Cops Want Spider Gun to Snare Bridge Jumpers
Tue Apr 27, 9:03 AM ET Reuters via Yahoo!

SAN FRANCISCO - Attention Spiderman: California needs you.

The state highway patrol, hoping to avoid another epic traffic jam caused by a suicide jumper on a major bridge, wants inventors to design and build a gun that can capture would-be jumpers in a spider-like web.

"At this point we're about ready to put out a request for a proposal," said California Highway Patrol spokesman Tom Marshall. "And we'll just see if there's some technology that might be usable."

The idea for a suicide spider gun was first floated by a local radio talk-show host following a 13-hour standoff between cops and a blade-wielding man threatening to jump off the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, Marshall said.

After hours in traffic, some motorists were so furious that some yelled out for the man to jump.

The April 2 incident cost the highway patrol an estimated $100,000 in overtime and other expenses, Marshall said, not to mention the costs of the delays to the region.

The stand-off came to a close only after the man, exhausted, curled up on the platform and a SWAT team stunned him with a bean-bag gun. He now faces criminal charges.

"Any time you tie up a major artery like the Bay Bridge, you want to look at what could we do that would be different," Marshall said.

...the definition of a gaffe in Washington is somebody who tells the truth but shouldn't have.
Howard Dean

The failures of the Bush administration are not those of foreign intelligence but of a cerebral sort of intelligence.
Adlai E. Stevenson III

nuff sed

from The Australian
From AFP

THE wife of Taiwan's new interior minister was robbed at the weekend, one day after her husband Su Chia-chuan declared an all-out war to battle criminals, officials said Sunday.

Su, who was appointed interior minister earlier this month, launched the campaign Friday to tackle what he described as rampant fraud and extortion. The embarrassment came Saturday when Su's wife Hung Heng-chu, herself a former police officer, parked on a street in the southern Pingtung city.

Two young men on a motorcycle opened a door of Hung's car and grabbed her purse before speeding away. Police said they had managed to track down the duo from fingerprints found at the scene.

High officials in cars have had bad luck lately in Taiwan, hm?

Warmth has settled once again over the Emperor’s City. This is my first spring in Beijing, the Northern Capital in which the heartbeat of the Middle Kingdom exerts the destiny of a great nation. In Beihai park, the trees are in bloom, the pink and white flowers dancing above the yellow forsythia. The lake glimmers. The wind has already taken the brief bloom of the magnolia blossoms. The tender lilacs droop seductively. The magpies have returned to their nests. The willow tufts waft in the air like cotton. One day they looked just like huge round fluffy snowflakes blowing upwards past the balcony window. I’d never seen anything like it and the exotica of China, especially in Beijing, persists unexpectedly through the urban drabness, and awakens my imagination like a sweet kiss. Every day there is something new, something amazing. Spring in Beijing, so precious after a cold bare winter that flexed its own stark splendor, the clarity of nights, the dustings of snow, the students snuggled in colorful warm outerwear, the busy people bundling through the streets on their errands.

It was still wintry when my friend Lisa visited in March and we sat on the low wall outside of the university gate after a day of long walks through chilly hutongs, making our plans for the evening. She talked about the boogie of pedestrian, bicycle and automobile traffic through the wide streets as a throng of urban cyclists snaked past us. She lifted her camera as an old, old man on a tricycle loaded high with boxes passed us. He noticed her, slowed his trusty vehicle and gave her a crinkly smile, radiant and genuine. Instantly our feet stopped hurting, the day was new again and another China moment had found its enduring mark.

I taught my class the expression ‘spring fever’ and suddenly understood those skeptical half-smiles I've seen before, realizing how violent some American idioms seem to them. Before I explained it, they thought it was a disease!

An email from a student, the message titled, “to dear ellen sander,” confided his sudden and overwhelming love for his new girlfriend and insisted I keep his secret.

