Spot of Bother Podcast 1.14.2013 | Blowing in the Wind | by Jeffrey Lynch

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I don’t know about you, but when I think of Italy I think of beautiful landscapes, delicious foods, amazing wines, austerity protests, political turmoil, corrupt governments and creepy pedobears in white robes living in walled cities protected by Swiss Guards. Oh, I kid of course. Only a few of those holy men are partaking of the unripened, unholy fruit of the loom … boy’s sizes of course. However, it appears that lots of Italians are partaking of another sin-of-the-flesh in such great quantities … that it can be measured in the very air they breathe. Here’s the story from Live Science:

 

Rome is known as a heady and stimulating city, but is that because it’s a vibrant cultural center where modern life buzzes against a backdrop of thousands of years of history, or because small quantities of cocaine waft through the streets?

Researchers at Italy’s Institute of Atmospheric Pollution Research have published the results of a year-long study that monitored psychotropic substances in the air of eight Italian cities: Bologna, Florence, Milan, Naples, Palermo, Rome, Turin and Verona.

 

The scientists found trace quantities of marijuana and cocaine in the air of all eight cities, with the highest total drug concentrations in Turin and the lowest in Palermo. Other substances monitored included nicotine and caffeine, which were also detected in all of the cities.

 

But the miniscule concentrations detected — about .26 nanograms of cocaine per meter cubed in Turin, where levels of that drug were highest — are not nearly enough to alter the mind states of Italy’s city dwellers. A typical grain of salt weighs about 80,000 nanograms.

 

The authors of the study say their research gives insight into geographical drug-use trends (while Turin seems to have the most active cocaine trade, the college towns of Florence and Bologna have the most free-floating marijuana particles) and hope the results will be used to inform policy.

 

Cocaine use in Italy has also left an imprint on other parts of the environment. In 2005, scientists at Milan’s Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research checked the Po River in northern Italy for benzoylecgonine, a unique byproduct of cocaine that’s expelled in a user’s urine. Their study found levels that corresponded to the daily consumption of about 8.8 pounds (4 kilograms) of cocaine in the region.

In America, no analogous survey of psychotropic drugs in urban air has been published. But trace quantities of a range of pharmaceuticals, from epilepsy medication to sex hormones, have been found in American drinking-water sources.

And a 2009 study led by a scientist at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth found that between 85 and 90 percent of paper money in America is dusted with small quantities of cocaine. Bills can become contaminated during drug deals; while being used directly to imbibe cocaine, as when they’re rolled up to snort the drug; or in banks’ currency-counting machines, where the bills mingle with already-contaminated money.

 

So there you have it folks … we’re all awash in drugs, whether we want to be or not. As for me, I think I’ll plan a little Italian vacation, nothing specific, just fly over and blow in the wind.

 

I’m Jeffrey Lynch and that’s today’s Spot of Bother.

 

Audio credits:

 

That Cat is High, The Manhattan Transfer

 

Spot of Bother Podcast 12.27.2012 | Dirty Little Books | by Jeffrey Lynch

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Somewhere, buried in a desk draw I have a library card. I know it exists because I remember getting it so that I could gain access to some of the local history books for a little research I was doing years ago. I think it was 2007. Do library cards expire? If so I may need to make a trip downtown. It’s a nice resource to have, those libraries, even in the digital age. Many of our city’s homeless folks make good use of the restrooms and the seniors from the retirement home around the corner have a field day with all of the newspapers and Reader’s Digest large print books.

 

I was a little disturbed however when I stumbled upon the following story from the Star Tribune. It seems that library books are perhaps no longer a safe thing to take to bed with you for a little late night reading. Not only might the story give you bad dreams, but the pages of the book may hold nightmares of another sort. Here’s the story …

 

In “The Botany of Desire,” author Michael Pollan submits that the apple tree, destined to immobility, figures out that by bearing sweet apples it can entice wandering fauna to spread its seeds and ensure its endurance as a species. Bedbugs seem to be employing a similar strategy. Wingless and with legs as tiny as Tinker Bell’s eyelashes, they can’t travel far. But by hitching onto the accoutrements of human daily life, they get a quick ride from place to place, hopping off and establishing new colonies where once there were none. World domination doesn’t seem far behind.

 

At first we were warned to be wary of transporting freeloading bedbugs in our suitcases when traveling. Then vintage shopping at flea markets and thrift stores became cause for concern. Heaven forbid you should cart something home from a “free pile.” Some bedbugs loiter in movie theaters and hitch rides in the seams of slacks or the hem of a handbag.

