Today, I am asking you to join 34,094 other Americans and email Congress urging them to take Rush Limbaugh off Armed Forces Radio.

Last week, Rush Limbaugh labeled American servicemembers who support an end to the war in Iraq  "phony soldiers."    

Were going directly to Congress to take him off the Armed Forces Radio airwaves.  Elected officials in Congress have the power to prevent Limbaugh from using taxpayers money to disrespect and censure the voices of our soldiers. 

Join us and hold Rush Limbaugh accountable for his offensive and outrageous comments -- tell your member of Congress to Dump Rush From Armed Forces Radio today!

Dear [ Decision Maker ],

(Edit Letter Below)

An influential inquiry into the future of Britains abortion laws will begin today amid controversy over an apparent attempt by faith-based organisations to skew the balance of evidence presented to the committee of MPs.

At least eight submissions of written evidence have come from medical professionals who have not disclosed their membership of Christian groups opposed to abortion on faith grounds. Six of the doctors are members or activists with the Christian Medical Fellowship, an organisation that has given its own evidence to the inquiry.

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Study: Gossip Trumps Truth

People are influenced by gossip about others, even when it contradicts what they see with their own eyes, suggests a new study.

Past research has found that gossip?those juicy tidbits of supposed fact we share about a third party?serves many purposes, including strengthening social ties, spreading social norms and helping others avoid double-crossers and other risky partners. 

Hearsay can be the most reliable source of information about situations for which you have no experience. But when you hear gossip thats incongruent with a person or incident you are familiar with, youd be smart to throw that chitchat out the window in favor of your own direct knowledge, right?

Sommerfeld and his colleagues examined how gossip transmitted information and how it affected another persons behavior.

The scientists suggest the added information might be an overload for participants, or perhaps people dont link cooperative behavior with gossip honesty.

Here we go again. Monday evening, Turkey blocked access to Wordpress blogs. As usual, bloggers and blog readers don?t have any clue about why the site has been censored. Like the last time, there are only ?rumours? flying in the air: ?Armenian blogs, insulting Turkey?? ?PKK supporters? blogs making propaganda?? ?Somebody said ?unwanted? things about Turkey?s likely military operation at Northern Iraq?? Blah blah blah.

Turkey is becoming a ?tough rival? for China and Myanmar at Internet censorship. A very short time ago, YouTube and Wordpress was blocked once again. With the new situation in the Middle East and Iraq, Turkey began losing its temper and ?free speech? has been slowly becoming a ?good old story?.

As soon as the ?reason? is declared by the authorities, I?ll update the entry here. For now, it is still very uncertain. (And we are fed up with this censorship strategy. Enough is enough.)

Adlee Bruner caught this 11-foot, 844.4 pound mako shark during a fishing rodeo Saturday near Destin, Fla. With a post-gutting weight of 638 pounds, it shattered the previous shark rodeo record of 339 pounds, according to the Associated Press.

The photograph was taken by William Hatfield of Northwest Florida Daily News. His paper has a tight shot of the sharks sharp teeth.

It was like Jaws ? 844-pound shark caught

Catch off Florida Panhandle shatters record in decades-old contest

DESTIN, Fla. - Six friends went to a fishing tournament looking to catch some grouper. They caught an 844-pound shark instead.

The fight by Adlee Bruner and friends to pull the 11-foot mako shark onto the boat from the Gulf of Mexico took more than an hour on Saturday. But when they made it back to land, it was a record for the decades-old Destin Fishing Rodeo.

?It was tense,? Bruner, 47, said about the fight to land the shark, which has a mouthful of huge, fearsome teeth. ?I?ve fished for 40 years. I?ve never see one that big.?

Bruner and his fishing buddies were on a 52-foot charter boat with Capt. Robert Hill, about 70 miles southwest of this beach city in the Florida Panhandle.

?It was like ?Jaws,?? Hill said.

The shark was hoisted at the rodeo before a big crowd. It tipped the scale at 844.4 pounds.

