Tuesday, November 30, 2004
Thursday, November 25, 2004
Wednesday, November 24, 2004
Village Has No Crime
By Sutapa Mukerjee in Seemahi-Kari-Raat, Uttar Pradesh
Calamity befalls homes that build doors, villagers say.
The lives and property of people in the tiny northern Indian village of Seemahi-Kari-Raat are well protected by the spirit of the ancient saint Sheo Baba. They have to be. Legend has it that he did not approve of doors.
So none of the 75 houses in the village, close to the temple town of Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh state, has one. The most people do for privacy is to hang thick curtains in the doorways, but robberies have been unheard of for a century.
There has never been a case of robbery in our village Villager Lal Mani Tewari Lal Mani Tewari, a villager in his 80s, says: "Whenever someone made an attempt at building doors, some calamity befell them. "It was through such coincidences that we realised the holy man did not approve of doors."
Baba's wish
In the centre of the village, chief priest Triloki Nath Goswami explains the legend of the patron saint. "It is believed that hundreds of years ago, there lived a saint, Sheo Baba. He took to rigorous penance and sat meditating for days.
"He died while meditating. This banyan tree sprung exactly where he breathed his last. We all believe his spirit still remains in this tree."
The legend says Sheo Baba decreed that no house could be built without some bricks being first offered at his temple and no door should be constructed in any of the houses.
Krishnacharya Triparthi, a resident of the village, said part of his house came down again and again during construction.
The temple at the banyan tree, said to hold Sheo Baba's spirit"I was then advised by villagers to offer some bricks here under the holy tree. Everything went off smoothly after that.
"But of course, even I have not constructed any doors, because that is Baba's wish."
Lal Mani Tewari says: "A great soul is always a kind soul. Ask any of the residents, there has never been a case of robbery in our village, so well-protected are the villagers by the spirit of Sheo Baba.
"How else can one explain how this village has remained like a crime-free oasis in an otherwise crime-ridden state like Uttar Pradesh?"
Head of the local Akbarpur police station, Gorakh Nath Singh, checks documents back to 1906 to back up the claim: "Look at all our books. As old as they are, not a single case of robbery from Seemahi-Kari-Raat has been registered."
By Sutapa Mukerjee in Seemahi-Kari-Raat, Uttar Pradesh
Calamity befalls homes that build doors, villagers say.
The lives and property of people in the tiny northern Indian village of Seemahi-Kari-Raat are well protected by the spirit of the ancient saint Sheo Baba. They have to be. Legend has it that he did not approve of doors.
So none of the 75 houses in the village, close to the temple town of Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh state, has one. The most people do for privacy is to hang thick curtains in the doorways, but robberies have been unheard of for a century.
There has never been a case of robbery in our village Villager Lal Mani Tewari Lal Mani Tewari, a villager in his 80s, says: "Whenever someone made an attempt at building doors, some calamity befell them. "It was through such coincidences that we realised the holy man did not approve of doors."
Baba's wish
In the centre of the village, chief priest Triloki Nath Goswami explains the legend of the patron saint. "It is believed that hundreds of years ago, there lived a saint, Sheo Baba. He took to rigorous penance and sat meditating for days.
"He died while meditating. This banyan tree sprung exactly where he breathed his last. We all believe his spirit still remains in this tree."
The legend says Sheo Baba decreed that no house could be built without some bricks being first offered at his temple and no door should be constructed in any of the houses.
Krishnacharya Triparthi, a resident of the village, said part of his house came down again and again during construction.
The temple at the banyan tree, said to hold Sheo Baba's spirit"I was then advised by villagers to offer some bricks here under the holy tree. Everything went off smoothly after that.
"But of course, even I have not constructed any doors, because that is Baba's wish."
Lal Mani Tewari says: "A great soul is always a kind soul. Ask any of the residents, there has never been a case of robbery in our village, so well-protected are the villagers by the spirit of Sheo Baba.
"How else can one explain how this village has remained like a crime-free oasis in an otherwise crime-ridden state like Uttar Pradesh?"
Head of the local Akbarpur police station, Gorakh Nath Singh, checks documents back to 1906 to back up the claim: "Look at all our books. As old as they are, not a single case of robbery from Seemahi-Kari-Raat has been registered."
