Man Kills Self at Spot Where JFK Was Gunned Down
DALLAS (Reuters) - A man killed himself with a gunshot to the head on Friday after lying down on the X in the road marking the spot in Dealey Plaza where former U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas 40 years ago, witnesses said.
Police would not confirm the exact location of the incident but said the man shot himself with a small caliber handgun and his body was found in Dealey Plaza, near the spot where Kennedy was struck with a fatal bullet to the head, said Dallas Police Sr. Cpl. Chris Gilliam.
Witness told local news radio station KRLD the man parked his car near the building that was once known as the Texas School Book Depository. That is the building from which Lee Harvey Oswald is suspected of firing the shots that killed Kennedy.
The man laid down on the "X" that marks the spot where Kennedy was hit by a bullet to the head, and then shot himself in the head with a handgun, witnesses said.
Police would not comment on the witness reports, saying their investigation into the apparent suicide was continuing. They gave no information on the man or if he left a note.
TWW'S CRAZY NEWS STORIES
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AussieMark
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Future of Flight: You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet
MIAMI (Reuters) - In the second century of flight, private companies will ferry tourists into space, personal flying machines will roam digital skyways and executive jets will make supersonic speed around the globe, aviation experts and scientists say.
The next generation of airborne adventurers will carry colonists to the moon and to Mars, double-decker jetliners on Earth will load 1,000 passengers and small aircraft will depart and arrive on neighborhood runways with little or no help from their pilot-passengers.
An explosion of aviation and space technology may also bring weaponry and war to Earth orbit as the military powers scramble for control of the heavens in a way Orville and Wilbur Wright likely never imagined when they launched human flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, 100 years ago.
So much of aviation's promise is unfulfilled -- routine space travel, globe-girdling flight at supersonic speed, a flying machine in every garage.
As America celebrates the centennial of the Wrights' historic flight on Dec. 17, 1903, aeronautic engineers are looking to the future and a move away from the cattle-herding of passengers through crowded airports to cramped aircraft.
"Aeronautics is not mature. We barely take advantage of it in our daily lives," said Mark Moore, one of NASA's top thinkers on future flight. "We haven't achieved the Wright brothers' dream."
Space tourism is around the corner, says Peter Diamandis, an aviation visionary who created the X-Prize, a $10 million bounty offered in 1996 for the first people to privately build and launch a spaceship capable of carrying three people to a 60 mile altitude, bring them back safely and repeat the launch, with the same craft, within two weeks.
Two dozen teams are competing for the X-Prize and Diamandis believes it will be won next year, bringing a "paradigm shift" in the way people view space flight, now the exclusive domain of governments with multibillion-dollar budgets. He sees regular sub-orbital commercial flights by 2013.
"We're on the verge of what you might call the golden age of space flight, where it will be possible for the general public to fly into space on a routine basis," he said.
While the first space tourists, Dennis Tito and Mark Shuttleworth, paid Russia some $20 million for their taxi ride to space, Diamandis believes private enterprise will bring the price tag down quickly to under $1 million.
Adventurous, wealthy, aging baby boomers will clamor for seats.
"There's a market for thousands of launches a year," said Diamandis, who sees a private colony on the moon by 2025. "I believe the first trillionaires will be made in space."
On Earth, Airbus hopes to have a double-decker airplane carrying nearly 600 passengers in flight by 2006. Futurists see 1,000-passenger airliners and supersonic business jets capable of spanning the globe in a few hours within a decade or less.
As commercial aircraft get bigger, "personal air vehicles" get smaller, more computerized, and closer to home, ready to relieve gridlocked concrete highways.
At NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, leading aviation thinkers with the Personal Air Vehicle Exploration program are mapping strategy for next-generation small aircraft and the digital air highways they will fly.
Moore, a vehicle sector manager with the program, envisions a world of personal aircraft as easy to use as a car -- quiet, with room for four, costing less than a top-end luxury car. Computer control would allow a pilot to be licensed in five days, and handle a plane that virtually flies itself.
By 2014, Moore sees experimental short-takeoff-and-landing craft that need only 100 feet of runway, bringing flying to your neighborhood landing strip.
"The whole core of this is to make it so this is not just for the macho, elite rich," Moore said. "Normal people can use this for normal, on-demand travel."
The next century of flight, some scientists believe, will see governments plant Star Wars weaponry in space.
"There is a drive to weaponize space. There's a tremendous drive to get America to the moon, in a military sense," said Jim Dator, a University of Hawaii professor who helped found the Institute for Alternative Futures.
Eventually, Dator says, earthlings will step off the planet for good.
"We may go to Mars in 30 to 50 years. Because Mars is so far it's difficult to imagine regular two-way transport. People will just live there and evolve into different life forms."
MIAMI (Reuters) - In the second century of flight, private companies will ferry tourists into space, personal flying machines will roam digital skyways and executive jets will make supersonic speed around the globe, aviation experts and scientists say.
The next generation of airborne adventurers will carry colonists to the moon and to Mars, double-decker jetliners on Earth will load 1,000 passengers and small aircraft will depart and arrive on neighborhood runways with little or no help from their pilot-passengers.
An explosion of aviation and space technology may also bring weaponry and war to Earth orbit as the military powers scramble for control of the heavens in a way Orville and Wilbur Wright likely never imagined when they launched human flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, 100 years ago.
So much of aviation's promise is unfulfilled -- routine space travel, globe-girdling flight at supersonic speed, a flying machine in every garage.
As America celebrates the centennial of the Wrights' historic flight on Dec. 17, 1903, aeronautic engineers are looking to the future and a move away from the cattle-herding of passengers through crowded airports to cramped aircraft.
"Aeronautics is not mature. We barely take advantage of it in our daily lives," said Mark Moore, one of NASA's top thinkers on future flight. "We haven't achieved the Wright brothers' dream."
Space tourism is around the corner, says Peter Diamandis, an aviation visionary who created the X-Prize, a $10 million bounty offered in 1996 for the first people to privately build and launch a spaceship capable of carrying three people to a 60 mile altitude, bring them back safely and repeat the launch, with the same craft, within two weeks.
Two dozen teams are competing for the X-Prize and Diamandis believes it will be won next year, bringing a "paradigm shift" in the way people view space flight, now the exclusive domain of governments with multibillion-dollar budgets. He sees regular sub-orbital commercial flights by 2013.
"We're on the verge of what you might call the golden age of space flight, where it will be possible for the general public to fly into space on a routine basis," he said.
While the first space tourists, Dennis Tito and Mark Shuttleworth, paid Russia some $20 million for their taxi ride to space, Diamandis believes private enterprise will bring the price tag down quickly to under $1 million.
Adventurous, wealthy, aging baby boomers will clamor for seats.
