Report: NASA can’t keep up with killer asteroids

Posted on August 13, 2009 by mindleapblog

It amazes me that with our technological advances, we are at the mercy of the universe.  At any given moment all of our shopping malls, car lots, big box stores, and mcmansions could be blown away by a passing meteor.  I can see why our society is based on fear.  We really have NO control over the future of our planet.  As a comfort, the government finds ways to spend billions of dollars on building machines and funding programs to help better predict disaster:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090812/ap_on_sc/us_sci_killer_asteroids

Filed under: Meteors

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    Elizabeth Báthory

    Biography

    Elizabeth Báthory was born on a family estate in Nyírbátor, Kingdom of Hungary, and spent her childhood at Ecsed Castle. Her father was George Báthory of the Ecsed branch of the family, brother of András Bonaventura Báthory, who had been Voivod of Transylvania, while her mother was Anna Bathory (1539–1570), daughter of Stephen Báthory, another Voivod of Transylvania, was of the Somlyó branch. Through her mother, Elizabeth was the niece of Stefan Báthory, King of Poland.
    She was highly intelligent, and as a young woman learned Latin, German and Greek. She was also interested in science and astronomy.

    At the age of 15, Báthory was engaged to Ferenc Nádasdy and moved to Nádasdy Castle in Sárvár, Kingdom of Hungary. In 1575, she married Nádasdy in Vranov. Nádasdy’s wedding gift to Báthory was his home, Čachtice Castle, situated in the Little Carpathians near Trencsén, together with the Čachtice country house and 17 adjacent villages. The castle itself was surrounded by a village and agricultural lands, bordered by outcrops of the Little Carpathians. In 1602, Nádasdy finally bought the castle from Rudolf II, so that it became a private property of the family.

    Arrest and Trial

    Between 1602 and 1604, Lutheran minister István Magyari complained about atrocities both publicly and with the court in Vienna, after rumors had spread.
    The Hungarian authorities took some time to respond to Magyari's complaints. Finally, in 1610, King Matthias assigned János Thurzó, the Palatine of Hungary, to investigate. Thurzó ordered two notaries to collect evidence in March 1610. Even before obtaining the results, Thurzó debated further proceedings with Báthory's son Pál and two of her sons-in-law. A trial and execution would have caused a public scandal and disgraced a noble and influential family (which at the time ruled Transylvania), and Báthory's considerable property would have been seized by the crown. Thurzó, along with Pál and her two sons-in-law, originally planned for her to be secreted to a nunnery, but as accounts of her murder of the daughters of lesser nobility spread, it was agreed that Báthory should be kept under strict house arrest, but that further punishment should be avoided. It was also determined that Matthias did not have to repay a large debt for which he lacked sufficient funds.

    Thurzó went to Čachtice Castle on 30 December 1610 and arrested Báthory and four of her servants, who were accused of being her accomplices. Thurzó's men reportedly found one girl dead and one dying. Another woman was found wounded, others locked up.
    While Báthory was put under house arrest (and remained so from that point on), King Matthias requested that she be sentenced to death. However, Thurzo successfully convinced the King that such an act would negatively affect the nobility. Hence, a trial was postponed indefinitely.
    Her associates, however, were brought to court. A trial was held on 7 January 1611 at Nagybiccse (Bytča), presided over by Royal Supreme Court judge Theodosious Syrmiensis de Szulo and 20 associate judges. Báthory herself did not appear at the trial.

    Last Years and Death

    During the trial of her primary servants, Báthory had been placed under house arrest in a walled up set of rooms. She remained there for four years, until her death.
    King Matthias had urged Thurzó to bring her to court and two notaries were sent to collect further evidence, but in the end no court proceedings against her were ever commenced.
    On 21 August 1614, Elizabeth Báthory was found dead in her castle. Since there were several plates of food untouched, her actual date of death is unknown. She was buried in the church of Csejte, but due to the villagers' uproar over having "The Tigress of Csejte" buried in their cemetery, her body was moved to her birthplace at Nagyecsed in Kingdom of Hungary, where it is interred at the Báthory family crypt.

    In 1610 and 1611 the notaries collected testimonies from more than 300 witness accounts. Trial records include testimonies of the four defendants as well as 13 more witnesses. Priests, noblemen and commoners were questioned. Witnesses included the castellan and other personnel of Sárvár castle.
    According to these testimonies, her initial victims were local peasant girls, many of whom were lured to Čachtice by offers of well-paid work as maidservants in the castle. Later she is said to have begun to kill daughters of lower gentry, who were sent to her gynaeceum by their parents to learn courtly etiquette. Abductions were said to have occurred as well. At the trial there were accusations of pagan practices and witchcraft.[citation needed] The trial did not follow modern judicial standards, instead using torture and intimidation of both the accused as well as some of those who testified against them, as was common at that time.

    The descriptions of torture that emerged during the trials were often based on hearsay. The atrocities described included severe beatings over extended periods of time, often leading to death; burning or mutilation of hands, sometimes also of faces and genitalia; biting the flesh off the faces, arms and other body parts; causing victims to freeze to death; starving of victims and sexual abuse.

    Some witnesses named relatives who died while at the gynaeceum. Others reported having seen traces of torture on dead bodies, some of which were buried in graveyards and others in unmarked locations. According to testimonies by the defendants, Elizabeth Báthory tortured and killed her victims not only at Csejte but also on her properties in Sárvár, Sopronkeresztúr, Pozsony and Vienna, and even between these locations. In addition to the defendants, several people were named for supplying her with young women.
    Estimates about how many victims Elizabeth Báthory killed differ greatly. Some sources claim the number is as high as 650.
    --Wikipedia