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NEW EDEN NIGHTCLUB OPENS ON
ANNAPOLIS WATERFRONT
Annapolis, MD --
Local businessman Vander Soulridge has opened a nightclub centered on
the waterfront in Annapolis, Maryland. New Eden is a Semi-Posh Dock Side
three-story club and restaurant in Annapolis, with Valet Parking.
You enter on the middle floor, Eden, which
houses a three to four star restaurant. Stone worked floors cover the
expansive bar and dining area. The bar itself is made of stone. A small
channel is carved down the middle through which a small trickle of
running water flows, continuing down to the end of the bar where it
cascades down a small waterfall and into an indoor pond, complete with
koi and greenery. The Fountain for the pond is a impressively sculpted
coiled dragon around a golden apple. Water flows from its open mouth,
down its body and into the water's below. mini white lights hidden like
fireflies in the ficus trees that line the walls, crystal votive holders
and torch-light lanterns provide the lighting for the room, and soft
music plays though there is a small dais platform behind the pond set up
for the occasional live entertainment.
Eden Ascending is apparently a third floor
private VIP area. After going up along vine-covered white stairs, you
enter into the large open top floor. Looking out over the waterfront,
the ceiling is painted with opalescent painted clouds, the walls lined
with statues of various religious iconic themes; some pagan, some
Christian, some of other religions of the world. Music in this room
takes on a more Jazz feel, like and soothing, the smells warm and
pleasant.
Eden Descending is marked by stairs that are
of stark black stone, and not open for review at this time.
The club is very popular with local Navy personnel and other military
contractors stationed in the area.
Sgt. Tipper, 'a good dog,' becomes
honorary VFW member
By MAC McLEAN, Danville Register & Bee
DANVILLE, Va. -- As members of Danville's
Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 647 conducted business behind closed
doors, many of their wives gathered in the post's lounge and talked
about their newest honorary member--a German shepherd named Tipper.
"I wished I had the honor of meeting Sgt. Tipper," Judy Cramer said
Thursday night as she served drinks from behind the bar and set up a
refreshment table for a reception following the meeting.
One woman in the lounge who had such an honor was Kathryn Geyer, who saw
Tipper every time she visited her in-laws' house in Chatham. "He was a
good dog and we loved him a lot," she said. "I don't think that he ever
got into any trouble." Geyer said her husband, Kenneth, often bragged
about Tipper to his friends--with good reason.
Tipper was one of the Marine Corp's Devil Dogs, a group of Dobermans and
German shepherds that assisted American soldiers during World War II.
His service record, which Kenneth Geyer tracked down last winter, tells
the story of how Tipper enlisted in the Marine Corps on Feb. 10, 1945.
A few months later, he went through basic obedience and messenger
training at Camp Lejeune's War Dog Training School. He then traveled
across the Pacific Ocean aboard the USS Kit Carson and arrived for duty
on the island of Guam on June 11, 1945.
Eleven months later, Tipper was honorably
discharged and described as a soldier of "excellent" character by his
commanding officer, Capt. Nils Nilsson. "I think if they are entitled to
be a member, they should be a member," Vicki Spain said, acknowledging
that Post 647's decision to give Tipper membership may have been
controversial.
"That dog protected my freedom," Cramer said, recalling the service of
other dogs used in the military, including those used to find hidden
traps and mine fields in Vietnam and those used today to detect hidden
explosive devices in Iraq.
Tipper, who was just 2 years old when he joined the Marine Corps, lived
happily for 10 years after he left the Marine Corps. But it wasn't until
last winter that Tipper got the credit he deserved.
Kenneth Geyer, remembering his old dog, launched a massive effort that
enlisted the help of U.S. Rep. Virgil Goode to track down Tipper's
service record from the National Archives. A few months ago, he
approached members of VFW Post 647--which coincidentally was Tipper's
serial number--about making Tipper an honorary member of the
organization.
"He's so proud that Tipper's being recognized," Kathryn Geyer said. "I
just wish we had better pictures of the dog."
Kathryn Geyer said Tipper's military service is a normal trait for the
Geyer family. Tipper's owner, Vernon Geyer, fought in World War I.
Kenneth Geyer eventually followed Tipper across the Pacific, serving as
part of the occupational forces in Japan after the war.
The Geyers' son recently retired from the National Guard after serving
for 30 years. Next month, their grandson, Kevin, is heading to Iraq with
a North Carolina National Guard unit. "He's a smart kid. He's going to
do all right," Kenneth Geyer said, trying to reassure his wife.
