“I’m not superman or anything…”
An 11-year-old boy is being called a hero for running through a burning North Vancouver building Tuesday night, warning residents of a fire that eventually killed three elderly women.
Const. Mike McLaughlin of the North Vancouver RCMP said the fire likely began around 9:45 p.m. PT on the first floor of the three-storey wood frame apartment building at 155 East 19th St. near Lonsdale Avenue.
The bodies of two of the women were found together in the front lobby of the building. The body of the third woman was found in her third-floor apartment, said McLaughlin. Police identified the third woman as Ilse Wilhelmine Dragossy, 84. The identities of the two women found in the front lobby have not been released because their next of kin has not been notified.
Despite reports of an explosion, there was no evidence the fire was caused by propane or oxygen tanks, McLaughlin said Wednesday morning. But the fire was being treated as “suspicious until proven otherwise,” and the RCMP arson unit was investigating, he said.
The father of Dustan Roach-Matthews said he’s proud that his son helped alert others by running through the burning building. The two were cleaning up a storage locker when the boy heard a beeping sound and went off to investigate, Brian Matthews told CBC News Wednesday morning. When his son returned, he told his father the building was on fire, and then ran off to alert the other residents of the building. The father returned to their second-floor apartment for the family’s cat and ended up having to jump off the balcony as flames filled the hallway.
“I ran down the hallway of the first floor, yelling fire at everybody’s doors. [I] ran up on the second floor, yelling fire and ran up the third floor and ran all the way back,” Dustan said.
“He did a great job ’cause I was ignoring it. I thought it’s another toaster alarm. He came back and said, ‘Dad, there’s a fire!’ So, we immediately got out of the building,” the father said.
“I’m not Superman or anything but … I feel really good [about what I did],” Dustan added.
Residents told CBC News that many of them first treated the fire as a false alarm before eventually fleeing the burning building. Matthews said the scene inside the building was chaotic as residents tried to get out. Smoke filled the hallways and it was not clear where it was coming from, making it difficult for residents to know which way to flee. RCMP said the fact that the building didn’t have enough smoke alarms and sprinklers contributed to the tragedy. Although flames quickly spread through the wood frame building, there was no indication the building was not up to code, police said.
Norm Witzell, who lives across the back lane from the building, said he was woken up by what sounded like an explosion followed by screaming. When he looked out his window, he saw the balcony of the first-floor apartment in flames and fire shooting out the windows and doors. He said he suspected the blast he heard was the sound of the balcony doors being blown out. Other residents have speculated it may have been the oxygen tank of an elderly resident.
A man and a young boy were trying to re-enter the apartment by a side door, he told CBC Radio on Wednesday morning
“By the time firefighters arrived, three apartments were already engulfed in flames,” McLaughlin said.
Residents praised the efforts of firefighters from the City of North Vancouver and the District of North Vancouver, who rescued six people from balconies as the flames engulfed the apartments.
“Their efforts certainly prevented the spread of the fire and likely saved lives,” McLaughlin said.
“However, nobody could save three people who were trapped inside the building.”
It sounds like that building went up like tinder. I wonder if the boy’s dad told him to warn the others, or to get out of the building while he got the cat.
Oil Renaissance
On the hillsides above Oil City, where the petroleum business was born, small independent producers who could barely survive a few years ago, are rediscoveringthe meaning of “black gold”.
Bill Huber, 67, still uses most of the same clunking and screeching machinery that his grandfather installed more than 100 years ago.
Getting to his small wells, scattered deep in the forest, requires a four-wheel drive vehicle. The rusty powerhouse is a maze of wheels, and pulleys, but every day, he patiently manages to get a few litres out of the ground.
The smell of waxy Pennsylvania crude is thick in the air, but now that it’s worth more than $100 a barrel, he can aim to make more than $9,000 per month, before expenses.
“I took a lot of criticism…(people said) why do you want to lose money all the time? A neighbour over there just drilled 14 new wells. He’ll probably have his money back in 35 to 40 days,” said Bill.
No matter what the change, I suppose someone benefits! Glad to know that it’s a low income district for once.
Teenage Drinking Police
Undercover teenagers could soon be the police’s latest weapon in one of the biggest alcohol abuse clampdowns led by the Australian state of Victoria.
