More about that New York Senate Seat

From timesunion.com

Computer can see what you see

Scientists managed to convert electrical impulses from the brain into images on a computer screen. Is this scary? Is this awesome? Is this scary awesome? I don't know, but I think that debate can wait until we have more than a few grainy pixels that form a letter.

Courtesy of SlipperyBrick

Iraqi Journalist Tweeks, Chucks Shoe at President

During a suprise trip to Iraq, President Bush was confronted by an Iraqi journalist who wished to give him a "Goodbye Kiss".

Someone should probably tell him that American's don't usually kiss by throwing shoes.

UPDATE: BBC has video

The Reverend Wrote a Blag

Because I was given the right to post links, here is a bit of shameless self promotion:

Fear and Loathing in the 21st Century

Check out my blog. Latest post: Shitty fantasy television shows and Darth Vader getting pwned by the Tokyo Police.

Since many bloggers here have a connection to LVC...

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/12/13/nichols.sentence/index.html

"A Georgia judge threw the book at Brian Nichols on Saturday, giving him four consecutive sentences of life without parole for a 2005 shooting rampage that started in an Atlanta courthouse.

'I'm giving you the maximum -- every day I could give you. If I could give you more, I would,' Superior Court Judge James Bodiford told Nichols.

Bodiford gave Nichols the maximum sentence on all the non-murder charges, and ordered them to be served consecutively.

Those terms ranged from five years for escape to life for armed robbery. Other charges included aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, robbery by force, theft by taking, hijacking a motor vehicle and false imprisonment."

XKCD: Wood Chips

Sometimes prank wars get unnecessarily complicated.



"You didn't run a chemical test against the Shroud of Turin? Man, all that work for NOTHING."

Top Bunk

from Politicker

Prison Night At The Good Ole' Hockey Game?

Yes, it is true. If anyone will be in Vegas on Jan. 30th.... make it out to the ECHL game between the Las Vegas Wranglers and the Victoria Salmon Kings. The Wranglers will be wearing special "prison uniform" style jerseys in 'honor' of recently disgraced Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.

Read more about it here

....after the game happens, if I can find pictures.... I will follow up with a new post featuring them.

Fran Drescher for Senate

Drescher spokesman Jordan Brown told CNN in a written statement late Monday:

"Fran Drescher, actress, women's health advocate and public diplomacy envoy for the U.S. State Department, announced that she is throwing her hat into the ring of contenders for the senate seat being vacated by Secretary of State-designate Hillary Rodham Clinton,"

But CNN's description is better:

Drescher, 51, is best known for her starring role in the 1990s television comedy "The Nanny" and an adenoidal voice that could strip the rust off an engine block — a talent that might come in handy during a Senate filibuster.

Illionois Gov. Blagojevich in Federal custody

Today the FBI has arrested Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich for conspiring to gain financial advantage from his duty to appoint Senator Obama's replacement.

A 76-page affidavit from the United States Attorney’s office in Northern Illinois says Mr. Blagojevich was heard on wiretaps over the last month planning to “sell or trade Illinois’ United States Senate seat vacated by Pres-elect Barack Obama for financial and personal benefits for himself and his wife.”


From the newly-remortgaged New York Times

the perfect christmas present for anyone on your list

At a loss for what to get your parent, friend or "lover" for Christmas this year? How about Chlamydia? Yup, that's right- GiantMicrobes has come to rescue for all you challenged gift givers out there and released a line of plush dolls shaped like microbes, ranging from the common cold to ebola, and for those of you who are feeling a little kinkier, herpes to "the clap." The microbes come with a magnified picture of the real microbe, along with an imformation packet on the disease it causes. So, I don't know about you guys, but all I want for Christmas this year is Gonorrhea. Or maybe some fat cells. Or maybe C. Diff. I just can't decide!!

Sport Utility Alter Call

This Weekend a major Detroit church parked SUVs by the altar and asked the congregation to pray over them. The move was to ask God's help in the lives of countless auto workers in Michigan whose livelihoods may depend on a automaker bailout this week in congress.

While I appreciate the sentiment, I imagine most parishioners did not require a visual aid to know what an automobile is.

