Thursday - January 08, 2009

Fresno collectors uncover rare 1869 baseball card.  DARN, WHAT A FIND. AWESOME! LOVE IT!

OK, I won’t go into a long routine about how dippy I get over stuff like this. You know already. 
So ...my thanks and H/T to a friend, Thorolf who somehow managed to find this and send it to me.

WOW!

The front of the very first baseball card, an 1869 Peck & Snyder Cincinnati Red Stockings card, features a sepia-toned, gelatin-silver photographic print of the first professional baseball team.

By Mike Osegueda
The Fresno Bee

Bernice Gallego sat down one day this summer, as she does pretty much every day, and began listing items on eBay.

She dug into a box and pulled out a baseball card. She stopped for a moment and admired the picture. “Red Stocking B.B. Club of Cincinnati,” the card read, under a sepia tone photo of 10 men with their socks pulled up to their knees. The card itself was dirty and wrinkled in a few places.

It was definitely old, Gallego thought. As a collector and seller, it’s her job to spot old items that might have value today, to find the gems among the junk.

The front of the very first baseball card, an 1869 Peck & Snyder Cincinnati Red Stockings card, features a sepia-toned, gelatin-silver photographic print of the first professional baseball team.

The reverse side of the 1869 Peck & Snyder Cincinnati Red Stockings baseball card features an ad from Peck & Snyder, a sports equipment manufacturer.

It’s what Bernice, 72, and her husband, Al Gallego, 80, have been doing since 1974 at Collectique, their Tower District antique store full of old jukeboxes, slot machines and records.

This card, she figured, was worth selling on eBay.

She did what she does with most items: Took a picture, wrote a description and put it up for auction. She put a $10 price tag on it, deciding against $15 because it would have cost her an extra 20 cents.

Later that night she got a few odd inquiries—someone wanting to know whether the card was authentic, someone wanting her to end the auction and sell him the card immediately.

Hmm, she thought, this could be something special. It could be worth $50, or even $100.

Or, as Bernice Gallego came to find out in the following weeks, it could be worth a lot more.

The card is actually 139 years old. It, and a handful of others like it, are considered the first baseball cards.

Sports card collectors call the find “extremely rare” and estimate the card could fetch five, or perhaps, six figures at auction.

And Bernice was worried about 20 cents.

Instead, just like that, she is the least likely protagonist ever for a rare-baseball card story.

“I didn’t even know baseball existed that far back,” Gallego says, between puffs on her cigarette. “I don’t think that I’ve ever been to a baseball game.”

Spooked with all the questions she was getting on eBay, she picked up the phone at 9:30 that night and called her good friend George Huddleston and asked his opinion.

“I never make phone calls after 8 o’clock at night,” Gallego says. “My mother taught me never to do things like that.”

Huddleston’s answer was simple: End the auction now. Figure out what you have and what it’s worth before selling it. Her husband, Al, agreed: “Get this thing off the Internet.”

So the next morning—with no bids yet on the card—she canceled the auction. She wanted to find out more about the card.

Huddleston directed Gallego to a friend who would know what to do: Rick Mirigian, a local concert promoter and card trader who sold a rare basketball card in 2004 for $62,100.

In the meantime, Gallego didn’t want the card to get lost, so she put it in a sandwich bag and push-pinned it to her laundry room wall.

“If it fell off the wall, the cat would have ate it,” Gallego says. “Well, or the dog.”

When she met with Mirigian, she found out what the card was—an 1869 advertisement with a picture of the first professional baseball team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings.

“When I came to meet her and she took it out of a sandwich Baggie and she was smoking a cigarette, I almost fainted,” Mirigian says.

“They’ve uncovered a piece of history that few people will ever be able to imagine or comprehend. And it comes out of Fresno,” he says. “That card is history. It’s like unearthing a Mona Lisa or a Picasso.”

Mirigian’s first question to Bernice was what you might expect: Where did you get this?

MORE PHOTOS HERE

I still don’t understand why she didn’t get help even before trying to sell it.  I mean, hey. A baseball card dated 1869?  And they sell old stuff to boot?
Oh how I’d love to own that card.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki taken by a British serviceman a month after the atom bombs were dropped.

