Eideard

Surely, you don’t think Patrick Waller is one of the white guys in the photo!

A Texas man who spent more than 15 years in prison after being wrongly convicted of kidnapping and robbery raised both arms skyward and collapsed in his mother’s embrace after being told he was a free man.

Patrick Waller’s sobs were the only sound at a crowded hearing attended by four other inmates also exonerated by DNA testing.

“It’s all right, honey,” Patricia Cunningham told her son. “It’s over. You’re out of here. You’re going home.”

Waller had been behind bars since 1992 for aggravated robbery and aggravated kidnapping stemming from the abduction of a Dallas couple. He was proved innocent by DNA testing late last year.

Waller is the 19th man in Dallas County since 2001 shown by DNA evidence to be innocent of the crime for which he was convicted. That’s more than any county in the nation, according to The Innocence Project in New York, a legal center specializing in wrongful-conviction cases.

The voters of Texas obviously care about justice as much as they care about any other aspect of truth and honesty in governance. They’d probably re-elect George W. Bush as governor, given the chance.

They may crunch like a crisp and taste like a crisp, but Pringles are now officially closer to a cake than a potato snack.

This was the bizarre ruling handed down by a High Court judge, who found that the popular snack was not a crisp.

Judge Justice Warren said Pringles’ “unnatural shape”, distinctive tube packaging, and non-potato ingredients meant that the snack could not be classified as a crisp.

The result is a victory for Pringles’ manufacturer Procter & Gamble, which has fought a long-running battle against the taxman, arguing the snack should be free from VAT.

The ruling yesterday pointed out that Pringles – contain corn flour, wheat starch, maltodextrin, emulsifier, rice flour and dextrose, and just 42 per cent potato content.

A truly American product. Get the look and feel right. Get the sound and texture appealing.

Thanks, K B

Michael A just returned from its trial run moving cargo between Germany, South America and North America. Reporters for German Journal on DW-TV said the vessel saved about 15% from normal fuel consumption.

Fellow editor at Dvorak Uncensored, SmartAlix, posted an early discussion of the system here.

Dig right in, folks!

Officials investigating the salmonella outbreak now are looking at jalapeño peppers as a leading suspect for spreading the bacteria that has sickened hundreds across the U.S. over the past three months…

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention initially blamed tomatoes. That led to industry losses of hundreds of millions of dollars, according to the National Restaurant Association, as consumers cut down on consumption and restaurants pulled them from menus.

But as the disease continued to spread, the investigation turned to other foods commonly eaten with tomatoes, in particular to other ingredients used to make salsa. Besides jalapeño peppers, officials are looking at cilantro and Serrano peppers.

The search for the cause of an outbreak that has affected nearly 1,000 people since April 10 has centered on salsa because many of the victims had eaten some. The government is concentrating on fresh salsa prepared at certain restaurants, not processed and canned salsa. Officials continue to decline to name the restaurants…

The CDC is focusing on 29 “clusters” of illnesses, Mr. Nowak said. A cluster is created when two or more people become sick within a 10-day period after eating at the same restaurant. Most of the restaurants serve Mexican food, and most of them are not chains.

For three months the bureaucrats in charge of the FDA have focused on avoiding negative comments about restaurants, distributors, Mexican farmers. Just about anyone with an organization representing their business has had their butt politely kissed – while American consumers continued to fall ill with Salmonella poisoning.

I’ve said it before – the FDA is the FEMA of food! They are chartered to protect the food chain that we rely upon for health and nourishment. The politicians at the top turned their back on that mandate a long, long time ago.

Two schoolboys were allegedly disciplined after refusing to kneel down and “pray to Allah” during a religious education lesson.

A spokesman for Cheshire County Council said ‘Educating children in the beliefs of different faiths is part of Cheshire’s diversity curriculum’

It was claimed that the boys, from a year seven class of 11 and 12-year-olds, were given detention after refusing to take part in a practical demonstration of how Allah is worshipped.

Yesterday parents accused the school of breaching their human rights by forcing them to take part in the exercise.

One, Sharon Luinen, said: “This isn’t right, it’s taking things too far. I understand that they have to learn about other religions. I can live with that but it is taking it a step too far to be punished because they wouldn’t join in Muslim prayer.

“Making them pray to Allah, who isn’t who they worship, is wrong and what got me is that they were told they were being disrespectful.”

There are significant, simple differences between understanding diverse cultures and requiring young minds to practice all the silly devices human beings get up to in the name of religion. Sounds like the school cares more for indoctrination rather than building understanding.

Thanks, K B

The final mystery of 9/11 will soon be solved, according to US experts investigating the collapse of the third tower at the World Trade Center.

The 47-storey third tower, known as Tower Seven, collapsed seven hours after the twin towers.

Investigators are expected to say ordinary fires on several different floors caused the collapse…

The National Institute of Standards and Technology, based near Washington DC, is expected to conclude in its long-awaited report this month that ordinary fires caused the building to collapse.

“We’ve been at this for a little over two years and doing a two or two and a half year investigation is not at all unusual. That’s the same kind of time frame that takes place when we do aeroplane crash investigations, it takes a few years.”

This should keep conspiracy sites in business for another decade or so.

Fairly detailed article; but, the real fun doesn’t start till the whole report is released.

A recording of this emergency call has been released as part of a police campaign asking people to use 999 appropriately:

Control Room: “South Wales Police, what’s your emergency?”
Caller: “It’s not really. I just need to inform you that across the mountain there’s a bright stationary object.”
Control room: “Right.”
Caller: “If you’ve got a couple of minutes perhaps you could find out what it is? It’s been there at least half an hour and it’s still there.”
Control: “It’s been there for half an hour. Right. Is it actually on the mountain or in the sky?”
Caller: “It’s in the air.”
Control: “I will send someone up there now to check it out.”
Caller: “OK.”

The mystery was soon solved, as the exchange between control and an officer at the scene, makes clear:

Control: “Alpha Zulu 20, this object in the sky, did anyone have a look at it?”
Officer: “Yes, it’s the moon. Over.”

I would never survive a gig like emergency despatch. Too willing to tell people the truth, too likely to respond by pointing out they just may be a stupid git!