The story about the Microsoft Consultant and the Sheep Herder... (A joke from Al MacIntrye) Al 'Mac' sent Dog News: weird, inspiring dog tales jokes about cats, dogs, sheep, bears and yuppies... He's the guy who's compiling a list of great Radioland Docs for newbies and experts alike. Here's his sheep story (which he got from Peter Dow):

A shepherd was herding his flocks in a remote pasture when suddenly a brand new Jeep Cherokee advanced out of a dust cloud towards him. The driver, a young man in a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, Ray Ban sunglasses and a YSL tie leaned out of the window and asked our shepherd: "If I can tell you exactly how many sheep you have in your flock, will you give me one?" The shepherd looks at the yuppie, then at his peacefully grazing flock and calmly answers "sure!" The yuppie parks the car, whips out his notebook, connects it to a cell-phone, surfs to a NASA page on the Internet where he calls up a GPS satellite navigation system, scans the area, opens up a database and some 60 Excel spreadsheets with complex formulas.

 Finally he prints out a 150 page report on his hi-tech mini- aturized printer, turns around to the shepherd and says: "you have here exactly 1586 sheep!" "That is correct, take one of the sheep" says the shepherd. He watches the young man select an animal and bundle it in his Cherokee.

 Then the shepherd says: "If I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me my sheep back?" "Okay, why not!" answers the young man. "You are a consultant" says the shepherd.

 "That is correct" says the yuppie, "How did you guess that?" "Easy" answers the shepherd. "You turn up here although nobody called you, you want to be paid for the answer to a question I already knew the solution of, and you don't know anything about my business because you took my dog. [Al Macintyre]

Rocco, K-9 hero, struck down by car MI On the day of his untimely death, Rocco, the K-9 police dog for Allegan County in Michigan, located a missing child who was reunited with a worried family, and participated in a drug bust. Rocco was struck down by a passing car while chasing a stray dog. He will be sorely missed... [Holland Sentinel]

German K-9 dogs enhance U.N. Peace Mission in Afghanistan Three dogs, 'Mike, Bronco and Duck are members of what arguably is the most aggressive and least polite squad of the United Nations military force on duty to keep the peace in Afghanistan's capital. The dog's popularity enhances the Germans' reputation and have been incorporated as a display of military rigor to impress the locals. Exhibitions take place at the main ISAF base just outside of Kabul about every two weeks...'  K-9 partners help Germany in Afghanistan [USA Today]

VA police knew Fredericksburg victim was ballistically linked to shooter VA At this morning's news conference in Spotsylvania, Virginia, police confirmed that the shooting was ballistically linked to the other Washington, DC, area shootings, and that they had confirmation as of 8:30 p.m. last night. The sheriff felt that releasing the information linking the shooting last night would not move the investigation forward. He emphasized that the hot lines had brought in close to 2,000 tips (or 40 calls a minute) for an area of 98,000 people and that the police were following up on every tip.

The victim, Kenneth H. Bridges, was a Philadephia resident, a respected businessman, and a father of six children. He was shot in the back while pumping gasoline at an Exxon station. While the media is saying the shooter is brazen (because he shot the man just yards away from a police officer at another accident), I think it's a pattern established from the beginning. The man shot down in the Shopper's Food warehouse parking lot in Wheaton was killed right across the street from a police station and fire house. How brazen can you get. (I remember telling an elderly neighbor a month ago how I thought that supermarket was safer than the market where she had been mugged at; how wrong could I be... )

The consolidated  hotline for tips is 1-888-324-9800 and the reward for tips bringing the serial murderer (s?) to justice is now at close to $400,000. Related News Stories [MSNBC TV news] (Although the reward money is mentioned as an aid to bringing out tips, I am  not convinced that it is that much of an incentive. If it were, why haven't we caught the Anthrax terrorist? The rewards for justice program by the Federal Government has little to show for tracing the anthrax terrorist.) What do you think?