BERLIN - An American hiker stranded in the Bavarian Alps for nearly three days was rescued after using her sports bra as a signal, police in southern Germany said Monday.
Berchtesgaden police officer Lorenz Rasp said that he helped lift 24-year-old Jessica Bruinsma of Colorado state to safety by helicopter on Thursday after she attracted the attention of lumberjacks by attaching her sports bra to a cable used to move timber down the mountain.
"She's a very smart girl, and she acted very resourcefully," said Rasp. "She kept her shirt and jacket for warmth, but thought the sports bra could work as a signal."
An Alpine rescue team, including five helicopters and 80 emergency workers, had been searching for Bruinsma since she went missing June 16 after losing her way in bad weather while hiking with a friend near the Austrian border.
She fell 16.4 feet (five meters) to a rocky overhang, where she spent the next 70 hours on the narrow ledge, sustained by water that she found by breaking into a supply box on the ledge.
She badly bruised a leg and dislocated a shoulder in the fall, and the cliff was too isolated for her to climb free, Rasp said.
Rasp said the cable was only within reach because the timber transport system was out of service. When a repairman restored the line on Thursday, the cable car started moving up the mountain and Bruinsma's bra reached the worker at the base. He knew of the missing hiker and immediately called police.
Rasp said his team followed the cable line up the cliffside in a helicopter and found Bruinsma standing on the ledge, waving with her good arm. After circling once, they lowered a winch to Bruinsma and lifted her aboard.
"She did so well because she is in very good shape," Rasp said. "She has been training for a marathon — her goal is to finish in 3 hours and 10 minutes."
Bruinsma told Rasp that she has scrapped plans to stay in Berchtesgaden to learn German and plans to return home to Colorado Springs with her parents. He said she still plans to run the marathon, if she recovers in time to keep training.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - As Barack Obama broadens his outreach to evangelical voters, one of the movement's biggest names, James Dobson, accuses the likely Democratic presidential nominee of distorting the Bible and pushing a "fruitcake interpretation" of the Constitution.
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The criticism, to be aired Tuesday on Dobson's Focus on the Family radio program, comes shortly after an Obama aide suggested a meeting at the organization's headquarters here, said Tom Minnery, senior vice president for government and public policy at Focus on the Family.
The conservative Christian group provided The Associated Press with an advance copy of the pre-taped radio segment, which runs 18 minutes and highlights excerpts of a speech Obama gave in June 2006 to the liberal Christian group Call to Renewal. Obama mentions Dobson in the speech.
"Even if we did have only Christians in our midst, if we expelled every non-Christian from the United States of America, whose Christianity would we teach in the schools?" Obama said. "Would we go with James Dobson's or Al Sharpton's?" referring to the civil rights leader.
Dobson took aim at examples Obama cited in asking which Biblical passages should guide public policy — chapters like Leviticus, which Obama said suggests slavery is OK and eating shellfish is an abomination, or Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, "a passage that is so radical that it's doubtful that our own Defense Department would survive its application."
"Folks haven't been reading their Bibles," Obama said.
Dobson and Minnery accused Obama of wrongly equating Old Testament texts and dietary codes that no longer apply to Jesus' teachings in the New Testament.
"I think he's deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own worldview, his own confused theology," Dobson said.
"... He is dragging biblical understanding through the gutter."
Joshua DuBois, director of religious affairs for Obama's campaign, said in a statement that a full reading of Obama's speech shows he is committed to reaching out to people of faith and standing up for families. "Obama is proud to have the support of millions of Americans of faith and looks forward to working across religious lines to bring our country together," DuBois said.
Dobson reserved some of his harshest criticism for Obama's argument that the religiously motivated must frame debates over issues like abortion not just in their own religion's terms but in arguments accessible to all people.
He said Obama, who supports abortion rights, is trying to govern by the "lowest common denominator of morality," labeling it "a fruitcake interpretation of the Constitution."
"Am I required in a democracy to conform my efforts in the political arena to his bloody notion of what is right with regard to the lives of tiny babies?" Dobson said. "What he's trying to say here is unless everybody agrees, we have no right to fight for what we believe."
The program was paid for by a Focus on the Family affiliate whose donations are taxed, Dobson said, so it's legal for that group to get more involved in politics.
Last week, DuBois, a former Assemblies of God associate minister, called Minnery for what Minnery described as a cordial discussion. He would not go into detail, but said Dubois offered to visit the ministry in August when the Democratic National Convention is in Denver.
A possible Obama visit was not discussed, but Focus is open to one, Minnery said.
