Quote:
Originally Posted by ilzPotent
WHAT THE HELL?!!!! $5.89 mil from falling off scaffolding on the job? It was his fault he was clumsy. I gotta get in on this law suit shit.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ilzPotent
WHAT THE HELL?!!!! $5.89 mil from falling off scaffolding on the job? It was his fault he was clumsy. I gotta get in on this law suit shit.
Only In New York....
A young woman in New York was so depressed that she decided to end
her life by throwing herself into the ocean. She went down to the docks and
was about to leap into the frigid water when a handsome young sailor saw her
tottering on the edge of the pier, crying. He took pity on her and said, "Look, you've got alot to live for. I'm off to Europe in the morning, and if you like, I can stow you away on my ship. I'll take good care of you and bring you food every day." Moving closer, he slipped his arm round her shoulder and added, "I'll keep you happy and you'll keep me happy." The girl nodded yes. After all, what did she have to lose?
Maybe a fresh start in Europe would give her life new meaning. That night the sailor smuggled her aboard and hid her in a lifeboat.
From then on, every night he took her three sandwiches and a piece of
fruit and they made passionate love! Until dawn. Three weeks later,
during a routine inspection, she was discovered by the captain. "What are you
doing there?" the captain asked. "I have an arrangement with one of the sailors,"
she explained.
"I get food and a trip to Europe, and he's screwing me."
"He sure is, lady," the captain said.
"This is the Staten Island Ferry.
First Lt. Ehren Watada, a 28-year-old Hawaii native, is the first commissioned officer in the U.S. to publicly refuse deployment to Iraq. He announced last June his decision not to deploy on the grounds the war is illegal.
Lt. Watada was based at Fort Lewis, Washington, with the Army's 3rd (Stryker) Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division. He has remained on base, thus avoiding charges of desertion.
He does, however, face one count of "missing troop movement" and four counts of "conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman." If convicted, he faces up to six years in prison.
Watada's court martial is on February 5. A pre-trial hearing is set for January 4, with an added scope of controversy: the Army has ordered two freelance journalists, Sarah Olson and Dahr Jamail, to testify against Lt. Watada at the hearing. Both journalists are fighting the subpoenas.
Kevin Sites recently spoke with Lt. Watada about the reasoning behind his decision, the controversy the decision has caused and how he is dealing with the repercussions.
Lt. Watada spoke on the phone from his family's home in Hawaii. Click here to listen to the full audio version of the conversation. A transcript of the interview follows.
KEVIN SITES: Now, you joined the Army right after the US was invading Iraq and now you're refusing to go. Some critics might look at this as somewhat disingenuous. You've taken an oath, received training but now you won't fight. Can you explain your rationale behind this?
EHREN WATADA: Sure. I think that in March of 2003 when I joined up, I, like many Americans, believed the administration when they said the threat from Iraq was imminent that there were weapons of mass destruction all throughout Iraq; that there were stockpiles of it; and because of Saddam Hussein's ties to al-Qaeda and the 9/11 terrorist acts, the threat was imminent and we needed to invade that country immediately in order to neutralize that threat.
Since then I think I, as many, many Americans are realizing, that those justifications were intentionally falsified in order to fit a policy established long before 9/11 of just toppling the Saddam Hussein regime and setting up an American presence in Iraq.
SITES: Tell me how those views evolved. How did you come to that conclusion?
WATADA: I think the facts are out there, they're not difficult to find, they just take a little bit of willingness and interest on behalf of anyone who is willing to seek out the truth and find the facts. All of it is in the mainstream media. But it is quickly buried and it is quickly hidden by other events that come and go. And all it takes is a little bit of logical reasoning. The Iraq Survey Group came out and said there were no weapons of mass destruction after 1991 and during 2003. The 9/11 Commission came out and said there were no ties with Iraq to 9/11 or al-Qaeda. The president himself came out and said that nobody in his administration ever suggested that there was a link.
And yet those ties to al-Qaeda and the weapons of mass destruction were strongly suggested. They said there was no doubt there were weapons of mass destruction all throughout 2002, 2003 and even 2004. So, they came out and they say this, and yet they say it was bad intelligence, not manipulated intelligence, that was the problem. And then you have veteran members of the CIA that come out and say, "No. It was manipulated intelligence. We told them there was no WMD. We told them there were no ties to al-Qaeda. And they said that that's not what they wanted to hear."