“What’s the notion of felicity in your mind? May be you can produce thousands of activities that you pursuit the happiness, for example, you and your lover dining out in the most expensive and most luxurious restaurant in Beijing to enjoy the food which I firmly believed that its price does not meet its quality, or you are traveling all around the world by your private jet, or you find a bags of dollars in the street, so you don’t have to work any more. But those are not my meanings to the happiness.

While walking along the street with her, I feel so relax that I am just flying in the sky and my height is higher that any other planes. While going to the second hand bookshop with to buy out of date magazines, I feel that I go shopping in the luxurious store. While playing a practical joke on her, I feel that I win lottery, which has millions of dollars. Yes! It is the felicity that I want to get. Although I am the person who holds a belief that love is temporary, I keep my fingers cross that the relation between us is as long as possible.

Thank you for viewing my feelings.

Ah, the rites of spring.

Yesterday, my husband and I went to Silk Alley to buy wedding gifts for our sons, who are both getting married this spring, back home in the states. It was balmy and the scent of jasmine enveloped us as we left the campus of China Foreign Affairs University where we’ve both been teaching since September. Surrounded by the Chaoyang Central Business District, Silk Alley flows out of a teeming major artery into a compact busy world of its own. The color and hubbub was intoxicating and by now I’m so accustomed to aggressive vendors that I laughed when some ladies actually grabbed my arm, urging me to “have a look.” We bargained so skillfully for our purchases that some of the vendors complimented Joseph on his cleverness. We left with armloads of beautiful silkware (some of it “possibly” silk but more likely rayon). Red silk drawstring pants for me, kimonos for both of us, silk tablecloths, pillow covers and placemats for the soon to be newlyweds back home, some classy shoes and new shades for Joseph and I got a wicked dark red slip scallop-edged with floral trim. The pearl colored white loose-knit sweater probably isn’t the DKNY it is labeled as, but do I care?

We took the immaculate Beijing metro home, it hummed along in its proud modernity and then I marveled at the contradictory enormous line of rush hour ticket buyers lined up for archaic paper tickets as we left the station.

For dinner, at a buffet between the subway stop and the campus, I tried lotus seed sydney soup, a silky sweet broth with those lacy white mushrooms floating above the delicate white lotus peas. I went back for two more small bowls full of the delightful brew. A sign amid the deserts displayed proclaimed “The Flavor is Most Beautiful.” We walked home in the cooling evening among the other pedestrians, our rare day of diversion almost over. I unbagged all our treasures as night settled over the campus and put away our personal purchases. I set aside the wedding gifts anticipating the extended conversations and mass of forms that shipping them overseas would require the next day. My clumsy Chinese would intersect with the impossibly friendly and patient Chinese workers who’d assemble all the packaging and details through the baffling language barrier. All to share our love and the beauty of spring in Beijing with our kids thousands of miles away as their paths enter a momentous transformation--which these gracious Chinese workers would miraculously come to understand.

I was so moved by the tone of this article, Ethics and The Little Red Envelope, tucked away three clicks deep in the "Most Popular" compilation in China Daily's website. Certainly it's not as dramatic as the persecution of the outspoken editor of The Southern Metropolis News in Guangzhou, which is being closely followd by journalism watchdogs worldwide, but it's an authentic voice in the rising tide of Chinese journalists yearning for a freer and less corrupt press.

Ethics and the little red envelope
By Zhu Qi (Shanghai Star)
Updated: 2004-03-24 08:42

I was recently talking to a professor who was organizing an event for the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS). Knowing I used to work in the media sector, Dr Linda G. Sprague asked me an embarrassing question: "Why must we give journalists little envelopes containing 300 yuan?"

I had to say it was the transportation payment. "Isn't it too much?" asked the American. Yes, I admitted, the money was enough for a taxi journey between Shanghai's two airports. But, this was the usual practice.

The conversation took me back to my first solo reporting assignment. I was disturbed at receiving a little envelope but both the event sponsor and my boss told me it was normal procedure. Since the event was nothing but a promotion for a new product, I was tortured about what to write. Finally, as the money was biting me through my pocket, I wrote a short report, going against my judgement as to its newsworthiness. The self-torture gradually phased out as I undertook further reporting of business events.