"There's a market for thousands of launches a year," said Diamandis, who sees a private colony on the moon by 2025. "I believe the first trillionaires will be made in space."
On Earth, Airbus hopes to have a double-decker airplane carrying nearly 600 passengers in flight by 2006. Futurists see 1,000-passenger airliners and supersonic business jets capable of spanning the globe in a few hours within a decade or less.
As commercial aircraft get bigger, "personal air vehicles" get smaller, more computerized, and closer to home, ready to relieve gridlocked concrete highways.
At NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, leading aviation thinkers with the Personal Air Vehicle Exploration program are mapping strategy for next-generation small aircraft and the digital air highways they will fly.
Moore, a vehicle sector manager with the program, envisions a world of personal aircraft as easy to use as a car -- quiet, with room for four, costing less than a top-end luxury car. Computer control would allow a pilot to be licensed in five days, and handle a plane that virtually flies itself.
By 2014, Moore sees experimental short-takeoff-and-landing craft that need only 100 feet of runway, bringing flying to your neighborhood landing strip.
"The whole core of this is to make it so this is not just for the macho, elite rich," Moore said. "Normal people can use this for normal, on-demand travel."
The next century of flight, some scientists believe, will see governments plant Star Wars weaponry in space.
"There is a drive to weaponize space. There's a tremendous drive to get America to the moon, in a military sense," said Jim Dator, a University of Hawaii professor who helped found the Institute for Alternative Futures.
Eventually, Dator says, earthlings will step off the planet for good.
"We may go to Mars in 30 to 50 years. Because Mars is so far it's difficult to imagine regular two-way transport. People will just live there and evolve into different life forms."
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Germans Are Too Grumpy?
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germans should lighten up, according to their president who says he is fed up with seeing his compatriots looking grumpy and grim-faced.
"Germans sometimes leave a general impression of being broody," President Johannes Rau said on Friday in a briefing with the Foreign Press Association. He said the looks on their faces at times makes him think they're suffering indigestion.
"Germans walk around looking as if they have too much gastric acid," said Rau, 72, who retires in 2004 after five years as head of state. "I wish they'd relax more."
Rau has often admonished Germans during his five-year term for moaning and whingeing too much. He criticized his countrymen for excessive pessimism and exaggerating Germany's woes, even though it has the world's third largest economy.
"I often complain there is too much self-pity in Germany," Rau said. "Germans tend to pay not enough attention to what is happening in other continents and other countries. I wish we'd would be more confident in a modest way."
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germans should lighten up, according to their president who says he is fed up with seeing his compatriots looking grumpy and grim-faced.
"Germans sometimes leave a general impression of being broody," President Johannes Rau said on Friday in a briefing with the Foreign Press Association. He said the looks on their faces at times makes him think they're suffering indigestion.
"Germans walk around looking as if they have too much gastric acid," said Rau, 72, who retires in 2004 after five years as head of state. "I wish they'd relax more."
Rau has often admonished Germans during his five-year term for moaning and whingeing too much. He criticized his countrymen for excessive pessimism and exaggerating Germany's woes, even though it has the world's third largest economy.
"I often complain there is too much self-pity in Germany," Rau said. "Germans tend to pay not enough attention to what is happening in other continents and other countries. I wish we'd would be more confident in a modest way."
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AussieMark
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Microsoft to Remove Swastikas from Software Fonts
SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. said on Friday that its latest version of Office software inadvertently contained a font featuring two swastikas, and said it would offer tools to remove and replace the offending characters from the program.
The swastika, which was made infamous by Nazi Germany, was included in Microsoft's "Bookshelf Symbol 7" font. That font was derived from a Japanese font set, said Microsoft Office product manager Simon Marks.
"It was discovered by one of our customers a couple weeks ago," Marks said, adding that there was "no indication of malicious intent."
The Redmond, Washington-based software maker said that it had contacted various Jewish organizations about the font and said a utility would be immediately available on its Web site that would remove the characters from the system.
Microsoft said it will release other tools at a later date to remove only the offending characters.
A form of the swastika has been used in the Buddhist religion to symbolize the feet or footprints of the Buddha. The symbol, which was also used widely in the ancient world including Mesopotamia, Scandinavia, India and the Americas, became common in China and Japan with the spread of Buddhism.
German dictator Adolf Hitler adopted the swastika as the symbol of the Nazi Party because of its nationalist identification, according to the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, an international Jewish human rights group.
SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. said on Friday that its latest version of Office software inadvertently contained a font featuring two swastikas, and said it would offer tools to remove and replace the offending characters from the program.
The swastika, which was made infamous by Nazi Germany, was included in Microsoft's "Bookshelf Symbol 7" font. That font was derived from a Japanese font set, said Microsoft Office product manager Simon Marks.
"It was discovered by one of our customers a couple weeks ago," Marks said, adding that there was "no indication of malicious intent."
The Redmond, Washington-based software maker said that it had contacted various Jewish organizations about the font and said a utility would be immediately available on its Web site that would remove the characters from the system.
Microsoft said it will release other tools at a later date to remove only the offending characters.
A form of the swastika has been used in the Buddhist religion to symbolize the feet or footprints of the Buddha. The symbol, which was also used widely in the ancient world including Mesopotamia, Scandinavia, India and the Americas, became common in China and Japan with the spread of Buddhism.
German dictator Adolf Hitler adopted the swastika as the symbol of the Nazi Party because of its nationalist identification, according to the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, an international Jewish human rights group.
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AussieMark
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'Bored' Teens Rack Up $160 Million Internet Bill
BERLIN (Reuters) - Three German teenagers were being investigated for fraud Friday after they spent 130 million euros ($160 million) in a two-hour Internet shopping spree because they were "bored," authorities said Friday.
The 19-year-olds splashed out on light aircraft, patents, industrial machinery, restaurants and artwork after hacking into an account on an Internet auction site.
"They gave boredom as the motive and made no attempt to disguise what fun they had buying only the most expensive things," according to police in the western town of Limburg.
They said state prosecutors are investigating.
BERLIN (Reuters) - Three German teenagers were being investigated for fraud Friday after they spent 130 million euros ($160 million) in a two-hour Internet shopping spree because they were "bored," authorities said Friday.
The 19-year-olds splashed out on light aircraft, patents, industrial machinery, restaurants and artwork after hacking into an account on an Internet auction site.
"They gave boredom as the motive and made no attempt to disguise what fun they had buying only the most expensive things," according to police in the western town of Limburg.
They said state prosecutors are investigating.
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AussieMark
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How the Grinch Stole...
MIAMI (Reuters) - A Florida man claiming to be selling tickets to a Christmas show took $10 each from hundreds of school children then splurged on wine, sunglasses and movies, a state prosecutor said on Friday.
South Florida U.S. Attorney Marcos Daniel Jimenez said David Lee Ellisor collected money from students at schools all around Miami for a "once in a lifetime" Christmas show that never took place.
