Thursday, May 15, 2014


News Clips For The Day


http://americablog.com/2014/05/stunning-video-cat-saving-child-dog-attack.html
Blog by John Aravosis

Cat saves little boy from dog attack, stunning video – Google post
5/14/2014 11:48am 

I don’t usually post pet videos in the middle of the day, but this is simply amazing. Yesterday, a little boy in Bakersfield, California was playing in front of his house when he was viciously attacked, and dragged, by the neighbor’s dog.
What happens next? His cat Tara comes to the rescue, attacks the dog, and drives it off.

It was really quite amazing.

The boy needed a few stitches, but is otherwise okay. The dog is reportedly “under observation.” That’s pretty messed up behavior for a dog, let alone one that isn’t on a leash.

I’d be curious for feedback from the cat owners amongst us. Was the cat simply protecting his territory – the yard – from an interloper, or do cats actually protect people? (And don’t miss the bonus video below of a cat chasing off a bear from someone’s porch.)

UPDATE: I received an email from the ASPCA with some helpful tips for how to approach dogs, and how to deal with dogs that might be unruly:

DO:
1. Ask permission from the dog’s guardian before petting an unfamiliar dog.
2. Let a dog smell your hand before petting him or her. Then pet the dog on the shoulders or chest, not the head.
3. Tell an adult immediately if you see a dog off-leash outside. Do not approach the dog yourself.
4. If a dog does lash out, “feed” the dog your jacket, bag, bicycle, or anything you can put between you and the dog.

· DON’T:
1. Touch or interrupt a dog who is sleeping, eating, chewing on a toy or bone. Dogs are more likely to bite if they’re startled or frightened.
2. Go near or pet dogs behind fences, dogs in cars, or dogs chained or tied up in yards. Dogs can be protective of their home or space.
3. Panic. If a loose dog is running toward you, avoid eye contact with the dog and stand very still, like a tree, until the dog moves away.
4. Chase or tease a dog.
There’s more info on dog bites over at the ASPCA Web site.




I first saw this video on NBC's local show tonight and sought it out on the Net. About the issue of whether or not cats will protect people, they definitely will protect property. My sister's 15 pound tom cat did, before my very eyes, drive a medium-sized dog out of his yard, and I had a Manx cat that jumped right down in the faces of three dogs that came running up and were barking at us as we stood on the porch. The dogs all scattered in panic. Dogs, when cats do act like that, have a tendency to run. It upholds my theory about bullies. They don't want their “prey” to fight back.

Animals that are raised in the home with children do, I believe, often understand that they are our young, and need to be protected just like puppies and kittens. They will show great patience while the toddler pulls their tails or pats too hard. This particular cat, though, intervened directly in the dog attack and was clearly protecting the child. The cat was obviously furiously angry, with her tail puffed up and moving in very fast. This video is absolutely clear and shows all the action, including the cat chasing the dog after the fight. The dog is seen dragging the little boy by his leg and the cat came running up at top speed, jumping at him with all four feet and hitting him on his side. The cat's onslaught knocked the dog sideways,and he ran away immediately. Please look it up on the Internet and see the video for yourselves. By tomorrow when you are reading this the video probably will have gone viral and you can add it to your favorites if you like it.




Americans Back Death Penalty by Gas or Electrocution If No Needle: Poll – NBC
BY TRACY CONNOR
First published May 14th 2014

A badly botched lethal injection in Oklahoma has not chipped away at the American public's support of the death penalty, although two-thirds of voters would back alternatives to the needle, an exclusive NBC News poll shows.

One in three people say that if lethal injections are no longer viable — because of drug shortages or other problems — executions should be stopped altogether, according to the survey of 800 adults by Hart Research and Public Opinion Strategies for NBC News.

But many others are open to more primitive methods of putting prisoners to death: 20% for the gas chamber, 18% for the electric chair, 12% for firing squad and 8% for hanging.
"The lethal injection is someone’s very gross interpretation of killing someone humanely," said Kuni Beasley of Frisco, Texas, who called for a return to hanging.

"It's very quick. You don't have to worry about drugs and it's very efficient. Better than a firing squad — a firing squad is messy," said Beasley, 58, a retired Army officer and college-prep entrepreneur.

"There is no such thing as killing someone humanely," he added. "But if hanging is done properly, it's more humane than lethal injection because there are fewer things that can go wrong."

