By Calvin Palmer

Rail traffic in the Northeast Corridor was disrupted this morning when a teenage girl was hit and killed by a train.

Ann Marie Stickle, 14, of Middle River, was hit by a southbound train as she was walking to school along the railroad tracks with another girl, according to Baltimore County police.

The two Kenwood High School students were not authorized to be on the tracks, said a police spokesperson.

Traffic in the corridor was shut down after the incident, which occurred at 9:00 about 11 miles north of Penn Station.

Amtrak spokesperson Karina Romero said the corridor was completely reopened three hours later.

The Northeast Regional train traveling from New York to Washington D.C. involved in the incident was delayed for an hour and 45 minutes, Romero said. Passengers were kept on the train for their safety.

The fatal accident continued to affect MARC services until the early afternoon.

Baltimore County and Amtrak police are investigating the incident.

[Based on a report by The Baltimore Sun.]

By Calvin Palmer

With much of the north and east of the United States covered with snow and experiencing mind-numbing temperatures, at least those who can get around in vehicles can do so without it costing them an arm and a leg.

The British are not only starting 2010 with freezing conditions but also petrol costing the equivalent of £5 ($7.98) a gallon.

According to motoring organization, the AA, the average price of petrol has risen to 110.04p ($1.76) a liter, with diesel now 111.77p ($1.77) a liter.

Part of the price rise is accounted for by VAT being restored to its usual rate of 17.5 percent on January 1.

The average cost of petrol a year ago was 85.99p ($1.37) a liter and diesel averaged 98.06p ($1.56) a liter.

Paul Watters, the AA’s head of public affairs, said: ”The fact that petrol sales by supermarkets were 1.8 per cent down in the third quarter of 2009 compared to the same period in 2008 while other retailers boosted their sales 3.0 per cent may indicate more selective buying by cash-strapped drivers.

”With further increases in tax due this year and the price of oil back above $80 a barrel, the winter weather isn’t the only problem sending a shiver through drivers.

”In November, 60 per cent of AA members said they were cutting back family budgets, car use or both to compensate for higher fuel costs and we expect that to get worse. The Treasury has already predicted that fuel duty income will be £0.2 billion ($0.3 billion) below budget this financial year. Retailers who look to take extra from the driver better beware of precipitating falling sales.”

[Based on a report by The Daily Telegraph.]

Picture courtesy of The Daily Telegraph.

To readers of this blog from all around the world, I wish each and everyone of you a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

By Calvin Palmer

A lone gunman today killed his ex-girlfriend and then shot four more people dead at the shopping mall where she worked in Espoo, Finland’s second largest city.

Ibrahim Shkupolli, 43, an ethnic Albanian from Kosovo, fled the scene and sparked a massive manhunt before police found his body several hours later in his apartment. He had apparently commited suicide.

The shooting spree began at 10:00 a.m. when shots rang out at the crowded Sello mall in Espoo, 10 miles west of Helsinki.

Witnesses said Shkupolli opened fire with a 9 mm handgun and sparked panic among New Year’s Eve shoppers in the mall, with many rushing for the exit.

“Everyone was in a panic. They didn’t know what was happening and some were crying,” one witness reported.

Armed police and paramedics found the bodies of three men and a woman, employees at the Prisma supermarket where Shkupolli’s girlfriend had been working.

The victims were aged 27, 40, 42 and 45. Two were shot on the shop’s first floor, the other two on its second floor, police said.

Shortly afterwards, his girlriend was also found shot dead in her home nearby.

Shkupolli was known to police and had been issued with a restraining order to stop him approaching his former partner.

The most likely trigger for the shooting spree was “a domestic dispute”, said chief investigating officer Jukka Kaski.

“The ex-girlfriend seems to have been the gunman’s main target and the whole shooting is tied up with the relationship between her and the gunman,” Kaski added.

Authorities in Serbia confirmed that Shkupolli was a Kosovo Albanian but that he was not known to police there.

Finland is among the top five nations in the world for civilian gun ownership.

Politicians and religious leaders have called for tighter gun laws in a country which is known for heavy drinking and domestic violence and high rates of suicide.

In September 2008, Matti Juhani Saari a 22-year-old gunman killed nine fellow students and a teacher at a college in the western town of Kauhajoki before turning the gun on himself.

