- Way to be, Federal Way (Wash.) City Council. When
going toe to toe with a 12-year-old girl who wants nothing more than to keep
her beloved pet, your only option is to quash those hopes and crush her spirit
in a very public fashion. That’s what the council elected to do when faced with
Ava Anissipour’s request to keep a pygmy goat as a household pet. Anissipour
and her two goats became a story in July when her family was cited by the
city’s animal services after neighbors complained about the odor and the noise
that the two goats generated. Because of a legal loophole that allows
homeowners to have one creature designated as a service animal on their
property, one of the goats was allowed to stay. However, city code also
classifies goats as large domestic animals that require a minimum property size
of 70,000 square feet. That made the second goat a code violation that had to
go. Anissipour and her parents tried every legal avenue to keep both of their
beasts of burden, but the council declined a motion for the city’s planning
commission to pursue a code revision that would allow Ava to keep her goat by a
resounding 6-1 margin. Each of the six council members who voted no deserve an
immense amount of credit for listening to an emotional plea from a 12-year-old
girl who implored them to allow each of her goats to “stay under one roof” and
tell her to go the hell away and shut up. Anissipour’s weak arguments included
the ridiculous claims that pygmy goats are herd animals who need to live in
pairs and that these filthy creatures behave and smell better than most dogs.
The council disagreed and voted to leave the city code unchanged. “The
neighbors have a right to enjoy their homes that they have bought and paid for…
and not smell the terrible and offensive odor,” councilwoman Dini Duclos said.
Well spoken, Dini………
- And the search goes on. The living members of Queen cannot
find the right actor to play the leading role in their long-planned biopic of Freddie Mercury,
but they have at least identified their next target. Whether they know it or
not, Roger Taylor and his bandmates dodged a major scud this summer after Sacha Baron Cohen pulled out of the
project, reportedly because he and Queen, who have script and director
approval, were unable to agree on the type of movie they wanted to make. "We
felt Sacha probably wasn't right in the end. We didn't want it to be a joke. We
want people to be moved," Taylor said. The next rumored frontrunner for
the role was “Harry Potter”
star Daniel Radcliffe, who
quickly denied rumors he could play Mercury, saying, "I am completely
wrong for that part." Whether Radcliffe was ever in the running or not,
Queen seem to have moved on and during a recent interview, Taylor said the actor
Queen have in mind for the role has the initials BW. BW, it turns out, is
“Skyfall” actor Ben Whishaw. Whishaw
didn’t exactly scream “charismatic rock frontman” in his role as the new Q in
the latest James Bond movie, but Taylor and Co. seems to believe that he can
ditch the horn-rimmed glasses, sweater vests and tech-savvy ways and travel
back in time a few decades to play the flamboyant Mercury. This casting talk is
the latest counterpoint to screenwriter Peter Morgan saying last month that the
biopic is "probably not going to happen" following Baron Cohen's
exit. Producer Graham King countered by insisting that the project is
"still very much alive.” Alive or not, it still needs a leading man and
Whishaw seems to have the role if he wants it………
- Something smells fishy in the Maldives….and it’s not just
all of the fish on the nation of 1,200 islands scattered in the Indian Ocean, southwest of
Sri Lanka. The fish do smell, but not as much as police blocking officials from
conducting a scheduled re-run Saturday of September's presidential election.
The decision sparked immediate condemnation from the international community,
but a police spokesman says the vote was stopped because election officials
failed to comply with a court order that required all candidates to approve a
list of voters' names. Maldives Elections Commissioner Fuwad Thowfeek boldly
attempted to hold the election as scheduled, but police surrounded the
commission's offices early Saturday and stopped Thowfeek’s staff from
distributing election materials. India was among the countries that expressed
concern over the situation and its External Affairs Ministry urged the
Maldivian government and all other parties involved to assist election
officials in holding a presidential vote "without further delay." All
of this drama stems from a September decision by the Maldives Supreme Court to
annul the results of a Sept. 7 presidential election, citing irregularities
that no international observers seemed to see. So far, only former president
Mohamed Nasheed, who was ousted in disputed circumstances in February 2012, has
approved the electoral list. Two other candidates refused to sign the list
until it is verified to avoid any irregularities. Oh, and don’t forget about businessman
Gasim Ibrahim, who launched the legal challenge to the first round after
finishing in third place and was able to re-enter the fray thanks to the
annulment. Maldives has about three weeks before current president Mohamed
Waheed Hassan’s term ends, so it should probably clear all of this up soon……..
