No Nine Day Wonder

You need reasons to hate spiderman?

2008-03-05T19:31:00.000-08:00

You Need Reasons to Think Spiderman Sucks?

Instead of making a whole new I hate spiderman list, I’ve chosen to respond to letters, and comments I’ve gotten in regard to my post. The parenthesis parts will be me. Below. Caption “I’m coming for your kids!”

Hi My name is Kelly and Im in year eight
and just f y i you are really weird!!! and maybe slightly retarded…(eye yam sofa king we todd ed, Kelly. get an education. didn’t you learn in skewl how 2 talk? How dare you call them retards, you, you, retard.)
Spider man is one of the coolest super heroes around (how dare you call him cool. and if I was doing a “coolest super heroes” list, which this is not, spiderman would not make the 100 hero list. Have you seen his get-up? who made that crap, spiders? because it looks worse than anything Elisa (from season 4 of project runway) has ever made.) and there you are trying to diss him… seriously?! (Yes, trying, but you’re making it a lot easier)

the one-and-only thing i slightly agree with you on is the whole ‘ does he
have a spider bite that can make other people spiders…’ yes that would
be cooler if he did… but still like come on!!! (I’ll have to come on you if you keep this up. [I’m not a pedophile, seriously. don’t visit this site: LINK])
don’t you just love looking at all the little kids in the movie theaters
looking up to spider man like he is the greatest heroes ever?? (yes, I like looking at kids, you got me…) and when
there are dress-up parties and the little kids go to the parties dressed
up like spider man?? Like how cute is that??? awww…
anyways… plz (no. not cool.) dont (punctuation, who do you think I am, E.e. Cummings? [he was a poet who resisted capitalization and puncuation, n00bsause. also, Cummings…hahahaha) reply even though u probly like am totally enraged by all this….so… bye…

Anonymous said: go eat willy

(Done. )

You, sir, are a dumbass. (point taken.) First of all spiderwebs are among the strongest materials known to man (oh yeah, try to break a diamond with a spiderweb. or better yet, try to stop me from cleaning the cobwebs outta jo mamas vajayjay), and if you actually researched what you were dishing on, you’d know that. Not to mention the fact that the spider was radioactive. (like your mom.) Secondly, dinosaurs suck mainly because they are EXTINCT. (like your mom, I’m sorry. I couldn’t help myself) How many dinosaurs do you know that can swing from webs, spit venom and strike fear into the hearts of millions world-wide even though most are smaller than a quarter? (actually, 3. you should watch out. they are very offended by you. and very angry. not because of you, but because they can’t find a good store to buy clothes for men who are big and tall. oh wait, now I remember, Men’s Wearhouse.) Dinosaurs couldn’t even survive their own Apocalypse, smart-one. Thirdly, how much ass could YOU kick wearing jeans and a t-shirt? (a lot.) Sure Frank Castle did it (also awesome) but Spidey’s suit gave him a greater range of motion for more ass-kicking.(DUH). What makes a true superhero isn’t what they wear or their super-powers, it the fact that they push their own problems aside and sacrifice their life for a greater good (i.e. the lives of millions of other people who can’t defend theirselves against villains). (actually it’s the superpowers and their clothes. If I want to read about mental problems, I’ll pick up your journal, Masturbater McMasturbatesallthetime.) Lastly, the spider that bit Peter Parker, WAS RADIOACTIVE DUMBASS! (you said that already. and nobody seems to care)

“Spidersam” said:

I would just like to say.
you are ridiculosly stupid (a college education would do that to you.)

Spiderman owns, have you ever seen him lose? (well, he is a loser. does that count?)

and when he does. (yes, that’s a sentence.) he gets right back up and kicks ass.

and dinosaurs?
are you freaking stupid? (not nearly enough, apparently. not stupid enough to compete with you.)

you are. sorry. (don’t be sorry, it’s ok. Olive juice, comma.)
dinosaurs cant go in buildings or anything. (that’s why Godzilla rulezzz d00d. am I right?)

they’ll freaking destroy the city. (OH NO! IT’S GODZILLA!!!!!!!!!)

DOUCHE.

think your stupid comments through next time. (ditto!)

Tim is a genius.

From Spidersam.

Whos cooler then you. (put some clothes on, your neighbors are watching you touch yourself…again.)

SWITCH

2008-02-23T16:42:00.000-08:00

new Blog on WordPress. Nicer Layout

http://theunheard.wordpress.com

Shake That Fat, Watch Yourself! Shake That Fat, Show Me Whatcha Workin' With!

2008-02-23T12:28:00.000-08:00

Beer-belly squad to jiggle and cheer
Miami Herald: LINK

The Florida Marlins are looking for some big fans.

And by big, they mean fat.

The team is hosting auditions Sunday for baseball's first all-male, all-obese cheerleading squad: the Manatees.

The Marlins want ''big bellies with the biggest jiggle, big feet with the best dance moves and enthusiasm that will rock Marlins fans out of their seats,'' according to a team flier.

The guys will perform at Friday and Saturday home games during the 2008 season.

No experience necessary; no fat paychecks, either.

''They'll get tickets to the games they're in,'' Marlins spokesman P.J. Loyello said.

To try out, just show up at Dolphin Stadium at 1 p.m. Sunday wearing Marlins gear -- and be ready to dance. The Marlins expect to draft seven to 10 guys for the Manatees, based in part on how well they perform a choreographed routine. Like the Rockettes. Seriously.

The Marlins claim to be the first major league baseball team with a big-man dance squad, but it's old news for Chicago basketball fans. The Matadors have been lighting up the court at Bulls home games since 2003 in their oversized red-and-black gear.

Locally, the Miami Heat has the Golden Oldies -- seniors who shake it at one game a month -- but the Manatees will be South Florida's only big-league, big-guy cheerleaders.

The Manatee tryouts come soon after Men's Fitness ranked Miami-Fort Lauderdale seventh on the magazine's annual list of the fattest places in America.

The magazine reported that 21 percent of South Floridians are obese, and there are more fast-food joints and pizza shops here on average than any other cities on the list.

Maybe the Manatees will inspire South Floridians to shed a few pounds.

Fat chance.

Will the Real Jack Bauer Please Stand Up

2008-02-23T12:25:00.000-08:00

Man Gets Probation After Claiming To Be Jack Bauer
Associated Press: LINK

Possibly on PCP?

A college student was given probation for repeatedly ramming his car into another man's vehicle, claiming the man was a terrorist and he was the character Jack Bauer, a federal agent on the Fox television show "24."

However, the victim, Marlon Cantoral, 30, provided a false address to police and did not appear in any of the court proceedings, prompting prosecutors to enter into a plea deal with the student, Edgar Sullivan, 23, of Elverson, Pa. The student faced up to 10 years in prison for second-degree assault, a charge that was dropped as part of the plea deal.

Cantoral may have been living in the United States illegally, and that may have caused him to provide the fake address, said Wayne Kirwan, spokesman for the Howard County State's Attorney's Office.

According to charging documents, Sullivan was driving his Ford Escape on Interstate 95 last February when he struck Cantoral's van. Cantoral left the highway and was struck a second time before he drove over a grass median strip and fled on foot into the lobby of the Patuxent Institution Correctional Facility.

Sullivan followed Cantoral inside and tried to assault him, shouting "he's a terrorist," according to charging documents. "My name is Jack Bowers (Bauer) and I work for the FBI and the Secret Service. My wife and family was kidnapped by the president and terrorist," Sullivan continued, The (Baltimore) Examiner reported Friday, citing charging documents.

Officers contacted Sullivan's father who said his son was not married and the family was fine, authorities said. In court Thursday, Sullivan apologized for the incident, telling Howard County Circuit Judge Richard Bernhardt that he has been attending alcohol treatment and plans to graduate in May.

Sullivan, a student at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County who pleaded guilty in September to drunken driving, smiled but did not speak as he left the courthouse with his parents.

"This is rather embarrassing for him," Sullivan's attorney Charles Broida said after the court appearance.

"It was bizarre, but he doesn't remember it."

Daily Lit: books by Email and RSS.

2008-02-23T08:43:00.000-08:00

I'm reading Red Badge of Courage and Time Machine. and I can't wait for the next books!

DailyLit:LINK
How It Works

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Feed Journal!

2008-02-23T08:38:00.000-08:00

RSS feed Newspaper Creator

"With FeedJournal you decide what gets printed in your daily newspaper!

Why spend more time than necessary reading on your computer screen? Print out your favorite content in a time-tested, elegant format. You read 25% faster on paper! FeedJournal is an award-winning solution for converting Internet content to a newspaper."

Holla!

2008-02-23T08:34:00.001-08:00

Strapless G-string Underwear
Daily Candy: LINK

2007 was all about showing your punany to the public. But now hoo-has are out. (Or should we say in?)

Thanks to Shibue Couture, you can still wear absurdly short, tight dresses without flashing your vadge to the whole world.

The panties go from your nani-nani to your bum-bum without wrapping around your hips. (Need some help visualizing? See picture.) They’re the first ever strapless G-strings.

Made of soft, high-quality fabrics (unclear which kinds), each one comes with a liner and twelve adhesives, which mold to your special place. Yes, folks, they are reusable. Just remove the sticky stuff (the tape, people, the tape), rinse the fabric with mild soap and water, put on new adhesive, and you’re ready to whore out again.

Go with the pink one with red hearts or the black with gold studs.

Either way, it’ll keep your privates private.

Self-Healing Rubber.

2008-02-23T08:31:00.000-08:00

Professor invents "self-healing" rubber in Paris lab that could have many uses
Canadian Press: LINK

PARIS - A chemistry professor in Paris has come up with a kind of rubber that can "heal" itself.

Ludwik Leibler says his rubber can be stuck back together if it is torn, then used over and over. The self-healing rubber was made in his lab at the Industrial Physics and Chemistry Higher Educational Institution in Paris and details of his research are found in the journal 'Nature'.

Leibler and his colleagues built up their rubber from simple starting materials including vegetable oil and urea, a component of urine.

The resulting material is a cross between silly putty and a rubber ball with applications ranging from adhesives to bicycle tires.

Leibler has already struck a deal with French chemical company to develop and commercialize the material and says he would like to see the rubber used in toys.

Amazing Memory! AHHHHH!!!!!!!

2008-02-23T08:28:00.000-08:00

Don't tell him to forget it — it's not going to happen
Associated Press: LINK

You thought it was about Computers! Gotcha! It's about this guy who can recite everything about his own life! yes! LOUD NOISES!

LA CROSSE, Wis. — For as long as he can remember, Brad Williams has been able to recall the most trifling dates and details about his life.

For example, he can tell you it was Aug. 18, 1965, when his family stopped at Red Barn Hamburger during a road trip through Michigan. He was 8 years old at the time. And he had a burger, of course.

"It was a Wednesday," recalled Williams, now 51. "We stayed at a motel that night in Clare, Michigan. It seemed more like a cabin."

To Williams and his family, his ability to recall events — and especially dates — is a regular source of amusement. But according to one expert, Williams' skill might rank his memory among the best in the world. Doctors are now studying him, and a woman with similar talents, hoping to achieve a deeper understanding of memory.

Williams, a radio anchor in La Crosse, seems to enjoy having his memory tested. Name a date from the last 40 years and, after a few moments, he can typically tell you what he did that day and what was in the news.

How about Nov. 7, 1991?

"Let's see," he mused, gazing into the distance for about five seconds. "That would be around when Magic Johnson announced he had HIV. Yes, a Thursday. There was a big snowstorm here the week before."

He went on to identify correctly about 20 other events including the birth of the first test-tube baby in 1978, the toxic-gas leak in Bhopal, India, in 1984, and Billie Jean King's victory over Bobby Riggs in tennis' "Battle of the Sexes" in 1973.

"I've always been this way," Williams said. "Growing up, I never really had reason to think I wasn't like everyone else."

So how does he do it?

"You want the Nobel Prize right now? Tell me that answer and I'll publish it," said Dr. James McGaugh, who has studied Williams since last summer. "We don't know. We do know that he carries this information with him, that it's detailed, that it's just there. That's what we want to know — why is it there?"

Williams' brother first contacted McGaugh, a research professor at the University of California, Irvine, after the neurobiologist published a case study of a similar person in the journal Neurocase in 2006.

That woman is in her mid-40s and was identified only by the initials A.J. She told McGaugh whenever she hears a date, memories from that date in previous years flood her mind like a running movie. The phenomenon, she laments, is "nonstop, uncontrollable and totally exhausting."

"Most have called it a gift, but I call it a burden," she wrote. "I run my entire life through my head every day and it drives me crazy!!!"

McGaugh and his colleagues subjected A.J. to a battery of psychological tests. Given a date at random, she was nearly flawless in recalling the day of the week and what she did that day. The details she provided invariably matched what she had written in diaries decades earlier.

Scientific literature documents people who could memorize a series of 50 to 100 random letters or digits. Another person read a 330-word story twice, then reproduced it nearly verbatim a year later.

But those research subjects remembered meaningless information. What distinguishes Williams and A.J. is their "superior autobiographical memory" — an above-average ability to remember dates and details from their distant past, McGaugh said.

"In subjects we regard as having this ability, they do better than 90 percent on the tests we provide," McGaugh said.

The tests typically involve reproducing personal information that can be corroborated with old scrapbooks, yearbooks and diaries, sources that McGaugh often tries to obtain from family members without the subjects' knowledge.

Other tests involve naming a notable public event and asking for its date, or vice versa.

Williams and A.J. both performed better on topics that interested them. Williams excels at pop-culture trivia such as Academy Award winners, but he stumbles on sports.

A lifelong bachelor and self-described Scrabble addict, he finished second when he appeared on Jeopardy in 1990. He says he went 5-for-5 on "1984 movies" but tripped up on categories including "snakes" and "words that begin with 'kh'."

Because a person's interest in the information is a key factor in recall ability, some researchers doubt that Williams and A.J. are unique.

"If it's a truly amazing memory that just sucks things up, it shouldn't be based on how interesting something was to you," said Stephen Christman, a neuropsychologist at the University of Toledo in Ohio.

Christman, who wasn't involved in the research, pointed to baseball fanatics who remember obscure statistics because of their passion for the game. Perhaps, he speculated, A.J. obsesses so much over past events and relives them so frequently in her mind that it's now effortless for her to recall countless dates and events.

The number of people with comparable memory skills has been hard to pin down. After publishing his research with A.J., McGaugh heard from about 50 people claiming they had the same skill or, like Williams' brother, knew someone who might.

Of them, McGaugh and his colleagues have identified a third person — a 50-year-old Ohio man — who shows similar promise.

Ever since pointing his elder brother in McGaugh's direction, Eric Williams, 45, has been recording Brad's adventures for an upcoming documentary. The movie, to be titled Unforgettable, is scheduled to be completed later this year.

"The human brain is the most complicated and important machinery in the known universe," McGaugh said. "My aim with this research isn't to cure Alzheimer's. It's to decrease the mystery of this marvelous machinery."

Fuck You, Julia Roberts.

2008-02-23T08:25:00.000-08:00

Change of heart may cost you in Mexico
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS: LINK

Hahahaha.Jennifer Carol Wilbanks. That is all.

MEXICO CITY -- Runaway brides - and grooms - in Mexico City could get stuck paying for the limo and flowers under a bill proposed by a local lawmaker Friday.

If approved by the city assembly, the law would offer engaged couples a legal contract outlining how much a man or woman can recoup if he or she gets jilted at the altar.

The contract would stipulate reimbursements at any point the engagement is called off.

"What we want is to protect the person who is being hurt, not only emotionally but also economically," Jose Zepeda, a divorce lawyer-turned-politician, told The Associated Press. "Whoever rents a wedding hall, pays for the church, for the cake, has the right to be reimbursed."

Such contracts could "eliminate the culture of fighting," said Zepeda, who proposed the bill.

Laura Gomez, a 33-year-old, bride-to-be perusing a bridal shop in downtown Mexico City, said the contracts were "a perfect idea."

They would "give more security and trust to both people involved," Gomez said.

But Pamela Montiel, a 19-year-old getting married in April, said she would never sign such an agreement. "Things like that are for immature people," she said.

The Terminal Fo Rizzle

2008-02-23T08:17:00.000-08:00

Homeless chef lived in London airport for years
MSNBC: LINK

Tom Hanks was in "The Terminal" with Catherine Zeta-Jones. It was OK. This is kind of like it maybe. enjoy. also, funny picture. LOLZ!

A newspaper reports that a homeless chef has been living at London's Gatwick Airport for three years.

The Argus newspaper in the southern city of Brighton says Anthony Delaney has been camping out at the airport's south terminal and leaving only rarely to collect unemployment benefits.

The newspaper says the 41-year-old ate, showered and slept at the airport despite dozens of run-ins with police and a civil order banning him from the facility.
Story continues below ↓advertisement

The paper says Delaney is due to be sentenced next month. He acknowledged violating the order in court Monday.

Sussex Police say they first stopped Delaney at the airport in 2004 and have recorded more than 30 encounters with him since.

United States Patent Application #20060014125

2008-02-22T14:27:00.000-08:00

LINK
United States Patent Application 20060014125
Kind Code A1
St. Clair; John Quincy January 19, 2006
Walking through walls training system

Abstract

This invention is a training system which enables a human being to acquire sufficient hyperspace energy in order to pull the body out of dimension so that the person can walk through solid objects such as wooden doors.
Inventors: St. Clair; John Quincy; (San Juan, PR)
Correspondence Name and Address:

JOHN ST. CLAIR;4A
52 KINGS COURT
SAN JUAN
PR
00911
US

Serial No.: 890635
Series Code: 10
Filed: July 14, 2004

U.S. Current Class: 434/258
U.S. Class at Publication: 434/258
Intern'l Class: G09B 19/00 20060101 G09B019/00

Claims

1. A training method comprising the steps of: generating a banner having a plurality of footprints spaced at regular intervals wherein the banner is placed on the ground; generating a periodic audible signal, whereby the audible signal repeats at a regular interval of time equal to the period; and walking on the banner by tracing the footprints spaced at regular intervals, wherein one step is made with each audible signal.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of generating the banner further comprises: providing a person's actual mass in kilograms; and determining the stride length based upon the following equation: L=(M/W)*T where L is the stride length in meters, M is a constant of approximately 50.91, W is the mass of the person in kilograms, and T is the period of the audible signal in seconds, and wherein the footprints on the banner are spaced at the stride length.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the audible signal is a beep and the period of the audible signal is one second.

4. A training method for a person comprising the steps of: generating an audible signal having a fixed period; generating a banner having regularly spaced indicia for identifying preferred step locations, wherein the distance between adjacent indicia is determined by the following formula: L=(M/W)*T where the distance between adjacent indicia in meters is L, a constant of 50.9095736 is equal to M, the person's mass in kilograms is W, and the fixed period in seconds is T; and walking on the marked path by stepping upon each of the regularly spaced indicia wherein one step is made with each period of the audible signal.

5. The training method of claim 4 wherein the fixed period is one second.

6. The training method of claim 5, wherein the regularly spaced indicia are footprints.

Description

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0001] This invention is a training system that enables a human being to acquire sufficient hyperspace energy in order to pull the body out of dimension so that the person can walk through solid objects such as wooden doors.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] A human being is a hyperspace energy being living in a physical container or body that is comprised of 67% water. This high percentage of water makes this invention possible. Referring to FIG. 1, the hyperspace energy being receives energy from our dimension through seven vortices that run the length of the body. Each vortex connects to a separate hyperspace dimension having its own particular frequency. This arrangement allows for the development of seven modular energy components corresponding to the mind, spiritual eye, voice, body, abdomen, plasma energy ball (battery), and ground connection....

Jilted lesbian rugby player killed herself after brutally beating lover who had 'webcam affair'

2008-02-22T14:24:00.000-08:00

Daily Mail: LINK

Dead. >>>>>

A jilted lesbian brutally beat up her businesswoman lover then killed herself after stumbling home drunk from a night on the tiles with her ladies' rugby team.

Elaine Grant punched businesswoman Debbie Humphries, dragged her by her hair and spat blood on her after finding her conducting a webcam affair with another woman.

Dark-haired Humphries' blonde mistress Jackie Watts watched online as the horrific attack took place.

Police were called to the couple's £600,000 property in St Day but declined to arrest Grant, 50, who played hooker for rugby team Newquay Albany.

At an inquest in Truro, Humphries slammed police for not arresting her lover, saying she told them on the night she would "hold them responsible" if anything happened.

The court heard after the police left, the inebriated old folks care-assistant Grant begged to talk to her lover in a distraught mobile phone-call, then hanged herself, leaving the line open.

The inquest was told how earlier the victim "went ballistic" after discovering her lover of 12 years flirting on a webcam with Watts, of Orpington, Kent.

She came back from a Newquay Albany ladies' rugby function at a hotel in the town to find her chatting online at their remote Cornish home...

PS the girl across from me is Miracle.

2008-02-22T14:16:00.000-08:00

`Stolen truck' taken by dog in Calif.
The Associated Press: LINK

AZUSA, Calif. — Doggone it, my truck's gone!

Police said Charles McCowan parked his pickup in front of a mini-mart Wednesday, leaving his 80-pound Boxer named Max in the passenger seat. When he came out, the truck and Max were gone.

McCowan called police, assuming the truck had been stolen. When officers arrived, they found the pickup across the street in a fast-food parking lot but had no idea how it got there.

In security video shown Thursday on KCAL-TV, the truck can be seen rolling backward out of the store lot and across the street, threading its way through traffic and out of view.

Police said that after McCowan left the truck, Max knocked the vehicle out of gear and sent it rolling backward.

Both Max and the truck emerged without a scratch.

Earthquake whodunnit: Gays!

2008-02-22T14:11:00.000-08:00

Israeli MP blames gays for recent earthquakes
SMH: LINK

>>>> Gay Earthquake.

In Israeli parliamentarian said that several earthquakes felt in Israel recently were a consequence of gays and the parliament's acceptance of them.

Shlomo Benizri of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish Shas Party, said the way to stop the tremors was for parliament to reverse its trend of liberalising laws concerning homosexuals.

Two quakes originating in neighbouring Lebanon shook much of Israel last week, the first coming two days after Israel's attorney-general ruled that same-sex couples could adopt children.

During two weeks in November and December, four earthquakes shook parts of Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian territories.

None of the tremors caused any serious injuries or major damage.

"Why do earthquakes happen? One of the reasons is the things to which the Knesset (parliament) gives legitimacy, to sodomy," Benizri said during a parliamentary debate on earthquake preparedness.

A cost-effective way of averting earthquake damage, he added, would be to stop "passing legislation on how to encourage homosexual activity in the state of Israel, which anyway brings about earthquakes".

Representatives of Shas have issued statements in the past that other Israelis found outrageous, like blaming a 1985 train-bus accident that killed 22, most of them children, on failure of Israelis to follow Jewish ritual.

The adoption decision by Attorney-General Meni Mazuz, announced last Sunday, follows other successes for Israeli gays, which have outraged religious conservatives.

Court decisions in recent years have forced the government to recognise same-sex marriages performed abroad and grant gay couples inheritance rights and benefits given to other married Israelis.

Blamed Him if She Turned Up Dead

2008-02-22T14:02:00.001-08:00

Jury: Letter from grave was 'road map' to murderer
CNN: LINK
Julie Jensen's words from the grave provided the key evidence that convinced jurors her husband was guilty of murdering her with poison, they said.

The handwritten letter detailing evidence and suspicions about Mark Jensen was the critical factor in the trial that ended in Wisconsin on Thursday, almost 10 years after Julie Jensen died, members of the jury said.

"She left a road map to her murder," juror Sandra Schott said. "And her murderer."

Jensen, 48, was found guilty of his wife's murder after more than 30 hours of deliberations. He faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison, but whether he is eligible for parole will be decided at his sentencing, scheduled for Wednesday.

Prosecutors contended that Mark Jensen poisoned his wife, then 40, with antifreeze and then suffocated her in 1998, but the defense argued that Julie Jensen was a depressed woman who killed herself and framed her husband.

