time*treat's Blog

... 'cause your ears won't believe it the first time.

Why do these people have ANY audience remaining?

http://www.goupstate.com/article/20100113/ARTICLES/1131005/1128/OPINION?p=all&tc=pgall

Imports from China simply can't be given the benefit of the doubt. 

It is ironic that on the same day the world learned that China has overtaken Germany to become the world's top exporter, consumers also learned that yet another stream of Chinese imports to America is extremely dangerous.

Chinese manufacturers of children's jewelry, recently forced to stop using lead in their wares, are now substituting cadmium. Cadmium, a carcinogen known to hinder brain development in the very young, is just as dangerous to children as lead, but the United States has never banned its specific use in jewelry.

The Associated Press lab-tested 103 pieces of children's jewelry and trinkets imported from China and bought in New York, Ohio, Texas and California. It found 12 percent of the jewelry was at least 10 percent cadmium. Some pieces were more than 80 percent cadmium, and the cadmium leached out of the toys fairly easily.

Cadmium was found in bracelet charms sold at Walmart, at dollar stores and jewelry chains, and in "The Princess and the Frog" movie-themed pendants. The concentrations of cadmium were high enough that if these trinkets were industrial garbage, they would qualify as hazardous waste and require special handling and disposal.

Over the past three years, many imports from China have been found to be dangerous:

-- The Food and Drug Administration halted the import of fish and shrimp from China because they were found to contain unsafe drugs.

-- The FDA warned against the use of toothpaste made in China after some tubes were found to contain chemicals used in antifreeze.

-- Toymakers Mattel and Fisher-Price recalled nearly 1 million toys made in China because they were coated with lead paint.

-- The Consumer Product Safety Commission said Chinese drywall is corroding metal and wires in houses where it was installed and contains high levels of formaldehyde.

-- Pet food laced with melamine, a dangerous industrial plastic high in protein that can be used to make food appear more nutritious than it is, led to deaths and illnesses in cats and dogs and an enormous pet food recall across North America.

-- Milk laced with melamine sickened at least 300,000 babies in China and killed at least 21, some from poisoning and some from malnutrition caused by the fact that the protein in melamine cannot be digested.

The problem with Chinese products is not that a series of accidents or mistakes has led to contaminations. The problem with Chinese products is that the nation's manufacturers and government do not share our sense of how important it is to make sure all products, and particularly products used by children, are safe.

Going forward, the U.S. government needs to take the stance that imports from China are dangerous until proven safe. U.S. consumers need to operate on the assumption that Chinese products are tainted until proven pure.

Americans must be protected.

How many times will we allow ourselves to be harmed?

If you have or know anyone with small children (and if it won't make you feel too much like a politically incorrect xenophobe/isolationist) do a search on baby stroller recall. See what pops up. Might save some fingertips. Uh-huh. Toldja. ~t*t

Maaaan, they are fast.

A month ago Coakley had a 30 point lead over Brown.

http://www.thegrio.com/2010/01/senegal-offers-land-to-haitians-that-want-to-come.php

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) -- Senegal is offering free land to Haitians wishing to 'return to their origins' following this week's devastating earthquake, which has destroyed the capital and buried thousands of people beneath rubble.

Senegal's octogenarian President Abdoulaye Wade told a meeting of his advisers that Haitians are the sons and daughters of Africa, because the country was founded by slaves, including some believed to have come from Senegal.

"The president is offering voluntary repatriation to any Haitian that wants to return to their origin," said Wade's spokesman Mamadou Bemba Ndiaye late Saturday following the president's announcement.

"Senegal is ready to offer them parcels of land -- even an entire region. It all depends on how many Haitians come. If it's just a few individuals, then we will likely offer them housing or small pieces of land. If they come en masse we are ready to give them a region," he said.

He stressed that Wade had insisted that if a region is handed over it should be in a fertile area -- not in the country's parched deserts.

Senegal, a nation of 14 million roughly the size of South Dakota, is considered one of the most stable and developed in the sub-region. Still nearly half of working-age adults are unemployed and the country has been burdened by high food prices, frequent blackouts and spiraling energy costs.