SITES: Do you think that you could have determined some of this information prior to joining the military if a lot of it, as you say, was out there? There were questions going into the war whether WMD existed or not, and you seemingly accepted the administration's explanation for that. Why did you do that at that point?
WATADA: Certainly yeah, there was other information out there that I could have sought out. But I put my trust in our leaders in government.
SITES: Was there a turning point for you when you actually decided that this was definitely an illegal war?
WATADA: Certainly. I think that when we take an oath we, as soldiers and officers, swear to protect the constitution with our lives as necessary and those constitutional values and laws that make us free and make us a democracy. And when we have one branch of government that intentionally deceives another branch of government in order to authorize war, and intentionally deceives the people in order to gain that public support, that is a grave breach of our constitutional values, our laws, our checks and balances, and separation of power.
SITES: But Lieutenant, was there one specific incident that happened in Iraq or that the administration had said or done at a certain period that [made you say] "I have to examine this more closely"?
WATADA: No, I think that certainly as the war went on, and it was not going well, doubts came up in my mind, but at that point I still was willing to go. At one point I even volunteered to go to Iraq with any unit that was short of junior officers.
SITES: At what point was that?
WATADA: This was in September of 2005. But as soon as I found out, and as I began to read and research more and more that the administration had intentionally deceived the public and Congress over the reasons for going to Iraq, that's when I told myself "there's something wrong here."
"I saw the pain and agony etched upon the faces of all these families of lost soldiers. And I told myself that this needs to stop."
SITES: Was there any kind of personal conviction as well, I mean in terms of exposure to returning soldiers or Marines the kinds of wounds they suffered, the kinds of stories that they were bringing back with them did that have any kind of influence or create any factors for you in coming to this decision?
WATADA: Sure, I felt, well, in a general sense I felt that when we put our trust in the government, when we put our lives in their hands, that is a huge responsibility. And we also say that "when we put our lives in your hands, we ask that you not abuse that trust; that you not take us to war over flimsy or false reasons; that you take us to war when it is absolutely necessary." Because we have so much to lose, you know the soldiers, our lives, our limbs, our minds and our families that the government and the people owe that to us.
SITES: Was there a fear that played into that? Did you see returning soldiers with lost limbs? Was there a concern for you that you might lose your life going to Iraq?
WATADA: No, that had nothing to do with the issue. The issue here is that we have thousands of soldiers returning. And what is their sacrifice for? For terrorism or establishing democracy or whatever the other reasons are. And I saw the pain and agony etched upon the faces of all these families of lost soldiers. And I told myself that this needs to stop. We cannot have people in power that are irresponsible and corrupt and that keep on going that way because they're not held accountable to the people.
SITES: You know on that note, Lieutenant, let me read you something from a speech that you gave in August to the Veterans for Peace. You had said at one point, "Many have said this about the World Trade Towers: never again. I agree, never again will we allow those who threaten our way of life to reign free. Be they terrorists or elected officials. The time to fight back is now, the time to stand up and be counted is today." Who were you speaking about when you said that?
WATADA: I was speaking about everybody. The American people. That we all have that duty, that obligation, that responsibility to do something when we see our government perpetrating a crime upon the world, or even upon us. And I think that the American people have lost that, that sense of duty. There is no self-interest in this war for the vast majority of the American people. And because of that the American soldiers have suffered.
There really is a detachment from this war, and many of the American people, because there is no draft, or for whatever reason, because taxes haven't been raised, they don't have anything personally to lose or gain with this war, and so they take little interest.
SITES: Do you think President Bush and his advisers are guilty of criminal conduct in the prosecution of this war?
WATADA: That's not something for me to determine. I think it's for the newly-elected congress to determine during the investigations that they should hold over this war, and pre-war intelligence.
SITES: But in some ways you have determined that. You're saying this is an illegal war, and an illegal act usually takes prosecution by someone with criminal intent. Is that correct?
WATADA: Right, and they have taken me to court with that, but they have refused or it will be very unlikely that the prosecution in the military court will allow me to bring in evidence and witnesses to testify on my behalf that the war is illegal. So therefore it becomes the responsibility of Congress, since the military is refusing to do that. It becomes the responsibility of Congress to hold our elected leaders accountable.
