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HERMANN MISSOURI OKTOBERFEST 2010
HERMANN MISSOURI OKTOBERFEST 2010 - CLICK ON PHOTO FOR THIS YEARS SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Steve Watson & Paul Joseph Watson Prisonplanet.com
June 2, 2011
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Video of an incident recorded over the memorial weekend at Sky Harbor International in Phoenix, AZ, documents how the TSA deal with people who are traumatized by grossly invasive enhanced pat downs.
After a woman refused to go through a full body scanner she was pulled aside and made to undergo the pat down procedure. When the TSA agent touched the woman’s breasts, she broke down into tears and screamed for a police officer.
When police officers arrived on the scene they led the woman away and told her that unless she would submit to the full pat down procedure she would not be able to fly.
“Why won’t you help me? You’re a police officer why won’t you help me?” the woman asks in the video.
All the while the woman’s son was filming the ordeal on his phone, having to constantly fend off threats from TSA agents falsely claiming he was breaking the law. The agents also threatened to confiscate the man’s luggage, even though he had been through the screening process.
Watch the video:
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By rynomaz111 (youTube)
5-28-11 at Sky Harbor International in Phoenix, AZ my mother was sexually assaulted which brought her to tears. Multiple TSA agents claimed to know my whole family (WELCOME TO 1984) TSA then threatened to steal my luggage because I left it unattended... rather because I was 10 feet from it. I was then threatened to have my ability to fly revoked by Southwest Airlines, NOT TSA. Southwest Airlines then threatened to have me arrested for filming the event, even though TSA, Southwest, and Phoenix Police couldn't provide me with the statute or law that claims I cannot film in a public area. Here is that event. Police- Protecting and Serving??? Why is TSA asking for my father's phone number and address at the end of this ordeal, to add us to a no-fly list or spy on us?
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The family was previously subjected to similar scrutiny from the TSA at Sky Harbor earlier in the year, prompting them to voice protest over violation of their Constitutional rights.
The previous incident was also captured on video (below) and was evidently remembered by some of the TSA workers who claimed to know that the whole family are routine troublemakers.
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NION, Mo. (KMOV) -- Two Union R-XI School District teachers were charged Thursday after a woman alleged that she was drugged and sexually assaulted.
According to the Union Police Department, a woman claimed she had been drinking alcohol and may have been unknowingly drugged, to the point that she lost control of her body.
At that point, two male acquaintances had sexual intercourse with her, without her consent.
Brad Julius, 30, of Union, Mo. was charged with sexual assault. Matthew Rogers, 29,of Union, Mo. was also charged with sexual assault.
Julius is a physical education teacher at Union High School, and Rogers is a 6th grade teacher at Clark-Vitt Elementary School.
The School District has been advised that the alleged off-campus incident did not involve any students, children or other school personnel.
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Senators Want To Put People In Jail For Embedding YouTube Videos
from the not-understanding-the-technology dept
www.techdirt.com
June 2,2011
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Okay, this is just getting ridiculous. A few weeks back, we noted that Senators Amy Klobuchar, John Cornyn and Christopher Coons had proposed a new bill that was designed to make "streaming" infringing material a felony. At the time, the actual text of the bill wasn't available, but we assumed, naturally, that it would just extend "public performance" rights to section 506a of the Copyright Act.
Supporters of this bill claim that all it's really doing is harmonizing US copyright law's civil and criminal sections. After all, the rights afforded under copyright law in civil cases cover a list of rights: reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works or perform the work. The rules for criminal infringement only cover reproducing and distributing -- but not performing. So, supporters claim, all this does is "harmonize" copyright law and bring the criminal side into line with the civil side by adding "performance rights" to the list of things.
If only it were that simple. But, of course, it's not. First of all, despite claims to the contrary, there's a damn good reason why Congress did not include performance rights as a criminal/felony issue: because who would have thought that it would be a criminal act to perform a work without permission? It could be infringing, but that can be covered by a fine. When we suddenly criminalize a performance, that raises all sorts of questionable issues.
Furthermore, as we suspected, in the full text of the bill, "performance" is not clearly defined. This is the really troubling part. Everyone keeps insisting that this is targeted towards "streaming" websites, but is streaming a "performance"? If so, how does embedding play into this? Is the site that hosts the content guilty of performing? What about the site that merely linked to and/or embedded the video (linking and embedding are technically effectively the same thing). Without clear definitions, we run into problems pretty quickly.
