All about Greenland

Source: The Oregonian - OregonLive.com ()

Merry Christmas! Some of your fellow Back Fence readers have
spent Dec. 25 in some unusual places.

D.C.: “How ’bout atop a mountain at Thule,
Greenland? That’s where I spent the winter of 1960-61.
Br-r-r-r-r !”

J.F. of Raleigh Hills: “In 1980, the North Pole,
Alaska, outside Fairbanks. That was cool. It actually was
cool; it was 35 below zero.”

D.P. of Milwaukie: “2002, city of Maikop, Russia,
finalizing an international adoption.”

T.S. of Oregon City: Christmas Eve and Christmas morning
2004 cruising the Panama Canal, with champagne and a full
moon.

R.B. of Southeast Portland: Mexico City in 1966. “My
husband was a Portland public schoolteacher. We had four
children, 5 to 14. We had very little money and bought toys
and treats from the market for us and our laundress, who had
14 children. The landlady had a Christmas party.”

J.P. of Portland: “As a guest of Marlon Brando on
Christmas Day aboard the HMS Bounty sailing off the coast of
Tahiti while filming ‘Mutiny on the Bounty’ in
1960.”

L.R.L. of The Dalles: “Christmas 1998 found my sister
and me driving across Ireland, with a hearty lunch packed
for us by our host family the night before. They knew that
literally all of Ireland shuts down for Christmas.”

C.L.K.: Christmas 1944: “I was a litter patient aboard
a Navy vessel out of England returning to the U.S. The
sailors sang Christmas songs and gave us cigarettes and
candy for presents. We also had a wonderful turkey dinner,
the first ‘real’ food in a long time.”

M.M. of Beaverton: “Waza Game Reserve, Cameroon, West
Africa. I was a Peace Corps volunteer (1990-92). Four or
five of us hardy volunteers were awakened at 3 a.m. by the
imam walking through the village, calling everyone to
prayer. I remember looking up at all the brilliant stars
above me in the December sky and marveling at my good
luck.” Later a driver took them to the game
reserve, where they saw lots of animals and took pictures. …

Source: Portsmouth Herald News ()

PORTSMOUTH — Two-and-a-half years ago, Jennifer Dahlen was stopped by a state trooper at a “sobriety checkpoint,” where, according to court records, her eyes were bloodshot, her speech was slurred, she needed help walking, and she responded to a request to take a Breathalyzer test by saying she “had too much to drink.”

A subsequent test showed the Durham resident’s blood alcohol content was 0.13, or 60 percent over the legal limit for intoxication.

In spite of those reports, Dahlen negotiated an Oct. 22 deal in Portsmouth District Court, pleading guilty to a reduced charge of reckless operation and accepting a $500 fine and two-month loss of license.

Dahlen was driving one of 514 vehicles stopped during July 2005 DWI roadblocks conducted in Portsmouth by officers from five police agencies. Eight people were arrested for driving while intoxicated during the checkpoints, held on two consecutive evenings.

Three of the other DWI defendants previously pleaded guilty to reduced charges of reckless driving, while the remaining four cases have been stalled in the legal system.

They were first dismissed by the District Court as unconstitutional, then appealed to the Supreme Court, where they were remanded back to the Portsmouth court.

There, records indicate, more deals are in the works for the remaining DWI cases. And if deals are made for all of them, the result will be that no one is convicted for drunken driving as a result of the DWI roadblocks.

Also arrested for driving while intoxicated during the large-scale 2005 roadblocks was Merle Wilber, 27, of 591 Ocean Blvd., Hampton. Represented by attorney Harry Starbranch, Wilber’s case was continued at his request on Sept. 7, with a note to the court reporting he is “engaged in plea negotiations” described as “ongoing.”

“The possibility resolving the matters with a non-trial disposition seems likely,” Wilber’s attorney said.

Court records filed by Starbranch …

Source: Washington Post ()

Two dozen first-graders in a Leesburg classroom recently sorted through laminated paper squares on desks, arranging red squares printed with consonants and blue ones stamped with vowels until they spelled a word: T-H-E-R-E.

Source: Washington Post ()

Two dozen first-graders in a Leesburg classroom recently sorted through laminated paper squares on their desks, arranging red squares printed with consonants and blue ones stamped with vowels until they spelled a word: T-H-E-R-E.

