?He of course condemns the crimes that Michael Vick was convicted of but, as hes said previously, he does think that individuals who have paid for their crimes should have an opportunity to contribute to society again,? White House deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton told ABC News.

SI.com?s Peter King reported Monday that Lurie told him, the President said, ?So many people who serve time never get a fair second chance. He was ... passionate about it. He said its never a level playing field for prisoners when they get out of jail. And he was happy that we did something on such a national stage that showed our faith in giving someone a second chance after such a major downfall.

Ralph Lauren Car Collection

"Give me control over a nations currency, and I care not who makes its laws"

Additionally, he argued, God shut down major airports in the New York area ?so that people who were hoping to fly to do something of a gay nature would have to take a train or a bus, so it might be days before the gay thing they were going to do could occur.?

As for the millions of straight people in New York City who were also grounded by the bad weather, the televangelist said, ?I think God probably wonders, if these people are really straight, then what are they doing in New York??

In other blizzard-related news, the National Weather Service offered this update: ?It?s as white as a Glenn Beck rally out there.?

?We couldn?t find three wise men,? Tea Party holiday coordinator Carol Foyler told reporters.  ?It?s too bad, because we had plenty of sheep.?

Ms. Foyler said that the Tea Party was hoping to replace its Christmas pageant, however, with an ambitious staging of the Book of Revelation.

?We already have Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, and Christine O?Donnell lined up,? she said.  ?One more Horseman and we?re good to go.?

As more than 3,000 Americans sit on death row, we revere the birth of a godly man who was arrested, ?tried,? sentenced, and put to death by the state. The Passion is the story of an execution, and the Stations of the Cross trace the path of a Dead Man Walking.

Less well known is the fact that Saint Nicholas, the early Christian saint who inspired Santa Claus, was once a prisoner, like one in every 100 Americans today. Though he was beloved for his kindness and generosity, Nicholas acquired sainthood not by giving alms, but in part by performing a miracle that more or less amounted to a prison break.

Whats more, if the production spreads, much of the waste that is involved with cooking - like pots and pans and the expensive transportation of odd-shaped vegetables and fruits would disappear faster than you could say Please God, no.

[Via the BBC and Cornell]

Scrapping ID cards is a momentous step

ID cards represented the worst of government. Abolishing them is a statement of our intent to create a fairer and freer society

So it is with enormous pleasure that I celebrate as the identity documents bill passes into law and scraps the ability of the state to gather volumes of personal biographical and biometric information from citizens without the data serving any specific purpose or benefit.

Internet censure becomes worldwide the standard

`Disgrace! This way Western governments concerning the new Internet law called which Venezuelan woman sailed in parliament yesterday. Venezuelans can be taken up as of now if them online put information those `the authorities offends, hatred sows or disorder under the public veroorzaakt. `you cleanest censure and violation of the freedom of meningsuiting, reacted Western governments incensed. But meanwhile they brood on measures to increase their control concerning the information flow on the web. Some examples:

For the second time this month, 60% of Likely Voters at least somewhat favor repeal of the national health care law, while the number who expect health care costs to increase is at its highest level since August.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 49% Strongly Favor repeal of the plan. Thirty-eight percent (38%) oppose the law?s repeal, including 29% who Strongly Oppose repeal. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Of course, that level of sensitivity is not applied when it comes to slamming Christianity during the Christmas season. On Dec. 16, The Washington Post paid tribute to another suburban school in northern Virginia, McLean High School, for warming hearts during the season with "The Laramie Project." This play is a political assault, using transcripts of real-life interviews by gay activists out to blame Americas religious people for the beating death of homosexual college student Matthew Shepard in 1998.

Making people "have conversations" is presented as glorious. But it wouldnt be a constructive conversation if students were trying to convert people to Christianity -- only when you try to convert people away from it.

Fuji, the Bionic Dolphin With the Artificial Fin (video)

As in the real world, cyberspace has bad neighborhoods.  But unlike the real world, risks in cyberspace are not easy to spot -- and the location of those digital bad neighborhoods can change all the time.

On to the list. We will begin with the biggest consumer-grade threats, then work our way up to the most dramatic possibilities created by the success of Stuxnet and WikiLeaks.

Images made by blind and visually-impaired photographers

The team sequenced the DNA of a variety of Theobroma cacao, considered to produce the worlds finest chocolate. The Maya domesticated this variety of Theobroma cacao, Criollo, about 3,000 years ago in Central America, and it is one of the oldest domesticated tree crops. Today, many growers prefer to grow hybrid cacao trees that produce chocolate of lower quality but are more resistant to disease.

"Fine cocoa production is estimated to be less than 5 percent of the world cocoa production because of low productivity and disease susceptibility,"

Feminism Explained

The Pigford Case and Why the NY Times Doesn?t Want to Talk About It

This is pretty amazing in a number of ways:

This should be a case about public corruption, one that involves the President since he recently signed off on more money for this settlement. There are three reasons it?s not on the front page of the NY Times.