Government: Cold winter is predicted; seasonal cost for heating fuel to soar

NEW YORK - It?s going to be a much more expensive winter for households that depend on heating oil, the government predicted Tuesday, while those that use natural gas should experience only moderate price increases.

Heating oil customers will pay an average of $319, or 22 percent, more this winter than last in large part because of soaring crude oil prices, the Energy Department?s Energy Information Administration estimated. Natural gas customers are forecast to pay $78, or 10 percent, more for heat between October and March.

With all the problems facing this country, both in Iraq and at home, why is Congress spending time trying to pass a resolution condemning the massacre of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire nearly a century ago?

WASHINGTON - President Bush better not expand the Iraq war into Iran without the okay from Congress, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi warned Sunday.

With relations tense over Irans nuclear program and the White House charging that Iran funds and trains Iraqi insurgents, speculation has grown that the U.S. could hit Iran.

But Pelosi said thats not a reason to start a war with Tehran. "Whatever Irans impact is on our troops in Iraq should be dealt with in Iraq," Pelosi said on ABC. "We dont believe that any authorities that the President has would give him the ability to go in [to Iran] without an act of Congress."

She also was skeptical of a Senate decree calling Irans Revolutionary Guards a terror group, saying Congress has never called a unit of a countrys army "terrorists" before.

"What is the point?" she said.

    ACLU: DoD Sought Citizens Bank Records
    The Associated Press

    Monday 15 October 2007

    New York - The American Civil Liberties Union said Sunday that newly uncovered documents show that the Pentagon secretly sent hundreds of letters seeking the financial records of private citizens without court approval.

    "The expanded role of the military in domestic intelligence gathering is troubling," Melissa Goodman, staff attorney with the ACLUs National Security Project, told The Associated Press on Sunday. "These documents reveal that the military is gaining access to records here in the U.S. in secret and without any meaningful oversight. There are real concerns about the use of this intrusive surveillance power."

    Pete Peterson Doesnt Need His Social Security
    By Dean Baker
    t r u t h o u t | Perspective

The 50-Lawyer Poll

Defense attorneys who have tried terrorism cases score the legal systems response to 9/11

September 2007 Issue
By Mark Hansen and Stephanie Francis Ward

If you want to know how well the justice system is combating terrorism, you?ve got to talk to the lawyers involved.

So we asked 50 defense attorneys who?ve worked on federal terrorism cases since 9/11 their opinions of the legal war on terror. (We also asked 50 prosecutors, but U.S. Department of Justice spokesman Dean Boyd told assistant U.S. attorneys across the country not to participate. He declined to tell us his reason.)

Results from our interactive poll:

HUDSON, N.H. - Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards has spent two weeks questioning Sen. Hillary Rodham Clintons judgment in voting to declare the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization.

On Sunday, he questioned her sincerity.

Last month, Clinton was one of 75 senators who voted for a resolution giving the president the authority to call the guards terrorists. She has characterized the vote as a way to gain leverage for U.S. negotiations with Iran, but some of her rivals, including Edwards and Sen. Barack Obama, argue it amounted to giving Bush another blank check to go to war.

A judge on Wednesday ruled that Al Gore?s award winning climate change documentary ?An Inconvenient Truth? should only be shown in schools with guidance notes to prevent political indoctrination.

High Court judge Michael Burton?s decision follows legal action brought by a father of two last month claiming the former US vice-president?s film contained ?serious scientific inaccuracies, political propaganda and sentimental mush?.

New Orleans Hit by
Another "Hurricane of Racism,
Greed and Corruption"

WORKER ants accurately gauge their life expectancy, regardless of their actual age, and take on riskier tasks as they feel their days ebbing away.

In social insects such as ants, bees and wasps, workers change tasks depending on their age. Older workers do the relatively risky foraging outside the nest, while younger ones engage in safer maintenance tasks within it. By extending the workers average life span, this fine-tuning helps to maximise the fitness of the colony. However, no one knew whether the division of labour in ants was activated by age-related physiological changes or through some other mechanism.

