Tire-less driver not spared arrest

Tire-less driver not spared arrest

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Yarmouth police say they were able to track William Fenton, 52, to his Yarmouth home because of the gouges in the road left by Fenton's Cadillac Seville, which was missing its front right tire.Yarmouth Police Department

By Hilary Russ

hruss@capecodonline.com

June 21, 2008

WEST YARMOUTH — A man was arrested on a drunken driving charge after he drove home without one of his front wheels.

William Fenton, 52, was picked up after police traced gouge marks from his car along a half dozen local roads. Fenton allegedly made the marks by traveling the distance on one of the rims of his green 2000 Cadillac Seville.

At about 1:40 a.m., police received a handful of calls from motorists and residents in the area of Winslow Gray Road and Route 28 about a car that sounded like it was dragging on the roadway, Yarmouth police Sgt. Thomas Hennessey said.

Officers went to the area, where they picked up the trail of gouge marks, along with at least one small, lost car part on Route 28.

Officers tracked the scarred streets, following gouges along South Sea Avenue, Exeter Road, Crowell Road, Silverleaf Lane, Lorena Road and Lewis Road.

They found Fenton's Cadillac in his driveway at 131 Lewis Road, Hennessey said. Fenton appeared to be asleep behind the wheel, his shirt wet, the car still running. There was no tire on the right front wheel and the rim was "pretty chewed up," Hennessey said.

Officers knocked on the window, asking Fenton to open the door. He lifted his eyelids, smiled, and turned away, Hennessey said.

Fenton fumbled to turn off the car and was unable to unlock the doors. Eventually, he rolled down the window so officers could unlock the car, the Yarmouth police sergeant said. A Bud Light beer can was in the center console, and others were on the passenger floor, he said.

Fenton was arrested just before 2 a.m. and was later bailed. He was arraigned yesterday at Barnstable District Court on charges including operating under the influence, second offense. He faces a pretrial hearing July 14.

He was found not guilty of a previous drunken driving charge in 2005, according to the Times archives.

Michelangelo 'hid secret code in Sistine Chapel'

Michelangelo hid a secret code in the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel made up of mystical Jewish symbols and insults aimed at the pope, according to a new book.

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The Sistine Chapel was intended to be decoded, the authors believe

The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, which the renaissance artist worked on for four years in the early 16th century, is actually a "bridge" between the Roman Catholic Church and the Jewish faith, according to The Sistine Secrets: Unlocking the Codes in Michelangelo's Defiant Masterpiece.

The book, which is already on the New York Times bestseller list, is the work of Rabbi Benjamin Blech, an associate professor of Talmud at Yeshiva University in New York, and Roy Doliner, a tour guide at the Vatican.

Scanning through the arrangement of figures on the vast 14,000 square foot ceiling, the authors have found shapes that correspond to Hebrew letters.

For example, the book states, the figures of David and Goliath form the shape of the letter gimel, which symbolises g'vurah, or strength, in the mystical Kabbalah tradition.

Kabbalah is a set of ancient esoteric teachings which are meant to decode the inner meaning of the Tanakh, or Hebrew Bible, and to explain the reasons for Jewish religious observances.

On the opposite wall, the scene showing Judith and her handmaiden carrying the head of the Assyrian general Holofernes is in the shape of the Hebrew letter chet, which represents chesed, or the characteristics of "loving kindness".

"There are so many layers of meaning on meaning, and most of it is from the Jewish tradition," said Mr Doliner on an American television programme.

Rabbi Blech added that all the figures in the nine scenes on the ceiling are Jews.

"He emphasises only Old Testament figures in the entire ceiling, and what he was trying to say was: Why have we ignored our true roots?" he said.

The book adds that the tree of life in the fresco is not, as usually thought, an apple tree, but instead a fig tree according to ancient Jewish tradition.

The authors believe the entire Sistine Chapel, which they say is built to the same proportions as the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, is a "lost mystical message of universal love" which was intended to be decoded.

The authors believe Michelangelo picked up his knowledge of Judaism while at the court of Lorenzo de Medici in Florence.

In addition, they say there are several attacks on Pope Julius II, who commissioned the work, embedded in the painting.

Disgusted with papal corruption, they think Michelangelo painted the prophet Zechariah in the pope's likeness.

Behind him, one angel is "making an extremely obscene hand gesture at the back of his head."

Critics of the new book point out that there is no record in Michelangelo's extensive and well-preserved writings of any secret code in the ceiling.

