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blog-heap o' links
Air Force Airman 1st
Class Elizabeth N. Jacobson, 21, of Riviera Beach, Fla., died Sept. 28
near Camp Bucca, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near her
convoy vehicle. defenselink.mil/ ... 19:47:20Army Sgt. Steve
Morin, Jr., 34, of Arlington, Texas, died west of Umm Qasr, Iraq, on Sept.
28, when an improvised explosive device detonated, overturning the HMMWV in
which he was riding. Morin was assigned to the Army National Guard. defenselink.mil/ ... 19:46:53Army Staff Sgt. Jason
A. Benford, 30, of Toledo, Ohio, died in Ar Ramadi, Iraq, on Sept. 27, when
his patrol was attacked by enemy forces using small arms fire. Navy Seaman Apprentice
Robert D. Macrum, 22, of Sugarland, Texas, was lost at sea. He was last
seen the evening of Sept. 12 while the ship was underway. defenselink.mil/ ... 18:42:21Army Staff Sgt.
Robert F. White, 34, of Cross Lanes, W.Va, died west of Kandahar,
Afghanistan on Sept. 26 when his mounted patrol was engaged by enemy forces
using small arms fire. defenselink.mil/ ... 18:41:33Army Master Sgt.
Tulsa T. Tuliau, 33, of Watertown, N.Y. Army Sgt. 1st Class Casey E.
Howe, 32, of Philadelphia, N.Y. died in Baghdad, Iraq, of injuries
sustained near Ar Rustimayah, Iraq, on Sept. 26 when an improvised explosive
device detonated near their HMMWV during combat operations. Marine Lance Cpl.
Steven A. Valdez, 20, of McRea, Ark., died Sept. 26 from enemy mortar
fire at Camp Blessing, Afghanistan. defenselink.mil/ ... 23:10:26Army Sgt. Andrew P.
Wallace, 25, of Oshkosh, Wis.Army Spc. Michael J. Wendling, 20,
of Mayville, Wis. died in Shaibah, Iraq, on Sept. 26, when an improvised
explosive device detonated near their HMMWV during convoy operations. Both
soldiers were assigned to the Army National Guard. defenselink.mil/ ... 23:09:03Army Sgt. Andrew J.
Derrick, 25, of Columbia, S.C., died on Sept. 23 near Baghdad, Iraq when
his dismounted team came under attack by enemy forces using small arms fire.
defenselink.mil/ ... 23:08:30Army Spc. Mike T.
Sonoda, Jr., 34, of Fallbrook, Calif., died in Baghdad, Iraq on Sept. 22 of
injuries sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near his M113
Armored Personnel Carrier on Sept. 21. Sonoda was assigned to the Army National
Guard. defenselink.mil/ ... 23:07:55Army Sgt. Howard P.
Allen, 31, of Mesa, Ariz., died in Baghdad, Iraq on Sept. 26 when an
improvised explosive device detonated near his HMMWV. Allen was assigned to the
Army National Guard. defenselink.mil/ ... 18:50:37Army Sgt. Shawn A.
Graham, 34, of Red Oak, Texas, died on Sept. 25 in Balad, Iraq, of injuries
sustained earlier that day in Baghdad, Iraq. The vehicle in which he was riding
accidentally rolled over. Graham was assigned to the Army National Guard.
defenselink.mil/ ... 18:49:42Marine Pvt. Elijah M.
Ortega, 19, of Oxnard, Calif., died Sept. 26 as result of a non-hostile
gunshot wound at Camp Baharia, Iraq. defenselink.mil/ ... 00:59:11Army Chief Warrant Officer John M.
Flynn, 36, of Sparks, Nev., assigned to the Army National Guard,Army Warrant Officer
Adrian B. Stump, 22, of Pendleton, Ore., assigned to the Army National
Guard,Army Sgt.
Tane T. Baum, 30, of Pendleton, Ore., assigned to the Army National
Guard,Army Sgt.
Kenneth G. Ross, 24, of Peoria, Ariz., assigned to the Army's 7th
Battalion
[Briton] ...had been snorkelling with a friend near Picnic Beach on
the island of Groote Eylandt, off Australia's northern coast, on Saturday...
was being watched by his wife on the beach when he disappeared... feared to
have been killed by a saltwater crocodile... measuring 13 feet... corpse..
found.. injuries were consistent with an attack by such a creature... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:54:41Typhoon Damrey..
powerful.. has made landfall in northern Vietnam, forcing hundreds of thousands
of people to evacuate inland... left 16 people dead on China's island province
of Hainan... torrential rain... 100km/h (60mph) winds... destroyed some
protective dykes in Vietnam's Thanh Hoa and neighbouring Nam Dinh provinces...