 

And now they seem to have hatched an even more sinister plan: relocation via library books. According to a report in the New York Times, it appears that resourceful bedbugs are now clutching the spines of hardcover books, making a hospitable vehicle for the ride home. And with nearly 122,000 libraries nationwide, the opportunities are ample.

 

As Michael Potter, a professor of entomology at University of Kentucky in Lexington, told the Times, “There’s no question in the past few years there are more and more reports of bedbugs showing up in libraries.”

 

Realizing that this could add a hard-to-reverse stigma upon the institution of book lending, libraries are taking preventive measures to quell the trend before library-goers are scared away forever.

 

Library staff members are being trained to spot carcasses and live insects. Vigorous vacuum-cleaning routines are being employed. Fabric upholstery is being replaced with leather or vinyl. And suspect books are being treated, as well. The University of Washington Libraries in Seattle subjected bedbug-infested books to a week of 18 degrees Fahrenheit in a freezer in the natural history museum. Other libraries use zip-top bags and pesticides. Heat-treat boxes like the ThermalStrike or the PackTite are being used to bake the bugs right in the books.

 

Steadfast borrowers are taking precautions, too. Some have their own personal PackTites, which were originally designed to heat-treat luggage. And many have learned to spot the telltale signs of the creepy crawlers. Some are switching to e-readers.

 

For others, the best approach may just be a return to borrowing droll history books and catching up on the lugubrious classics. Philip Koehler, a professor of entomology at the University of Florida in Gainesville, says bestsellers are more likely to harbor bedbugs than others, given that they have such a quick turnover and see many more bedbug-ridden homes than less popular books do.

 

I don’t know about you guys but after reading this story only two words come to mind, both of which would probably make Ray Bradbury cringe. Kindle and Fire.

 

I’m Jeffrey Lynch and that’s today’s Spot of Bother.

 

Audio credits:

 

Bugs, Soul Coughing

 

Freesound.org – “flamewind.wav” by scarbelly25

 

FlashCast Podcast #75 | Down the Wrong Pipe | by Jeffrey Lynch

SOB_12.6.2012.m4a Listen on Posterous

 

One of my favorite Stephen King novellas is The Body, on which the classic movie Stand By Me was based. In case you’ve somehow missed it, the story follows a group of pre-teen boys who go out exploring and stumble upon a corpse. I won’t give away any spoilers, just know that mystery and intrigue abounds.

 

In the story, there’s a young man who’s bullied on a pretty regular basis and decides to get even with his tormenters during a pie-eating contest. He drinks castor oil before consuming numerous pies and within moments of devouring said pies … showers everyone around him in a glistening, steamy spray of blueberry vomit. Classic King.

 

I recently stumbled upon an eating contest of a different and more disturding type, and couldn’t help but think back to Lardo from The Body and his castor oil stunt. Perhaps if the subject of this contest had downed a bit of the stuff, he just might have lived to claim his prize.  Here’s the story from CBS News, Tampa Bay:

 

A Florida man choked to death after downing dozens of live roaches during a contest earlier this year in which the grand prize was a python, according to an autopsy released Monday.

 

Edward Archbold, 32, of West Palm Beach died as a result of “asphyxia due to choking and aspiration of gastric contents,” according to the report released by the Broward County medical examiner’s office. It said his airway was obstructed by the roach body parts, which caused him to not be able to breathe.

 

“There is a flap called the epiglottis that is supposed to stop objects from going into the lungs,” medical examiner Craig T. Mallak wrote in an email to the AP. “Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work. In the video you could see him trying to swallow and breathe at the same time. We can’t do both simultaneously.”

 

Lab tests for drugs came back negative. The death has been ruled an accident.

Archbold died after downing the bugs as well as worms in the Oct. 6 contest at Ben Siegel Reptile Store in Deerfield Beach, about 40 miles north of Miami.

 

Archbold became ill shortly after the contest and collapsed in front of the store. He was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.

 

About 30 people ate the insects, but authorities said none of the other contestants became ill.

 

So remember folks, if you’re ever eating live bugs … oh screw that … stick with the pie.

 

I’m Jeffrey Lynch and that’s today’s Spot of Bother.

