Giant Shoe
Topic: why others hate the US
Company Marks Centennial With Giant Boot

Feb 8, 8:05 AM (ET)

RED WING, Minn. (AP) - Red Wing Shoes will take a big step with a giant boot next week, when the Minnesota company celebrates its 100th anniversary.

Using ladders, cranes and special rigging, company employees and retirees have built a supersized "638-D" replica of the company's classic workboot No. 877.

The boot stands 16 feet tall and is 20 feet long. It required 80 cowhides, 1,200 feet of rope and 300 pounds of adhesives. The shoelace is 104 feet long. It has been recognized by the Guinness Book of Records as the world's largest shoe.

The boot took more than a year to build. Employees said everything about the massive replica was properly scaled, so if a 12-story-tall man came to town they would have a roughly $100,000, ready-to-wear boot for him.

A Picture Share!
Topic: pictures


And here's how they decorated Jason's desk soon after...

A Picture Share!
Topic: pictures


Here's how they decorated my desk at work one day...

16 lb baby born
Topic: thought provoking
Well aparently the 16 lb baby was born due to the mother having diabetes. But I definitely know of some women who have large babies due to overeating...

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Woman Gives Birth To 16-Pound Baby
Mother's Diabetes May Have Increased Child's Size

POSTED: 1:32 pm EST January 21, 2005

SALVADOR, Brazil -- Doctors at a Brazilian hospital have delivered a boy weighing 16 pounds, 11 ounces. The baby is the fifth child born to a 38-year-old woman.

AP Image
Ademilton dos Santos weighed in at 16 pounds, 11 ounces when he was born.

Doctors say the baby was delivered by Caesarean section Tuesday at a hospital about 900 miles northeast of the city of Sao Paulo.

The baby is the largest born in the hospital's 12-year history.

A hospital spokeswoman said the mother is diabetic and women who suffer from the condition often have large babies.

The woman's other four children ranged in weight from 7 to 11 pounds at birth. But the hospital spokeswoman said the size of this newborn surprised everybody.

14 lb baby born in Oregon
Mood:  not sure
Topic: thought provoking
Something tells me that women in most countries wouldn't be able to feed the baby enough to get him/her this big, let alone give birth to it. You'll notice this baby was born via Caesarean section. I'm sure vaginal birth wouldn't be possible in the case of this large of a baby. Just kind of goes to show just how bad our eating habits have become: it's now leaking into the next generation in utero.

Then again, birth weight doesn't guarantee the size the baby will continue to be into the future. Just look at me...

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Ore. Women Gives Birth to 14 Pound Baby

Feb 3, 8:12 PM (ET)

PRINEVILLE, Ore. (AP) - Jacob Aaron Ryon is the size of a healthy 3-month old. Only problem is, he's less than two weeks old. Jacob weighed 14 pounds and 1 ounce when he was born to Wendy Bullock, 24, on Jan. 21 at Pioneer Memorial Hospital. He measured 24 inches.

"The whole hospital was a buzz," grandmother Aaron Miller said. "He's just a little man."

Jacob, who was delivered by Caesarean section, was so big he busted out of newborn-sized diapers and his one-piece sleepers. A nurse had to run to the store to get him bigger clothes, Miller said.

Jacob is one of the biggest newborns in Central Oregon in recent memory.

Doctors at Mountain View Hospital delivered an 11-pound girl in 2000, administrator Rick Nader said. At St. Charles Medical Center-Bend, a 13-pound baby was likely the largest ever born there, spokesman Todd Sprague said.

Proud mother Bullock, who is 6-feet tall, doesn't mind the extra load.

"I'm just happy he came out healthy and strong and I made it through," she said. "He's perfect."

Last month in northeastern Brazil, a 38-year-old woman gave birth to a 16 pound, 11-ounce baby boy named Ademilton.

Here's a thought...
Topic: thought provoking
I heard on the radio earlier today that a petition has been started to convince Ashley Simpson to stop singing altogether. So far they had gathered over 275,800+ signatures begging her to stop singing...

Then it hit me. It's obvious that her family (and specifically her famous singer sister, Jessica), not her talent, got her foot in the door and got her a record deal.

And then another thought crossed my mind. How much better off our whole world would have been...how much less pain and suffering would exist in this world...if only Simon Cowell was her brother or dad.

* smiles and dreams about what "could have been" *

What does that tell you?
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: ramblings
I happened to notice on the television today that there were three infomercials on, all at the same time, and all selling the same thing: the "Little Giant" ladder. What exactly is the benefit of overloading the few non-cable channels (6, 8 and 54) with the same product?

Steaming pile of cow dung...
Topic: ramblings
As Dr. Ian Malcolm (played by Jeff Goldblum) said in Jurassic Park, "That is one big pile of shit..."

