FBI chides Hotmail and Yahoo! for sidestepping UK laws: "Ed Gibson, FBI special agent and assistant legal attache of the US Embassy in London, said international ISPs operating in the UK used their international presence as an excuse for not complying with British laws.

'With Hotmail and Yahoo! you can't get data using RIPA [the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act] because information is stored in the US,' Gibson said. 'Why aren't ISPs required to comply with the laws of this country?'"

Two US companies with services available in the UK. The FBI in the UK is complaining that the US companies don't fall completely under the UK RIPA Act because (surprise) the data is stored in the US.

Why is a US law enforcement agency pursuing US companies in the UK? Why not pursue them in the US directly? The inference is that there's some reason why they can't, and that they're going after them in the UK to circumvent US laws.

Tests indicate Viagra may aid enlarged hearts: "Viagra may aid in the treatment of enlarged hearts that can result from high blood pressure, tests on animals indicate.

"Plans are under way for a trial to determine if similar results occur in humans given the drug widely used to treat erectile dysfunction."

Hmmm... Let's review the history of Viagra, shall we? What later became Viagra started life as an experimental heart medication. It was not very effective at its intended purpose, but during animal testing, technicians noticed a common side effect among the male monkeys. It wasn't too long before they stopped testing it as a heart medication and started testing it as a "boner pill."

So it is not surprising that years later, they find it works in narrow circumstances as a marginally-effective, short-term heart medication. It ought to. The only allusion to this in the article is: "White, who was not part of Kass’ research team, noted that sildenafil originally was discovered by researchers studying blood pressure and heart disease."

Talk about missing the story.

Lawmaker wants theaters honest about movie start times: "Frustrated with lengthy advertisements and previews that delay movies and chew up viewing time, a state lawmaker wants theaters to be honest about when a movie actually starts."

It's called SHOWTIME folks -- it's when the show starts, of which the feature is the main attraction. I'd like to send a big shout out to Texas State Rep. Andrew Fleischmann -- you, sir, are an idiot. Of all the petty, insignificant things to complain about.

Now, think about it. If Rep. Idiot gets his way, those of us who arrive on time will be bothered and disturbed by all the other idiots who arrive in a dark theatre and try to find seats. That makes me send another big shout out to Landmark Theatres (owners of the River Oaks Theatres in Houston), who will not seat you after the show has started. Anyone who wants to contribute to a gift of Landmark passes for Rep. Fleischmann, let me know.

Good eye for the gay guy?: "Sebastian White, 22, says he knows many people whose gaydar goes off a little too often. Why?

'Because,' he says, 'the city has such a significant population of Europeans and metrosexuals, two groups notorious for causing gaydar to be wrong.'"

I think the unspoken undertheme is that the only reason gaydar worked in the first place is that (on average) Americans are so righteously homophobic that the exceptions make themselves obvious.

My gaydar works better in San Francisco than Oklahoma, but was pretty much useless in Amsterdam. Does that mean Oklahoma is full of metrosexuals?

Driver in grisly suicide: "A suicidal New Jersey man set a new standard for self-inflicted brutality when he decapitated himself by driving away from a light post with a rope tied around his neck."

Finally, an original idea.

Ohio pulls plug on electronic voting: "The battle is over and electronic voting machines, at least in Ohio, are dead.

After years of wrangling and protests, Secretary of State Ken Blackwell announced Wednesday that he will limit Ohio's uncompleted voting-machine conversion to a single device: the precinct-count optical-scan machine.

The decision effectively sidelines the embattled touch-screen voting machines that protesters portrayed as razor-toothed, vote-eating monsters prone to hacking."

A very interesting development in the home state of Diebold Election Systems, from a Republican Secretary of State who chaired Bush's Ohio re-election campaign.

Christian Group Drops Indonesia Orphanage Plan: "An evangelical Christian charity has dropped plans to settle 50 Muslim children orphaned by the Asian tsunami in a Christian-run home after the Indonesian government blocked the move, the group said on Thursday. "

Hmmm... Kinda flies in the face of the statements that it had been approved, doesn't it? I also notice the number plummeted from 300 to 50 -- possibly the difference between how many they planned and how many they had (apparently) already kidnapped.

Group Says It Relocated 300 Orphans: "Brewer said the Indonesian government gave permission for the orphans to be flown to Jakarta last week and was aware that they would be raised as Christians.