 

Audio sound effect credits:

 

Freesound.org – “PUKING.WAV” by dkmedic

 

Spot of Bother Podcast 12.10.2012 | Take a Whiff On Me | by Jeffrey Lynch

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We’ve all heard stories of maniacal criminals going to great lengths and committing crimes in order to secure funding for their drug habits, right? Why just last month, a young man was arrested in my very neighborhood for going through mailboxes and stealing mail. It was later determined that he was a meth addict looking for checks and other valuables. I just wish he had stolen all of the bills …

 

While breaking and entering is nothing new, what a Florida man recently stole from an unsuspecting homeowner is a bit disturbing and quite unusual. 

 

Jose David Diaz-Marrero, 20, broke into a home in Silver Springs Shores in 2010, and stole two urns that contained the remains of the homeowner’s father and two Great Danes. Why steal the ashes you might ask? Jose thought the urns were filled with drugs and proceeded to snort gramps and the Great Dane in hopes of getting high.

 

He and fellow alleged burglars, Waldo Soroa, 21, and Matrix Andaluz, 19, reportedly snorted the remains, thinking they were crushed pills. They were horrified to find out days later when they watched a news report that they had actually snorted ashes.

 

Diaz-Marrero pleaded guilty to burglarizing the house in June. He and his accomplices were also accused of stealing $1,500 worth of jewelry and laptop computers.

 

Appearing in court last Friday, he apologized for what he did. ‘I recognize that I made a big mistake,’ he told Judge Sandra Edwards-Stephens, according to Ocala.com.

 

‘I wish the victims were here so that I could tell them how sorry I am,’ he said.

The urns contained the remains of homeowner Holli Tencza’s father, as well as her two purebred Great Danes, Epic and Samson.

 

Diaz-Marrero will spend the next eight years in prison, and will pay Ms Tencza $9,000 in restitution.

 

Investigators learned what happened to the ashes after they arrested five teens in connection with another burglary attempt at a nearby home.

 

‘The suspects mistook the ashes for either cocaine or heroin. It was soon discovered that the suspects snorted some of the ashes believing they were snorting cocaine,’ the sheriff’s report said.

 

Once they realized their error, the suspects discussed returning the remaining ashes but threw them in a lake instead because they thought their fingerprints were on the containers. Police divers were trying to recover the ashes. The suspects were jailed on numerous burglary and other charges.

 

In closing, my question is this … how high must you be in the first place to mistake an urn of ashes for cocaine? Perhaps it isn’t just a bad drug habit these poor gents suffer from, but of classic case of stupid.

 

I’m Jeffrey Lynch and that’s today’s Spot of Bother.

 

Audio credits:

 

Cocaine Habit, Old Crow Medicine Show

 

‎www.freesound.org/people/FreqMan/sounds/25819/

Freesound.org – “WHINE1.wav” by Sruddi1

‎www.freesound.org/people/uwesoundboiz/sounds/60383/

 

 

Spot of Bother Podcast 11.16.2012 | It Isn’t Polite to Stare | by Jeffrey Lynch

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Schadenfreude is a German word defined as ‘pleasure derived from the misfortune of others’. We all see and experience this from time to time, and I would posit that it’s simply part of our nature as human beings. I would expand that definition a bit, and suggest that although we may not necessarily always derive pleasure from the misfortune of others, we’re at least curious to see how others handle loss, pain and personal challenges. While American Idol, sporting events and reality TV may give us the opportunity to bask in the losses of others, every so often a great big disaster comes along that offers up an opportunity to experience loss and pain up close and personal. After ripping apart much of the Northeast, Hurricane Sandy has produced so much damage and loss that many folks just can’t wait to have a look. Here’s the story from Fox News:

 

Garbage trucks, hulking military vehicles and mud-caked cars move slowly through a Staten Island waterfront neighborhood still reeling from Superstorm Sandy’s storm surge. Then comes an outlier: a spotless SUV with three passengers peering out windows at a mangled home choked with sea grass.

 

Residents recognize the occupants right away. They’re disaster tourists, people drawn to the scene of a tragedy to glimpse the pictures they’ve seen on television come to life.

 

Two weeks after the superstorm socked the region, cleanup continues in New York and New Jersey, which bore the brunt of the destruction. At its peak, the storm knocked out power to 8.5 million in 10 states, and some during a later nor’easter. About 73,000 utility customers in New York and New Jersey remained without power late Sunday, most of them on Long Island.

 

But the storm didn’t just bring darkness and despair; it also brought the gawkers.

