I realize that a lot of Americans like and respect Mikhail Gorbachev, but you should know that Vladimir Putin is his protege.

I may have mentioned before, but Medvedev literally means “of the bear”.  A medved is a bear in Russian.  It is a compound word that breaks down into med [honey] and ved [authority, expert].  The Slavs tamed bears to locate honeycombs, the same way the French train pigs to find truffles.

The honey was traded North to the Vikings for the production of mead, the drink, while the beeswax was traded South to Constantinople to be made into candles.  They were very important export commodities.

In My Opinion:

The individual who was mailing the anthrax letters was not trying to kill individuals, the purpose was to increase funding for bioweapons research.  Attempting to fabricate a motive for the individuals to whom the letters were addressed is a waste of effort.  If you look at them based on their jobs, you see the threats were addressed to the media and politicians, two groups who could influence increased funding.  That is the connection I see.

Not all of the evidence collected in any case, especially evidence gathered from public areas, is actually tied to the  case in the final analysis.  A lot of the physical evidence that is gathered in a major investigation has nothing at all to do with the object of the investigation.  It is collected because it might have some meaning, and is some cases may help in establishing a time line.

The anthrax samples were not all of the same granularity, some were fine and others were clumpy.  Under controlled laboratory conditions you would expect them all to be of the same type.

The standard for a criminal conviction is beyond reasonable doubt, not beyond all doubt.

Things are a little clearer today: Search of gunman’s house finds weapons and a will

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The man who fatally shot the chairman of the state Democratic Party had a Post-It note at home with the victim’s last name and phone number along with 14 guns, antidepressants and a last will and testament, according to court documents.

Police Thursday were exploring possible links between the gunman Timothy Dale Johnson and the party chairman, Bill Gwatney, 48. Johnson, 50, shot Gwatney to death Wednesday and after he lost his job at a Target and was killed by officers after a 30-minute chase.

The search of Johnson’s home in Searcy also turned up two sets of keys for vehicles from car lots Gwatney owned. Johnson also had a pistol and 13 long guns.

First off, they keep saying or implying he was fired, which is not accurate, he quit. He went into work and snapped, writing various complaints as graffiti on the walls. As he had been a good, long time employee, his manager tried to find out what was wrong, but Johnson just turned in his employee badge and left.

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Invest 92L had a “bad air” day yesterday and was disrupted by an infiltration of dry air, but it has gotten its act together this morning and is starting to develop.

Currently near Antigua it is projected to track north of the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and Hispaniola into the Bahamas getting organized along the way. The water is warm enough and the wind shear low enough for it to form as a tropical depression. Currently it is a mass of thunderstorms with sustained winds at 30 mph.

Something people in South Florida need to keep an eye on as the weekend approaches.