Newsettes

[QUOTE=Local Paper]Face transplant attempted at Cleveland Clinic
Sunday, September 18, 2005

CLEVELAND -- In the next few weeks, five men and seven women will secretly visit the Cleveland Clinic to interview for the chance to have a radical operation that’s never been tried anywhere in the world.

They will smile, raise their eyebrows, close their eyes, open their mouths. Dr. Maria Siemionow will study their cheekbones, lips and noses. She will ask what they hope to gain and what they most fear.

Then she will ask, “Are you afraid that you will look like another person?”

Because whoever she chooses will endure the ultimate identity crisis

Siemionow wants to attempt a face transplant.

This is no extreme TV makeover. It is a medical frontier being explored by a doctor who wants the public to understand what she is trying to do.

It is this: to give people horribly disfigured by burns, accidents or other tragedies a chance at a new life. Today’s best treatments still leave many of them with freakish, scar-tissue masks that don’t look or move like natural skin.

These people already have lost the sense of identity that is linked to the face; the transplant is merely “taking a skin envelope” and slipping their identity inside, Siemionow contends.

Her supporters note her experience, careful planning, the team of experts assembled to help her, and the practice she has done on animals and dozens of cadavers to perfect the technique.

Some critical of operation

But her critics say the operation is way too risky for something that is not a matter of life or death, as organ transplants are. They paint the frighteningly surreal image of a worst-case scenario: a transplanted face being rejected and sloughing away, leaving the patient worse off than before.

Such qualms recently scuttled face transplant plans in France and England.

Ultimately, it comes to this: a hospital, doctor and patient willing to try it.

The first two are now in place. The third is expected to be shortly.

The “consent form” says that this surgery is so novel and its risks so unknown that doctors don’t think informed consent is even possible.

Here is what it tells potential patients:

[B][COLOR=DarkOrange]Your face will be removed and replaced with one donated from a cadaver[/COLOR][/B], matched for tissue type, age, sex and skin color. Surgery should last eight to 10 hours; the hospital stay, 10 to 14 days.

[COLOR=Cyan]Complications could include infections that turn your new face black and require a second transplant or reconstruction with skin grafts. Drugs to prevent rejection will be needed lifelong, and they raise the risk of kidney damage and cancer.[/COLOR]

The clinic will cover costs for the first patient; nothing about others has been decided.

[B]Another form tells donor families that the person receiving the face will not resemble their dead loved one. [/B]The recipient should look similar to how he or she did before the injury because the new skin goes on existing bones and muscles, which give a face its shape.

A better solution?

All of the little things that make up facial expression — mannerisms such as winking when telling a joke or blushing at a compliment — are hard-wired into the brain and personality, not embedded in the skin.

[COLOR=LemonChiffon]Some research suggests the end result would be a combination of the two appearances.[/COLOR]

Surgeons wished they could have done a transplant six years ago, when a 2-year-old boy attacked by a pit bull dog was brought to the University of Texas in Dallas where Dr. Karol Gutowski was training.

The boy received five skin grafts in a bloody, 28-hour surgery. Muscles from his thigh were moved to around his mouth. Part of his abdomen became the lower part of his face. Two forearm sections became lips and mouth.

“He’ll never be normal,” said Gutowski, now a surgeon at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Surviving such wounds can be “life by 1,000 cuts.” Patients endure dozens of operations to graft skin inch by inch from their backs, arms, buttocks and legs.

A face transplant could be a better solution.

Despite its shock factor, it involves routine microsurgery. One or two pairs of veins and arteries on either side of the face would be connected from the donor tissue to the recipient. [I]About 20 nerve endings would be stitched together to try to restore sensation and movement. [/I]Tiny sutures would anchor the new tissue to the recipient’s scalp and neck, and areas around the eyes, nose and mouth.

The right stuff

“For 10 years now, it could have been done,” said Dr. John Barker, director of plastic surgery research at the University of Louisville. Several years ago, these doctors announced their intent to do face transplants, but no hospital has yet agreed.

However, Siemionow had been experimenting on animals. She got clinic approval to try the operation on people and insists she is not competing to do the first case.

“I hope nobody will be frivolous or do things just for fame. We are almost over-cautious,” she said.

Siemionow, 55, went to medical school in Poland, trained in Europe and the United States, and has done thousands of surgeries in nearly 30 years. The success of this one depends on picking the right patient.

She wants a clear-cut first case. No children because risks are too great. No cancer patients because anti-rejection drugs raise the risk of recurrence.

“You want to choose patients who are really disfigured, not someone who has a little scar,” yet with enough healthy skin for traditional grafts if the transplant fails,” she said.

Dr. Joseph Locala, a clinic psychiatrist, will decide whether candidates are mentally fit. His chief concern: making sure they realize the risks and are well emotionally.

“I’m looking for a psychologically strong person. We want people who are going to make it through,” he explained.

Dr. James Zins, chairman of plastic surgery, expects to be among the 10 to 12 doctors involved in the transplant and has been screening patients.

“We get some pretty strange calls from people who are really not candidates,” he said.

Matthew Teffeteller, who lives south of Knoxville, Tenn., might seem an ideal one. Three years ago, he was burned in a horrific car crash that killed his pregnant wife. Despite many surgeries, his face still frightens children. Yet he wouldn’t try a transplant.

“Having somebody else’s face ... that wouldn’t be right. I’d be afraid something would go wrong, too. What would you do if you didn’t have a face? Could you live?”

Bioethicist Carson Strong at the University of Tennessee wonders, too.

