren't pussy-footing around. They say the cat-snatcher took seven felines from a shelter in Monroe Township.

The cat burglar apparently struck early Saturday morning. Authorities hope someone will call with information so they can scratch-up some evidence about the thief.



10/22/03 08:19

[Jolie Rouge]

Pilots, Police Spot UFO In Durham, N.C.

This is not the usual list of suspects. Several people of some authority and great respect have all said they saw the same thing flashing across the night sky of Durham, N.C., on Monday night: a UFO that looked like a shooting star trailing a tail of green streaks.

One of the eyewitnesses was Durham Police Lt. Morris Taylor who told the Durham Herald-Sun newspaper that UFO was different from any shooting star he has ever seen. Describing it as "humongous," he added, "It was pretty wild looking. It looked comparable to the size of the moon in the sky." Taylor's colleague, Durham County Sheriff's Deputy Brad O'Briant, told the paper that he was out checking property when he saw the flying object near Interstate 40. He explained that it was moving too fast to tell the color, but the tail had a distinctive greenish-white hue. "It just went across the sky and disappeared as it got toward the horizon area," he told the Herald-Sun. "It was a lot larger than a shooting star would be. It was almost like a firework going to the ground or something." Adding to the mystery: Even though both police officers said it looked like it was heading straight into the ground, there were no reports of any crashes.

Those two officers weren't the only ones who saw it. At least six people called the police dispatcher with the same UFO report at around 8:45 p.m. on Monday, and one resident even flagged down a police cruiser to make the report. Also, several pilots contacted air traffic controllers at Raleigh-Durham International Airport telling them about the object, but air traffic controllers did not pick it up on their radar.




In May 2003, three people driving at night in rural Georgia had a close encounter of the second kind. Read their spooky story--that some investigators are taking quite seriously.
http://channels.netscape.com/ns/atpl.../ufoencounter/ ufoencounter&floc=wn-nn

[Jolie Rouge]

Bad Attitude Can Kill You. Find Out How

Young adults who are hostile and impatient high achievers with the classic "Type A" personality have a much higher risk of developing high blood pressure by their early 40s than others, reports Reuters of new research from Northwestern University.

Led by Dr. Lijing L. Yan, the research team examined 3,308 black and white men who were originally recruited for the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study in 1985 and 1986 when all were between the ages of 18 and 30 and all had normal blood pressure. At the end of the 15-year study period, 15 percent of the participants developed high blood pressure. But those who had been identified with certain Type A personality characteristics--time urgency, impatience, achievement striving, competitiveness, and hostility--had a whopping 84 percent higher risk of developing hypertension between the ages of 33 and 45 than people who didn't have these personality characteristics. Reuters notes that people who are Type A personalities also are tense and aggressive and often suffer from stress-related symptoms of insomnia and indigestion.

What made this study unique is that the researchers zeroed in on the specific personality traits that increased the risk of high blood pressure: time urgency, impatience, and hostility. Just being competitive and high-achieving did NOT up the danger of hypertension. "The notion that a 'Type A' behavior pattern is 'bad' for your health has been around for many years," Barbara Alving, acting director of the National Heart, Blood and Lung Institute which funded the study, told Reuters. "This study helps us understand which aspects of that behavior pattern may be unhealthy." High blood pressure is often called the silent killer. It can lead to heart disease, stroke, and other health problems. The research findings were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.