To find out, Dawid Moron and his colleagues at Jagiellonian University in Poland set up 11 lab-based colonies of the ant Myrmica scabrinodis, made up of young worker ants. Within each colony, half of the ants had their life expectancy artificially reduced, either by exposure to carbon dioxide, which acidifies their ...

Lt. Michael P. Murphy, who grew up in Patchogue, is the first to recieve the award for service in Afghanistan, according to a Navy statement.

Murphy, who was 29 when he died, became the first Navy SEAL to earn the award since Vietnam, and the fourth SEAL ever to merit the distinction.

Murphys 4-man team was on a mission to find a Taliban leader in the mountains of the Hindu Kush region of Afghanistan when they came under fire.

Murphy was wounded, but he managed to crawl to an open area where he would be able to radio for help. He was then shot down by enemy bullets. Two others were killed in the conflagration. Due in large measure to Murphys bravery, the fourth man survived.

Read the full story of Michael Murphys heroism:

• An American Hero, part I
• An American Hero, part II

A priest has been interviewed by police on suspicion of inciting racial hatred for expressing his Christian views in his parish newsletter.

Father John Hayes, 71, was quizzed for more than an hour after commenting on the case of a Muslim girl who went to court over her wish to wear a full veil in class.

A fortnight ago officers knocked on the door of his home next to St Marys Church, Hornchurch. They said they had been sent by a superintendent.

A schoolkid in Ontario was complaining the other day that, whatever subject you do, you have to sit through Gores movie: It turns up in biology class, in geography, in physics, in history, in English.

Whatever youre studying, its all you need to know. It fulfils the same role in the schoolhouses of the guilt-ridden developed world that the Koran does in Pakistani madrassas.

MEXICALI, Mexico ? Mexican discount airlines are using rock-bottom fares to cater to legal and illegal migrants heading for the USA.

The new airlines ? known among fliers as Aeromigrante, or "Migrant Air" ? take passengers from central or southern Mexico to cities along the northern border such as Tijuana and Mexicali. From there, customers make their way across the U.S. border.

The flights are part of a booming services industry for the estimated 13 million Mexican and Central American migrants who reside in the USA. Passengers who used to make bus trips of several days can arrive at the border well-rested for the often dangerous crossing.

KINSHASA Humanitarian workers have expressed alarm at fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo that has displaced hundreds of thousands of civilians in the east.

?Heightened levels of insecurity in the province have rendered vast areas inaccessible to humanitarian actors,? the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) said in a statement about clashes in Nord-Kivu province.

Since August the fighting has displaced about 370,000 people and prevented the UN World Food Programme from delivering relief aid to nearly 19,000 people in need. Ocha called on both sides of the conflict to ?respect fundamental humanitarian principles?, protect the civilian population and refrain from recruiting child fighters.

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Dick Cheney has ordered top Neo-Con media outlets, including Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, to unleash a PR blitz to sell a war with Iran from today, according to Barnett Rubin, the highly respected Afghanistan expert at New York University.

President Bush met directly with talk radio idealogues at the White House last year to push the Neo-Con agenda. Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Neal Boortz and Michael Medved (pictured below) amongst others all attended and received their talking points straight from the Presidents mouth.

Considering the history of the sordid "fake news" scandal, where millions of dollars were used to create pre-packaged government press releases disguised as news, along with the Armstrong Williams farce, it should surprise no one that such "instructions" are now being handed out to prepare the public for another military invasion.

Although we cannot experience the extra time dimension directly, we can effectively notice it through the different perspectives of the different "shadows".

Faith is different from proof; the latter is human, the former is a Gift from God. --Blaise Pascal

Doubt isnt the opposite of faith; it is an element of faith. --Paul Tillich

Faith is the master, and reason the maid-servant. --- Martin Luther

Fanaticism is...overcompensation for doubt. -- Robertson Davies

Faith is the refusal to panic. --David Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Man is what he believes.-Anton Chekhov

* From the poem "Khaibar" by Mohammed Reza Abdol-Malakian.

An asteroid is on a collision course with the earth and you have one hour left to live. What would you do in your last 60 minutes?

