Wild pigs menace suburban Atlanta

By David Beasley

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Wild pigs have descended on a suburban Atlanta neighborhood where they are scaring children, making a general nuisance of themselves, and acting as they if they own the place.

One large specimen was sighted on Monday morning rummaging through garbage it had strewn across Taneisha Danner's front yard in Lithonia, an area about 19 miles east of downtown Atlanta.

It then trotted into the backyard, taking a nap before returning with three other pigs from a patch of nearby woods, Danner told Reuters on Tuesday.

"This is their home," Danner joked. "We're just visiting."

She said the animals were no laughing matter for neighborhood children, however, noting that some were now afraid to leave the safety of their homes.

"My children are even afraid to be downstairs, worried that he (the pig) could come through the door," Danner said.

Descendents of wild boar, the feral pigs are a particular pest in rural Georgia and notorious for damaging farmer's crops, said Charlie Killmaster, a deer and feral hog biologist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

There are so many hogs that hunting season has been flung wide open for wild pigs on private land, he said, adding that it was still fairly rare for them to show up in suburban neighborhoods.

The population of one of the most invasive and destructive wild animals in the United States has grown rapidly in recent years, however. What was once a largely rural problem has blighted suburban areas in other states as well.

The hogs can be dangerous to humans if they are cornered or if their young are threatened, Killmaster said.

"There is some level of danger associated with them," he added. "But in nearly all cases, steering clear of them is all you need to do."

Danner said she had complained to local authorities about the hogs and was told they were trying to find a private trapper to remove them.

(Editing by Tom Brown and Andrew Hay)

View the original article here

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New York state to add signs alerting drivers to "text stops"

In New York, it's better to pull over and tap a message on a phone if you don't want to get pulled over and ticketed for texting while driving.

That's the message Gov. Andrew Cuomo and highway officials are sending to motorists after announcing 300 signs will be placed on state roadways directing drivers to "Texting Zones."

The blue-and-white signs point drivers to 91 existing areas where drivers can pull off the road and safely send messages while the car is parked.

"Distracted driving is a major problem in this state and it is a problem that is getting worse and it is a problem that costs us lives," Cuomo said in a statement to Yahoo News. "One out of 5 accidents today is attributable to distracted driving. Five times more fatalities from distracted driving than from drunk driving, believe it or not."

“With this new effort, we are sending a clear message to drivers that there is no excuse to take your hands off the wheel and eyes off the road because your text can wait until the next Texting Zone,” he added.

The governor also announced a 365 percent increase in tickets issued for distracted driving in summer 2013 compared with summer 2012. New York State Police handed out more than 21,000 tickets in the crackdown. New York is one of 41 states that ban texting while driving.

A national study by AT&T in March noted that more adults admit to texting and driving than teens: 49 percent of adults surveyed, compared with 43 percent of teens, said they engaged in the habit even though 98 percent of the adults that were questioned knew the habit was a dangerous practice.

A similar study in 2011 from the Centers for Disease Control found that 31 percent of adults aged 18-64 admitted to having read or sent text and email messages while driving.

View the original article here

Student’s Duck Dynasty t-shirt deemed ‘threatening’

Hunter Spain, a student at Dinwiddie High School in Virginia, was told to remove the t-shirt he was wearing, which featured Si Robertson from the popular reality show, Duck Dynasty, because the message was thought to be ‘threatening.’ The t-shirt included one of Si’s signature quips, “I will hurt you physically and metaphysically.” As reported by WWBT NBC 12 News, Hunter’s mom Edna-Jo Spain did not agree with the school saying, "For this to be considered as a threat to the school. I just, I couldn't understand it. I couldn’t understand it…Anybody that ever watches Duck Dynasty knows that Si Robertson is famous for his little funny slogans and his little jargons." Hunter was told by his teachers to either go home or wear the offending shirt inside out. Hunter explained, "I'm not going to look stupid in front of all of these young ladies in the school. So, I decided to get a different t-shirt."

WWBT reached out to David Clark, the Dinwiddie Public Schools Superintendent, for comment. Clark said, "If you are a Duck Dynasty fan you understand the meaning of the shirt, but if you haven't watched Duck Dynasty you may question if the shirt implies violence. As a school division, we would like to keep our slogans on student shirts as non-violent as possible." Hunter said that he did not mean any harm by sporting the tee.

The members of the Spain family are big fans of the A&E reality show and apparently Hunter’s grandmother gave him the Duck Dynasty shirt. Edna-Jo shared, "We are like major fans. We’re getting ready to go on the Duck Dynasty cruise next summer."

Hunter isn’t the only person this year that has caught flack because of a t-shirt’s message. In September, Isaak Fuquay, whose father is an injured retired Army Corporal, was told by Shadow Mountain High School in Phoenix, Arizona to take off his shirt that showed an eagle with a gun supporting wounded warriors because it featured a weapon. Also, in August a Florida family was kicked out of Universal Studios Orlando because the patriarch, Christian Jarosz, was wearing a shirt that read, “Police Street Crime Unit.” The park said it was a violation of their policy banning non-law enforcement personnel from wearing shirts that may falsely identify them as law enforcement.

More information: WWBT, KTVK, WSVN

View the original article here

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Rough waters? Not a problem on this ship

One of the not-so-great things about being on a ship is that you sometimes feel like you're actually on a ship. A new Norwegian vessel might soon make that splish-splash feeling a thing of the past.

As profiled on Wired.com, the 500-foot-long ship features internal water tanks that create waves in order to cancel out the natural motion of the ocean. You're on a ship, but you feel as if you're on land.

In the above video, you can see the difference through a scale model. On the upper left, the model is shown with full tanks. Note how it isn't affected by the waves. Contrast that to the video in the upper right. The model's all over the place (not shown: little action figures puking over the railing).

According to Wired.com, the "hotel ship" is intended for people who are repairing offshore oil platforms.  And while a steadier journey will probably result in less sickness, that's not the main benefit.

Designers wanted to make it as safe and efficient as possible for people on the ship to board the oil platforms.

From Wired:

"The most important thing has been to improve the efficiency and safety of the connection between the offshore installation and the gangway, which is as much as 55 meters [180 feet] long,” said Johannes Eldøy of SALT, the maritime design firm who penned the new ship. “This is a critical point because the vessel must display the least possible vertical motion in response to the waves while at the same time maintaining its position.”

Gizmag explains that air valves at the top of each tank "will control the direction and rate at which the water inside sloshes back and forth."

When the ship is completed in 2015, it will also feature two swimming pools, a gym and a sauna.

View the original article here

99-year-old Iowa woman gets high school diploma

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — A 99-year-old Iowa woman who dropped out of a high school more than 80 years ago despite needing only one credit to graduate has finally received her diploma.

Audrey Crabtree, of Cedar Falls, smiled Monday as she received an honorary diploma for her time at Waterloo East High School.

"And I feel so much smarter," Crabtree quipped.

Crabtree, who began her education at a one-room school house in northeast Iowa, left high school in 1932 due to a swimming and diving accident that forced her to miss several school days. She also had to care for her sick grandmother.

"I was a senior, but I was short a credit, so I would've had to go back the next fall," she told the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier (http://bit.ly/15pHtO3).

That would have interfered with her plans to marry her first husband. In 1957, the couple bought the flower shop where Crabtree had worked after their two children started school. But her husband died of a heart attack two months into their business venture.

Crabtree operated Flowers by Audrey for 28 years. She married two more times and outlived both husbands. Her family today includes five grandchildren and four great grandchildren.

Despite Crabtree's professional and family success, those around her had noted her dissatisfaction with not finishing school.

"She had voiced quite a while back the one regret she had in life was that she never had gotten her diploma," said Shelley Hoffman, Crabtree's granddaughter.

Hoffman contacted Waterloo Community Schools and helped arrange the diploma ceremony.

Family and friends surrounded Crabtree as the current principal of East High handed her a diploma during an education board meeting.

"I wouldn't advise anyone to drop out," she said. "I just have to say in my life the Lord has been so good."

Crabtree was given a copy of her last report card and memorabilia from her time at the high school, including a jacket and homecoming pins. She also received more than 100 handmade congratulatory cards from middle school students.

