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Public release date: 3-Feb-2004 Contact: Dr Derek Ward-Thompson derek.ward-thompson@astro.cf.ac.uk 029-2087-5314 Cardiff University Astronomers unravel a mystery of the Dark Ages Undergraduates' work blames comet for 6th-century "nuclear winter" Scientists at Cardiff University, UK, believe they have discovered the cause of crop failures and summer frosts some 1,500 years ago – a comet colliding with Earth. The team has been studying evidence from tree rings, which suggests that the Earth underwent a series of very cold summers around 536-540 AD, indicating an effect rather like a nuclear winter. The scientists in the School of Physics and Astronomy believe this was caused...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2004 July 24 A String Of Pearls Credit H. Weaver (JHU), T. Smith (STScI), NASA Explanation: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, named after its co-discoverers, was often referred to as the "string of pearls" comet. It is famous for its suggestive appearance as well as its collision with the planet Jupiter! The comet's original single nucleus was torn to pieces by Jupiter's strong gravity during a close encounter with the...

Very long but good anthropology/archaeology article Click Here

Meteor clue to end of Middle East civilisations By Robert Matthews, Science Correspondent (Filed: 04/11/2001) SCIENTISTS have found the first evidence that a devastating meteor impact in the Middle East might have triggered the mysterious collapse of civilisations more than 4,000 years ago. satellite images of southern Iraq have revealed a two-mile-wide impact crater caused by a meteor Studies of satellite images of southern Iraq have revealed a two-mile-wide circular depression which scientists say bears all the hallmarks of an impact crater. If confirmed, it would point to the Middle East being struck by a meteor with the violence equivalent ...

The Climax of a Turbulent Millennium: Evidence for Major Impact Events in the late Third Millennium BC Timo Niroma, Helsinki, Finland The First Intermediate PeriodThe Curse of AkkadTroy IIgThird Millennium BC Climate Change and Old World CollapseNatural Catastrophes during Bronze Age Civilisations Two separate cataclysmsSodom and GomorrahWhere did the impacts occur? The First Intermediate Period Selections from "The Egyptians" by C. Aldred (London 1987). "At this distance of time, the overthrow of the Old Kingdom at the end of the Sixth Dynasty has all the appearance of being sudden and complete. "Recent research has attributed the abrupt nature of...

Obituaries in the News Apr 3, 2004 The Associated Press Aaron Bank LOS ANGELES (AP) - Retired Army Col. Aaron Bank, a military icon called "the father of the Green Berets" for his role as the first commander of the Army's elite Special Forces, has died. He was 101. Bank died Thursday of natural causes in an assisted-living facility in Dana Point, said his son-in-law, Bruce Ballantine. In 1952, the Army approved 2,300 spaces for men in a Special Forces unit, the 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne), at Ft. Bragg, N.C. Bank was a key figure in pushing for its...

Condit Sues Over Chandra Levy Articles Saturday December 20, 2003 2:46 AM By JILL BARTON Associated Press Writer WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Former Rep. Gary Condit sued The National Enquirer and other tabloids for $209 million on Friday, alleging they falsely connected him with the 2001 murder of federal intern Chandra Levy. The California Democrat alleges that the Enquirer, Globe and Star Magazine tabloids, along with parent company American Media Inc., maliciously published defamatory statements that Condit ``was involved in deviant and perverted sexual conduct, which directly or indirectly led to the kidnapping and/or murder of Ms. Levy,''...

What if this levy fails?If this operating levy is not approved by the voters on November 4th, the district will make reductions each year until a levy is passed.The reductions for the 2004-2005 school year are as follows: Cut one full-time High School English teacher. Cut one full-time High School Social Studies teacher.Cut one full-time teacher at West Elementary.Cut full-time Middle School Spanish teacher.Cut one full-time classroom teacher at Park Elementary.Cut half-time Tiger Pause teacher at Park Elementary.Cut two half-time reading teachers.Cut one administrator.Cut one custodian.Cut special education instructional supplies, field trips, summer curriculum writing, and professional development.Cut media generalist...

Voting for higher property taxes actually means lower property taxes, says Bemidji schools superintendent Rollie Morud. Actually, because of the state kicking in dollars, Bemidji School District voters who OK an operating referendum Nov. 4 of at least $301 per student will see local property taxes not rise as high. “You will have to explain that well to the public about lower taxes, or else they’ll claim fuzzy economics,” Wes Gjovik, state Transportation Department district engineer in Bemidji, said Thursday. “All these numbers come straight off the printouts,” Morud said. “We will need to find credible sources to explain how...