Army Staff Sgt.
Daniel R. Scheile, 37, of Antioch, Calif., died on Sept. 24 Army Sgt.
Paul C. Neubauer, 40, of Oceanside, Calif., died on Sept. 23 of injuries
sustained in Baghdad, Iraq, on Sept. 23, when an improvised explosive device
detonated near their M113 armored personnel carrier. They also were attacked by
enemy forces using small arms fire. Both soldiers were assigned to the Army
National Guard. defenselink.mil/ ... 18:25:25Marine Sgt. Brian E.
Dunlap, 34, of Vista, Calif., died Sept. 24 from an improvised explosive
device while conducting combat operations against enemy forces in Taqaddum,
Iraq. defenselink.mil/ ... 18:24:46Army Spc. Kevin M.
Jones, 21, of Washington, N.C., died near Al Taqaddum, Iraq, on Sept. 22,
when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. 
Don Adams, the comic-actor who played
bumbling secret agent Maxwell Smart on the hit 1960s spy-spoof series "Get
Smart," has died. He was 82... 
An Australian man has
managed to fight off a five-metre-long (16ft) shark, thought to be a great
white, with his bare hands... "He was just sitting on the board waiting for the
next wave... and it just hit him from underneath and knocked him off, then
actually just took his board and was dragging him and he had to pull his leg
rope off to actually get away from it... It came back again so he pushed it
away with his hand... second in two days in Australia. On Friday a 44-year-old
man in Western Australia survived repeated attacks by a small shark off a Perth
beach... earthquake.usgs.gov/ ... 22:29:12A
major earthquake occurred at 01:55:34 (UTC) on Monday, September 26, 2005. The
magnitude 7.5 event has been located in NORTHERN PERU. The hypocentral depth
was estimated to be 85 km (53 miles). (This event has been reviewed by a
seismologist.)... ap.tbo.com/ ... 18:15:16Flooding
in dozens of small communities forced hundreds of evacuations.. A number of
people were also reported missing... news.independent.co.uk/ ...
16:00:09...experts say New York could be the next city to be devastated.
The area around the Big Apple is listed by the Center as the fifth most
vulnerable in the country, after New Orleans, the Florida Keys, Tampa in
Florida and Galveston in Texas... Local experts say that such a catastrophe is
"inevitable", and the New York City authorities warn that it could bring a 30ft-high storm surge crashing into Manhattan...
The owner of a missing dog in Evans, Colo., said he has
received a ransom note that threatens to kill his pet if he doesn't pay $100.
The note came in a bag of dog excrement... "It looked like my dog's poop... but
I'm not a dog poop analyst..." ap.tbo.com/ ... 10:01:47
The
veterinarian thought the X-ray was a joke... a 13-inch serrated knife in a
6-month-old puppy? ap.tbo.com/ ... 09:40:24
FLAT ROCK, Ind. - A man
agreed Friday to transfer several bears and tigers to rescue groups after his
squalid exotic animal farm was raided by state wildlife officials... "I'm going
to shuffle cats to some good homes," said Hill, whose property is located about
30 miles south of Indianapolis. His decision came despite a judge's ruling
earlier in the day temporarily blocking the state from removing the animals...
got his first tiger 22 years ago, said he had kept the animals because he had
not found anyone he trusted to care for them. "It's like trying to find a baby
sitter for your kids..." animals appeared generally healthy, if underweight.
But "the living conditions of the animals are horrific..." tigers were found
living in a 6-inch-deep mixture of mud, feces and urine... Two tigers weighing
between 200 and 300 pounds were in dog kennels in a barn loft, while another
tiger was found dead on the property and crews were searching for a missing
tiger cub... Conservation officers wanted to remove 11 adult and eight juvenile
Bengal tigers, five white tigers, three spotted leopards, three black leopards,
four black bears, a mountain lion and a ring-tail lemur... 
A MOUSE
with the equivalent of Down’s syndrome has been created to pave the way
for new treatments for the health problems that affect people with the genetic
disorder... Army Sgt. Pierre A.
Raymond, 28, of Lawrence, Mass., died at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center
in Landstuhl, Germany, on Sept. 20, of injuries sustained in Ramadi, Iraq, on
Sept. 15, when his unit was attacked by enemy forces using indirect fire.
Raymond was assigned to the Army Reserve. defenselink.mil/ ... 20:09:53Army Sgt. Travis M.
Arndt, 23, of Bozeman, Mont., died in Kirkuk, Iraq, on Sept. 21 as a result
of a vehicle accident during convoy operations. Arndt was assigned to the Army
National Guard. defenselink.mil/ ... 20:08:55Army Spc. Scott P.