When the busloads of children turned up to see the "Christmas from around the world" show in the leafy Miami suburb of Coconut Grove in early December, they found the doors of the venue locked and Ellisor nowhere to be found.
"Ellisor collected thousands of dollars in fees for the event, which he then took as cash or used for personal expenses at locations such as a movie theater, a wine shop, a sunglasses store, a video store and a dry cleaner," Jimenez said.
Ellisor's whereabouts are unknown, Jimenez said in a statement. He faces a maximum of five years in jail and a $250,000 fine if convicted of mail fraud.
MIAMI (Reuters) - A Florida man claiming to be selling tickets to a Christmas show took $10 each from hundreds of school children then splurged on wine, sunglasses and movies, a state prosecutor said on Friday.
South Florida U.S. Attorney Marcos Daniel Jimenez said David Lee Ellisor collected money from students at schools all around Miami for a "once in a lifetime" Christmas show that never took place.
When the busloads of children turned up to see the "Christmas from around the world" show in the leafy Miami suburb of Coconut Grove in early December, they found the doors of the venue locked and Ellisor nowhere to be found.
"Ellisor collected thousands of dollars in fees for the event, which he then took as cash or used for personal expenses at locations such as a movie theater, a wine shop, a sunglasses store, a video store and a dry cleaner," Jimenez said.
Ellisor's whereabouts are unknown, Jimenez said in a statement. He faces a maximum of five years in jail and a $250,000 fine if convicted of mail fraud.
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AussieMark
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Hockey Contest to Give $50,000 for On-Ice Brawling
WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - Forget about skating ability, shooting finesse and scoring talent.
A new hockey tournament proposes to skip the finer points of the high-speed sport to get straight to what its Canadian promoters say many fans secretly love best: the brawls.
The "Battle of the Hockey Gladiators," planned for a new arena in Grand Forks, North Dakota, for early next September, will pit denizens of the penalty box at center ice, in full hockey gear, for two minutes of pure pummeling.
"Two minutes is an eternity in a hockey fight," said Darryl Wolski, a promoter from Brandon, Manitoba, speaking from experience.
"It's mentally and physically so draining after that first minute, just because you have to concentrate on so many things," Wolski said.
Participants will put up a $250 entry fee, with $50,000 in prize money up for grabs.
In Canada, where Saturday night hockey games are the highest-rated draws on television, the idea has attracted both cheers and jeers, the tournament's promoter said.
"People say: Aww, it's the lowest common denominator, a hockey fight," said Darryl Wolski of Brandon, which is just across the Canada-U.S. border from Grand Forks.
"Maybe that's what they say publicly -- but there are so many closet people watch on TV (when fights break out) and love it," Wolski said.
A local wrestling promoter put Wolski in touch with pay-per-view broadcasters. He said he hopes to make money by having recordings of the event on store shelves by next Christmas.
"It's sad, but that's the way society is, they just love this kind of thing, and I guess that was kind of our way of capturing this niche market," Wolski said.
Organizers hope to match 64 players by fighting experience, with judges looking for how well the scrappers control the fight and how many punches they land, he said.
"We'll have medical and dental people on hand to fix guys up if they need to be fixed up," Wolski noted.
WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - Forget about skating ability, shooting finesse and scoring talent.
A new hockey tournament proposes to skip the finer points of the high-speed sport to get straight to what its Canadian promoters say many fans secretly love best: the brawls.
The "Battle of the Hockey Gladiators," planned for a new arena in Grand Forks, North Dakota, for early next September, will pit denizens of the penalty box at center ice, in full hockey gear, for two minutes of pure pummeling.
"Two minutes is an eternity in a hockey fight," said Darryl Wolski, a promoter from Brandon, Manitoba, speaking from experience.
"It's mentally and physically so draining after that first minute, just because you have to concentrate on so many things," Wolski said.
Participants will put up a $250 entry fee, with $50,000 in prize money up for grabs.
In Canada, where Saturday night hockey games are the highest-rated draws on television, the idea has attracted both cheers and jeers, the tournament's promoter said.
"People say: Aww, it's the lowest common denominator, a hockey fight," said Darryl Wolski of Brandon, which is just across the Canada-U.S. border from Grand Forks.
"Maybe that's what they say publicly -- but there are so many closet people watch on TV (when fights break out) and love it," Wolski said.
A local wrestling promoter put Wolski in touch with pay-per-view broadcasters. He said he hopes to make money by having recordings of the event on store shelves by next Christmas.
"It's sad, but that's the way society is, they just love this kind of thing, and I guess that was kind of our way of capturing this niche market," Wolski said.
Organizers hope to match 64 players by fighting experience, with judges looking for how well the scrappers control the fight and how many punches they land, he said.
"We'll have medical and dental people on hand to fix guys up if they need to be fixed up," Wolski noted.
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AussieMark
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Death Row Details Left Bad Taste for Some
HOUSTON (Reuters) - The final meals of executed prisoners are off the menu on the Texas prison system's Internet site.
Texas, which far and away leads all U.S. states in executions since a national death penalty ban was lifted in 1976, has long listed details of the meals on the prison system's Web site, http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us.
But Michelle Lyons, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said they were removed last week during a redesign of the site.
"We had some complaints from people in both the U.S. and abroad that it might be in poor taste to distribute that information on the Web site," she said.
The information about last meals will still be made available to reporters covering executions.
The meals, which in Texas have to be made with what is available in the prison, range from the simple -- Briton John "Jackie" Elliott requested a cup of tea and chocolate chip cookies before his Feb. 4 execution -- to the extravagant.
Also in February, Richard Head Williams asked for two chili cheese dogs, two cheeseburgers, two orders of onion rings with French dressing, a turkey salad with fries, egg rolls, chocolate cake, apple pie, butter pecan ice cream, one peach, three Dr. Pepper sodas, jalapenos, Ketchup and mayonnaise.
HOUSTON (Reuters) - The final meals of executed prisoners are off the menu on the Texas prison system's Internet site.
Texas, which far and away leads all U.S. states in executions since a national death penalty ban was lifted in 1976, has long listed details of the meals on the prison system's Web site, http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us.
But Michelle Lyons, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said they were removed last week during a redesign of the site.
"We had some complaints from people in both the U.S. and abroad that it might be in poor taste to distribute that information on the Web site," she said.
The information about last meals will still be made available to reporters covering executions.
The meals, which in Texas have to be made with what is available in the prison, range from the simple -- Briton John "Jackie" Elliott requested a cup of tea and chocolate chip cookies before his Feb. 4 execution -- to the extravagant.
Also in February, Richard Head Williams asked for two chili cheese dogs, two cheeseburgers, two orders of onion rings with French dressing, a turkey salad with fries, egg rolls, chocolate cake, apple pie, butter pecan ice cream, one peach, three Dr. Pepper sodas, jalapenos, Ketchup and mayonnaise.