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Massive Manure Fire Burns Into Third Month

Jan 28, 8:15 AM (ET)

By KEVIN O'HANLON

MILFORD, Neb. (AP) - Urban dwellers who enjoy dining on filet mignon at five-star restaurants would probably just as soon not know about David Dickinson's dilemma.

Bad for the appetite, you know.

But Dickinson, who makes his living in the cattle business, has an environmental problem on his hands that is vexing state officials: a 2,000-ton pile of burning cow manure.

Dickinson owns and manages Midwest Feeding Co. about 20 miles west of Lincoln, which takes in as many as 12,000 cows at a time from farmers and ranchers and fattens them for market.

Byproducts from the massive operation resulted in a dung pile measuring 100 feet long, 30 feet high and 50 feet wide that began burning about two months ago and continues to smolder despite Herculean attempts to douse it.

While city folks might have trouble imagining a dung pile of such proportions, they are common sites in rural states.

In July, crews fighting a blaze in a three-acre manure lagoon at a dairy farm in Washington smothered the flames with more of the same - a blanket of wet cow manure.

In December, Montana officials ordered the owner of a horse feedlot to extinguish a large manure fire that sent a stench over a nearby town.

The Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality has informed Dickinson that his smoldering dung pile violates clean-air laws and is working with him to find the best solution to extinguish it, said agency spokesman Rich Webster.

Simply dumping water on the heap is not the answer, Webster said, because of concerns about runoff to any nearby water source.

Dickinson first tried using heavy equipment to spread out the smoldering pile and extinguish the fire.

"But the problem was, it started in another spot," he said. "We've also had the fire department out a couple of times."

And still it burns.

No one is sure how the fire started, but a common theory is that heat from the decomposing manure deep inside the pile eventually ignited the manure.

Wilma Roth, who manages a restaurant along Interstate 80 about a mile north of the feedlot, said her customers have complained about the smoke, which wafts for miles.

"I'd just as soon forget about it," she said.

Dickinson said the smoke is not particularly malodorous - although that comes from a man who works full-time around manure.

"I guess it's just all perspective," he said. "To me, it just smells like smoke. I really don't know how to describe it."

Decades ago, most farmers and ranchers kept their own cows and pigs until they were shipped to market and slaughtered into filet mignon, hamburger, pork chops and bacon.

And with all those animals spread far apart at thousands of farms, it was easier to dispose of the manure.

But huge feedlots - where animals are shipped to fatten on a high-grain diet for their last several months - have become commonplace.

Dickinson has an average of 12,000 animals on hand, each eating about 25 pounds of feed daily, resulting in as much as nine pounds of manure a day per animal - some 54 tons every 24 hours.

Most big feedlots spread the manure over farm fields or compost it to spread later or sell commercially to gardeners.

Farmers in several states are experimenting with using the methane gas from livestock manure to produce electricity. The manure is heated and produces methane gas as it breaks down. The gas is collected and used to power a generator, which sends electricity onto a power grid.

Dickinson acknowledged that while some folks see the humor in his predicament, he takes the fire seriously.

"It's a nuisance, and obviously we are trying to get it resolved," he said. "Everybody's been really patient."

11 killed in suicide attempt gone wrong...
Mood:  sad
I personally don't think he should be given the death penalty. I mean the guy is obviously suicidal and almost ended his own life. To give him the death penalty would make no sense since death is exactly what he wants! For that reason alone he should be forced to live a long long life in prison so he can remember every day what he did. I mean if he is going to get death, they might as well just remove the "suicide watch" from his cell so he can finish what he wanted.

My heart goes out to all of those affected by this. Such a horrible and senseless tragedy. :(

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LA train crash suspect charged with murder

11 killed, two dozen in critical condition

NBC, MSNBC and news services
Updated: 10:41 a.m. ET Jan. 27, 2005

GLENDALE, Calif. - The suicidal man who authorities say caused the chain-reaction train derailment that killed 11 people has been charged with multiple counts of murder and could face the death penalty, the district attorney said Thursday.

Juan Manuel Alvarez, 25, left his sport utility vehicle on a railroad track Wednesday after changing his mind about committing suicide, authorities said. He was held without bail at a hospital's jail ward after apparently slitting his own wrists and stabbing himself in the chest.

Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley said prosecutors filed charges for 10 counts of murder with "special circumstances" of committing murder through a train derailment. Under state law, special circumstances allegations can make a defendant eligible for the death penalty.

Cooley said the complaint would be amended to add another count to refer to the 11th victim, found in the wreckage late Wednesday night.

Alvarez is cooperating in the investigation, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca told NBC News earlier on Thursday.

Eleven bodies have been recovered from the wreckage site. Some 180 people were injured.

