Cure Worse Than the Disease

Warning: reading this story can cause the unfortunate side effect of sticking a Huey Lewis song in your head that you won't be able to get out.

A MAN has revealed how he became a sex-crazed transvestite and ran up debts of £400,000 on flash cars and holidays after suffering mind-blowing side effects from a drug given to him by his [doctor].

Town councillor Pete Shepherd was handed the drug after being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.

The pills did help ease the symptoms of the illness - but they also turned him into a violent, attention-seeking gambler with delusions of grandeur.

Mr Shepherd maxed out 15 credit cards during his spending spree and exceeded two bank overdrafts as he lost his wife, his home AND his £50,000-a-year job.

[Shepherd], said today: "I started to develop a range of strange obsessions, compulsions and interests.

"I became obsessed with gambling, spending, sexual excess and various fetishes.

"I suffered from delusions of grandeur, exhibitionism, paranoia and hallucinations and became violent and suicidal.

"I was out day and night at racecourses, betting shops, casinos and brothels.

"I developed a transvestite tendency and spent tens of thousands of pounds on ladies' clothing for myself."

[...]

"It went on and on, and I found myself in police stations several times."

He finally discovered a link between his behaviour and the drug when he searched the internet in 2008. He then stopped taking the drug and his life returned to normal.

In October last year he admitted six charges of fraud and one count of money laundering after conning 172 people out of £45,718 for concert tickets which did not exist.

[The Sun]

Why Call a Locksmith When You've Got Matches?

In these tough times, every penny counts. There's no need to spend $100 to get a locksmith to open your door when you can get firemen to do it on the taxpayer's dime.

PITTSBURGH -- A woman has been charged with arson after Pittsburgh police said she set a house that she owns on fire after locking herself out.

[...]

Police said they arrived at the scene and were told by fire officials that Lorean Simmons, 57, of Verona, told responding officers that she had started the fire.

Simmons indicated that she ignited the awning so the fire bureau would respond and open her door, but then called 911 after the fire started because she did not want the whole house to burn, police said.

[WTAE]

Impending Doom: You Can Count On It

If you're feeling optimistic that the meeting of the world's climate scientists in Cancun might help avert catastrophe, you can stop feeling that way now.

A hellish vision of a world warmed by 4C within a lifetime has been set out by an international team of scientists, who say the agonisingly slow progress of the global climate change talks that restart in Mexico today makes the so-called safe limit of 2C impossible to keep. A 4C rise in the planet's temperature would see severe droughts across the world and millions of migrants seeking refuge as their food supplies collapse.

"There is now little to no chance of maintaining the rise in global surface temperature at below 2C, despite repeated high-level statements to the contrary," said Kevin Anderson, from the University of Manchester, who with colleague Alice Bows contributed research to a special collection of Royal Society journal papers published tomorrow. "Moreover, the impacts associated with 2C have been revised upwards so that 2C now represents the threshold [of] extremely dangerous climate change."

[...]

The scientists' modelling is based on actual tonnes of emissions, not percentage reductions, and separates the predicted emissions of rich and fast-industrialising nations such as China. "2010 represents a political tipping point," said Anderson, but added in the report: "This paper is not intended as a message of futility, but rather a bare and perhaps brutal assessment of where our 'rose-tinted' and well-intentioned approach to climate change has brought us. Real hope and opportunity, if it is to arise at all, will do so from a raw and dispassionate assessment of the scale of the challenge faced by the global community."

[...]

Rachel Warren, at the University of East Anglia, described a 4C world in her research paper: "Drought and desertification would be widespread ... There would be a need to shift agricultural cropping to new areas, impinging on [wild] ecosystems. Large-scale adaptation to sea-level rise would be necessary. Human and natural systems would be subject to increasing levels of agricultural pests and diseases, and increases in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events."

Warren added: "This world would also rapidly be losing its ecosystem services, owing to large losses in biodiversity, forests, coastal wetlands, mangroves and saltmarshes [and] an acidified and potentially dysfunctional marine ecosystem. In such a 4C world, the limits for human adaptation are likely to be exceeded in many parts of the world."

Let's review:

• The so-called safe limit of a 2 degree centigrade temperature increase will be "impossible to keep."
  
• "[T]he impacts associated with 2C have been revised upwards so that 2C now represents the threshold [of] extremely dangerous climate change." But of course, limiting the temperature increase to just two degrees is impossible, so extremely dangerous climate change is a certainty.
  
• "Real hope and opportunity, if it is to arise at all, will do so from a raw and dispassionate assessment of the scale of the challenge faced by the global community." A raw and dispassionate assessment of the problem by policymakers is about as likely as a magic unicorn riding a cloud of pixie dust into your living room. It ain't gonna happen. Ergo, "real hope and opportunity" are out the window.
  

Instead of toys this holiday season, you should really consider sending your children to a survival training course. It's the least you can do in return for destroying their planet.

UPDATE: When asked how this year's conference in Cancun will be different from last year's disastrous failure in Copenhagen, Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, had this to say: "At least the weather will be better."

[Guardian]

I H8 The Great White Way

As a native New Yorker I have always hated Broadway and its revolting and self-important fans. Rich snobs and tourists, most of them can barely read, and they are patting themselves on the back with both hands because they pay through the nose to go sit through this crap. They pride themselves on how Broadway reflects "real life" and yet they applaud removing every bit of "real life" that exists in the neighborhood around them so they can wait on line safely at Starbucks and pay $40 to park their car for two hours.

Now I have seen some good theatre in my time but most of it was in the Metropole Go Go on Seventh Avenue and not on Broadway per se. But Seventh Avenue is damn close to Broadway in spots up there with that pigeon shit covered statue by that discount ticket booth where God willing you could throw rocks at these idiots and sing "Oklahoma!" if this country had any sense of justice at all.

Here's a review of the last 100 years of this overpriced hokum - for every Shakespeare or Beckett there are millions of bonehead "family dramas" or formulaic comedies and period pieces. All done to death.

Neil Simon wrote the same play 30 times. Nice people. You watch it and go to bed. But above all, we are talking about white people's problems here. In other words, COMPLETELY INCONSEQUENTIAL NONSENSE. God forbid they should come in contact with any unpleasant reality. Either that or they are bombarding you with disease of the week and politically correct instructions. The actors say, "I have to get back to my roots every once in awhile." Douchebags. Let them try a real job, like cleaning sardines. I say there should be a ban on acting for awhile. That's what this country needs, more sardines, instead of acting jerks whining about "issues."

This story says it all. They are putting freaking "Spider Man" on Broadway! It's a COMIC BOOK, for Chrissakes! Can they milk this thing any more? Who knew it would have such legs as we read it under the covers with a flashlight? Broadway has something to add to a...COMIC BOOK...and they can all pay $125 to airkiss and listen to these idiots... And how are they going to make it "important"...theatrically speaking?...a MUSICAL version of "Spider Man" no less!