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AussieMark
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Crocks Rev Up for Sahara, Sweat and Ice-Cream
LONDON (Reuters) - Chris "Chip" Wilson says he has a secret weapon when he heads off Friday for a grueling car rally across seven countries and hundreds of miles of scorching Sahara -- ice-cream.
Chip's souped up ice-cream van is one of about 90 vehicles revving up for the annual Plymouth-Dakar rally, a chaotic chase down the Atlantic coasts of Europe and Africa in the name of charity.
Unlike the more famous Paris-Dakar rally, competitors must build their vehicles for under 100 pounds ($176) and when they arrive are expected to auction them off, donate the proceeds to charities in Gambia and then fly home.
Chip, who installs windows for a living, has named his van Fatboy Slimfast. "It was the most inappropriate vehicle we could find," he said.
"We took it on a test run the other day. It overheated; the clutch cable tore out; and the electrics packed up. We've already gone through one engine and a gearbox. At the moment it has no floor.
"But imagine the smiles when we roll up in the middle of nowhere in Africa and start serving ice-cream. Apart from anything else, it'll help our case with the border guards."
Alongside Chip and his co-driver Neil Scudder are dozens of teams from Britain, the United States, Germany and Russia. They go by names like Team Rustbucket, The Milk Sheikhs, Team Sheikh E Mota and the Desert Prats.
"It attracts a weird mix of the normal and the oddball," organizer Julian Nowill said of the 3,700-mile, three week challenge, which first started last year and is already fully booked for 2005.
Last year, the racers included a large-breasted erotic novelist, he said, and her boyfriend -- a celebrity hairdresser. Competitors faced a series of unexpected challenges, including a self-appointed border guard who threw up an impromptu barrier and started charging 10 euros per car.
"After negotiations failed, we just rammed it down," said Nowill.
"This is everything that the Paris-Dakar is not," he added. "It's got no money, no support and the vehicles are crap. Despite the name, it doesn't start in Plymouth, because the ferries from there don't suit us. And it doesn't even end in Dakar."
LONDON (Reuters) - Chris "Chip" Wilson says he has a secret weapon when he heads off Friday for a grueling car rally across seven countries and hundreds of miles of scorching Sahara -- ice-cream.
Chip's souped up ice-cream van is one of about 90 vehicles revving up for the annual Plymouth-Dakar rally, a chaotic chase down the Atlantic coasts of Europe and Africa in the name of charity.
Unlike the more famous Paris-Dakar rally, competitors must build their vehicles for under 100 pounds ($176) and when they arrive are expected to auction them off, donate the proceeds to charities in Gambia and then fly home.
Chip, who installs windows for a living, has named his van Fatboy Slimfast. "It was the most inappropriate vehicle we could find," he said.
"We took it on a test run the other day. It overheated; the clutch cable tore out; and the electrics packed up. We've already gone through one engine and a gearbox. At the moment it has no floor.
"But imagine the smiles when we roll up in the middle of nowhere in Africa and start serving ice-cream. Apart from anything else, it'll help our case with the border guards."
Alongside Chip and his co-driver Neil Scudder are dozens of teams from Britain, the United States, Germany and Russia. They go by names like Team Rustbucket, The Milk Sheikhs, Team Sheikh E Mota and the Desert Prats.
"It attracts a weird mix of the normal and the oddball," organizer Julian Nowill said of the 3,700-mile, three week challenge, which first started last year and is already fully booked for 2005.
Last year, the racers included a large-breasted erotic novelist, he said, and her boyfriend -- a celebrity hairdresser. Competitors faced a series of unexpected challenges, including a self-appointed border guard who threw up an impromptu barrier and started charging 10 euros per car.
"After negotiations failed, we just rammed it down," said Nowill.
"This is everything that the Paris-Dakar is not," he added. "It's got no money, no support and the vehicles are crap. Despite the name, it doesn't start in Plymouth, because the ferries from there don't suit us. And it doesn't even end in Dakar."
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AussieMark
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Two Wrongs Don't Make a Wright
KILL DEVIL HILLS, N.C. (Reuters) - Modern-day aviators failed on Wednesday to duplicate the pioneering flight of the Wright brothers a century ago as a replica of their primitive 1903 flying machine flopped into the mud in the birthplace of powered human flight.
On a rain-soaked field in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, where the bicycle mechanics from Ohio achieved the age-old dream on Dec. 17, 1903, an exact copy of the wood-and-cloth Wright Flyer trundled down a wooden rail but failed to generate the speed and lift it needed to fly in an unreliable breeze.
On another attempt hours later, the engine was cranked but the wind died and the aircraft did not try a takeoff.
The two attempts, part of a celebration of the first century of flight that lured astronaut Neil Armstrong and a host of luminaries to North Carolina's Outer Banks, came hours after President Bush lauded Orville and Wilbur Wright's achievement as a triumph of American ingenuity.
"The Wright brothers' invention belongs to the world but the Wright brothers belong to America," Bush told a crowd of soggy spectators at the Wright Brothers National Memorial.
Downpours hit Kill Devil Hills early Wednesday and light winds that followed forced organizers of the weeklong event to postpone its highlight, an attempt to re-enact the Wrights' original 12-second, 120-foot flight in the muddy field where they made history.
The Wrights made four flights that day. The last, by Wilbur, measured 852 feet and lasted 59 seconds. The re-enactment was to have been made at 10:35 a.m. EST, the same time Orville Wright lifted off, but was delayed for nearly two hours by light winds. Organizers said the replica needed 10-22 mph of wind to fly.
Following a series of unsuccessful attempts to crank the balky engine, the Flyer's twin propellers came to life. Kevin Kochersberger, a 42-year-old flight instructor and engineering professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology, guided the replica across the field.
The machine moved slowly down a wooden track and its nose rose briefly before it dipped and settled into a mud puddle. The flight crew said later that photographs showed the plane was in the air briefly, at an altitude of six inches (15 cm) for about a second.
Kochersberger said the venture was anything but a failure, noting the replica flew twice successfully in trials.
"We were just a little bit shy on the wind and a little bit shy on the engine power today," he said.
The weeklong festival attracted and thrilled tens of thousands of aviation buffs.
The U.S. military's B-2 Stealth bomber and the Osprey tilt-rotor, short-takeoff-and-landing craft made appearances, along with Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, the first men on the moon, Chuck Yeager, the pilot who first broke the sound barrier, and John Glenn, the former senator and astronaut.
"Here at the Wright Brothers National Memorial, we remember one small machine and we honor the giants who flew it," said Bush, who flew to North Carolina to take part in the festivities but left before the re-enactment was to take place.
Air Force One, with the president on board, flew over the Wright Memorial before heading back to Washington.