Many have criticized Wade for being a dreamer, proposing lofty projects that do little to alleviate poverty or address endemic corruption. Others see him as a statesman who dares to have a vision for Africa.

That'd be a sweet deal, put together right. ~t*t

I have a passing interest... I get interested; then it passes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cskOK3HppTA (for fullscreen)

In other news, the pot has warned me to be wary of kettles.

Gov't says farmers can't clear their own land, but also won't pay them for it.

Will each english speaking nation get its own handbasket, or will we all be traveling in the same one?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/homeowner-jailed-for-tackling-burglar-1840948.html

Tuesday, 15 December 2009

A businessman who fought off knife-wielding thugs threatening to kill his family was jailed for 30 months yesterday.

Munir Hussain and his wife and children returned from their local mosque during Ramadan to find three intruders, wearing balaclavas, in their home.

He feared for their lives as their hands were tied behind their backs and they were forced to crawl from room to room.

The 53-year-old made his escape after throwing a coffee table and enlisted his brother Tokeer in chasing the offenders down the street in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, bringing one of them to the ground.

What followed was described in Reading Crown Court as self-defence that went too far, leaving intruder Walid Salem with a permanent brain injury after he was struck with a cricket bat so hard that it broke into three pieces.

Salem was the only intruder caught after the incident on September 3 2008, but his injuries meant he was not fit to plead after being charged with false imprisonment.

Salem, who has a string of 50 past convictions, was given a two-year supervision order at a court hearing in September this year. He is currently in custody awaiting trial for an alleged credit card fraud.

The brothers, described as family men at the heart of the local community, were found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm with intent after a trial earlier this year. The prosecution alleged two other men took part in the so-called "revenge attack" with them.

Tokeer Hussain was given a 39-month sentence because Judge John Reddihough decided he had not been subject to as much provocation as his brother.

Judge Reddihough said Munir Hussain's family had been subject to a "serious and wicked offence" and praised the bravery of his teenage son who escaped to raise the alarm.

He also noted the "courage" of Munir Hussain, but said he carried out a "dreadful, violent attack" on Salem as he lay defenceless.

The judge told them: "It may be that some members of the public, or media commentators, will assert that the man Salem deserved what happened to him at the hands of you and the two others involved, and that you should not have been prosecuted and need not be punished.

"However, if persons were permitted to take the law into their own hands and inflict their own instant and violent punishment on an apprehended offender rather than letting justice take its course, then the rule of law and our system of criminal justice, which are the hallmarks of a civilised society, would collapse."

Sentencing the brothers, whose mother had died just before the incident, the judge added: "This case is a tragedy for you and your families.

"Sadly, I have no doubt that my public duty requires me to impose immediate prison sentences of some length upon you.

"This is in order to reflect the serious consequences of your violent acts and intent and to make it absolutely clear that, whatever the circumstances, persons cannot take the law into their own hands, or carry out revenge attacks upon a person who has offended them."

The brothers, who live near each other in Desborough Road, High Wycombe, did not react as they were sentenced, but members of their family watching from the public gallery tearfully shook their heads.

Michael Wolkind, defending, argued that his client, who has been prescribed anti-depressants, was the "real victim" in the case.

Mr Wolkind said the case had similarities to that of farmer Tony Martin, who shot a teenage intruder, noting there was public support in both cases.

He told the court: "The public surely do not want Munir Hussain to receive imprisonment.

"I don't seek a medal, I seek justice for him."

Munir Hussain, usually a controlled man, had simply acted in the heat of the moment in "extreme circumstances of stress", he said.

The prosecution said the Hussains were not being convicted for apprehending Salem, but for the "excessive force" they used on him.

Hilary Neville, prosecuting, said: "What started as reasonable self defence by Munir Hussain then turned into excessive force by virtue of a sustained attack by Munir, Tokeer and at least two others."