What I wouldn't have given to be at this show...with a pillowcase full of doorknobs...while this guy was suspended there like an overpaid pinata. Damn!

The new "Spider-Man" Broadway musical opened on Sunday with a web of technical problems, including a harness malfunction that left lead actor Reeve Carney stuck dangling in the air.

The $65 million production, called "Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark", features a score by Bono and The Edge of the rock group U2. Carney, 27, is the lead singer of the California-based band Carney.

No injuries were reported amid the mishaps in the musical's first showing, which began late and was halted several times to fix technical problems. The first act ended early with Carney, clad in his superhero costume, dangling 10 feet above audience members as crew members tried to grab him by the foot.

[Ontheredcarpet.com]

A Handyman You Can't Refuse

It seems to the Captain that if you're going to stiff somebody the money you owe him, Sicily probably isn't the best place to do so.

ROME — A village odd-job man gunned down clients who failed to pay him, killing at least five in the small Sicilian community, a prosecutor said Monday following the dawn arrest of 69-year-old Giuseppe Raeli.

Ugo Rossi, chief prosecutor for the city of Syracuse, said Raeli was accused of five murders and four attempted murders, though press reports said he was suspected of eight killings over a seven-year period.

"Giuseppe Raeli was ready to kill for only a few hundred euros, even 200," Rossi told local media. "He took the law into his own hands as soon as someone owed him money and didn't pay him for work he had done."

[...]

Rossi said a home-made safe containing $26,000 dollars and a loaded pistol were found in a search of the home of the man nicknamed "the wolf" by his neighbours because of his taciturn nature.

Describing him as "very miserly" but a hard worker, the prosecutor said Raeli, married with two children, did odd jobs for people, clearing land with a mechanical digger or delivering wood.

A "hard worker" in Sicily? The mind boggles.

[Vancouver Sun]

Whip It Good

If you're one of the millions of American children who has had his freedom to consume sickly-sweet, fruity, caffeinated malt-liqour taken away by jack-booted government thugs, don't despair. There's a new boozy product available that's sure to please the most childish of palettes.

Only weeks after cracking down on the booze-and-caffeine-fueled Four Loko party drink, regulators and public-health officials are now warily eyeing another liquor concoction they fear will appeal to young binge drinkers: alcohol-infused whipped cream.

Canisters of Cream — a 30-proof whipped cream that comes in a variety of flavors, including chocolate, raspberry, orange and cherry are now arriving on liquor-store shelves across the state.

"They can get a significant amount of alcohol in one shot," Dr. Anita Barry, a director at the Boston Public Health Department, said of drinkers who consume the boozy topping.

[...]

At the Wine Emporium on Tremont Street, Cream sells for $12.99, and it’s flying off the shelves, general manager Max Pendolari said.

"I’m amazed at the amount we’ve sold," he said. "I thought these would be one of those kitschy things we pulled off the shelf in six months, but within the first week we had already sold out the initial order."

Chris Guiher, chief executive of Kingfish Spirits of Cleveland, maker of Cream, said his company has complied with all laws and is determined to make sure it is distributed and marketed "responsibly."

One can only hope that the nitrous oxide in the can is also infused with booze so that inhaling "whip its" will be especially mind-blowing and dangerous.

[Boston Herald]

Born to Be Wild

Yet another good deed that goes not unpunished.

BROADWAY, Va. (AP) — A Broadway man who nursed a young deer back to health has lost the animal to Virginia wildlife officials and faces three misdemeanor charges.

Doyle Ritchie says he didn't realize he was breaking the law when he kept the deer in his backyard after it was hit by a car and later attacked by dogs.

But recently, the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries took the deer and Ritchie was charged with the misdemeanors, including illegal possession of a wild animal.

Ritchie told The Daily News Record of Harrisonburg he only wanted to give the deer a chance to live. He says it was like part of his family.

[NECN]

Quit Your Bellyaching

If holiday feasting gave you an upset stomach, you should be thankful not to be this guy.

A SUSPECTED motorcycle thief spent two months in rema-nd prison with his bowels protruding from his belly after detectives shot him as he allegedly tried to disarm them.

The High Court was on Monday shocked when Boas Chiwanza, who was visibly in pain, limped into the courtroom with his bowels hanging out.

[...]

Chiwanza, who struggled to speak, told the court that he had not received appropriate treatment since his arrest and most of his doctors’ appointments had failed due to circumstances beyond his control.

[...]

Justice Omerjee immediately directed the officer-in-charge of Harare Remand Prison, Chief Superintendent Billiot Chibaya, to ensure Chiwanza was immediately taken to hospital.

"He should be urgently treated for his protruding intestines and to be held at such hospital for that purpose..." ordered Justice Omerjee.

[New Zimbabwe]

Let The Good Times Roll

Even though things are really bad, people are still out having a good time, and partying like it's 1999, when things were really good, or at least good relative to how bad things are right now.

Now there is quite a difference between alcohol poisoning and a drunken spill, so I don't see how it's fair to lump all of these incidents together for reporting purposes.

Maybe people are just more uptight now, and when they get drunk they think "o wow I better go to the hospital." Maybe it's because of all the iPhones, and everybody knows when you're drunk. Less privacy may be causing this. Look at this guy, he put these traffic cones on his head to hide his shame.

In the old days you just slept it off and nobody knew. Plus if you went to the hospital if you were just drunk they didn't report you. Now they're a bunch of goodie goodies. If you went to the hospital after a bar fight you would say "I fell" and they would say, "yeah, that's right." Now they take your car away. The whole society is just sissified.

Heavy boozing has caused a shocking spike in drunken injuries and emergency room visits in New York, a troubling new study says.

Nearly 74,000 people wound up in hospitals in 2009 for alcohol-related reasons, compared with just 22,000 in 2003 - a jump of nearly 250%, said the city Health Department study, which was released last week.

"Excessive alcohol use in general is a serious problem," said Health Commissioner Thomas Farley. "The data suggest that the problem is getting worse."

Hard drinkers wind up in the ER for reasons ranging from alcohol poisoning to barroom fights and drunken spills.
While the majority of alcohol-related deaths in New York - 1,537 adults in 2008 - resulted from health problems, the study said, a solid proportion were caused by accidents, suicides and homicides.

[New York Daily News]

Man Thrown Out Into the Cold Attempting to Save Imaginary Midget

Next time you get a call from a stranger begging you to help a dwarf in distress, think twice before smashing your hotel room to bits.

SPARTANBURG COUNTY, S.C. — In what was apparently a phone prank, a motel guest said someone called his room and told him to smash the things inside in order to free a "midget" trapped next door.

Spartanburg County sheriff's deputies told WXII sister station WYFF that they were called to a Motel 6 on Sunday night after a guest nearly punched through to the next room with a wrench.

[...]

