World news from the SDB network.......

Charges in burning of 3,500-year-old Florida tree

LONGWOOD, Fla. — Authorities say a central Florida woman is in jail, charged with setting a fire that burned one of the world's oldest cypress trees.

Investigators say two witnesses identified 26-year-old Sara Barnes as the person who caused the 118-foot-tall bald cypress tree named "The Senator" to burn and collapse Jan. 16.

The Seminole County parks department says ring samples showed the tree was roughly 3,500 years old.

The Orlando Sentinel ( http://thesent.nl/yidEHC) reports that Barnes also took photos of the fire with her cellphone. The Office of Agricultural Law Enforcement searched Barnes' Winter Park home Tuesday and confiscated her cellphone and laptop. Authorities also reported finding methamphetamine, scales and drug paraphernalia. Barnes told investigators she set the fire while trying to use illegal drugs.

Jail records didn't say if Barnes had an attorney.

___

Information from: Orlando Sentinel, http://www.orlandosentinel.com
 
ATV or a jet ski.....you decide! ! ! !

Looks like fun. anyone knows the price?

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/781170/jetski_or_atv/

The world’s First High Speed Amphibian Quadbike/ATV: Gibbs Technologies Ltd, the world’s only High Speed Amphibian (HSA) technology specialist, unveiled a prototype of the first commercially viable high-speed amphibian Quadbike / All Terrain Vehicle (ATV) - Quadski. The vehicle is capable of traveling up to 50 mph (72 kph) on land and water and makes the transition at the flick of a switch. Expected price: $46,000...WOW

UPDATE:
This has been out for years now, I wonder if they ever got out there but most likely because it is prototype/custom machine the price is so high but if they could ever get it to true manufacturing then the price would come down. I loved it from the start, would like to see & test it so HEY Gibbs Technology, give us a call to test it please:)-

hey, how about that. 2,222 posts for me........ I need a job to keep me busy and off the 'puter..... :)
 
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Edna Milton Chadwell, the last madam of the infamous Chicken Ranch brothel, died last week at the age of 84. The Chicken Ranch of La Grange, Texas, was the house of ill repute that inspired the Broadway musical, "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas." It later became a hit movie.

Chadwell's passing inspired a surge of interest in the 1982 film starring Dolly Parton and Burt Reynolds. The flick was an enormous success, taking in nearly $70 million. It was one of the biggest musical hits of the decade, despite mixed reviews.

Parton's character wasn't directly based on Chadwell, but Parton clearly drew on Chadwell for her performance. Chadwell served as madam of the Chicken Ranch from 1962 until 1973, when it was shut down after a news exposé.

Photo by Everett CollectionAfter the Chicken Ranch's demise, Chadwell moved to Arizona where she met her husband and remained for the rest of her life. Her obituary from the Associated Press quotes her nephew, Robert Kleffman.

"She was a hard-nosed lady. She was very straightforward, didn't put up with no monkey business, no nonsense," he said. "Hard-nosed. But with a spine of steel and a heart of gold." Kleffman added that his aunt didn't like to talk about her time in La Grange, but she also wasn't ashamed of it.

When Chadwell purchased the property in 1962, she renamed it "Edna's Fashionable Ranch Boarding House." She turned what was already a profitable enterprise into something much more: an institution. She developed a good relationship with the sheriff, gave generously to local charities, and was careful about making sure her employees saw a doctor regularly. The money rolled in, until a TV station got word. The business was then shut down and an epic scandal erupted.

Apparently word about the Chicken Ranch's demise was slow to leak out. According to legend, customers were still showing up at the ranch two years after it shut its bedroom doors.

The Chicken Ranch was also the inspiration for "La Grange," a well-known rock song from ZZ Top. "Rumor spreadin' around in that Texas town, 'bout that shack outside La Grange, and you know what I'm talkin' about..."
 
and the debate continues about the kenyan in the whitehouse...


