Weird News Thread ....

[Jolie Rouge]

``We're going against the evil alien clones,''
Man Charged in Two Ky. Shooting Deaths
By ELLEN R. STAPLETON

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/ns/news/...05.htm&sc=1110

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) - A suspected gunman who told a reporter he was battling ``alien clones'' during a 6 1/2-hour standoff at his home was charged Saturday in the deaths of a female firefighter and another woman.

Patrick Hutchinson, 45, surrendered Friday night, hours after fire and police crews converged on his house in southeast Lexington following a report that a woman had been shot.

At one point during the standoff, a reporter from the Lexington Herald-Leader accidentally called Hutchinson while trying to reach his neighbors, officials said. An editor alerted police, who asked the reporter to end the call.

The reporter said Hutchinson made doomsday proclamations, calling the standoff ``Armageddon'' and rambling about the CIA and a conspiracy.


``We're going against the evil alien clones,'' the Herald-Leader reported Hutchinson as saying in its Saturday editions. ``I started with my wife.''


Hutchinson also faces attempted murder and assault charges, and was being held at the Fayette County jail. Police have not commented on his mental status.


One of the victims, 40-year-old Brenda Cowan, was the first black woman to join the Lexington Fire Department and was promoted to lieutenant last month. The other woman, whose identity was not immediately released, was fatally shot at the home before authorities arrived.

Firefighters came under fire when they approached the house, Lexington Police Chief Anthany Beatty said. Police stayed in contact with Hutchinson via telephone.


``It was a very difficult negotiation,'' Capt. Barry Cecil said. ``It went up and down all night long.'' After hours of negotiations, police cut the power to Hutchinson's house, and then blasted chemical agents into the building.


Jim Sandford, another firefighter who was shot, was in fair condition Saturday at the University of Kentucky Medical Center. Another firefighter and a police officer also suffered minor injuries.



02/14/04 15:35

[Advertisement]

[Jolie Rouge]

Woman Endures Surgeries to Lengthen Limbs
By GRETCHEN PARKER

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/ns/news/...79.htm&sc=1500

PICKERINGTON, Ohio (AP) - Once 4-foot-3, Christy Ruhe now stands just 2 inches shy of 5 feet tall. She recently finished a two-year procedure that surgically broke her bowed legs, then stretched and straightened them, an agonizingly painful ordeal that would leave even her questioning how much she could endure.

She had always craved just a few more inches. Enough to drive any car and pump her own gas, or reach the pedals under the piano. Practical things, but seven inches would accomplish so much more.

To understand why she put herself through the surgeries and painful therapy is to understand a spirit determined to be as independent as possible.

Christy Ruhe (pronounced ROO-ee) was born with achondroplasia, a form of dwarfism. Her short legs were severely bowed. At 5, surgeons broke her hips and realigned them, but as her legs grew they stubbornly bent outward at the knees.


Limb lengthening might help straighten her legs, her pediatric orthopedic surgeon acknowledged, but he discouraged the idea.


The procedure is controversial. The advocacy group Little People of America has taken a stand against it, warning of the risks of long-term nerve and vascular damage.


But Christy, who lives in Pickerington, near Columbus, couldn't get the idea out of her head.


Her parents are not dwarfs, neither is willowy older sister Erin. John and Rita Ruhe nurtured their daughter's independence.


Yet outside the Ruhe house, she would learn about alienation. She would lag behind the group while walking. Strangers would stare.


``I always felt like, why do I have to explain this?'' she says.


At 22, Christy contacted Dr. Dror Paley at the International Center for Limb Lengthening, the clinic he co-founded with two other orthopedic surgeons at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore.


It's now late September 2001. Christy Ruhe is about to undergo the first limb-lengthening surgery, on her left leg. A year later, it will be the right leg.


Once broken as part of the procedure, shin bones and femurs automatically generate new bone. But as they heal, they're pulled apart to make them longer. The surgeries, which typically cost about $200,000, are covered by insurance.


Paley cuts holes in Christy's leg so he can screw the rods into the bone: Seven in her thigh and five in her shin. Each is a foot long. Half the length protrudes from her skin, so Paley can attach them to a graphite brace that Christy will crank.


Paley bores the pins deep into the thick whiteness he sees on the X-rays.


Finding a good place to crack the bone, he first drills a tight chain of small holes. He puts a chisel to the perforation and pounds it hard with a mallet. The whirring and hammering make it sound like a construction site.


