Headlines

[The Master]

Now that everyone knows the kid was never in the balloon there are big questions about whether this was all a publicity stunt cooked up the father, an aspiring inventor. I did note that in interviews he said a lot about the balloon...what it was called, what it was being tested for, how it could be used for future transportation, etc.

From Yahoo.com I found this interesting part:

Doubts surfaced after a series of bizarre TV interviews, including one on CNN in which Falcon Heene told his parents "you said we did this for a show" when asked why he did not come down from the garage rafters during the search.

[Qray]

Turns out it was just a "publicity stunt" by the family.

[Qray]

Drilling for Scotch whiskey on frozen continent

Nov 16, 9:03 AM EST

WELLINGTON, New Zealand – A beverage company has asked a team to drill through Antarctica's ice for a lost cache of some vintage Scotch whiskey that has been on the rocks since a century ago.

The drillers will be trying to reach two crates of McKinlay and Co. whiskey that were shipped to the Antarctic by British polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton as part of his abandoned 1909 expedition.

Whyte & Mackay, the drinks group that now owns McKinlay and Co., has asked for a sample of the 100-year-old scotch for a series of tests that could decide whether to relaunch the now-defunct Scotch.

Workers from New Zealand's Antarctic Heritage Trust will use special drills to reach the crates, frozen in Antarctic ice under the Nimrod Expedition hut near Cape Royds.

Al Fastier, who will lead the expedition in January, said restoration workers found the crates of whiskey under the hut's floorboards in 2006. At the time, the crates and bottles were too deeply embedded in ice to be dislodged.

The New Zealanders have agreed to try to retrieve some bottles, although the rest must stay under conservation guidelines agreed by 12 Antarctic Treaty nations.

Fastier said he did not want to sample the contents.

"It's better to imagine it than to taste it," he said. "That way it keeps its mystery."

Richard Paterson, Whyte & Mackay's master blender, said the Shackleton expedition's whiskey could still be drinkable and taste exactly as it did 100 years ago.

If he can get a sample, he intends to replicate the old Scotch and put McKinlay whiskey back on sale.

"I really hope we can get some back here," he was quoted as telling London's Telegraph newspaper. "It's been laying there lonely and neglected. It should come back to Scotland where it was born.

"Even if most of the bottles have to remain in Antarctica for historic reasons, it would be good if we could get a couple," Paterson said.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/ ... TE=DEFAULT

[Golden Knight]

Some of Wisconsin's white-tailed deer are sick, they have, chronic wasting disease {CWD}, and it is on the rise:

http://host.madison.com/sports/recreati ... 03286.html

There is a map and more info about the disease here: http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/disease_inform ... /index.jsp

[Golden Knight]

World's biggest rabbit, and the biggest rabbit ever recorded: four foot three inches long, and it is still growing. Picture here:
World's biggest rabbit weighs three-and-a-half stone

Rabbits are a Pest

However in New Zealand rabbits are a pest, that is why they are culled. Each year there is the "Great Easter Bunny Hunt", no happy easter for these bunnies.

Central Otago farmers have reason to smile following the eradication of more than 24,000 rabbits, hares, and other pests from farmland throughout the district.
The 19th annual Great Easter Bunny Hunt culminated in a carcass count at Alexandra's Pioneer Park on Saturday, revealing a record for the number of rabbits shot per team.

Hunt convener Dave Ramsay said 23,064 rabbits were shot and collected by 39 teams during the 24-hour hunt.

The total was significantly up on last year's total of 14,799 rabbits.

From Record broken in Easter bunny hunt

[Golden Knight]

Mutant cows die in GM trial

Genetically modified cows were born with ovaries that grew so large they caused ruptures and killed the animals.

The bungled experiment happened during a study by AgResearch scientists at Ruakura, Hamilton, to find human fertility treatments through GM cows' milk.

AgResearch is studying tissue from one of three dead calves to try to find out what made the ovaries grow up to the size of tennis balls rather than the usual thumbnail-size.

Details of the deaths - in veterinary reports released to the Weekend Herald under the Official Information Act - have reignited debate over the ethics of GM trials on animals.

AgResearch's applied technologies group manager, Dr Jimmy Suttie, said he did not see the deaths as a "big deal", and they were part of the learning process for scientists.

But GE-Free NZ spokesman Jon Carapiet said details of the calf trial showed the animal welfare committee overseeing AgResearch's work was "miles away from the ethics and values of the community".

full report here: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/artic ... d=10642031

Don't mess with God's design.

[Golden Knight]

A solar storm has created a zombie satellite, that continues to orbit the earth, and may cause interference to other satellites, which would affect TV programs.

The satellite was one of satellites that carried the Syfy channel's signal

Reports Here: Solar storm creates killer "zombie satellite"
Zombie Satellite Causes Astronomical Buzz

[The Master]

Does anyone else find a sweet irony in the fact that its a SyFy satellite? lol

[who me]

Te he he he,
syfi channel becomes zombie.
serves them right, for meddling with wrestling.

[Qray]

If nothing can be done to stop it, Galaxy 15 will continue beyond AMC-11 and go on to torture other nearby satellites until it stops pointing at Earth...eventually. No one knows when that will happen, so Galaxy 15 could be causing havoc for quite awhile.

When it does finally die it will join about 160 other so-called "zombiesats" that are dead but still shuffle around the planet aimlessly searching for brains.

Zombie Satellites eating the brains of other satellites...mmm...satellite braaaains...

[Golden Knight]

Demise of the butterfly: David Attenborough leads fight to avert extinction

Seven out of ten species of British butterfly are declining and half are threatened with extinction, Sir David Attenborough warns today.
Launching a campaign to save one of Britain's best loved insects, the wildlife presenter said the loss of butterflies had transformed the countryside and back gardens in just one generation.
'It used to be that if you had a buddleia in your garden, you couldn't get to the flowers because of the sheer number of butterflies,' he told the Daily Mail.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... ction.html

Butterflies join the list, of animals and insects that are on the decline, will there be anything left....

[Golden Knight]

Nigeria's ignored catastrophe dwarfs US oil spill

While everyone talks about the devastating oil disaster in the gulf, no one talks about the on going oil spills in Nigeria.

In fact, more oil is spilled from the delta's network of terminals, pipes, pumping stations and oil platforms every year than has been lost in the Gulf of Mexico catastrophe.

That BP disaster has made headlines round the world. By contrast, little information has emerged about the damage inflicted on the Niger delta. Yet the destruction there provides us with a far more accurate picture of the price we have to pay for drilling oil today.

"If this Gulf accident had happened in Nigeria, neither the government nor the company would have paid much attention," says the writer Ben Ikari, of the Ogoni people.

"This kind of spill happens all the time in the delta."

"The oil companies just ignore it. The lawmakers do not care and people must live with pollution daily. The situation is now worse than it was 30 years ago. Nothing is changing.

"We have a full-time oil spill response team. Last year we replaced 197 miles of pipeline and we are using every known way to clean up pollution, including microbes. We are committed to cleaning up any spill as fast as possible as soon as and for whatever reason they occur."

These claims are hotly disputed by communities and environmental watchdog groups. They mostly blame the companies' vast network of rusting pipes and storage tanks, corroding pipelines, semi-derelict pumping stations and old wellheads, as well as dumping from tankers and vessels.

full article here: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/ar ... 775&pnum=0



Do Not buy petrol or diesel, use electric, or go back to a house and cart... or walk...