Dr Arnold Nesselrath, a curator at the Vatican museums said there was no way that Michelangelo could have painted any of the ceiling without the pope's express consent.

Marco Bussagli, an art history professor at Rome's La Sapienza university, said the revelation of "anti Catholic and anti-Christian" messages on the roof "suggests that the Dan Brown syndrome has struck again."

Mr Brown is the author of the controversial book, The Da Vinci Code, in which he writes that Jesus was secretly married to Mary Magdalene.

The two authors are not the first to have "seen" a secret Michelangelo code.

In 1950, a Venezuelan diplomat named Joaquin Diaz Gonzalez wrote a pamphlet arguing that an outline of the face of Dante, the poet, was hidden in the arrangement of the figures in the Last Judgement. He also "saw" a giant depiction of Jesus on the cross.

In 1990, Frank Meshberger argued in the Journal of the American Medical Association that the central panel, showing God and Adam reaching out to touch each other was in the shape of a brain and spinal cord.

In 2000, Dr Garabed Eknoyan saw the shape of a kidney in the painting, while in 2005 two Brazilian doctors found hidden body parts throughout, including a bronchial tube hidden in the tree trunk in the panel showing Eve's Creation.

Thief caught on camera for third time

A thief has been caught on CCTV stealing a sat nav from an undercover police car for the third time.

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Footage revealed that it took Milsom just six seconds to smash the window and grab the sat nav from the undercover vehicle

James Milsom, 21, was filmed breaking into the covert vehicle, just six weeks after he was released from prison for stealing a sat nav from another unmarked police car.

It was the third time he had been caught in identical operations in just four months.

Footage revealed that it took him just six seconds to smash the window and grab the sat nav from a vehicle in Bristol before escaping in daylight.

But his face was caught on camera as he leant through the window, giving police a clear image of their suspect.

Avon and Somerset police came up with the 'covert capture' vehicles, which contain hidden cameras the size of a pinhead, after a spate of high-value thefts from cars.

Superintendent Ian Wylie said: "Some of the photographs we have got from the cars have been excellent images.

"There is no doubt who the thief is and what they are doing. When faced with such evidence there is no other way to go than 'guilty'."

The cars are now parked around the crime hotspots of Bristol in an attempt to catch the most prolific offenders.

Milsom has been jailed for 14 weeks by Bristol magistrates.

“Dead” man wakes up just before his organs are removed

“Dead” man wakes up just before his organs are removed

June 14th, 2008 ·

If you are an organ donor in France (or anywhere really), you may want to pay attention to this story. We think donating organs is a beneficial and selfless act that is good for society, but debate has always raged whether or not a surgeon or doctor would treat an organ donor patient differently than a non-donor. Well, a 45-year-old who recently suffered a heart attack and was pronounced “dead” came back to life moments before his organs were to be removed for transplants. The man is only alive today because initially the surgeons authorized to remove organs were unavailable. Wow, that’s pretty lucky! This might cause a review of experimental “stopped heart” rules implemented to speed up the organ donation process.

France and other nations have adopted a new policy in which people who’s hearts stop and fail to respond to prolonged massage can be pronounced dead, but this definition of death is controversial.

From the Independent article:

The 45-year-old at the centre of the controversy collapsed close to the La Pitié-Salpêtriere hospital. Efforts were made to revive him at the scene, and more elaborate procedures continued at the hospital for 90 minutes. As surgeons were preparing to remove his vital organs, the man began to breathe unaided. His pupils moved and he showed signs of pain. His heart started to beat again. After several weeks during which he was gravely ill, the man can now walk and talk. He has yet to be told that doctors were ready to remove his organs.

Other doctors have seen similar incidents, according to the ethics committee report. “During the meeting, other reanimators … spoke of situations in which a person whom everyone was sure had died in fact survived after reanimation efforts that went on much longer than usual,” the report said. “Participants conceded that these were exceptional cases, but ones that were nevertheless seen in the course of a career.”

Le Monde said doctors had feared the new transplant rules would confront them with cases of this kind. They believe the existing rules are imprecise and could undermine public support for the removal of organs for transplant. They are pushing for the issue to be discussed as part of a consultation next year on a proposed, new law on medical ethics.

Right now we’re sure the man considers himself lucky to be alive, and he’ll only feel luckier if he ever learns the truth behind his survival!

Flood Museum Underwater in Iowa

by Jason Parrott

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All Things Considered, June 21, 2008 · The flood of 1993 was thought to be a once-in-a-lifetime event for residents of Fort Madison, Iowa. They even filled a downtown museum with artifacts of that historical Mississippi River flood. But 15 years later, history has repeated itself.