Julie Jensen investigated her husband, checking his planner, photographing a note and documenting her suspicions, the jury in Elkhorn heard.

In her letter, she addressed notes about drugs and alcohol her husband had written.

Julie Jensen gave the letter to a neighbor with instructions to hand it to police if anything happened to her. She wrote that she would never commit suicide and that if she died, police should consider her husband a suspect. Read the letter »

The letter's use by the prosecutors was controversial, because such evidence has been blocked from court for years by strict hearsay rules giving criminal defendants the right to confront their accusers. But the Wisconsin Supreme Court, guided by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, created a hearsay exception that permitted the use of Julie Jensen's letter and statements as a dying declaration: evidence of her state of mind at the time of her death.

Jurors said after the trial that the letter proved to be a turning point in their deliberations, which began with five votes for Mark Jensen being guilty, two for not guilty and five undecided.

Foreman Matthew Smith said Julie Jensen's letter brought clarity to the jury on Wednesday night. Video Watch jurors discuss 'road map to murder' »

The letter, read aloud in court, said in part: "I pray I'm wrong + nothing happens ... but I am suspicious of Mark's suspicious behaviors + fear for my early demise."

The jurors said they compared the letter with a photo of a note found in Mark Jensen's day planner.

Julie Jensen wrote that her husband's note seemed suspicious because of its references to drugs and alcohol. She wrote that she did not drink, smoke or take drugs.

"It was a clear road map; it was totally and completely clear," Schott said.

"You can see where she was taking things from the Post-it note and incorporating it into her letter. It all just fell together for me, and it became very clear to me that Mr. Jensen had murdered his wife."

Jurors also said they rejected the defense's theory that Julie had committed suicide, even though some of them felt that she was depressed.

Prosecutors had offered evidence regarding Internet searches they say Mark Jensen conducted about antifreeze poisoning. Defense attorneys argued that Julie had made the searches in an attempt to frame him for her suicide.

Jurors said they did not believe that Julie Jensen had made the searches because they happened close to times when stocks were traded via the Internet, an activity they subscribed to Mark Jensen, who was working at a stock brokerage firm.

Julie Jensen's brother Larry Griffin said after the verdict that he and his three brothers were happy with the jury's work.
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"They saw who she was and why she wrote that letter," he said.

Asked what they would say to Julie if they could talk to her now, one juror said, "I'm sorry it took 10 years."

Social Justice.

2008-02-22T13:56:00.000-08:00

Vandals break windows at 'decadent' Bremerton banks
KING 5: LINK

Not related to the Album "decadence" by Head Automatica.

BREMERTON, Wash. - Police say vandals threw pieces of bricks with notes attatched through the windows of four banks in Bremerton.

The notes say the banks are a target because of ruling class decadence.

Police spokesman Andy Oakley says officers responded to alarms at two banks about 4 a.m. Thursday and found the broken windows. They also found broken windows at two other banks.

The targets were a U.S. Bank and a Bank of America on 6th Street and a Key Bank and Kitsap Bank on Wheaton Way.

At the Bank of America, surveillance pictures showing a young man wearing a stocking cap and a bandana covering the lower part of his face. In his hands was one of the items he hurled into the glass.

In all four cases the bricks had the same note from "social youth chaos." The notes say the brick is part of a wall between the ruling class and working class and, the note says, "by flaunting your decadence, you have made yourself a target."

At the two banks hit in East Bremerton there's another possible lead with surveillance pictures showing the suspect's possible car. Workers at a McDonald's next to a Key Bank that was vandalized say they might have seen that same older model, burgundy vehicle.

Surveillance cameras from a Bank of America branch in Bremerton show the suspect in the bank vandalisms as he approaches the building, carrying a brick or concrete in his hand.

"It backed back into the bank, acting real weird about it, then we seen a bunch of cops cruise around the area and stuff and we weren't sure what was going on but we did see that car," said witness Kevin Watson.

Oakley says police are working with the FBI and checking surveillance tapes in an attempt to identify a suspect.

I'll run for Mayor, then Bomb Threats, Logical?

2008-02-22T13:46:00.000-08:00

Muskogee mayoral candidate accused of making bomb threats

K Ten News:LINK

Eugene V. Debs Ran for president in jail. Why not Robert Thomas for Mayor. "I'm the Bomb!" perfect slogan.

MUSKOGEE, Okla. (AP) - A man who is running for mayor of Muskogee faces three felony counts of making false bomb threats.

Thirty-7-year-old Robert Eugene Thomas is suspected of calling police February 7th and threatening to set off bombs at the Muskogee Police Department and the Muskogee County-City Detention Facility.

Authorities allege Thomas called police the next day and threatened to detonate explosives at a shopping center in one instance and set off bombs at Hilldale Elementary School in the other instance.

About 1,800 students were evacuated from Hilldale for a short time.

According to a court filing, the person making the bomb threat February 8th said if an employee of a Grandview business came outside and stripped naked that he would turn off the bomb.

A recording of that call helped authorities identify the caller.

WOW! What are the Chances!
Jailed Milwaukee Alderman Wins 6th District Primary
Wisn: LINK

Michael McGee Jr. Advances To April 1 Election

MILWAUKEE -- Jailed Milwaukee Alderman Michael McGee Jr. has won Milwaukee's 6th aldermanic district primary where eight other candidates were hoping to unseat McGee as he conducts city business and his re-election campaign from jail.

McGee and attorney Milele Coggs will both advance to the April 1 general election.

She is the niece of Wisconsin state Sen. Spencer Coggs. She ran for an alderman seat in 2003 and lost.

McGee's campaign told 12 News reporter Brendan Conway Tuesday night that if McGee wins, there will be no victory party. The numbers will speak for themselves.

McGee is scheduled to go on trial during the first week of March on charges he conspired with two other men to have a teenager beaten.

If McGee is found guilty of the felony charges against him, he would be removed from office and another election for McGee's seat would need to be held.

Also running against McGee were ViAnna Jordan, who organized the failed recall attempt against McGee last year [ViAnna Jordan's Web Site]. McGee won in a landslide, capturing 62 percent of the vote. Jordan came in third.

Former city employee Una Van Duvall also ran in the recall election last year [Una Van Duvall's Web Site].

Fred Gordon is a former Milwaukee alderman looking to reclaim a seat. He served three terms on Milwaukee's Common Council and was once a supporter of McGee's.

Charlene Hardin has been a Milwaukee Public School Board member since 1997 [Charlene Hardin's School Board Profile]

Community activist El Louse Games has no experience on government, but wants to unify the community.

Organizer Mike Brox is a former teacher and security guard.

Local businessman Adel Kheriah lives in Franklin, but used to own a store in the 6th District. Kheriah has said that if he wins Tuesday's election, he would relocate to the district.

Chatterbowl!

2008-02-22T08:08:00.002-08:00

Here boy: The bowl that talks to your pet while you're not home
Daily Mail: LINK

Finally! Now I can harass my pet when I'm away. they need some me time too. get over yourself.

Easy feed: The Chatter bowl can keep your pampered pooch company with the sound of your own voice even when you're not home

They're the bane of pet owners' lives - those terrible pangs of guilt you endure when occasionally forced to leave Fido or Tiddles home alone for the day.

Well, now a firm has come up with a novel way to put your mind at rest: a talking food bowl that will reassure your pet with the sound of your voice.

The bowl has a built-in sensor that detects when the pet is within six inches and triggers a pre-recorded ten-second message.

The makers of the product - called the ChatterBowl - claim that once animals become used to the sensor, they will deliberately set it off just to hear their master's voice.

Made of sturdy plastic, the device runs on four AAA batteries and can even be placed in the dishwasher once the recording box has been removed.

The bowl is made by Canadian-firm Contech Electronics, which is now selling it to British pet owners for £14, plus postage.

Company spokeswoman Karen Ross said: "The basic concept is to reassure your pet when it is home alone.

"There is a small recording unit inside the bowl.

"The message should encourage your pet to eat or just make them feel comfortable.

"It can be anything from 'Good boy!' to 'Don't chew the sofa just because I'm not home!'.

"There is a light sensor fitted in to the top of the bowl. When the pet approaches, it casts a shadow that triggers the message to play.

"It definitely helps keep a pet company while the owner is at work all day or away for the weekend.

"I have heard that some pets like their bowl so much, they will deliberately set it off."

Talking dog bowl

Pining over: Inventors of the Chatter Bowl say hearing their owner's voice in their dish will provide the animals with comfort

Inventor Jay Taylor, from Arizona, dreamt up the idea.

Mr Taylor, 69, said: "I know how much my own pet loves hearing my voice. I thought, if only there was an easy way to leave my voice behind when I couldn't be there.

"Personally, I hate people talking to me while I eat - but I guess it's different for animals."

Bon Iver

2008-02-22T08:08:00.001-08:00

Enjoy

Bigorexia?

2008-02-22T08:03:00.000-08:00

7 Lesser-Known Eating Disorders
Windows Live Blog: LINK

Bigorexia/Muscle Dysmorphia

Bigorexia, also known as muscle dysmorphia, is a disorder in which a person constantly worries about being too small and frail looking. This disorder is said to be the opposite of anorexia nervosa, a disorder nearly all eating disorder residential centers treat. Those with this bigorexia are not frail or underdeveloped at all and typically have large muscle mass. Muscle dysmorphia is often found in body builders and frequent gym-goers.
Inadequacy felt by those with muscle dysmorphia can have negative effects on all areas of their life, affecting relationships as well as work and school. Obsession with muscle mass and a lean body increases the risk of steroid use and an unhealthy diet which leads to major health complications. Bigorexia is more common in males than in females because women are usually under pressure to become skinnier while men are under pressure to become more muscular.

Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD)

Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is a disorder in which a person is extremely concerned with their outward appearance, and imagines severe flaws, or distortions, on their body. Typically these flaws are slight imperfections, or are merely imagined. Flaws in the skin, hair and face are most common, although these “flaws” can appear anywhere in the body.
The ugliness felt by those with BDD draws them away from social situations that might draw attention to themselves. Body dysmorphic disorder is sometimes considered a social phobia or a form of obsessive compulsive disorder. Those affected with this disorder are at an increased risk for depression and/or suicide. Plastic surgery is also common among those with this disorder. The poor body image those with BDD suffer from is common in people with eating disorders. People with eating disorders will often seek eating disorder treatment at a local eating disorder residential center in hopes of recovery.

Orthorexia Nervosa

Orthorexia Nervosa is a disorder in which a person is compulsively obsessed with eating pure and healthy food. This proper food might include organic or other foods sold in health stores. Obsession over a perfect diet is sometimes so intense that when rules are broken, those with this disorder are forced to punish themselves, often by maintaining an even stricter diet or by fasting.
Those with orthorexia nervosa obsess over what is eaten, how much of it is eaten and how it was prepared. This disorder is dangerous because the obsession with the “right” kinds of food takes over a person’s life, disabling them, and making life impossible to live due to the constant focus on food. Relationships, work, school and all other things of value become unimportant and are neglected when someone has orthorexia nervosa. Those with eating disorders such as orthorexia nervosa will often need the assistance of an eating disorder treatment center.

Night Eating Syndrome

Night Eating Syndrome is a disorder in which a person consumes most of their calories in the evening hours. This probably occurs because of a lack of eating in the morning hours, which later is later due to the guilt felt by eating so much the night before. Often times, foods eaten later in the evening, usually after dinner, contain a lot of fat and sugar.
Sometimes, those with Night eating syndrome will get up in the middle of the night to eat. Insomnia and other sleeping problems are common in those with this disorder. Night eating syndrome is most common among overweight and obese people. Another common eating disorder which causes obesity is binge eating disorder. For these and other eating disorders, eating disorder treatment clinics are offered.

Pica

Pica is disorder in which a person has a strong desire to eat, lick, or chew non-food items. These items consist of dirt, paint chips, rust, glue, fingernails, hair, chalk, starch, cigarette ashes and clay. This disorder is common is pregnant women, small children, people with mineral deficiencies and those in developing countries who may not get enough to eat.
Accidental poisoning is perhaps the biggest hazard associated with pica. Other complications include malnutrition, damage to the teeth, tears in the intestine lining, infections, constipation and blockages in the digestive tract. Pica can be very hazardous to a person’s health, just as many other other eating disorders are. For those fearful of the consequences of their eating disorder, eating disorder residential programs offer their advice and support.

Prader-Willi Syndrome

Prader-willi syndrome is a disorder in which a person cannot stop themselves from eating. Someone with this condition will often steal, hide food or eat the pet’s food. Mental retardation, friendliness, lack of muscular tone, obesity, short stature, incomplete sexual development and a stubborn attitude are other common factors in someone with this disorder.
The insatiable appetite of someone with prader-willi syndrome is a congenital condition, meaning it was present at birth, caused by an abnormality in the genes. This constant need for food is caused by a defect found in the hypothalamus. This part of the brain determines the hunger of a person, and with its defect, the person can never achieve a state of complete fullness.

Sleep Eating Disorder (SED-NOS)/Nocturnal Sleep-Eating Disorder

Sleep Eating Disorder (SED-NOS), also known as nocturnal sleep-eating disorder is a disorder in which a person will eat and sometimes prepare their own food, while they are asleep or in a semi-conscious state. The sufferer rarely remembers these episodes and is embarrassed by their behavior. Sleep walking is frequent among those with SED-NOS.
This disorder is a combination of both a sleeping and eating disorder. More than half of its victims are women, and most sufferers are overweight or obese. Foods typically eaten in these midnight binges are often high in fat and sugar. People with this disorder often find themselves tired the next morning with feelings of anxiousness, stress or anger.

Darfur? there are bigger problems, ok?

2008-02-22T07:55:00.000-08:00

How to Convince Your Parents to Buy You a More Expensive Cellphone
wikihow: LINK

Please, this 2-month old cell phone ain't cuttin it. I need me a blackberry. pronto. oh, people dying? I'm dying too. I need food. I haven't eaten in like 20 minutes. STARVING. prisoners have it so easy, free food. did I mention that I have the worst life ever, I had to add cream and sugar MYSELF to my coffee. what is this, the prehistoric ages? also, Bender - "what is this, the middle ages?" hahahahaha. Sarcasm, btw, LOLOLOLZ.

Everybody longs for a little luxury in their lives. If you want the full blowout - camera, WAP, Bluetooth - but you have literally no money, it can be hard to make parents sway to your way of thinking, so you can try persuade them using these steps.
[edit] Steps

1. Take good care of your current mobile phone to show to your parents how responsible you really are. They may not feel comfortable buying a new expensive phone with the knowledge that, for example, you accidentally threw your old one in a lake, so make an effort polishing the screen and recharging the battery regularly - if possible, in front of your parents.
2. Be well-informed. Look into the product you intend to buy and evaluate if it really is value for money. Although your parents may not seem like technological wizards, they can probably tell a rip-off from a real bargain. Also, your parents can be well-assured that you know what you want, and you won't just abandon the phone within a few weeks.
3. Consider the consequences of your purchase. What will happen to your old phone? Make sure you don't carelessly disregard this and carefully plan out where it will go and tell your parents your plans when you come face-to-face to confront them. If you have a younger sibling, suggest that the phone gets handed down to them - it would be a win-win situation. If you do not have siblings, consider sending your phone to be recycled - go to your local council's website, which may have information about this.
4. Now that you're fully set, it's time to ask your parents. Be polite. Be mature. Make sure you've been on your best behavior prior to this event. Drive a good deal - promise you won't spend more credit than, say, $/£5 a month and explain your intentions clearly. Try not to make your presentation too long, make it direct to the point and then give reasons why you think you deserve a new cell phone.

Tips

* If your parents simply won't budge, then get a job or earn money in some way. If you aren't old enough to be employed yet, buying that phone may take a longer time because the only way possible is to collect birthday, Christmas and holiday money and keep it in a safe place.
* You could also decide not to ask for a new mobile phone at all. You may not even need one. But if you already have one, you could give them back your current phone and tell them that you have grown out of it and want some peace. How about that for growing up and being responsible?
* You could say eg 'I'll pay $100, and you can pay $100' Parents like this much more, as it shows that you know that mobiles aren't cheap and they don't have to pay as much.

Warnings

* If your parents refuse, don't whine or beg. Your parents will think you're too immature for the possession of a new phone and any chance of a change of decision will be eliminated.

Stealing Stuffing Mix? Seriously?

2008-02-22T07:48:00.000-08:00

Man accused of stealing 217 cases of stuffing mix
Associated Press: LINK

Earlier I reported about a guy who stole nearly £15,000 from his partner to buy radios so he could listen to all of them at the same time. now here's a guy who steal Stuffing Mix. Apocalypse?

MIDLAND, Mich. — This stuffing was hot, but not in the roasted turkey sense.

Police have arrested a 32-year-old man they accuse of stealing 217 cases of Pepperidge Farm stuffing mix.

The stuff went missing last week from a storage trailer in Midland. Deputy Police Chief Robert Lane said area distributors have access to the trailer, and that the suspect worked for one of the distributors.

The man was arrested over the weekend at his home, The Midland Daily News reported.

Lane said prosecutors have been asked to charge the man with embezzlement. The 157 cases of stuffing recovered by police is being held as evidence.

There are a lot of words, supposedly...

2008-02-22T07:44:00.000-08:00

English words, we got a million of 'em
Tribune: LINK

NEW YORK - Are you a locavore(+1) who decries the tapafication(+2) of restaurants or a latte liberal(+3) on the fence about Billary(+4)? No matter, the explosion of new words in the English language is enough to make you want to bury your head under a blankie(+5) or run off to Godzone(+6).

English always has been something of a mongrel language, but thanks to e-mail and the Internet, the spread of English around the world and a playful response to changing times, new words and phrases are cropping up so quickly that one language watcher calculates that English is bearing down on a milestone -- its 1 millionth word.

"English is like an open language that absorbs every type of word from all different languages," said Paul Payack, who runs Global Language Monitor, a Web site and language-consulting business. "English is a people's language. It grows from the ground up."

Related links

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Words used in this story
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English words total one million English words total one million Graphic

Payack, whose Web-based word-watching started in 1999 with the site YourDictionary.com, figures there are about 995,000 words in the English language. Sometime this year, he forecasts, the mother tongue of Shakespeare and Lincoln will tip over the seven-figure mark.

By contrast, Payack says, Spanish has about 275,000 words, and French only about 100,000.

Using a series of mathematical formulas, Payack tracks new words as they crop up in databases of printed materials, such as major newspapers and magazines, and on the Internet.

If the number of citations reaches what Payack considers a critical mass, he adds the word to his master lexicon, which he compiled by assembling the word lists of about a dozen major English dictionaries, such as the Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster's unabridged dictionary.

Among his recent additions are "bagonize," to describe the agonizing feeling of waiting for your luggage at an airport baggage carousel, and "smirting," the combination of smoking and flirting that takes place in doorways in an era when indoor smoking is increasingly taboo.

But not every would-be word makes the cut. He recently tested "nakation," a vacation where clothing is optional. Google turned up a few references.

"That would not make it as a word," he said.

Scholars and dictionary editors cast doubt on Payack's methods and say that an accurate word count is impossible. But they agree that English has word-spinning built into its DNA.

The language has Germanic origins, but French was grafted onto it when the French-speaking Normans conquered England in 1066. During the Renaissance, Latin words became the vogue, and as the British Empire spread around the globe, its colonies contributed their own distinctive flavors to the language of the rulers.

"More than half of our vocabulary is from other cultures," said Allan Metcalf, an English professor at MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Ill., and the executive secretary of the American Dialect Society, which chose "subprime" as the 2007 word of the year. "So we are used to words from a lot of languages and we're used to a lot of new words coming in."

It also helps that English, reflecting the free-market leanings of England and America, has no official gatekeeper, such as the Academie francaise, which keeps French officially pure of foreign -- and especially Anglo-American -- influences.

But Payack believes the creation of new words has sped up in recent decades in part because of the rapid growth in the number of people who speak English as either a first or second language. He puts the number at 1.35 billion.

And non-native speakers are every bit as likely to coin new words and phrases as native speakers.

"Studies show that when kids learn English in Singapore, they think they own the language," said the San Diego-based Payack. "They take it, they twist it."

That has given rise to the phenomenon of "Chinglish," a Chinese-English hybrid that yields such coinages as "no noising" for "quiet, please," and "airline pulp" for "airline food."

Chief among skeptics who dismiss the countdown to the millionth word is Jesse Sheidlower, editor at large for the Oxford English Dictionary, which is widely regarded as the most authoritative compilation of English words...

Scientists find G-spot

2008-02-22T07:41:00.000-08:00

Female G spot 'can be detected'
BBC News: LINK

TMI? oops. picture from Ehow Sorry if it's oo graphic.

Some doubt the existence of a G spot at all
The mysterious G spot - supposedly a route to female sexual satisfaction - can be located with ultrasound, claim Italian scientists.

Some women say stimulating a certain part of the vagina triggers powerful orgasms, but medics have not been able to pin down the exact location.

Researchers told New Scientist magazine they found an area of thicker tissue among the women reporting orgasms.

But specialists warned there could be other reasons for this difference.

For the first time, it is possible to determine by a simple, rapid and inexpensive method if a woman has got a G spot or not
Dr Emmanuele Jannini
University of L'Aquila

The existence of the G spot has remained controversial since the 1980s, when the term was coined as a way to explain why some women were able to achieve orgasm through vaginal stimulation, while others were not.

Some specialists claim that the term has led to over-anxiety among women who cannot reach satisfaction this way, and their partners.

Love muscle

The latest research, published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, was carried out the Dr Emmanuele Jannini at the University of L'Aquila, and involved just 20 women.

Ultrasound was used to measure the size and shape of the tissue beyond the "front" wall of the vagina, often suggested as the location of the G spot.

In the nine women who reported being able to achieve vaginal orgasm, the tissues between the vagina and the urethra - which carries urine out of the body - were on average thicker than in the 11 women who could not reach orgasm this way.

It's telling people that there is a single, best way to have sex, which isn't the right thing to do
Dr Petra Boynton
University College London

Dr Jannini said: "For the first time, it is possible to determine by a simple, rapid and inexpensive method if a woman has got a G spot or not."

However, Dr Tim Spector, from St Thomas' Hospital in London, told New Scientist that the thicker tissue might actually be part of the clitoris - another extremely sensitive area.

Another suggestion was that, rather than being the cause of more orgasms, having these frequently might actually lead to better-developed musculature in this area.

Dr Petra Boynton, a sexual psychologist at University College London, said that an entire industry had grown up around the idea of a G spot, and it was unhelpful to label women unable to find theirs as "dysfunctional".

She said: "We're all different. Some women will have certain area within the vagina which will be very sensitive, and some won't - but they won't necessarily be in the area called the G spot.

"If a woman spends all her time worrying about whether she is normal, or has a G spot or not, she will focus on just one area, and ignore everything else.

"It's telling people that there is a single, best way to have sex, which isn't the right thing to do."

Undressed, Breathless, Not Sex

2008-02-22T07:35:00.000-08:00

Robbery suspect caught breathless, shedding clothes
The Ottawa Citizen: LINK

<<<<<< Accomplises?

An out of breath 49-year old man was apprehended by a police officer who thought something wasn't quite right when the man started throwingaway his clothing on the street Thursday afternoon.

Turns out the officer was right - the man had just robbed a bank.

At 1:23 p.m., a man entered the Caisse Populaire branch on Montreal Road with a knife and fled with an undisclosed amount of money.

An officer who was unaware a robbery had occurred noticed the man acting suspicious about a block away.

The suspect was running, out of breath, and was in the process of discarding some of his clothing, said police.

"Those are abnormal signs , especially to a cop," said Staff-Sgt. Glenn Wasson of Central Division.

As the officer approached the man, police received a 911 call from the bank. The breathless man fit the bill, was arrested and taken into custody. The money was recovered.

The investigation is ongoing and charges are pending.