And it gets worse. Because rather than just (pointlessly) adding "performance" to the list, the bill tries to also define what constitutes a potential felony crime in these circumstances:
the offense consists of 10 or more public performances by electronic means, during any 180-day period, of 1 or more copyrighted works
So yeah. If you embed a YouTube video that turns out to be infringing, and more than 10 people view it because of your link... you could be facing five years in jail. This is, of course, ridiculous, and suggests (yet again) politicians who are regulating a technology they simply do not understand. Should it really be a criminal act to embed a YouTube video, even if you don't know it was infringing...? This could create a massive chilling effect to the very useful service YouTube provides in letting people embed videos. . . Click Here to Read More.
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BY Melissa Klauda
June 2, 2011
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COLUMBIA — Wondering what to do with all those periodical cicadas creeping across your lawn, preparing to inundate your trees and unleash their cacophonous chorus?
The answer is simple: Cook 'em up and eat 'em.
And why not? Dogs devour them. Birds beat the branches for them. Fish find them irresistible. And apparently, a lot of people find the hideous insects a rare delicacy. When the big broods emerge, they break out the cookbooks. Punch "cicada recipes" into Google, and you'll get about 434,000 hits.
Just as Bubba Blue told Forrest Gump about shrimp in the classic movie, you can do just about anything with cicadas in the kitchen. You can boil 'em, fry 'em, bake 'em, saute 'em. You can make cicada pie, cicada wontons or cicada soup. Sprinkle some minced cicadas into your cereal. Or break out the blender, and you can quickly create a cicada smoothie or a fresh batch of cicada salsa.
Jenna Jadin of the University of Maryland Cicadamaniacs offers a Cicadalicious recipe for Emergence Cookies. "These should look like cicadas emerging out of a little pile of chunky mud!"
How about cicada-portobella quiche? Or "El Chirper" tacos?
Do chocolate-covered cicadas sound appealing?
Mike Arduser thinks so. A natural history biologist with the Missouri Department of Conservation in St. Louis, he had lunch with co-workers on Tuesday that featured cicadas dipped in chocolate for dessert. The entrees included a pizza, one half topped with whole cicadas and pepperoni, the other half with cicadas alone. Spicy cicada stir fry and a pesto cicada pasta followed.
"We all finished our plates," Arduser said.
Arduser described the taste of a cicada as "nutty." The texture, he said, is chewy and has a slight crunch. He compared it to eating dried fruit.
So, heck. If a cicada flies into your potato salad during a picnic this holiday weekend, just stir it in and go with it. But don't tell anybody. Make it a surprise ingredient for a lucky guest.
Insects biologically are classified in phylum Arthropoda, just like lobsters, crabs, shrimp and crawfish. Maybe eating cicadas isn't as far-fetched as it sounds. People around the globe have been munching insects and other arthropods since the beginning, according to a 2004 University of Maryland study.
"Throughout the world insects are eaten quite a bit," MU entomology professor Bruce Barrett said. "I think it's our problem because we have a culture where people turn up their nose at eating insects. It's strange that we haven't embraced it."
Convinced yet?
Arduser shared some tips on how to catch the best cicadas for your dish:
"The trick is to get on it quick. You want the cicadas that are just emerging, the tenerals. They're soft for just a few hours," Arduser said. Tenerals are soft-bodied arthropods that have shed their outer cuticles. Go out early in the day, any time between 4 a.m. and noon, and find cicadas at the bases of trees. Unlike the cicadas singing high in the branches, those on the ground are just emerging. They will be white or pale yellow — but still ugly.
"Ideally you want females," Arduser said. "They have more meat." It can be tough to tell the difference, but female cicadas will have a sharper, pointier bottom. That's the appendage they use to lay eggs.
When preparing cicadas, consider removing the wings and legs. It's OK to eat them, but they're not so tasty. Be sure to chew them up good. The legs might tickle going down the gullet.
Avoid using cicadas found in places where pesticides might have been used. Cicadas don't travel far from where they emerge, but be aware.
Like most insects, Barrett said, cicadas contain protein, but he was unsure whether they carry any additional nutritional value. But no food is complete by itself, he noted. He's eaten caterpillars, ants and termites, but humankind can live on none of those alone.
Still, cicadas can be an important part of a balanced diet. Barrett said he isn't squeamish.
"I wouldn't have a problem eating a cicada."