 

“It’s a little annoying,” said Chris Nasella, who paused as he finished cleaning up a home reduced to a shell on the first floor. “By the same token, I would do it, too. I don’t think anyone wouldn’t want to look at boats that are picked up and left on the streets. As long as you don’t get a kick out of it, it’s an amazing thing.”

 

There weren’t many tourists in Nasella’s neighborhood on Saturday. Cleanup crews had done some extensive work. The neighborhood is only accessible through streets clogged with idled cars in gas lines and traffic made deliberate by still-powerless traffic signals.

 

But they left an impression.

 

“The gawking was amazing last week,” said Joanne McClenin, whose home was filled with water five feet high on the night Sandy came ashore. “It was kind of offensive as a homeowner, because I felt violated.”

 

As the power outages on Long Island drag on, New Yorkers railed Sunday against the utility that has lagged behind others in restoring power, criticizing its slow pace as well as a dearth of information.

 

Separately, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano visited with disaster-relief workers Sunday in Staten Island’s Midland Beach neighborhood, which is still devastated two weeks after Sandy hit.

 

The lack of power restoration for a relative few in the densely populated region at the heart of the storm reinforced Sandy’s fractured effect on the area: tragic and vicious to some, merely a nuisance to others.

 

Seaver Avenue on Staten Island was sloppy with mud, sand and curbside mounds of couches, personal photos, mattresses and sodden sheetrock. Mickey Merrell’s front porch was askew, and the storm surge nearly knocked a neighbor’s house into hers. Across the street a house was washed off its foundation. It was a scene of human misery — and one of New York City’s new attractions, just like the construction crane that collapsed and dangled precariously high above mid-town Manhattan on Oct. 29.

 

“Sometimes it’s like we’re at the zoo,” Merrell said. “So many people come and stop and stare at this place.”

 

Michelle Van Tassel, a Staten Island resident who has friends who lost everything, said she tried to deliver supplies but couldn’t get through because there were so many people on the street who had no business being there.

 

“There were a tremendous amount of people who came into the borough to take pictures, to look at the devastation themselves, and it seemed like more of a tourist attraction down there than it actually felt like people who were trying to help,” she said, her voice breaking.

 

Peter Lisi, a renter who is fighting a landlord trying to evict him from his damaged home, said he doesn’t mind the gawkers, “as long as they’re not making fun.” Some of them are drawn in to what’s happening and help, he said.

 

Domenick and Kim Barone said they could tell the tourists apart from the volunteers because the gawkers’ clothes and shoes are clean, and they’re often snapping pictures.

 

“Obviously they have nothing else to do,” Kim Barone said. “If this is their source of entertainment, to wallow in other people’s despair, I don’t have the time. I’m trying just to clean out and save what I can save. I don’t really have the time to worry about them.”

 

Ya know folks, my Mom always told me that if you don’t have something nice to say then don’t say anything at all. I think this rule can also be applied to one’s actions. If you aren’t doing any good … Just stay home.

 

I’m Jeffrey Lynch and that’s today’s Spot of Bother.

 

Audio credits:

 

It Can’t Rain All The Time, Jane Sidberry

 

Spot of Bother Podcast 10.31.2012 | Blowing Up the Bones | by Jeffrey Lynch

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Halloween is upon us and for many in the US, today is especially frightening. People all across the Northeast are beginning the process of cleaning up after the giant superstorm that just blew through, bringing with it death and destruction. As rescue workers toil away at the grim task of searching for survivors, they are also finding the victims. At the time of this recording, 50 corpses have been discovered and more are expected to be recovered. It’s wicked work and those doing it are to be commended. However, in one instance a body was just discovered in a very unusual location, proving that not only did this devastating hurricane have the power to take lives, but also … to raise the dead. Here’s the story from The New Haven Independent …

 

A homeless woman made a spooky Halloween’s eve discovery on the Upper Green: bones from a centuries-old human body unearthed by a giant oak tree toppled by Superstorm Sandy.

The woman, Katie Carbo, made the discovery near the corner of College and Chapel streets. Visible among the roots of the tree is the back of skull, upside down, with its mouth open. It was still connected to a spine and rib cage.

 

New Haven police spokesman David Hartman filled in a few details on the macabre discovery — and provided a bit of a history lesson as well:

 

“Hurricane Sandy has uprooted a famous New Haven tree on the upper town green. The tree was planted by Admiral Andrew Hall Foote’s Grand Army of the Republic post (the Union of the Republic). Foote, who was born in New Haven, was President Abraham Lincoln’s favorite Civil War admiral. He died in a naval battle and is buried in the city’s Grove St. cemetery.