SITES: Now this is the same Congress though that in a lot of ways voted for this war initially. Do you think that they're going to turn around and in some ways say that they were wrong? And hold hearings to determine exactly that, that they made a mistake as well? It seems like a long shot.
WATADA: Right, well I think some in Congress are willing to do that, and some aren't. And that's the struggle, and that's the fight that's going to occur over the next year.
http://f3.yahoofs.com/ymg/blogs/blog...wqH08CcQ5ErgZd Lt. Watada with his mother, Carolyn
Ho, and father, Robert Watada
Photo courtesy:
Jeff Paterson/thankyoult.org
SITES: Let me ask you why you decided to go to the press with this. In this particular case you're the first officer there may have been other officers that have refused these orders, but you're the first one to really do this publicly. Why did you do that?
WATADA: Because I wanted to explain to the American people why I was taking the stand I was taking that it wasn't for selfish reasons, it wasn't for cowardly reasons.
You know, I think the most important reason here is to raiseawareness among the American people that hey there's a war going on, and American soldiers are dying every day. Hundreds of Iraqis are dying every day. You need to take interest, and ask yourself where you stand, and what you're willing to do, to end this war, if you do believe that it's wrong that it's illegal, and immoral. And I think I have accomplished that. Many, many people come up to me and say, "because of you, I have taken an active interest in what's going on over in Iraq."
And also, you know, [I want to] give a little hope and inspiration back to a lot of people. For a long time I was really without hope, thinking that there was nothing I could do about something that I saw, that was so wrong, and so tragic. And I think a lot of people who have been trying to end this war felt the same way that there was just nothing that they could do. And I think by taking my stand publicly, and stating my beliefs and standing on those beliefs, a lot of people have taken encouragement from that.
SITES: You've said that you had a responsibility to your own conscience in this particular situation. Did you also have a responsibility to your unit as well? I just want to read you a quote from Veterans of Foreign Wars communications director Jerry Newbury. He said "[Lt. Watada] has an obligation to fulfill, and it's not up to the individual officer to decide when he's going to deploy or not deploy. Some other officer will have to go in his place. He needs to think about that." Can you react to that quote?
WATADA: You know, what I'm doing is for the soldiers. I'm trying to end something that is criminal, something that should not have been started in the first place and something that is making America less safe and that is the Iraq war. By just going there and being willing to participate, and doing my job, or whatever I'm told to do which actually exacerbates the situation and makes it worse I would not be serving the best interest of this country, nor the soldiers that I'm serving with. What I'm trying to do is end something, as I said, that's illegal, and immoral, so that all the soldiers can come home and this tragedy can come to an end.
It seems like people and critics make this distinction between an order to deploy and any other order, as if the order to deploy is just something that's beyond any other order. Orders have to be determined on whether they're legal or not. And if the order to deploy to a war that is unlawful, if that is given, then that order itself is unlawful.
SITES: How did your peers and your fellow officers react to your decision?
WATADA: I know that there have been some people within the military who won't agree with my stance, and there have been a lot of members of the Army of all ranks who have agreed with what I've done. And I see it almost every other day, where someone in uniform, or a dependent, approaches me in person, or through correspondence, and thanks me for what I have done, and either supports or respects my stand.
SITES: You've remained on base, and that's been a situation that can't be too comfortable for you. Can you fill us in on what that's been like there?
WATADA: I think that for the most part, people that I interact with closely I have been moved, I'm no longer in the 3rd Striker Brigade, I'm over in 1st Corps treat me professionally, politely, but keep their distance. I don't think anybody wants to get involved with the position that I've taken, either way. People approach me in private and give me their support.
SITES: Tell me about the repercussions you face in this court martial.
WATADA: Well I think with the charges that have been applied to me and referred over to a general court martial, I'm facing six years maximum confinement, dishonorable discharge from the army, and loss of all pay and allowances.
STES: Are you ready to deal with all those consequences with this decision?
WATADA: Sure, and I think that's the decision that I made almost a year ago, in January, when I submitted my original letter of resignation. I knew that possibly some of the things that I stated in that letter, including my own beliefs, that there were repercussions from that. Yet I felt it was a sacrifice, and it was a necessary sacrifice, to make. And I feel the same today.
I think that there are many supporters out there who feel that I should not be made an example of, that I'm speaking out for what a lot of Americans are increasingly becoming aware of: that the war is illegal and immoral and it must be stopped. And that the military should not make an example or punish me severely for that.
