What's in the News

Mississippi Bridge collapse.......

According to reports on (all) the news, the bridge had gotten a "still safe" but "in need of repairs in the future" and "structurally deficient".....and there are about 750  other bridges of the same design in and around the US (in a similar state of disrepair?).

It would seem that the authorities responsible for bridge maintenance work according to the time-honoured maxim: If it ain't broken, don't fix it.

Tell that to the families of the dead.

I think they know already. I only wonder who will be to blame? I mean, someone must be held responsible for a horrible incident like this. I find it hard to call this an accident as, from what the news tell me, all those fatalities and injuries could have been avoided if someone somewhere had been doing their job.

I feel very sad for this panda, for so many reasons

Sexually suspect panda gives birth to twins
A panda once believed to be male gave birth to twin cubs this week

The panda was sent to Japan in 2000 to mate with a female... that didn't work out

The giant panda is one of the world's most endangered species
Next Article in Technology »



     
BEIJING, China (Reuters) -- A panda once believed to be male and sent to Japan to breed with a female without success gave birth to twin cubs this week, state media reported on Thursday.


An estimated 1,600 wild pandas live in nature reserves in China's Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi provinces.

 The panda, "Jinzhu", gave birth to two female cubs on Monday at the Wolong Nature Reserve in the mountainous southwestern province of Sichuan, 11 years after being declared male at birth in 1996, Xinhua news agency said.

"Jinzhu was believed to be male owing to her inconspicuous secondary sex characteristic and behavior," the agency quoted Wei Rongping, assistant director of the reserve's research center, as saying.

Jinzhu was sent to Japan in 2000 to mate with a female, the report said.

"When the pandas showed complete disinterest, experts decided to turn to artificial insemination, leading to the discovery that Jinzhu had no penis," it added.

Jinzhu was sent back to China in 2002, with experts arguing the panda was either a hermaphrodite or had "undeveloped" sexual organs.

"The penis of an adult panda is only about 3 centimeters (1.2 inches) long," Xinhua quoted Li Deshen, a panda expert, as saying, as a possible reason for the mix-up.

It was not until 2005 that scientists discovered nine-year-old Jinzhu's ovaries were positioned in the wrong place, and gave her a two-hour operation to make her a "normal girl", Xinhua said.

Jinzhu subsequently mated with a male in March 2007 and gave birth 142 days later, Xinhua said.

The giant panda is one of the world's most endangered species and is found only in China. An estimated 1,600 wild pandas live in nature reserves in China's Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi provinces.

language barriers???

"Strewth. Crikey. Bloody hell. An Australian woman has reportedly sparked a security scare aboard a US flight after her use of a common Australian phrase was apparently misinterpreted as an act of aggression.

Sophie Reynolds, 41, from Queanbeyan, was flying aboard SkyWest Airlines from Atlanta to Pittsburgh this week when she asked a flight attendant if she could have a pack of pretzels instead of crackers.

"[The flight attendant] said they didn't have any [pretzels], and I said, 'Fair dinkum,' out of frustration," Reynolds was quoted as saying in the The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Before she knew it a second flight attendant asked her for her passport and copied down her name.

Then, when the flight landed, three uniformed officers greeted her.

"They said, 'You swore at the hostess and there are federal rules against that,"' Reynolds said. "And I said, 'I did not swear at the hostess, I just said 'fair dinkum."'

A spokeswoman for the airline said it was not simply a matter of misunderstanding the language.

"We witnessed aggressive behaviour throughout the flight," she said.

Reynolds was not charged and allowed to go on her way, she said."

I'm constantly collecting news articles, mostly realted to China. This one's a year old, but remains a favorite "evergreen."

From Reuters:

Flaming dog meat sets Chinese school afire
July 21, 2006

A Chinese headmaster, who tried to buy off colleagues by cooking dog meat for them after secretly selling off trees around the school, ended up setting fire to classrooms when the meal burst into flames, a Chinese newspaper said on Friday.

Ten classrooms containing televisions, computers, printers and textbooks burnt down, leaving nearly 100 children unable to go to school, the Beijing Youth Daily said.

The headmaster, in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang, sold off a 1,000-tree arboretum surrounding the school on the sly, the newspaper said.

"In order to get the teachers not to tell anyone what he had done, on the afternoon of May 16, headmaster Meng got friends to obtain two dogs, which they proceeded to kill on the school grounds," the report said.

"He then told the teachers they would have dog meat to eat that afternoon," it added.

But the plan went awry when the dog being baked burst into flames and set fire to the school's main office and then the classrooms.

The local education bureau fined the headmaster 10,000 yuan (677 pounds) and suggested he be fired, the newspaper said.
 

Xinhua quoted Li Deshen, a panda expert,

  Hang on! This bloke is a panda expert but he doesn't know the difference between boy pandas and girl pandas.

...and I thought Chinese people were crazy... from today's AP wire:

Woman calls police about 'fake' cocaine

August 13, 2007
Associated Press

ROCHELLE, GA -- A woman was arrested after she called police to help "get her money back" after she was unhappy with the crack cocaine she purchased.

Juanita Marie Jones, 53, called Rochelle Police late Thursday night after she purchased what she thought was a $20 piece of crack cocaine, according to police reports.

She told officers she broke the rock into three pieces and smoked one, only to discover the drugs were "fake."

She took Officer Joel Quinn and Deputy John Shedd of the Wilcox County Sheriff's Office into her kitchen and showed them the drugs, police said.

She was promptly arrested on charges of possession of cocaine.

...and I thought Chinese people were crazy... from today's AP wire:

Woman calls police about 'fake' cocaine

August 13, 2007
Associated Press

ROCHELLE, GA -- A woman was arrested after she called police to help "get her money back" after she was unhappy with the crack cocaine she purchased.

  That is the funniest thing I have read all day. What an optmistic little junkie. What'll be next? Burglars calling the police because the TV they stole does not work? Does crack come with a warranty? Full satisfaction or your braincells back?

The cocaine mustnt have been fake - she got dooped to the extent of calling the police! 

Hey, ericthered, glad you got your daily dose of amusement!

The original reporter of the story, Cindy Bishop -- for the Cordele Dispatch in Georgia -- (http://www.cordeledispatch.com/local/local_story_223195348.html) opens her article with the burning question: “Do drug dealers issue gift cards if their buyers aren’t satisfied with the product?”

...and cheekygal makes an excellent point!

If it was fake she can sue for wrongful arrest - no possession case at all.

Yeah, lotus eater! Let's hope her lawyer makes that same argument in her defense. In Rochelle, Georgia, I imagine she worked hard for that $20! She can't be wastin' twenty bucks on bugus rocks and not get wasted herself!

This does raise a rather interesting point: crack cocaine is very bad for you, we all know this. Now, this woman attempted to purchase an illegal substance. A fellow cheated her and sold her something that she believed was crack cocaine. The particulars of the case, for instance what the actual substance was, have not been reported but if we work from the assumption that the purchased substance was completely harmless, like buying oregano and thinking it is pot, how exactly did she and the pusher break the law. Techincally, she had the intention of acquiring something illegal but she did not. The pusher did not sell something illegal, so is it not, in theory, wrong to arrest her? I know you can be arrested for intention to sell drugs but can you be arrested for intention to buy drugs or, in her case, for not buying drugs? I mean, isn't that what she did? Not buy drugs and then proceed to tell the police that she had not bought drugs, she had not taken drugs and the pusher had not sold her drugs?