Various

Eccentricity

Werewolf Book
I have no idea why this caught my eye, but it did, so I'll file it here for the time being.

A book about werewolves or something. I forget how I got here.

Source: Amazon.com (Sharp Teeth)

Pretty Good

OKLAHOMA CITY - Four months after he was declared brain dead and doctors were about to remove his organs for transplant, Zach Dunlap says he feels "pretty good."

Dunlap was pronounced dead Nov. 19 at United Regional Healthcare System in Wichita Falls, Texas, after he was injured in an all-terrain vehicle accident. His family approved having his organs harvested.

As family members were paying their last respects, he moved his foot and hand. He reacted to a pocketknife scraped across his foot and to pressure applied under a fingernail. After 48 days in the hospital, he was allowed to return home, where he continues to work on his
recovery.

This is a weird story, because they did a brain scan and he had no blood flow up there.

So, huh. Spontaneous brain recovery. We should experiment on this guy, find out what the mechanism is.

Ethically of course. But maybe he has a mutant gene we could utilize.

Source: AZ Central

Saddam Insane
So it turns out that Saddam never did try to kill Bush's dad. That was, err, a lie, to make the Kuwaitis look good.

Now skepticism is newly enveloping allegations of an Iraqi plot to assassinate former President George H.W. Bush during a trip to Kuwait in 1993. Newsweek's Michael Isikoff reports that the same Pentagon report that has essentially disproved an Iraq-al Qaeda link also calls into question the 1993 plot that spurred former President Bill Clinton to launch a Tomahawk cruise-missle strike against Saddam's Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS). Isikoff writes:

The review, conducted for the Pentagon's Joint Forces Command, combed through 600,000 pages of Iraqi intelligence documents seized after the fall of Baghdad, as well as thousands of hours of audio- and videotapes of Saddam's conversations with his ministers and top aides. The study found that the IIS kept remarkably detailed records of virtually every operation it planned, including plots to assassinate Iraqi exiles and to supply explosives and booby-trapped suitcases to Iraqi embassies. But the Pentagon researchers found no documents that referred to a plan to kill Bush. The absence was conspicuous because researchers, aware of its potential significance, were looking for such evidence. "It was surprising," said one source familiar with the preparation of the report (who under Pentagon ground rules was not permitted to speak on the record). Given how much the Iraqis did document, "you would have thought there would have been some veiled reference to something about [the plot]."

...

On May 27, 1993, the Boston Globe obtained a CIA report that questioned Kuwait's claims of the Iraqi plot to assassinate Bush (via Nexis):
A classified US intelligence analysis has concluded that Kuwait may have "cooked the books" on an alleged plot to assassinate former President Bush while he was in Kuwait last month. [...] At least one administration official has expressed the fear that President Clinton, under heavy criticism for his indecision over issues like Bosnia, may be tempted to hit at Iraq to prove his willingness to undertake resolute action. The report notes that some of the evidence definitely points to Iraqi involvement. The explosive devices captured by the Kuwaitis, for example, match those used by Iraqi intelligence in other terrorist operations. But the report says it was unable to corroborate the Kuwaiti assertion that the plot was aimed at Bush.

In November 1993, the New Yorker's tenacious investigative reporter Seymour Hersh reported, "[M]y own investigations have uncovered circumstantial evidence, at least as compelling as the [Clinton] Administration's, that suggests that the American government's case against Iraq—as it has been outlined in public, anyway—is seriously flawed."

This is why Seymour Hersh should be taken seriously. He's an amazing reporter.

Source: Raw Story

Capitol Police
The stalwart Capitol police, famous for not giving breathalyzer tests to drunk congresspeople who hit objects with their cars, have also failed to find a bomb that a crazy man brought with him in his car when he went to, err, thin the herd at the Supreme Court. With a sword and a shotgun.

Authorities revealed Tuesday that a man carrying a loaded shotgun was arrested in January near the U.S. Capitol, and explosives left in his truck nearby went undetected for three weeks.


According to an indictment filed in District of Columbia Superior Court, Michael Gorbey, 38, of Rapidan, Va., faces charges of planning to set off a bomb. He also is accused of making or transporting an explosive device with the intent of using it against people or property and multiple firearms charges.

Gorbey allegedly tried to manufacture a "weapon of mass destruction, that is, an explosive device capable of causing multiple deaths or serious bodily injuries to multiple persons, or massive destruction of property," according to the indictment.

He was arrested Jan. 18 for carrying the shotgun and a sword outside the Capitol. Gorbey told police he was headed to an appointment at the Supreme Court. No one was injured in the incident, which caused gridlock for hours on Capitol Hill.

U.S. Capitol Police discovered the explosive device three weeks later when they returned with a search warrant to check the truck, which was in a government parking lot.

Morons.