A year earlier, an 18-year-old student shot eight people at a high school in in Jokela, north of Helsinki, before killing himself.

Eleven people were killed in September 2008 when a 22-year-old gunman burst into a school classroom, shooting dead eight female students and one male classmate as well as a male teacher, before turning the gun on himself.

An 18-year-old student also shot six students, a headmistress and a nurse before killing himself in a school in Jokela, north of Helsinki in November 2007.

[Based on reports by The Daily Telegraph ,  AFP and BBC News.]

By Calvin Palmer

Snow swept across Wales, northern England and Scotland today and the freezing condtions have been blamed for five deaths.

Two climbers were reported missing after an avalanche this morning on Britain’s highest mountain, Ben Nevis, in the Scottish Highlands.

Later, police said rescuers had found two bodies in the Coire na Ciste area of Ben Nevis.

Another climber was reported missing just before noon after an avalanche at Liathach Ridge at Torridon in Wester Ross, Scotland.

He was found later by the Torridon mountain rescue team. The man was conscious and had an arm injury.

On the M62 motorway across the Pennines, three men were killed last night when their car left the westbound carriageway close to Scammonden Dam, near Huddersfield, and collided with a barrier.

The men were traveling in a Mitsubishi car and are believed to be from Preston in Lancashire.

West Yorkshire Police have not released the names of the victims and are still investigating the cause of the accident.

A newspaper report names Alnoor Rajani, 31, from Preston, as one of the passengers in the car. He was married and had two young children.

The Arctic conditions caused accidents onthe A14 in Suffolk, the A5 in Shropshire and the A628 in Greater Manchester.

A large tree fell on an empty car near Blaenavon, south Wales, blocking the Blaenavon-Cwmavon road.

Rail services between Perth and Inverness were affected by the bad weather.

[Based on reports by The Daily Telegraph and The Huddersfield Daily Examiner.]

By Calvin Palmer

Office buildings in New York’s Times Square were evacuated and streets cordoned off this morning while police investigated a suspicious parked vehicle.

The white 1992 Dodge van was spotted by officers around 11 o’clock.

“Its presence in Times Square, just before New Year Eve, causes us concern,” said Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne of the NYPD. “That’s why we’re taking extra precautions.”

The vehicle was parked on the west side of Broadway, just south of West 42nd Street, and may have been there since Monday, police sources said.

Its windows were covered with a tarp. The vehicle identification number was obscured from view, and a phony police placard was on the dashboard.

NYPD Bomb Squad used a robot that is operated remotely and equipped with a camera to get near the van to look for explosive devices.

The Nasdaq and Condé Nast buildings were evacuated as a precaution and subway trains were diverted from Times Square station.

At about 1:00 p.m., police re-opened the streets and traffic began flowing again.

Police in New York are on high alert ahead of New Year’s Eve when a million revelers are expected to pack Times Square to see the crystal ball drop to mark the start of 2010.

[Based on reports by the New York Daily News and AFP.]

By Calvin Palmer

Christmas this year brought just two DVDs into the household. How times have changed. But such are the spin-offs of the economic recession, in general, and my lack of income, in particular.

Nora Ephron’s Julie & Julia (2009), starring Meryl Streep in the role of American culinary icon Julia Child, helped pass Boxing Day night (December 26 for American readers). It was one of my wife’s Christmas presents.

 If found it a binary film. I loved the scenes that explored the post-war life of Child and her path to success in the art of cooking and French cuisine.

Streep’s portrayal of Child’s larger-than-life character reminded me at times of Benny Hill’s Fanny Haddock character based on Britain’s equivalent of Julia Child, Fanny Cradock.

Julie & Julia also featured Dan Aykroyd’s Saturday Night Live sketch from 1978, where he parodied Child and continued cooking despite bleeding profusely from a cut to the thumb.

Add in the street scenes from Paris and Stanley Tucci’s marvelous supporting role as Paul Child, Julia’s husband, and I feasted on a delicious appetizer, entrée and dessert.

In contrast, those scenes charting Julie Powell’s challenge of cooking the 524 recipes in Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking within 365 days, and documenting the attempt in a blog, were more like cold leftovers.

Amy Adams injected a certain charm into the role of Powell but failed to flesh out her character with any real substance. Powell’s blog was supposedly littered with four-letter words but it was strange they never appeared in the dialogue with her husband (Chris Messina). Usually if someone writes the f-word, it tends to feature in their day-to-day conversation.