POLICE NEWS
LITTLE DEATH ESCAPE
FROM ST. ELIZABETH'S HOSPITAL FUELS INVESTIGATION
SOUTHEAST DC --
The Christmastime escape of two patients at St.
Elizabeth's Hospital has sparked an internal investigation
into the security at the government-run institution. The two
missing patients, Stuart Dixon and Hank Bukalski, were being
held not only for treatment but for their connections to the
Little Death drug investigation, still ongoing.
Dixon, 24, was said to be very
ill from side effects of the Little Death drug, and Bukalski
was being held on drug dealing charges as well as having
been declared criminally insane in the murder of fellow GWU
student Harmony Neal several weeks ago.
Doctors at St. Elizabeth's have
urged Dixon to turn himself in before he dies of untreated
complications. He is clinically Schizophrenic and has
Delusions.
If anyone locates these men,
please do not approach them. Call 911. DCPD is requesting
anyone with information to please contact them as soon as
possible at Crime Stoppers (202) 555-1000.
The District of Columbia
Department of Health Services is investigating procedures at
St. Elizabeth's for any non-compliance or irregularities.
PROMINENT REAL ESTATE
AND ESTATE LAW FIRM DEVASTATED BY DUAL PARTNER DEATHS
NORTHWEST WASHINGTON, DC --
Several months ago, Senior Partner at Redmond
and Davis, Esqrs. Kent Redmond was discovered
dead at a mysterious downtown office building fire in
Midtown. The Arson investigation on this event ended with
inconclusive findings and was closed.
The Real Estate and Estate Law firm was dealt
another brutal blow to its practice earlier this week, with
the sudden death of its remaining founding partner, Richard
"Skip" Davis, 57, a Yale Alumni who was a regular at Skull
and Bones, an exclusive Gentleman's Private Country Club in
Northwest DC which appears to be taking advantage of the
notoriety of the original secret society at Davis's Alma
Mater.
Davis was rushed to George Washington
University Hospital last week with chest pains which hit him
during a deposition at his law office on Connecticut Avenue.
He suffered a myocardial infarction and slipped into a coma
lasting a few days, after which his family elected to
disconnect life support in deference to his Living Will.
Davis was well-connected in the "old guard"
in the city, and some of his clients read like a guest list
for a White House dinner. He is survived by his wife of 31
years, Margaret Wilson Davis, 3 children, and 10
grandchildren.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests
donations be made to the Skip Davis Memorial Endowed Chair
in Law at the George Washington University Foundation.
A private service will be held at the
Woodlawn Country Club in Washington.
ttorney at Law
Mark S. Davis
Attorney at Law
Mark S. Davis
Attorney at Law
ADVICE COLUMN:
Monica Garrett
Dear Monica,
I am looking for impartial advice. My fiancé and I are getting married
next month. My mother-in-law has always been good, not interfering, or
manipulative. Until now. She is in charge of the rehearsal dinner and
instead of having it catered, she decided to host a barbeque. I was
disappointed but agreed. My fiancé and I gave her the list of the
invitees and now she says that she has family in town, about six people,
who she is including at the dinner. She knows my feelings and is
blatantly disregarding them. I told her to forget about the dinner, I
would host it myself in a restaurant. Now she says that she will not be
attending my dinner. My fiancé and I agree that this OUR wedding and we
should be able to have things the way WE want them. She has no right to
dictate to us. I don’t want my mother in law to walk all over me. I
think I deserve an apology.
Sincerely,
Bride to Be Soon
Dear Bride to be Soon,
I DO think an apology is in order. I think you should get off your
prima-donna high-horse and along with your fiancé, beg your
mother-in-law’s pardon for your rudeness. Imagine telling the hosts whom
they can invite. This is not how honored guests behave. Just because you
are getting married does not mean that the world revolves around you.
Your mother-in-law is not walking all over you; she is getting out of
your way.
CLASSIFIED ADS
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Hydrogen: The Next Fuel for
Laptops?
By Therese Poletti, Mercury News
SAN FRANCISCO, CA (SiliconValley.com) --
A small New Jersey company is working on a hydrogen-fueled battery that
it hopes will eventually provide eight hours of power for laptop
computers.
