“La Doncella” Revisited

I posted about the exhibition of the body of the 500-year old  "mummy" of a young girl called "La Doncella" or "The Maiden". She was about 15-years old when she died in a ritual of the religion of the Incas. I mentioned that the find was amazing yet very sad. Sometimes I am too brief in the way I write my posts here at Blue Crab Boulevard, I think. "La Doncella" has an almost lyrical sound to it. The reality is much more harsh. A 15-year old girl was marched or carried, willingly or unwillingly, up the side of a mountain into horrible cold and a thin, thin atmosphere. There, she and the two other children - even younger - were left to die from exposure, then their bodies were entombed there in the cold, thin air.

Now, more than 500 years later, her body lies, chilled to -20° C on display for curious, modern people to look at. She looks like she is sleeping. But she will never wake up and see the people staring at her. That's probably best.

I have a 15-year old daughter. This story really saddens me more than you realize.

“Another Such Victory Over The Romans And We Are Undone.”

The quote that titles this post is one of the quotations attributed to King Pyrrhus, supposedly said to the people congratulating him after winning a battle with the Romans. Another version is: "If we are victorious in one more battle with the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined." This is the genesis of the term 'Pyrrhic victory', a "victory" that costs far more than it is worth. That pretty well describes this victory in a court here in the United States.

A federal judge yesterday ordered Iran to pay more than $2.6 billion to nearly 1,000 family members and a handful of survivors of a 1983 bombing of a Marine barracks in Lebanon that killed 241 soldiers. The ruling brought cheers and tears from survivors but faces long odds of being fulfilled.

"This court is sadly aware that there is little it can do to heal the physical wounds and emotional scars," wrote U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth in his order. But he expressed hope that "this extremely sizeable judgment will serve to aid in the healing process and simultaneously sound the alarm to the defendants that their unlawful attacks on our citizens will not be tolerated."

The militant group Hezbollah carried out the suicide bombing on Oct. 23, 1983, but in a ruling in 2003, Lamberth found that Iran was "legally responsible" for supporting Hezbollah with financial and logistical support to carry out the attack. Iran did not contest the charges.

Hundreds of survivors and families packed into the courtroom to hear Lamberth's ruling, and they erupted in applause when he left the bench.

Even if a victim of terrorism wins at trial, however, it is almost impossible to collect damages. Iran's assets in the United States, for instance, are worth only about $20 million, mainly in diplomatic property, according to State Department officials. Congress passed legislation in 2000 authorizing the payment of $380 million in U.S. Treasury funds to claimants in cases involving 14 victims who were held hostage or killed by Iranian-supported groups such as Hezbollah. Lawmakers ordered the State Department to try to get that money reimbursed by Iran.

241 dead American Marines and an noncollectable judgment against a regime that openly advocates the downfall of this country and everything it stands for. Civilized law will not win against intentional barbarity. 'Pyrrhic victory' is too kind a term for this. Ed Morrisey has thoughts about this legal landmark as well.

UPDATE: Thanks to Dr. Sanity for linking this post in the Carnival of the Insanities.

Get A Chip Implant Plus This Lovely Malignant Tumor!

You know, I am not one to jump on board the latest "scientific" study that purports to prove that there is a huge crisis in (fill in the blank). But this one appears to be a cause for at least some serious further study. The FDA just approved the implanting of microchips into humans - supposedly this was the next big thing for doctors to be able to tell if someone had a serious medical condition if they were unable to speak. After all, microchip implanting has been done for years to identify pets and such.

Only it may be causing malignant tumors in at least some implanted animals.

When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved implanting microchips in humans, the manufacturer said it would save lives, letting doctors scan the tiny transponders to access patients' medical records almost instantly. The FDA found "reasonable assurance" the device was safe, and a sub-agency even called it one of 2005's top "innovative technologies."

But neither the company nor the regulators publicly mentioned this: A series of veterinary and toxicology studies, dating to the mid-1990s, stated that chip implants had "induced" malignant tumors in some lab mice and rats.

"The transponders were the cause of the tumors," said Keith Johnson, a retired toxicologic pathologist, explaining in a phone interview the findings of a 1996 study he led at the Dow Chemical Co. in Midland, Mich.

Leading cancer specialists reviewed the research for The Associated Press and, while cautioning that animal test results do not necessarily apply to humans, said the findings troubled them. Some said they would not allow family members to receive implants, and all urged further research before the glass-encased transponders are widely implanted in people.

