Steff

COWS Is it just me, or does anyone else find it amazing that our government can track a cow born in Canada almost three years ago, right to the stall where she sleeps in the state of Washington And they tracked her calves to their stalls. But they are unable to locate 11 million illegal aliens wandering around our country. Maybe we should give them all a cow. CONSTITUTION They keep talking about drafting a Constitution for Iraq. Why don't we just give them ours? It was written by a lot of really smart guys, it's worked for over 200 years and we're not using it anymore. TEN COMMANDMENTS The real reason that we can't have the Ten Commandments in a Courthouse? You cannot post "Thou Shalt Not Steal," "Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery" and "Thou Shall Not Lie" in a building full of lawyers, judges and politicians! It creates a hostile work environment! And Last but not least..... George Carlin said it best about Martha Stewart .. "Boy, I feel a lot safer now that she's behind bars. O.J. Simpson and Kobe Bryant are still walking around; Osama Bin Laden too, but they take the one woman in America willing to cook, clean, and work in the yard, and haul her a** off to jail."

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Jun 16, 2005 -> 09:37 AM) That's a gray area for sports, but we honestly do as a society condone this stuff. How about a leading role in a film by someone who has been convicted, then? I don't care.

QUOTE(FlaSoxxJim @ Jun 16, 2005 -> 09:35 AM) The runaway bride selling the rights to her life and getting a fat payday out of it is so pathetic and so predictable. Being a f*** up is the best thing the Butafuccos (sp?), Tanya Hardings, and Monica Lewinskis ever did for themselves from a payday perspective. Lack of any integrity, pride or dignity and an extreme willingness to whore themselves for a buck is also a common denominator. And the American Way..

QUOTE(mreye @ Jun 16, 2005 -> 08:38 AM) And IF he can stay off the juice. Good one, eye..

QUOTE(YASNY @ Jun 16, 2005 -> 07:07 AM) The kid who was hospitalized after being hit in the head by the line drive was released from the hospital. According to the article, he was visited by Aaron Rowand on June 1. http://www.dailysouthtown.com/southtown/yr...uth/161syt1.htm Last year Aaron and Wills would go visit kids in the hospital often. I wish they would report more on things the guys do on their own time.

So punish the entire team for the mistakes of few..?? No offense kap.. but that analogy sucked, IMO.

Surprise, surprise..