Jason Parrott reports for Tri States Public Radio.

Mississippi River level rises beyond forecasts

from The Associated Press

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Floodwaters from the Mississippi River surround mailboxes and a house on Saturday, June 21, 2008 in Foley, Mo. At Foley, more than half of the homes in the town of 200 residents were under water. Associated Press © 2008

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Foley Mayor Bill Thornhill and his wife Chris walk through town as the Mississippi River encroaches Saturday, June 21, 2008 in Foley, Mo. Amid the battle to hold back the swollen Mississippi River, some towns got an unwelcome surprise Saturday as river levels rose higher than projected. Associated Press © 2008

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A flooded lounge chair holds a police line in place Saturday, June 21, 2008 on the flooded south side of town in Foley, Mo. Amid the battle to hold back the swollen Mississippi River, some towns got an unwelcome surprise Saturday as river levels rose higher than projected. Associated Press © 2008

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A police line surrounds the flooded south side of town Saturday, June 21, 2008 in Foley, Mo. Amid the battle to hold back the swollen Mississippi River, some towns got an unwelcome surprise Saturday as river levels rose higher than projected. Associated Press © 2008

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Foley, Mo., resident Donna McDonald sits in an emergency shelter Saturday, June 21, 2008 in Winfield, Mo.,where she has been living since Thursday night waiting to see if the flood waters surrounding her home rise or fall. Associated Press © 2008

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Resident John Watson is prepared for Mississippi River flood waters that may not come Saturday, June 21, 2008 in Foley, Missouri. Watson has been living in a tent on his roof but the waters have yet to encroach on his property. Amid the battle to hold back the swollen Mississippi River, some towns got an unwelcome surprise Saturday as river levels rose higher than projected. Associated Press © 2008

FOLEY, Mo. June 22, 2008, 10:28 am ET · Amid the battle to hold back the swollen Mississippi River, some towns in northeastern Missouri and Illinois got an unwelcome surprise Saturday as river levels rose higher than projected.

Recent levee breaks north of Canton, not far from the Iowa line, had allowed the river level to drop there and at other towns far north of St. Louis.

Officials knew it would rise again to expected crests during the weekend, but the amount of the increase caught them off guard.

The Mississippi reached 26.3 feet Saturday morning at Canton after dipping below 23 feet two days earlier, and it was expected to crest later in the day at 26.4 feet.

That's still more than a foot lower than the record set during the Great Flood of '93.

However, the new Saturday morning reading was "a full foot higher than we expected it to be," said emergency management spokeswoman Monica Heaton. "The levee's fine, but the river did another unexpected thing last night."

Forecasters said Saturday afternoon that the river would crest several inches higher than expected in Hannibal and at Quincy, Ill., where it was set to crest late in the day more than 2 feet below the '93 flood peak.

"We're confident we can hold that and not have any issues," said Adams County's emergency management chief, John Simon. "It'll be another sigh of relief, but it's not over yet. We're not out of the water yet, no pun intended. We have a while to go."

Hannibal emergency management director John Hark said the river was well above flood stage but still about 3 feet below the record set in 1993. Before a levee break north of Hannibal in Meyer, Ill., allowed some water to drain out of the river last week, Hannibal was expecting a crest at or near the record.

The crest was revised Saturday to 29.1 feet, set to arrive in Mark Twain's hometown sometime Sunday morning.

"We're keeping an eye on it," he said.

Downriver, near St. Louis, the latest federal forecast called for lower crests than predicted a day earlier. That was good news in hard-hit Lincoln County, where five levees had broken in the past three days.

At Foley, more than half of the homes in the town of 200 residents were under water, and townspeople were only beginning to decide whether to go back or move out.

Robert "Bobby" James, a union carpenter who moved to Foley a year ago, stayed after falling in love with the river. A few days ago, the handyman took out baseboards, flooring and carpet from his house as a pre-emptive move against the coming flood.

Even if the town floods again, he said, "I raise it 10 feet, put in new flooring, slap on five gallons of paint and I'm back in business."

National Weather Service meteorologist Ben Miller speculated that forecast models simply had been unable to account for the amount of water flowing into the Mississippi from the three rivers that saw major flooding in Iowa — the Cedar, Iowa and Des Moines rivers.

"Honestly, the models didn't do well with it because it was so far out of the range of normal," Miller said.

Miller was unaware of any levees facing renewed danger because of the river's unexpected rise, but said river towns need to be aware that the flood is a long way from over.