“It would leave the patient with an extensive facial wound with potentially serious physical and psychological consequences,” he wrote last summer in the American Journal of Bioethics.[/QUOTE]

pictures of the procedures would be cool

The Second Coming is upon us!! Except this time christ will be a shark!!
[url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/09/0925_020925_virginshark.html]Shark Gives "Virgin Birth" in Detroit[/url]
I don't know whats weirder, christ as a shark, or christ as a shark in Detriot.

dude, did you even read it? if you did, its not uncommon that the eggs would hatch because of [I]internal fertilization through copulation[/I]. Some sharks lay eggs, others do not. The eggs hatched because they didnt throw them away as most often they are.

Yes, I did. I can see you’re relying on your knowledge of higher vertebrate reproduction. And even though reports of sharks storing sperm are random and infrequent, like Mr. Curator D. Sweet says, there is a difference between a couple months and [U][B]six years[/B][/U]. Maybe you’d like to mention the possibility of self-fertilizing hermaphrodite vertebrate species as is known in fish. Or maybe we could both look into the finer points of parthenogenesis and find out if the “christ” shark really is male.
In any case, I see that I wasn’t very clear as to whether or not I knew what I was talking about. Thank you so very much for the kind opportunity to clarify myself.

Yes, I read the article.

However, the question remains, why Detroit?

John Laroche: Then one morning, I woke up and said, "Fuck fish." I renounce fish, I will never set foot in that ocean again. And there hasn't been a time where I have stuck so much as a toe back in that ocean.
Susan Orlean: But why?
John Laroche: Done with fish.

[QUOTE=Minuet]John Laroche: Then one morning, I woke up and said, "Fuck fish." I renounce fish, I will never set foot in that ocean again. And there hasn't been a time where I have stuck so much as a toe back in that ocean.
Susan Orlean: But why?
John Laroche: Done with fish.[/QUOTE]
I think they have orchids in Detroit. Shit, they have virgin births.
They gotta have orchids. Right?

[QUOTE=FearlessFife3000]I think they have orchids in Detroit. Shit, they have virgin births.
They gotta have orchids. Right?[/QUOTE]
but of course!

It's a pretty big deal to kill a buffalo.

[QUOTE=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4266586.stm]
[INDENT]Authors sue Google over book plan
Google headquarters[/INDENT]
Google says its plan will raise awareness and sales of books
A US writers' group is suing internet search engine Google, claiming that its plan to digitise major library book collections infringes author copyright.

The Authors Guild has filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The lawsuit seeks class action status, seeks damages and demands an injunction against further infringements.

Google said it regretted the Authors Guild action, asked for more talks, and claimed its plans benefited writers.

Co-plaintiffs in Google action
Authors Guild - professional group for published writers
Herbert Mitgang - historian, critic, ex-New York Times writer
Betty Miles - children's book author
Daniel Hoffman - Poet Laureate in the US - 1973/74

The suit names as co-plaintiffs The Authors Guild and writers Herbert Mitgang, Betty Miles and Daniel Hoffman.

Google has a grand plan of "organizing the world's information and making it more universally accessible and useful".

It hopes to pump $200m (£110m) into creating a digital archive of millions of books from four top US libraries - the libraries of Stanford, Michigan and Harvard universities, and of the New York Public Library - by 2015.

It is also digitising out-of-copyright books from the UK's Oxford University.

'Brazen violation'

However it has temporarily stopped scanning copyrighted texts until November to allay concerns about the plan, after several groups complained about copyright violation.

The action by the 86-year-old Authors Guild is part of a push by the organization to roll back efforts by Web sites to make the contents of books freely available online.

Google has said copyright holders who contact the company and ask for their books to be withheld from the project, will be respected.

[INDENT]Google statement
Only small portions of the books are shown unless the content owner gives permission to show more[/INDENT]

But critics say that moves the onus from Google to the writers.

"This is a plain and brazen violation of copyright law," Nick Taylor, president of the 8,000-member New York-based Authors Guild, said in a statement.

"(Authors), not Google, have the exclusive rights to... authorize such reproduction, distribution and display of their works," the guild's complaint says.

But Google said its project "directly benefits authors and publishers by increasing awareness of and sales of the books in the programme".

"Only small portions of the books are shown unless the content owner gives permission to show more," it added. [/QUOTE]

[COLOR=DarkSlateGray][SIZE=1][RIGHT]i am a lover of spines.[/RIGHT][/SIZE][/COLOR]

[COLOR=Yellow]Poor little guys have to pee.[/COLOR]
[COLOR=Yellow][FONT=Comic Sans MS][QUOTE][SIZE=3]Scientist seeks way to make mosquitoes pee themselves to death [/SIZE] [/FONT] [/COLOR]

Reno Gazette-Journal
Sept. 21, 2005 05:10 PM

RENO, Nev. - In a combination laboratory-office lined with beakers, petri dishes and a glass case of Madagascar hissing cockroaches, a Reno biochemist is searching for a way to make mosquitoes pee themselves to death.

By finding the key that would cause mosquitoes to meet their urinary demise by dehydration, University of Nevada, Reno professor David Schooley and his fellow researchers hope to end the hundreds of thousands of deaths caused each year by mosquito-spread malaria and to halt the spread of West Nile virus.

Schooley came closer to realizing that goal five years ago when he discovered a diuretic hormone that causes a dramatic increase in how much mosquitoes urinate. advertisement

"The reason we think this has a good chance of working is because, after a blood meal, a mosquito more than doubles its weight," Schooley said. "That means it has to get rid of an enormous amount of fluid after feeding. It's like a 747 with 1,000 people on board. It has to lighten the load in order to take off."