For Sale: 1965 Mustang

2008-02-21T09:51:00.000-08:00

On Craigslist: LINK

Mustang 1965, Blue
V4 engine
recently inspected
recent body work
automatic
$8000 or best offer

This item has been posted by-owner.
Location: Doylestown, PA
it's ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

email me at: akozdra@gmail.com

To First Amendment or Not to First Amendment

2008-02-20T12:39:00.000-08:00

Judge Shuts Down Web Site Specializing in Leaks
New York Times: LINK

This is bogus. shouldn't they be going after the people doing this crazy shit, not the people posting it?

In a move that legal experts said could present a major test of First Amendment rights in the Internet era, a federal judge in San Francisco on Friday ordered the disabling of a Web site devoted to disclosing confidential information.

The site, Wikileaks.org, invites people to post leaked materials with the goal of discouraging “unethical behavior” by corporations and governments. It has posted documents said to show the rules of engagement for American troops in Iraq, a military manual for the operation of the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and other evidence of what it has called corporate waste and wrongdoing.

The case in San Francisco was brought by a Cayman Islands bank, Julius Baer Bank and Trust. In court papers, the bank said that “a disgruntled ex-employee who has engaged in a harassment and terror campaign” provided stolen documents to Wikileaks in violation of a confidentiality agreement and banking laws. According to Wikileaks, “the documents allegedly reveal secret Julius Baer trust structures used for asset hiding, money laundering and tax evasion.”

On Friday, Judge Jeffrey S. White of Federal District Court in San Francisco granted a permanent injunction ordering Dynadot, the site’s domain name registrar, to disable the Wikileaks.org domain name. The order had the effect of locking the front door to the site — a largely ineffectual action that kept back doors to the site, and several copies of it, available to sophisticated Web users who knew where to look.

Domain registrars like Dynadot, Register.com and GoDaddy .com provide domain names — the Web addresses users type into browsers — to Web site operators for a monthly fee. Judge White ordered Dynadot to disable the Wikileaks.org address and “lock” it to prevent the organization from transferring the name to another registrar.

The feebleness of the action suggests that the bank, and the judge, did not understand how the domain system works, or how quickly Web communities will move to counter actions they see as hostile to free speech online.

The site itself could still be accessed at its Internet Protocol address (http://88.80.13.160/) — the unique number that specifies a Web site’s location on the Internet. Wikileaks also maintained “mirror sites,” or copies usually produced to ensure against failures and this kind of legal action. Some sites were registered in Belgium (http://wikileaks.be/), Germany (http://wikileaks.de) and the Christmas Islands (http://wikileaks.cx) through domain registrars other than Dynadot, and so were not affected by the injunction.

Fans of the site and its mission rushed to publicize those alternate addresses this week. They have also distributed copies of the bank information on their own sites and via peer-to-peer file sharing networks.

In a separate order, also issued on Friday, Judge White ordered Wikileaks to stop distributing the bank documents. The second order, which the judge called an amended temporary restraining order, did not refer to the permanent injunction but may have been an effort to narrow it.

Lawyers for the bank and Dynadot did not respond to requests for comment. Judge White has scheduled a hearing in the case for Feb. 29.

In a statement on its site, Wikileaks compared Judge White’s orders to ones eventually overturned by the United States Supreme Court in the Pentagon Papers case in 1971. In that case, the federal government sought to enjoin publication by The New York Times and The Washington Post of a secret history of the Vietnam War.

“The Wikileaks injunction is the equivalent of forcing The Times’s printers to print blank pages and its power company to turn off press power,” the site said, referring to the order that sought to disable the entire site.

The site said it was founded by dissidents in China and journalists, mathematicians and computer specialists in the United States, Taiwan, Europe, Australia and South Africa. Its goal, it said, is to develop “an uncensorable Wikipedia for untraceable mass document leaking and analysis.”

Judge White’s order disabling the entire site “is clearly not constitutional,” said David Ardia, the director of the Citizen Media Law Project at Harvard Law School. “There is no justification under the First Amendment for shutting down an entire Web site.”

The narrower order, forbidding the dissemination of the disputed documents, is a more classic prior restraint on publication. Such orders are disfavored under the First Amendment and almost never survive appellate scrutiny.

25 Strangest College Courses

2008-02-20T12:28:00.000-08:00

Top 25 Strangest College Courses
Collegedegree.com: LINK

College is a time for self-expression, freedom from parents, the pursuit of knowledge and exploration of a new career. If Mom and Dad (or the bank) knew what kind of courses their savings were funding, you might be yanked out of your academic bubble and into a much more economical and practical community college. Read on for more of the 25 strangest college courses.

1. Mail Order Brides: Understanding the Philippines in Southeast Asian Context: If you're an anthropology or women's studies major at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD, consider getting your credits with this class, which is designed to "help explain the stereotyping of Filipino women." While the class is expected to be taught in all seriousness, PhilippineNews.com reports that Professor Fenella Cannell "cautions prospective students not to submit fake applications for pen pals and/or spouses and to view the information as purely part of academic exercise."

2. Tightwaddery, or The good life on a dollar a day: Alfred University's demonstratively anti-capitalist course attempts to debunk contemporary culture's popular myth: "Spend money and you’ll be happy." According to the official class description, "On a theoretical level, we will consider how living frugally benefits your mind, your body, your relationships, your community, and the environment. On a practical level, we will examine personal spending habits [and] sharpen bargain-hunting rip-off-detecting, and haggling skills." While they're at it, maybe they can help drive down gas prices?

3. The Phallus: When the Los Angeles Times printed the headline "I Got an A in Phallus 101, readers were no doubt confused. But not so confused, we'll bet, as the parents of the Occidental College students who really did come home with grades from the course simply titled The Phallus. Occidental's Critical Theory and Social Justice department plans to discuss topics like "the relation between the phallus and the penis, the meaning of the phallus, phallologocentrism, the lesbian phallus, the Jewish phallus," and even "the Latino phallus."...

"did not know she was dead until intercourse was concluded"

2008-02-20T12:25:00.000-08:00

Accused 'unaware model was dead'
BBC News: LINK

The man accused of killing teenage model Sally Anne Bowman did not realise she was dead until after he had sex with her body, the Old Bailey heard.
Mark Dixie, 37, denies killing the 18-year-old in Croydon, south London, during a sex attack, in September 2005.
He claims he found her in the driveway of her home after she was attacked.
Her body was found in a pool of blood after being stabbed seven times. DNA found on her body matched samples taken from Mr Dixie.
'Unattractive defence'
The court heard he moved to Australia in 1998, where his DNA was found on a Thai student who was the victim of a brutal attack.
He has never been charged in connection with the offence and denies any involvement.
Commenting on the charge of murdering Miss Bowman, Anthony Glass QC, defending, said: "It is, you may think, a very unattractive defence.
"He did not know she was dead until intercourse was concluded.
"Even though you may think his conduct is disgusting, he allowed his lust to get the better of him."
A ban on the publication of images and photographs of Dixie was lifted by the judge at the end of the prosecution case.

Underproductive, or too Productive?

2008-02-20T12:17:00.000-08:00

Mom: Police Told Daughter To Stop Calling Before Murder-Suicide
Local 6 Orlando: LINK
>>>>>BUSY
Cops these days have way too much to worry about - getting donuts, coffee, pulling over two cars for leaving a Wawa together (FUCK YOU!) - than to be listening to some girls "relationship" problems. even when they are life-threatening.

Police said Clay Coffner shot his estranged girlfriend, Natasha Hall, in the head outside her DeLand home Friday before turning the gun on himself.

Hall's mother, Sherry, said her daughter was concerned about Coffner and informed police.

In fact, Hall said her daughter called police so much that on Jan. 15 they threatened her.

"The police officer said if you call us one more time on him, I'm going to arrest you both," Sherry Hall said. "So, the day she died, she knew she couldn't talk to police. So, she handled it herself."

Michele Karpowicz said everyone noticed the warning signs before the homicide -- except police.

"I was going crazy," Hall's best friend said. "He was psycho, jealous and abusive."

Local 6 is trying to obtain a police call log to determine how many times the teen called police.

DeLand police officials have not responded to the allegations.

Sorry as Gibson is to Jews

2008-02-20T12:16:00.001-08:00

Restaurant sorry over F word bill
BBC News: LINK

Ten friends found the abusive and sexually-explicit message on their bill at Joe Delucci's Italian restaurant in Bird Street, Lichfield, Staffordshire.

Diner Clare Watkin said she thought it was written after they complained about poor service.

The party from Walsall had gone to the restaurant on Friday. Owner Nigel Langsdon has begun an investigation.

Ms Watkin said: "I couldn't believe it. The bill read 'fish cakes', which one of us had for a starter, and it was written right above it - absolutely disgusting language.

I think that the way that we've been spoken to is absolutely outrageous
Clare Watkin

"We actually booked the table for 8 o' clock in the evening, by the time they had taken our order it was quarter to nine and we didn't actually receive our food until quarter past 10."

She added: "I'd like a written apology from the restaurant and I'd also like some compensation.

"I think that the way that we've been spoken to is absolutely outrageous."

TV chef Gordon Ramsay's foul-mouthed diatribes on his Channel 4 show The F Word have given viewers an insight into the type of language often used in the restaurant kitchen.

Joe Delucci's owner Mr Langsdon said the message had been meant to be seen only by kitchen staff and he did not know how it ended up as an item on the receipt.

He said: "That shouldn't come out on the bill, so we've got to find out what's gone wrong there.

"But we have apologised unreservedly to the girls concerned and said that they're very welcome to come back and have a free meal and we'd like them to."

He has also offered to donate the bill for their meal to charity.

The cost of the meal came to £284.68, including a 10% service charge.

Want to Lose that Extra Weight?

2008-02-20T12:10:00.000-08:00

(South Bronx ~~Paradise~~ Parasite Diet)
IOL: LINK

Yo, you remember that "Aqua Teen Hunger Force Episode" entitled "Diet"? Where Carl loses weight with parasites, and meatwad only gains weight? Classic.

Hong Kong - Hong Kong health officials on Tuesday warned would-be slimmers not to consume parasitic worms in an attempt to lose weight following adverts for products containing worm eggs.

A health department spokesperson said there was no scientific evidence that infestation with ascaris, a parasitic worm which lives in the intestine, was a way to lose weight.

He warned that worm infestations caused pain, vomiting and diarrhoea and could prove difficult to get rid of.

"Ascaris infestation may also be fatal due to serious complications in human bodies such as intestinal, biliary tract or pancreatic duct obstruction. The worms may invade such organs as the lungs," he said.

"The infestation can be treated with medication that kills the parasite. Surgical removal of the worms may be required in case of obstruction."

The health department said it issued the warning following reports that a product containing worm eggs was being promoted as a slimming aid on a commercial website.

Ascaris is the most common worm infection in humans and is mostly found in tropical areas where sanitation and hygiene are poor. Adult worms can grow to more than 30cm long.

Also, I Love Blow.

2008-02-20T10:05:00.000-08:00

Energy powder designed to look like COCAINE could be sold in Britain
Daily Mail: LINK
http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
Not long after Hershey made pouches of comes Blow. and not to mention the delicious Cocaine energy Drink - Now No Name Energy.

A shocking new energy powder designed and marketed to look like cocaine is set to cause a storm of controversy when it hits the shelves in Britain.

The white substance, which contains caffeine and other stimulants, is called I Love Blow and comes in a box complete with a mirror and fake credit card.

It is already on sale in ordinary grocery shops in the USA where angry parents have sending endless complaints to makers of the product and advertising watchdogs.

Now it is feared teens and even young children could start buying the fake drugs if the company finds an outlet in Britain.

A spokesman for I Love Blow revealed: "We have received a tremendous amount of inquiries from the UK and are actively speaking to potential distributors."

And the company added: "We are currently in the process of getting approved in the Netherlands which gives us approval into most of the European Union."

Advertising material on the company's website shows the products heavy reliance on drugs imagery, including pictures of white blocks and lines of chopped up powder I Love Blow, which can already be bought over the internet, is actually a white powder designed to be dissolved in water to make an energy drink but its marketing is completely based on cocaine use.

It has already received outrage among American drugs counselling services and widespread coverage in the US media.

One American substance abuse expert Mike Gimbel said: "It is the most unbelievable product I have ever seen.

"It is the worst I have ever seen in using drugs lingo and drug imagery to sell the product to teenagers and young adults."

"Blow" is a reference to the street name for class A drug cocaine but the powder actually contains 240 miligrammes of caffeine - more than four cups of strong coffee - and 2,000 miligrammes of the dietry supplement taurine, which is also contained in energy drinks such as Red Bull.

Former police drugs agent Ronald Brogan, who now works for the US drugs charity DARE, said: "One of the ingredients is inisotol, a vitamin type amino acid which looks almost identical to real cocaine because it has the same crystalline snowy appearance.

"It comes from the drugs culture and that's what it is appealing to."

But makers of I Love Blow defended the product by saying the marketing was specifically designed to appeal to the over 18's - even though it is freely available in grocery stores, tobacconists, off licences and trendy boutiques.

Imagery on the company's website in particular appeals to clubbing culture, showing scantily dressed girls, while describing the product as "pure, uncut, energy".

A spokesman said: "There is currently no US regulation preventing minors from purchasing Blow or any other energy drink so technically we can't prevent minors from purchasing Blow.

"Minors may be exposed to our marketing in much the same way they may exposed to advertisements for tobacco and or alcohol.

"But the bottom line is that our product is intended for adult consumption. Our distribution into night clubs and adult stores supports our position.

"We absolutely discourage anyone from snorting Blow. Our package has a clear warning to customers not to snort."

This has not prevented a flood of complaints and the company receives a barrage of angry emails every day, along with even death threats from some consumers.

The spokesman admitted: "The news has brought attention to the brand and helped sales. in many stores, we sell a case of Blow every single day.

"Unfortunately, it has provoked groups of people to pressure many retailers to quit selling Blow."

Blow comes in different sized packaging containing from two to several dozens phials of powder.

It costs £5 for a two pack sampler pack and £18 for 12 phials, which come in a box shaped to look like a block of cocaine.

The energy drink is described as being "powerfully effective" and has already sparked investigation by food and drink standards agencies in the US, although it is still on sale.

Energy Drink Ban

2008-02-20T10:01:00.000-08:00

Bill would ban selling energy drinks to minors
Bangor Daily News: LINK

Caffeine is a drug. but kids can still get their caffeine through coffee. you go! also, chocolate and sodas contain caffeine too. it's parents problem to stop kids from consuming this shit. grow up, parents.

AUGUSTA, Maine - High-energy drinks sold under names such as "No Fear" and "Rock Star" are being targeted by a state legislator from Allagash, who says they pack too much of a punch for minors.

Rep. Troy Jackson wants to ban the sale of the most heavily caffeinated products to minors under 18 and fine first-time violators $50. Fines would double to $100 for the second violation and $500 for any subsequent offenses.

The bill applies to energy drinks with 80 or more milligrams of caffeine per 8 ounces.

Jackson, a Democrat, said he’s not opposed to caffeine in moderation, but believes that some youths are drinking the products with no idea of how much caffeine they contain.

Some store owners in Jackson’s northern Maine district have told him that teenagers "come in and buy two, three drinks each, so they could go guzzle them," he said. "They felt it wasn’t good for the kids, but they couldn’t say, ‘No, I can’t sell it to you."’

Jackson’s view is shared by public health advocates, who say the sugar content in some products is just as troubling as the caffeine levels. Educators say the drinks overstimulate students and make them act up.

Teenagers who toss back the drinks before study groups, parties and athletic meets say the proposed restrictions are unnecessary. And industry groups such as the American Beverage Association say it’s unfair to focus on energy drinks when most have no more, and in some cases less, caffeine than a cup of coffee.

A 16-ounce can of Monster Energy, for example, contains 160 milligrams of caffeine, compared to 330 milligrams in a 16-ounce cup of Starbucks coffee.

"There’s no scientific basis for this legislation," said Rodney Sacks, chief executive officer of Hansen Beverage Co., which makes Monster. "It’s an emotional issue."

California is considering labeling energy drinks as potentially harmful, especially for pregnant women, because of the caffeine content. France and Denmark have banned the sale of Red Bull, one of the first energy drinks to arrive on the market and now one of the top-selling in the world. Jackson’s bill would not cover Red Bull.

CD of the Week: MGMT - Oracular Spectacular

2008-02-19T14:46:00.000-08:00

MGMT - Oracular Spectacular

It's got a Rolling Stones Sound Plus Sgt. Peppers, Joy Division and a hint of modern post-modern music. delightful. trippy.

Ooops, you might have an STD...

2008-02-19T14:44:00.001-08:00

Web site allows anonymous warning of STD infections
Reuters: http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - A Web site that enables people with sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) to send anonymous email warnings to their partners could help slow a rise in new infections, a New York health official said.

InSpot.org uses the E-Card model to send messages like "I'm So Sorry" to notify people that they may have been exposed to a disease. It also offers information about getting tested and treatment.

"Making use of some of the emerging technologies makes sense," said Sue Blank, of New York's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

"We're getting the word out to the community."

Blank hopes the site will help to reduce new syphilis infections in New York which rose by 56 percent during the first half of the current fiscal year.

Users of the site, which went online in San Francisco in 2004, can choose from a selection of messages.

"It provides an easy, convenient, anonymous way for people to be responsible about notifying their partners about a possible exposure to an STD," said Deb Levine, of the San Francisco Internet Sexuality Information Services, which created InSpot with the city's Department of Public Health.

There are 15 million new cases of STDs in the United States each year, according to the Web site. The rise in syphilis in New York mirrors a national trend that shows syphilis has risen sharply among gay and bisexual men in the United States this decade.
Levine said that in San Francisco, syphilis rates have fallen since the site was introduced.

In addition to New York and San Francisco, the Web site is now active in six other U.S. cities. It has also been launched in eight U.S. states, as well as two Canadian cities and Romania.

Hamburglar meet Tacopirate

2008-02-19T14:25:00.001-08:00

Robber only wants tacos
Daily Bulletin: LINK

FONTANA - An armed robber who sneaked up on a bicyclist Sunday night didn't want the man's money, wallet or anything else of great value.

He wanted tacos.

The victim, a 35-year-old Fontana man, had just bought about $20 in tacos from a stand at San Bernardino and Fontana avenues and was riding home when the bandit confronted him. "He approached him from behind, saying, `Give me your tacos,"' said police Sgt. Jeff Decker. "He grabbed the bag of tacos, punched him in the face and began to flee."

The victim demanded his tacos back when they were taken.
"The suspect then pointed what appeared to be a black handgun at the victim," Decker said.

The taco bandit, standing about five feet from the victim, threatened to kill him, then ran.
Police said the robbery was at 9:15 p.m. on Hawthorne Avenue east of Catawba Avenue.
The suspect is described as a 25- to 30-year-old man, 5 feet 10 inches tall and 190 pounds. He has brown hair and eyes and wore a black hooded sweat shirt. The man also had a long mustache.
Decker said food robberies are not uncommon when the victim is delivering pizzas, but he considered this crime to be odd.
"Doing an armed robbery for tacos, that's a little out there," he said.

I'd Have the Order of Business, with Sex on the Side

2008-02-19T14:10:00.000-08:00

The Business Trip (X-Rated)
New York Times: LINK

Because your on business does not mean you are just allowed to commit infidelity. you're alone? BOO HOO! here's my sympathy.

Two European business executives who travel to the world’s most glamorous cities like to get the most out of the endless launch parties, art fairs and exhibitions they attend. But when the fun is over, the two men agree not to speak about their exploits again: not with each other, nor with anyone else.

Their strategy is based on the Las Vegas advertising slogan that many business travelers employ when their behavior might be considered indecorous: “What happens here, stays here.”

Business travel presents the temptation to indulge in the kind of activity executives wouldn’t want their mothers to know about. Often that includes visits to strip clubs and one-night stands.

“You’re in the same industry, you go to the same shows and that’s when it happens,” said Jeffrey Pataky, vice president for sales at a software company in Phoenix, describing what he often saw on the road. “Everyone is just sleeping around. It’s funny and it’s sad.”

Ian Sanders, a London-based business and marketing consultant, remembers when he was single and working in the music and television business. He says work often felt as if he were on the road with a rock ’n’ roll band. “You’d have a meeting till 10 p.m., then everyone would go to the bar and occasionally you’d end up in bed with someone.”

Mr. Sanders, author of the career advice book “Leap! Quit Your Job, Start Your Own Business & Set Yourself Free,” said there was constant pressure to party: “To say you were tired was frowned upon: taboo. You’d be viewed as a party pooper. The whole thing on a business trip is you have to be taking part, married or single. You’re at a hotel, another destination, flirting is part of the territory and maybe you end up in bed.”

Dr. Debi Yohn, a counseling psychologist based in Shanghai, sees how affairs on business trips continue beyond the one-night stand. “When you are traveling, you feel alone, you’ve had too much to drink, and things lose their perspective,” she wrote in an e-mail interview. “You do it once, get away with it ... do it again. ... Then it seems O.K.”

Dr. Yohn counsels expatriate families in their marriage troubles and explained that affairs are very common for men and for women who travel or live abroad.

“If you do not have a good marriage, or you are not having sexual relations with your partner, or you have just had another argument with your mate, you are ripe for an attraction to occur.”

Mr. Pataky said his marriage broke up, in part, because of the pressures of business travel. He said his wife feared what might be happening while he was traveling. “I had lots of opportunities, but I never did,” Mr. Pataky said.

Mr. Sanders counsels: “Seasoned business travelers need hard and fast rules. You go to bed early, you hang out in your room and watch a movie, do some e-mails and get some sleep.”

And what of the unwanted advance?

When asked for strategies in dealing with those, Terry Neese, president and co-founder of the Women Impacting Public Policy Institute, which advocates for women in business, said, “I have always found that if you act with professionalism and show integrity and total focus on your business, less of those things happen.” If that doesn’t do it, Ms. Neese suggests saying: “I’m not interested in where you’re coming from. I’m here to attend the conference.”

There are ways to avoid such awkward moments. On an airline, excuse yourself from the conversation and put on your headphones, says Paul A. Tucci, chief operating officer of a software developer, Iwerk, in Royal Oak, Mich.

Mr. Tucci, who wrote “Traveling Everywhere: How to Survive a Global Business Trip,” is an expert in avoiding people he doesn’t want to talk to on planes. He provides this advice: “Make up the name of the hotel, if asked, and never give out your cellphone number or e-mail address. Just smile, be caring and assertive and say, ‘Why don’t you give me yours, and if I have time, I’ll e-mail you,’ and be done with it.”

If necessary, he suggests, switch to an empty seat on the plane.

Not all executives get even the most obvious of messages. Lydie Thomas, a French woman who runs her own crafts Web site, artchestra.com, from California, said a salesman at a company she once worked for rang her hotel phone at night and then later tried the door. She told him to leave her alone, and the next day he acted as though nothing had happened. “It was very disrespectful of him to pursue me after I clearly told him I wasn’t interested.“

Harassment while on business trips isn’t something that only women have to deal with.

Kevin Davidson, a public relations executive in the entertainment industry remembers a similar problem he had with a female client who got too touchy. “It was frustrating because I was out on the road by myself. I reached out to my boss and asked what I should do.” His boss was unsympathetic, and reminded him he had work to do, to “just get it done.”

“Being away from home gives people a license to be somebody else.” Mr. Davidson added. “They feel they can leave regular lives behind and behave badly.”

World News: Trial Dejure, Take Our Women, Track Suit Resigns

2008-02-19T13:56:00.000-08:00

China: Take Our Women
Weird Asian News: LINK
“You know, China is a very poor country,” Mao said. “We don’t have much. What we have in excess is women. So if you want them we can give a few of those to you, some tens of thousands.”

Mao circled back to the offer a few minutes later. “Do you want our Chinese women?” he asked. “We can give you 10 million.”

Kissinger noted Mao was “improving his offer,” and the chairman is on record then saying, “We have too many women … They give birth to children and our children are too many.”

