Last Friday Nicholas fell while riding his bike without a helmet outside a friends house in the town of Maryborough Australia. Maryborough is 170km northwest of Melbourne. He was knocked momentarily unconscious after his head hit the pavement. His father said "He was a bit delirious at first, but then he stood up and said he was fine." Although once home he kept complaining of headaches.

The headaches would not stop so Karen Rossi, Nicholas's mother, who is a trained nurse, took the boy to the district hospital where Dr Carson was the doctor on duty. Kept there for observation Nicholas kept drifting in and out consciousness along with having spasms. The doctor believed this to be signs of a fractured skull and internal bleeding. This was the same deadly condition that took the life of actress Natasha Richardson.

Dr. Carson had to act immediately or the boy was going to die. Nicholas father recalls Dr. Carson saying "I am going to have to drill into Nicholas to relieve the pressure on the brain - we've got one shot at this and one shot only." Unfortunately the hospital was not equipped with necessary neurological drills to preform the procedure. Added to that Dr. Carson had never done that type of operation before.

Not to be stopped the good doctor acquired a De Walt drill from a hospital maintenance room. Again not having done this before he got leading Melbourne neurosurgeon David Wallace, on the phone, to walk him through the procedure. Dr Wallace told him where and how deep to drill.

Dr. Carson drilled until the blood clot came out and blood flowed from the hole. The size of the hole was increased, with forceps, to a diameter of about 1 cm, after which a drain tube was inserted to keep blood flowing out of the boys head. This relieved the pressure on the boys brain. After observing that Nicholas's symptoms were subsiding, Dr. Carson new the procedure had worked.

Dr. Carson, an obvious hero, is humble about the situation. He said "If you are in that situation you just do those things." and "It is not a personal achievement, it is just a part of the job and I had a very good team of people helping me."

Nicholas has been released from the hospital and yesterday celebrated his 13th birth day. His father said "He has started his teenage years with a bang," and "...life can change in a minute - tell your kids to always wear a helmet."

A ruling by the New York federal appeals court was thrown out by the high court due to lack of evidence. The original suit sought to bring charges of abuse, and discrimination, against form Bush administration officials such as FBI chief Robert Mueller, former attorney general John Ashcroft and others.

The plaintiff, a Pakistani detainee named Javaid Iqbal, as the court put it, "fails to plead sufficient facts to state a claim for purposeful and unlawful discrimination against petitioners." Mr. Iqbal was arrested, in 2001,on and immigration violation and in 2002 he was incarcerated in New York maximum-security prison for 5 month.

Iqbal says that despite having no charges brought against him, he was kept in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day and was repeatedly strip searched. He says this was the plight of hundreds of Arab Muslims and in his suit he attempted to show "...pattern of mistreatment of and discrimination against Muslim detainees by Bush administration officials as they conducted the "war on terror" and rooted out suspects in the United States and abroad."

It was Mr. Iqbal's position that even though the defendants named in the case did not personally handle the detainee's they were in fact liable for the alleged mistreatment. The court ruled that Iqbal's complaint "does not contain any factual allegation sufficient to plausibly suggest petitioners' discriminatory state of mind." and that "Respondent must plead sufficient matter to show that petitioners adopted and implemented the detention policies at issue not for a neutral investigative reason but for the purpose of discriminating on account of race, religion, or national origin,."

The court said that after 9/11 more that 1,000 suspects were questioned about links they had to the attacks and that the attacks were carried out by Arab Muslims. Justice Kennedy wrote:

"it should come as no surprise that a legitimate policy directing law enforcement to arrest and detain individuals because of their suspected link to the attack would produce a disparate, incidental impact on Arab Muslims, even though the purpose of the policy was to target neither Arab nor Muslims."

Had Mr. Iqbal' won his case it would have paved the way for other cases against former Bush-era officials. But with this ruling, from the Supreme Court, the case now is headed back to the lower courts for further review. This means the case is not closed but, detainee's and human right groups view this a serious set back in their push to bring charges against Senior Bush administration officials.

At the present time unmanned "military rolling robots," and "flying drones" are under the control of a human counter part. But in the future this may not always be the case. Next generation unmanned military equipment may not have a human in the equation at all. The decision to shot, or bomb, may be made by the unmanned vehicle it self.

