the 941

LEAD STORY: The first line of “defense” at the 400 Iraqi police checkpoints in Baghdad are small wands with antennas that supposedly detect explosives, but which U.S. officials say are about as useful as Ouija boards. The Iraqi official in charge, Maj. Gen. Jehad al-Jabiri, is so enamored of the devices, according to a November New York Times dispatch, that when American experts repeatedly showed the rods’ failures in test after test, he blamed the results on testers’ lack of “training.” The Iraqi government has purchased 1,500 of the ADE 651s from its manufacturer, ATSC Ltd. of the UK, at prices ranging from $16,000 to $60,000 each. The suicide bombers who killed 155 in downtown Baghdad on Oct. 25 passed two tons of explosives through at least one ADE-651-equipped checkpoint.

What a Difference a Day Makes: 1. Charles Wesley Mumbere, 56, was a longtime nurse’s aide at a nursing home in Harrisburg, Pa., until July, when the Ugandan government recognized the separatist Rwenzururu territory founded in 1962 by Mumbere’s late father. In October, Mumbere returned to his native country as king of the region’s 300,000 subjects. 2. Jigme Wangchuk, 11, was a student at St. Peter’s School in Boston when he was enthroned in November by a Buddhist sect in India’s Darjeeling district as its high priest, covering territory extending to neighboring Nepal and Bhutan. He will live in seclusion in his monastery, except for contact with Facebook friends he made while in Boston.

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LEAD STORY: Procter & Gamble announced in October that it will once again create and host a public restroom for the holiday season in New York City’s Times Square as a promotion for Charmin tissue. Last year’s installation was merely specially outfitted toilet facilities, but this year P&G will upgrade by hiring five bloggers (“Charmin Ambassadors”) to “interact” with the expected “hundreds of thousands of bathroom guests” and write about their experiences with Charmin tissue on the company’s website (and include “family-friendly” photographs). P&G is calling the campaign “Enjoy the Go.”

“Therapeutic” Sex: 1. The U.S. Tax Court ruled in September that William Halby, 78, owes back taxes because he improperly tried to deduct $300,000 over a five-year period for “medical” expenses that were merely purchases of sex toys and pornography and payments to prostitutes. Halby said the activities relieved his “depression,” in that he had no other sexual outlets. The court reminded Halby (a retired New York tax lawyer) that prostitution is illegal in New York. 2. James Pacenza, 60, of Montgomery, N.Y., who was fired by IBM in 2003 after he continued to visit an Internet sex-chat room during work hours, renewed his challenge to the termination in September, telling a federal appeals court that his Internet sex “addiction” is a result of post-traumatic stress disorder from combat in the Vietnam war.

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LEAD STORY: 1. Scientists at England’s University of Oxford know how to make fruit flies scared of things they weren’t scared of previously — by implanting artificial memories in their brains after somehow locating and managing the precise 12 neurons that enable the flies to learn things. The implanted “danger” (the smell of sweat-soaked athletic shoes) causes the flies to scatter at the first whiff. 2. Scientists at the University of Toronto know how to make fruit flies sexually attractive to flies of both sexes and to different fly species — by removing the specific hydrocarbon brain cells that produce the pheromones thought to attract sex-specific mates. (Only the choice of partners was modified and not horniness level.)

Small-Town Mayors: 1. For three weeks in September, budget-conscious Mayor Sallie Peake of Wellford, S.C., barred the police from chasing perpetrators of crimes in progress, even if officers drove at the speed limit. Officers were instructed, instead, to arrest suspects later in their homes. (The mayor, under siege, rescinded the policy on Sept. 24.) 2. Mayor Stu Rasmussen, 61, of Silverton, Ore., elected last year even though he dresses openly as a woman, drew criticism from officials of a community group in July when he addressed students while wearing a miniskirt and a swimsuit top. Critics suggested he should dress at least in “professional” women’s clothes when speaking to youth groups.