“It is such a novel proposition,” Kissinger replied. “We will have to study it.”

The conversation occurred in 1973 in Beijing, China and as far as we could find… the promised 10 million Chinese women were not given to the US.
Spain: Real Women Need New Sizes
New York Times: LINK
After a yearlong study by the Health Ministry that included using laser scans to measure more than 10,000 female volunteers aged 12 to 70, the government hopes to persuade the fashion industry to devise a new standard for clothing sizes that would fit most women. The study concluded that Spanish women were not the very skinny tall types that designers idealize, but rather fell into three main body types: hourglass, pear shape and cylinder. It also found that 4 of 10 women had trouble finding clothes to fit, mainly because sizes varied from store to store and because what was on the racks was too small.

South Korea: First Trial By Jury
New York Times: LINK
A trial with a jury was held at a local court in Taegu, the first in Korea’s legal history. The nine-member jury heard the case of a 27-year-old man accused of assaulting a 70-year-old woman while trying to rob her house. After hours of deliberation, most jurors recommended a two-to-four year suspended prison sentence. Their verdict, and others to follow, was not binding; the final say still rests with a judge. “Still,” a court spokesman said, “the introduction of a jury will enhance the people’s confidence in court verdicts in our country.” In the trial on Tuesday, the judge later announced a four-year suspended sentence. “The judge concluded the jury’s decision was logical,” the spokesman said.

Cuba: Fidel Resigns

No more Power in a track suit, who's next to don the track suit? I say Kim Jong Ill or Gordon Brown. or maybe Snoop Dogg when he becomes Presidizzle, my nizzle. or whoever Nike gets to sponsor for dictator next. maybe Nike Castro III?

Serbia: Kosovo Declares independence
Supporters: USA, GB, FR, GR, and GREECE?
Deniers: Serbia, Russia

Anyways, Good Luck. I'm sure you'll become a nation, just hope you can sustain life in the sorry excuse for a Moon Landing filming site. (it's barren is all I'm saying)

Daily Chuckle

2008-02-19T13:48:00.000-08:00

Overheard in New York: LINK
I'm Gonna Win Every Hipster Fight!

Black hipster #1: Oh my god! These jeans are sick! They're lime green and making my eyeballs hurt!
Black hipster #2: Oooh, oooh, show me!
Black hipster #1, exiting dressing room: Man, my dick hurts 'cause they so tight! But daaamn... I look good!

--American Apparel
(submitted by Jacki Isett - ;-) )

Finding a Job Made Easy

2008-02-19T13:41:00.000-08:00

Finding your dream job takes more than nerve
USA Today: LINK

In 1999, Brian Kurth liked his job at Ameritech and was making good money, but he wasn't fulfilled — and wasn't going to be.

As he writes in Test-Drive Your Dream Job, "Making the world better through broadband technology just didn't set me on fire."

Kurth often dreamed about his ideal job, spending more time fantasizing than taking action. In 1999, he found the drive and the nerve to plan a new career.

He used an online company that provided short-term tryouts for various jobs but found none that excited him. Then inspiration struck. After setting up a domain name, he launched a company called VocationVacations, which helps people identify and find their ultimate jobs.

Clients choose from a list of internship-like experiences, ranging from bison rancher to TV producer, from chocolatier to not-for-profit director. They pay a fee ($900 to the mid-$1,000, not including accommodations) and embark on a one- to three-day immersion experience with a mentor.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Mark | Ameritech

Test-Drive Your Dream Job is a valuable how-to resource. It includes lists of questions for potential mentors, tips for creating a career-change action plan and sample timelines.

Kurth notes that remaining realistic is crucial: "Expect it to take twice as long as you think it will to become successful and to cost twice what you expected to get there."

Anecdotes reveal how some people discover their ideal jobs aren't dreamy after all. For example, 39-year-old Mark explored his dream of becoming a chef, only to realize that "cooking was a passion … but it was not his career. His career was sales."

Kurth says disappointment can be positive. "The point was to learn those things now, risk-free, before you invested years and dollars in a career you didn't love."

Test-Drive Your Dream Job nicely pairs career coaching with practical tools for creating a more fulfilling lifestyle. "Going after my dream job didn't require the daredevil leap. … It required a series of small, incremental steps," Kurth explains.

The book also benefits from Kurth's openness about his initial fear of trying something new and his grief when a long-term relationship became a casualty of his new approach to life. The mix of candor, concrete advice and real-life stories adds up to a must-read for those who are ready to shove aside the status quo and take a chance at a more satisfying career.

A Start-Up Says It Can Predict Others’ Fate
New York Times: LINK

SAN FRANCISCO — Is your start-up worthy of investment? Ask the venture investor in a box. Two former Oxford University students are getting attention (and seed money) in Silicon Valley for developing new technology that automates aspects of the venture capital decision-making process.

Kirill Makharinsky, 21, and Bob Goodson, 27, call their software a “start-up predictor,” and they say their company, YouNoodle.com, might give an edge to venture capitalists and other investors trying to decide whether to sink money into an early-stage company.

“We don’t want to replace investors,” Mr. Goodson said. “We simply believe that industries of comparable size have utilized artificial intelligence to inform decision-making.”

“Give us some information, and we’ll give you some idea of what the company will be worth in five years,” he said.

Starting Monday, the company is emerging from a private test and is opening up parts of its Web site and services to the public.

The idea of a start-up predictor has drawn skepticism. Some venture capitalists say that the idea of using formulas or historical data from past deals to predict how other start-ups will do in the future has been tried many times in vain.

Paul S. Kedrosky, a venture capitalist and the author of the Infectious Greed blog, said that his industry was indeed inefficient at picking winners; typically, 90 percent of venture investments are not home runs. But he does not particularly trust a company that professes to be able to do better than venture capitalists.

“If their tool did such a good job, they’d raise a fund themselves and beat the tar out of us,” Mr. Kedrosky said. “It’s hard to imagine what their mathematical combination of factors is.”

On that point, the founders of YouNoodle.com are not forthcoming. They say their algorithm uses sophisticated modeling pertaining to how social capital and networks can affect an organization’s performance.

They also say that they are focusing in general on assessing the experiences and social and business contacts of entrepreneurs who start a company, and on how the entrepreneurs within that company might fit with one another. They will not disclose precisely what factors they use to predict a start-up’s success, or how their algorithm processes those factors.

They certainly have their own well-heeled network. YouNoodle’s financial backers include Paypal co-founders Max Levchin and Peter Thiel, and the Founders Fund, a venture capital firm. YouNoodle has not disclosed the amount of its seed financing.

The company is also is trying to build a network of early-stage companies, and to provide tools that can be used for business plan competitions, businesses school classes and other emerging entrepreneurial ventures. It provides those tools free, but in so doing the users provide data about their new ventures that YouNoodle uses to refine its predictor algorithm.

The company plans to give away a simple version of its predictor but will charge investors who want the newer and more powerful version of the software.

So the question arises: Has YouNoodle used the predictor to determine if it will itself succeed?

“So far, we haven’t run ourselves through it,” Mr. Goodson said, adding that the results could prove baffling. “If it says we’ll fail, and it’s right, that’s something of a paradox.”

State News

2008-02-19T13:32:00.000-08:00

Tennessee: State Requires DNA sample for people arrested on violent felony charges. problem is that no funding is put towards this.
Why is this important? because if you get the DNA test, you may be arrested for outstanding charges. kind of like background checks when being pulled over for speeding. which I think is great.
The Tennessean: LINK
Nevada: Man puts $5000 hit on himself because of fatal illness. but proved to be a hoax. and people tried to collect. (so they tried to kill him, if you didn't catch that)
Fox News: LINK
Florida: Pastor calls for a 30-day sex challenge. called on congregation that was married to try to fix the marriage with 30 days of sex, daily.
Kiro TV: LINK

Prejudice Among Patients

2008-02-19T13:26:00.000-08:00

‘Have You Ever Been in Psychotherapy, Doctor?’
New York Times: LINK

A curious thing happened to one of my psychiatric residents not long ago. One of his patients caught him off guard with a challenging question: “Have you ever been in psychotherapy yourself?”
Skip to next paragraph
Brian Stauffer

He was uncomfortable answering the question directly, so he spent some time trying to discover why it mattered to his patient. “He wanted to know if I knew what it felt like to be ill and helpless,” the resident said.

It was an interesting question, and it made me wonder whether one could be a good therapist without having been in psychotherapy. If the answer was no, it would appear to be at odds with what we do in the rest of medical practice.

After all, we don’t require neurologists to have a spinal tap or cardiac surgeons to have undergone bypass surgery before performing these medical procedures.

But there is something special about psychotherapy, I think, that sets it apart. Of course, the doctor-patient relationship is important in any clinical encounter. But in therapy, the relationship is the very instrument of the treatment.

If your cardiologist does not have the best bedside manner but effectively treats your hypertension, you might not be happy, but at least you are heading in the right medical direction. In contrast, if you do not have a rapport with your therapist, then the treatment is useless.

To be any good, a cardiologist should be an expert in the use of his instrument, whether the stethoscope or the cardiac catheter. But how does this principle apply to psychotherapists?

One way to think about it is that a therapist should not start exploring a patient’s mind without really knowing what is in his own. Therapists, just like their patients, bring their own life experiences into treatment, which influence their feelings about their patients — a process called countertransference.

Therapists who do not understand their own countertransference run the risk not just of misunderstanding their patients, but of confusing their own hang-ups with those of their patients.

Once a resident asked me to help him deal with a difficult patient, whom he actually dreaded seeing.

It was easy to see why. The patient, a 35-year-old man, told me that my resident was incapable of understanding him and then angrily dismissed his therapist as inexperienced (right) and unfeeling (wrong).

My resident turned out to have plenty of feeling that he did not know what to do with. He felt angry, humiliated and trapped. This patient, who felt disappointed and mistreated by the world, was simply giving the therapist a taste of his own narcissism.

It did not help that this patient bore a striking resemblance to my resident’s older brother, whom he found critical and demeaning. The resident had never had therapy himself, but just realizing the origin of his negative feelings helped him deal with this difficult patient.

Nowadays, most psychiatric residents finish their training without having had any personal psychotherapy. This is a departure from the past, when psychotherapy reigned supreme and a personal psychoanalysis was a rite of passage for trainees.

The explosion of neuroscience, along with the pressure of market forces, has had a powerful effect on the training of young psychiatrists. Not all of it is good.

Being a psychiatrist and psychopharmacologist, I could not be more thrilled with the promise of brain science. And there is no question that we have more effective biological treatments for the major psychiatric disorders than at any point in the past.

But even as we have been swept off our feet by sexy neuroscience, my field is in danger of losing touch with the rich psychological life of patients, something that is reflected in the waning popularity of therapy during residency training.

Does it really matter? After all, psychiatrists are too expensive and too few to treat the vast majority of patients who need psychotherapy. Psychiatrists of the future are more likely going to be consultants in the treatment of patients with the most serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia, mood disorders and complicated substance abuse.

All true, but we are far from understanding the ultimate cause of most psychiatric disorders, despite the promise of brain science. We can effectively relieve symptoms and increase functioning, but we still have to help our patients live with illness.

Psychiatrists who have had the humbling experience of therapy themselves know something of what it feels like to be a patient — the sense of frustration, anxiety and dependence it entails.

As such, they can better understand the emotional reactions patients have to their illness — and to their doctors.

I don’t know about you, but that sounds like the kind of psychiatrist I would want taking care of me.

A Look at Prostitution

2008-02-19T13:23:00.000-08:00

The Wrong Target
New York Times: LINK

A New York City police detective and his girlfriend have been accused of kidnapping and forcing a 13-year-old girl into prostitution.

According to the Queens district attorney’s office, the detective, Wayne Taylor, and the girlfriend, Zalika Brown, would parade the girl at parties and other places where adult men had gathered and force her to have sex with them for money — $40 for oral sex, $80 for intercourse.

The child was an investment. The couple allegedly told her that she had been purchased for $500 — purchased, like the slaves of old, only this time for use as a prostitute.

Other than the fact that one of the accused in this case is a police detective, there was nothing unusual about this tale of trafficking in young female flesh.

Our perspective is twisted. It was a big story when a television newsman was crude and thoughtless enough to use the term “pimped out” in a reference to Chelsea Clinton. The comment generated outrage — as it should have — and the newsman was suspended. But if someone actually pimps out a 13-year-old child, and even if that someone is alleged to be a police detective, it generates a collective yawn.

Across the country, young girls by the many thousands — children — are being drawn into the hellishly dangerous world of prostitution. They are raped, beaten and exploited in every way imaginable.

As part of the staggeringly lucrative commercial sex trade, the role of these children is to satisfy the sexual demands of johns who in most cases do not fit the stereotype of a pedophile.

“Many of the guys who buy sex with children would never consider themselves pedophiles,” said Rachel Lloyd, founder of an organization in New York called GEMS that offers help to under-age girls in the sex trade. “They’re not necessarily out there looking for 12-year-olds or teenagers. They just kind of don’t care.

“They feel like they have the right to buy sex from someone, and they prefer it to be someone who looks younger and cleaner and less drug-addicted.”

In the case of the accused New York City detective, the authorities acted promptly and effectively. The girl managed to escape and notified the police, who investigated immediately. Detective Taylor and Ms. Brown were arrested and the case has been turned over to the office of Queens District Attorney Richard Brown. Both are in custody.

But law enforcement does not always respond in a positive or constructive way. It is common across the country for under-age girls engaged in prostitution to be arrested, which is bizarre when you consider that it is a serious crime — statutory rape — for an adult to have sex with a minor.

If no money is involved, the youngster is considered a victim. But if the man pays for the sex — even if the money is going to the pimp, which is so often the case — the child is considered a prostitute and thus subject in many venues to arrest and incarceration.

“We often see the girls arrested and the pimps and the johns go free,” said Carol Smolenski, the head of Ecpat-USA, a group that fights the sexual exploitation of children. “One of the big problems is that there is this whole set of child sex exploiters who are not targeted as exceptionally bad guys.”

What’s needed is a paradigm shift. Society (and thus law enforcement) needs to view any adult who sexually exploits a child as a villain, and the exploited child as a victim of that villainy. If a 35-year-old pimp puts a 16-year-old girl on the street and a 30-year-old john pays to have sex with her, how is it reasonable that the girl is most often the point in that triangle that is targeted by law enforcement?

A measure of how far we still have to go is the fact that some enlightened officials in the state of New York tried to shift that paradigm last year and failed. The proposed Safe Harbor Act would have ended the practice of criminalizing kids too young to legally consent to sex. Under the law, authorities would have no longer been able to charge children with prostitution, but would have had to offer such youngsters emotional counseling, medical care and shelter, if necessary.

Legislative passage was thwarted in large part because prosecutors made the case that it was necessary to hold the threat of jail over the heads of these children as a way of coercing them to testify against pimps. In other words: If you don’t tell us who hurt you, little girl, we’re going to put you in jail.

It was an utterly specious case, filled to the bursting point with tragic implications and unworthy of a civilized society.

She Blinded Me with Science (and Booty!)

2008-02-19T10:39:00.000-08:00

Ivory Coast's 'big-bottom' craze
BBC News: LINK

Shake it fast, Watch yo'self! Shake it fast, Show me whatcho workin with!

A national dance craze in Ivory Coast has spawned a black market in treatments claiming to increase one's bottom size. The dance in question has been inspired by DJ Mix and DJ Eloh's hit song Bobaraba, which means "big bottom" in the local Djoula language. When it plays you can be guaranteed that the dance floor will be packed with people shaking their derrieres. Even Ivorian footballers have adopted the moves and could be seen wiggling their bottoms in a curious on-pitch dance after each goal scored during the just-ended Africa Nations Cup.
However, doctors have warned of the possible dangers of some of the concoctions on sale.
While the dance has been embraced by both sexes, DJ Mix says it was inspired by women.
"We made it as a tribute to women, because African women are defined by the shape of their bottoms," he says.
"Move your bottom, jump, you see, it's alive."
Kady Meite, one of his dancers, says the song is a message for women.
"There are women today with large bottoms who are embarrassed, so it's to say don't be ashamed - be comfortable," she says.
The message seems to have been taken on board - so much so that some women are now going in search of a "bobaraba".

Injections
In the sprawling Adjame market just north of the city centre in Abidjan, women sell "bottom enhancers".
"You need to inject this liquid into your bottom once a day," says a market trader, showing a vial of coloured liquid labelled "Vitamin B12".
Each vial costs $2. The label claims it is made in China.
If you do not like the sound of injections, the same amount of money will also get you a small tub of cream.
There is no description of what the product contains or how to apply it; just the words "Big bottoms and big breasts", and two illustrating pictures. Local gynaecologist Dr Marcel Sissoko is sceptical about the concoctions. "This medicine could be dangerous for your health because we don't know the ingredients. It's being used without a medical prescription," he warns.
"The health ministry hasn't authorised this and doctors don't know what's in there, so there are risks."
At the Micronutrient Information Centre at Oregon State University in the United States, Dr Victoria Drake says she knows of no scientific evidence that vitamin B12 can be used to treat anything except vitamin B12 deficiency.
'Danger'
DJ Mix admits there is now a growing fashion for young women to show off their bottoms.
"If a woman goes dancing and wants to take two or three treatments, no problem," he says.
"But we don't say to girls that they must take treatment to enhance your bottom, no."
One man on the streets of Abidjan agreed: "Us boys, we appreciate these things because when women use the treatment it attracts us, but for women it's not good."
Most women I spoke to preferred to avoid the treatments.
"Me? I prefer to be natural so you can know your true value. It's best not to use these medicines. It's not good - it's actually very dangerous," one said.
Another woman was happy with what came naturally.
"I do the bobaraba because I already have a big bum. When I dance, everyone looks at me."

Wang Steals Urinal Sensor

2008-02-19T10:33:00.000-08:00

Thief steals urinal sensor for Mercedes
The China Post:

WANG!!!!!!!!! His name is WANG!
also, if this urinal can talk it would say "I can see you pee...oh...don't stop. I like that. ahh yeah.

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- A young mechanic, Wang Chi-sheng, is suspected of stealing a urinal sensor, which he said he planned to use to modify a Mercedes Benz car.

Wang has been accused of trespassing for entering a closed-down gas station restroom and stealing the heat sensors used on the urinals. Police escorting Wang stated that they laughed as they listened to his plan to use the sensors to test out his latest designs for improving a Mercedes Benz car.

The Taiwan Mercedes' technicians department said the young man's scheme was "unbelievable," commenting that "the probability of successfully using a sensor from a public urinal to replace special factory-made sensors was and remains zero."

What's more, the technicians explained the thief's actions are quite dangerous, and could even lead to creating an electric current that leads to the engine, which would cause it to ignite and possibly even explode.

Speaking of Sex...

2008-02-19T10:28:00.000-08:00

The Joy of Christian Sex Toys
NPR: LINK

Christianity Promotes Masturbation. says so in the bible. Genesis 38:8-10 – “Then Judah said to Onan, ‘Lie with your brother’s wife and fulfill your duty to her as a brother-in-law to produce offspring for your brother.’ But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so whenever he lay with his brother’s wife he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from producing offspring for his brother. What he did was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so he put him to death also.”
ooops! see you in hell.

Joy Wilson says she and her husband pray for guidance before adding new sex toys to their catalog.
The Bryant Park Project, February 14, 2008 · Joy Wilson went looking for something to spice up her marriage without compromising her Christian beliefs.

Finding nothing, she founded her own "sin-free" sex toy business. Book22.com caters to the Christian community with books, toys and occasional advice. The name refers to the Song of Solomon, the extended love poem that forms the 22nd book of the Bible.

Wilson says that after the birth of her first child, she had trouble rekindling her desire for intimacy. She and her husband went looking for marital aids, and found that Internet searches for products as tame as massage oil led to sites with pornographic images. "I was really surprised that it was that bad," she says.

She and her husband talked it over and decided that there must be a way for conservative people to add a spark to their romantic lives. She says their site steers clear of certain types of sexual activity that they believe are unholy. And they carefully consider which new products to add.

"We pray about things before we add them to our site," she says. "We live our lives very openly in front of Jesus, so we just kind of pray for direction about which way he would have us go, and I have to be honest with you — he's really surprised us. ... Almost our whole entire 'special order' page has come about from that."

Wilson says she and her husband are blessed with good health, but that God has shown them that other couples might need help from a particular toy.

Orgasmostron!

2008-02-19T10:23:00.000-08:00

Call him doctor 'Orgasmatron'
LA Times: LINK

In Medieval Times, Bitches used to go to the doctor to do this too, but it would cure disease. another reason I wish I was a doctor, besides the whole Money thing. and would you really trust this guy as your doctor? I would. MOTORHEAD RULEZ!

Dr. Stuart Meloy never set out to study orgasms. It was an accident.
He was in the operating room one day in 1998, implanting electrodes into a patient's spine to treat her chronic leg pain. (The electrodes are connected to a device that fires impulses to the brain to block pain signals.) But when he turned on the power, "the patient suddenly let out something between a shriek and moan," says Meloy, an anesthesiologist and pain specialist in North Carolina.

Asked what was wrong, she replied, "You'll have to teach my husband how to do that."

Meloy moved the electrodes until he found the correct, pain-numbing position on the spine. "I went home, had a funny story to tell my wife," he says.

He almost left it at that.

But the next day, he told the story to some colleagues, and a gynecologist commented that one-third of his patients complain of orgasm dysfunction.

Might this, Meloy mused, potentially help such people?

He started a formal pilot study of the device, which is approved for use in treating bladder and pain problems, implanting it in the spines of 11 women, some of whom had never had an orgasm. The women, who were instructed to keep a record of all their sexual experiences, were allowed to use the device for nine days adlibitum.

Meloy's study, published in 2006 in the journal Neuromodulation, reported that 10 out of 11 of the patients felt pleasurable stimulation from the device, including increased vaginal lubrication. Five of the women had previously lost their ability to have orgasms; four regained it with the device. (The fifth never used her device during the nine-day trial because of work stress, she said.)

None of the five women who had never had an orgasm was able to experience one with the device, however. "They said it was pleasurable, but it wasn't sending them over the edge," Meloy says.

The experimental implant -- now trademarked by Meloy as the Orgasmatron after the orgasm-inducing cylinder in Woody Allen's 1973 movie "Sleeper" -- rests on the skin just above the belt line. Two electrodes snake into the space between the vertebrae and the spinal cord. A video-game-like remote control allows women (or their partners) to turn electrical pulses on and off and fiddle with timing and intensity.

Electrodes in the right place (determined partly by trial and error) seem to interact with various nerve networks, Meloy says, including nerves from the pelvis that enter the spinal highway near the tailbone. Stimulating those nerves shoots pleasure signals straight up to the part of the brain that processes information coming from the genitalia.

Women who have used the device say they feel as if their clitoris and vagina are actually being stimulated, to quite realistic effect. ("One woman asked me, 'Would it be considered adultery if I gave the remote control to someone other than my husband?' " Meloy says.)

Some volunteers also report fleeting episodes of clenched foot muscles, Meloy says, probably a result of electrical pulses leaving the spine and stimulating nearby motor nerves. (He wonders if the phenomenon might somehow be related to a common orgasm description: "My toes curled.")

And when the device's pulse intensity is cranked up to maximum, Meloy says, some women find their vaginal and rectal muscles squeezing rhythmically in time with the pulses, even before the orgasmic finale.

Meloy thinks that practice, or at least past experience, is key to success with the device. Without prior orgasm experiences, crucial neural pathways may never have been laid down, possibly explaining why women who'd never had orgasms did not experience one during the nine-day trial. Even with extra stimulation from the device, Meloy says, nine days may not have been enough time to build pathways up to full orgasmic strength.

And even the successful women in the trial lost their recovered orgasmic ability when the devices were removed. Meloy hopes that longer access to the device would let women practice their newfound skills and fortify neural pathways -- a sort of orgasmic neural rehabilitation.

