h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Or 'Tory slags Labour PM' on obscure website shocker

But he does it so well

I must say - Tory tax policies sound muddled. Last week there was talk about a 45% tax band. All very noble and redistributive. Now it's the opposite - scrapping inheritance task. Or maybe that's just an aspiration.

The Tories just sound muddled full stop. The next election is the one no-one wants to win.

'A Saudi imam has issued a fatwa or religious edict, banning the use of alcohol as a fuel substitute for petrol. "I warn Saudi students that live abroad not to use alcohol as a cheap substitute for petrol, because the prophet has cursed not only who drinks it but also those who use it for other purposes," said the Saudi imam Mohammed al-Najimi, quoted by Saudi daily, Shams.'

http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Religion/?id=3.0.3035220933

Ah, yes. The significant word there being 'Saudi'.

Wonder what ol' Mohammed has to say about endogenous ethanol production in the human body...

<< "I warn Saudi students that live abroad not to use alcohol as a cheap substitute for petrol, because the prophet has cursed not only who drinks it but also those who use it for other purposes,">>

islam was famous for its distilations

so if your a saudi say goodbye to these

<>

medicne
painting
cleaning

any other uses for alcohol????

I probably should have posted that story to a different thread.

Here's another of those opinion/analysis pieces that I mentioned prefering to just straight reporting:

'Congress needs to take a far more comprehensive approach to realign the country's agricultural priorities with its health priorities, to eliminate subsidies that encourage factory farming, and to encourage the growth of polyculture and good old-fashioned crop rotation in the U.S. As the world is quickly learning, a civilization can only be as healthy as its food supply.'

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=sick-farms-infected-food

and this:

'I get angry when I think of kids in their teens or 20s being treated the way I was. I’m not against hard time for criminal, violent or anti-social behavior. But slapping young people behind bars and giving them an arrest record simply because the normal things they do are trivial rule violations is not only wasteful, it’s downright criminal.'

http://www.citylimits.org/content/articles/viewarticle.cfm?article_id=3718

and this one, too:

'With the audit having been published, the NSF got back to work supporting and promoting scientific research. That is until Iowa senator Charles Grassley noticed the foundation's report. The waste wasn't just playing computer solitaire or Freecell, or instant-messaging friends or searching the Internet for movie trivia. This was porn.

At first, Grassley was mildly intrigued. Perhaps he gently caressed the hard copy of the internal audit, its creamy white pages glistening under the gentle light of a desk lamp. As the senator read about a government-funded employee viewing lascivious images in the workplace, his heart must have pounded. When he reached the mention of the $58,000, his pulse no doubt shot up and he might have softly moaned. Then he and the NSF semiannual report became one. And his outrage exploded like a volcano that could no longer contain the roiling molten lava within. . .

Grassley then joined with Senators Barbara Mikulski of Maryland and Richard Shelby of Alabama to share their indignation at the waste of the taxpayers' money. (Again, the porn addict was already gone, despite the fact that a federally funded worker who loses only $58,000 in this economy should probably be nominated for employee of the month.) The three senators introduced an amendment to the roughly $800-billion stimulus bill that would freeze $3 million in operating funds for the NSF unless the foundation took further steps to ensure that no pornography ever sullied its computer screens again.'

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=boobs-at-work

The ending of Mirsky's column is particularly pointed:



'Meanwhile the senators, who dithered for weeks over the stimulus bill, still have in their company their esteemed Louisiana colleague David Vitter, a known client of an infamous Washington brothel. Vitter who faces an election challenge from a porn star named Stormy Daniels once tried to waste $100,000 in a federal funding earmark for the Louisiana Family Forum. That organization campaigns against the teaching of evolution.'

Scientists in possible cold fusion breakthrough

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.a67cf72fe27770f9ec992da18169937d.a1&show_article=1

Man proves that atomic bombs don't work

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/03/24/20090324abomb-victim0324-ON.html

anhaga:

Re the dog walking. Elsewhere, we we've (OK - I've) been talking about 'Construct Theory' in criminology, ie the idea that crime is simply what a society at any time defines as crime.

Another example from the UK:
There are *many* people imprisoned for not paying TV licence fees.

The duplicitous-public-outrage-and-grief-engine of Fleet Street has hit critical mass. Ladies and gentlemen...

http://snipurl.com/eiwd6

Trying again (don't want to spoil the surprise)

http://tinyurl.com/d4ss76

Gorillas get drunk on bamboo sap

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthpicturegalleries/5037343/Gorillas-get-drunk-on-bamboo-sap.html

Googleearth graffiti gambit:

http://tinyurl.com/djmd5e

Good one!

I think it was posted earlier, though...