Alligator causes fatal wreck - WTOC, Savannah, Georgia, news, weather and sports |: "JASPER COUNTY, SC (WTOC) - An alligator is the cause for a crash on Highway 170 that left one man dead and several traveling on a Greyhound bus frightened.
South Carolina Highway Patrol said a 47-year-old man from Savannah hit a Greyhound bus head on while trying to avoid hitting an alligator on the highway.
Levy Fire Chief, Doug Graham, said it was one of the worst wrecks he ever saw."
Saturday, May 09, 2009
Once Again, Texas Leads the Way
My Way News - Texas man jailed 83 days for skipping jury duty: "McKINNEY, Texas (AP) - A man arrested for allegedly failing to appear for jury duty was released Saturday after spending 83 days in jail, a length of detention that a judge called 'unacceptable.'
Douglas Maupin was released a day after The Dallas Morning News brought his plight to the attention of a Collin County judge."
Douglas Maupin was released a day after The Dallas Morning News brought his plight to the attention of a Collin County judge."
Paris Hilton: Diplomatic Genius
Daily Express | Day & Night :: Paris’s party plan for world peace: "Prime Minister’s wife Sarah Brown described Paris Hilton as “smart” and “caring” after they met this week in Los Angeles while the heiress in turn gushed that Mrs Brown was “inspirational”.
But it now emerges Paris, 27, is no fan of Sarah’s dour hubbie. Asked by Tatler for her views on Gordon Brown Paris pouts: “I don’t really like him.”
And as for her own plans if, God forbid, she ever becomes President? She’d “definitely try and make peace with the countries we are fighting. I’d throw a party so they could all get along and stop the war.” In the words of Ms Hilton: like, as if."
But it now emerges Paris, 27, is no fan of Sarah’s dour hubbie. Asked by Tatler for her views on Gordon Brown Paris pouts: “I don’t really like him.”
And as for her own plans if, God forbid, she ever becomes President? She’d “definitely try and make peace with the countries we are fighting. I’d throw a party so they could all get along and stop the war.” In the words of Ms Hilton: like, as if."
Talk about Your Long Pregnancies!
Rare prehistoric pregnant turtle found in Utah: "Paleontologists say a 75-million-year-old turtle fossil uncovered in southern Utah has a clutch of eggs inside, making it the first prehistoric pregnant turtle found in the United States.
At least three eggs are visible from the outside of the fossil, and Montana State University researchers this week have been studying images taken from a CT scan in search of others inside."
At least three eggs are visible from the outside of the fossil, and Montana State University researchers this week have been studying images taken from a CT scan in search of others inside."
Here's the Plot of Your Next Novel
Lost tourist search turns up seven corpses
| Oddly Enough
| Reuters: "BEIJING (Reuters) - A rescue team which failed to find a missing visitor at a tourist hotspot in northern China got a nasty surprise when it stumbled upon seven corpses instead.
The team had been scouring the peaks around Taishan Mountain in Shandong province for the Beijing tourist who vanished on April 28, the Qilu Evening Post said.
'We accidentally found seven corpses during our search over the past few days,' the newspaper quoted one of the rescuers as saying."
| Oddly Enough
| Reuters: "BEIJING (Reuters) - A rescue team which failed to find a missing visitor at a tourist hotspot in northern China got a nasty surprise when it stumbled upon seven corpses instead.
The team had been scouring the peaks around Taishan Mountain in Shandong province for the Beijing tourist who vanished on April 28, the Qilu Evening Post said.
'We accidentally found seven corpses during our search over the past few days,' the newspaper quoted one of the rescuers as saying."
Friday, May 08, 2009
Mother of Mercy! Could this be the End of Twitter?
Why Twitter users are quitters: Half of new users leave within a month | Mail Online: "Those who Twitter are usually quitters according to a company that measures internet traffic.
The social networking site became a sensation overnight after it was praised by celebrities including Oprah Winfrey and Stephen Fry.