The most recent example of what can go wrong is the April 29 execution of Clayton Lockett, who appeared to regain consciousness and writhe in pain midway through. The procedure was halted but Lockett, convicted of rape and murder, died anyway.

The details of his death were condemned by the White House and provoked fresh debate over capital punishment and how it's carried out.

Most people polled said they knew about the uproar, but it did not appear to change minds about whether the government should kill murder convicts.

A comfortable majority of those questioned — 59% — said they favor the death penalty as the ultimate punishment for murder, while 35% said they are opposed.

That split is in line with surveys done before Lockett's death in the last two years, and also reflects the erosion of support for capital punishment since the 1990s, when it was more than 70%.

"I don’t think this fundamentally altered views about the death penalty," said Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies.

Republicans, whites, Protestants and older people were more likely to favor execution than Democrats, blacks and Latinos, Catholics and young people.

More than a third of those in favor said the strongest argument for the death penalty is that it's an "appropriate consequence." A similar proportion of those against it said the risk of killing someone who had been wrongly convicted was the most powerful argument.

"The most humane way is the guillotine but I can’t see that coming back."

The population was split on whether execution or life in prison without parole is a worse punishment for murder.

Keith Marcheski, 52, of Allentown, Pa., fell into the latter category and brought a very personal perspective to the question since he was released from prison in November after serving nine years for a robbery he says he did not commit.

"I would rather be put to death than do my life in jail," said Marcheski, who does not believe the government should be killing prisoners.

"I keep track of two of the guys I knew who are doing life. One would rather be put to death. You live in a cell. The food is horrible. He doesn't get mail. He doesn't get visits."

Marsha Thompson, 25, a mechanic from Brooklyn, New York, agrees that life without parole is "more of a torture than being killed" but still thinks execution is appropriate in some cases.

And to her mind, lethal injection is the best option. "It's less aggressive than being killed by a firing squad or electrocuted," she said.

Gladys Pringle, an 82-year-old retiree from Port Royal, Pa., disagrees and thinks death-penalty states should swap out drug cocktails for bullets in light of reports that some condemned inmates have suffered on the gurney.

"It would be quick and with a firing squad no one knows whose bullet actually killed the person, so it’s easier on them," she said.

"The most humane way is the guillotine but I can’t see that coming back."

All 35 capital punishment states use lethal injection as their primary method, although eight of them would allow electrocution, gas, hanging or firing squad in some cases, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

But lethal injections are becoming increasingly difficult to carry out because pharmaceutical companies don't want their products used, some compounding pharmacies are getting out of the execution business, and inmates are trying to force states to reveal their suppliers.

Some state lawmakers have introduced measures that would bring back the older methods, but some pro-execution advocates believe that would lower support from a public that has gotten used to "medicalized" deaths.

"It makes people who would otherwise not favor the death penalty look more tolerably on it," said Beasley.

After the Lockett debacle, he is more convinced than ever that hanging is the best option.
After all, he said, "that's how they killed Saddam Hussein."

Clayton Lockett appeared to regain consciousness and writhe in pain midway through his execution last month.




"There is no such thing as killing someone humanely," said Kuni Beasley, an advocate of hanging as a method of capital punishment, adding that there are fewer things that can go wrong than with lethal injection. A polled 59% of the US population still favor capital punishment, even after the recent mistake with lethal injection, but that is down from the 1990s when the number was above 70%. “Republicans, whites, Protestants and older people were more likely to favor execution than Democrats, blacks and Latinos, Catholics and young people.” the writer says. The argument of 1/3 of those in favor of the death penalty was that it was “appropriate” in comparison to the crime committed, and about the same number of those against it were motivated by the fact that too often a person who was wrongly convicted of a crime was executed anyway. The well-known Innocence Project has freed many such unlucky citizens.

I tend to be among the latter group. I agree that death is “appropriate” for murder or rape, but too many people are known to be mistakenly convicted due to the great fallibility of eye witnesses and often the lack of physical evidence. Too many “confessions” are the result of police browbeating or even physical mistreatment. That's one of those things that, while I wouldn't think that a majority of police officers do those things, there are a pretty high number in the police force who are bullies and just like to abuse others. Just as a celibate priesthood attracts men who are not attracted to women sexually in the first place, the army and the police force attract violent individuals.

