'Beer fridges' present a gassy problem

Getting rid of vintage “beer fridges” – secondary fridges which many North American and Australian homes boast – could have a significant impact on household greenhouse gas emissions, suggests a new study.

Beer fridges are additional fridges that are generally used to keep beer and other drinks cold on top of a household’s primary fridge for food. One in three Canadian households has a second fridge, many of which are ageing, energy-guzzling models, according to Denise Young, a researcher at the University of Alberta, Canada.

Young suggests that getting rid of older models, in Canada at least, would have an impact on energy usage. Her study analyses industry data and the results of a national survey to look at the environmental effects of having beer fridges in Canada.

"People need to understand the impact of their lifestyles," says Joanna Yarrow, director of Beyond Green, a sustainable development consultancy in the UK. "Clearly the environmental implications of having a frivolous luxury like a beer fridge are not hitting home. This research helps inform people – let's hope it has an effect".

 

High demands

The survey that Young analysed was commissioned by Natural Resources Canada and suggests that 30% of households have two or more refrigerators. About 20% of secondary fridges are older models that are kept after the household buys a newer model as their primary refrigerator.

Having a second fridge for cooling drinks means more demand for electricity, and this demand is even worse when the second fridge is an older model.

The Canadian Appliance Manufacturers Association estimates that typical 1985 refrigerator models use 1060 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy per year, while a 1975 model uses 1580 kWh per year. In contrast, more recent and energy-efficient models can use as little as 380 kWh per year.

The survey shows that in 2003 about 65% of beer fridges were more than 10 years old. About 30% were at least twice that age.

Using the survey's information on the distribution of beer fridges and the data on energy consumption, Young calculated that the 65% of beer fridges that are 10 years or older consume 1165.7 million kWh of energy each year – roughly equivalent to the annual consumption of 100,000 average US suburban homes.

By abandoning beer fridges altogether, Canada's 11.5 million households could save 3500 million kWh each year, says Young.

 

Class divide

Young also found that low-income families were less likely to retire their old refrigerators to the garage to store drinks after buying a new model. She says this is probably because these households find the cost of running an additional fridge (up to $150 per year) too high.

She concludes that middle- to high-income families should be targeted by campaigns to remove old secondary refrigerators. Existing schemes encourage people to buy new more energy-efficient fridges by offering financial bonuses for each purchase – sometimes with a cash-back offer for handing in older fridges.

Young warns, however, that "these financial incentives may also induce a household to purchase a new unit earlier than they would have otherwise done so", which can actually encourage people to keep a second fridge.

Instead, Young supports government-run "round-ups" offering to pick up and dispose of old refrigerators. A 2006 study commissioned by the Ontario Power Authority showed that such programmes have been successful in the past, especially when they are boosted by information on how much money and energy can be saved by getting rid of the beer fridge.

But environmental effect of beer fridges depends on the source of electricity. "In Canada, there are major regional differences," notes Young. "In places where hydroelectric power is used, the greenhouse gas emissions are negligible. In places where coal or natural gas are used, the impacts can be substantial."

She calculates that a 1975 fridge in British Columbia – where most electricity comes from hydropower – is responsible for a negligible increase in emissions. But the same fridge in Alberta, where electricity is primarily generated from natural gas and coal, would be responsible for 1.4 tons of greenhouse gases every year.

 

Quoted from http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn12975-beer-fridges-present-a-gassy-problem.html:

'Beer fridges' present a gassy problem - earth - 28 November 2007 - New Scientist Environment

Technorati Tags: Sad,Scary,Science,Weird

New traffic circle can cause confusion

By Karen Dandurant

kdandurant@seacoastonline.com

RYE — It seems that some area residents are having a bit of difficulty with the new roundabout at Foyes Corner.

It opened to traffic on Tuesday Nov. 20. By Wednesday, Police Chief Kevin Walsh was dealing with the first problem — people were entering and driving to the left, instead of the correct way, which is to the right.

Since that time former Executive Councilor Ruth Griffin said she has been fielding complaints about the newly reconfigured intersection.

Police and officials from the New Hampshire Department of Transportation advise residents to be cautious and to realize there is a learning curve involved, especially for those who have been driving the intersection for many years.

At least one resident, who did not want to be named, called the roundabout “disastrous” and said there was nothing wrong with the old intersection.

Griffin agrees.

“The incidents of accidents at Foyes Corner, compared to some other intersections, were minimal,” said Griffin. “There was no earthly need under the sun to spend limited highway money on that folly, plus the heritage that went with the Cavaretta house at the corner is gone.”

The big white farm house owned by the Cavaretta family had to be torn down to make way for the new intersection. Several efforts to have the house moved failed.

“People are calling to complain that it’s too small, that there’s too much access to drive over the middle of it, and that it’s in the wrong position,” said Griffin. “People are asking me for help and that’s what I’ll do.”

Griffin said she plans to call NHDOT Commissioner Charles O’Leary.

“I’ll tell him I’m giving his phone number to everyone, that I’m turning them over to him,” she said.

Walsh said people have to get used to it.

“I’m all for how the traffic pattern is designed to slow cars down. Drivers have to be aware of their surroundings. When it first opened I saw a person driving while talking on a cell phone and he went up and over the cement. Drivers need to put their phones down and drive.”

Walsh said he thinks it will take about one year to fully adjust, as each season changes.

“We will start to do some enforcement,” said Walsh. “Vehicles are driving too fast in getting in the circle. We’ll try to be visible and if people drive too fast, we will address that issue.”

DOT engineer Alex Vogt was the project manager. He said they started informing people before the roundabout opened.

“We put up message boards and new signs,” said Vogt. “We put fliers at the town hall and contacted local media.”

As for people driving over the top, Vogt said it is visibly different from the road surface.

“The center is concrete where the other is pavement,” he said. “If correctly entering, it directs you around the surface.”

The roundabout at Foyes Corner is the fourth built by DOT in the state. Vogt said it seems like the first week or so there are some complaints, but also praise.

“We’re willing to listen to any concerns people have and if there seem to be ongoing issues we can make some adjustments,” he said. “The purpose is to slow down traffic to 10-15 miles per hour.”

NHDOT spokesperson Bill Boynton said roundabouts have several positive attributes and are rapidly becoming part of state transportation mixes.

“There’s a low risk of injury-causing crashes,” he said. “It keeps traffic flowing, and saves fuel because you’re not sitting idling at a traffic signal.”

Quoted from http://www.seacoastonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071126/NEWS/71126033:

Seacoastonline.com: New traffic circle can cause confusion

 

Technorati Tags: Cars,Maine,Scary

IN MAINE SCHOOLS,Sugar intake not yet licked

 

By SUSAN M. COVER
Staff Writer

AUGUSTA -- Efforts by the state to rid schools of soda and candy have been successful, but there's evidence that students are finding other ways to get that sugary high.