When deputies arrived, 73-year-old Joseph Jones told them someone had called his room about 11 p.m. and said he was a manager at the motel. Jones said the male caller told him the previous guest had installed highly sophisticated cameras in his room. The caller told Jones not to bother looking for them and instead, the caller would instruct him on how to get rid of the cameras.

[...]

Next, he was told to remove the back toilet cover and to smash the TV with it. He did and the cover shattered without breaking the TV screen, so he was instructed to throw the TV outside. Jones did as he was instructed.

[...]

The instructions continued, Jones told deputies. The male caller told him cameras were also behind the mirrors in the room, and that he needed to smash the mirrors. Jones grabbed a wrench that he found in the room and smashed the mirrors, the report said.

Jones said the caller then said that a "midget" who was 4 feet 3 inches tall was barricaded in the room next to him and that he needed to help police get to him. With that, the report said, Jones took his wrench and began to break away the wallboard behind the room door. He broke through to the next room but then stopped due to complaints from other guests about the loud noises.

[...]

No charges were filed, but the manager did ask Jones to leave, according to the report.

Fascinating that toilet seats are more fragile than TV screens. The Captain learns something every day.

[MSNBC]

D'oh, There Goes His Dough!

Some people blow their life savings on booze, drugs and hookers. This man wasn't so fortunate.

A pensioner lost his life savings of £80,000 after leaving the cash on the roof of his car and driving off.

The 68-year-old man, who doesn’t trust banks, had been moving the money between his home and place of work.

[...]

The man, who has asked not to be named, would take the money from his bedroom and put it in the car when he went to work.

‘My car is never more than 10ft from me at work so I can keep an eye on it,’ he said. ‘That morning I left at about 6.20am and didn’t realise I had lost it until noon.’

'I went home and checked my bedroom in case I had left it there.

'Then I realised I must have put it on the roof of my car. If not, I may put it down as I got in the car, but either way it was gone.'

[...]

For years, he kept it under his bed but when his guard dog died he decided to keep it close by at all times.

Disaster struck last Thursday when he put down the blue drawstring bag holding it to unlock his car.

He added: ‘I’m gutted. I don’t hold out much hope of getting it back but if I do I will give a reward to whoever brings it back.’

[Daily Mail]

Ireland Wearing the Green as Proud Part of Worldwide Financial Bummer

And they were doing so well! Ireland was the economic gem of Europe for a while there. I honestly lost track of what happened and how this developed. It goes to show this whole "lucky Irish" thing is bunk. They really aren't all that lucky.

I love how the business leaders welcomed the package as brutal. That is sweet. How else would a business leader be able to welcome the package? It has to be brutal so the business leader can welcome it. It's like saying ice is cold. I can't figure out why this sentence is in the article, but it is kind of funny. Unless you are in Ireland.

Also, isn't it too bad Bill Gates isn't Irish? Given some of these figures it sounds like he could bail Ireland out all by himself.

Ireland unveiled the harshest budget measures in its history Wednesday, a four-year plan to slash deficits by euro15 billion ($20 billion) so it can receive a massive bailout from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.

The austerity plan axes thousands of state jobs, trims welfare benefits and pensions, and imposes new taxes on property and water. In all, it seeks to cut euro10 billion ($13.3 billion) from spending and raise euro5 billion ($6.7 billion) in extra taxes from 2011 to 2014.

Even Prime Minister Brian Cowen conceded the plan would hurt the living standard of everyone in the nation.

"Today is about Ireland putting its best foot forward, Ireland saying: Yes, here is what we're prepared to do as a government and a people to put right what has to be put right, and to give ourselves prospects and prosperity again," said Cowen, who is widely expected to resign or be forced from office within weeks.

Business leaders welcomed the package as brutal but unavoidable given that Ireland is all but frozen out of normal lending markets and its banks are running out of cash.

[AP via Yahoo! News]

So Cute You Could Die

Here's another chapter from the annals of "no good deed goes unpunished."

WHITE OAK - An eastern Colbert County resident trying to retrieve two stray kittens he thought he accidentally struck moments earlier was killed Tuesday night when he was hit by a passing motorist on Cottontown Lane.

Michael Arndt, 55, was pronounced dead at the scene about 7:30 p.m. by Colbert County Coroner Carlton Utley, who said Arndt likely died from injuries to his spine and head. The accident occurred at 6:40 p.m., authorities said.

[...]

Arndt was carrying two kittens in his hands and heading back to his vehicle when an approaching vehicle left the roadway in an attempt to avoid Arndt's vehicle, which was parked alongside Cottontown Lane.

[...]

Emergency workers at the scene said the driver of a Toyota Corolla swerved to miss the Arndts' vehicle and left the roadway, striking Michael Arndt, who was three or four feet from the road.

[...]

“That's just like him,” Bob Arndt said when finding out his brother had returned to check on the kittens. “He loved animals. There's no telling how many stray animals he picked up and gave homes to through the years. He kept dogs and cats all over his backyard. He just hated to see something bad happen to an animal.”

No word on the fate of the kittens.

[Times Daily]

Time to Talk Turkey

Here's the Captain's way of wishing all of you a very happy Thanksgiving! If you're hoping not to overindulge this holiday, watch the video below -- it's guaranteed to spoil your appetite.

An undercover investigation into animal welfare conditions at America's biggest turkey-raising farm has found wide-spread abuses, it was claimed today.

As millions of Americans prepare to enjoy a traditional Thanksgiving meal of turkey and all the trimmings, the United States Humane Society (USHS) has released footage of how the birds begin their lives.

Secretly filmed at the Willmar Poultry Company hatchery in Willmar, Minnesota, the film allegedly shows a number of abuses including sick and injured chicks being dropped alive into a grinding machine.

[...]

[A]llegations include the removal of the birds' rear toes using scissors, the use of a red-hot laser to remove their beaks and general poor handling which leads to injury.

In the film, new-born chicks - known as poults - are dropped onto a conveyor from which they are picked up by workers.

Their rear toes are then removed by employees using scissors and the birds are left to bleed on the conveyor belt as they are taken away.

Later, the chicks can be seen hanging from their necks with their beaks pointing towards a laser. The machine is used to remove the sharp point in order to prevent them injuring each other.

[...]

In the most disturbing part of the film, sick and injured birds are placed in a hopper which is later dumped into a grinding machine, killing them.

[Daily Mail] [USHS]

Man Loses Home, Freedom and Sanity Over Bus Transfers

This man may be paranoid, but they really are out to get him.

Simply being accused of stealing a book of Utah Transit Authority bus transfers has kept Mark Yowell in jail for three months—and if he’s released, he’ll be homeless, having lost his subsidized housing because of the incident. Diagnosed with schizophrenia, Yowell’s been homeless before. He has been taking his medications and generally pulled his life together in the past year, his girlfriend says, but that has stalled because of a disagreement about a $2 bus transfer.