The failed re-enactment after a century of giant leaps in aviation highlighted the ingenuity of the brothers, who constructed a primitive 605-pound (274 kg) biplane out of spruce, ash and muslin. The Wright Flyer had a 40-foot (12-meter) wingspan, was powered by a 12-horsepower engine and had a top speed of just 30 mph.
KILL DEVIL HILLS, N.C. (Reuters) - Modern-day aviators failed on Wednesday to duplicate the pioneering flight of the Wright brothers a century ago as a replica of their primitive 1903 flying machine flopped into the mud in the birthplace of powered human flight.
On a rain-soaked field in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, where the bicycle mechanics from Ohio achieved the age-old dream on Dec. 17, 1903, an exact copy of the wood-and-cloth Wright Flyer trundled down a wooden rail but failed to generate the speed and lift it needed to fly in an unreliable breeze.
On another attempt hours later, the engine was cranked but the wind died and the aircraft did not try a takeoff.
The two attempts, part of a celebration of the first century of flight that lured astronaut Neil Armstrong and a host of luminaries to North Carolina's Outer Banks, came hours after President Bush lauded Orville and Wilbur Wright's achievement as a triumph of American ingenuity.
"The Wright brothers' invention belongs to the world but the Wright brothers belong to America," Bush told a crowd of soggy spectators at the Wright Brothers National Memorial.
Downpours hit Kill Devil Hills early Wednesday and light winds that followed forced organizers of the weeklong event to postpone its highlight, an attempt to re-enact the Wrights' original 12-second, 120-foot flight in the muddy field where they made history.
The Wrights made four flights that day. The last, by Wilbur, measured 852 feet and lasted 59 seconds. The re-enactment was to have been made at 10:35 a.m. EST, the same time Orville Wright lifted off, but was delayed for nearly two hours by light winds. Organizers said the replica needed 10-22 mph of wind to fly.
Following a series of unsuccessful attempts to crank the balky engine, the Flyer's twin propellers came to life. Kevin Kochersberger, a 42-year-old flight instructor and engineering professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology, guided the replica across the field.
The machine moved slowly down a wooden track and its nose rose briefly before it dipped and settled into a mud puddle. The flight crew said later that photographs showed the plane was in the air briefly, at an altitude of six inches (15 cm) for about a second.
Kochersberger said the venture was anything but a failure, noting the replica flew twice successfully in trials.
"We were just a little bit shy on the wind and a little bit shy on the engine power today," he said.
The weeklong festival attracted and thrilled tens of thousands of aviation buffs.
The U.S. military's B-2 Stealth bomber and the Osprey tilt-rotor, short-takeoff-and-landing craft made appearances, along with Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, the first men on the moon, Chuck Yeager, the pilot who first broke the sound barrier, and John Glenn, the former senator and astronaut.
"Here at the Wright Brothers National Memorial, we remember one small machine and we honor the giants who flew it," said Bush, who flew to North Carolina to take part in the festivities but left before the re-enactment was to take place.
Air Force One, with the president on board, flew over the Wright Memorial before heading back to Washington.
The failed re-enactment after a century of giant leaps in aviation highlighted the ingenuity of the brothers, who constructed a primitive 605-pound (274 kg) biplane out of spruce, ash and muslin. The Wright Flyer had a 40-foot (12-meter) wingspan, was powered by a 12-horsepower engine and had a top speed of just 30 mph.
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AussieMark
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Playboy Magazine Auction Makes $2.7 Million
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Playboy magazine showed it still has plenty of appeal at age 50 by realizing more than $2.7 million on Wednesday in an auction of some 300 artifacts from its archives, including works by artists and writers that have appeared in the magazine.
Tom Wesselmann's "Study for the Great American Nude, #87" (1966) soared above its pre-sale estimate of between $40,000 and $60,000 to fetch $107,550, a figure also paid for LeRoy Neiman's "Le Mans, 1969."
Alberto Vargas' "Vargas Girl - Trick or Treat?" (1967) was sold for $71,700 at the Christie's auction.
The sale included original manuscripts by literary figures who have written for Playboy over its 50-year history including Jack Kerouac, Ian Fleming and Ray Bradbury.
The top seller among them was Kerouac's typed manuscript of "Before the Road," a prequel to his famous "On the Road," which sold for $71,700.
Playboy's centerfold in the inaugural issue, a 1953 color photograph of Marilyn Monroe by Tom Kelley, sold for $17,925.
Playboy founder Hugh Hefner's personal "little black book" of phone numbers and contacts used by the famed swinger in 1956 sold for $9,560.
A 1960s vintage, emerald green, satin Playboy bunny suit sold for $14,340.
The final lot of the sale, a 1988 Mercedes Benz stretch limousine, was sold for $77,675. Besides the elegant vehicle, the winning bidder received a bonus -- two tickets to the invitation-only New Year's Eve party at Hefner's Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles.
The pre-sale estimate for the entire auction was between $1.5 million and $2 million.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Playboy magazine showed it still has plenty of appeal at age 50 by realizing more than $2.7 million on Wednesday in an auction of some 300 artifacts from its archives, including works by artists and writers that have appeared in the magazine.
Tom Wesselmann's "Study for the Great American Nude, #87" (1966) soared above its pre-sale estimate of between $40,000 and $60,000 to fetch $107,550, a figure also paid for LeRoy Neiman's "Le Mans, 1969."
Alberto Vargas' "Vargas Girl - Trick or Treat?" (1967) was sold for $71,700 at the Christie's auction.
The sale included original manuscripts by literary figures who have written for Playboy over its 50-year history including Jack Kerouac, Ian Fleming and Ray Bradbury.
The top seller among them was Kerouac's typed manuscript of "Before the Road," a prequel to his famous "On the Road," which sold for $71,700.
Playboy's centerfold in the inaugural issue, a 1953 color photograph of Marilyn Monroe by Tom Kelley, sold for $17,925.
Playboy founder Hugh Hefner's personal "little black book" of phone numbers and contacts used by the famed swinger in 1956 sold for $9,560.
A 1960s vintage, emerald green, satin Playboy bunny suit sold for $14,340.
The final lot of the sale, a 1988 Mercedes Benz stretch limousine, was sold for $77,675. Besides the elegant vehicle, the winning bidder received a bonus -- two tickets to the invitation-only New Year's Eve party at Hefner's Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles.
The pre-sale estimate for the entire auction was between $1.5 million and $2 million.
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AussieMark
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Large Closet Space a New York Status Symbol
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Contrary to popular opinion, New Yorkers don't lust most after power or money or even great sex. They lust after closet space.
Whether they live in a shoebox-size studio apartment or a Fifth Avenue mansion, city residents all crave more closets. And closets have become a status symbol the way a flashy car might be in the suburbs.
