News Bucket 12 April 2006

16 Comments

1. 

   Knoxville Progressive on April 12, 2006 at 9:30 am

   Two stories today from the Jimmy Doohan Memorial Institute of Spaceflight Engineering:

   A leaked NASA study called “LRA-0” is spreading despair and gloom through the space community.   The rocket system for returning men to the Moon laid out in the earlier report submitted to garner congressional approval is declared to be totally unworkable in this new document.  Bottom line:  You can’t have the equivalent of two Apollo missions launched at once on half the budget.  So NASA is shopping for new ideas, if you’re a rocket scientist.

   Meanwhile, Russia could send men to the moon within nine years and launch a manned mission to Mars by 2030, an industrialist said Tuesday, on the eve of the 45th anniversary of the first space flight by cosmonaut Yury Gagarin. “We can land on the moon before 2015,” Nikolai Sevastianov, head of the Russian space construction company RKK Energia, told reporters in Moscow. There are also plans to start mining helium-3, a fuel for fusion reactors that is found on the moon, by 2025.

   Yale School of Medicine researchers have new data showing chloride ions are critical to hearing in mammals, which builds on previous research showing tributyltin (TBT), a chemical used to keep barnacles off boats, might disrupt the balance of these ions in ear cells.  Details here.

   We’ve pointed out here before how ecosystem destruction is related to spread of diseases, but here’s one you’ve not heard before:  Restoring the world’s wetlands may be critical to preventing outbreaks of avian flu as their revival will keep migratory birds from mixing with domesticated fowl, a UN report said Tuesday.  And here’s an incentive to do so that those in power can understand:  A bird flu pandemic could trigger a “sharp and deep” global economic recession if national governments and financial institutions do not act to prepare themselves now, the International Monetary Fund warned Tuesday.

   Time once again for your daily climate change eco-rant:  Climate change is shattering the marine food chain.  All the usual victims and suspects.  Sigh…

   But at least we have this: scientists are developing new flood and drought-prone rice varieties to combat the threat of global warming to Asia’s food staple but more work is needed, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) said.

   Scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope have resolved the size of the so-called tenth planet, nicknamed Xena, and found it is only a little larger than Pluto.  It was thought to be bigger because it is highly reflective, perhaps with methane snow.

   Researchers at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia have discovered a strain of mouse, the Murphy Roths Large (MRL), has remarkable regenerative capabilities.  This has opened up the possibility that those properties could be transferred to other mammals as the mechanism of regeneration is elucidated.

   A bacterium that lives in rivers, streams and pipes uses nature’s strongest glue to stay in one place.  Stronger than SuperGlue, a patch of the new adhesive the size of your hand could hold up to 70 tons!  The material may be used some day to close surgical openings, but first researchers have to discover how to keep it from sticking to everything, even when wet.

   • 

     idredit on April 12, 2006 at 10:16 am

     Kudos KP.

     Of bird flu and other viruses, this is interesting and surprising.

     GC: “How to Win the War-secret anti-biological weapon being tested for Military and civilian applications.”

     Several research references cited.

   • 

     Arcturus on April 12, 2006 at 4:59 pm

     While I appreciate reading the science news you post, would it be possible for you to include some of the writers who question the proliferation of GM seeds (esp. the so-called Terminator seeds)? re:

     But at least we have this: scientists are developing new flood and drought-prone rice varieties . . .

     The articles you’ve cited (that I’ve followed — probabably not all) have been little more than PR pieces for the bio-tech corporations. As the following asserts, there is a concerted propaganda effort under way to push the virtues & dismiss the critics. It’s depressing to see only the propaganda here.

     If Aventis Crop Science, BASF, Dow Chemical, DuPont, Monsanto, Novartis and Zeneca Ag Products have launched massive propaganda campaigns in the US, they are still hesitant to do as much in Europe. In the United Kingdom, Monsanto’s sales team is congratulating itself on the success of its biotech advocacy programme; once trained by their firm, reps are able to call themselves experts and sing the praises of transgenic products to farmers and in schools. “There’s no such thing as too much communication,” says Stephen Wilridge, director of Monsanto Northern Europe.

