Dozens of lobsters destined to be boiled alive made a successful getaway from a supermarket in Stuttgart in the early hours of Sunday morning, police said.
(WTF is it Now?)
While I sat at my desk one day, two of my classmates figured out how to overwrite the entire screen, which seemed kinda naughty at the time. They giggled, did it again, then giggled some more. From curious children, hackers were born.
COLUMBUS, Ohio, Oct. 27 — Senator Barack Obama said he would start confronting Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton more forcefully, declaring Friday that she had not been candid in describing her views on critical issues, as he tries to address mounting alarm among supporters that his lack of assertiveness has allowed her to dominate the presidential race.
(NYTimes)
We're told the questions were asked by Cindy Taylor, FEMA's deputy director of external affairs, and by "Mike" Widomski, the deputy director of public affairs. Director of External Affairs John "Pat" Philbin asked a question, and another came, we understand, from someone who sounds like press aide Ali Kirin.Faux and MSNBC bite, carry the show live. Yum.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo asked U.S. President George W. Bush on Friday for continued support as he seeks to stabilize the volatile eastern part of his vast Central African nation.So this guy Kabila is wanting Commander Guy to stabilize something? Dude, somebody ought to drop him a note.
(Reuters)
BOSTON - Microsoft Corp. has made progress in getting its Windows software to work on a low-cost laptop computer for poor children that currently runs on rival Linux software, an executive said on Thursday.Everybody pays, Bunky, that's the rule.
(MSNBC)
WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice acknowledged on Wednesday that the United States mishandled the case of a Canadian engineer seized by U.S. officials and taken to Syria, where he and the Canadian government say he was tortured.Rice was asked by a committe member if the US had diplomatic assurances from Syria that the engineer, a guy named Maher Arar, would not be tortured, Rice said she'd need more time to make up an answer.
Rice, speaking at a U.S. congressional hearing, said the United States has told Canada "that we will try to do better in the future."
(MSNBC)
The Canadian government has apologized to Arar and agreed to pay him almost $10 million in compensation.
The Bush administration has not apologized. Arar's name remains on watch lists that forbid his entry into the United States.
[Michael] Brown, the man who led FEMA immediately after the 2005 hurricane, when tens of thousands of people on the Gulf Coast went without food, power or water for weeks, is out offering his consulting services to California businesses affected by the fires.
(ABC News)
iPhone: Not As Hot As Scarlett Johansson, But Good Enough As A Temporary Significant Other
(TechDirt)
BURLINGTON, Iowa (AP) - A Burlington man's "corny" overtures didn't go over so well with local police. Daniel Eugene Wilson, 47, was arrested on Tuesday after police allege he impersonated an officer and made harassing phone calls to a former girlfriend.
The woman involved has also accused Wilson of "corning" - or throwing ears of corn - at her home.
(AP - MyWay)
Norma "Duffy" Lyon, known for carving life-sized cows from butter for 46 years at the Iowa State Fair, said she's backing Obama because he "doesn't believe in a lot of gobbly-gook" and spends time listening to ordinary voters.Sorry. The Devil made me say that. Really. But hey, look what he made her say. Gobbly-gook? I haven't heard that since before she was born. Of course I've never been in Iowa, which might be why.
(AP via Yahoo! News)
"I took a city that was known for pornography and licked it to a large extent."Yeah, yeah, I know. You've already read it on several thousand other blogs. But it's just such a great line, isn't it?
- Giuliani, as quoted by the New York Daily News
This morning on Fox News, hosts of the show Fox and Friends blamed the wildfires in California on a new culprit: al Qaeda. They pointed to a 2003 FBI memo, which raised the possibility that al Qaeda may try to set wildfires around the western United States. They also noted that men in a “hovering helicopter” saw “a guy starting one of these fires.”
(Think Progress)
The writers of the constitution wrote in the second amendment that the right to bare arms is a right of the citizens of America.Speaking of bare arms, Faux News reminds us that in the "Live Free or Die" state of New Hampshire (where it might be a better idea to wear a sweater this morning but hey, you want bare arms you got 'em, it's the law) there is no waiting period for the purchase of firearms, no background checks for buyers of rifles and shotguns, no restrictions on children under 18 owning firearms, and - oh yeah, Bunky - no restrictions on the blind possessing guns. So, you know, just keep your head down.
