I'd like to buy that.

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Jul 14, 4:05 PM EDT
Woman Asks 911 to Send 'Cutie Pie' Deputy
ALOHA, Ore. (AP) -- A woman who called 911 to get "the cutest cop I've seen" sent back to her home got a date all right - a court date.
The same sheriff's deputy arrested her on charges of misuse of the emergency dispatch system.
Washington County Sheriff's Sgt. David Thompson told KGW-TV of Portland it all started with a noise complaint called in last month by neighbors of Lorna Jeanne Dudash. The deputy sent to check on the complaint knocked on her door, then left.
Thompson said Dudash then called 911, asking that the "cutie pie" deputy return.
"He's the cutest cop I've seen in a long time. I just want to know his name," Dudash told the dispatcher. "Heck, it doesn't come very often a good man comes to your doorstep."
After listening to some more, followed by a bit of silence, the dispatcher asked again why Dudash needed the deputy to return.
"Honey, I'm just going to be honest with you, OK? I just thought he was cute. I'm 45 years old and I'd just like to meet him again, but I don't know how to go about doing that without calling 911," she said.
"I know this is absolutely not in any way, shape or form an emergency, but if you would give the officer my phone number and ask him to come back, would you mind?"
The deputy returned, verified that there was no emergency and arrested her for misusing the 911 system, an offense punishable by a fine of up to several thousand dollars and a year in jail.
Thompson said Thursday it was the first case he knew of in which someone called the emergency line for such a personal reason.
"That's taking up valuable time from dispatchers who could be taking true emergency calls," he said.
See page two-As quiet as a computer!?![]()
But where do you buy the hydrogen from?
Canisters of pure hydrogen are readily available from hydrogen producers. But roadside hydrogen stations are few and far between.
To overcome this hurdle, Intelligent Energy is currently developing devices called reformers that extract hydrogen from biodiesel fuels (typically made from vegetable oils or animal fats) and ethanol (generally made from grain or corn). The units would sell for around U.S. $1,500 and could produce enough hydrogen to fill up the ENV for about 25 cents per tank, Eggleston said.
Raven cited in power outage
Daily News staff
Published: July 12, 2006
Last Modified: July 12, 2006 at 02:45 PM
Some 25,000 Chugach Electric customers in East and South Anchorage lost power this morning after a raven caused a substation to go offline, a company official said.
Power was restored to many customers by 10 a.m.
The outage occurred around 8:15 a.m., according to Chugach Electric spokeswoman Patty Bogan. It started with the University substation off Tudor Road, which triggered seven other substations to go offline.
The seven substations were on Baxter Road, Boniface Parkway, DeBarr Road, Dowling Road, O'Malley Road, Huffman Road and the Hillside, Bogan said.
Bogan said workers found a dead raven at the University substation. They are still investigating what exactly the bird hit.
Bogan said around 10 a.m. that power had been restored to all customers except those on the Hillside. The breakers at the Hillside substation aren't working properly, Bogan said, so it is taking longer to bring it online.
THE RAVEN.
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
"'T is some visiter," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door--
Only this, and nothing more."
Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow:--vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow--sorrow for the lost Lenore--
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore--
Nameless here for evermore.
And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me--filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating
"'T is some visiter entreating entrance at my chamber door
Some late visiter entreating entrance at my chamber door;--
This it is, and nothing more."
Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
"Sir," said I, "or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;
But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,
That I scarce was sure I heard you"--here I opened wide the door;--
Darkness there, and nothing more.
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before;
But the silence was unbroken, and the darkness gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, "Lenore!"
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, "Lenore!"
Merely this and nothing more.
Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,
Soon again I heard a tapping, somewhat louder than before.
"Surely," said I, "surely that is something at my window lattice;
Let me see, then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore--
Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore;--
'T is the wind and nothing more!"
Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,
In there stepped a stately Raven of the saintly days of yore.
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door--
Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door--
Perched, and sat, and nothing more.
Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,
"Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said, "art sure no craven,
Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the Nightly shore,--
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!"
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."
Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,
Though its answer little meaning--little relevancy bore;
For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being
Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door--
Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door,
With such name as "Nevermore."
But the Raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only
That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.
Nothing further then he uttered--not a feather then he fluttered--
Till I scarcely more than muttered, "Other friends have flown before--
On the morrow _he_ will leave me, as my hopes have flown before."
Then the bird said, "Nevermore."
Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,
"Doubtless," said I, "what it utters is its only stock and store,
Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful Disaster
Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore--
Till the dirges of his Hope that melancholy burden bore
Of 'Never--nevermore.'"
But the Raven still beguiling all my sad soul into smiling,
Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird and bust and door;
Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking
Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore--
What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt and ominous bird of yore
Meant in croaking "Nevermore."