['We have no knowledge of this,' Foreign Ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa said today in Jakarta. 'If confirmed, this would constitute a serious violation of the standing ban by the Indonesian government on the adoption of Acehnese children affected by the tsunami disaster and appropriate steps would be taken accordingly.' He added that he did not believe any Indonesian official would have approved the transfer of the children.]"

Now with links to the source article not just the highlight. Here's the answer to the question posed below.

For tsunami orphans, a Christian home: "A Virginia-based missionary group said this week that it has airlifted 300 'tsunami orphans' from the Muslim province of Banda Aceh to Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, where it plans to raise them in a Christian children's home."

In the long run, I don't know which is more traumatic, losing your parents in a cataclysm or being raised by Baptists. I was raised by Baptists. One thing the article does not appear to address is how the group gained legal custody of the 300 orphans, leaving the impression that they just grabbed them.

That impression is defended obliquely:"These are children who are unclaimed or unwanted. We are not trying to rip them apart from any existing family members and change their culture and change their customs," he said. "These children are going to be raised in a Christian environment. That's no guarantee they will choose to be Christians."

Pair arrested after telling lawyer jokes: "'They put the handcuffs on us, brought us into a room, frisked us, sat us down and checked our driver's licenses to see if there were any warrants out for our arrest,' Lanzisera said yesterday. 'They were very nasty, extremely nasty.'"

Not as obvious as it sounds. The two are anti-lawyer activists. The court alleges they were causing a disturbance and being abusive. Their complaint this day appears to have been that lawyers with security passes could walk right in, while the "peasants" had to wait in line. That's as much a privilige for lawyers as it is common sense -- give passes to the people who frequent the courthouse, but make the occasional visitors go through the full screening. The article notes, however, that there was a lawyer in line a few people ahead of them, so not all lawyers get passes.

Ouch. I cut my finger with a power saw and had to go to the emergency room. I missed two weeks work. I'd taken the first week off to do home improvements, and cut my finger two hours in.

For two weeks, my life was an endless series of repeating 4-hour cycles. Feel pain, take pill, wait 30 minutes, stare into space for 60-90 minutes, realize I've been staring into space for 60-90 minutes, start to feel pain, wait in pain until I can take more pills, then repeat.

For the first two days I was on percosets and life wasn't so bad. Two percosets knock me out and I was able to get some sleep. After that, they had me on vicodin. I hate vicodin. It upsets my stomach after I take it, it doesn't do much for my pain, and I can't get any sleep. So I call and complain, asking for more percosets. Their solution? More vicodin, at twice the dose. Unfortunately, that's no improvement -- given the limits, if I take any more than I had been, I'll have one or more 4-hour cycles where I can't take any. I start cutting the pills in half and taking them on a 2-hour cycle, trying to overlap doses to avoid the stomach upset, and get around the fact that the vicodin wears off an hour before I can take next dose on a 4-hour cycle.

So when I go back to get the stitches out, I again complain about the vicodin. So they put me on oxycontin instead. Great, now I'm on Rush Limbaugh drugs. Oxycontin doesn't just upset my stomach, it makes me vomit after taking it. If I can't keep it down, I have to wait twelve hours before I can take more. I've had to swallow a load of bile while driving to work more than once. I've puked on myself in the shower, and decoated my office at work. Worse, oxycontin is no more effective than the Vicodin was, but at least it's on a 12-hour dose so I can try to sleep. I have enough oxycontin for another couple of days, then hopefully I can get by on naproxen. I don't think I'll miss the oxycontin.

Every one of these pain killers has severe alcohol interaction warnings. I haven't had a drink in over two weeks. I'm going to a concert tonight, so I think I'm going to find out if alcohol can substitute for oxycontin. Given that I'm going to see Chuck Brown and George Clinton on Friday, and I'll be out of oxycontin by then, I hope so.

MSNBC - Settlers compare Gaza pullout to Holocaust: Uproar over campaign, which includes wearing of orange stars:The comparison dominated public debate Tuesday. Images of a Gaza woman wearing the star on her lapel ran on the front page of one Israeli newspaper, and Israeli radio shows discussed the settler campaign nonstop.

“This is a very troubling comparison,” Shevah Weiss, a Holocaust survivor and former parliament speaker, told Israel’s Army Radio.