Your pesticides are shrinking my son's junk

Research from around the world is demonstrating that the bevy of chemicals, especially chemical pesticides, floating around the world is entering females' bodies and damaging their male offspring's genitals. This phenomenon is being observed in males throughout nearly all major vertebrate animal species.

Many [chemicals] have been identified as "endocrine disrupters" – or gender-benders – because they interfere with hormones. These include phthalates, used in food wrapping, cosmetics and baby powders among other applications; flame retardants in furniture and electrical goods; PCBs, a now banned group of substances still widespread in food and the environment; and many pesticides.

Feminisation of the males of numerous vertebrate species is now a widespread occurrence. All vertebrates have similar sex hormone receptors, which have been conserved in evolution. Therefore, observations in one species may serve to highlight pollution issues of concern for other vertebrates, including humans.

Some British fish have even been developing eggs in their testes.... Ach, Scheiße!

New, salt flavored twizzlers?

Who'da thunk?? Low-sodium foods from soup to salad dressing have been around for a while, and we all know how important low-sodium diets are to people with or at risk for heart disease. However, some very unexpected foods are quite high in sodium. Here's a partial list:

Twizzlers: Nearly twice the sodium of a serving of salted peanuts
Prego Heart Smart Traditional Italian Sauce: 4x the sodium of a serving of salted peanuts
Kraft Snackables cheddar and monterrey jack cheese cubes: Nearly 3x the sodium of a serving of salted peanuts

Amazingly, a serving a Planter's salted peanuts has quite a reasonable amount of sodium per serving. The New York Times has some more detail.
Bottom line- it's important to know what you are eating, and there is only one way to do that:
ALWAYS read the label!
Click here for the Mayo Clinic's recommendations on sodium intake, and recommendations on how to decrease yours if it's too high.

Japanese win space beer race

The Russians may have been first in space, and the Americans the first to the moon, but the Japanese are the first to make space beer - beer brewed with barley grown on the International Space Station.

Unfortunately, only 100 liters of the extraterrestrial elixir were produced and they are only available for a limited sampling in Japan.

Kampai!

Via Gizmodo


Photo gratuitously lifted from Gizmodo who ostensibly borrowed it from AFP without intent to return.

Make your own bacon-flavored vodka

Because who doesn't want bacon-flavored vodka?

Bacon Vodka

makes up one pint

Fry up three strips of bacon.
Add cooked bacon to a clean pint sized mason jar. Trim the ends of the bacon if they are too tall to fit in the jar. Or you could go hog wild and just pile in a bunch of fried up bacon scraps. Optional: add crushed black peppercorns.
Fill the jar up with vodka. Cap and place in a dark cupboard for at least three weeks. That’s right- I didn’t refrigerate it.
At the end of the three week resting period, place the bacon vodka in the freezer to solidify the fats. Strain out the fats through a coffee filter to yield a clear filtered pale yellow bacon vodka.

Decant into decorative bottles and enjoy.

Photo blatantly ripped off of Brownie Points.

The Empire State Building has been stolen!

The New York Daily News has stolen the Empire State Building.

"And it wasn't that hard"

Don't worry, they gave it back.

photo graciously borrowed from the NYDN

US interrogator found better way

When so many others were bending and breaking the rules, using a Gitmo interrogation style, one US Air Force interrogator in Iraq preferred to play by the rules, get a little creative, and get results. Without using torture, he managed to get information critical in leading to the death of Zarqawi. In this article, originally in the Washington Post, he gives some insight on the war and American conduct in Iraq. An excerpt:

I learned in Iraq that the No. 1 reason foreign fighters flocked there to fight were the abuses carried out at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo...The number of U.S. soldiers who have died because of our torture policy will never be definitively known, but it is fair to say that it is close to the number of lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001. How anyone can say that torture keeps Americans safe is beyond me -- unless you don't count American soldiers as Americans.

Via The Liberator Magazine.

Impeachment ornament selected for White House holiday tree

One of the ornaments selected for the Fraser Fir in the White House Blue Room includes statements by various Congressmen advocating impeachment of the White House's occupants.

Laura Bush asked members of Congress to have local artists create ornaments. Washington State's Jim McDermott chose artist Deborah Lawrence.

