• Connections - Hot Off The Presses

    Very Threatening Cat Cows Canada Post

    Canada Post cowed by very threatening cat | Oddly Enough | Reuters WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) – Canada's postal system has stopped delivering mail to a home in Winnipeg, Manitoba, after a mail carrier was scared away by a "very threatening cat," the Winnipeg Free Press said on Friday. My Seattle-based friend Kevin sent me this, owing to our mutual interest in all things Pythonesque. He imagines Eric Idle in the role of a perky, winsome newsreader describing the ferocious feline as ""8-year-old declawed Shadow loves to cuddle, and wouldn't bat an eye if a bomb went off." 

  • Hot Off The Presses - Politics, Schmolitics

    Iraq: If You Rebuild It, It Will Be A Big Fat Waste of Money

    Rebuilt Iraq Projects Found Crumbling – New York Times In a troubling sign for the American-financed rebuilding program in Iraq, inspectors for a federal oversight agency have found that in a sampling of eight projects that the United States had declared successes, seven were no longer operating as designed because of plumbing and electrical failures, lack of proper maintenance, apparent looting and expensive equipment that lay idle. Good GOD, when will the horrific, politically embarassing scandals cease coming down the pike? January, 2008 can't come too fast for this country (or this Administration).  

  • Hot Off The Presses

    CSI: Windjammer

    Expect this true story to turn up on CSI:Miami next season. How very bizarre; this occurred right after our return. It's not a pretty story, and there's been very little more reported since this story from early April:  Millionaire Found Dead In Miami Hotel – News Story – WPLG Miami MIAMI — It's not the place one would expect a millionaire to turn up dead. But that's what happened to Daniel Richard Burke inside room No. 209 at the Biscayne Inn. In an area of Biscayne Boulevard long known for prostitution and drug use, Burke's death came as a surprise…

  • Hot Off The Presses

    Hawking Flies High

      This just makes me cry and laugh with happiness. What a tremendous thrill! What a huge smile! Reportedly, he communicates the word "Yes" by raising an eyebrow, so I wonder if he's saying "Yes! YES! Yesyesyes!"? Also, how many people can say "we took Stephen Hawking out for a spin"?   Zero gravity a blast for Hawking – Travel – theage.com.au Cosmologist Stephen Hawking soared into weightlessness on Thursday on a zero gravity flight that allowed the leading expert on gravity to briefly escape from his wheelchair. "It was amazing … I could have gone on and on,'' Hawking,…

  • Hot Off The Presses - Politics, Schmolitics

    Uh, Oh! Rove Tuesday Flapjacks, Anyone?

    It's not quite Fitzmas, and it's a different agency that's investigating, but there may be a new holiday to celebrate if this inquiry goes where I think it's going: Political Briefings At Agencies Disclosed – washingtonpost.com Such coercion is prohibited under a federal law, known as the Hatch Act, meant to insulate virtually all federal workers from partisan politics. In addition to forbidding workplace pressures meant to influence an election outcome, the law bars the use of federal resources — including office buildings, phones and computers — for partisan purposes. The administration maintains that the previously undisclosed meetings were appropriate.…

  • Hot Off The Presses - SciFi/Fantasy

    Hello? Can you hear us now?

    BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | New 'super-Earth' found in space The Gliese 581 super-Earth is in what scientists call the "Goldilocks Zone" where temperatures "are just right" for life to have a chance to exist. Commenting on the discovery, Alison Boyle, the curator of astronomy at London's Science Museum, said: "Of all the planets we've found around other stars, this is the one that looks as though it might have the right ingredients for life. "It's 20 light-years away and so we won't be going there anytime soon, but with new kinds of propulsion technology that could change in the…

  • Hot Off The Presses - Politics, Schmolitics

    Election Fraud and Missing Emails and Attorneys General, Oh My

    TomPaine.com – GOP's Cyber Election Hit Squad Exposed Did the most powerful Republicans in America have the computer capacity, software skills and electronic infrastructure in place on election night 2004 to tamper with the Ohio results to ensure George W. Bush's re-election? The answer appears to be yes. There is more than ample documentation to show that on Election Night 2004 , Ohio's "official" Secretary of State website—which gave the world the presidential election results—was redirected from an Ohio government server to a group of servers that contain scores of Republican web sites, including the secret White House e-mail accounts…

  • Hot Off The Presses - Only in Utah...

    How To Be a Successful Arsonist

    Here are a few simple rules on how to succeed as an arsonist: Use a slow accelerant so you can make your getaway and establish an alibi. Work clean, work careful. Don't spill, don't use smelly stuff, trim excessive hair. Don't blow up your own house; you'll be first on the suspect list if you screw up. Under no circumstances should you ever run out of your own house with burning hair and beard, smelling of gasoline, just before it blows itself to smithereens. Salt Lake Tribune – Explosion disintegrates Sugar House home, sparks fires in neighboring houses About 10 p.m. Monday,…

  • Hot Off The Presses - Radio

    NPR : Ohio Vote Audit

    NPR : Ohio Vote Audit Turns Up Duplicates, Deletions All Things Considered, April 22, 2007 · One person, one vote. That's how the democratic process should work. But a recent audit of the 2006 general election in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, found that some votes were counted twice, and others were deleted. Candice Hoke, who oversaw the independent audit, explains some of its findings. Okay, but DON'T DO THAT AGAIN, OHIO. We're watching you this time around.  

  • Hot Off The Presses - Politics, Schmolitics

    Sheryl Crow’s Version

    The Blog | Laurie David and Sheryl Crow: Karl Rove Gets Thrown Under the Stop Global Warming Bus | The Huffington Post We reminded the senior White House advisor that the US leads the world in global warming pollution and we are doing the least about it. Anger flaring, Mr. Rove immediately regurgitated the official Administration position on global warming which is that the US spends more on researching the causes than any other country. We felt compelled to remind him that the research is done and the results are in (www.IPCC.ch). Mr. Rove exploded with even more venom. Like…