Patterns I could not see

The TV was a bit of a mess, in that you couldn't turn off the TV. Only unplugging it worked and that got old quickly. The man who came to repair it was knowledgable and found the capacitor (not flux) that was the problem. It exploded a bit with cracks and tears (like gas escaping). The man went into discussion with me on his number hobby -- the patterns of the powerball and other lottery numbers. He, of course, has only come close to getting the numbers, never winning the pot himself.

He had handwritten sheets with numbers, highlighting patterns (I flashed back to Lost's+ short series of numbers). I could not see the pattern and he admitted that there were aberations to the patterns, but there were patterns, he told me. My experience with lottery and powerball is that it doesn't pay out. I retain about 36% of my cash, while losing 64%. I NEVER had a large payout. I stopped playing altogether two - four years ago.

What was interesting is that he was very passionate about the patterns that he saw. He was an educated man, talking about vectors and vector analysis and numeric occurances, but ... I could not see what he saw. For all his charts, talking and showing -- it was lost on me.

+ Lost has a series of important numbers that recur in the show. These numbers allowed one survivor to win the lottery, but gave him an equal amount of misery. Hmmmm, there is the pattern I feel. The thought that the pattern will grant you something and that all things don't have a price, when they do.

They're making it up as they go along.

Vatican might revise ‘baby limbo’ teaching
Talk of drafting doctrine that says unbaptized babies go to heaven
Associated Press

Vatican City - Vatican theologians are leaning toward revising centuries-old teaching that babies who die without baptism go to limbo instead of heaven, officials said Friday.
“All of us have hope for the babies” that they will go to heaven, under the revised thinking on limbo, said the Rev. Luis Ladaria, a Jesuit who is secretary-general of the Vatican’s International Theological Commission. The commission, which advises the pope and other top doctrinal officials of the church, has spent the week debating the question of limbo in view of preparing a document. Although Catholics have long believed that children who die without being baptized still have original sin and are thus excluded from heaven, the church has no formal doctrine on the matter, Vatican officials have noted.
Theologians have taught that such children enjoy an eternal state of perfect natural happiness, commonly called limbo. The theologians, including clergy and laity, were holding a final session Friday evening. But Ladaria said the theologians have not reached the point of drafting a document. Italian state TV reported Thursday evening that the document would be ready next year.
“That could be very possible,” Ladaria said. But “when it will be ready to be published, should they (the Vatican) decide to do so, doesn’t depend on” the commission. Ladaria made his comments during a break in the debate, speaking by telephone from the Vatican City guest house hosting the meeting. Since both Pope Benedict XVI and his predecessor, John Paul II, have urged the theologians to study the limbo question, a document is widely expected to be made public.
Benedict celebrated Mass with members of the commission Friday, but his homily, a reflection on theologians’ work, did not touch on the limbo debate. Ladaria’s hopes for the non-baptized babies’ fate after death echoed the optimistic opinion by an Italian bishop who is on the commission. Asked if the document will “tip the balance in the favor of heaven” for babies now believed to go to limbo, Archbishop Bruno Forte told state TV, “I hope so.”
Archbishop William Levada, the San Francisco prelate who last year became the Vatican’s guardian of doctrinal orthodoxy after Benedict assumed the papacy, has described the need to resolve the limbo question as a pressing one. Levada has cited an increase in the number of non-baptized babies in societies he said were marked by “cultural relativism and religious pluralism.”
Ladaria in an interview last year with Vatican Radio described the long-held view on limbo, as a state where the babies enjoyed “natural happiness” but had no vision of God, as “being in crisis.”
Any document on limbo would likely reflect Benedict’s nature, as a career theologian, to spell out the Church’s stand on limbo in a well-developed theological argument.

............