True we’ve all seen photos of the aftermath many times.  Don’t recognize all of these but then again, it all looks so much the same after the bomb that one shot looks much like another.

Gee… all those civilians, murdered by Yankee imperialist monster killer war criminals.  Bush did it!

“The damage in Hiroshima was very different in that while Nagasaki was spread along a valley, Hiroshima was situated on a flat, open plain”

HMS Speaker, an escort aircraft carrier, which was directed to Nagasaki for the purpose of transporting hundreds of British POWs to Okinawa

THERE ARE 12 MORE PHOTOS > HERE

“it’s frightening to think that the atom bombs of 1945 weighed several tons, but today bombs with the same destructive power could be reduced to such a small size that they could be carried in a back pack”

And you can bet it’s what the muzzies would love to achieve here in the west.  Just wish we could turn their landscape into this before they do it to us.

Terrorists cheered as they heard the Mumbai attackers shoot innocents over live phone line.

With no comments from me because this says it all.  These are the sub human life forms the West faces.  Sure hope my homeland (USA) is awake and watching.

I am posting this because I’m not sure if it gets much play at home.  If not, please read and share this article.

Mumbai dossier reveals chilling celebrations of Pakistani masterminds
Pakistani terrorists cheered as they heard the Mumbai attackers shoot innocent hotel guests live over an open satellite telephone line, new evidence has revealed.

By Dean Nelson
Last Updated: 10:52PM GMT 07 Jan 2009

Transcripts of their conversations and a confession statement of the lone surviving gunman reveal how Lashkar e Taiba leaders, a group which was once sponsored by Pakistan’s intelligence services, carefully managed the slaughter from afar.

The transcripts are part of an Indian government dossier which claims the plot was planned and remotely controlled from Pakistan by LeT chiefs using live television news coverage and continuous satellite phone conversation with the gunmen.

In one section, the gunmen are told to kill all but two Muslim guests in the Oberoi hotel.

“Everything is being recorded by the media. Inflict the maximum damage, keep fighting, don’t be taken alive,” says one handler.

“Kill all the hostages except the two Muslims. Keep your phone switched on so we can hear the gunfire,” says another.

When one of the gunmen says “we have three foreigners, including women, from Singapore and China,” his handler orders “Kill them”.

The transcript then records the voices of the two gunmen lining up the hostages, ordering the two Muslims to stand aside, and the sound of gunfire followed by cheering from the handlers.

But within seconds of the killings, the gunmen are quickly ordered to move downstairs to continue their attack.

Throughout the attacks, the Pakistan-based handlers spoke continuously to their volunteers at the Oberoi and Taj hotels and the Jewish welfare centre at Nariman House, driving them on to more killing and relaying media comments to them to raised their spirits.

In one conversation, just before the Chinese women were murdered, the handlers told one gunman:“Brother Abdul, the media is comparing your action to 9/11.”

In a conversation with one of the four gunmen stalking the corridors of the Taj Mahal Hotel, one of the handlers orders him to search for several government ministers they believed were staying there and says they should “set the place on fire”.

When he is told four rooms had been set ablaze, the handler replies:"People shall run helter skelter when they see the flames. Keep throwing a grenade every 15 minutes or so. It will terrorise.”

In a conversation with their gunmen at the Nariman house Jewish centre, Chabad Lubavitch, the handlers said they wanted to seriously damage India’s relations with Israel by killing Israelis being held hostage.

“Keep in mind the hostages are of use only as long as you do not come under fire because of their safety. If you are still threatened do not saddle yourself with the burden of the hostages – immediately kill them.

“Israel has made a request through diplomatic channels to save the hostages. If the hostages are killed, it will spoil relations between India and Israel,” one said.

Later, Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his pregnant wife Rivkah were murdered along with other hostages.

According to the confession of Mohammad Amir Qasab, the sole surviving gunman, he was first told of the target in September, two months before the attack, but his training had begun shortly after he joined the LeT in 2007 in Muridke, Pakistan.

