EdailyDeal: The Curse of Lono
Doctor Dies Trying to Slide Down Boyfriend's Chimne
Death Stupid - Rubit - 5 Comments
Tags: doctor, Decomposing Body, boyfriend, chimney, on-again/off-again
09/02/10 -  -  - (Link)
Dr. Jacquelyn Kotarac, a woman who apparently tried to force her way into her "on-again, off-again" boyfriend's home by sliding down the chimney, died of mechanical asphyxia, according to autopsy results released Tuesday.
Offshore Oil Rig Explodes in Gulf of Mexico, West of Deepwater Horizon
Living Disaster - Harry - 0 Comments
Tags: Gulf of Mexico, here we go again, oil drilling, offshore oil rig
09/02/10 - - - (Link)
An offshore oil rig has exploded and burst into flames in the Gulf of Mexico just west of the infamous BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
Initial reports said that the 13 workers on the rig were accounted for but were floating in the water near the rig. Twelve of the workers are reportedly wearing immersion suits, and one worker is reportedly injured.
Suspicious Fire Ignites Houston Voting Fraud Scandal
News Opinion - MrPutz - 0 Comments
Tags: texas, election fraud, fire, electronic voting machines, political scandal
09/02/10 - - - (Link)
We have a voting scandal brewing here in Houston. On Friday a warehouse fire destroyed nearly all of Harris County’s 10,000 electronic voting machines. Suspicious? Absolutely.
Senate upset erases Alaska seniority
Government Politics - B. Weed - 0 Comments
Tags: Senate, alaska, Unintended consequences, Pork, tea party
09/02/10 - - - (Link)
The defeat of Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski by an upstart fiscal conservative in Alaska's GOP primary could mark a significant shift for a state that has so long relied on federal pork to survive. The outcome was also an unexpected blow to the seniority Alaska has enjoyed in the Senate.
Pakistan military abandons US trips after being 'mistaken for terrorists'
Government Military - nocash - 0 Comments
Tags: terrorism, Diplomacy, airport, false alarm, Pakistan military
09/02/10 - - - (Link)
The eight officers, led by a two-star Navy rear admiral, were on their way to a meeting at US Central Command.
They had boarded a United Airlines Flight from Washington to Tampa on Monday but were taken off the aircraft because of comments made by one of the men, according to an airline spokesman.
Obama Declares an End to Combat Mission in Iraq
Government War - Harry - 0 Comments
Tags: Iraq War, economy, U.S. military, Afghanistan War, President Obama
09/02/10 - - - (Link)
President Obama declared an end on Tuesday to the seven-year American combat mission in Iraq, saying that the United States has met its responsibility to that country and that it is now time to turn to pressing problems at home.
In a prime-time address from the Oval Office, Mr. Obama balanced praise for the troops who fought and died in Iraq with his conviction that getting into the conflict had been a mistake in the first place. But he also used the moment to emphasize that he sees his primary job as addressing the weak economy and other domestic issues — and to make clear that he intends to begin disengaging from the war in Afghanistan next summer.
Extra:
[...]
"Over the last decade, “we have spent over a trillion dollars at war, often financed by borrowing from overseas,” he said. “And so at this moment, as we wind down the war in Iraq, we must tackle those challenges at home with as much energy and grit and sense of common purpose as our men and women in uniform who have served abroad.”
Full text of President Obama's speech:
Vaccine hope Tasmanian Devil dies from cancer
Followup - Harry - 5 Comments
Tags: cancer, australia, Tasmanian devil, endangered species, tumor
09/02/10 - - - (Link)
A Tasmanian Devil who scientists hoped was immune to a facial cancer that threatens his species has been euthanised after developing tumours.
Original Story:
Is The End In Sight For Tasmanian Devil?
Other Related Stories:
Scientists Discover Origin of a Cancer in Tasmanian Devils
Catholic adoption agency loses bid to bar gay parents from service
Living Legal - Harry - 4 Comments
Tags: adoption, Catholic Church, discrimination, same-sex couples, Catholic Care
09/02/10 - - - (Link)
A Catholic adoption agency has lost its attempt to restrict its service to heterosexual couples after the Charity Commission found there was no justification for barring gay and lesbian parents.
Leeds-based Catholic Care sought exclusion from the 2007 sexual orientation regulations and began legal action to change its constitution so it could continue helping married couples only. The commission initially refused to give its consent, but the charity won the right to appeal against its decision.