McLaughlin, 29, of Hardwick, Vt., died in Ar Ramadi, Iraq, on Sept. 22 as a
result of enemy small arms fire. McLaughlin was assigned to the Army National
Guard.defenselink.mil/ ... 00:31:53Army Sgt. 1st Class
Lawrence E. Morrison, 45, of Yakima, Wash., died in Baghdad, Iraq, on
Sept. 19, of injuries sustained earlier that day in Taji, Iraq, when an
improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. Morrison was a
reservist assigned to the U.S. Army Civil and Psychological Operations Command,
Fort Bragg, N.C. defenselink.mil/ ... 00:19:16Army Staff Sgt.
William A. Allers III, 28, of Leitchfield, Ky., died in the vicinity of
Khalis, north of Baghdad, Iraq, on Sept. 20 when an improvised explosive device
detonated near his convoy vehicle. Allers was assigned to the Army National
Guard.
Marine biologists have rescued the last four of eight
trained dolphins that were swept to sea by Hurricane Katrina... Biologists
located the dolphins on Sept. 10 by performing aerial surveys... four were
rescued within days, but the other four had left the area. They were plucked
from the Mississippi Sound on Tuesday... Despite.. injuries, the animals are
recovering well and will be quarantined until experts are sure they do not have
any communicable diseases. "They are doing great... It's been a confusing day
for them for sure, but after a day they could settle down and feel at home"...
ap.tbo.com/ ... 02:11:31JACKSON,
Miss. - Hurricane Katrina ripped open mausoleums at Southern Memorial Park,
sucked caskets out of their tombs, flattened offices and left the entire place
looking "like a war zone..." It could be weeks before officials know exactly
how many caskets are missing... adding that one casket was found as recently as
Sunday buried in sand and debris on the beach... ap.tbo.com/ ... 02:09:51NEW
ORLEANS - John and Leola Lyons stayed together, locked in their neat little
blue house, riding out the killer storm and the flood that followed. A pair of
agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms found the
elderly couple inside their house on Tuesday, more than three weeks after
Hurricane Katrina roared through New Orleans. John was keeping watch over his
wife's body... a patrol had already been through... "He said he didn't hear the
rescuers," Smith said. "They had just stayed inside, waiting for help..." "He
was probably in a state of grieving, and maybe confused..." estimated that
Leola Lyons had been dead for five days... Army Spc. William L.
Evans, 22, of Hallstead, Pa., assigned to the Army National Guard's 1st
Battalion, died in Baghdad, Iraq, on Sept. 19 of injuries sustained earlier
that day in Ar Ramadi, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near
his M2A2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle during combat operations. defenselink.mil/ ... 14:31:07Army 1st Lt. Mark H.
Dooley, 27, of Wallkill, N.Y, assigned to the Army National GuardArmy Sgt. Michael
Egan, 36, of Philadelphia, Pa., assigned to the Army National GuardArmy Spc. William V.
Fernandez, 37, of Reading, Pa., assigned to the Army National GuardArmy 1st Sgt. Alan N.
Gifford, 39, of Tallahassee, Fla. Army Spc. David H. Ford IV, 20, of
Ironton, Ohio. died in Baghdad, Iraq, on Sept. 16, when an improvised explosive
device detonated near their M1A1 Abrams tank during patrol operations. defenselink.mil/ ... 01:58:03Army Staff Sgt.
Regilio E. Nelom, 45, of Queens, N.Y., died near Al Asad, Iraq, on Sept.
17, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his HMMWV during an
escort mission. 
Bill Clinton sharply criticised George W. Bush
for the Iraq War and the handling of Hurricane Katrina, and voiced alarm at the
swelling US budget deficit... [okay, we know Bill's not
running for anything... oh, wait! could he be starting to lay the foundation
for Hillarity to come?]Army Sgt. Alfredo B.
Silva, 35, of Calexico, Calif., died in Baghdad, Iraq, on Sept. 15, 2005,
when an improvised explosive device detonated near his HMMWV during patrol
operations. Silva was assigned to the Army National Guard.defenselink.mil/ ... 01:22:42Marine Lance Cpl.
Shane C. Swanberg, 24, of Kirkland, Wash., died Sept. 15 from an
explosion resulting from indirect fire at Forward Operating Base, Camp Ramadi,
Iraq.
[further details...] 40,000-volt charge... wearing a woolen shirt and a synthetic
nylon jacket... "There were several scorch marks in the carpet, and we
could hear a cracking noise -- a bit like a whip -- both inside and outside the
building..." after leaving the building discovered he had scorched a piece of
plastic on the floor of his car, returned to seek help from the firefighters...
