4 December, 2004 by the Associated Press
HOBART, Indiana (AP) -- A woman's effort to assuage her 6-year-old son's fears of his grandfather's ghost by selling it on eBay has drawn more than 34 bids with a top offer of $78.
Mary Anderson said she placed her father's "ghost" on the online auction site after her son, Collin, said he was afraid the ghost would return someday. Anderson said Collin has avoided going anywhere in the house alone since his grandfather died last year.
In a description titled "This isn't a joke," Anderson told Collin's story on eBay:
"I always thought it was just normal kid fears until a few months ago he told me why he was so scared. He told me 'Grandpa died here, and he was mean. His ghost is still around here!"'
Lest the boy's fears scare off potential bidders, Anderson added, "My dad was the sweetest most caring man you'd ever meet."
Some of the prospective buyers have posted their own messages.
"Your story brought tears to my eyes," one bidder said. "I just wonder how this will turn out for your son. I'm sure his Grandfather loved him very much."
Anderson also put her father's metal walking cane up for auction so she would have something to actually send the winning bidder. The proceeds from the auction will go to buy Collin a special present, she said.
Anderson makes one special request of the winner bidder: "I would like to ask you to write a letter after you've received the cane (and the ghost) to my son letting him know that he's there with you and you're getting along great."
The bidding is due to close Monday afternoon.
A message left with San Jose, California-based eBay Inc. in San Jose, California, was not immediately returned Saturday.
By JAMES BARRON
The New York Times, October 8, 2004
A certain long-running musical had lots of singable names for the animals that purr and meow: practical cats, dramatical cats, pragmatical cats, fanatical cats. Oratorical cats, Delphic oracle cats, skeptical cats, dyspeptical cats. Political cats, hypocritical cats, clerical cats, hysterical cats. Cynical cats, rabbinical cats.
There were no cloned cats in "Cats." But yesterday, two of them landed in New York in preparation for what the people traveling with them said would be the first display of cloned kittens at the annual cat show at Madison Square Garden, which begins tomorrow.
Actually, the two kittens and the donor cat landed in Teterboro, N.J., in a chartered jet. Then, like celebrities, they were driven to Midtown Manhattan in a limousine.
Of course they had an entourage. It included executives of the California company that brought them into being, a company whose name is likely to prompt pun haters to caterwaul: Genetic Savings & Clone.
The two cloned cats are named Tabouli and Baba Ganoush. They are 4 months old. They are genetic duplicates of Tahini, a female Bengal cat who made the trip with them, but in a separate carrier. The two clones were carried by different mothers - one a tortoiseshell, the other a Lynx Point (a breed many cat lovers call a color point Siamese).
Lou Hawthorne, the chief executive of Genetic Savings, said Tabouli had "this health issue" - conjunctivitis, a malady also known as pinkeye, which is being treated with antibiotics. He did not want Tabouli's face photographed, even though, from across a crowded hotel room, Tabouli's eye did not look as bad as if, say, Baba Ganoush had taken a hard swipe at her.
They appeared as playful as any two kittens who had just endured a long airplane flight and were now exploring a strange place. Tabouli sniffed the bed and seemed fascinated by a photographer's camera. Baba Ganoush chased a toy that looked like a tiger's tail when Pam DelaBar, the president of the Cat Fanciers' Association, dangled it in front of her.
Mr. Hawthorne sprawled on the bed with the two cats. He said the company had several "pregnancies in progress" and talked about Peaches, the 8-week-old clone of Mango, an orange cat that belongs to Leslie Ungerer, the animal handler who was keeping watch on Tabouli and Baba Ganoush. Mr. Hawthorne said the company would deliver five cloned cats in the next few months.
Mr. Hawthorne said the idea for Genetic Savings began with - horrors - a dog. He said he was having breakfast with a friend in 1997, after Dolly the sheep had been cloned. "His dog Missy, a great dog, was under the table at that moment, and he said, 'You know, we ought to clone Missy.' ''
It turned out that cloning a dog is harder than cloning a cat, and after being deluged with cat owners wanting exact copies of Tigger or Muffie, the company financed a grant to Texas A&M University. A cloned cat called Cc - the abbreviation for carbon copy, pronounced "see-see" - was born there in December 2001.
Everything has a price. Genetic Savings & Clone charges $50,000 for a cloned cat and $295 to $1,395 to store a cat's genetic material.
And the Missy clone? Missy - three-quarters border collie and one-quarter Siberian husky - died in 2002. But the company has her genetic material in storage.
The Cat Fanciers' Association, which produces the annual cat show and maintains the world's largest registry of pedigreed cats, is setting up a gene bank with Genetic Savings.
