faster_than_you

Potty trained...

This is how you dry your wet cat...

Miami city leaders are apologizing for a news release that invited summer campers to a ''Ghetto Style Talent Show'' and ''Watermelon Eating Contest.'' The release said that children participating in the summer camp who "know the meaning of ghetto style" would have a chance to "prove just how ghetto they are.'' Members of the black community expressed outrage at the wording of the invitation to the talent show. The show will be part of the grand finale picnic for the city's summer camp program to be held Friday at Hadley Park. After being criticized by residents of the nearby Model City neighborhood and community leaders, Miami Parks Director Ernest Burkeen, who is black, released a formal apology and announced the renaming of the talent show. The show will now be called the "Funky Talent Show," according to Burkeen's written statement. The watermelon contest will still be part of the event. Even though the name has been changed, Burkeen did still continue to defend the choice of the name for the show. "The word 'ghetto' was used to imply a down home show, not something offensive, but embracing the culture of today's youth and their language," he said. Church and community leaders said that changing the name isn't enough -- the damage has already been done. "It's almost equivalent to saying, 'We're having bananas at Jose Marti Park' and referring to Miami as a 'Banana Republic,'" the Rev. Richard Dunn said. Other critics said that the watermelon eating contest is a painful reminder of racially insensitive stereotypes. "Watermelon, back in the days, was a good food for African Americans, according to the Bible, but at the same time, it had an attachment with slavery and bondage ties," the Rev. Carl Johnson said. Some members of the community had a different perspective and said that critics were missing the point. Michael Hardaway said, "They have to understand that the young generation has a whole different style than they do … At a ghetto-style talent show the kids are getting together to show their talent." Other community activists said changing the name of the contest is just the start of what needs to happen. Dunn suggested that instead of buying hundreds of watermelons for the contest, the money could be spent on school supplies and backpacks for kids who need them. Andre Williams said, "No more watermelons --- and as Reverend Dunn says, we need to give books and school supplies to our children." City officials said Tuesday that the contest is popular and it will not be canceled. The picnic will go on Friday as planned and will include up to 3,000 children from across the city.

More than 60,000 copies of the board game "Ghettopoly" were seized by the U.S. Attorney's Office for infringing on "Monopoly's" trademark. Tony Fuller tosses seized copies onto a heap at JKM Fiber in Tacoma, where they were destroyed. (July 26, 2005) Scott Eklund/Seattle Post-Intelligencer

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4713323.stm A sculpted and polished phallus found in a German cave is among the earliest representations of male sexuality ever uncovered, researchers say. The 20cm-long, 3cm-wide stone object, which is dated to be about 28,000 years old, was buried in the famous Hohle Fels Cave near Ulm in the Swabian Jura. The prehistoric "tool" was reassembled from 14 fragments of siltstone. Its life size suggests it may well have been used as a sex aid by its Ice Age makers, scientists report. "In addition to being a symbolic representation of male genitalia, it was also at times used for knapping flints," explained Professor Nicholas Conard, from the department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, at Tübingen University. "There are some areas where it has some very typical scars from that," he told the BBC News website. Researchers believe the object's distinctive form and etched rings around one end mean there can be little doubt as to its symbolic nature. "It's highly polished; it's clearly recognisable," said Professor Conard. The Tübingen team working Hohle Fels already had 13 fractured parts of the phallus in storage, but it was only with the discovery of a 14th fragment last year that the team was able finally to put the "jigsaw" together. The different stone sections were all recovered from a well-dated ash layer in the cave complex associated with the activities of modern humans (not their pre-historic "cousins", the Neanderthals). The dig site is one of the most remarkable in central Europe. Hohle Fels stands more than 500m above sea level in the Ach River Valley and has produced thousands of Upper Palaeolithic items. Some have been truly exquisite in their sophistication and detail, such as a 30,000-year-old avian figurine crafted from mammoth ivory. It is believed to be one of the earliest representations of a bird in the archaeological record. There are other stone objects known to science that are obviously phallic symbols and are slightly older - from France and Morocco, of particular note. But to have any representation of male genitalia from this time period is highly unusual. "Female representations with highly accentuated sexual attributes are very well documented at many sites, but male representations are very, very rare," explained Professor Conard. Current evidence indicates that the Swabian Jura of southwestern Germany was one of the central regions of cultural innovation after the arrival of modern humans in Europe some 40,000 years ago. The Hohle Fels phallus will go on show at Blaubeuren prehistoric museum in an exhibition called Ice Art - Clearly Male.