He told interrogators he was selected for a military training programme run by LeT leader Abdul Rahman which included weapons training for AK47 machine guns and Uzi submachine guns.

Two months later he was selected for an advanced combat course in Pakistan-administered Kashmir where he learned to handle explosives and grenades and fire rockets and mortars.

Of 32 volunteers, 16 were hand-picked by Zaqi ur Rehmnan, the LeT’s military commander, for a confidential mission, which required new specialist training in seamanship. “During the training we were given lectures on India, and its security agencies. We were also given training on how to evade the chase by security personnel. We were strictly instructed not to make calls to Pakistan after reaching India,” Qasab told his interrogators.

It was in fact their own calls to the gunmen from Pakistan which were traced and recorded and now form the spine of India’s charge that the attacks were planned and directed from Pakistan, and that such an audacious attack could not have been carried out without support from state agencies.

The Pakistan government on Wednesday night acknowledged that Qasab, the only surviving gunman from the Mumbai attacks, is a Pakistani national, but later sacked its National Security Advisor who was believed to have led moves to make the admission.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had sacked Mahmud Ali Durrani for “his irresponsible behaviour (of) not taking Prime Minister and other stakeholders into confidence and lack of coordination on matters of national security,” said an official.

It is believed that Mr Durrani had lobbied other officials to make the announcement as a concession to American pressure but failed to clear the move with the Prime Minister’s office.

His dismissal is seen as a part of a series of recent moves to bolster the standing of the prime minister’s office and the authority of Yousuf Raza Gilani himself.

MUSLIM TERROR

SHORTEST, QUICKEST POST IN THE BLOG WORD.

   Wednesday - January 07, 2009

Still No Kim

There’s this hole in the blogosphere left by Mr. DuToit’s retirement. Not just the full throated opinions or the guns, but the uses of both. You can find your own B&W pictures of old women to look at. I like the younger ones better, and in color.

Reader Guitar Teacher (I think that’s what the acronym means) sends this one in. I guess we can establish a dead goblin count here too, though I was thinking of some more subtle name ... tax saving iteration? ... IQ raiser? ... gene pool filter? Help me out. Regardless of a name, our count now stands at 2. That’s the same number of tours of duty that Guitar Teacher did in the Army, back in ‘66 and ‘70. Thanks for going over GT, twice, and thanks for coming back.

Man fatally shot in gun battle

[Cincinnati Ohio] COLERAIN TWP. - One of two men who broke into an apartment was shot and killed in a gun battle with the homeowner, the Hamilton County sheriff’s office said Wednesday.

The sheriff’s office said two armed men forced their way into an apartment in the Burgundy Court Apartments in the 3200 block of Rocker Drive about 11:19 p.m. Tuesday. The homeowner and suspects got into a gun fight with several shots fired.

One of the suspects was shot several times. He was taken to University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead a short time later. The other man ran away and is believed to have been shot and may try to get medical help.

The homeowner was not injured during the gun battle, the sheriff’s office said.

The name of the person shot and killed has not been released. There is little information about the other suspect, other than he is a male black who may have gunshot wounds.

No charges have been filed.

Of course they weren’t. What, you think this is London or something? Puh-leaz.

Now, the thought provoking part of this article is that this home defense situation occurred in an apartment complex. I live in a condo park; if I ever had to use a gun inside here, it would go right through my walls, through my neighbor’s walls, through her neighbor’s walls, and maybe even through his. Plus whatever else might be in the way. That leaves too much to chance. I don’t know if it’s what I’d call a fully responsible action. Obviously, you save your own life and your family first. But ... what kind of weapon can do the job and not go too far? Soft lead low velocity wadcutters? .79 caliber lead musket balls in a little blackpowder derringer? Forget bow and arrow, spears, machette, swords, axes. We are talking some kind of gun here. I’d say shotguns, maybe, but there is that website ... whazzit called again? ... oh yeah, Box o’ Truth ... where some guy tests various ammunition against drywall and water jugs and stuff. [his webpage is dangerous. It will pull you in and suck an hour of your life away before you even notice] And so far, all he has found was ammo that was either not enough, or way too much. So there is no right answer right now ... but I did notice that Mr. Box O’ Truth there only tested scatterguns with #8 shot and 00 Buck, and there are lots of shot sizes in between. Like #4 and #2. And he never tries low velocity rounds either. So maybe ...