They've switched to sports drinks and flavored water, some of which can be deceptively high in calories, said Janet Whatley Blum, a University of Southern Maine professor in the Department of Exercise, Health and Sport Sciences.

"It's great they got soda out of schools, but there's still sugar-sweetened beverages in schools," she said Tuesday following a speech at the Augusta Civic Center.

Blum kicked off Tuesday's daylong conference on obesity sponsored by the Maine-Harvard Prevention Research Center. She presented findings from a study conducted at 11 Maine high schools that looked to see what impact a 2005 state rule had on soda and candy in schools.

The rule extends the regulation of "foods of minimal nutritional value" from only the school day to 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It applies to schools that participate in the federal meal programs.

And though the rule seeks to regulate candy and soda on school property, local school boards could, and did, carve out exceptions, Blum said.

Some opted to allow soda and candy machines in the teachers' lounge and to allow the sale of those items at events open to the public. Also, school boards can vote to exempt culinary arts programs.

By surveying school food service directors and visiting the schools, Blum found that, although schools pulled soda from their vending machines, other sugar-filled options remain.

In the 11 schools observed, sugar-sweetened beverages accounted for 32 percent of all beverages in vending programs, she said. And candy is still being sold in school stores even though it's not supposed to be, according to the state Department of Education.

For those who work in schools, the transition to healthier offerings wasn't easy.

"The kids whined," said Lori Muzzy, a food service director for the Rangeley Lakes Regional School. "Their parents whined."

Eventually, the whining stopped and Muzzy said she successfully works with vendors to substitute better choices.

In Augusta, Director of School Nutrition Programs Barbara Raymond-Nichols said she wants to be more aggressive in trying to change the way students eat.

"I'm not in favor of banning birthday cakes, but it's time we start getting kids more active and teach them how to select foods," she said.

Adults also need to lead by example, she said.

Which brings us to the teachers lounge, where Blum and her crew snapped pictures of soda machines and vending machines stuffed full of chips, candy bars and other goodies.

They also found baskets of candy on the desks of teachers, guidance counselors and principals.

And then there's the all-you-can-eat pizza, french fry and soda buffet across the street from one of the state's high schools -- Blum didn't say which.

She said it might be time to consider additional steps to fight obesity. And she said the message needs to extend beyond the schoolhouse door and into the home.

"In general, I see schools doing a very good job or moving in that direction, to have kids be in a healthy food environment," she said.

IN MAINE SCHOOLS
Sugar intake not yet licked

Technorati Tags: Health,Maine

Honey, I doomed the universe

ASTRONOMERS may have unwittingly hastened the end of the Universe by simply looking at it, according to a theory reported in the latest edition of New Scientist.

The novel idea is being aired by two US physicists, who attack the notion that the universe, believed to have been created in the "Big Bang'' some 13.7 billion years ago, will go on, well, forever.

In fact, the poor old cosmos is in a rather delicate state, they say.

Until recently, a common idea was that the energy unleashed in the Big Bang happened when a "false vacuum'' - a bubble of high energy with repulsive gravity - broke down into a safe, zero-energy "ordinary'' vacuum.

But recent evidence has emerged that places a cosmic question-mark over this cosy thought.

For one thing, cosmologists have discovered that the Universe is still expanding.

And, they believe, a strange, yet-to-be-detected form of energy called dark energy pervades the universe, which would explain why the sum of all the visible sources of energy fall way short of what should be out there.

Dark energy, goes the thinking, is a result of the Big Bang and is accelerating the universe's expansion.

If so, the universe is not in a nice, stable zero-vacuum state but simply another "false vacuum'' state that may abruptly decay again - and with cataclysmic consequences.

The energy shift from the decay would destroy everything in the universe, "wiping the slate clean", says Lawrence Krauss of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.

The good news is: the longer the universe survives, the better the chance that it will mature into a stable state. We are just beyond the crucial switching point, Mr Krauss believed.

The bad news is: the quantum effect, a truly weird aspect of physics that says whenever we observe or measure something, we reset its clock.

Mr Krauss and colleague James Dent pointed to measurements of light from supernovae in 1998 that provided the first evidence of dark energy.

These measurements might have reset the decay clock of the "false vacuum'' back to zero, back before the switching point and to a time when the risk of catastrophic decay was greater than now, said Mr Dent and Mr Krauss.

"Incredible as it seems, our detection of the dark energy may have reduced the life expectancy of the universe,'' said Mr Krauss.

"We may have snatched away the possibility of long-term survival for our universe and made it more likely it will decay.''

The report says the claim is contested by other astrophysicists and adds reassuringly: "The fact that we are still here means this can't have happened yet.''

Quoted from http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,22801758-5005962,00.html:

AdelaideNow... Honey, I doomed the universe

Technorati Tags: Scary,Science,Universe

School officials unite in banning Wikipedia

By Lynn Olanoff

Express-Times (Easton, Pa)

EASTON, Pa. — Linda O'Connor regards Wikipedia the same way former first lady Nancy Reagan campaigned against drugs.

She urges people to "Just Say No."

The Great Meadows (N.J.) Middle School librarian hasn't been a fan of the online encyclopedia for years. This fall, she decided it was time to make others at her school aware of the Web site's pitfalls.

She put up a sign saying "Just Say 'No' to Wikipedia" over the computers in the school library.

Several other school officials feel similarly about the Web site. Wikipedia is blocked on all computers in the Warren Hills Regional School District.

Some teachers at Easton Area High School discourage its use, as do officials at Centenary College and Lehigh University.

"We don't see it as an authoritative source," said Nancy Madasci, Centenary's library director.

The problem with Wikipedia, the school officials said, is it can be modified by anyone. There have been many cases of incorrect information on the Web site, some of which has been biased.

Egregious errors

Warren Hills teachers and students have found at least two cases of incorrect information while using Wikipedia, said Dawn Moore, the high-school librarian. A teacher researching Martin Luther King Jr. found white supremacist information in his entry, she said. A student researching the Vietnam War found Wikipedia's casualty count far lower than the actual number of people killed in the conflict.

O'Connor said many of her students don't realize Wikipedia can contain inaccuracies.

"Kids just take it for gospel, they really do, and that's my concern about it," she said.

Wikipedia officials recognize the problems with using the Web site for research, said Sandra Ordonez, communications manager for Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit group behind Wikipedia. The company does not recommend using the Web site as a primary research source, she said.