Professor of computer science at Georgia Tech, Ronald Arkin, is just beginning the process for developing what he calls an "ethical governor." It will be a combination of software and hardware that will tell a robot when, and at what to fire. He is currently writing a book on the subject that has come out this month. The book is called "Governing Lethal Behavior in Autonomous Robots"

His argument is that military robots can perform "more ethically", on the battlefield, with this new programing and hardware, than human soldiers. Arikin says "Ultimately these systems could have more information to make wiser decisions than a human could make." and that Some robots are already stronger, faster and smarter than humans. We want to do better than people, to ultimately save more lives."

Weapons systems like iRobot's SWORDS or QinetiQ's MAARS robots currently deployed in Afghanistan and Pakistan still have a human making the decisions. And this won't change anytime soon as Arkin's ethical govenor is at this point "...designed for a more traditional war where civilians have evacuated the war zone and anyone pointing a weapon at U.S. troops can be considered a target."

Arkin has the arduous task of converting to code some 150 years of military law into instruction robots can use to use to make these lethal decisions. He does not believe this is as hard a task as making the programing for other types of artificial intelligence. 150 years of wars of law make it clear what is acceptable and what is not, according to Arkin. He said "We tell soldiers what is right and wrong...We don't allow soldiers to develop ethics on their own."

In a short post Sullivan quotes opponents, and proponents, of the federal hate crimes bill and concludes that the real reason for the law is to raise money rather that to prevent crime. He sites the Matthew Shepard case as an example.

Sullivan says "Matthew Shepard's murderers were successfully prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law in a state with no hate crimes law at the time." i.e. murder is already illegal. He said the real reason for the law is "...special interest groups which need boutique legislation to raise funds for their large staffs and luxurious buildings." He spacifically calls out the Human Right Campaign. He wonders aloud "...how many direct mail pieces have gone out explaining that without more money for HRC, more gay human beings will be crucified on fences." He calls it a powerful tool to make money. He notes the this as a possible reason for the bill not having passed yet.

He notes that even defenders of the bill think the "federal boondoggle is superfluous - given the vast number of states with such laws on the books." He is afraid that the Obama administration will use the laws passage "...as an excuse for doing nothing actually substantive to help gay citizens." He states that more would be accomplished by getting rid of the "...disgusting ban on gay servicemembers." He admonishes his readers to stop sending checks to the HRC who uses the hates crime bill as money making tool.

NPR's "Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me" is modeled after old fashion quiz shows and test a contestants knowledge of current news stories. The program is hosted by playwright Peter Sagal and newscaster Carl Kasell.

Mr. Axelrod is former journalist with a reputation for his "snappy sound bites." And he did not disappoint during his appearance on the program. He joked about subjects ranging from Obama's perfection to the current dust up caused by Carrie Prejean with her comment at the Miss America contest.

When he was queried about his influence about the choice of the First Dog Bo Axelrod came back with “I was only called in for the final three, and one was Miss California.”

When Peter Sagal asked him if whether he's "an evil or a benevolent genius” Axelrod took that as a comparison to former White house adviser Karl Rove. He fired back that he was nothing like Rove who he says "tried to run the Republican Party [from] out of the White House.” Also noting that "he's not an ideologue but an idealist whose goal is to help communicate whatever message the president decides is best."

When he was pushed harder on the subject of his influence over President Obama he said that his it was "minimal" and that his big play to give his advice to the president was done by “passing a note to the person on the left.”

The strangest statement of the night came when the hosts tried to poke fun at President Obama with question related to "obscure failed Utopias" In response Mr. Axelrod strongly insisted that "despite hurdles in the campaign, the Obama administration was meant to be."

Coming in the yearly "Values and Beliefs survey" Gallop found that 51% of Americans now identify themselves as Pro-life versus 42% calling themselves Pro-Choice. This appears to be a significant shift over last year where the result stood at 50% Pro-Choice and 44% Pro-Life. Prior to that the number for Pro-life respondents had only reached a peak of 46% in August 2001 and May 2002.

Respondents were given three choices about the legality of abortion. It was nearly a tie between those on the "extremes" of the issue. Those who believe the procedure should be illegal under any circumstances verses those who believe it should be legal under any circumstances. The numbers were 22% to 23% respectively. This has remained even like this since Gallop started asking the question. The middle option, those who believe abortion should be legal only under certain circumstances, has also remained steady at 53%.

Probing the middle position further the poll found that the highest percentage of the respondents believed that abortion should only be legal in just a few circumstances. The numbers confirm the results on two other recent surveys. That of the Gallop Daily Tracking poll, and a recent Pew Research Center poll.

In the Pew Poll there has been an eight point decline in those who say abortion should be legal in all or most cases. It declined from 54% to 46%. Those answering that abortion should be legal in only a few or no cases increased from 41% to 44% .