“Now, scramble those words like they’re in a said their teacher, Amanda Greenland, after all the students had their letters in place. “Do it again,” she said.

Source: Chicago Daily Herald ()

Citing safety concerns, the U.S. Navy has rejected the latest request to recover the bodies of three airmen — including one with Lake County ties — who died in Antarctica in 1946.

In a letter sent Thursday to a relative of one of the dead flyers, Navy Secretary Donald C. Winter said the Navy considers the polar site to be the final resting place of the airmen and their doomed seaplane, the George One.

“We do not support disturbing or potentially desecrating their remains,” Winter wrote.

A Mundelein woman whose brother is among the dead entombed on Antarctica was disappointed with the Navy’s decision.

“I really thought we were going to get there,” said Betty Spencer, 81. Her brother, Wendell K. Hendersin, was a radioman on the ill-fated mission.

Winter’s decision has not discouraged a private organization from conducting its own recovery mission, however.

Lou Sapienza, a Seattle photographer who served with an expedition that salvaged a World War II-era plane in Greenland in the 1990s, is moving forward with his own plan to recover the bodies.

“As long as the families’ desire is to bring these men home, I will bring them home — to the country and soil they loved, served and died for,” Sapienza said in a news release.

The seaplane crashed during Operation Highjump, the largest Antarctic expedition ever undertaken.

Six men survived. Before being rescued, they buried the dead near the wreckage. Today, the graves could be under more than 100 feet of ice, experts have said.

Sapienza remains undaunted in his quest to find the George One. He said he’ll seek congressional and private funding for his independent mission.

He expects to have a using ground-penetrating radar on the Antarctic surface in November 2008, and hopes to return in 2009 to recover the bodies.

Source: Exeter News-Letter ()

BRENTWOOD — The community is stunned by news of the sudden death of Exeter High School graduate Erik Woss, who suffocated accidentally at his home Monday.

Woss, 19, was found inside a crawl space in the basement of his Bartlett Road home by his father, Brentwood Police Lt. David Roy said. His parents had reported Woss missing Monday. His cell phone and wallet were at the house and his parents told police he had been missing for about 12 hours. Police responded and conducted a search of the home with his parents.

Woss was found with a plastic bag Duct taped over his head with a hole for breathing and a can of whipped cream. He was not breathing or responsive when they discovered him in the remote area of the basement, Roy said. Assistant State Medical Examiner Richard McLaughlin has ruled the death accidental asphyxiation.

Police are not commenting on whether they believe Woss was inhaling the gas in the whipped cream can — a practice known as doing whippets — as they are awaiting toxicology test results from the State Medical Examiners office, Brentwood Police Detective Randy Frotton said. “That is still under investigation,” Frotton said. “Until I get the report back from toxicology, I’m not specifying any kind of drug use.”

Woss was well-known in his hometown and police were hit hard by his death. “He was a good, polite, hard-working kid,” Frotton said.
Woss was an honors student at Exeter High School, where he graduated in the top 10 of his class last June, EHS Principal Victor Sokul said. “He was a very, very bright kid and ended up going to UNH in the engineering school, which is tough to get into.”

Not only was Woss academically gifted, but he had talent working on vehicles and good common sense, Sokul said. “He was just one of those kids with a gift,” Sokul said.

He also went through the automotive technology program at Seacoast School of Technology where he was a “big part of the school,” SST Principal Margaret …

Source: AFP ()

DNA double helix

Source: Market Wire (press release) ()

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA–(Marketwire - Dec. 17, 2007) - True North Gems (TSX VENTURE:TGX) is pleased to announce the discovery of a new sapphire prospect, named the Kikturiaq (Mosquito) occurrence, on its Beluga sapphire property located near the hamlet of Kimmirut, on the south coast of Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada. The samples collected from the surface exposure included several sapphires. The largest is a near-complete crystal weighing 27.85 grams (139.24 carats). This discovery represents the highlight of the 2007 exploration program now completed on the 18.5 km2 Beluga sapphire property.

The Kikturiaq occurrence is located approximately 1,200 metres north-northeast from the main Beluga occurrence, which has been the focus of previous exploration activity on the property. The large sapphire crystal is a well formed, barrel-shaped prism which occurs in three fragments. The largest of these fragments weighs 18.1 grams (90.6 carats), measures 15mm in diameter and 20mm in length, and displays typical Beluga colour zoning, with a colourless core and a bright to dark blue outer rim. Clarity ranges from transparent to translucent. Brittle fracturing, overprinted by recent surface weathering, affects the exposed sapphire crystals.