Obama Birth Certificate and Selective Service Card Faked, Joe Arpaio Concludes

2012 just started looking a lot like 2008 all over again. Controversial sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Ariz., declared President Barack Obama's birth certificate and Selective Service card fakes Thursday, according to the Washington Times. Arpaio says his investigators used law enforcement tools to test the authenticity of Obama's identity documents, working on their own time.
While not accusing the president directly, Arpaio said his investigators' findings constitute evidence of fraud, forgery and other criminal offenses.
Here's why Arpaio says the president's documentation doesn't pass muster:
* The president's long-form birth certificate never existed in paper form, lead investigator Mike Zullo said, according to CBS News. He says Hawaii officials may have deliberately kept original 1961 birth records from being examined.
* According to ABC News, Arpaio said the date stamp and registrar's stamp on the birth certificate appear to have been imported from outside sources. NPR explained the basis for that charge, saying the stamps were on different layers of the document and could be moved about in editing software. NPR said its own test did not find the document to be multi-layered.
* A look a records for twins born at the same hospital as Obama one day earlier proved that there were microfiche records from the era, Arpaio told Phoenix New Times. Microfiche copies of the president's birth record have not been acknowledged to exist.
* Arpaio said the there are inconsistencies in the text characters used in the long form birth certificate released by the White House.
* The 1980 date on Obama's Selective Service registration card was created by cutting the date 2008 to read just 08 and flipping it to make the 80 portion of 1980, according to the Arpaio investigators. Zullo says the card "isn't just forged; it's poorly forged," according to NPR.
* Arpaio's team also claims Immigration and Naturalization Service international arrival records for the month August 1961 contain a gap- there are no records for the week of Obama's birth, they say.
Arpaio is subject to a federal grand jury investigation for abuse of power, unrelated to the birther issue, and several critics contend the beleaguered sheriff is seeking to draw attention away from his own legal problems with this investigation.
 
Wonder what would happen if the birth certificate was found to be a lie. Would all the laws he signed then be voided??????
 
Seadoobuddy said:
Wonder what would happen if the birth certificate was found to be a lie. Would all the laws he signed then be voided??????
Click to expand...

Well, speaking of "voiding" Obama:
When your family or friends cannot explain why they voted Democrat, give them this list.

Then they can pick a reason from this "TOP 12".

1. I voted Democrat because I believe oil company profits of 4% on a gallon of gas are obscene, but the government taxing the same gallon of gas at 15% isn't.
2. I voted Democrat because I believe the government will do a better job of spending the money I earn than I would.
3. I voted Democrat because Freedom of Speech is fine as long as nobody is offended by it.
4. I voted Democrat because I'm way too irresponsible to own a gun, and I know that my local police
are all I need to protect me from murderers and thieves.
5. I voted Democrat because I believe that people who can't tell us if it will rain on Friday can tell us that the polar ice caps will melt away in ten years if I don't start driving a Prius.
6. I voted Democrat because I'm not concerned about millions of babies being aborted so long as we keep all death row inmates alive.
7. I voted Democrat because I think illegal aliens have a right to free health care, education, and Social Security benefits, and we should take away the social security from those who paid into it.
8. I voted Democrat because I believe that business should not be allowed to make profits for themselves. They need to break even
and give the rest away to the government for redistribution as the Democrats see fit.
9. I voted Democrat because I believe liberal judges need to rewrite the Constitution every few days to suit some fringe kooks who would never get their agendas past the voters.
10. I voted Democrat because I think that it's better to pay billions to people who hate us for their oil, but not drill our own because it might upset some endangered beetle, gopher or fish.
11. I voted Democrat because while we live in the greatest, most wonderful country in the world, I was promised "HOPE AND CHANGE".
12. I voted Democrat because my head is so firmly planted up my ass, it's unlikely that I'll ever have another point of view.

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GM announces CNG option

DETROIT (WXYZ) - With gas prices continuing to rise, General Motors hopes its new line of pickup trucks could potentially reduce fuel costs for consumers.

The world's largest automaker will begin taking orders next month for trucks that run on both gasoline and compressed natural gas.

The Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra 2500 heavy-duty pickups will be offered with a 6.0-liter, V-8 engine that can transition between natural gas and gasoline.

GM said, the trucks will offer a range of more than 650 miles when its fuel sources are combined.

The automaker has yet to disclose a sticker price for the new pickups, which are expected to be available late this year.

Read more: http://www.wxyz.com/dpp/news/region...el-option-to-heavy-duty-pickups#ixzz1oHp71HmR
 
I guess the oil companies paid a big payoff to Mopar.

