News – Hip to be Weird

General

Examining Weird Al. Hopefully he’ll never go bad like other stars. He’s too loved.

Research shows that older women are just as capable as younger women of being good mothers.

Britain is top of the heap when it comes to wasting energy.

The New Atheists set out on a crusade against religion. Nope, they won’t even tolerate respect for the belief of religion, like such as me allow. Let them do what they want, I’ll hold to my fence sitting agnosticism, no matter their debating topics.

A pill that stops your period. Let the tampon industry fear.

Explainer looks at how you repair a ripped masterpiece.

The Blogs look at the Mahdi army’s seizure of power in Amara, the president’s plans for outer space and a plan to make textbooks into shields against bullets.

Today’s Papers has a poll asking Iraiqs if they think their country is going in the right direction, note of the latest peace agreement in disarray, a stumbling attempt to privatize highways in Virginia and more in the one page news.

Middle East

Examining the numbers of the Lancet study(which set the estimated Iraqi dead at 655k).

Alberto Fernandez, who remarked that the US had shown arrogance and stupidity’ in Iraq during an interview on an Arabic TV show says he had seriously misspoken. Nope, he told the truth. The more we rail against the truth, the longer it will take to fix what has been done wrong.

The faction unrest continues in Gaza.

Meanwhile Israel admits to using phosphorous weapons against Hezbollah during the Lebanon Conflict. Previously they’d only said they were used to mark targets. The Geneva Conventions ban the use of white phosphorus as an incendiary weapon against civilian populations and in air attacks against military forces in civilian areas. That would make for an admitted war crime by Israel if they were dropped near civilian targets. Of course, Israel won’t give proof as to where their weapons were used during the fighting.

Human Rights Watch says that Hezbollah fired cluster munitions into Israel. More evidence we need to ban those weapons utterly.

With the political scandals adding to the strain on the confidence of the Israeli people, I’d suspect current leaders aren’t long for their offices.

Bush says that military tactics will continue shifting to deal with insurgents. Like a lumbering elephant, I’m sure. Mind, the way to solve Iraq’s issues won’t be military in my opinion.

The US military notes that the Iraqi security plan to reduce Baghdad violence has failed in meeting its goals. So nether side can solve the problems currently.

Israel alleges that Iran paid Hamas $50m to not release a captured Israeli soldier. Iran, of course, denies this.

Human Rights Watch says Iran must stop banning students from university based on their political views.

Blair says the UK won’t ‘cut and run’ from Iraq. Good for him. Though it seems like he might be putting some pressure on the Iraqi government. Same as the US, it seems.

Africa

Head of the United Nations mission in Sudan, Jan Pronk, is expected to leave Sudan after being ordered out by the government. By the look, he’s strayed from his neutral mandate.

The father of the Malawian boy adopted by Madonna says he was misled and wouldn’t have agreed to the adoption of is son had he known it was for keeps.

Europe

An exhibit by an ethnic Georgian artist in a Moscow gallery is smashed by a gang of masked men. The artist himself was attacked as well. Russia is going down a dark road and the government is facilitating it.

Putin accuses Georgia of preparing for war in the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The accusation is denied.

Asia/Pacific

North Korea says it won’t do a second nuclear test unless the US harasses them again.

YouTube cuts 30k clips of Japanese media from the sitedue to them being posted on the sight without permission. Fortunately, clips from Pythagoras Switch are still there!

Info on North Korea for those not quite in the know.

Americas

Voters in Panama approve of an ambitious project of widening the canal. They hope that, by doubling its size, the added traffic would help lift their nation out of poverty. Ambitious indeed. It might work, considering there are some ships too big for the canal as it is now. If they can make it larger, increasing their traffic flow, the revenues would be sweet indeed.

Obama for Prez? He might run. And if he won, that’d be a pretty fast rise for him, especially considering his ethnicity. This might be a very interesting.

Unsurprisingly, more human remains are found at Ground Zero in New York. Considering how pulverized some were, it would be impossible to be sure all were found.

Unsurprisingly, Republicans resort to scare tactics, in fear for their grip on power in the coming midterms. This sort of bullshit makes me want to vote against them no matter who is running. I hate scaremongering. You Conservative politicians want to talk terror? At least do so in a thoughtful way.

Amusements

Neurotically Yours: Writers Block – Note: Violent.

Mark Fiore: Axis of Oops

Man robs store with a sword and forgets to take the money. Police arrest him after he returns to the store and pleads for the money. There can only be one dumbass

Man caught having sex with statue of ram; since alcohol was involved, can only randomly access his memory

Hottest Christmas gift: the Mark Foley action doll. Complete with pants around ankles, a liquor bottle and Blackberry for messaging young boys. May not be suitable for pages(Ebay auction that ends in 13 hours from 9AM EST)

3 cheerleaders cuffed and led away after removing ‘Dougl’ from ‘Douglass Valley Elementary School’ sign

Asshat parents sue HS girls basketball coach so they can have a committee of parents and community members run team

Bus driver has right to refuse driving bus with gay-magazine-ad on it

Lion statues deemed too risqué for children’s park

Teen drivers complain driving is really hard, especially when they’re expected to pay attention to the road while they’re busy texting

Lawyer gets two days in jail, 70 hours of community service, and loss of his license to practice law after exclaiming “Lord” during a verbal exchange with a judge

Bad idea: Committing a burglary. Worse idea: Running from the police. Fark.com: Hiding from the police 50 feet up in a tree, and having poor balance

20% of British children cannot find UK on map. No wonder, with all the clouds obscuring it

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop these kids and their dragon

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop this rural pyramid

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop theme: Unlikely corporate mergers