___

Information from: Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, http://www.wcfcourier.com

View the original article here

Deaf dog helps owner stop attempted burglary

Dan Strasser of Salem, Oregon is crediting his deaf 3-year-old English Springer Spaniel, Bonnie, for helping him catch an attempted home burglar in the act. As reported by KPTV Fox 12, Bonnie was excitedly running around the living room at 6 a.m. recently, which woke Dan. The dog owner got out of bed to investigate and said he found an intruder, Thomas Lowell, in his living room trying to take his laptop. Even though Bonnie can't hear, Dan said, "She smelled him because she does have a very good sense of smell. And she jumped up and got all excited thinking someone was there to play." The perpetrator then took off with the computer.

“When he bolted, I think just in the confusion because as you can imagine, there’s probably a lot going on in his mind with, ‘How do I get out of this place?’ He doesn’t know it. It was dark and so he just turned in here and ran through the kitchen,” explained Dan. But it was that turn that sealed the suspect’s fate. Dan followed him with his gun and Thomas Lowell was trapped in the garage. Dan recalled, “There was a lot of, ‘I’m sorry’s. Uh, you know I mean he starts talking about he wants to get home and he wants to see his kid. Can I please let him go? I mean all the stuff you would do if you’re caught and you don’t want to go to jail.” But the police arrived soon after Dan’s girlfriend called 911 and the 25-year-old intruder was arrested and charged with burglary, criminal mischief, and possession of methamphetamine. Dan had left his home’s back door open for Bonnie to access the backyard, and he believes that’s how the suspect entered. The homeowner is happy there were no injuries during the melee and now says he will keep that door locked.

More information: KPTV

View the original article here

Austria: Catholic church fined for phone texting

VIENNA (AP) — Austria's Roman Catholic church has learned its lesson. Mass is OK. Mass texting is not.

A diocese in the southern city of Graz says it has been found guilty of contravening Austria's telecommunications law by sending mass texts to the cellphones of followers asking them to pay overdue membership fees.

Members of recognized religions in Austria must pay so-called "church taxes" or opt out of membership. For a Catholic, non-payment would mean no right to church sacraments.

Diocese official Hertha Ferk was quoted by the Der Standard newspaper on Tuesday as saying the diocese has agreed to pay a fine that is under 10,000 euros ($13,475).

A court took up the case after complaints from some of the 17,000 church members in arrears who received the text last year.

View the original article here

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Playful pup loves his pile of leaves

Bones. Leftovers. Open windows in the back of moving cars. One of the great things about dogs is that they love just about everything.

Let's add "large piles of leaves" to the list.

Take a moment from your workaday life to examine a furry pup named Butch that ? OK, sure ? is not as smart as you are. He can't read. He can't tell time. He can't understand the dramatic complexities of "Breaking Bad."

But who cares? This dog knows how to have fun.

We first noticed this 2012 video on Gawker. In it, Butch the Siberian husky helps his owner rake up a gigantic pile of fall leaves. "Help" in this case means leaping in and out of the fallen foliage, messing up the pile, and then sprinting around the yard like a maniac.

But how could anybody stay upset at this pooch? It's impossible, we say.

The video description from Kent Petersen reads: "I just had just finished raking leaves, when Butch deciced [sic] to help."

Butch ? from all of us to you, thanks a bunch!

View the original article here

Diageo's 'Arthur's Day' faces backlash in home of Guinness

By Padraic Halpin

DUBLIN (Reuters) - The Irish are famous around the world for their convivial drinking culture and the cosy pubs that have been copied around the world - but it seems they do not want to be cajoled into an annual celebration of their best-known beer.

An Irish minister on Tuesday criticized the international drinks firm Diageo for inventing a "pseudo-national holiday" to market its products, not least the Dublin-brewed Guinness - part of a growing backlash against "Arthur's Day".

Diageo began the celebration in 2009, to mark the 250th anniversary of the opening of Arthur Guinness's first brewery in Dublin on September 26. This year it will be marked in 32 countries with events including free concerts by the likes of The Script, Emeli Sande and the Manic Street Preachers.

Diageo says the event is a "showcasing of Ireland's talent and creativity", but it has been derided by some of Ireland's most famous musicians as a cynical marketing ploy, attacked by doctors concerned with high levels of binge drinking, and criticized by music fans who have called for a boycott on social media sites.

"It seems to me that Diageo has invented Arthur's Day as a pseudo-national holiday for the purposes of marketing," Alex White, a junior minister responsible for alcohol, was quoted as saying in the Irish Times.

"There is a serious problem, not only with the amount of alcohol we drink, but also with the harmful patterns in which it is consumed," said White, whose department has been urged to bring in minimum pricing on alcohol and curb the industry's sponsorship of sports events.

AMBULANCE CALL-OUTS

According to the Dublin ambulance service, there was a 30 percent increase in call-outs during last year's Arthur's Day compared to the same day a week earlier, prompting Ireland's Royal College of Physicians to launch a vocal campaign against Diageo.

Mike Scott of the band The Waterboys has joined the protest with "A Song For Arthur's Day".

Another tune written for the occasion, by the Irish folk singer Christy Moore, paints a picture of overwhelmed hospital emergency departments picking up the pieces of an evening's heavy drinking: "The A&E will be like a drunk tank in the firing line/ While Diageo goes AWOL at closing time."

Marketing experts have admired the slickness of Arthur's Day as a promotional campaign, but Diageo has been on the defensive all week, with representatives making regular radio and television appearances to justify the event.

"It's a fantastic example where we bring together three great things in Ireland - a great brand in Guinness, the pub, which is an iconic part of Irish culture, and music," Diageo spokesman Peter O'Brien told the Newstalk radio station.

"On Thursday, the vast majority of people will go out and enjoy all of those three things and enjoy them sensibly."

But 74 percent of the 7,000 listeners who texted RTE national radio after it asked their opinion said they were not in favor of Arthur's Day.

"With high rates of alcohol consumption and binge drinking, we don't need another reason to drink," said Professor Frank Murray, chairman of the alcohol policy group of Ireland's Royal College of Physicians.

(Additional reporting by Sam Cage; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

View the original article here

Left-hand turns can cost you

With a delivery fleet of 96,173 package cars, vans, tractors, and motorcycles, the United Parcel Service or UPS knows a great deal about efficient driving. WAGA Fox 5 News interviewed UPS dispatch supervisor Matthew Frost to learn about some of the Fortune 500 company’s driving tips. Matthew said, “A lot of the managers here and supervisors here, they train their kids when they get of driving age and they train them the same way that we train our drivers here to keep ‘em safe. Because these are proven methods that work.” After 6 years behind the wheel of a brown truck, Matthew now helps plan out the drivers’ routes. “When we design routes, as we put them together, we want to try to design it where the drivers are taking a right-hand turn as many as possible.” The company has found that right-hand turns are not only safer, but they’re also more efficient. It’s a tip that AAA agrees with. By using routing technology and avoiding idling at lights for left-hand turns, UPS was able to avoid 98 million minutes of idle time in a year.

Other tips by the delivery giant include leaving at least one car length between you and the car stopped ahead of you to allow for reaction time. They advise using your eyes to scan the road and your mirrors. The dispatch supervisor said, “We train our drivers to check a mirror every five to eight seconds. Then check back to the front, then check another mirror, back to the front.” In addition to all of that, the drivers are given training drills to keep their minds sharp.

Matthew told WAGA that UPS has, "110,000 drivers. We log 3 billion miles a year and we average less than one accident per 1 million miles." That safe driving record is enforced with drivers undergoing 1 week of the company’s training after which they are allowed to get behind the wheel of a truck. UPS is proud of their Circle of Honor club with 6,400 drivers who all have 25 years or more of safe driving.

More information: WAGA

View the original article here

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Louisiana is the worst state for women according to new report

A new study finds Louisiana is the most challenging state for working women in America. (AFP)

A report says that in America, Louisiana is the worst state for women to live and work in.

The Center for American Progress released the findings in a new interactive map, combining and comparing data on topics including the wage gap between men and women, poverty rates, paid family leave laws, the percentage of women without health insurance in each state and infant mortality rates.

Interestingly, the data also expanded to include factors outside of income and personal health, looking at how women fare in positions of power. For example, the study also compared the percentage of women in Congress in each state and the number of women elected to statewide executive office.

Overall, the study contained 36 separate factors, including looking at how several of the above-mentioned categories applied to minorities.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Maryland was voted as the best state for women to live and work in.

“More than 22 percent of women in Louisiana are in poverty, compared to 11 percent of women in Maryland,” reads the report’s summary. “Additionally, taking in all of the leadership factors considered, Maryland ranks first in the nation in terms of women reaching leadership positions in the public and private sector. Meanwhile, Louisiana receives a D- on overall leadership factors.”