"Not a primary source"

"The best way to use Wikipedia is to get a global picture of a topic," Ordonez said. "It's not a primary source, and in college, you probably should not be citing an encyclopedia."

Wikipedia can lead researchers to primary sources, as much of the Web site's content comes from such sources, she said.

Several school officials agreed Wikipedia is good to get overviews of topics.

Greg Reihman, the Lehigh faculty development director, encourages students to use the Web site "to get a quick snapshot or an initial sense of views as they are commonly understood," according to university spokeswoman Dina Silver Pokedoff.

Many students use Wikipedia because it's often one of the first Web sites to come up on search engines, according to Kris Dumschat, a high-school senior.

He said his English teacher last year warned students against using the Web site because of inaccuracies. Dumschat said he's sure some of his classmates got points off their research papers for using wrong information from Wikipedia.

"It never happened to me; I stay away from it," he said.

Madasci, the Centenary librarian, said the college also has students who favor the Web site. She said some incoming freshmen have to undergo "Wiki-shock" to learn not to use Wikipedia.

"We've seen freshmen come in and need to be trained to do appropriate research," she said. "Students will gravitate toward what's easy."

 

Quoted from http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/living/2004025648_wikipedia21.html:

Living | School officials unite in banning Wikipedia | Seattle Times Newspaper

Technorati Tags: Internet,Lame,Sad

CDC warns of mumps outbreak

 

By Meg Haskell
Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - Bangor Daily News

With confirmed and suspected cases of mumps on the rise in Maine - including a suspected case in an employee at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor - and a much more serious outbreak just across the border in Canada, Maine’s chief public health officer on Monday issued updated recommendations for vaccination against the potentially serious illness.

"Because this outbreak [in Maine] has spread, we are updating vaccination recommendations, especially among children, college and university students and hospital workers,’’ said Dr. Dora Anne Mills, head of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Because of the environments where they live and work, such individuals are most likely to contract and spread the virus, Mills said.

Since September, seven cases of mumps have been confirmed in southern and central Maine, four of them in November alone. The state is awaiting the results of lab tests on as many as two dozen more suspected cases, according to the Maine CDC. The age of the sickened individuals ranges from the late teens to the late 50s.

While the number of cases in Maine may seem insignificant, more than 900 individuals in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, mostly college students, have been sickened with mumps since last winter.

And on Monday, a housekeeper at EMMC was given a preliminary diagnosis of mumps, pending confirmation by laboratory testing. Donna Dunton, director of infection control at EMMC, confirmed Monday evening that the housekeeper has been asked to stay out of work until lab reports of her mumpslike symptoms are complete. The employee is not thought to have been in close enough contact with any patients to have spread the virus, Dunton stressed, and routine infection control measures such as hand washing are likely to have minimized the possibility of transmission.

Mumps is a viral infection of the salivary glands. Symptoms typically include fever, headache, muscle ache, and swelling and tenderness of the glands at the corner of the jaw. Symptoms may last seven to 10 days, and infected individuals are contagious for at least three days before becoming ill and as long as nine days after symptoms appear.

Infection occurs through direct contact with respiratory droplets from the nose or throat, through saliva, coughing, sneezing, sharing drinks, kissing or from contact with any surface that has been contaminated with the virus.

Rarely, mumps infection can lead to meningitis, inflammation of the testicles or ovaries, inflammation of the pancreas, and temporary or permanent hearing loss.

"Although mumps is a virus and is not treatable with antibiotics, the good news is that mumps can be prevented or its impact reduced with vaccine," Mills said.

The MMR vaccine — which protects against mumps, measles and rubella, or "German measles" — is the most common vaccine used to protect against mumps.

The Maine CDC’s updated guidelines are as follows:

ä For students in kindergarten through 12th grade, all vaccine records should be reviewed and updated. For any students who are not current with their MMR vaccines, a letter should be given to the parents notifying them of the mumps outbreak and informing them that if their child remains nonimmunized and the infection is detected in their school, their child will be excluded from school for at least 18 days.

ä For college and university students, all vaccine records should be reviewed and updated. All students should have documentation of two doses of MMR, rather than the previously required one dose. Most students will have had two doses as part of their routine childhood vaccinations, but older "nontraditional" students may be lacking the second dose.

ä Hospital health care workers with direct patient contact should have their vaccine records reviewed and updated. Adequate mumps vaccination for those born in 1957 or later now consists of two doses of MMR, rather than the previously required one dose. Adequate mumps vaccination for those born before 1957 now consists of one dose of MMR, rather than no doses, as previously required.

Besides the additional vaccinations, the Maine CDC also recommends that individuals who become infected should be isolated for nine days after the onset of illness. Those who are not immunized and who are exposed should be isolated for about 18 days after the last known exposure.

Mills acknowledged that compliance with these recommendations may be financially and logistically burdensome for some individuals, institutions and families. The average cost of a mumps vaccine is about $45, she said, but the state is trying to secure supplies of lower-cost vaccine. The Maine CDC can assist institutions with the process of reviewing records, setting up vaccine clinics and obtaining vaccine supplies, she said.

Mills added that the new recommendations are likely to be upgraded to requirements through departmental rule making in the near future.

"While there is no apparent direct connection between people in Maine with confirmed infection and the current outbreak in Canada, it is not surprising that a border state like Maine would see an outbreak," Mills said.

A student health official at the University of Maine was unavailable Monday to comment on how the new recommendations might affect the Orono campus.

At EMMC, Dunton said employee charts have been under review for several months in response to changes in vaccine recommendations from the Maine CDC issued earlier this year. Monday’s announcement, she said, is likely to "step up the pace" of that review, and many employees are likely to be asked to roll up their sleeves.

For information on mumps, visit the Maine CDC’s Web site: www.mainepublichealth.gov.

CDC warns of mumps outbreak

Technorati Tags: Health , Maine , Safety , Scary

England flops shafted by enormous todger

 

Croatian national anthem gaffe delights the crowd

By Lester Haines

Opera singing Brit Tony Henry has become a Croatian hero for mispronouncing a line in the country's national anthem before its team consigned a lamentable England to the dustbin of footballing history on Wednesday night.

The ditty is "written in the old Croat style", the Telegraph explains, and instead of singing Mila kuda si planina - "You know my dear how we love your mountains" - Henry thundered Mila kura si planina, or "My dear, my penis is a mountain".

This evidently delighted Croatian players Vedran Corluka and Luka Modric, who were seen "grinning at each other" at the gaffe, and fans claim the slip helped relax the team before its 3-2 drubbing of McClaren's lacklustre side.

Accordingly, Croatians are now calling for Henry to be awarded with a medal and appointed their team's official mascot for Euro 2008. Mate Prlic, of Croatian footie mag Torcida, suggested: "He obviously relaxed the players so why not invite him to Euro 2008 to keep the winning streak going?"