Nothing To Eat

I’m sure you’ve been a bit hungry sometimes, and at odds about what to make. Perhaps your cooking skills are just as poor as mine. So you look around the kitchen and all you find is leftovers. A bit of this, half of that, a few things that will soon go bad. But nothing that’s really appealing all by itself. That’s where I was today, so I made this stuff up. Also, I wanted to find something I could make with all these cans of Spam. My brother found that Spam now comes in flavors, so he bought me half a dozen different ones, and a plastic case to store the can in, in case of leftovers. Awesome! [/sarcasm]

So I came up with this. You probably have most of the ingredients already.

Southwestern Toss Up

(aka Hurl)

1 1lb can black beans
1 1lb can “Hot ‘n Spicy” Spam
1 cup rice
2 cups of water
about half a bag of frozen corn
part of a red pepper
part of a green pepper
part of an onion
part of a jar of salsa
about half a pound of ground beef
some spices: chili powder, ground cumin, epazote
hot sauce

Put the water in a small pot along with a splat of oil and a few shakes of salt. Boil it. Take the pot off the heat, add the rice. Stir. Put it back on the heat, stir it until the water boils again. Reduce heat and stir for one minute, until the rice foam goes away. Turn off the heat. Stir the rice for another 30 seconds, then cover the pot and leave it alone.

In a medium pot, pour in the entire can of beans, sauce and all. Add a spoonful of epazote (this is the herb that Bean-O is made from. It cuts the wind. It really does.) Add a spoonful of cumin powder. Stir it all up and leave it to simmer gently.

Take the peppers and the onion and cut them up into little bits. Add them to another small pot along with the corn and about 1/2 cup water. Add half a dozen shakes of hot sauce. Boil it, covered, for about 5 minutes until the corn is softened.

Take a really large frying pan. Open the Spam and cut it into 6 slices. Fry the Spam. Take a big knife and a cutting board, and cut each slice into thirds lengthwise, then into quarters crosswise. That way you get 12 bite sized bits per slice.

Wipe out the frying pan and cook the hamburger. Break it up as it cooks. Add a few shakes of cumin and a few shakes of chili powder. When it’s cooked, drain off the fat. Pour the salsa over the meat, stir it up, and let it simmer for another few minutes.

Give the beans a stir. You want to simmer them for at least 10 minutes to get the epazote working. The rice is done when the pot has cooled enough so that you can hold it with your hands.

When the corn is done, pour it into the pot with the beans. Stir. Add in the hamburger and the Spam. Stir. Transfer the cooked rice from the little pot to the big frying pan. Set the heat to medium and break the rice up. Pour on the bean mixture from the other pot and stir the whole thing up. Serve it. There is enough here for at least 4 people, maybe 6.




Ok, it isn’t very pretty. The alternate name is accurate but not appealing. But it’s got a lot of protien, a lot of carbs, and enough flavor to not be bland. A bowl full will fill you up. You can add some to your eggs in the morning. Instant South West omelet. You can wrap some up in tortillas and bake them with some cheese on top. Instant enchiladas.

The only downside is that now you have several pots and pans to clean up. Here’s some more hair porn.

Global Warming Puts The Freeze On France

First Major Snowfall in Marseille in 21 Years

France’s second city of Marseille was paralysed Wednesday by a freak snowstorm, stunning locals accustomed to balmy Mediterranean winters, and causing havoc for road and air traffic.

Some 550 drivers were stranded for hours on highways outside the port city, emergency services said, as snow fell through the morning to form a coat 12 centimetres (five inches) thick for the first time in 20 years.

Snow on the runways closed the local Marignane airport and cut high-speed rail lines to and from Marseille, while some 12,000 households were left without electricity across the region.

Caught off guard, regional officials closed all highways to traffic, while Marseille city hall suspended bus and tramway services and advised residents to stay at home.

Local residents—who last saw snow on the ground in Marseille in 1987—teetered carefully along the ice-covered streets, snapping pictures of the carpet of white.