<p>Read the death notice posted by Chandra's family or post in the guest book.</p> <p>Chandra Levy's remains were laid to rest at Lakewood Memorial Park on Tuesday, in a private ceremony attended by family and investigators who still hope to solve her murder.</p>

<p>MODESTO, California (CNN) -- Relatives and close friends of Chandra Levy held a private burial Tuesday, just days after Washington police turned her remains over to her family, said George Arata, an attorney for the Levys.</p> <p>Between 75 and 100 people attended the traditional Jewish service, Arata said. The Levys also were having a service at their home Tuesday night, which Arata said was part of the family's tradition.</p>

Police are looking at a man who attacked two joggers in Washington, D.C. in the same area where Chandra was found. The man initially passed a polygraph which police now believe was flawed due to language problems. The suspect is currently in jail for attacking two women.

<p>The wife of Rep. Gary Condit is suing the Star tabloid magazine for $15 million, claiming it libeled her by claiming she threatened to kill herself because of her husband's relationship with federal intern Chandra Levy.</p> <p>In the suit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Fresno, Carolyn Condit said the magazine knowingly published falsehoods in a Sept. 11, 2001, cover story, including claims that she threatened to kill herself, trashed the family house and sought counseling.</p>

An FBI analysis of the clothing found with Chandra Levy's remains has detected no traces of DNA, law enforcement sources said, all but eliminating the possibility that forensic evidence from the site in Rock Creek Park will help solve the case.

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) - Three forensics experts have joined the investigation into the death of Chandra Levy, a Levy family lawyer announced Friday.</p> <p>"The family has a right to either know what was done was done properly, or to confirm what was done. We're asking for a second opinion," said lawyer Billy Martin.</p>

D.C. Chief Medical Examiner Jonathan L. Arden said he believes that Chandra Levy might have been strangled, though he does not have conclusive evidence to rule that as the cause of death. Levy's skeletal remains, discovered May 22 in Rock Creek Park, showed damage to her hyoid, a small U-shaped bone in the upper neck, but it was not broken, he said. "A young person could be strangled and not have it show on the bones," said Arden, who ruled Levy's death a homicide but said the cause was undetermined. So far, results from the FBI tests done on evidence...

He was having an adulterous affair with Chandra Levy. According to her friend Sven Jones, Chandra was pressuring Condit into leaving his wife Carolyn, and marrying her. Now more mistresses have come forward with the rule Chandra revealed to her aunt. She was not allowed to carry ID with her when she went out on a date with Condit. Condit's wife gets migraine headaches at time that are often triggered by high altitude airline flights, so she tries to avoid flying. It had been a year since Carolyn Condit flew to Washington. She flies to Washington on April 28th, and ...

Washington (AP) - The private investigator who found Chandra Levy's leg bone earlier this month says he's insulted by a police request to submit to a polygraph test. Joe McCann is a former DC homicide detective who was hired by Levy attorney Billy Martin. McCann found the bone on June 6th, a week after police finished their search of Rock Creek Park. The Washington Post reports sources familiar with the incident say police also seemed to question McCann's story. DC Police Chief Charles Ramsey says it's standard procedure in major cases to ask witnesses with crucial information to take a...

Let's see: He just turned 50, has been in and out of trouble with the law all his life, but nothing really felonious enough to get him sent up for TOO long...In recent years, appears to have spent time in South Florida mostly. Some failure-to-appears on DUI's from 1996 were not pursued against him, not too unusual (?)Last year when we were on chandralevy.com, several of us and one tabloid said he was still in Lauderdale working on construction and living with a girlfriend.Suddenly in late July of last year, the S Fla law hopped on it and he was...

WASHINGTON (AP) - A grand jury investigating Chandra Levy's homicide and whether Rep. Gary Condit obstructed justice in the case has heard from the congressman's top aide. Police also have found more of Levy's bones. Mike Lynch, Condit's California-based chief of staff, answered questions Friday in front of a District of Columbia Superior Court grand jury, Beth Wilkinson, Lynch's lawyer said Wednesday. "He cooperated fully with the investigators and prosecutors and answered all questions in a candid ... For the rest of the article, CLICK HERE

<p>WASHINGTON -- Investigators probing the Chandra Levy mystery have peeled back more layers from around Ceres Rep. Gary Condit, with the recent grand jury testimony of a longtime aide.</p> <p>In interviews late last week, but scheduled before the discovery of some of Levy's remains May 22, prosecutors and grand jurors questioned Condit's Modesto-based chief of staff, Mike Lynch. Lynch is considered a witness, not a target of the investigation.</p>

It has become obvious there will be no new bone until the police once again allow public access to the site.