At Intel's Developer Forum in San Francisco on Tuesday, Millennium Cell
demonstrated an IBM ThinkPad running on a prototype of the battery. Most
notebook computers today can run for three or four hours on a fully
charged battery. So far, Millennium Cell's runs for only three hours,
but the goal is to increase that performance to eight hours.
Many companies are looking for ways to boost the longevity of laptop
batteries, including a slew of start-ups that Intel has invested in.
And big laptop makers like Toshiba, NEC and others are working on fuel
cell technology, mostly based on methanol. Casio, Sony and Samsung are
developing fuel cell technology as well. Canon recently presented a
paper at a symposium in Japan discussing a prototype of a
hydrogen-powered micro fuel cell for video cameras and other devices.
Millennium Cell's product is unusual in that it uses hydrogen and sodium
borohydride. In its current state, the Millennium Cell battery looks a
bit like a science project. The company outfitted an IBM ThinkPad laptop
with a fuel cell that is 6 millimeters thick. The fuel cell fits across
the top of the notebook casing. In the future, the fuel cell would be
designed inside the laptop's casing.
A cartridge a little larger than a cassette tape provides the fuel and
is attached to the laptop by a thin tube. The tube plugs into the slot
for the power cord on the laptop. The battery works by initially storing
sodium borohydride as a solution in the cartridge. This solution passes
through a fuel pump and moves into a catalyst chamber, which triggers a
reaction.
 The
reaction causes hydrogen to be released from the liquid fuel. The
hydrogen then moves to the fuel cell in the laptop, where it mixes with
oxygen. Oxygen is let into the laptop through a series of perforated
holes in the laptop casing.
The reaction of hydrogen and oxygen creates
electricity. Water is a byproduct of this reaction, but the water leaves
the fuel cell as a vapor, said Adam Briggs, a Millennium senior vice
president.
For now, the possibility of a hydrogen-fueled laptop battery is still at
least two years off. Millennium, based in Eatontown, N.J., came to
Intel's conference to make contacts with personal computer makers who
might want to incorporate the technology into future laptop designs.
Millennium Cell said its goal is to make a battery that will cost PC
makers about $25. It would sell the battery as an extra battery to
consumers for about $150, the price of a standard secondary laptop
battery. ``If we can keep the cost south of $75 in terms of cost to the
manufacturers, we should be in pretty good shape,'' Briggs said.
On Monday, the company announced a joint venture with Dow Chemical to
collaborate on developing and commercializing portable fuel cells for
use by consumers and the military. ``We want to help take it from a
science-project-like product to a real product,'' said Chris McDougall,
Dow's program manager for portable energy in Midland, Mich.
As part of the agreement, Dow Chemical is buying an equity interest in
Millennium equal to 3 percent of the company, with an option to buy up
to 19.9 percent of Millennium Cell. Millennium Cell initially focused on
fuel cell batteries for cars. But in 2003, with costs for fuel cell
batteries for cars still too high, the company decided to switch to
batteries for portable devices. It has also been developing prototype
battery packs for the U.S. Air Force.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
666 or 616?
University of Birmingham (England)
professor, working from a third-century Greek text of the New
Testament's Book of Revelation, found that the number representing the
Antichrist is probably not 666, but 616 (in that 616 referred to the
Emperor Caligula).
 From
The Independent (London) -- A
newly discovered fragment of the oldest surviving copy of the New
Testament indicates that, as far as the Antichrist goes, theologians,
scholars, heavy metal groups, and television evangelists have got the
wrong number. Instead of 666, it's actually the far less ominous 616.
The new fragment from the Book of Revelation, written in ancient Greek
and dating from the late third century, is part of a hoard of previously
unintelligible manuscripts discovered in historic dumps outside
Oxyrhynchus in Egypt. Now a team of expert classicists, using new
photographic techniques, are finally deciphering the original writing.
Professor David Parker, Professor of New Testament Textual Criticism and
Paleography at the University of Birmingham, thinks that 616, although
less memorable than 666, is the original. He said: "This is an example
of gematria, where numbers are based on the numerical values of letters
in people's names. Early Christians would use numbers to hide the
identity of people who they were attacking: 616 refers to the Emperor
Caligula."
The Book of Revelation is traditionally considered to be written by
John, a disciple of Jesus; it identifies 666 as the mark of the
Antichrist. In America, the fundamentalist Christian right often use the
number in sermons about the coming Apocalypse.
They and Satanists responded coolly to the new "Revelation". Peter
Gilmore, High Priest of the Church of Satan, based in New York, said:
"By using 666 we're using something that the Christians fear. Mind you,
if they do switch to 616 being the number of the beast then we'll start
using that."
