Get Cynical

Ken Lay’s sudden death will scuttle US prosecutors bid to seize $US43.5 million ($A58.75 million) they charged the former chief executive earned through illegal acts at Enron Corp, legal experts said.

“Because of what’s happened to Ken Lay, everything has been extinguished,” said Joel Androphy, a partner at law firm Berg & Androphy who has closely followed the case.

However, claims filed by shareholders against Lay and other senior Enron executives in a civil case can proceed, the lawyers said.

The US Justice Department’s Enron Taskforce filed a motion on Friday asking US District Court Judge Sim Lake to force Lay to pay $US43.5 million ($A58.75 million) and Skilling to pay $US139.3 million ($A188.13 million).

Under precedents set by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, a defendant is not technically ruled guilty until the person has been sentenced and has exhausted the appeals process, lawyers said.

Since Lay died before his sentencing and appeal, the conviction does not stand, and the financial claim by the government will not proceed, they said.

“I think it’s pretty clear the conviction will be abated,” Michael Wynne, a former federal prosecutor now in private practice said.

At the Veterans Memorial Cemetery in the small town of Fernley, Nev., there is a wall of brass plaques for local heroes. But one space is blank. There is no memorial for Sgt. Patrick D. Stewart.

That’s because Stewart was a Wiccan, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has refused to allow a symbol of the Wicca religion — a five-pointed star within a circle, called a pentacle — to be inscribed on U.S. military memorials or grave markers.

The department has approved the symbols of 38 other faiths; about half of are versions of the Christian cross. It also allows the Jewish Star of David, the Muslim crescent, the Buddhist wheel, the Mormon angel, the nine-pointed star of Bahai and something that looks like an atomic symbol for atheists.

Animal Controlled Computer Games is the graduation project from Wim van Eck, a study college and friend of mine. In his project he build a Pacman game, in that the player can play Pacman against real crickets, that controls the ghosts in the Pacman maze. By doing this he analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of real-time behaviour of live animals in comparison to behavior-generating code in computer games.

Christine Chubbuck (also named “Chris Hubbock” by some sources) (August 24, 1944 – July 15, 1974) was a Hudson, Ohio native and an American television news reporter who committed suicide during a live television broadcast.

On July 15, 1974 at 9:38 AM, 8 minutes into her talk show, Suncoast Digest, on WXLT-TV in Sarasota, Florida, she drew out a .38 caliber revolver and shot herself in the head. She died at Sarasota Memorial Hospital 14 hours later.

According to her co-workers working the day of her suicide she took the unusual step of excusing herself to write her script for the newscast. She normally opened her show with an interview and conducted an informal half hour; she never once opened her show with a newscast. She also placed under her desk a bag of puppets that she had occasionally used during a broadcast and also to entertain local children. Hidden in the bag was the revolver. Before her newscast she told the producer that she wanted them to get ready a film of a shooting that happened the weekend before and then she took her seat. After three pieces of news, she led into the shooting piece but without the film because it wouldn’t run correctly. It was here that she delivered her last words:

“In keeping with Channel 40′s policy of bringing you the latest in blood and guts in living color, we bring you another first, an attempted suicide.”

She then shot herself. The technical director reacted quickly enough to cut the on-air video to black a split-second before she pulled the trigger.

listen, I have logged onto your site religiously (forgive the pun!) for about 1 year now… I note that it seems like you have bit of a chip on your shoulder about religion, specifically Christianity… and because I have read hour BLOG for this long, I have discovered that you live in Seattle, WA (I live in Lynnwood, but work in Seattle area as a counselor)

…this might sound kinda weird or freaky but I’d like to meet you and discuss religion and see why you are so hostile… I mean from a political standpoint, it is beneficial for agnostics to have the Christian religion around (beneficially)…

ho hum

I havE all sorts of theories…

oh heck if interested, email me back

Chett

Perhaps nowhere else on earth is the view through that window quite as spectacular as it is in the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu during the time of the Naghol.

This awe inspiring ancient tradition, also known as land diving, is a feat of courage and Stone Age ingenuity that gave birth to modern bungee jumping.

Each year, in conjunction with the yam harvest, giant towers are constructed in the southern villages of Vanuatu’s Pentecost Island. The wooden towers themselves are amazing structures; up to 70 feet tall, each of their joints are lashed together with local vines.

Remarkably, not a single nail or any other piece of manmade building material is used. The resulting tower is disconcertingly flexible and sways in the breeze, but is further supported by an elaborate system of vines anchoring it to a hillside.

Throughout the Naghol ceremony as many as 20 divers, clad only in nambas (traditional woven mats wrapped around the loins) will leap from staggered platforms on the tower with carefully chosen and measured vines tied around their ankles. Precision in preparing the vines is of grave importance. Too short and the diver will swing back into the tower; too long and he will slam into earth in an unchecked freefall.