The pain is like an ocean that sucks her under again and again.


Christy lies on her stomach, and a physical therapist bends her knee as far as it will go. Muscles and nerves are stretching to meet the length of the new, soft bone.


The therapist pushes until she feels the soft tissue become elastic. It's been only a few days since the first surgery.


Christy's face reddens, and she rides the wave of pain with short breaths. She tries not to scream but can't stop herself.


She wonders if the therapist knows what she's doing. ``This cannot be right!'' she thinks.


There's little blood and not a lot of cutting in limb-lengthening surgery. But recovery is an extended test of mettle and will.


After daily therapy, she gets around in a wheelchair. Four times a day, she uses an Allen wrench to turn the brace and stretch her leg.


The growth of bone and muscle tissue is measured in millimeters - 1 mm a day - but Christy doesn't feel it.


She smiles less these days, snaps at her parents and then regrets it. The steel rods sticking out of her legs interrupt her sleep. But quitting is not an option.


``You have those moments when you say, 'I can't do it anymore. I can't stand it,''' she says. ``You have to look back at why you're doing this. It's for my health, my well-being.''


As the left leg heals, it grows straight and strong. The long leg is a promise to her that the surgeries will be successful. Gradually, she realizes how much her life will change.


She begins to dream differently now, seeing the world from her new height, as a person who blends into a crowd.


It is spring of 2003, a year and a half after Christy's first surgery. A chronic infection has developed around one rod in the right leg, which was operated on six months ago. The rod must be removed.


The procedure will be done without general anesthesia, which always makes Christy's stomach roil.


Paley attaches a T-shaped handle to the troubled rod. With the first turn, Christy begins to shriek. John Ruhe tries to immobilize his daughter's good leg, and wraps his other arm around her shoulders. Her fist slams his chest as the pin turns.


Three minutes later, the end of the 12-inch pin appears. The hole in her thigh looks like a gunshot wound.


Christy's back slumps. Her eyes are closed.


There would be more ordeals ahead before the leg would finally heal.


The banner at the party reads, ``Congratulations Christy.''


It is a 25th birthday celebration, but the occasion also marks the end of her surgeries and crutches.


Party guests, friends and family, write messages on a plastic sign.


``In my eyes, you've always been tall,'' says one.


``You are my hero,'' her sister writes.


All eyes are on Christy, now 25, as she arrives. She steps carefully on her new legs.


Later, she would say she doesn't remember all of the pain she endured. Time has dulled her memory of it, and she prefers to look forward - to a life that she hopes will be easier.


She takes a second to place the faces before flashing a hundred-watt smile that's the picture of self-assurance.


``To me, I am tall,'' she says. ``I am a tall person now. That's all that matters.''



02/14/04 13:30

[the fugative]

Town T-shirts banned at Climax, Minn., school

Student sent home after refusing request to turn T-shirt inside out

BY PAULETTE TOBIN

Grand Forks (N.D.) Herald


About a dozen Climax-Shelly, Minn., students wore their Climax T-shirts to school this week in protest of the superintendent's ban on the shirt emblazoned with the town's centennial slogan: "Climax - More than just a feeling."

One student, who refused the superintendent's request to turn her shirt inside out Wednesday, was sent home for the afternoon.

The slogan's sexual innuendo made it inappropriate to wear to school, superintendent Shirley Moberg said Thursday. School officials had "turned a blind eye" to students wearing the T-shirt until recently, when a teacher wore it to school and a person complained, she said. From now on, the shirts will not be allowed to be worn at school.

"We were doing nothing other than what our school policy says," Moberg said.

Town slogan

The town of Climax adopted the "more than just a feeling" slogan in 1996 for its centennial. The slogan was used in advertising and promotions, and the T-shirts have been around for years.

Climax-Shelly junior Ali Tweten said some students objected to the ban in part because the shirts had been allowed in the past and because the ban seemed to come out of nowhere.

"When I wear my T-shirt, it's a sign of pride for my town," Tweten said. "I don't really wear it to be meant in that way (as a sexual innuendo)."

The superintendent said the school dress code prohibited wearing clothing or jewelry with objectionable signs, words, objects, badges, symbols or pictures communicating a message that is racist or sexist.

The administration has the discretion to judge when clothing or jewelry interferes or disturbs the educational process, and the authority to ask students to modify their clothing, Moberg said. Students who refuse can be sent home for the day, and parents or guardians will be notified.