Marsha Thompson, a prisoner, favors lethal injection because it is “less aggressive” than other methods of execution. I tend to agree, if we keep capital punishment, because the cases that have been in the news happened because the state ran out of a needed chemical, the chemicals were not the best choices in the first place, or the administration of the drugs was botched. If the state would see to it that those things don't happen, it would be the most humane. “All 35 capital punishment states use lethal injection” and that is not an accident. Florida, for one, within the last few years switched from the electric chair to lethal injection. The FL electric chair had formerly failed to kill a prisoner cleanly, causing trauma and burns before death and there was a push to stop using it.




http://www.federalnewsradio.com/473/3096034/Marines-police-prep-for-mock-zombie-invasion

Marines, police prep for mock zombie invasion
By JULIE WATSON 
Associated Press
Originally published Saturday - 10/27/2012

SAN DIEGO (AP) - Move over vampires, goblins and haunted houses, this kind of Halloween terror aims to shake up even the toughest warriors: An untold number of so-called zombies are coming to a counterterrorism summit attended by hundreds of Marines, Navy special ops, soldiers, police, firefighters and others to prepare them for their worst nightmares.

"This is a very real exercise, this is not some type of big costume party," said Brad Barker, president of Halo Corp, a security firm hosting the Oct. 31 training demonstration during the summit at a 44-acre Paradise Point Resort island on a San Diego bay. "Everything that will be simulated at this event has already happened, it just hasn't happened all at once on the same night. But the training is very real, it just happens to be the bad guys we're having a little fun with."

Hundreds of military, law enforcement and medical personnel will observe the Hollywood-style production of a zombie attack as part of their emergency response training.
In the scenario, a VIP and his personal detail are trapped in a village, surrounded by zombies when a bomb explodes. The VIP is wounded and his team must move through the town while dodging bullets and shooting back at the invading zombies. At one point, some members of the team are bit by zombies and must be taken to a field medical facility for decontamination and treatment.

"No one knows what the zombies will do in our scenario, but quite frankly no one knows what a terrorist will do," Barker said. "If a law enforcement officer sees a zombie and says, `Freeze, get your hands in the air!' What's the zombie going to do? He's going to moan at you. If someone on PCP or some other psychotic drug is told that, the truth is he's not going to react to you."

The keynote speaker beforehand will be a retired top spook _ former CIA Director Michael Hayden.

"No doubt when a zombie apocalypse occurs, it's going to be a federal incident, so we're making it happen," Barker said. Since word got out about the exercise, they've had calls from "every whack job in the world" about whether the U.S. government is really preparing for a zombie event.

Called "Zombie Apocalypse," the exercise follows the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's campaign launched last year that urged Americans to get ready for a zombie apocalypse, as part of a catchy, public health message about the importance of emergency preparedness.

The Homeland Security Department jumped on board last month, telling citizens if they're prepared for a zombie attack, they'll be ready for real-life disasters like a hurricane, pandemic, earthquake or terrorist attack. A few suggestions were similar to a few of the 33 rules for dealing with zombies popularized in the 2009 movie "Zombieland," which included "always carry a change of underwear" and "when in doubt, know your way out."

San Diego-based Halo Corp. founded by former military special ops and intelligence personnel has been hosting the annual counterterrorism summit since 2006.

The five-day Halo counterterrorism summit is an approved training event by the Homeland Security Grant Program and the Urban Areas Security Initiative, which provide funds to pay for the coursework on everything from the battleground tactics to combat wounds to cybersecurity. The summit has a $1,000 registration fee and runs Oct. 29-Nov 2.
Conferences attended by government officials have come under heightened scrutiny following an inspector general's report on waste and abuse at a lavish 2010 Las Vegas conference that led to the resignation of General Services Administrator Martha Johnson. The Las Vegas conference featured a clown, a mind-reader and a rap video by an employee who made fun of the spending.

Joe Newman, spokesman of the watchdog organization Project on Government Oversight, said he does not see the zombie exercise as frivolous.

"We obviously are concerned about any expenditure that might seem frivolous or a waste of money but if they tie things together, there is a lesson there," Newman said. "Obviously we're not expecting a zombie apocalypse in the near future, but the effects of what might happen in a zombie apocalypse are probably similar to the type of things that happen in natural disasters and manmade disasters. They're just having fun with it. We don't have any problems with it as a teaching point."

Defense analyst Loren Thompson agreed.