SITES: Do you think that you made a mistake in joining the military? Your mother and father support you in this decision, and your father during the Vietnam War refused to go to Vietnam as well, but instead joined the Peace Corps. He went to his draft board and said, "let me join the Peace Corps and serve in Peru," which is what he did. Do you think in hindsight that that might have been a better decision for you as well?
WATADA: You know I think that John Murtha came out a few months ago in an interview and he was asked if, with all his experience, in Korea, and Vietnam, volunteering for those wars -- he was asked if he would join the military today. And he said absolutely not. And I think that with the knowledge that I have now, I agree. I would not join the military because I would be forced into a position where I would be ordered to do something that is wrong. It is illegal and immoral. And I would be put into a situation as a soldier to be abused and misused by those in power.
STIES: In your speech in front of the Veterans for Peace you said "the oath we take as soldiers swears allegiance not to one man but to a document of principles and laws designed to protect the people." Can you expand upon that a little bit what did you mean when you said that?
WATADA: The constitution was established, and our laws are estabestablished, and our laws are established, to protect human rights, to protect equal rights and constitutional civil liberties. And I think we have people in power who say that those laws, or those principles, do not apply to them that they are above the law and can do whatever it takes to manipulate or create laws that enable them to do whatever they please. And that is a danger in our country, and I think the war in Iraq is just one symptom of this agenda. And I think as soldiers, as American people, we need to recognize this, and we need to put a stop to it before it's too late.
Photo in the News: Cat Chases Bear Up Tree
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...t-bear_big.jpg
Perhaps not since the Cowardly Lion has an animal's appearance been so at odds with its attitude.
On June 4 a black bear wandered into a West Milford, New Jersey, back yard, was confronted by a 15-pound (7-kilogram) tabby cat and fled up a neighbor's tree. Hissing at the base of the tree, Jack the clawless cat kept the bear at bay for about 15 minutes, then ran him up another tree after an attempted escape.
Finally, Jack's owner, Donna Dickey, called the cat inside, and the timorous trespasser disappeared back into the woods.
"He doesn't want anybody in his yard," Dickey said of Jack in an interview with the Newark Star Ledger. Unlike cats, bears aren't typically territorial, roaming instead over vast areas that would be impossible to patrol for intruders. With a habitat that includes much of North America, black bears are seen fairly often in this region of New Jersey. Full-grown black bears weigh between 200 and 600 pounds (90 and 270 kilograms) and measure as much as 6 feet (1.8 meters) long. Their diets can include fruits, honey, insects, acorns and animals as big as moose calvesa fact apparently lost on Jack.
Birds fall from sky over town
THOUSANDS of birds have fallen from the skies over Esperance and no one knows why.
Is it an illness, toxins or a natural phenomenon? A string of autopsies in Perth have shed no light on the mystery.
All the residents of flood-devastated Esperance know is that their "dawn chorus" of singing birds is missing.
The main casualties are wattle birds, yellow-throated miners, new holland honeyeaters and singing honeyeaters, although some dead crows, hawks and pigeons have also been found.
Wildlife officers are baffled by the "catastrophic" event, which the Department of Environment and Conservation said began well before last week's freak storm.
On Monday, Esperance, 725km southeast of Perth, was declared a natural disaster zone.
District nature conservation co-ordinator Mike Fitzgerald said the first reports of birds dropping dead in people's yards came in three weeks ago. More than 500 deaths had since been notified. But the calls stopped suddenly last week, reportedly because no birds were left.
"It's very substantial. We estimate several thousand birds are dead, although we don't have a clear number because of the large areas of bushland," Mr Fitzgerald said.
Birds Australia, the nation's main bird conservation group, said it had not heard of a similar occurrence. "Not on that scale, and all at the same time, and also the fact that it's several different species," chief executive Graeme Hamilton said. "You'd have to call that a most unusual event and one that we'd all have to be concerned about."
He expected birds would return to the area once the problem - natural or man-made phenomenon - was fixed but said it was vital the cause was identified.
The Department of Agriculture and Food, which conducted the autopsies, has almost ruled out an infectious process.
Acting chief veterinary officer Fiona Sunderman said toxins were the most likely cause but the deaths could be due to anything from toxic algae to chemicals and pesticides.
Dr Sunderman said there were no leads yet on which of potentially hundreds of toxins might be responsible. Some birds were seen convulsing as they died.