The court heard sentencing would have an impact on the local economy, with 10 members of staff losing their jobs at Soundsorba, the company run by Munir Hussain, who employs his brother as a technical director. The firm, which produces sound-absorbing material, has an annual turnover of £2.5m.

Munir Hussain feels he let down his wife Shaheen Begum and sons Awais, 21, Samad, 15, and 18-year-old daughter Arooj, by failing to defend them against Salem and his gang. His wife had suffered a stroke prior to the incident, and had since had a mini stroke.

There were now fears for his mental health, a psychiatrist who assessed him told the judge.

Dr Philip Joseph said Munir Hussain could even attempt suicide if his depression reached that stage, saying: "He would be in his cell, worrying about his family, thinking about the many losses he has suffered as a result of this incident.

"I would have concerns he would make a serious bid to harm himself."

Before yesterday's sentencing, a senior police officer had told Munir Hussain, who previously won an Asian businessman of the year award and is head of the Race Equality Council for High Wycombe, that he had sympathy for him.

The court heard Chief Inspector Colin Seaton of Thames Valley Police, the senior officer in the case, approached Munir Hussain after a community meeting, asking if there was anything he could do to help.

"He stated that whatever happened that night in the heat of the moment, he was still sad to see Munir Hussain and Tokeer Hussain convicted," Mr Wolkind added.

"He said they were outstanding members of the community and they had done a great deal of work in the community, both before this incident and afterwards."

Chief Insp Seaton stressed that he did not wish to see either brother go to jail.

The brothers will serve up to half their sentences in custody. Under normal sentencing guidelines they would each be starting sentences of at least seven years, the judge added.

Speaking outside court, Mr Wolkind said: "The criminal justice system has failed twice.

"The court was unable to sentence Walid Salem with sufficient harshness, or Munir and Tokeer Hussain with sufficient compassion.

"It's difficult to believe that this outcome reflects the thinking of the public, or the interests of justice."

He said he intended to appeal against the sentence on his client's behalf.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN057258620100106

LOS ANGELES, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Authorities shut down a California airport on Tuesday after a suspicious amber liquid in a passenger's bag tested positive for explosives -- only to ultimately determine that the substance was honey.

Francisco Ramirez, a 31-year-old gardener who had been visiting family in the central California city of Bakersfield, was allowed to return home to Milwaukee.

"The substances in the bottles did turn out to be honey. They tested negative for all explosives and narcotics. It is nothing but honey," FBI spokesman Steve Dupre told Reuters.

The security scare came as jitters gripped the U.S. travel industry in the aftermath of an unsuccessful Christmas Day attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound commercial flight from Amsterdam using explosives smuggled on board.

Meadows Field Airport in Bakersfield, about 100 miles (160 km) north of Los Angeles, was shut down and evacuated for hours and flights diverted after the incident, which began when Ramirez' bag set of an alarm in a luggage-screening machine.

U.S. Transportation and Security administration screeners turned up five Gatorade bottles full of what they called a "suspicious-looking liquid." Swabs of the bag and bottles tested positive for the explosives TNT and TATP.

When the bottles were opened, two of the screeners smelled a strong chemical odor, complained of nausea and were rushed to a local hospital, where they treated and released, Kern County Sheriff's spokesman Michael Whorf said.

Kern County Sheriffs deputies, fire crews, FBI agents and members of a "joint terrorism task force" responded to the scene and spent the day questioning Ramirez before further tests showed that the liquid was honey.

After the all clear was given, officials said they were trying to determine why the honey tested positive for explosives and made the screeners so ill that they would need medical attention.

"There are some questions I think are going to have to be followed up on," Dupre said. He said that Ramirez was "free to go" and would likely be home in Milwaukee by Wednesday.

Ramirez, who Whorf described as "very cooperative," had originally been booked on a flight from Bakersfield to Milwaukee with a connection through San Francisco.

In an unrelated incident halfway across the country on Tuesday, a bomb-sniffing dog detected what was thought to be explosives in a piece of luggage at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, prompting an evacuation of a terminal and delayed flights there.

No explosives were found in the bag.