"The defining characteristics of zombies are that they're unpredictable and resilient. That may be a good way to prepare for what the Pentagon calls asymmetric warfare," Thompson said.

Organizers can also avoid the pitfalls of using a mock enemy who could be identified by nationality, race or culture _ something that could potentially be seen as offensive.
"I can think of a couple of countries where the local leaders are somewhat zombie-like," he joked. "But nobody is going to take this personally."




"'The defining characteristics of zombies are that they're unpredictable and resilient. That may be a good way to prepare for what the Pentagon calls asymmetric warfare,' Thompson said.” The use of zombies also avoids references to race or ethnicity in portraying the horrific enemy. This article is about a serious teaching tool that is fun at the same time. There aren't many things that inspire terror, but a real-life zombie undoubtedly would. The soldier, firefighter or policeman has to face his fears in the exercise and deal with true life problems. I think it shows lots of imagination from some people who, I wouldn't have thought, had much.

I can't help mentioning my favorite movie about zombies. It's an old one called “Night Of The Living Dead,” in which a black man and a young white woman are both visiting a graveyard when they run across many zombies emerging from their graves, and take cover together in an old wooden house on the property. They withstand multiple waves of zombie attacks, in which some zombies actually get into the house with them and the man has to fight them off. It was one of the most truly scary movies I have ever watched. Finally the sun comes up and all the zombies go back into their graves. So don't go into a cemetery near dark.




10K Gallons of Oil Spill in Atwater Village, Oil "Knee-High" – NBC
Oil was seen shooting upward in the sky and onto the nearby Gentleman’s Club.

A massive oil spill early Thursday morning has shut down an area of Atwater Village.

Approximately 10,000 gallons of crude oil spilled over a half-mile area after an above-ground 20-inch oil line broke around 1 a.m. Thursday near 5175 W. San Fernando Rd.

Oil was seen shooting upward in the sky and onto the nearby business, The Gentlemen’s Club. The Gentlemen's Club was evacuated, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.

LAFD reported that oil was knee-high in some areas.

The oil line has been remotely shut off and no injuries have been reported.

A handful of commercial businesses have been affected, according to LAFD.

The Department of Transportation is assisting with traffic. 

The LAFD had reported that it was a 50,000-gallon oil spill, but that number was reduced a few hours later.




This is why so many people don't want an oil pipeline running through the delicately balanced natural area that the arctic is. Whatever wildlife areas we have left could be literally destroyed. Luckily in this case a computer switch allowed the flow of oil to be cut off. “The oil line has been remotely shut off and no injuries have been reported.”
What a mess, though, not to mention heavily damaged houses and properties.

Our love affair with crude oil is not without pain even when the sale of it brings in big bucks. The quest to eliminate the use of fossil fuels is probably as hopeless as that for the Holy Grail, since we are so heavily committed to it above more experimental methods, even when they show great promise. Recently in the news a citizen's rooftop solar units were creating so much power that they had to sell it back to the electric company, thus causing billing problems. The company ended up charging him a fee for processing his solar generated power. That is not a problem of solar power being ineffective.

Even if “the system” is prejudiced against experimental energy sources, I will keep sounding off for solar, wind, energy from plastic waste (listed on a website from American Chemistry.com), tidal power, wave power, hydroelectric (though the complaint has been made that the heating of the water in this process kills fish), radiant energy, geothermal power, biomass, compressed natural gas (of course, that is still fossil fuel) and finally, nuclear power. This list of possible energy-generating sources comes from a great website called listverse.com. See this address for more information on each process. Waste plastic was not mentioned on that list. See American Chemistry for that one. Google http://listverse.com/2009/05/01/top-10-renewable-energy-sources/ for the list of ten types.





Ukrainian Troops Destroy Separatist Bases Near Kramatorsk, Slovyansk
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
- Alexander Smith
First published May 15th 2014

The Ukrainian army claimed fresh military successes Thursday against separatists in the east, saying its troops destroyed two pro-Russian bases during overnight operations.

The renewed offensive came as diplomatic efforts appeared to flounder, with round-table peace talks in Kiev yielding no signs of progress after launching Wednesday without any separatist leaders.

Ukraine's acting President Oleksandr Turchynov told parliament that one base near the city of Kramatorsk and another outside Slovyansk had been "fully cleansed of terrorists," according to Interfax Ukraine and The Associated Press.