"We tested his clothes with a static electricity field meter and measured a
current of 40,000 volts, which is one step shy of spontaneous combustion, where
his clothes would have self-ignited..." ap.tbo.com/ ... 10:46:29UNION
SPRINGS, N.Y. ..A 17-year-old student was arrested Monday after streaking
through his high school wearing only a gorilla mask and outrunning the school
principal... student said he had been dared by friends...Two dolphins that were
swept from their aquarium tanks into the Gulf of Mexico by Hurricane Katrina
were rescued Thursday, but six others remained at sea.... captured after
scientists in a boat coaxed the trained animals into sliding onto mats... had
cuts and appeared to be the worst injured of the eight,.. moved to a hotel
swimming pool...ap.tbo.com/ ... 21:05:54Hurricane
Katrina deaths as of Thursday: 
Thunderstorms packing powerful winds swept through parts
of Wisconsin Tuesday, knocking out power to tens of thousands of homes,
damaging buildings, and downing trees and power lines. A downed wire killed a
57-year-old man in the Milwaukee suburb of Wauwatosa... Winds gusted to 75 mph
in Pewaukee... In Sheboygan... about 40 large trees were blocking roadways and
some roads were flooded...Eight bottlenose dolphins that were washed out of their
Mississippi aquarium pool during Hurricane Katrina have been found alive,
huddled together in the fetid waters off Gulfport, Miss, the BOSTON GLOBE will
report on Wednesday... today.reuters.com/ ...
17:51:26The owners of a nursing home where 34
people were found dead after Hurricane Katrina have been arrested and charged
with 34 counts of negligent homicide for not evacuating those
patients... nola.com/ ... 17:50:41local lore
is that the Superdome was cursed . . . a punishment for desecrating this City
of the Dead. Exorcists and voodoo priestesses have been here to dispel the
curse. That lore will no doubt expand into an even more gruesome story for
buggy drivers in the Quarter to enchant their passengers... ap.tbo.com/ ... 11:38:18President
Bush.. Tuesday.. "Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability
at all levels of government.. To the extent the federal government didn't fully
do it's job right, I take responsibility..."today.reuters.com/ ... 11:16:38"You can wear someone else's blue jeans or shirt, but you need
your own underwear," said Kay Barbour who, along with Robin Nichols has
organized a drive to collect the items for thousands of people who fled
Louisiana or were evacuated to Houston. The women set up collection boxes at a
chain of fast food outlets, rallied their friends to the cause and dropped off
1,944 pairs of new underwear at the Salvation Army distribution center in
Pasadena, a suburb of Houston. They were all gone within two or three hours...
today.reuters.com/ ...
11:14:19...The Greyhound bus station in New Orleans was converted into a
makeshift jail by police... "Greyhound called us on Friday and asked us not to
refer to it as Camp Greyhound anymore..."ap.tbo.com/ ... 10:17:28BRETTON
WOODS, N.H. ...To raise money for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, the Mount
Washington Hotel is auctioning itself off online. The winner gets the complete
use of the hotel - all 200 rooms, which accommodate 500 people... golf, tennis,
horseback riding, carriage and sleigh rides, swimming, hiking, mountain biking,
snowshoeing, ice skating, snow tubing, and alpine and cross-country skiing...
winner gets use of the hotel the night of Nov. 9... hotel puts the value of the
auction at $50,000... ap.tbo.com/ ... 10:08:37NEW
ORLEANS... more than 40 bodies inside an evacuated hospital... not immediately
clear how the patients died. One hospital official said at least a few of the
patients were dead before the storm, while another said the rising temperature
in the hospital afterward likely contributed to some of the deaths... a
spokesman for hospital owner Tenet Healthcare Corp., said some of the patients
died before Katrina arrived, and none of the deaths resulted from lack of food,
water or electricity to power medical equipment. ...an assistant administrator
at Memorial Medical Center, said patients died while waiting to be evacuated
after Katrina struck, as temperatures inside the hospital reached 106 degrees.
Army Spc. Jeremy M.
Campbell, 21, of Middlebury, Pa., died on Sept. 11, 2005, in Baghdad, Iraq,
where an improvised explosive device detonated near his HMMWV during patrol
operations.defenselink.mil/ ... 16:36:43Army Staff Sgt.