Michelle Crisp was one of the first to contact the DEC after finding dozens of dead birds on her property one morning.
She told The Australian she normally had hundreds of birds in her yard, but that she and a neighbour counted 80 dead birds in one day.
"It went to the point where we had nothing, not a bird," she said.
"It was like a moonscape, just horrible. But the frightening thing for us, we didn't find any more birds after that. We literally didn't have any birds left to die."
http://www.news.com.au/common/imaged...5355582,00.jpg
WTF^^ Its the Plague
Yeah, here in Europe we have the bird flu, and in Australia it's bird ebola.
Heart of downtown Austin closed for testing after dozens of birds found dead overnight
http://www1.whdh.com/images/news_art...stin_birds.jpg
AUSTIN, Texas -- Police shut down 10 blocks in downtown Austin for several hours Monday after 63 birds were found dead in the street, but officials said preliminary tests found no threat to people.
Workers in yellow hazardous-materials suits tested for contaminants in a cordoned-off section near the state Capitol and the governor's mansion before authorities finally gave the all-clear in the afternoon.
Although officials could not immediately determine whether poison or something else killed the birds, "there's no threat to humans at this point," said Assistant City Manager Michael McDonald.
The dead grackles, sparrows and pigeons will be tested.
Some experts said the most likely cause of the die-off was a deliberate poisoning. "It happens quite frequently," said Greg Butcher, director of bird conservation at the National Audubon Society in Washington.
Grackles are a crowlike bird regarded as a major pest in Texas, with Austin sidewalks sometimes covered in their droppings.
The dead birds were found overnight along Congress Avenue, a major downtown thoroughfare. Police closed the route through downtown and two side streets, and a staging area was set up near the Capitol, with dozens of fire trucks, police cars and ambulances.
The Capitol opened on schedule, however. And the governor was not asked to leave the mansion.
Dr. Adolfo Valadez, medical director for the Austin and Travis County Health and Human Services Division, said the birds will be tested for signs of poison or viral infections. But officials do not believe bird flu is involved.
It could be days or weeks before a cause is determined, he said.
The Austin street closures were not the only public health concern in Texas on Monday. In the Houston suburb of Sugar Land, authorities asked people to stay indoors with windows closed after a chemical release at an industrial plant. Ethylenediamine was released into the air while a tanker truck was unloading at a division of Nalco Co.
The warning was lifted a little more than an hour later after emergency crews contained the leak of the colorless liquid, which has an amomonia-like odor and can cause skin and nasal irritation, and possible damage to the kidneys and liver.
Three employees were sent to a hospital and about a dozen others were treated on the scene.
UFO crashes in SA
Pretoria - A UFO was sighted at Lephalale, where it was described as a strange object "on an orange cloud, singing like a million turbines" - hitting the earth with a bang at 04:33 on Saturday.
That's according to Leonie Ras, the administrative manager of Lephalale (Ellisras) who witnessed the spectacle at her daughter's farm just east of the town on Saturday morning.
"I was lying on my bed reading SMS-messages when I heard a noise like an Airbus aircraft firing up its motors."
"It was raining but there was no thunder or lightning. The noise grew louder and eventually it sounded like a million turbines screaming in unison," Ras said.
She walked to the bedroom window and saw the clouds taking on a bright orange-red colour.
"Suddenly, a bright object plunged from the clouds to the earth, at a terrible speed, and hit the ground with an almighty bang."
"It looked like Haley's comet, round in the front and with an orange-red tail following behind."
When the UFO hit the ground the low-lying clouds went orange.
"It was so exceptional that I started crying. I wished my children and grandchildren could have seen it. I had not been drinking and I was in full control of my faculties," she said.
She calculated that the object must have hit the ground near Beauty, between the Tambotie and Palele rivers.
Cobus Nel, her son-in-law, who was also in the house, woke up from the commotion.
"I woke up to a terrible rumbling, followed by a sound like an explosion. I woke my wife up, so that she could also listen, because the rumbling lasted more than a minute, becoming louder, then we heard the bang," Nel said.
Lephlale's fire service, police and disaster control centres seemed to have slept through the commotion. "I want someone to go and have a look. The farms here are big, and it could have fallen somewhere, where the farmer doesn't even know about it," Ras said.