McCain also has not met with Dobson. A McCain campaign staffer offered Dobson a meeting with McCain recently in Denver, Minnery said. Dobson declined because he prefers that candidates visit the Focus on the Family campus to learn more about the organization, Minnery said.
Dobson has not backed off his statement that he could not in good conscience vote for McCain because of concerns over the Arizona senator's conservative credentials. Dobson has said he will vote in November but has suggested he might not vote for president.
Obama recently met in Chicago with religious leaders, including conservative evangelicals. His campaign also plans thousands of "American Values House Parties," where participants discuss Obama and religion, as well as a presence on Christian radio and blogs.
I think this is a mixture of amusing and fucked up... amusing because of the way Dobson twists what Obama says, but fucked up because Dobson is pretty influential.
I think they should leave God at home when it comes to politics. Everyone sees things a little different, but when there's a disagreement about religoun even small things have a tendency to turn into huge issues. Everyone just puts on a "holier than thou" attitude as if they are someone to talk and blow it all out of proportion like it's the most important thing ever because it's "for God."
I don't know this Dobson person at all, but this article does not shed a very good light on him. He comes off as a classic example of that "holier than thou" attitude. I do partly agree with some of his comments in any case I think, but there isn't really any proper context given for the phrases from Obama they cited so I can't really follow any of the comments fully in here to know for sure.
Not surprising really. After those few years with Ventura as a governor, it became quite evident just how apallingly untrustworthy the media is.
Dobson is best known as the host of a radio show, "Focus on the Family." It's a conservative Christian show that upholds the a Christian lifestyle and denounces anything that goes against it. It has also been charged with distorting data to further its goals. Their main thing is trying to prevent homosexuality from becoming an accepted practice, as they believe that it destroys the family and, thus, destroys society.
Don't forget that the show teaches its listeners the proper, Godly way to beat one's kids. And that a wife/mother who works outside the home is a whore of Satan.
I wish I could say that this is extravagant hyperbole, but I've only added a teensy bit of satire. Le sigh.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- A New Zealand man has sold his soul to hell -- Hell Pizza, that is.
The New Zealand pizza chain said Thursday it had struck a deal with Walter Scott, 24, to buy a deed to his soul, shortly after an online auction site that initially agreed to the sale withdrew it from the Internet because of complaints it was in bad taste.
Scott offered his soul on the TradeMe site on Wednesday, saying he had not found it to be much use.
"I can't see it, touch it or feel it, but I can sell it, so I'm going to palm it off to the highest bidder," Scott, 24, said on the sale site.
The auction attracted more than 32,000 hits and more than 100 bids before it was taken down.
TradeMe business manager Michael O'Donnell said the company had received an "overwhelming number of complaints from the TradeMe community."
"A lot of people felt it was offensive even though we thought it was there for good fun," he told The Associated Press. "So the compliance team pulled it."
He said the auction had also attracted many bogus bids -- while the last bid on the site was listed as $3,799, the last genuine bid was $456.
Rachael Allison, head of marketing for Hell Pizza, which has outlets across New Zealand and trades on a naughty image, said the company contacted Scott shortly after the auction was removed and offered him $3,800.
"The soul belongs to Hell, there is simply no better place for it," Allison told The Associated Press. "He was pretty delighted."
O'Donnell had said on Wednesday that Scott's auction complied with TradeMe's rules because a physical object -- the deed of ownership -- would change hands.
In 2001, 20-year-old U.S. university student Adam Burtle tried to sell his soul on eBay, but the auction was pulled after the company ruling that something tangible needed to be exchanged for a viable sale.
Allison said she would fly to Scott's home town of Wanganui on North Island Friday "to pick up the soul -- or at least the deed of ownership."
The deed would be hung on a wall at the company's headquarters in the northern city of Auckland and an image of it posted on the company's Web site.
"We'd love to get his soul in the virtual world -- to keep it immortal," she said.
FRANKFORT, Kentucky (AP) -- The pastor of a Kentucky church that handles snakes in religious rites was among 10 people arrested by wildlife officers in a crackdown on the venomous snake trade.
More than 100 snakes, many of them deadly, were confiscated in the undercover sting after Thursday's arrests, said Col. Bob Milligan, director of law enforcement for Kentucky Fish and Wildlife.
Most were taken from the Middlesboro home of Gregory James Coots, including 42 copperheads, 11 timber rattlesnakes, three cottonmouth water moccasins, a western diamondback rattlesnake, two cobras and a puff adder.
Handling snakes is practiced in a handful of fundamentalist churches across Appalachia, based on the interpretation of Bible verses saying true believers can take up serpents without being harmed. The practice is illegal in most states, including Kentucky.