Most Britons (54%) said they?d talk to their loved ones.

13% said they ?would sit back, accept the inevitable and reach for a glass of champagne.?

9% ? Sex.

3% ? Prayer. (Just 3%?!)

2% ? Eat fatty foods.

2% ? Loot.

I wonder what the stats would be here in the much more religious US? Would more people ?turn to prayer? in such a situation, or would the reality of immanent death show up their real priorities?

Talking the loved ones is a realistic, safe answer. But it?s not that surprising?

I?m sure we could be more creative with our second choices.

What is it about Mr. Gore that drives right-wingers insane?

This is a planet in denial. While the existential question gets a red hot "apocalypse now" for an answer, our stock markets seem to have regained paradise lost.

We are witnessing nothing less than historys first confluence of unsustainable "peaks."

Perhaps, we are incapable of piecing them all, for when crude oil reached an all-time intra-day high of $84.10 per barrel on Sept 20, its entitlement to a front pager screamer was conceded to the tale of a few thousand empty -- or emptying -- American homes.

It was like the Butterfly Effect, with a twist. The flapping rooftops of confiscated homes were now whipping up an economic tsunami worldwide.

Here is how it works.

Well, it was bound to happen: Linux vendors Red Hat and Novell have been sued for patent infringement. Groklaw is reporting that on Tuesday, the two companies were sued by IP Innovation LLC and Technology Licensing Corp. for violating three patents having to do with windowing user interfaces.

The lawsuit represents the first test of what happens when open source collides with patents, and its interesting for a couple reasons. First, notice that all the other Linux vendors are missing from the defendants list, most notably IBM. That could be because IBM has already licensed the patents in a different context. (In June, Apple settled a patent infringement lawsuit with the same plaintiffs over at least one of the patents involved here.)

Will the suit hold up? Its too soon to tell, especially with the U.S. Supreme Courts new standards for obviousness. Stay tuned.

?We?ve Treated The Arab World As A Collection Of Big Gas Stations?

What Cats Know About War

That is when I heard it: the cry of an abandoned kitten, somewhere out in the darkness, calling for its mother somewhere inside the compound. By an animal lover?s anthropomorphic logic, those desperate calls, three nights running, had come to seem more than the appeal of a tiny creature doomed to a cold and lonely death. Deep in the winter night, they seemed like a dismal tocsin for all who suffer in a time of war.

NOBILITY Iraq?s strays inherit land said to have given rise to all domestic cats.

The Nobel win for Gore, who helped negotiate Kyoto, prompted speculation over whether it would add to pressure on Bush to shift his approach on global warming and accept the kinds of mandatory caps that many European countries view as necessary to tackle the problem.

Explanation: The New Horizons spacecraft took some stunning images of Jupiter earlier this year while on the way out to Pluto. Famous for its Great Red Spot, Jupiter is also known for its regular, equatorial cloud bands, visible through even modest sized telescopes. The above image was taken near Jupiters terminator, and shows that the Jovian giant possibly has the widest diversity of cloud patterns in our Solar System. On the far left are clouds closest to Jupiters south pole. Here turbulent whirlpools and swirls are seen in a dark region, dubbed a belt, that rings the planet. Even light colored regions, called zones, show tremendous structure, complete with complex wave patterns. The energy that drives these waves likely comes from below. New Horizons is the fastest space probe ever launched, and is zipping through the Solar System on track to reach Pluto in 2015.

When aging hampers memory, some peoples brains compensate to stay sharp. Now scientists want to know how those brains make do

Forecast: Sex and Marriage with Robots by 2050

Humans could marry robots within the century. And consummate those vows.

In his thesis, "Intimate Relationships with Artificial Partners," Levy conjectures that robots will become so human-like in appearance, function and personality that many people will fall in love with them, have sex with them and even marry them.

"It may sound a little weird, but it isnt," Levy said. "Love and sex with robots are inevitable."

Levy argues that psychologists have identified roughly a dozen basic reasons why people fall in love, "and almost all of them could apply to human-robot relationships. For instance, one thing that prompts people to fall in love are similarities in personality and knowledge, and all of this is programmable. Another reason people are more likely to fall in love is if they know the other person likes them, and thats programmable too."