     The educational system is also strategic in the battle for minds. Partly funded by Monsanto, the Biotechnology Challenge 2000 programme saw 33% of Ireland’s secondary school pupils produce reports on the role of biotechnology in food production. As he handed out the prizes and trophies, David Byrne, the European Commissioner responsible for protecting consumers’ health, said: “There’s no doubt in my mind that there is a link between consumers’ reluctance to accept biotechnology and the serious lack of information on the subject.” Patrick O’Reilly, director of Monsanto Ireland, is hoping for wider participation this year because “these students are tomorrow’s discerning consumers and decision-makers”.

     The multinational is learning to decode and recycle society’s messages and expectations. For some months Monsanto has been wavering between a vague attempt at dialogue and a pathological rejection of the main non-governmental organisations that dispute the supposed virtues of GMOs. Greenpeace is the first in line, described as guilty of crimes against humanity by Ingo Potrykus, the Swiss inventor of golden rice who works for Syngenta. Golden rice is a transgenic rice enriched with beta carotene (vitamin A), a second-generation GMO called pharmafood because it claims to have medicinal properties as well as being a food.

     The first therapeutic rice in the history of farming, it is just what
     the big biotech corporations have been waiting for: the last sceptics
     will no longer be able to doubt the fundamentally virtuous nature of the GMO project. The vitamin A incorporated by transgenics will become the moral harbinger of the world’s transgenic food supply: who will dare criticise its merits when so many third world children suffer blindness because of beta carotene deficiency? And who will dare doubt that the transgenic seed business serves a basically nutritive, ecological and humanitarian purpose?

     Whether golden rice will have the vaunted effect among the populations concerned is open to question. Greenpeace and others have shown the absurdity of it all by pointing out that to ingest an adequate daily dose of vitamin A would be quite a feat for a third-world child: he would have to eat 3.7 kg of boiled golden rice a day, whereas two carrots, one mango and a bowl of ordinary rice would suffice. Potrykus’ public reaction at a press conference at Biovision (the biotechnology “Davos”) in Lyons this February was: “If you plan to destroy test fields to prevent responsible testing and development of golden rice for humanitarian purposes, you will be accused of contributing to a crime against humanity. Your actions will be carefully registered and you will, hopefully, have the opportunity to defend your illegal and immoral actions in front of an international court.”   {snip}

     Access to genetic material and to markets with total freedom to manoeuvre is the two-pronged strategy of “free to operate”. It costs $200-400m to develop a GMO and takes seven to 10 years. The multinational wants a return on this massive investment, which it gets by filing a patent on the plant. People must pay the firm royalties every time they want to sow it. All varieties containing a genetically modified organism will be patent-protected, which means that the farmer
     will have to buy a licence. The risk, of course, is that the big seed producers will be able to monopolise the world’s genetic heritage and take control completely and irreversibly. Farmers will no longer be able to select their own seed.

     This could be a problem for Monsanto, because it says in its pledge: “We commit to bring the knowledge and advantages of all forms of agriculture to resource-poor farmers in the developing world to help improve food security and protect the environment.” Hence its generosity in granting the patent in the transgenic sweet potato to South Africa in the hope of gaining a greater foothold there: “As to Africa, we could, with
     patience, widen our position through YieldGard or even Roundup Ready maize. In parallel, we should consider licensing on a free or minimal fee basis some of our technologies adapted to local crops, such as sweet
     potato or cassava.”

     This is a double edged strategy, with a show of generous intentions to gain a hold over the least demanding markets – the least creditworthy markets, true, but ones potentially dependent. A similar approach to that taken with Syngenta’s golden rice in Thailand (where about 70 patents had to be waived to make it available free of charge) or with Indian cow’s milk laced with Monsanto’s Posilac, a hormone banned in the European Union, in order to take control of local markets not particularly keen on biotechnology.   link

     Biotech Will Not Feed the World

     Pro-biotechnology scientists say that with new research methods, biotechnology can be used to develop new crop varieties that are drought tolerant, resistant to insects and weeds, able to fix nitrogen from the atmosphere and even increase the nutrient content in the edible portion of plants. Proponents say modern biotechnology offers enormous opportunities to poor farmers and low-income consumers in developing countries.