The increase in the polling numbers is due to increases among the members of certain groups. First the numbers among Republicans, including those independents who lean Republican, has gone up 10% from 60 to 70%. Also up are the numbers among those identifying themselves as Protestant or Catholic. For Protestants there has been a seven point increase and for Catholics the percentage for those calling themselves Pro-Life has gone up eight points.

When the numbers are broken down by gender 49% of women identify themselves Pro-LIfe versus 44% calling themselves Pro-Choice. The advantage also goes to the Pro-Life side among men. In this most recent poll 54% responding said that they are Pro-Life as opposed to only 39% for the Pro-Choice position.

Gallops bottom line of the survey is as follows.

With the first pro-choice president in eight years already making changes to the nation's policies on funding abortion overseas, expressing his support for the Freedom of Choice Act, and moving toward rescinding federal job protections for medical workers who refuse to participate in abortion procedures, Americans -- and, in particular, Republicans -- seem to be taking a step back from the pro-choice position. However, the retreat is evident among political moderates as well as conservatives.

It is possible that, through his abortion policies, Obama has pushed the public's understanding of what it means to be "pro-choice" slightly to the left, politically. While Democrats may support that, as they generally support everything Obama is doing as president, it may be driving others in the opposite direction.

The results for the survey are gotten from telephone interviews with 1,015 national adults. The people responding were 18 years or older. The poll was conducted May 7-10, 2009. The poll has a maximum margin of sampling error is ±3 percentage points.

The citizens of the south-west city of Chongqing are none to happy about the latest attraction opening soon their city. It's China's first sex themed amusement park and the locals think it's "vulgar."

Lu Xiaoqing, the parks manager, says the idea came from South Korea's sex themed park in the city of Jeju. The park will open in October of this year and it is hoped that this attraction will "will improve sex education and help adults enjoy a harmonious sex life."

Once inside visitors are treated to exhibits of giant replicas of genitals, naked human sculptures, and "history of sex and sexual practices in other countries." You can also take a sex techniques workshop and get anti-AIDS information, including how to use a condom.

Lu Xiaoqing told the China Daily, the state news paper "We are building the park for the good of the public. I have found that the majority of people support my idea, but I have to pay attention and not make the park look vulgar and nasty."

Some who object to the park are people like Liu Daiwei, a female Chongqing police officer. She said "These things are too exposed. I will feel uncomfortable looking at them when other people are around." An unnamed commentator on the Chinese website Sina echoed these sentiments. The commentator said "Chinese people did not treat sex as boldly as foreigners" and that "These vulgar sex installations will only make people sick."

There are those who think it's a good idea. A "sexual attitudes" expert from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said "The fact that the park has been built shows the change and that open attitudes to sex are now mainstream." She sites a study showing that premarital sex has risen from 16% in 1989 to more than 60% in 2004.

She attributes negative attitudes about sex due to disapproval "...from religion in the west." and that in China "it was largely rooted in a traditional focus on the family instead of individual enjoyment – leading people to deplore premarital and extramarital sex." She hopes, that through places like this, peoples attitudes will become more tolerant and positive toward sex. She notes the need, in China, to be more attentive to the female side of the issue. She sites a study where women in the west experienced orgasms about 90% of the time. Where as for Chinese women the number was only 28%.

In a mock terrorism exercise Explorer Scouts, the youngest being 14 years old, burst into a crime scene, where two people have been killed. With masks on their faces, and pellet guns at the ready they come upon a "disgruntled Iraq war veteran" who has gone on a rampage and must be stopped. “United States Border Patrol! Put your hands up!” yells one of the Scouts and the suspect is brought down.

Scouts in the program, described by one boarder patrol agent as "quite a step up from the square knot", are taught the techniques that will assist them in facing down terrorist, neutralizing "active shooters" similar to those who have attacked college campuses, and going on drug interdiction missions.

In a, don't try this a home, warning the trainers say the techniques learned are "not intended to be applied outside the simulated Explorer setting." The exercises have only been developed to show scouts what type of real life situations they might see as a law enforcement agent.

The Explorer Scouts are affiliated with the Boy Scouts Of America. It started 60 years ago as a "coeducational" program that as the article says was set up to train scouts to "confront terrorism, illegal immigration and escalating border violence." Imperial County sheriff, A. J. Lowenthal, says the program is really about "...being a true-blooded American guy and girl" and that “It fits right in with the honor and bravery of the Boy Scouts.”

The scouts taking the training give different reasons for their involvement. Sixteen year old Felix Arce says the program teaches him the discipline he is missing in his everyday life. Cathy Noriego, another 16 year old, is "attracted by the guns." She said “I like shooting them...I like the sound they make. It gets me excited.”