- From a Social Studies essay posted at Scriptovia ("Effective Learning Through Collaboration BETA")
It's beginning to look like Sunday was the day. Since then we've had rain and wind, and a lot of leaves are on the ground now, even though what seems like a lot of trees remain green. It's been a disappointing color season, the second (at least) in a row. Possibly that's due to a dryer-than-usual August, possibly to an unseasonably (or new-seasonably?) warm October. Maybe it's just a fluke.
The color will still be around a while, but the end is near.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government needs to throw away more than $12 million worth of expired anthrax vaccine and quickly use up the rest of a rapidly aging supply worth hundreds of millions of dollars, a Government Accountability Office expert said on Tuesday.How else are they going to use up all that vaccine? And by the way, whatever happened to that anthrax guy? He just sort of disappeared.
(Reuters via Yahoo! News)
"We all know that Cuba is going to face very significant requirements to rebuild itself," said a senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid pre-empting the president. "There's a whole set of challenges that Cuba is going to face. The United States will clearly want to help the Cubans as they define what it is they need, but we think the international community should be thinking that way as well."
(AP via Yahoo! News)
"Rick Santorum has been the most courageous and outspoken public figure inWoohoo. I almost missed it. Which I couldn't afford to do because I already missed Talk Like a Pirate Day and Make Cookies With More Chocolate Chips Day.
America alerting all of us to the true nature of the enemy we face," said
David Horowitz, founder of the Freedom Center, and organizer of
"Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week," which includes events at over 100 schools
across America.
(Attytood)
Guerrilla leaders said the Americans classify the P.K.K. [Kurdistan Workers' Party] as a terrorist group because it is fighting Turkey, an important American ally, while the P.J.A.K. [Party for Free Life in Kurdistan] is not labeled as such because it is fighting Iran.Not often you see it spelled out so clearly, but there it is.
In fact, the two groups appear to a large extent to be one and the same, and share the same goal: fighting campaigns to win new autonomy and rights for Kurds in Iran and Turkey. They share leadership, logistics and allegiance to Abdullah Ocalan, the P.K.K. leader imprisoned in Turkey.
(NYTimes)
Inside the Five Star Video Obscenity TrialAh. Well. "Five Star Video" is the name of the defendant. So that explains that, although if AVN's Mark Kernes is right - "One observer described the events taking place in Courtroom 604 of the Sandra Day O'Connor Federal Courthouse yesterday as 'high drama,' but that term barely scratches the surface" - the trial deserves at least a few stars too. I wonder if it's on Netflix yet.
(Adult Video News)
Authorities in Italy are investigating a mafia clan accused of trafficking nuclear waste and trying to make plutonium.
The 'Ndrangheta mafia, which gained notoriety in August for its blood feud killings of six men in Germany, is alleged to have made illegal shipments of radioactive waste to Somalia, as well as seeking the "clandestine production" of other nuclear material.
(The Guardian)
College students relying on unregulated potions and elixirs to pull all-nighters and muscle their way through school have medical professionals fearful about just how badly they are treating their bodies in the pursuit of academic success.Why can't they just drink beer? I mean hey, it was good enough for us.
With midterm exams looming, students are fueling themselves on sugary coffee drinks and jazzy concoctions made of caffeine and herbs - all packaged as “energy drinks” with names such as Amp, Full Throttle and Rockstar. In some cases, students supplement the liquid buzz with drugs like Adderall and other amphetamines.
(Boston Herald)
As the investigative reporters Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele observed in the October Vanity Fair, America has to date “spent twice as much in inflation-adjusted dollars to rebuild Iraq as it did to rebuild Japan — an industrialized country three times Iraq’s size, two of whose cities had been incinerated by atomic bombs.” (And still Iraq lacks reliable electric power.)
(Frank Rich, NYTimes)
