Woman continues treasure hunt after finding note

The Associated Press

QUINCY, Ill. — A western Illinois postal worker’s hunt for supposedly buried treasure continues in Springfield. Patty Henken launched the search recently when she was refinishing an antique chair and found a key in an envelope with a note promising $250 in U.S. gold coins buried in a chest in Springfield.

On the envelope were the typewritten words “Finders Keepers.” The typewritten note detailed a Springfield location where the gold coins were supposedly buried.

Henken was given permission to dig on the lot after agreeing with the property owner that anything found would be split between them.

Searches over the weekend with a backhoe didn’t turn up anything, but Henken isn’t giving up the chase.

newsobserver

Man allegedly flings jellyfish at teens at beach

(09-09) 18:08 PDT MADEIRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) –

A 41-year-old man was arrested on Monday at at Madeira Beach after witnesses said he repeatedly pretended to drown, then allegedly began tossing jellyfish at nearby teenagers. According to a sheriff’s office report, Keith Edward Marriott caused “concern for his safety” when he repeatedly submerged himself and floated back to the top of the water. He was also “loud and disruptive.”

He then started throwing the sea creatures.

Marriott was arrested and charged with disorderly intoxication and carrying a concealed weapon. According to the St. Petersburg Times, Marriott was carrying a pocketknife in his shorts.

Jail records indicate that Marriott was being held on $250 bond. A message left after-hours at the public defender’s office was not immediately returned late Tuesday night.

sfgate

LOS ANGELES – Software giant Microsoft Corp. is apologizing for altering a photo on its Web site to change the race of one of the people shown in the picture.

A photo on the Seattle-based company’s U.S. Web site shows two men, one Asian and one black, and a white woman seated at a conference room table. But on the Web site of Microsoft’s Polish business unit, the black man’s head has been replaced with that of a white man. The color of his hand remains unchanged.

The photo editing sparked criticism online. Some bloggers said Poland’s ethnic homogeneity may have played a role in changing the photo.

“We are looking into the details of this situation,” Microsoft spokesperson Lou Gellos said in a statement Tuesday. “We apologize and are in the process of pulling down the image.”

news.yahoo.com

New park offers X-rated views of NYC hotel guests

NEW YORK – Some guests at a New York City hotel near an elevated park have been offering unobstructed views of themselves.

Guests at the Standard Hotel in Manhattan keep failing to close the curtains as they frolic naked in front of their rooms’ floor-to-ceiling windows, easily viewed from the High Line park below. The park recently opened atop an abandoned elevated rail line.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has called the hotel’s window action “unacceptable.”
Aaron Lipman works in the neighborhood and says the shows are “healthy and fun.” He says they’re like TV’s “Wild Kingdom.”

The hotel issued a statement Monday saying its managers will try to “remind guests of the transparency” of the windows.

The hotel won an award from the Municipal Arts Society of New York for best new building erected last year.

news.yahoo.com

Sock It To Me! Ariz. Man Finds 12 Pairs Of Socks Snatched From Clothesline In Back Yard

(AP)  Someone must have really needed some socks.

A southern Arizona man is out a dozen pairs of socks after someone sneaked into his back yard early Monday and stole socks off a clothesline.

He told the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office that at some point between late Sunday and early Monday, someone entered his fenced-in back yard and made off with 12 pairs of white athletic socks that were hanging on a clothesline. A motion sensor light was also damaged.

Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Carol Capas said the lost and damaged property totaled about $50.

cbsnews.com

Swine flu inspires new video game
By MARIA CHENG, AP Medical Writer
Monday, August 17, 2009

(08-17) 09:24 PDT LONDON, United Kingdom (AP) –
Since swine flu first emerged in April, it has sparked panic, vaccine production and now, a video game.

In an effort to raise awareness, Dutch researchers have created a game that challenges players to control a new pandemic.

“It is actually what is happening now, what is happening in the real world,” said Albert Osterhaus, head of virology at the Erasmus Medical Center, who designed “The Great Flu” game with colleagues.
The game can only be played online at thegreatflu.com and it is free. A World Health Organization spokesman said Monday the agency was not familiar with the game and had not had time to play it.
WHO has reported nearly 178,000 cases of swine flu including 1,462 deaths worldwide, though those numbers are believed to be a gross underestimate of the actual caseload, since hard-hit countries no longer test all cases with flu-like symptoms.

As the virus has spread worldwide, countries have tried different methods to slow it down and pharmaceutical companies are now racing to produce a swine flu vaccine.

The game begins with images of bedridden patients and graveyards from the 1918 Spanish flu. As the head of the fictitious “World Pandemic Control,” players pick a flu strain, and then monitor that strain’s spread around the world.
To fight the emerging outbreak, players use measures including setting up surveillance systems, stockpiling antivirals and vaccines, and closing schools and airports. Players also have a limited budget and are warned that “your actions to control the virus cost money, so keep an eye on it.”

A running tally of the numbers of people infected and those who have died sit above the budget. Newspaper stories about the deadly virus and the global response to it — like riots breaking out worldwide — pop up to help players monitor the outbreak.

Messages from governments mirror the difficulties faced by international agencies like WHO. For instance, when players set up costly surveillance systems, the game often relays a message from governments that “we will comply with your directions…but we must inform you that the political support for this action is low in this region. Therefore, the effectiveness of the system may differ from your expectations.”

Osterhaus said the video game’s approximation of combating a pandemic, choosing between various interventions yet still watching the outbreak spread, gives people a sense of how difficult it is to make decisions in the public health world.
___
On the Net:
www.thegreatflu.com
www.who.int
Read more: sfgate.com