There are not as yet any critics of the program but the Explorer Scouts have had problems within the organization in the past. There have been civil and legal case of sexual misconduct brought against the scouts, so all Adult leaders must take an online sexual misconduct training program.

The law enforcement program is just one of 12 offered by the Explorer Scouts "Learning for Life" program. Others include the sciences, medicine, and aviation. By far though law enforcement is one of the groups most popular programs. It accounts for nearly a quarter of all Explorer Scouts. Some 35,000 of 145,000 members. To be involved in the program a scout has to be from 14 to 21in age and have a C average in school.

Also the program has been good for getting dads involved in the kids lives. They don't have soccer moms they have explorer dads. They grill burgers and donate the use of their property for the kids to use on mock marijuana field raids. And there is no playing around in these exercises. The article says the "would-be law-enforcement officers...moved down alleys where there were hidden paper targets of people pointing guns, and made split-second decisions about when to shoot. In rescuing hostages from a bus taken over by terrorists, a baby-faced young girl screamed, “Separate your feet!” as she moved to handcuff her suspect."

A simulation in Arizona included a person dressed in "traditional Arab dress." Regarding that exercise, Deputy Lowentha said, “If we’re looking at 9/11 and what a Middle Eastern terrorist would be like, then maybe your role-player would look like that. I don’t know, would you call that politically incorrect?”

They strive of authenticity. To that end they involve as many law enforcement agencies as possible. Included are the FBI, local sheriff and police departments, as well as, in the case in Imperial county, two state prisons and a large Border Patrol and immigration enforcement agencies.

Kids get an up close and personal look and law enforcement as well as a sense of what they might want to do in the future. Seventeen year old Alexandra Sanchez said, just before running off to another bus hijacking, that “I like the idea of having law enforcement work with medicine...this is a great program for me.”

Six year old Etan Patz went missing on May 25, 1979. It was the Friday before Memorial Day. He disappeared from his Soho, New York neighborhood while on his way to school. He insisted on being able to walk to the bus stop by himself just like all the other kids. Etan's parents were not keen on the idea. But, after arguing the point with Etan, his parents finally relented, and let him walk alone to the bus stop. It was not until late in the afternoon that anyone realized that Etan was missing.

Etan's mother, Julie Patz, found out her son had not been in class after he did not return home after school. She then called the homes of all his friend but could not locate Etan. She then called the police and filed a missing persons report. By that night more than "...100 police officers and searchers had gathered with bloodhounds" had joined the search for the missing boy. They were unable to find any trace of Etan. Believing that the boy was kidnapped Etan's father, Stan Patz, speculated about why he had been taken.

"In our minds there were only two possibilities," said Stan Patz, the boy's father. "Either Etan was taken by a stranger and killed or he was taken by a very sad woman desperate for a child of her own, and we hoped that such a woman would at least take care of him and keep him safe."

It was not until 1982 before there was any kind of break in the case. This was when the family learned about the arrest of a one Jose Antonio Ramos. It turns out that there was a connection between he and Etan's former babysitter. The article says

Ramos was a drifter who in 1979 lived in Alphabet City, a neighborhood not far from Soho. In 1982 he was arrested after boys in a neighborhood in the Bronx complained that he had stolen their book bags while trying to coax them into a drainpipe under a bridge, where he lived, said the Patzes and federal prosecutor Stuart GraBois, who spent years investigating the case.

When police found Ramos in his drainpipe home, they found he had many photographs of small blond boys. They noticed that they looked a lot like Etan Patz, according to author Lisa R Cohen's book about the case, "After Etan: The Missing Child Case that Held America Captive."

Bronx police questioned Ramos, and he denied having anything to do with Etan's disappearance. But he did tell police that his girlfriend used to baby-sit for the boy, GraBois said.

The Bronx and Manhattan Prosecutors followed the leads but decided that there was not enough evidence to link Mr. Ramos to the crime. He was released only after Etan's parents decide not to press charges. The case went cold and Mr Ramos disappear for 6 years until federal prosecutor Stuart GraBois reopened it.

He discovered that, in 1988, Ramos had a child molestation conviction, and that he was serving his time in a Pennsylvania prison. GraBois decided to have Mr. Ramos brought to NY for questioning. In what seemed like a Law and Order moment GraBois put a surprise questions to Ramos hoping to get him to confess. He asked "How many times did you have sex with Etan Patz?" Ramos at that point admitted to having take "a little boy" to his lower East Side apartment on the same day Etan went missing. He also said "he was 90 percent sure it was the same he'd seen in the news that was missing."