Looking at some other states in the survey, Hawaii, Vermont, California and Delaware rounded out the top five states for women.

Meanwhile, Utah, Oklahoma, Alabama and Mississippi rounded out the bottom five.

West Virginia ended up right in the middle of the survey, ranking 25th overall.

The rankings show a diverse mix that may present some surprises for political and cultural analysts. For example, both the top and bottom tiers contain a mix of states both on the population and geographic scales. There’s also a fair amount of political diversity in the findings. For example, Alaska is considered one of the nation’s most conservative states but placed just outside the top 10 in the survey, at number 11.

Back in June, a similar study was released looking at the best and worst states for children. In that study, New Mexico was cited as the worst state for children’s issues while New Hampshire was named the best state to raise a child. In that study, Louisiana was rated the fourth worst state for children.

View the original article here

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Male Dallas Zoo gorilla to get therapy for sexist attitude

By Marice Richter

DALLAS (Reuters) - A gregarious male gorilla at the Dallas Zoo will be sent to South Carolina for therapy after he bit one female gorilla and sneered at others, zoo officials said on Monday.

Patrick, a 430-pound (195-kg) Western lowland gorilla, will be moving to the Riverbanks Zoo and Gardens in Columbia, South Carolina, where he will live the bachelor life in his own digs.

The South Carolina zoo is known for working with gorillas with behavior problems.

Dallas Zoo officials said Patrick gets along fine with humans but not with other gorillas.

They said they have tried repeatedly to socialize him with the other gorillas, particularly the females, in the hopes that he might get along and even breed. Instead, he bit one female and sneered and nipped at others.

"It's not like we haven't tried, he's been here for 18 years" said Laurie Holloway, a spokeswoman for the Dallas Zoo.

Patrick was more tolerant of other male gorillas but seemed only to engage with Jabari, who was shot to death by Dallas police after he escaped in 2004 and injured three people.

Because of his cranky behavior, Patrick has been kept in his own habitat separate from the other gorillas. The Dallas Zoo needs to reclaim Patrick's space because it recently acquired two new males from the Calgary Zoo, including Zola, a break-dancing gorilla who stars in a video that has gone viral on the Internet.

John Davis, curator of mammals at the Riverbanks Zoo, said that initially Patrick will be separated from the zoo's three other gorillas, all males, but will be able to see and smell them.

Eventually Patrick will be introduced to the guys and zoo officials aren't ruling out the possibility that they can live together in a spacious, wooded bachelor pad, Davis said.

Born at the Bronx Zoo in 1990, Patrick was abandoned by his mother and then transferred to the Toronto Zoo, where he was hand-raised along with another male about the same age. At age 5, he was transferred to Dallas, zoo officials said.

Because of his rearing, Patrick gets along well with people and is a popular favorite among visitors and zookeepers at the Dallas Zoo, Holloway said.

"He's beautiful and smart and everyone loves him," Holloway said. "We're really sad to see him go but it's for the best for the zoo and for Patrick."

(Reporting by Marice Richter; Editing by Greg McCune and Sandra Maler)

View the original article here

Camera takes dramatic shot of Russian eagle attack

LONDON (AP) — Remote cameras set up to track Siberian tigers in Russia have caught a golden eagle attack on a sika deer, snapping three photos as the massive bird digs its talons into the distressed animal's back.

Golden eagles typically eat small birds or mammals, but they've also been known to target deer. It's rare for a camera to catch such an attack in progress.

The Zoological Society of London's Linda Kerley said in a statement Thursday that she couldn't believe the pictures when she saw them.

The society said they were shot in the Lazovsky State Nature Reserve in the Primorye region of Russia's Far East in December 2011.

The eagle vs. deer photos were published this month in the Ohio-based Journal of Raptor Research and have since grabbed attention online.

View the original article here

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Product FeaturesMaterial: syntheticFabric Waterproof Rating: Fabric Breathability Rating: Windproof Rating: Fit: semi-formCenter Back Length: Hood: noVenting: Pockets: 1 side zipSeams: flatlockUPF Rating: Weight: Recommended Use: cyclingManufacturer Warranty: lifetime

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Pearl Izumi Men's Elite Reverse Jacket

Snake grounds jet with 370 passengers in Sydney

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — A tiny Asian snake was found on a Qantas Boeing 747 airliner in Australia, leading to 370 passengers being grounded overnight.

Staff found the 20-centimeter (8-inch) Mandarin rat snake in the passenger cabin near the door late Sunday before passengers were due to board the flight bound for Tokyo from Sydney International Airport, Qantas said in a statement Monday.

Australia's flagship airline said passengers were given hotel rooms and left Sydney on a replacement plane Monday morning. Qantas said the original jet would be fumigated before returning to service in case there were other snakes on board.

The snake was taken by quarantine officials for analysis.

The Agriculture Department said the snake, a species that grows to an average 1.2 meters (4 feet), had been euthanized, "as exotic reptiles of this kind can harbor pests and diseases not present in Australia."

The department said the snake had arrived aboard the jet in a flight a day earlier from Singapore.

"The Department of Agriculture is looking into how the snake came to be on the plane, but isn't able to speculate at this time," it said in a statement.

The mildly venomous Asian snake was about the width of a pencil and did not pose a threat to humans, but it had the potential to cause ecological havoc in the Australian environment if it had escaped the plane with a mate, Canberra Reptile Zoo herpetologist Peter Child said.

While snakes rarely pose aviation hazards, a 3-meter (10-foot) python in January clung to the wing of a Qantas flight from northeast Australia to Papua New Guinea. The python died during the flight but was still attached to the wing when the two-hour flight ended.

View the original article here

Popular Science ends reader comments, says practice is bad for science

Popular Science says that online reader comments have become bad for science (WikiCommons)

The scientific method relies on rigorous observation and peer-based feedback as critical components in testing a hypothesis. But one of the world's leading science publications now says there is a major difference when it comes to reading news articles about science.

In a surprising move, the website for Popular Science announced it is no longer allowing reader comments on its articles. And in a potentially even more controversial move, the site’s online content director boldly explains the decision was reached because of the publication's belief that reader comments are actually bad for science.

“A politically motivated, decades-long war on expertise has eroded the popular consensus on a wide variety of scientifically validated topics,” writes Suzanne LaBarre. “Everything, from evolution to the origins of climate change, is mistakenly up for grabs again. Scientific certainty is just another thing for two people to ‘debate’ on television. And because comments sections tend to be a grotesque reflection of the media culture surrounding them, the cynical work of undermining bedrock scientific doctrine is now being done beneath our own stories, within a website devoted to championing science.”

LaBarre says there is evidence suggesting that skewed comments can impact a reader’s original view of a news story, even if the comments are inaccurate or misleading. “Simply including an ad hominem attack in a reader comment was enough to make study participants think the downside of the reported technology was greater than they'd previously thought,” LaBarre writes.

The move has received a mixed reaction publicly. GigaOm writer Mathew Ingram called the decision “both sad and wrong,” arguing that the publication should have made a greater effort to fix its reader comments section before closing it. Other sites like Poynter have linked to suggestions about giving the reader community more autonomy to moderate the comments section in order to quarantine disruptive commenters.

However, LaBarre says the site will not permanently block all reader feedback. For now, it will still accept and occasionally respond to user feedback through its social media accounts on sites like Twitter (where the site has nearly 200,000 followers) and Facebook. She also says it plans to open up reader comments sections “on select articles that lend themselves to vigorous and intelligent discussion.”

Nonetheless, it’s an interesting risk for the 141-year-old publication, as any news editor can explain that reader comments are often a big part of site’s reaching its monthly traffic goals.

And for an interesting counterpart, Scientific American recently published a blog post in July attempting to explain why we read reader comments even when we know the potential downsides.

View the original article here

Woman ‘jet hikes’ across country riding in private planes

Amanda Nolan is trying to reach all 50 U.S. states catching rides on private planes (Facebook)

Amber Nolan ’s story might not sound all that original at first. She’s attempting to hitchhike around the country. But this is what sets her journey apart: Nolan is traveling to all 50 states “jethiking” by private plane .

Nolan, a travel writer, started her journey in July 2012 and only has eight states to go before completing the unusual voyage. She’sbeen chronicling her journey on the Jet Hiking blog, and on her Facebook page, where she logs each of her stops along the way.

“As a travel writer, I've been all over the world but I hadn't seen much in my own backyard,” Nolan said in a recent interview with the Daily Mail. “I wanted to experience the United States in a unique way and started brainstorming ideas.”