Dyed Cash Found Near Levy Site Bills Found in D.C. Park Believed to Be From Bank Robbery By Allan Lengel Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, June 10, 2002; Page B02 D.C. police searching unsuccessfully in Rock Creek Park over the weekend for more remains and belongings of Chandra Levy instead came across some money believed to be from a bank robbery in the District last week, authorities said. The bills, discovered Saturday in the general vicinity of the search site, had red dye on them. Banks often give robbers money with dye packs, which explode and color the cash red....

 

New facts on the bone found in Rock Creek Park. I'll post only excerpts since it's the Washington Post. "This bone was so obvious, you would have seen it," Ramsey said. "It was laying out in the open." But the bone . . . was not in plain view. The bone was under a pile of leaves and embedded in the ground. Ramsey, asked to address this disparity, said his account was based on what investigators shared with him. The result was the recovery of about 85 percent of Levy's skeletal remains. Still missing are bones from the pelvis, thigh...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) - Investigators working for Chandra Levy's parents discovered a human leg bone and twisted wire Wednesday near the site where her remains were found in a Washington park. Dr. Jonathan Arden, Washington's medical examiner, has determined it is probably Levy's left shin bone, people familiar with the investigation said. But the bone yielded no clues about how Levy died, they said.</p>

If some quick-and-dirty dumping of the body off of the pavement on Broad Branch had been discovered a year ago this time, I think Condit would have been exonerated, OTBE. Instead, we have now a situation in which, despite her finding in RCP, Condit's position in the general public mind may have been worsened by the finding of the body. Here are some points I will throw out for your consideration and comment. 1. I totally reject the idea that Chandra Levy jogged, walked, or ever ventured into Rock Creek Park alone or on foot. 2. I believe that Chandra...

Fox news has just reported Condit has supplied his Republican opponent a list of his major donors, as well as commentary on when and who to contact.

  FReeper Sleuths! Gary Condit and the Mystery of the Chandra Levy Pinky Ring! From the New York Post:"Police believe this missing tiny pinkie ring could be the key to solving the Chandra Levy murder case. A gift from her mother, Susan in 1998, it was one of the 24-year-old Bureau of Prisons intern's most cherished possessions and her family has said she wore it constantly. The 14-carat gold ring was bought for $416 and has two diamond chips and the initials "CL" inscribed. But it was not among the personal items found during the extensive police search of the...

Homicide Ruling Focuses Levy Probe D.C. Police to Ask FBI Lab's Help In Learning How Ex-Intern Died Key parts of the article as the whole article can not be posted here... ~ Ramsey said police will send Levy's clothing and other items found in the park to the FBI laboratory in Quantico for tests. He said officers also will review the cases of people arrested for committing other crimes in the park. ~ Law enforcement sources said the investigators will reinterview several people they spoke to last year after Levy's disappearance, including Rep. Gary A. Condit (D-Calif.) and Ingmar Guandique....

<p>Published 9:03 a.m. PDT [Updated 12:10 p.m. May 28] MODESTO -- Hours after learning that Chandra Levy was murdered, Robert and Susan Levy tried to focus on the positive at a memorial service celebrating their daughter's short life.</p> <p>In Washington, medical examiner Jonathan L. Arden told reporters that the death had been classified as a homicide but the cause of death could not be determined.</p>

For more than two months last summer, America's media were all Chandra Levy, all the time. Talk shows locked in on the story -- focusing primarily on her relationship with Rep. Gary Condit, D-Ceres -- with guests making the rounds from "Hardball" to "Larry King Live." But the story won't have the same shelf life this time, said a network spokesman, media experts and some folks on the home front. Last summer, reporters, producers and camera crews staked out Condit's downtown Modesto office, his home in Ceres and the Levy home north of Modesto. The frenzy didn't ease until Congress...