To date, about 2,000 of the so-called radio frequency identification, or RFID, devices have been implanted in humans worldwide, according to VeriChip Corp. The company, which sees a target market of 45 million Americans for its medical monitoring chips, insists the devices are safe, as does its parent company, Applied Digital Solutions, of Delray Beach, Fla.

"We stand by our implantable products which have been approved by the FDA and/or other U.S. regulatory authorities," Scott Silverman, VeriChip Corp. chairman and chief executive officer, said in a written response to AP questions.

First off, I would never tolerate something like this for myself. Period. So I am not unbiased here. But if there are cautionary studies out there that the FDA ignored, somebody has some explaining to do on how these things get approved. The AP may be reacting to some less-than-credible information here, but it certainly bears some investigation. If only to disprove it.

Told You So, Didn’t We?

Just a few days ago, we posted about the really bad move made by a British man by giving meerkats cameras. Meerkats, too often thought of as "cute" by the easily conned, are actually well known blackmailers and extortionists. Well, they got their cameras and now they have managed to get to the photographer who gave them the equipment AND to the media that reported the story. Now they're all swearing it was a hoax.

News of budding photographic talent amongst the UK's meerkat population has been greatly exaggerated.

According to reports earlier this week, a mob of meerkats turned their paws to photography when Ian Turner, deputy head warden at Longleat Safari Park, in Wiltshire, accidentally left a camera unattended in their enclosure.

Upon his return, Mr Turner was reportedly "stunned" to discover that the meerkats had used the camera to take photographs of each other, and that they were all stored on the camera's digital memory card.

But, while the media - including the Telegraph - embraced images of the curious animals, and readers registered their interest (or incredulity) by driving up the articles' clicks online, bloggers and photographers pointed out one small hitch in the story.

The camera the furry photographers were supposedly using to capture family snaps is a Canon EOS 650, a traditional camera that only takes film.

Keith Harris, head warden at Longleat Safari Park, told the Amateur Photographer magazine, which spotted the incongruity: "It started off as a joke. It was a slight hoax. The meerkats didn't take any pictures at all."

Hah. Sure, that's what they're saying now. After the meerkats made them an offer they couldn't refuse, so to speak. Sure, the picture of the meerkat with a canon still camera is a hoax. They were actually making movies. Embarrassing movies that have silenced the press.

What Next? Crackberries?

This is one of the weirdest proposals we think we have ever heard. Researchers Dale Joachim, an MIT electrical engineer and biologist Eben Goodale are proposing giving cell phones to owls. Oh, you think we're making this up, don't you? Nope. This is real.

Cellular phones can be used to talk with owls in the wild, researchers now find.

Beyond phone calls consisting entirely of "Who?" placing networks of cell phones in the wild could help call to and listen for birds and beasts, enabling researchers to study faraway wildlife in their natural habitats.

"We're in talks to set up such networks in Costa Rica, Sri Lanka and Papua New Guinea," researcher Dale Joachim, an MIT electrical engineer, told LiveScience. "It might be good for ecotourism, to hear the richness of sound there."

Currently, wildlife biologists monitor birds and beasts by repeatedly venturing into the field to call out and listen for responses. "It dawned on me that could in part be automated," Joachim said.

Joachim, with biologist Eben Goodale and colleagues, first tested phones in the wild last year by wandering for a few hours around midnight in the woods of northeastern Connecticut, rigging phones for owls in autumn.

The researchers employed cell phones modified to listen via microphones and "talk" via loudspeakers. The team next placed calls to the phones using a Web site that plays library audio clips of the barred owl (Strix varia) and Eastern screech owl (Megascops asio). Joachim had some familiarity with the avian world as he kept owls and raptors as pets when he was young. These were injured birds that he nursed back to health.

Despite concerns that cell phone audio quality was too poor for calls, the researchers found the owls responded just as well to hoots and trills over mobile phones as those played back on CD players. The phones also generally picked up calls from owls well, too.

No, let's just put aside the Harry Potterish concerns about owl posts and what not and cut right to the chase here, shall we? Are you people out of your minds? Give cell phone technology to the Animal Uprising™? Good lord, who's side are you on here, anyway? We here at Blue Crab Boulevard decided to run a test on this and left our cell phone out in a tree. This is a transcript of what the phone picked up:

Owl 1: Whoo

Owl 2: Whooo

Owl 1: Who

Owl 2: Whoo?

Owl 1: Are they gone yet?

Owl 2: Yeah, but they left something on that branch on the oak tree.

Owl 1: Hey! It's a cell phone!

Owl 2: Cool, I can call my friends.

Owl 1: What's this little red light mean?

Owl 2: Uh oh. It's still on.