Meloy says he has also implanted two impotent men with the device. Both volunteers were able to achieve an erection, he says, and reportedly had powerful ejaculations.

Meloy sees two potential male markets for the device. One includes men with erectile dysfunction who take nitrates for heart disease and therefore cannot take Viagra or similar medications, like Jack Nicholson's character in the film "Something's Gotta Give." The other might be recreational users, men interested in boosting their existing erections and ejaculations -- and willing to pay for elective surgery.

Design work is underway to get the cost of the procedure down to about $12,000 -- roughly the price of breast implants, Meloy says.

He plans to shrink the size of the internal processor to the size of two sticks of gum and the external processor to roughly the size of a belt pager, all while ensuring that the system is durable enough to withstand shear forces of typical use.

Before Food and Drug Administration approval could be granted and the device sent to market -- Meloy estimates that's probably still two or three years away -- the new design will need to be tested in another study, he says. But there will be no animal testing phase. "I don't know how to ask animals, 'Where do you feel the tingling?' or 'Do you want a cigarette?' "

Ever Wanted Terrible Healthcare with the Price of those Expensive Pills?

2008-02-19T10:19:00.000-08:00

Well Here we go. MOMSPIT.
LINK

Dirt affects us all, and MomSpit™ knows no boundaries. Inspired by the original, it's for everyone, children and adults alike. Whether you're urban, suburban or good old country, a soccer mom, golf dude, fashion diva or business suit, MomSpit was designed with versatility in mind. It's for you when you're on the move and in your groove.

CREATIVELY CLEAN NO-RINSE CLEANSER
Get clean anywhere and anytime without the need for the kitchen or bathroom sink. MomSpit fits effortlessly into a purse, gym bag, golf bag, hiking pack, picnic basket, briefcase or glove compartment. It sits beautifully on a desk at school or the office and travels well to the theatre, the stadium, the cottage and, dare we say, the dreaded but essential visit to the port-a-potty. Easy to use and easier to install than plumbing, it's about immediate gratification with style in the elimination of dirt, wherever you are and whenever you need it most.

USE IT AND LOSE IT. MOMSPIT ON IT.
Have your bottle of MomSpit accessible wherever you may be. Apply a small amount (less is more) on hands or face and rub in completely. Dirt will disappear. No rinse needed. Repeat if necessary. With love in every drop, MomSpit's designed to last. Just a little goes a long way to getting rid of more dirt than you can imagine. We encourage you to put it to the test.

Eliminate milk moustaches, chocolate faces, sticky fingers, grease, dried food, latte foam, gas-pump grunge and mystery dirt. Its gentle blend and antimicrobial properties leave skin clean and fresh. It's not a sanitizer, it's MomSpit, the universal no-rinse cleanser. You wouldn't use sanitizer to remove ketchup from your child's face after they've gobbled fries in the backseat of your car, or for getting rid of the spilled coffee on your arm when you're at your desk on one of those days and your boss is on speakerphone. MomSpit cleans dirt and grime, leaving skin clean, moisturized and smelling yummy. Its scents are fresh and friendly. There's even unscented for those of you who love naked 'n' natural. It contains no alcohol, mousses brilliantly, absorbs quickly and feels great. It's soap and water sans le sink.

Pavlovian Husbands

2008-02-19T10:14:00.000-08:00

How to Train a Husband
Newsweek: LINK

<<<<<<<<
FUCK YOU, IVAN PAVLOV!

Attention, frustrated wives: if you want your husband to start listening to you and stop leaving his socks on the floor, all you need is a little patience and a lot of mackerel. Such is the putative relationship advice of Amy Sutherland, a journalist who spent a year at an animal-trainer school and decided to apply the trainers' techniques to her husband's annoying habits. According to Sutherland, the key to marital bliss is to ignore negative habits and reward positive ones, the same approach animal trainers use to get killer whales to leap from their tanks and elephants to stand on their heads. So to teach her husband, Scott, to stop storming around the house when he couldn't find his keys, she practiced what trainers call Least Reinforcing Scenario, which means she ignored his outbursts, and didn't offer to help with the search. To prevent Scott from hovering over her while she tried to cook, she engineered "incompatible behaviors" by setting a bowl of chips and salsa at the other end of the room. Soon she had a key-finding, salsa-eating mate and, she says, a happier marriage.

Sutherland first wrote about her experiment in The New York Times in 2006, where it became the most e-mailed story of the year. This week her book, "What Shamu Taught Me About Life, Love and Marriage," comes out, and a movie is in development. Sutherland admits that her ideas are not groundbreaking: in the 1890s Ivan Pavlov experimented with dogs to study stimulus and response. In the 1930s, B. F. Skinner used rats and pigeons to develop his theory of "operant behaviors," the idea that behavior is affected by its consequences. That doesn't mean the strategy is not controversial: critics bristle at the idea that humans are as easily manipulated as dogs or marine mammals, and contend that books such as Sutherland's reinforce war-of-the-sexes stereotypes about women using their feminine wiles to manipulate simple-minded men.

The idea of women training simple men is a well-worn trope of pop culture. In the 1963 film "If a Man Answers," Sandra Dee's mother hands her a canine-training manual with the advice "If you want a perfect marriage, treat your husband like a dog." More recently, the BBC reality show "Bring Your Husband to Heel" featured a professional dog trainer teaching wives how to get their husbands to sit and stay.

While Sutherland claims that animal-training techniques work on both genders, in another new book, "Seducing the Boys Club," Nina DiSesa advocates a gender-specific approach to changing people's behavior. DiSesa, who was the first female chairman of the ad agency McCann Erickson, argues that women should use their femininity to manipulate the men they work with and advance their careers. Instead of criticizing an employee's ad proposal, she flatters him for his "brilliant" idea, then sweetly asks if he had any other inspirations. "Women use these tactics with men all the time," she says. "We're mothers, wives, girlfriends, sisters. We know how to handle men, we just don't do it at work."

While DiSesa's tactics may appall feminists, the appeal of Sutherland's approach is obvious: no tearful couples-therapy sessions, no tantrums about unmet expectations. But Sutherland says it's not a quick fix. In fact, she was the one who wound up being retrained, as she taught herself not to take her husband's actions personally, and not to react when he did things that annoyed her. DiSesa also says she retrained herself to stop criticizing and confronting the men she worked with, and instead use "S and M," seduction and manipulation, to get her way.

And, she says, we shouldn't admit to our manipulations. "If people think I'm being conniving, I am," she says. "But if men see it coming, they'll duck." Sutherland's husband eventually caught on to her experiment (it didn't help that she wrote a book about the animal-trainer school), and even started using the techniques back on her. Now they use the word "shamu" as a verb, as in "Did you just shame me?"

Shamuing might work to get your husband to stop leaving his socks on the bathroom floor, says psychotherapist Marlin Potash, author of "Hidden Agendas: What's Really Going On in Your Relationships." "In small doses, it's really a good idea," she says. But she's skeptical of the idea that the technique will work with real marital problems such as lack of communication or sexual incompatibility: "I don't really believe that changing these small behaviors is how one transforms a marriage." Sutherland makes no claims to be a relationship expert. And she's not opposed to therapy, although she says, judging from the enthusiastic response to her essay, "Psychologists might want to consider bringing more animals into the mix."

Being Dead Stinks

2008-02-18T15:19:00.000-08:00

Laura Todd Says She's Been Dead On, Off Again For 8 Years
NBC: LINK
Why pay taxes if you're dead? just wait until Social Security rolls around and collect on it, that's when you declare - "viola! not dead, gimme my money!"

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A Nashville woman said that having to prove she’s alive over and over is ruining her life.

Laura Todd said an 8-year-old typo is affecting everything from her credit to her tax return.

"I don't think people realize how difficult it is to be dead when you're not,” she said.

She said her problems started when someone in Florida died and her Social Security number was accidentally typed in.

Todd said she thought the problem had been straightened out, but when she went to refinance her house in 2002, “SunTrust called and said, ‘Your credit report says you're dead.’"

She straightened that incident out, but in 2006 the Internal Revenue Service refused to process her return.

"The IRS says I’m dead. Everybody says I'm dead,” she said.

She said being dead off and on has made everyday life a hassle. She said her bank closed her credit card account and attached a note of sympathy: “Please accept our condolences on the death of Laura Todd.”

She said the last straw came recently when the IRS once again refused to let her file her taxes electronically because she's dead.

She said that at one point it was funny, but now it’s getting old.

“I'm tired. I've been fighting this for eight years, and it never ends,” she said. “I'm very much alive, and would like to live out my life in peace without having this problem."

The IRS said it would research the problem and try to get it straightened out. Social Security said it has updated its computers and that the fix should also fix the problems with her credit reports.

Todd said she'll try to file her tax return again and see if the problem has really been fixed.

"It's Over Now"

2008-02-18T15:17:00.001-08:00

Tenn. School Shooting Stemmed From Fight
Associated Press: LINK

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A high school sophomore arguing with another student shot him during a gym class Monday, saying "It's over now" before handing the gun to a coach, authorities said.

The victim, a 19-year-old senior, suffered at least two gunshot wounds and was taken to a hospital in critical condition, police spokeswoman Monique Martin said. The suspected shooter, a 17-year-old, was in custody.

The shooting stemmed from an argument the two students had "in the community" over the weekend, Mitchell High School Principal John Ware said.

"He walked up to him, shot him, and made a statement to the coach that 'It's over now,'" Ware said. The student handed the gun to the coach and made no attempt to flee, he said.

The class was held in the cafeteria, and about 75 other students were in the room at the time of the shooting.

The school was placed on lockdown and parents of students were notified by the district's automated phone alert system, school district spokeswoman Rita Cooper said. Many parents showed up at the 1,050-student school to pick up their children.

It is the second shooting in eight days reported in a Memphis high school. On Feb. 4, a 16-year-old student was shot in the leg in side a classroom during an argument with another student over music. The student suffered non-critical injuries and the suspected shooter was charged.

Not Just Another Murder Suicide

2008-02-18T15:12:00.000-08:00

Husband stabs, shoots teacher in front of class
The Enquirer: LINK

Just another murder. Maybe not. This guy killed his wife. kills himself. with a twist. a wrinkle, if you will. He killed his wife, a teacher, in front of a class of children. fucked up? yeah, he even got away to kill himself in his own home.

A teacher's estranged husband charged into her fifth-grade classroom Thursday morning, then stabbed and shot her as students watched, police said.

He fled and officers said he apparently killed himself in his home after a standoff with police.

The shooting happened around 9 a.m. at Notre Dame Elementary, a Catholic school on the main road of a town in southern Ohio near the border.
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The teacher, Christi Layne, was in critical condition at Cabell Huntington Hospital in nearby Huntington, W.Va.

Student Emmaly Baker said she hid in the classroom's coatroom when the gunman came in.

"We heard gunshots, and we heard her yelling. I was scared," Baker told WSAZ-TV.

"The police officer came and got us and she was still laying there and she was hurt really bad."

The suspect apparently shot himself after SWAT teams surrounded his house near the school, police Chief Charles Horner said.

Kim Harris, who cares for a man who lives next door, said at one point police fired at the house after gunshots came from inside the home.

Another person was stabbed in town before the shooting, and authorities believed it was connected to the teacher's shooting, Portsmouth police Capt. Rob Ware said.

He did not elaborate.

Neighbor Jack Freeland, 37, who often talked with Michael Layne, said the couple had separated last summer.

He said Layne had been acting strangely for several months.

"At night time, he was out digging up his yard at 1, 2 in the morning," he said.

Police shot out a surveillance camera installed in the backyard of Layne's home, the police chief said.

Freeland said police broke through the door with a battering ram and sent in a robot.

He heard police calling to the man, but he didn't hear a response.

The suspect was found dead about four hours after the shooting at about 9 a.m. at the school.

Parents, many with cell phones clutched to their ears, congregated and began leaving with their children around 10:30 a.m., said Kathy Hall, the office manager at the Cornerstone United Methodist Church across the street from the school.

"I wasn't afraid for my own safety, I was afraid for the children, because these turn out so terrible, you know," said Hall.

Sleep Driving Defense Acquits

2008-02-18T15:07:00.000-08:00

Sleep Driving Defense Gaining Success
The Boston Channel: LINK

I am intrigued by this one because it involves a drug other than alcohol. O was a acquitted because it couldn't be concluded that he was voluntarily intoxicated. huh? did someone force it down his throat? I don't think so. Judges have to get their facts straight. if he's acquitted, why does a drunk driver sit in jail for manslaughter?

BOSTON -- Two summers ago on a pleasant summer evening, Anthony Raucci, his wife and their 7-year-old son were driving home after dinner. A flat tire forced Raucci to pull over into the breakdown lane on Route 93 in Tewksbury. His wife and son were close behind in a separate car.

"I saw this car with its lights going on and off," said Elena Raucci. "He was coming over in the breakdown lane and hit my car. He must have swerved past, hitting Tony's car and Tony. I saw him lying face down way out in the middle of the highway. He no longer had any clothes on and I started screaming."

Anthony Raucci's leg was severed. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
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"I'll never forget it," said Raucci. "I see it all the time."

Ki Yong O was behind the wheel of the car that hit Raucci. The pharmaceutical attorney from Andover was charged with operating under the influence and motor vehicle homicide. Blood tests confirmed toxic levels of the sleep drug Ambien. But after a six-day trial in November, a judge acquitted O.

"I was shocked," said Raucci.

In his decision, Judge Kenneth Fishman wrote that "the court is unable to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was voluntarily intoxicated when he operated his motor vehicle."

The defense successfully argued that O was not responsible because he was sleep driving. It's a condition that even sleep experts say is an exceedingly rare side effect of Ambien. The case could set a precedent as the Ambien defense becomes more popular.

"It effects what the brain is capable of doing, and therefore the voluntariness of a person's conduct," said Elliot Weinstein, a defense attorney. "I think it's an available defense for a person who has ingested Ambien."

The Middlesex County District Attorney's office prosecuted the case.

"I think that the defense will be used whenever somebody fits it within the facts of their case. My instincts tell me it will be use inappropriately and in far too many cases," said District Attorney Gerry Leone.

In 2006, Rep. Patrick Kennedy claimed he was sleep driving after taking a prescribed dose of Ambien when he crashed into another car.

Last March in Texas, DUI charges were dropped against a woman who said she was "sleep driving" when she crashed her husband's truck into a neighbor's home.

Last October in Minnesota, a rape case was dropped when the defendant claimed sex was consensual with a female patient in a psychiatric ward. The woman had take Ambien and had vague memories of being assaulted.

But even the defense expert in O's trial tells Team Five Investigates these behaviors occur in one-tenth of one percent of Ambien users. In the case of sleep driving, it's even less than that.

Ambien comes with warnings about side effects. But Don Decker, a drug recognition expert, said drivers are often found to have mixed the sleep drugs with other sedatives.

"People may be taking Ambien, but there are other drugs and alcohol in the system, " said Decker. "People can and do use an Ambien defense as an excuse for their driving under the influence of drugs."

Team Five Investigates obtained results of a recent study by the Academy of Forensic Sciences. The report finds that in seven states that test driver's blood, Ambien is among the top 10 drugs found in impaired drivers.

In the case of O, three and a half tablets were missing from the bottle found in his car at the scene of the accident. And there was conflicting testimony about where and when O took those pills. Elena Raucci worried the acquittal will send a dangerous message.

"It gives people something to hide behind to avoid responsibility for their actions," said Raucci.

The family has filed a civil suit against O. Raucci said she hopes a guilty verdict will give her young son some solace.

"He keeps asking me why did Mr. O take so much medicine?," said Raucci. "Why did he drive if he knew he wasn't supposed to? Why did Daddy die? It's hard enough to come up with those answers for myself, much less to an 8-year-old boy."

Never have I ever Wanted to be a Doctor More Than Now

2008-02-18T11:35:00.000-08:00

English Russia: LINK

Monster Truck + Ambulance = Monster Life Saver

Wikivideo

2008-02-18T09:56:00.000-08:00

Wikipedia goes video
The download Squad: LINK

Wikimedia is partnering with the collaborative video service Kaltura to start rolling out video to Wikimedia sites. Right now, the feature is available on the WikiEducator demo site, which is not affiliated with Wikimedia. But eventually we'll start to see collaborative video hitting Wikipedia as well.

Kaltura videos can be created and edited by anyone, much like Wikipedia pages. You can also see previous versions of a video and a list of people who have worked on it. Users can also upload audio, slideshows, and other rich media. If you want to get your feet wet editing a video, check out the collaborative video sandbox.

Kaltura is making its code open source to support the goals of Wikimedia, and all audio and video will be encoded in the open source OGG Vorbis and OGG Theora formats.

Top 10: Things you Need Living on the Streets

2008-02-18T09:52:00.000-08:00

The List Universe: LINK
Always complemplated a easy life on the streets. they have it so easy, without a care in the world, except eating and staying warm. God, what a life! I've got this thing called HOMEWORK. it's so hard, I think I'll have to take like a break and drop tons of cash on some food. But when I decide to drop this stressful life, I'll be needing some tips. here's a start.

This is the first in what is going to be a series of lists on surviving the streets. Living on the streets is not an easy thing - it can be as arduous as a full time job. Therefore it is essential that you carry only the most important things with you. Unlike a camping trip, you have to live light. You can’t carry a backpack with all your worldly goods - it is simply not practical. So, what do you need when living on the streets?

10. Sleeping Bag

A sleeping bag - preferably one made of down because it is lightweight and very compact. This is the most vital piece of equipment you will need. You can either stash the bag, or carry it with you. Carrying it with you makes you more mobile because you can sleep wherever you end up. If you can’t get a good quality down bag, double bagging two poor quality ones will do the job (though definitely not as well).

9. Matting

Matting is also needed (preferably plastic and lightweight) - you must keep your sleeping bag off the ground away from the damp. If you can’t find or buy matting, at least make sure you put your sleeping bag on cardboard - putting it directly on the concrete will result in you feeling like you are sleeping on a block of ice. The cold can cause your back muscles to freeze up and numb and the result is that when you stretch in the night you can tear them - potentially leading to months of difficulty walking (and walking is what you need to be doing every day).

8. Backpacks

A backpack - consider keeping a smaller backpack for use during the day and a larger one that you can stash. You should keep in mind that some states in the US have “camping bans” which make it illegal to walk around the city with a large camping backpack. One homeless man was even refused service at Denny’s because they “do not serve people with backpacks” - clearly discrimination against the homeless - but you need to be aware of this. A small day backpack will spare you all of these problems.

7. Toiletries

You will need: soap, a toothbrush, razors, at the very least. These you should keep with you in your day backpack. It is also worth trying to score a mirror of some kind; just because you are living on the street doesn’t mean you can’t take care of your appearance - you will certainly find life easier when dealing with non-homeless people...

CarTorrent: P2P car networking

2008-02-18T09:51:00.000-08:00

The Guardian: LINK
The name BitTorrent has become part of most people's day-to-day vernacular, synonymous with downloading every kind of content via the internet's peer-to-peer networks. But if a team of US researchers have their way, we may all be talking about CarTorrent in the not too distant future.

Researchers from the University of California Los Angeles are working on a wireless communication network that will allow cars to talk to each other, simultaneously downloading information in the shape of road safety warnings, entertainment content and navigational tools.

The UCLA Engineering's Network Research Lab team, led by Mario Gerla and Giovanni Pau, hit upon the idea in 2004, when peer-to-peer networking took off fuelled by applications such as BitTorrent. "We had the idea from BitTorrent, and decided to extend BitTorrent to cars under the name of CarTorrent. One of our dreams had always been to apply the technology to civilian applications," says Gerla. "Imagine you're driving to a beach resort and want to find out what the best beaches are. You could stop at a gas station and download several video clips from an internet access point, but that's not very convenient."

Wireless at the wheel

Gerla and his team instead propose to connect cars to one another using the wireless networking platform they're developing, which could be up and running by as early as 2012.

The wireless network would allow moving vehicles within 100 metres and 300 metres of each other to connect and create a network with a wide range. The network would then allow drivers to download information from internet access points simply by driving by, and then share that information with other cars on the road.

Gerla says the benefits of such a network are numerous: "There will be immediate benefits in driving safety as well as in content distribution. Car-to-car communications can be used to avoid accidents by alerting the drivers of imminent danger. To prevent a crash we must act in fractions of a second. We are currently collaborating with vehicle manufacturers to help reduce accidents and fatalities on the road. For this latter application, vehicles are equipped with sensing devices, such as radars and video cameras."

The network uses standard radio protocols such as Digital Short Range Communication, or DSRC, combined with wireless LAN technology at 5.9GHz (not Wi-Fi's 2.4GHz) to create networks between vehicles equipped with onboard sensing devices. These devices can gather safety-related information as well as other complex multimedia data.

By far the most essential aspect of this network, though, is that it is not subject to memory, processing, storage and energy limitations like traditional sensor networks. Instead, it relies on the resources of the vehicle itself, along with those vehicles around it.

Under the scheme, cars would be able to use their onboard radios to exchange three categories of information: safe navigation (such as reporting on icy road conditions, traffic jams and possible collisions ahead), content distribution (locally relevant information, advertisements and videos of upcoming attractions) and urban surveillance (collecting information which could be used later by police for forensic investigations).

Gerla and his team are already collaborating with car manufacturers such as Toyota and BMW on bringing the project to life. However, costs and industry standards are the more important hurdles that this network will have to jump before it can become feasible. Gerla says the network can be slowly implemented, just as GPS navigation systems and Wi-Fi-style radios have slowly started to become standard equipment.

"What will turn the tide will be the approval and widespread adoption of the emerging standards for car-to-car communications sponsored by the IEEE 802.11p Working Committee of the IEEE [the professional association for the advancement of technology]," says Gerla.

"A few years ago, leading car manufacturers decided to join forces with national government agencies in the Vehicle Information Infrastructure Consortium, which works closely with the IEEE 802.11p Committee, to develop communications architecture to help drivers anticipate hazardous events or avoid bad traffic areas."

However, Gerla says the network is not without faults: "The two most critical aspects that could go wrong if the network is implemented are location privacy, because drivers do not want others to know where they are; and attacks where a driver could maliciously inject wrong traffic congestion information to persuade other drivers to get out of its way."

Defensive drivers

With costs currently estimated at around $500 (£255) per car for the implementation of the equipment required to connect to the network, drivers probably won't be clamouring to get the kit.

"Most likely, there will be at least initially two types of drivers," Gerla says. "The drivers enamoured with high-tech features will immediately embrace this technology. But it's true that less aggressive drivers, probably a sizeable fraction of the population, will be reluctant to embrace the technology at first."

That, of course, could present a problem for the growth of CarTorrent: for as anyone who has tried using BitTorrent will know, there's no point in being the only person on a peer-to-peer network. Being the first car to use CarTorrent will be an expensive and pointless exercise. But like a telephone - and the internet - it's the sort of technology whose benefits will multiply rapidly as long as more people use it.

Your Own Personal Paparazzi

2008-02-16T17:40:00.000-08:00

Your Own Personal Paparazzi
Time: LINK

What would I do with my own paparazzi? crotch shot. no. my own personal gerald ford assassination reenactment.

Struan Vaz and Paige Hill emerged from a performance of the Nutcracker by Ballet Austin last month and were assaulted by photographers and reporters who pursued them for several blocks, snapping shots and asking personal questions. Amid the blinding flashbulbs and rapid-fire interrogation, the pair held their composure, but the attention overwhelmed them a little. "A couple of times, Paige tried to run away," says Tania Cowher, one of the paparazzi on the scene that night in the Texas capital, "so we ran along with her." They chased the couple all the way to the nightclub Qua, where Vaz and Hill were met by a crowd of adoring fans.
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All the hoopla on the street and at the bar confused passersby, some of whom took pics of the action with their camera phones, while others asked the couple, both 30, who they were. "We were like, 'We're nobody,'" Vaz says. Actually, Vaz is a high-tech entrepreneur, and Hill works on a city councilwoman's re-election campaign, but in terms of celebrity status, even locally, they are indeed "nobody." Vaz, as a surprise for his fiancé, had hired Celeb 4 A Day, which provides personal paparazzi to private individuals who want to experience some of the trappings of fame. (Friends played the fans for free.)