Monday, November 22, 2004
"When you're hunting you don't expect somebody to try to shoot you and murder you,"
5 Killed, 3 Injured in Wis. Hunting Dispute
The Associated PressMonday, November 22, 2004; 11:04 AM
BIRCHWOOD, Wis. -- A deer hunter killed five people and wounded three more in a dispute over a hunting platform on private property during the opening weekend of deer season, authorities said.
A 36-year-old man was arrested Sunday afternoon when he came out of the woods, sheriff's officials said.
Deputy Jake Hodgkinson identified the suspect as Chai Vang but would give no details. Vang is from St. Paul, Minn., said Paul Schnell, a spokesman for the St. Paul police department.
The shooting started when two hunters returning to their rural cabin on private land saw the suspect in one of their hunting platforms in a tree, Sawyer County Chief Deputy Tim Zeigle said. Hunters often build platforms in trees in order to be able to view prey and shoot from a high angle.
Both of those hunters were wounded and one of them radioed friends at the cabin a quarter-mile away. Other members of their group responded and they also were shot, he said.
"It's absolutely nuts. Why? Over sitting in a tree stand?" asked Zeigle.
Zeigle said the suspect was "chasing after them and killing them," with a SKS 7.62 mm semiautomatic rifle, a common hunting weapon. Wisconsin's statewide deer gun hunting season started Saturday and lasts for nine days.
About 20 shots were fired but it was unclear if any of the hunters had fired at the suspect or who might have shot first, Zeigle said. There was just one gun among the eight people killed or wounded, he said.
The dead included a a teenage boy and a woman, and a father and son, Zeigle said. Some of the victims were shot more than once. All five were from the Rice Lake area, about 15 miles southwest of Birchwood in the northwestern part of the state, he said.
Authorities found two bodies near each other and the others were scattered over 100 yards.
The suspect, who did not have a compass, got lost in the woods and two other hunters who didn't know about the shootings helped him find his way out, Zeigle said.
The man was arrested when he emerged from the woods and a Department of Natural Resources officer recognized the deer license on his back from a description given by one of the shooting victims, Zeigle said.
The man was out of ammunition, he said.
One of the injured hunters was in critical condition at St. Joseph's Hospital. Another was listed in serious condition and the third was in fair condition, both at Lakeview Medical Center.
Hunter Bill Wagner, 72, of Oshkosh, was about two miles away near Deer Lake with a party of about 20 other hunters when they heard sirens, planes and helicopters and discovered roads in the area had been barricaded.
"When you're hunting you don't expect somebody to try to shoot you and murder you," Wagner said. "You have no idea who is coming up to you."
"We're all old, dyed-in-wool hunters," he said. "We wouldn't go home because of this, but we will keep it in our minds. We're not forgetting it."
5 Killed, 3 Injured in Wis. Hunting Dispute
The Associated PressMonday, November 22, 2004; 11:04 AM
BIRCHWOOD, Wis. -- A deer hunter killed five people and wounded three more in a dispute over a hunting platform on private property during the opening weekend of deer season, authorities said.
A 36-year-old man was arrested Sunday afternoon when he came out of the woods, sheriff's officials said.
Deputy Jake Hodgkinson identified the suspect as Chai Vang but would give no details. Vang is from St. Paul, Minn., said Paul Schnell, a spokesman for the St. Paul police department.
The shooting started when two hunters returning to their rural cabin on private land saw the suspect in one of their hunting platforms in a tree, Sawyer County Chief Deputy Tim Zeigle said. Hunters often build platforms in trees in order to be able to view prey and shoot from a high angle.
Both of those hunters were wounded and one of them radioed friends at the cabin a quarter-mile away. Other members of their group responded and they also were shot, he said.
"It's absolutely nuts. Why? Over sitting in a tree stand?" asked Zeigle.
Zeigle said the suspect was "chasing after them and killing them," with a SKS 7.62 mm semiautomatic rifle, a common hunting weapon. Wisconsin's statewide deer gun hunting season started Saturday and lasts for nine days.
About 20 shots were fired but it was unclear if any of the hunters had fired at the suspect or who might have shot first, Zeigle said. There was just one gun among the eight people killed or wounded, he said.
The dead included a a teenage boy and a woman, and a father and son, Zeigle said. Some of the victims were shot more than once. All five were from the Rice Lake area, about 15 miles southwest of Birchwood in the northwestern part of the state, he said.