Christopher L. Everett, 23, of Huntsville, Texas, died on Sept. 7, 2005,
in Al Taqqadum, Iraq, where an accident occurred in the motor pool. Everett was
assigned to the Army National Guard's 2nd Battalion.Authorities on
Tuesday dismissed a claim that a wrangler had nabbed a 7-foot-long alligator
named "Reggie" from a city lake... "To the best of my knowledge and all the
reports I have received this morning, it was a hoax," said Ron Berkowitz, the
Los Angeles Recreation and Parks superintendent... "I called the zoo to verify
and the gator is not there. I called the rangers, the city council office and
my staff at the lake. There was no capture." Reached by phone at his Colorado
gator farm later Tuesday, Young said he has not been in Los Angeles recently
and that he hadn't called the media earlier in the day. He said the caller
apparently was someone impersonating him...ap.tbo.com/ ... 11:25:09The reported capture
of the alligator cannot be confirmed.ap.tbo.com/ ... 10:14:44Los Angeles..
Wranglers early Tuesday nabbed a 7-foot-long alligator named "Reggie" from a
city lake where he had been dumped several months ago by a former police
officer and repeatedly avoided capture. "He put up a good fight," said Jay
Young, who helped catch the alligator along with a crew of handlers from
Colorado... his crew spotted the 180-pound reptile resting on land near the
shore... His brother, Noah Young, then walked up and slipped a rope around the
gator's neck... gator began thrashing about... he held its mouth shut while the
crew taped it shut and wrapped the gator in a blanket. ..planned to transport
it to the Los Angeles Zoo...A former Los Angeles police officer was arrested
for allegedly dumping Reggie several months ago when it got too big to keep as
a pet. Another man who allegedly gave the gator to the former officer was also
arrested...
HAMMONDVILLE, Ala. (AP) - A truck
carrying tons of quarters caught fire Tuesday and spilled most of them on a
highway... 39,000 pounds of new Kansas quarters... were worth some
$800,000... The road was partly closed for 12 hours...ap.tbo.com/ ... 16:48:15Current
gasoline-electric hybrid models, and those in the works: 
For the first time,
biologists have documented gorillas in the wild using simple tools, such as
poking a stick in a swampy pool of water to check its depth. Until now,
scientists had seen gorillas use tools only in captivity. Among the great apes,
tool use in the wild was thought to be a survival skill reserved for smaller
chimpanzees and orangutans... 
The $10 bill is set to become the latest currency
denomination to be jazzed up with a splash of colors to complement the
greenback's traditional green... bills will not actually go into circulation
until early next year, probably February or March... At present, there are no
plans to add color to the $1, the $2 or the $5 bills... 
Japanese scientists have taken the first photographs of one of the
most mysterious creatures in the deep ocean -- the giant squid... 
A fish
farmer in Australia's tropical Northern Territory lost an estimated 100 tonnes
of prized barramundi this week when steel chains holding a sea cage off
Bathurst Island snapped in an unusually strong tide, spilling the fish into the
open sea. ..estimated.. value.. of 35,000 fish.. A$500,000... Local fishermen
quickly pounced on the company's misfortune. 
Thomas Ross Bond, who played Butch the bully in the
"Our Gang" and "The Little Rascals" serials of the 1930s, has died. He was
79... played a member of the Gang named Tommy. After his first year he was
dropped from the cast but returned later in the role of Butch, the archenemy of
Alfalfa... appeared in dozens of "Our Gang" and "Little Rascals" features
before outgrowing the role... at.. 5.. leaving a movie theater with his
mother.. talent scout for Hal Roach studios.. "asked him if he'd be interested
in acting, (said) he had a great face and he could set up an appointment with
Hal Roach in L.A..." grandmother drove him.. "It was all dirt roads from Dallas
to L.A..." played Jimmy Olsen in two Superman movies... 
John Lennon was dismissed as a Communist
threat to the US only because he was always stoned, secret FBI papers
revealed yesterday... was 
Simon Wiesenthal, the
death camp survivor who dedicated the rest of his life to tracking down
fugitive Nazi war criminals, died today at his home in Vienna. He was 96...
After hairbreadth escapes from death, two suicide attempts and his liberation
by American forces in Austria in 1945, Mr. Wiesenthal abandoned his profession
as an architectural engineer and took on a new calling: memorializing the six
million of his fellow Jews and perhaps five million other noncombatants who
were systematically murdered by the Nazis, and bringing their killers to
justice... claims that he flushed out nearly 1,100 war criminals were sometimes
wrong or disputed. But his role as a stubborn sleuth on the trail of history's
archfiends helped keep the spotlight on a hideous past that he said too much of
the world was disposed to forget. "To young people here, I am the last," he
told an interviewer in Vienna in 1993. "I'm the one who can still speak.
A
German inventor said he has developed a method to