UFO Crash in Central Iran
TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- An Unidentified Flying Object crashed in Barez Mounts in the central province of Kerman Wednesday morning.
http://media.farsnews.com/Media/8305...5/A0055831.jpg
Deputy Governor General of Kerman province Abulghassem Nasrollahi told FNA that the crash which was followed by an explosion and a thick spiral of smoke has caused no casualties or damage to properties.
He further denied earlier reports that the explosion has been the result of a plane or chopper crash, reminding that all the passing aircrafts have been reported as sound and safe.
The official further stated that investigations are underway by police and other relevant authorities in this regard.
While other reports spoke of meteors, Nasrollahi said there were no conclusive witnesses in this regard but he did not dismiss the possibility that the crash has been caused by a meteor.
Eye-witnesses assure that the explosion has been caused as a result of the crash of a radiant unidentified flying object onto the ground.
Meantime, an informed source told FNA that the object has been on fire and there has been thick smoke coming out of it prior to the crash, concluding that the object couldn't have been a meteor as meteors do not smoke.
The source also said that the crash has been witnessed by people in several cities, and mentioned that the rendezvous point is located 100 kilometers from the provincial capital city of Kerman.
He said that people in the city of Rafsanjan also reported to have witnessed a similar incident several days ago.
Similar crash incidents have been witnessed frequently during the last year all across Iran, and officials believe that the objects could be spy planes or a hi-tech espionage device.
Anti-cancer chicken eggs produced
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/image...roslin_203.jpg GM chickens could be a route to faster, cheaper drugs
UK scientists have developed genetically modified chickens capable of laying eggs containing proteins needed to make cancer-fighting drugs.
The breakthrough has been announced by the same research centre that created the cloned sheep, Dolly.
The Roslin Institute, near Edinburgh, says it has produced five generations of birds that can produce useful levels of life-saving proteins in egg whites.
The work could lead to a range of drugs that are cheaper and easier to make.
Professor Harry Griffin, director of the institute, told the BBC: "One of the characteristics of lots of medical treatments these days is that they're very expensive.
"The idea of producing the proteins involved in treatments in flocks of laying hens means they can produce in bulk, they can produce cheaply and indeed the raw material for this production system is quite literally chicken feed."
Roslin has bred some 500 modified birds. Their existence is the result of more than 15 years' work by the lead scientist on the project, Dr Helen Sang.
But it could be another five years before patient trials get the go-ahead and 10 years until a medicine is fully developed, the Roslin Institute cautioned.
Anti-viral approach
Therapeutic proteins such as insulin have long been produced in bacteria; but there are some complex proteins that can only be made in the more sophisticated cells of larger organisms.
Scientists have successfully made a range of these molecules in the milk of genetically modified sheep, goats, cows and rabbits.
The work at Roslin shows it is now possible to use chickens as "biofactories", too.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/shared/img/o.gifhttp://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/image...at_bbc_203.jpg
A number of GM animals are now being used as drug factories
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/...ashed_line.gif
Go-ahead for 'pharmed' goat
Some of the birds have been engineered to lay eggs that contain miR24, a type of antibody with potential for treating malignant melanoma, a form of skin cancer. Others produce human interferon b-1a, which can be used to stop viruses replicating in cells.
The proteins are secreted into the whites of the eggs. It is a fairly straightforward process then to extract and purify them.
Dr Sang said the team was highly encouraged by the level of the birds' productivity, but further improvements were required.
"We're probably getting a high enough productivity if you want to make a very active protein like interferon, but not enough yet if you want to make an antibody because people need large doses of these over long periods; so one of our next challenges is to try to increase the yield in egg white," she told BBC News.
Wider role
Chickens had some advantages over other animals for "pharming" because their lifecycles were shorter, said Dr Sang.
"Once you've made the transgenic birds, then it's very easy; once you've got the gene in, then you can breed up hundreds of birds from one cockerel - because they can be bred with hundreds of hens and you can collect an egg a day and have hundreds of chicks in no time," she explained.
The Roslin research is part of the Avian Transgenic Project, a joint venture with biotechnology firms Viragen and Oxford BioMedica.
Details of the latest work are to be published this week in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
The Roslin team also expects its engineered chickens to provide new insights into aspects of reproductive biology.
It says the ability to modify birds' embryos will allow researchers to study fundamental processes that control the very early development of vertebrates. It is just over 10 years since the Finn Dorset lamb called Dolly was born at the institute. She was the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell - making her a genetic replica of a six-year-old ewe. She was put down in 2003 after contracting a common lung disease.