"We don't allow any of the students to wear any T-shirts that are suggestive in any manner," she said. School policy also forbids T-shirts that advertise alcohol or tobacco, she said.

Inside out

Students who wore the shirt to school Wednesday were told to go to the bathroom and turn it inside out. All did, except 18-year-old Bethany Grove, a senior, who was suspended for the afternoon.

Grove said the T-shirt slogan could be seen as a sexual innuendo, but it could have other interpretations as well.

"The T-shirt has been a tradition," Grove said. "It's been around for almost 10 years. A lot of people have them."

The shirts weren't necessarily appropriate, she said, but they have been allowed in the past.

"I don't think they should be taken away now because one person was upset," she said. "The majority of the people like to wear them." Climax is, after all, the town's name, she said.

A town named Climax may lend itself to sexual connotations, but the name evolved from a brand of chewing tobacco, according to the town's history.

A story published in the Herald on July 3, 1996, at the time of the Climax centennial, said that in the 1800s, the Steenerson brothers sold machinery near the junction of the Sand Hill and Red rivers. They gave away Climax Plug Chewing Tobacco as a premium. Some people called the settlement Climax, and when the railroad came through in 1896, the name stuck, according to the Herald story.

When Climax was planning its centennial celebration, it had a contest to pick a slogan. Some of the other entries were "No End to Climax," "Cling to the Culmination: Climax Forever" and "Bring a Friend to Climax."

Climax is the smallest K-12 public school in Minnesota, and has about 80 students in high school.

Stories of Climax's centennial celebration and history can be found on www.grandforksherald.com.

[the fugative]

Blind Wisconsin Owl Gets New Eye Lenses

Associated Press


MADISON, Wis. - A great horned owl found starving in the wild because it had gone blind could be released this spring after having new lenses implanted in its eyes.

The owl, named Minerva by medical personnel, underwent two hours of eye surgery Jan. 22, and Dr. Chris Murphy said she was in good condition during a follow-up exam Wednesday.

"Perfect," said Murphy, a board-certified veterinary ophthalmologist. "Ounce for ounce, this is considered one of the toughest birds on the face of the earth."

Minerva was found in emaciated condition in early December, after someone told wildlife rehabilitators Sue and Jerry Theys an owl had been sitting on a fence for three days.

Sue Theys, who netted the owl, said she suspected the owl had cataracts. After a local veterinarian confirmed the diagnosis, the couple brought the owl to Murphy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine.

Murphy had a pair of lenses on hand that had been custom-made six years ago for another great horned owl that proved to be an unfit candidate for the surgery. The lenses were designed by Murphy and Dr. Chuck Stuhr, and were made for free by Storz Ophthalmics, a company that has been bought by Bausch & Lomb.

With Murphy supervising, Dr. Renee Carter and fellow resident Katie Diehl implanted the new lenses.

"To the best of my knowledge, this has not been done anywhere," Murphy said.

The Theyses, who operate Wildlife of Wisconsin wildlife rehabilitation, paid for $300 of the $1,800 procedure, with the veterinary school donating the rest.

During her recovery, the Theys have been giving Minerva antibiotic eye drops three times daily and feeding her rats and an occasional rabbit.

In April, they will move the owl to a much larger flight cage and release live rats into the straw-filled enclosure to see if she can successfully hunt. If so, she'll be released back into the wild.

Great horned owls are the largest owls in North America, with females obtaining a wingspan of five feet and weighing up to 5 1/2 pounds. They use night vision and an acute sense of hearing to find prey in the dark.

"She's extremely feisty," Sue Theys said. "She can't understand why we're messing with her. She can see and she wants to take off and fly."

ON THE NET

UW veterinary school: http://www.vetmed.wisc.edu/home

[Jolie Rouge]

Man Held for Faking Wife's Death in Iraq

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/sto...96.htm&sc=1110

WATERBURY, Conn. (AP) - A man believed to have been the victim of a cruel prankster who told him his wife had been killed in Iraq has admitted concocting the story and was arrested Sunday, authorities said.

Edward Valentin, whose wife Betsy is an Army Reserve sergeant, was charged with making a false statement to police, falsely reporting an incident concerning a death and harassment, Police Chief Neil O'Leary said.

Valentin was being held in lieu of $5,000 bail, and arraignment was set for Monday.

``As far as why he did it, there's no clear answer,'' O'Leary said. ``He claimed he did it because he has been struggling with three children. And if everyone felt sorry for him, including the military, they'd send Betsy home.''