- Is there class and character in soccer? Maybe, right
alongside the flopping, diving, faking, softness and ridiculous goal
celebrations. Just don’t expect to find it in Mexico, according to U.S. soccer
star Landon Donovan. Donovan, who did not play in Tuesday’s World Cup qualifying
game against Panama because the U.S. had already clinched its spot in Brazil
and didn’t need to win, was asked about the ramifications of the Americans’
comeback win on the rest of the group. By scoring two goals in stoppage time,
the Americans not only won the game, but also eliminated Panama from World Cup
contention and allowed Mexico to finish fourth in its qualifying group, thus
earning a spot in a playoff with New Zealand for an at-large spot in the World
Cup. In
the closing minutes of Tuesday's qualifiers, Mexico was losing at Costa Rica
2-1 and Panama was beating the U.S. 2-1. Had Panama beaten the U.S., they would
have finished fourth in the CONCACAF standings, eliminating Mexico. Panamanian
players were pissed that the U.S. actually tried to win, while Donovan mused
that had the Americans and Mexicans had their roles reversed, the U.S. could
not count on Mexico to do what it had done by trying to win a game it did not
need for qualification. "It was a miracle for them, and it says a lot
about the American spirit," Donovan said. "I can't imagine that if
the roles were reversed, that they would have done the same. And I can't
imagine many teams around the world doing that for their rival, but our guys
play hard always, and it was professional and it was with integrity. I'm proud
to be part of that team." It’s a not-so-veiled shot at the Mexicans, who
still must outduel the Kiwis in a two-leg playoff to earn their own spot in
Brazil. Even if they do qualify, the odds against them facing the Americans at
any point in the tournament are miniscule, so inadvertently helping its rivals
won't be the reason the U.S. once again comes up extremely small on soccer’s
biggest stage……….
- Supermassive black holes are more than fodder for Soundgarden song
titles. They are also massive entities located in the centers of large galaxies
and for years, they have confounded astronomers unable to understand how the
holes grow to be so big. A team of Australian researchers may have narrowed the
search for that answer by using the CSIRO Parkes radio telescope in eastern
Australia. "This is the first time we've been able to use information
about gravitational waves to study another aspect of the Universe--the growth
of massive black holes," said Ramesh Bhat, co-author of the study.
"Black holes are almost impossible to observe directly, but armed with
this powerful new tool we're in from some exciting times in astronomy. One
model for how black holes grow has already been discounted, and now we're going
to start looking at others." Gravitational waves are ripples in space-time
that are generated by massive bodies changing speed or direction and they are
caused by pairs of black holes orbiting each other. In the event of a galaxy
merger, each galaxy’s central black holes are destined to meet after swirling
around each other and emitting gravitational waves at a frequency that
astronomers can detect. To search for these gravitational waves, the
researchers in this study examined a set of 20 small, spinning stars called
pulsars. Pulsars are outer space’s de facto clocks because the arrival time of
their pulses on Earth form a precise record traceable to within a tenth of a
microsecond. Gravitational waves temporarily swell or shrink the distances within
that area and alter the arrival time of the pulses on Earth. Observing this
phenomenon allows scientists to detect the presence of waves. Baht and his
colleagues were able to measure the background rate of gravitational waves and
test four models of black hole growth. They ultimately ruled out that black
holes gained mass only through mergers, leaving three other theories still in
play……..
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