"My fellow Americans," they would have said, "Saddam Hussein hates our guts. He has tons and tons of oil. The worlds oil resources are dwindling and the competition is fierce. Our economy would collapse if oil went up to, say, $120 a barrel. Now, how many American lives would you spend to get our good American hands on that good Iraqi oil? Oh, and by the way, Saddam Husseins an evil man."

Do not believe what your teacher tells you
merely out of respect for the teacher.

But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis,
you find to be conducive to the good,
the benefit, the welfare of all beings ?
that doctrine believe and cling to,
and take it as your guide.

- Gautama Buddha

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Nelson Mandela is still very much alive despite an embarrassing gaffe by U.S. President George W. Bush, who alluded to the former South African leaders death in an attempt to explain sectarian violence in Iraq.

"Its out there. All we can do is reassure people, especially South Africans, that President Mandela is alive," Achmat Dangor, chief executive officer of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, said as Bushs comments received worldwide coverage.

In a speech defending his administrations Iraq policy, Bush said former Iraqi President Saddam Husseins brutality had made it impossible for a unifying leader to emerge and stop the sectarian violence that has engulfed the Middle Eastern nation.

"I heard somebody say, Wheres Mandela? Well, Mandelas dead because Saddam Hussein killed all the Mandelas," Bush, who has a reputation for verbal faux pas, said in a press conference in Washington on Thursday.

George Washingtons Blog
Tuesday October 16, 2007

Research has shown that mindful awareness benefits children on many levels (to find out more, click here ). When kids learn simple mindfulness-based techniques (also called attention training), they gain an understanding of their own thoughts and feelings, and the skills to respond in healthy, responsible ways. Mindfulness also helps kids learn better?improving their concentration, confidence and academic performance.

Affluence is not a protection against them and may, in some cases, make people more vulnerable.

WASHINGTON - The Food and Drug Administration is moving with unprecedented speed to launch a drug research center to be paid for by companies it regulates.

The goal of the Reagan-Udall Foundation, approved by Congress and signed into law late last month, is to streamline and improve the development of drugs and medical devices, a goal long sought by regulators and the biggest players in the industry, such as Merck & Co., Pfizer Inc., Wyeth, GlaxoSmithKline PLC, and Johnson & Johnson.

At a time when the FDA?s reputation has been battered by perceptions that it is lax on some safety issues and too cozy with drug makers, consumer advocates say the loosely defined partnership increases the agency?s vulnerability to industry clout despite its promise of groundbreaking success. It?s an ambitious undertaking that puts regulators and companies in a relationship unlike that of any other industry.

Comic Strip Character Succumbs to Breast Cancer Sparking Praise, Outrage

The decision by cartoonist Tim Batiuk to have Lisa Moore, the cartoon strips wife, mother and lawyer, succumb to breast cancer last week has sparked both praise and anger, ABC News reports.

"People have been incredibly kind and generous," cartoonist Tim Batiuk told ABC News, adding that hundreds of fans have e-mailed him about the story line.

But others are unhappy. "You are a man who seems to be without any idea of the pain (you) are inflicting," wrote one grandmother on TheCancerBlog.com. "You do not have the right to put this horror in a family newspaper."

President Bush admonished Congress on Monday for failing to send him a single spending bill yet, and warned lawmakers to trim their plans or face rejection.

"Youre fixin to see what they call a fiscal showdown in Washington," Bush told a friendly audience in this northwest Arkansas community.

"The Congress gets to propose, and if it doesnt meet needs as far as Im concerned, I get to veto," Bush said. "Thats precisely what I intend to do."

Dinosaur Skeleton Found in Argentina

Scientists have already used inkjet printers to "print" bacteria, yeast and even human stem cells and they are exploring how to use the office workhorse to create 3D cell structures in a tissue matrix.

CHICAGO (AFP) ? The inkjet printer may appear to be an unlikely solution to the organ donor shortage problem, but it might not be as far-fetched as it sounds.