Audience figures shot up to seven million unique visitors this February compared to 475,000 the same month a year ago.
But research company Nielsen Online revealed that 60 per cent of users stop using the free website just a month after joining it."
The social networking site became a sensation overnight after it was praised by celebrities including Oprah Winfrey and Stephen Fry.
Audience figures shot up to seven million unique visitors this February compared to 475,000 the same month a year ago.
But research company Nielsen Online revealed that 60 per cent of users stop using the free website just a month after joining it."
Bud Shrake, R. I. P.
I've followed Bud Shrake's career since I was in college, when he wrote for the Dallas Morning News. His sports writing was an inspiration. He was a tall man, and he stood tall in Texas letters. I've enjoyed his books for many years, and I'm very sorry to hear he's gone.
Texas State University : "One of Texas’s most admired writers, Edwin A. “Bud” Shrake, Jr., passed away early the morning of May 8 at St. David’s Hospital in Austin.
Shrake was diagnosed with lung cancer last August, and given only 18-24 months to live, he kept busy with a variety of projects, including his stage play “The Friends of Carlos Monzon” scheduled to be performed in Austin in late May. He also committed himself to working on his latest book, what he called a “caper novel,” which will go unfinished. He was 77.
Shrake, journalist, sportswriter, novelist, biographer and screenwriter, was born in Fort Worth, and he began his career there, covering sports for the Fort Worth Press then the Dallas Times Herald and the Dallas Morning News, before being hired to write for Sports Illustrated."
Link via Jayme Lynn Blaschke's Gibberish.
Sign Me Up for Her Courses
iWon News - Just call her 'Dr. Dolly': Parton receives Ph.D.: "Award-winning entertainer, businesswoman and education advocate has a new title.
'Just think, I am Dr. Dolly!' she said Friday after receiving an honorary doctorate of humane and musical letters from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville."
'Just think, I am Dr. Dolly!' she said Friday after receiving an honorary doctorate of humane and musical letters from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville."
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Once Again, Texas Leads the Way
9NEWS.com | Colorado's Online News Leader | Dog home after 8 years, answering new name: "AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - A puppy that scampered away from her Texas home is all grown up now and mysteriously back after eight years.
Owner Alison Murphy of Austin isn't sure where Dancer has been but says obedience school is the next stop for her newly recovered pet."
Owner Alison Murphy of Austin isn't sure where Dancer has been but says obedience school is the next stop for her newly recovered pet."
Oops
Famed Nefertiti bust a fake: Swiss art historian: "The bust of Queen Nefertiti housed in a Berlin museum and believed to be 3,400 years old in fact is a copy dating from 1912 that was made to test pigments used by the ancient Egyptians, according to Swiss art historian Henri Stierlin.
Stierlin, author of a dozen works on Egypt, the Middle East and ancient Islam, says in a just-released book that the bust currently in Berlin's Altes Museum was made on the orders of Germany archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt on site at the digs by an artist named Gerardt Marks."
Stierlin, author of a dozen works on Egypt, the Middle East and ancient Islam, says in a just-released book that the bust currently in Berlin's Altes Museum was made on the orders of Germany archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt on site at the digs by an artist named Gerardt Marks."
Forgotten Books: LIVE BAIT FOR MURDER -- William Herber
Some books are forgotten with reason: They're just not memorable. I'd say Live Bait for Murder fits that category. It's a mid-'50s private-eye novel, the sequel to one called Some Die Slow (which I recall as being better than this one). There's a nice Hooks cover on the reprint, but mine is spoiled by the writing someone did on it.The p.i. narrator is Jame Rehm. In the opening chapter, he's about to marry the girl of his dreams, but the FBI tells him that he's needed for a mission. "The fate of the world" hangs on its success. He's to tell no one, not even his bride-to-be. Rehm evades the Feebies and gets married, but they snatch him up and convince him he has to do the job. Which is where I run into trouble with the plot. There's no reason they have to use Rehm. He has no special talents and he knows no one involved in the plot. The FBI could have used anyone. Even an FBI guy. The rest of the book is the pursuit of certain papers that contain all of Russia's secrets. That's right. All of them. "The fate of the world" is mentioned again and again. Rehm blunders along. There's train travel (a nice bonus) and one good surprise, but that's about it. Nothing lifts the book out of the ordinary. Matt Helm came along a few years later and did this sort of thing a hundred times better.