After a mosquito finishes its meal - and only the female bites to feed the eggs she carries - it begins excreting salt and water from the blood it has just ingested, Schooley said.

"What we would hope is if we treat the mosquito ... before it has its blood meal, it will dehydrate and die," he said.

In tests, the hormone - a calcitonin-like peptide - worked when it was applied directly to what is the equivalent of the mosquito's kidney. The problem is the peptide doesn't penetrate the mosquito's body when sprayed on it. So the challenge Schooley and his fellow researchers face is finding something similar that can penetrate mosquitoes and reach their Malpighian tubules, their equivalent of kidneys.

"What I want to find is a simpler, smaller molecule than the C-T peptide with the same biological effect on the mosquito," said Schooley. Finding that key molecule to make mosquitoes vulnerable to a new pesticide could be 10 years away, he said.

He is being aided by Geoff Coast, a physiologist with Birkbeck College of the University of London. Coast studies the effects on mosquitoes of peptides Schooley synthesizes. They are co-principals in the research project, which is funded by a $927,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health.

The implications of their recent discovery appeared in this month's issue of the Journal of Experimental Biology.

William Hawley, a malaria biologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said most malaria specialists agree it isn't feasible to eradicate mosquitoes, but the goal is to reduce their life span so they don't transmit the disease.

Hawley said mosquitoes begin life free of malaria, and it is not until they bite someone who has the disease that they become infected. However, even after biting an infected person, it takes about 10 days for the parasite to complete its life cycle, at which time the mosquito begins transmitting the disease.

"What research like this does, if they can work out a delivery system, is reduce the life span of mosquitoes so they would be rendered incapable of transmitting malaria," Hawley said.

"And we need all the help we can get," he said. "Malaria is killing about a million people annually around the world."

Malaria is a curable disease, Hawley said, but the disease kills very quickly if left untreated, and most people in the developing countries primarily affected by malaria are poor and can't afford treatment.

"About 80 percent of the cases of malaria are in Africa, where 90 percent of the deaths are mostly children under the age of 5," he said. "So malaria remains one of the major killers of people in the world."

The United States reported 1,337 cases of malaria, including eight deaths, in 2002, the most recent statistics available, according to the CDC's Web site. All but five of the 1,337 cases were acquired by people traveling in other countries.

The disease was virtually eradicated in this country during the early 1950s, but the CDC notes that the two species of mosquitoes responsible for transmitting malaria in the U.S. before its eradication are still widely prevalent.

If the current research results in a new pesticide to control mosquitoes, Schooley said the impact would be ridding the world of such deadly diseases.

"It would mean a revolutionary new way of killing adult mosquitoes with a chemical unlikely to affect mammals while preventing diseases like malaria and West Nile virus," he said.[/QUOTE]
[RIGHT][COLOR=Navy][SIZE=1]i know[/SIZE][/COLOR][/RIGHT]

[url]http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/09/27/1433256[/url]
[QUOTE=From Democracy Now!]
DAN BRIGHT(prison inmate):...... The Templeman III building is a receiving cell. You go there, and they hold you until they put you into a steady housing development. And like she was saying, we were strictly abandoned. They just left us. When we realized what was going on, it was too late. It was total chaos. The water was up to our chest. You had guys laying in the water trying to climb to the top of their bunks. You had older guys who didn't have any medicine who we were trying to help. And the way we got out was we had to kick the cell door for maybe like an hour or two. And the cell doors, they sits on this hinge. You have to kick it off the hinge. And when you kicked it off the hinge you have to slide out the door. And Templeman III is -- I'm trying to explain it as best I could. It’s two levels. You had an upper level and bottom level. The guys on the bottom level was totally stuck in this water. Lights was out. So we had to get out on the top level and come down and help those guys. And the police, they had left.

……It was like, if you get out, you get out. It's not too bad. So when we got out, they took us to a bridge, what’s called an overpass bridge, and they just put us on these boats, brought us to this bridge and left us there for maybe like three days without food or water or anything. They just left us there.

DAN BRIGHT:......You had guys burning blankets trying to get their attention. The helicopter would pass over. Guys would burn sheets up or blankets or something to try to get their attention also.

AMY GOODMAN(show host): So you're saying helicopters would fly over. They would see the burning sheets. You were with deputies on the bridge. They could see like you could see?

DAN BRIGHT: They didn't say anything. These -- most of the deputies had, you know, just was gone. They didn't even bother to try to help us. And not only that, they had – these same deputies were stealing property, our personal property. My daughter was trying to telephone me and find out where I was at, and a deputy answered my phone.

AMY GOODMAN: Your daughter called, and the deputy answered your cell phone?
DAN BRIGHT: Correct.
AMY GOODMAN: Did you ever get your personal property back?
DAN BRIGHT: No.

DAN BRIGHT: Right. After the storm had passed. And when we got out to central lockup area, back to the central lockup area, these were the other guards waiting for us outside with the boats. So they took us from central lockup area to the bridge. It was nighttime. The city was completely dark. We stood on the bridge until maybe like two days, two-and-a-half days.

AMY GOODMAN: Two-and-a-half days.

DAN BRIGHT: Yeah. No food, no water. We couldn't stand up. They made us sit down. We couldn't even get up and urinate. We had to urinate on ourselves. They didn't even want us standing up.