“It’s just outrageous,” says Karen Baldwin, Yowell’s girlfriend, who blames the bus driver for creating the chaos. Though she didn’t witness the May 22 episode that led to Yowell’s incarceration, she knows the bus driver and has seen him interact with Yowell before. “He treats Mark like a 5-year-old,” which is demeaning and escalates disagreements, Baldwin says.

The 36-year-old Yowell, who says he has not taken medication in jail because he doesn’t trust his jailers, is a little hazy about details these days. When asked how long he’s been in jail, he says “almost a month,” when really it’s been more than three months.

[...]


There were witnesses, but UTA Police did not make reports of any interviews with them. Yowell was released from jail about a week after the incident because charges still had not been filed. Three months later, in August, he was picked up on a $10,000 warrant after the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office filed a second-degree felony robbery charge. That charge, which requires proof that Yowell stole the transfers by use of “force or fear,” carries a potential prison sentence of up to 15 years. Yowell has been in jail ever since.

[...]

Crying while relaying the news, Baldwin says she fears she may never see Yowell again. “[If he’s sent to the state hospital] I’ll lose him for sure, and I’ll lose him forever,” she says. “Because he doesn’t know these people, and he doesn’t trust them. So how are they going to get any kind of rapport with him just sticking him down there? They’re not. They don’t understand the whole thing with schizophrenia.”

[Salt Lake City Weekly]

Everything Sucks, Will Not Improve Anytime Soon

What I don't understand is, if the economy is expanding, what's the problem? It sounds like it isn't expanding ENOUGH though. Why is the economy so greedy, that it needs to expand MORE?

Maybe the government needs to work on this. If they told the economy that they weren't expecting it to grow at all, and it grew 2.4%, they could say, "see, look how good the economy is!" And then they could pat the economy on the head like a happy dog.

It's like telling your kids to get an A. If you tell your kids you'll settle for a C and they bring home a B, it's a home run! So don't tell them to get an A unless you're ready for a lifetime of disappointments.

I'm so tired of explaining this. I wish they would leave me alone. Once the ice melts it's all over anyway. All these reports are a waste of time.

Federal Reserve officials have become more pessimistic in their economic outlook through next year and have lowered their forecast for growth.

The economy will grow only 2.4 percent to 2.5 percent this year, Fed officials said Tuesday in an updated forecast. That's down sharply from a previous projection of 3 percent to 3.5 percent. Next year, the economy will expand by 3 percent to 3.6 percent, the Fed said, also much lower than its June forecast.

Fed officials project that unemployment won't change much this year, averaging between 9.5 percent and 9.7 percent. The current unemployment rate is 9.6 percent. Progress in reducing unemployment has been "disappointingly slow," the central bank said, according to the minutes of its Nov. 2-3 meeting.

[AP via Yahoo! News]

Good Times

If you're one of the one in five Americans who is unemployed or underemployed, isn't it time you got off your lazy ass and started a gigantic corporation? God helps those who help themselves, as is evidenced here:

The nation’s workers may be struggling, but American companies just had their best quarter ever.

American businesses earned profits at an annual rate of $1.66 trillion in the third quarter, according to a Commerce Department report released Tuesday. That is the highest figure recorded since the government began keeping track over 60 years ago, at least in nominal or non-inflation-adjusted terms.

Corporate profits have been going gangbusters for a while. Since their cyclical low in the fourth quarter of 2008, profits have grown for seven consecutive quarters, at some of the fastest rates in history.

Nice work, if you can get it.

[NYT]

Hardy Har Har

The family that slays together, stays together.

TWISTED serial killer Ivan Milat "chuckled" when told one of his teenage relatives had been charged with murdering a boy and dumping his body in the Belanglo State Forest.

The convicted mass murderer wanted to know details of the weekend killing of 17-year-old David Auchterlonie.

Milat tortured and killed seven young people and dumped their bodies at Belanglo during the mid-1990s.

A source inside the Supermax high-security facility at Goulburn, where Milat is serving seven life sentences, said last night: "He chuckled a bit and asked some questions."

[...]

Police allege Milat's relative had been pressuring a number of friends to accompany him to the notorious forest for up to a week before the killing on Saturday night.

Two other men, Cohen Klein, 18, and another 18-year-old man who cannot be identified, told police they cowered in the car after they allegedly witnessed Milat's relative strike David to the left side of his body, then chase him with the axe along a dirt track into the bush.

While in the bushland, it is alleged Milat's relative took another swing with the axe and fatally struck David in the back of his head.

[Daily Telegraph]

Your Dentist Is Killing Your Children

If a dentist says "we're going to shoot your child's skull with a cone-beam," you wouldn't be the least bit concerned, would you?

Because children and adolescents are particularly vulnerable to radiation, doctors three years ago mounted a national campaign to protect them by reducing diagnostic radiation to only those levels seen as absolutely necessary.

It is a message that has resonated in many clinics and hospitals. Yet there is one busy place where it has not: the dental office.

[...]

One popular new brand of braces has helped cone-beam sales because it requires 3-D images, which doctors can obtain using either a cone-beam scanner with radiation, or a digital camera without it. Many orthodontists opt for radiation, because it is quicker.

Even those troubled by the widening use of cone-beam technology acknowledge that by itself, the risk from a single scan is relatively small. But patients often get more than one scan, and the lifetime risk increases with each exposure. Without a clear benefit, they say, there is only risk.

“So let me ask a question to the mother of a prospective orthodontic patient,” said Dr. Stuart C. White, former chairman of oral radiology at the UCLA School of Dentistry. “Would you like me to use a tool that is entirely safe — a camera — to record the position of your child’s teeth, or another method that may rarely cause cancer so that we can save time?”

[...]

The cone-beam business is lucrative for manufacturers and dentists. According to one industry estimate, more than 3,000 scanners and about 30 different models have been sold, at prices up to $250,000.

Dentists, some of whom charge several hundred dollars per scan, can profit by owning their own machines. “More profit per unit chair time,” promises Imaging Sciences, the cone-beam manufacturer.

[...]

And then there is the “wow” factor, said Dr. Terry Sellke, an orthodontist in Illinois.

“Kids love to see that 3-D image,” Dr. Sellke said in a Webcast sponsored by Imaging Sciences. “They can go into our computer and look at their skull.” Another orthodontist talked about coloring 3-D skulls in green and purple. “Fun for the kids,” he said.

Radiation: "fun for the kids." What kid wouldn't want to glow in the dark and maybe grow a second head to show off to his friends?

[NYT]

Thin Ice, Getting Thinner, Threatens to Thin Us All

This confirms one of my fundamental beliefs. Even if we solved this problem, and the rest of the overwhelming problems presented every day here at this website, and Eisenstein came along and said, "all we have to do is release 1,000 butterflies and that will counteract all this greenhouse gas," it won't matter! Because this Siberian ice is going to melt and that's going to make all of the gas coming out of these Escalades look like a five year old's fart.