"The Nazis put Jews “into gas chambers, killing them, crushing their bones, spreading the remains in great piles all over Europe,” he said. “What is going on here?”

Some people suffer from a lack of perspective. Government relocation of settlements built in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions is not the same as forced extermination. Those who imply that it is both disregard history and disserve the future. They may feel that they are being done an injustice, but they are not being led to the showers. I look at the pictures of the children wearing their orange stars, and it frightens me that they may grow up believing that political eviction is the same as genocide.

Zamboni explodes; fire destroys arena: "A Duluth hockey arena was destroyed and at least two people suffered minor injuries Sunday night after a Zamboni ice-resurfacing machine exploded during a broomball game, starting a major fire and sending players and spectators fleeing."

When Zambonis Attack! I've heard of arenas burning before, but I've never heard of an exploding Zamboni before now. No mention on the Zamboni web site...

Cannibal's Victim 'Tasted Like Lamb': "A Mexican accused of killing, cooking and eating his companion acknowledged having committed the crime and said the victim “tasted like lamb.”

“If they’d let me, I would have eaten it all,” said Gumaro de Dios Arias, following a court appearance in Playa de Carmen, about 36 miles south of the Caribbean resort of Cancun.

Hey, I thought everything unfamiliar tasted like chicken. Who knew Mexicans taste like lamb?

At Miss Cass Pageant, Disabled Contestants Bask in the Spotlight: "Each year, the pageant's audience is effusively supportive, though the crowd can't help but giggle as the contestants, ages 21 to 75, sing off-key or struggle through halting knock-knock jokes. The interview portion is simple. One contestant last year was asked, 'What is your favorite color?' She responded, 'chicken,' and everyone laughed."

The picture says almost as much as the article.

It's not easy being green for homeowner: "The police made Mata move the truck because of an ordinance that bans trucks from being parked in residential areas. But there's no ordinance that restricts what color people can paint their houses, city administrator Larry McCasland says. 'It's crazy, isn't it?' McCasland says, laughing."

This is my type of guy. They say his truck is ugly and they make him move it, so he paints his house fluorescent green. "Well, I thought if they said, 'The truck's an eyesore,' I'd give them a real eyesore."

Roger, 933 is clear for landing: "Not too many people know Craig Miers, of Windham, N.H., but he became an instant hero here Tuesday afternoon. Miers, 25, did what most pilots hope they never have to do: make an emergency landing in a bustling commercial area at lunchtime.

'He told me he got it over an intersection and dove it under some power lines,' Miers' father, Stephen Miers, of New Hampshire, said in a telephone interview. The 'intersection' turned out to be the northbound lane of Indiana 933, just a few feet from a Howard Johnson Inn's entrance and directly across the street from the Heaven & Earth shop, where a sign out front urges visitors to 'come in be inspired.'"

You hope you never have to do this. You hope that if you ever do, you manage to pull it off this well. The pilot clipped a wing, and cut a power line. Safe landing on a busy street at lunchtime. Damn.

Four-foot python found in box with returned DVD!: "Two weeks ago, employees at a Samsung facility in Secaucus opened a box with a returned DVD player in it - only to find a four-foot-long python inside as well.

They were sure that a disgruntled customer had sent it back, so they notified the police as well as animal control. But as the mystery uncoiled, they realized they had jumped to conclusions.

This is the story of Paco.

This is the story of how a three-year-old snake journeyed alone, 1,078 miles from Jefferson City, Mo., almost to New York City - a trip that took him less than a week to complete. "

This isn't exactly the same as the story of the UPS guy who shipped himself home to Texas -- this is the story of a snake that shipped itself to New Jersey.

Vt. gov. wants nude statue out of Statehouse: "Gov. James Douglas is doing some tidying up in his office and one thing he thinks can go is a table lamp that sometimes makes him red-faced.

"The lamp, installed on his desk recently as part of a Statehouse restoration project, is a replica of a famous 19th century nude statue that cost $2,500 and is plugged into an overhead chandelier."

What is it with republicans and nudity? He asks how he'd explain it to a third-grader. Why should you have to? Considering that the original "became an icon of the abolitionist movement," why wouldn't you want to?

Va. man ordered to pay damages for motel mess: "Chamberlain was charged May 10 after he coated every object in a Motel 6 room in the Town of Chenango with petroleum jelly, Broome County sheriff's deputies said."

Why? They didn't ask, and he didn't tell.