News – Divine Screwup
Europe
The Pope pulls a boner, saying that Muhammad had brought the world only “evil and inhuman” things. Little surprise the statements released by the Vatican that he meant no offense have done little to quell the upset of Muslims. You don’t have to be divinely inspired to know that such a statement would offend a lot of people. “It is clear that the Holy Father’s intention is to cultivate a position of respect and dialogue towards other religions and cultures, and that clearly includes Islam,” said chief Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi in a statement. He won’t cultivate a position of respect by making broad, insulting statements, however. Perhaps if he had gone at length on some specific aspects of what Muhammad had done that are questionable with clear evidence and polite language, he might have been shooting toward the goal, but instead he spoke without thinking it through. Like any other average human.
Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos admits there might have been secret CIA flights stopping over in Spain. Which means there were, but they don’t want to admit to being a tool for US intelligence agencies. But there was no evidence of any crimes in Spain’s soil.. but wouldn’t being a stopover for illegal flights be something like a crime? Only if they knew about it, I suppose. Of course, if they didn’t know about it, that says something about their own intelligence and security. They just let planes fly all over without knowing who and what is in them?
Middle East
Israel admits to the mistake of bombing a UN post during the Lebanon conflict, killing four UN peacekeepers. Perhaps the next time the UN calls them repeatedly to ask them to stop shelling an area, they’ll consider actually doing it to see if there’s a good reason for them to stop, rather than ignoring such direct, repeated calls. I mean, maps aren’t always right.
The ceasfire in Lebanon holds, despite Israel’s constant violations of it. If them terrorists were looking for a reason to start it up again, I’m sure they would have taken it by now.
Judge Abdullah al-Amiri, chief judge in Saddam’s trial, says that Saddam wasn’t a dictator. No, he was made to seem like one by his aides, apparently. Of course, such comments won’t help the recent complaints on him about bias toward Saddam.
In a leaked letter, the IAEA calls a congressional report on Iran’s nuclear program from the US ‘erroneous’ and ‘misleading’. Rep Rush Holt, from the Senate Intelligence Committee, says the report wasn’t ready for release and notes it relied heavily on unclassified testimony.
Amnesty International hits Hezbollah with the war crimes stick, citing the rocket attacks into civilian areas during the conflict in Lebanon. Yup, but then who had any doubt? Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah said Amnesty should analyze the number of civilians killed on each side, before accusing Hezbollah of war crimes. Heh, I’m sure the only reason Israel killed more civilians is because of their superior military technology, but they should also get a few hard whacks with the war crimes stick for their careless use of clusterbombs. Both sides need a good caning.
Voices of those Iraqis who left Iraq and it’s instability behind.
The heat is on for Olmert to pack it in and step aside. He might as well do it.
Africa
According to a new study, at least 200k people have died in Sudan’s Darfur conflict. One wonders where the number will stop.
In the Ivory Coast, youths upset at the dumping of toxic waste in Ivory Coast’s main city, drag their transportation minister from is car and beat him.
Asia/Pacific
Shoko Asahara, creator of the Aum Shinrikyo Buddhist religious group, has had his final appeal rejected, paving the way to his execution. His conviction is as mastermind of the 2004 sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway during morning rush. Feel free to look up this guy and his prior sect on Wiki, some interesting reading.
Americas
Slate has been contacted by some of the people in that photo that was in my last entry. I knew they would be and now you can know their thoughts on that day and the photographer.
The Senate says no to Bush’s favored legislation to set up trials for terrorism suspects, instead backing a milder bill which Bush has pledged to block. Senators are concerned Bush’s favored bill will redefine the Geneva Conventions and allow harsh treatment of detainees at Gitmo. I wouldn’t be surprised.
Starbucks refuses a woman’s free drink coupon, saying it had been redistributed beyond its original intent(likely layman’s terms: We gave out too many). She responds with a $114m lawsuit(the cost of drinks for all those turned away by the company). Starbucks forgot the old adage, the customer is always right. They should have bit the bullet and accepted their mistake. Why? Because that would have gotten them good PR and lots of added customers to defray their losses. Now.. they get bad publicity and a nice, fat lawsuit stacked on top of legal fees. She probably won’t win, but either will Starbucks.