AMY GOODMAN: You said you urinated on yourselves because you couldn’t stand.

DAN BRIGHT: It was Thursday when they moved us. They put us on the buses. And they brought us to this place, another jail called Hunt’s Correctional Center.

DAN BRIGHT: Right. And they just put all of us in this one huge gate and made us sit on a field. And they left us there.

AMY GOODMAN: Sitting on the field?

DAN BRIGHT: Right. You had to sleep on the wet grass. They didn't have anywhere we could urinate or defecate. We had to do that out in the public. You know. They gave us one blanket. We had -- that was it. You had to sleep on the wet grass. You had -- we didn't have hot food. We didn't have cold water. In fact, they come once a day and throw peanut butter sandwiches over the gate. They wouldn't even come in the gate. They would just throw it over the gate?

AMY GOODMAN: They threw the sandwiches at you.
[/QUOTE]
I don't even know what..... I mean this is fucked.

[URL=http://icsouthlondon.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0400lambeth/tm_objectid=16217629&method=full&siteid=50100&headline=squirrels-on-crack-name_page.html]squirrels on crack![/URL]

"NATURE lovers fear that squirrels could become hooked on crack cocaine plundered from addicts' hidden stashes."

[url=http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051011/ap_on_fe_st/razor_blade_sandwich;_ylt=AjyTLIOyn9tXuSBTw_fIfmSek3QF;_ylu=X3oDMTA4cmUwbnA1BHNlYwMxNzAy]hey, at least it isn't another finger...[/url]

[url=http://rds.yahoo.com/S=53720272/K=soldier+suicides/v=2/SID=w/l=NSR/R=1/SIG=12lqvbolv/EXP=1129250410/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051012/ap_on_re_us/soldier_suicides_6]Army Suicides[/url]

[QUOTE=The Associated Press]Staff Sgt. Georg-Andreas Pogany, was sent home and charged with cowardice when the sight of the mangled body of an Iraqi caused a panic attack and prompted him to ask for psychological help. Charges against Pogany were later dropped, and he received a medical discharge.
[/QUOTE]
Apparently, you can be sent home and charged with being a coward for flipping out over a dead body. The dude’s a human being; he shouldn’t be called a pussy just for reacting like anyone of us would. I don’t care how much training they get.

And I don’t know much about Malaria, but this shit’s “crazy”……

[QUOTE=FearlessFife3000]

Apparently, you can be sent home and charged with being a coward for flipping out over a dead body. The dude’s a human being; he shouldn’t be called a pussy just for reacting like anyone of us would. I don’t care how much training they get.

And I don’t know much about Malaria, but this shit’s “crazy”……[/QUOTE]

I will say this in defense of the Army or any other branch of the military, whether or not you agree with war, it is perfectly acceptable to take someone off the battlefield for cowardice. This guy didn't see anything that the other soldiers haven't seen before. In combat, these soldiers are relying on the guy next to them to watch their back. Now, if that guy next to them freaks out at the sight of a blasted body, it makes for an even more dangerous situation because now that person is a "casualty," as well. And you can't go into combat wondering if your buddy will be there for you.

As for the malaria stuff goes, I would know about that stuff. The Air Force issues Doxy which has less significant side effects.

The guy asked for help and they sent him packing. I'm sure he knew full well what his job was, you don't become Special Forces just by raising your hand. And I highly doubt that was the first bloody pile of flesh and bone he saw. So a guy flipping out becomes one more thing you have to worry about, granted. I see your point, safety of the unit over the safety of one, maybe. But cowardice? They abandoned him. "He's no good to us anymore, send him home and charge him with a military crime." In I'm my humble opinion, THATS FUCKED.

As for Doxy, my Air Force buddies always said they were better than the others. I guess its not just the food.

Speaking of the air, has anyone seen that new Will Young video?

It's a parody of Top Gun.

He's a gay, you know!

[QUOTE=FearlessFife3000]The guy asked for help and they sent him packing. I'm sure he knew full well what his job was, you don't become Special Forces just by raising your hand. And I highly doubt that was the first bloody pile of flesh and bone he saw. So a guy flipping out becomes one more thing you have to worry about, granted. I see your point, safety of the unit over the safety of one, maybe. But cowardice? They abandoned him. "He's no good to us anymore, send him home and charge him with a military crime." In I'm my humble opinion, THATS FUCKED.[/QUOTE]

I agree that the situation sucks, but fog of war and all that, maybe they had their reasons. I know, in the military, there is still a stigma attached to psycological proplems--regardless of how hard the upper leadership tries to alleviate that stigma. Just my personal view.

[URL=http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/story?id=1231684&page=1]The Supremacists - Coming to a Mall near you.[/URL][QUOTE]
[SIZE=3]Young Singers Spread Racist Hate[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]Duo Considered the Olsen Twins of the White Nationalist Movement[/SIZE]

Oct. 20, 2005 — Thirteen-year-old twins Lamb and Lynx Gaede have one album out, another on the way, a music video, and lots of fans.

They may remind you another famous pair of singers, the Olsen Twins, and the girls say they like that. But unlike the Olsens, who built a media empire on their fun-loving, squeaky-clean image, Lamb and Lynx are cultivating a much darker personna. They are white nationalists and use their talents to preach a message of hate.

Known as "Prussian Blue" — a nod to their German heritage and bright blue eyes — the girls from Bakersfield, Calif., have been performing songs about white nationalism before all-white crowds since they were nine.