If they can figure out how to create more complex tissues, they will be one step closer to creating implantable organs, a scientist said in a paper published in the journal Science Friday.

Following the growing outrage of some Zionists as well as crypto Zionists at my critical writings, I find it important to mention that in none of my political texts or interviews have I ever used any kind of racially orientated arguments. My criticism of Zionism and Jewish identity is merely ideological and philosophical.

For me racism is categorically wrong and it is that very realisation that made me into a devoted opponent of Israel and of Zionism.

Anyhow, in case you in find an idea or a thought in my writings that may contain a trace of racism please contact me immediately. I will then either clarify my position or amend my text.

Saying NO to the Hunters of Goliath

The 3rd Category and the Palestinian Solidarity Movement

One Hundred Years of Jewish Solitude

From Esther to AIPAC

Dialectic of Negation

A Glimpse Into Israeli Collective Psychosis

Zionism and other Marginal Thoughts

The Goy Hater and the Self Hater

More Papers:

The skeleton of what is believed to be a new dinosaur species -- a 105-foot plant-eater that is among the largest dinosaurs ever found -- has been uncovered in Argentina, scientists said Monday.

Scientists from Argentina and Brazil said the Patagonian dinosaur appears to represent a previously unknown species of Titanosaur because of the unique structure of its neck. They named it Futalognkosaurus dukei after the Mapuche Indian words for "giant" and "chief," and for Duke Energy Argentina, which helped fund the skeletons excavation

Scientists said the giant herbivore walked the Earth some 88 million years ago, during the late Cretaceous period.

In 1998, President Bill Clinton hailed Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi as the leader of an African renaissance. Today, human-rights groups say his security forces are raping and murdering civilians while fighting insurgents seeking autonomy in the Ogaden region.

While the U.S. House of Representatives has passed a bill linking some Ethiopian military aid to support for human rights and democracy, President George W. Bush remains firm in his backing of Zenawi, 52, whom he considers an important ally in preventing al Qaeda from gaining a foothold in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is the latest example of the war on terror trumping Bushs goal of spreading democracy around the globe.

If Congress has gone nearly a century without passing a resolution accusing the Turks of genocide, why now, in the midst of the Iraq war?

It is hard to avoid the conclusion that this resolution is just the latest in a series of Congressional efforts to sabotage the conduct of that war.

In this touchy situation, why stir up a hornets nest over something in the past that neither we nor anybody else can do anything about today?

Japan has yet to acknowledge its atrocities from the Second World War. Yet the Congress of the United States does not try to make worldwide pariahs of todays Japanese, most of whom were not even born when those atrocities occurred.

A federal judge in Seattle recently ruled that a school district did not violate a student?s First Amendment rights by banning the song ?Ave Maria? from a 2006 commencement ceremony.

School administrators denied the ensemble?s request to play ?Ave Maria,? stating that graduation music was required to be ?entirely secular in nature.? Nurre filed a suit against Everett School District Superintendent Carol Whitehead shortly after the ceremony, saying the district violated her free-speech and religious rights.

In a summary judgment issued Sept. 20, U.S. District Judge Robert S. Lasnik ruled in favor of the school district, writing that the school?s ?prohibition of the performance of ?Ave Maria? was based on the decision to keep religion out of graduation as a whole, not to discriminate against a specific religious sect or creed.?

Banksy is a well-known yet pseudo-anonymous English graffiti artist, possibly named Robert Banks. His artworks are often satirical pieces of art which encompass topics from politics, culture, and ethics. His street art, which combines graffiti with a distinctive stenciling technique, has appeared in London and in cities around the world.

World?s Weirdest Moths

Brahmin Moth

Luna Moth

Hummingbird Hawkmoth

The Hummingbird Hawkmoth (Macroglossum stellatarum) looks like a hummingbird. It hums when it flies, hovers and feeds on flowers just like one, too - so it?s easy to mistake one for a tiny bird!