Read the rest here...

We do it a little differently in the states. Commercial and entertainment press conferences are often sumptuously catered and liquor flows freely. Product related gift packs are distributed. For top-tier reporters there are expense-paid junkets. But nobody gives cash, not even cab fare. And it's so common that nobody talks about it in the press. I'm encouraged that the Shanghai Star published it and China Daily propagated it.

One crackpot doesn't want to pay taxes on his creationist theme park and another sues for licorice addiction.

IRS Probes Creationist Theme Park Operator
AP Via My Yahoo!

PENSACOLA, Fla. - Internal Revenue Service agents are investigating a man who runs a creationist theme park and museum, saying he owes taxes on proceeds of more than $1 million.

IRS agents raided the Pensacola homes and businesses of Kent Hovind, 51. Calling himself "Dr. Dino," Hovind argues against evolution and for a Biblical view of creation in travels around the world, on the Internet, videos and in literature. Agents on Wednesday confiscated computer and paper records of financial activity since 1997, but no charges have been filed against Hovind. He denied wrongdoing Friday.
In a sworn statement to obtain a search warrant, IRS agent Scott Schneider said none of Hovind's enterprises has a business license or tax-exempt status as a nonprofit entity.

Gee, doesn't the bible sort of advocate taxes?

Another crackpot blames a candy maker for the licorice binge that she thinks caused heart disease.

Licorice Addict Sues German Confectioner
Deutsche Welle

German candy manufacturer Haribo has been sued by a woman who blames her addiction to licorice and consequent heart problems on the confectioner, according to a Berlin court announcement. The 48-year-old plaintiff from Berlin is asking for 6,000 ($7,148) in damages from Haribo because she developed heart problems after consuming 400 grams (14 ounces) of the chewy candy every day for four months. She collapsed after her last binge and said she was unable to work for several months. The unnamed woman claims that Haribo failed to warn of the potentially negative effects of excessive consumption of licorice, and in particular glycyrrhizin, an active compound in licorice root.

You might want to go over to Voluntarily In China, Brian Ruckle's weblog and weigh in on whether the Condi Rice cartoon I blogged below and others "like it" are reprehensible because they might be considered racist.

Is Bush Dan Quayle in disguise?

Oddly Enough - Reuters via Yahoo!

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - While struggling unsuccessfully this week to think of a single mistake he has made since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, President Bush (news - web sites) committed three factual errors about weapons finds in Libya, the White House said on Wednesday.

Bush, long known for his grammatical conundrums and confusing phraseology, told reporters twice during Tuesday's prime-time news conference that 50 tons of mustard gas were discovered at a turkey farm in Libya.

On the second occasion, he was responding to a reporter who asked him to identify the biggest mistake he had made since the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington that killed nearly 3,000 people and prompted the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. He could not. But as he searched for an answer, the Republican president reaffirmed his decision to invade Iraq and said weapons of mass destruction may still lie hidden there.

"They could still be there. They could be hidden, like the 50 tons of mustard gas in a turkey farm," said Bush, referring to Libya's voluntary disclosure of weapons in March.

The next day, the White House said the accurate figure for the Libyan mustard gas was 23.6 metric tons, or 26 short tons, not 50 tons. Moreover, the substance was found at different locations across Libya, not at a turkey farm. And observers did not find mustard gas on the farm at all, but rather unfilled chemical munitions, the White House acknowledged.

click for not much more--if you must be a masochist

My goodness, what a surprise! [ed.]

By Winston Chai
Special to CNET News.com

Printing and imaging giant Canon is trying to come up with a way to avoid taking the bad with the good in China.

Last year, the company's sales in the massive Eastern country grew by 51 percent over 2002--more than double the growth rate in the overall Asia Pacific region (excluding Japan), which itself dwarfs the rate of increase in the United States and Europe, said Fujio Mitarai, president and CEO of Canon.