"Obviously any town protected by a levee is still under risk," Miller said. "The longer you have levees that have water up against them, the better the chance you have a levee being compromised."

Flooding and widespread storms this month have forced thousands from their homes and inundated towns and cities along rivers in six states, killing 24 and injuring 148 since June 6.

But while the swollen Mississippi has topped or broken through levees for hundreds of miles above St. Louis, the flooding hasn't led to any deaths or significant injuries in Missouri or Illinois.

(This version CORRECTS the first paragraph to say northeastern Missouri instead of northwest Missouri.)

The Buzz on Pollinators: Podcasts Hover Around National Pollinator Week

The Buzz on Pollinators: Podcasts Hover Around National Pollinator Week

Published on Jun 21, 2008 - 7:27:00 AM

By: USGS

June 20, 2008 - National Pollinator Week is your chance to listen to a series of podcasts and learn more about the essential birds, bees, bats, and even beetles that pollinate your food and flowering plants, and make our wild areas beautiful and healthy.

From native bees in urban areas to climate change and pollinators, endangered pollinators and plants, and how to make your landscape more pollinator-friendly, these podcasts will give you the inside buzz on North America's pollinators.

The podcasts were produced for National Pollinator Week by the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign (NAPPC) and its federal partners in the Department of the Interior - Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the U.S. Geological Survey. They will start running on Monday at http://www.pollinator.org/:

* Monday, June 23. The Pollinator Partnership: Bringing Together Pollinators and People. Discusses an overview of pollinator issues, The Pollinator Partnership and Pollinator Week events, gardening guides for pollinators, educational curriculum and free posters and pollinator wheels.

* Tuesday, June 24. Endangered Pollinators, Endangered Plants. Discusses imperiled butterflies and plants as well as some of the challenges facing their recovery.

* Wednesday, June 25. Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Altitudes: Pollinators, Phenology, and Climate Change. Discusses how climate change may be affecting pollinators and their phenology - the timing of their life-cycle events.

* Thursday, June 26. Busy Bees in the Beltway: Native Bees and Cities. Focuses on specific studies of native bees in Capital-area national parks and reveals how natural areas in even urban environments contribute to the conservation of native bees.

* Friday, June 27. Managing Mini-Fauna: Pollinators on Public Lands. Discusses steps land managers can take to start managing for pollinators.

Also, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will have additional pollinator podcasts available at http://www.fws.gov/pollinators.

Why the emphasis on pollinators? The National Academy of Sciences has reported that not only is there direct evidence for decline of some pollinator species in North America, but also very little is known about the status and health of most of the world's native pollinators, whether they be beetles or bats, bees or birds, or flies and wasps. Additionally, the recent occurrence of Colony Collapse Disorder has negatively affected managed honey bees, alarming and puzzling the agricultural community and researchers.

As discreet as most pollinators are, their well-being is and always has been necessary to people all across this planet. They are critical to the life cycle of seed-bearing plants. Without them, the ability of agricultural crops and wild plants to produce food products and seeds is jeopardized. Over 75 percent of flowering plants rely on pollinators, and they are responsible for an estimated $15 billion in services to agriculture alone in the United States.

While the importance of a healthy pollinator population to agriculture is clear, pollinators are just as important to sustaining functioning ecosystems and the food supply for wildlife.

DOI has a special obligation to understand and improve the condition of native pollinators on Federal lands. It manages about 500 million acres - or one-fifth of the surface land of the United States, which offers tremendous opportunities for the conservation of pollinators in North America.

Department of the Interior bureaus are working to meet this obligation. The Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, and the U.S. Geological Survey are active partners with NAPPC. Three of these DOI bureaus manage millions of acres of federal lands, while the other, USGS, has the scientific expertise to help address pressing scientific questions.

NAPPC, which is managed by the Pollinator Partnership, includes more than 120 partners throughout the United States, Mexico, and Canada, such as government agencies, scientists, academics, farmers, ranchers, and others. Their goal is to build strong public and private partnerships to protect pollinators based on best practices and sound science. To learn more about the Pollinator Partnership and to listen to the podcasts, please visit http://www.pollinator.org.

On the trail of the 'Indian yeti'

By Alastair Lawson BBC News, Meghalaya

In pictures: 'Yeti' hunt

In the US it's known as bigfoot, in Canada as sasquatch, in Brazil as mapinguary, in Australia as a yowie, in Indonesia as sajarang gigi and, most famously of all, in Nepal as a yeti.

The little known Indian version of this legendary ape-like creature is called mande barung - or forest man - and is reputed to live in the remote West Garo hills of the north-eastern state of Meghalaya.

