One of my friends was unable to write tonight, so I whipped this up in 30 minutes. Please enjoy, comment, and share your local news stories. Or other news you think is important.
Dumb-Ass Story of the Day:
Manti Te’o’s Dead Girlfriend, The Most Heartbreaking And Inspirational Story Of The College Football Season, Is A Hoax
Did you enjoy the uplifiting story, the tale of a man who responded to adversity by becoming one of the top players of the game? If so, stop reading.
Manti Te’o did lose his grandmother this past fall. Annette Santiago died on Sept. 11, 2012, at the age of 72, according to Social Security Administration records in Nexis. But there is no SSA record there of the death of Lennay Marie Kekua, that day or any other. Her passing, recounted so many times in the national media, produces no obituary or funeral announcement in Nexis, and no mention in the Stanford student newspaper.
Nor is there any report of a severe auto accident involving a Lennay Kekua. Background checks turn up nothing. The Stanford registrar’s office has no record that a Lennay Kekua ever enrolled. There is no record of her birth in the news. Outside of a few Twitter and Instagram accounts, there’s no online evidence that Lennay Kekua ever existed.
Notre Dame says it was a hoax.
Salt Lake Tribune: Michael McFall
Utah avalanche survivor’s wild ride was also ‘serene’
Elisabeth Malloy never heard the slab break.
But she turned to see a wall of snow 700 feet wide and 2 feet deep rushing toward her.
She had been climbing the West Porter Fork in Mill Creek Canyon on Saturday. With her straps loosened for the hike, she could not get out of the way. The avalanche overtook her in moments.
On Wednesday, Malloy, 43, left University Hospital in Salt Lake City with all of her fingers and toes. Thanks to the quick thinking of her boyfriend, the aid of a good Samaritan, the efficient response of her rescuers and the treatment from her doctors, she’s going to be all right. Somehow, she knew that even while she was completely buried under an avalanche.
I love that the Tribune put this survival story in Entertainment. Also, it is fascinating to hear from a survivor.
Supreme Court to meet over PM arrest order
National Accountability Bureau (NAB) officials are to appear before the Supreme Court on Thursday over orders to arrest the prime minister and 15 other people on accusations of graft in 2010.
Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had ordered that all those accused of graft in power generation projects be arrested and for the NAB chairman to report to the court.
Coming as Tehrik-i-Minhajul Quran (TMQ) chief Dr Tahirul Qadri leads tens of thousands of protesters outside parliament to demand that the government resign, Tuesday’s order sparked panic about an alleged judiciary-military plot to derail elections due by mid-May.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik threatened overnight to disperse the crowd unless leader Qadri ends the demonstration, the largest political rally in the capital for years, but President Asif Ali Zardari later intervened to stop authorities from using force against protesters.
I think they are all holding their breath. Elections can be very early May.
Hurriyet Daily News: Tolga Tanış
Al-Assad in his last six months, US estimates
Embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will not last in power for more than six months at most, senior U.S. figures predicted during a recent meeting with Turkey’s senior diplomat in Washington, Turkish officials have said.
According to U.S. assessments, 80 percent of the country is under the control of militants, while almost 40 percent of Damascus has fallen into rebel hands. As such, al-Assad has resorted to missiles because he has been unable to redeploy his overstretched forces, U.S. officials told Turkish Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioğlu during a recent meeting involving the State and Defense Departments that also touched on Iran, Iraq and the Middle East peace process.
For its part, the Turkish side asked the Barack Obama administration to be more active now that the presidential elections are complete, while conveying its concerns over the 22-month-long crisis. Turkey also criticized the timing of Washington’s decision to declare the Jabhat al-Nusra front, an Islamist group at the forefront of the fight against the Syrian government, as a terrorist organization.
The Telegraph: Robert Winnett
David Cameron’s pledge on EU referendum will harm economy, warns Vince Cable
Vince Cable will say in a speech that the EU needs to be reformed but threatening a referendum risks increasing economic uncertainty at a time of extreme fragility.
The intervention by the senior Liberal Democrat will be made less than 24 hours before a long-awaited speech by the Prime Minister in Amsterdam in which he will set out his vision for Britain’s future relationship with the EU.
Mr Cameron is expected to pledge to renegotiate Britain’s membership, if he is re-elected in 2015, after which the revised relationship will be the subject of a referendum.
He briefed Conservative Cabinet ministers on the contents of the speech and warned them that they must back the Government’s position on staying in the EU.
Why would Britain need to vote again on this? Stoopid Cameron.