The country has also become a vital manufacturing hub for Tokyo-based Canon, which has invested $1 billion there to date, setting up eight production plants that pump out everything from printers to office copiers. Mitarai officially opened on Friday the largest of these facilities, a Suzhou-based $100 million factory.

But there's a dark side to the country's vast sales and manufacturing potential: Last year, Canon conducted 363 antipiracy raids with governments around the world--and 243 were in China.

According to Nobuyoshi Tanaka, Canon's general manager for corporate intellectual property, fake Canon goods seized during the operations included machines such as calculators, cameras and photocopiers, along with consumables like inkjet cartridges, laser printer toner and rechargeable batteries

there's more...

Yes, you came to the right place. Crackpot Chronicles has had a face-lift. Same ol' sass, new design.

Mobile Phone Blew Up!

HONG KONG (Reuters via Yahoo)

When Chan Tin-hon's mobile phone went off, it went off with a bang. "I was lining up in a bank," the 22-year-old from Hong Kong told local Cable TV. "When I hung up the phone, it exploded. It was very loud."

The station showed Chan's phone, a Nokia 3310, in tatters and a spokeswoman for the manufacturer said they would investigate.

"We've been in contact with the police. It's confirmed that it was a Nokia phone," the spokeswoman said.

"We're trying to get hold of the product for technical testing. But as we haven't got hold of the product yet, we can't provide further information at the moment," she added.

Last year there were several incidents of Nokia phones exploding or bursting into flames in Europe. Nokia said other manufacturers' batteries, and not its own, were to blame for the incidents.

Consumer groups in Italy and Belgium said an independent laboratory test they commissioned showed two types of Nokia batteries lacked safety valves to prevent overheating and fire in case of a short-circuit, but the company disputed the results.

It was unclear if the phone in Tuesday's incident had been bought from a licensed dealer.

Condoleeza Rice wins the Crackpot of the Week award for testifying that a PDB titled Bin Ladin Determined to Strike the US was not enough to go on.

cartoon by Steve Benson. If you click on the link you can click through to see some more of his direct hits. Highly recommended.

And the White House itself, imagine that (a building hesitating, it staggers the imagination) gets the Under-Assistant Crackpot Award for this:

The White House on Friday put off a decision on declassifying the document at the center of the debate — the Aug. 6 briefing, titled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States." But the administration appeared ready to release at least portions of the document publicly in the coming days.

reported by the NY Times.

I do love Yunnan...and oh those naughty Japs, will they ever learn? This caper should go back to Tokyo where it belongs.

This from the Japan Times (the story was also carried by other papers but the pages were blocked when I tried them.

Sushi on naked women causes uproar in Chinese city


Tuesday, April 6, 2004 at 08:00 JST
BEIJING — A Japanese restaurant which served sushi on the body of nearly naked women has caused a storm of controversy in the conservative southwest Chinese city of Kunming.

The Hefengcun Huaishi restaurant launched a promotional "feast on a beauty's body," for local journalists last Friday, hiring two attractive fair-skinned college girls to lie on tables, with sushi and other food and flowers placed on their bare bodies covered with thin gauze.

All you Bushwhackers out there click here for a great show. Takes a bit of time to download (video, audio) but it's well worthwhile. Side-splitting. I'll say no more. Go there, see for yourself.

Long live free speech (speaking at the moment from a country where, though guaranteed by the constitution, it barely exists).

From the Kansas City Star

Texas House candidate, onetime cross-dresser says he won't bow out

BY JAY ROOT Knight Ridder Newspapers

"I don't have a problem with cross-dressing," Giddens said. "There are lots of them. People think J. Edgar Hoover was one of the greatest Americans that ever lived. He was a cross-dresser."

AUSTIN, Texas - (KRT) - His family made a fortune on men's work clothing. But it's Sam Walls' apparent fondness for women's apparel that is dividing the Johnson County Republican Party.

Walls, 64, is in a runoff against Burleson, Texas, real estate broker Rob Orr to succeed conservative icon Arlene Wohlgemuth in the Texas Legislature. As a leading businessman, former Republican Party chairman and major hospital benefactor, Walls seemed the odds-on favorite to win the April 13 contest for House District 58.