It's too late! I don't think even Sarah Palin can solve this one. The dinosaurs will have their revenge after all, even though in the movies Raquel Welch conquers them all by herself. It may have been the kind of thing where the dinosaurs let her win, because she was so HOT back then, but this time around they are not pulling any punches.

It's also ironic because a lot of that dinosaur crap turned into diamonds in other places, but up in Siberia it all froze to become the "time bomb" they refer to below. Thanks a lot T-Rex! And they make out like these mammoths are so cute too. Stand behind a mammoth and take a whiff. That's your future right there.

Gas locked inside Siberia's frozen soil and under its lakes has been seeping out since the end of the last ice age 10,000 years ago. But in the past few decades, as the Earth has warmed, the icy ground has begun thawing more rapidly, accelerating the release of methane — a greenhouse gas 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide — at a perilous rate.

Some scientists believe the thawing of permafrost could become the epicenter of climate change. They say 1.5 trillion tons of carbon, locked inside icebound earth since the age of mammoths, is a climate time bomb waiting to explode if released into the atmosphere.

[AP via Yahoo! News]

Spreading X-mas Cheer Can Be Deadly

Perhaps this was Jesus' way of saying, "for Christ's sake, you really shouldn't be celebrating Christmas before Thanksgiving, damn it."

UTICA — For most people attending the annual Christmas on Main Street Saturday night, the only sign that something had gone wrong was a 30-second break in the fireworks, said Gene Allen, president of the event’s Planning Committee.

But what happened around those 30 seconds – a fireworks incident Utica police believe to have been accidental– took the life of 56-year-old Canastota resident John Hatter.

Hatter was an employee of the American Fireworks Manufacturing Co., which has its offices in Utica and its shop in Frankfort. He had been detonating fireworks for the event, police said.

“It was a terrible accident,” company General Manager Kevin Fritschler said Sunday, adding that he has no other comment.

[...]

Allen said organizers are “devastated” about what happened to Hatter Saturday.

“Our condolences go out to the family,” Allen said. “We had no idea. I don’t know what to say besides that.”

Allen doesn't know what to say besides that? How about "Merry Christmas!"?

[Utica Observer-Dispatch]

A Guy with a Nuclear Weapon Walks into a Bar

Drunks with nukes, awesome. This might be just what's needed to stop pussyfooting around.

US government agents got drunk on the job as they drove NUKES and weapon parts around the country.

During one incident last year two of them were even stopped by police at a local bar in the middle of a convoy mission.

[...]

The report said the incidents "indicate a potential vulnerability" in what it described as a "critical national security mission".

[...]

The report added that when agents drank overnight after checking into local hotels, their trucks were in "safe harbour" status.

[The Sun]

Parents Divorced? Expect to Have a Stroke Soon

So not only are your parents to blame for the bad genes they passed along to you, their selfish inability to get along and raise you in a two parent household could wind up killing you too.

Children whose parents divorce are more than twice as likely to suffer a stroke at some point during their lives than other children, according to a new study.

The link between the two held even when the researchers accounted for other known stroke risk factors, such as obesity, smoking and diabetes. It is the first time such a link has been shown, the researchers said.

The study may shed light on the impact such events, and the stress of childhood, have on adult health, said study researcher Esme Fuller-Thomson, a professor of social work, medicine, and nursing at the University of Toronto. The ways in which divorce and stroke risk may be linked should be further investigated, she said.

[Live Science]

If He Only Had a Brain

To be fair, this guy does appear to have half a brain. It must be the wrong half as this guy has been arrested multiple times for various crimes.

Our inaugural Mugshots Friday post has been getting quite a lot of reaction-- mostly because nobody can believe that the photo of the dude with the severely flattened head is real. It is.

The poor guy has been arrested quite alot during his 25 years for disorderly intoxication, solicitation of a prostitute, possession of weed, and burglary. But really-- can you blame him for any of that?

Click thru to the Miami New Times link to see more mug shots of this fascinating fellow.

[Miami New Times]

Father Accidentally Kills Son, Now Being Sued

Next time you run over your own kid with your tow truck, be sure to do so in a manner which does not cause undue stress for the child's school principal.

A FORMER principal of Fairview Heights State School is suing parent Mark Talbot who accidentally ran over and killed his own son outside the school in 2004.

Mark Bolitho, 47, was principal of the primary school, located in Wilsonton, at the time of the tragedy and is claiming damages for personal injuries and loss allegedly caused by Mr Talbot’s negligence.

[...]

Mr Talbot had driven his son Tommy and two daughters to school in his tow truck and the children were dropped outside the school at 8am.

However, Tommy approached the tow truck as his father was leaving and he was run over.

[...]

The tragedy was deemed an accident and Mr Talbot was never charged by police.

[...]

At the beginning of 2005, Mr Bolitho began experiencing symptoms such as holding himself accountable for the accident, poor sleep, increased irritability and anxiety, and social withdrawal.

[...]

His solicitor Catherine Cheek from Clewett Lawyers said Mr Bolitho filed a damages claim against Mr Talbot and Suncorp Metway Insurance on August 31 last year.

“He went through a lot of distress. It was not an easy decision for him to make,” Mrs Cheek told The Chronicle.

The Supreme Court has extended the limitation period allowing Mr Bolitho’s damages claim to proceed, as it was filed after the three-year time limit had expired.

During the Supreme Court judgement on whether to extend the time period, which was delivered on November 5, Justice Anthe Philippides acknowledged the difficulty of the lawsuit.

“Litigation is extremely stressful, particularly for someone with a psychiatric illness,” Justice Philippides said.

“He would have to sue the father who had killed his child. He would have to be satisfied that the amount recovered would be sufficient to make it worthwhile proceeding,” she said.

[The Chronicle]

Everyone Can Get A Job Tomorrow

The title of this article is "50 Buzzwords You Shouldn't Use On Your Resume." Now we know that there is a lot of unemployment. Stay with me.

And...you need a resume to get a job. Are you with me?

So if you need a job and go to this article, check it out, take all of these buzzwords out and you are going to be freaking Howard Hughes, all right! Mammajamma! You are going to score that job.

Don't use these words man. Here's just one example. "Experienced" is on this list. Now I would have thought, "damn, let me cite some experience here." NO! That is a sucker bet. "Experienced" is bad. So maybe you should say "some acquaintance with." Acquaintance is not as bad as experience. Who knew?

You've written your resume. You poured a lot of effort into the page that will represent you, and you can't wait to distribute it far and wide.

Not so fast. Before you send that puppy out, check it for buzzwords. Like "team player." Or "detail-oriented." Or "accustomed to fast-paced environments."

Here's why you should avoid them: They're vague. They make your resume look like everyone else's. They're probably not among the keywords employers search for. They take up space on your resume that could be used for strong, concrete, specific examples of what you've accomplished, the work you've produced, and how hiring you would benefit your potential employer. Buzzwords are tired and overused, cliches that have lost their meaning over time.

[U.S. News via Yahoo! News]

"Girl Electrocuted While Plucking Flowers at School"

And now she's pushing up daisies.