     The first problem with that argument is that there is no relationship between the prevalence of hunger and a country’s population. For every densely populated and hungry nation like Bangladesh, there is a sparsely populated (but also hungry) country like Brazil.   {snip}

     At most, biotechnology has the yet-unrealized potential to deal with the issues of quality and quantity of food but does not address distribution and access. Insisting on technological solutions to hunger ignores the tremendous complexity of the problem. It is too easy to fall into the “paradox of plenty” — more food accompanied by greater hunger. Any method of boosting food production that deepens inequality is bound to fail to reduce hunger.

     This is particularly true for biotechnology, which is being promoted by private corporations to whom poor farmers (who produce most of the basic food crops in the developing world) do not represent an attractive market.

     For example, the new strain of rice that is capable of producing provitamin A, which is being heralded as the best that agrobiotech can offer the developing world, constitutes a solution that ignores the root causes of why there are 2 million children at risk of vitamin A deficiency. In rural areas of the developing world, food preferences are culturally determined. Asians will not likely consume “orange rice” in the midst of abundant white rice.

     In fact, Asian small farmers grow diverse rice varieties with varying nutritional content and adapted to a wide variety of environmental conditions. The resulting genetic diversity heightens resistance to plant diseases and enables farmers to derive multiple nutritional uses.

     If, as expected, transgenic seeds continue to be developed and commercialized exclusively by private firms, poor farmers will continue to find them too expensive to purchase. The few that will have access to bioengineered seeds will be hurt by becoming dangerously “dependent” on the annual purchase of such seeds. Choices are surely also being denied to poor farmers when private industries insist upon protecting biotech patents that deny seed saving, an aspect that is of fundamental cultural importance to traditional farmers, who for centuries have saved and shared seeds.   {snip}

     Corporate legal rights to biotechnology is affecting the development of transgenic crops by public institutions. Moreover, the seed distribution channels and networks to reach farmers are being privatized, focusing on commercial farms rather than on poor farmers.

     Much of the needed food can be produced throughout the world by small farmers using agroecological technologies. In fact, new rural development approaches and simple technologies spearheaded by farmers groups and nongovernmental organizations around the developing world are already making a difference.   link

     Seeds of Distraction: The Biotech Companies Want us to Consider Everything Except their Motives

     The question is as simple as this: do you want a few corporations to monopolize the global food supply? If the answer is yes, you should welcome the announcement the government is expected to make today, that the commercial planting of a GM crop in Britain can go ahead. If the answer is no, you should regret it. The principal promotional effort of the genetic engineering industry is to distract us from this question.   {snip}

     Now forgive me if you’ve heard this before, but it seems to need repeating. GM crops are not science. They are technological products of science. To claim, as Tony Blair and several senior scientists have done, that those who oppose GM are “anti-science” is like claiming that those who oppose chemical weapons are anti-chemistry. Scientists are under no greater obligation to defend GM food than they are to defend the manufacture of Barbie dolls.

     GE Contamination in Spain: A Warning for Europe

     Vienna, 4 April 2006–The spiralling uptake of Genetically Engineered (GE) crops in Spain is causing massive genetic contamination, threatens the livelihood of farmers and urgently needs to be suspended, says Greenpeace. In a new report: ‘Impossible Coexistence’, environmentalists show how GE crops in Spain – the only EU country that grows Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) on a large scale – are undermining agricultural biodiversity and consumer choice.

     Terminator Rejection – A Victory for the People

     CURITIBA, Brazil – March 24 – A broad coalition of peasant farmers, indigenous peoples and civil society today celebrated the firm rejection of efforts to undermine the global moratorium on Terminator technologies – genetically engineered sterile seeds – at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Curitiba, Brazil.

     “This is a momentous day for the 1.4 billion poor people worldwide, who depend on farmer saved seeds,” said Francisca Rodriguez of Via Campesina, a world wide movement of peasant farmers, “Terminator seeds are a weapon of mass destruction and an assault on our food sovereignty.”

     “Terminator directly threatens our life, our culture and our identity as indigenous peoples”, said Viviana Figueroa of the Ocumazo indigenous community in Argentina, on behalf of the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity.

2. 

   CabinGirl on April 12, 2006 at 9:45 am

   From New Orleans:  Editor & Publisher

   In one of the most amazing turnabouts in recent times, officials in Katrina-ravaged St. Bernard Parish in Louisiana are looking to hire the man most vilified in the aftermath of the disaster: former FEMA Director Michael Brown.