Are there no more troops the send to Iraq? By the sound, we’re grinding our might to dust over there. Which will leave su weak in the short run.. and partially into the long run, depending on how long we must stay in Iraq. I think that’s one reason some regimes are being so bold now. They know we have our foot in the trap and are limited in our military options.
General
The occasional phenomenon dubbed ‘El Nino’ is developing in the Pacific and could bring extreme weather to several parts of the world. It’s expected to strengthen toward the end of this year and early next year. It can bring drought to some places, heavy rains to others.
A woman gets a new bionic arm, one that responds to her thoughts by measuring the movement of muscles in her chest. Now.. if only we could give it a sense of touch, we’d have some serious sci-fi going.
Instead of being freeing, mobile phones are stressing some people out. I have one, but I don’t use it much so I don’t get stressed. 😉
<AHREF=”http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5348674.stm”>Microsoft launches it’s Zune media player. Can it match the popularity of the iPod? Who can say, but Apple has had a headstart of many years over Microsoft. One interesting feature is a short range sharing capability, which lets you send tracks to other nearby players, lingering for three plays or three days, which ever comes first. Not a bad idea at all.
Details on what iTV does and doesn’t do. It looks nice.. I might go for it eventually.
The Blogs look at the Novak-Armitage kerfuffle, the objectivity of Saddam’s judge and the outing of YouTube’s Lonelygirl15.
Explainer looks at depression among zoo animals.
Today’s Papers has David Ignatius telling of his one-on-one interview with President Bush where the two talked about Iran, the FDA warning consumers not to eat commercially bagged fresh spinach because of a recent outbreak of E. coli, word that Ohio Republican Rep. Bob Ney will plead guilty to criminal charges relating to his connections with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and more in the one page news.
Amusements
British soccer team’s new uniforms banned by the league because they carry the slogan “The Referee’s a Wanker” (pic)
Nissan to introduce anti-drunk-driving mechanism, plus extra-long pin number that a drunk person can’t remember. Of course the person would be so drunk he wouldn’t think of writing it down beforehand
$1600 is all that stands between you and a chance to put on your robe and wizard hat in real life (Reference for the term – Not for the faint of humor)
French court tells man that defacing his own property is not “art”
British ad showing image of Jesus in the froth of an empty pint glass intended to boost church attendance. Communion wine distributors sing hallelujah
Man arrested in Clearwater for huffing freon out of 31 air conditioners. With mugshot goodness
Indian tribes fight ski resort expansion on sacred mountain, say past transgressions caused 9/11, Katrina and the Columbia shuttle crash
Looking to create a “food on my pet trifecta,” Farkette has placed cheese on a yorkshire terrier
News: Kenyan cult predicts end of world from US/North Korea nuclear war on 9/12/2006. Not News: World does not end. Fark.com: Cultists go into bunkers anyway and blame failure on time zone discrepencies
Can’t make or buy a costume based on your favorite characters? No problem, you can always resort to going with one of these lackluster cheap rip-off costumes instead
Porn site buys expired domain which used to belong to Utah Home Education Association. Redesigns “mom’s pictures” and “parental secrets” sections, attracting many many more “students”
Ninja bank robber runs out of moves. Police follow him home and arrest him with his loot, his throwing stars, a fake gun and a list of other bank branches
Step 1: Approach political party looking to redesign logo. Step 2: Do no work at all until deadline is due, scribble something on a piece of paper. Step 3: Profit
Mayor is shocked to learn that his constituency is not amused after he allows “Thong Girl 3” to be filmed in his office
Tow truck company busted for towing legally parked cars and then having them crushed for scrap metal. Bonus: Owner, out on bail on previous charges, arrested again today for same thing
Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop Iranian President Mahmoud Ahdonwannabeshopped
Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop this monkey just hanging on
Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop the girl with the sun in her eyes. Difficulty: No marmalade skies