She’ll have officially knocked out all 50 states once she’s able to hitch a ride to Alaska, Hawaii, Utah, Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois and Indiana. Most of the states on that list are clustered next to each other, so it’s entirely possible Nolan could wrap up her quest before too long.

Still, the trip has been far from easy.

“I spend hours and hours contacting people,” Nolan said. “I'll go to the airports and tell people what I am doing and wait around - and sometimes it is days before I find someone heading the direction I am.”

She’s even run out of money along the way, taking temporary jobs in some of the 250 towns she has visited along the way until she has the funds, and a ride, to head out on her next leg of the trip.

Interestingly, Nolan is not a pilot herself but said she would like to get her pilot’s license once her journey is complete. And she hopes to inspire other travelers around the world to consider her experience as a viable alternative to typical hitchhiking and couch surfing ventures.

"I think an organised ride-share system between pilots and travelers to cut costs on both ends could make this a reasonable option for travelers with a limited amount of time,” she said. “I definitely recommend visiting a local airport or flying club and seeing what the general aviation side is all about."

View the original article here

Shrimp fight interrupted by peace-loving frog

Just because they live underwater doesn't mean shrimp don't get fired up.

Two Indian whisker shrimp residing in a tank in Michigan apparently had enough of each other and began butting heads.

Enter the peacemaker. An African dwarf frog suddenly appears between the two shrimp with its palms extended, much like a teacher breaking up a playground tussle.

According to the video's description, the frog's intervention worked. After a few days, the shrimp learned to avoid each other and give peace a chance.

View the original article here

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Climategate II: leaked emails show struggle to deal with warming lull

STOCKHOLM –  Scientists working on a landmark U.N. report on climate change are struggling to explain why global warming appears to have slowed down in the past 15 years even though greenhouse gas emissions keep rising.

Leaked documents obtained by The Associated Press show there are deep concerns among governments over how to address the issue ahead of next week's meeting of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Climate skeptics have used the lull in surface warming since 1998 to cast doubt on the scientific consensus that humans are cooking the planet by burning fossil fuels and cutting down CO2-absorbing forests.

The IPCC report is expected to affirm the human link with greater certainty than ever, but the panel is under pressure to also address the recent lower rate of warming, which scientists say is likely due to heat going deep into the ocean and natural climate fluctuations.

'I think to not address [the slow down] would be a problem.'

- Alden Meyer, of the Washington-based Union of Concerned Scientists

"I think to not address it would be a problem because then you basically have the denialists saying, 'Look the IPCC is silent on this issue,"' said Alden Meyer, of the Washington-based Union of Concerned Scientists.

In a leaked June draft of the report's summary from policy-makers, the IPCC said the rate of warming in 1998-2012 was about half the average rate since 1951. It cited natural variability in the climate system, as well as cooling effects from volcanic eruptions and a downward phase in solar activity.

But several governments that reviewed the draft objected to how the issue was tackled, in comments to the IPCC obtained by the AP.

Germany called for the reference to the slowdown to be deleted, saying a time span of 10-15 years was misleading in the context of climate change, which is measured over decades and centuries.

The U.S. also urged the authors to include the "leading hypothesis" that the reduction in warming is linked to more heat being transferred to the deep ocean.

Belgium objected to using 1998 as a starting year for any statistics. That year was exceptionally warm, so any graph showing global temperatures starting with 1998 looks flat, because most years since have been cooler. Using 1999 or 2000 as a starting year would yield a more upward-pointing curve.

Hungary worried the report would provide ammunition for skeptics.

Many skeptics claim that the rise in global average temperatures stopped in the late 1990s and their argument has gained momentum among some media and politicians, even though the scientific evidence of climate change is piling up: the previous decade was the warmest on record and, so far, this decade is even warmer. Meanwhile, Arctic sea ice melted to a record low last year and the IPCC draft said sea levels have risen by 7.5 inches since 1901.

Many researchers say the slowdown in warming is related to the natural ocean cycles of El Nino and La Nina. Also, a 2013 study by Kevin Trenberth at the National Center for Atmospheric Research found dramatic recent warming in the deeper oceans.

Stefan Rahmstorf, a German climate scientist, said it was possible that the report's authors were feeling pressured to address the warming slowdown because it's received so much attention recently.

"I think a lot of the interest in this topic in the science community has been triggered by the public debate about it," said Rahmstorf, who was a reviewer for the report's chapter on sea levels.

Jonathan Lynn, a spokesman for the IPCC, declined to comment on the content of the report because it hasn't been finalized, but said it would provide "a comprehensive picture of all the science relevant to climate change, including the thousands of pieces of scientific research published since the last report in 2007 up to earlier this year."

The IPCC draft report says it's "extremely likely" that human influence caused more than half of the warming observed since the 1950s, an upgrade from "very likely" in the last IPCC report in 2007.

The panel also raised its projections for sea level rise to 10-32 inches by the end of the century. The 2007 report predicted a rise of 7-23 inches.

Continued carbon emissions at or above current rates "would induce changes in all components in the climate system, some of which would very likely be unprecedented in hundreds to thousands of years," the IPCC said in the draft. A final version will be presented at the end of the panel's meeting in Stockholm next week.

The IPCC's conclusions are important because they serve as the scientific underpinnings of U.N. negotiations to rein in emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases. A global climate treaty is supposed to be adopted in 2015.

View the original article here

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101 Power Thoughts

Now enjoy 101 Power Thoughts on CD! Louise Hay reads her power thoughts to you in her own warm, nurturing voice. Listen to one power thought each day or a few at a time. However you decide to play this cd, you’ll find that you may begin to think more positively and create exciting changes in your life!

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History's mysteries: 10 great archaeology puzzles

©2013 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. All market data delayed 20 minutes. Privacy - Terms

View the original article here

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'NCIS' star Mark Harmon talks costars, hit show's 11th season

Life comes with few chances to witness a fundamental law being turned on its head.

But last season 18.5 million viewers did just that every week, tuning to "NCIS" to certify it as one of TV's highest-rated shows and, even more impressively, make it a series whose audience after 10 seasons has expanded, not shriveled, with age.

"NCIS," which averaged 11.8 million viewers its first season back in 2003-04, grew by more than a million viewers last year alone.

This, of course, contradicts TV's natural order. "NCIS" (which starts its 11th season Tuesday on CBS) seems to have a long-term lease on TV's fountain of youth.

It doesn't hurt that "NCIS" maintains an absorbing, go-down-easy recipe of drama, character and humor that no other show is able to match.

"We've been successful so far," says series star Mark Harmon with some understatement, "and we keep finding ways to grow it."

But don't go laying too much credit for that growth, or any other metric of success, at Harmon's feet.

He's the star, of course, playing tormented but intrepid Leroy Jethro Gibbs, Special Agent in Charge of the military's Major Case Response Team.

Harmon is surrounded by a sturdy troupe of actors including fellow charter cast members Michael Weatherly (NCIS Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo), David McCallum (Dr. Donald "Ducky" Mallard) and the wildly popular Pauley Perrette (as Goth lab rat Abby Sciuto).

"There's four of us who were there in the beginning, plus pretty much 90 percent of our crew," says Harmon, citing the stability of the show's production team as one key reason for its continued robustness.

Granted, there have been comings and goings. This summer, "NCIS" fans were shocked to learn that Cote de Pablo was exiting after eight seasons. The new season's first two episodes give her character, Special Agent Ziva David, a dramatic send-off.

"We wish Cote well," says Harmon. "But for those of us still here, it's all about moving on: 'This is what we've got, and we're going to find a way to make it even better.'

"I'm not trying to shuck off our success, because it's all earned, every bit of it. By a lot of people."

Thus does Harmon reaffirm his one-for-all-and-all-for-one manifesto.

"I'm not the big dog," he says flatly. "I might be a dog. But there's a lot of dogs."

Now 62, Harmon is an unlikely TV superstar. His manner during a recent interview is friendly but crisp, soft-spoken and firmly self-effacing. With his pretty-boy looks matured in middle age, this is the all-grown-up version of the star quarterback at UCLA who, after brief turns in law school, advertising and selling shoes, set his sights anew on acting and made good.

He forged a solid career in a succession of TV series, including "Reasonable Doubts," ''Chicago Hope" and "St. Elsewhere," where, nearly 30 years ago, he played the first prime-time hero to contract, and die of, AIDS.