Youths took to the streets for giant snowball fights, while others carried their sledges and snowboards up to the city’s emblematic Notre-Dame-de-La-Garde basilica, whizzing down to the historic port.

Temperatures tumbled well below freezing across France and the rest of Europe on Tuesday night, hitting a 10-year low of minus nine degrees Celsius in Paris.

Heavy snowfall in Marseille forced the international airport to close and paralyzed all train and bus traffic on Wednesday in France’s second-biggest city.

The usually busy and sunny Mediterranean port city ground to a halt as snow overwhelmed infrastructure and stopped school buses and all other public transport.

“The weather conditions no longer allow air traffic to take place in satisfactory conditions so the airport of Marseille Provence is closed to air traffic,” a spokesman said.

The airport was expected to remain closed at least until Thursday morning, management said.

France is experiencing a cold weather snap that has gradually moved from north to south. Electricity consumption has hit record levels as families turn up home heating.

Rail, road and air traffic have been disrupted for several days, notably at the main airport in the Paris region, Charles de Gaulle.

The last time it snowed there AT ALL it was just a dusting. That was on March 1, 2005 and was itself unusual enough to make the news and the blogs.




Marseille is on the south coast of France, on the Mediterranean, about 80 miles west of Cannes. I don’t think they usually have winter there much at all.

The amazing tin can bomber made by British pilot in Great Escape POW camp.  AMAZING IS RIGHT!

Awesome, isn’t it?  Wow.  Be sure to look at the other photos at the link.
Must have been one tough and determined soldier.  And very talented as well.

You really need to read this.  Can’t understand how or why this was hidden away for so long. What a great bit of history!
Take a look too at his drawings of the camp and actual photo of the camp.

The amazing tin can bomber made by British pilot in Great Escape POW camp
By DAVID WILKES
Last updated at 4:59 PM on 07th January 2009

Skillfully crafted from tin cans, matchsticks and off cuts, one can only imagine the satisfaction a prisoner of war derived from finishing this stunning model aircraft as he languished in Stalag Luft III.

Constructed almost perfectly to scale, his detailed version of a Lancaster Bomber like the one he flew before his capture even bears what appears to be the skull and crossbones logo of RAF 100 Squadron, famous for its night-time raids.

Little is known about its maker, other than that he was an airman named E Taylor.

The model was found during a clearance sale at house in the south of England along with his prison camp diary, in which he had drawn a map of where his plane was shot down over Hungary on August 28, 1944.

He was incarcerated in the prisoner of war camp in Sagan, 100 miles south-east of Berlin, during its strictest regime, having arrived there only months after the ‘Great Escape’ when 76 Allied airmen made an audacious bid for freedom.  Only three made it home and 50 were executed by the Gestapo.

The pilot’s model shows how prisoners were determined to keep their spirits up despite being made to go on forced marches and fed only meagre rations.

His diary includes morale-boosting songs, along with sketches of the camp so detailed they show the prisoners’ sleeping arrangements and clothes hanging on a washing line. In it, he tells of his harsh treatment at the hands of his captors, referred to as the ‘goons’.

Describing how he and his fellow prisoners were given an hour’s notice before one forced march, he wrote: ‘The first day we covered 20km. The ice on the roads was good and we pulled our kit along on homemade sleigh.

‘Tired and hungry we put up at a school for the night. Next day. Until now no food was given us by the goons and it was hard going on the roads.
‘We covered about 20km during the day and spent the night in a church it is pouring with rain.’

Elsewhere he writes: ‘We got in the gates and an air raid started. There was panic by the goons and it was early morn when they searched us and put us in blocks.

‘This is one of the unhealthy and dirtiest places I had seen. We are starving there is practically no food. Our food for the day consists of 3 slices of bread and a cup of soup, there is no need to say more.’

The model and diary are due to be auctioned in Ludlow, Shrosphire, later this month. Richard Westwood-Brookes, historical documents expert at at Mullocks Auctioneers said the plane is the finest example of ‘trench art’ he has ever seen.