-------------------------------------------------

Mr. Ramirez is fortunate they didn't just tase him first, shoot him second, and ask questions ... never.

(some of you might like this story from a few years back)

Village beats winter blues with giant mirror

It might be just the answer for Britons with the winter blues.

While we are all shivering and counting the days till summer, the residents of Viganella in Italy are basking in sunlight thanks to a giant mirror.

The village's mayor, Pierfranco Midali, asked an architect friend to design the mirror after getting fed up that during winter the village, which is in a valley and is surrounded by mountains, is plunged into chilly darkness.

The giant mirror measures 8x5m and cost a massive 100,000 euros (£67,000).

But he says it is worth it as residents can feel sunshine during the winter and other villages are now envious of the village which has just 185 residents.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6189371.stm
http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/29816-village-beats-winter-blues-with-giant-mirror

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23792449-britain-as-cold-as-south-pole-as-temperatures-fall-to-minus-21c.do

Biting winds make London feel colder than the Antarctic

Icy winds could see temperatures in London feel as low as minus 10C tonight, colder than parts of the Antarctic.

Biting easterly gusts will sweep the capital this evening and throughout the weekend, as the big freeze continues to tighten its grip on Britain.

Temperatures will actually be minus 3C during the night, but the winds will make conditions feel much colder. In daytime tomorrow 0C will be more like minus 5C, while overnight into Sunday morning it will again feel like minus 10C — the coldest in London this winter.

Snow is expected to return to the capital on Sunday, when easterly winds will again make the maximum of 1C feel more like minus 4C.

Temperatures across Britain were on a par with the South Pole today after the coldest night of the winter so far.The mercury sank to minus 21.6C in the Scottish Highlands this morning, close to Antarctica's current -22.9C.

Plumbers reported being bombarded with a record number of call-outs and warned they may be overwhelmed.

Charlie Mullins, founder of Pimlico Plumbers, said there was a growing risk that vulnerable elderly people will die in London with the volume of calls for broken boilers and burst pipes. “If there's another week of this there will undoubtedly be fatalities,” he said.

He believes far more Londoners are completely dependent on their central heating than in previous decades when they might also have had electric fires or oil radiators to keep them warm.

The firm's 140 engineers expect a record 2,000 call-outs this week.

The cold snap continued to wreak havoc on transport networks across London today, with cancellations and delays at airports and on trains, including the Eurostar. Passengers at St Pancras told of their misery, with just over half the Eurostar services running.

Only 17 of the 30 originally scheduled trains were operating from London, Paris and Brussels after a train broke down yesterday because of snow.

Passengers faced delays of up to an hour-and-a-half as Eurostar tried to cope with the backlog. The emergency timetable put in place on Wednesday is expected to run until Sunday.

At Gatwick at least 15 flights were cancelled this morning and at Heathrow more than 64 were axed by British Airways, forcing passengers to camp out on the airport floors.

One couple said they had been waiting to fly home to Stuttgart in Germany since Wednesday. Three of their flights have been cancelled and they slept on foam mats last night in Terminal 5.

Daryl Harrigan, 35, an engineer originally from Southam, Northamptonshire, said: “We've been stranded for three days now. It's a total nightmare.

“On the first flight we were due to take to Germany, we actually boarded the plane but then after four hours sitting on the runway we were told it was cancelled. The problem is not snow, it's the fact that there is only one de-icer for the whole terminal, so there's obviously a huge backload of planes waiting to be de-iced. It's ludicrous.”

Hundreds of thousands of rail commuters today faced a third day of delays and cancellations. Train services home tonight will finish earlier than usual, with last trains running on some routes from 9pm or 10pm. Some services did not start today until 8am.

Southeastern commuters from Kent and London were again among the worst hit. The company only ran a “limited” number of trains into the capital before 9am. There was no First Capital Connect (Thameslink) services between Blackfriars and Herne Hill.

South West Trains said there was no service between Guildford and Ascot, between Virginia Water and Weybridge via Chertsey and between Waterloo and Dorking.