Coots, 36, is pastor of the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name in Middlesboro, where a Tennessee woman died after being bitten by a rattlesnake during a service in 1995. Her husband died three years later when he was bitten by a snake in northeastern Alabama.
Coots was charged Thursday with buying, selling and possessing illegal reptiles. He had no listed telephone number and couldn't be reached for comment. There was no phone listing for the church.
"It is disturbing to me that individuals would keep such dangerous wildlife in their homes and in neighborhoods where they put their families, visitors and neighbors at such high risk," Milligan said.
The snakes, plus one alligator, were turned over to the nonprofit Kentucky Reptile Zoo in Slade. Most appeared to have been captured from the wild, with some imported from Asia and Africa.
Zoo Director Jim Harrison said some of the animals would likely have become exotic pets had they not been seized.
"There's been a large trade in exotics for years," he said. "Some people are just fascinated with them."
Undercover officers purchased more than 200 illegal reptiles during the investigation, some of which were advertised for sale on Web sites. One such Web site lists copperheads for $50 each and cobras for $450.
"You can purchase anything off the Internet except common sense," Harrison said. "A venomous snake isn't a pet. You don't play with it. If you do, you're an idiot."
Here's the excerpt I found somewhat amusing:
The snakes, plus one alligator, were turned over to the nonprofit Kentucky Reptile Zoo in Slade. Most appeared to have been captured from the wild, with some imported from Asia and Africa.
I really want to see an alligator-handling church service now. That sounds way more hardcore than boring wussy poisonous snakes.
I really want to see an alligator-handling church service now. That sounds way more hardcore than boring wussy poisonous snakes.
sounds like someone's never heard of an unteca. What's an Unteca, you ask?
It's an extremely rare, extremely deadly, extremely AWESOME snake!
edit: wow... this just lead me to a new amusing not so newsish but related topic. Mega snake is a movie about an idiot of a snake handling priest, which also features a horrible scene with a guy called "Feedback" telling kids to be safe. In looking for pictures of the cover - I discovered where this "Feedback" guy came from.
Feedback is a fictional character, a superhero created and originally portrayed by actor Matthew Atherton on the reality television series Who Wants to Be a Superhero?. As a result of winning the show, his character was made the subject of a Dark Horse Comics book written by Stan Lee. He also made a guest appearance in the original Sci Fi Channel movie Mega Snake. He also has his own audio series written by and starring Atherton, the first episode of which was produced in collaboration with amateur audio groups Darker Projects, and is now a continuing audio series hosted by BrokenSea Audio Productions.
Fictional character history
While working on a bio-organic computer system using organic computing, software engineer Matthew Atherton is caught in a large explosion that bombards his body with hi-tech cellular shrapnel. Atherton discovers that his body is generating a feedback field that shuts down nearby electronic equipment. Atherton creates a damping suit that keeps the field in check.
Atherton also discovers that by playing video games, he can absorb some attributes of the game. For example, if Feedback plays Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, he temporarily gains the ability to run along walls and do acrobatics, and perhaps rewind time. By using an online community called "Tech Support", Feedback gains enough knowledge to use the limited powers wisely. Each time Feedback uses a power, he loses some of his memory.
However, both the Dark Horse comic and the Sci-Fi Original Movie Mega Snake failed to feature Feedback's ability to use video game powers. This may be due to intellectual property rights surrounding commercial video games. While the comic did feature Feedback's electricity-wielding abilities, Mega Snake did not show any of his powers at all.
yea... from the movie, i got the impression his power was bad puns. (He threatens the snake with a microphone and says, "Time for some feedback!") This sounds like a HORRIBLE comic book.
TOKYO — Japan has created an unusual government post to promote animation, and named a perfect figure Wednesday to the position: a popular cartoon robot cat named Doraemon.
Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura appointed the cat an "anime ambassador," handing a human-sized Doraemon doll an official certificate at an inauguration ceremony, along with dozens of "dorayaki" red bean pancakes _ his favorite dessert _ piled on a huge plate.
Komura told the doll, with a voice actress inside, that he hoped he would widely promote Japanese animated cartoons, or "anime."
"Doraemon, I hope you will travel around the world as an anime ambassador to deepen people's understanding of Japan so they will become friends with Japan," Komura told the blue-and-white cat.
The appointment is part of Japan's recent effort to harness the power of pop culture in diplomacy. Japan also created an International Manga Award last year under comic enthusiast former Foreign Minister Taro Aso, who likened it to a "Nobel Prize" for an artist working abroad.
Manga, the name used for Japanese-syle comic books, often combine complex stories with drawing styles that differ from their overseas superhero counterparts, particularly in their emphasis on cuteness.