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Why Barack Obama may be heading for electoral disaster in 2012
By Nile GardinerWorld June 2nd, 2011
blogs.telegraph.co.uk
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On a recent visit to London I was struck by how much faith many British politicians, journalists and political advisers have in Barack Obama being re-elected in 2012. In the aftermath of the hugely successful Special Forces operation that took out Osama Bin Laden and a modest spike in the polls for the president, the conventional wisdom among political elites in Britain is overwhelmingly that Obama will win another four years in the Oval Office. Add to this a widespread perception of continuing disarray in the Republican race, as well as a State Visit to London that had the chattering classes worshipping at the feet of the US president, and you can easily see why Obama’s prospects look a lot rosier from across the Atlantic.
But back in the United States, the reality looks a lot different. Many political leaders in Britain fail to understand the degree to which the American people are deeply unhappy with their president’s poor handling of the economy. Nor have they grasped the epic scale of the defeat suffered by the president in the November mid-terms, and the emphatic rejection by a clear majority of Americans of the Big Government Obama agenda.
Just seven months ago, the United States was swept by a conservative revolution that fundamentally transformed the political landscape on Capitol Hill, and gravely weakened the ability of the president to pass legislation. This revolution is not in retreat but gaining ground, led by charismatic figures such as Paul Ryan, the Reaganite chairman of the House Budget Committee, entrusted with reining in out of control government spending. And as a Gallup poll showed, America is unquestionably a conservative country ideologically, but one that is ironically led by the most left-wing president in the nation’s history.
Ultimately, the 2012 presidential election will be decided by the state of the economy, and new data released this week makes grim reading for the White House. In fact you cannot watch a US financial news network at the moment, from Bloomberg to CNBC to Fox Business, without a great deal of pessimism about the dire condition of the world’s biggest economy. 66 percent of Americans now worry the federal government will run out of money in the face of towering public debts.
To say this has been an extremely bad week for the Obama administration on the economic front would be a serious understatement. AsThe Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, home prices in the United States have sunk to their lowest levels since 2002, falling 4.2 percent in the first quarter of 2011. At the same time, employment growth is stalling, with only 38,000 Americans added to the workforce in May, the smallest increase since September. This compares with 179,000 jobs added in April. There has also been a steep slowdown in the manufacturing sector, and a downturn in the stock market on the back of weak economic news.
Bill Clinton’s labour secretary Robert Reich summed up the grim mood in a hard-hitting op-ed in The Financial Times, which took aim at both the administration and Congress:
The US economy was supposed to be in bloom by late spring, but it is hardly growing at all. Expectations for second-quarter growth are not much better than the measly 1.8 per cent annualised rate of the first quarter. That is not nearly fast enough to reduce America’s ferociously high level of unemployment… Meanwhile, housing prices continue to fall. They are now 33 per cent below their 2006 peak. That is a bigger drop than recorded in the Great Depression. Homes are the largest single asset of the American middle class, so as housing prices drop many Americans feel poorer. All of this is contributing to a general gloominess. Not surprisingly, consumer confidence is also down.
Unsurprisingly, the polls are again looking problematic for the president. The latest Rasmussen Presidential Tracking Poll shows just 25 percent of Americans strongly approving of Obama’s performance, with 36 percent strongly disapproving, for a Presidential Approval Index rating of minus 11 points. In a projected match up between Obama and a Republican opponent, the president now trails by two points according to Rasmussen – 43 to 45. TheRealClear Politics poll of polls shows just over a third of Americans (34.5 percent) agreeing that the country is heading in the right direction, with nearly three fifths (56.8 percent) believing it is heading down the wrong track. That negative figure rises to a staggering 66 percent of likely voters in a new Rasmussen survey, including 41 percent of Democrats.
There is no feel good factor in America at the moment. But there is a great deal of uncertainty, nervousness, even fear over the future of the world’s only superpower. This is hardly a solid foundation for a presidential victory for the incumbent. Even though we don’t know yet who he will be up against, Barack Obama could well go into 2012 as the underdog rather than the favourite he is frequently portrayed as. On balance we’re likely to see a very close race 17 months from now. But there is also the distinct possibility of an electoral rout of the president if the economy goes further south. “Hope and change” might have played well in 2008, but it is a message that will likely ring hollow in November 2012, with an American public that is deeply disillusioned with the direction Obama is taking the country.
Nile Gardiner is a Washington-based foreign affairs analyst and political commentator. He appears frequently on American and British television and radio, including Fox News Channel, CNN, BBC, Sky News, and NPR.
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June 2, 2011
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(CNN) - A spotted deer has given birth to a snow white spotted dear, which is a very precious breed of spotted deer, in Bolin Deer Farm in Laiyang, east China's Shandong province, on Monday, May 30.
Spotted deer is famous for white spots on its pinkish fawn body, and snow white spotted deer has been rarely seen in China.
