Russia Opens Inquiry Into Murder of Ex-Spy

"yes, he, er, tragically, fell down some stairs...
and a complete accident. apparently."

exactly WHY is this man smiling?

Bush Rejects Key Point of Iraq Panel’s Final Report

WASHINGTON, Dec. 7 — President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain on Thursday welcomed the new bipartisan report on Iraq, but the president seemed to resist the idea of withdrawing most combat troops before their work is done, saying that if the United States fails to establish a stable and secure Iraq, it will haunt Americans for years.

because somehow you think this is a redeemable situation?

When a British reporter asked him whether his choice of words showed that he was “still in denial about how bad things are in Iraq,” Mr. Bush made his feelings clear.

“Make no mistake about it, I understand how tough it is, sir. I talk to the families” of those who have died. “I also believe we’re going to succeed. I believe we’ll prevail,” he said.

yes. there is no mistake. HOW can he possibly believe his refusal to accept reality is going to succeed?. WHAT is it that makes him believe he’ll prevail?...

he is, without doubt, absolutely barking mad.

“One way to assure failure is just to quit, is not to adjust, and say it’s just not worth it,” he added. “If we were to fail, that failed policy will come to hurt generations of Americans in the future.”

er, you ARE failing. right now! now! now!...

While the study group’s report held out almost no hope for a military victory in Iraq, Mr. Bush disagreed.

“yeah, those guys are idiots! i mean, look how many iraqis we’ve killed! duh!”

But Mr. Bush cautioned that, “If people come to the table to discuss Iraq they need to come understanding their responsibilities to not fund terrorists, to help this young democracy survive, to help with the economics of the country.

“This young democracy”? oh, i’m sorry. i thought that thousands of iraqi citizens were being killed each month. economics? is there anybody left in baghdad that doesn’t know someone that’s been killed since the american led invasion? right now, i think the average iraqi is just trying to survive, but i’m sure they’re working night and day on plans for a stock market…

conclusion: i'd say a psycho-analytical profiling wouldn't go amiss at this point.

Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!

from the bbc: (who else?)

Flatulence leads US jet to divert
















see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6213644.stm

An American Airlines plane made an emergency landing in Nashville after passengers reported the smell of sulphur from burning matches.

The matches were found on the seat of a woman who had attempted to conceal the odour of flatulence with the matches, Nashville airport authorities said.

All 99 passengers and five crew left the plane while it was searched. (and fumigated...)

The woman was questioned by the FBI (ha ha!) but released without charge and allowed to board another American Airlines flight.

"It was determined that she was trying to conceal body odour," said Lynne Lowrance of the Nashville Airport Authority. (really?)

for everything else, there's mastercard...

Richest 2% own 'half the wealth'

from the bbc:

The richest 2% of adults in the world own more than half of all household wealth, according to a new study by a United Nations research institute.

The report, from the World Institute for Development Economics Research at the UN University, says that the poorer half of the world's population own barely 1% of global wealth.

See: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6211250.stm

when asked, a random sample of individuals living in the world’s poorest countries thanked the west for it’s contribution to climate change, the environment, poverty, and world peace in the 20^th century, and said they couldn’t wait for the next 100years…

the continent of Africa, and in particular, the people of Darfur, thanked george w. bush for doing one ‘heck of a job’ as leader of the free world…

US plans permanent base on Moon

from the bbc:

US space agency Nasa has said it plans to start work on a permanently-occupied base on the Moon after astronauts begin flying back there in 2020.

The base is likely to be built on one of the Moon's poles and will serve as a science centre and possible stepping stone for manned missions to Mars.

The US has already said it plans to build a new lunar spacecraft to succeed the last Apollo mission in 1972.

Funds will be moved from space shuttle flights, due to be scrapped in 2010.

The structure of the base and the exact duties of the astronauts stationed there have not been decided.

Nor is it clear when the base will begin functioning.

NASA officials could not confirm mounting industry-wide speculation that executives from Wal*Mart's start-up sister company, Luna*Mart, and Starbuck’s own Moonbucks, would be accompanying the first historic return flight, but they did confirm that a vast retinue of heavily- discounted retail items, and fresh barista-prepared coffee would be available 24-7 for the astronauts during the mission.

President Bush, when pressed for an answer, grinned and replied “You know, this is one heck of a step towards an all-out push toward moon-wide american domination – eat that, Bejing!”.