Nine discrete sapphire showings were found along the 225 metre long, arc-shaped Kikturiaq occurrence and mini-bulk samples were excavated using Pionjar drills, feathers and wedges. The total sample weight collected in 2007 from this new prospect is estimated at 1,300 kilograms.

“We are very encouraged that our specialized exploration expertise continues to yield promising targets, such as the Kikturiaq occurrence, which contain commercial-sized sapphires exhibiting mineralogical characteristics similar to the high quality, colourless and blue gem sapphires recovered from the Beluga occurrence,” said Greg Davison, True North Gems’ Vice President Exploration.

Four additional …

Source: Austin American-Statesman ()

‘The Arctic is screaming.’

MARK SERREZE

U.S. government scientist, on new reports suggesting Arctic ice is melting more quickly than earlier thought.

‘Did they obstruct our inquiry? The answer is clearly yes. Whether that amounts to a crime, others will have to judge.’

LEE HAMILTON

Former co-chairman of the Sept. 11 commission, on the CIA’s destruction

of videotapes showing the interrogation of terrorism suspects.

‘There are different ways of doing it. It’s like swimming — freestyle, backstroke.’

Sen. KIT BOND

Missouri Republican, in response to whether he thinks waterboarding is torture.

‘The storm has devastated our system. It sucker-punched us in the stomach.’

ANDREA CHANCELLOR

Spokeswoman for Public Service Co. of Oklahoma, on the winter storm that swept through the state and knocked out electricity for 600,000 residents.

‘Our species is not static.’

HENRY HARPENDING

University of Utah anthropologist, who authored a study showing that people are evolving more rapidly than in the distant past.

‘We can jump to this conclusion: that steroids have sullied the game.’

PRESIDENT BUSH

A former part-owner of the Texas Rangers, on former Sen. George Mitchell’s report about performance-enhancing drug use in baseball.

‘It shows a really interesting thing that’s going on in language. It’s a term that’s arrived only because we’re now communicating electronically with each other.’

JOHN MORSE

Merriam-Webster’s president, after the dictionary publisher announced that ‘w00t’ — a hybrid of letters and numbers used as an exclamation of happiness or triumph — won its annual Word of the Year poll.

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Source: Portsmouth Herald News ()

Portsmouth

n THE SALVATION ARMY, a nondenominational church at 15 Middle St., conducts weekly worship services. Join them for fellowship and practical Christian teaching every Sunday at 11 a.m. Sunday school for all ages is held at 10 a.m. 436-2606.

n North Church, UCC, holds two regular Sunday services. Chapel Service at the Parish House on Spinney Road begins at 9 a.m., followed by fellowship time. Service in the Market Square Sanctuary begins at 10:30 a.m. This year’s annual pageant will be held during the Market Square Sanctuary service. More information can be found by visiting www.northchurchportsmouth.org or calling the church office at 436-9109.

n FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH, 129 Miller Ave., holds worship service at 10 a.m. The Rev. Deborah Shipp is pastor. Child care is available for children age 3 and under. Activities for slightly older children will be available. Refreshments and fellowship follows in Sanborn Hall. Handicapped-accessible. 436-6038.

n CHRIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, a progressive Christian church on 1035 Lafayette Road, holds services at 10 a.m. Sundays with choir; Rite II, story time for children. Church school will be held at 10 a.m. for ages 4 to Grade 5 and nursery is available (ages 4 and under). 436-8842 or www.christepiscopalchurch.us. The Rev. Daniel Bernier is the vicar.

n THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST holds worship services on Sunday from 10 to 11:15 a.m., and from 6 to 7:30 p.m.; on Wednesdays from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Prayer begins 30 minutes before each service. 436-5748.

n MIDDLE STREET BAPTIST CHURCH, at the intersection of Middle and Court streets, holds Sunday worship at 10 a.m. with the Rev. Vivan Martindale. Childcare is provided. Fellowship and refreshments follow. Sunday school classes for children begin at 11:30 a.m. in the redecorated mansion and classes for parents and other adults are available. Monday, Dec. 24 Christmas Eve worship services will be held at 7 p.m. with a …