The new born spotted deer is snow white except for a faint yellow on the head and a black strip on the back and it can run around the farm four hours after its birth. According to staff of Bolin Deer Farm, this white spotted deer is also called snow deer, and the chance of pure spotted deer having white deer babies is one in millions as the genomic sequences change.
This white spotted deer is 60 centimeters long and 50 centimeters high. Its build is normal for a new born spotted deer, though a litter shorter than the other two new-born deer on the farm. However, it's much more active and lively.
"This deer is much more vigorous and smart than the other spotted deer," said Yang Qi, manager of Bolin Deer Farm in Laiyang of Shandong. "The parents of this white deer are both pure spotted deer. I have never seen such a deer despite that I have kept deer over ten years."
Ancient people in China believed that it is an auspicious sign of the birth of white deer. Although no one knows this for sure, it's indeed rare to see a white spotted deer.
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June 2, 2011
By MARIA CHENG and KIRSTEN GRIESHABER, Associated Press
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LONDON – Scientists on Thursday blamed Europe's worst recorded food-poisoning outbreak on a "super-toxic" strain of E. coli bacteria that may be brand new.
But while suspicion has fallen on raw tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce as the source of the germ, researchers have been unable to pinpoint the food responsible for the frightening illness, which has killed at least 18 people, sickened more than 1,600 and spread to least 10 European countries.
An alarmingly large number of victims — about 500 — have developed kidney complications that can be deadly.
Chinese and German scientists analyzed the DNA of the E. coli bacteria and determined that the outbreak was caused by "an entirely new, super-toxic" strain that contains several antibiotic-resistant genes, according to a statement from the Shenzhen, China-based laboratory BGI. It said the strain appeared to be a combination of two types of E. coli.
"This is a unique strain that has never been isolated from patients before," Hilde Kruse, a food safety expert at the World Health Organization, told The Associated Press. The new strain has "various characteristics that make it more virulent and toxin-producing" than the many E. coli strains people naturally carry in their intestines.
However, Dr. Robert Tauxe, a foodborne-disease expert at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, questioned whether the strain is truly new, saying it had previously caused a single case in Korea in the 1990s. He said genetic fingerprints may vary from specimen to specimen, but that is not necessarily enough to constitute a new strain.
"Though it appears to have been around awhile, it hasn't called attention to itself as a major public health problem before," Tauxe said.
Elsewhere in Europe, Russia extended a ban on vegetables from Spain and Germany to the entire European Union to try to stop the outbreak spreading east, a move the EU quickly called disproportionate and Italy's farmers denounced as "absurd." No deaths or infections have been reported in Russia.
In Hamburg, Philipp, a 29-year-old photojournalist, was hospitalized on Monday after falling ill. He would not provide his last name because he did not want people to know he had the E. coli strain.
After suffering from stomach aches and bloody stools, he developed neurological symptoms and couldn't feel his left arm or leg. Despite three blood plasma transfusions to wash the toxins out of his blood, he hasn't improved.
Philipp said he recalls eating some vegetables the night before he got sick.
Some scientists suspect the deadly E. coli might have been in manure used to fertilize vegetables.
Kruse said it is not uncommon for bacteria to evolve and swap genes. It is difficult to explain where the new strain came from, she said, but bacteria from humans and animals easily trade genes.
Previous E. coli outbreaks have mainly hit children and the elderly, but this one is disproportionately affecting adults, especially women. Kruse said there might be something particular about the bacteria strain that makes it more dangerous for adults. Other experts said women tend to eat more produce.
Nearly all the sick either live in Germany or recently traveled there. British officials announced four new cases, including three Britons who recently visited Germany and a German on vacation in England.
The WHO recommends that to avoid food-borne illnesses, people wash their hands, keep raw meat separate from other foods, thoroughly cook their food, and wash fruits and vegetables, especially if eaten raw. Experts also recommend peeling raw fruits and vegetables if possible.
The fact that the strain may be new may have complicated the response to the outbreak.
"Officials may not have had the correct tests to detect it, which may explain the initial delay in reporting," said Paul Hunter, a professor of health protection at the University of East Anglia in England.
He said the number of new cases would probably slow to a trickle in the next few days. The incubation period for this type of E. coli is about three to eight days. "Salads have a relatively short shelf life and it's likely the contaminated food would have been consumed in one to two weeks," Hunter said.
But Hunter warned the outbreak could continue if there is secondary transmission of the disease, which often happens when children are infected. E. coli is present in feces and can be spread by sloppy bathroom habits, such as failure to wash one's hands.