N.J. Taco Bell Stays Shut After E. Coli Outbreak

from the new york times:

Nineteen people in New Jersey have been sickened, two of them seriously, by E. coli infections, and a Taco Bell fast food restaurant in South Plainfield, N.J., remained closed today as health investigators sought the source of their illness.

evidently 'eating outside the bun' is not good...damn those tv adverts!

see: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-E-Coli-Outbreak.html

letter to the washington post

Re: Time's on his side.

So Vincent J Cannato writes that 'Today's pronouncements that Bush is the "worst president ever" are too often ideology masquerading as history.'

Really? let's consider a few pronouncements that Mr. Cannato somehow conveniently forgets to mention. How about 'Bring 'em On!', Mission Accomplished', 'Stay the Course', and your own newspaper's reporting of the Iraq elections- 'Yesterday, the White House heralded the election and credited the U.S. role. In a statement, President Bush praised Iraqis "for defying terrorist threats and setting their country on the path of democracy and freedom. And I congratulate every candidate who stood for election and those who will take office once the results are certified."

History hasn't had to wait too long to pass universal judgment on these pronouncements. Perhaps Mr. Cannato should travel to Baghdad and ask the families of all those dead Iraqi citizens how they think Bush will be remembered by history, and just how much time they think he has on his side.

Oh, and one more thing, Mr. Cannato. I doubt Tax cuts for the rich will be regarded by historians as a domestic success. The ever-growing economic divide in this country between its wealthiest and poorest citizens shows that statement up quite sufficiently.

i updated wikipedia on the saab 9-2x

since we have a 9-2x aero, and there was no reference to the best forum available for this car.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_9-2X

Polonium, $22.50 Plus Tax

i wonder how much polonium philip morris has used in its cigarettes?

the ford motor company actually makes a hatchback......?

from the bbc:

Gronholm takes control in Wales

Marcus Gronholm took a firm grip on the Wales Rally GB after dominating the second day of racing in his Ford Focus.

The 38-year-old Finn, who won five of the day's seven stages, leads the final round of the 2006 series by one minute and 18.8 seconds from Manfred Stohl.

With just four more stages left, Norway's Petter Solberg, the winner here the last four years, is third.

France's Sebastien Loeb, who is out injured, has already wrapped up the world title.

i'm rooting for petter solberg, driving the subaru.

humans in denial - seeing the world as we would rather see it

from the bbc:

Row over Stradivarius 'secrets'

The professional descendants of "the king of violin-makers" have dismissed research that claims to have unmasked Antonio Stradivari's secret.

The Italian crafted over 1,000 violins, violas and violoncellos in the 1700s.

Experts have struggled to explain why the instruments sound so much better than anyone else's.

Researchers in the US said this week they believe a Stradivarius owes its distinct sound to a chemical treatment designed to kill woodworm and fungi.

But the BBC's Mark Duff in northern Italy says today's violin-makers in Stradivari's hometown Cremona - a small city in the floodplain of the river Po - are unimpressed.

One current violin-maker and restorer said it was absurd to try and reduce Stradivari's unique musical gift to a chemical reaction.

"What was the point of trying to dissect the beauty of a Strad?" asked another.

"To do so would be like trying to fathom the depths of Michelangelo's genius."

because that's what science does... try to explain the world around us.

that's the point!

i'm sure if i tried to make a violin, these very same people would tell me exactly what i was doing wrong, and why...so if it's that easy to dissect 'ugliness' why does beauty count any differently?

humans. always inferring greater value to the things we like the most.

welsh rally gb

sure beats rush-hour on the beltway in d.c.

had to go

from the bbc:









Andy Robinson's reign as coach of world champions England is over after a disastrous 25-month spell in charge.

anyone can make mistakes, but you can't keep making the same fundamentally wrong, ad hoc player decisions. bringing off your captain during a match...?

we have little chance of competing well in the upcoming six nations, and any hopes we might have had for the 2007 rugby world cup have already passed the point of no return. just not enough time to nurture the right talent.

still, there's 2011...

in the news: Wal-Mart Trips as It Changes a Bit Too Fast

good. have you ever been to a wal*mart?

we went down to alton, va in the summer to watch round 9 of the ama superbike racing championship. great weekend! left the hotel and walked to a nearby wal*mart to get some supplies. the most disturbing, soulless 'never-want-to do-this-again' buying experience daisy and i have ever had.

there's something just plain wrong with row upon row of super jumbo sized food items, along with everything else, staring at you from every shelf, row upon row of harsh fluorescent lights burning overhead, and slow-moving people whose only exercise in years evidently involve cable channel surfing, pushing their trolleys along, bursting at every seam.

make no mistake, you will pay, one way or the other.

nutty reaches 100,000th boinc credit

cast your votes!

from the bbc:

Chemistry teacher at Liverpool's Blue Coat School, Nick Cowan, says the packs promoting intelligent design are useful in debating Darwinist evolution.