Even as real celebrities battle those pesky cameramen on the streets and in courts for intruding on their lives and trading on their images, some regular folks, from parents hosting teen birthday parties to Gen Xers out on the town, have decided that the attention could be fun--and worth paying up to $1,500 for. Cowher launched Celeb 4 A Day in Austin in November and is expanding to Los Angeles this month and San Francisco in February. There are similar companies, like Private Paparazzi in San Diego and Personal Paparazzi in Britain, and wannabe big shots in other places have taken matters into their own hands, hiring freelance photographers to trail them.

The trend is driven by the twin obsessions with chronicling one's life and experiencing fame. "We live in a culture where if it's not documented, it doesn't exist," says Josh Gamson, a University of San Francisco professor of sociology who studies culture and mass media. "And if you don't have people asking who you are, you're nobody." University of Pennsylvania sociologist David Grazian, who wrote On the Make: The Hustle of Urban Nightlife, calls personal paparazzi reality marketers, who make the act of being photographed more meaningful than the actual photos. "The goal isn't to produce a product," he says. "It's to heighten the experience of the event. In that sense, there doesn't even need to be any film in the camera."

Phillip Barker agrees that a photographer is a powerful status symbol, even if it's also an indulgence in narcissism. Barker, 29, posted an ad on Craigslist for a paparazzo to accompany him and 14 male friends during a bar-hopping birthday party in Chicago last November. Many of the responses were hostile ("You vain vain [expletive]," one read), but a woman, Mandy Johnston, took the job--delivering to the guys afterward an elaborate package of digital photos and prints and, during the evening, unexpected VIP stature: the crew skipped to the front of the line at several clubs. "We got in faster because of Mandy. People thought, These guys are important people," Barker says. He's considering hiring her again, perhaps for his upcoming 30th-birthday weekend in Key West, Fla. "Celebrities are always whining about people following them around," he says. "We're like, Are you kidding? That's our dream!"

Prison Term for Removing Fingerprints

2008-02-16T17:18:00.000-08:00

US surgeon gets 18 months in prison for removing fingerprints

By MARC LEVY

HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania – A plastic surgeon who replaced the fingerprints of a drug ring member with skin from the bottom of his feet was sentenced Wednesday to 18 months in prison.

Judge Yvette Kane called Dr. Jose Covarrubias’ crime “horrific.”

Covarrubias, a U.S. citizen who lived in the border town of Nogales, Arizona, and practiced in Mexico, pleaded guilty Nov. 1 to a federal charge of harboring and concealing a fugitive.

The case was bizarre even to prosecutors, who did not believe the stories of drug ring operatives without fingerprints, until Marc George was arrested in September 2005 at the Nogales border crossing with Mexico, bandaged and limping badly from the painful procedure.

Covarrubias was indicted in May. Prosecutors say the drug ring moved cash and drugs from Tucson and elsewhere and distributed more than a ton of it in central Pennsylvania, Philadelphia and other areas.

Covarrubias, 50, apologized to Kane for his conduct, and said he had learned his lesson. He has been jailed for 10 months and can be released in eight months. He then faces three years of probation.

Valentines day fun!

2008-02-16T17:00:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day. Not!
LINK

NORTHGLENN, Colo. — Undercover police officers posing as flower deliverymen on Valentine' Day arrested 23 people with outstanding warrants.

The Northglenn officers used a van with a sign saying "Flower Delivery" and knocked on doors be long-stem rose box to net their quarry.

"Hello there. Happy Valentine's Day," Officer Matt Hindman told one man wanted in this northern Denver suburb for failing to appear in court on a marijuana possession charge.

The man asked for a pen to sign for delivery. Hindman announced: "Northglenn police undercover, OK? You've got a warrant for your arrest, OK?"

Handcuffed, the man, identified by police as Ronald Madden, chuckled as he told Channel 7 News he'd been fooled.

"Honestly it didn't click with me until I heard, 'Northglenn police' and then he pulled out the badge and I thought, 'Damn you guys are good,'" Madden said.

Taxi driver plays cupid for Valentine's Day
LINK
Kind-hearted cabbie plays matchmaker, brings romance to New Yorkers

NEW YORK — Finding your better half this Valentine's Day could be as easy as hailing a taxi — especially if Ahmed Ibrahim is in the driver's seat.

The 53-year-old cupid cab driver, as he refers to himself, has spent the past few years playing matchmaker to lonely New Yorkers, setting up more than 70 dates. Nineteen have led to relationships that lasted more than a year.

Ibrahim planned to decorate his yellow cab with red and white hearts and roses for Thursday.

"I've organized so many dates, and it really makes me feel good about it," Ibrahim said. "I've not had one complaint."

Ibrahim said he offers his matchmaking services to passengers he evaluates by listening to conversations and asking a few questions. He then exchanges phone numbers and e-mail addresses.

"I want to know if they're the real deal or just a player," he said. "If you're a player, then forget about it."

One of his clients, Martin Karamon, said he successfully found romance through the cupid cab's services. The relationship ended after about six months, though the two remain friends.

"I might have to get in his cab again because I just broke up with my girlfriend," said Karamon, 37.

I'm Huge

2008-02-16T16:56:00.000-08:00

LINK
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3. We will never sell your name or address to anyone else, because we hate it when that happens to us.

Vicious Killing

2008-02-16T16:35:00.001-08:00

Vicious Killing Where Troubled Seek a Listener
New York Times: LINK

It was just after 8 p.m. in a suite of mental health offices at East 79th Street and York Avenue. One doctor was seeing patients; another was working in her study.

The suspect was described as in his 40s and about 5-feet-9.

It is a common scene in the offices of countless Manhattan therapists after dark: The lights stay on as paperwork is done and patients are treated into the evening.

Then a middle-aged man in a black cap and sneakers came in from the freezing rain, toting two pieces of black luggage. He said he was there to see a psychiatrist named Kent D. Shinbach. But Dr. Shinbach had another patient, a woman, waiting for him, so the man sat on a couch and made small talk. Then he disappeared into the office of the other doctor, Kathryn Faughey, the police said.

And there — in what investigators described as a furious swirl of violence on Tuesday night — the man stabbed Dr. Faughey in the head, face and chest. Hearing her screams, Dr. Shinbach rushed in and saw her lying still and bleeding on the tan carpet by the foot of her desk.

The attacker turned on him, stabbing him in the face, head and hands, the police said. Dr. Faughey, 56, was declared dead at the scene; Dr. Shinbach, who is in his 70s, survived, but was left in critical condition.

A day later, the police said they did not know the motive for the frenzied attack nor the identity of the killer, though investigators are pursuing the possibility that he was a patient at the offices, where five health care professionals work, or that he was a relative of a patient there or was somehow involved with one...

Eff You, Giants

2008-02-16T16:31:00.000-08:00

Murphy won't cheer Giants
Bucks County Courier Times: LINK

He was the sole U.S. representative not to OK a congratulatory resolution
Bucks County Congressman Patrick Murphy, D-8, has taken the rivalry between the Philadelphia Eagles and the New York Giants to Capitol Hill.

On Wednesday, the House passed a resolution congratulating the New York Giants on winning this year’s Super Bowl “and completing one of the most remarkable postseason runs in professional sports history.”

The resolution passed by a vote of 412 to 1.

Murphy, a diehard Eagles fan who worked at Veterans Stadium as a security guard when he was 16, was the only House member to vote against it.

“As a former 700-level security guard and lifelong Eagles fan, I couldn’t, in good conscience, vote for the New York Giants,” Murphy said Thursday. “The only thing worse would have been a resolution honoring the Dallas Cowboys.”
Click here!

The Giants shocked the sports world when they defeated the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII on Feb. 3. The upset spoiled the Patriots’ quest to become the NFL’s first undefeated Super Bowl winner since the Miami Dolphins won the Super Bowl in 1972.

The Onion on Obama

2008-02-15T15:27:00.000-08:00

Do We Really Want Another Black President After The Events Of Deep Impact?
The Onion:
LINK

Sponsored by I am not prejudiced. Far from it. What I am—or, I should say, who I am—is a man who loves his country so deeply that he is unwilling to stand idly by while our nation allows itself to be completely annihilated by another incoming comet.

Have we learned nothing from the tragic events of 1998, when, under the watch of President Morgan Freeman, this nation was plunged into chaos, and hundreds of millions of people died at the hands of the deadly Wolf-Beiderman space rock? The mere fact that this country is even considering putting another black man, Barack Obama, in the Oval Office proves that we have not.

We can't deny the facts, people. All we will get by electing an African-American is Texas-size space particles crashing into the Earth's surface, mega-tsunamis that barrel into the Appalachian Mountains, and 6.6 billion dead people.

I'm not suggesting that President Freeman was directly responsible for the creation of the Wolf-Beiderman comet or its Earth-bound path. That would be ridiculous. What I am saying is that under the watch of a black man that comet destroyed the entire Eastern seaboard. So, if history is any indicator, a vote for Barack Obama in 2008 is essentially a vote for the complete and total obliteration of the human race.

Don't we owe it to our children, and our children's children, to use this upcoming election to guarantee the Earth's existence rather than dooming it for eternity?

To even risk putting Mr. Obama in a position where he would insist, as past black presidents have, that our nuclear arsenal is powerful enough to divert the incoming comet would be foolish, to say the least. Any decision like that would only break the fast-approaching space rock into two very powerful asteroids, both of which would end up heading straight for Earth, leaving all of us who aren't on the small list of people picked to live in the government-sponsored protective caves to burn, drown, or die while in the arms of our estranged fathers. The only difference is, this time around, the late astronaut Robert Duvall will not be alive to save millions of lives by conducting a suicide space mission to destroy the larger of the two asteroids before it enters the Earth's atmosphere.

In my book, any possible repeat of this extinction-level event is reason enough not to elect another African-American president. Consider that later that same summer, just two months after the first deep impact, this very country once again faced Armageddon in the form of another comet hurtling toward Earth. In this instance, under the watch of a white president who sort of looked like an older Dennis Quaid, that catastrophe was avoided entirely.

As if that is not enough, history shows us that, besides carrying the baggage of a guaranteed asteroid strike, black heads of state also give terrorists extra motivation to destroy the United States. During the presidency of 24's David Palmer, there were no fewer than four nuclear bombs smuggled into this country. That's four more than under any white president. Though we should have known better than to elect President Palmer in the first place (he was elected three years after President Freeman left office), the U.S. populace made him the commander in chief because it was swayed by then-Senator Palmer's commitment to change, his no-nonsense approach, and his ability to inspire. Sound familiar?†

Asteroids and nuclear bombs—that's what this nation can expect from an Obama White House.

Need I even mention that former President Chris Rock and his administration's slogan was "The only thing white is the house"? Though this attitude broke down the stuffiness typically associated with proper White House decorum, President Rock's laissez-faire approach not only made a mockery of the office at home, but made the United States look like a joke abroad.

I concede that the United States has had a competent African-American president in the huge black guy from the The Fifth Element, who did great things for this country by keeping the evil Mr. Zorg at bay. But that is years from now. There is no denying that by 2236, when we have flying taxicabs, this country will be ready for a black president. But until then, if we want life in this great land to continue as we know it, we owe it to ourselves to make the right choice and reelect Kevin Kline.

ODB imposter

2008-02-15T15:10:00.000-08:00

Hummer discovered stolen when driver applies for welfare in Lee County
Times news:LINK

JONESVILLE — “It doesn’t pay to apply for welfare while driving a Hummer,” declared Lee County Sheriff Gary Parsons after his officers charged a Tennessee man with possession of stolen property after he drove the expensive vehicle to the local department of social services.

Parsons said William K. Anderson, 51, 501 Forrestal Drive, Knoxville, is being held without bond at the Southwest Virginia Regional Jail and may be charged with other crimes in another jurisdiction in relation to the stolen vehicle.

According to the sheriff, an observant person noticed the man arrive at the Lee County Department of Social Services on Friday in the 2004 H2 Hummer, bearing Michigan license plates, and attempt to obtain welfare benefits. Thinking something just wasn’t quite right, the person took down the license number of the vehicle and reported the information to the sheriff’s office.

“We thought it was unusual that a high-dollar vehicle with out-of-state tags would be at the department of social services too, so we ran the tag and found out that it was stolen,” said Parsons.

The sheriff said his officers were notified to be on the lookout for the vehicle, and it was soon located in the parking lot of Wal-Mart in Ben Hur. Officers set up a surveillance on the vehicle and waited until someone came out of the store, entered the vehicle and drove away. Officers then initiated a stop and charged the driver, Anderson, with possession of stolen property.

Parsons said the owners had recently moved to the Nashville area and had taken a trip to Knoxville for a Hannah Montana concert. While in Knoxville, the owners were visiting friends when the Hummer was stolen on Feb. 2 from the driveway of the friends’ home.

3 to replace Ledger

2008-02-15T14:58:00.000-08:00

The late Heath Ledger passed while filming Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus. Production halted a respectable amount of time, as per Hollywood standards, but of course…the show must go on. Check out the prospective replacements, after the jump!

Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell to all play Heath Ledger’s last character.

When I first read this story I thought it must have been something cooked up by a journalist with an overactive imagination, and it very well might be, but movie site Ain’t It Cool News is reporting that the director of the film Heath Ledger left unfinished when he died, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, has three big names in mind to take over for his character. Since the film is a fantasy in which Ledger’s character could easily change into someone else, all three replacement actors may pay tribute to Heath with performances:

Have I mentioned how much I love this idea? Because I do. I think it’s beautiful that the script loaned itself to this sort of idea, that we’re going to see Heath Ledger’s work in Terry Gilliam’s new film, and that we’re also going to see three very interesting actors step up to offer interpretations of him as a way of paying one final tribute to this actor whose career was cut so sadly short.

We’ve heard rumors about who might be stepping in, but now we’ve got the names verified. Count on it.

JOHNNY DEPP.

JUDE LAW.

COLIN FARRELL.

Nice choices, Gilliam. Can’t wait to see what happens inside the IMAGINARIUM OF DR. PARNASSUS, and I’d love to get a look at the script they’re going to use as they start this next stretch of shooting on the film.

[From Ain’t It Cool News]

Ain’t It Cool News has a good reputation for getting insider information on films and this could be true. About three weeks ago unreliable British source The Sun wrote that Imaginarium director Terry Gilliam wanted Johnny Depp to take over Heath’s part. There’s a scene in which Heath’s character falls through a magic mirror, and Cinematical quotes a studio source as saying “He could change into another character after that and that is where Johnny would come in.”

Back when that story came out, the movie was in shutdown mode following the death of Ledger, and workers on the film thought it wouldn’t come back. The star of the film, Christopher Plummer, has said that Heath’s final scenes would be created using CGI imagery, and he did suggest that other actors would be used. He is quoted as saying that “Because the film deals with magic, there is a way of turning Heath into other people, and then use stills and computer generated imagery.”

Maybe Heath’s character will get turned into three other top actors. It’s exciting to think that Depp, Law and Farrell might play in this film. I bet Daniel Day Lewis would be happy to be involved too, as he dedicated his SAG Award to Heath and seemed to be very affected by his death.
The evocative header image was created by /film.

Alex is Sick.

2008-02-13T13:10:00.001-08:00

Sorry for the inconvenience.

The Naked Gun Video Game

2008-02-12T19:39:00.000-08:00

In Another Dimension, The Naked Gun Video Game Would Have Been The Best Game Of All Time
Bestweekever.tv: LINK

Naked Gun“The Naked Gun” is, depending on my mood, probably my favorite movie of all time. I’ve been able to quote every line since I was about ten, long before I understood the “pap smear” or “nice beaver!” jokes (I just thought it was funny she had a huge stuffed beaver). Imagine my surprise, then, when I learned that the most epic trilogy in cinematic history almost spawned its own slapstick-filled video game, featuring the unmistakable deadpan of Leslie Neilsen:

“We signed up Leslie Nielsen and even paid him. We managed to get the license for the game which was not an easy thing for a developer but the deal had a time limit: we had to sign up a Publisher to put the game out by a certain date or we had to hand back the license,..”

Leslie Nielsen, then, would do the voice-over of the main character, and, from what we’ve been told, it was to be filled with those slapstick and visual gags that made David Zucker’s films so unique.

Meanwhile, in a better dimension, drunk Dan is yelling at his friends for not realizing how brilliant the Naked Gun video game is:

All I’m saying is, it’sss just a really underappreciated video game. I juss feel like these games nowadaysre too afraid to just write actual enemies… what happened to that? It’s a losst art. And don’t get me wrong, I love theseee Adult Swim games, but sometimes you just want to play a game that’s got a buncha wacky, straightforward enemies and bosses n stuff, not a bunch a puzzles n save statez nnn…whasss so hard aboutt thatd??

A Day in the Life of Britney Spears

2008-02-12T19:36:00.000-08:00

Please, I can't even caption this. help me out.

Jacki, I'm cutting my hair.

2008-02-12T19:25:00.000-08:00

Help Vulture Save ‘Cavemen’: Send Your Hair to ABC!
Vulture: LINK

I effin miss this show so much. it was so witty and wrong. and stoopid. love that shit

Vulture readers, please forgive us for bearing bad news; it is truly with a heavy heart that we type this post. Last night, ABC announced the renewals of nine shows for the 2008–09 TV season, and guess what? Cavemen wasn't one of them. If you're a regular reader of this blog, you'll probably understand just how much this pains us — for those two glorious months last year, when ABC was still airing it, Cavemen was the only TV series we could count on to fill our weekly quota of incisive Cro-Magnon humor, and, by the end of its short six-episode run, it had become, unequivocally, our favorite new show of the fall season. Sure, it had its critics and, yes, it may have stumbled in the ratings, but its potential cancellation is not something we're equipped to deal with today. In fact, one of the primary reasons we were excited for the resolution of the writers' strike was ABC's inevitable promise of a completed first season, along with an order for at least another 50 episodes. Tragically, this has not yet materialized. Fortunately, however, we have a plan.

Inspired by our friends at Best Week Ever, who are mailing lightbulbs to Ben Silverman to save Friday Night Lights, and the fans who won Jericho a stay of execution by shipping peanuts to CBS, Vulture is hereby encouraging our loyal readers to send your hair to ABC Entertainment president Stephen McPherson, along with a note reading, "Cavemen: Hair Today, Hair Tomorrow!," in the hopes that we, too, might rescue our favorite show.

What better way to pledge your support for TV's finest sitcom about furry Neanderthals than to completely shave your head (or just get a trim — it doesn't matter, just so long as you fill the box or envelope to the top) and mail the sweepings directly to the man in charge of ABC's prime-time lineup? Just imagine the delighted look on his face as he tears opens his mail — with bits of hair probably flying up directly into his smiling mouth — and sees your unmitigated love for Cavemen, unquestionably one of the Greatest Television Shows of Our Time. He will have no choice but to DEMAND another season!

Here's his address:

Stephen McPherson
ABC Studios
4151 Prospect Ave.
Hollywood, CA 90027

Come on, everybody — it'll grow back! Save Cavemen!

Hello (Crazy) Kitty!

2008-02-12T17:12:00.000-08:00

As promised, Hello Kitty Products. Contact Lenses, AK-47's, AR-15's and more!
Contact Lenses from Hello Kitty Hell: LINK

Hello Kitty Tattoos: LINK, LINK

Hello Kitty Condoms: LINK

Hello Kitty Vibrator: LINK

Hello Kitty Bong: LINK

Hello Kitty Guns: LINK, LINK, LINK

What would Jesus do (with £15,000)?

2008-02-12T13:56:00.000-08:00

Obsessive compulsive sufferer stole £15,000 from partner and spent the lot on radios
Evening Courier: LINK

Better question is "What Would I do with £15,000"? Jello Pool. No wait, buy a monkey. they're so cute. and c'mon now, who doesn't like having feces thrown at them? Answer: Me.

A FANATIC stole nearly £15,000 from his partner – and spent it all on radios.
Stephen Hudson, 56, of Rishworthian Court, Copley, Halifax, surrounded himself with the radios – putting his favourite one in the middle – and often had them all on at the same time, a court heard.

Hudson forged his 71-year-old partner Elizabeth Whitehead's signature on cheques made out to himself. A total of £14,916 was taken from her account between 2004 and 2007, while she was a resident in Woodfield Grange Nursing Home, Woodfield Drive, Greet-land.

John Bull, prosecuting, said Hudson had admitted to Mrs Whitehead's son he had taken the money and spent it all on radios.

Police found about 50 wireless sets in his home.

Mr Bull said: "He used the money to buy radios – two black bin liners with radios in them were produced." Hudson admitted three offences of forgery, three of using a false instrument and asked for a further 93 similar offences to be taken into consideration. Bradford Crown Court heard Hudson had suffered from an obsessive compulsive disorder for 30 years. It manifested itself in him buying radios.

Mr Bull said the couple met nine years ago when Hudson worked for a taxi company and she was a customer.

Mr Bull said Mrs Whitehead would initially sign the cheques but Hudson began to fill in greater amounts and started forging her signature.

Jonathan Gibson, for Hudson, said it was an "unusual and exceptional" case.

He said Hudson had suffered from an obsessive compulsive disorder for many years and often surrounded himself with radios, putting them all on at the same time.

"There is a history of hiding radios and disposing of them," said Mr Gibson.

Recorder Peter Babb said: "In the ordinary course of events that sort of breach of trust would result in a prison sentence for obvious reasons."

He said Hudson had taken advantage of the situation but said he could draw back from custody in his case.

"It was not frittered away – it was spent on radios which you had a compulsion to purchase," Recorder Babb said. Hudson was given an 18-month community order with supervision.

Curling finally getting some Cred.

2008-02-12T13:51:00.000-08:00

Rock stars courted for curling reality show
The Star: LINK

Curling is so Boss. That's my tagline. it's copyrighted, actually, NBC so don't steal it. or else!

Bon Jovi, Springsteen, said to be closet curlers, courted for NBC series that could lead to Olympics. Move over American Idol and make room for Rockstar Curling, a reality television show that may indeed have a rock-star connection.
NBC confirmed yesterday it has an exclusive option to air a 10-episode sports reality show that will give the winners a shot at competing in the U.S. championships and even going to the 2010 Olympics.
And one aspect that would make this a draw to the button for NBC is a plan to land closet curlers Bruce Springsteen or Jon Bon Jovi as part of the show, assuming the rockers aren't worried what being connected to a sport with brooms might do to their images.
According to sources, the two rock stars are among a group of entertainment types who rent arena time on occasion to pick up brooms instead of guitars.
Organizers are trying to negotiate a deal to get one of them involved, possibly as a host.
The series is the brainchild of New York-based sports marketing agency mktpartners and Carr-Hughes Productions of Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Mktgpartners has an office in Toronto and has an advertising commitment from the likes of Tourism Canada, sources say.
"This show is all about the opportunity to expose American viewers to curling," said Colin Campbell, Canadian president of mktgpartners and one of the creators of the show. "We feel there might be some great athletes out there who might develop into good curlers given the chance."
While a curling reality show wouldn't be considered that unusual in Canada, where top events draw more than 1 million viewers, it's hardly a mainstream sport south of the border.
Generally, the only time it gets mentioned on U.S. television is when comedians make fun of the sport.
The jokes usually revolve around the use of brooms and the belief curlers are the least athletic of all Olympians.
But curling was one of the surprise hits of the last two Olympics for NBC, enough so that NBC aired 24 matches live from Turin on one of its cable channels.
Although curling seldom gets more than 800,000 viewers on NBC, it once drew higher ratings than an NHL playoff game that aired at the same time the next day.
Needless to say, the U.S. Curling Association is thrilled with the prospect of 10 weeks of exposure on a national network.
"We feel that the Rockstar concept is innovative, creative and will help U.S. Curling develop new awareness, interest and participation in our sport across America," said association chief operating office Rick Patzke.
The show would work a lot like the Idol series, though it would most likely air on weekend afternoons.
The show would involve U.S.-wide tryouts starting this year, open to anyone 18 or older. A panel of coaches will select two teams – five men and five women – to train for six months, all expenses paid, at Lake Placid, N.Y.
They would train eight hours a day under professional coaches before going to regional playdowns for the 2010 U.S. Olympic trials in February 2009.
If they win, they're off to the Vancouver Olympics, unlikely as that may seem.
The tryouts, training and national competition will all be part of the series.
"If the winners get anywhere, it will be because they've earned it," said Campbell.
Patzke said the television teams would be given no advantage.
"They would have to enter the U.S. Olympic team trials playdowns like any other U.S. Olympic-eligible team," he said.
"There are no special concessions."
Mktgpartners Canadian president Colin Campbell said in a statement that curling has a unique appeal to advertisers.
"The sport of curling is clutter-free compared to mainstream American sports sponsorship," he said, "and Rockstar Curling is an excellent opportunity for brands to capture the attention of consumers, leading up to the Olympics."