Meanwhile, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero slammed the European Commission and Germany for singling out the country's produce early on as a possible source of the outbreak, and said the government would demand "conclusive explanations and sufficient reparations."
Spanish farmers say the accusations have devastated their credibility and exports. In Valencia, protesting farmers dumped some 300 kilos (700 pounds) of fruit and vegetables — cabbage, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and other produce — outside the German consulate.
The outbreak is already considered the third-largest involving E. coli in recent world history, and it may be the deadliest. Twelve people died in a 1996 Japanese outbreak that reportedly sickened more than 9,000, and seven died in a Canadian outbreak in 2000.
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June 1, 2011 With the warmer weather the noisy cicadas have hatched here in Gasconade County!!!
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The cicadas that emerge together in the same year are collectively called a brood. This map identifies the approximate locations of Brood XIX. This Brood emerges in 13-year cycles.
Future Brood XIX Emergences: 2011, 2024, 2037, 2050, 2063, 2076
17 Year Cicada Link Emergence Due in 2014
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The Missouri Department of Conservation is warning Missourians to be prepared for a noisy spring. Insects known as periodical cicadas are expected to begin coming out of the ground in May and June. While these insects will only stick around a few weeks, their presence can be quite annoying.
The periodical cicadas, which only appear every 13 or 17 years, are easily identified by their loud "singing"; the males use drum-like structures called tymbals to attract females, according to the Conservation Department.
The insects do not harm humans, but can damage young trees. They can also be an annoyance due to their incessant noise. In fact, the Conservation Department warns their numbers could be so large this year people planning outdoor weddings in May or June may want to move festivities inside.
Periodical cicadas are different from the familiar annual cicadas, also called “dog-day cicadas,” which emerge from the ground every year and make their droning noise during the heat of late summer, according to the Conservation Dept.
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Steam Locomotive No. 844 is the last steam locomotive built for Union Pacific Railroad.
It was delivered in 1944. A high-speed passenger engine, it pulled such widely known trains as the
Overland Limited, Los Angeles Limited, Portland Rose and Challenger.
When diesels took over all passenger train duties, No. 844 was placed in freight service in Nebraska
from 1957 to 1959. It was saved from being scrapped in 1960, and held for special service.
The engine has run hundreds of thousands of miles as Union Pacific’s ambassador of goodwill. It has
made appearances at Expo ’74 in Spokane, the 1981 opening of the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento, the 1984 World’s Fair in New Orleans and the 50th Anniversary Celebration of Los Angeles Union Station in 1989.
Arrival
Depart
10:00 a.m.
10:15 a.m.
Hermann, Mo.
Whistle Stop
Amtrak station
Wharf & Gutenberg Sts.
Omaha, Neb., March 25, 2011 – Union Pacific Railroad's steam team has established the overnight and display locations for The Little Rock Express as part of Union Pacific's Great Excursion Adventure - You Route the Steam contest. More than 175,000 votes were cast for four different routes, with the Little Rock Express defeating the Tuscola Turn, Baton Rouge Rambler and Boise Express. Also, Union Pacific's legendary steam locomotive No. 844 will be pulling The Little Rock Express Tour instead of the previously announced steam locomotive No. 3985. The decision to switch the locomotives was made since No. 3985 was in Missouri last fall pulling the Missouri River Eagle to help Sedalia, Mo., celebrate the community's Sesquicentennial. No. 844 will depart Cheyenne, its home base, May 27 making overnight stops in:
North Platte, Neb.;
Marysville and Coffeyville, Kan.;
Kansas City, Jefferson City, St. Louis, Cape Girardeau, Mo.;
Bald Knob, North Little Rock and Van Buren, Ark.; and
Omaha, Neb.
The locomotive also will be on public display for at least one day in the following cities before arriving back in Cheyenne in late June:
Kansas City, Jefferson City, St. Louis, Cape Girardeau, Mo.;
Bald Knob and North Little Rock, Ark.; and
Omaha, Neb.
The Little Rock Express portion of the tour begins May 29 with the locomotive arriving in Kansas City, Mo., and concludes June 9, after a display day in North Little Rock. A detailed Little Rock Express Tour schedule that will include the dates, times and location the tour will be in various cities, along with cities where the Little Rock Express will make whistle stops, will be available April 27. Contest participants who voted for the Little Rock Express will be entered into a drawing for the opportunity to ride a brief segment of the tour. As stated in the contest rules, no tickets will be sold and general public train rides will not be available as part of the tour. Fans can keep up with the latest Little Rock Express information via Facebook at www.facebook.com/unionpacific or Twitter at www.twitter.com/unionpacific.
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