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LEAD STORY: The human brain’s 100 billion neurons may have such specific functions that a few electrically charge only upon recognition of a single celebrity, such as Oprah Winfrey or Bill Clinton. UCLA researchers, studying the healthy cells of pre-op epilepsy patients, inadvertently discovered this unusual property, which apparently varies with individuals but remains internally consistent, whether the celebrity is represented by picture, name or sound. Patients were presented “hundreds of stimuli,” one researcher told the Wall Street Journal in October, but “the neuron would respond to only one or two.” For example, neurons were found that reacted only to to Jennifer Aniston, only to The Simpsons, only to Mother Teresa.

The Continuing Crisis: In 2002, following an acrimonious family debate, the head of late baseball slugger Ted Williams was cryogenically frozen, in the hope that science will some day learn how to revive dead people. An employee of the Arizona lab that stores the head recently disclosed some inside shenanigans, according to a September report in the New York Daily News. According to the employee, to keep Williams’ head from sticking to the inside of its storage carton, the head was placed on an empty Bumble Bee tuna fish can inside the container, but the can itself then stuck to the head and had to be whacked off with a monkey wrench. (Since the lab’s work is secretive, only first-person reports are likely to emerge on this story.)

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LEAD STORY: Before Arthur David Horn met his future bride Lynette (a “metaphysical healer”) in 1988, he was a tenured professor at Colorado State, with a Ph.D. in anthropology from Yale, teaching a mainstream course in human evolution. With Lynette’s guidance (after a revelatory week with her in California’s Trinity Mountains, searching for Bigfoot), Horn evolved, himself, resigning from Colorado State and seeking to remedy his inadequate Ivy League education. At a conference in Denver in September, Horn said he now realizes that humans come from an alien race of shape-shifting reptilians that continue to control civilization through the secretive leaders known as the Illuminati. Other panelists in Denver included enthusiasts describing their own experiences with various alien races.

Health Insurance Follies: 1. Blue Shield California twice refused to pay $2,700 emergency room claims by Rosalinda Miran-Ramirez, concluding that it was not a “reasonable” decision for her to go to the ER that morning when she awoke to a shirt saturated with blood from what turned out to be a breast tumor. Only after a KPIX-TV reporter intervened in September did Blue Shield pay the claim. 2. National Women’s Law Center found that the laws of eight states permit insurance companies to deny health coverage to a battered spouse (as a “pre-existing condition,” since batterers tend to be recidivists), according to a September report by Kaiser Health News.

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LEAD STORY: Beneath the luxury hotels on the Las Vegas Strip is a series of flood tunnels that are home to dozens of people who work odd jobs such as hustling leftover change in casino slot machines. A correspondent for London’s The Sun gained the trust of a few and even photographed their “apartments” for a September dispatch, showing well-stocked quarters, with scrounged appliances and furniture and even one makeshift shower rigged from a water cooler. “Amy,” who has lived in the tunnels with her husband, “J.R.,” for two years, said she “love(s)” the Vegas lifestyle and appears in no hurry to leave her setup. “Kathryn” (who lives with boyfriend “Steven”) also appears content except, she says, for the fragrance, the black widow spiders, and the periodic rush of water through their home (threatening any “valuables” not stacked on crates).

Latest Religious Messages: David Cerullo came to prominence after purchasing the television studios abandoned by Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker and established what is perhaps the boldest of all Christian “prosperity gospel” ministries (that pays him an annual base salary of $1.52 million). With his father, semi-retired Pentecostal preacher Morris Cerullo, they assure followers that the more they give, the more God will return to them. In a recent TV spot, Morris, speaking first in tongues and then addressing the currently credit-challenged: “When you (donate), the windows of heaven … open for you … 100 fold.” “Debt cancellation!” (The on-screen message: “Call now with your $900 offering and receive God’s debt cancellation!”)
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Years ago you were asked whether it was legal to publish a letter someone had sent you. You said the author’s permission was needed. Now that it’s 2009, I got to wondering if one could take a post on, say, The Straight Dope Message Boards and publish it without the author’s permission, or for that matter, the SDMB’s permission. I presume the answer is no. Second question: If I have a blog and someone posts a comment on it, can I publish it without their permission? Finally, say I have my own message board and clearly tell people when they join that anything they write on the board becomes my property. I then publish a book called “The Best of Level3Navigator’s Message Board!” without getting permission from the posters. Is this legal? —Level3Navigator

I get the feeling you’re headed somewhere with this. Nonetheless, you raise issues worth examining in the age of the Internet. Let’s start at the top.