Reason 1: There were some real victims here, black victims. That?s shameful. No one likes to linger on their shame, especially not the government. And that goes for media outlets who, by and large, are on the current administration?s side.

Chris Matthews Asks Obama to Release Birth Certificate

Expensive: Traditional escalators loop the steps underneath the staircase to take them back to the start. Half the steps are hidden away and never in use and the up and down escalators require two separate loops

The concept isnt that far removed from the conveyor belts used to deliver food in Japanese sushi restaurants

Futuristic: The Levytator, named after its inventor Jack Levy, is the worlds first escalator capable of following free-form curves

The Levytator, named after its inventor Jack Levy, professor of mechanical engineering at City University in London, is the worlds first escalator capable of following free-form curves.

It is already being nicknamed the Sushi-lator because of its curved modules, which resemble the conveyor belts used to deliver food in trendy Japanese restaurants.

Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie recently announced that he was offended by the so-called ?birther? movement and would try to publicly release President Barack Obama?s birth certificate ? whether the White House wants him to or not ? in an attempt to finally put the debate to rest:

?It?s not up to the President. It has nothing to do with the President,? Abercrombie told CNN?s Ed Henry Monday. ?This has to do with the people of Hawaii who love him. People who loved his mom and dad. This has to do with respect to the office of the president that he?s entitled to and it has to do with the respect that every single person?s mother and father are entitled to.?

Living Inside A Snow Globe

The biggest problem with most alien films is the assumption that theyd want anything that might keep us alive for even a second. Theres a possiblity theyd want slaves, pack animals or meat, but what are the chances wed be any good to them at all? Life is a light dust of carbon between an nitrogen-oxygen vapor and an iron core. Our biosphere would probably be a nuisance to them. Its hard to match complex biology. Its easy and profitable to harvest elements, though, and if they came across space, that very well might be what they were looking for. Perhaps the best, most realistic, movie that could be made about alien contact is the two hellish hours a small band of survivors of the initial strike would last as they saw the planet ripped apart and broken down under them.

The point is, if they dont want us alive, we wont be. We can fight and we can hack and we can find weaknesses and we can band together. We can do whatever wed like. Wed still all be killed.

We have a new candidate for the Redonk Dramatic Society, in this shocked hamster. Enjoy it here in its pure form, before the inevitable music is added:

MIAMI ? It was three months into Barack Obamas presidency, and the administration -- under pressure to do something about alleged abuses in Bush-era interrogation policies -- turned to a Florida senator to deliver a sensitive message to Spain:

Dont indict former President George W. Bushs legal brain trust for alleged torture in the treatment of war on terror detainees, warned Mel Martinez on one of his frequent trips to Madrid. Doing so would chill U.S.-Spanish relations.

Rather than a resolution, though, a senior Spanish diplomat gave the former GOP chairman and housing secretary a lesson in Spains separation of powers. "The independence of the judiciary and the process must be respected, then-acting Foreign Minister Angel Lossada replied on April 15, 2009. Then for emphasis, "Lossada reiterated to Martinez that the executive branch of government could not close any judicial investigation and urged that this case not affect the overall relationship.

I often hear folks arguing that environmentalism is all about sacrifice?giving up this, banning that. But from eating less meat to requesting smaller portions, often we can cut back on our consumption without giving up our guilty pleasures completely. Heck, it can even be a great way to rediscover and revalue things we have come to take for granted.

And because going green often saves money, a recession is a great time to start reevaluating your consumption patterns. Add to that the mass of clutter and stuff that seems to just accumulate, all on its own, over the holidays, and things can get downright messy. In my own efforts to buy less, save more, and reduce the amount I consume, I?ve found myself developing a few mental habits and strategies for asking myself what I really want, and how badly.

Here are a few to get you started, but I?d love to hear your suggestions.

Untreated sleep apnea can increase the risk of high blood pressure, arrhythmias, heart attack, heart failure, stroke, obesity and diabetes. Due to inadequate sleep, sleep apnea can also increase the chance of having a work-related or driving accident.

The National Journal reports that Senate Democrats are laying the groundwork to chip away at the filibuster on January 5, 2011.  They are going to push the idea that a simple majority of the Senate can abolish the filibuster rules, or radically change the rules, in a new Congress. 

They are angry that they could not railroad through the Senate legislation imposing Card Check, a Public Option for ObamaCare and Climate Change.  Now it is pay back time. 

Silly Products That Made Millions

Want to get rich quick? It?s best to have a blockbuster product. But in case there?s no flash of inspiration, don?t worry. There?s still hope. A few lucky inventors, entrepreneurs, and marketers have hit the jackpot with silly ideas that have just the right combination of humor and utility to move tons of units and bring in piles of revenue. Here are 11 ideas that made the cut, and the cash.

Silly Products That Made Millions

Want a History-Making 2011? Make Your UnList

If you follow what?s in this post, you?ll accomplish something history making in 2011, and likely tick off some people in the process.