Older people enjoy reading negative stories about young
Living - enki don't - 30 Comments
Tags: Germany, self-esteem, the elderly, research study, youth culture
09/02/10 - - - (Link)
Older people like reading negative news stories about their younger counterparts because it boosts their own self-esteem, according to a new study.
Why Do Heavy Drinkers Outlive Nondrinkers?
Living Health - enki don't - 5 Comments
Tags: Abstinence, booze, lifespan, social interaction, alcoholics
09/02/10 - - - (Link)
One of the most contentious issues in the vast literature about alcohol consumption has been the consistent finding that those who don't drink actually tend to die sooner than those who do. The standard Alcoholics Anonymous explanation for this finding is that many of those who show up as abstainers in such research are actually former hard-core drunks who had already incurred health problems associated with drinking.
But a new paper in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research suggests that — for reasons that aren't entirely clear — abstaining from alcohol does tend to increase one's risk of dying, even when you exclude former problem drinkers. The most shocking part? Abstainers' mortality rates are higher than those of heavy drinkers.
Gilpin Family Whisky made from diabetics' urine
Science - Jimmyfranks - 4 Comments
Tags: diabetes, Urine, gross, whiskey, family recipe
09/02/10 - - - (Link)
James Gilpin is a designer and researcher who works on the implementation of new biomedical technologies. He's also got type 1 diabetes, where his body doesn't produce enough insulin to regulate blood sugar levels.
So he's started a project called Gilpin Family Whisky, which turns the sugar-rich urine of elderly diabetics into a high-end single malt whisky, suitable for export.
Extra:
Gilpin Family Whiskey website:
Gunman had long protested Discovery programming
Crime Violent - Harry - 5 Comments
Tags: gunman, Discovery Channel, hostages, James Lee, population control
09/02/10 - - - (Link)
James J. Lee, the suspected gunman who held three hostages for hours at the Discovery Communications building in Maryland on Wednesday, apparently had a long history of contempt for the company, which includes the Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Science Channel and Planet Green networks.
His website, SaveThePlanetProtest.com, was essentially a rambling screed against Discovery, urging the company to expose civilization "for the filth it is" and to puts its focus on "how people can live WITHOUT giving birth to more filthy human children since those new additions continue pollution and are pollution."
Saudi couple arrested in toture of Sri Lankan maid
Crime Violent - longwinded - 0 Comments
Tags: Sri Lanka, torture, Saudi Arabia, nails, housemaid
09/01/10 - - - (Link)
A Saudi employer and his wife, who are accused of torturing a Sri Lankan housemaid by hammering nails into her body, have been arrested in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, officials at the Sri Lankan External Affairs Ministry said Monday.
New Dissent in Japan Is Loudly Anti-Foreign
Government Politics - revdrew - 2 Comments
Tags: japan, racism, intolerance, Net far-right, Zaitokukai
09/01/10 - - - (Link)
The demonstrators appeared one day in December, just as children at an elementary school for ethnic Koreans were cleaning up for lunch. The group of about a dozen Japanese men gathered in front of the school gate, using bullhorns to call the students cockroaches and Korean spies.
Inside, the panicked students and teachers huddled in their classrooms, singing loudly to drown out the insults, as parents and eventually police officers blocked the protesters’ entry.
Only in Japan, Real Men Go to a Hotel With Virtual Girlfriends
Video Games - smarmylittlegit - 2 Comments
Tags: Oh Japan, loneliness, romantic getaway, virtual girlfriends, LovePlus+
09/01/10 - - - (Link)
This resort town, once popular with honeymooners, is turning to a new breed of romance seekers—virtual sweethearts.
Since the marriage rate among Japan's shrinking population is falling and with many of the country's remaining lovebirds heading for Hawaii or Australia's Gold Coast, Atami had to do something. It is trying to attract single men—and their handheld devices.
Butts Arrested in Boob Murder Case
Crime Violent - Caminante Nocturno - 6 Comments
Tags: murder, Butts, boob, immature, unfortunate names
09/01/10 - - - (Link)
Police have arrested a third person in connection with the murder of Samuel Boob.
Boob was shot and killed at his home in Potter Township, Centre County, on the morning of August 23rd, 2009.
Kermit Butts, 26, of Madisonburg, is accused of driving the suspected killer to and from the crime scene on the morning of the killing.
Pole suffers longest hangover: a bullet in his head for five years
Living Health - seriouslyuguys - 9 Comments
Tags: Drunk, Polish, new years, gunshot, painful lump
08/31/10 - - - (Link)
A Polish man living in Germany went about his business for about five years without noticing he had been shot in the head because he was drunk when it happened.