But while Powell’s rite of gastronomic passage attracted a faithful and growing readership, and later media interest, it did not gain the approval of Child.

It is said that during her life Child did not suffer fools gladly, so her reaction to the blog is hardly surprising. All Powell was doing was following the recipes – Child’s creativity and intellectual property – and writing a commentary in the process.  The idea in and of itself is novel but where is the artistry in such an exercise?

The Powell approach to blogging and subsequent fame and fortune got me thinking. After all, I would not be adverse to a degree of fame and would certainly enjoy a modest fortune from my blogging activities.

So yesterday, I came up with the challenge of recreating the Great Pyramid of Giza in my backyard and to document in a blog the daily progress, setbacks and moments of hilarity. So here it is.

A Geezer Builds On Giza

Day One:

I stepped out into the backyard armed with a measuring tape and suddenly realized it is not big enough to accommodate the structure. Finding 200,000 skilled craftsmen and laborers to work for nothing, even in these times of high unemployment, may prove difficult. Also dragging 2.3 million blocks of limestone through a Jacksonville suburb would likely cause severe traffic disruption and we already have the construction on Interstate 10. The project is hereupon cancelled.

©Calvin Palmer 2009. All Rights Reserved.

To readers of this blog all around the world, may you all have a Merry Christmas, a day filled with joy and happiness.

By Calvin Palmer

An armed man pushing a wheelchair believed to be laden with explosives  took several people hostage today at a post office in a rural town in Virginia.

Shots were fired and police cordoned off a three-block area in Wytheville. A SWAT team, including a bomb technician, has been sent to the incident.

The incident occurred at 2:30 p.m. when the downtown area was crowded with holiday shoppers and ended eight hours later when police took the man into custody and released the three hostages.

Warren Gator, of Tennessee, was arrested.

The Mayor of Wytheville, Trent Crewe, said, “We cannot confirm any explosives.” He added that the gunman’s motive was unclear.

Postal worker Walt Korndorfer told reporters he was in the Main Street Post Office when he heard shots and a co-worker ran past. He followed.

A U.S. Postal Service spokesman said the man made no demands other than to ask for a pizza.

Reports also suggested the man is a former U.S. Marine, although details about him are limited.

State Police Sergeant M.T. Conroy told reporters that the man had pushed the wheelchair into the building but it was unclear for what purpose.

Wytheville is the county seat of Wythe County, in southwest Virginia.

[Based on reports by the Associated Press, KWTX, WGME and AFP.]

By Calvin Palmer

The Food and Drug Administration hedged its bets today with its ruling on the cholesterol drug Vytorin.

Federal regulators said a review of data from various studies show no evidence that the drug causes cancer. However, the agency added a caveat – it cannot definitely rule it out.

Vytorin is a big money earner for its manufacturer, Merck & Co. The drug combines two cholesterol pills, Zetia and Zocor, which is available as an inexpensive generic drug. Vytorin and Zetia together once generated $5 billion annually.

In January 2008, research indicated that Vytorin was no more effective at limiting plaque buildup in arteries than Zocor, which costs about one-third as much. Six months later,  preliminary results from SEAS study indicated a possible increased risk of cancer in patients getting Vytorin, compared to those getting dummy pills.

The FDA announced an extensive review of the data in August 2008, the FDA said it would do an extensive review of the data. Its results, reported today, are based on several studies of Zetia and Vytorin, including animal testing and patient studies from the SEAS trial as well as two large ongoing studies of the effects of both drugs on the cardiovascular system.

The FDA said that while there is lots of evidence Zocor is not linked to cancer, long-term patient data on Zetia, the other component of Vytorin, “is insufficient to definitively rule out a cancer risk at this time”.

“FDA is not advising healthcare professionals or consumers to stop using these medications, but to continue to evaluate the clinical benefits and potential risks of Vytorin or Zetia compared to other FDA-approved cholesterol-lowering medications,” the agency said in a statement.

It advised consumers with questions to consult their doctor.

“We’re pleased with the conclusions reached by the FDA,” said Merck spokesman Ron Rogers. “Merck strongly supports the efficacy and safety profiles of Vytorin and Zetia.”

Merck, based in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, is the world’s second-biggest pharmaceuticals manufacturer.

[Based on reports by The New York Times and Associated Press.]