Henry's agent, Douglas Gillespie, said: "Tony had a great reception from the Croatian fans and already feels part of their campaign for Euro 2008."

England flops shafted by enormous todger | The Register

Technorati Tags: Funny , International

Drunk drivers slam into same business

HIGHLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. - Police said two men face drunken driving charges after losing control of their cars and simultaneously driving into the same business.

WDIV-TV said the 21-and 22-year-old drivers were heading north on Milford Road in western Oakland County's Highland Township, when both lost control of their vehicles and drove into the Carpet Classic Floor Studio.

Police say the drivers ran from their cars, but deputies tracked them down at their nearby homes.

Authorities are still investigating.

Quoted from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071119/ap_on_fe_st/odd_slam_drunk;_ylt=Agd86SQ_x9BxEY7n8PEN9m0sQE4F:

Drunk drivers slam into same business - Yahoo! News

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Egg in nog? No joke, says Smiling Hill

BILL NEMITZ November 18, 2007

When your family owns and operates a place called Smiling Hill Farm, you tend to go through life with a grin. But last week, the best Warren Knight could manage was a grimace.

It started with a spot inspection from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration -- it happens every year or two at the Westbrook dairy farm and has never been a big deal.

But this time was different. Looking over a fresh batch of the Smiling Hill egg nog, the inspector did a double take: The bottle cap -- the only place on the otherwise all-glass container with any printing -- was out of federal compliance.

How so?

"Eggs were not listed as an ingredient," Knight recalled.

Egg, you see, is an allergen. As such, the inspector told Knight, it must be explicitly listed as an ingredient somewhere on the one-and-three-eighths-inch-wide cap.

"But the cap says 'Egg Nog!' " protested Knight.

Didn't matter.

"But we're limited by cap space," Knight persisted. What's more, they can't start slapping warning labels onto their reusable bottles without gumming up the bottle washer.

Not the feds' problem.

Then things turned really sour. The FDA notified the Maine Department of Agriculture that all Smiling Hill egg nog on store shelves -- about 400 gallons at that point -- had to be recalled to protect people with egg allergies who don't know there's egg in egg nog.

Enter, not a moment too soon, Ashley Slattery, Maine's dairy inspector.

"We really didn't want to do a recall," Slattery said Friday. Still, she added, the FDA wanted something on that cap "so the people would know egg nog contains eggs."

Umm ... wouldn't people already know that by the name of the product?

"You'd think so," Slattery said.

So here's the deal. No recall, but Knight agreed to have his label redesigned to include the ingredients and, in the meantime, affix a warning label to every bottle of egg nog that leaves his farm.

Knight headed for Staples Thursday and bought a bunch of red, one-inch-round labels. Then he fired up his computer and printed "WARNING Contains EGGS" twice on each one.

Then he and the rest of the family spent the day cutting each label in half and affixing the semi-circular warnings to the cap on each bottle -- being careful not to encroach on the bar code.

"Someday we're going to look back at this and laugh," chortled one of the workers.

Replied Knight, "Yeah, but it won't be tomorrow."

It's not that Knight has anything against enforcing food safety regulations.

"The health and safety of our customers is foremost," he said. "Since without them, we cease to exist."

But Knight checked with the National Institutes of Health and found that .05 percent of the U.S. population is allergic to eggs. And he has a strong hunch that every last one of those poor folks already knows that egg nog contains eggs.

So go ahead and chuckle. But if you're within earshot of Smiling Hill Farm, please do it quietly.

"Sometime after applying sticker number 783," said Knight, "this theater of the absurd stopped being funny."

Quoted from http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=148740&ac=PHnws:

Egg in nog? No joke, says Smiling Hill

Technorati Tags: Business,Lame,Laws,Maine,Sad,Weird

Number 13 really IS found to be the Lottery's 'unluckiest' number

By DUNCAN ROBERTSON

The superstitious will need no convincing but there really is good reason to steer clear of the number 13.

It is the unluckiest ball in the National Lottery, research has revealed. Since the lottery was launched in 1994, 13 has come up only 146 times, eight fewer than any other ball.

It failed to appear in 49 consecutive draws between July and December 1997. The next unluckiest balls are 6, 9 and 11.

The Lotto's luckiest ball is 38, which has come up 217 times, followed by 25 and 31.

But anyone hoping to improve their negligible chance of winning by picking these numbers should be cautious. Camelot, which runs the lottery and carried out the research, stresses that past performances mean nothing and the odds against hitting the jackpot are always 13,983,816 to one.

The number 13 is considered unlucky in many cultures and has an ancient association with the devil, compounded by the fact that Judas Iscariot, the disciple who betrayed Jesus, was the 13th person to sit at the table during the Last Supper.

The 13th card of the Major Arcana in a Tarot deck is Death.

Despite this, Camelot claims that the number 13 has marked some positive milestones in the lottery's history.

Around 13 new millionaires have been created every month in the 13 years since the first draw on November 19, 1994.

A 13-strong syndicate of Littlehampton taxi drivers has won two major prizes, a £546,480 share of a jackpot in February this year and £144,222 from matching five main numbers and the bonus ball back in 2002.

 

Quoted from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/technology/technology.html?in_article_id=494880&in_page_id=1965:

Number 13 really IS found to be the Lottery's 'unluckiest' number | the Daily Mail

Technorati Tags: Cool,Weird

Cows escape from truck in La. wreck

HREVEPORT, La. - Police warned drivers Thursday to watch out for cows that may have strayed from a tractor-trailer that flipped over on an interstate.

More than 100 head of cattle escaped. Shreveport police and Caddo Parish sheriff's deputies caught most of the cows after the wreck late Wednesday, but said a few might still be on the loose.

Some cows died, some fell off the I-220 bridge and at least one was hit by a car.

The wreck happened when a number of cows shifted their weight, police said. A stretch of the interstate was shut down after the wreck.

Quoted from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071115/ap_on_fe_st/odd_loose_cows;_ylt=At_MRJuaPlCb.wONiC6ZyCjtiBIF:

Cows escape from truck in La. wreck - Yahoo! News

Technorati Tags: Animals,Weird

Pot-Bellied Pigs Run Wild on Iowa Street

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — Who wants a pig in a blanket?

Two stray pot-bellied pigs stirred up a commotion Wednesday morning while on the run from two animal control officers, two police officers and even a couple of utility company workers who joined the 35-minute chase.

Learning from her first pig chase, animal control officer Leah Messmer knew to grab a blanket.

"They're tough," she said. "They have no necks, so you really can't get a collar on them."