The country's defense ministry told the AP that there were no casualties in the push, and that the army took three insurgents captive, one of whom had an anti-tank rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

Ukrainian authorities insisted that no civilians were caught in the fight, which comes just days after seven government troops were killed in what the army called an "ambush" by pro-Russian fighters in the area.

On Wednesday, the Western-backed Kiev government took part in round-table talks with regional authorities and discussed a deal that could see some power relinquished by the capital.

However the "road map," set out by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe which is leading the talks, has been stalled because the government and the separatist leaders, who are asking to be annexed by Russia after a referendum on Sunday, have refused to sit down together.




“Ukraine's acting President Oleksandr Turchynov told parliament that one base near the city of Kramatorsk and another outside Slovyansk had been 'fully cleansed of terrorists,'” They did this with no casualties and captured three, one carrying an anti-tank grenade launcher. Hopefully the separatists won't come right back in and take the cities again. The local Ukrainian citizens need to fight on their own when the Russian gangs come in, like they did to oust former President Yanukovych. They need a local communication network like Paul Revere riding through the countryside shouting “The Redcoats are coming!” or a cell phone texting alert, whichever is more practical.

For a “local” militia group like these Russians to have such a weapon as a grenade launcher, it would probably have to have been provided by the Russian army – surely not from the local gun shop. Right? Meanwhile, the latest talks are a no go because the separatists have refused to sit down with the Ukrainians, so they're not the center of the news today.




How U.S. Hospitals Are Planning To Stop The Deadly MERS Virus
by JASON BEAUBIEN
May 14, 2014

In the past month, Middle East respiratory syndrome has morphed from a little-known disease in the Arabian Peninsula to a major global health concern, with more than 300 cases in Saudi Arabia in April, 54 of them fatal.

Two cases have been reported in the U.S. as well — one in Indiana and one in Florida. Both men had worked in Saudi Arabia hospitals. So far, neither has spread the respiratory disease to others.

In a news conference today, the World Health Organization in Geneva stopped short of declaring MERS an international public health emergency.

But health officials expect to see more cases imported into the States. American hospitals are now working to recognize the flu-like disease early and keep it from spreading.

Although MERS doesn't appear to be highly infectious in people's homes or in airplanes, it's clearly spreading in hospitals. That's where many of the Saudi infections occurred.

"This is not like measles ... not like chickenpox — which are [both] highly communicable diseases," says epidemiologist Trish Perl at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. "But the reality is that there is something in health care [centers] where the communicability is much more prominent."

It's not clear what makes hospitals so risky. Some medical procedures — breathing treatments, certain exams — might propel more virus into the atmosphere.

Or it could be human error. A WHO team in Saudi Arabia last week saw breaches of infection control.

Perl says the protocols are actually quite simple. "It's about separating sick people from nonsick people," she says. "And it's about wearing the appropriate gear."

By gear she means standard hospital gloves, masks and gowns. Staff need to be shown how to use this gear properly — for instance, changing their surgical gowns every time they enter or exit isolation units.

"Every single person in this emergency room or any emergency will tell you they're super, super busy. They're too busy to do this or that and whatever," she says. "How do they prioritize in their list of business what are the most important things to do?"

Getting all hospital workers to comply with standard infection control procedures — all the time — was a key to stopping an outbreak of SARS in 2003, says Georgetown University infectious disease specialist Daniel Lucey, who worked in a Toronto hospital at the time.

When hospital personnel donned personal protective equipment, Lucey recalls, "someone stood there and monitored you to make sure you followed, step by step by step, putting it on properly and taking it off."

WHO is calling for Saudi hospitals to tighten infection control measures. Hospitals worldwide need to be equally vigilant, since a MERS patient could fly anywhere in the world before being diagnosed.




“American hospitals are now working to recognize the flu-like disease early and keep it from spreading.” The other key is certain hospital procedures like carefully using and then changing their protective gear – gowns and rubber globes – every time they go into or out of the isolation units. Finally, they have to see that infected patients who have been properly diagnosed are isolated from others. In hospitals, after all, is the primary place where MERS is being spread.

I've met several people who dread going into a hospital for minor surgery because they fear catching some dangerous microbe. It does happen on a daily basis, after all. Personally, I'm fatalistic about it. Whatever I've been admitted for is the condition of the moment, and if I get sick again I'll just have to be treated for the new problem, too. All the same, I won't go in for surgery to correct the way my nose looks. Appendicitis, yes.