U.S. wasted billions in rebuilding Iraq
Government War - revdrew - 41 Comments
Tags: Iraq War, George W. Bush, taxpayers, Waste, Reconstruction
08/31/10 - - - (Link)
A $40 million prison sits in the desert north of Baghdad, empty. A $165 million children's hospital goes unused in the south. A $100 million waste water treatment system in Fallujah has cost three times more than projected, yet sewage still runs through the streets
As the U.S. draws down in Iraq, it is leaving behind hundreds of abandoned or incomplete projects.
Man who performed baptisms sues LDS church
Living Religion - Xiphias - 2 Comments
Tags: Mormons, lds, baptisms, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, repetitive stress injuries
08/31/10 - - - (Link)
A Las Vegas man injured while performing submersion baptisms in the name of the dead has sued The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for medical expenses.
The civil suit filed Wednesday in Salt Lake City's 3rd District Court claims Daniel Dastrup suffered severe back injuries, including a herniated disk, after performing about 200 baptisms at the LDS temple in Raleigh, N.C., on Aug. 25, 2007.
Dutch Police Arrest Two Men on U.S. Flight After Suspicious Baggage Found
Crime - Harry - 2 Comments
Tags: airport, TSA, Amsterdam, terror suspects, Pepto-Bismol
08/31/10 - - - (Link)
Dutch military police arrested two U.S. residents of Yemeni descent upon their arrival in Amsterdam yesterday, after U.S. baggage screeners found a mobile phone taped to a Pepto-Bismol bottle and other phones and watches strapped together, officials in Amsterdam and Washington said.
Miss. school drops race-based rules for student elections
Living Education - Harry - 2 Comments
Tags: discrimination, Mississippi, race, student elections, student council
08/31/10 - - - (Link)
Following an uproar over a policy it said was designed 30 years ago to achieve racial equality, a school district board in a Mississippi town on Friday scrapped a system of student elections where race determined whether a candidate could run for some class positions, including president.
Oxford English Dictionary 'will not be printed again'
Books News - seriouslyuguys - 11 Comments
Tags: Internet, Oxford English Dictionary, print is dead, Oxford University Press, printed books
08/31/10 - - - (Link)
Sales of the third edition of the vast tome have fallen due to the increasing popularity of online alternatives, according to its publisher.
A team of 80 lexicographers has been working on the third edition of the OED – known as OED3 – for the past 21 years.
The Twilight Years of Cap'n Crunch
Technology - WHO WANTS DESSERT - 124 Comments
Tags: Hacking, Cap n Crunch, phone phreaker, hack the gibson, aging tech veterans
08/30/10 - - - (Link)
Underneath a highway bisecting this Silicon Valley town, home to Google Inc. and other tech giants, John Draper crammed his bulky frame through the door of a friend's home: a battered 1978 Chevy diesel bus.
Radio parts, a wrench set, arthritis medication and a book on robotics cluttered the dashboard. A padded bench for sleeping and a greasy stove filled the back.
After Washington rally, Glenn Beck assails Obama's religion
Living Religion - Harry - 43 Comments
Tags: Christianity, Glenn Beck, rhetoric, President Obama, Restoring Honor
08/30/10 - - - (Link)
Conservative commentator Glenn Beck voiced sharper criticism of President Obama's religious beliefs on Sunday than he and other speakers offered from the podium of the rally Beck organized at the Lincoln Memorial a day earlier.
Extra:
[...]
Beck made the remarks in answer to a question about his previous accusation that Obama was a "racist" who has "a deep-seated hatred for white people." He contended that that statement "was not accurate" and that he had "miscast" Obama's religious beliefs as racism.
Building a Nation of Know-Nothings
News Opinion - Harry - 72 Comments
Tags: Republicans, Rush Limbaugh, ignorance, Fox News, President Obama
08/30/10 - - - (Link)
Having shed much of his dignity, core convictions and reputation for straight talk, Senator John McCain won his primary on Tuesday against the flat-earth wing of his party. Now McCain can go search for his lost character, which was last on display late in his 2008 campaign for president.
Remember the moment: a woman with matted hair and a shaky voice rose to express her doubts about Barack Obama. “I have read about him,” she said, “and he’s not — he’s an Arab.”
McCain was quick to knock down the lie. “No, ma’am,” he said, “he’s a decent family man, a citizen.”