It argues that evolution cannot explain some things so the universe must have had an intelligent creator.

just because a theory can be demonstrated to be incomplete does not mean that it is wrong, and more importantly, that the only possible alternative must be an untestable, unchallengeable argument (the intelligent design proponents want the very definition of science itself changed). why only this possible alternative, why not others? ‘must have had an intelligent creator?’

useful? intelligent design has been attacked so successfully because it isn’t scientific.

Mr Cowan says they are "very scholarly" and could be extremely useful in helping children understand the importance of scientific debate

‘very scholoarly’? i didn’t know such a term exists in academia. i’d have thought that such a definition would be reserved for peer-reviewed papers. pity that there isn’t a single one supporting intelligent design.

He told the BBC: "Darwin has for many people become a sacred cow.

perhaps because apart from quantum mechanics, it’s the single most successful scientific theory?

"There's a sense that if you criticise Darwin you must be some kind of religious nut case.

no, just that the ones promoting intelligent design are. after all, if a scientists could scientifically overturn the theory of evolution, don’t you think they would?

"We might has well have said Einstein shouldn't have said what he did because it criticised Newton."

i suggest you read some basic physics, mr. cowan. einstein didn’t ‘prove’ newton wrong, he built upon an existing solid foundation. newton’s ‘law’ of gravity continues to work perfectly well in our human world, and it is his theories of gravity we used when we sent man to the moon (and brought him back), put satellites in orbit around the earth, and it is his theory of gravity, not einstein’s that nasa uses when launching the space shuttle.

He argues that science only moves forward by reviewing and reworking previous theories and that these materials foster an understanding of this.

yes to the first statement, and an emphatic ‘no’ to the second. yes. science does only move forward by challenging existing theories, but by using the scientific method, an incredibly fundamental and essential part of which involve repeatable observations and an open mind. the only thing the intelligent design materials do is to question the second most successful theory humans have and offer nothing scientific in its place.

sorry, mr. cowan, but my money is on lucy, not because i particularly like the thought of being descended from apes, but what you offer as 'the only other' alternative has nothing at all to do with science.

Bruce Lee to get own theme park

from the bbc:

Bruce Lee to get own theme park

The park will feature a statue of Lee - who died 34 years ago - as well as a memorial hall and martial arts academy.

Newspaper reports in China have put the estimated cost of the park at 200 million Chinese Yuan (£13m).

But fan club chairman Wong Yiu-keung told The Associated Press he was not sure who is funding the planned park.

A ceremony to mark the laying of foundations at the park in Shunde, near Hong Kong, was held on Sunday, attended by Lee's younger brother Robert and actress Betty Ting Pei.

Lee was born in the US but first shot to fame in Hong Kong, where he had moved as a child.

His most famous films include Fist of Fury, Enter the Dragon and Game of Death.

the park promises to honour and immerse wary visitors in these 3 film legends in unusual , innovative ways:

apparently as soon as you enter, you will be kicked in the face 3 times in less than a second, followed by an appeal to use heroin more safely using a giant multi-screened showing entitled 'chasing the dragon'. the visitor will then visit a mock white-house, pretend to be george bush, stand blindfolded in the oval office, and using a plastic hammer, play 'whack-a-mole' with 'taxes', 'gun control', and 'the middle east'.

nutty agrees with devil to sell his soul!

....in order to gain entry into motorcycling heaven

ducati engineers admit they are still working around the clock on a special drool-resistant paint formula for the $65,000 desmosedici

"you're quite sure you can kill poor people with these?"

from the new york times:

Very Rich Are Leaving the Merely Rich Behind

well that's a relief...

dick cheney confidently predicts that diamond-studded, ruby-encrusted semi-automatic weapon sales are expected to go through the roof.

"thank god we republicans allowed the ban on them to pass; we'd have looked like complete idiots!"

watching tv is bad for your health...

from the bbc:


The body of a missing US woman has been found by her family, wedged upside down behind a bookcase in her room.

Mariesa Weber, 38, is believed to have fallen over and become trapped as she tried to reach behind the bookcase to adjust the plug for a TV set.

Her family spent nearly two weeks searching for her, fearing she had been kidnapped from the house she shared with them in Florida.

Her body was eventually discovered when her sister noticed a foot protruding behind the bookcase in her bedroom.

"I'm sleeping in the same house as her for 11 days, looking for her. And she's right in the bedroom," the woman's mother, Connie Weber, told the St Petersburg Times newspaper.