I was invited by passionate yeti believer Dipu Marak to travel throughout the area to hear for myself what he says is compelling evidence of the existence of a black and grey ape-like animal which stands about 3m (nearly 10ft) tall.

There have been repeated reports of sightings over many years by different witnesses in the West, South and East Garo hills.

Mr Marak estimates the creature weighs about 300kg (660lb) and is herbivorous, surviving on fruit, roots and tree bark.

Intense heat

The Garo hills comprise more than 8,000sq.km of some of the thickest jungle in India.

And as I soon discovered, there is no shortage of people who say they have seen the creature at first hand.

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'Yeti witness' James Marak

Take woodcutter Nelbison Sangma, for example, who works on the fringes of the Nokrek national park in the Garo hills.

In November 2003, he says that he saw a yeti three days in a row.

He took me from his village to the spot where he says he made the sighting, a five-hour walk in intense tropical heat from his house.

"I saw the creature quite clearly on the other side of the river. It was breaking branches off trees and eating the sap. Its strength was amazing.

"Obviously I wanted to photograph it, but I knew that if I left the area, it would take at least 10 hours or more to get a camera as I do not own one. By that time the creature would have disappeared."

Mr Sangma says that he told the state forestry department of his sighting, but they did not believe him.

He took me to the spot where he says the yeti destroyed a tree - an exhausting uphill walk through thick jungle infested with blood-sucking leeches.

Mr Sangma showed me where the creature broke the tree's branches and clearly visible scratch marks on its bark.

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Are these hairs from Mande Barung?

A 10-hour drive away from Nokrek is the other national park of the Garo hills, Balpakram, which lies amid thick jungle on the border with Bangladesh.

It is an extremely remote area, where the hum of insects clicking in the undergrowth sounds like a series of disconnected power cables.

Balpakram is famous for its vast jungle-filled canyon which spans several miles and is surrounded by spectacular cliffs. Any descent is a treacherous exercise.

If ever there was terrain where a peace-loving yeti could live its life undisturbed by human interference, then this has surely got to be it.

Perhaps the most famous reported sighting was in April 2002, when forestry officer James Marak was among a team of 14 officials carrying out a census of tigers in Balpakram when they saw what they thought was a yeti.

According to the author and environmentalist Llewellyn Marak, such stories cannot be dismissed out hand.

"I saw the footprints for myself last year," he said, and they cannot easily be explained away.

"The prints were different from other animals - and were almost human in appearance - apart from the fact that they were about 18 inches [46cm] long.

"Both my father and grandfather also saw the creature at different times. Each said that it resembled a large gorilla."

Mr Marak argues that the Meghalayan forestry department has not seriously investigated the sightings because they are "uninterested and too lazy".

The western side of the state of the Meghalaya is predominantly made up of Garo tribespeople. They are traditionally a matrilineal community, where property is inherited through the female line.

They are also a community where stories and fables are deeply ingrained culturally, which is why senior politicians and officials are reluctant to discount openly tales of a yeti roaming about.

Meghalaya's Divisional Forestry Officer Shri PR Marak denies suggestions that his officers have not properly investigated alleged yeti sightings - which he argues is an expensive exercise in thick jungle only accessible by foot.

He uses diplomatic language when discussing whether yetis exist in the state.

"I have gone to see the evidence for myself and have even taken a plaster cast of one of the footprints," he says.

"As you know the presence of such a creature is an important part of our culture - passed down to us by our parents and grandparents.

"But we have no concrete evidence it exists, and there may even be a possibility that some of the evidence has been manipulated to create a stir.

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Measuring 'yeti' footprints

"Because the area where it is believed to live is thick jungle, it will be very difficult to know the truth."

But Dipu Marak has voluminous correspondence from various eyewitnesses to support his contention that there is something out there.

To critics who say he has no photographs of this mysterious creature, he insists that "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence".

"We have so many reports of sightings that I sincerely believe there is some sort of huge creature in the Garo hills," he said.

"This is not just a fairy tale, nor is it an effort to woo tourists. It's deeply embedded in our folklore and scientifically it is possible too.

"While I cannot prove conclusively that this creature definitely exists, nobody can say conclusively that it does not exist either."

Such is the impenetrability and extent of jungle in the Garo hills that the legend of mande barung looks likely to live on in the foreseeable future.

"The truth is out there somewhere," says Dipu Marak sincerely.

"But like the Loch Ness monster this creature is obviously not fond of giving too many photo opportunities."