Federal epidemiologists have identified a twenty mile stretch in Pennsylvania between Hazleton and Tamaqua where citizens are 400 times more likely to develop a rare blood disorder called polycythemia vera, or PV — a form of cancer. A local Superfund site is being cited as a possible cause, but no conclusion has been reached on the cause for the cancer cluster.
Continue reading “Twenty Mile Cancer Belt Found in Pennsylvania”
This has absolutely nothing to do with the law, policy, religion, or any connection to this site with the possible exception of the environment. However, I find it amazing that after thousands of years of herding cattle, scientists have discovered that cows tend to uniformly align themselves in the north-south direction. This makes them something of bovine compasses — a condition apparently shared with deer and other animals.
Continue reading “Scientists Discover BPS Systems: Bovine Positioning Systems”
The on-going litigation over the murder case of lawyers Marjorie Knoller and Robert Noel has resulted in another ruling in San Franscisco. A Superior Court judge has reinstated the conviction of Knoller in the 2002 second-degree murder of her apartment neighbor Diane Whipple. Whipple was savagely attacked by Knoller’s and Noel’s two Presa Canario dogs. The case has taken many legal turns and this ruling will now return Knoller to jail.
Continue reading “Knoller Conviction Reinstated in Whipple Murder”
Seattle is facing a bizarre series of attacks on their trees. Someone has been drilling holes into mature trees and injecting them with a herbicide along the picturesque Burke Gilman trial. It is not a unique crime — often committed by people who want a better view from their homes.
Continue reading “View to a Kill: Seattle Searching for Tree Killer”
Rubel Sheikh, 25, reportedly went to a shrine in Bangladesh to receive the blessings of one of five crocodiles in the shrine pond. He quickly became a Bangladish when the crocodile skipped the blessing and went straight to eating Sheikh.
Continue reading “Religious Man Eaten After Seeking Blessing from Crocodile”
Matthew Whitton and Ricky Dyer in Georgia seemed eager to grab their 15 minutes of fame to the point of claiming to have the actual body of a deceased Bigfoot frozen in their freezer. It turned out to be a rubber suit and the question now is whether the two will be criminally charged with fraud for their efforts. Whitton is a police officer in Clayton County who is on leave after being wounded in the line of duty and Dyer is a former correctional officer.
Continue reading “Police Officer and Former Correctional Guard Accused of Fraudulent Bigfoot Story”
President Bush has long had problems with science. In his first term, Bush used his own vaulted scientific knowledge to dismiss the findings of his own EPA scientists on global warming as “junk science.” Click here. Since that time, he has led one of the most anti-environmental administrations in history and turned the United States into the global villain in opposing significant steps to combat global warming. Now, after scientists linked the threat against polar bears to global warming, Bush is moving to reduce the authority of scientists on such questions. He may have learned this technique on his recent trip to China where the government is a kindred spirit on the environment. The Chinese recently changed pollution forecasts by changing the forecasters, here.
Continue reading “Bush Science: Bush Administration Seeks to Limit Role of the Scientists on Environmental Science”
Ron and Mary Park have presented an interesting question for review: are dogs livestock? The couple run a dog kennel located on property with an easement held by the United States. Any commercial enterprise is prohibited except for livestock farming. The district court ruled that dogs are not livestock but the Ninth Circuit was not so sure and remanded for further proceedings.
The Chinese have been heralding their ability to change the weather with hundreds of rockets and artillery pieces positioned Beijing. However, when it comes to pollution, nothing is quite a effective as an old-fashioned Chinese technique: when forecasters identify the “mist” as pollution and not a natural weather cycle — shutdown access to their site and change forecasters.
Continue reading “Chinese Change Weather By Changing Weathermen”
Oklahoma City may have the largest bestiality case in history — and without question the most disgusting. Diane Sue Whalen 54, and Donald Roy Seigfried, 55, are accused of training their dogs to have sex with Whalen and other women. Whalen was apparently busted by her own son who found 150 tapes of her performing sex acts with the dogs — including a mixed breed and labrador Lucky and Buddy and a blue heeler named Merlin owned by Seigfried. Seigfried allegedly filmed the events.
Continue reading “Oklahoma Couple Arrested in Massive Bestiality Case”
In an important decision for both environmentalists and free speech advocates, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has overturned the conviction of Robert J. Stevens of Virginia who was convicted of selling videos (including so-called “crush videos”) showing dogfighting and other acts of animal cruelty. Stevens, who not surprisingly lives in a place called of Pittsville, had been sentenced to three years in prison.
U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy has stopped the controversial hunt for gray wolves in Montana, granting a preliminary injunction restoring the wolves to the endangered list. Given the need to show a likelihood to prevail on the merits, it is an important ruling for environmentalists. The planned hunt was endorsed by the ironically named Ed Bangs, a federal biologist who declared the decision to delist wolves as “a very biologically sound package.” Obviously, a neutral federal judge disagreed with Bangs’ view.
Kentucky pastor, Gregory James Coots, 36, is in jail this week after wildlife officers found dozens of snakes in his possession. He was one of 10 people arrested in the sweep. Coots is the head of Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name in Middlesboro — a snake handling sect that recently came under investigation with the death of a woman bitten by one of the venomous snakes.
Continue reading “Laying Hands On Religious Snake Handlers: Police Arrest Pastor of Fundamentalist Church”
It appears that after destroying their own environment and poisoning their own food system, the Chinese government has been reduced to luring tourists with actual paper tigers. Chinese “netizens” on the Internet showed that a recent picture of a South China Tiger was actually a poster propped up in the forest. A farmer, Zhou Zhenglong, has now been charged criminally and some officials fired. Yet, it is not the first faked nature scene to come out of the Chinese government.
New York may be looking at another tort case that explores the inherent value of a pet versus the value of the pain of its loss. Robert Machin was walking his Boston terrier Ginger in the Bronx when a street sweeper swerved to avoid a speed bump and sucked in the small dog.
Continue reading “New York Street Street Sweeper Kills Boston Terrier”