"It's a very talked-about thing," said Andrew Gerringer, managing director at Douglas Elliman real estate agency. "You can't underestimate the importance of a closet,"
Some people brag about their closets; others know that closet envy is a palpable New York emotion.
"If I told you how much closet space I have, you would die," said Alan Hilfer, director of psychology training at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn. Lowering his voice to a conspiratorial whisper, he said: "I have more closet space than I can fill."
When people visit his Manhattan apartment, he said, "They salivate and they get jealous. So I'll pretend the closets don't exist."
New Yorker Daria Winter recently chose an apartment with closets and a view of a brick wall over another apartment with fewer closets and a good view.
Even so, she turned the second bedroom into a giant closet for her admittedly extensive collection of clothes and shoes.
"Women are jealous," she said, "and all the guys laugh at me. Then they blame me for causing their wives and girlfriends to decide to turn their den into a closet."
Even New York's premier address -- the mayor's Gracie Mansion -- has just a handful of closets, having been built in 1799 when armoires were more in use, according to city history.
Real estate broker Jill Sloane of the Halstead company said in New York, one hall closet and one bedroom closet are "a lot of closet space."
She added that not long ago she sold an apartment without a single closet. "You had to use your imagination," she said.
Those without enough closet space -- that would be just about everyone -- have been known to impose on friends with suburban attics, cram more things under the bed than would seem possible or pay extra for basement storage space in their building.
Manhattan building contractor Dominique Perret recently built a 30-foot long closet -- with 10 doors -- for a client in a high-end Manhattan apartment.
But for his own possessions that don't fit in his closet-challenged Greenwich Village apartment, Perret rents two storage closets in a warehouse four blocks from home and visits them almost every day. One space is filled to the brim with furniture.
"We dream about a house in the country. We have it all furnished already," he said. "We just don't have the house.
More than one New Yorker makes the best of the city's closet shortage. Workers at City Closet Storage will arrive at the door with a six-foot by six-foot (two meter by two meter) closet, fill it up with clothing and haul it away. They'll bring it back with the change of seasons, ready to deposit fresh clothes and leave with the out-of season frocks.
For $225, a company called Garde Robe will take up to 50 items, dry clean them, mend them, store them and post their photographs on an Internet site. Clients then can go online, click on the item they want and have it delivered within 90 minutes -- twenty-four hours a day.
But some New Yorkers claim closets are over-rated.
"I don't have a closet. It's great not having a closet," said Stephen Larkin, of the Corcoran Group real estate. "They're nothing but big messes.
"I'm very streamlined," he said. "I have a whole wall that I wouldn't have otherwise."
Closets tell us a lot about ourselves, Hilfer said. People always think they will find time to make order of their possessions, and they hang onto things to stay in touch with the past, he said.
"I still have my tie-dyed shirts," he said. "I don't wear them anymore. But every once in a while when I'm rummaging through the closets, I see them and I kind of smile."
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Contrary to popular opinion, New Yorkers don't lust most after power or money or even great sex. They lust after closet space.
Whether they live in a shoebox-size studio apartment or a Fifth Avenue mansion, city residents all crave more closets. And closets have become a status symbol the way a flashy car might be in the suburbs.
"It's a very talked-about thing," said Andrew Gerringer, managing director at Douglas Elliman real estate agency. "You can't underestimate the importance of a closet,"
Some people brag about their closets; others know that closet envy is a palpable New York emotion.
"If I told you how much closet space I have, you would die," said Alan Hilfer, director of psychology training at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn. Lowering his voice to a conspiratorial whisper, he said: "I have more closet space than I can fill."
When people visit his Manhattan apartment, he said, "They salivate and they get jealous. So I'll pretend the closets don't exist."
New Yorker Daria Winter recently chose an apartment with closets and a view of a brick wall over another apartment with fewer closets and a good view.
Even so, she turned the second bedroom into a giant closet for her admittedly extensive collection of clothes and shoes.
"Women are jealous," she said, "and all the guys laugh at me. Then they blame me for causing their wives and girlfriends to decide to turn their den into a closet."
Even New York's premier address -- the mayor's Gracie Mansion -- has just a handful of closets, having been built in 1799 when armoires were more in use, according to city history.
Real estate broker Jill Sloane of the Halstead company said in New York, one hall closet and one bedroom closet are "a lot of closet space."
She added that not long ago she sold an apartment without a single closet. "You had to use your imagination," she said.
Those without enough closet space -- that would be just about everyone -- have been known to impose on friends with suburban attics, cram more things under the bed than would seem possible or pay extra for basement storage space in their building.
Manhattan building contractor Dominique Perret recently built a 30-foot long closet -- with 10 doors -- for a client in a high-end Manhattan apartment.
But for his own possessions that don't fit in his closet-challenged Greenwich Village apartment, Perret rents two storage closets in a warehouse four blocks from home and visits them almost every day. One space is filled to the brim with furniture.
"We dream about a house in the country. We have it all furnished already," he said. "We just don't have the house.
More than one New Yorker makes the best of the city's closet shortage. Workers at City Closet Storage will arrive at the door with a six-foot by six-foot (two meter by two meter) closet, fill it up with clothing and haul it away. They'll bring it back with the change of seasons, ready to deposit fresh clothes and leave with the out-of season frocks.
For $225, a company called Garde Robe will take up to 50 items, dry clean them, mend them, store them and post their photographs on an Internet site. Clients then can go online, click on the item they want and have it delivered within 90 minutes -- twenty-four hours a day.
But some New Yorkers claim closets are over-rated.
"I don't have a closet. It's great not having a closet," said Stephen Larkin, of the Corcoran Group real estate. "They're nothing but big messes.
"I'm very streamlined," he said. "I have a whole wall that I wouldn't have otherwise."
Closets tell us a lot about ourselves, Hilfer said. People always think they will find time to make order of their possessions, and they hang onto things to stay in touch with the past, he said.
"I still have my tie-dyed shirts," he said. "I don't wear them anymore. But every once in a while when I'm rummaging through the closets, I see them and I kind of smile."
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AussieMark
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Chrysler Cancels 'Lingerie Bowl' Sponsorship
DETROIT (Reuters) - DaimlerChrysler's Chrysler division, bowing to critics, said on Wednesday it was abandoning plans to sponsor a Super Bowl Sunday televised football game featuring underwear-clad models.
The "Lingerie Bowl 2004" -- a tackle football game to be played by 14 women models wearing bras and panties -- was to have been sponsored by Chrysler's Dodge brand and broadcast on pay-per-view television at halftime during the National Football League's championship game on Feb. 1.
"Halftime has never been this sexy," reads one headline from the event's Web site (http://www.lingerie.com).
Dodge, whose advertising features the slogan "Grab Life by the Horns," was to have had its ram's-head logo emblazoned on bras worn by the models.