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050616/ap_on_...mJmBHNlYwN1cw-- Powerball Winner Seeks to Be Billionaire By CHRISTOPHER SMITH, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 1 minute ago BOISE, Idaho - A man who won a $220.3 million Powerball lottery jackpot — the second-largest single-ticket Powerball winning — plans to invest the money and become a billionaire. Brad Duke, a 33-year-old regional fitness director for a health club chain, said he hopes to build a $1 billion portfolio within 15 years. "What better opportunity to have than me at my age with this money to build a billion-dollar empire to take care of my family and to give opportunities to the people who have given me opportunities," he told The Associated Press on Wednesday. Duke chose to take a one-time payment of $125.3 million, rather than 30 annual installments of $7.4 million. He would receive about $85 million after taxes. Idaho Lottery Commission officials denied Duke's request to remain anonymous, arguing that his name had to be made public to show he had no ties to lottery employees or vendors. He won the jackpot over Memorial Day weekend. "It would have been nice for me to take care of my family without making it a big thing in their lives, but we all came to the realization that would be impossible, so if that's the way it's going to be let's have fun with it," he said before traveling to New York City for talk show appearances. Duke said he told his father and sister about the jackpot but the rest of his family was unaware until Sunday, when he asked them to meet him in Sun Valley. He said they had assumed he was going to reveal a terminal illness, multilevel marketing scheme or a wedding engagement. Duke has assembled legal, financial and public relations advisers to make business investments and charity donations and is considering appearances on a reality television program. Other than a high-end racing bicycle, Duke has no plans for any large purchases. "One of my goals is keeping my feet on the ground, not forgetting who I am and where I came from and staying active in the things I like now, like biking, the fitness industry, camping and rafting with my friends," he said. "Keeping my feet on the ground does not include going out and buying a yacht." Powerball is a Des Moines, Iowa-based lottery played in 27 states, the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands. Duke bought the winning ticket at a Boise convenience store.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/warningyo...HVjBHNlYwNtcA-- Warning: Your clever little blog could get you fired By Stephanie Armour, USA TODAY Wed Jun 15, 7:00 AM ET Like a growing number of employees, Peter Whitney decided to launch a blog on the Internet to chronicle his life, his friends and his job at a division of Wells Fargo. Then he began taking jabs at a few people he worked with. His blog, gravityspike.blogspot.com, did find an audience: his bosses. In August 2004, the 27-year-old was fired from his job handling mail and the front desk, he says, after managers learned of his Web log, or blog. His story is more than a cautionary tale. Delta Air Lines, Google and other major companies are firing and disciplining employees for what they say about work on their blogs, which are personal sites that often contain a mix of frank commentary, freewheeling opinions and journaling. And it's hardly just an issue for employees: Some major employers such as IBM are now passing first-of-their-kind employee blogging guidelines designed to prevent problems, such as the online publishing of trade secrets, without stifling the kinds of blogs that can also create valuable buzz about a company. "Right now, it's too gray. There needs to be clearer guidelines," says Whitney, who has found another job. "Some people go to a bar and complain about workers, I decided to do it online. Some people say I deserve what happened, but it was really harsh. It was unfair." Wells Fargo declined to comment, but a spokeswoman said in an e-mail that the company doesn't have a blogging policy. Blogs are proliferating as fast as a computer virus. According to a report this year by public relations firm Edelman and Intelliseek, a provider of business-intelligence solutions, about 20,000 new blogs are created daily, and an estimated 10 million U.S. blogs will exist by the end of 2005. Together, these blogs link up to create what is known as a blogosphere, a collective Internet conversation that is one of the fastest-growing areas of new content on the Web. More than 8 million adults in the USA have created blogs, according to two surveys by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, a non-profit research center studying the Internet's social effects. And 32 million Americans are blog readers - a 58% jump in 2004. Recognizing potential risks Employers are just beginning to wake up to the potential risks that blogs pose. "The law is trying to catch up with the technology," says Allison Hift, a telecommunications and technology lawyer in Miami. "This is like what we saw a few years ago with employers passing polices about e-mail. Now we're seeing it with Web logs." The concerns are myriad. Employees who create blogs set up a direct way to communicate about their company with the public, because customers and clients can stumble across a blog. (Blogs often jump to the top of search engines because they are updated often.) Bloggers may spill trademark or copyright material on their sites, they may post pictures of yet-to-be-released products, and they may libel or slander another employee or a client. A blogger can even get the ear of Congress. Douglas Roberts, a computer scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, N.M., started a blog (lanl-the-real-story.blogspot.com), and anonymous posters blasted management as incompetent. During a House subcommittee hearing in May, the blog was mentioned in a discussion about the fate of the nuclear research facility. "I was quite surprised. I had no idea it would be this popular," Roberts says, adding that lab management has been supportive of his blog and that he believes blog policies in general are unnecessary. Says lab spokesman Kevin Roark: "Open, honest, constructive discussion of issues is a good thing ... (but) the personal attacks were