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Liza Posted 12 years, 3 months ago.   Favorite
#6: Chile has a long tradition of mining, which began during the 20th century and has made the country the world’s top producer of copper. Since 2000, approximately 34 people a year have been killed in mining accidents in Chile. On August 5, 2010, a cave-in occurred at the San José copper-gold mine in the Atacama Desert near Copiapó, Chile. The accident left 33 men trapped 700 meters (2,300 ft) underground, approximately 5 kilometers (3 mi) from the mine entrance. The initial rock fall caused a thick dust cloud that blinded the miners for up to six hours, and created lingering eye irritation and burning. The trapped miners initially tried to escape through a ventilation shaft system, but all attempts failed.

To find the miners, rescuers used percussion drills to make eight exploratory boreholes about 15 centimeters (5.9 in) wide. The effort was complicated by out-of-date maps of the mine shafts. While underground, the crew’s supervisor, Luis Urzúa, helped organize the workers meager resources. The men gathered in a secure room called a “refuge.” On August 22, the eighth borehole broke through a ramp, located 688 meters (2,257 ft) underground. Approximately 20 meters (66 ft) from an emergency shelter room where the miners were staying. The crew heard the drills approaching for days and prepared notes which they attached to the tip of the drill. The engineers thought they heard tapping on the drill tip, but were surprised to discover the notes, as the miners had survived for 17 days, which was much longer than expected.

The note read “We are alright in the shelter, the 33 [of us].” The words became an emblem of the miners’ survival and the rescue effort, appearing on websites, banners and t-shirts. Video cameras were soon sent down the borehole capturing the first grainy, black-and-white, silent images of the skinny, dirty, shirtless and unshaven men. The miners survived underground for a record 69 days. All 33 people were rescued and brought to the surface on October 13, 2010. After the last trapped miner was winched to the surface, the rescue workers held up a sign stating “Mission accomplished Chile” to the estimated more than 1 billion people watching on live television around the world. The event was one of the most watched programs of the 21st century.

Posted on Untitled by David Troupe Untitled
Liza Posted 12 years, 3 months ago.   Favorite
#7: Bedbugs are small parasitic insects that survive by feeding exclusively on the blood of warm-blooded animals. In many nations, bedbugs were largely eradicated as pests in the early 1940s, with the help of pesticides. The insects were common in the U.S. before World War II, but became rare after the widespread use of DDT. Beginning in the summer of 2010, a large collection of bedbug infestations began to spread across the United States. The national media conducted daily updates on the situation, and reports of the insects occurred in thousands of homes from New York to Ohio. Besides houses, the pests showed up in malls, restaurants and hotels.

Contrary to what many believe, the infestations were often reported in clean, upscale hotels. The 2010 outbreak caused the first-ever bedbug summit in Chicago, where experts convened to discuss the invasion. The tiny bugs are not only hard to get rid of, but their expansion is all but impossible to prevent. A few tiny bugs clinging to a piece of clothing can lead to an infestation of not just your bed, but your sofa, your closet and your carpets. A number of health effects can occur due to bedbugs, including skin rashes, psychological effects and allergic symptoms.

To make the situation worse, recent tests have determined that the insects responsible for the 2010 outbreak have undergone a genetic restructuring. The new bedbugs have developed immunity to many chemicals. They also have a better ability to protect nerve cells and thicker shells. All of this research has determined that we are being confronted with an entirely different species of insect. Bedbug infestations across North America haven’t spared London, where the city-run public housing agency’s pest-control budget has increased 10-fold for 2011. Officials are trying to find an effective way to track and kill the bedbug populations. Some of these methods include bedbug-sniffing dogs and a wide range of treatments that involve both extreme heat and cold.

Posted on Untitled by David Troupe Untitled
Liza Posted 12 years, 3 months ago.   Favorite
#9: Nodar Kumaritashvili was a Georgian luger, who suffered a fatal crash during a training run for the 2010 Winter Olympics competition in Vancouver, Canada.Kumaritashvili lost control in the final turn of the course and was thrown off his luge and over the sidewall of the track, striking an unprotected steel support pole. He was travelling at 143.6 km/h (89.2 mph) at the moment of impact. The luge course at Whistler is notoriously fast and, before the competition, Josef Fendt, president of the International Luge Federation (FIL), publicized his concerns about the Sliding Centre. Nodar Kumaritashvili was the fourth athlete to die during Winter Olympics preparations.