Lucknow, Nov 19 (IANS) The manager of a private school in Uttar Pradesh's Unnao district was booked Friday in connection with the death of a minor girl, who got electrocuted while plucking flowers from the flower bed in the school garden, which had been connected to a live wire by the school administration.

Twelve-year-old Radha Singh was electrocuted Thursday evening after she came in contact with the wire in the Saraswati Vidya Mandir in Indira Nagar area of Unnao.

'The girl, who was returning from her tuition classes, was killed on the spot,'' police inspector Lakshman Rai told reporters Friday in Unnao, some 35 km from Lucknow.

'We today (Friday) registered a case against the school manager Shankar Sahu in connection with the girl's death,'' he added.

Sahu is absconding.

'Teams have been constituted to nab him,'' said Rai.

[Sify News]

20% of Americans Mentally Ill

For the Daily Downers' reader who happens to be sick in the head, it must must be comforting to know that your condition is extremely common. The Captain hopes this news puts a little sunshine into the hearts of nutcases everywhere.

About one in five adults in the United States suffered from a mental disorder during the past year, according to results of a national survey released today (Nov. 18).

Nearly 5 percent of those adults suffered from a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, that substantially disrupted their daily life, according to the 2009 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

The finding highlights the need for a shift in attitude toward mental illness, because it affects such a wide swath of people, said Peter Delany, director of the Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality at SAMHSA.

"When you think about it, how many people work in your office? Someone has to be experiencing problems," Delany told MyHealthNewsDaily.

"Someone"? Try some many.

[My Health News Daily]

"You Can't Roll in the Dirt"

Good to see these Midwestern cops putting a stop to the scourge of wheelchair-bound street crossers terrorizing America's roadways.

PARK CITY — For a wheelchair-bound person, crossing busy Belvidere Road is a dangerous proposition.

But Toriano Holmes claims he was doing just that when a Park City police officer gave him a ticket for obstructing traffic. The ticket will cost $120, and the officer allegedly told him to just pay it and not contest it.

“That money would take away from the bills or the rent,” said Holmes, 37, who suffers from multiple sclerosis and lives on a disability check with his mother, who is also disabled, in a Waukegan apartment complex a few blocks off Belvidere. He admits that he sometimes panhandles to make ends meet.

Around 4:10 p.m. Nov. 7, Holmes had gone to a pawn shop on Belvidere near Green Bay Road to make a payment toward redeeming a silver necklace he had pawned. From there he was heading back across the street to Aldi’s and Wendy’s.

“There was a lot of traffic,” he said, but he waved and people stopped. He called out “thank you” as he made it across the four lanes.

That’s when the Park City officer gave him a ticket.

[...]

“We have had other complaints about a wheelchair in the roadway there,” said [Police Chief Walter] Holderbaum. “That’s a very busy street. That’s very dangerous.”

Park City Mayor Steve Parnell agreed. “This is a safety issue for other drivers. He refused to leave the roadway,” he said.

[...]

Holmes admits that he uses the roadway to travel because there are no sidewalks in that area, just tiny dirt pathways made by people walking.

[...]

His mother said that maybe the mayor needs to get in a wheelchair and try to maneuver around the area. “You can’t roll in the dirt,” she said.... “His wheelchair could tip over and he’s a big boy. How is he going to get back up? Police are supposed to serve and protect. If you aren’t going to help him, don’t hurt him. That officer 808 (badge number) is a mean officer.”

[Lake County News-Sun]

Motherhood: Ur Doin' it Wrong

The Captain believes this mother deserves at least a little credit for taking her baby along on her booze-fueled sexcapades rather than leaving the child at home alone to cry in a cold, empty house.

A Cape Town mom got so drunk she forgot her baby at the home of a man she had a one-night stand with.

The 22-year-old mom says she forgot she had taken her child with her to a shebeen where she met a man she spent the night with.

Meanwhile, the child was safely at the home of the unsuspecting lover who woke on Tuesday morning to find the mother had left without her baby.

Noxolo told the Daily Voice she had gone out on Monday evening to have a few drinks.

“I usually go with my child to the shebeen and drink while she is there,” she explained.

“I don’t know what came over me this time.”

[...]

Noxolo’s mother Nomaza Lugwali said: “My daughter only cares about alcohol and men and she doesn’t care about her own little girl.”

[IOL News]

Drugs: Not a Guaranteed Good Time

Normally the Captain quotes only a portion of the stories he shares, but this one really needs to be passed along in its entirety:

On a slow day in Bulgaria Angel Atanasov decided to take some drugs with a friend.
What followed was a drug-addled rampage of immense proportions.

The following statement by a police spokesman details a comprehensive list of the man’s crazed trail of destruction:

‘First he cut-off a piece of his penis, and when his father came to help him he sliced off his father's ear.

‘He then ran into the road partially naked and bleeding, where he jumped into a car owned by a young woman who was unloading the trunk and drove off.

‘He went through a red light and crashed into a motorcycle before leaping out of the car and running to a nearby farm where he tried to batter down the door.

‘When that failed he ran down the back of the house and tried to set fire to a haystack.’

The statement continues:

‘He then stabbed a lamb to death before stripping off his remaining clothes and stealing an axe which he then ran off with completely naked.

‘When police closed in, he climbed up a high-voltage cable and was blasted with several thousand volts.’

It would seem this put an end to Atanasov’s rampage as he was arrested soon after.

Atanasov was said to have been taking drugs with a friend in Pazardzhik, a city in the southeast of the capital Sofia, because they were bored.

He is now fighting for his life in intensive care.

[Metro]

Sick Designer Laughing All the Way to the Bank

Mr. Hart says "there's no animal cruelty involved," but do you really believe that?

A piggy bank made from the body of a real piglet has gone on sale online.

The Piglet Bank, made from a taxidermied pig, is the brainchild of creative designer Colin Hart from Belfast.

The bank takes 12 months to make and costs $4,000 (£2,518) not including postage and packaging.

But the "piggy bank of all piggy banks", which is available for sale on TheCheeky.com, has been criticised by animal rights campaigners who have called it "sick" and "inhumane".

Mr Hart, 34, said: "Most people understand it is a bit of a joke but I have had death threats from some people.

"We are not going to kill a piglet, we wait for one to die of natural causes, that's partly why it can take over 12 months to make.

"I've had all sorts of crazy messages, one person even emailed me to say they thought it was disgusting that I was breeding pigs with a slot in their back.

"But what people don't understand is we are not killing pigs, there's no animal cruelty involved."

[The Telegraph]

Hey Hey You You Get Offa My Cloud!

When will they leave us alone? Nobody is advocating drinking this stuff and driving, but plenty of people drink regular booze and have car accidents and they don't ban...BOOZE! Why are stores selling this stuff to underage kids?

A lot of times I go to buy my caffiene/alcohol drink and kids are there asking me to buy it for them. I just say NO! Same as when they asked me to buy plain old vanilla booze.