His films include "The Presidio," ''Natural Born Killers" and "Freaky Friday."

Still, the man crowned as "the greatest actor who ever lived" by "Family Guy" cartoon aesthete Peter Griffin never reached the top tier of show-biz, even as he weathered accolades like People magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive" in 1986. And, as with most actors, he has also suffered setbacks, such as his ABC private-eye drama "Charlie Grace," which lasted little more than a month in 1995.

So when "NCIS" arrived as a spinoff of the durable but non-flashy military drama "JAG," there was no particular reason to expect fireworks from this new venture.

"We were able to keep it afloat a couple of years because we weren't good enough to get all the attention and we weren't bad enough to get canceled," says Harmon with a laugh. "And the biggest thing: We shoot in Santa Clarita," which sits 30 miles comfortably removed from Los Angeles. "Nobody from the network wanted to drive out there!" Network execs stayed out of their hair.

"NCIS" still shoots at Santa Clarita Studios, which means a lengthy commute for Harmon and many of his cast mates.

That's fine with him. Ten years and running on "NCIS" isn't about to drive him somewhere else.

"I've been acting long enough to appreciate the kind of opportunity this show is," he says. "It's a machine, but it's a machine that's forever changing, and if we're able to maintain what we have here, I don't see any reason why it can't continue for a while."

How long? Harmon answers by explaining what it is about "NCIS" he savors the most.

"I love the drive to work," he says. "I love getting up and looking forward to where I'm going."

If steering his '91 Bimmer northward from his Santa Monica home each dawn ever starts to feel punishing, "I think that will be the time to hang it up," he declares. "But as long as we're finding ways to do new stories and grow these characters, I'll be there."

View the original article here

Florida boy, 7, finds ancient canoe while scuba diving

Sept. 19, 2013: Julia Byrd, a senior archaeologist with the Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research points out a burn mark on a dugout canoe found in Owen Lake in the Ocala National Forest east of Ocala, Fla.AP

OCALA, Fla. –  A 7-year-old boy may have uncovered a piece of history while scuba diving with his grandfather at Owen Lake near Ocala.

Koen Ergle saw a piece of wood in about 8 feet of water a couple of weeks ago and pointed it out to his grandfather, former Marion County Sheriff Ken Ergle.

His grandfather wanted to keep moving, but Koen was persistent.

"He was on my secondary respirator and I could hear him making noises and pointing to the wood," Ken Ergle told the Ocala Star-Banner. "I started fanning the sand off and still wasn't quite sure what it was."

He thought it was an old stump or a piece of a dock, but his grandson said it looked like a canoe. And, after two weekends of digging, they found out he was right. A nearly 20-foot canoe emerged from the lake bed.

"This is very complete, this is in good shape," said Julia Byrd, a senior archaeologist for the Bureau of Archaeological Research, Division of Historical Resources said Thursday. "These are ones we can really learn from."

Byrd was among the officials who came to the site near Ocala to see the canoe. It will be slowly dried and eventually put on display at the Marion County Museum of History and Archaeology.

Byrd took samples to carbon date the canoe, which some believe could be several hundred years old, and to find out what kind of wood was used to build it.

"Many of the canoes found in Florida turn out to be made of pine, rather than cypress," Byrd said. "It's really hard to tell if they are prehistoric or historic. We use to think that the more refined canoes came later, but that is not always the case. People have been living in this area for thousands of years, so that is why we are doing carbon dating."

The process will take several months.

The family donated the canoe to the museum.

"We just moved here two months ago," said the boy's father, Nick Ergle. "It's amazing to think all the history that has gone on in this area."

View the original article here

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What we learned from 'Duck Dynasty' on 'Fox & Friends' this week

This 2012 photo released by A&E shows, from left, Phil Robertson, Jase Robertson, Si Robertson and Willie Robertson from the A&E series, "Duck Dynasty," airing Wednesdays at 10 p.m. EST.A&E

Think you know everything there is to know about A&E's Robertson family? Think again. Here's what we learned from "Fox & Friends" behind-the-scenes look at "Duck Dynasty."

Even Willie can’t understand Uncle Si
It’s good to know we’re not alone in being unable to decipher Si’s jumbled words. “I did an event down in Cancun, and the show actually came on, and I thought about ‘Who has to translate Uncle Si?’” Willie mused. “We don’t know what he’s talking about so good luck translating him.”

The beards haven’t always been around
Jase Roberton’s wife, a self-proclaimed “yuppie girl,” said her husband’s beard used to disappear after hunting season ended. “The beard came just a few years [after we met] just because of hunting season, but it just lasted for hunting season,” Missy said. “The first day after hunting season, he would shave it off, and I got my man back.” But once “Duck Dynasty” took off, Jase’s facial hair became permanent. “Whenever the beard started bringing in the money, he just kept the beard.”

The Robertson’s have ‘Duck Dynasty’ viewing parties
Think “Duck Dynasty” is hilarious? The Robertson family agrees. The whole motley crew watches the show together at Willie and Korie’s house every Wednesday night. “We have church on Wednesday night, so everybody comes straight from church here,” Korie revealed. “Every Wednesday, kids and all. And we actually love to watch it together because we laugh just like everybody else.”

Phil knows a thing or two about politics
“If I were in politics and if you ever get me in the White House, trust me, there’s a big change coming,” Phil said. “What happened to America,” Phil assessed, “We lost our roots.” He said each person should make it their ambition to “live a quiet life” and work for themselves so they “won’t have to be dependent on anyone.”

Yes, Si is “that crazy”
Speaking in third-person Uncle Si explained: “The fans always ask me ‘Is Si that crazy in real life?’ and I said ‘No, hey, he tones it down for television.’” Enough said.

View the original article here

North Dakota town pushes back against white supremacist takeover try

A small town in North Dakota has reportedly formed a legal defense fund to stop a longtime white supremacist from taking over the town-- population 24-- and turning it into an all-white enclave.

"We need people from across the state to come alongside of us and show support that they don’t believe in what this guy is doing," Lee Cook, a Leith City Council member told The Bismarck Tribune. "There are a lot of people who could speak up. It’s not tricky. Silence, to me, means that whatever he’s doing is OK."

Cook was talking about Craig Cobb, a 61 year old, self-described white supremacist, who moved into a house in Leith in Grant County. The county has a 97 percent white population.

"I only need 17 people. You have to have a majority to win an election. If we get 22 we've got a landslide."

- Craig Cobb, a 61 year old, self-described white supremacist

The Southern Poverty Law Center says Cobb has been on something of a real estate shopping spree, buying more than a dozen lots in the town for a few hundred dollars each.

The report says Cobb announced his plans last year on Vanguard News Network, which was described as a white supremacist online forum.

Cobb, who is wanted in Canada for willfully promoting hatred, even made a sales pitch to the like-minded. He praised the area's good paying jobs and the selection of satellite TV providers.

Some white supremacists have already been buying up property from Cobb.

This weekend, state residents have planned a "peaceful show of solidarity" with the town.

"We cannot accept this racist hatred they are bringing here. Leith is in a crisis and is crying out for help," Jeremy Kelly, a resident of Bismarck told The Tribune.

Cobb spends his days in his ramshackle two-story home with no running water, posting online comments advocating for white supremacists to join his settlement.

"I only need 17 people," he said with a chuckle. "You have to have a majority to win an election. If we get 22 we've got a landslide."

Cobb's neighbors across a back alley are Sherrill Harper, who is white, and her husband Bobby, who is black. Bobby Harper, a 52-year-old welder, said he has spoken to Cobb only once, and that Cobb's plans don't bother him much.

"The most extreme thing you can do is hate another man because of the color of his skin, (but) I don't think we should get too excited," he said. "I believe right will prevail."

Ryan Lenz, a writer with the Alabama-based nonprofit law center, said his organization has long tracked Cobb, who is wanted in Canada for willfully promoting hatred in Vancouver in 2010 via a blog.

"It's a pipe dream for white nationalists to have an entire area in which their neighbors are Aryan," Lenz said.

That's hard to achieve, Lenz said, but Cobb has made strides because he has gobbled up land — even transferring some to Tom Metzger, a former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan and founder of the White Aryan Resistance.

That doesn't mean he's any closer to enacting his plan. Metzger said he likes Cobb but that declared plans for white enclaves never work and that he will not be joining Cobb in Leith.

"I think it's better just to have people move in quietly, have a job, operate a regular daily life and get along with their neighbors," he said. "I wouldn't go into a town pushing my weight around."

