‘With a new paperback set to hit shelves and a celebration of his work underway, Kurt Vonnegut is already enjoying a banner year.
The city of Indianapolis, where the literary legend was born and raised, has declared 2007 “The Year of Vonnegut,” coinciding with Tuesday’s paperback release of his latest work, A Man Without a Country.
Vonnegut, 84, insists that the slim volume of essays and simple illustrations, a sort of mini-memoir published in 2005, is his last contribution.’
Something about a cup of tea and Jesus Christ.
see it here »
`Intel director John Negroponte gave Congress a sobering assessment last week of the continued threats from groups like Al Qaeda and Hizbullah. But even gloomier comments came from Henry Crumpton, the outgoing State Department terror coordinator. An ex-CIA operative, Crumpton told NEWSWEEK that a worldwide surge in Islamic radicalism has worsened recently, increasing the number of potential terrorists and setting back U.S. efforts in the terror war. “Certainly, we haven’t made any progress,” said Crumpton. “In fact, we’ve lost ground.” He cites Iraq as a factor; the war has fueled resentment against the United States.’
`Terrorists attacking British bases in Basra are using aerial footage displayed by the Google Earth internet tool to pinpoint their attacks, say Army intelligence sources.
Documents seized during raids on the homes of insurgents last week uncovered print-outs from photographs taken from Google.
The satellite photographs show in detail the buildings inside the bases and vulnerable areas such as tented accommodation, lavatory blocks and where lightly armoured Land Rovers are parked.
Written on the back of one set of photographs taken of the Shatt al Arab Hotel, headquarters for the 1,000 men of the Staffordshire Regiment battle group, officers found the camp’s precise longitude and latitude.’
Pitfall was a game you could play on your Atari or Amiga. It was great. 🙂
see it here »
`The letter “X” soon may be banned in Saudi Arabia because it resembles the mother of all banned religious symbols in the oil kingdom: the cross.
The new development came with the issuing of another mind-bending fatwa, or religious edict, by the infamous Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice – the group of senior Islamic clergy that reigns supreme on all legal, civil, and governance matters in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.’
`If you have ever fancied having a full fry-up breakfast tattooed on your head, Blane Dickinson could make your unlikely dream come true.
The tattoo artist is searching for someone willing to turn themselves into a live exhibition of the classic bacon and eggs way to start the day.
Mr Dickinson, from Penmaenmawr, Conwy, wants to take his model around UK tattoo competitions.
It would include a knife and fork behind each ear.’
You’re just asking for trouble, really.
see it here »
`The BBC came under new fire after it announced plans for a £200,000 TV documentary devoted to the most offensive word in the English language.
The programme – tentatively titled I love The C-Word – is billed as examining why the word has become more mainstream in recent years. [..]
Both the BBC and North One claimed it will not be sensationalist. A spokeswoman for the programme said: “It will look at how a word that was considered completely unacceptable has moved into the mainstream, particularly by younger people. The tone will be a serious exploration of the word.”‘
`The invasion of Iraq has greatly destabilised the country, President Bush admitted yesterday – but he still insisted that Iraqis should be grateful to America for starting the war.
As the White House scrambled to stem a flow of Republican defections over Mr Bush’s plan to send another 21,500 troops to Iraq, the President also admitted that the execution of Saddam Hussein had been mishandled, calling it discouraging.
In earlier private comments to news anchors he went much further, describing the ugly scenes during Saddam’s hanging as second only to the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal in terms of disastrous mistakes.’
This thing is pretty crazy. That’s a long way to fly through the air. 🙂
see it here »
The feedback suits the user name. 🙂
<superwoman> I had a boyfriend once that made me suck him off while I had a mouthful of beer.
<GrandCow> HAHAHAHA that was me bitch!
<superwoman> DANNY?!?!?!
<GrandCow> MOM?!?!?!?!
`A body was found in an airplane wheel well after a Delta Air Lines flight from Africa landed in Atlanta on Friday morning, airline spokeswoman Betsy Talton said.
The flight had left Dakar, Senegal, more than nine hours earlier. It landed at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
Airline officials said the man was not carrying any identification.
No additional details were available pending an investigation by federal and local law enforcement.’
`A 40-year-old substitute teacher faces up to 40 years in prison after being convicted of exposing children to pornography on a computer at the Connecticut middle school where she taught.
I suppose it’s remotely possible the charges are valid. But the story doesn’t add up. It seems far more plausible from the accounts I’m reading that this woman, who had no prior criminal record and a clean teaching history, was using an insecure edition of Internet Explorer and was hit with an adware infestation she didn’t know how to deal with.’
`The federal government argued that Boy Scouts playing with fire caused a 14,200-acre wildfire and wants a judge to hold them responsible, allowing officials to seek damages.