Virtual Partying! finally

2008-02-12T13:25:00.000-08:00

It's like a virtual Facebook for people who love to rock! yeah...sarcasm, get some.

The Medicated Child

2008-02-12T13:17:00.000-08:00

PBS Frontline: LINK

There is this one clip that I wish I could isolate. It's titled "Jessica's Story." The clip is an actually child who seems to have bipolar disorder - being aggressive, cheerfully saying that she wants to smash her parents brains' in, and periods up to 2 weeks of depression.

here's the whole documentary: LINK

the Real Breakfast Club

2008-02-12T13:10:00.000-08:00

A teen film about the real thing
CNN: LINK

I think Bender Said it best: "You mean the Breakfast Club Sandwich?"

(AP) -- If John Hughes ever got into nonfiction, he'd find a kindred spirit in filmmaker Nanette Burstein.
American Teen

Director Nanette Burstein (center) stands with the cast of "American Teen" at the Sundance Film Festival.

Burstein's documentary "American Teen" eagerly places its four main subjects -- students at the only high school in Warsaw, Indiana -- into the archetypes Hughes helped cement in '80s movies like "The Breakfast Club." There's the homecoming queen, the artsy girl, the jock, the loner.

Thing is, this is real life. And as their senior years unfold on camera, viewers see layers of each person peeled away. The homecoming queen fires guns for fun and vandalizes a rival's home. The jock faces pressure from his Elvis impersonator father to join the military.

Their stories are told in cinema verite fashion, spiced up by zippy fiction-style editing and a series of cartoon sequences representing the dreams and nightmares of these 17-year-olds (Playing in the NBA! Finding nirvana at Notre Dame!).

After premiering last month at the Sundance Film Festival, the movie will be released theatrically by Paramount Vantage. It looks set to make unlikely stars of the young people, now 20, who shared 10 months with Burstein's cameras in the 2005-06 school year.

Already, well-received screenings meant Jake Tusing, the socially awkward marching band and video game geek, is marveling at how others root him on. He even started getting approached by women offering dates.

"I learned that people liked me. I never pictured myself as a likable person, but seeing people cheering for me in the theater, that really lifted my spirits," he said in an interview following the Sundance premiere in Park City, Utah.

"Even I liked me more," said Tusing, who spoke softly and wore a "Legend of Zelda" T-shirt. "I never liked myself in high school. That always wore on me a lot."

The charm of "American Teen" comes from its intimacy and its subjects' small town lack of guile. This is not the rehearsed, surface vapidity of "The Hills" or any of the quick-hit network TV reality shows.

Burstein, whose previous films include "The Kid Stays in the Picture" and "On the Ropes," was careful with her casting. She spoke with hundreds of teens at 10 Midwestern high schools, and struck upon Tusing, Hannah Bailey, Colin Clemens and Megan Krizmanich after a round of videotaped interviews.

"They're really funny, really articulate and self-aware in a good way," she said. "And they had drama going on."

Bailey is a media-savvy queen bee type -- familiar if you've seen "Mean Girls" -- who plots jealously, spreading topless pictures of an enemy through e-mail. Krizmanich, the aspiring filmmaker, falls into a doomed relationship that's ended via text message.

Clemens, pressured to produce on the basketball court to land a college scholarship, becomes a ball hog. His father tells him repeatedly that if sports don't work out, he should go into the military.

"I always thought of myself as a team player, but when it got serious in terms of scholarship or Iraq, I could tell I took it too much onto myself," Clemens said in an interview.

There's a happy ending; Clemens got his scholarship and is now a sophomore playing guard at Indiana Tech. But there are no "where are they now" type wrap-ups at the end of the movie. Burstein keeps it focused on her subject: the specific worries and stories of the modern high school senior.

"It's about being 17," she said. "I thought going into it that it was all going to be about the pressure of your peers. I realized that was an element of that, but you also had this identity crisis because of the pressure of your parents, and the future decisions you had to make, that you know nothing about."

Speaking of Mummys...

2008-02-12T13:07:00.000-08:00

Controversial sculptor's latest: 'The Oprah Sarcophagus'

FROM SUN-TIMES WIRES: LINK

Some of you out there really worship Oprah. Well, now you finally have a golden idol.

Controversial sculptor Daniel Edwards’ latest creation is “The Oprah Sarcophagus,” a gold-colored bronze and a very full-figured likeness of Chicago talk-show queen Oprah Winfrey.
» Click to enlarge image
"The Oprah Sarcophagus" is the latest celebrity-centric sculpture from artist Daniel Edwards.

The sculpture features Oprah — famous for battling her weight — with, as one report describes it, “a full-breasted woman with generous child-bearing hips.”

The image is attached to a block in the shape of a burial chamber, much like an ancient Egyptian sarcophagus.

Why Oprah? Edwards has caused stirs before with his sculptures of celebrities — “The Birth of Sean Preston” (Britney Spears giving birth), “Paris Hilton Autopsy,” “Suri Cruise’s First Poop” — and has said this piece “pays homage to the closest thing America has to a living deity.”

A Rose for Mummily

2008-02-12T13:02:00.000-08:00

Mummy Found In Renter's Bathtub
News 5 Phoenix: LINK

I choose this picture because the caption was "the mummy is the one on the right."

PHOENIX -- A years-old mummified body has been found in a cottage bathtub beneath layers of wood, plastic, dirt and sand, Phoenix police said.

The owners of several cottages said they grew suspicious after the renter stopped sending monthly checks, officers said.

The landlords entered the property on Friday and found trash stacked from floor to ceiling, said Sgt. Joel Tranter of the Phoenix Police Department.

Once they reached the bathroom, they discovered the bathtub was covered with plywood and plastic, Tranter said. Underneath the material, they found layers of dirt and sand, Tranter said.

As the owners began removing the dirt, they saw a human leg and ran to call police, according to Tranter.

Homicide investigators said they are labeling the incident as a "death unknown."

The entire bathtub was extracted with the mummified body and dirt in tact and transported to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office for examination, Tranter said.

Tranter said preliminary information indicated that the person buried in the tub had been dead for a number of years.

Investigators said they have identified the most recent resident on the cottage and are currently following-up on leads, Tranter said. The person's identity is currently being withheld.

The property owners said they rented the cottage to a man in 1995. They said they had received regular rent payments from 1995 through the summer of 2007 when the rent payments stopped.

The landlords said they briefly visited the property last summer and believed that the unit was abandoned.

"This can't work, She's Christian, and I'm a Jew."

2008-02-11T17:38:00.000-08:00

UPDATE: Mistrial in Microwave Death

2008-02-11T17:27:00.000-08:00

READ THIS FIRST
daily tar gum: LINK

Only one month old, Paris Talley died of "high-heat internal injuries," seemingly due to being microwaved, according to CNN. Her mother, China Arnold is about to begin trial in Ohio for the baby's death and faces the death penalty. Arriving home after a heavy night of drinking in 2005, Arnold claims to have given the baby a bottle and then fallen asleep. When waking the next morning, she found the baby unconscious. Arnold argues knowing nothing about the circumstances surrounding her daughter's death, including the burns.

Police Detective Michael Galbraith recalls her saying, "If I hadn't gotten so drunk, I guess my baby wouldn't have died." While that is probably a fair assessment on her part, does her intoxication therefore provide a platform for her to escape legal punishment? With "40 percent of a pint of high-proof rum" in her system, can Arnold be in charge of being fully cognizant of her actions? Maybe not, but is it equally unfair for her to be let off the hook for her irresponsibility?

If she had double-parked or committed any similarly small offense as a result of her skewed judgment, she would have been held accountable. It was a personal choice for this woman - as it is for most people who do so - to abuse alcohol. Unlike unmanageable mental disorders, which allow accused criminals to plead insanity, consuming alcohol - except in distinct case of the disease alcoholism - is self-inflicted and completely controllable.

But if the woman was to ever plead guilty to putting her child into the microwave, an insanity plea may not be far off. In actuality, there is no difference between the sadism required to put an infant into the dumpster or the microwave. But because one of those things is so unheard of, we are quick to typify it as being a concern of insanity as opposed to sheer neglect or irresponsibility.

To do something so vile to a helpless child shows no value for human life. There is no justification for it. Certainly, being drunk causes rationalization to float out the window. But in such circumstances, it is hard to see that as an explanation. Extreme cases like Arnold's may make some New Jersey citizens regret having given up the option to invoke capital punishment.

Judge Rules Mistrial In China Arnold Case
whiotv: LINK

DAYTON, Ohio -- A judge declared a mistrial Monday in the case of a woman accused of killing her month-old baby by burning her in a microwave, finding that new defense witnesses bolster her innocence claim.

Judge John Kessler made the decision after hearing testimony privately from a juvenile who said he was at the apartment complex of defendant China Arnold on the August 2005 night that her infant died.

The judge did not give details about juvenile's testimony.

The ruling comes after hours of closed door discussions between prosecutors, China Arnold's attorney and the judge.

Closing arguments were supposed to begin Monday morning but were delayed for undisclosed reasons. The jury was asked not to report for duty.

China Arnold is the Dayton woman accused of burning her month-old baby to death in a microwave oven.

A 12-member jury has heard six days of testimony and a parade of witnesses in China Arnold's trial. Arnold herself did not testify.

The 27-year-old was charged with aggravated murder in the August 2005 death of Paris Talley. Arnold has pleaded not guilty and could face the death penalty if convicted.

Severe Weather Alert: Winter Storm Approaching

Testimony Ends In China Arnold Murder Trial

After a long day of hearing testimony Friday, the defense has rested its case in the China Arnold muder trial in Dayton.

Earlier in the day the trial was put on hold Thursday morning after the judge asked the jury to take a break after only hearing from a few witnesses.

The judge said transportation issues stopped the next witnesses from getting to the courthouse.

The witnesses later arrived late Thursday afternoon from the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville. The inmates testified they had once been incarcerated in the Montgomery County Jail with Arnold.

Both women contradicted earlier statements from another inmate witness for the prosecution who said Arnold had told her, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do it," when talking about the microwave death of her daughter, Paris Talley.

The defense witnesses said Arnold never talked to anyone about her pending murder case.

After the defense rested, the prosecution had a chance to call several rebuttal witnesses. The prosecution rested their case at approximately 5pm Thursday.

Case of the Frozen Addicts

2008-02-11T17:00:00.000-08:00

Surprising Clue to Parkinson's
Time Magazine: LINK
We watched a PBS video of this condition in PSYCH 100 last week. This is TIME magazine's article about a Heroin-copy drug that was made incorrectly and caused severe Parkinson's instantly.

When George Carillo arrived at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose one steamy July day in 1982, he seemed more a mannequin than a man. The 42-year-old heroin addict was bent over and twisted, drooling and unable to speak; almost every muscle was immobilized. No one knew what to make of his condition, so a call went out for Dr. J. William Langston, the hospital's chief neurologist. Langston took one look and was amazed. Carillo's symptoms suggested that he had been suffering for at least a decade from Parkinson's disease, a nervous system disorder that causes tremors and a gradual loss of mobility. But that hardly seemed plausible: Parkinson's rarely strikes anyone under the age of 50.

Using stiffened fingers to scrawl answers to doctors' questions, Carillo managed to provide a few clues. The symptoms had come on suddenly after he and his girlfriend, Juanita Lopez, 3l, had tried a new synthetic heroin. Though the drug had caused an odd burning sensation when injected and hallucinations, they continued to use it for three days; two days later both had frozen into living statues.

With help from colleagues at Stanford University, where he teaches, Langston located Lopez and had her hospitalized. A tip from a neurologist in Watsonville, 30 miles away, led him to two more cases: a pair of brothers, both addicts in their 20s, with advanced Parkinson's symptoms. By now Langston was alarmed. He called a press conference to announce that bad heroin was on the streets; he urged that anyone suffering from stiffness and tremors come forward. The appeal uncovered three more cases.

The seven cases in Santa Clara County attracted the attention of local drugenforcement officials and Parkinson's researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), who joined the hunt to identify the deadly ingredient in samples of the drug obtained by police. Their task was made easier by an alert toxicologist at the county crime laboratory, who recalled the 1977 case of a Maryland graduate student who had developed Parkinson's symptoms after injecting himself with a home-brewed opiate. The student had been trying to produce MPPP, a substance similar to the pain-killer Demerol, but had accidentally created a related chemical called MPTP. Langston asked Stanford University Chemist Ian Irwin to test the samples for the drug. Sure enough, MPTP was there.

While public health authorities worried about additional cases of drug- induced Parkinson's and police pondered how to stop the sale of a drug that was not illegal (see box), medical researchers could hardly contain their excitement. The tragic outbreak in California could hold the key to understanding and treating Parkinson's disease, which afflicts some 350,000 Americans.

The scientists quickly turned to the task. For years research on Parkinson's disease has been limited by the lack of an animal model on which to test new drugs and treatments. Would MPTP induce Parkinson's in animals? The answer, NIMH Researchers Sanford Markey and R. Stanley Burns soon discovered, was no in rats but yes in monkeys. Says Markey: "That was probably the biggest breakthrough in this story."

The next step was to find out how MPTP did its damage. Doctors have known since the 1930s that Parkinson's occurs as a result of the deterioration of a small, darkly pigmented region of the brain called the substantia nigra. This region produces most of the brain's supply of dopamine, a vital chemical in the transmission of nerve signals. Normally, people lose 5% to 8% of the cells in this region each decade of their lives and suffer no serious consequences. But for reasons that are unclear, the loss is more rapid in the case of Parkinson's victims; once approximately 80% of these cells are gone, the symptoms appear. The usual treatment is a drug called L-dopa, which is converted into dopamine in the brain, but the efficacy of the drug may decline after years of use.

MPTP's role soon became clear. Researchers learned that once the chemical enters the bloodstream, it is converted into another molecule (called MPP+) that appears to attack the substantia nigra like a guided missile, causing the kind of damage found in all Parkinson's victims. Later experiments showed that if the conversion of MPTP to MPP+ was blocked with chemical inhibitors, a laboratory animal would not develop Parkinsonian symptoms even if given large doses of MPTP. Would human victims also respond to such treatment? At least one drug that blocks MPTP metabolism, Deprenyl, is already used in Europe to treat Parkinson's disease in its final stages. Langston suspects that if used much earlier, "Deprenyl might actually retard the progress of the disease." He has applied for FDA permission to test his theory on Parkinson's victims.

The MPTP cases have led some scientists to suspect that most Parkinson's disease is caused by exposure to toxic substances similar to MPTP. Researchers are looking for culprit chemicals in one rural area of Canada, where the incidence of Parkinson's runs five times higher than in other areas, and on the island of Guam, where, until 1965, one out of five deaths was due to a form of Parkinson's. The United Parkinson Foundation in Chicago meanwhile has mailed questionnaires to 36,000 Parkinson's sufferers around the country, asking them to name every town in which they have ever lived, their drinking- water sources and industries located within a 25-sq.-mi. radius of their homes. Explains Executive Director Judy Rosner: "We want to get a handle on environmental influences."

California public health officials are facing the more immediate problem of what to do about MPTP exposure among addicts. Langston and a team of investigators from the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta have determined that more than 300 people in the state have used the drug and that it is still being sold on the street. The CDC is now working with state authorities to stem the tide of MPTP and stop it from spreading beyond California.

But no one knows what will become of those already exposed. Of 150 MPTP users examined by CDC researchers, as many as half had subtle signs of Parkinson's. Says Langston: "There may be a large number of people out there with half the nerve cells they're supposed to have." In ten or 15 years, he predicts, as these addicts continue to lose substantia nigra cells as part of the normal aging process, California may become the scene of a Parkinson's epidemic.

STAY TUNED FOR: GLOWING THINGS, HELLO KITTY, AND MORE

2008-02-11T15:35:00.000-08:00

Comment on what you like, don't like, want to see. etc. and If anyone knows any cool blogger layouts, please, do tell. don't be shy.

ok, comment please!

Phew! I Was Afraid Tasers Would Go Outta Style.

2008-02-11T13:46:00.000-08:00

A Taser shotgun for long-range electrifying
CNET News.com: LINK
BUY ME THIS. I have crowds to subdue in my room.

Taser International will move into production on a projectile that can disable someone up to 98 feet away with a quick blast of electricity.

The company has successfully completed tests with the Office of Naval Research on the Extended Range Electro-Muscular Projectile (XREP). Unlike current Taser guns, this projectile is fired out of a shotgun. When it strikes a target, the projectile transmits a jolt of electricity, and a second round can then be fired.

In current Taser guns, the projectile has the same function, but it is connected to the gun and a power pack with a wire, limiting the range to 25 feet. XREPs are wireless.

The electrical jolt in wired Taser weapons is generally powerful enough to knock a person over and make him or her writhe in pain. Although the company did not state the size of the charge that XREPs release, testers said it was powerful enough for crowd control.

"The effect locked up muscles and totally overwhelmed the senses," said Stephen Kunich, with Air Force Air Combat Command Security Forces and one of 35 volunteers who lined up for a five-second test. "I was completely incapacitated. Additionally, I was amazed at the instantaneous physical recovery," he said.

Taser has been embroiled in controversy for the past few years. Many civil liberties organizations believe that the weapons have led to several deaths, despite being billed as nonlethal. The company denies these claims and asserts that the weapons lead to fewer fatalities, because they give police an alternative to using a gun in many circumstances.

A formal product launch of the XREPs will occur next year.

Speaking of Style, Check these out:

awesome.

‘You try wagging these puppies around’

2008-02-11T13:36:00.000-08:00

Dolly Parton postpones tour, blames breasts
Reuters: LINK

Dolly: You try wagging these puppies around
Alex: Ok. Fine. Someone's gotta do it.

LOS ANGELES - Dolly Parton’s breasts may be two of the wonders of the entertainment world, but the country music icon says they are a pain in her back.

Parton, 62, said on Monday she would postpone her upcoming North American tour after doctors told her to take it easy for six to eight weeks to rest her sore back.

“Hey, you try wagging these puppies around a while and see if you don’t have back problems,” the folksy singer-songwriter said in a statement.
Story continues below ↓advertisement

The tour was due to begin on Feb. 28 in Minneapolis, two days after the release of “Backwoods Barbie,” her first album of mainstream country music in 17 years. She hopes to hit the road in late April.

Parton, also famous for her big voice, big wigs and big smile, has long joked about her famous bust. When she received a songwriters award in New York last year, she noted that she’s been known for two things throughout her career.

“I’m talking about my music and my lyrics,” she said.

Parton, a member of both the country music and songwriters halls of fame, has been enjoying a renaissance since she released the first of a trio of bluegrass-tinged albums in 1999.

As with other veterans such as Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard, Parton found that she was no longer welcome at country radio, and changed tack by delving into roots music. Her releases garnered widespread critical acclaim and a fond examination of her 40-year career.

Polish and Proud.

2008-02-11T13:30:00.000-08:00

Exorcism undergoes a revival across Europe
Washington Post: LINK

POCZERNIN, Poland - This wind-swept village is bracing for an invasion of demons, thanks to a priest who believes he can defeat Satan.

The Rev. Andrzej Trojanowski, a soft-spoken Pole, plans to build a "spiritual oasis" that will serve as Europe's only center dedicated to performing exorcisms. With the blessing of the local Catholic archbishop and theological support from the Vatican, the center will aid a growing number of Poles possessed by evil forces or the devil himself, he said.

"This is my task, this is my purpose -- I want to help these people," said Trojanowski, who has worked as an exorcist for four years. "There is a group of people who cannot get relief through any other practices and who need peace."
Story continues below ↓advertisement

Exorcism -- the church rite of expelling evil spirits from tortured souls -- is making a comeback in Catholic regions of Europe. Last July, more than 300 practitioners gathered in the Polish city of Czestochowa for the fourth International Congress of Exorcists.

About 70 priests serve as trained exorcists in Poland, about double the number of five years ago. An estimated 300 exorcists are active in Italy. Foremost among them: the Rev. Gabriele Amorth, 82, who performs exorcisms daily in Rome and is dean of Europe's corps of demon-battling priests.

"People don't pray anymore, they don't go to church, they don't go to confession. The devil has an easy time of it," Amorth said in an interview...

Love Triangle: Father Tries to Rebuild Relationship by Running Son Over

2008-02-11T09:59:00.000-08:00

Love triangle dad wants to put things right: LINK

A middle-aged dad at the center of a bizarre love triangle which landed him in court says he wants to rebuild his relationship with the son he tried to run over.
Tauranga man James Bowring was found guilty two weeks ago of recklessly operating a motor vehicle, assault with a blunt instrument, and driving while disqualified, after veering off a road, mounting a grass verge and forcing 18-year-old Jacob Bowring to take cover behind a lamppost.

The court heard Bowring senior had done a u-turn after he dropped off a 14-year-old girl and had driven back towards his son at 40-50 kmh.

He admitted mounting the curb and aiming the vehicle at Jacob, claiming he was "pretty upset" being calling a "pedophile" and being told he belonged in a "mental home".

But last night, the 45-year-old beneficiary - who is bipolar - spoke for the first time about the events that led to his conviction and revealed he wanted to heal the wounds with Jacob.

The feud between father and son erupted when James started seeing Jacob's girlfriend of two years, Krystal Clark, 18.

The odd couple, who live in Bowring senior's house-bus on family land at Te Puna, were now expecting a baby and said they planned to marry.
But James was desperate for a reconciliation with his boy.
"I love him and miss him. I wish we could all just get on," he told Sunday News.
"But up until now Jacob has said he will only visit me if Krystal is not here but that's not okay with me.
"Krystal is the best thing that has ever happened to me. We're in love, it's as simple as that, and it's awesome."
James - who claimed to have fathered at least five children - was to return to the Tauranga District Court for sentencing on February 26. He said he lived in fear of going to jail.
He had been to prison for various offences and talked of a "life of misery" featuring sexual abuse as a child, broken relationships, work as a male prostitute and a six-month sexual relationship with a younger sibling.
"I can't cope with the thought of going to prison again, I don't like being around people. If I end up there I will probably kill myself," James said.
"I need to be at home with my girl and our new baby."
He said he took medication to regulate his depression and bipolar disorder.
James admitted he had "a few other kids around the country ... but I never stayed with the mothers, I was only really a sperm donor. I was spreading the love around."

He said marriage was now on the cards with Krystal, who was 14 weeks pregnant, and the pair wanted to have "as many kids as we can afford to care for.
"There is nothing wrong with us. We are both legal age, it is just one of those things these days. There is nothing untoward about it," he added.
"When you fall in love with someone, all the rest of the hang-ups just seem to go away."
The couple spent their days watching TV and DVDs on the house-bus, which had a long-drop toilet outside their bedroom window.
Krystal said her relationship with Bowring was "long-term" and her sex life could not be better.
"Younger men are immature and all about 'gimme, gimme, gimme', but with older lovers it is about sharing and they are happy to give and receive," she told Sunday News.
"James and I are so stable in our relationship and even when we have rows, we just talk things through."
She also hoped James and Jacob could build bridges.
"Jacob does have his good points. He can be caring and can use his head sometimes to be really helpful," she said.
But for now, Jacob did not want to have anything to do with his dad or his former girlfriend.
"I don't care. The worst thing about it all is that now he can't fix my cars," Jacob told Sunday News.
"I don't want anything to do with him."
Jacob, a tyre-fitter, said he was unable to talk in detail because of a deal he had with a women's magazine.
"I've sold my story to get me into a flat, so that's good. The whole thing is a mess. My dad has gone nuts."