unnecessary and disappointing." A number of employment lawyers, such as Hift, and bloggers, such as Whitney, are urging companies to enact guidelines and communicate blogging rules to employees. Some companies are doing just that: In May, IBM unveiled blogging guidelines for its 329,000 employees. The guidelines state that employees should identify themselves (and, when relevant, their roles at IBM) when blogging about IBM. "You must make it clear that you are speaking for yourself and not on behalf of IBM," the guidelines state. They also say bloggers should not use "ethnic slurs, personal insults, obscenity, etc." and that they should "show proper consideration" for "topics that may be considered objectionable or inflammatory - such as politics and religion." Others such as Microsoft have no formal guidelines specifically on blogging, but do encourage blogging as a way for employees to reach out to customers and clients. Says Jeff Sandquist, a group manager at Microsoft: "It's great. It's instant feedback. ... We give a lot of support to blogging and on how to be a good blogger." Stifling free speech? But it's tricky. Some civil libertarians fear blogophobic companies may adopt policies that stifle the free exchange that has made blogs so popular. "The concern is that it becomes a chilling effect," says Annalee Newitz, a policy analyst for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based civil liberties organization dealing with high-tech issues. "We don't want people to feel like ... they can't express their feelings." Others argue that more explicit guidelines are needed. "Companies probably need separate policies," says Robert Cox, president of the Media Bloggers Association. Guidelines, some bloggers say, could even help save jobs. When Ellen Simonetti started her blog chronicling her life and work as a Delta Air Lines flight attendant, she posted some pictures of herself on her site, queenofsky.journalspace.com. There's a shot of her in her blue uniform, bending over an airline seat as her white bra peeks out. A shot of her backside. Another of her in her uniform, sprawled across the tops of the seats of an empty plane. Another shows her eating in a seat. In October 2004, Simonetti, 30, of Austin was fired, she says, for the pictures on her blog. She has filed a complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, saying the suspension amounted to discrimination, because male employees with similar online photos were not disciplined. The EEOC case is pending. "Companies should have policies so that we know if we're breaking the rules," says Simonetti, who is unemployed. "I feel I was mistreated and treated unfairly. I'm fighting for bloggers' rights and free speech." A Delta spokeswoman declined to comment. Some bloggers are adding disclaimers saying they don't represent the company, or they are taking precautions not to blog from work. That may be wise: A Society for Human Resource Management survey found that some employers also are looking at job candidates' personal blogs before hiring them. Legal status unclear Blogging is so new, lawyers say it's unknown how courts will rule as cases come forward. Bob Blackstone, a Seattle-based employment lawyer, says employees may argue that blogs fall under federal laws that protect labor-organizing activity. They may also argue that their blog content is allowed under certain state laws that bar employers from discriminating against workers for off-duty actions. Cases continue to climb. Heather Armstrong was fired in February 2002 by the Los Angeles-based software firm where she worked after venting online about the company on her blog, dooce.com. Some excerpts from her blog: Take a two-hour lunch: one hour for the bean burrito, one hour for the nap in the front seat of your car. Reasons I should not be allowed to work from home:Too many cushiony horizontal surfaces prime for nappage. ... I can lie down underneath my desk, and no one is going to know. No one. Her case garnered attention and put the blogging world on notice. UrbanDictionary.com now defines "dooced" as losing your job for something you wrote on your online blog. Both sides now And Mark Jen, 22, of San Francisco started his blog in January to chronicle his life and new job as an associate product manager at Google. He wrote comments about future potential products and lost his job two weeks later, he says, because of his blog, 99zeros.blogspot.com. "I figured it would be an easy way to keep in touch with friends and family," Jen says. "I was surprised at the reaction of the company. It was shocking to me." At his new job at Mountain View, Calif.-based Plaxo, a consumer Internet service for updating and accessing contact information, Jen recently helped draft the company's first-ever blog policy. The policy says, in part, that employees can't violate the privacy or publicity rights of another, can't personally attack employees, authors, customers, vendors or shareholders and can't post material that is "hateful or embarrassing to another person." Employees who don't follow the guidelines can be fired.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/arts_michelange...HVjBHNlYwNtcA-- Brazilian doctors uncover 'Michelangelo code' By Carlos A. DeJuana 2 hours, 1 minute ago SAO PAULO, Brazil (Reuters) - Two Brazilian doctors and amateur art lovers believe they have uncovered a secret lesson on human anatomy hidden by Renaissance artist Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel's ceiling. Completed nearly 500 years ago, the brightly colored frescoes painted on the Vatican's famous sanctuary are considered some of the world's greatest works of art. They depict Biblical scenes such as the "Creation of Adam" in which God reaches out to touch Adam's finger. But Gilson Barreto and Marcelo de Oliveira believe Michelangelo also scattered his detailed knowledge of internal anatomy across 34 of the ceiling's 38 panels. The way they see it, a tree trunk is not just a tree trunk, but also a bronchial tube. And a green bag in one scene is really a human heart. The key to finding the numerous organs, bones and other human insides is to first crack a "code" they believe was left behind by the Florentine artist. Essentially, it is a set of sometimes subtle, sometimes overt clues, like the way a