   The consulting firm formed by Brown after losing his job at FEMA, has been approached by St. Bernard Parish to help businesses and communities negotiate the maze of federal bureaucracy.

   What are they, crazy?

   But an editorial in the Times-Picayune of New Orleans on Tuesday called this idea a “mistake.” It said that local officials “need to remember Mr. Brown’s abysmal performance during and after the hurricane.”

   Despite recent revelations that show that he was at least somewhat more on top of the situation than believed, “nothing in Mr. Brown’s performance suggests that he’s the person who can make things happen for St. Bernard Parish,” the editorial warned. “If he couldn’t get FEMA to work right when he was on the inside, before his forced resignation, how can he do so now, from the outside?”

   Exactly.

   • 

     olivia on April 12, 2006 at 10:00 am

     That’s a sure sign that the world has gone nuts. Seriously nuts.

     • 

       Family Man on April 12, 2006 at 10:05 am

       I don’t know Olivia.  I think it shows that Brown is really not out of the loop.  To me it shows he still has friends in pretty high places.

       I agree it’s nuts, but what’s the old saying.  It’s not how well you can do the job, it’s who you know.

3. 

   idredit on April 12, 2006 at 10:07 am

   TruthDig’s Robert Scheer drills Colin Powell who blames Cheney for propagating the Iraq/Niger nuclear lie:

   So, we didn’t need Ambassador Wilson to tell us what we already knew…

   [.] I queried Powell at a reception following a talk he gave in Los Angeles on Monday. Pointing out that the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate showed that his State Department had gotten it right on the nonexistent Iraq nuclear threat, I asked why did the president ignore that wisdom in his stated case for the invasion?

   “The CIA was pushing the aluminum tube argument heavily and Cheney went with that instead of what our guys wrote,” Powell said. And the Niger reference in Bush’s State of the Union speech? “That was a big mistake,” he said. “It should never have been in the speech. I didn’t need Wilson to tell me that there wasn’t a Niger connection. He didn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know. I never believed it.” When I pressed further as to why the president played up the Iraq nuclear threat, Powell said it wasn’t the president: “That was all Cheney.” A convenient response for a Bush family loyalist, perhaps, but it begs the question of how the president came to be a captive of his vice president’s fantasies.

   More important: Why was this doubt, on the part of the secretary of state and others, about the salient facts justifying the invasion of Iraq kept from the public until we heard the truth from whistle-blower Wilson, whose credibility the president then sought to destroy? [..]

   (emphasis added)

   Kinda think Powell confirms for me, Again, how flawed is his character. Not only Powell btw.

   Hey Billmon is on fire. A must read. “Mutually Assured Dementia”

   [I]t appears our long national journey towards complete idiocy is over. We’ve arrived. [..]

   This may seem plausible – that is, if you were in a catatonic stupor throughout 2002 and the early months of 2003 (which is just another way of saying: if you were a member in good standing of the corporate media elite.) But the rest of us have learned that when Dick Cheney starts muttering about precious bodily fluids, you’d better pay attention. He really does mean business, and when Dick Cheney means business, bombs are likely to start falling sooner rather than later.

   Tells it like it is.

   Diary promo today? Yes, My Own: The World’s Only Supersuicide Bomber?

   for which Billmon’s piece set the stage.

4. 

   olivia on April 12, 2006 at 10:25 am

   How handy for them that they’ve got this war for field testing purposes.

   US to deploy RPG-busting ‘force field’- Classified Israeli tech bound for Iraq

   The US is to field test an innovative Israeli set-up designed to act as a “force field” around armoured vehicles, protecting them from rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) and anti-tank missiles, according to a Fox News report.

   The system, dubbed “Trophy”, uses radar to track incoming threats and then destroys them when they’re in range by attacking the warheads with an “invisible force”, according to Fox. Quite how it does this is, unsurprisingly, classified, but Defense Update understands Trophy is “designed to form a ‘beam’ of fragments, which will intercept any incoming HEAT threat, including RPG rockets at a range of 10 metres to 30 meters from the protected platform”.

5. 

   olivia on April 12, 2006 at 10:33 am

   MacKay to argue U.S. border plans with Washington

   Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay says he’ll use a trip to Washington this week to argue against American plans to require passports or special ID cards for Canadians at the border.

   That appears to contradict Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s recent public statement that Canadians must get used to the fact a secure document system is coming.