That ill-informed woman — her head stuffed with fabrications that could be disproved by a pre-schooler — now makes up a representative third or more of the Republican party. It’s not just that 46 percent of Republicans believe the lie that Obama is a Muslim, or that 27 percent in the party doubt that the president of the United States is a citizen. But fully half of them believe falsely that the big bailout of banks and insurance companies under TARP was enacted by Obama, and not by President Bush.
Extra:
FactCheck.org
Original Story:
Poll: Growing Number Believe President Obama Is Muslim
`Star Gazer' host Jack Horkheimer dies
Death - Busby Berkeley - 1 Comment
Tags: Astronomy, PBS, Star Hustler, Jack Horkheimer, Star Gazer
08/30/10 - - - (Link)
Jack Horkheimer, Public Television's ``Star Gazer,'' died Friday afternoon of a respiratory ailment, according to a spokesman for the Miami Museum of Science and Space Transit Planetarium.
Born June 11, 1938, he was 72.
Mesa family grows food in swimming pool
Living Food - Sweater Undulations - 1 Comment
Tags: greenhouse, arizona, self-sufficient, garden pool, abandoned swimming pool
08/30/10 - - - (Link)
Do you have an abandoned swimming pool that you just don't know what to do with? One family in Mesa, Ariz., decided to turn theirs into an organic greenhouse in their backyard.
The family of four started "The Garden Pool" and launched an accompanying website to share the story of how they converted an old empty, unused swimming pool into an oasis in the middle of the desert.
Extra:
GardenPool.org
Washington suspends potato inspection regulations
Government Bureaucracy - JohnnyBoston - 6 Comments
Tags: Washington, potatoes, USDA, food inspections, quality control
08/30/10 - - - (Link)
Federal regulations affecting fresh russet potatoes in Washington state have been temporarily suspended in a move to reduce packing costs.
The suspension of russet packing regulations took effect on July 24 and is scheduled to remain in effect until June 30, 2011.
Louisiana Residents Rid Grief In Symbolic Katrina Burial
Death - Harry - 0 Comments
Tags: New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina, Memorial, Anniversary, Gulf Coast
08/29/10 - - - (Link)
Hundreds of mourners dropped notes, cards and letters — many of them stained with tears — into a steel-gray casket on Saturday in a symbolic burial of Hurricane Katrina.
Army Corps: NOLA "Absolutely" Safer Now
Living Disaster - Harry - 1 Comment
Tags: New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina, Flooding, Army Corps of Engineers, Levees
08/29/10 - - - (Link)
If another major hurricane along the lines of Katrina were to strike New Orleans, could the city stand up to it without the horrors witnesses when Katrina hit five years ago Sunday?
"Sure. We are absolutely safer in New Orleans than we were when Katrina hit," Col. Edward Fleming, commander for the New Orleans District of the Army Corps of Engineers, declared to "Early Show" weather anchor and features reporter Dave Price" on "The Early Show on Saturday Morning."
We're still not ready for another Hurricane Katrina
Living Disaster - Harry - 0 Comments
Tags: New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina, BP, Noaa, Gulf Coast
08/29/10 - - - (Link)
As Hurricane Katrina approached the Gulf Coast in late August 2005, homeland security officials were preoccupied with preventing another terrorist attack. They had lost sight of the fact that the vast majority of Americans live in the crosshairs not of terrorists but of earthquakes, tornadoes, wildfires, hurricanes, severe winds and flooding. New Orleans nearly drowned not because al-Qaeda was poised to attack its flood-control system but because the levees, floodwalls and pumps that keep the city dry had long been neglected. Put to the test by a major storm, they failed.
Five years later, one might think that Washington has realized the importance of preparing adequately for the next major hurricane on the Gulf Coast. Not so. Five years later, one might think that Washington has realized the importance of preparing adequately for the next major hurricane on the Gulf Coast. Not so.
Extra:
with videos
Original Story:
Government warns of worst hurricane season since 2005
'Ghost train' hunter killed by real train in North Carolina
Death Stupid - Sphinx - 2 Comments
Tags: Train, North Carolina, Anniversary, ghost hunters
08/29/10 - - - (Link)
The facts: On August 27, 1891, a passenger train jumped the tracks on a tall bridge near Statesville, North Carolina, sending seven rail cars below and about 30 people to their deaths.
The legend: On the wreck's anniversary, the sounds of screeching wheels, screaming passengers and a horrific crash might still be heard. You might also see a uniformed man with a gold watch.