After a few unsuccessful dives, the pigs were caught as workers at various businesses stuck their heads out in disbelief. Some had cameras.

"They dart in and out of cars, and somebody could get hit," Messmer said. "That's why you have to catch 'em. Poor little buggers."

The pigs will be sent to an animal shelter, Messmer said. She presumed they were pets from someone living in the area.

"They're like dogs," she said. "They tend to go back to familiar places."

Quoted from http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g_12AmhbZSFU4uGmcJqBdLvJdSswD8STTAHO0:

The Associated Press: Pot-Bellied Pigs Run Wild on Iowa Street

Technorati Tags: Animals,Funny,Weird

ADHD Drugs Have No Long Term Benefits

London (ECN) - Ritalin and other drugs used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have no long term effectiveness, according to a new study which will be part of a BBC television special.

A long-term monitoring program involving 600 kids across the United States since the beginning of the 1990s will be shown in a TV program from BBC called 'Panorama' - with some of its results revealed.

Researchers found drugs such as Ritalin and Concerta do work well for short term, but no do offer improvement in a children's behaviour after three years.

The studies co-author from the University of Buffalo Professor William Pelhamsays, says he believes the beneficial impact of medication is exaggerated.

It had been thought that kids would have better outcomes if they were medicated for longer - however, it is not the case, there were no beneficial effects at all.

"I think that we exaggerated the beneficial impact of medication in the first study," Pelham told BBC. "We had thought that children medicated longer would have better outcomes. That didn't happen to be the case. In the short run (medication) will help the child behave better, in the long run it won't. And that information should be made very clear to parents."

The Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD study also found that these drugs may also stunt a child's growth, the BBC reported.

"The children (taking the medication) weren't growing as much as other kids both in terms of their height and in terms of their weight," the studies co-author from the University of Buffalo Professor WilliamPelham told BBC.

Pelham believes that behavioral therapy and Omega-3 should be the first steps in helping a child with ADHD.

 

Quoted from http://www.ecanadanow.com/news/health/adhd-drugs-have-no-long-term-benefits-20071112.html:

eCanadaNow.com - ADHD Drugs Have No Long Term Benefits

Technorati Tags: Health,Sad,Scary

Cat's daily routine baffles owner

A cat is baffling his owner by wandering off at night before expecting to be collected by car every morning at exactly the same time and place.

Sgt Podge, a Norwegian Forest Cat, disappears from his owner's home in Talbot Woods, Bournemouth, every night.

The next morning, the 12-year-old cat can always be found in exactly the same place, on a pavement about one and a half miles (2.4km) away.

His owner, Liz Bullard, takes her son to school before collecting Sgt Podge.

She said the routine began earlier this year, when Sgt Podge disappeared one day.

 

Ms Bullard rang the RSPCA and began telephoning her neighbours to see if anyone had seen him.

An elderly woman who lived about one and a half miles away called back to say she had found a cat matching Sgt Podge's description.

Ms Bullard collected him but within days he vanished again. She rang the elderly woman to find Sgt Podge was back outside her home.

 

She said a routine has now become established, where each morning she takes her son to school before driving to collect Sgt Podge from the pavement between 0800 and 0815 GMT.

It is thought Sgt Podge walks across Meyrick Park Golf Course every night to reach his destination.

Ms Bullard said: "If it's raining he may be in the bush but he comes running if I clap my hands."

All she has to do is open the car passenger door from the inside for Sgt Podge to jump in.

Wandering the streets

Ms Bullard also makes the trip at weekends and during school holidays - when her son is having a lie in.

She does not know why, after 12 years, Sgt Podge has begun the routine but explained that another woman who lived nearby used to feed him sardines, and that he may be on the look-out for more treats.

"As long as you know where they are you don't mind as a cat owner," Ms Bullard said.

"I know where to collect him - as long as he's not wandering the streets."

Back at home, Sgt Podge has breakfast before going to sleep by a warm radiator.

 

 

Quoted from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/dorset/7092301.stm:

BBC NEWS | England | Dorset | Cat's daily routine baffles owner

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Hilton tries to help drunken elephants - Yahoo! News

 

By WASBIR HUSSAIN, Associated Press Writer Tue Nov 13, 12:04 PM ET

GAUHATI, India - With Rwanda off her charity calendar, Paris Hilton has turned her attention to the plight of ... drunken elephants in India.

"The elephants get drunk all the time. It is becoming really dangerous. We need to stop making alcohol available to them," the 26-year-old socialite was quoted as saying by the World Entertainment News Network's Web site.

In the wake of her jail term for an alcohol-related reckless driving case, Hilton is seeking to remake her image from club-hopping party girl to world-traveling do-gooder. She announced plans to do charity work in Rwanda, but the trip was postponed until next year.

Then opportunity for Hilton's "global elephant campaign" knocked last month when six parched pachyderms broke into a farm in the state of Meghalaya and guzzled farmers' homemade rice beer. The elephants went on a rampage, then uprooted an electricity pole and were jolted to death.

"There would have been more casualties if the villagers hadn't chased them away. And four elephants died in a similar way three years ago. It is just so sad," Hilton was quoted as saying in last week in Tokyo, where she was judging a beauty contest.

Sangeeta Goswami, head of animal rights group People for Animals, told The Associated Press: "I am indeed happy Hilton has taken note of recent incidents of wild elephants in northeast India going berserk."

"As part of her global elephant campaign, Hilton should, in fact, think of visiting this region literally infested with elephants," Goswami said.

Hilton's publicist couldn't immediately be reached Tuesday to verify her comments. Another conservationist said elephant alcohol abuse was just a symptom of the real problem. (No, he wasn't talking about celebrities.)

"Elephants appear on human settlements ... because they have no habitat left due to wanton destruction of forests," said Soumyadeep Dutta, who heads Nature's Beckon, a leading regional conservation group. "A celebrity like Hilton must focus her attention on this fact."

Hilton tries to help drunken elephants - Yahoo! News

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Tipster fired from job

By Holly Wagner, WINK News

EE COUNTY, Fla. - Fired for doing the right thing, that's what a Lee County man says happened to him after he turned in one of the county's most wanted fugitives.

"I thought I did the right thing," said Kirk Zahradka.

Newspaper photographs of Crimestoppers most wanted tipped Kirk Zahradka off. "Bunch of us seen the electricians name on it, picture on it," says Zahradka. The man in one of the pictures, Stanley Forcier, was his co-worker. "I called Crimestoppers reported him, got the case number," said Kirk Zahradka. That phone call did them both in. "He got arrested," said Kirk Zahradka. Zahradka got fired the same day. "She (his boss) handed me my paycheck said I was detrimental to the company and I shouldn't have done it like that. Her son said that I just should have keep my nose out of other people's business," said Kirk Zahradka.