S. Africa Anti-rape Condom to Stop Attacks
(Reuters) KLEINMOND, South Africa -
A South African inventor unveiled a new anti-rape f emale
condom on Wednesday that hooks onto an attacker's penis and aims to cut
one of the highest rates of sexual assault in the world. "Nothing has
ever been done to help a woman so that she does not get raped and I
thought it was high time," Sonette Ehlers, 57, said of the "rapex", a
device worn like a tampon that has sparked controversy in a country used
to daily reports of violent crime.
Police statistics show more than 50,000 rapes are reported every year,
while experts say the real figure could be four times that as they say
most rapes of acquaintances or children are never reported.
Ehlers said the "rapex" hooks onto the rapist's skin, allowing the
victim time to escape and helping to identify perpetrators. "He will
obviously be too pre-occupied at this stage," she told reporters in
Kleinmond, a small holiday village about 100km (60 miles) east of Cape
Town. "I promise you he is going to be too sore. He will go straight to
hospital."
The device, made of latex and held firm by shafts of sharp barbs, can
only be removed from the man through surgery which will alert hospital
staff, and ultimately, the police, she said. It also reduces the chances
of a woman falling pregnant or contracting AIDS and other sexually
transmitted diseases from the attacker by acting in the same way as a
female condom
Ehlers, who showed off a prototype on Wednesday, said women had tried it
for comfort and it had been tested on a plastic male model but not yet
on a live man. Production was planned to start next year.
But the "rapex" has raised fears amongst anti-rape activists that it
could escalate violence against women. "If a victim is wearing such a
device it may enrage the attacker further and possibly result in more
harm being caused," said Sam Waterhouse, advocacy co-ordinator for Rape
Crisis.
Other critics say the condom is mediaeval and barbaric -- an accusation
Ehlers says should be directed rather at the act of rape. "This is not
about vengeance ... but the deed, that is what I hate," she said.
Jailed
Mexican Businessman Sews Lips Shut Over Case
 Mexico
City (Reuters) - A jailed businessman who is accused of bribing some
of Mexico City’s most powerful politicians sewed his lips shut on Monday
to protest the criminal charges against him.
Carlos Ahumada, an Argentine nationalized in Mexico, was arrested in
Cuba and has been jailed since last year when a local television station
broadcast video of him giving bundles of cash to Mexico City
politicians. He allegedly was trying to win lucrative government
contracts.
The scandal ended the political career of a leading left-wing politician
who was his lover at the time. It also hurt the left-wing Party of the
Democratic Revolution, or PRD, whose politicians were shown taking money
from Ahumada.
The scandal could prove damaging to Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who was
the popular Mexico City mayor at the time of the payoffs and a leader of
the PRD.
Ahumada, who is also on a hunger strike, had pledged to sew his lips
shut if his case was not resolved before Lopez Obrador, Mexico’s most
popular politician, stepped down to seek the presidency.
Lopez Obrador left office on Friday and is the current favorite in next
year’s race to replace conservative President Vicente Fox, who is barred
by the constitution from seeking reelection at the end of his six-year
term.
Last month a judge threw out money laundering charges against one of the
officials shown on tape taking money from Ahumada. Leftist Mexico City
lawmaker Rene Bejarano has said he took the cash for a political
campaign and never pocketed any of it. The judge ordered Bejarano
released, though he faces lesser charges.
ENTERTAINMENT NEWS:
KITTY'S KORNER
From regular columnist
Kitty Whittier
Welcome back, gentle readers.
Easy come, easy go, I suppose... It seems that just as we
finally discern who the mystery blonde is, who has
been frequently seen around Dark Asgard with our favorite lothario,
Loki, she is snatched out from under his nose by a very studious looking
local student and bookworm.
The blonde turns out to be SAIS (Hopkins) Student and
Embassy of Ireland staffer Siobhan O'Brannon, and just in the nick of
time she has announced her engagement to Mr. Caleb Brown of Rhode
Island, a student at George Washington University. We certainly hope
he's also bought her a crane to help carry around the massive rock on
her hand.
A December wedding is planned, thus leaving plenty of
time to plan the guest lists, choose the gown, and sort out the pre-nup
and which country the kids will visit every other weekend.
Lucky Loki dodged this bullet but good! A thousand
teenaged girls in black are sighing in relief tonight.
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