Beast of Bodmin invades garden

THIS is the mini Beast of Bodmin – caught on camera in a back garden in the Cornish town.

A stunned couple spotted the exotic intruder and filmed it when it returned for food they left out.

It was identified as a palm civet – a cat-sized mammal normally found in the forests of the Philippines, Himalayas and China.

Experts were called in from nearby Newquay Zoo who caught the creature in a humane trap.

Zoo curator Stewart Muir said the civet had probably escaped from a private collection.

He said: ”This is not the sort of animal you would expect to find roaming in the countryside, so it came as a big surprise to see the film footage of a civet.

”A small number are kept and bred in the UK as pets so I strongly suspect that it has escaped from a private collection.

”They are omnivorous and will eat almost anything. While they are not aggressive, they are capable of giving a nasty bite if cornered and would wreak havoc in anyone’s hen house.

”For a tropical animal they are surprisingly hardy. I remember seeing them in Moscow Zoo living and breeding quite happily in sub-zero temperatures.

”With the mild climate in Cornwall, this chap could easily survive in the wild.

via The Sun

Scientists Discover ‘Dancing’ Algae

Scientists at the Cambridge University have discovered that freshwater algae can form stable groupings in which they dance around each other, miraculously held together only by the fluid flows they create.

The researchers studied the multicellular organism Volvox, which consists of approximately 1,000 cells arranged on the surface of a spherical matrix about half a millimetre in diameter. Each of the surface cells has two hair-like appendages known as flagella, whose beating propels the colony through the fluid and simultaneously makes them spin about an axis.

The researchers found that colonies swimming near a surface can form two types of “bound states”; the “waltz”, in which the two colonies orbit around each other like a planet circling the sun, and the “minuet”, in which the colonies oscillate back and forth as if held by an elastic band between them. …

Professor Raymond E. Goldstein, the Schlumberger Professor of Complex Physical Systems in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP) and lead author of the study, said: “These striking and unexpected results remind us not only of the grace and beauty of life, but also that remarkable phenomena can emerge from very simple ingredients.”

via Scientists Discover ‘Dancing’ Algae.

F.B.I. and States Vastly Expand DNA Databases

Law enforcement officials are vastly expanding their collection of DNA to include millions more people who have been arrested or detained but not yet convicted. The move, intended to help solve more crimes, is raising concerns about the privacy of petty offenders and people who are presumed innocent.

Until now, the federal government genetically tracked only convicts. But starting this month, the Federal Bureau of Investigation will join 15 states that collect DNA samples from those awaiting trial and will collect DNA from detained immigrants — the vanguard of a growing class of genetic registrants.

The F.B.I., with a DNA database of 6.7 million profiles, expects to accelerate its growth rate from 80,000 new entries a year to 1.2 million by 2012 — a 17-fold increase. F.B.I. officials say they expect DNA processing backlogs — which now stand at more than 500,000 cases — to increase.

Law enforcement officials say that expanding the DNA databanks to include legally innocent people will help solve more violent crimes. They point out that DNA has helped convict thousands of criminals and has exonerated more than 200 wrongfully convicted people.

But criminal justice experts cite Fourth Amendment privacy concerns and worry that the nation is becoming a genetic surveillance society.

“DNA databases were built initially to deal with violent sexual crimes and homicides — a very limited number of crimes,” said Harry Levine, a professor of sociology at City University of New York who studies policing trends. “Over time more and more crimes of decreasing severity have been added to the database. Cops and prosecutors like it because it gives everybody more information and creates a new suspect pool.”…

via the gates of hell

Mylow, Scam or secret technology supression?

Here is the latest video:

I signed up for the newsgroup and here is the latest email supposedly written to “Sterling D. Allan” from “mylow”:

Dear good friend.

The cake is great.  All the ingredients are perfect.  ‘Can’t stop eating. I feel good, and soon the world will know that magnetic force energy is real. No demagnetization of the stator.

The cake keeps turning. They left me alone.  ‘Did talk to me.  No threat at this time. I have seen my device evolve in secret. The time will come soon. Say hi to *** for me.  I didn’t forget you guys.

Stator still gets cold very cold. Government knows all, and they have this technology. I have seen the light.  ‘Can’t talk about it, but they are letting me build my cake.  It’s wonderful.  I will send you a picture of my nice cake soon.

I have been reading a lot about magnetic formulas and magnetic moments in ferril magnetism and spintronics.  They are not so bad after all. I will be setting up a lab soon with all the tools I need to make a better cake for the world.  Thanks for believing in me.  I will never forget Howard and what he has done. Again they want to know how I make such a good cake.  And I have to comply.

I have learned a lot and am very fortunate to have a loving family and good friends like you and ***. All my calls where monitored and my computer as well.  They have Howards and my technology.  Suppression is very real.  They control what is let out to the world.  I know; I’ve seen it.  ‘Can’t talk about it.

Here is the original video:

Some say Sterling is Mylow and that there is a record player under the device turning it at 33 1/3rd RPM.  Sterling’s voice sounds similar to Mylow’s, but the accent is different. This video is on a glass table, but mylow still doesn’t show all the way around the device while it is operating. Frustrating.

I could replicate this by sliding a running record turntable with magnets on it under the glass table out of view of the camera and that would cause the device to start spinning.

Videos of other attempts make it look like mylow might have hit something…

I highly doubt it. Someone would have replicated the continuous motion by now and posted a video if mylow’s design worked.

Dick Cheney and other Bush officials may be arrested

“Imagine Dick arrested. It isn’t hard to do. No need for greed or torture, no need to make lies true. Imagine all the people, living life in peace …”

Good luck with that.  It’s complicated. He knows too much and he could bring down the entire US government by exposing certain things. He could start World War III if he wanted, knowing what he knows.

European prosecutors are likely to investigate CIA and Bush administration officials on suspicion of violating an international ban on torture if they are not held legally accountable at home, according to U.N. officials and human rights lawyers.

Many European officials and civil liberties groups said they were disappointed by President Obama’s opposition to trials of CIA interrogators who subjected terrorism suspects to waterboarding and other harsh tactics. They said the release last week of secret U.S. Justice Department memos authorizing the techniques will make it easier for foreign prosecutors to open probes if U.S. officials do not.

Some European countries, under a legal principle known as universal jurisdiction, have adopted laws giving themselves the authority to investigate torture, genocide and other human rights crimes anywhere in the world, even if their citizens are not involved. Although it is rare for prosecutors to win such cases, those targeted can face arrest if they travel abroad.

Martin Scheinin, the U.N. special investigator for human rights and counterterrorism, said the interrogation techniques approved by the Bush administration clearly violated international law. He said the lawyers who wrote the Justice Department memos, as well as senior figures such as former vice president Richard B. Cheney, will probably face legal trouble overseas if they avoid prosecution in the United States.

“Torture is an international crime irrespective of the place where it is committed. Other countries have an obligation to investigate,” Scheinin said in a telephone interview from Cairo. “This may be something that will be haunting CIA officials, or Justice Department officials, or the vice president, for the rest of their lives.”

Manfred Nowak, another senior U.N. official who investigates torture accusations, said the Obama administration is violating terms of the U.N. Convention Against Torture by effectively granting amnesty to CIA interrogators. He said the United States, as a signatory to the treaty, is legally obligated to investigate suspected cases of torture. He also said Washington must provide compensation to torture victims, including al-Qaeda leaders who were waterboarded.

“One cannot buy the argument anymore that this does not amount to torture,” he said. “These memos are nothing but an attempt to circumvent the absolute prohibition on torture.”