We all know New Year?s Resolutions don?t work.  They create new problems and start a cycle that brings us back to where we started.  What to do instead?  Go the land of Not, meaning resolve to not do something anymore.  ?Not? is about behaviors, time sucks, things that add no value but that have you as their servants.  The more things you cut out, the more time you?ll have for what matters.  You will do something history making in 2011 by making a space for it.  Here are three kinds of activities you should cut at work.

Conservatives have a legislative agenda for 2011 that will hurt your ability to get or keep a job, your neighborhoods ability to recover from the recession and this countrys ability to regain its footing in the global economy.

To keep conservatives from enacting policies that will kill a nascent economic recovery, progressives will have to organize against these top 10 economy killers.

This is just weird

We all know how weird Japan is.  If you don?t know then you really should.  I mean just look at some of the game shows that go on over there.   And let?s not forget about their wacky sexual practices.  Let?s just say that bowels and another form of humiliation is not exactly how the free world should want to get off.

So why should it be any different in their Brothel system? Actually, it?s not.  From weird role playing rooms to Hello Kitty, this place is just about all you could expect from Japan.

via:

Stereo Images (Precipitating Snow)

Cross your eyes, relax your vision until there are three images, then focus on the center image

Small earthquake rattles southern Quebec

A small earthquake measuring 3.1 in magnitude struck in southern Quebec on Monday morning, local residents reported.

The temblor occurred in an area near Buckingham, Que., at about 11:08 a.m. local time, Earthquakes Canada said.

A 3.0-magnitude earthquake typically produces a low rumble but causes no damage to property or the environment, according to Earthquakes Canada.

Mondays tremor isnt that unusual. Several minor earthquakes occur in the Ottawa and St. Lawrence valleys each year.

About a dozen have been reported in southwestern Quebec in the last month, although most had a magnitude of less than two.

Most earthquakes in Canada arent felt above ground, according to the Geological Survey of Canada.

At a magnitude of 8.1, the largest earthquake ever recorded in Canada struck off the Queen Charlotte Islands on B.C.s coast in August 1949.

The federal agency records and locates more than 4,000 earthquakes in Canada each year.

But whatever you call these panels that make end-of-life cost-cutting recommendations that doctors are paid to pass on to patients ? the New York Times just broke a huge story: they?re ba-a-ck. And somehow they?re even more intense. Whereas the House had passed a version of the bill that would arrange for consults once every five years, now target populations will have these chats with incentivized doctors every year.

Cuts protester jumps off Romanian parliament balcony

Adrian Sobaru, 40, who was wearing a T-shirt with the words ?You?ve killed our children?s future? escaped without serious injury in the 7m (23ft) plunge.

The father-of two performed his stunt in front of prime minister Emil Boc, who was fighting a vote of no confidence after reducing public sector wages by 25 per cent and cutting benefits. 

The President Who Told The TRUTH

20 Works of ?Garbage Art?

Why waste money and add to the world?s waste by buying art materials when there are so many strange and interesting objects out there to use for design projects instead? From small found objects to entire abandoned houses, the sky is the limit when it comes to the palettes of these amazing trash artists. Their subject matter is about as varied as their material choices, ranging from self-portraiture and crushed can paintings to imitations of Monet?s masterpieces and gigantic sculpture parks.

Looking At The Life And Times Of Thelonious Monk

Kelley is currently completing a book about the relationship between jazz and African culture, Speaking in Tongues: Jazz and Modern Africa.

Kelleys book traces Monks music journey from childhood piano lessons to late night concerts in the Village and offers a behind-the-scenes view of historic recording sessions for classic albums like Brilliant Corners and Monks Music.

Thelonious Monk: The Life And Times Of An American Original
By Robin D.G. Kelley
Paperback, 624 Pages
Free Press
List Price: $18

Robin D.G. Kelleys book Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original is now out in paperback. This interview was originally broadcast on December 8, 2009.

Researchers: Ancient human (400,000-year-old) remains found in Israel

About the exhibition

Sunflower Seeds is made up of millions of small works, each apparently identical, but actually unique. However realistic they may seem, these life-sized sunflower seed husks are in fact intricately hand-crafted in porcelain. 

Porcelain is almost synonymous with China and, to make this work, Ai Weiwei has manipulated traditional methods of crafting what has historically been one of China?s most prized exports. Sunflower Seeds invites us to look more closely at the ?Made in China? phenomenon and the geo-politics of cultural and economic exchange today.

Ai Weiwei: Sunflower seeds

A beach? Ashes? Real? Fake? Art? Ai Weiweis sunflower seeds, all 100,000,000
of the handmade things will cause debate.

Holiday secrecy and nefarious dealings by Democides. Earl Blumenauer releases private (or nearly so) email alert to not disseminate ?accomplishment? of yearly doc-patient conversations re end of life decisions. Huh? Secrecy. Holiday distractions with secrecy the goal?to what? End of life pressures. To reduce costs on the other end of life for the elderly so the young can go to the emergency room to get more antibiotics or learn about the benefit of carrots. Wellness? What BS. Earl Blumenauer supports incentivized for doc?s death $$$?..Shame on Blumenauer and the Democides. Sneaky, despicable bastards!!!!  Shhhhh! Keep it Secret?Maybe No One Will Know!!!  Shhhh!