If you have to re-write it, you weren't ever right. Either you know what God's intent is, or you don't. This is faking it. As a non-Catholic, I'd say this will be yet another blow, to anyone with a brain, to the Catholic religion. Sure, people need to know that God loves all and that Jesus saves, but you you have to re-write it after years to say ... well, uh ... God's not damning the to the vestibule of hell, but they don't go to purgatory or Heaven either; they are in NEW limbo -- not around hell, maybe entered into Heaven with caveats and US Federal tax code indexing of footnotes and whatnot.

These are the same group who had to tell people that cheating on taxes is a sin. Are you preaching up there or talking to the generally stupid who you often denied the word of God, as the parishioners were incapable

J Karr's free

to receive the bullets presently in my 60 round clip in my automatic uzi. I knew, when they lost the computer, that they were going to lose the case. They couldn't get him on much and now that don't have him. Let's see who's neighborhood he enters. I wonder how many he'll molest before they catch him. He seemed to like to talk about molesting and killing. I dare say, this pansy, lightweight punk will likely get his chance. Now -- if things were better (though not right) a "stray bullet" would find its way to him.

Let us all reflect on the continual releasing of molesters back into society ... no better, but perhaps only more clever than before, to capture, rape then perhaps kill their victims. Ya know, I'm tired of it! If the state sought marksmen for firing squad, I'd be there every weekend, 15-hour days if necessary and unpaid.

If you have children, I'd either get pissed or never let them see the light of day. I'm on the side of pissed and believe emptying the braincase of the molester is a good, solid way of removing the powerful impulses that "plague" them so often.

I believe she should also die

Mom charged in pedophile slaying case
Associated Press

BALTIMORE - The mother of a slain boy was charged with reckless endangerment Thursday because she had allowed the suspected killer and convicted sex offender to care for her 11-year-old son, prosecutors said.

The investigation reflects the "ongoing concern for protecting vulnerable children who are at risk of injury and abuse at the hands of child predators and complicit caretakers," said prosecutor Julie Drake.

Authorities said Shanda Harris knew her friend, Melvin Jones, was a convicted sex offender but allowed him to care for her son, Irvin.

Jones, 52, was charged in July with first-degree murder for the stabbing death of boy, whose body was found on a golf course near his home.

Jones pleaded guilty in 2002 to having sex with a teenage boy and was sentenced to serve one year in prison, prosecutors said. He also pleaded guilty to child sexual abuse in 1989, and was convicted of indecent exposure in 1994, harassment in 1989 and battery in 1988.

very interesting question

Is cervical-cancer vaccine worth a shot?
By Amy Wilson
McClatchy Newspapers
(MCT)

What's a mother to do?

Bombarded by commercials that urge her and everyone around her to "tell someone," she pays attention to the news that a vaccine has been engineered - and approved - that will protect women against the human papillomavirus, which causes 75 percent of all cervical cancer.

Furthermore, studies have found the vaccine to be almost 100 percent effective in preventing precancers of the cervix, vulva and vagina and genital warts.

But should she vaccinate HER daughters?

The virus, also known as HPV, can be fatal. It is the most prevalent sexually transmitted disease in the world. The cancer it can cause is second only to breast cancer in its ability to kill women.

In June, the Food and Drug Administration approved the manufacture of Gardasil, Merck's version of the vaccine. The vaccine itself was developed by Albert Jenson and Shin-Je Ghim, researchers now at the University of Louisville.

The decision whether to vaccinate is complicated by its price, $360, and that insurance coverage is being worked out. (Some insurers are waiting for the CDC to formally adopt recommendations from its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, expected in November.)

Then there is the debate about the wisdom of any vaccination. So, yes, all parents are cautious. Parents of teenage daughters have a lot of deciding to do.

We turned to the experts for advice. Here is what they had to say:

The Food and Drug Administration: The agency recommends the vaccine for all girls and women ages 9 to 26.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Its immunization committee has recommended that the CDC endorse routine vaccinations for girls 11 to 12 years old, before sexual activity.