figure is pointing. "Why wasn't this ever seen before? First, because very few people have the sufficient anatomical knowledge to see these pieces like this. I do because that's my profession," said Barreto, who is a surgeon in the Brazilian city of Campinas. PAST DISCOVERIES Barreto and his friend Oliveira are not the first physicians to see depictions of human organs in the Sistine Chapel, the Vatican church where popes are elected. Fifteen years ago, U.S. doctor Frank Meshberger pointed out the figure of God and his surrounding angels in the "Creation of Adam" panel resembled a cross-section of the human brain. He believes Michelangelo was equating God's gift of a soul for Adam with the divine gift of intelligence for mankind. Packing up his desk as he prepared to move houses, Barreto came across Meshberger's theory. "I said to myself, 'If there's a brain, he surely didn't just paint a brain. There have to be others,"' Barreto said. Thumbing through books and pictures of the chapel all night, Barreto said he found five or six other anatomical depictions. He presented his findings to Oliveira the next day and the two probed further for three months. The project culminated with their book "The Secret Art of Michelangelo," which was published in Brazil last year and has so far sold 50,000 copies, a very high number for Brazil. It is being negotiated for U.S., Spanish and Portuguese publication. As part of their research, they discovered another U.S. doctor, Garabed Eknoyan, had found the figure of a kidney in the panel entitled "Separation of the Earth from the Waters." CRACKING THE CODE Eventually Barreto and Oliveira came to believe Michelangelo had left behind coded messages in each panel to help viewers find the hidden body part. Some clues are thematic, such as "Creation of Adam" or "Creation of Eve," in which a tree trunk looks like a bronchial tube and God's purple robe is a representation of a lung when viewed from the side. One could say God is imparting the "breath of life" into Eve in the scene, Barreto said. Another part of the code is to look at what figures surrounding the main character of each panel are doing. In the "Cumaean Sibyl" scene, two cherubic figures embrace behind a bulky, muscular woman representing a mythological oracle. One cherub has his hands on the other's chest. Meanwhile, four other cherub-like figures underneath a painted pillar raise their arms to reveal their chest. According to Barreto and Oliveira, a bag with a red frilly border and white rolled up scrolls inside hanging beside the Sibyl is a depiction of a heart, the diaphragm and the aorta. Sometimes Michelangelo "points" to the hidden body part. In the "Libyan Sibyl," a cherub pointing to his shoulder stands next to a twisting woman, her shoulder blade in the spotlight. Two other cherubs beneath the pillars point to their shoulders too. If looked at upside down, the fold of the Sibyl's dress and the bottom of her trunk look like a rendition of the arm bone, or humerus, and the socket into which it fits on the shoulder. "We've said it's actually a very infantile language, because it's all about looks, light, pointing," Barreto said. When faced with the paintings and photographs of the anatomical body part side-by-side, Barreto and Oliveira's theory is conceivable, although some matches require a little bit of creativity. Some might say too much. "The problem, and art historians too are certainly often guilty of this, is simply that we often see what we want to see," said Dennis Geronimus, a specialist on Renaissance art at New York University who had a chance to examine some of Barreto and Oliveira's "de-coded" matches. Their proposals, he said, "stretch the visual evidence far beyond Michelangelo's own specific vocabulary of poses, gestures and symbolic relationships." Indeed, why would Michelangelo hide drawings of human organs in the Sistine Chapel? Barreto and Oliveira say they aren't sure, but it is well known that Michelangelo and other Renaissance artists were obsessed with human anatomy and the human body. There are also other examples of artists "hiding" objects in their paintings, images that can only be seen from a certain perspective. Still, the two doctors have sent their book to art historians and anatomical specialists in Portugal to get their opinion, and plan to eventually get the Vatican's opinion too. "We're not here to play around. We believe this is a great discovery for the arts," Barreto said. "The only thing we want to do is spread this knowledge."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050616/ap_on_...s/runaway_bride Runaway Bride May Get Movie Deal 1 hour, 2 minutes ago ATLANTA - Runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks made a deal with a company that is pitching a movie about her life to networks — annoying officials who spent thousands of dollars searching for her. ReganMedia, a New York multimedia company, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for a story in Thursday's papers it has acquired all media rights to the "life stories" of Wilbanks and her fiance, John Mason. The company did not say whether any money had changed hands. "I am looking forward to developing the scripted project with Wilbanks and Mason," company president Judith Regan said in a statement. "Theirs is an unexpected and compelling story of love and forgiveness that has certainly taught me a thing or two." The 32-year-old bride-to-be disappeared from her Duluth home on April 26, four days before her wedding in a high-profile ceremony with 600 guests and 28 attendants. She took a bus to Las Vegas and then Albuquerque, N.M., and claimed she was abducted and sexually assaulted, but later recanted, saying she fled because of unspecified personal issues. Wilbanks pleaded no contest earlier this month to making a false statement and was sentenced to two years of probation and 120 hours of community service. She also was ordered to continue mental health treatment and pay the sheriff's office $2,550. Duluth spent nearly $43,000 to search for her. Wilbanks has repaid $13,249. "It's disturbing to me on a personal basis that she's willing to profit from this, but there's nothing I can do about it legally," said Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter, who pursued charges against Wilbanks.