Zahradka worked at Advanced Machine Repair off Metro Parkway in Fort Myers for six years. "I've never done anything to the company. She said I was fired. I told just her I can't believe you are firing me over this," said Kirk Zahradka.

He claims his boss knew about his co-workers trouble with the law and claims they even hung up the Crimestoppers photos at his work. WINK News wanted to know how a call to Crimestoppers justified firing someone. His boss, Linda Wright says they had other internal issues with Zahradka. Wright says Zahradka had also been bad mouthing management.

Attorney Dennis Webb who doesn't represent anyone in the story says right or wrong, Florida law can't help. "It's the classic no good deed goes unpunished situation, I don't think these people have any recourse," says Webb.

Now Zahradka is looking for a new job

 

Quoted from http://www.winknews.com/news/local/11214681.html:

Tipster fired from job | WINK News - Southwest Florida | Local & Florida

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Wild thief leaves candy wrapper trail

By Doyle Murphy

November 08, 2007

Vernon, N.J. - A brawny thief smashed through a minivan’s window yesterday, took the vehicle on a short ride and dumped it on the side of the road before fleeing on foot into the woods, township police said.

Police have described the suspect as a black bear.

About 2 a.m., Patrolman David Dehardt noticed the 2004 Mazda minivan parked on the side of the road in the Highland Lakes section of the township.

Dehardt investigated and took detailed notes to describe the crime scene: paw marks on the windshield, bear drool on the cloth interior, claw marks on torn-off door panels, black hair on the seats and countless candy wrappers in and out of the minivan.

Based on his investigation, Dehardt developed a theory. The bear broke the window to steal a bag of Halloween candy and dislodged the parking brake, sending the minivan about 40 feet down a driveway and onto the road.
Dehardt followed a trail of candy wrappers into the woods, but was unable to locate the suspect.

 

Quoted from http://recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071108/NEWS/71107019:

recordonline.com - Wild thief leaves candy wrapper trail

Technorati Tags: Animals,Funny,Weird

Time change bug hits some Alltel phones

Customers saw handset clocks jump forward an hour

updated 10:37 a.m. ET, Mon., Nov. 5, 2007

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Most of the country moved their clocks back one hour when daylight saving time ended Sunday, but some Alltel Corp. customers saw their cellular phone clocks jump forward an hour instead.

Alltel spokesman Andrew Moreau said the glitch affected some customers in Little Rock; Panama City and Tallahassee, Fla.; Charlotte and Raleigh, N.C.; and Richmond, Va.

He said those using phones operating on the carrier's high-speed EVDO wireless network experienced the jump ahead.

Moreau said the problem rested with the switches that handle calls or send new software to the cellular phones. He said workers were still examining the problem.

"We did have a glitch this morning," Moreau said. "It's all repaired."

Cellular towers provide the time to the phones. Moreau said customers likely would see the time correct itself by placing a call or turning their phone off and back on again.

However, some did notice losing an hour on their waning weekend.

"It was obvious somebody made a big boo-boo," said Natalie Lewis of Lumberton, N.C.

Most Americans saw standard time return at 2 a.m. Sunday. Before this year, the end of daylight saving time came a week earlier. A 2005 federal law that sought to save energy by shifting more natural light to the evening hours moved the time change to the first Sunday in November, starting this year.

Moreau said the company did not have a problem earlier this year when daylight saving time started in March, rather than the first weekend in April. Then, some companies reported having trouble with calendar software and other minor computer problems.

Alltel is the nation's fifth-largest cellular phone carrier. The Little Rock-based company has 12 million customers in 35 states.

 

Quoted from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21636806/:

Time change bug hits some Alltel phones - Wireless World - MSNBC.com

Technorati Tags: Business,Cell Phones,Funny

Devices Enforce Silence of Cellphones, Illegally

By MATT RICHTEL Published: November 4, 2007

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 2 — One afternoon in early September, an architect boarded his commuter train and became a cellphone vigilante. He sat down next to a 20-something woman who he said was “blabbing away” into her phone.

“She was using the word ‘like’ all the time. She sounded like a Valley Girl,” said the architect, Andrew, who declined to give his last name because what he did next was illegal.

Andrew reached into his shirt pocket and pushed a button on a black device the size of a cigarette pack. It sent out a powerful radio signal that cut off the chatterer’s cellphone transmission — and any others in a 30-foot radius.

“She kept talking into her phone for about 30 seconds before she realized there was no one listening on the other end,” he said. His reaction when he first discovered he could wield such power? “Oh, holy moly! Deliverance.”

As cellphone use has skyrocketed, making it hard to avoid hearing half a conversation in many public places, a small but growing band of rebels is turning to a blunt countermeasure: the cellphone jammer, a gadget that renders nearby mobile devices impotent.

The technology is not new, but overseas exporters of jammers say demand is rising and they are sending hundreds of them a month into the United States — prompting scrutiny from federal regulators and new concern last week from the cellphone industry. The buyers include owners of cafes and hair salons, hoteliers, public speakers, theater operators, bus drivers and, increasingly, commuters on public transportation.

The development is creating a battle for control of the airspace within earshot. And the damage is collateral. Insensitive talkers impose their racket on the defenseless, while jammers punish not just the offender, but also more discreet chatterers.

“If anything characterizes the 21st century, it’s our inability to restrain ourselves for the benefit of other people,” said James Katz, director of the Center for Mobile Communication Studies at Rutgers University. “The cellphone talker thinks his rights go above that of people around him, and the jammer thinks his are the more important rights.”

The jamming technology works by sending out a radio signal so powerful that phones are overwhelmed and cannot communicate with cell towers. The range varies from several feet to several yards, and the devices cost from $50 to several hundred dollars. Larger models can be left on to create a no-call zone.

Using the jammers is illegal in the United States. The radio frequencies used by cellphone carriers are protected, just like those used by television and radio broadcasters.

The Federal Communication Commission says people who use cellphone jammers could be fined up to $11,000 for a first offense. Its enforcement bureau has prosecuted a handful of American companies for distributing the gadgets — and it also pursues their users.

Investigators from the F.C.C. and Verizon Wireless visited an upscale restaurant in Maryland over the last year, the restaurant owner said. The owner, who declined to be named, said he bought a powerful jammer for $1,000 because he was tired of his employees focusing on their phones rather than customers.

“I told them: put away your phones, put away your phones, put away your phones,” he said. They ignored him.

The owner said the F.C.C. investigator hung around for a week, using special equipment designed to detect jammers. But the owner had turned his off.