SHOT SEVEN TIMES IN HEAD Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes was shot eight times by anti-terror police at Stockwell Tube station. An inquest opened into the death of the 27-year-old at Southwark Coroner's Court heard he was shot seven times in the head and once in the shoulder. The details of his death have been confirmed by the Independent Police Complaints Commission. Eye-witnesses to the shooting last week spoke of hearing around five shots. His cousin Alex Pereira has said his family may sue the police, who mistakenly thought he was a terror suspect. Asked if the family was taking legal action, he said: "They have to pay for that in many ways, because if they do not, they are going to kill many people, they are going to kill thousands of people. They just kill the first person they see, that's what they did." The 28-year-old added: "They killed my cousin, they could kill anyone." A police chief defended the "shoot to kill" policy as a last resort. Chris Fox, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, said: "We have a series of tactics which range from disruption, to the very, very final moment when you have to shoot and the aim is to prevent the criminal or suspect causing harm to other people." He said that a new range of tactics had been set up in response to the threat posed by suicide bombers. Shooting at the body would not always incapacitate a bomber enough to stop him detonating explosives, and could even set off a device, he said. Police would always issue a warning before shooting, he added. He said: "They challenge repeatedly because they do not want to shoot." Mr de Menezes had been working legally in Britain for three years after moving here from Brazil.

It seems surprising that people are making excuses for the "shoot first" policy. If this is the case, the terrorist might actually be winning. Below article describes how things aren't so smooth in NYC. Terror scare rattles city BY TAMER EL-GHOBASHY, TONY SCLAFANI, WARREN WOODBERRY JR. and DAVE GOLDINER DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS New York was fear city yesterday as heavily armed police swarmed a double-decker bus packed with tourists in Times Square and later shut down Penn Station after an irate passenger said he had a bomb. In a dramatic sign of the city's edginess since the London transit bombings, cops evacuated buildings, shut midtown streets and forced about 60 terrified tourists to march off the double-decker bus, with their hands up, in the heart of Broadway. Cops in riot gear handcuffed a group of apparently harmless South Asian-looking men with British accents after a jittery tour bus worker reported they seemed suspicious. The men were forced to kneel on the sidewalk, with their hands bound behind their backs, between 50th and 51st Sts. in front of the Winter Garden theater on a sunny summer Sunday with the city packed with tourists. "People were really scared," said Jill Sully, 29, of Saskatoon, Canada. "There were sharpshooters with guns pointed toward our bus." "I was scared out of my mind," said another passenger, Amanda Pesanello, 20, of Coventry, R.I. "We don't have things like this in Rhode Island." The dramatic faceoff on Broadway came just days after the NYPD ratcheted up security after the July 7 and July 21 London transit bombs and began searching bags in the subway. It also came after an apparently innocent man was killed Friday by London cops who mistook him for a fleeing terrorist. The five men in yesterday's incident quickly were freed after cops determined they were tourists - not terrorists. "We just want to clear our heads of the whole thing," one of the men told the Daily News. "We were humiliated enough." "We just want to go," added another. The scare unfolded about 11:30 a.m. after a Gray Line sightseeing bus worker told the driver some of the passengers getting aboard appeared suspicious. "I was definitely frightened from the beginning," said the driver, Mohammed Stout, 43, of the Bronx. "That's human nature." A Gray Line dispatcher called 911 and told cops the men had backpacks and their pockets "stuffed" - a possible warning sign of suicide bombers, said NYPD spokesman Paul Browne. By the time the bus neared Times Square, cops carrying heavy weapons decided to cordon off Broadway and stop the vehicle, a decision police officials defended as appropriate. Bus passenger Kathy Arrigo, 45, of White Plains, said most of the tourists initially laughed off the show of force. But the mood turned edgier as the cops kept the big red bus there for nearly 30 minutes. Fear grew when cops ordered everyone to put their hands up and walk off the bus - leaving their bags to be searched. "You want to talk about real terror?" said Arrigo's husband, Robert. "There were two little girls with their parents who were just terrified. They were crying uncontrollably." Cops raced into a McDonald's nearby and told workers to shut down the place and get out as fast as they could. "The cops just came in and said to evacuate the building and to run," said McDonald's employee Catherine Melendez. Police eventually gave the allclear and the tourists were ushered into a nearby Applebee's restaurant for lunch. They later got back on a Gray Line bus to continue their tour. Meanwhile, about 12:15 p.m., Penn Station was paralyzed when a disgruntled passenger, identified as Raul Claudio, 43, of the Bronx, walked up to a ticket counter, put his suitcase on the counter and declared he had a bomb, authorities said. The contents of the suitcase proved harmless. The man was detained, and was to be charged with making a terroristic threat and falsely reporting an incident. Hundreds of passengers were forced to evacuate the terminal and thousands more were delayed when Amtrak, commuter railroad and subway service was frozen for more than an hour. "What can you do?" shrugged Dan Lindgren, 46, of Arlington, Va. "It's the times we live in."