Cobb, a native of Missouri, fled prosecution in Canada and chased the promise of high-paying jobs in the booming western North Dakota oil fields. He said he was fired from a job because of a dispute with a co-worker and that he lost a job with a Fargo-based paving company after media coverage of his settlement plans.

Canadian authorities have not approached the U.S. to extradite Cobb. Cpl. Normandie Levas of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said the white supremacist can't be extradited because the charge against him in Canada doesn't exist under U.S. law.

Deputy North Dakota Attorney General Tom Trenbeath said authorities are aware of Cobb, and the Grant County Sheriff's Office has increased patrols in the area. But Cobb hasn't broken any laws there, and Schock acknowledges that he has a right to live in Leith, no matter his views.

Cobb's comments and writings indicate he believes in a superior white race, distrusts both Jews and Christians, and questions the intelligence of women. He declines to talk about his upbringing and gives no indication as to why he adopted his supremacist platform.

In an interview outside his house, he was calm, cheerful and even jovial, making comments that raised questions about whether he believes his plan could succeed — or if he's just seeking publicity.

"If I'm the only one in Leith forever, white consciousness has already been raised," he said.

Click for more from The Bismarck Tribune

The Associated Press contributed to this report

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Florida 'hiccup girl' guilty of 1st degree murder

Sept. 17, 2013: Jennifer Mee, center, looks at potential jurors as jury selection begins her murder trial at the Pinellas County Justice Center in Clearwater, Fla.AP

CLEARWATER, Fla. –  A Florida woman who became famous for her uncontrollable hiccupping was found guilty of first-degree murder Friday night and will serve life in prison without parole.

A Pinellas County jury deliberated for four hours before delivering the verdict against 22-year-old Jennifer Mee.

Mee wept in the Clearwater courtroom as the verdict was read. Minutes later, Judge Nancy Moate Ley explained that the only possible sentence for the charge was life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The verdict and five-day trial was a sad end to a chapter in Mee's short and sad life. Her attorneys said she suffered from schizophrenia and Tourette's Syndrome, and a court psychiatrist said Mee's intelligence was "low normal."

As a 15-year-old, Mee developed a case of the hiccups that wouldn't go away. She appeared on several TV shows and while on the "Today" show, was hugged by fellow guest and country music star Keith Urban. She tried home remedies and consulted medical specialists, a hypnotist and an acupuncturist, until the hiccups finally stopped on their own, though not for good.

Her attorney, John Trevena, said his client was on medication to control the hiccupping, and even then, she occasionally had bouts.

She hiccupped briefly during one day of her murder trial.

In 2010, Mee lured Shannon Griffin, a 22-year-old Wal-Mart worker, to an abandoned home under the pretense of buying marijuana. Once there, two of Mee's friends robbed Griffin at gunpoint -- but he struggled and was shot four times.

Mee's co-defendant, LaRon Raiford, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in August. Lamont Newton, the other co-defendant who was also Mee's boyfriend at the time of the crime, has not yet gone to trial.

Trevena said his client did not orchestrate the robbery and that there wasn't enough evidence to convict her. But prosecutors said Mee did set everything up, and used police interviews and a taped jailhouse phone call between Mee and her mother as evidence.

During the call, she told her mother that she did not pull the trigger of the gun that killed Griffin, but that she was charged with murder.

"Because I set everything up," Mee explained during the call that was played for the jury. "It all went wrong, Mom. It just went downhill."

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Cruz pushes plan to block vote on bill defunding ObamaCare

Sen. Ted Cruz is urging his Republican colleagues to block an anticipated procedural vote on a bill that keeps the government open through mid-December while cutting funding from ObamaCare.

The Texas senator, who backed the stopgap measure passed by the GOP-controlled House on Friday, said the vote-blocking strategy is necessary to prevent Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid from using "procedural gimmicks" to restore funding for the health care law.

“If Reid pursues this plan — if he insists on using a 50-vote threshold to fund ObamaCare with a partisan vote of only Democrats — then I hope that every Senate Republican will stand together and oppose cloture on the bill in order to keep the House bill intact and not let Harry Reid add ObamaCare funding back in," Cruz said in a statement.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, suggested Friday that if the Senate approves a cloture motion to end debate on the House bill, Reid could then return with an amendment to eliminate the ObamaCare defunding language from the bill.

“If we want to prevent [Reid] from stripping out the defund language, the strategy on our part would be to block cloture to end debate,” Lee spokesman Brian Phillips told The Hill.

Cruz, one of the most vocal supporters of the “de-fund ObamaCare” push, startled his House colleagues when he released a written statement Wednesday afternoon that appeared to acknowledge the bill will probably fail in the Senate.

He backtracked Thursday, vowing to do "everything and anything possible to defund ObamaCare," including mounting a filibuster.

Cruz and Lee played prominent roles, each appearing in television ads aimed at pressuring Republican lawmakers not to yield. "Republicans in Congress can stop ObamaCare if they simply refuse to fund it," Lee said in one Senate Conservatives Fund-funded commercial.

Current funding for the government is set to expire at the end of the month, and lawmakers must approve the stopgap bill in order to keep Washington open.

Friday's vote in the House was almost completely along party lines and largely expected. The GOP measure would fund the government through Dec. 15, at current funding levels.

The Obama administration threatened in advance to veto the bill if it should pass the Senate as well. Among Democrats, only Reps. Mike McIntyre of North Carolina and Jim Matheson of Utah supported the measure. Virginia Rep. Scott Rigell was the only Republican voting against it.

“Today, the constitutional conservatives in the House are keeping their word to our constituents and our nation to stand true to our principles, to protect them from the most unpopular law ever passed in the history of the country-  ObamaCare- that intrudes on their privacy and our most sacred right as Americans to be left alone,” Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, said on the House floor.

The vote sets the stage for a showdown next week in the Democratic-led Senate. Realistically, the chance of the measure surviving a Senate vote is slim to none. Reid has already announced the bill dead on arrival and called Friday’s vote a “waste of time.”

"Republicans are simply postponing for a few days the inevitable choice they must face: pass a clean bill to fund the government, or force a shutdown,” Reid said in a statement following the vote. “I have said it before but it seems to bear repeating: the Senate will not pass any bill that defunds or delays Obamacare.”

The Senate is in recess until Tuesday.

At a noon rally on Capitol Hill, House Speaker John Boehner said the House vote speaks to the popularity of ObamaCare.

“You've got businesses all over the country who are not hiring because of the impact of this law,” he said. “You've got other businesses who are reducing the hours for their employees because of this law. And so, our message to the United States Senate is real simple: the American people don't want to the government shut down and they don't want ObamaCare.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Atomic bomb nearly exploded over North Carolina in 1961, report says

FILE Aug. 6, 1945: Photo released by the U.S. Army, a mushroom cloud billows about one hour after an atomic bomb was detonated above Hiroshima, western Japan.AP

The U.S. Air Force nearly detonated an atomic bomb over North Carolina in 1961 that would have been 260 times more powerful than the device that destroyed Hiroshima, according to a declassified report published Friday in The Guardian.

The 1969 document, obtained by investigative journalist Eric Schlosser under the Freedom of Information Act, details the Jan. 23, 1961, B-52 crash near Goldsboro, North Carolina, that saw two Mark 39 hydrogen bombs break up in mid-air.

The report said that one of the two bombs behaved exactly as nuclear weapon is designed to function in wartime and that only a single low-voltage switch prevented detonation. Fallout could have been deposited over Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York City, according to the report.

Parker Jones, a senior engineer in the Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M., wrote in the report that "one simple, dynamo-technology, low voltage switch stood between the United States and a major catastrophe".

Jones, analyzing a book by physicist Ralph Lapp on the crash, found that the bombs "did not possess adequate safety for the airborne alert role in the B-52" and concluded that the detonation "would have been bad news – in spades."

Three of the eight crew members died in the crash. In July 2012, the state of North Carolina placed a historic marker in the town of Eureka with the words "nuclear mishap," according to the Raleigh News and Observer.

The Guardian reported that Schlosser obtained the document while conducting research for a new book on the nuclear arms race, "Command and Control."

"The US government has consistently tried to withhold information from the American people in order to prevent questions being asked about our nuclear weapons policy," Schlosser told the newspaper. "We were told there was no possibility of these weapons accidentally detonating, yet here's one that very nearly did."

Click here for more from The Guardian.