He said: ‘The model is beautifully slotted together and is constructed of a lot of different sections, which require some skill.

‘While the main body is made out of wood, the moving propellors are fashioned by materials from a tin can and the cockpit section from glass or some kind of resin.

‘Matchsticks underneath form the guns on the plane and the model is completed with realistic camouflage colouring. He will have managed to have got the paints whilst doing the painting duties around the camp.

‘The guards will have let this kind of thing happen because the more time the prisoners were doing things like that, the less time they were spending on trying to escape.’

Mr Westwood-Brookes added: ‘The model and diary just shows the remarkable spirit of the British troops. Mr Taylor has certainly left us with a fine legacy of his courage.’

MORE PHOTOS

Britons panic buying last stocks of conventional lightbulbs. Gweens win this round but ….

Damn Pinheads!

I’ve posted on this subject before but now here it is officially, it’s come to this. PANIC indeed.

There has to be a place or places where we can still buy the old reliable 100W bulb.  If there is, and I think there is, I’ll find it and really go to town.

We had been hoarding bulbs for awhile but about a month ago the shelves were empty.  We do have quite a few but, one can never, ever have enough of something that works well.

Well, here’s what gonna happen at least here in this house.  First, gonna buy a couple more lamps and start using TWO 60watt bulbs in place of the one 100watt, when we burn through all those 100s we’ve hoarded.  Or maybe use up the 60s first.  See, I really do not give a rats pa-toot how much energy we use or how big a footprint or how much carbon I leave behind.  I just do not buy into all that sky is falling crap and I HATE the idea that the EU can bring this crap home.

I would imagine things almost as bad in USA.  Is that right?  I mean hey ... with Obama taking office this month and his green desires as he has stated, how long before there’s a total federal ban in the US? 

Maybe there’ll be black market in light bulbs. Yeah, and an Al Capone type will supply same and there’ll be truck hi-jacking and shoot outs and .....

Hmmmm. Sometimes I get carried away.  Never mind.

Britons panic buying last stocks of conventional lightbulbs
Britons are panic buying the last remaining stocks of traditional lightbulbs after the Government agreed to plans to phase them out completely.

By Murray Wardrop
Last Updated: 1:19PM GMT 07 Jan 2009

The EU will impose a ban on sales of 100W bulbs from September.
Britain has signed up to an European Union decision to replace conventional 100-watt bulbs with supposedly greener, low-energy alternatives.
It means that the staple household item is vanishing from the high street after 120 years.

Leading supermarkets and DIY chains, including Sainsbury’s, Asda and Homebase, have already sold all their final stocks of the bulbs.
Other stores have reported that the only have enough to last until the end of next week.

Ministers claim that switching from old-fashioned lightbulbs to their newer fluorescent counterparts will reduce carbon dioxide by around five million tons each year.
However, fears have been raised over suggestions that low-energy bulbs can trigger skin rashes, migraines and epilepsy.

There is also concern because the fluorescent bulbs are generally more expensive and contain mercury, which makes disposal more dangerous.
An average supermarket price for a six pack of standard 60W pearl light bulbs is £1.21, but a single 60W low energy stick light bulb costs around £2.19.

Retailers stopped replenishing supplies of conventional incandescent 100W bulbs at the start of the year under a voluntary government scheme to force people to buy green compact fluorescent lights.
However, many shoppers have resorted to stockpiling supplies of traditional bulbs over worries about the quality of low energy alternatives and the fact that most of them do not work with dimmer switches.

Sainsbury’s said it had “virtually run out” of traditional 100W bulbs, while Homebase, John Lewis, and Asda confirmed they no longer had them on their shelves. Tesco, Britain’s biggest seller of bulbs, said it had enough for a few days.
The death of the conventional incandescent bulb was announced by Gordon Brown in 2007. The government wants people to switch to low energy compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) to help meet its climate change targets.

An energy efficient bulb uses a fifth of the energy of a conventional bulb and can save £7 a year in bills.