Air Force colonel reports lights 'not of this world'
Snaps images above Arkansas: 'I have no idea what they were'
Posted: January 17, 2007
6:37 p.m. Eastern
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/images2/orangelight1.jpg
Zoomed image of mysterious orange light seen Jan. 9 near Van Buren, Ark. (photo: Col. Brian Fields, USAF, ret.)
In the wake of reports of unidentified objects flying over Chicago's O'Hare Airport, a retired Air Force pilot has his own mystery with a rash of bright, colorful lights he photographed hovering in skies over western Arkansas last week.
"I believe these lights were not of this world, and I feel a duty and responsibility to come forward," Col. Brian Fields told WND. "I have no idea what they were."
Fields, 61, was cooking chicken at his Van Buren, Ark., home Jan. 9 when just before 7 p.m., he observed two intensely bright lights as he looked to the southeast close to the horizon.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/images2/yellowlight1.jpg
Zoomed image of mysterious yellow light seen Jan. 9 near Van Buren, Ark. (photo: Col. Brian Fields)
"At first I thought they were landing lights from an aircraft," he said. "As I continued to observe them they began to slowly disappear, then suddenly one reappeared, followed by two, then three. On at least one occasion four or five appeared. Each time they would slowly fade and eventually disappear. This occurred several times and when they would reappear they might do so in differing numbers and in different positions, sometimes in a triangular shape, sometimes stacked on top of each other, sometimes line abreast, etc. When the objects appeared they might stay illuminated 10 or more minutes."
Fields' wife thought the lights may have been ground-based, but Fields says he's certain they were airborne. The retired colonel spent close to 32 years in the flying F-16s as a member of the 188th Fighter Wing of the Arkansas Air National Guard.
"I'm certain it wasn't an aircraft [from Earth]," said Fields, who also ruled out the possibility of flares, saying they didn't descend like flares typically do. "It's not anything I ever had any experience with . ... They were some kind of energy or something."
Fields grabbed his Canon digital camera with 6 megapixel resolution to document what he and his wife were seeing, and snapped numerous images of the mysterious lights, which appeared white, yellow and orange.
He says the phenomenon lasted an hour and 15 minutes, and agencies have not published or broadcast any reports of what the couple witnessed. WND surveyed local police and sheriffs agencies, as well as Fort Chaffee, a decommissioned Army base in the region, and no one reported anything out of the ordinary.
"I just can't imagine other people didn't see it," Fields said, noting they appeared at times like a yo-yo at 5 to 10 degrees above the horizon.
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Mysterious yellow lights in triangular formation seen Jan. 9 near Van Buren, Ark. The red lights at right are from a local radio tower (photo: Col. Brian Fields)
Earlier this month, the Chicago Tribune reported workers for United Air Lines said they saw a flying saucerlike object hovering "low over O'Hare International Airport for several minutes before bolting through thick clouds with such intense energy that it left an eerie hole in overcast skies."
That Nov. 7 sighting took place just before sunset about 4:30 p.m.
According to Tribune columnist Jon Hilkevitch, "All the witnesses said the object was dark gray and well defined in the overcast skies. They said the craft, estimated by different accounts to be 6 feet to 24 feet in diameter, did not display any lights.
"Some said it looked like a rotating Frisbee, while others said it did not appear to be spinning. All agreed the object made no noise and it was at a fixed position in the sky, just below the 1,900-foot cloud deck, until shooting off into the clouds."
When interviewed on National Public Radio about the story, Hilkevitch indicated the event was anything but a hoax.
"That's what impressed me about this. All aviation professionals, very credible sources and they are very serious," Hilkevitch said. "They are not saying what they saw was a, you know, a spaceship from another planet, but it was unidentified, it was in restricted airspace, and they were concerned from a safety standpoint. That if this was something man-made, they needed to get it out of there because they were having busy flight operations in the early evening hours."
Back in Arkansas, Col. Fields, who says he's a Christian who has not been a believer in alien life forms from other planets, speculated what he saw could possibly be related to ancient texts from the Bible.
One of them is Luke 21:11, where Jesus discusses signs of the End Times, stating, "And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven."
Another is even more ancient, going back to the time of Noah's flood.