<p>May 26, 2002 -- Investigators believe Chandra Levy was lured to her death by someone she knew or slain by a predator who methodically stalked her, police sources said yesterday.</p> <p>Evidence collected at the spot where her remains were found points away from her being killed in a random attack while she was jogging, the sources said.</p>

WASHINGTON (AP) - Police have found a knotted piece of clothing with Chandra Levy's remains that could have been used to restrain her. Investigators are trying to determine if Levy's stretch leggings were used to tie her up, a person close to the investigation said Saturday. "If they conclude she was bound, that would eliminate any possibility other than that she was killed," the person said. Deputy police chief Terrance W. Gainer would not confirm or deny whether leggings had been found. "That shouldn't be shared publicly for two reasons, her parents shouldn't have to read it and some...

June 29 — Following is a timeline of what sources close to Gary Condit say his movements were in the week leading up to Chandra Levy's disappearance. Levy was last seen on Monday, April 30, when she canceled her membership at a Washington health club Saturday, April 28 Carolyn Condit, the congressman's wife, arrives from California at 7:30 p.m. ET. Rep. Condit, with a staffer because he has no car, picks her up at the airport. They go to a Xando coffee shop. Sunday, April 29 Rep. Condit has brunch with his wife, and they go shopping in his Adams...

<p>WASHINGTON — Police investigating the death of Chandra Levy have found a knotted clothing item and suspect the former federal intern may have been tied up with it, according to a report in The Washington Post's online edition Friday.</p>

Search teams combing Rock Creek Park last summer never reached the sloping thicket where Chandra Ann Levy's remains were eventually discovered by a man and his dog, D.C. police said yesterday, because the site lay several hundred yards beyond the range of their standard canvassing patterns.Read article here.

From the Washington Post: Police officials declined to discuss a report on WTTG-Fox News on Thursday night that described the discovery of evidence indicating Levy may have been tied up. The report, attributed to law enforcement sources, was not confirmed or denied today.

<p>WASHINGTON — The medical examiner inspecting Chandra Levy's remains has discovered a crack in the former federal intern's skull, investigators have told Fox News.</p> <p>Washington's medical examiner, Dr. Jonathan Arden, is trying to determine if the crack in the skull was the cause of her death or contributed to her death, or if it came after the fact, after she was already dead. The skull Arden is examining is not a complete skull.</p>

Boy was yesterday a sad day. We at the Impeach Condit Necktie Protest thought Chandra was dead and we felt that Condit was the murderer. But yesterday the gruesome step towards realization of such a scenario occurred. The one positive note in our minds was that as we saw justice in a political sense for Condit in March, we may now see justice in a legal sense now that Chandra's body was found. We fully suspect to see Gary ConDIDIT as the culprit: www.ImpeachCondit.org

So I hear this morning Senate LIEberman, on a strict partisan vote, SUBPOENAED the White House for Enron documents, even though the White House said they would voluntarily provide relevant materials before the end of the month. LIEberman, the whiniest Senator the world has probably ever known (Wellstone may have him beat), was clearly attempting to GRAB HEADLINES WHILE THE PRESIDENT IS ON A FOREIGN TRIP.IMAGINE MY AMUSEMENT when, a few minutes later, I heard a body (later discovered to be that of Chandra Levy) had been found in D.C.!BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!! LIL'...

The body that was found earlier today was IDed as Chandra Levy, according to the AP.

I will appreciate your email on the discussion with Larry King, Bob, and Susan Levy after tonight's interview. Tommorrow will be one year since Chandra has been missing: A Day of Prayer for her and all missing Americans. I have started a new website for Missing Persons. Email me your input, ideas, or suggestion to make the site better. http://www.missingamericans.com Dateline NBC: Are you searching for someone? http://www.msnbc.com/news/574715.asp?pne=msn I will continue to update you on corrupt Members of Congress. If you have a Dirty Dog to nominate, send in your story with documentation. You can help by sending your contribution...

A grand jury investigating the disappearance of Chandra Levy has subpoenaed Rep. Gary A. Condit to testify in early April, according to law enforcement sources. The D.C. Superior Court grand jury is looking into what happened to the missing 24-year-old intern and also probing allegations of obstruction of justice involving Condit, D-Calif., and possibly others, the sources said. The grand jury also plans to call other witnesses, including Levy's friends and acquaintances and members of Condit's staff, the sources said. Attempts Monday night to reach Mike Lynch, Condit's chief of staff in Modesto, Calif., by phone were unsuccessful. The decision...