What a relief this is:

Stolen Munch paintings found safe
Two masterpieces by artist Edvard Munch have been recovered two years after they were stolen from an Oslo museum.
The Scream and Madonna were found in a police operation. "We are 100% certain they are the originals. The damage was much less than feared," police said.

They had been missing since two armed men ripped them from the wall and threatened staff at the Munch Museum in the Norwegian capital in August 2004.

Three men were found guilty of charges relating to the theft in May.

"We felt it was a victory today when the pictures turned up," police chief Iver Stensrud told a press conference in Oslo.

"For two years and nine days we have been hunting systematically for these pictures and now we've found them."

Mr Stensrud added that police believed the paintings had remained in Norway since they were stolen.

"We feel we have been hot on the trail of the paintings the whole time, but it has taken time," he said.

The Scream, painted in 1893, is one of the world's most recognisable paintings.

The artworks will now be examined by experts to establish what effect their two-year disappearance has had on their condition.

Mr Stensrud said no reward had been paid but would not give details of how the paintings were recovered.

Police said no new arrests had been made and the two gunmen remain at large.

In May, Bjoern Hoen, 37, was sentenced to seven years for planning the robbery, Petter Tharaldsen, 37, got eight years for driving the getaway car and Petter Rosenvinge, 34, received four years for supplying the vehicle.

Hoen and Tharaldsen were also ordered to pay 750m kroner (£62.3m) compensation to the City of Oslo to reflect the value of its lost paintings.

Three other men were acquitted. All had pleaded not guilty.

Mr Stensrud said those convicted had not contributed to the recovery of the paintings.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/entertainment/5303200.stm

Published: 2006/08/31 16:59:38 GMT

© BBC MMVI

"The Scream" is my favorite painting.

I've been entering this stupid contest since early May to win a trip to Milwaukee Brewers Fantasy Camp, one entry allowed per person per Brewers telecast and tonight I won. Eight trips there were, four were awarded in June at a must-be-present-to-win drawing and four more tonight. Lucky me!

They've chosen not to print my most recent letter to the editor, or so it appears anyway, so here it is:

The writer of the letter of Thursday has it half right, there is a major difference between killing and murder. It's the second part of his letter that I have to disagree with. He states: "There are rules for fighting wars." Some would argue with this but let's say I agree. His next statement is more of a problem: "The United States abides by these rules the best it can." Really? So is the napalming of innocent children and the saturation bombing of civilian population centers within the rules or is it more an example of the best we can do? What about the treatment of prisoners, are there rules for this (yes) and are we following them the "best we can"?

"The real question is how can people...hate Bush so much that they would rather see our country fall to pieces to get rid of Bush? It makes me wonder who the real enemy is."

Is it really "hating Bush", someone who most of us have never met, or do we hate the way he represents us on the world stage? And who would rather "see our country fall to pieces"? Many of us believe that "getting rid of" the current administration (at the polls) would be a good thing for our country. As to who the "real enemy" is: I wonder too.

That's it for this post I guess.

Just watched the last few innings of the Cubs/Cardinals game and enjoyed the ending: Cards win on a ninth inning two-out game-ending grand slam, by Gary Bennett no less (ex-Brewer/back-up catcher).

Albert Pujols impressed me with his non-slugging skills, more than I had seen before; he led off the ninth by slapping a single to right, then taking off for second on the first pitch, sliding in safely on the ground ball out (by Rolen). Next batter hits one toward short, Ramirez coming to his left cuts it off, in front of Pujols so he does what you're supposed to do, checks up, can get back to second, when he sees that he can beat anybody in the infield (and the ball) to third base so he scoots down there; the throw to first winds up being late to get Encarnacion. 1st and third, one out, they wind up walking Belliard on four or five pitches to load 'em up. Slap hitter at the plate, they don't try anything (like the squeeze play) and he hits a one-hopper to short that results in Pujols being forced at the plate, ending his mission-quest but the next guy (Bennett) just pounds one and it's over. Willie Mays and Jackie Robinson used to play like that, the last guys you wanted to face leading off an inning; it's a fun, exiting, effective brand of baseball that we don't get to see enough of. I think Pujols is my favorite player right now.