This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing
To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom's core;
This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining
On the cushion's velvet lining that the lamplight gloated o'er,
But whose velvet violet lining with the lamplight gloating o'er
_She_ shall press, ah, nevermore!
Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer
Swung by seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor.
"Wretch," I cried, "thy God hath lent thee--by these angels he hath sent thee
Respite--respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore!
Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost Lenore!"
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."
"Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil!--prophet still, if bird or devil!--
Whether Tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,
Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted--
On this home by Horror haunted--tell me truly, I implore--
Is there--_is_ there balm in Gilead?--tell me--tell me, I implore!"
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."
"Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil--prophet still, if bird or devil!
By that Heaven that bends above, us--by that God we both adore--
Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,
It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore--
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore."
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."
"Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!" I shrieked, upstarting--
"Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore!
Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!
Leave my loneliness unbroken!--quit the bust above my door!
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!"
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."
And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming,
And the lamplight o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted--nevermore!
Malaysian Couple Skydive on Anniversary
By Associated Press
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - A Malaysian couple celebrated their 37th wedding anniversary Sunday by jumping out of an aircraft at 9,000 feet in their first ever parachute jump, a news report said
Cheah Sum Beng, 64, and wife Choo Kit Har, 61, earned themselves an entry in the Malaysia Book of Records as the oldest pair to skydive from a helicopter, the national news agency Bernama said.
They went into a 30-second freefall before opening their parachute, Bernama said.
It was a true leap of faith, because neither had skydived before, it said.
Cheah, a company manager, told reporters that the curiosity and the will to face adversities made them to take up the challenge.
The couple performed the stunt at a skydiving event in northern Perak state where skydivers from the United States and Australia also took part, the report said.
from the BBCIndia's cake loving British 'ghost'
By Amarnath Tewary
Gaya, Bihar
Locals believe the 'English ghost' is happy with tea and cakes
Owen Tomkinson was a British soldier who died of cholera in the northern Indian state of Bihar in 1906.
Nothing unusual about that, but people of Ekbalnagar in Gaya town where Mr Tomkinson is buried, believe that his ghost stops residents and passers-by and demands tea and cake.
So much so that to placate the dead soldier's ghost, they offer tea, biscuits and home-baked cakes at Mr Owen's grave at a two-acre burial ground, where he lies buried with hundreds of other Britons who died in the area.
Most of the graves are of children, aged between three months to eight years, and who died between 1833 and 1877.
Mr Tomkinson was among the last people to have been buried here - 'In loving memory of Owen, The dearly loved husband of Annie Tomkinson who died at Gaya (sic) on 19 September 1906, aged at 47 years', reads the epitaph.
'Hogwash'
But 100 years after his death, locals of this Muslim-dominated neighbourhood still say that the "angrez bhoot" (English ghost) is a restless soul who can be only pacified with tea and cakes.
Gaya is rife with stories about how Mr Tomkinson's ghost "stops people" and "asks for tea and cakes".
"When darkness falls, the English ghost appears. He is dressed in a very English suit and boots. He stands in the middle of the road demanding tea and biscuit," says local school teacher Mohammad Zamiuddin.
Mehmood Ali, caretaker of the 'European' graveyard where the Englishman lies buried, is not sure of Mr Tomkinson's ghost, but says there is a "ghost in the area who likes tea and biscuits" .
"I have never met the English ghost. But I believe there must be some restless soul roaming around the area with his penchant of tea and biscuit," he says.
Sexagenarian Mohammad Basir says he had an encounter with the ghost some five years ago early one morning.
"He stopped me but after shaking my hand became invisible," says Mohammed Basir, a small time businessman.
There are even stories of how the ghost was "tamed" by a local resident few years ago by "chaining" it to a pillar in the graveyard.
"He tied him with some divine chains and fixed him to iron pillars near the grave," says resident Mohammed Zamiuddin.
But Mr Tomkinson's spirit was free again after the chain was stolen from the graveyard, says caretaker, Mohammed Ali.
Locals say the ghost was once 'tamed' by a resident
The oldest English resident of Gaya town, Arthur Wakefield, is appalled by the ghost stories surrounding Mr Tomkinson.
"This story about his ghost demanding tea and biscuits is just hogwash and part of the local superstition," he says.
But residents of Ekbalnagar - the most backward neighbourhood in Gaya town - still keep queuing up at Mr Tomkinson's grave to offer tea and cakes.
Faiyaz Ahmed, a local resident, says it is a small price to pay to keep the Englishman's ghost happy.
"He is quite unlike other ghosts. He is harmless. Even if you do not serve tea and biscuit, he leaves you if you promise to get it any other day," he says.