O'Leary said investigators also discovered that Valentin had been trying to date another woman, who was not interested in dating a married man.


Valentin told reporters that he received a call Wednesday from someone identifying himself as a colonel at the Department of Defense. The caller, he said, told him his wife had been killed in an explosion.


On Thursday, however, he received a call from his wife. There had been no explosion and no injuries. That led investigators to believe there had been a hoax.


Police said Saturday that Valentin admitted making up the story.


Valentin's story began to fall apart when a reporter for The Republican-American of Waterbury, who had previously interviewed Betsy Valentin, e-mailed her in Iraq. Hours later, she returned the e-mail and called her husband.


It was unclear Sunday whether Betsy Valentin knew her husband had been arrested. Maj. John Whitford of the Army National Guard said that the news would be passed through the chain of command.



02/15/04 13:36

[Jolie Rouge]

Surprising! Men Go Gaga Over WHO?

Men are getting all hot and bothered by older women. At least, that's the conclusion of a popular online dating network that asked men to name their top celebrity fantasy date. Wireless Flash reports that the women who made the top of the list were anything but 20-something hotties or vixen-like teenyboppers. They were, um, how do we say this? Mature women. Especially by the standards of youth-fixated Hollywood.


The top celebrity fantasy dates and their ages:

1. Jennifer Aniston, age 35
2. Demi Moore, age 42
3. Meg Ryan, age 42
4. Diane Lane, age 39
5. Amy Smart, age 26


But the one that may raise the most cheers among women is No. 7: 58-year-old Diane Keaton. You go, girl!

[Jolie Rouge]

Student Group Offers Whites-Only Award

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/sto...93.htm&sc=1110

BRISTOL, R.I. (AP) - A student group at Roger Williams University is offering a new scholarship for which only white students are eligible, a move they say is designed to protest affirmative action.

The application for the $50 award requires an essay on ``why you are proud of your white heritage'' and a recent picture to ``confirm whiteness.''

``Evidence of bleaching will disqualify applicants,'' says the application, issued by the university's College Republicans.

Jason Mattera, 20, who is president of the College Republicans, said the group is parodying minority scholarships.


``White kids are at a handicap,'' Mattera told The Providence Journal. ``Handing out scholarships based on someone's color is absurd.''


The stunt has angered some at the university, but the administration is staying out of the fray. The school's provost said it is a student group's initiative and is not endorsed by Roger Williams.


Mattera, who is of Puerto Rican descent, is himself a recipient of a $5,000 scholarship open only to a minority group.


``No matter what my ethnicity is, I'm making a statement that scholarships should be given out based on merit and need,'' he said.


It's not the first brush with controversy for the group. The school temporarily froze the Republicans' money in the fall during a fight over a series of articles published in its monthly newsletter. One article alleged that a gay-rights group indoctrinates students into homosexual sex.



02/15/04 15:49

[the fugative]

Man can't shake shark

Associated Press


SYDNEY, Australia - Lifeguards at a beach post north of Sydney couldn't believe their eyes when a man walked in with a small shark attached to his leg.

Luke Tresoglavic swam 1,000 feet to shore, walked to his car and drove to the local surf club with the 23-inch shark biting his leg and refusing to let go.

"I just realized I had to swim in like that, hanging on to it," Tresoglavic told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio on Wednesday.

Tresoglavic, 22, was snorkeling on a reef off Caves Beach near Newcastle on Tuesday when a wobbegong, or carpet shark, attacked his leg.

"Once I got on to shore, a couple of people tried to help me, but I could not remove it," he said. "It was stuck there, so I got up into my car and then drove to the clubhouse, and luckily the guys down there had a clue what to do."

A senior lifeguard at the clubhouse, Michael Jones, said he couldn't believe his eyes when Tresoglavic turned up - shark in tow.

"He basically asked the question: 'Can you help me get it off?' There's nothing in our procedure manual for that type of thing," Jones said.

The lifeguards flushed the shark's gills with fresh water, forcing it to loosen its grip on Tresoglavic's leg - with blood oozing from 70 needle-like punctures. The shark later died.

"He's lucky he didn't get into difficulties in the water trying to swim with that thing thrashing around," Jones said.

But he said Tresoglavic remained in good spirits throughout the ordeal. "There was a side of humor to it," he said.

Tresoglavic was taken to hospital, but it was not immediately clear what treatment he received.