Almost Everything Is A Crime In America Now: 14 Of The Most Ridiculous Things That Americans Are Being Arrested For

QI Fact of the Day

The third commonest cause of death at work in the US is murder. In 2007, 677 people were murdered at work - including 50 policemen and 205 salespeople.

High Dynamic Range photography (HDR Photography) is taking the entire world by storm at the moment, which is not really surprising given that when done correctly the images can range from utterly gorgeous to absolutely mind-blowing. There appears to be no less complicated technique to take a photo that is certain to amaze audiences, particularly those audiences who have not yet been subjected to significant amounts of it. This is wonderful for photography enthusiasts as well as beginner photographers. Here is a collection of some stunning HDR artworks done by Javier Alvarez.

22 Photos

Elton John and partner David Furnish welcome baby boy via surrogate

Its a boy for Sir Elton John and his longtime partner, David Furnish.

The two announced they were the proud parents of Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John, born Christmas Day to a surrogate in California, USMagazine.com reported Monday night.

"We are overwhelmed with happiness and joy at this special moment," the proud papas, who married in 2005, told the website in a joint statement.

They arent the first celeb couple to have a baby via a surrogate this year. In October "How I Met Your Mother" star Neil Patrick Harris and his partner David Burtka welcomed adorable twins born to a surrogate mother.

For John and Furnish, the baby joy came after the Ukraine government rejected their plea to adopt a 14-month-old child that was HIV-positive.

Luckily, there is now a happier ending for the couple.

As Opposed to Bellowing Bishops

Leading edge of U.S. baby boomers content: survey

While many boomers turning 65 next year have concerns about financial security and health, the survey found 82 percent are optimistic about the next five years, according to a survey released by the AARP, an influential advocacy group for older Americans.

"They are looking forward to being around for a good many years to come and unlike previous generations, 40 percent of (those working) say they never are going to retire. They are going to work until they drop," Cone said.

Mum leaves baby alone in van

A mother who left her baby alone in a van in searing heat while she went shopping will not be charged.

Traffic wardens discovered the baby, believed to be six to eight weeks old, in a van at about 11am on Christmas Eve in Whangarei. Temperatures on the day reached over 30degC.

"It was only for a short period of time and the mother returned shortly after police arrived," Senior Sergeant Vicki Allen said.

A report has been filed with Child, Youth and Family Services and no further action would be taken.

The mother said she had left the child for only a few seconds while she went into a store to pick up a few things, but the shop had been far busier than she expected and she had had to wait.

Toy plane blamed for Auckland fire

A Christmas toy plane is being blamed for causing a fire that nearly claimed the lives of an Auckland family over Christmas.

The remote-controlled plane, bought online for $150, was given to 17-year-old Dylan Tooth for Christmas.

It is believed to have started a fire in Dylans bedroom while he was out, The New Zealand Herald reported.

Fire investigators said if a fire alarm network, which set all seven alarms off when triggered by a smoke detector, had not been installed, the family may have died.

"I sort of groaned, thinking it was the battery, but when I opened the door to [Dylans] bedroom, there were flames a metre high coming from his bed.

The Chinese manufactured plane was bought from online store 1day.com and is no longer available for sale on the bargain site.

Fire Service senior station officer Neville Trevarton said it was "pretty clear" the model plane set the house alight and planned to approach the seller.

Voyager 1 News: Probe Now Crossing Where a Mighty Wind Ceases to Blow

Technically, everything within our solar system could be said to exist in the suns atmosphere.

This supersonic wind forms a bubble around our entire solar system called the heliosphere.

Now, scientists announced today, Voyager 1 has reached the part of the heliosheath where the outward speed of the solar wind has dropped?to zero.

"When I realized that we were getting solid zeroes, I was amazed," said Voyager co-investigator Rob Decker.

"Here was Voyager, a spacecraft that has been a workhorse for 33 years, showing
us something completely new again."

Book Smart

Cold swimming: Come on in, the waters icy

Get your own street-legal Tron bike

Just in time for Tron: Legacy, a Florida bike shop put together 10 custom-built, street-legal Tron Light Cycle lookalikes. For a cool $55,000 (£35,100), you could be riding one to the 5 December premiere.

Though the bike looks like it drove straight off the movie screen, its not a replica or recreation since the Light Cycles in both Tron films were virtual. "We basically used the images we could get off the web in order to make the bike," said Halverson. "Keep in mind, no one ever made this bike before."

Children going back to school could trigger major flu epidemic

The decision not to vaccinate the under-fives against flu this winter risks starting the first epidemic for a decade when schools return next week.

Andrew Lansley, the Health Secretary, was yesterday accused of ?serious misjudgment? for witholding the seasonal flu vaccine from children aged six months to their fifth birthday.

The Department for Health said experts had considered offering the seasonal flu vaccine to pre-schoolers, including an element to stop swine flu.

However, the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) decided in the end not to recommend this.

Last year, all parents of children aged six months to five years were offered the swine flu vaccine on the NHS.