Critics dubbed the event sexist, however, and senior Chrysler officials have been distancing themselves from it since last week.
Proceeds from the event were originally due to benefit the American Foundation for AIDS Research, but it too severed ties with the game.
A source close to Chrysler said conservative lobbying groups had flooded the company's e-mail system with complaints about the upcoming spectacle.
"You've got at some point just to decide 'OK, maybe we made a mistake, let's pull the plug,'" the source said.
In a statement formally announcing the withdrawal of Dodge's sponsorship of the Lingerie Bowl, George Murphy, Chrysler's senior vice president of global marketing, dismissed it as "a distraction" that had taken the spotlight off the company's cars and trucks.
He did not elaborate on the controversy, which first came to light several weeks ago.
A spokeswoman for Horizon Productions Inc., the Lingerie Bowl's producer, said it was "disappointed" that Dodge had withdrawn its sponsorship, but that the game would go on.
DETROIT (Reuters) - DaimlerChrysler's Chrysler division, bowing to critics, said on Wednesday it was abandoning plans to sponsor a Super Bowl Sunday televised football game featuring underwear-clad models.
The "Lingerie Bowl 2004" -- a tackle football game to be played by 14 women models wearing bras and panties -- was to have been sponsored by Chrysler's Dodge brand and broadcast on pay-per-view television at halftime during the National Football League's championship game on Feb. 1.
"Halftime has never been this sexy," reads one headline from the event's Web site (http://www.lingerie.com).
Dodge, whose advertising features the slogan "Grab Life by the Horns," was to have had its ram's-head logo emblazoned on bras worn by the models.
Critics dubbed the event sexist, however, and senior Chrysler officials have been distancing themselves from it since last week.
Proceeds from the event were originally due to benefit the American Foundation for AIDS Research, but it too severed ties with the game.
A source close to Chrysler said conservative lobbying groups had flooded the company's e-mail system with complaints about the upcoming spectacle.
"You've got at some point just to decide 'OK, maybe we made a mistake, let's pull the plug,'" the source said.
In a statement formally announcing the withdrawal of Dodge's sponsorship of the Lingerie Bowl, George Murphy, Chrysler's senior vice president of global marketing, dismissed it as "a distraction" that had taken the spotlight off the company's cars and trucks.
He did not elaborate on the controversy, which first came to light several weeks ago.
A spokeswoman for Horizon Productions Inc., the Lingerie Bowl's producer, said it was "disappointed" that Dodge had withdrawn its sponsorship, but that the game would go on.
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AussieMark
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Pope Likes Mel Gibson's Film on Christ's Passion
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope John Paul has seen Mel Gibson's controversial film "The Passion" about Christ's final hours and was moved by it, a Vatican source said Thursday.
He said the pope saw the film with his long-time Polish secretary, Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, about 10 days ago.
The source also confirmed reports that the pope told his secretary after viewing the film: "It is as it was," meaning he considered it an authentic portrayal of Gospel accounts of the last hours in Christ's life.
The movie, which covers the final 12 hours in the life of Jesus Christ, has come under fire from some Jewish groups who fear its story could foment anti-Semitism because it portrays Jewish authorities as largely responsible for Christ's death.
But Catholic and other Christian groups, as well as biblical scholars, have defended the film, saying it sticks closely to accounts of the crucifixion as told in the New Testament.
The film, which is due to be released in February, has been shown to a select audience of Catholic officials in several private screenings in recent weeks. The 83-year-old pope viewed the film on a video monitor in his apartments, the source said.
Abraham H. Foxman, U.S. director of the Anti-Defamation League, said the group would respect the pope's views
"The pope has a record and history of sensitivity to the Jewish community and has a clear moral voice and understanding when it comes to anti-Semitism," Foxman said.
"We hope that Mel Gibson has heard our concerns and those of Christian and Jewish scholars and religious leaders, who expressed unease about the earlier version... and its potential to fuel, rationalize and legitimize anti-Semitism," he said.
Many Vatican officials have seen the film in its latest form and have rejected charges of anti-Semitism.
"I loved it and it is not anti-Semitic," Father Augustine Di Noia, a senior official in the Vatican's doctrinal department, told Reuters Thursday.
Asked if the film was as violent as has been reported, Di Noia said: "It not just violent, it's brutal."
Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, head of the Vatican department in charge of priests, liked it so much he said in September: "I would gladly trade some of the homilies that I have given about the passion of Christ for even a few of the scenes of his film."
Gibson paid $20 million to $25 million of his own money to make the movie, but despite his status as a top box office draw and Oscar winner, Hollywood's major studios shied away from distributing the film due to the controversy surrounding it.
The film is based on Gospel narratives and contains dialogue only in Latin, Hebrew and Aramaic, the vernacular of ancient Palestine.
Gibson is a member of a traditionalist Roman Catholic group that rejects some of the reforms of the Second Vatican Council and still uses the old-style Latin Mass.
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope John Paul has seen Mel Gibson's controversial film "The Passion" about Christ's final hours and was moved by it, a Vatican source said Thursday.
He said the pope saw the film with his long-time Polish secretary, Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, about 10 days ago.
The source also confirmed reports that the pope told his secretary after viewing the film: "It is as it was," meaning he considered it an authentic portrayal of Gospel accounts of the last hours in Christ's life.
The movie, which covers the final 12 hours in the life of Jesus Christ, has come under fire from some Jewish groups who fear its story could foment anti-Semitism because it portrays Jewish authorities as largely responsible for Christ's death.
But Catholic and other Christian groups, as well as biblical scholars, have defended the film, saying it sticks closely to accounts of the crucifixion as told in the New Testament.
The film, which is due to be released in February, has been shown to a select audience of Catholic officials in several private screenings in recent weeks. The 83-year-old pope viewed the film on a video monitor in his apartments, the source said.
Abraham H. Foxman, U.S. director of the Anti-Defamation League, said the group would respect the pope's views
"The pope has a record and history of sensitivity to the Jewish community and has a clear moral voice and understanding when it comes to anti-Semitism," Foxman said.
"We hope that Mel Gibson has heard our concerns and those of Christian and Jewish scholars and religious leaders, who expressed unease about the earlier version... and its potential to fuel, rationalize and legitimize anti-Semitism," he said.
Many Vatican officials have seen the film in its latest form and have rejected charges of anti-Semitism.
"I loved it and it is not anti-Semitic," Father Augustine Di Noia, a senior official in the Vatican's doctrinal department, told Reuters Thursday.
Asked if the film was as violent as has been reported, Di Noia said: "It not just violent, it's brutal."
Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, head of the Vatican department in charge of priests, liked it so much he said in September: "I would gladly trade some of the homilies that I have given about the passion of Christ for even a few of the scenes of his film."