Pentathlon switches to laser guns for London 2012 Games
Sports - enki don't - 6 Comments
Tags: Olympics, England, pew-pew, pentathlon, laser guns
08/29/10 - - - (Link)
Laser guns will replace traditional air pistols in the modern pentathlon at the 2012 London Olympics after a successful trial at the inaugural Youth Olympics.
Why Kabul is filled with old Corollas
Living - Forensic - 102 Comments
Tags: Afghanistan, Cars, Toyota, Kabul, where Corollas come to die
08/29/10 - - - (Link)
In Kabul Afghanistan, graveyard of empires - and Toyota Corollas.
If this war-torn nation of 29 million is a magnet for foreign occupying forces that never seem to leave, it is also the land where old Corollas from around the globe come to die.
Paul Allen Sues the Internet
Technology - support - 0 Comments
Tags: Microsoft, Internet, Patents, Paul Allen, drive to become super rich x2
08/29/10 - - - (Link)
A firm owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has filed a lawsuit against Google, Apple, Facebook, and other companies alleging that they have violated patents related to search, multimedia, screen pop-ups and database management.
Interval Licensing filed the patent lawsuit Friday in U.S. District Court of the Western District of Washington. The companies named in the lawsuit are Aol, Apple, eBay, Facebook, Google, Netflix, Office Depot, OfficeMax, Staples, Yahoo and YouTube.
Does Your Language Shape How You Think?
Science - halon - 18 Comments
Tags: Language, gender, perception, linguistics, mother tongue
08/29/10 - - - (Link)
Seventy years ago, in 1940, a popular science magazine published a short article that set in motion one of the trendiest intellectual fads of the 20th century. At first glance, there seemed little about the article to augur its subsequent celebrity. Neither the title, “Science and Linguistics,” nor the magazine, M.I.T.’s Technology Review, was most people’s idea of glamour. And the author, a chemical engineer who worked for an insurance company and moonlighted as an anthropology lecturer at Yale University, was an unlikely candidate for international superstardom. And yet Benjamin Lee Whorf let loose an alluring idea about language’s power over the mind, and his stirring prose seduced a whole generation into believing that our mother tongue restricts what we are able to think.
[...]
Eventually, Whorf’s theory crash-landed on hard facts and solid common sense, when it transpired that there had never actually been any evidence to support his fantastic claims. The reaction was so severe that for decades, any attempts to explore the influence of the mother tongue on our thoughts were relegated to the loony fringes of disrepute. But 70 years on, it is surely time to put the trauma of Whorf behind us. And in the last few years, new research has revealed that when we learn our mother tongue, we do after all acquire certain habits of thought that shape our experience in significant and often surprising ways.
High School Yearbook Includes Quote From Hitler
Living Education - Xiphias - 28 Comments
Tags: high school, Hitler, Pennsylvania, Quote, yearbook
08/29/10 - - - (Link)
Students from Easton Area High School are talking about more than just Monday's first day of class; they're talking about a quote by Adolf Hitler from the 2010 yearbook.
"It is in fact a quote from Hitler and it was selected from numerous quotes and various sources," Easton Area High School Principal Michael Koch said.
NY candidate: Prison dorms for welfare recipients
Government Elections - Phlogiston - 2 Comments
Tags: NY, gubernatorial candidate, Carl Paladino, prison dorms, personal hygiene
08/29/10 - - - (Link)
Republican candidate for governor Carl Paladino said he would transform some New York prisons into dormitories for welfare recipients, where they could work in state-sponsored jobs, get employment training and take lessons in "personal hygiene."
Paladino, a wealthy Buffalo real estate developer popular with many tea party activists, isn't saying the state should jail poor people: The program would be voluntary.
LA Jail to Use Invisible Laser 'Heat Ray' to Control Unruly Inmates
Crime - duck&cover - 21 Comments
Tags: torture, jail, LA, heat ray, Assault Intervention Device
08/29/10 - - - (Link)
Officials at a Los Angeles County jail plan to test out an invisible heat-beam weapon originally developed by the military as a way to subdue brawling inmates by making them feel "intolerable heat."
Family Suing SeaWorld Over Whale Attack
Living Legal - Harry - 0 Comments
Tags: 10-year-old, killer whale, SeaWorld, fatal attack, traumatized
08/29/10 - - - (Link)
In the wake of a horrific attack earlier this year at SeaWorld in which a killer whale dragged and drowned a trainer, a New Hampshire family is filing a lawsuit against the park.
The parents say their 10-year-old son, who was at the show that day, has been traumatized.
Original Story:
SeaWorld Orlando trainer killed in whale attack
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