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Kansas professor placed on leave after tweet about Navy Yard killings

David Guth is journalism professor at the University of Kansas was placed on administrative leave Friday following a comment he posted on Twitter.Fox4KC.com

A journalism professor at the University of Kansas was placed on administrative leave Friday after posting a comment on Twitter regarding Monday's shooting at the Washington Navy Yard that killed 12 people.

David Guth, an associate professor at the school, went after the National Rifle Association in a Twitter message that read: "#NavyYardShooting The blood is on the hands of the #NRA. Next time, let it be YOUR sons and daughters. Shame on you. May God damn you."

Guth, who said he was writing as a private citizen simply looking to start a debate, has stood by his message.

"I dont apologize for it because I'm not saying in the tweet that I want anybody harmed, and I expanded on it in my blog," Guth told Fox4KC.com. "I defend the NRA's rights first and second amendments and I hope they respect mine."

The Kansas State Rifle Association, however, has called for Guth's immediate dismissal.

"The KSRA will do everything possible to see to the removal of this man," said Kansas State Rifle Association President Patricia Stoneking.

The school's chancellor, Bernadette Gray-Little, made the announcement in a statement Friday about about his "indefinite administrative leave pending a review of the entire situation."

Click for more from Fox4KC.com.

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Celebrities tweet the dumbest things

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Famous people with no discernible talent

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DNA from rock, cigarette helps solve 1995 Utah murder

SALT LAKE CITY –  A cigarette butt proved to be the undoing of a man suspected of killing a girl in Utah 18 years ago, after a sheriff trailed him for four days to grab the DNA evidence.

Without the efforts of Wasatch County Sheriff Todd Bonner, the case would have been forgotten long ago. For Bonner, however, it was personal. As the original investigator in the bludgeoning death of the teenage prostitute in 1995, he couldn't let it go.

"It was haunting me my whole career," Bonner told The Associated Press on Friday. "It doesn't matter that she was a street girl. This is a 17-year-old girl — a human being. I could care less what she did for a living. She was doing what she had to survive."

The body of Krystal Lynn Beslanowitch was found Dec. 6, 1995, along the Provo River near Midway.

Bonner said Joseph Michael Simpson, who was arrested Tuesday, was "never on our radar" until earlier this year, when a lab extracted "touch DNA" from the granite rocks used to crush the teen's skull.

Bonner flew to Sarasota, Fla., to help arrest the unemployed 46-year-old, who was living with his mother there.

A convicted murderer, Simpson had been paroled from Utah State Prison months before Beslanowitch's slaying and probably encountered her on a gritty Salt Lake City street. A shuttle-bus driver for a Utah resort, he would have been familiar with the area around Midway, a mountain town 38 miles southeast of Salt Lake City where she was killed, Bonner said.

Beslanowitch, originally from Spokane, Wash., had been in Utah for five months before her death.

Jeff Beslanowitch, a retired 61-year-old steelworker from Spokane, told the AP that Krystal Beslanowitch was a runaway daughter of his ex-wife, but no blood relation to him, and she "never had a chance in life."

"Krystal had a troubled upbringing with drugs and prostitution. It was quick, easy money," Jeff Beslanowitch said Friday. "I'm glad they got him. It took a long time, but this guy deserves to sit in a cell for the rest of his life."

After years of dead-end leads, improved DNA technology let investigators finally get a full match on Simpson in January from evidence at the rural crime scene.

Salt Lake City-based Sorenson Forensics found Simpson's full DNA on a spot where he had touched one of the granite rocks. The process of collecting it, using a vacuum-assisted instrument, took a full day.

"In forensics, that's fairly new technology," said Cami Green, once a DNA analyst and now a sales manager for Sorenson Forensics. "It is the most sensitive collection method we have at our disposal."

Authorities already had a DNA sample from Simpson from his earlier incarceration, but prosecutors insisted that Bonner retrieve a fresh sample for a match.

The sheriff stalked Simpson with the help of Florida detectives for four days earlier this year. At first, they were hoping to retrieve a glass or spoon he might leave at a restaurant. Instead, Bonner grabbed a discarded cigarette Simpson left at a smoke shop in Sarasota.

Florida law wouldn't give Bonner enough time to arrest Simpson first and then process a DNA sample later, so they had to grab a sample surreptitiously, the sheriff said.

The 350-pound suspect was chatty during his arrest but refused to say anything about the slaying, Bonner said.

Simpson, formerly of Clearfield, Utah, is being held on suspicion of aggravated murder. He has waived extradition and will be brought to Utah within weeks. Bonner expected charges to be filed soon in Utah's 4th District Court.

Bonner credited his detectives "for solving this case for me. They deserve the credit." A year ago, he assigned Detective Brian Gardner to work it full-time.

Krystal Beslanowitch was buried long ago in Spokane, Wash. A message left Friday for her mother wasn't returned.

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The 7 Habits for Managers: Managing Yourself, Leading Others, Unleashing Potential

Habit 1: BE PROACTIVE – Use your resourcefulness and initiative to break the barriers to results. Habit 2: BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND – Make the great contribution you are capable of making. Habit 3: PUT FIRST THINGS FIRST – Focus on a few “wildly important goals” and track your progress. Habit 4: THINK WIN-WIN – Make Win-Win Performance Agreements to motivate superb performance. Habit 5: SEEK FIRST TO UNDERSTAND, THEN TO BE UNDERSTOOD – Practice Empathic Listening and give honest, accurate feedback. Habit 6: SYNERGIZE – Always seek the Third Alternative – the truly creative solution or decision. Habit 7: SHARPEN THE SAW – Unleash the potential of your team members by tapping the “whole person.”

The 7 Habits for Managers: Managing Yourself, Leading Others, Unleashing Potential

Boom in energy production sends US shipyards into overdrive

The Great American Energy Boom is having a major ripple effect on the shipbuilding industry, which thanks to a 1920s maritime law, is busier than it has been in decades.

Some ten supertankers are currently under construction at U.S. shipyards, with orders for another 15 in the pipeline. That may not seem like a huge number, but considering there are only about 75 such tankers plying American ports now, it represents a genuine boat-building boom.

“We haven’t seen something like this since the 1970s,” Matthew Paxton, president of the Shipbuilders Council of America said to FoxNews.com. “The movement of more oil has built up a real commercial shipbuilding renaissance.”

“We haven’t seen something like this since the 1970s.”

- Matthew Paxton, president of the Shipbuilders Council of America

The renaissance comes despite an economy that continues to struggle. It's because of a specific sector of the U.S. economy that is also booming: natural gas production. The fuel must be transported, even within the country, either by rail, pipeline or ship. And if it is by ship, the ship must be American-made and American-manned, according to the 1920s Merchant Marine Act, also known as the Jones Act.

Paxton said that it is projected that up to 3.3 million barrels will be shipped out daily from the Gulf Coast by 2020, destined for ports along the east and west coasts, causing huge demand for tanker ships.

“It could be higher as more and more tankers are built,” he said.

With record amounts of gas and oil being extracted from shale by the process of fracking, the U.S. has seen an energy boom in recent years that has proponents calling it the Saudi Arabia of natural gas. Much of the fuel is being exported, but most is staying here, being distributed around the nation for domestic use.

The Aker Philadelphia Shipyard recently announced that it invested a total of $115 million to construct four tanks and plans to build eight in total.

“The shale revolution is creating industrial opportunities throughout the United States and specifically here in Philadelphia,” Kristian Rokke, President & CEO of AKPS, said in a recent statement. “This strategic opportunity allows us to capitalize on the increased demand for Jones Act tankers in a way that will transform APSI in the years ahead.”

Constructing one tanker, which could be more than 600 feet long and nearly 200 feet wide, can cost upwards of $100 million. Once they are up and running, the ships more than earn their keep. Transport companies pay up to $100,000 per day over a five-year contract to lease them.

Currently, the shipping industry contributes $36 billion to the economy.

“We need another shipyard or two,” said Bob Flynn, president of shipbroker MJLF & Associates in Stamford, Conn., at the recent TradeWinds Jones Act Shipping Forum in New York.

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Ex-NFLer to parents: Don't punish me for kids' bad behavior

This transcript is automatically generated

VERY BAD.

THEY TRASHED THE HOME OF A FORMER NFL STAR.

THE TEENAGERS BREAKING INTO FORMER RAIDERS AND PAT REITS PLAYER BRIAN HOLLOWAY'S UPSTATE NEW YORK VACATION HOME THROWING AN OUT OF CONTROL PARTY.

ALL CAUGHT ON CAMERA.