Seventy children died, but a full scale epidemic was averted.

Bush Is Knighted in Queen Elizabeths Court

The table talk was top secret and the menu strictly confidential. Bush was not wearing his new insignia and the broad ribbon of crimson silk that goes with the knighthood. A chat with the press and a display of his medal was not in order because it was a private visit, the palace said.

21 WAYS TO BE A GOOD DEMOCRAT

1. You have to be against capital punishment, but support abortion on demand.

2. You have to believe that businesses create oppression and governments create prosperity.

3. You have to believe that guns in the hands of law-abiding Americans are more of a threat than U.S. Nuclear weapons technology in the hands of Chinese and North Korean communists.

4. You have to believe that there was no art before Federal funding.

Japans Fisheries Agency has admitted its officials accepted gifts of whale meat from the body that runs the countrys so-called scientific whaling program.

Six months ago the ABC broadcast allegations by two whaling crew members that officials and crew were illegally taking thousands of dollars worth of whale cuts.

At the time the Fisheries Agency denied the allegations, but it has now reprimanded five of its officials for taking more than $3,000 worth of whale meat.

Agency spokesman Toyohiko Ota has publicly apologised for the scandal.

"I deeply apologise for this act in which officials took whale meat," he said.

"Its an act for which we will lose credibility. We will take prevention measures so it will never happen again," he added, with a deep bow of apology.

The original allegations, broadcast on ABC TVs Foreign Correspondent program, undermined Japans claim that its whaling program was purely for science.

Conservatives have a legislative agenda for 2011 that will hurt your ability to get or keep a job, your neighborhoods ability to recover from the recession and this countrys ability to regain its footing in the global economy.

BANGALORE (Reuters) - Two separate groups of iPhone and iPad users have sued Apple Inc alleging that certain software applications were passing personal user information to third-party advertisers without consent.

In the lawsuits seeking class action, filed in a federal court in California, the plaintiffs sought a ban on passing of user information without consent and monetary compensation, according to case documents.

At some point, both cases may be consolidated into one by the judges presiding over the cases, said Majed Nachawati, a partner at law firm Fears & Nachawati, one of the attorneys for the complainants.

Along with Apple, makers of popular apps such as Textplus4, Paper Toss, Weather Channel, Dictionary.com, Talking Tom Cat and Pumpkin Maker were also named co-defendants in the lawsuits filed on December 23.

"We are also looking at Googles Android platform and a lawsuit against them has not been ruled out," Nachawati said.

The journal Nature reported the finding this week. The National Science Foundations Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences Division partially funded the research.

Out of work? Hit the party circuit, but bring tact

According to Consumer Reports, youll spend an average of 15 hours at holiday gatherings this year. That means plenty of opportunities for networking for a job. The trick is to do it tactfully or dont do it at all.

If you are out of work, youd be crazy to skip the holiday party scene. You might not feel like going, but put on a tartan plaid tie or a little black dress and get out the door.

Have a 30-second pitch -- a soft-sell, if you will -- at the ready in case you run into an old work colleague or a make a new connection who may be in the position to hire.

It should be something simple, like, "Ive been volunteering and doing some research in (insert your field here) since the layoffs this summer. But Im ready to get back in. Ive got some great ideas for how to increase sales. Let me know if you hear of anyone ready to start moving forward in this economy."

Sound smart (and sober)

Follow up

We are a social club for adults without children. No more, no less!

Are you bored at social gatherings with friends because conversation centers around their kids?
Do you find your social circle shrinking as one by one, all your friends become parents?

If so, then you have come to the right place!

The South Bay Childfree Club is a social club for childfree couples and singles. We are people who have made a conscious decision to not have kids, for a variety of reasons.

Welcome to the NO KIDDING! Edmonton Web site.

NO KIDDING! is an all-volunteer, non-profit social club for couples and singles who, for whatever reason, have never had children.

Membership is open to anyone over the age of 20 who has never parented -- regardless of gender, age, color, race, ethnicity, marital status, political, sexual or religious orientation.

Man confessed to killing woman found in suitcase, authorities say

Hassan Malik, 55, was arraigned Tuesday on one count of second-degree murder, according to Manhattan District Attorney spokeswoman Joan Vollero.

Malik said he was acting in self-defense, Vollero said.

Shortly after Williams body was discovered, police released a surveillance video that showed a man dressed in a dark knit hat and leather jacket, pulling a suitcase that contained Williams body near a stoop in East Harlem, New York.

Malik originally told police that he found Williams dead inside his apartment, but later he recanted the statement and confessed, according to the criminal complaint.

As police were leading Malik away, a reporter asked, "Are you sorry for what you did?"

Oklahoma man says wifes death was sex fantasy accident

But Sedille said he didnt know the gun was loaded when he pressed it to his wifes head and pulled the handguns slide back during sex on the night of December 21.

Now Sedille, 23, is facing the possibility of a murder charge in Canadian County, Oklahoma, in the death of his wife, 50-year-old Rebecca Sedille -- who died when the handgun went off in their bedroom.