Allen Scruggs, the show chairman, described the cat fanciers' group as "a very old and very conservative organization." He said its interest in cat cloning reflected its interest "in showing the world that we were not so stuffy and fuddy-duddy - that we were aware of what technology has presented the animal world."
"We had heard this discussed on and on and on," he said, "and it finally happened. There is huge interest in the cloning of cats."
Mr. Hawthorne said the bank would "rigorize the registration" of cats.
"Right now, when C.F.A. establishes a pedigree, that pedigree is based to some extent on honor and reputation, signatures on documents and so on," he said. "There's really no scientific backup that the claimed pedigree is the pedigree." The bank could provide that, he said, and could store cells for cloning as well.
So what about Tabouli and Baba Ganoush? He said he had intended to adopt Tabouli, but his sister pre-empted him and adopted both cloned cats.
"It's really fun to see how much personality they have," he said. "I like seeing the personality similarities as well as the differences. We've been hearing critics say for years, 'There won't be any personality similarities, and they won't even look that much alike.' We've seen how much they look alike, and we've seen dramatic personality similarities. We've seen some differences as well. It's something to reflect on. If you have it right in front of you, it's like having a nature-nurture experiment right in your living room."
By PATRICK E. TYLER
Published: September 13, 2004
Jason Hatch, a Fathers 4 Justice campaigner, protesting on a balcony at Buckingham Palace in London.
LONDON, Sept. 13 — A group that advocates greater rights for fathers in child custody cases sent two of its operatives over the fence at Buckingham Palace today and one of them, dressed as Batman, scampered up a ladder to a ledge near the Queen's balcony, setting off a security alert and a tense standoff with police.
Queen Elizabeth II and other members of the royal family were not in residence and were said to be at Balmoral Castle in Scotland on holiday. The intruder, later identified as Jason Hatch, 33, of Cheltenham, unfurled a banner on the edifice of the British monarchy's massive state residence that said "Super Dads of fathers 4 justice, fighting for your right to your kids." Although there have been numerous breeches of royal security over the years, Britons seemed startled by the ease with which palace security was overrun by two men in super hero costumes carrying an extension ladder.
For the next several hours, Mr. Hatch waved at befuddled crowds of tourists denied access to the popular Buckingham Palace tour in its final weeks of the summer season. He also engaged in an uneasy repartee with embarrassed police and palace security officials who tried to talk him down from the ledge.
After five and a half hours, he removed his batman mask and agreed to come down. Police used a crane to extract him from the ledge as his supporters chanted "free Batman" from behind a police cordon.
The breech raised immediate questions about the state of security for the royal family and Britain's other governmental institutions at a time when British intelligence services continue to warn that London is a prime target for the Al Qaeda terrorist network and affiliated groups.
This was the latest in the modern history of royal intrusions. In 1982, the Queen awoke one morning to find a man, Michael Fagan, sitting on her bed. She conversed with him for 30 minutes before he was arrested. In 1994, a naked American paraglider, James Miller, landed on the palace roof. He was deported.
But there have been life-threatening assaults as well, such as the attempted kidnapping of Princess Anne in 1974.
Fathers 4 Justice is a purely domestic and non-violent group that has employed increasingly daring publicity stunts to draw attention to its cause.
The same group temporarily shut down the House of Commons four months ago when it pelted Prime Minister Tony Blair, who was addressing the body, with condoms filled with purple flour from the visitors gallery, prompting new security measures in Parliament.
On Saturday, one of its members, dressed as Spiderman, scaled the giant London Eye Ferris wheel, causing the attraction to be shut down for several hours.
Last year, Buckingham Palace's security underwent a thorough review after a reporter for the tabloid Daily Mirror got a job as one of the Queen's footmen shortly before the visit of President Bush. The tabloid stunt was designed to demonstrate how easy it was to breech palace procedures for screening personnel. The Mirror exposé led to a major security review that is now under question.
"Were not terrorists, were not subversives, were just decent dads," said Dave Pyke, who approached reporters on the palace square. He was wearing a Robin costume and identified himself as Mr. Hatch's accomplice. Mr. Pyke said he was going up the same ladder that Mr. Hatch had used moments before to get onto the palace grounds when a police officer told me to come down or he'd shoot me.
Mr. Pyke was arrested by police and taken into a nearby police van for questioning.
Late this afternoon, police moved a yellow cherry picker crane into the palace grounds and positioned it below where Mr. Hatch stood on the ledge, but police appeared to be in no hurry to force a confrontation with the intruder, who had nowhere to go and seemed intent on getting extensive national news coverage for the group.
A spokesman for the prime minister's office said that given the complexity and strong emotions surrounding custody issues, the publicity stunts were not an appropriate or effective means to advance the group's cause.