"I was at first nauseated, then realized it was an opportunity," said Lawrence, 55, who frequently combines politics and satire in her work and saw this as the perfect way "to highlight Jim McDermott because he's a hero of mine."

More on the ornery ornament.

Photo courtesy Deborah Lawrence

Pentagon deploying more troops inside US

The Pentagon is deploying 20,000 uniformed US soldiers within the country. The troop deployment is part of an expansion of the Department of Defense's role in homeland security.

The move has civil liberties advocates on edge and there is talk of a possible conflict with the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878. The law, enacted following the Reconstruction, severely restricts the ability of uniformed military personnel to act as law enforcement on non-federal land.

Image courtesy of Getty

Bush apologizes... sorta

It seems as though President Bush has kind of apologized for screwing up the economy and the War in Iraq.

Some gems:

"I wish the intelligence had been different, I guess," Bush added.

"That is a do-over that I can't do," Bush said.

Reflections on the Bush II Presidency, courtesy of the man himself.

Photo courtesy of AP

What, no Kwanzaadan?

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/11/26/first-white-house-chrismukkah-cards-accidentally-sent/

"A picture of a Christmas tree is not the first thing you would expect to see on an invitation to an event celebrating Hanukkah, but that is exactly what recipients of invitations to this year's White House Hanukkah reception initially got in the mail.

The invitation sent to American Jewish leaders on behalf of the President and First Lady, requesting "the pleasure of your company at a Hanukkah reception," bore an image of a Clydesdale horse-drawn cart, carrying the White House Christmas tree, with a Christmas wreath-adorned White House in the background."

Wow, George... wow.

Israel bans press from Gaza Strip

Israel has instituted a ban on the press in the Gaza Strip. This is a stunning blow to freedom of the press. While Israel is still permitting humanitarian aid, Palestinians say they feel as though they're living under siege.

Eliminate AIDS in ten years for a few billion

A study found that a couple of weeks worth of the Iraq War could eliminate HIV and AIDS in only 10 years.

Granted, there were a lot of assumptions, but it's an exciting possibility.

Of course it was in Kentucky

A 21 year-old escaped from a prison in Kentucky and then returned later that day, asking to be let back in.

That's special.

Hold it in or suffer the consequences

A 13 year old Florida male was arrested for "breaking wind" and disrupting class....

.... now that stinks!

This was just a piano in the woods

Any piano, big or small, is a piano after all...

This one happened to be in the middle of the woods... in Massachusetts... and in tune.

Curious.

The answer is just out of reach.

NBC kills environmental show during "Green Week"

Oh the irony! During NBC's Green Week (a celebration of environmentally friendly policy and promoting a green lifestyle) the media giant canceled the Weather Channel show "Forecast Earth." The show focused on global climate change and featured former CNN anchor Natalie Allen with contributions from climate change expert Heidi Cullen.

Green is universal indeed.

XKCD: Experimentation

"I understand large samples are key to a low standard error of the mean, but the entire sophomore class?"

Sarah Palin interviewed while turkeys slaughtered

Alaska Governor and former GOP Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin gave an interview after "pardoning" a group of turkeys before the Thanksgiving Holiday. Unbeknownst to her, there is a gentleman in the background watching her and slaughtering turkeys. The video is somewhat graphic, so consider yourself warned.

Thanksgiving Tip

Make this year a winner: Turbaconducken

That's right, why roast a turkey when you can take down Old MacDonald's entire farm. Who, honestly could resist a whole chicken, wrapped in bacon stuffed inside an entire duck, which also happens to be wrapped in bacon and stuffed inside a turkey, you guessed it, wrapped in bacon. This thirty pound, thirty one thousand three hundred eighty seven calorie delight can be yours with a quick trip to the grocery store and an utter lack of shame.

Thanks to our friends at Bacon Today: step-by-step instructions.

Now, if only we could figure out how to deep-fry this bad boy. . .

XKCD: Theft of the Magi

XKCD goes old school with Gift... er... Theft of the Magi.



"Every Roomba needs a dueling harness."

B****, I TOLD YOU NOT TO PUT MAYO ON MY D*** SANDWICH

On Friday, a Florida man was arrested for assaulting his wife with.....
a sandwich. Yes, a sandwich.
The man and his girlfriend were in the car driving on I-95 when he allegedly hit her in the arm and face with a sandwich. Investigation continues...