According to a probable cause affidavit filed by Oklahoma City police, Sedille said the shooting was accidental. He called 911 afterward, according to police.

He declined to comment on investigators findings so far.

Man Facing Charges For Shooting Himself

Ryan Perkins Accused Of Being Felon In Possession Of Gun

Dumbest Of The Day: The Christmas Cocaine Easter Dummy

When looking through a passengers luggage, customs agents are "trained to detect anomalies in all kinds of situations," according to Lee Harty, a spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

It was certainly an anomaly when an agent in Los Angeles, CA noticed several Easter eggs in the luggage of 23-year-old Miami man Esteban Galtes, who was arriving on a flight from Columbia. Seeing as it was a few days before Christmas, this got the agents attention, and upon investigating, allegedly found that the eggs were filled with at least 14 pounds of cocaine.

Galtes was accused of smuggling, and held without bail.

I guess the lesson to learn here is that when if youre planning on smuggling cocaine into the country during Christmas time, at least have the good sense to smuggle it inside something more seasonal.

A snowman could be appropriate, or perhaps inside a hollow Rudolph the white red-nosed reindeer?

American voters believe free market competition will protect Internet users more than government regulation and fear that regulation will be used to push a political agenda.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 21% of Likely U.S. Voters want the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to regulate the Internet as it does radio and television. Fifty-four percent (54%) are opposed to such regulation, and 25% are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

By a 52% to 27% margin, voters believe that more free market competition is better than more regulation for protecting Internet users. Republicans and unaffiliated voters overwhelmingly share this view, but a plurality of Democrats (46%) think more regulation is the better approach.

War is a Racket by Smedley Butler

War is a Racket by Smedley Butler is a famous speech denouncing the military industrial complex. This speech by two-time Congressional Medal of Honor recipient exposes war profits that benefit few at the expense of many. Throughout his distinguished career in the Marines, Smedley Darlington Butler demonstrated that true patriotism does not mean blind allegiance to government policies with which one does not agree. To Hell with war.

James Lovelock: Humans are too stupid to prevent climate change

One of the main obstructions to meaningful action is "modern democracy", he added. "Even the best democracies agree that when a major war approaches, democracy must be put on hold for the time being. I have a feeling that climate change may be an issue as severe as a war. It may be necessary to put democracy on hold for a while."

The key to the new discovery lay in manuscripts, some of them mere fragments, discovered in an old synagogue in Egypt and brought to Cambridge at the end of the 19th century. The so-called Cairo Genizah manuscripts have been housed ever since in Cambridge University Library.

Now, a fully searchable online corpus (http://www.gbbj.org) has gathered these manuscripts together, making the texts and analysis of them available to other scholars for the first time.

An Atlanta man released from jail just two weeks ago was charged Tuesday with murdering a state trooper.

Thirty-year-old Gregory Favors was served with arrest warrants for murder and aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer almost 16 hours after he shot Trooper First Class Chadwick LeCroy in the neck, said Vernon Keenan, director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Favors was booked into the Fulton County Jail Tuesday evening for the 19th time, according to a a sheriffs office spokeswoman.

His first arrest in Fulton came 11 years ago to the day: Dec. 28, 1999.

Remember that study from the University of Maryland and WorldPublicOpinion.org saying Fox News viewers are the most ?misinformed? audience? It seems that was misinformation.

Competitive Enterprise Institute Communications Director, and licensed lawyer, Lee Doren has just released a short video expose showing that the study is severely flawed.

He says the study does ?not have data to support its conclusions,? and goes as far as to say it ?may simply demonstrate that Fox News viewers are more informed than the researchers.?

And just in case Doren?s video isn?t enough, it?s important to note (as we did in our original piece) that the WorldPublicOpinion.org website includes the Tides Foundation as one of its major sponsors. That group is directly connected to George Soros.

The study was also debunked by columnist David Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun. As he points out, the study admits in its own pages that the term ?misinformed? is relative:

When a phenomenon is not produced by humans, it is natural. Natural is beautiful & sometime remarkable. Here are 21 unique Natural Phenomena to be found exist on earth. Many scientists are still looking for explanation on some of the occurrences.

Paint your paradise by *sylphielmetallium

Mystic path by *fxEVo

The Healing Process by ~goatz

precious by *sandara

arms by *tobiee

PC :: Chasing Snowflakes :: by =WhiteSpiritWolf

Cheshire Cat by =Kikariz

Hora del juego by *ReevolveR

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Amusement parks walk the fine line between fun-ish and semi-creepy. Maybe it?s the combination of sketchy rides, circus folk, questionable attractions, and way too many screaming kids, but there?s something a little unsettling about them. Add an ill-advised theme into the mix, and you?ve got a real summer-time winner.

Although for most of the 20th century amusement parks were a staple of American culture, the shine is definitely off the bumper car. Tons of new parks litter the country, but many of the old classics, unable to compete with the snazzy new parks, have been shut down. Most have been destroyed to make way for housing developments and malls, but a few still remain. Mostly forgotten and in total disrepair, these abandoned amusement parks are sometimes more interesting in their decay then they were while in operation.