"We're proud of being white, we want to keep being white," said Lynx. "We want our people to stay white … we don't want to just be, you know, a big muddle. We just want to preserve our race."

Lynx and Lamb have been nurtured on racist beliefs since birth by their mother April. "They need to have the background to understand why certain things are happening," said April, a stay-at-home mom who no longer lives with the twins' father. "I'm going to give them, give them my opinion just like any, any parent would."

April home-schools the girls, teaching them her own unique perspective on everything from current to historical events. In addition, April's father surrounds the family with symbols of his beliefs — specifically the Nazi swastika. It appears on his belt buckle, on the side of his pick-up truck and he's even registered it as his cattle brand with the Bureau of Livestock Identification.

"Because it's provocative," explains April of the cattle brand, "to him he thinks it's important as a symbol of freedom of speech that he can use it as his cattle brand."

Teaching Hate

Songs like "Sacrifice" — a tribute to Nazi Rudolf Hess, Hitler's deputy Fuhrer — clearly show the effect of the girls' upbringing. The lyrics praise Hess as a "man of peace who wouldn't give up."

"It really breaks my heart to see those two girls spewing out that kind of garbage," said Ted Shaw, civil rights advocate and president of the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund — though Shaw points out that the girls aren't espousing their own opinions but ones they're being taught.[/QUOTE]

I can't wait for their clothing line and thier straight to DVD movie where they vacation in Germany and fall in love with a skinhead, with silly antics in between, of course.

[URL=http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/5235856/detail.html]another reason you should never associate with ex-girlfriends...[/URL]

the guy deserves it for sleeping through all that.

1: since when were the olsen twins touted as singers?
2: white nationalists? seriously, the commies really need to stop this PC shit. even skinheads get a feel good name now, huh?

[url]http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3915659.stm[/url]

I'd be very impressed if the food in the article and the food in the picture are one and the same.

[QUOTE=mikandrewz][url]http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3915659.stm[/url]

I'd be very impressed if the food in the article and the food in the picture are one and the same.[/QUOTE]

Anyone want a urine soaked roast beef? This concept is gross, I mean, who's going to eat chilimac they just pissed on? And the whole dirty water thing, I highly doubt the membrane works as well as advertized--Like most things in the military.

[URL=http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051114/us_nm/environment_newengland_dc]New England Winters Getting Warmer.[/URL]

Snuffy is to blame.

[URL=http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21112005/140/flirty-women-blamed-rape.html]http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21112005/140/flirty-women-blamed-rape.html[/URL]
What a joke.

God, this reminds me of that awful court case a few years ago when a young teenage girl was told in court that her 'Little Miss Naughty' knickers (concealed under her clothes) provoked her attacker to rape her (and then made to hold up her knickers to the jury.) Needless to say, she killed herself a few months later, out of the embarassment of the ordeal.

I got this from a friend of a friend sort of a thing. Its a description of firearms and tactics used in Iraq by the son of a family friend (the son is a marine). I plan on googling the weapons sometime because I dont know much about firearms and I found this fascinating, some info straight from the source.

maybe you all will find it interesting as well.

[
Hello to all my fellow gunners, military buffs, veterans and
interested guys. A couple of weekends ago I got to spend time with my
son Jordan, who was on his first leave since returning from Iraq. He is
well (a little thin), and already bored. He will be returning to Iraq
for a second tour in early 06 and has already re-enlisted early for 4
more years. He loves the Marine Corps and is actually looking forward to

returning to Iraq.

Jordan spent 7 months at Camp Blue Diamond in Ramadi. Aka: Fort
Apache. He saw and did a lot and the following is what he told me about
weapons, equipment, tactics and other miscellaneous info which may be of

interest to you. Nothing is by any means classified. No politics here,
just a Marine with a birds eye views opinions:

1) The M-16 rifle : Thumbs down. Chronic jamming problems with the

talcum powder like sand over there. The sand is everywhere. Jordan says
you feel filthy 2 minutes after coming out of the shower. The M-4
carbine version is more popular because its lighter and shorter, but it
has jamming problems also. They like the ability to mount the various
optical gunsights and weapons lights on the picattiny rails, but the
weapon itself is not great in a desert environment. They all hate the
5.56mm (.223) round. Poor penetration on the cinderblock structure
common over there and even torso hits cant be reliably counted on to put

the enemy down. Fun fact: Random autopsies on dead insurgents shows a
high level of opiate use.

2) The M243 SAW (squad assault weapon): .223 cal. Drum fed light
machine gun. Big thumbs down. Universally considered a piece of shit.
Chronic jamming problems, most of which require partial disassembly.
(that fun in the middle of a firefight).

3) The M9 Beretta 9mm: Mixed bag. Good gun, performs well in
desert environment; but they all hate the 9mm cartridge. The use of
handguns for self-defense is actually fairly common. Same old story on
the 9mm: Bad guys hit multiple times and still in the fight.

4) Mossberg 12ga. Military shotgun: Works well, used frequently
for clearing houses to good effect.

5) The M240 Machine Gun: 7.62 Nato (.308) cal. belt fed machine
gun, developed to replace the old M-60 (what a beautiful weapon that
was!!). Thumbs up. Accurate, reliable, and the 7.62 round puts em down.
Originally developed as a vehicle mounted weapon, more and more are
being dismounted and taken into the field by infantry. The 7.62 round
chews up the structure over there.

6) The M2 .50 cal heavy machine gun: Thumbs way, way up. Ma deuce
is still worth her considerable weight in gold. The ultimate fight
stopper, puts their dicks in the dirt every time. The most coveted
weapon in-theater.

