By-Tor.com

I do believe he has lost his Joementum.

LOL Look what happened in my childhood home!

"Pot Bust in Big Tujunga Canyon
Last Edited: Friday, 10 Aug 2007, 12:32 PM PDT
Created: Friday, 10 Aug 2007, 12:32 PM PDT
Pot Bust - Big Tujunga Canyon

Angeles National Forest -- Investigators involved in a "marijuana abatement" operation found several thousand pot plants growing in the Angeles National Forest and were removing them today, officials said.

The operation was being conducted by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and the California Department of Forestry, said sheriff's Lt. Joe Nunez.

"It's a routine marijuana abatement operation," Nunez said.

There were no arrests, and the investigation was ongoing, the lieutenant said.

It was unclear who was growing the plants in the remote area, but large operations such as this one could be operated by illegal immigrants on behalf of Mexican drug cartels, Nunez said."

Beheaded Snake Sends Man to Hospital
By Associated Press

Thu Aug 9, 10:06 PM

PROSSER, Wash. - Turns out, even beheaded rattlesnakes can be dangerous. That's what 53-year-old Danny Anderson learned as he was feeding his horses Monday night, when a 5-foot rattler slithered onto his central Washington property, about 50 miles southeast of Yakima.

Anderson and his 27-year-old son, Benjamin, pinned the snake with an irrigation pipe and cut off its head with a shovel. A few more strikes to the head left it sitting under a pickup truck.

"When I reached down to pick up the head, it raised around and did a backflip almost, and bit my finger," Anderson said. "I had to shake my hand real hard to get it to let loose."

His wife insisted they go to the hospital, and by the time they arrived at Prosser Memorial Hospital 10 minutes later, Anderson's tongue was swollen and the venom was spreading. He then was taken by ambulance 30 miles to a Richland hospital to get the full series of six shots he needed.

The snake head ended up in the bed of his pickup, and Anderson landed in the hospital until Wednesday afternoon.

Mike Livingston, a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist, said the area where the Anderson's live is near prime snake habitat. But he said he had never heard of anyone being bit by a decapitated snake before.

"That's really surprising but that's an important thing to tell people," he said. "It may have been just a reflex on the part of the snake."

If another rattlesnake comes along, Anderson said he'll likely try to kill it again, but said he'll grab a shovel and bury it right there.

"It still gives me the creeps to think that son-of-a-gun could do that," he said.

___

Information from: Tri-City Herald, http://www.tri-cityherald.com

Exactly why my mom taught me to behead and bury that head first thing.

I was glad I do that everytime when I was skinning a snake and the part where the head would've been rose up and hit me on the arm. I would've been bitten and off to the hospital just like this man.

OK, I have to ask, where did the snake's skins go?

awip2062 wrote:Exactly why my mom taught me to behead and bury that head first thing.

I was glad I do that everytime when I was skinning a snake and the part where the head would've been rose up and hit me on the arm. I would've been bitten and off to the hospital just like this man.

Pardon my, ahem, colorful language here sis, but that is fuggin freaky!

The skins were put on a jacket or something and the meat was dinner.

Yeah, Bro, it sure was! I used that as an example to H (she was just five then and she was watching me when it happend) of two things. One, that electrical energy is still in a body for some time after death and can cause movement, and two, that you always cut off and bury that head first thing just in case.

Man Tries to Take Crocs, Snakes on Plane
By Associated Press

Sun Aug 12, 6:39 AM

CAIRO, Egypt - It was very nearly a real-life version of "Snakes on a Plane." A man was stopped at Cairo's airport just moments before he boarded a Saudi Arabia-bound plane with carry-on bags filled with live snakes, as well as a few baby crocodiles and chameleons.

Security officials became suspicious of the 22-year-old Saudi man's bags when the X-ray machine at the departure gate gave odd readings. Police said they opened the bags and found a large number of reptiles, including at least one cobra, squirming to escape.

The animals were confiscated and turned over to the Cairo Zoo and the man was allowed to board his flight home.

Transporting live reptiles out of the country is illegal in Egypt, but the passenger said he was unaware of the ban and that the snakes, crocodiles and chameleons were needed by a Saudi university for scientific experiments, police said.

In May, another Saudi man was caught at the Cairo airport carrying 700 live snakes in his carry-on luggage. He told authorities that snakes were often kept in Saudi Arabia by storekeepers in glass jars or used as pets.

Pepper the Sheep Can Stay, Despite Aroma
By Associated Press

3 hours ago

DIXON, Calif. - Pepper's aroma is decidedly not like the seasoning for which she is named. Yet the Dixon City Council has opted to let Pepper the sheep remain with her family in their suburban backyard despite objections about the unpleasant odors she gives off.

"I'm just emotionally drained," said Pepper's owner, Natalie Angelman, after the council voted Tuesday. "I'm so overwhelmed. It's been a long road and I'm very pleased with their decision."

Pepper has lived in the Angelmans' backyard for six years, but in the past few years a strong odor has drifted from the property, said neighbor Jason Wentz.

"The smell is a mix of alfalfa, sheep, urine and feces," Wentz said. "I never wanted to make this a neighborhood issue, but the next thing I know, we're the villains of the community."