A Surprising Note on All Things Political and Gay...

Here is a graph showing the shift, either more Republican or more Democrat, among self identified groups of voters.

What is most interesting, to my mind, is that there was a marked shift away, by percentage, from the Democrats, to the Republicans...among the gays. Not really surprising to me, that. We had the most gay-friendly Republican ticket in history. But also of note is the fact that Obama did several things to hurt himself among the gay community.

CBK

Tastes like Chicken.

In other news, Poland is not coming to any state dinners anytime soon:

"Have you heard that Obama may have a Polish connection? His grandfather ate a Polish missionary," said Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski.

Apparently he was only giving an example of a racist joke. Thanks for the education, I had no idea what racism was.

Yar, Pirates!

Pirates of the Indian Ocean hijacked a huge tanker and are trying to take it back to Somalia. They swashbuckled their way into what is easily the biggest heist on the high seas ever. Yar.

Actually, that's 100 million dollars worth of oil, you should seriously give that back.

Seriously.

The Bat Hunter

Crikey!

$21 million to repair doomsday

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1859684,00.html?cnn=yes

"Fixing the world's largest atom smasher will cost at least 25 million francs ($21 million) and may take until early summer, its operator said Monday.

The atom smasher operates at temperatures colder than outer space to get maximum efficiency and experts needed to gradually warm the damaged section to better assess it, he said.

That will show on a tiny scale what happened one-trillionth of a second after the so-called Big Bang, which many scientists theorize was the massive explosion that formed the universe. The theory holds that the universe was rapidly cooling at that stage and matter was changing rapidly."

Making the picture cloudy

Tony Romo returns (broken pinky and all) to lead the Cowboys to a win that puts 'America's Team' right back into the playoff hunt

The Economist weighs in on the financial crisis

Is that what I think it is?

Yup - it totally is...




President George W. Bush is flashing the "shocker" with the 2008 NCAA sports champions.





Wow.

Another addition to the list of speculation on autism...

Over the past decades, diagnosis and awareness of the spectrum of Autism disorders has skyrocketed. But, ask 100 people what causes Autism and you will probably get 100 different answers. Many mothers of children with Autism will tell you it's due to the MMR vaccine, some say its a rotovirus that punctuates the bowel and travels to the brain, others call it a severe allergy to glutin and casein. Researchers in California have just added their two cents to the bucket- rain. Yup, rain. As odd as it sounds, it does appear that there may actually be a link between rainy weather and rates of autism in California and Oregon. No one is quite sure why, whether it's the rain itself or it's becuase the children in these climates spend more time inside with televisio and household chemicals. No one knows, but it's another theory.

This has always bugged me, too

The Amazing Sounds of Failing Hard Drive

The amazing sounds of the killing hordes, the day the hard drive collapses on us.

The sounds that 35 different types of hard drives make as they slowly die.

Additional commentary at Slashdot.

50 Thinks you might not know about the President - Elect

• He likes Spiderman
• He owns a set of red boxing gloves autographed by Muhammad Ali.
• His favourite drink is black forest berry iced tea.
• His desk in his Senate office once belonged to Robert Kennedy.
• Daughter Malia's godmother is Jesse Jackson's daughter Santita.

continue . . .

This takes "Change we can believe in" to a WHOLE new level

This election has given us many firsts- first black president, first female on the Republican ticket, etc. Well, I have just found out about another one. Silverton, Oregon has elected the nation's first ever openly transgendered mayor. Stu Rasmussen has been a fixture in Silverton politics for a while now, and actually served two terms as mayor in the past- before he became a she. Amazingly, he doesn't see any of the attention as warranted. He sees being open about his transgendered-ness as "blackmail-proof" saying that because his appearance was no secret, the race could be dominated by the issues that really matter.

No XKCD today

I wasn't really impressed with today's XKCD. Instead, please enjoy this Toothpaste for Dinner comic.

Remember that bombing in Pakistan thing?

You know - that whole "if we have actionable intelligence and the Pakistan government is unable or unwilling, we should attack the terrorists ourselves" thing?

Apparently, we're already doing that.