Atlas Moth and White Witch

White witch moth (Thysania agrippina). Image: Stephane Larroque

Hornet Moth

Io Moth

Giant Leopard moth. Image: normanack [Flickr]

White Plume Moth

Poplar Hawk Moth

Death?s Head Hawkmoth

Io moth larva. Image: sarowen [Flickr]

Butterflies and moths belong to the order Lepidoptera, which is derived from the Greek words for "scaled wing." There are over 180,000 species in this order, only about 10 percent, however, are butterflies - the rest are moths. The first primitive moths evolved over 140 million years ago (butterflies, the belles of the ball, came fashionably late about 40 million years ago).

But theres no getting away from the fact that he is still no bigger than a tea cup.

Tetley the miniature pig is the smallest of a litter of eight piglets born to his mum, Poppy Two Socks.

After several false pregnancies the miniature pig gave birth to her brood at Pennywell Farm in Buckfastleigh, Devon.

And Tetley, clearly keen on a cuppa himself, has grown no taller than three inches high and five inches long.

Pennywell miniature pigs are bred from a range of old English strains and grow no bigger than the size of a cocker spaniel.

Most of the litter will be sold as pets with the others kept at the farm for future breeding.

Pennywell owner Chris Murray said "Tetley is the star of the farmyard."

richer areas fared much worse when it came to hazardous levels of drinking. In Runnymede, some 26.4% of adults were reported to drink in this way - over one in four of the population.

Yellowstone Wolves: Embattled Again

Top best 50 free tools for your website

From Treasury Department records it appears that the first suggestion that God be recognized on U.S. coinage can be traced to a letter addressed to the Secretary of Treasury from a minister in 1861. An Act of Congress, approved on April 11, 1864, authorized the coinage of two-cent coins upon which the motto first appeared.

Several years ago, the appearance of "In God We Trust" on our money was challenged in the federal courts. The challenge was rejected by the lower federal courts, and the Supreme Court of the United States declined to review the case.

The coinage was totally secular; as clean from a mention of god as was the Constitution.

Roosevelt tried to have the motto removed, saying that it was offensive to truly religious people, that it cheapened religion, etc, but Congress refused to remove it, and so it remains to this day.

The first coins with that motto were issued in 1907.

The Seattle Times has a story about the $4.5 million boat that you paid to build, even though the U.S. Navy didnt need it and ended up giving it to the University of Washington.

The "sleek, 85-foot speedboat" is one of the vessels purchased with $17.65 million in earmarks that Sen. Patty Murray and Reps. Norm Dicks and Brian Baird slipped into spending bills. The Democrats used those provisions to force the Navy and Coast Guard to buy unwanted maritime vessels, according to the Times.

Heres a list of contributions by persons associated with Guardian Marine. OpenSecrets.org has a good overview of contributions by people who work for the defense industry.

Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites

Our picks for the top new or under-the-radar sites of 2007. You may not know many of the sites on this list, but you should.

So heres the fun stuff: Our list of the new and/or undiscovered Web sites that have grabbed our attention this year. Youll see a large collection of Web applications and tech sites, excellent blogs, offbeat social networks, and, as always, a handful of addictive Flash games for those slow days at work.

Some of these sites are completely under the radar and get very little traffic. Others are hugely popular within a specific demographic. But all of them deserve to be in your bookmarks.

Castro finally dies at age 112; Cuban cigars can now be imported legally, but President Chelsea Clinton has banned all smoking.

Democratic leaders have scheduled a vote Tuesday on a bill (HR 3678) that would extend for four years the existing ban on taxing Internet access, which is scheduled to expire Nov. 1.

Although supporters of making the tax ban permanent almost certainly would have enough votes to amend the bill more to their liking, it is scheduled for consideration under suspension of the rules, a procedure that bars amendments and is usually reserved for less controversial legislation.

?Basically, what the Democratic leadership has said is, ?Here?s four years, take it or leave it,? ? said Republican Robert W. Goodlatte of Virginia, cosponsor of a bill that would permanently ban Internet-access taxes. ?Congress will probably take it, but I don?t know. We?ll have to wait and see what the vote is.?