Update.. the mother claims the boy was bitten hours before his death... This woman deserves to be charged with his death... http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c...BABADIGEST3.DTL SAN FRANCISCO Dead boy bit before mauling, police say Jaxon Van Derbeken Wednesday, June 15, 2005 Authorities say they have collected evidence supporting an account by Nicholas Faibish's mother that one of the pit bulls that mauled the 12-year- old boy to death had bitten him earlier that day. Maureen Faibish has told investigators that the family's male dog, Rex, bit the boy hours before he was killed in the family's Sunset District home June 3. She told The Chronicle on Saturday that later that day, she had left on some errands and shut Nicholas in the basement with snacks and propped a shovel against the door. She returned two hours later to find her son dead in a front bedroom. While authorities say they have unspecified evidence to support the story of the earlier bite, prosecutors have asked police to try to learn more. Prosecutors are considering whether to file child endangerment or other felony charges in connection with the attack. Maureen Faibish declined to comment Tuesday.

QUOTE(SoxFan101 @ Jun 15, 2005 -> 06:27 PM) Colon and Guillen are from the same country and usually foreign players from the same country have idonno a pact with each other... a course there are exceptions lol Ozzie/Maggz The only thing Bart has a pact with is a double cheeseburger...

Did he say he didn't believe in the moon landing...??

Yikes.. GDub reeeeaallyy pissed that dude off.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Jun 15, 2005 -> 04:12 PM) For the second time, ... Seriously, I think we're saying the same thing. Based on the evidence that they presented in this case, they couldn't convict. That's the bottom line. Right.

QUOTE(sayitanitso @ Jun 15, 2005 -> 03:43 PM) Did anybody in here watch the first time the US went to the moon with Buzz Aldrin? I think YAS is old enough to have seen it live..

QUOTE(Mplssoxfan @ Jun 15, 2005 -> 02:33 PM) After the way Guillen flipped his bat and started shouting when he went yard off of Shields, I think we'll see him getting plunked tonight. And is't Colon pitching tonight.. ? That's gonna leave a mark.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Jun 15, 2005 -> 03:34 PM) No, they followed the law. Nothing more, nothing less. You can't convict the guy on the evidence presented. He's guilty as hell, but the law is the law. For the second time Kap... they, in their own words, feel that he's guilty.. based on the information presented... that they were not allowed to use.. feel he has molested. Their words.. not mine.

QUOTE(LosMediasBlancas @ Jun 15, 2005 -> 03:29 PM) Well it happens ever day, just like those who appear to be, or are innocent, get locked up. It's the system and that's how it works. That's pretty effing sad to just roll over like that... The justice system sucks, a lot, sometimes.

QUOTE(YASNY @ Jun 15, 2005 -> 03:00 PM) Affirmative. My folks are sitting next to you that day. Be nice..

QUOTE(ChiSoxyGirl @ Jun 15, 2005 -> 12:25 PM) I am pretty baffled that they reported the low Potassium levels in her blood but now don't think it was eating disorder related. As far as my limited knowledge on that goes, if she wasn't taking insulin, laxatives, vomiting, had an adequate diet, taking beta-blockers (for high blood pressure, migraines, anxiety), or didn't have cancer it's a complete mystery how it was low. From the sounds of whatever she was initially taken to the hospital with, I can't imagine them giving her anything that would radically decrease the level of K in her blood. And to be honest, low K is really the only thing that makes sense given the symptoms. Basically, the low levels of Potassium would have made basic neural firing and communication completely effed up. Without that being the cause, honestly, this makes no sense. Would "evidence" of an eating disorder be able to be found after she had been nourished for all those years..?

QUOTE(LosMediasBlancas @ Jun 15, 2005 -> 02:58 PM) The best or worst decision, depending on your take, was to put the Mom on the stand. EVERYONE from Jay Leno to Chris Tucker to the jury said she was a freak and as transparent as they come. Jay Leno claimed it was the dad that was the freak.. and George Lopez flat out called Jackson and Mezz liars when they tried to claim the mother went to him for $$. Tucker owes MJ his life since it was Jackson who pulled his sorry butt off the crack infested streets he was living on before he made it.. Every single person that testified for Jackson had a reason not to cross him, IMO. From what I've read not all the jury had issue with her, but that's really not my point. My point is that based on the 1108 the jury believes that he DID molest children based on a pattern of behavior. It's a proven fact that pedophiles DO NOT rehabilitate. They, based on their gut feelings.. allowed a pedophile to walk free. I hope they are proud of themselves.

QUOTE(YASNY @ Jun 15, 2005 -> 02:57 PM) Sorry Steff. Eh.. it's OK. I just fear it's gonna turn real bad soon. BTW.. you have seats 1&2 for Sunday's Sox/Cubs game right..?