Way to go, Obama - giving away the Bush Administration's play book.

A cure for HIV?

For years, researchers have known that some people are immune to HIV due to a genetic mutation in their cell membranes. More recently a German physician replaced the bone marrow of an HIV patient with bone marrow from a person with the mutation. Two years later, the HIV is gone.

that is one HOT first lady

Take the brains of Hillary, add the uncomplicated charm of Laura, and the impeccable style of Jackie. Put it all together, and what do you have? One AMAZINGLY hot first lady.




photo available here

Change.gov comes online

President-elect Barack Obama has launched Change.gov, a website that outlines, in plain English and detail, the plan for transitioning governments.

Have a question? Looking for a job in the Obama Administration? Change.gov has the answers.

Interestingly, the content is copyrighted by the Obama-Biden Transition Project, a 501C(4) organization. It seems they were planning and prepared for victory.

For additional commentary, check out Slashdot.

Bad Dog

We now have the most high profile case for the dog whisperer....

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27578582/

iPhone Ocarina

The next iteration of iPhone as instrument apps is available - the iPhone Ocarina.

One preset allows the user to relive the NES glory days with a little Zelda action.



Perhaps that doesn't catch your fancy and you'd prefer a bunch of geeks playing Zepplin.



Courtesy of Gizmodo

XKCD: Faust 2.0

"The only blood these contracts are signed in is from me cutting my hand trying to open the goddamn CD case."

XKCD: Election

Oh shit... what do I do now?

Obama Beats McCain

And so the nightmare comes to a close.

I'm gonna vote like the spirit say vote.

"I'm asking you to believe, not just in my ability to change Washington, but yours." - Barack Obama

And so begins a new era.

Better safe than sorry on BPA

The FDA recently released a statement saying that the chemical BPA is "safe at current exposure levels." This statement contradicts more than 100 studies saying just the opposite, and linking BPA to cancer, heart disease, and most unnerving of all, developmental and brain delays in babies and fetuses. For those of you who are unaware, BPA is a chemical found in many hard plastics used for packaging (not a big deal) and drinking (big deal). While it's not that frightening in packaging plastic when you just touch it, in things like baby bottles and some Nalgene-style water bottles, you end up ingesting the chemical along with your drink. With all the contradiction, its safe to say that the jury is still out on BPA, so in my opinion, it's best to just avoid it and stick with water bottles and baby bottles that are listed as "BPA-free".

Economist: It's Time

From the Economist:

He has earned it

So Mr Obama in that respect is a gamble. But the same goes for Mr McCain on at least as many counts, not least the possibility of President Palin. And this cannot be another election where the choice is based merely on fear. In terms of painting a brighter future for America and the world, Mr Obama has produced the more compelling and detailed portrait. He has campaigned with more style, intelligence and discipline than his opponent. Whether he can fulfil his immense potential remains to be seen. But Mr Obama deserves the presidency.

Dutch baby boom comes 9 months after blackout

A cluster of Dutch villages is experiencing a baby boom nine months after a two day blackout. The birth rate is up 44% from the same period last year. While the Netherlands is experiencing a declining birth rate, local officials don't plan on deliberately cutting the power for a repeat this year.

"Don't even joke," Van Eijkeren said, laughing. "In Holland, we would like to have more inhabitants -- but not in this way."

The Curse Is Broken....

As a die-hard sports fan, I couldn't sleep tonight before I posted this:

The "curse of William Penn" is broken, 25 years after the city's last sports championship and 28 years and 9 days since the last world series championship, the Philadelphia Phillies are the 2008 World Series Champions!

American Stories, American Solutions

Just in case you missed the big Obamercial.

Tax Plans Made Simple

On the topic....

Since Sen. McCain has been calling Obama out on being a "socialist" recently.... this is an interesting piece from the New Yorker

Hold on to your hats!

From the Economist:

Pennsylvania is vital to what Mr McCain calls his “narrow victory” strategy—eking out just enough votes in the electoral college to win the White House. If Mr McCain can capture Pennsylvania’s 21 electoral votes, he can offset Barack Obama’s gains in Republican strongholds in the Mountain West; if he loses Pennsylvania, his goose is probably cooked.

