Cave News

A tribute to Vin Scully on the eve of baseball season…

Vince Scully, a baseball broadcast legend in his own time, begins his 62nd season in the broadcast booth for the Dodgers.

In the 1960's I listened to most of the Dodger baseball games on radio as the incomparable Vince Scully (pictured) did the play-by-play broadcasts.

I'd listen to the games on the job using a small transistor radio in my shirt pocket with an earplug that looked just like a cheap hearing aid.

That was the secret. I would occasionally get a look of sympathy but no one was the wiser as I listened to Vin describe the exploits of Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Duke Snider, and others.

Those were the days and Vinny's voice made them very special!

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Nose burn

A firefighter sprays water on a float that caught fire in Samba City, Brazil during a parade.

Fight fire with an electric wand

There is a report at the link below about a wand connected to a 600-watt power source eliminates fire.

A Harvard researcher is looking to replace the fireman's hose with a hand-held wand that shoots beams of electricity.

The idea that electricity can control a fire first came about 200 years ago. It was observed that electricity could twist, bend and even kill a flame.

Scientists believe electric currents make particles of soot within a flame move, which produces a flow of gas that weakens the flame and can cause it to die out. But in previous studies, chemists used direct current instead of alternating current to generate electric fields.

More of this interesting story here.

Report: gas prices up 100% under Obama

When Barack Obama took office the price of a gallon of regular gas was around $1.79.

But that was then and this is now - with the the national average at $3.58.

The lowest average price in the continental United States is $3.31 in Tulsa Oklahoma, the highest is $4.14 in Santa Barbara, CA.

Four-dollar-a-gallon gas has arrived on average throughout California, and a number of other states are headed in that direction.

If the trend continues, gas prices would double again within a year.

100% gasoline price inflation is nothing to brag about, but imagine Mr. Obama going into the 2012 election having to explain why gas costs $7.00 a gallon.

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Apple iPad losing to Android and Windows Tablets

From a Techland report at the link below:

Just when you thought it was safe to pick up an iPad, Dell claims Apple's days as the tablet industry's big kahuna are numbered.

Andy Lark, Dell's global head of marketing didn't mince words about Apple's prospects.

While Lark acknowledged the iPad's meteoric rise and role in catalyzing the tablet market, he says it's already doomed to fail in enterprise adoption.

"I couldn't be happier that Apple has created a market and built up enthusiasm but longer term, open, capable and affordable will win, not closed, high price and proprietary," said Lark. "[Apple has] done a really nice job, they've got a great product, but the challenge they've got is that already Android is outpacing them."

What it comes down to is: "open and affordable" Android will win out over "closed, proprietary and expensive" iPad.

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Colorado man claims to have Obama's draft records

The story that just won't go away - proof of Obama's birth.

A Colorado Springs man claims to have records that prove Obama's Hawaiian birth certificate was forged.

Retired Air Force Col. Gregory Hollister impersonated Obama with the Selective Service and managed to get a card with President Obama’s Selective Service information on it, a blogger posted on gratewire.com last week.

Hollister said a private investigator gave him what is purported to be the president’s Social Security number and he then accessed the Social Security Number Verification Service to find out to whom it was issued and to access Selective Service documents.

Hollister found that according to the Social Security Administration, that number was never issued, but that's the same Social Security number that appears on Obama's Selective Service documents.

Hollister also said the Social Security number on what he says is Obama’s draft registration begins with the numbers 042, which would be issued to someone born in Connecticut, not Hawaii.

Hollister and others birthers claim Obama was born in either Kenya or Indonesia and that his birth certificate showing he was born in Honolulu in 1961 is a forgery.

Hollister could face criminal charges because he is alleged to have illegally accessed an online Social Security database and could face charges of identity theft and fraud.

It is interesting to note that it is the investigator being investigated with possible criminal charges forthcoming and yet not a word about how this may or may not prove Obama is not a natural born citizen of the United States.

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Letter threat: 160 nuclear bombs hidden all over U.S.

Twenty five threats sent in the mail warn of nuclear bombs set to destroy America!

People who got them called the FBI and the Bureau’s Chicago office is leading the investigation. The letters say:

“The Al-Qaeda organization has planted 160 nuclear bombs throughout the U.S. in schools, stadiums, churches, stores, financial institutions and government buildings.” It also said, “This is a suicide mission for us.”

The writer claims to be Osama Bin Laden and tells the reader the nukes are remotely controlled.

Agencies in Oregon, California, Texas and Florida also got the letter with the Chicago postmark.

There are items in the letter that lead the FBI to believe it is a hoax. There are several demands documented that aren’t fully coherent.

Much of what’s in the message doesn’t add up, but in a post 9-11 world, the FBI can’t let it go – even if it does appear to be a hoax.

The FBI said it will find that writer, and when it does, he could face 5 to 10 years in prison for each letter mailed.

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Will the Arlington grave mix-ups ever become untangled?

From a report at the link below:

When the remains of a Vietnam War soldier buried in the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery were identified in 1998 using DNA, Pentagon officials proudly said that the days of interring service members as "unknown" could well be over.

But now, for the first time in decades, the cemetery has multiple "unknowns" to bury - and it has itself to blame.

A report last summer by the Army Inspector General disclosed that there were potentially hundreds of miss marked or unmarked graves in Arlington National Cemetery.

The photo shows Kathryn Condon, the recently appointed director of the Army Cemeteries Program. Can she untangle the Arlington problem she inherited?

In October a mass grave was discovered that eight sets of cremated remains crowding a single grave. Three of them are unidentifiable - not because of the brutality of combat, but because of actions at the cemetery.

The scandal led to the ouster of the cemetery's top two leaders and prompted legislation from Congress requiring the cemetery to account for every single one of the more than 320,000 remains entombed at the nearly 150-year-old cemetery.

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Obama approval rating his new low in poll

A new Quinnipiac University poll shows the approval rating for Barack Obama has reached a new low.

More worrisome for his handlers, perhaps, voters now say he does not "deserve" re-election by a margin of 50-41%, according to the poll.

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This dental hygienist has a tough job

Open wide!