But then pictures of Walls in women's clothing - several of which were provided to the "Fort Worth Star-Telegram" - began circulating late last week around Burleson and Cleburne, rival towns on opposite ends of the district.

That's when several Republicans, including the head of the Johnson County Republican Party, confronted Walls and urged him to withdraw.

But Walls dug in his heels.

After rebuffing Republicans who asked him to pull out Monday, he faxed a statement to the Star-Telegram saying he would not give in to "blackmail" from opponents who are trying to use "very old, personal information" to force him out.

"Through intermediaries, my opponent told me to drop out of the campaign or the private information would be released," Walls said. "Now my opponent is using the private information in an attempt to intimate that I am a homosexual, which I am not."

Walls said his family had "dealt with" the issue and he asked for forgiveness.

"I apologize for any embarrassment caused to supporters by my opponent's disclosure of a small part of my personal past," he said.

The conservative businessman, whose father founded the mens' clothing line now produced by Cleburne-based Walls Industries, is expected to address the controversy at a meeting of party executives at 7 p.m. Tuesday in Cleburne.

Endorsed by state Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Lewisville, and U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth, Walls won't be without support at the meeting.

GOP Treasurer Roy Giddens, Jr., an elder statesman in the Johnson County Republican Party, met with Walls last week to discuss the photos and was assured there was nothing more than "cross-dressing" involved.

And as far as Giddens is concerned, wearing earrings, a wig and high-heel shoes does not preclude Walls from becoming an excellent state representative.

"I don't have a problem with cross-dressing," Giddens said. "There are lots of them. People think J. Edgar Hoover was one of the greatest Americans that ever lived. He was a cross-dresser."

believe it or not there's more...read more...

And the summary from Reuters via Yahoo:

DALLAS (Reuters) - What started as a dull runoff race to field a Republican candidate for a seat in the Texas House of Representatives has heated up due to a controversy over cross-dressing.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported on Tuesday photographs of candidate Sam Walls dressed in women's clothes have circulated among political leaders in Johnson County, south of Fort Worth. Local Republican leaders confirmed separately that they had seen the photographs of Walls in a wig, dress and high heels.

Walls, who has the endorsement of several leading Republicans in the state and was expected to win the run-off, was not available for comment. He said in comments printed in the Star-Telegram that he will not drop out of the race due to a campaign of blackmail.

"Through intermediaries, my opponent told me to drop out of the campaign or the private information would be released," Walls told the paper. "Now my opponent is using the information in an attempt to intimate that I am a homosexual, which I am not."

Walls, 64, who describes himself as a fervent Baptist, told the paper his family had "dealt with" the issue of his cross-dressing and that he asked for forgiveness.

The opponent in question is Rob Orr and his campaign officials said they have not distributed the photos.

Jeff Judd, the county chairman of the Republican party, said it was too late for Walls to drop out of the April 13 runoff.

"It would have been much better judgment for him not to have run," he said.

From Ananova

Love Each Other and Reproduce

A Czech porn queen has resurrected her campaign to become a Euro MP after saying she owed it to her fans.

Dolly Buster, 34, real name Katja-Nora Bochnickova, pulled out of the elections after refusing to go down a mine shaft to meet miners on the first day of the campaign.

But just three weeks later, she has now resurrected her campaign after saying she owed it to the thousands of disappointed fans who had begged her to change her mind.

"Hundreds of people kept emailing me daily to tell me that I had to come back as they had no-one else to vote for. I couldn't disappoint them," said Buster.

She added: "People have had enough of the insincerity of politicians. I'm number one in what I do and I want the Czech Republic to be number one out of the ten accession countries."

The porn star, who has also written a number of erotic crime novels, is the lead candidate for the Independent Initiative Party that is running her campaign under the slogan Love Each Other and Reproduce.

And this from GQ UK, announcing her candidacy in December.

