Red light camera fraud

Automatic detection of red-light runners seemed like a great idea, once upon a time. As it turned out, however, the detectors were installed less as a safety measure than as a money-maker -- with predictable results:

The T-Redspeed system - a revolutionary camera technology - has been in use for two years in 300 areas across Italy. . .

It is believed more than a million drivers have been trapped by the system.

But it is now claimed the lights were rigged to change from yellow to red in three seconds instead of the regulation five or six seconds. . .

The fraud may have netted as much as $170m (£116.4m) for those involved.

The scheme's inventor is now under house arrest, though his lawyers say he is innocent.

More than 100 other people including 63 police commanders are also being investigated as part of the scam.

From the BBC.

Istanbul excavations update

Digging through thick mud and an ancient swamp of black clay, archaeologists in Istanbul have discovered a grave that proves the city is 6,000 years older than they previously thought.

The skeletons of two adults and two children lie curled-up, perhaps to save space. Alongside them are pots: gifts placed in the grave to use in the afterlife. . .

"We found the grave, pots and other artefacts. There were signs of houses made of tree-branches and next to the settlement was a swamp where we found small tools, wooden pieces and bones," explains Ismail Karamut, head of the Istanbul Archaeology museum, which is leading the dig. . .

Prof Ozdogan believes the Yenikapi settlement dates from between 6400BC and 5800BC - long before the Bosphorus Strait had formed and in the days when the Marmara Sea was a small, inland lake.

From the BBC. A video is also available via National Geographic, that shows some of the other finds, including some of the many Byzantine ships that have been unearthed. For more on the ship discoveries and how they have changed our picture of the development of naval architecture, look here:

Analyses of salvaged crafts indicate that shipbuilders started making sophisticated frames for their vessels by about 1,500 years ago, 500 years earlier than had been suspected, reported Yaakov Kahanov of the University of Haifa in Israel. By a few hundred years later, craft constructors had steadily improved hull designs for a diverse collection of ships, says Cemal Pulak of Texas A&M University in College Station.

Frames provided greater structural stability for ships than an earlier hull-building technique that had relied on joining planks with adhesives and fasteners to form a shell. Such vessels date to as early as approximately 2,000 years ago.

What I find especially exciting are the discoveries that will take the various trireme reconstruction projects past to the next level:

Four long, narrow vessels discovered in the harbor contain holes in their sides for oars. Encircling these openings are remains of leather sleeves, known from historical accounts to have kept water from splashing into the ships. One boat retains the wooden benches on which rowers sat. Another contains boards once used as oars.

Just do it

St Andrews University and US scientists said they had established that too much analysis made the golfer's game worse.

They said thinking too much about the previous shot can disrupt performance.

In total, 80 golfers were given shots to practise until they got it right. Those who discussed their putting between strokes took twice as long. . .

Psychology Professor Michael Anderson, from St Andrews University, said: "This effect was especially dramatic in skilled golfers who were reduced to the level of performance of novices after just five minutes of describing what they did.

Is it the thinking, or the talking that does more harm? This BBC article is rather vague in that regard -- despite spending 409 words to say what Nike summarized in three.

Move over, Blue Angels

Video here.

Can you imagine what the flights of passenger pigeons must have been like?

English gangster chic

An auction of items once belonging to the gangster Kray twins, who controlled London's East End with a vice-like grip in the 1960s, raised 111,000 pounds, well above expectations.

The sale at Chiswick Auctions in London on Monday evening was packed, and one bidder bought almost half of the 160 lots on offer. . .

Ronnie and Reggie Kray enjoy almost mythical status in Britain despite their record of intimidation and convictions of murder for which they were sent to jail for life in 1969. . .

The top lot at Monday's sale was a pair of Ronnie's gold cufflinks, in the form of his initials "RK," which fetched 10,000 pounds.

From Reuters UK.

East German time capsule

A flat apparently untouched since before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 has been discovered in the German city of Leipzig, German media report.

An architect who renovates buildings in eastern Germany unlocked the door last week and was shocked to find himself in a veritable East German time warp.

It appears the inhabitant of the humble flat fled in a hurry and shrivelled bread rolls still lay in a string bag.

Grocery brands from the Socialist state filled the kitchen.