Were these CNG cars available to the general public???
 
oh yeah, avail to public, mostly in fleets like florida power, tampa electric, verizon, etc --- but most people dont want drive around with a "bomb" for a fuel tank
 
Coke and Pepsi change coloring


NEW YORK — Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo Inc. are changing the way they make the caramel coloring used in their sodas as a result of a California law that mandates drinks containing a certain level of carcinogens come with a cancer warning label.

The companies said the changes will be expanded nationally to streamline their manufacturing processes. They've already been made for drinks sold in California.

Coca-Cola and PepsiCo account for almost 90 percent of the soda market, according to industry tracker Beverage Digest. A representative for Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc. said all its caramel coloring now meets the new California standard.

The American Beverage Association, which represents the broader industry, said its member companies will continue to use caramel coloring in certain products but that adjustments were made to meet California's new standard.

"Consumers will notice no difference in our products and have no reason at all for any health concerns," the association said in a statement.

A representative for Coca-Cola, Diana Garza-Ciarlante, said the company directed its caramel suppliers to modify their manufacturing processes to reduce the levels of the chemical 4-methylimidazole, which can be formed during the cooking process and, as a result, may be found in trace amounts in many foods.

"While we believe that there is no public health risk that justifies any such change, we did ask our caramel suppliers to take this step so that our products would not be subject to the requirement of a scientifically unfounded warning," Garza-Ciarlante said in an email.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy group, in February filed a petition with the Food and Drug Administration to ban the use of ammonia-sulfite caramel coloring.

A spokesman for the Food and Drug Administration said the petition is being reviewed. But he noted that a consumer would have to drink more than 1,000 cans of soda a day to reach the doses administered that have shown links to cancer in rodents.

The American Beverage Association also noted that California added the coloring to its list of carcinogens with no studies showing that it causes cancer in humans. It noted that the listing was based on a single study in lab mice and rats.
 
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GPS leads car into water covered road in Oz.

Three Japanese tourists in Australia, misled by their GPS device. Fairfax Media/Getty Images

Three Japanese tourists in Australia found themselves in an embarrassing situation after their GPS navigation system lured them down the wrong path.

The three, who are students from Tokyo, set out to drive to North Stradbroke Island on the Australian coast Thursday morning, and mapped out their path on their GPS system.

The road looked clear, at low tide - but the map forgot to show the 9 miles of water and mud between the island and the mainland.

As the three drove their rented Hyundai Getz into Moreton Bay, they found the GPS device guiding them from a gravel road into thick mud. They tried to get back to solid ground, but as the tide rose they were forced to abandon their car. Passengers on passing ferries watched in amazement.

"It told us we could drive down there," Yuzu Noda, 21, told the local Bayside Bulletin. "It kept saying it would navigate us to a road. We got stuck . . . there's lots of mud."

Noda and her friends made it about 50 yards offshore before they realized they were stranded. A tow truck driver eventually gave them a lift back to the mainland. The students decided not to have the car repaired because of the damage. The car was insured, though Noda will still have to pay about $1,500 that was not covered.

The students will fly back home to Tokyo this weekend, but they said they plan to try a trip to the island again some time in the future.

"We want to come back to Australia again," Noda told the Times. "Everyone is very nice, even today."
 
2 Shark attacks in Florida

Sharks Attack Surfers At Florida's New Smyrna Beach (VIDEO) (Sorry the video link won't copy to SDF)

Sharkattackteens

Two teenage surfers in Florida are now shark attack survivors.

SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO (WARNING: SOME GRAPHIC CONTENT)

Sydney Levy, 15, and Nick Romano, 17, were surfing in two separate locations on New Smyrna Beach on March 14 when the sharks clamped their jaws down on parts of their legs, WFTV News reports.

Sydney was longboarding with her mother, Valeh, when a shark bit her ankle and pulled her underwater several times.

"To me it was like a scene out of “Jaws” where the girl is getting sucked under and I said there is no way this thing is going to kill my daughter," Valeh Levy told CBS Miami.

Levy said she grabbed her daughter and pulled on her onto her board, while she called out for help.

Just yards away, Romano was also fending off a shark that had bitten his calf while he was sitting on his surfboard.

The 17-year-old received about 17 stitches, CBS News reports.

Officials cleared beachgoers from the water, but at least one witness said some people weren't too happy about it.

"A lot of people didn't want to come out because it's pretty good out there," Jared Smith told WFTV News.