Baca said Alvarez went beyond leaving his car at a train crossing, instead driving it off the road and onto a railbed where the vehicle became trapped between two tracks.

Investigators say Alvarez stood by and watched the gruesome collision, which scattered wreckage and bodies over a quarter-mile of track.

'Deranged individual'
"This whole incident was started by a deranged individual that was suicidal," Glendale police Chief Randy Adams said Wednesday. "I think his intent at that time was to take his own life but changed his mind prior to the train actually striking this vehicle."


Alvarez was arrested at the scene shortly after the crash.

The crash was the worst U.S. rail tragedy since March 15, 1999, when an Amtrak train hit a truck and derailed near Bourbonnais, Ill., killing 11 people and injuring more than 100.

"I hope that we're able to assess this in a way that we can figure out: Is there a way that we can stop one crazed individual from creating this kind of carnage?" Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn told reporters.

Two dozen in critical shape
Among the two women and nine men killed was a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy on his way to work. About two dozen people were hospitalized in critical condition.

Alvarez's estranged wife, Carmelita Alvarez, had ordered him out of her home months ago, her family said, and in November she went to court seeking a temporary restraining order keeping him away from herself, their 3-year-old son, her mother, brother and other family members.

"He is using drugs and has been in and out of rehab twice," she said in asking for the restraining order, which was granted Dec. 14. "He threatened to take our kid away and to hurt my family members," she added. "He is planning on selling his vehicle to buy a gun and threatened to use it."

Alvarez, who lived in a converted garage behind her sister's home in suburban Compton, told the court her husband had damaged her family's property and threatened to seek revenge on people he suspected of introducing her to another man. She said his drug use was triggering hallucinations.

She went into seclusion shortly after the crash.

"Whether we make any comment right now depends on my sister," her brother, Ruben Ochoa, told The Associated Press outside the family home on Wednesday. "We're not commenting right now."

The victims of Wednesday's crash included several public employees who worked in or around Los Angeles.

Among them was Los Angeles County sheriff's Deputy James Tutino, 47, whose flag-draped body was saluted by law enforcement officers and firefighters as it was carried from the wreckage.

Metrolink, the Southern California commuter rail service that operates the train tracks, said it was the worst accident in its 13-year history.

Metrolink chief executive David Solow said the severity of the wreck was due to the car having been wedged tightly into the tracks, creating an "immovable object."

'The train tilted'
The force of the collision hurled passengers down the trains' aisles.

"It's like we went from 55 to 60 (mph) to zero in two seconds flat," one injured man told reporters.

"I heard a noise. It got louder and louder," said passenger Diane Brady, 56, of Simi Valley. "And next thing I knew the train tilted, everyone was screaming and I held onto a pole for dear life. I held on for what seemed like a week and a half it seemed. It was a complete nightmare."

First on the scene were workers at a Costco store next to the tracks. They helped take some of the injured away in shopping carts. Uninjured passengers also joined the rescue effort. As a light rain fell, more than 300 firefighters climbed ladders into windows of battered train cars to rescue scores of injured.

Costco employee Hugo Moran said an elderly man covered in blood and soot and with apparent broken arms and legs was pulled out of the wreckage but died soon after. Before he died, he thanked his rescuers and asked them to pray for him.

Another trapped man had used his own blood to write a note on a seat bottom. Using the heart symbol, he wrote "I love my kids" and "I love Leslie."

The man's identity wasn't known, but Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Capt. Rex Vilaubi said he was removed from the wreckage alive.

The commuter trains also struck a parked freight train, sparking a brief fire.

Costco employee Jenny Doll said trapped passengers -- some severely injured -- screamed for help as flames raced toward the front of a train car and smoke and diesel fumes filled the air. Forklift operators, truck drivers and stock clerks worked side-by-side to pull victims out, using store shopping carts to wheel some of the most severely injured to safety.

"There were people stuck in the front. Everything was mangled," Doll said. "You could not even tell that it was a train cab at all."

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Crazy people...
Mood:  irritated
Topic: people who need help
One can only hope that she had "drug use" as an excuse for this much stupidity...

Lindsay Blackledge mugshot

Meet Lindsey Blackledge. The 19-year-old California gal was arrested in July 2002 for possession of a stolen, 14-ounce tri-tip steak. According to the Calaveras County sheriff, the beef was swiped from the outdoor grill of Katherine King, a 38-year-old San Andreas woman who called cops after discovering her meat was missing. When police arrived at the crime scene, they discovered a trail of "meat juice" leading from King's grill to an upstairs apartment. Inside the apartment, investigators followed the meat drippings to a bathroom, where they found the purloined sirloin hidden in a cabinet below the sink. Blackledge--who was found in the apartment--was charged with a felony.

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