"When we opened the door we felt like Howard Carter when he found the grave of Tutankhamun," Mark Aretz told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper.

From the BBC. No mention of whether the apartment would be preserved, whether in situ or as a museum installation.

Cellists, rest easy

A top doctor has admitted her part in hoodwinking a leading medical journal after inventing a medical condition called "cello scrotum".

Elaine Murphy - now Baroness Murphy - dreamt up the painful complaint in the 1970s, sending a report to the British Medical Journal.

She came clean when the hoax resurfaced in the 2008 Christmas edition.

From the BBC.

Bringing them back

Ran across this story quite by chance -- the subject of the article is not, to my knowledge, a relative:

The lone survivor of a Japanese infantry unit in World War 2, Nishimura Kokichi promised his comrades he would bring their bodies back to Japan. Sixty years later, he is still trying to fulfill his pledge . . .

Nishimura Yukiko listened to her husband, Kokichi, in shock. After thirty-five years of marriage and four children, the 59-year-old was leaving. He would hand the keys to the family business, one of Tokyo's most successful engineering works, to his eldest son then board a plane for Papua New Guinea where he would start a new life. The object of his attentions was not another woman but the bones of men killed over three decades before. "I'll be gone for a long time, probably years," he said.

It was 1979 and the Nishimura family was about to be split asunder. Only daughter Sachiko sided with her father as he reminded his wife of a pledge made before they married: to find the bodies of his dead friends. Nishimura Kokichi would spend 26 years fulfilling that promise, at the cost of his business, his life in Japan, and his relationship with his sons and wife, whom he never saw again.

In its own way, as amazing a story as those soldiers holding out on remote islands for decades after the war ended.

Deadly döner

Doner kebabs sold in the UK contain "shocking" levels of salt, fat and calories, a survey has concluded. . .

Among the kebabs sampled - without salad or sauces - the average doner contained 98% of an adult's recommended daily salt and 148% of their daily saturated fat allowance. . .

The worst doners inspectors came across contained 1,990 calories before salad and sauces - over 95% of a woman's recommended daily calories, 346% of a woman's saturated fat intake and 277% of an adult's daily salt intake.

And then, this:

Six kebabs were found to include pork when it had not been declared as an ingredient. Two of the six were described as Halal - food or drink permitted for Muslims, which must not contain pork.

From the BBC.

Olga Raggio, RIP

No newspaper obits out yet, but I have just received word that Olga Raggio passed away Saturday at the age of 82. She joined the Metropolitan Museum in 1950, retiring a few years ago as head of European sculpture and decorative arts. She was also a long-serving adjunct professor at my alma mater, the Institute of Fine Arts -- from 1965 to 1998. She will be missed.

Rude placenames

In the scale of embarrassing place names, Crapstone ranks pretty high. But Britain is full of them. Some are mostly amusing, like Ugley, Essex; East Breast, in western Scotland; North Piddle, in Worcestershire; and Spanker Lane, in Derbyshire.

But it gets a lot worse than that -- a lot worse. So read the rest here, in the NY Times.

For further reading, there also Rude Britain and its sequel, Rude UK. There's also a Rude World volume.

A father, at 111

. . . and the mother's 80!

A rare New Zealand reptile has become a father, possibly for the first time, at the age of 111.

The keepers of Henry, a tuatara, had thought he was past his prime - especially after showing no interest in females during 40 years in captivity.

But he mated with 80-year-old Mildred last July and 11 of the eggs she produced have now hatched.

From the BBC.

Auschwitz: to preserve, or not to preserve?

Two points of view, as presented by the BBC.

I find that despite some initial sympathy, I cannot agree with Robert Jan Van Pelt's argument that once the last witnesses are gone, the camp should be sealed and allowed to return to nature. Erasure of evil is one thing; erasure of the memory of evil is another. Nor do I feel entirely comfortable when an historian maintains that the only memories that truly count are those of the victims -- and that since those of us who weren't there cannot fully comprehend what it was like, we should not even try.

As is, the BBC very much gives the last word to respondent Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, whose call for the preservation of memory would ring out loud and true even if he himself had not been at Auschwitz. The advocates of forgetfulness are not going away, though, and as the years go by, I fear that more may follow them in burying their heads in the sand.