7) The .45 pistol: Thumbs up. Still the best pistol round out
there. Everybody authorized to carry a sidearm is trying to get their
hands on one. With few exceptions, can reliably be expected to put em
down with a torso hit. The special ops guys (who are doing most of the
pistol work) use the HK military model and supposedly love it. The old
government model .45s are being re-issued en masse.

8) The M-14: Thumbs up. They are being re-issued in bulk, mostly
in a modified version to special ops guys. Modifications include
lightweight Kevlar stocks and low power red dot or ACOG sights. Very
reliable in the sandy environment, and they love the 7.62 round.

9) The Barrett .50 cal sniper rifle: Thumbs way up. Spectacular
range and accuracy and hits like a freight train. Used frequently to
take out vehicle suicide bombers ( we actually stop a lot of them) and
barricaded enemy. Definitely here to stay.

10) The M24 sniper rifle: Thumbs up. Mostly in .308 but some in
300 win mag. Heavily modified Remington 700s. Great performance. Snipers

have been used heavily to great effect. Rumor has it that a marine
sniper on his third tour in Anbar province has actually exceeded Carlos
Hathcocks record for confirmed kills with OVER 100.

11) The new body armor: Thumbs up. Relatively light at approx. 6
lbs. and can reliably be expected to soak up small shrapnel and even
will stop an AK-47 round. The bad news: Hot as shit to wear, almost
unbearable in the summer heat (which averages over 120 degrees). Also,
the enemy now goes for head shots whenever possible. All the bullshit
about the old body armor making our guys vulnerable to the IEDs was a
non-starter. The IED explosions are enormous and body armor doesn't make

any difference at all in most cases.

12) Night Vision and Infrared Equipment: Thumbs way up.
Spectacular performance. Our guys see in the dark and own the night,
period. Very little enemy action after evening prayers. More and more
enemy being whacked at night during movement by our hunter-killer teams.

Weve all seen the videos.

13) Lights: Thumbs up. Most of the weapon mounted and personal
lights are Surefires, and the troops love em. Invaluable for night urban

operations. Jordan carried a $34 Surefire G2 on a neck lanyard and loved

it.

I cant help but notice that most of the good fighting weapons and
ordnance are 50 or more years old!!!!!!!!! With all our technology, its
the WWII and Vietnam era weapons that everybody wants!!!! The infantry
fighting is frequent, up close and brutal. No quarter is given or shown.

Bad guy weapons:

1) Mostly AK47s . The entire country is an arsenal. Works better
in the desert than the M16 and the .308 Russian round kills reliably.
PKM belt fed light machine guns are also common and effective. Luckily,
the enemy mostly shoots like shit. Undisciplined spray and pray type
fire. However, they are seeing more and more precision weapons,
especially sniper rifles. (Iran, again) Fun fact: Captured enemy have
apparently marveled at the marksmanship of our guys and how hard they
fight. They are apparently told in Jihad school that the Americans rely
solely on technology, and can be easily beaten in close quarters combat
for their lack of toughness. Lets just say they know better now.

2) The RPG: Probably the infantry weapon most feared by our guys.
Simple, reliable and as common as dogshit. The enemy responded to our
up-armored humvees by aiming at the windshields, often at point blank
range. Still killing a lot of our guys.

3) The IED: The biggest killer of all. Can be anything from old
Soviet anti-armor mines to jury rigged artillery shells. A lot found in
Jordans area were in abandoned cars. The enemy would take 2 or 3 155mm
artillery shells and wire them together. Most were detonated by cell
phone, and the explosions are enormous. You're not safe in any vehicle,
even an M1 tank. Driving is by far the most dangerous thing our guys do
over there. Lately, they are much more sophisticated shape charges
(Iranian) specifically designed to penetrate armor. Fact: Most of the
ready made IEDs are supplied by Iran, who is also providing terrorists
(Hezbollah types) to train the insurgents in their use and tactics.
Thats why the attacks have been so deadly lately. Their concealment
methods are ingenious, the latest being shape charges in Styrofoam
containers spray painted to look like the cinderblocks that litter all
Iraqi roads. We find about 40% before they detonate, and the bomb
disposal guys are unsung heroes of this war.

4) Mortars and rockets: Very prevalent. The soviet era 122mm
rockets (with an 18km range) are becoming more prevalent. One of Jordans

NCOs lost a leg to one. These weapons cause a lot of damage inside the
wire. Jordans base was hit almost daily his entire time there by mortar
and rocket fire, often at night to disrupt sleep patterns and cause
fatigue (It did). More of a psychological weapon than anything else. The

enemy mortar teams would jump out of vehicles, fire a few rounds, and
then haul ass in a matter of seconds.

5) Bad guy technology: Simple yet effective. Most communication is

by cell and satellite phones, and also by email on laptops. They use
handheld GPS units for navigation and Google earth for overhead views of

our positions. Their weapons are good, if not fancy, and prevalent.
Their explosives and bomb technology is TOP OF THE LINE. Night vision is

rare. They are very careless with their equipment and the captured GPS
units and laptops are treasure troves of Intel when captured.