The Prehistoric Forest, Irish Hills, Michigan

Six Flags, New Orleans

The prison industry in the United States: big business or a new form of slavery?

Human rights organizations, as well as political and social ones, are condemning what they are calling a new form of inhumane exploitation in the United States, where they say a prison population of up to 2 million ? mostly Black and Hispanic ? are working for various industries for a pittance. For the tycoons who have invested in the prison industry, it has been like finding a pot of gold. They don?t have to worry about strikes or paying unemployment insurance, vacations or comp time. All of their workers are full-time, and never arrive late or are absent because of family problems; moreover, if they don?t like the pay of 25 cents an hour and refuse to work, they are locked up in isolation cells.

CLEMSON, S.C. (AP) ? A man has been hospitalized after police in South Carolina say he was hit by an SUV while playing a real-life version of the video game "Frogger."

Authorities said the 23-year-old man was taken to a hospital in Anderson after he was struck at around 9 p.m. Monday.

In the "Frogger" arcade game, players move frogs through traffic on a busy road and through a hazard-filled river. Before he was hit, police say the man had been discussing the game with his friends.

Chief Jimmy Dixon says the man yelled "go" and darted into oncoming traffic in the four-lane highway.

No charges are expected against the driver. The name of the man who was struck has not been released. He was in stable condition Monday night.

Day in pictures: 28 December 2010

Ontario man accused of slashing wifes throat while vacationing in Jamaica

A police officer in the parish of Falmouth, who spoke on condition of anonymity, identified the accused as 43-year-old Paul Martin of Ajax, Ont., and said Martin would be in court Tuesday.

The officer said Martins wife, Cathy Lee Martin, 34, underwent surgery after the Dec. 23 attack and has been released from hospital, but has not left the country.

In Ottawa, a Foreign Affairs spokesman would not confirm the names due to privacy reasons.

Martin was arrested shortly after Cathy Martin was found with her throat slashed in a car parked off to the side on Stewart Castle road, in Falmouth east of Montego Bay on the islands north shore. The pair were there on vacation.

Very little is known about neutrinos, but they are believed to carry information about the birth of our galaxy and the mystery of black holes.

The final Digital Optical Module (DOM) descends down a bore hole in the ice as it is deployed in the IceCube array, the worlds largest neutrino observatory, built under the Antarctic tundra near the US Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station

Called De Curtorum Chirurgia Per Insitionem - translating as Surgery of Defects by Implantations - the book contains one diagram with a patient in bed and his forearm attached to his head. A flap of skin is then grafted from his bicep to his nose.

It was penned by Italian surgeon Gaspare Tagliacozzi, who helped reshape the noses of soldiers who had been affected by battles during various conflicts.

Natural treatment options for Attention Deficit Disorder

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a very common condition which affects approximately 3-5% of the population based on current estimates. Inattention and distractibility are two features of this condition which may occur with or without hyperactivity.

For those who suffer from this common condition, it causes significant social or academic impairment.  Further estimates suggest that it is far more common in boys than in girls.  Typical ratios suggest that it is actually  3-5 times more common in boys.

But because hysterical right-wingers are hysterical right-wingers, they are seizing on this document as yet more proof that Obama wants to forcibly redistribute all the wealth, from productive hard-working Real Americans to swarthy welfare leeches. Take it away, World Net Daily!

President Obama is voicing support for a U.N. resolution that could accomplish something as radical as relinquishing some U.S. sovereignty and opening a path for the return of ancient tribal lands to American Indians, including even parts of Manhattan.

The issue is causing alarm among legal experts.

Winter Palace (by night), St. Petersburg

Obama Claims Dog Ate Birth Certificate: Birthers Threaten To Disembowel Bo

Asadullah, a guard for a supplier to the American military, said no guards fired at NATO-led forces during a raid in Kabul.

Hamid Hamedi, another guard with the supplier, Afghan Tiger Group, was wounded during the NATO-led raid.

KABUL, Afghanistan ? No one seems certain who fired the first shot in the early morning hours of Dec. 24 as commandos from the coalition forces here descended on a Kabul office building in search of two cars loaded with explosives.

It may have been one of the Afghan security guards manning the gate, but two of them are dead. Or it may have been one of the commandos, or someone in the Afghan special forces accompanying them on the night raid, as they tried to prevent what they had been told was a coming Christmas Day attack against the United States Embassy.

1 polyethyelene terephthalate (PETE)
2 high-density polyethylene (HDPE)
3 vinyl, polyvinyl chloride (PVC)
4 low-density polyethylene (LDPE)
5 polypropylene (PP)
6 polystyrene (PS)
7 other (includes polycarbonate, acrylic, polylactic acid, fiberglass)

Try alternatives like these:

Pyrex Food Storage containers
Crate and Barrel?s Refrigerator Dish

Plastic to oil fantastic

Due to exceptional circumstances, we are republishing the present story about an exceptional innovation. Over a year after it was originally published, this video brief about the invention of a plastic-to-oil converting machine recently got a viral boost and exceeded 115,000 views on YouTube.