The authorities have begun covert surveillance to catch bars illegally serving drunk and under-age customers.Teams of undercover officers have been doing the rounds in Melbourne and they may soon be joined by teenage helpers
The state says binge drinking is its biggest social problem - alcohol abuse kills 10 Australians every day
Victoria’s police commissioner Christine Nixon said the use of “under-age operatives” had been tested in other parts of the country.
This could be very effective. It has been my experience that all the teenagers in a group will know who is drinking while the adults are still oblivious. I don’t particularly like it, but it looks like an effective idea.
Microsoft Walks Away from Yahoo
Software giant Microsoft has dropped its three-month-old bid to buy internet firm Yahoo because the two sides cannot agree on an acceptable sale price.
Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer formally withdrew the offer in a letter to Yahoo chief executive Jerry Yang.
Mr Ballmer said Microsoft had raised its original offer from $44.6bn to $47.5bn (£24.1bn) - $33 per share.But he added that Yahoo had insisted on at least $53bn, or $37 a share - more than Microsoft was prepared to pay.
The software giant had wanted to do a deal to be able to compete with Google, which dominates the lucrative market for internet advertising.
This market was worth $40bn in 2007 and is predicted to double to $80bn by 2010.
Good for Yahoo and Microsoft. I am a firm believer in competition breeding ingenuity and success. I am interested to see what Yahoo and Microsoft come up with next to take on Google.
Digital Revolution
In every town in every part of this sprawling country you can find a faceless sprawling strip mall in which to do the shopping. Rarely though would you expect to find a medical miracle working behind the counter of the mall’s hobby shop. That, however, is what Lee Spievak considers himself to be.
“I put my finger in,” Mr Spievak says, pointing towards the propeller of a model airplane, “and that’s when I sliced my finger off.”
It took the end right off, down to the bone, about half an inch. “We don’t know where the piece went.”
The photos of his severed finger tip are pretty graphic. You can understand why doctors said he’d lost it for good.
Today though, you wouldn’t know it. Mr Spievak, who is 69 years old, shows off his finger, and it’s all there, tissue, nerves, nail, skin, even his finger print.
How? Well that’s the truly remarkable part. It wasn’t a transplant. Mr Spievak re-grew his finger tip. He used a powder - or pixie dust as he sometimes refers to it while telling his story.
Mr Speivak’s brother Alan - who was working in the field of regenerative medicine - sent him the powder. For ten days Mr Spievak put a little on his finger.
“The second time I put it on I already could see growth. Each day it was up further. Finally it closed up and was a finger. “It took about four weeks before it was sealed.” Now he says he has “complete feeling, complete movement.”
The “pixie dust” comes from the University of Pittsburgh, though in the lab Dr Stephen Badylak prefers to call it extra cellular matrix. The process he has been pioneering over the last few years involves scraping the cells from the lining of a pig’s bladder. The remaining tissue is then placed into acid, “cleaned” of all cells, and dried out. It can be turned into sheets or a powder. It looks like a simple process, but of course the science is complex.
“There are all sorts of signals in the body,” explains Dr Badylak. “We have got signals that are good for forming scar, and others that are good for regenerating tissues… One way to think about these matrices is that we have taken out many of the stimuli for scar tissue formation and left those signals that were always there anyway for constructive remodelling.”
In other words, when the extra cellular matrix is put on a wound, scientists believe it stimulates cells in the tissue to grow rather than scar. If they can perfect the technique, it might mean one day they could repair not just a severed finger, but severely burnt skin, or even damaged organs.
Now that is really interesting. It looks as though the proverbial Stem Cells are not the only promising medical development in helping people with missing or injured organs. Fancy that.
Taking Justice Into Their Own Hands.
“Community fixers”, who deal out underworld justice on the behalf of clients, are being used instead of police, a senior policeman has said.
The father of footballer Steven Gerrard has admitted he turned to a “fixer” to stop a gangster terrorising his son.
Matt Baggott, chief constable of Leicester, told Radio 5 Live that it would be “naive” to believe that the practice did not exist.
But, he said, it was not widespread and police had not abandoned some areas.
Mr Baggott was talking during a discussion about “gangster justice” on the Donal MacIntyre show.
The programme claimed the use of such fixers was happening throughout the UK.
It said that “up and down the country” Radio 5 Live had come across individuals who have provided “gangster justice”.
One man, who said he was a former gangster, told the programme: “If somebody’s had their house burgled they would come to us and give us an idea of who might have committed the crime and then we’d go and find the people, get the goods back and generally give them a talking to.