Both teens were sent home Wednesday night and are recovering from their injuries.

But to Nick, the incident still seems surreal.

"Every surfer always thinks, 'One day I'm going to get bit by a shark.' Well, today was my day," he told CBS News.

On Thursday, authorities reported another shark attack in Jensen Beach, according to NBC Miami. An unidentified man was bitten several times on the arm, but his injuries were not life-threatening.

For more on the teens' stories, watch the video report by CBS News below. WARNING: Some viewers may find the footage disturbing.

WATCH:
 
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Arizona cities buried in rare snowstorm
New Mexico next to face storm
Author: By the CNN Wire Staff

Parts of Arizona will remain buried under snow Monday as a surprising late-winter onslaught paralyzed travel and closed schools. Yet much of the eastern two-thirds of the country will continue to enjoy unseasonably warm temperatures, a day before spring officially starts.

The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for the mountains of central and eastern Arizona through early Monday.

"Expect widespread snow across northern Arizona into Monday with extremely hazardous driving conditions, especially in the mountains," the weather agency said.
The city of Flagstaff is still digging out of 10 to 14 inches of snow from the weekend, which prompted school closings in the city for Monday. The city of Prescott received 8 to 12 inches.

The heavy snow and blustery winds also forced authorities to close 180 miles of Interstate 40 in northern Arizona on Sunday until further notice, the Arizona Highway Patrol said.

Brandon Neuman of Flagstaff produced a time-lapse video of about a foot of snow falling on his backyard deck in seven hours.

"The other day it was 65 degrees, next day it is snowing, so it's been crazy," Neuman said. "It killed a lot of people's travel plans because the highways are a mess."

But in eastern parts of the country, balmy conditions prevail, with temperatures well above average from Texas and the Midwest all the way to the East Coast.

Meanwhile, officials in southwestern Nebraska, will try to assess Monday the damage left by a pair of suspected tornadoes Sunday night.

Daniel H. Guenthner, emergency management director in Lincoln County, said he received reports of structures destroyed and 15 Union Pacific rail cars overturned at local rail yards after the two suspected twisters struck North Platte, Nebraska, at the same time.

Guenthner reported no fatalities and three injuries, one of which occurred when an 18-wheeler overturned.

He said the casualty toll is low because "the warning sirens went off early, and people took cover." But the storm left a debris field several miles long, as well as downed power lines, he said.

Copyright 2012 by CNN NewSource. All rights reserved.
 
Weird weather: heat, twisters, 250K tons of snow

By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP

WASHINGTON — America's weather is stuck on extreme.

Nearly 11 feet of snow has fallen on Anchorage, Alaska, this winter. That's almost a record, and it's forcing the city to haul away at least 250,000 tons of snow. Yet not much snow has dropped on the Lower 48 this year.

The first three months of 2012 have seen twice the normal number of tornadoes. And 36 states set daily high temperature records Thursday. So far this month, the U.S. has set 1,757 daily high temperature records. That's similar to the number during last summer's heat wave, said Jake Crouch, a climate scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Six rare, but not unprecedented, March tornadoes struck Thursday in Michigan, which also set 26 heat records. Temperatures were in the 80s in some parts of the state.

Nationwide, there have been 132 tornadoes confirmed in January and February, with preliminary reports of more than 150 already in March.

Two different weather phenomena — La Nina and its northern cousin the Arctic Oscillation — shift storm and temperature patterns through the world, meteorologists say. Scientists say you cannot link a single weather event to global warming.

However, climate scientist Andrew Weaver of the University of Victoria says: "When you start to see the extreme events become more common, that's when you can say that it is a consequence of global warming."

___

Rachel D'Oro contributed to this report from Anchorage.
 
Vancouver, British Columbia— A large fishing vessel swept away by the tsunami that devastated Japan last year has been spotted adrift off British Columbia in western Canada.

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Jeff Olsson of Victoria's Joint rescue coordination center says an airplane contracted by the government spotted the 50-foot-long (15-meter-long) vessel recently about 160 miles (260 kilometers) west of Haida Gwaii, slowly drifting toward shore.

The vessel has been identified as coming from Hokkaido, Japan. Olsson says no one is believed to be aboard and there's no environmental danger.

A maritime warning has been issued because the vessel could pose a navigational hazard.