BULBS

WOO-HOO.  a WHOLE £7 a year. Well hell lets break out the champers and celebrate this great windfall. Maybe on the savings I can buy a flat pack Cadillac, Candy Apple Red please.  Ikea must sell that cheap. I’ll get Drew to put the damn thing together and then float it over here on the packing.

intricate network of tunnels through trash inside house, causes man’s death. BIZARRE!

I kind of think this sort of collecting is more sickness of some kind then hobby.  How could anyone live like this.  Apparently, quite a few as this I think is perhaps the third article I’ve seen re. some guy (and not always old) living in a garbage heap inside his own home. 
Bizarre.

Man died in network of tunnels he made through house of rubbish
A man whose home was so full of rubbish that he had to build an intricate network of tunnels to get around may have died after losing his way in the labyrinth.

Last Updated: 11:12AM GMT 07 Jan 2009

Police discovered a confusing system of tunnels networking around the interior of the building. Photo: MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS SYNDICATION

Investigators believe Gordon Stewart, 74, died as a result of dehydration, after becoming unable to find his way out of the mass of carrier bags, boxes, old furniture and other junk.

Police had to call in a specialist diving team because the smell from the house, Broughton, Buckinghamshire, was so overpowering.
Neighbours had become concerned that they had not seen Mr Stewart for several days and raised the alarm.

According to witnesses, the officers were faced with mounds of foul-smelling garbage which he had used to construct tunnels around his home.
The smell was so over-powering police had to call in a specialist team - equipped with breathing apparatus - to search the two-storey house. They discovered a confusing system of tunnels networking around the interior of the building, with Mr Stewart lying dead inside.

Locals say Mr Stewart, who wore a pony-tail, was often spotted riding his bike around the streets.
One neighbour, who asked not to be named, said: “He was slightly eccentric, but very clever. He was just a collector. He came home with a load of cardboard boxes and lived in his own world.” A second described his death as a “tragedy”.
Neighbours said Mr Stewart’s home had been accumulating rubbish for at least 10 years.

A car dating back to the 1950s stands in the garage believed to have been left untouched for years as garbage built up around it.
A spokesman from Thames Valley Police, said: “Police were called on Friday at 12.26pm by a member of public who was concerned for welfare of a resident on Narbeth Drive. Police forced entry where they found a man’s body. “There are no suspicious circumstances.”

Police also confirmed that officers had to call on the help of the Thames Valley Police Specialist Search and Recovery team to find the body. The team specialises in diving rescue operations, but is equally well equipped and trained in recovering bodies during land searches.

With the use of protective equipment, breathing apparatus, gas detectors, analysers and remote cameras, SSRT officers can enter and search confined and contaminated spaces, where the atmosphere may be noxious or poisonous, with out putting their own safety at risk.

It is believed Mr Stewart lived alone and has no next of kin. A post mortem examination is due to be carried out at a later date.”

PHOTO

   Tuesday - January 06, 2009

The NY Post must read BMEWS

How else could they come up with this story. Here it is. Verbatim. Title and all.

FRENCH NAVY WINS!
(REALLY. STOP LAUGHING)

Incroyable! The French navy finally notched a victory.

The fleet from a country known more for its lightning-quick surrenders than its military successes captured more than a dozen Somali pirates (right) and rescued two threatened cargo ships off the Gulf of Aden.

In what must have been a confusing experience for the Brie-loving seamen, 19 Somali pirates raised their hands in surrender and let the French sailors raid their boat on Sunday.

The pirates were trying to take over a Croatian cargo vessel and a Panamanian ship off the Somali coast when the French interceded.

It appears the French - whose last significant triumph at sea was against China at the 1884 Battle of Foochow - are on a roll battling the pirates.

This incident comes three days after their navy took eight pirates into custody for attacking a Panamanian ship.

The French Navy is patrolling the Somali waters as part of a European Union anti-piracy naval task force.

Another Fishy Story

Sushi Tuna sells for $100,000 at Auction


Can you imagine being the lucky stiff on the party boat who reeled this one in? You’d be set. Still hungry, but set.

TOKYO (Jan. 5) — Two sushi bar owners paid more than $100,000 for a Japanese bluefin tuna at a Tokyo fish auction Monday, several times the average price and the highest in nearly a decade, market officials said.
The 282-pound premium tuna caught off the northern coast of Oma fetched $104,700, the highest since 2001, when another Japanese bluefin tuna brought an all-time record of 20 million yen, market official Takashi Yoshida said.