Herber continued to publish for years, and maybe some of the later books are more to my taste than this one. I'd probably pick one up if I ever ran across it, but I wouldn't go looking for it.
Thursday, May 07, 2009
Will the Persecution Never End?
Paris Hilton reveals she earns �11m per year, uses Google as her diary and has never seen a phone bill
| Mail Online: "Asked by lawyers about her calls from the producers, [Paris Hilton] testified: 'With my phone I never know, because I lose it all the time. I probably get a new cellphone, like, every two weeks.'
Shown her mobile phone bill, she responded: 'I've never seen a phone bill of mine in my life.'
The lawyer in the Miami case then asked Hilton if she had a diary for business meetings, and she said she uses the internet to see where she has been.
'I just press my name and Google it and see,' she added."
| Mail Online: "Asked by lawyers about her calls from the producers, [Paris Hilton] testified: 'With my phone I never know, because I lose it all the time. I probably get a new cellphone, like, every two weeks.'
Shown her mobile phone bill, she responded: 'I've never seen a phone bill of mine in my life.'
The lawyer in the Miami case then asked Hilton if she had a diary for business meetings, and she said she uses the internet to see where she has been.
'I just press my name and Google it and see,' she added."
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Once Again, Texas Leads the Way
iWon News - 53 pounds of packed cocaine found on Texas beach: "SABINE PASS, Texas (AP) - Beachcombers found more than seashells while strolling on a Texas beach: two dozen neatly wrapped packages of cocaine. Jefferson County Sheriff's Lt. Troy Tucker said drug smugglers have been known to use freighters and the cocaine may have been kicked overboard to avoid detection."
Thanks to Jeff Meyerson for the link.
Venetia Phair, R. I. P.
Venetia Phair - Telegraph: "Venetia Phair, who has died aged 90, had the distinction of being the only woman in the world to have named a planet; in 1930, as a girl of 11, she suggested the name Pluto for the enigmatic celestial body that had just been discovered, and which became (albeit only temporarily) the ninth planet in our solar system."
Dino Update
Dinosaurs 'were wiped out by volcanoes in India' - Telegraph: "For the last thirty years scientists have believed a giant meteorite that struck Chicxulub in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula was responsible for the mass extinction of species, including T Rex and its cousins.
But now Professor Gerta Kellera, a geologist at Princeton University, New Jersey, says fossilised traces of plants and animals dug out of low lying hills at El Penon in north east Mexico show this event happened 300,000 years after the dinosaurs disappeared.
Prof Keller believes instead that volcanoes might have killed the dinosaurs."
But now Professor Gerta Kellera, a geologist at Princeton University, New Jersey, says fossilised traces of plants and animals dug out of low lying hills at El Penon in north east Mexico show this event happened 300,000 years after the dinosaurs disappeared.
Prof Keller believes instead that volcanoes might have killed the dinosaurs."
Once Again, Texas Leads the Way
Are Bulldozers Now The Best Neighbor? - Realty Check with Diana Olick - CNBC.com: "So this is what it has come to.
A bank in Texas is bulldozing four brand new homes and twelve nearly finished homes in Victorville city, California, about 85 miles northeast of Los Angeles. Guaranty Bank of Austin acquired the homes in foreclosure and is destroying them, reportedly, to provide a 'safe environment' for the neighbors."
A bank in Texas is bulldozing four brand new homes and twelve nearly finished homes in Victorville city, California, about 85 miles northeast of Los Angeles. Guaranty Bank of Austin acquired the homes in foreclosure and is destroying them, reportedly, to provide a 'safe environment' for the neighbors."
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