Cruisin' the colon
Traveling exhibit might scare you into visiting a doctor
By CINTHIA RITCHIE
Anchorage Daily News
Published: July 18, 2006
Last Modified: July 18, 2006 at 02:37 AM
Coco, the 40-foot Colossal Colon, squatted in the middle of the Cook Inlet Tribal Council Inc. conference room looking immensely pleased with itself. Its outside walls blushed a healthy beige-pink, while its upper surface burrowed out in a series of smooth humps that looked like a very fat caterpillar.
And the openings! Like Alice hurling herself down the rabbit hole, I could not ignore the two holes gaping on each side, beckoning me to come on in. Linger. Stay a while.
So I did. I got down on my hands and knees and went in. And really, it felt so doggone playful to crawl over the kind of spongy red mats they use in kindergarten.
Then I hit an ugly spread of Crohn's disease pricking the pink walls. Ugly!
And it became progressively worse: the tears and holes of colitis; the hideous lumps of benign polyps; the nasty pre-cancerous polyps the color of bruised sores. And worst of all, the searing lumps of advanced cancer bubbling out like deadly, hardened larva.
Each disease held a gruesome fascination. It was impossible to keep my hands off those cool and awful lumps, those red and puffy sores. It was equally impossible not to wonder what secrets my own colon harbored. Did I have rips and tears? Ulcers? Colitis? The tiny brown holes of diverticulosis?
Then I saw the light at the end of the tunnel, and I scurried toward the exit. Safe at last, I thought.
And that was the exact moment I thumped my head on a boulder-sized hemorrhoid.
SURVIVOR-INSPIRED
Molly McMaster, a colon cancer survivor diagnosed on her 23rd birthday, came up with the idea of the Colossal Colon while on the "Today" show. Host Katie Couric (whose husband, Jay Monahan, died of colon cancer in 1998) challenged her to come up with a crazy idea to promote awareness of the disease.
McMaster contacted Adirondack Scenic Inc., a theme design company in New York, and they pored over colonoscopy photos in order to make the giant, walk-through display as realistic as possible. Since its construction in 2002, the giant colon has traveled to more than 75 cities, weaving a blend of humor and fact at health seminars, shopping malls and county fairs.
According to the American Cancer Society, colon cancer is the third most common cancer in the country. Approximately 106,680 people will be diagnosed this year, along with 41,930 cases of rectal cancer; 220 of those will be in Alaska.
This year, the Alaska Legislature approved House Bill 393, requiring insurance companies to pay for colon screening tests, including colonoscopies. As of Monday it was awaiting the governor's signature.
"The biggest problem with colon cancer is that it has almost no warning signs," said Anchorage gastroenterologist Brian Sweeney Jr. "By the time people become symptomatic, the tumor is large. There's a good chance it's spread outside the colon."
The key is catching the disease in the early polyp stage. While not all polyps are adenomacan (cancerous), those that are develop slowly. The average age for colon cancer diagnosis is 67, said Sweeney, which is why screening is recommended at age 50.
"But people fear the test (colonoscopy)," he said. "It's not what most of us like to do."
VARIOUS TESTS AVAILABLE
Colonoscopies are typically performed in hospital outpatient departments. A narrow tube connected to a video camera is inserted through the patient's rectum, allowing doctors to view the inside of the colon.
Patients follow a clear-liquid diet before the procedure and are sedated to diminish discomfort.
Less-invasive screening such as the fecal occult blood test and sigmoidoscopies are more accessible yet less effective.
According to Sweeney, every little bit of screening helps.
"If you're a starving man, half a loaf is better than nothing," he said.
Colon cancer survivor and Ride for Life bicycle race organizer Larry Holman agrees. If he had gotten a colonoscopy at the recommended age of 50, he believes, he might have been spared a lot of grief.
But he didn't. And five years later he was diagnosed with stage III colon cancer. He beat the disease but ended up with an ostomy bag -- which means, he said with a harsh laugh, that he doesn't go to the bathroom the way other people do.
"But listen," he added. "Two friends had colonoscopies right after I was diagnosed. One had polyps and the other had stage II cancer growths.
"Both probably wouldn't have been screened if it wasn't for my cancer."
CELEBRATING SURVIVAL
Holman started the Ride for Life in 2004 as a way of celebrating his first year surviving cancer. The event this year is Saturday and offers three bicycle rides of varying distance: 30, 60 or 100 miles. The rides stretch over trails and roads, starting and ending at Kincaid Park. Riders collect pledges, and this year's proceeds benefit colorectal screening for low-income and uninsured Anchorage residents.