Deadly attack in centre of Afghan capital
Two guards and five fighters have been killed in a suicide attack on the national headquarters of the National Directorate of Security, NDS, Afghanistan’s spy agency, officials said.
“There were five attackers involved. The first detonated a car bomb at the gate, the other four were shot dead by police and NDS guards as they approached,” Sediq Sediqqi, spokesman for the ministry of interior, said.
Sediqqi added that 30 people, including civilians, were wounded in Wedneday’s attack.
In a text message to AFP the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that “a large number of intelligence workers were killed and wounded”. However, in an earlier report, the Reuters news agency, said Zabiullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the group, said the Taliban was “unaware” of the attack.
SFGate.com: Erin Allday
Cold-water swims – the rewards and risks
More fit, but why?
There is no doubt, doctors say, that regular cold-water swimmers are healthier overall than most Americans. But whether it’s the cold or the simple act of regular exercise that helps them is unclear.
There are theories, but not much evidence, about how cold water can improve health. Some studies have shown that people who swim through the winter have higher immune cell counts than nonswimmers. And some scientists, and swimmers, have speculated that cold-water swimming increases production of what’s known as brown fat,
thought to be a healthy fat that burns energy and creates heat.Many cold-water swimmers believe they’re burning more calories in the bay as their bodies struggle to stay warm than they would in a heated pool, but scientists aren’t convinced that’s the case. Cold water, in fact, slows the metabolism, which may mean that the body is actually burning fewer calories. Even if there is a larger calorie burn, it’s probably negligible, doctors say.
Swimming in cold water is bogus. I say so. There is a reason more people in our world live where it is warm.
Software developer Bob outsources own job and whiles away shifts on cat videos
When a routine security check by a US-based company showed someone was repeatedly logging on to their computer system from China, it naturally sent alarm bells ringing. Hackers were suspected and telecoms experts were called in.
It was only after a thorough investigation that it was revealed that the culprit was not a hacker, but “Bob” (not his real name), an “inoffensive and quiet” family man and the company’s top-performing programmer, who could be seen toiling at his desk day after day and staring diligently at his monitor.
For Bob had come up with the idea of outsourcing his own job – to China. So, while a Chinese consulting firm got on with the job he was paid to do, on less than one-fifth of his salary, he whiled away his working day surfing Reddit, eBay and Facebook.
The extraordinary story has been revealed by Andrew Valentine, senior investigator at US telecoms firm Verizon Business, on its website, securityblog.verizonbusiness.com.
This is amazing! Weird and amazing!
Yahoo News, AP: VIVIAN SEQUERA and FABIOLA SANCHEZ
Venezuela publishes decree with Chavez signature
Venezuela’s government has published a decree signed by President Hugo Chavez, while his vice president said Wednesday that the ailing leader also sent a message of gratitude to the military for its loyalty.
It was the first time the president’s signature has appeared in the Official Gazette since his latest cancer surgery in Cuba more than five weeks ago. The decree issued Tuesday and published in the government newspaper on Wednesday names former vice president Elias Jaua as Venezuela’s new foreign minister. The signature is printed along with the presidential stamp.
Current Vice President Nicolas Maduro, who has been in charge of the country during Chavez’s recovery, announced Jaua’s appointment at a National Assembly session on Tuesday.
Chavez has not made any public comments since his operation last month, his fourth in 18 months. He has been fighting an unspecified type of pelvic cancer, and his silence has fed speculation about his medical condition.
Sydney Morning Herald: Tim Barlass
Gillard visits charred ‘moonscape’ of Coonabarabran
Prime Minister Julia Gillard flew into Coonabarabran on Thursday to witness first-hand the devastating effects of the bushfire that claimed at least 49 homes.
At a press conference, the Prime Minister announced financial support for those who had lost homes or been evacuated.
Ms Gillard drove through the Timor Road in Warrumbungle National Park, the epicentre of the inferno, which opened on Wednesday for the first time since the fire for residents to see the extent of their losses.
The Prime Minister surveyed the charred countryside and blackened forests described by the Rural Fire Service as a “moonscape”.
AdvertisementShe saw the ruins of the home in which Bob and Jeanette Fenwick had raised four children. The Fenwicks also lost 33 cows and 250 sheep in the blaze.
Their property is in the valley below the Australian Astronomical Observatory where accommodation was destroyed, the site of which the Prime Minister also visited on Thursday.
A Beautiful Mind: What is Real?
Maybe Mr. Te’o should have tried something like this . . .
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