Wobbegong sharks can grow to nearly 10 feet in length, possess razor-sharp teeth and are said to be moody and short-tempered.

[Jolie Rouge]

Partying Bush Twin Puts On Quite a Show

Barbara Bush, the 22-year-old daughter of President and Mrs. George W. Bush, acted anything but presidential in the wee hours of Thursday morning when she put on an impromptu belly-dancing show at a star-studded New York City hot spot.

The whole thing started when Barb decided to imitate the "undulating tummy of a sword-twirling Japanese dancer named Yoko," as New York Post "Page Six" gossip columnist Richard Johnson so delectably writes. Barbara was attending an after-party celebrating Jennifer Nicholson's fashion show. (She's the 30-something daughter of actor Jack Nicholson.) Barb was a huge hit! The crowd enjoyed Yoko and Barbara's belly-dancing so much they threw flowers and hundreds of dollars in cash at their feet, reports the Post.

Looking at the plentiful margaritas and Veuve Clicquot champagne on Barbara's table, one partygoer dished to the gossip column, "I hope the Secret Service is driving her home." And that was said before the belly-dancing even started.

Click to see a photo of 22-year-old Barbara Bush with her cousin, model Lauren Bush. Check out who's sitting next to them!

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/big...fs=&floc=wn-ns

[Jolie Rouge]

[Men vs. Women: Caffeine's Bizarre Effect

When men drink coffee or tea at work it may sabotage their ability to do their jobs as it triggers stress, worsens anxiety, disrupts their emotions, and undermines their ability to work well on a team. Coffee or tea has the opposite effect on women, boosting their confidence and helping them to handle stress better. New Scientist reports that researchers from Bristol University in the United Kingdom concluded that caffeinated beverages make men less cooperative when working on teams and could actually hamper their ability to do certain tasks. This is the first study to look at the effect of caffeine on teamwork within groups.

"Our research findings suggest that the commonplace tea or coffee break might backfire in business situations, particularly where men are concerned," psychologist Lindsay St. Claire, who led the study with Peter Rogers, told New Scientist. "Far from reducing stress, it might actually make things worse."


The study: Caffeine's effects were tested on 32 coffee drinkers, who were divided into three groups. Each group was told it was being given one of these drinks: a caffeinated coffee that would boost their performance, a caffeinated coffee that causes stress-like side-effects, or decaffeinated coffee. But unknown to the volunteers, only half the drinks contained 200 mg of caffeine; the other half contained no caffeine. The volunteers were given two stressful tasks to complete.

The results: Men who believed their caffeinated coffee would enhance their performance had higher heart rates and used less adaptive coping strategies. In other words, they showed more stress. That had the effect of worsening the men's performance during a public speaking task, although it did not effect their ability to do a math problem. During another stressful task, taking a coffee break did seem to reduce stress, but it also reduced teamwork. The opposite seemed to be true for women in that coffee appeared to lower their stress levels. Jim Lane, a medical psychologist at Duke University in North Carolina who is researching caffeine's stress effects, told New Scientist that caffeine's effects on men may be worse because men may feel more threatened or challenged by some tasks than women, and caffeine amplifies their stress.

[Jolie Rouge]

[In a Galaxy Far, Far Away: A Rare Find

An international team of astrophysicists has detected a faint and tiny galaxy 13 billion light-years from Earth, which they insist is the farthest known object from our planet, reports The Associated Press. Most interesting of all is that this discovery offers a rare glimpse back to when the universe was just 750 million years old.

Finding this galaxy was no simple matter: It took two powerful telescopes--the Hubble Space Telescope in space and another one in Hawaii atop Mauna Kea --as well as something called "gravitational lensing." The astrophysicists were only able to see the galaxy by the natural magnification provided by a massive cluster of galaxies. The gravitational tug of the cluster, called Abell 2218, deflects the light of the distant galaxy and magnifies it many times over, explains AP. This is called gravitational lensing and produces double images of the galaxy. Without this technique, which was first proposed by Albert Einstein, the galaxy could never be identified or studied in any detail.

This tiny galaxy far, far away offers a rare look at the time when stars and galaxies first formed during a period astrophysicists call the end of the cosmological Dark Ages. "The possibility is here we really are beginning to peek into that time," Robert Kirshner, an astronomer with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., who was not connected with the discovery, told AP. "People have gone there in their imagination. They've thought about it. Now we are getting the facts." News of the discovery was announced during the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Seattle. Further details will be published in the Astrophysical Journal.