This and That | Ain't Complicated

Yesterday’s News

I saw three stories last night.

Central Oregon man stuns cheesemaking world at contest

A Brazilian-born cheese maker who traced an unlikely path from Silicon Valley to a former pumice mine near Bend just captured one of the most prestigious prizes in his profession.

Flavio DeCastilhos’ flagship goat cheese finished second in the 2009 U.S. Championship Cheese Contest, considered the Academy Awards for U.S. cheese makers.

By all accounts, the accomplishment is extraordinary.

Astronomers catch a shooting star for 1st time

For the first time scientists matched a meteorite found on Earth with a specific asteroid that became a fireball plunging through the sky. It gives them a glimpse into the past when planets formed and an idea how to avoid a future asteroid Armageddon.

Last October, astronomers tracked a small non-threatening asteroid heading toward Earth before it became a “shooting star,” something they had not done before. It blew up in the sky and scientists thought there would be no space rocks left to examine.

But a painstaking search by dozens of students through the remote Sudan desert came up with 8.7 pounds of black jagged rocks, leftovers from the asteroid 2008 TC3. And those dark rocks were full of surprises and minuscule diamonds, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Nature.

Headline correction: They found it.

How nice that they can look into the past. 😆

U.S. to blame for much of Mexican drug violence

“Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade. Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals causes the death of police officers, soldiers and civilians,” Clinton told reporters during her flight to Mexico City.

Obviously she didn’t read (yet?) this or this.

Oh well.

Missing Venezuela Missionaries

Here’s the March 13 story from the Huntsville Times:

Aegis joins search for missionary family’s plane

A Huntsville company specializing in the enhancement of satellite imagery has joined efforts to find a missing Jackson County pilot, his wife and five other people whose plane apparently crashed in a Venezuelan jungle last month while on a missionary trip.

Aegis Technologies is working with Colorado-based DigitalGlobal, an operator of high-resolution, earth-imaging satellites, to photograph the dense jungle terrain where the plane was last seen in the hope of finding any wreckage.

[…]

Edwards said he believes Norton and his passengers could still be alive.

“He’s an incredible pilot,” he said. “If anyone could stick a landing in that type of terrain, he could.”

If they were able to survive the crash, he said, they would have a difficult time finding their way out of the dense jungle. But Edwards said they would have plenty of water, and the natives would probably provide them with food.

Read it all

Got Salicornia?

Mother Jones tells us about The Saline Solution:

In the mid-’80s, an atmospheric physicist named Carl N. Hodges predicted that the key to saving the planet was to make the desert bloom—with a spindly saltwater plant known as salicornia, a.k.a. sea asparagus. The idea languished for years, but now scientists, investors, and even celebrities are lining up behind the 71-year-old’s vision for feeding the planet, fueling our cars, and reversing rising sea levels.

Salicornia, eh?

Well, I’m not an asparagus aficionado, although my wife makes a good asparagus and boiled egg concoction.

But sea asparagus cookies? No, I don’t think so.

Read it all

Montenegro: Still LAPD MW?

Los Angeles Police Department: Most Wanted: Fermin Omar Montenegro

Still most wanted by LAPD?

I was surprised to see the LAPD’s page for Fermin Omar Montenegro still unchanged since I first saw it back in early December and posted about it here.

It is my understanding that almost three months ago, Montenegro met in Nicaragua with Detective McKnight. In fact, here is a photo that a reliable witness claims to have taken of them at the end of their meeting:

I don’t know McKnight. I don’t know Montenegro. I’ve never met either of them. But I’m curious about what Montenegro’s official status is with the LAPD.

PS: I went to Interpol’s site but didn’t learn anything there either.

Heads Up

So…what’s in the headlines this morning?

An Urgent Message from David Wilkerson

AN EARTH-SHATTERING CALAMITY IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN. IT IS GOING TO BE SO FRIGHTENING, WE ARE ALL GOING TO TREMBLE – EVEN THE GODLIEST AMONG US.

More Americans say they have no religion

A wide-ranging study on American religious life found that the Roman Catholic population has been shifting out o of the Northeast to the Southwest, the percentage of Christians in the nation has declined and more people say they have no religion at all.

Wikipedia scrubs Obama eligibility

Wikipedia, the online “free encyclopedia” mega-site written and edited entirely by its users, has been deleting within minutes any mention of eligibility issues surrounding Barack Obama’s presidency, with administrators kicking off anyone who writes about the subject….

World Bank offers dire forecast for world economy

In a bleaker assessment than those of most private forecasters, the World Bank predicted Sunday that the global economy would shrink in 2009 for the first time since World War II.

China’s Navy expansion “no threat to others”

China’s plans to add aircraft carriers to its fleet and an historic long-distance mission by its navy are aimed only at protecting the country and its trade interests….

“Iran crossed nuclear tech threshold”

In a chilling indication that Iran’s arms program is advancing steadily, Israel acknowledged for the first time that Teheran had mastered the technology to make a nuclear bomb on the same day that the Iranians announced they had successfully tested a new air-to-surface missile.

Syria: Peace With Israel Possible

Syria President Bashar al-Assad said in an interview published on Monday that a peace deal with Israel was possible but that normal relations would only be possible if Israel ended its conflict with the Palestinians.

There. I don’t know how long that took. But it was quite a while. It would have been faster, but I did it between other computer and online projects. It’s much more efficient for me that way.

Now, make it a good day.

Repeat Customer

As I scanned the email orders, my scan jolted to a stop. The email address was familiar. So was the last name. I opened the order and confirmed it is the same person.

Last year the customer ordered and paid for 24 CDs.

After a series of emails and phone calls, the customer ended up with 12 duplicate CDs from us.

And I ended up convinced we’d been lied to and defrauded.

By someone claiming to be “Reverend.”

Now we have another order.

And the payment for it.

I’m planning to refund the payment and cancel the order, explaining that I just can’t take the risk.

What would you do with the rev’s order?

Would you do further business with her?

Mexican Army: Wish Them Well

The UK Mail Online reports:

Thousands of Mexican soldiers pour into the country’s most violent city in crackdown on drug gangs

Armed to the hilt, they came from land and air, determined to restore order to Mexico’s most violent city.

Nearly 2,000 Mexican soldiers and armed federal police poured into the border town of Ciudad Juarez last weekend.

The city – just across from El Paso in Texas – has been ravaged by drug gangs. Just this month 250 people were killed there by hitmen fighting for lucrative smuggling routes.

The soldiers’ mandate is clear – and ambitious.

‘This is to reinforce the operation in general … to eradicate kidnappings, extortion, assaults and homicide,’ army spokesman Enrique Torres said.

The soldiers are the first contingent of as many as 5,000 troops and federal police being sent to Juarez.

President Felipe Calderon’s military operation is supported by the United States, which is concerned the violence could destabilize Mexico, a key trading partner, and spill over the border.

Mexico has deployed some 45,000 troops across the country to try to crush drug gangs, but clashes between rival cartels and security forces killed around 6,000 people last year.

Read it all