A New Trend

Let's call it..... global cooling maybe?

Either way, this is dumb. Where's the 70 degree weather?

Happy Birthday to the most bully of moosen

THE former president, born 150 years ago today, was interviewed in his childhood home at 28 East 20th Street. He has long been a ghostly presence there. The house is now the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site. Due to Roosevelt’s great age, it is difficult to tell how well he hears contemporary questions. But he is as forceful as ever in expressing himself. His statements below are drawn from the historic record and are uncut except when interrupted by his interviewer.

University of Notre Dame Not Racist After All?

So it seems that when the Notre Dame football program fired Tyrone Willingham a few years ago, they weren't doing it in an act of racism, but because he just isn't that great of a head coach.

Now, Willingham will gain a 1 million dollar buyout at the end of the season, being relieved of his duties at the University of Washington today after starting the year 0-7 and losing, ironically enough, to Notre Dame this past Saturday.

.....I'm just happy this is one chapter of a book that can finally be ended.


Also, for those getting caught up in World Series "phever"...... game 5 will be resumed Tuesday evening, weather permitting. Phillies and Rays tied at 2.

Whasaaaaap?!?

8 years later.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq8Uc5BFogE

Harry Potter pick-up lines

Because any social bookmarking site needs the occasional (preferably rare), entirely irrelevant blog post containing pop culture references and gratuitous sexual innuendo.

With nuggets like these, how can't you win?

Have you heard of Platform 9 and 3/4? Well, I can think of something else with the exact same measurements.

I'd like to get my basilisk into your chamber of secrets.

Harry Potter Pick-up Lines

Biden explains VP job to a fifth grader

While Governor Sarah Palin might not have an accurate understanding of the job of the Vice President, Senator Joe Biden was successful in explaining the position to a fifth grade reporter. As an added bonus, Biden is now the "homeboy" of another young American.

Anchorage Daily News enordses Obama

There is really nothing I can say that beats what the Anchorage Daily News says of their own native daughter:

"Alaska's founders were optimistic people, but even the most farsighted might have been stretched to imagine this scenario... Gov. Palin's nomination clearly alters the landscape for Alaskans as we survey this race for the presidency -- but it does not overwhelm all other judgment... To step in and juggle the demands of an economic meltdown, two deadly wars and a deteriorating climate crisis would stretch the governor beyond her range. Like picking Sen. McCain for president, putting her one 72-year-old heartbeat from the leadership of the free world is just too risky at this time."

Read the full article here... it's pretty awesome

How appropriate... maybe.

"Like most business owners, brewers tend to avoid politics and religion out of fear of alienating customers. At the same time, microbrewing has become an intensely competitive industry, so putting a saint on a bottle can help a guy stand out...

Another entrepreneur peddled "WWJB: What Would Jesus Brew?" T-shirts, with an image of a smiling Jesus with a mash paddle in one hand and a pint glass in the other...

God is good."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/10/24/beer.god.ap/index.html

Someone needs to be told that beer plus God equals good... someone in my family... hmm...

Good Looks More Important Than Foreign Policy?

you be the judge..... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27364669/

Improve your flaming today, you frenchified ninnyhammer

In recognition of a growing problem of unimaginative and unoriginal insults in this world of ever-increasing flame wars, Neatorama brings us a guide to improving our web wit and forum flagrations.

Submitted for your approval: ten insulting words to increase your vindictive vocabulary.

Obama Purchases Ad Space on the Side of McCain's bus

Source

Hope for MS sufferers

It appears that a drug formerly used to treat leukemia, called alemtuzumab, may be a cure for MS. Nothing is final yet, but preliminary studies are looking quite promising. The article gets a little sciencey, so here's a quick summary:
Basically, MS is an autoimmune disease, which means your immune system gets confused and instead of attacking a disease, it attacks your own tissues. Different types of autoimmune disorders attack different body systems, MS happens to attack the cells in your brain responsible for normal movement and sensation, which results in sensations of numbness and burning as well as weakness and uncoordinated movement. Alemtuzumab will attack certain receptors on the main cells of the immune system (T and B cells), which basically wipes out the "attack cells" of the immune system so that they stop attacking your brain. The big thing that sets this drug apart from similar attempts in the past is that this drug leaves intact certain parts of the immune system which still allow you to fight diseases (not as well as you originally would have been able to, but enough).
This is a HUGE breakthrough for medicine- a completely unprecedented treatment for a disease previously thought to be incurable and degenerative. There are still some serious side effects to work out and it's only in phase II of testing, but here's hoping!