Along with the ride, a Health and Prevention Expo will take place at the park and include live music, a bike rodeo, information on cancer screenings and, of course, Coco the Colossal Colon. The display was brought to Anchorage through the urging of Holman, who first saw it last fall at a seminar.
"Some people had pictures, and I thought, 'Wow, that looks pretty neat.' I knew I had to find a way to bring it up here."
He contacted the Colon Club, founded by McMaster and friends, and found the price of shipping a 2-ton colon to Anchorage a bit staggering. So he contacted Alaska Regional Hospital and Providence Alaska Medical Center; both agreed to sponsor the display.
Holman hopes that Coco will prompt us to begin talking about our, um, colons.
"We don't want to think about our health," he said, "especially that part of our body."
Men, he believes, are especially lax about checking their health.
"We're kind of macho," he said. "We just want to get out and ride our bikes and forget about it, you know?"
At last year's Ride for Life banquet, Holman told the story of how he asked how many people had been touched by cancer in some way. Every hand shot up.
"I don't think that's unusual in our society," he said. "Cancer is -- well, some people are calling it an epidemic."
Yet, he doesn't feel it's all bleak. Having cancer has given him the opportunity to re-evaluate his life .
"I don't get bogged down," he said. "I just, you know, enjoy."
Daily News reporter Cinthia Ritchie can be reached at critchie@adn.com.
Python Gulps Queen-Size Electric Blanket
Jul 19, 2:06 PM (ET)
KETCHUM, Idaho (AP) - It took surgery to save a 12-foot Burmese python after it swallowed an entire queen-size electric blanket - with the electrical cord and control box.
The blanket must have gotten tangled up in the snake's rabbit dinner, owner Karl Beznoska said. He said he kept the blanket in the 60-pound reptile's cage for warmth.
"The prognosis is great," veterinarian Karsten Fostvedt said after Tuesday's two-hour operation on the python, named Houdini.
Fostvedt said specialists at the University of California-Davis School of Veterinary Medicine told him it probably would have taken Houdini six hours to swallow the blanket and the snake probably would have died without the operation.
X-rays showed the tangle of the blanket's wiring extending through about 8 feet of the python's digestive tract. The surgery to remove it took an 18-inch incision.
Neither Fostvedt nor fellow veterinarian Barry Rathfon had operated on a snake before. "We just basically called a couple of specialists and they told us where to go in," Fostvedt said.
He said it would take several days for Houdini's anesthesia to wear off because snakes have such slow metabolism.
Houdini has been with Beznoska for 16 years, and is a popular show-and-tell guest in local schools.
Consonant-loving thief takes Rs from signs
Wed Jul 19, 3:57 PM ET
GREENCASTLE, Ind. - A consonant-loving thief has police and business owners baffled after dozens of Rs were stolen from signs around the community.
"We've lost our Rs. And we want them back," said Randall Jones, president of Headley Hardware.
The weekend caper targeted gas stations, restaurants, repair shops and medical offices in the city of 10,000 people about 40 miles west of Indianapolis.
The thief also nabbed half a dozen letters from a lighted marquee in front of a National Guard post.
"I don't know if they think it's a joke, but to me it's just theft," said National Guard Sgt. Robert Lamb. "I just think it's disturbing."
Putnam Inn manager Jane Hansen isn't sure how the thief climbed more than 6 feet off the ground to take Rs from a sign in front of her motel.
"Whoever's doing it needs to put their talents to something more constructive," she said.
Greencastle Police said they've been notified about the stolen letters, but many business owners are choosing not to file reports.
___
Information from: Banner Graphic, http://www.bannergraphic.com
Wyo. police pledge crackdown on streakers
Wed Jul 19, 3:58 PM ET
JACKSON, Wyo. - Every year, as the sun sets on the Teton County Fair, the moons come out: as many as 10 streakers at the demolition derby on the fair's last day. This year, law enforcement officers are pledging a crackdown.
Teton County Attorney Steve Weichman said a growing number of people have told him they didn't think that "drunk, crazy and naked streaking" is a "great, normal, fun thing."
Opposition to the streaking has grown since last year's derby, he said, when a deputy used a Taser to apprehend John Chase Rogers, 21, dropping him to the dirt as he streaked with a fire extinguisher before a crowd of 3,500.
Posters at the fair office warn that at this year's fair, any public nudity will bring a charge of misdemeanor child endangerment, punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.
Attorney David DeFazio spoke out against last year's Taser incident and questioned the need for a crackdown this year.
"I just question whether a couple of streakers at a county fair in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, is objectionable to accepted standards of decency," he said.
But Jackson Police Chief Dan Zivkovich said streaking doesn't have to be tolerated. "We just think it's time to take control of the event again and say this really is intended to be a family event," he said.
The demolition derby will be July 30.
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