This year, the ministry plans to arrange showings of a Doraemon film in Singapore, China, Spain, France, and at other Japanese diplomatic missions around the world.
Doraemon, through voice actress Wasabi Mizuta, promised Komura that "through my cartoons, I hope to convey to people abroad what ordinary Japanese people think, our lifestyles and what kind of future we want to build."
Created by cartoonist Fujiko F. Fujio, Doraemon is a Japanese cultural icon and is popular around the world, especially in Asia. The robotic cat travels back in time from the 22nd century and uses gadgets such as a "time machine" and an "anywhere door" that come out of a fourth-dimensional pocket on his stomach to help his friends, allowing them to travel anywhere and to any time they wish.
Astro Boy, another cartoon icon, was named last November as ambassador for overseas safety.
TWO things that you can find a lot of in Portland, Ore., are vegans and strip clubs. Johnny Diablo decided to open a business to combine both. At his Casa Diablo Gentlemen’s Club, soy protein replaces beef in the tacos and chimichangas; the dancers wear pleather, not leather. Many are vegans or vegetarians themselves.
FOR THE CAUSE The Vegan Vixens see their performances as educational.
But Portland is also home to a lot of young feminists, and some are not happy with Mr. Diablo’s venture. Since he opened the strip club last month, their complaints have been “all over the Internet,” he said. “One of them came in here once. I could tell she had an attitude right when she came in. She was all hostile.”
Mr. Diablo isn’t concerned with the “feminazis,” as he calls them. As a vegan himself, he says he hasn’t worn or eaten animal products in 24 years and is worried about cruelty to animals. “My sole purpose in this universe is to save every possible creature from pain and suffering,” he said.
Casa Diablo is just the latest example of selling veganism with a “Girls Gone Wild” aesthetic to draw the ire of vegans who complain that such tactics may get people to pay attention to animal cruelty, but for the wrong reasons. In Los Angeles, some frown at the scantily clad Vegan Vixens — a kind of animal-loving Pussycat Dolls — who perform songs like “Real Men Don’t Hunt” at fund-raisers for animal welfare groups.
[...]
Vegans who use sexuality to promote the cause say it is a good way to convert carnivores — in particular, men. Sky Valencia, the founder of the Vegan Vixens, said her group targets “the people who buy Playboy and Maxim and watch talk shows like Jerry Springer. Those are the people we want to educate because they don’t know anything about the environment or animal rights issues or health.”
The Vixens have a cookbook in the works and will appear on a new television show, “30 Days” with Morgan Spurlock, in an episode about a hunter who has to live with a group of PETA activists for a month. Ms. Valencia said that she has taken a lot of flak from “the stricter women vegans — they are sometimes a little tough on using sex appeal to sell an idea, but sex appeal is everywhere.”
And, she said, men have told her that it works. “We’ve gotten a lot of men eating vegetarian, if not vegan.”[...]
the whole article is really long, i tried to just pull out the on topic parts.
Comments
Rookie.
I think this is a mixture of amusing and fucked up... amusing because of the way Dobson twists what Obama says, but fucked up because Dobson is pretty influential.
I don't know this Dobson person at all, but this article does not shed a very good light on him. He comes off as a classic example of that "holier than thou" attitude. I do partly agree with some of his comments in any case I think, but there isn't really any proper context given for the phrases from Obama they cited so I can't really follow any of the comments fully in here to know for sure.
Not surprising really. After those few years with Ventura as a governor, it became quite evident just how apallingly untrustworthy the media is.
I wish I could say that this is extravagant hyperbole, but I've only added a teensy bit of satire. Le sigh.
Here's the excerpt I found somewhat amusing:
I really want to see an alligator-handling church service now. That sounds way more hardcore than boring wussy poisonous snakes.
I kept giggling at that one. The first paragraph was pretty funny too.
sounds like someone's never heard of an unteca. What's an Unteca, you ask?
It's an extremely rare, extremely deadly, extremely AWESOME snake!
edit: wow... this just lead me to a new amusing not so newsish but related topic. Mega snake is a movie about an idiot of a snake handling priest, which also features a horrible scene with a guy called "Feedback" telling kids to be safe. In looking for pictures of the cover - I discovered where this "Feedback" guy came from.
wiki link
yea... from the movie, i got the impression his power was bad puns. (He threatens the snake with a microphone and says, "Time for some feedback!") This sounds like a HORRIBLE comic book.
I KNEW it!
btw, I ate a mango.
All the best ones are. (<-- clickities for imdb links.)
original article
Tut tut.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/27/fashion/27vegan.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
the whole article is really long, i tried to just pull out the on topic parts.