 

Dutch Elm disease killed all of the majestic Elms planted by James Hillhouse in the 1820s. In honor of the 100th anniversary of Lincoln’s birthday in 1909, the Oak tree was planted.”

Hartman said the skeleton is likely that of a  “victim of Yellow Fever or Smallpox who may have been buried between 1799-1821 when the headstones were removed to the Grove Street cemetery. The bodies were never relocated.”

 

Hartman said detectives from the department’s Bureau of Identification and the State Medical Examiner’s office responded to the scene and collected the remains. The town green is the burial ground of possibly 5,000 to 10,000 people, according to local historian Robert S. Greenberg, Hartman said.

 

Hartman said the extrication serves a historical, not a forensic, purpose. The objective is to honor the dead through preservation.

 

“We’re not going to let bodily remains end up in the public works chipper,” he said.

 

After reading this story, I can’t help but wonder if this poor soul’s name just might have been … Sandy.

 

I’m Jeffrey Lynch and that’s today’s Spot of Bother.

Musical credits:

 

Bother Me Often, Carter Beale

Bothersome Reprise, Carter Beale

Bones, Little Big Town

 

 

FlashCast Podcast #71 | Parts is Parts | by Jeffrey Lynch

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Several years ago my younger brother Bradley was involved in a an ATV accident. He was rushed to the trauma center with minor injuries to his body and limbs, however his primary injury was to the brain, caused by a severe concussion. Although the docs worked furiously to relieve brain swelling and bring him around, the damage was just too severe. He never regained consciousness.  After completing many tests and procedures, the neurosurgeon determined that he was, by all standards, brain dead. 

 

Fortunately, Brad had been very clear with how he would like for this type of situation to be handled, should it ever arise. He did not want to be on life support systems and in fact was an organ donor. His wife signed all of the necessary documents and the process began of ending Brad’s life, and saving three others. One person received his heart, and two others were able to avoid a lifetime of dialysis with his kidneys. Now, during this entire process, we were never pressured by the hospital staff or rushed into the donor process. It was all a very kind and compassionate experience. However, this is not always the case. I recently read a book entitled The Red Market by Scott Carney which examines the dark side of the trade in human body parts. It was quite disturbing. And, just this week a news article appeared that caught my attention, further illustrating the darker side of this strange and intimate trade. Here’s the story from New York …

 

New York hospitals are routinely ‘harvesting’ organs from patients before they’re even dead, an explosive lawsuit is claiming. The suit accuses transplant non-profit The New York Organ Donor Network of bullying doctors into declaring patients brain dead when they are still alive.

 

Plaintiff, Patrick McMahon, 50, reckons one in five patients is showing signs of brain activity when surgeons declare them dead and start hacking out their body parts.

‘They’re playing God,’ said McMahon, a former transplant coordinator who claims he was fired just four months into the role for speaking out about the practice.

He said that the donor network makes ‘millions and millions’ from selling the organs they obtain to hospitals and to insurance companies for transplants. ‘Hearts, lungs, kidneys, joints, bones, skin graphs, intestines, valves, eyes — it’s all big money,’ he said.

 

The Air Force Combat veteran and former nurse added that financially strained hospitals are easily influenced to declare a patient brain dead because they’re keen to free up bed space.

 

The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court on Tuesday, cites a 19-year-old car crash victim who was still struggling to breathe and showing signs of brain activity when doctors gave the green light for his organs to be harvested.

Network officials including director Michael Goldstein allegedly bullied Nassau University Medical Center staff into declaring the teen dead, stating during a conference call: ‘This kid is dead, you got that?’

 

The lawsuit cites three other examples of patients who were still clinging to life when doctors gave a ‘note’ – an official declaration by a hospital that a patient is brain dead, which, as well as consent from next of kin, is required before a transplant can take place.

 

The suit claims that a man was admitted to Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, a month later, again showing brain activity. It claims McMahon protested but was blown off by hospital and donor network staff, and the man was declared brain dead and his organs harvested.

 

In November 2011, a woman admitted to Staten Island University Hospital after a drug overdose was declared brain dead and her organs were about to be harvested when McMahon noticed that she was being given ‘a paralyzing anesthetic’ because her body was still jerking. ‘She was having brain function when they were cutting into her on the table,’ McMahon told MailOnline. ‘He had given her a paralyser and there’s no reason to give someone who is dead a paralyser.’ He said he confronted the person who gave it to her and he was speechless. ‘Finally he said he was told to do it because while they were cutting her chest open she was moving her chest around. And a paralyser only paralyses you, it does nothing for the pain,’ he said.