The Verizon investigator was similarly unsuccessful. “He went to everyone in town and gave them his number and said if they were having trouble, they should call him right away,” the owner said. He said he has since stopped using the jammer.

Of course, it would be harder to detect the use of smaller battery-operated jammers like those used by disgruntled commuters.

An F.C.C. spokesman, Clyde Ensslin, declined to comment on the issue or the case in Maryland.

Cellphone carriers pay tens of billions of dollars to lease frequencies from the government with an understanding that others will not interfere with their signals. And there are other costs on top of that. Verizon Wireless, for example, spends $6.5 billion a year to build and maintain its network.

“It’s counterintuitive that when the demand is clear and strong from wireless consumers for improved cell coverage, that these kinds of devices are finding a market,” said Jeffrey Nelson, a Verizon spokesman. The carriers also raise a public safety issue: jammers could be used by criminals to stop people from communicating in an emergency.

In evidence of the intensifying debate over the devices, CTIA, the main cellular phone industry association, asked the F.C.C. on Friday to maintain the illegality of jamming and to continue to pursue violators. It said the move was a response to requests by two companies for permission to use jammers in specific situations, like in jails.

Individuals using jammers express some guilt about their sabotage, but some clearly have a prankster side, along with some mean-spirited cellphone schadenfreude. “Just watching those dumb teens at the mall get their calls dropped is worth it. Can you hear me now? NO! Good,” the purchaser of a jammer wrote last month in a review on a Web site called DealExtreme.

Gary, a therapist in Ohio who also declined to give his last name, citing the illegality of the devices, says jamming is necessary to do his job effectively. He runs group therapy sessions for sufferers of eating disorders. In one session, a woman’s confession was rudely interrupted.

“She was talking about sexual abuse,” Gary said. “Someone’s cellphone went off and they carried on a conversation.”

“There’s no etiquette,” he said. “It’s a pandemic.”

Gary said phone calls interrupted therapy all the time, despite a no-phones policy. Four months ago, he paid $200 for a jammer, which he placed surreptitiously on one side of the room. He tells patients that if they are expecting an emergency call, they should give out the front desk’s number. He has not told them about the jammer.

Gary bought his jammer from a Web site based in London called PhoneJammer.com. Victor McCormack, the site’s operator, says he ships roughly 400 jammers a month into the United States, up from 300 a year ago. Orders for holiday gifts, he said, have exceeded 2,000.

Kumaar Thakkar, who lives in Mumbai, India, and sells jammers online, said he exported 20 a month to the United States, twice as many as a year ago. Clients, he said, include owners of cafes and hair salons, and a New York school bus driver named Dan.

“The kids think they are sneaky by hiding low in the seats and using their phones,” Dan wrote in an e-mail message to Mr. Thakkar thanking him for selling the jammer. “Now the kids can’t figure out why their phones don’t work, but can’t ask because they will get in trouble! It’s fun to watch them try to get a signal.”

Andrew, the San Francisco-area architect, said using his jammer was initially fun, and then became a practical way to get some quiet on the train. Now he uses it more judiciously.

“At this point, just knowing I have the power to cut somebody off is satisfaction enough,” he said.

 

Quoted from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/technology/04jammer.html?_r=3&ei=5088&en=e80e8e8d2c6a9275&ex=1351828800&oref=slogin&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=all:

Devices Enforce Silence of Cellphones, Illegally - New York Times

Technorati Tags: Cell Phones,Scary,Sad

Attack Plane Taranis Can Fly Without Pilot

Pilotless Plane Can Launch Own Attacks

By Geoff Meade
Defence correspondent
Updated:09:31, Friday November 02, 2007

 

It sounds like something straight out of a Terminator film script.

Future air battles may be fought by robots with minimum human input.

Attack plane has no pilot

 

The Ministry of Defence is spending £124m developing a prototype of Britain's first unmanned fighter-bomber.

Named Taranis after the Celtic god of thunder, the sinister bat-wing shape will be the size of one of the Red Arrows' Hawk display jets. Its range will be intercontinental.

It can carry bombs, missiles and canon. And, for the first time, it will be capable of shooting down other aircraft.

"This is a machine able to think for itself," said Chris Allam, project director at BAE Systems' top secretworks at Salmesbury, near Preston in Lancashire.

"It's a new generation of UAV (unmanned air vehicles). It won't need a pilot on the ground with a joystick. It will be assigned an area to operate in and then will acquire and track targets autonomously."

The prospect raises obvious fears. What if the deadly machine turned on its creators?

That's science fiction say the designers. "At no time will the machine be able to take the decision to release a weapon. That will always require human authorisation."

Although that may reassure flesh and blood pilots, there is strong lobbying for unmanned aviation.

A conventional fast jet costs £40,000 an hour to operate. Drones can be cheaper and - because no life is at stake - more expendable.

"They're valuable for operations that are dull - such as protracted surveillance - dirty, operating in a contaminated environment or dangerous, where there's heavy anti-aircraft fire," explained aviation writer Jon Lake. "But their sensors are far inferior to a human being's whose eye can take in detail in an instant."

I was the first TV journalist to be allowed inside the factory to see the first metal being cut on the prototype.

The builders are justly proud of a project which restores Britain to the premiership of aerospace innovation. It should fly within two years and could be operational in ten.

The French are developing a similar weapon, whilst America is building a solar-powered plane to stay aloft for a year.

This really could be the rise of the machines.

Quoted from http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-1291122,00.html?f=rss:

Attack Plane Taranis Can Fly Without Pilot |Sky News|UK News

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Device created for 'red wine headache'

By MARCUS WOHLSEN, Associated Press Writer

Thu Nov 1, 11:02 PM ET

BERKELEY, Calif. - The effects are all too familiar: a fancy dinner, some fine wine and then, a few hours later, a racing heart and a pounding headache. But a device developed by University of California, Berkeley, researchers could help avoid the dreaded "red wine headache."

Chemists working with NASA-funded technology designed to find life on Mars have created a device they say can easily detect chemicals that many scientists believe can turn wine and other beloved indulgences into ingredients for agony.

The chemicals, called biogenic amines, occur naturally in a wide variety of aged, pickled and fermented foods prized by gourmet palates, including wine, chocolate, cheese, olives, nuts and cured meats.

"The food you eat is so unbelievably coupled with your body's chemistry," said Richard Mathies, who described his new technology in an article published Thursday in the journal Analytical Chemistry.

Scientists have nominated several culprits for "red wine headache," including amines like tyramine and histamine, though no conclusions have been reached. Still, many specialists warn headache sufferers away from foods rich in amines, which can also trigger sudden episodes of high blood pressure, heart palpitations and elevated adrenaline levels.