[Silence]

Owl 1: Whooo

Owl 2: Whooooo

We rest our case.

Galveston

On the morning of September 8, 1900, children were out playing in the rising water that had begun coming ashore in Galveston, Texas sometime around dawn. As early as 5 am, Isaac Cline, chief meteorologist of the local US Weather Service office in Galveston noted the rising water and the falling barometer. Throughout the day, until the lines finally went down, Cline telegraphed warnings to the Weather Service's central office in Washington, DC. Eventually, Cline issued a hurricane warning without approval from the central office. It was too little, too late, however. The city of Galveston was no more than 9 feet above sea level at any point. The storm surge reached at least 15 feet that night.

"In reality, there was no island, just the ocean with houses standing out of the waves which rolled between them," Cline wrote in his memoirs "Storms, Flood and Sunshine," (1945, Pelican Publishing).

Cline's own pregnant wife died in the storm, as did at least 6,000 in Galveston proper and possibly as many as 12,000 in the immediate region. A bitter irony was that Cline had argued in 1891 that there was no need for a sea wall to be built to protect Galveston. The Galveston County Daily News maintains a website about "The Storm" (In Galveston, no other name is necessary).

The population of Galveston in 1900 was about 37,000. Almost one person in six died in the storm. There has never been a more lethal meteorological disaster to hit the United States.

Definite Top Ten Contender

This genius has got to be in contention for the top ten list of Criminal Masterminds - and possibly an honorable mention in the Darwin Awards as well. The would-be holdup man in Bucaramanga, Colombia had a gun, so he figured all he needed was a nice, plump victim to rob. This is where it all started to go wrong for the budding hoodlum. He picked out a place to knock over, all right.

A karate dojo.

"The man entered the academy with a firearm, but could not intimidate the dozens of students, who fortunately reacted and disarmed him," said Colonel Julio Cesar Santoyo, police commander in the province of Santander.

Police arrived at the scene only to take the would-be robber to hospital for treatment of multiple contusions at the hands of the karate students.

He got knocked over, rather thoroughly.

Snap! Goes The Turtle

The raging reptiles of doom are invading North Dakota! A woman narrowly escaped one of their more insidious traps: a herd of snapping turtles artfully disguised as harmless flowers.

Betty Kratzke was seeing green Thursday.

The day started ordinarily enough.

Kratzke’s brother, Ron Berg, and brother-in-law, Darrell Perry, were going to Kratzke’s house to help install a new front door. By the time Perry arrived, Berg was already there, holding a baby snapping turtle in his hands.

About an hour later, 44 turtles were transported with a cardboard box from Kratzke’s yard at 1021 13th Street S.E. to the James River, about a block away.

“It was the greatest experience in a long time, you know,” Perry said. “Golly.”

Snapping turtles live to be decades old, said Gene Van Eeckhout, fishery biologist with the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, and can weigh about 30 to 40 pounds. And while they may be small and sweet as babies, they don’t make nice pets.

“They’re not very friendly to play with,” Van Eeckhout said.

Ms. Kratzke apparently doesn't realize how lucky she was. The turtles were just waiting for her to get close enough, say while gardening, then they would have had her. Oh, sure, they're small, but there are a lot of them. Snapping turtles have a long history of this sort of ambush. You never hear about it because they're so good at it. That's why we defoliate all around the Crabitat. No snapping turtles disguised as mums can get near the place.

Harry Reid And A Rousing Chorus Of Kumbaya

Max Boot hammers Harry "Surrender!" Reid in his latest column for the Los Angeles Times. Because the surge is working, despite Harry's declaration that the war was lost. Reid is now seeking the "Kumbaya" moment he derided just a few months ago - a sign of how well the surge is doing.

As recently as a month ago, it appeared that Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker would be running into a withering fusillade of rhetorical fire when they appeared on Capitol Hill to report on the progress of the "surge" in Iraq. Now that their testimony is upon us, the political environment has become, in military argot, considerably more "permissive."

A sign of how much things have changed: In July, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was pressing for a "date certain" for troop withdrawal; he derided those who wanted to pass a nonbinding drawdown resolution "that has no teeth in it" just so "you can circle and sing 'Kumbaya.' " Today, he's trying to reach accommodation with Republicans on just such a "Kumbaya" bill.

It's obvious what accounts for the more cooperative mood. Notwithstanding all the political hype and hyperbole, events on the ground do matter, and there is no denying that events in Iraq have been moving in the right direction since the surge started. Not even the Democrats deny it. Sens. Jack Reed, Hillary Clinton and Dick Durbin, among others, have acknowledged that, as Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin put it, "The military aspects of President Bush's new strategy in Iraq . . . appear to have produced some credible and positive results."