WHY IS THE FORMER FOOTBALL PLAYER FACING A POSSIBLE LEGAL BATTLE? BRIAN HOLLOWAY AND HIS SON JOIN US.

GOOD EVENING.

>> HELLO.

>> HOW'S IT GOING? >> VERY WELL.

I'M TEAM HOLLOWAY ON OH THIS.

ANYWAY, THE STORY IS EXTRAORDINARY.

FIRST TO YOU, SIR, BRIAN, SR.

WHAT HAPPENED? >> SO I WAS AT HOME IN FLORIDA AND BRIAN CALLED ME AND SAID THERE IS SOMETHING GOING DOWN.

HE SENT ME OVER A BUNCH OF TWEETS.

HE GOT WORD FROM A FRIEND WHO PICKED UP THE CHIRPING ON TWITTER THAT THERE WAS A PARTY AT THE HOUSE.

WE QUICKLY DISCOVERED 170 TWEETS OF PEOPLE AT THE PARTY DRINKING, WHATEVER.

SO WE WERE SHOCKED.

BLEW WAY PAST FURIOUS.

TOLD BRIAN TO CAPTURE ALL THE DIGITAL DATA AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE.

THEN I HAD TO FOCUS ON WHAT WAS MOST IMPORTANT.

EVERYTHING THAT WAS BROKEN CAN BE FIXED.

EVERYTHING THAT WAS STOLEN CAN BE RETURNED.

TO SEE WHAT WE CAN DO TO HELP SAVE THESE 300 LIVES.

THAT WAS THE BEST AND HEALTHIEST WAY FOR ME TO LOOK AT WHAT OCCURRED.

BECAUSE IT WAS OVERWHELMING IN MANY WAYS.

>> LET ME GO TO BRIAN, JR.

TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED, HOW THE PICTURES OF THE CULPRITS ENDED UP -- WHERE? >> PEOPLE WERE UPDATING THE STATUSES AND SITUATIONS THAT THEY WERE AT AND ALL THE FUN THEY WERE HAVING AND HOW THE CRAZY NIGHT, HOW THEY CAN'T EVEN REMEMBER IT.

IT WAS A BLUR AND THEY WILL NEVER FORGET THE FRIENDS THEY MADE, BUT THEY WILL FORGET THE PARTY.

A BUNCH OF -- A CLUSTER OF UNDER-THE-INFLUENCE ET TWEETS, I WOULD SAY, AND SO THAT WAS UNRAVELING IN FRONT OF US.

OF COURSE THE AFTERMATH OF SEEING HOW GREAT THE PARTY WAS.

WE LOOKED BEFOREHAND ON, I GUESS THERE WAS A LEAD--UP TO THE PARTY AS WELL.

>> AS I UNDERSTAND IT THERE IS $20,000 IN DAMAGE.

YOU HAVE NOW IDENTIFIED THE TEENAGERS WHO DID IT.

YOU HAVE THEIR PUBLIC PHOTOS BECAUSE THEY UPDATED AND TWEETED, TALKED ABOUT IT.

YOU THEN PUT IT ON A PARTICULAR WEBSITE.

IS THAT RIGHT? >> WHAT WE DID IS WE TOOK THE PICTURES THEY TWEETED ABOUT AND POSTED THEM ON HELPMESAVE300.

COM.

>> WHAT'S BEEN THE RESPONSE FROM THE TEENAGERS WHO ARE PART OF THE TRASHING AND THEIR FAMILIES? >> I THINK THEY WERE IN SHOCK.

ALL I DID WAS REVEAL STUFF THEY HAD ALREADY POSTED.

SO WHAT I DID WAS BRING TO SURFACE A CONVERSATION THAT WAS GOING TO ALLOW THE PARENTS AND THE COMMUNITY TO SAY, WHAT SHOULD WE DO ABOUT THIS, HOW SHOULD WE BE ACCOUNTABLE, WHERE DID WE GET OFFING TRAB AND HOW DO WE FIND OUR WAY BACK? >> YOU ARE A LOT NICER PERSON THAN I AM.

YOU PUT THE PUBLIC PICTURES THE TEENS PUT ON A WEBSITE.

I MAY HAVE BEEN TEMPTED TO TRACK DOWN PICTURES OF THE PARENTS WHO LOST CONTROL OF THEIR CHILDREN OR HAVE EVEN RAISED CHILDREN WHO THINK IT IS OKAY TO BREAK INTO A HOUSE AND TRASH THE JOINT.

>> I HADN'T THOUGHT OF THAT.

I COULD SEE WHERE IF PUSH COMES TO SHOVE SOMEONE WOULD COME IN AND I COULD TAKE THAT A LONG WAY.

UH KNOW HOW TO DO IT.

>> BRIAN, JR., DO YOU KNOW THESE KIDS? >> I KNOW ABOUT A DOZEN OF THEM.

THEY WERE CLASSMATES OF MINE GROWING UP.

THE MAJORITY OF THE STUDENTS THAT WERE THERE WERE GRADES UNDER ME.

SO I DIDN'T KNOW A MAJORITY OF THE STUDENTS THERE.

>> BRIAN, SR., LET ME EGO BACK TO YOU.

UH TAKE IT NOW THE PARENTS FLIPPED OUT BECAUSE YOU PUT THEIR HOODLUM VANDAL TEERNLS ON THIS WEBSITE.

HAVE UH THEY THREATENED YOU WITH A LAWSUIT? >> WELL, THERE WAS CHATTER ABOUT THAT.

I'M PREPARE ED FOR THAT IF IT SHOULD HAPPEN.

I DON'T KNOW WHERE THEY ARE WITH THAT.

IF IT UH DOES HAPPEN, YOU WILL KNOW.

I I WILL POST IT RIGHT ON THE SITE.

I WILL POST ALL THE DOCUMENTS.

AND THERE ARE MANY LEGAL PROFESSIONALS AROUND THE COUNTRY WHO SAID IF I NEED THEIR HELP IN ANY WAY THEY WILL STAND READY.

I'M NOT SURE HOW THAT MAKES SENSE WHERE YOU WILL PRESS CHARGES.

THEIR CHILD WAS IN MY HOME, STEAL ING, VANDALIZING, DOING DRUGS, DRINKING OR JUST BEING THERE.

AND YOU'RE MAD AT ME FOR POSTING A PICTURE THAT I GOT FROM YOUR CHILD'S OR THEIR FRIENDS' TWEETS.

I'M NOT SURE I UNDERSTAND HOW THAT'S BREAKING THE LAW.

>> CAN I TELL YOU ONE THING THAT'S AMAZING? I UNDERSTAND YOU PUT OUT THAT YOU WANTED THE KIDS TO HELP CLEAN IT UP.

JUST BASICALLY TEACH SOME RESPONSIBILITY TO THEM.

ONE OF THE PEOPLE INVOLVED SHOWED UP.

THAT'S THE KID I WOULD WANT TO HIRE.

SOMEONE WHO MADE A MISTAKE AND HAS THE COURAGE TO STEP UP TO THE PLATE AND OFFER TO CLEAN IT UP.

>> THAT'S WHAT I SAID.

I SAID, NUMBER ONE, I WANT TO ACKNOWLEDGE YOU FOR THE COURAGE TO STEP FORWARD AND STAND ACCOUNTABLE.

I SAID, NUMBER TWO, WE ARE GOING TO HAVE A CONVERSATION -- YOU AND ME -- ABOUT WHAT OCCURRED.

THERE IS AN INJURY HERE THAT NEEDS TO BE RECONCILED.

NUMBER THREE, WHAT YOU NEED TO DO NOW IS GO TALK TO YOU ARE I DON'T FATHER BECAUSE OF OH WHAT YOU DID TO TOTALLY EMBARRASS AND DISREGARD EVERYTHING THAT FATHER TRIED TO PUT IN YOU.

I SAID, GET ON A WORK CREW AND CLEAN UP.

HE DID.

>> THAT'S THE KID WHO MAY HAVE DONE WRONG BUT STEPPED UP AND SHOWED SOMETHING EXTRAORDINARY.

FOR SOME REASON THAT KID IS AMAZING TO ME.

THANK YOU BOTH VERY MUCH.

I HOPE YOUR HOUSE IS CLEANED UP AND I HOPE YOU DON'T GET SUED.

>> THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

>> NOW TO A GRUESOME MYSTERY UNFOLDING IN ALASKA.

AN ANONYMOUS NOTE LEADING POLICE

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