Yoshida said the extravagant purchase — about $370 per pound — went to a Hong Kong sushi bar owner and his Japanese competitor who reached a peaceful settlement to share the big fish. The Hong Kong buyer also paid the highest price at last year’s new year event at Tokyo’s Tsukiji market, the world’s largest fish seller, which holds near-daily auctions.

A slightly bigger imported bluefin caught off the eastern United States sold for $15,400 in Monday’s auction.

There goes that evil Bush again

Bush creates largest marine protection zone in the world

President Bush is to create the world’s largest marine protection area in a huge swath of the Pacific Ocean.

Mining and commercial fishing will be banned in an area measuring 195,000 square miles which includes the Mariana Trench, the deepest ocean trench on the planet. Rose Atoll in American Samoa and seven islands strung along the equator in the central Pacific will also come under the protection plan.

The atolls, reefs and underwater mountains of the designated area are the habitat of hundreds of unique species of birds and fish including the world’s largest land crab and the rare Malaysian megapode, a bird that incubates its eggs in the heat of underwater volcanoes.

It also harbours some of the rarest geological formations on earth; the Mariana Trench lies 36,000 feet below sea level - 6.8 miles deep. Its deepest point is deeper than Mt Everest is tall, and it is five times the size of the Grand Canyon.

Rose Atoll, the smallest atoll in the world with only about 20 acres of land, is home to giant 85ft tall trees and is a vital nesting ground for threatened green sea turtles and endangered hawksbill sea turtles.

“These locations are truly among the last pristine areas in the marine environment on Earth,” said James Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, announcing the plans which will be made official by Mr Bush at a White House ceremony today.

The protected areas will extend 50 nautical miles off the coral reefs and atolls at the three monuments, which will be officially called the Marianas Marine National Monument, Rose Atoll Marine National Monument, and the Pacific Islands Marine National Monument.

Zimbabwe Going Exponential?

Cholera Deaths in Zimbabwe Top 1,700; more than 34,000 infected



When I last posted on this, the number infected was around 10,000 with 300 dead. That wasn’t more than a couple weeks ago. Obviously nothing has improved a jot in that hellhole.

Zimbabwe’s cholera epidemic is picking up speed, with a total of 1,732 deaths out of 34,306 cases, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Tuesday. A cholera update dated January 5 showed a further 59 deaths and 731 new cases, up from 32 deaths and 379 fresh cases reported the previous day, it said.
...
The waterborne disease, which causes severe diarrhea and dehydration, has spread to all of Zimbabwe’s 10 provinces because of the collapse of health and sanitation systems.

On Monday Health Minister David Parirenyatwa said the epidemic could get worse as the rainy season develops.

The rainy season peaks in January or February and ends in late March. Floods, which can affect Zimbabwe’s low-lying areas, may increase the spreading of the disease.

6.3 million citizens are being fed almost solely by foreign food emergency aide.  That’s more than half the population. The last harvest failed; they’d better pray for a bumper crop to ripen in March. What will happen if the aide money dries up, even a little? Or when the rainwater spreads the cholera to an area 1000 times as big? Goodbye Zimbabwe.

---

---

DISCLAIMER

THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE HOSTS OF THIS SITE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OR ANY MATERIALS.

Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

THE INFORMATION AND OTHER CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE DESIGNED TO COMPLY WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS WEBSITE SHALL BE GOVERNED BY AND CONSTRUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ALL PARTIES IRREVOCABLY SUBMIT TO THE JURISDICTION OF THE AMERICAN COURTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPLICABLE IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY, THEN THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE ACCESSED BY PERSONS FROM THAT COUNTRY AND ANY PERSONS WHO ARE SUBJECT TO SUCH LAWS SHALL NOT BE ENTITLED TO USE OUR SERVICES UNLESS THEY CAN SATISFY US THAT SUCH USE WOULD BE LAWFUL.

Copyright © 2004-2008 Domain Owner