As nauseating as the thought of watching Harry sing is, he is hunting desperately for a way out of the box he made for himself. Far from being relentlessly hammered during the August break, Republicans actually had few problems. Democrats got an earful, however. Despite the shrieking from the left, the Democrats found out that embracing surrender wasn't real popular with the majority of Americans. Hence the sudden turnaround. They are trying to move the goalposts, but Boot points out the futility of that in the face of real progress in Iraq.

Faced with those impressive returns, surge opponents have tried to change the topic by pointing to the lack of political progress. They cite the Government Accountability Office report that found that the Iraqi government failed to meet 11 of 18 benchmarks and only partly met four others. But not one of these benchmarks relates to the most stunning and unexpected development of the last year: the decision by large numbers of Sunnis to take up arms against Al Qaeda in Iraq.

This movement started in Anbar province and has now spread to Diyala, Nineveh, Babil and other provinces, including parts of Baghdad. According to David Kilcullen, Petraeus' recently departed counterinsurgency advisor, the Sunni uprising "is now affecting about 40% of the country." If it continues, it could have far-reaching implications, political as well as military, because the more success that American and Iraqi security forces have against Al Qaeda (which is rabidly anti-Shiite), the more they undermine the claim that Shiite militias are necessary to protect their own people. "We might end up," Kilcullen writes, "with a revolt of the center against both extremes, which would be a truly major development."

The turning of the Sunnis on al Qaeda is a major, major thing. It may well force the political changes that are needed in the long run. But the Democrats will need to start warming up for a sing-along pretty quick. Americans do not like to lose - and they don't like people who want to be losers.

Running Down The Hsu

Running down the road
Make my get away
Everything I told you
was just yesterday
Yes, You know I'm off again
Oh, and I've been told
You were there beside me
Running down the road
(Arlo Guthrie, Running Down the Road)

It seems that nobody in the press can get answers about Norman Hsu at the moment. The deeper they dig, the more mysterious the international man of mystery becomes. The Wall Street Journal is digging like mad, but they are not getting any real answers, just more questions. What makes Norman Hsu run - and just where does he get all that money? He has left a trail of failed businesses and destitute investors behind him for decades now - and yet he has lived a lavish, if nomadic, lifestyle. Strings of what appear to be phony addresses and gobs of ready cash whenever he needs it.

Mr. Hsu was practically destitute, according to bankruptcy documents. He owed $1.64 million to a long list of people, including his father-in-law, who had lent him money. The documents said he was renting a home for $1,750 a month in Foster City and spending $75 a month for clothes.

Mr. Hsu vanished just before his scheduled sentencing in 1992. He soon began building new businesses, this time in Hong Kong.

One, a clothing company called Newton Enterprises Ltd., opened in September 1992, according to Hong Kong business records. Documents link Mr. Hsu to another Hong Kong company about that time as well. Both had vague incorporation papers that suggested they could be used for anything from financial advisory services to travel agencies to garment manufacture.

In registrations for Newton and the other firm, Mr. Hsu listed his address as on the 39th floor of Convention Plaza, which is a luxurious place in the heart of Hong Kong with views of Victoria Harbor. Eng Boo Cheh, a Singaporean garment industry executive who helped set up Newton with Mr. Hsu, recalls Mr. Hsu frequenting a nightclub at the Grand Hyatt near there. "He'd call and say, 'Come have a drink,' " Mr. Eng says. "He befriended a lot of people there."

But his star also fell in Hong Kong. Both companies were dissolved in 1997 and 1998. The Hong Kong courts declared Mr. Hsu bankrupt in the summer of 1998.

Mr. Hsu soon returned to California, creating another chain of addresses near San Francisco and Los Angeles. Real-estate brokers in the area say that he actively invested in properties in the Bay area. He continued dabbling in the apparel industry as well.

A few years ago, Mr. Hsu's activity in the Bay Area tapered off. And he appeared to move to New York. And he emerged in another circle — political fund-raising in New York.

Just how or why he got involved in politics is unclear. In 2004, Mr. Hsu donated $2,000, the most then allowed, to the presidential campaign of Massachusetts Democratic Sen. John Kerry.

As his involvement in Democratic party fund raising escalated, his financial dealings became even murkier. Hsu has a lot of questions to answer and the Federal authorities are very interested. The continued media glare on this is a direct result of how stinky this particular story is. This is one the media will follow regardless of politics. That likely has a lot of Democrats nervous at the moment. Where does he get all that lovely cash?