Gibson paid $20 million to $25 million of his own money to make the movie, but despite his status as a top box office draw and Oscar winner, Hollywood's major studios shied away from distributing the film due to the controversy surrounding it.
The film is based on Gospel narratives and contains dialogue only in Latin, Hebrew and Aramaic, the vernacular of ancient Palestine.
Gibson is a member of a traditionalist Roman Catholic group that rejects some of the reforms of the Second Vatican Council and still uses the old-style Latin Mass.
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AussieMark
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Man Faces Jail for Car Sticker
TEHRAN (Reuters) - An Iranian man faces a possible lengthy prison term or even the death penalty for attaching a sticker to the rear window of his car proclaiming "The era of arrogant rulers is over," his lawyer said Thursday.
"My client faces jail for acting against national security just because of that sticker," attorney Mohammad Ali Dadkhah told Reuters.
The charge of acting against national security normally carries a hefty prison sentence and in some cases has led to the death penalty being imposed.
Dadkhah said Ali Akbar Najafi, 27, an unlicensed taxi driver, was arrested in June in southern Tehran. He said his client had thought up the slogan himself, but that it was not specifically aimed at Iran's clerical establishment.
"After being kept blindfolded in solitary confinement for 53 days he now suffers psychological problems," said Dadkhah, who was asked by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, to represent Najafi.
Najafi was released on bail of $25,000 and ordered to appear before a branch of the Revolutionary Court on December 28.
His arrest in June coincided with a rash of pro-democracy protests during which around 4,000 people were arrested. The vast majority of them were released without charge.
When asked Wednesday whether Saddam Hussein ought to receive the death penalty, Iran's President Mohammad Khatami said: "If anyone is to be executed, the most appropriate person would be Saddam. But it don't want any human being, even a criminal, to be killed if there is an alternative."
TEHRAN (Reuters) - An Iranian man faces a possible lengthy prison term or even the death penalty for attaching a sticker to the rear window of his car proclaiming "The era of arrogant rulers is over," his lawyer said Thursday.
"My client faces jail for acting against national security just because of that sticker," attorney Mohammad Ali Dadkhah told Reuters.
The charge of acting against national security normally carries a hefty prison sentence and in some cases has led to the death penalty being imposed.
Dadkhah said Ali Akbar Najafi, 27, an unlicensed taxi driver, was arrested in June in southern Tehran. He said his client had thought up the slogan himself, but that it was not specifically aimed at Iran's clerical establishment.
"After being kept blindfolded in solitary confinement for 53 days he now suffers psychological problems," said Dadkhah, who was asked by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, to represent Najafi.
Najafi was released on bail of $25,000 and ordered to appear before a branch of the Revolutionary Court on December 28.
His arrest in June coincided with a rash of pro-democracy protests during which around 4,000 people were arrested. The vast majority of them were released without charge.
When asked Wednesday whether Saddam Hussein ought to receive the death penalty, Iran's President Mohammad Khatami said: "If anyone is to be executed, the most appropriate person would be Saddam. But it don't want any human being, even a criminal, to be killed if there is an alternative."
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AussieMark
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AussieMark
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- Joined: Tue Sep 02, 2003 6:36 pm
- Location: near Sydney, Australia
Hospitals Burdened by Obese Patients
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. hospitals are buying expensive new equipment such as reinforced toilets and oversized beds to treat the growing number of severely obese patients, according to a survey released on Thursday.
Novation, a group-purchasing organization for hospitals and other health-care institutions, found that hospitals are seeing more severely obese patients, people who are overweight by at least 100 pounds.
The group quoted 80 percent of hospitals as saying they had treated more severely obese patients in the last year than ever before, with 17 percent saying they had remodeled to accommodate the largest patients.
"We are finding that hospitals across the country are buying more large-size beds, larger blood pressure cuffs, wider, reinforced wheelchairs and larger versions of other basic supplies to adjust to patient needs," Jody Hatcher, senior vice president of Novation, said in a statement.
More than 30 percent of U.S. adults are obese, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This translates to 59 million people.
Obesity is defined as having a body mass index of 30 or more. BMI is a measure of weight versus height, and serious health implications such as heart disease kick in at BMIs of 30 and above. This can mean being as few as 30 pounds above desired weight. But as obesity becomes more common in the United States, so does extreme obesity.
Web sites such as http://fatcities.com offer furniture to accommodate people weighing 500 pounds and more, while http://funeraldepot.com has a line of oversized caskets.
Wausau Hospital in Wausau, Wisconsin, told Novation it spent $200,000 this year to remodel rooms, order special equipment and train staff to deal with extremely obese patients.
"We've had to buy special, longer surgical gloves and even needles and syringes," said Kent Demien, director of materials management at Wausau. "Standard equipment becomes obsolete on many of our larger patients."
Demien said many patients or hospital visitors are too heavy for a wall-mounted toilet, which can handle up to 300 pounds. The hospital plans to replace them with pedestal commodes that can support 2,000 pounds.
The Novation survey polled administrators from 69 U.S. hospitals representing small, rural hospitals and large urban centers.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. hospitals are buying expensive new equipment such as reinforced toilets and oversized beds to treat the growing number of severely obese patients, according to a survey released on Thursday.
Novation, a group-purchasing organization for hospitals and other health-care institutions, found that hospitals are seeing more severely obese patients, people who are overweight by at least 100 pounds.
The group quoted 80 percent of hospitals as saying they had treated more severely obese patients in the last year than ever before, with 17 percent saying they had remodeled to accommodate the largest patients.
"We are finding that hospitals across the country are buying more large-size beds, larger blood pressure cuffs, wider, reinforced wheelchairs and larger versions of other basic supplies to adjust to patient needs," Jody Hatcher, senior vice president of Novation, said in a statement.
More than 30 percent of U.S. adults are obese, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This translates to 59 million people.
Obesity is defined as having a body mass index of 30 or more. BMI is a measure of weight versus height, and serious health implications such as heart disease kick in at BMIs of 30 and above. This can mean being as few as 30 pounds above desired weight. But as obesity becomes more common in the United States, so does extreme obesity.
Web sites such as http://fatcities.com offer furniture to accommodate people weighing 500 pounds and more, while http://funeraldepot.com has a line of oversized caskets.
Wausau Hospital in Wausau, Wisconsin, told Novation it spent $200,000 this year to remodel rooms, order special equipment and train staff to deal with extremely obese patients.
"We've had to buy special, longer surgical gloves and even needles and syringes," said Kent Demien, director of materials management at Wausau. "Standard equipment becomes obsolete on many of our larger patients."
Demien said many patients or hospital visitors are too heavy for a wall-mounted toilet, which can handle up to 300 pounds. The hospital plans to replace them with pedestal commodes that can support 2,000 pounds.
The Novation survey polled administrators from 69 U.S. hospitals representing small, rural hospitals and large urban centers.
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