 

McMahon added that surgeons ‘took everything’ with regards to body parts.

‘They took her eyes, her joints. She was right there when I was having the conversation. They were inserting the plastic bones where the real ones had been.’

 

McMahon has accused the donor network of having a ‘quota’ system and hiring ‘coaches’ to teach staff how to be more persuasive in convincing family members to give consent to organ donation. He said ‘counselling’ staff are like sales teams who are pressured to meet targets and threatened with the loss of their jobs if they fall short.

Counsellors are required to get a 30 per cent consent rate from families.’ McMahon added that staff members who collect the most organs throughout the year qualify for a Christmas bonus.

 

McMahon claims that on November 4, he told the network’s CEO and president, Helen Irving, that ‘one in five patients declared brain dead show signs of brain activity at the time the Note is issued.’ But the suit says, she replied: ‘This is how things are done.’

 

In closing, I have no reason to believe that my brother was taken advantage of. It was a small hospital in a small town, but, as for myself, that little organ donor box on my driver’s license remains unchecked.

 

I’m Jeffrey Lynch and that’s today’s Spot of Bother.

 

Spot of Bother Podcast 10.1.2012 | Appearing Flushed | by Jeffrey Lynch

Spot_of_Bother_10.1.2012.m4a Listen on Posterous

The nearest waterway to my house is called The French Broad River. It’s a part of my everyday life. In the Summer I raft on it. At one of the local parks I bike near it. Many times and at many points during any given day I drive over it. While the French Broad River never appears to me to be especially clear and clean, I’ve never been afraid to go by or into it. There is however, one particular bridge spanning one particular spot that, well, for the lack of a more illustrious word … stinks. Most evenings I travel over this bridge on my way to work, and most evenings it smells like … well … sewage. Now, I’m not accusing my fair city of pumping waste into our fine waterways, however I do wonder why this particular spot smells so very bad. I’m bringing this up today because this morning I stumbled upon a little news item that brought that bit of daily detritus to mind and, well, makes me wonder …. Here’s the story from The Seattle Pi:

 

A treatment plant operator accused of dumping 200,000 of raw sewage into a stream at Mount Rainier National Park has pleaded guilty.

Pleading guilty Friday to a misdemeanor charge, James Barber admitted he in August 2011 rerouted minimally treated sewage from a treatment plant near Paradise into the Nisqually River.

According to charging documents, Barber failed to conduct basic maintenance at the treatment plant, which serves an inn and visitors center.

The plant faced a critical failure when Barber, a 52-year-old Yelm man, bypassed the treatment facility and sent 200,000 gallons of sewage into a drainage ditch. That ditch poured into a tributary to the Nisqually River, which ultimately received the waste over four days.

 

Writing the court, Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Diggs contended Barber’s “gross mismanagement” of the facility created the crisis. Diggs also claimed Barber attempted to hide his misdeed.

“James Barber did not notify anyone that he had bypassed the treatment plant, did not sample the bypassed waste, and did not record the bypass and discharge of the minimally treated sewage in the log books for the treatment plant,” Diggs told the court. “Instead, he left for several days off from work, informing none of his colleagues or supervisors about the bypass of waste.”

As part of his guilty plea, Barber agreed to resign from the Park Service and give up his certification as a wastewater facility operator. He will also be banned from Mount Rainier National Park for five years.

Barber pleaded guilty to one count of violating the Clean Water Act, a misdemeanor. He is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 14 by U.S. Magistrate Judge Richard Creatura.

 

Word of advice folks … If you’re looking for a quaint little Inn in a small town you may be visiting, don’t pick the one at the water treatment plant. Even if it’s cheap, better to be safe than flush with cash.

 

I’m Jeffrey Lynch and that’s today’s Spot of Bother.

 

Musical credits:

 

Bother Me Often, Carter Beale

Bothersome Reprise, Carter Beale

Waterloo, ABBA

 

Audio Sound Effect Credits:

 

Freesound.org – “water_splash_18.wav” by junggle

‎www.freesound.org/people/Marec/sounds/15336/

 

Spot of Bother Podcast 9.11.2012 | Smoke ‘Em if You Got ‘Em | by Jeffrey Lynch

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I did a very bad thing this past weekend and perhaps a confessional, dear listener will alleviate a bit of my guilt. As a preemption to my story, I must state for the record that I have never been a habitual smoker of cigarettes. Oh, I’ve tried from time to time but the addiction just never takes. I like the occasional cigar or joint, but the old classic cancer stick just never did much for me. 