#8: Eyjafjallajökull is one of Iceland’s smaller ice caps, located in the far south of the island. It is situated to the north of Skógar and to the west of the larger ice cap, Mýrdalsjökull. Eyjafjallajökull covers the caldera of a volcano, with a summit elevation of 1,666 meters (5,466 ft). The volcano has erupted relatively frequently since the last ice age. Before 2010, the most recent major event was in 1920. The 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruptions weren’t the largest ever recorded, but the subsequent ash clouds that were released caused an enormous disruption to air travel across western and northern Europe over a six day period in April 2010. It was the highest level of air travel disruption since the Second World War.

The most severe explosion occurred on April 14, 2010, and resulted in an estimated 250 million cubic meters (330,000,000 cu yd) of ejected tephra. The ash plume rose to a height of approximately 9 kilometers (30,000 ft). The subsequent air traffic closures caused millions of passengers to be stranded, not only in Europe, but across the world. Between the months of April and May, 2010, various regions, including Ireland, Scotland, the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, northern Italy and Austria, had to completely close their airspace. The volcano was able to inject its ash plume directly into the jet stream. The ash was then carried over Europe into some of the busiest airspace in the world.

Posted on Untitled by David Troupe Untitled
Liza Posted 12 years, 3 months ago.   Favorite
#10 :In the early 1980s, a collection of black women began to turn up dead in the alleyways and dumpsters of South Los Angeles, California. On September 23, 1985, the police announced that they believed a single individual, labeled the Southside Slayer, was responsible for the crimes. The case turned cold until May 2007, when the murder of Janecia Peters, 25, was linked by DNA analysis to 11 unsolved murders attributed to the Southside Slayer. The attacker was soon dubbed the Grim Sleeper by the local press, because he supposedly took a 14-year hiatus from his crimes, from 1988 to 2002. In August 2008, the LA Weekly conducted an extensive interview with the sole survivor of the Southside Slayer attacks and she provided several important details, describing him as a “thin, neat, polite and well-groomed African-American guy.”

The killer documented his attack with a Polaroid camera. The female victim blacked out, but was startled awake by the bright flash of the camera. On July 7, 2010, the Los Angeles Times reported that an arrest had been made in the Grim Sleeper case. The suspect is Lonnie David Franklin Jr., who is 57 years old. Originally, the police had not been able to obtain a DNA match between evidence found at the crime scenes and people in California’s DNA profile database. However, officials located similar DNA belonging to Lonnie Franklin’s son, Christopher, who was convicted of a felony weapons charge. Ultimately, the police used a piece of discarded pizza with Lonnie Franklin’s DNA to make the link.

In order to obtain the evidence, a federal detective pretended to be a waiter at a restaurant where the suspect ate. He collected dishes, silverware, glasses, and pizza crusts to obtain DNA. Saliva found on the victim’s breasts was used to obtain a DNA match linking Lonnie Franklin to the murders. Along with the DNA evidence, the police discovered a large collection of circumstantial evidence against Franklin when searching his home. On December 16, 2010, the Los Angeles Police Department released 180 photos of women found in Franklin’s home. Officials released the images after unsuccessful attempts to identify the people, who are possibly additional victims.

In all, investigators found over 1,000 photos and several hundred hours of video in Franklin’s home. The images show mainly African American women of a wide age range, from teenagers to middle-aged and older, often nude. Police believe Franklin took many of the pictures, which show both conscious and unconscious individuals, and date back up to 30 years. As the history of serial killers has taught us, the number of linked murders to a specific DNA specimen does not indicate the entire murder count. The photographs suggest that Franklin may have killed hundreds of unidentified women.

Posted on Untitled by David Troupe Untitled
Liza Posted 12 years, 3 months ago.   Favorite
The year 2010 recorded some of the worst natural disasters in history. The events have had a strong impact on people as we move into 2011. Many of the disturbances have been blamed on the world’s current global weather disruption. Some important stories that were deserving but left out of the list are: the 2010 earthquakes that hit Haiti and Chile, Typhoon Megi, the Phnom Penh stampede and the death of Néstor Kirchner.