   MacKay is to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice in Washington on Thursday.

   He says the Conservative government supports the current system, which allows Canadians to enter or leave the U.S. with just a driver’s licence.

   • 

     idredit on April 12, 2006 at 7:39 pm

     Stephen Harper don’t know squat; spoke before he was briefed on the issue.  US Senators are also requesting changes be made since Americans returning from Canada will need to have passports for re-entry.

     BTW, a Canadian driver’s license are province -issued docs, tamper proof-bar coded with photo, address, DoB, etc.
     Recently a school organized tour – students from MA were prevented entry into Canada because Canadian Officers doubted some would be allowed re-entry.

     The proposed rule presents complications for a 5,500 mile border that traverses not just land and waterways,  but splits  homes/property, commercial and farms in some towns. Backdoor US, front door Canada. Bedroom in USA with kitchen in Canada kinda thing. In some towns a brother lives down the street USA, and 50 feet up the street Canada, is his sister’s home. Shared utilities, libraries, etc. In fact 60% in one village on the  Canadian side, are US born who have lived in Canada all their lives and work in US.

     Look at the stats – the percentage of US and Canadian citizens without passports. Commerce in US border towns, dependent on Canadian shoppers, will be affected.

     Hey let’s wall ourselves in. Safer that way.

     In the WTF department  (h/t: TalkLeft)

     A reservist, anxious to return to Minnesota after serving eight months in Iraq, was detained in Los Angeles for more than an hour because his name appeared on a “watch list” of suspected terrorists. Marine Staff Sgt. Daniel Brown’s name was listed after TSA discovered gunpowder residue on his boots last June — “likely left over from a previous two-month tour in Iraq.”

      

6. 

   olivia on April 12, 2006 at 10:35 am

   Critics demand Defence Minister’s recusal

   Defence Minister Gordon O’Connor faced sustained opposition attacks for a third consecutive day yesterday in connection with his former role as a lobbyist for global weapons manufacturers.

   (…)

   After his retirement as a brigadier-general, and before his election in 2004, Mr. O’Connor worked as a lobbyist with Hill & Knowlton Canada and, according to federal records, lobbied on behalf of a number of companies. From 2001 to 2004, he was the registered lobbyist for Airbus Military.

   Airbus is developing the A400M aircraft, a contender for a pending $4.6-billion tactical airlift contract. Airbus’s sister company, EADS-CASA, makes the C295 fixed-wing rescue aircraft, one of several contenders for a planned $3.4-billion purchase of search-and-rescue planes.

   Mr. O’Connor also formerly lobbied for BAE Systems, Raytheon Canada, General Dynamics Canada and Stewart & Stevenson. All four companies are bidding on major pending Canadian defence procurement contracts.

7. 

   olivia on April 12, 2006 at 10:36 am

   Time shutting Canadian bureau

   Time magazine is shutting its Canadian news bureau — the first time in more than a decade that the venerable American newsmagazine will not have full-time editorial staff covering its northern neighbour.

   The Toronto-based bureau will officially close April 28, although the business operations of Time Canada Ltd. will remain, sources told the Toronto Star.

8. 

   JanetT in MD on April 12, 2006 at 11:32 am

   This may have been reported before, but I just heard of it…  

   The Plan B morning after pill is available without a precription in Canada as of April, but is kept behind the counter and requires a consultation with the pharmacist. However, the Canadian Pharmacists Association is suggesting that its pharmacists collect information from women (including sexual histories) before dispensing the drug. The guidelines aren’t mandatory, but the questions — and the fact that the pharmacist records the information in his database, along with the woman’s name and address —  could easily make some women uncomfortable about asking for the drug. (Plus the Canadian Pharmacist Association allows members to refuse to dispense the drug at all, if they object on “moral grounds”).

   Two editors at the Canadian Medical Association Journal asked thirteen women to purchase the drug and record their experiences, which the editors intended to publish — however, the pharmacist association objected to the story, and it was censored by an executive at CMA. Then the two editors, who were respected professionals in their field, were fired.  

   Ottowa Citizen has a series of articles covering the issue.

   The Council of Science Editors issued a statement condemning the editors’ firing.  