 

This past Saturday I ran into my old friend Mike at a local watering hole. More like watering hole in the wall, but I’ll spare you those sordid details – at least for now. Mike and I decided to leave and drive over to another, more lively establishment. As the distance was only a few blocks and I’m avid walker, it was a bit strange to me getting into a car for such a short distance. unlike me, Mike drives a lot and thus carries lots of things around with him which he stores on the front passenger seat of his car. During the process of clearing off the seat so that I could assume the shotgun position, I picked up his pack of American Spirit Menthols. The box was pretty and they smelled so good, I couldn’t resist asking if I might have one. Mike obliged, and I lit up. As I rolled down the window to cough out my first lung-full of smoke I couldn’t help but wonder how this nasty little thing could be so damned tasty. We talked, Mike drove, I smoked, it was all very in-the-moment. After I finished my cigarette all I could think about was how much Gin it was going to take to get rid of the after taste. See? I’m just not a good smoker. But I must say, that was my first American Spirit, and it was quite tasty. It was light, and didn’t make me feel bad the day after like many of the more popular, and cheaper brands do. Not to mention the generic and cheap, off-market products, many being counterfeit. Those can be very sketchy. So sketchy in fact, that there’s a news story out today that I’d like to share with you. Smoker or not, I think you’ll find this both disturbing and interesting. Here’s more from Britain’s Daily Mail:

 

Fake cigarettes made from human excrement, asbestos, mould and dead flies are being smoked regularly in Britain, undercover detectives have found. Investigators working for the tobacco industry have spent weeks rummaging through litter bins for fag packets to assess the scale of the black market. They were astonished by the sheer volume of the illicit trade, with about one third of packets found to have contained fakes or cigarettes brought in by smugglers.

 

The survey in Birmingham by MS Intelligence, a Swiss-based brand protection company, found that 30.9 per cent of packets were either bogus or purchased abroad. 

A similar study conducted last year found the proportion was only 14.1 per cent – indicating that the number of illicit cigarettes smoked in Britain’s second-largest city has more than doubled in 12 months.

 

Customers who smoke counterfeit cigarettes have been warned they are taking huge health risks. The UK Border Agency has intercepted items containing asbestos, mould and human excrement. A haul in Derbyshire found cigarettes made from the remains of crushed flies. Experts believe that MS Intelligence’s findings may be merely the tip of the iceberg.

 

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) estimates that non UK duty-paid cigarettes cost the taxpayer up to £3.6billion in revenue during the 2009-10 financial year. A spokesman for the International Tax and Investment Centre, a lobby group, said: ‘Duty goes unpaid on almost one in three cigarettes smoked in Birmingham. ‘But that does not include hand-rolled tobacco, of which HMRC estimates as much as half is sourced on the black market.’

 

MS Intelligence carried out the research on behalf of a number of cigarette companies who are concerned that plans to introduce plain packaging will help black market tobacco barons flood the market with fakes. Analysts collected 13,000 packets in Birmingham between April 3 and May 11. Most of the bogus brands uncovered originated from the Far East, predominantly from China, and some packets were so sophisticated that they were almost identical to the real thing. An MS Intelligence report on the investigation – codenamed Operation EDPC – concludes that criminals have changed tactics. It warns of a rise in the number of ‘illicit whites’, which are cigarettes manufactured for the sole purpose of being smuggled into and sold illegally in another market, avoiding tax. The report states: ‘Historically, it (the illicit market) was made up of genuine brands of tobacco smuggled from lower-priced EU countries.

Currently, there are much more counterfeits and, increasingly, illicit “whites”.

 

The report continues: ‘Along with counterfeits, illicit whites represent the most significant threat to legitimate trade and tobacco revenues in the UK from large-scale organised criminality.’ One of the most popular ‘whites’ found in the Birmingham sweep is Jin Ling – a cigarette which has enjoyed staggering under-the-counter success.

In 2006, they were only found in Poland and neighbouring nations, but now they are changing hands in at least 16 EU countries.

 

Former Scotland Yard detective Will O’Reilly, currently carrying out research for tobacco giant Philip Morris International, said organised criminals were increasingly turning from peddling hard drugs to tobacco. 