Posted on Untitled by David Troupe Untitled
lampshade Posted 12 years, 3 months ago.   Favorite
Hi Harlan,

My name is Joe and I live in Illinois. I am converting all your entries to editable text and re-posting on the BTB site.

For your entries, it appears the BTB site does not allow for certain types of formatting with in the areas of columns and such. Rather, it is a fairly straight-forward line break format. I also won't change any of the text as I am unsure whether you wanted it that way or not. In short, the text will be exactly like you typed it with the exception of complex formatting.

For now, that is it. I just did the first web page of entries (10 total) and will get to the other 4 web pages this weekend.

So something new for you in 2012. I know it is not a huge deal in the big picture, but just know that you are on the internet.

Joe

Posted on Cutting Funding by Harlan Richards Cutting Funding
Liza Posted 12 years, 3 months ago.   Favorite
updated 12/31/2011 12:02:16 PM ET

LEXINGTON, N.C. — Do you have change for a million-dollar bill?

Police say a North Carolina man insisted his million-dollar note was real when he was buying $476 worth of items at a Walmart.

Investigators told the Winston-Salem Journal that 53-year-old Michael Fuller tried to buy a vacuum cleaner, a microwave oven and other items. Store employees called police after his insistence that the bill was legit, and Fuller was arrested.

The largest bill in circulation is $100. The government stopped making bills of up to $10,000 in 1969.

Fuller was charged with attempting to obtain property by false pretense and uttering a forged instrument. He is in jail on a $17,500 bond, and it isn't clear if he has an attorney. He is scheduled to be in court Tuesday.

Posted on Untitled by David Troupe Untitled
Liza Posted 12 years, 3 months ago.   Favorite
Have you ever thought about graphic art school? Putting your art into video games is a great idea! Plus once you're filthy rich you can kick down some cash for your sister for giving you the idea. :)

XOXO, Sissy

Posted on Untitled by David Troupe Untitled
Liza Posted 12 years, 3 months ago.   Favorite
Read Doreen Virtue & Sylvia Brown, also there is other ones that I find interesting about OOBE's. It may help explain some of the energy questions you have.

XOXO, Sissy

Posted on Up Dates by David Troupe Up Dates
Liza Posted 12 years, 3 months ago.   Favorite
Is it crime or unacceptability? For instance, if someone takes a life while defending themselves we call it justifyable, if its an accident then it becomes manslaughter, but if it is intentional it's murder. So where are the guidelines? Morality of course, but then who sets those standards? Humans do, so really it comes down to what is humane and what is not. Helping kittens- very humane, robbing the same people later - mistake, but if you only helped with the kittens to aid in your later theft...then that is not humane. When you are stealing to support your family does the rule change? Of course not, theft is theft, murder is murder. How you "feel" about the crime I think is what sets it apart. If you feel bad for having hurt someone then you have the morality to have made a better choice. However, if you only feel bad for having been caught then your morility is useless and your humanity non-existent. Price and risk are a funny thing, what I might be willing to do is different then what someone else might be willing to do...and of course the reasoning will also be different. I would give my life for my son, but would I give it if it was to help him hurt someone else?... No, I don't think I would...but someone else might for their child. We are no different out here...the same thoughts and ideas run through our minds... when you don't have money to pay bills or put food on the table and it feels like the only alternative is to rob someone, the thoughts are most definitly present, the ideas running rampant, but the decision to not do it is what sets us apart. The notion that if I'm caught and go to jail I would be no better off helping than I am now and I would also be away from ever helping when I could, is not the only reason... There is something that clicks in my mind, something that says that it feels wrong. That little voice of humanity and morality kicks in, that not only am I jeopordizing myself, but I'm hurting someone else...that's what would stop me. Its not someone being more intelligent than another, but I think some of us act on our thoughts before our brains have time to suss out the situation. Patience I hear after all, is a virtue. So to answer your question, the difference between us on the outside and those on the inside is time. Given more time to think through what you had done, would you still have done it?

XOXO, Sissy

Posted on To Be Or Not to Be.... A Criminal by David Troupe To Be Or Not to Be.... A Criminal
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