Porn queen Dolly Buster wants get into politics and become a Euro MP. The Czech-born star, real name Katja-Nora Bochnickova, says she wants to stand as a candidate for the European Parliament. She told Czech TV Nova: "I want to represent the Czech Republic's interests in Brussels." The porn star, who has starred in countless X-rated flicks, has promised that her election campaign will be based on "contact with people". Buster has made millions both as a porn star and a successful crime-novel writer, penning books about a German porn-star-turned-amateur-sleuth heroine named Lilly DeLight. They have been such a success, she has even been inducted into the Association of German Mystery Authors, Das Syndikat.

Go Dolly! Elections haven't been as interesting since retired hooker and sex-worker activist Margo St. James decided to run for Mayor of San Francisco.

Reuters Via Yahoo

China Liquor Aims to Break the Ice in American Bars
Fri Apr 2, 7:53 AM ET

BEIJING (Reuters) - Beijing's most popular brand of firewater beloved by taxi drivers and political leaders alike may soon be the liquor of choice at fashionable U.S. bars. Beijing-based Red Star Co had signed a deal with an undisclosed U.S. alcohol sales company to distribute its high-end Diamond Erguotou brand of "baijiu," a high-proof spirit made from sorghum, the China Daily newspaper said Friday.

Company sources revealed the mix and packaging of Diamond Erguotou would be adjusted to accommodate American tastes.

"It may not be too long before Americans get the chance to sample a kind of erguotou that is considered the best of the best by Beijing's more discerning drinkers," the newspaper said.

Lower grades of baijiu are beloved in Beijing and across China for their spicy bite and sweet aftertaste, but there is less domestic demand for smoother, more expensive premium brews. Red Star already exports its product to around 10 countries in Asia and Europe.

While standard-size bottles of base-grade erguotou cost less than a dollar in Beijing, the company plans to price its top-end white bottle Diamond product at $30 in the United States.

The company did not specify when shipments of Diamond Erguotou to the U.S. distributor would begin.

I couldn't even drink baijiu at my own wedding! I can't imagine this rotgut will go over in the states, but stranger things have happened.

I have posted this as a comment on John Kerry's blog site and I repeat it here. I'm for John Kerry. I'm against a continuation of the Bush Administration. This is not about criticizing Kerry, but an aspect of his campaign that I am certain will fall under much more visible and much more effective attack than mine. If you agree, why not mosey over to Kerry's campaign blog and post your own thoughts on this.

Kerry is much too educated and intelligent to really believe that blaming oursourcing for America's sagging economy and scapegoating China in this respect is an authentic linkage that will stand over time. Those are crackpot ideas and as much as I love crackpots, I am loath to see the presumptive Democratic candidate for president framed as one over this issue, which will surely happen, unless he re-evaluates his campaign course.

I just have to say this: It is so counterproductive and shortsighted to blame outsourcing for U.S. economic problems and in particular, to position China as an enemy in this respect. Basic logic, forget basic economics, begs the question: why are jobs outsourced and who is responsible? Jobs are outsourced to keep production expenses down, offer goods and services at lower prices, and bigger profits, all of which, in the end benefit the American economy. This fuels the economies of other nations who eventually become American customers! There are some short term job losses but this cycle is inevitable. I say this not to criticize Kerry, whom I wholeheartedly support, but to beg that the campaign position on this be more enlightened. Yes, create jobs! But villifying outsourcing is a very vulnerable position to take, as there is an upside that outweighs the downside and at the end of the day it is an inevitable element of globalization. I appeal to John Kerry, his advisors and the campaign collateral resource creators to rethink their approach on this situation.

I have another, and more personal objection to this. I am currently living and working in China and am apprehensive about anything that alienates Sino-American relations, which are so important to both nations' future. The most important local "talk show" often expresses concern that politicians are pandering to the sensitivities of unemployed Americans by scapegoating China. This will surely backfire and I appeal to you all, particularly those in the Kerry campaign, to reconsider this issue with more perspective. When the backlash comes from editorials, economists and liberals, it's going to hurt a lot more than what the Bush administration counters with. Let's grow up and look at the whole issue.