This is evidence that concern over ?the plastic problem? is certainly not going away, despite encouraging bans on and decreases in the use of plastic shopping bags.

Here on Our World 2.0, on the video?s YouTube page and those of re-posters too, as well as on the hot Reddit Science link, the topic has generated much interest and debate amongst commenters.

Even when youre millions of miles from home, you cant escape certain facts of life. When astronauts are orbiting hundreds of miles above Earths surface, they still have to eat, sleep and go to the bathroom. Of course, the mechanics of using the toilet -- and disposing of the resulting waste -- in zero gravity can get a little tricky.

Can reanimated corpses ever really be brought back to life?

In the case of the Intelsat Galaxy 15 satellite that had its "brains fried" by a solar flare nine months ago, it would appear that zombies really can be brought back from the dead.

Amazingly, the "zombiesat" is back online, communicating with mission control and theres real optimism it might be brought back to full service!

The April solar storm killed Galaxy 15s ability to communicate with Earth but left its payload fully operational, drifting uncontrolled 26,000 miles (42,000 kilometers) above Earth.

Now we await news to see whether the restart will allow the infamous Galaxy 15 to continue service. If it does, perhaps the "zombiesat" should be renamed "resurrectisat."

Back in college, while I was busy pretending that a blottoed discussion of Nietzsche over $1 beers made me an intellectual giant, my fiftysomething father, whod worked so hard to send me there, was quietly being saved. Having long eschewed any ties to his Southern Baptist upbringing, he suddenly found himself born again and on a quest to know God better.

As a longtime atheist, I was a little surprised. But eventually I came to be relieved by this development. While my friends fathers were buying flashy sports cars and exchanging their wives for models, my own father was turning inward and asking: Is there more to life than this?

I was also proud of him for becoming a student again. As I watched him pore over C.S. Lewis, Lee Strobel and even neoatheist thinkers such as Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens, I thought it amazing that he still wanted to learn something new.

"In the fall of 98 agent asked her to go into the almshouse, but she would not consent. During the storm in February 99, she was kept from perishing with a great effort. Every visit, and they were many, had to be made through snow up to the waist. It was during these visits that the promise was made that before another winter she would take refuge in an almshouse."

When the weather warmed, Aunt Winnie backed off her promise to go to the almshouse. The social worker started to play hardball.

"It would be hard to say which, the agent or the applicant, suffered the more, because through all this distress had sprung up a loving confidence and perfect trust that seemed cruel to deceive. Attention and assistance were withdrawn gradually."

A car plunged about 40 metres down a bank en route to Raglan yesterday right in front of a police car.

Volunteer Raglan fire officer Kevin Holmes said he and the police were travelling back from an earlier single-vehicle crash on State Highway 23, on the Hamilton side of the Raglan deviation, when they saw the car leave the road and go down the bank on the Raglan side of the deviation about 3.30pm.

"It happened right under the highway patrols noses," Mr Holmes said. The car plunged through a fence and into several bushes and trees. The woman driver was pulled to safety by a rescue line.

Mr Holmes said the woman ? who was shaken but not injured ? was lucky not to have been seriously hurt. "Had those trees not been there and shed gone straight into the paddock, it could have been worse."

The woman was driven home to Raglan in the police car. Mr Holmes said the driver from the first crash ? just before 3pm ? was also driven back to Raglan in the patrol car. The road was wet at the time.

UFOs were `all natural

The world famous ?Kaikoura Lights? UFO sightings of December 1978: In late December 1978, a spectacular series of sightings occurred over South Island skies. These sightings initially began on December 21 when the crew of a Safe Air Ltd cargo plane observed strange lighted objects around their Argosy aircraft. The lights, ranging in size to that of a house, tracked them for several minutes before disappearing, and reappearing elsewhere. They appeared on Wellington ATC radar, on the aircraft radar, and were sighted by hundreds of people.

Among the hundreds of UFO sightings in New Zealand, only one was ever fully investigated.

This is the first time it has been made public.

The air force report concluded that almost all the sightings could be explained by natural but unusual phenomenon on the sea, including lights from a Japanese squid fleet or a glow from the planet Venus.

Donor in First Successful Organ Tranplant Dies

Close call and a good reason to keep hands in the boat

A Northland man will think twice before washing his hands over the side of his boat after seeing a shark leap out of the water to bite his berley bag last week.

Richard Parker was fishing off Whangarei Heads on Thursday, only 30m from shore, when he had his close encounter.

"I was just sitting there dreaming in my boat, when a white belly came shooting up out of the depths," Mr Parker said.

"It totally left the water and splashed me as it came back down."

The shark, which Mr Parker said was as big as he was, grabbed his berley bag with bait in it to attract fish, shook it violently and ripped it in two.

"It happened so quickly and so spectacularly."

Mr Parker said he had been out fishing about twice a week and the water was teeming with fish and sharks this month.

"Ill think twice about washing my hands over the side because the water is so clear. You could lose your hands," he said.