His story was that he released the boy at a subway station so that he could go visit his aunt in Washington Heights. Etan had no aunt in Washington Heights. Trying to press him further about the incident Ramos refused to talk and requested to see a lawyer.

Ramos 10 to 20 year term for his child molestation conviction will be up in 2012. GraBois had him transferred to federal prison where he planted informants as cell mates. GraBois would give no details about what the informants had told him but "...he's convinced he's eyeing the right suspect."

That information has been given to the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, but no charges have been filed. Without a body the District Attorney does not believe there is enough evidence to get a conviction. Etan's disappearance is still on the NYPD's cold case list.

If anyone does have information about the case they can contact the FBI/NYPD Etan Patz hotline: 212-384-2200.

Laura Ling and Euna Lee, the two American journalists were arrested March 17 on the boarders of China and North Korea. They were doing a report on Korean refugees for San Francisco based Current TV. A company founded by Al Gore.

KCNA, North’s state-run news agency, announced that the journalists were going to be tried, but gave no details as to the charges. The article says.

The news agency said that the country’s highest court, the Central Court, decided to try the case, indicating that the journalists will have no chance to appeal. The court usually hands down its verdict at the end of a one-day hearing.

It's likely that the two will face charges of Illegal entry or hostile acts against the state. If convicted, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, could face at 3 to 5 years in a labor camp respectively.

This seems to be an attempt at compromise between shutting down the "controversial" base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the security concerns of housing suspected terrorist until their cases are resolved.

The new announcement comes on the heels of two other controversial moves on the part of the administration. First being "...Justice Department memorandums outlining the interrogation tactics..." The second is the reversal on making public the prisoner abuse photos. As the article indicates this events signal the administration struggle to balance security concerns while at the same time attempt "...to alter Bush-administration practices he has harshly criticized."

The article says this new administration detention policy was hinted at, by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, last month at congressional hearings where he said "...that there were "50 to 100 [detainees] probably in that ballpark who we cannot release and cannot trust, either in Article 3 [civilian] courts or military commissions."


The latest proposal to handle the cases of the alleged terrorist is a new national security court. The article give no details about this new court but says that the idea is being discussed widely "...in legal circles, including by Bush administration Attorney General Michael Mukasey and Neal Katyal, a former Georgetown law professor and now Obama Justice Department official."

Given all the facts that some terror suspect can not be released, the base at Guantanamo Bay base is to be closed, and that there is no definite plan to resolve the outstanding cases, these suspects will have to be held for some indefinite period, without trial, until all the details are worked out.

They believe this discovery will "pave the way" in the discovery of medical treatments using embryonic stem cells, without the risk of cancerous tumors.The discovery revolves around the expression of the gene survivin in early stages embryonic development.

Embyronic stem cells are what the report calls “pluripotent”. That means that they "...are theoretically capable of differentiation to all cells of the mature human body..." The draw back is, that when implanted the cell tend to grow into a specific type of tumor called teratoma. The article says.

when they are implanted in laboratory experiments into mice. It is assumed that this tumorigenic feature will be manifested upon transplantation to human patients as well. The development of tumors from embryonic stem cells is especially puzzling given that these cells start out as completely normal cells.

Knowing this, the researches started to analyze the genetic basis for the formation of these tumors and found that the gene "...survivin, is expressed in most cancers and in early stage embryos, but it is almost completely absent from mature normal tissues." During their investigation the researches discovered a method by which they could neutralize the activity of survivin "...in the undifferentiated cells as well as in the tumors..."

It is now believed that the ability to inhibit this gene "...before or after transplantation of the cells could minimize the chances of tumor formation..." The researches do have on caveat though. They say "...a combination of strategies may be needed to address the major safety concerns regarding tumor formation by human embryonic stem cells."

With nary a mention of his problems with US immigration officials the 60 year old folk singer treated 400, invitation only fans to an hour long concert.

The set included "Peace Train," "Wild World", "Where Do the Children Play?" and a selection of tunes from his new album, "Roadsinger."

In 2004 Yusuf Islam was deported from the United States after his name appeared on a no-fly list for those suspected of terrorism. Islam denies the allegation and frequently speaks out against any such acts of violence.

Los Angles was his only tour date on this trip. He was to play a date in New York but "An unspecified work-visa issue forced him to cancel a planned May 3 show..."

He currently has a handful of world wide dates to promote his new "Roadsinger" album. It has been three years since the singers last release.