Lifetime Here's your Oscar Movie.

2008-02-10T16:50:00.000-08:00

OK. Lifetime is known for all those "women-being-beaten" movies. so why not do a 180 and earn an oscar outta this premise. you don't have to thank me. Just cast me as an extra. oh yeah, and i'll take 50% of the profits.

Police: Women attacking, robbing men at Dallas bars

DALLAS - Police say they believe at least eight cases of men robbed, and in some case beaten and possibly drugged, may all be connected to women targeting men at ritzy hotel bars.

Dallas police said the women have chosen the Ghostbar at the W Hotel to target at least three males.

"They are more or less forcing themselves on the men, and they get real aggressive with the men," said Detective Mark Jenkins.

Surveillance pictures taken of the women show them going in and out of the hotel. Police said they may be able to link at least eight cases going back to November. In some of those cases, they may have drugged their victims' drinks.

"Shortly after meeting them," Jenkins said. "Then, the rest of the night is a blur until they wake up the next morning and find their property missing."

Police said all of the men were wearing expensive watches.

The latest victim said he was at a bar when three women asked him to dance, and asked continuous questions about his $2,000 Rolex.

"She said, 'Oh, I need to check the time,' and kept looking at my watch," he said.

He then said the women coaxed him into their car, and once inside, robbed him of his watch.

"They started beating me," he said. "I couldn't find my watch until one of them said, 'Take out the knife. Take out the knife.' One started screaming, 'Stab him. Stab him,' and then I decided to get out of the car."

One woman has already been arrested, and police said they are looking for at least two more. Police said they believe the women are part of a larger group that has robbed men in other states as well.

INNOCENT: "I Murdered Them." Girl Cleared.

2008-02-10T14:29:00.000-08:00

Schoolgirl who filmed herself 'trying to kill her parents' is cleared of attempted murder

A troubled schoolgirl who filmed herself as she tried to strangle her mother and then stab her father was today cleared of attempted murder.

After the jury delievered its verdict Judge Gareth Hawkesworth told the 16-year-old he will do everything in his power to help her.

The girl was convicted of a charge of attempting to choke, suffocate and strangle her mother and attempting to unlawfully wound her father. Scroll down for more...
camera lens

The girl 'filmed herself in her bedroom explaining what she planned to do before switching to the downstairs living room'
Adjourning the case for reports the judge at Cambridge crown court told the jury it had been an "extraordinary and difficult case".

Addressing the eight men and four women but making sure his words could be heard by the girl, he said: "This court recognises that this young lady is in need of help and support and this court is going to do all in its power to bring that about"

He added: "This is not a case in my judgement where the only issue is punishment."

The girl was remanded to a secure psychiatric unit for teenagers until her sentence.

Before leaving court she was hugged by her mother and father who had been in the public gallery and who during the trial had given evidence against her.

It was following an argument with her father last February that the girl, then 15, came into the living room from her bedroom at the family's home.

She had with her a video recorder which she set up on the arm of a chair so that it was trained on her mum who was sitting at a computer.

The girl, described as highly intelligent and theatrical, with a keen interest in film making, drama and writing, had dressed herself especially for the occasion.

She was wearing a seductive strappy silk nightdress for what the prosecution was to describe in court as "the performance of her life."

She had brushed out her long brown hair and applied make up to make herself look glamorous film star.

The girl had with her a noose made from two dressing gown cords with which to strangle her mother and a pair of scissors to stab her father.

The chilling video was played to the jury at the start of the trial when she pleaded not guilty to two counts of attempting to murder her parents, both IT workers.

She also denied a charge of attempting to choke, suffocate or strangle her mother with intent and attempting to unlawfully wound her father with intent.

She has admitted two counts of common assault on her parents.

In the video, which the jury saw, the girl first delivered a chilling speech to the camera in her bedroom in which which she discussed her plan to kill her parents.

Shortly before there had been a blazing row between her and her dad about her habit of eating food from a small child's plastic bowl.

She had ended up in tears and gone to her bedroom.

She says on the video "I made this film so that no one could day it was only manslaughter, or self defense or anything else.

"I want full credit for this. I murdered them."

The teenager then took the camera downstairs to the living room and set it up so that it was pointing at her mother sitting at the computer unaware of what was about to happen.

In the film, the commentary from a televised rugby match could be heard and her father was laying on a sofa nearby watching the Saturday night Six Nations game between England and Wales.

As the film continued, the girl walked up to her mother, and standing directly behind her looped a length of dressing gown cord around her neck.

At first, the mother said: "What are you doing? That is not very funny."

The teenager replied: "It's not meant to be funny." As the film continued, the girl pulled the cord tight.

Moments later, the mother said "Then stop doing it, let go."

Her daughter replied: "No I am not going to let go."

By now, the mother had swivelled around in her chair to face the daughter, who still had the cord tight around her neck.

The mother then said to the girl "You are strangling me" and calling her husband's name to tell him: "She is strangling me."

The figure of the father appeared in view as he made his way towards his wife and daughter with his back to the camera...

7 Habits of Highly Effective...

2008-02-10T14:22:00.000-08:00

SPACE CAPTAINS.

f you want to learn good organization skills, look no further than some of the best leaders in the universe: the captains of spaceships. They may be fictional, but they have skills that translate into the real world. After all, you'd follow Admiral Adama into battle, and trust Malcolm Reynolds to have your back. Now you can learn the seven greatest leadership lessons we gleaned from watching shows like Futurama and Firefly.

1. The Prime Directive is just a suggestion. Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the Enterprise wasn't as swashbuckling as he predecessor Captain James T. Kirk, simply because he actually wrestled with breaking the Prime Directive instead of ignoring it entirely. The Prime Directive states that humans shouldn't involve themselves in the affairs of less developed planets, for fear of messing up their cultures with ultra-advanced tech. While Picard often considers the importance of the Prime Directive in his decision-making, he refuses to be bound by it. Lesson learned? Rules are made to be broken.

2. Always shoot first. Every good leader should be willing to do what he or she asks of her team. One of the reasons for the loyalty of the ragtag crew of Serenity, the ship Malcolm Reynolds captains in Firefly, is that Mal will throw himself into battle to protect his team. Whenever he has a crazy scheme or rescue mission in mind, he takes the first plunge. Lesson learned? Show your crew that you're willing to take a bullet for them, and they'll do the same for you.

3. Don't be afraid to hook up with a cute spaceman. We love Leela on Futurama not just because she's the only person on her ship with any kind of sense, but because she also lets her long, purple hair down once in a while. She's always tangling with spacemen and getting mixed up with strange alien pets. And that's one good reason why her goofy crew would follow her to the ends of the galaxy -- well, if she had enough beer. Lesson learned? A good leader has to get laid once in a while, and she shouldn't be ashamed of it.

4. When you're about to go genocidal, get a second opinion. Admiral William Adama from the new Battlestar Galactica is one of the best leaders we've ever seen. He's gotten a group of a few thousand humans halfway across the galaxy, despite the fact that they're being pursuit by a group of homicidal, erotically obsessed cyborgs. He's had to deal with incredible loss and sheer terror, and he always keeps his head. He is also truly humane. How does he keep it together without going all Admiral Cain on everybody's ass? By sharing his power with President Roslyn as well as his circle of trusted officers and advisers. Without their guidance, the Galactica and its fleet might have turned into a bloodthirsty military fleet, instead of what it is: a mostly-civilian group with a (sort of) free press and even elections. Lesson learned? True leaders do not ever make decisions alone.

5. Just because you have a crappy ship doesn't mean you're a loser. Everyone knows that Han Solo, captain of the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars, is piloting a souped-up bucket. And yet his seemingly-crappy ship is probably the very best thing for helping out a group of covert resistance fighters like Obi Wan and Luke. Plus, he knows his ship so well that he can totally slam those Stormtroopers in their McFighters. Lesson learned? Every crappy PC is a lean, mean Linux box waiting to be born. Oh, and in case that didn't make sense: It's not the tools; it's what you do with them.

6. Freedom fighters make good teammates. Say what you will about Captain Janeway on Voyager, but she made a smart decision early on to integrate her Federation team with a group of subversive Maquis who got stuck with them out in the Delta Quadrant. Another captain might have kept the Maquis separate from the Federation types, but Janeway integrated them and gave them Federation ranks -- much to her good fortune. She got a great Chief Engineer and First Officer out of the deal. Lesson learned? A little subversion goes a long way.

7. There is always somebody out there who can bend spacetime better than you can. In Iain M. Banks' novel Excession, the Ship Sleeper Service (which is an AI that captains itself, thank you very much) discovers that its amazing, human-dwarfing brain is nothing compared to the "excession," a phenomenon that none of the Ships can understand. The excession exists in subspace, and looks like a giant something that could be a gateway to another dimension, perhaps, or a ship from the edges of the universe. Meeting the excession, for the Ships, is a very humbling experience. They realize that they are not as omnipotent as they realized, that that there are intelligences out there far more profound than their own. Lesson learned? No matter how in control you are, always be ready for something for which you're completely unprepared.

If God is out there, bring me TMNT IV.

2008-02-10T14:08:00.000-08:00

Cassie Jones + TMNT II: Secret of the ooze would be the best sequel to this stellar movie dynasty. If there is a God in heaven, I will convert to whatever if Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles came out with another sequel to the live-action movies. not this TMNT computer animated crap. I want to see Cassie Jones and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles save April from the Shredder or someone even cooler - like a robot ninja zombie with 4 arms - while in the process losing Master Splinter in a climax that won't stop. (sexual reference intended) also, April will find a boyfriend, but he dies too. he's a jerk anyways, so don't be too sad. He was all "I have my job and you should be mothering my children" and she was all "I have a job too, don't you care about my dreams?" he was all "what dreams? you better be dreamin of getting me a beer, woman" SMACK.
Did you know there was a TMNT Concert tour? Check it:
To further add to the Turtles' popularity, a concert tour was held in 1990, premiering at Radio City Music Hall. The "Coming Out of Their Shells" tour featured live-action turtles (in costumes similar to the films) playing music as a band (Donatello; keyboards, Leonardo; bass guitar, Raphael; drums & sax, Michelangelo; guitar) on stage around a familiar plotline: April O'Neil is kidnapped by the Shredder, the turtle guys have to rescue her. The story had a very Bill-n'-Ted-esque feel, with its theme of the power of rock n' roll literally defeating the enemy, in the form of the Shredder (who only rapped, about how he hates music) trying to eliminate all music (Interestingly, the first two films featured rap in their soundtracks). A pay-per-view special highlighting the concert was shown, and a studio album was also released. The track listing is as follows:

1. Coming Out of Our Shells!
2. Sing About It
3. Tubin'
4. Skipping Stones
5. Pizza Power
6. Walk Straight
7. No Treaties
8. Cowabunga
9. April Ballad
10. Count on Us

Who's Next?!

2008-02-10T13:56:00.000-08:00

Cheney to go quail hunting at Armstrong ranch
Caller-Times: LINK

Vice President Dick Cheney will be at the Armstrong Ranch this weekend quail hunting and visiting longtime friend, former U.S. ambassador to Great Britain Anne Armstrong and her family, Mrs. Armstrong said Thursday afternoon.

It was Feb. 11, 2006 that Cheney (accidentally) shot lawyer Harry Whittington at the Armstrong Ranch.

Laugh or be frightened, I can't pick.

2008-02-10T13:45:00.000-08:00

Amazing Strangers!

2008-02-10T13:38:00.000-08:00

Thank God I looked up "scenester" on my hunt for kids in hoodies, because look at this! A site devoted to pictures of random people and...this classic interpretation of a scenester:

Fuck Terrorists, War on Teenagers.

2008-02-10T13:30:00.000-08:00

The Observer: LINK

BREAK IT UP, YOU TWO, OR ELSE. >>>>>

High-pitched whine of Mosquito alarm, used to deter teenagers from loitering in groups, 'infringes their human rights'

A controversial weapon in the war against antisocial behaviour should be banned, the children's commissioner will warn this week in a move that threatens a new Whitehall battle over 'hoodies' rights'.

The row centres on the so-called Mosquito, a £500 device that emits a high-pitched whine loud enough to drive away teenagers in the vicinity. Marketed as the 'ultrasonic teenage deterrent', it is increasingly being adopted by shopkeepers, local councils and even private homeowners to disperse gangs of young people because it operates on a frequency that can be detected only by under-25s, whose hearing is more acute.

Al Aynsley-Green, who was appointed by the government to champion children's interests, will argue the Mosquito infringes their human rights and penalises innocent children. Parents have also questioned its long-term effects on children's hearing.

Aynsley-Green will launch a campaign this week calling on businesses to abandon the tactic, and encouraging children to report instances of its being used against them. He is understood to be prepared to bring a test case in the courts if necessary.

However, a Home Office source said the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, backed the use of the Mosquito as a way of combating yob culture, adding: 'We would always put ourselves on the side of the law-abiding minority rather than on the side of gangs of hoodies.'

Gordon Brown last week cited teenage lawlessness and gang violence as a key priority for his government and the clash over the Mosquito marks an early test. The Prime Minister had signalled a change of tack in his early months by disbanding the Respect Taskforce set up by Tony Blair to tackle yob culture, putting its staff under the control of the Department for Children and Families, which was seen as a signal that he would offer more carrot and less stick to disaffected teenagers.

That approach has come under pressure, however, with the Tories attacking the government over levels of street violence and teenage offending.

Thousands of Mosquitos have been bought by police forces, retailers, housing associations, train companies and private individuals who want to get rid of teenagers loitering near their homes. The device consists of a black box that emits a pulsing noise several times a second over a 15m radius, loud enough to force children to leave the area within minutes. It is advertised to stores on the grounds that unruly teenagers might discourage 'genuine shoppers' prepared to spend money...

Your Daughter might be Eff'd up if...

2008-02-10T13:26:00.000-08:00

Read this Declaration by Lynne Spears (Britney Spears' Mommy)

Read more at The Smoking Gun: LINK

How to Survive an Encounter With an Ostrich

2008-02-10T11:47:00.000-08:00

This will come in handy when I lose my car.
LINK

A male and female ostrich on a farm. The powerful legs and sharp nails can deliver a fatal blow.
A male and female ostrich on a farm. The powerful legs and sharp nails can deliver a fatal blow.
Anyone who's seen Hitchcock's classic film The Birds may feel a little uneasy around pointy beaks and razor-sharp talons. An ostrich attack, however, is straight out of Jurassic Park. Like that movie's velociraptors, ostriches are fast--they can run at up to 45 mph--and they have a sharp nail on each of their feet that is capable of slicing a person open with one kick. Unlike velociraptors, however, an ostrich can reach more than nine feet tall and 350 pounds.

The best defense? Stay at least 50-100 yards away from ostriches. If, however, you end up face to face with one of these birds, follow these tips.

Steps

1. Get to safety. When hiking or working near ostriches, you should always be aware of your surroundings and the nearest place you can run to safety. Remember, you won't be able to outrun an ostrich over any distance, but if you've got a good head start you should be able to get someplace safe if it's close enough. Head for a building, a car, or a high fence or tree that you can scale (ostriches can't fly). In the wild, go into a thorn bush if you have to; you'll get scratched up pretty good, but an ostrich won't pursue you into thorns.
2. Put something between you and the ostrich. If you can't make it to safety, grab a long pole and hold it in front of you. Since you don't want to have to find something like this while you're being attacked, it's best to carry an implement with you when there's a chance of an ostrich encounter. A strong branch with a forked end or a rake are good options, as you can hold the crook or the broader end against the ostrich's neck or chest. A broom or catching hook might be available when working with captive ostriches. A branch from a thorn tree, such as an acacia, is particularly effective in warding off an ostrich. Keep in mind, however, that whatever pole, tool, or branch you choose must be strong and long enough to keep the bird's legs from reaching you.

* Holding the ostrich at bay works well in situations in which the ostrich is in captivity and handlers (it's best to have at least four when trying to handle a large ostrich) can come at the ostrich from the side or, preferably, the rear and subdue it by placing a hood over its neck and/or bending its neck down to the ground so that it cannot kick.
* If your life is in danger and you have a stout stick, a hard blow to the ostrich's neck will usually break its neck and kill the animal. A well placed shot into the center of the main body ("center mass") from a large caliber handgun (.44 or .45 caliber) will stop the ostrich. A machete blow to the neck will also kill the bird. Naturally, killing the animal should be a last resort only.
3. Play dead. In a 1918 article in The Atlantic magazine, former President Theodore Roosevelt wrote, "If, when assailed by the ostrich, the man stands erect, he is in great danger. But by the simple expedient of lying down, he escapes all danger." The experience of ostrich farmers, naturalists, and adventurers has largely confirmed Roosevelt's observation. Since ostriches kick forward and downward, the chance of injury is much lower if you lie face down on the ground and cover your head and neck with your arms. Your back will still be exposed, but this is much safer than if your front were open to attack. Additionally, the ostrich is not able to kick very effectively at an object on the ground, and eventually it will lose interest if you play dead. The bird will still likely stand on you--it's been described as dancing by some who've gone through the experience--and it may even sit on you for a while, but it will most likely not rip you open if you do this equivalent of burying your head in the sand.
Tips

* Ostriches love man-made objects, especially shiny ones, so before you go out on safari or onto an ostrich farm remove all jewelry, and avoid displaying shiny or dangling objects when near ostriches. Even the most mild mannered of ostriches practice investigative pecking, and a peck at an earring or your eyeglasses - or your eyes, for instance, could result in serious injury.
* Ostriches can only kick forward[1], and rarely, to the side, so if you're behind or to the side of an ostrich you're pretty safe. Ostriches can maneuver quite deftly, however, so you're only safe temporarily.
* Ostriches are usually very skittish and will run if given the chance. If you don't try to corner an ostrich, then, you'll usually have no problems. Males ready for breeding, however, tend to be very territorial and may become aggressive. You can spot these by the red flush on the front of their legs. Hopefully, however, you won't get close enough to see this without binoculars.
* Ostriches don't really bury their heads in the sand, as is often thought. They sometimes put their heads to the ground if they sense danger in the distance, and when they do so their bodies can look like mounds of earth. They do this so well, in fact, that it's sometimes possible for you to come very close to an ostrich before you see it.
* In the wild, it's pretty easy to stay out of an ostrich's way if you keep your distance. On ostrich farms, however, injuries and deaths are more common--in fact the late country singer Johnny Cash received serious injuries from an ostrich attack on his farm. Never try to handle an ostrich without proper training and backup.
*
Close-up of an ostrich foot and nail.
Close-up of an ostrich foot and nail.
Professional handlers and ostrich farmers sometimes hold a board of thick plywood with arm holes in front of them to protect themselves from the ostrich's nails. The ostrich's kick, however, which can exert more than 500 pounds of pressure per square inch, can still cause serious injury even if the nail doesn't penetrate the board.

Warnings

* Because of ostriches' skittishness, and because of their ability to inflict injury, these animals have not been particularly well studied. As with any wild, potentially dangerous animals, ostriches can be unpredictable, and while these techniques have saved lives in the past, they are no guarantee against injury or death.
* Ostriches on farms are not tame. Treat them with the respect and caution that wild animals merit.

Things You'll Need

* Stick or other large pointed objects to keep ostrich at bay

Rap Kills.

2008-02-10T11:43:00.000-08:00

Sean Paul’s songs sparked woman’s seizures
Post-brain surgery, the 25-year-old can safely listen to her favorite artist

GARDEN CITY, N.Y. - Now that surgeons have operated on Stacey Gayle's brain, her favorite musician no longer makes her ill. Four years after being diagnosed with epilepsy, Gayle recently underwent brain surgery at Long Island Jewish Medical Center to cure a rare condition known as musicogenic epilepsy.

Gayle, a 25-year-old customer service employee at a bank in Alberta, Canada, was suffering as many as 10 grand mal seizures a day, despite being treated with medications designed to control them. The condition became so bad she eventually had to quit her job and leave the church choir where she sang.

Eighteen months ago, she began to suspect that music by reggae and hip-hop artist Sean Paul was triggering some of her seizures. She recalled being at a barbecue and collapsing when the Jamaican rapper's music started playing, and then remembered having a previous seizure when she heard his music.
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Her suspicions were confirmed on a visit to the Long Island medical center last February, when she played Paul's hit "Temperature" on her iPod for doctors. Soon after, she suffered three seizures.

"Being that the seizures could be triggered by the music, this was a very interesting opportunity to study Stacey's brain," said Dr. Ashesh Mehta, the hospital's director of epilepsy surgery.

During the first surgery, doctors implanted more than 100 electrodes in the right side of her brain to pinpoint the abnormal area of her brain.

The surgeons followed that procedure with a second surgery to remove the electrodes, along with parts of her brain suspected of causing the seizures.

"We used the latest techniques, including image guidance, to pinpoint the areas of abnormality, and the operating microscope to perform the procedure during a four-hour operation," Mehta said.

Within three days, the woman was released from the hospital and has not experienced a seizure since.

"I always live each day like it's my last," she said. "I want to show others that life does not end at epilepsy. I know I have what it takes to succeed."

College is Just a Degree.

2008-02-10T11:37:00.000-08:00

well, college is relationships, an unequatable experience, especially when your roommate is a douche-bag. college is becoming open source. which I'm all in favor of. I want to be able to watch a lecture I miss in the comfort of my own room.

Associated Press: LINK
Gilbert Strang is a quiet man with a rare talent: helping others understand linear algebra. He's written a half-dozen popular college textbooks, and for years a few hundred students at the elite Massachusetts Institute of Technology have been privileged to take his course.

Recently, with the growth of computer science, demand to understand linear algebra has surged. But so has the number of students Strang can teach.

An MIT initiative called ''OpenCourseWare'' makes virtually all the school's courses available online for free -- lecture notes, readings, tests and often video lectures. Strang's Math 18.06 course is among the most popular, with visitors downloading his lectures more than 1.3 million times since June alone.

Strang's classroom is the world.
In his Istanbul dormitory, Kemal Burcak Kaplan, an undergraduate at Bogazici University, downloads Strang's lectures to try to boost his grade in a class there. Outside Calcutta, graduate student Sriram Chandrasekaran uses them to brush up on matrices for his engineering courses at the elite Indian Institute of Technology.

Many ''students'' are college teachers themselves, like Sheraz ali Khan at a small engineering institute in Peshawar, Pakistan, and Noorali Jiwaji at the Open University of Tanzania. They use Strang and other MIT professors as guides in designing their own classes, and direct students to MIT's courses for help.

Others are closer to MIT's Cambridge, Mass., campus. Some are MIT students and alumni, while others have no connection at all -- such as Gus Whelan, a retiree on nearby Cape Cod, and Dustin Darcy, a 27-year-old video game programmer in Los Angeles who uses linear algebra regularly in his work.

''Rather than going through my old, dusty books,'' Darcy says, ''I thought I might as well go through it from the top and see if I learn something new.''
Shareware teaching
There has never been a more exciting time for the intellectually curious.

The world's top universities have come late to the world of online education, but they're arriving at last, creating an all-you-can-eat online buffet of information.

And mostly, they are giving it away.

MIT's initiative is the largest, but the trend is spreading. More than 100 universities worldwide, including Johns Hopkins, Tufts and Notre Dame, have joined MIT in a consortium of schools promoting their own open courseware.

You no longer need a Princeton ID to hear the prominent guests who speak regularly on campus, just an Internet connection. Yale recently announced it would make material from seven popular courses available online, with 30 more to follow.