The International Electoral College: what if everyone voted?

The Economist has redrawn the electoral map to give all 195 of the world's countries (including the United States) a say in the election's outcome. As in America, each country has been allocated a minimum of three electoral-college votes with extra votes allocated in proportion to population size. With over 6.5 billion people enfranchised, the result is a much larger electoral college of 9,875 votes. But rally your countrymen—a nation must have at least ten individual votes in order to have its electoral-college votes counted.

There are few countries whose votes in the Global Electoral College are a foregone conclusion. So the winner is unlikely to be decided by a small number of "swing countries". Rather, they will have to cobble together a coalition of small, medium and large nations. (A campaign stop in Beijing is recommended, as well as a tour of Africa.) Voting in the Global Electoral College will close at midnight London time on November 1st, when the candidate with most electoral-college votes will be declared the winner.

Al Qaida endorses John McCain

In a twist of irony, Republican Presidential Nominee and US Senator John McCain recently received an endorsement from an unlikely source - Al Qaida. The endorsement came via a website with Al Qaida affiliations.

"If al-Qaida carries out a big operation against American interests," the message said, "this act will be support of McCain because it will push the Americans deliberately to vote for McCain so that he takes revenge for them against al-Qaida. Al-Qaida then will succeed in exhausting America till its last year in it."

It seems the terrorists are worried about the global financial crisis too.

XKCD: Scrabble

Oh the internal conflict and missed opportunities.

How could you believe that Bachmann was questioning Barack Obama's Patiotism when she questioned Barack Obama's Patiotism

So if you haven't already seen the modern day McCarthy in her element here's Congresswoman Bachmann reviving the House Unamerican Activities Committee.




Well now she's saying it was a 'misstatement'. I think I'd have to agree, if my opponent raised a million bucks off the stupid crap flying out of my mouth, I'd call it a misstatement too.

FORE!

MORGAN, Utah (AP) - A Utah sheriff's office has found that it shouldn't underestimate the golf cart as a getaway car.

A suspect in a souped-up cart managed to elude officers who pursued him last month through an alfalfa field - but only for a while. He was arrested the next day at his grandmother's house.

Officers started pursuing the driver after he was spotted spinning out in a city park in Morgan. He took off into an alfalfa field and jumped irrigation ditches that the sheriff's cruisers couldn't cross.

Morgan County Sheriff's Sgt. Scott Peay suspects the cart was fitted with a car engine instead of the original electric motor.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081019/D93TPEJG0.html

Turn your car into KITT

Have you ever watched Knight Rider and thought to yourself, "Damn, that would be sweet to have a car like that"? Well, now you can... sort of.

The Knight Rider GPS unit offers you turn-by-turn directions in the signature KITT voice, by none other than William Daniels aka Mr. Feeny.

Gimmicks aside, the unit is supposed to be pretty solid as far as GPS devices go. Even when the novelty wears off, you still have a quality piece of hardware on your dash.

Yes, We Carve (Si, Se Labrar)

Make your own Barack O'Lantern at Yes We Carve

No, it wasn't "robbery," it was...borrowing?

A Nebraska judge banned an accuser from using the words "rape" and "victim" during a trial. Instead she was forced to use words such as "sex."

Is it just me or are the connotations of these two words NOT the same?

He said it was because he was concerned about a fair trial for the defendant and didn't want others swayed by the language, but the trial was to determine if it was rape. We don't ban the word "murder" in a murder trial. And part of the evidence was a rape kit, to which she could not refer to as such.

Ridiculous.

Wrinkle reduction - yet another benefit of LEDs

That's right, exposure to high-intensity light from LEDs can actually smooth out wrinkles. The scientists in the study think they've cracked the secret:

the light penetrates the skin layers and removes built-up water molecules which stop the elastin in your skin from being so flexible. Hence smoothed-out wrinkles.

Just one more way that LEDs are revolutionizing your world.