“If they were co-operative that would be a talking to and if they were uncooperative probably a bit of a beating.”
Asked if he had come across community fixers, Mr Baggott said: “I don’t think it is widespread but I would be naive to say that it doesn’t exist.”
He added: “I do recognise that you get a limited number of people at a more criminal level who seek to build a power base in communities by intimidation, by controlling the drugs, by being seen, if you like, almost to bring a sense of peace.
“In my experience the people that are criminal fixers are actually feathering their own nest. All they are doing is making sure they’re gaining at the expense of communities.”
Wow. This is such a bad idea. A remarkably bad idea.
Maybe Common Sense 101 is too high to start with. Common Sense 90 might need to be offered as well.
Pilot Tries to Leave Thank You Note for President
An British pilot flying solo around the world was arrested by U.S. police today after trying to land his plane at George Bush’s ranch in Texas.
Retired vet Maurice Kirk, 63, wanted to “drop in” on the president to say thanks after American coastguards saved his life two months ago.
Mr Kirk was impressed when they rescued him from shark-infested waters of the Caribbean after his World War II plane ditched in the sea on the latest leg of his around-the-world adventure.
But when the former drinking pal of hellraising actor Oliver Reed touched down six miles from the Bush ranch armed security officials quickly surrounded his light aircraft.
He was arrested, handcuffed and taken to Austin State Hospital where he was being assessed.
U.S. officials confirmed Mr Kirk was arrested for flying into the prohibited airspace over Mr Bush’s Prairie Chapel ranch near Waco, Texas.
The president was not at home at the time but has been told of the security breach.
Mr Kirk’s wife Kirstie was waiting for news of him yesterday (tues) at the family home near Barry, South Wales.
Village vet Mrs Kirk, 48, said: “Maurice realised he could not land at the president’s ranch so he put his aircraft down nearby.
“He intended to walk to the ranch gates and pin a thank you note on them for Mr Bush.
“But instead a car drove towards him and he found two Smith and Wessons pointed at him.
“He was handcuffed, put in a police car while several other cars drew up - he thinks there were 11 altogether.”
The father-of-four was initially accused of being drunk but tests proved he was sober.
His wife said: “He was later told that he needed to be cleared by a medic and was driven to Austin State Hospital where he has what he describes as a ‘minder’. “He is required to have a psychiatric assessment before the CIA or FBI question him further.
“A vision of Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest comes to mind.”
There really needs to be a free common sense 101 class offered at all high schools and colleges. There seems to be so little of it in the world today.
Anti-terror Laws used on Litterers
A survey of UK councils has found some are spying on litter louts and people who let dogs foul public places, using laws to track criminals and terrorists.Some local authorities have used the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa) more than 100 times in the last 12 months to conduct surveillance.
The findings, obtained by the Press Association news agency, come from 46 of the 468 local authorities in the UK.
Earlier this month it emerged that Poole Borough Council in Dorset used Ripa to spy on a family for three weeks to find out if they were really living in a school catchment area.
The council said the case was treated as potential criminal activity, which justified the use of the act.
Home Office guidance says Ripa allows “the interception of communications, carrying out of surveillance and the use of covert human intelligence sources” to help prevent crime, including terrorism.
The Press Association contacted 97 councils to find out how they were using the powers.
The 46 who responded said they had used the act a total of 1,343 times, mainly against rogue trading, benefit fraud and anti-social behaviour like criminal damage.
But some said the law was also used to find out about other less serious offences.
- Derby City Council, Bolton, Gateshead and Hartlepool used surveillance to investigate dog fouling.
- Bolton Council also used the act to investigate littering.
- The London borough of Kensington and Chelsea conducted surveillance on the misuse of a disabled parking badge.
- Liverpool City Council used Ripa to identify a false claim for damages.
- Conwy Council used the law to spy on a person who was working while off sick.
The survey found the biggest user of Ripa was Durham County Council, which used it 144 times in the last 12 months.
The council said it did not consider the use to be directed at members of the public, but against traders it had suspected of crime.
Simon Davies, director of campaign group Privacy International, called for a review of Ripa.
“Ripa put physical surveillance on a legal basis but that doesn’t make it right or morally right - it just covers the back of local authorities, but at huge expense,” Mr Davies said.