About 5 million tons of debris were swept into the ocean in March 2011 when a magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami struck Japan.
 
Pool Cue Tip Removed from Man’s Brain

by Brian Rademaekers | March 26, 2012 at 3:27 PM | General

When Andy Parton took a pool shot that left his eyelid badly damaged, he merely chalked it up as an embarrassing and painful slip.

Turns out, it was worse than the U.K. man thought, The Sun reports.

Parton, 31, initially had his eye stitched to repair a gash. But when the wound failed to heal properly, an MRI scan revealed the tip of the pool cue was embedded in his brain.

Brain surgeons from Leeds University Teaching Hospitals removed the precariously placed object during a 10-hour procedure that involved removing part of his skull, The Sun reports.

“This was a very unusual injury with potentially serious consequences,” a hospital spokesman told the paper. “We are just pleased that Mr. Parton was not snookered by his injury and has gone on to make a full recovery.”

For his part, Parton kept a sense of humor during the scary situation.

“I never thought pool was such a dangerous game,” Parton told The Sun.
 
Australian couple has $1 million hospital bill after baby born in B.C., Canada

SYDNEY - Australia's foreign affairs minister is looking into the case of a Sydney couple stuck with a million dollar hospital bill after their daughter was born in Vancouver last August.

John Kan and Rachel Evans had taken out travel insurance and extra coverage for Evans' pregnancy without realizing the policy would not cover the birth or the baby.

They were about to return to Australia after their B.C. vacation when Evans went into premature labour at the airport.

Piper Kan stayed in the neo-natal ward of the B.C. Women’s Hospital and Health Centre for three months and the bill ended up being about $1 million.

Australian media reports the couple negotiated a payment plan with the hospital at about $300 a month, which would take 278 years to pay off.

Evans tells the Herald Sun newspaper they don't begrudge the bill because they have a healthy daughter.

"Financially, it’s not so good but you can't put a price on it," she told the newspaper.

It's unclear what support Australia’s foreign ministry could offer, but the Herald says the country's Dept. of Health and Ageing will reportedly investigate whether it could pay the bill.

Evans said she is grateful for any help the government might be able to provide.

"We don't feel our mistake was someone else's responsibility but obviously it is quite a large amount so any assistance we can get would be helpful.”

Australian residents can get treatments deemed medically necessary under reciprocal agreements with 11 countries, but Canada is not one of those countries.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.
 
Man Attacked by Lion: "Bear Saved Me"

by Brian Rademaekers | March 29, 2012 at 9:34 AM | General

A California man escaped an attack from a mountain lion early this week, and he credits an unlikely source with saving his life.

Robert Biggs told the Paradise Post that he stumbled upon a mother bear and two cubs while hiking outside the town of Paradise, about 90 miles north of Sacramento.

Normally, that sort of encounter would be a hiker’s worst nightmare.

But Biggs, 69, said that the bears likely saved his life. After watching the bear family, he decided to head up the trail. That’s when a mountain lion attacked, jumping from the bushes and latching onto his pack, Biggs told the paper.

He thinks the lion meant to attack one of the bear cubs, but instead decided on a human snack.

“It must have been stalking the little bear, but it was on me in seconds,” Biggs told the Paradise Post.

Fighting the big cat off with a rock pick, Biggs said the commotion drew the attention of the mother bear. She quickly tore the lion off his back, and a short fight ensued, with the bear coming out on top.

Biggs suffered some bite marks and scratches, but was otherwise unscathed.
 
Don't cry over spilled milk in Pa. _ sprinkle lime


YORK SPRINGS, Pa. — Officials in central Pennsylvania aren't crying over a few thousand gallons of spilled milk. They're sprinkling some lime on it.

Hanover's The Evening Sun newspaper ( http://bit.ly/HrdEo4) reports crews sprinkled lime to prevent the milk from curdling, which could cause a horrendous smell and attract flies.

A truck that overturned Thursday near York Springs spilled about 3,000 gallons of milk into a creek. State environmental officials cleaned up about 90 percent of it with vacuum trucks.

Concerns then turned to milk that had seeped into the soil.

A spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection says putting lime in the soil chews up the milk's fat, neutralizing the odor.

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Information from: The Evening Sun, http://www.eveningsun.com
 
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