As you rightly presume, the answer to your first question is no. It’s well established legally that the creator of content owns the copyright. Prior to the 1976 Copyright Act, unpublished letters, which were the topic of the original column, couldn’t be published without the writer’s permission except in limited circumstances, and then only by the recipient. Anybody else was out of luck.

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LEAD STORY: What is believed to be the world’s only commercial lounge openly serving cocaine operates in La Paz, Bolivia, though the owners of “Route 36” have to change locations from time to time, depending on the moods of the bribed authorities. An August dispatch in London’s The Guardian reported that a nearly pure gram costs the equivalent of about $14 ($22 for “premium”), served by waiters in an empty CD case, with straws, but bar drinks are also available. Route 36 is well-known to backpacking tourists. Recalled one waiter, “We had some Australians; they stayed here for four days. (T)he only time they left was to go to the ATM.”

Police Follies: 1. Small Town: In Jericho, Ark., alleged harassment by cops got so bad, according to an Associated Press report, that the fire chief went to court twice in the same day in August to complain about speed traps. The chief’s charge angered the seven officers attending the hearing, and a courtroom scuffle ensued, resulting in the chief’s being shot in the back and hospitalized. WMC-TV reported that the shooter has not been charged but that an arrest warrant has been issued for the chief, who was then fired by the mayor. The police force has been disbanded by the Crittenden County sheriff, and all firefighters have resigned. 2. Big City: George Vera, who weighs nearly 600 pounds, was booked into jail in Houston in August and was in custody for more than 24 hours before he casually informed cops that they had missed finding the 9 mm handgun and two clips that were hidden in his rolls of fat.
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LEAD STORY: A male Swedish college student, Ragnar Bengtsson, 26, has begun pumping his breasts at three-hour intervals in a 90-day experiment to see if he can produce milk. If he succeeds, he said, it could prove “very important for men’s ability to get much closer to their children at an early stage.” A professor of endocrinology told the daily Aftonbladet that male lactation without hormone treatment might produce “a drop or two,” but suggested that men instead consider offering their breasts to babies as a matter of comfort and warmth, rather than as food. Bengtsson, who will report regularly on his progress via Stockholm’s TV8 channel and Web site, acknowledged that his timetable would sometimes require that he pump during classes.

Compelling Explanation: Police in Deer Lake, Newfoundland, decided in August not to press charges against three boys whom they had previously believed had harassed a young moose so badly that it had to be put down. A final piece of evidence came from the father of one of the boys, who vouched that the three could not have committed such a crime since they had been busy at the time, vandalizing a nearby church.

Not My Fault: A 60-year-old highway worker was injured when struck by motorist Catherine Stotts, 62, who was speeding down a blocked-off road construction lane near Willits, Calif., in July. The worker required hospitalization, but Stotts complained about receiving a traffic citation, telling officers that the man could have jumped out of the way faster.

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LEAD STORY: If society were ever attacked by zombies, we would probably be doomed, and quickly. That was the conclusion of two university researchers in Ottawa who set up mathematical models hypothesizing zombie attacks as infectious diseases with the well-known characteristics of zombie biology from popular fiction. In fact, according to a July BBC News report, zombies are more threatening than virulent diseases because they can regenerate (unless decapitated or incinerated, of course). More troubling was the researchers’ presumption that zombies move slowly, as in older movies, but in recent fiction, they’re super-quick, making them nearly invincible.

GOVERNMENT IN ACTION: Scaredy-Cat Brits: 1) In June, the Peterborough City Council ordered retirees who come together for weekly coffee at the public library to give up hot drinks, in case one accidentally spilled on a child. 2) In July, the Dagenham Swimming Pool in Essex, citing (according to the manager) drowning risks, banned swimmers from doing “lengths” and forced them instead to swim “widths.” 3) In June, the Brighton & Hove City Council ordered nature-lover Hilaire Purbrick, 45, out of the cave that has been his residence for 16 years, citing its lack of a “fire exit.”

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