   So this is a problem on two different counts… first, the questions themselves (if a woman refuses to answer, does the pharmacist then deny her the drug she needs?) and then firing the editors — for publishing something that might be politically sensitive? In a MEDICAL JOURNAL? And this is CANADA…  let’s not even get into what might happen here (of course, here, Plan B is still prescription only…. and pharmacists can STILL refuse to dispense it….).

   Argh…..

   [disclaimer: I heard about this because Council of Science Editors is a client of my employer — we maintain their website.)

   • 

     olivia on April 12, 2006 at 12:22 pm

     As this is pertinent to my field, and I know one of the editors who quit. Believe me, it is a huge scandal and it is being discussed. Some more links:

     Support grows daily for fired editors

     Few have found this explanation credible and support has been growing daily for Hoey and deputy editor Anne Marie Todkill. The latest outcry has come from the two most prestigious medical journals in the world — The New England Journal of Medicine and The Lancet — expressing concern.

     Researchers including Hamilton’s Dr. Gordon Guyatt and Dr. Roman Jaeschke have threatened to pull upcoming articles from the journal. About 80 people came to show their support at a lecture by Hoey and Todkill on editorial autonomy at McMaster University yesterday and doctors are protesting with a petition that has been signed by 4,000 people so far.

     The deans of two prominent medical schools — the University of Toronto and the University of Western Ontario — have spoken out against the firings.

     And in an ultimate show of support, 16 editorial board members at the CMAJ and eight senior and intermediate editors have resigned.

     New England Journal jumps into CMAJ dispute

     In Ottawa, associate editor Dr. Claire Kendall resigned, saying that while she tried to hold on out of concern for the journal, she came to the conclusion she could no longer stay.

     “I’m very worried about the future of the journal. . . . (But) I guess I’ve just reached the limit of my ability to influence the situation. We’ve really been decimated,” she said from Ottawa.

     “I loved working at the CMAJ. But basically I’m concerned that what I value most about the journal and my position seemed compromised.”

     Kendall and three other editors resigned in the wake of the Feb. 20 dismissals of Hoey and senior deputy editor Anne Marie Todkill.

     Editor emeritus of American medical journal agrees to help try to save CMAJ

     The former editor of a prominent American medical journal says he believes the Canadian Medical Association has learned a lesson from the storm of protest that followed the recent firing of the editor and deputy editor of its journal.

     Dr. Frank Davidoff has agreed to serve on the interim editorial board of the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ), explaining he doesn’t want to see the embattled publication fold.

     “As unhappy as I was with what had happened so far, it seemed like it would be constructive not to just sit back and let it die, but to do something to help,” said Davidoff, a former editor and now editor emeritus of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

     Authors threaten to pull articles from CMAJ over firings

     A group of authors has threatened to withdraw a series of papers from publication in the Canadian Medical Association Journal unless its owners explain why the CMAJ’s editor-in-chief and senior deputy editor were fired.

     And get this (via Authors threaten to withdraw articles from CMAJ or if sub wall comes up go through this google link).

     And just last week it was announced the journal had received its second nomination for a Michener Award for public service journalism for an article on the way pharmacists were handling sales of the emergency contraceptive Plan B.

     Ironically that article — which revealed many pharmacists were demanding information about women’s sexual history and identifying information before selling the non-prescription drug — is believed to have contributed to the CMA’s decision to fire the two.

     And finally, here’s a timeline of events: The CMAJ firings Crisis at Canada’s most influential medical journal.

9. 

   Arcturus on April 12, 2006 at 5:38 pm

   Black Activist Wounded Near Ohio City Hall

   CINCINNATI (AP) – A black activist was shot several times and wounded across the street from City Hall on Wednesday, shortly after addressing City Council in one of his frequent appearances.

   Michael Bailey, a city bus driver who goes by the name Gen. Kabaka Oba, has claimed to represent groups called the Special Forces and the Black Fist.

   Police Chief Thomas Streicher Jr. said it appeared Bailey was targeted, not a victim of a random shooting.

   He underwent surgery for gunshot wounds, Streicher said.

   Although Bailey’s remarks to the City Council were often fiery, Mayor Mark Mallory said Bailey did not say anything unusual at Wednesday’s meeting.

10. 

    Man Eegee on April 12, 2006 at 5:41 pm

    500 million year old worm feces has been discovered by geologists in Sweden.  Just thought you would like to know that so you can die in peace someday.