Profit margins are said to be just as high because of the scale of the operation, but detection rates are lower and punishment less severe.

Recently, heroin and cigarettes have been smuggled together. ‘Bring a container of cigarettes into this country and you’re talking a £1.5 million profit,’ said Mr O’Reilly. ‘Organised crime is all over it. ‘After a number of years in decline, there has been a sharp rise in illicit cigarettes. ‘That’s partly down to the economy – people can’t afford the real product – and it is easier for counterfeiters to copy the packets.

 

‘Plans for plain packaging are simply playing into the hands of organised criminals and counterfeiters because it will be so much easier to make copies.’

 

So there you have it. If there weren’t already enough reason to dissuade you from smoking there’s one more. And even though I do enjoy the occasional fag in my mouth, I’ll just stick with weed.

 

I’m Jeffrey Lynch and that’s today’s Spot of Bother.

 

Musical credits:

 

Bother Me Often, Carter Beale

Bothersome Reprise, Carter Beale

 

Sound effect credits:

 

Freesound.org – “Consuming Cigarette + Breathes.wav” by Nakhas

Freesound.org – “Bong Hit.wav” by ssaada1

 

 

FlashCast Podcast #69 | Carving Up The Cows | by Jeffrey Lynch

SOB_8.10.2012.m4a Listen on Posterous

In the early 1980′s investigative reporter Linda Moulton Howe produced a disturbing little documentary entitled A Strange Harvest. I was just a kid back then, but I remember seeing this film and being both fascinated and shocked. This was my very first exposure to the ongoing phenomena of cattle mutlilations, and the film was a shocking and informative expose’ which documented, in detail, the very bizarre nature of these crimes.Here’s a bit of audio from the film with Colorado Sheriff Tex Graves, interviewed in 1979, describing one of the cases:

strange_harvest_clip.mp3 Listen on Posterous

Speculations as to who or what is slicing and dicing away at these poor animals has been all over the map. Theories include secret government military operations, Satan worshippers and even space aliens. After all these years, I’m still not sure what to think. Sadly, mutilations are still occuring and today I have for you the latest reported case from Denver Co. Here’s the story from The Denver Post:

Recent livestock mutilations have Gunnison area ranchers shaken and on the alert for more strange attacks on cattle and horses.

In recent weeks, a horse was shot and had its head skinned at the LeValley Ranch property, which is part of the Esty Ranch holdings about eight miles east of Gunnison. The horse also had its tongue and anus removed.

Less than two months ago, a prize heifer in the same heavily traveled area just off of Colorado 50 and Colorado 114 had its tongues, lips and anus removed.

“To me it looks like a ritualistic issue. Either that, or they are high on drugs. There is just no logical explanation for it,” said Esty Ranch owner Mike Clarke.

Two other incidents took place on other ranches in that vicinity in May and July.

The four mutilations have prompted the Gunnison County Stockgrowers Association to offer a $500 reward for any information that will lead to a conviction. The Colorado State Patrol has also been alerted to watch for strange activities in that area. The Gunnison County Sheriff’s Office, the agency investigating the mutilations, did not return phone calls asking for comment.

Clarke’s ranch foreman, Allen Roper, told the Gunnison Country Times that the mutilated animals appeared to be shot, but no bullets were found and that the mutilations were done with knives and were not a result of predators.

The recent mutilations have similarities to mutilations that occurred in the 1960s in neighboring Saguache County. The most famous incident was reported in 1967 when a horse that became known as Snippy” had its head and neck skinned. Like in the most recent cases, there was no blood at the scene or tracks. The mutilations were never solved.

In 2009, a San Luis Valley rancher found four calves with their tongues sliced out, udders removed, eyes cored and faces skinned. Those cases were never solved and there also was no blood nor tracks around those animals.

Clarke said if there is another incident he expects “the ranching community will really be up in arms.”

“What concerns us is what they are going to do next?” Clarke said.

Taking this strange mutilation mystery into consideration, I can’t help but wonder about the 2300 people that go missing in just the US … each day … according to True TV’s crime library. If the cattle cutting is kept on the down low, I just wonder if some of those poor lost souls have met a similiar fate.

I’m Jeffrey Lynch and that’s this week’s Spot of Bother.

Musical credit:

Bother Me Often, by Carter Beale

Sound effect credit:

Freesound.org – “Cow.wav” by Benboncan