Ich hab mein hertz im Heilelberg futgessen.
posted by Tom Dunn at 7:20 PM
Plans under sail for ship to become artificial reef
The Spiegel Grove will be sent to a watery grave 5 1/2 miles off Key Largo.
BY LISA FUSS
lfuss@herald.com
After seven years and numerous bureaucratic obstacles, the decommissioned 510-foot warship Spiegel Grove is now just months away from an ocean burial off Key Largo, where it will become the largest vessel ever scuttled to serve as an artificial reef.
Government officials have approved a transfer of title, passing ownership of the former landing-craft carrier from the federal Maritime Administration to the state of Florida.
Plans call for the Spiegel Grove to be towed next week from Fort Eustis, Va., where the vessel has been docked for more than a decade alongside dozens of other decommissioned ships, to a nearby cleaning shipyard.
Workers will spend the next three months removing toxins, including paint and asbestos, from the vessel's 11 stately decks before towing the ship to a sand-bottom ocean site 5 1/2 miles off Key Largo, near Dixie Shoals.
Once there, a U.S. Navy Seals explosives team will send the Spiegel Grove to its watery grave 124 feet below the surface in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.
posted by Tom Dunn at 6:13 PM
Tom is In kissimmee today visiting Kathi
posted by Tom Dunn at 5:09 PM
Tom is In kissimmee today visiting Kathi
posted by Tom Dunn at 5:09 PM
Israeli plot to kill Arafat's key aides
Uzi Mahnaimi, Tel Aviv
THE Israeli government has drawn up plans to assassinate several of Yasser Arafat's closest aides and arrest or deport hundreds of other leading Palestinians, security sources said this weekend. The initiative follows six months of violence that has claimed more than 400 lives.
The plans, details of which emerged last week, came as Ariel Sharon ordered the Israeli army's paratroop Battalion 202 to take up position around Hebron, the most rebellious of the Palestinian cities. Sharon once commanded the elite unit.
posted by Tom Dunn at 12:17 PM
CHICKEN ROUND-UP IN THE KEYSKEY WEST -- Fed up with complaints about wild hens and roosters overrunning local neighborhoods and parks, the Key West City Commission has approved a plan in concept that calls for a mass roundup and relocation of the pesky birds.
City officials estimate there are some 1,600 chickens running loose throughout Key West and hope to cut the population by at least several hundred birds in coming months.
Although many locals and tourists consider the free-roaming chickens part of Key West's uniqueness and charm, some residents are ruffled by the constant crowing and daily droppings in their yards and want the birds removed.
posted by Tom Dunn at 10:09 AM
Horny Moose Shits On CarOSLO, Norway (Reuters) -- A sex-starved moose in Norway mistook a small, yellow car for a would-be partner, but defecated on it after it got no response.
Leif Borgersen, owner of the Ford Ka model, told the Norwegian regional daily Telemarksavisa on Tuesday that he found his car bathed in lick marks, saliva and moose excrement.
Borgersen says the moose left its mark on the front yard of his home in Lardal, about 200 km (125 miles) southwest of Oslo.
"The front yard was simply transformed into an outdoor toilet," he said. "I'm a bit uncertain whether I should take the risk of letting the car stand alone and defenceless on the front yard from now on."
There was no damage to the car apart from the sideview mirror that was bent backwards.
posted by Tom Dunn at 5:14 PM