“Local authorities can be very petty and vindictive and they can become obsessed with issues like dog fouling and there can be a lack of judgment.
“In the case of dog fouling it’s almost morally justifiable to bring these people to book, but you have to ask the question is the response an overkill?
“There are better ways to achieve the objectives without using counter-terrorism laws.”
Shami Chakrabarti, director of human rights group Liberty, said: “You don’t use a sledgehammer to crack a nut, nor targeted surveillance to stop a litter bug.
“You can care about serious crime and terrorism without throwing away our personal privacy with a snoopers’ charter.
“The law must be reformed to require sign-off by judges not self authorisation by over-zealous bureaucrats.”
Sir Simon Milton, Local Government Association chairman, said councils were using the law to protect people against rip-off merchants, fly-tippers and benefit fraudsters.
“It’s wrong to suggest that these are specifically anti-terror powers,” he said.
“There are strict rules to protect people from unnecessary intrusion, and whenever a council applies to use these powers they must prove that it is both necessary and proportionate to the crime being investigated.”
Out of the 97 councils contacted, 16 said they did not use the act at all, 19 asked for the request to be submitted under the Freedom of Information Act and 16 did not respond.
Right, we’ll take away people’s freedoms, and give buearocrats power, to protect the people. Protect them from what? Garbage, it seems.
Free Speech vs. Obscenity
Sweden has decided not to ban sexist advertising, saying it would risk undermining the country’s cherished right to freedom of speech. But the decision puts the country at odds with its Nordic neighbours. Norway and Denmark have strict limits on the use of such images for commercial gain.
In Norway, sexist advertising has been banned since 2003. The ban forms part of a much broader package of legal limits on advertising, protecting the depiction of religion, sexuality, race and gender.
“Basically, if something is offensive or it makes the viewer feel uncomfortable when they look at it, it shouldn’t be done”, explained Sol Olving, head of Norway’s Kreativt Forum, an association of the country’s top advertising agencies.
Norwegian firms that refuse to remove or alter offensive adverts after having a complaint upheld face a hefty fine of 500,000 Norwegian kroner (£49,000; 62,500 euros).
Ms Olving says there were no complaints about the law from advertisers, who have learnt to come up with less obvious ways of persuading consumers to part with their cash.
But in Denmark, where similar guidelines have been in place since 1993, some firms are ready to exploit the additional free publicity they will get from being highlighted.
Denmark’s advertising ombudsman recounts a recent example of a male underwear company which was forced to withdraw adverts portraying women in low-paid jobs, after outrage from several trade unions.
One ad in the series showed a nurse lying on a bed with the male underpants covering her face, implying that she had just had sex with a patient.
“People in these different occupations already have problems with sexual discrimination,” says ombudsman Henrik Oe. “You cannot play on the male fantasy that a patient can have sex with a nurse just to sell a product.”
As advertisers keep pushing the bounds of what will pass for “decent”, it doesn’t look like the conflict between Free Speech and blatant sexuality is going to go away. It would really be nice if they would make a practice of using something other than sex to sell, but that doesn’t look too likely.
Villages Found Where Few Should Be.
Hundreds of villagers are helping to map parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo where thick forest and conflict have prevented effective mapping.
So far about 190 villages have been found in one area of Bandundu province where old maps show only 30, UK-based charity The Rainforest Foundation says.
Most maps are produced from satellite images taken from above, but this project is using handheld GPS units.
The map is intended to aid post-war planning and timber permit allocations.
A five-year conflict in DR Congo ended in 2003.
“In one of the sectors of the territory that the groups are mapping at the moment, there are something like 190 villages but on the official map there are about 30,” Cath Long of the Rainforest Foundation which is organising the project told the BBC’s Network Africa.
She said millions of Congolese depend on the forest for their existence.
“The real worry is that permits to cut timber, permits to extract resources will be given to external companies without recognising the fact that people are already there and already using the forest,” she said.
The charity hopes the map will be ready for a government meeting in May on forest and land.
The government has already allocated parts of the territory to 11 logging concessions, it says.
DR Congo is home to one of the word’s largest rainforests and has huge reserves of gold, diamonds, copper and coltan, used to make mobile phones.
Correspondents say these riches have been a key factor in the civil wars, instability and bad government the country has known since independence.
Just proves that you can’t trust satellite images for everything; sometimes you need to talk to the people on the ground. Literally.