On the motorways, hard shoulders will not be salted in a bid to save dangerously low supplies for main carriageways, the Government announced today. Asked whether there was a danger of broken-down vehicles skidding if they ran on to the hard shoulder, a No 10 spokesman said: “It's a matter of priorities.”

Fulham FC today announced that its Premier League match with Portsmouth tomorrow has been postponed due to the icy conditions. Craven Cottage is one of the few grounds in the top flight without undersoil heating.

There are fears many other matches this weekend may be called off.

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/807821-pensioners-burn-books-for-warmth

Hard-up pensioners have resorted to buying books from charity shops and burning them to keep warm.

Volunteers have reported that ‘a large number’ of elderly customers are snapping up hardbacks as cheap fuel for their fires and stoves.

Temperatures this week are forecast to plummet as low as -13ºC in the Scottish Highlands, with the mercury falling to -6ºC in London, -5ºC in Birmingham and -7ºC in Manchester as one of the coldest winters in years continues to bite.

Workers at one charity shop in Swansea, in south Wales, described how the most vulnerable shoppers were seeking out thick books such as encyclopaedias for a few pence because they were cheaper than coal.

One assistant said: ‘Book burning seems terribly wrong but we have to get rid of unsold stock for pennies and some of the pensioners say the books make ideal slow-burning fuel for fires and stoves.

A lot of them buy up large hardback volumes so they can stick them in the fire to last all night.’

A 500g book can sell for as little as 5p, while a 20kg bag of coal costs £5.

Since January 2008, gas bills have risen 40 per cent and electricity prices 20 per cent, although people over 60 are entitled to a winter fuel allowance of between £125 and £400.

Jonathan Stearn, energy expert for Consumer Focus, said: ‘If pensioners are taking such desperate measures to heat their homes it is shocking. With low wholesale prices and increasing profit margins, there is clearly room for energy companies to make price cuts immediately.’

Ruth Davison, of the National Housing Federation, said: ‘The spiralling cost of energy means heating homes has become a luxury rather than a necessity for many people – particularly the elderly, low paid and unemployed.’

Ain't carbon taxes just wonderful? I can think of a few titles to go on the flame.

http://www.cbs6albany.com/news/district-1269895-school-county.html

(vid at link)

A Montgomery County couple has been arrested on child endangerment charges for failing to register their children with the school district as they were home-schooled, the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office said Monday.

Richard Cressy, 47, and Margie Cressy, 41, both of the town of Glen, never registered their four children or their home-schooling curriculum with the local school district, said the Sheriff's Office.

The Superintendent of the Fonda-Fultonville Central School District confirmed the four children, ranging in age from 8 to 14, had not been registered with the school district for the last seven years.

The Cressys were issued appearance tickets to appear in the Town of Glen Court at a later date. The case has been turned over to the Montgomery County District Attorney and the Child Protective Unit.

-------------------------------------

See if you can count how many times the pointy-haired bureau-craps say "the law".
The Law is always perfect, and so are the schools, don't'cha know.
There was a time when the public school "option" was just that -- optional. Sound familiar?
Now, the state comes after you if you don't get their consent to and approval of what to teach your own kids.

And get some gold & silver, too. Wheee!.

So let me understand this: various state BMVs (DMVs) around the nation have adopted these new drivers license policies that are supposed to enhance security (they don't explain for whom security is to be enhanced) and contain all sorts of useful gateway information about the owner (which will come in handy to anyone who steals it).

The new licenses are to be processed offsite from the BMV (DMV) -- so no more waiting until the last minute to go get yours renewed.

After a wait that varies from days to weeks, depending on your luck, your new super-secure one will be sent to you -- via the not-so-super-secure U.S. mail.
What could possibly go wrong? Nothing ever gets lost (or worse, "mis-delivered" to some inconsiderate a$$#^!% who doesn't have the decency to put it back in the mailbox) in the mail. Nothing ever gets stolen out of mailboxes, either.

-- There is an important difference between the small number of people who CHOOSE to receive their new license in the mail vs. REQUIRING EVERYONE to take that same risk. --