Madeleine L’ Engle, 1918-2007, RIP

Madeleine L’Engle, the author of more than 60 books on a wide variety of subjects has died. The book she is most remembered for is probably A Wrinkle in Time, winner of the John Newbery Award as the best children’s book of 1963. She wrote many other things besides her well know children's books in her long career.

Ms. L’Engle (pronounced LENG-el) was best known for her children’s classic, “A Wrinkle in Time,” which won the John Newbery Award as the best children’s book of 1963. By 2004, it had sold more than 6 million copies, was in its 67th printing and was still selling 15,000 copies a year.

Her works — poetry, plays, autobiography and books on prayer — were deeply, quixotically personal. But it was in her vivid children’s characters that readers most clearly glimpsed her passionate search for the questions that mattered most. She sometimes spoke of her writing as if she were taking dictation from her subconscious.

“Of course I’m Meg,” Ms. L’Engle said about the beloved protagonist of “A Wrinkle in Time.”

The “St. James Guide to Children’s Writers” called Ms. L’Engle “one of the truly important writers of juvenile fiction in recent decades.” Such accolades did not come from pulling punches: “Wrinkle” is one of the most banned books because of its treatment of the deity.

I remember that I read A Wrinkle in Time several times, probably stating not long after it came out. I don't remember much about it now, but I do remember it as one of the books that helped forge my continued love of reading. John Podhoretz has a lovely remembrance of Madeleine L'Engle, the neighbor he grew up with, not the famous author.

Madeleine L'Engle was our neighbor growing up. She lived on the 9th floor at 924 West End Avenue in apartment 95; we lived on the 6th floor in apartment 65. There was one elevator for this line of apartments and therefore everybody in them came to know each other quite well, especially since the elevator had a habit of breaking down and trapping a few of us in it for 20 minutes at a time.

As a young boy, I knew her as the kind-faced and friendly woman with the two fluffy big nice dogs (in contrast to the constantly barking and lunging German Shepherds who lived on 12 and scared the bejeezus out of me and everybody else). Then, when I was 9 or 10, I read A Wrinkle in Time and my sister Naomi told me offhandedly that she was its author.

I wrote her the first fan letter of my life and, heart pounding, rode the elevator to 9 and slipped it under her door. Within hours a package was left at our door with an inscribed copy of its recently published sequel, A Wind at the Door, a box of baked chocolate chip cookies, and a response that was so appreciative I could hardly believe it, it was so gracious and thoughtful. I had grown up with writers whose friends were all writers and one thing I had learned even at that ludicrously tender age is that saying anything to any author about his or her work is to enter into an emotional minefield.

Go read it, it is more than just a dry recounting of her career and probably gives a better picture of Madeleine L'Engle the person than all the obituaries you might read.

Rest in peace.

Chucky Hanging It Up

Chucky Hagel is retiring, sources close to him say. He also will not be running for President on a third party ticket. It looks like all his positioning hasn't worked out well for the Nebraska Republican.

WASHINGTON - Chuck Hagel will announce Monday that he is retiring from the U.S. Senate and will not run for president next year, people close to the Nebraska Republican said Friday.

Hagel plans to announce that "he will not run for re-election and that he does not intend to be a candidate for any office in 2008," said one person, who asked not to be named.

Hagel has scheduled a press conference for 10 a.m. Monday at the Omaha Press Club.

According to one person interviewed, Hagel told Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky on Friday morning that he had decided to retire. Hagel's staff learned of his decision that afternoon.

The North Platte native earned national recognition as perhaps the most vocal, at times angry, GOP critic of the Bush administration's Iraq policies.

His outspokenness on Iraq and other key issues, including Social Security and foreign policy, fueled national interest in Hagel as he flirted with a possible presidential bid.

His national profile reached its zenith in March, when he headed to Omaha to hold a press conference on his political future.

But amid wide speculation that he was leaning toward a White House run, Hagel announced that he would disclose his plans later in the year.

No, I don't think that's right at all. His popularity with the press reached its height in March - up until he held that absolutely bizarre non-newsworthy news conference. At that point even the press realized the guy was a posturing fraud. And they dropped him like a hot potato and stopped covering his nonsense, pretty well sealing his fate. I guess he can go get that job selling shoes now. In a way, I've missed the press covering Hagel. As I pointed out back in February, the farce is strong in this one, Luke. And he was soooooo easy to photoshop.

Worst of all, Dan Riehl grabbed the best description of Chucky's latest news: "There'll be no Child's Play 5: Chucky Runs For Prez co-starring Michael Bloomberg."