The Angelmans said they have eliminated the smell Pepper gives off by taking steps such as spending hundreds of dollars on peppermint-scented cleaner and air fresheners and moving Pepper's pen.

Council members said the Angelmans have done everything they could to minimize the odor and be good neighbors. However, they urged them not to buy another sheep once Pepper dies.

"I think we need to do whatever we need to make it stay, but please don't get another sheep," said Vice Mayor Michael Smith.

___

Information from: The Reporter, http://www.thereporter.com

Artificial Life Likely in 3 to 10 Years
By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer

Mon Aug 20, 1:49 AM

WASHINGTON - Around the world, a handful of scientists are trying to create life from scratch and they're getting closer.

Experts expect an announcement within three to 10 years from someone in the now little-known field of "wet artificial life."

"It's going to be a big deal and everybody's going to know about it," said Mark Bedau, chief operating officer of ProtoLife of Venice, Italy, one of those in the race. "We're talking about a technology that could change our world in pretty fundamental ways _ in fact, in ways that are impossible to predict."

That first cell of synthetic life _ made from the basic chemicals in DNA _ may not seem like much to non-scientists. For one thing, you'll have to look in a microscope to see it.

"Creating protocells has the potential to shed new light on our place in the universe," Bedau said. "This will remove one of the few fundamental mysteries about creation in the universe and our role."

And several scientists believe man-made life forms will one day offer the potential for solving a variety of problems, from fighting diseases to locking up greenhouse gases to eating toxic waste.

Bedau figures there are three major hurdles to creating synthetic life:

_ A container, or membrane, for the cell to keep bad molecules out, allow good ones, and the ability to multiply.

_ A genetic system that controls the functions of the cell, enabling it to reproduce and mutate in response to environmental changes.

_ A metabolism that extracts raw materials from the environment as food and then changes it into energy.

One of the leaders in the field, Jack Szostak at Harvard Medical School, predicts that within the next six months, scientists will report evidence that the first step _ creating a cell membrane _ is "not a big problem." Scientists are using fatty acids in that effort.

Szostak is also optimistic about the next step _ getting nucleotides, the building blocks of DNA, to form a working genetic system.

His idea is that once the container is made, if scientists add nucleotides in the right proportions, then Darwinian evolution could simply take over.

"We aren't smart enough to design things, we just let evolution do the hard work and then we figure out what happened," Szostak said.

In Gainesville, Fla., Steve Benner, a biological chemist at the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution is attacking that problem by going outside of natural genetics. Normal DNA consists of four bases _ adenine, cytosine, guanine and thymine (known as A,C,G,T) _ molecules that spell out the genetic code in pairs. Benner is trying to add eight new bases to the genetic alphabet.

Bedau said there are legitimate worries about creating life that could "run amok," but there are ways of addressing it, and it will be a very long time before that is a problem.

"When these things are created, they're going to be so weak, it'll be a huge achievement if you can keep them alive for an hour in the lab," he said. "But them getting out and taking over, never in our imagination could this happen."

It's the last two paragraphs that worry me. First, the potential and second the degree of assurance the scientist has that he will be able to control everything. Sure, maybe at the start, but life has a way of not going as planned.

Sounds like a friggin' horror movie. I appreciate progress, but not to the point that we create mutated freak cells to eat toxic waste. That sounds like the sequel to the horror movie.

Pretty picture, though.

Big Blue Owl wrote:Sounds like a friggin' horror movie. I appreciate progress, but not to the point that we create mutated freak cells to eat toxic waste. That sounds like the sequel to the horror movie.

Pretty picture, though.

Furry Purdy, BBO.

Yes, this does smack of "mad scientist" quite a bit. But in a disturbing way.

But WAIT Washington State....there's more:


FBI seeks help identifying 2 men seen aboard ferries

'Unusual behavior' cited, but no hint of terrorism

By SCOTT GUTIERREZ
P-I REPORTER

The FBI is asking the public for help in identifying two men who
were seen behaving unusually aboard several Washington state ferries.

P-I Managing Editor David McCumber elaborates on
the newspaper's decision not to publish
the photographs.

About four weeks ago, the FBI fielded several reports from
passengers and ferry workers about the men, who seemed "overly interested in
the workings and layouts of the ferries,"
Special Agent Robbie Burroughs said Monday.

The FBI also publicized photos of the men, which were taken by
a ferry employee, Burroughs said.

The Seattle P-I is not publishing the photos because neither man
is considered a suspect nor has either been charged with a crime.

The FBI has no information suggesting that a terrorist attack on
the ferry system is imminent, Burroughs said.

For weeks, the FBI has been trying to identify the men through
"normal law enforcement channels," she said.

"We get tips periodically, but we don't get photos normally like
these," Burroughs said. "We're hoping to use them to resolve
this quickly."

Despite the photos, the FBI was unable Monday to provide the
men's height, weight or estimated age.

Investigators also did not disclose which ferry runs they were
spotted on.

Burroughs acknowledged that the FBI rarely publicizes information
from an investigation, unless investigators are seeking a suspect
wanted for a crime.

The decision was made "out of an abundance of caution" and
"while keeping an open mind and realizing that what some people consider
suspicious or unusual behavior actually might turn out
to be something completely innocuous," she said.

Anyone with information is asked to call 206-622-0460.