In court documents, the government said it would decide whether to seek damages after a ruling is made. It says the June 2002 wildfire in northeastern Utah cost more than $12 million to control. [..]
At the time of the blaze, a fire ban was in effect because of dry conditions. In court documents, the Scouts maintain they were not aware of a formal fire ban and thought small pit fires were allowed.
In depositions, Scouts testified they were playing with fire, even offering a teenage counselor candy in return for setting one, Overby said.’
These are parts of some videos made back in 1996 by a guy who was apparently stalking Björk. He went crazier and crazier before sending Björk a parcel bomb and killing himself.
see it here »
`A post office in upstate New York was evacuated as Secret Service agents and the local bomb squad responded to a suspicious package addressed to former U.S. president Bill Clinton. [..]
After the post office was evacuated, a member of the bomb squad, dressed in protective gear, approached the package and checked it with a portable X-ray device. When no bomb parts were seen, the package was opened, revealing the cookies.
The cookies were then turned over to the Secret Service and the post office reopened.’
`It started over a dress code violation, hardly reason enough to throw away an academic career and certainly no reason to be charged with a felony.
“I have goals I want to achieve and this is stopping that,” says 17-year old Sabrina Herndon.
Herndon was wearing a jacket and strapless top and was changing in the girl’s locker room at Palm Beach Gardens High School.
A teacher noticed the strapless top which is a dress code violation. Herndon says with the jacket though, the top is within dress code.
A male assistant principal then entered the girl’s locker room, and within minutes Herndon was in a choke hold.’
American Congressman David Wu gets up and gives a speech about how the Whitehouse is full of Klingons, and how people shouldn’t let Klingons send real Americans to war. It’s wrong!
see it here »
`A taxi driver has been given a speeding ticket for allegedly driving at 420mph (676km/h) on a city street.
Tom Matthews was photographed while carrying a fare in his 12-year-old diesel Vauxhall Cavalier in Newport.
When a notice of the £60 fine and three penalty points arrived, it said he was clocked at 420mph in a 30mph zone. [..]
Mr Matthews, 38, of Newport, said: “I could not believe it. I was a bit shocked because there was no way I was going that fast.’
`A drunk driver is facing criminal charges after taking a fire engine for a joyride, with the lights and sirens blaring.
Canyon County sheriff’s deputies first spotted the fire truck driving north on highway 45 just after midnight.
They didn’t know of any fires in the area and called area dispatch centers to investigate.’
`A reader in New Zealand wrote to ask about the Playmate photos unwittingly taken to the moon in 1969 by Apollo 12 astronauts Al Bean and Pete Conrad. We described in the December 1994 issue how pranksters on the ground crew had reprinted Playmate photos on fireproof plastic paper and inserted them with captions into each of the astronauts’ cuff checklists. [..]
Conrad told us in 1994: “I had no idea they were with us. It wasn’t until we actually got out on the lunar surface and were well into our first moon walk that I found them.” Bean recalled: “It was about two and a half hours into the extravehicular activity. I flipped the page over and there she was. I hopped over to where Pete was and showed him mine, and he showed me his.”
Conrad: “We giggled and laughed so much that people accused us of being drunk or having ‘space rapture.'”‘
How do you dispose of 20,000 pounds of war surplus sodium metal?
Looks like a fun job. 🙂
(10.3meg Google video)
see it here »
`For the most part Soviet architecture and design is remembered for its heavy block buildings and functionally Spartan designs. Its overpowering desire for conformity left little room for individual creative freedom. A notable exceptions to this is in the transportation sector. One can admire this creativity in the Metro stations of cities like Moscow and Tashkent where the coldness and sterility of typical soviet urban architecture is abandoned and costs are not spared as creative freedom is unleashed. While many of us are aware of the elaborate splendor of the Moscow underground, it is easy to overlook the phenomenon of the common roadside bus stop as an example of soviet art and design letting loose and becoming a little weird and crazy.’
This gas is denser than air, so you can do some interesting things with it. It will make your voice deeper if you inhale it, and you can float little boats on it. Fun. 🙂
The wiki has more information about sulphur hexafluoride.
see it here »
`A World War II veteran has been found decapitated in the backyard of the northern NSW home where he lived alone for two decades, in a sickening and seemingly motiveless murder.
The severed head of 82-year-old Mark Hutchinson was found lying next to his body, said an ambulance spokesman in Armidale.
Relatives made the grisly find in the yard that backs onto a bike path and parkland when they called to see Mr Hutchinson yesterday, police said.’
‘Strange, 28, was found dead inside her Astral Drive home in Rancho Cordova Friday afternoon. Her death came just hours after Strange participated in a radio station KDND 107.9 The End contest, testing contestants to drank as much water as they could without going to the bathroom.
The winner of the “Hold Your Wee for a Wii” contest would take home a new Nintendo Wii video game system.’
see it here »