Let me tell you, there are times when this stuff is GOLD! "Wide awake drunk" is not really a bad thing. Have you spent time around people that are just plain drunk? It's not great, I'll tell you that. Either ban booze and smokes or let us booze and smoke in peace. I'm just saying. Read what this sensible Waugh kid says in here. Goes to SMU. He's no dummy!

Federal regulators issued warning letters today to four manufacturers of alcoholic energy drinks. FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said evidence has shown their consumption has led to alcohol poisoning, car accidents and assaults, she said. Many of those who consume the beverages are underage.

Labeling caffeine an "unsafe food additive" for alcoholic drinks, the Food and Drug Administration said the combination creates a public health concern and can lead to "a state of wide-awake drunk."

Colin Waugh, a junior computer science major at SMU who frequently drinks the beverage, said he'd continue to buy it even if the caffeine is removed because of the low price — about $3 a can.

"It's drinking on a budget," he said. "Caffeine is just a nice bonus, so there's no sleepy-drunk at the end of the night."

Although the drinks have received a lot of attention, Waugh said that he's not worried about his own health.

"I know how much alcohol is in it," he said, "and I know when to stop."

[Dallas Morning News]

Want to Kill a Fetus? Here's Your Chance!

Ah, the internet. You have to love how digital democracy connects people together from all over the world, helping humanity achieve its loftiest aspirations. The Captain has posted recently about one online poll that gave users the opportunity to send an artist to his death via the electric chair and another where overzealous patriots abused their voting privileges, casting doubt on the legitimacy of an American hero's hard-won dance floor triumphs.

Here we have a case of a couple wracked with doubt over whether or not they should take the plunge into parenthood, so they're relying on the wisdom of the web community to guide their decision whether or not to snuff out the life of baby "Wiggles" before it has a chance to begin. Won't you please do your part and cast your vote? Don't force this couple to make this wrenching decision without your input, they need your help!

A married couple have sparked fury by setting up a website to let the public vote on whether or not they should have an abortion.

Pete and Alisha Arnold, both 30, launched www.birthornot.com because they are unsure if they want to be parents.

[...]

The couple, from Minneapolis, have uploaded regular scan images of the foetus, which is a perfectly-healthy boy they have nicknamed 'Wiggles'.

Alisha is now 17 weeks pregnant and web users have until December 7 to cast their vote - just two days before the 20-week cut-off line for a state-legal abortion.

The latest results shows a fairly split opinion, with 46.27 per cent voting to keep the baby and 53.73 per cent wanting the couple to have an abortion.

Writing on her blog, Alisha said she fears the pressure of juggling motherhood and a career could cause her to have a nervous breakdown.

She wrote: 'I'm not convinced that I want to change the status quo. I feel that as I age I've actually gotten more selfish and set in my ways.

'I'm afraid that I will eventually regret starting a family and "settling down", as they say.

[...]

Their solution to the dilemma was to set up a public vote, which the couple say is in the best traditions of American democracy.

They state on the site: 'Voting is such an integral part of the American identity.

'We vote on everything from the best singer on American Idol to who the next leader of the free world will be.

'Wouldn't it be nice to voice your opinion and have it actually make a difference in the real world? Why not vote on whether to continue or abort an actual pregnancy?'

Why not, indeed.

[Daily Mail]

Exercise Is Probably a Hopeless Waste of Your Time Or Worse

In fact, exercise might even be bad for you. No kidding, we're talking about science here.

Recently, researchers in Finland made the discovery that some people’s bodies do not respond as expected to weight training, others don’t respond to endurance exercise and, in some lamentable cases, some don’t respond to either. In other words, there are those who just do not become fitter or stronger, no matter what exercise they undertake.

[...]

In the combined strength-and-endurance-exercise program, the volunteers’ physiological improvement ranged from a negative 8 percent (meaning they became 8 percent less fit) to a positive 42 percent. The results were similar in the groups that undertook only strength or only endurance training. Some improved their strength enormously, some not at all. Others became aerobically fitter but not stronger, while still others showed no improvements in either area. Only a fortunate few became both fitter and more buff.

Did you catch that? After 21 weeks of grueling exercise, some participants in the study became eight percent less fit. Working out actually made them weaker. Only "a fortunate few" saw improvement in all areas of fitness. So sit your ass back on the couch if you know what's good for you and tell your pilates instructor to go to hell.

[NYT]

Decency Becoming Extinct As Twitter Takes Its Place

Yet another "slight health setback." I suspect the reason nobody helped this guy is because he's kind of a jerk. "I feel like Lady Gaga or something." What a riot. I guess for a moment he felt like a wildly successful pop culture icon instead of a dweeb in a cardigan trying to look like Mr. Rogers.

It's good to know that we'll be able to count on the "leaders of tomorrow," today's students at USC, to accurately report this kind of thing to thousands of uninterested jerks who have nothing better to do than stare at these stupid phones all day. It would be great if all these students were tagged somehow, like birds bordering on extinction, so if you saw them collapse you could tweet about it and then walk over and boot them in the head for good measure as they marched on to their great reward and certain death.

Last night in front of an audience of hundreds at a presentation at the University of Southern California, TV personality Bill Nye — popularly known as the "Science Guy" — collapsed midsentence as he walked toward a podium. Early indications are that Nye is OK, but what's odd about the incident isn't so much Nye's slight health setback as the crowd's reaction. Or, more precisely, its nonreaction, according to several accounts.

It appears that the students in attendance, rather than getting up from their seats to rush to Nye's aid, instead pulled out their mobile devices to post information about Nye's loss of consciousness.

A cursory search on Twitter revealed a virtual play-by-play account of the incident. One student wrote, "Bill Nye tripped on his computer cord while speaking at USC, was out for abt 5 secs, got back up, spoke w/ slurred speech and fainted."

According to the school's student news outlet, the Daily Trojan, Nye asked, "What happened? How long was I out?" when he regained consciousness. Briskly picking up his humorous persona, he added, "Wow, that was crazy. I feel like Lady Gaga or something." Nye's publicity team didn't immediately respond to The Lookout's request for comment on the episode.

[Yahoo! News]

Gov't Death Panels Kill Paralyzed Women's Wedding Plans

Like Ensign Killjoy's recent post about old people getting sick and dying because of socialized medicine, this is the kind of thing you can expect to see more and more of as "Obamacare" continues to destroy your freedoms.

Rachelle Friedman says she remembers the very moment she went from bride-to-be -- just a month away from her dream wedding -- to wheelchair-bound, paralyzed from good-natured horseplay gone terribly wrong at her own bachelorette party.

[...]

"We got home, ran upstairs and changed into our bathing suits," said Friedman. "My best friend -- and she still is my best friend -- she playfully pushed me in like we've done a million times."

"It was playful, but it went wrong," she said. "It was a freak accident." She hit her head on the bottom of the pool.