Who are the bad guys?:

Most of the carnage is caused by the Zarqawi Al Qaeda group. They
operate mostly in Anbar province (Fallujah and Ramadi). These are mostly

foreigners, non-Iraqi Sunni Arab Jihadists from all over the Muslim
world (and Europe). Most enter Iraq through Syria (with, of course, the
knowledge and complicity of the Syrian govt.) , and then travel down the

at line which is the trail of towns along the Euphrates River that weve
been hitting hard for the last few months. Some are virtually untrained
young Jihadists that often end up as suicide bombers or in sacrifice
squads. Most, however, are hard core terrorists from all the usual
suspects (Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas etc.) These are the guys running
around murdering civilians en masse and cutting heads off. The Chechens
(many of whom are Caucasian), are supposedly the most ruthless and the
best fighters. (they have been fighting the Russians for years). In the
Baghdad area and south, most of the insurgents are Iranian inspired (and

led) Iraqi Shiites. The Iranian Shiia have been very adept at
infiltrating the Iraqi local govt., the police forces and the Army. The
have had a massive spy and agitator network there since the Iran-Iraq
war in the early 80s. Most of the Saddam loyalists were killed, captured

or gave up long ago.

Bad Guy Tactics:

When they are engaged on an infantry level they get their asses
kicked every time. Brave, but stupid. Suicidal Banzai-type charges were
very common earlier in the war and still occur. They will literally
sacrifice 8-10 man teams in suicide squads by sending them screaming and

firing Aks and RPGs directly at our bases just to probe the defenses.
They get mowed down like grass every time. ( see the M2 and M240 above).

Jordans base was hit like this often. When engaged, they have a tendency

to flee to the same building, probably for what they think will be a
glorious last stand. Instead, we call in air and thats the end of that
more often than not. These hole-ups are referred to as Alpha Whiskey
Romeos (Allahs Waiting Room). We have the laser guided ground-air thing
down to a science. The fast movers, mostly Marine F-18s, are taking an
ever increasing toll on the enemy. When caught out in the open, the
helicopter gunships and AC-130 Spectre gunships cut them to ribbons with

cannon and rocket fire, especially at night. Interestingly, artillery is

hardly used at all. Fun fact: The enemy death toll is supposedly between

45-50 thousand. That is why were seeing less and less infantry attacks
and more IED, suicide bomber shit. The new strategy is simple:
attrition.

The insurgent tactic most frustrating is their use of civilian
non-combatants as cover. They know we do all we can to avoid civilian
casualties and therefore schools, hospitals and (especially) Mosques are

locations where they meet, stage for attacks, cache weapons and ammo and

flee to when engaged. They have absolutely no regard whatsoever for
civilian casualties. They will terrorize locals and murder without
hesitation anyone believed to be sympathetic to the Americans or the new

Iraqi govt. Kidnapping of family members (especially children) is common

to influence people they are trying to influence but cant reach, such as

local govt. officials, clerics, tribal leaders, etc.).

The first thing our guys are told is don't get captured. They know

that if captured they will be tortured and beheaded on the internet.
Zarqawi openly offers bounties for anyone who brings him a live American

serviceman. This motivates the criminal element who otherwise don't give

a shit about the war. A lot of the beheading victims were actually
kidnapped by common criminals and sold to Zarqawi. As such, for our
guys, every fight is to the death. Surrender is not an option.

The Iraqis are a mixed bag. Some fight well, others aren't worth a

shit. Most do okay with American support. Finding leaders is hard, but
they are getting better. It is widely viewed that Zarqawis use of
suicide bombers, en masse, against the civilian population was a serious

tactical mistake. Many Iraqis were galvanized and the caliber of
recruits in the Army and the police forces went up, along with their
motivation. It also led to an exponential increase in good intel because

the Iraqis are sick of the insurgent attacks against civilians. The
Kurds are solidly pro-American and fearless fighters.

According to Jordan, morale among our guys is very high. They not
only believe they are winning, but that they are winning decisively.
They are stunned and dismayed by what they see in the American press,
whom they almost universally view as against them. The embedded
reporters are despised and distrusted. They are inflicting casualties at

a rate of 20-1 and then see shit like Are we losing in Iraq on TV and
the print media. For the most part, they are satisfied with their
equipment, food and leadership. Bottom line though, and they all say
this, there are not enough guys there to drive the final stake through
the heart of the insurgency, primarily because there aren't enough
troops in-theater to shut down the borders with Iran and Syria. The
Iranians and the Syrians just cant stand the thought of Iraq being an
American ally (with, of course, permanent US bases there).

Anyway guys, thats it, hope you found it interesting, I sure did.]

[URL=http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051226/od_afp/afplifestylebritain_051226190715]Looking for love... on my hands and knees.[/URL]

I thought the guns were interesting, though huh? huh?
ok maybe not, I give up

Actually, that last Iraq thing was pretty swell.

Twofer:

[url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10785324/]Woman fails to come back to life, instead found mummified in front of TV[/url]

[url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10787534/]German cannibal feels used[/url]

[QUOTE=Spike]
[url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10785324/]Woman fails to come back to life, instead found mummified in front of TV[/url]
[/QUOTE]
we're so proud of this one

If you pack a human head in your suitcase, don't forget to declare it because Customs will get you every time...

[QUOTE=AP]
Woman arrested in FL after human head found in luggage

(2/10/06 - FORT LAUDERDALE, FL) - Airport baggage screeners found a human head with teeth, hair and skin in the luggage of a woman who said she intended to ward off evil spirits with it, authorities said Friday.

Myrlene Severe, 30, a Haitian-born permanent U.S. resident, was charged Friday with smuggling a human head into the U.S. without proper documentation.

Customs and Border Protection officials found the head Thursday, after Severe arrived at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on a Lynx International Airlines flight from Cap Haitien, Haiti, said Barbara Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Miami.