The detector could prove useful to those with amine sensitivity, said Beverly McCabe, a clinical dietitian and co-author of "Handbook of Food-Drug Interactions," a book cited by the article for its descriptions of the effects of amines on the brain.

The prototype — the size of a small briefcase — uses a drop of wine to determine amine levels in five minutes, Mathies said. A startup company he co-founded is working to create a smaller device the size of a personal digital assistant that people could take to restaurants and test their favorite wines.

The researchers found the highest amine levels in red wine and sake and the lowest in beer. For now, the device only works with liquids.

Mathies suggests the device could be used to put amine levels on wine labels.

"We're aware of the consumer demand for information. But that has to be tempered by the manner in which wine is made," said Wendell Lee, general counsel for the Wine Institute, a California industry trade group.

   

Quoted from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071102/ap_on_he_me/wine_test;_ylt=AjejD23s7v4PYcUuF9vW9Xus0NUE:

Device created for 'red wine headache' - Yahoo! News

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Beer after sport 'is good for the body'

By Nic Fleming, Science Correspondent

Last Updated: 5:01pmGMT01/11/2007

A beer after playing a game of football, a long run, or a strenuous round of golf can be good for the body, scientists say.
Kevin Pietersen relaxes with a cold beer after a hard game of cricket

In a rare piece of good news for those who like a pint, Spanish researchers say beer can help someone who is dehydrated retain liquid better than water.

Prof Manuel Garzon, of Granada University, also claimed the bubbles in beer help to quench the thirst and that its carbohydrate content can help to replace lost calories.

Prof Garzon asked a group of students to do strenuous exercise in temperatures of around 40ºC (104ºF). Half were given a pint of beer, while the others received the same volume of water.

Prof Garzon, who announced the results at a press conference in Granada beneath a banner declaring "Beer, Sport, Health", said the hydration effect in those who drank beer was "slightly better".

Juan Antonio Corbalan, a cardiologist who worked formerly with Real Madrid football players and Spain's national basketball team, said beer had the perfect profile for re-hydration after sport.

He added that he had long recommended barley drinks to professional sportsmen after exercise.

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Previous studies have shown most alcoholic drinks have a diuretic effect – meaning they increase the amount of liquid lost by the body through urination.

Dr James Betts, an expert on nutrition and metabolism at Bath University, said a moderate amount of beer might be just as good as water at helping the body retain liquid, but that he doubted it could be any better.

Dr Betts said: "If you are dehydrated to start with following exercise, a beer, as opposed to a spirit, probably does not have a high enough concentration of alcohol to induce a diuretic effect."

  

Quoted from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/11/01/scibeer101.xml:

Beer after sport 'is good for the body' - Telegraph

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Tax ruling leaves 150 Raytheon workers out in cold

Pay for Antarctic work not considered by IRS as earned outside US

By Jonathan Berr, Globe Correspondent | October 31, 2007

Meghan Prentiss thought working for Raytheon Co.(RTN) as a meteorologist at McMurdo Station in Antarctica was "like going to the moon for a year." But as far as the IRS is concerned, she never left the state of Massachusetts.

What the 31-year-old Boston resident describes as "the ultimate adventure" seven years ago turned into a painful lesson in tax law. Prentiss is among about 150 people who worked on the frozen continent for the Waltham-based defense contractor who were penalized by the Internal Revenue Service for claiming on their taxes that they were working outside the United States.

Because other federal courts have ruled that Antarctica is a foreign country with regards to tort claims and the Fair Labor Standards Act, the workers believed they were on safe ground claiming the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion, which allows some US citizens who work overseas to exempt as much as $82,400 in income from federal taxes.

But the Tax Court, which handles disputes between the IRS and taxpayers, thought otherwise. In a January ruling that's binding for all the cases, the court said the workers' arguments were "irrelevant or without merit" since they were based on laws other than the tax code, which specifies that foreign countries must have governments recognized by the US government. The US rejects any territorial claims over Antarctica.

"I guess I fought the law and the law won," joked Prentiss, whose case was officially decided this month.

Many Raytheon workers claimed the foreign income deduction for years, according to Dean Klein, who spent 12 seasons at the South Pole. Raytheon took over running the Polar research stations for the National Science Foundation in 2000. The company hires about 1,000 contract workers at the South Pole and employs 400 there full-time, supporting three year-round research stations and two vessels.

"Until Raytheon took over, there was never an issue with the IRS," said Klein, 45, a North Carolina resident who hasn't been hired back by Raytheon since 2005. "I was told that you didn't need to worry."

But a company spokesman, Jonathan Kasle, said workers hired for Antarctica are told during orientation that they can't claim the foreign income exclusion.

Many of the workers who had the tax problems used a Colorado accounting firm run by former IRS official Joyce Zeglin, said Scott Saltzman, a former Raytheon worker from Brockton. At Zeglin's suggestion, they hired a tax attorney together. "The idea was power in numbers," Saltzman said.

It didn't work out that way. Zeglin said she was disappointed with the ruling. Larry Harvey, the Colorado lawyer who represented the workers, said he isn't filing an appeal because chances are slim for prevailing.

The question of who owns Antarctica is unsettled as a matter of international law. New Zealand claims sovereignty over the Ross Dependency, where McMurdo and Palmer Station are located. The United States doesn't recognize New Zealand's claim.

"Not all [New Zealand] law is automatically applied to or exercised in the Ross Dependency," said Lorraine Schofield, a spokeswoman for the New Zealand Embassy in Washington, who said she was unable to determine if tax law was applicable. "It is significant to note, though, that [New Zealand] does not exercise jurisdiction over other national programs in Antarctica, including the US"

Tangling with the IRS has taken its toll on the former polar workers. When she first was notified the agency had questioned her taxes, Prentiss immediately posted a $5,000 bond, which forced her to borrow more than she planned to go to graduate school. Other former Raytheon workers found themselves in worse shape.

Saltzman fell down a flight of stairs at Palmer in 2002, breaking his neck leaving him disabled. He took the same deduction Prentiss did in 2001 and now owes the IRS $12,604.71, which includes $1,665.75 in penalties, and $2,112.93 in interest, which he's paying off in monthly installments of $171. The IRS seized his social security benefits from his bank account and wouldn't release them until he worked out a payment arrangement.

"I got a raw deal," said Saltzman, 43, who lives in Florida part of the year because he can no longer take New England winters. "Now, if I miss a payment they will take my disability away again."

Quoted from http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2007/10/31/tax_ruling_leaves_150_raytheon_workers_out_in_cold/:

Tax ruling leaves 150 Raytheon workers out in cold - The Boston Globe

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