"I instantly went stiff and couldn't move," said Friedman. "I weirdly did not panic, I kind of knew exactly what happened and I floated up to the surface and said, 'Help!' and then my friends called 9-1-1."

[...]

The first call Friedman made was to her fiance, Chris Chapman, who had been camping with his father the night of the accident.

Friedman and Chapman's wedding had been set for June 27 at the Lesner Inn in Virginia Beach. A wedding website created by Friedman shared notes of excitement that she was marrying her "very first boyfriend." The two had been engaged for nearly a year and together for five.

[...]

"I said, 'I broke my neck and I'm probably not going to walk,' I was very straightforward and very monotone with him," she said.

[...]

As Friedman continued outpatient rehab, she quickly learned how fast her medical bills were piling up. Now she says that even though she still dreams of her "perfect wedding," marrying Chapman would make her ineligible for Medicaid, health insurance she says will help her stay out of debt.

"I'm pretty much screwed," said Friedman. "My insurance through my non-profit where I worked allows me only 20 days of rehab, which isn't enough."

"And if I marry Chris, [our combined income] will be too much to qualify for Medicaid," she said.

[ABC News]

A Sad Day for America

The Captain cannot begin to convey how deeply disappointed and disillusioned this story makes him. Two years ago, out of the Alaskan wilderness (aka America's Heartland), an amazing family rose to national prominence. This family proved to ordinary Americans once and for all that America's true leaders aren't pointy headed elitists, they are instead people just like them -- people who shoot wolves from helicopters, eat moose chili in Governor's mansions and earn boatloads of cash and the admiration of millions of God-fearing Christian abstinence promoters as a result of getting knocked up as teenagers by Playgirl models.

It is certain that the Palins were just as shocked and saddened as the Captain when they learned that Bristol's astonishing success on "Dancing With The Stars" was due to any factor other than her swan-like grace on the dance floor:

It's been alleged that the Tea Party's "Operation Bristol" is keeping the teen mom in the competition. However, the real conspiracy is that her conservative supporters have figured out a way to exploit ABC.com's email-voting feature, allowing infinite votes.

While Bristol Palin denies any Tea Party conspiracy theories, there's no denying that conservatives have been pushing for votes for Bristol, using blogs and Twitter to start a movement. But what isn't widely known is the evidence—via message board comments on some conservative sites—that this mobilization involves fixing this (albeit meaningless) election through a technical snafu on ABC's website, which allows Palin's supporters to cast an infinite number of email votes:

• "Here's a hint: They don't have to be VALID email addresses to register them with ABC.com, there is apparently no validation process. The just have to be formatted like a valid email address, and you must use a valid zip code and a birthdate that makes you old enough to vote. I'm voting like a democrat, all night long…"
  
• "No, it doesn't have to be a valid email address – I had one of my anonymous ones XXX@yahoo.com that I used, and then just did the sign-up process all over again with XXX1@yahoo.com and it worked."
  
• "Got my 80 votes in online…took 2 hours. I am beat"
  
• "I only got 42 in, I have some catching up to do!"
  
• "Lord have mercy, I voted for 3 hours online! I got 300 in."
  

UPDATE: Look at the kind of tragedy this kind of behavior inevitably leads to:

MADISON — Prosecutors say a rural Wisconsin man blasted his TV with a shotgun after watching Bristol Palin’s “Dancing with the Stars” routine, sparking an all-night standoff with a SWAT team.

According to court documents, 67-year-old Steven Cowan became enraged while watching Palin dance on Monday evening. He felt Palin was not a good dancer.

He went to his bedroom and returned to the living room with a shotgun and blasted the TV, then pointed the gun at his wife, who managed to escape and call police.

[Jezebel] [Wausau Daily Herald]

Excessive Bleeding Still Bad, Despite Other Positives In Report

There're always two ways of looking at things. Trust me. But seriously, if one out of seven Medicare beneficiaries were harmed...that means six out of seven were...not harmed. I'm interested in the breakout of how many...that were not harmed...were helped...and how many were...somewhat helped. But these reports are always incomplete.

Another thing is, Medicare is free for these old folks and really, you get what you pay for. A lot of these "adverse events" were just "temporary health setbacks." What do you expect? You have a cold and it gets a little bit worse? You can't live forever, and even if you can, a cold that gets a little more "adverse" is hardly anything to cry about.

I will say excessive bleeding can be a problem, regardless of age. And there is no excuse for intravenous fluid overload. I've known a few wicked nurses in my time and you can't impose enough restrictions or slipknots on them as far as I'm concerned.

One of every seven Medicare beneficiaries who is hospitalized is harmed as a result of problems with the medical care there, according to a new study from the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services.

The study said unexpected adverse events added at least $4.4 billion a year to government health costs and contributed to the deaths of about 180,000 patients a year.

In a single month, October 2008, the report estimated that some 134,000 Medicare patients experienced at least one adverse event, ranging from a temporary health setback to death, during a hospital stay. It said 44 percent of them were “clearly or likely preventable.”

That study cited hospital infections as a major source of problems, but the inspector general’s report found other events to be more common. The most frequent problems classified as adverse events, it said, were those related to medication, like excessive bleeding, followed by those related to patient care, like intravenous fluid overload, and those related to surgery and to infection.

[The New York Times]

Drunk or Sober? You Be the Judge

This woman crashed her car into a school bus. Fortunately, there were no injuries. For some crazy reason, police on the scene suspected she may have had a few too many. Let's listen to her describe the accident:



[Miami New Times]

Feeling Chipper

How much man would a wood chipper chip if a wood chipper could chip man? Unfortunately, this incident can't fully answer that question.

CONCORD -- A man died Monday after being pulled into a wood chipper in what appears to be a work-related accident, a Concord police spokesman said.

Based on the police investigation, it seems the 33-year-old Concord resident was loading tree debris into the chipper when a piece of rope also entered the machine, entangling the man and dragging him into the mouth of the chipper, Concord police Lt. Andrew Gartner said.

"He wasn't actually sent through the chipper, he was in the opening of it," Gartner said.

The man was pronounced dead at the scene. There were no road closures or evacuations of homes connected with this incident, Gartner said.

Thank goodness rush hour commuters weren't delayed.

[KTVU]

Temple of Doom

At least these babies were able to hop the express train to nirvana without having to be bothered with all that meditation and chanting and whatnot.

THE bodies of more than 100 human foetuses, apparently from an illegal abortion clinic, were discovered inside a Buddhist temple in central Bangkok.

The corpses, wrapped in plastic bags and newspaper, were found by a member of temple staff in a mortuary storage area.

[...]

One rescue worker with the Poh Teck Tung foundation, a charity that provides emergency rescue and body recovery services, suggested that hundreds of corpses could eventually be uncovered.

"Our figure we received a moment ago is 240, but we think that there are between 300 to 500 foetuses as we have only searched half the area," he said.

[Herald Sun]