"It still had teeth, hair and bits of skin and lots of dirt," Gonzalez said.

Severe told authorities she had obtained the package in Haiti for "use as a part of her voodoo beliefs," ICE Special Agent Erick Hernandez wrote in an affidavit in support of a criminal complaint.

"Severe also stated that the purpose of the package was to ward off evil spirits," Hernandez wrote.

Severe, who also was charged with failing to declare the head and transporting hazardous material in air commerce, faces a maximum of 15 years in prison if convicted of all charges, prosecutors said.

Severe remained held Friday in lieu of a $100,000 bond. She is due back in federal court March 2.[/QUOTE]

[URL=http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=nation_world&id=3896690]Here's the link.[/URL]

The article should be "Severe's Severed Skull"

did you hear the woman who invented tortilla chips died?
she was 98
Via con salsa.

[url]http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060207-092010-9868r[/url]

[QUOTE=TheJudasCow]did you hear the woman who invented tortilla chips died?
she was 98
Via con salsa.

[url]http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060207-092010-9868r[/url][/QUOTE]

The woman that invented stove top stuffing died this year too.

'Jaws' author Peter Benchley dies at 65:

[url]http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11316124/[/url]

Dick Cheney shoots lawyer in 'hunting accident':

[url]http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11312757/[/url]

[QUOTE=Spike]'Jaws' author Peter Benchley dies at 65:

[url]http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11316124/[/url]

Dick Cheney shoots lawyer in 'hunting accident':

[url]http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11312757/[/url][/QUOTE]
I heard Cheny answer in an interview about the accident say, "Dick don't make no accidents."

[URL=http://women.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,17909-2057781,00.html]Like a surgically-reconstructed virgin[/URL]

man, if someone were smart about this, they would've gotten themselves knocked up THEN restitched their hymen shut and they could claim to the entire world that they were giving birth to the new son of god.

I listen to the radio quite a lot these days because it's on in the lab all the time, today they had a story that's horrible, but also so strange that it's slightly funny because it's so hard to believe.

Basically two kids (ages 2 and a 1/2 and Eighteen months) died in a fire in their bedroom and their parents got sent to jail for it.

Why? Because the parents had locked them in the room so that they could have a romantic night on their own downstairs in the living room, they turned the kids door handle upside-down and tied it to another door handle so that they couldn't get out. When they heard the kids screaming they thought that the children were fighting.

How did the fire start? The parents had taught the oldest child to play with matches as a party trick.

The pairs defence lawyer claimed that it was due to their low intelligence, both parents had an IQ of 66. The judge dismissed this and sent them both to jail.

Wasn't there a thread about the worlds worst parents? I think this would top it.

Its either a karbunkle or Cassun thread.

I really think this deserves attention from anyone who posts any where on the web...

[url]http://www.myelectionanalysis.com/?p=819[/url]

" ... I. Background.

Tucker Max runs a website, appropriately named tuckermax.com. It is one of the most heavily trafficked non-commercial sites on the internet. As the Alexa.com link below shows, he reaches between 100 and 150 million readers in a six-month period, placing him in the top 7,000 websites worldwide by traffic. By comparison, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the newspaper of record for one of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas is not even in the top 200,000 sites. The site consists mostly of stories of him becoming intoxicated and having escapades with various women, most of whose names are changed. His recently-released book “I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell” appeared on the NYTimes Best Seller List. Tucker is no stranger to controversy, having already been sued for publishing the story of his alleged escapades with a former Miss Vermont, who later went on to preach abstinence education on her own website. That suit resulted in a prior restraint being entered against Tucker’s site, which likely would have destroyed his embryonic enterprise if it were not for the discounted legal services rendered to him and an amicus brief filed by the ACLU.

His site hosts a messageboard, with over 28,000 members. For reasons I don’t fully understand, his website apparently has a history of confrontation with some guy named Anthony DiMeo, III. Mr. DiMeo is apparently the heir to a fortune from a family blueberry farm. Mr. Dimeo also promotes himself as an actor, wealth manager, and chairman of “Renamity, Inc.,” a public relations firm.

The participant’s on Mr. Max’s website have regularly “made fun” of Mr. DiMeo and his website. Most of the statements are harmless, but some have arguably crossed the line into defamatory territory.

II. The Suit.

Illustrating the chilling effect even the threat of such suits could wreak, Mr. DiMeo has sought damages in excess of $1 million. He claims damages for a host of defamation actions, including libel, misappropriation of likeness, casting DiMeo in a false light, invasion of privacy, inciting violence, and publishing with an intent to harass. Most of the allegedly defamatory comments grow out of a thread relating to a disastrous party thrown by DiMeo’s PR firm, about which controversy has raged in the press . The relevant comments on Mr. Max’s website, none of which are from Mr. Max, are as follows: a. ” Maybe you should find your validation elsewhere…preferably at the end of a magnum”; b. “I just wanted to let you know that I think that you are the biggest piece of sh*t I have ever heard of and I hope that you die soon”; c. ” Now I know why Arlen Specter got invited to all those Renamity parties! Could it be…bribery of your local politician”;d. “He’s got a neat, nice little page there from which we can harass him”; e. “I can’t believe no one has killed him yet”; f. “You threw an absolutely disastrous party on New Year’s Eve precipitated by false advertising and possible fraud.”

Mr. DiMeo also sues under the recent amendments to the Violence Against Women Act (”VAWA”), which create a cause of action when one uses a “telecommunications device” “without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass any person at the called number or who receives the communications.”