Authorities found two bodies near each other and the others were scattered over 100 yards.
The suspect, who did not have a compass, got lost in the woods and two other hunters who didn't know about the shootings helped him find his way out, Zeigle said.
The man was arrested when he emerged from the woods and a Department of Natural Resources officer recognized the deer license on his back from a description given by one of the shooting victims, Zeigle said.
The man was out of ammunition, he said.
One of the injured hunters was in critical condition at St. Joseph's Hospital. Another was listed in serious condition and the third was in fair condition, both at Lakeview Medical Center.
Hunter Bill Wagner, 72, of Oshkosh, was about two miles away near Deer Lake with a party of about 20 other hunters when they heard sirens, planes and helicopters and discovered roads in the area had been barricaded.
"When you're hunting you don't expect somebody to try to shoot you and murder you," Wagner said. "You have no idea who is coming up to you."
"We're all old, dyed-in-wool hunters," he said. "We wouldn't go home because of this, but we will keep it in our minds. We're not forgetting it."
Wednesday, November 17, 2004
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
Sunday, November 07, 2004
10 X 10: 100 WORDS AND PICTURES THAT DEFINE THE TIMEEvery hour, 10x10 scans the RSS feeds of several leading international news sources, and performs an elaborate process of weighted linguistic analysis on the text contained in their top news stories. After this process, conclusions are automatically drawn about the hour's most important words.The top 100 words are chosen, along with 100 corresponding images, culled from the source news stories. At the end of each day, month, and year, 10x10 looks back through its archives to conclude the top 100 words for the given time period. In this way, a constantly evolving record of our world is formed, based on prominent world events, without any human input.
via presurfer
via presurfer
Wednesday, November 03, 2004
"WWADRD?
Dear Friends:
If the shoe was on the other foot, What Would a Dumbass Republican Do?
Get depressed?
Get down?
Feel defeated?
Go away?
Refrain from being an obnoxious pain in the ass, 24/7?
Temper his sense of righteous entitlement?
Mute his howls of indignation?
Question his convictions?
Hell, no!
Here's what a Dumbass Republican would do:
Act like a winner in a world full of deluded losers.
Refuse to let the "facts on the ground" deter his belief in what he's got coming.
Drown out polite civil discourse by braying his unshaken beliefs like a stuck pig.
Refuse to shut the fuck up.
Refuse to go away.
Wrap himself in the flag and impugn the patriotism of any who would question his moral superiority.
Wear a big shit-eating grin that gives the other side just a moment of pause as they lay their heads on their pillows at night.
Have a glint in his eye that says, "I may have a shit-eating grin on my face, but I'm just waiting for an opportunity to slip this knife in."
See this not as a defeat, but as an inconvenient mistake.
Friends, join me.
Do not accept.
Do not waver.
Do not shut up.
Do not give comfort with your distress.
Be an unrelenting irritant.
Be a dumbass.
Right now, attitude is everything.
Together, we can help each other bear the present while shortening the time - and it will come - when we prevail."
via boingboing
Dear Friends:
If the shoe was on the other foot, What Would a Dumbass Republican Do?
Get depressed?
Get down?
Feel defeated?
Go away?
Refrain from being an obnoxious pain in the ass, 24/7?
Temper his sense of righteous entitlement?
Mute his howls of indignation?
Question his convictions?
Hell, no!
Here's what a Dumbass Republican would do:
Act like a winner in a world full of deluded losers.
Refuse to let the "facts on the ground" deter his belief in what he's got coming.
Drown out polite civil discourse by braying his unshaken beliefs like a stuck pig.
Refuse to shut the fuck up.
Refuse to go away.
Wrap himself in the flag and impugn the patriotism of any who would question his moral superiority.
Wear a big shit-eating grin that gives the other side just a moment of pause as they lay their heads on their pillows at night.
Have a glint in his eye that says, "I may have a shit-eating grin on my face, but I'm just waiting for an opportunity to slip this knife in."
See this not as a defeat, but as an inconvenient mistake.
Friends, join me.
Do not accept.
Do not waver.
Do not shut up.
Do not give comfort with your distress.
Be an unrelenting irritant.
Be a dumbass.
Right now, attitude is everything.
Together, we can help each other bear the present while shortening the time - and it will come - when we prevail."
via boingboing
