Friday, November 18, 2011

load01 11/18/2011

  • A pilot’s trip to the toilet set off a turbulent few minutes aboard a New York City-bound flight on Wednesday.

    During an 18-passenger Chautauqua Airlines flight from Ashville, N.C., to LaGuardia Airport, the pilot stepped out of the cockpit to take a bathroom break before landing.

    In order to adhere to security protocols, which require two people in the cockpit at all times, the only flight attendant on board entered the flight deck as the pilot exited, said Peter Kowalchuk, a spokesman for the airline in a statement.

    tags: humor

  • When I write about human trafficking as a modern form of slavery, people sometimes tune out as their eyes glaze over. So, Glazed Eyes, meet Srey Pov.

    She’s a tough interview because she breaks down as she recalls her life in a Cambodian brothel, and pretty soon my eyes are welling up, too.

    Srey Pov’s family sold her to a brothel when she was 6 years old. She was unaware of sex but soon found out: A Western pedophile purchased her virginity, she said, and the brothel tied her naked and spread-eagled on a bed so that he could rape her.

    tags: worse than failure

  • Amwell Township is a 44-square-mile plot of steep ravines and grassy pasturelands planted with alfalfa, trefoil and timothy in the southwestern corner of Pennsylvania. It’s home to some 4,000 people, most of whom live in villages named Amity, Lone Pine and Prosperity.
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    Seamus Murphy/VII
    Haney's children have shown signs of exposure to arsenic, and some of their animals got sick or died.
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    Seamus Murphy/VII
    Excavation near the Haneys' farm.
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    Seamus Murphy/VII
    Treatment-plant discharge headed for Black Lick Creek in Indiana County, Pa.
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    Seamus Murphy/VII
    Excavation near the Haneys' farm.
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    From some views, this diamond-shaped cut of land looks like the hardscrabble farmland it has been since the 18th century, when English and Scottish settlers successfully drove away the members of a Native American village called Annawanna, or “the path of the water.” Arrowheads still line the streambeds. Hickory trees march out along its high, dry ridges. Box elders ring the lower, wetter gullies. The air smells of sweet grass. Cows moo. Horses whinny.

    tags: culture

  • Reporting from L.A. and Washington— Investigators with the California attorney general's office have subpoenaed information from mortgage titans Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as part of a wide-ranging inquiry into lending and foreclosure practices in the state.

    The subpoenas ask the government-controlled finance companies to answer a series of questions about their activities in California, including their roles as landlords who own thousands of foreclosed properties. The attorney general's office is also seeking details of Fannie and Freddie's mortgage-servicing and home-repossession practices, according to a person familiar with the matter.

    tags: news

  • Little Black Fish: Last week, a video entitled Runway In Subway caught my eye. Filmed on the Tehran Metro, it shows a young girl named Shirin Abedinirad  boldly entering a train carriage and asking passengers for their rubbish, in order to pin it to her dress.

    She says: “Hello, I’m Shirin, a fashion student. I’m hoping for your collaboration. It’s the first time we’re doing this. You could call it ‘fashion design on the metro’.  If you have any rubbish, I will pin it on my dress.”

    In the clip, Abedinirad and friends — one filming, another collecting items and carrying a box of safety pins — meet people and their discarded items on the train. A woman is heard asking “What kind of rubbish? Do you mean ‘anything’?”

    tags: culture

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