I can hardly believe this. Oops, sorry, didn't mean to start a war. Mark it up to experience, I guess.


Nasrallah sorry for scale of war
Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah has said he would not have ordered the capture of two Israeli soldiers if he had known it would lead to such a war.
"Had we known that the kidnapping of the soldiers would have led to this, we would definitely not have done it," he said in an interview on Lebanese TV.

He added that neither side was "heading towards a second round" of fighting.

More than 1,000 Lebanese died in the 34-day conflict which left much of southern Lebanon in ruins.

The Israeli offensive began after two Israeli soldiers were seized during a cross border raid by Hezbollah militants on 12 July.

Annan visit

"We did not think that there was a 1% chance that the kidnapping would lead to a war of this scale and magnitude," Sheikh Nasrallah said.

"Now you ask me if this was 11 July and there was a 1% chance that the kidnapping would lead to a war like the one that has taken place, would you go ahead with the kidnapping?

"I would say no, definitely not, for humanitarian, moral, social, security, military and political reasons.

"Neither I, Hezbollah, prisoners in Israeli jails and nor the families of the prisoners would accept it."
Sheikh Nasrallah was speaking on the eve of a visit to Beirut by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan to discuss the expanded UN peacekeeping force to be deployed in southern Lebanon.

A force of 15,000 soldiers, 7,000 of them from European Union states, will be deployed to maintain the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

The UN hopes to have some of the troops on the ground within a week, although the foreign minister of Finland - which currently holds the EU presidency - has said it will be two to three months before the whole force is deployed.

The force will be led by France until February, at which time Italy will take command.

Speaking in Brussels on Friday, Mr Annan said the plan would only work if the enlarged UN force, called Unifil 2, was "strong, credible and robust".

Mr Annan said the force offered the possibility of a "durable ceasefire and long-term solution" to the Middle East crisis.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/5291420.stm

Published: 2006/08/27 18:28:14 GMT

© BBC MMVI

Climate blamed for early springs
A Europe-wide study has provided "conclusive proof" that climate change is responsible for spring arriving earlier each year, researchers say.
Scientists from 17 nations examined 125,000 studies involving 561 species.

The season was beginning on average six to eight days earlier than it did 30 years ago, researchers said.

In regions such as Spain, which saw the greatest increases in temperatures, the season began up to two weeks earlier.

The findings were based on what was described as the world's largest study of changes in recurring natural events, such as when plants flowered.
The team of researchers also found that the onset of autumn has been delayed by an average of three days over the same period.

Feeling the heat

The study, published in the journal Global Change Biology, provided conclusive proof that changes to the continent's climate were affecting the timing of the seasons, the scientists said.

One of the paper's lead authors, Tim Sparks from the UK's Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH), said the findings did not go as far as pointing the finger of blame at human-induced climate change.

"We can't tell that from our study but experts have already shown that there is a discernable human influence on the current climate warming."

But Dr Sparks said it did show that there was a direct link between rising temperatures and changes to plant and animal behaviour.

"We need to look at change over very large areas and we need to examine as many species groups as possible because there has been some mild criticism that people have cherry-picked the results they presented.

If you have species that are dependent on each other changing at different rates, that could just break down the food web
Dr Tim Sparks, report's author

"We have gone for the most complete coverage possible that we could in Europe to try and see if there was still this effect," he said.

"It is very conclusive that there is."

The team examined 125,000 observational series of 542 plants and 19 animal species in 21 European countries from 1971 to 2000.

The results showed that 78% of all leafing, flowering and fruiting records were happening earlier in the year, while only 3% were significantly delayed.

Dr Sparks said horse chestnut trees, which grow all over the continent, were particularly good indicators.

"It is a good example because it is easy to identify, and it has distinctive phases of leafing, flowering and producing conkers."

He hoped the findings would now focus attention on the potential consequences of changes to the behaviour of plants and animals.

"If you have species that are dependent on each other changing at different rates, that could just break down the food web.

"For example, caterpillars feed on oak trees, and birds feed on the caterpillars. Unless these species remain synchronised, there could be problems for any one or more of those elements of the food web."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/5279390.stm

Published: 2006/08/25 04:17:13 GMT

© BBC MMVI

It's just a couple days, right? This is a good thing, right? No one likes winter.