Source: Raw Story

Scary
So a transgender woman (undergoing procedures to be more like a man), has decided to have a child.

This is a bit odd, but didn't make a huge impression on me when I read the story.

My subconscious, however, always eager to find new sources of terror, gave me a nightmare where I was pregnant.

Uggh. Gods.

Source: The Daily Telegraph

Revoltin' Development
It's a bad pun, because, well, you'll see.

Apparently the Department of Transportation is running a 1 billion dollar lottery that will be divided up amongst the worst traffic hells in the country.

This has led Miami to worsen its traffic intentionally to try and get the gold. Perverse incentives, anyone?

(See, this is a revolting situation about urban development, and... yeah)

Sources: Tom Morris
Urbanplanet.org

Dumbest Game Ideas
A list of 30 questionable game ideas, or in some cases, game marketing.

I love the game where you kill mutated, fireball spitting camels.

Source: Crave at CNET

Nazi Loot
Stephen Colbert may be on the trail of Nazi Gold, but a London museum has struck Nazi Painting.

Britain's National Gallery announced Thursday that new research has disclosed that a painting in its collection, "Cupid Complaining to Venus," by the German Renaissance artist Lucas Cranach the Elder, was once part of Hitler's private collection.

"We've never had anything like this before," said museum spokesman Thomas Almeroth-Williams. "It's incredibly rare."

I have to say, what an awesome name. 'Cranach'. The Elder no less, which strongly implies that it was passed on.

Basically, Hitler got this painting through as yet undetermined means, and it was 'given' to a war correspondent, who brought it back to the US, then sold it, and thus it ended up back in the art world.

What an odd story.

CRANACH!!!

Source: The Washington Post

Dr. Pepper and Axl Rose
So the Dr. Pepper people have made an offer to Axl Rose: release his vaporware album 'Chinese Democracy' in 08, and everyone in America gets a free can of Dr. Pepper.

"Tired of a world in which Americans idolize wannabe singers and musicals about high schoolers pass as rock 'n roll music, Dr Pepper is encouraging (ok, begging) Axl Rose to finally release his 17-year-in-the-making belabored masterpiece, Chinese Democracy, in 2008," it said in a release on Wednesday.

"In an unprecedented show of solidarity with Axl, everyone in America, except estranged G N'R guitarists Slash and Buckethead, will receive a free can of Dr Pepper if the album ships some time -- anytime! -- in 2008."

Ok, almost everyone.

Apparently Rose didn't know this was in the works.

So... yeah. I have no clue what this is about. Maybe they're betting he won't get it out, and thus it's totally free PR.

Source: Raw Story

Headspace
A new book by a Reg correspondent is out, talking about the emerging use and abuse of sniffer police dogs in the good old UK.

Interesting topic, though the excerpt makes it sound as much about her as about the issue.

Source: The Register

Ammo
So the US awarded a 200+ million dollar defense contract to supply ammunition to Afghan soldiers to some guy operating, essentially, out of his garage.

Big surprise, he screwed it up.

A defense contractor reportedly led by a 22-year-old has been suspended from doing business with the US government for allegedly supplying Afghan security forces with old Chinese-made munitions, officials said Thursday.

...

Using Chinese-made ammunition violated the terms of the contract, the notice of suspension said.

In January, investigators inspected munitions stored at a bunker in Afghanistan and found that 14 of 15 containers of 7.62-caliber ammunition supplied by AEY Inc. were manufactured in China, the army memo said.

...

Diveroli, it said, was 19 years old when he became president of AEY Inc in 2005 and began bidding on an array US government munition contracts.

The army placed orders for more than 223 million dollars worth of munitions with AEY between March and December of 2007.

The Times said that since winning the contract in January 2007, the company has provided ammunition that is more than 40 years old and in decomposing packaging.

Ahh, the Pentagon. Just when they thought the super expensive wrench and toilet seat scandals of the 90s were behind them, they handed a few hundred million bucks to a con artist.

Idiots.

Source: Raw Story

Postal
I had no idea this sort of thing actually happens.

HIGHLAND, Ind. (AP) -- A 77-year-old woman used her car to drive off a large dog that was attacking a mail carrier, saving the woman from more bite wounds.

Joan Michniewicz was backing out of her driveway when she heard Danielle Lawrence, 28, scream on Monday afternoon. Michniewicz drove at the mixed-breed dog and then yelled for Lawrence to jump in her car.

"I'm so lucky," said Lawrence, who has been on the job less than two months. "If she hadn't come, I would have been tore up worse than I was."

Lawrence suffered several bite wounds before Michniewicz arrived. The dog had pushed open a backyard gate and attacked her while she was walking up to a mailbox.

Ok, so I suppose that's a bit of an exaggeration. Still, considering the stereotype, how often do you really hear about mail carriers and dogs?

Source: The Associated Press