"That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. ... There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown." (Genesis 6:2-4)
These Old Testament verses have been enigmatic for centuries, but many Christians believe they refer to a time in antiquity when spirit beings, perhaps angels in rebellion against God, visited Earth and had sexual relations with human women, producing "giants," which is translated from the Hebrew word "Nephilim," which some scholars say is better translated as "fallen ones."
"I believe it's prophetic, something do with what's happening in the Middle East today," said Fields. "If this is some kind of event with visitation, it's entirely possible. When the anti-Christ comes into power, it's not going to be something we expect. The deception that is going to be attached to it is going to be so powerful, you're gonna have to go against your reason to reject it."
While Fields cannot be certain of what it was he saw, he wants to tell people not to be deceived. "Be awake, be mindful you can be deceived," he said. "There are things that can shake our world."
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americ...rss_topstories
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remember what he said about guys that own a pigfarm?
It's a two-faced, four-eyed pig
Thursday, January 18, 2007
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The recent barrage of two-faced (or otherwise unusually shaped) animals just won't stop coming.
Hot on the heels of the two-faced cow and the six-legged cow comes a new entrant in the odd animal hall of fame.
But unlike the previous examples, which have been hailed by Metro (if, admittedly, not by anybody else) as a sign of the imminent apocalypse, the birth of this two-headed pig in China is being hailed as a miraculous conception by the farmers.
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The pig is widely seen as a symbol of fertility in China. And, what with 2007 being the Chinese Year Of The Pig, the unique porker is considered to be a blessing. Although, of course, it won't actually be the year of the pig until February 18.
The two-faced porker weighs in at 1.5 kilograms, comes with 2 mouths and 4 eyes, and was born in the small village of Quanzhou in East China's Fujian province on January 15.
Update for people who are having difficulty interpreting the picture: there's two snouts. In the middle, you can see two eyes very close together. On the each other side of the two faces, out of view, there's another eye. Hence the description 'two-faced, four-eyed pig'.
Photo Gallery: Rare "Prehistoric" Shark Photographed Alive
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Flaring the gills that give the species its name, a frilled shark swims at Japan's Awashima Marine Park on Sunday, January 21, 2007. Sightings of living frilled sharks are rare, because the fish generally remain thousands of feet beneath the water's surface.
Spotted by a fisher on January 21, this 5.3-foot (160-centimeter) shark was transferred to the marine park, where it was placed in a seawater pool.
"We think it may have come to the surface because it was sick, or else it was weakened because it was in shallow waters," a park official told the Reuters news service. But the truth may never be known, since the "living fossil" died hours after it was caught.
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This serpentine specimen may look like a large eel, but its six slitlike gills help mark it as a cousin of the great white, the hammerhead, and other sharks. But this isn't your average fish.
Believed to have changed little since prehistoric times, the frilled shark is linked to long-extinct species by its slinky shape and by an upper jaw that is part of its skull. Most living sharks have hinged top jaws.
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With a mouthful of three-pointed teeth, the frilled shark may be a fearsome hunter, but it's considered harmless to humans. Those needle-like choppers are better suited to fleshier forms found in the deep sea, such as squid and other sharks.
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Right now it's known as a "living fossil." But the frilled shark may be on its way to joining its ancestors.
Often accidentally caught and killed in trawlers' nets in Japanese waters, frilled sharks are known to turn up in fertilizer or animal food and occasionally on dinner plates. The World Conservation Union (IUCN) lists the species as near threatened, meaning it "is close to qualifying for or is likely to qualify for a threatened category in the near future."
AROUND THE CORNER? Yesterday,something on the far side of the sun exploded, hurling a bright coronal mass ejection (CME) into space:
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Note: Algedi and Dahbi are stars in the constellation Capricornus.
This is the second day in a row that a CME has rocketed into view from behind the sun's eastern limb (movies: Jan. 24, Jan. 25). An active sunspot must be lurking just around the corner. It should appear in a few days when the sun's rotation carries that part of the sun into view. Stay tuned for solar activity.
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COMET MCNAUGHT: The Great Comet of 2007 is receding from Earth and fading fast--but it is still a naked-eye comet, materializing in the western sky after sunset in the Southern Hemisphere. "These cows and sheep seem to be enjoying the show," says photographer Tim Thorpe on the Mount Lofty Ranges of Australia:
Photo details: Nikon D70, ISO 1000, ~20-sec exposure