Maybe it could be monorail over the new boarders...

They don't. But we do, and it's good...

Running from the police will now be executing offense in GB...

yeah .. that's me ... "fucking stupid" .... having lost a friend in 9/11 does that to you Sorry you lost a friend on 9/11. Still doesn't change the fact that shooting on "suspicion" is f*ck*ng way out of control. Defend your second amendment rights folks.

Yes. I've done it before. Yup, I've done it too... Thankfully I got away. As you can tell, I'm fast.

Wow. That story ended waaaaaaaay different than I thought it was going to. Phew. The squirrels in "The Claw" are all scared these days...

What are you saying? What about all those questions at the trailhead? I'm on the summit now, can you believe?

Thanks for pointing the article out! There is a nice photo show with it.

Squirrel fires regular occurrence in Canadian border town The Associated Press OSOYOOS, British Columbia — Once again, a squirrel clambering onto a power line has been blamed for a brush fire in this border town north of Oroville, Wash. Firefighters were summoned Monday after a squirrel scrambled up a Fortis Inc. utility pole, got zapped and landed in flames on some dry brush outside a fruit packing business, Fire Chief Ross Driver said. By the time a pumper truck and a bush truck arrived, nearby residents had doused the flames. "This identical incident has happened on the same pole one or two times a year for the past several years," Driver said. Each time, firefighters find a dead, burned squirrel at the base of the utility pole, he said. Driver said he didn't know what Fortis could do to prevent future squirrel-caused fires.

Another cc convert joins the race to find The Nodder.

I think Dru's right... but whatever, pass a new law if it makes everyone feel better... Perhaps, however, the law makers could focus or larger more relevant issues to the population. Anwyay, seems like some sort of justice was served here. I also wonder what type STD's one gets from farm animals? Creepy...

Almost forgot... When asked "did you summit?" I also like to answer, "I'm on the summit now; can you you believe it!"

One problem I have with "did you summit" questions is that they reveal how much people (i.e. the inquiring bystander) only consider "the summit" and not the entirety of the trip. If asked, "Where did you go? How was your weekend? How high did you get? (not a question for Ivan ) or What it's like up there? I tend to give away a lot more information about climbing. I vote MattP as climbing spokes-person.

Could have PC down in Tacoma so that folks can attend the memorial at the Tac Mountaineers... I'm part Irish, we love a good drink during/after the wake/memorial... Just a suggestion...

Puke O Rama...

I hunted The Nodder with Karl Rove.

This is a pretty good response. Sometimes it's more fun to look at them with a straight face and state in plain english say, "I do not speak english," (you can say "American" for added effect.)

Hey cakehole, I summited page three.