Dr. Albert "Ben" Jenson, a researcher of tumor immunobiology at the University of Louisville James Graham Brown Cancer Center and part of the original team of scientists at Georgetown University that invented the HPVvaccine and holds the patent on it: "I can't think of a reason not to (get the vaccine). The adverse reactions are very small. It's the first vaccination to prevent cancer. My three daughters - ages 42, 40 and 38 - are going to get it. I think every woman should have it. Maybe they don't have it (HPV) now, but they could get it if their partner, no matter how committed, has (pause) flaws and brings the virus into the relationship. I think men should have it too - to protect women."

(The vaccine is being tested on men, he said, but most of the initial trials were done on women because they can die of the diseases associated with HPV.)

Dr. W. David Hager, a prominent Lexington gynecologist and conservative Christian voice on women's health and sexuality, a Bush-appointed member of the FDA's Advisory Committee for Reproductive Health Drugs and on Merck's Ob/Gyn Advisory Board for Immunization: "I have worked to help other organizations understand (Merck's Gardasil) and the need for it.

"(After) the FDA approved the product, the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices at the CDC made recommendations for use in 9- to 26-year-old women with the principal age of immunization being 11 to 12 years of age. We do not have sufficient data in men to warrant approval at this time, although the studies to evaluate this are in process.

"Merck has been good about not encouraging sexual activity in their marketing strategy. We continue to say that girls should remain abstinent as the best way to prevent sexually transmitted infections and non-marital pregnancy. However, the latest data from the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey indicate that almost 7 percent of kids have initiated sexual intercourse by 13 years of age. Thus, it is important to immunize before sexual activity begins. Even if a young lady remains abstinent until marriage but marries a guy who has been sexually active, he could bring HPV into the relationship. So I strongly recommend encouraging abstinence but giving the vaccine at 11 to 12 years of age."

Dr. Susan Modesitt, associate professor of gynecologic oncology, University of Virginia: "I personally would recommend the vaccine early (age 12 or so) and am hopeful that it will be made mandatory."

I think filming his execution would be better

Ex-Zimmer executive is sentenced
Gets 4-year term for using hidden camera to film girl undressing.
From The Associated Press

WARSAW — A judge sentenced a former top executive at orthopedics maker Zimmer Inc. to four years in prison for using concealed video equipment to film a girl undressing.

James P. Simpson, 48, apologized during a court hearing Thursday for his actions, but the judge turned down his request for probation. Simpson pleaded guilty Aug. 31 to two charges of child exploitation.

The girl’s father said he hoped Simpson’s sentence would protect her.

“She must have peace of mind that she is safe and that her privacy is protected,” he said.

Authorities in Holland, Mich., told Warsaw police in March that a Holland electronic repair business had found a DVD in a car’s compact disc player showing a girl undressing, prosecutors said. Investigators later learned the girl was younger than 15 and that the recordings were made with a concealed camera equipped with a wireless transmitter, authorities said.

Simpson said in court that he was “committed to staying on a disciplined course of recovery. My behaviors and actions have cost me much.”

Kosciusko Circuit Judge Rex L. Reed said that while Simpson was remorseful and has sought treatment, the girl was harmed even though Simpson did not touch her.

Simpson joined Zimmer in 1999 and was promoted to senior vice president in December before resigning before his April arrest, the company said.

Zimmer has more 6,500 employees worldwide, including about 2,100 in Warsaw, about 40 miles northwest of Fort Wayne. The company designs, develops and manufactures reconstructive and spinal implants as was as trauma and orthopedic surgical products.

............

I'm sure that I believe his, "I won't do it again" speech.

Whoa .... gotta get there

to go pee ... maybe sleep.

Drink too much? Get a room downtown

The Downtown Hilton and Grand Wayne Convention Center on Thursday will release details about a new program that gives discounted room rates to downtown revelers who think they have drank too much.

According to a news release from the Downtown Improvement District, the “Stay Safe ... Stay With Us” alcohol safety initiative was created to “promote safe alcohol use downtown by offering discounted room rates at the Hilton to those who cannot practically drive themselves home after consuming too much alcohol at a downtown establishment.”

Promoters tout the program as another example of downtown businesses taking care of their customers.