Out on the street, Roxanne Bond of San Diego, a former policewoman, said she was sure that police would just wait him out.
"They have all the time in the world and don't want to risk confronting him and doing anything that would cause him to go berserk," she said. But she betrayed some exasperation, however, as Mr. Hatch's demonstration was keeping her and her mother from visiting the palace.
"This is the kind of stuff they do in California," she said, "I hope it isn't going to blow my chance to see the inside."
By Rachel La Corte, Associated Press Writer | September 7, 2004
MIAMI -- For anyone who didn't get enough of Hurricane Frances as it blew through Florida, remnants of the storm are for sale.
More than 170 items were listed on eBay's Internet auction site Monday, a day after the eye of the Category 2 storm came ashore.
The starting bid for Tupperware filled with wind was a penny. Photos showed Broward County residents running around with the containers "catching" the wind. Surprisingly, someone had already bid $10 for one of the four containers.
Somebody had bid $6.99 for beach sand a Broward County surfer had collected. Three Frances survivors had bid 15 cents each to have a woman pray for them.
One-cent vials of rain that fell in Orlando as the storm passed over had no bids. Neither did a woman's offer to sell the T-shirt she wore during the storm, nor did the request by a Longwood resident for someone to help get a large oak tree off of the seller's home and car.
"Winning bidder will receive branches, leaves, sticks, stumps, whatever you would like!" ... What a conversation piece! ... You can own a part of meteoroligical (sic) history!"
Carol Baroudi, industry analyst and author of The Internet For Dummies, said "I think these are all tongue in cheek. I don't think anyone's serious about these things. I think it's trying to find a sense of humor, which is a good thing."
Ebay has canceled auctions that coincide with tragedies, such as items billed as debris from the space shuttle Columbia or pieces of the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
Ebay officials did not return a phone call seeking comment about the Frances auctions.
When Hurricane Charley tore through southwest Florida, causing 27 deaths and billions of dollars in damages, the same type of auctions popped up. Pieces of damaged homes, signs and bottled rain all made it to eBay.
"It's a different kind of thing," Baroudi said. "So far I don't think it's crossed the line of totally tasteless. I don't see anybody being victimized by this stuff. I've seen a lot of positive stuff here."
But some people in the path of Frances didn't find the humor in the various auctions. The storm damaged homes and businesses and at least four people were killed.
"This is a disaster," said 77-year-old Gloria Aragona, who was evacuated with her husband from their Palm Bay mobile home. "It's nothing to make money on."
Bears in the news, part 3
Bear escapes in latest breakout from city zoo
Original Story
Reuters, August 30, 2004
BERLIN, Aug 30 (Reuters) - An Andean spectacled bear escaped from its enclosure in Berlin zoo and roamed around a children's playground -- the second breakout since June, when a gorilla leapt over its fence, the zoo's deputy director said on Monday.
"There was no panic among visitors and no real danger," when Juan hauled himself over a wall and made for the carousel, said Heiner Kloes, "but I was alarmed at how some fathers were too busy filming the bear to check where their children were."
Staff shot anaesthetic darts at the 110 kilo (242 lb) bear to knock him out and are now reviewing zoo security. "Spectacled bears eat both vegetables and meat but children tend not to be on their menu," Kloes said. "I'd have been a lot more worried if one of our polar bears had escaped."
Taxi driver returns silver medal left in his cab
Original
ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- A taxi driver returned a silver medal left in his cab by Dutch rower Simon Diederik, Olympics organizers said Wednesday.
Diederik left the medal, which he won Sunday, in a taxi on Monday evening.
After an announcement about the loss to all 5,000 taxis working that night, the medal was handed over to organizers and will be given to the athlete.
The driver will be given a gift for returning the medal, organizers said
More bears in the news!
Bear not discouraged by rock 'n' roll
AP, August 23, 2004
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) -- Not even loud rock 'n' roll music could discourage a 350-pound bear that repeatedly raided plums and watermelons from a couple's garden.
Eldon and Gerry Nihues hung a radio from the plum tree, tuned it into a rock station and turned it up loud in hopes of scaring off the bear, which helped itself to about 50 watermelons, including 11 in one night.
"It was this crazy rock stuff that was playing, but it didn't bother him," Gerry Nihues said. "He'd eat the plums right out from under where the thing was playing."
The state Division of Wildlife set out a trap, and the bear walked into it Wednesday night. Wildlife officers tranquilized the bear, tagged it and released it in a remote area.
Eight bears have been relocated from the area in the past three weeks, Division of Wildlife spokesman Randy Hampton said. More encounters are expected as bears try to fatten up before hibernating for the winter.
