News – ‘Monday Sucks’ News

Middle East

Once again the cycle continues. Doesn’t matter which side perpetrates it, it serves the end of feeding the flames.

The issue with Turkey and their threat to Northern Iraq lingers still. They still periodically air raid Kurdish villages at the border

If Iraq keeps their oil production up, the high price of fuel could give them a windfall of cash to help with much needed reconstruction. As they say, every cloud has a silver lining. Hopefully this one won’t be wasted.

Egypt finally gets the border sealed up. With some assistance from Hamas, by the look.

One simply can’t empathize with some of the elements fighting in Iraq. I condone none of the violence, but something such as this is especially heinous and sickening.

Africa

Thousands are displaced as they flee violence in Chad’s capital of N’Djamena between rebels and the government. Chad maintains that Sudan’s government is involved with the rebels in a bid to use Chad violence to prevent an EU force from being sent to the region.

Asia/Pacific

China is getting rocked by the nasty snow storms in their country. They weren’t ready. But sometimes it takes a disaster like this to prompt preparedness. If they take the hint, they can avoid the likes of this happening again.

Europe

Dmitri Medvede, Putin’s favorite to take his place at the head of Russia, is starting his campaign. Personally, I’d not vote for him just to deny Putin any lingering control on the country’s government.

Thousands of Turks protest against women being allowed to wear Islamic headscarves in Turkish University. They believe that it would help usher a stricter form of Islam into largely secular Turkey. Personally, I think it improper to not allow women to wear such if they desire to. There are other ways to guard against such a rise of Islam in Turkey without denying those that wish to practice as they see fit.

Americas

Surprise surprise! Bush is dragging his feet when it comes to nominating candidates for a privacy and civil-liberties commission. For any other position, he’d be pulling names out of the air quickly. For this, he likely hopes that everyone will forget and allow him to let it quietly die rather than have more accountability for the Executive. Nice to know my poor opinion of him remains justified.

Columbians around the world start a day of protests against the rebel group Farc.

Spears is in the loony bin and her control of her estate and her own welfare have been taken from her. This was a long time coming. Hopefully they can help this woman come back to this plane of reality from whatever dimension she’s drifted off into.

Personally, I think it would be good for the country if the Oscars missed a year. Call it a hunch.

General

Google is concerned by Microsoft’s bid to buyout Yahoo. Microsoft seems to be one of the few businesses that exclusively buys itself into markets they wish to control. I find the practice despicable and if Yahoo gets bought out, I think I’ll be using Google more. Amusingly, a spokesperson for MS says that them buying up Yahoo will create more competition. No, more competition would be made if Microsoft made their own internet search portal to compete with Yahoo and Google. But then no one at Microsoft knows what competition or innovation really are. However, it seems this might have nothing at all to do with search.

Computer chips get all the more dense. Personally, I think chip manufactures need to slow the power race and work on cleaner, smaller and quieter means to cool these chips. I mean, a recent PC I got had a fricken mini-turbine to cool the CPU. There should be a better way outside of some complex, hard to set up liquid cooling bull.

The Pirate Bay remains despite recent legal action against some active with it. Of course, when you run a double blind, distributed system, tracking down the nodes involved is easier said than done.

For the next year, how to hold a Superbowl party without getting in trouble.

The Blogs look at the one on one between Hillary and Obama as well as the potential merger of Microsoft and Yahoo.

Today’s Papers has a look at the Superbowl commercials, a report by the Interior Department’s inspector general that says the U.S. Park Police is plagued with a variety of problems that have left many national landmarks vulnerable to attack, how Google has spoken up against Microsoft’s bid for Yahoo! in its official company blog and more in the one page news.

Amusements

Beauty queen drives across three lanes of traffic to block the path of another car. That’s when things start to get weird (with crying picture of the psycho winning a pageant)

For those who thought “Boy this is good sake, but I wished it had more of a squiddy taste” you’re now in luck

Police seize murals from Abercrombie & Fitch store, including “one of a woman topless and whose breast is displayed with her hand covering just the nipple. You could still pretty much see the rest of the breast.”

To ensure that their special day goes off without a hitch, some brides require bridesmaids to sign a contract stating that they won’t get fat or pregnant before the wedding

One in four people think that Winston Churchill never existed but Sherlock Holmes did

One in five people on welfare fails to show up for mandatory review of why they’re not working, offering excuses from “I’m drunk” to “Work is irrelevant to my life”

If you still have your learner’s permit, it probably isn’t a good idea to do burnouts in the parking lot in front of a police station

Man complains that blow-up sex doll’s lost its moan (and it deflates too quickly)

Today’s burglar who fell asleep in a 9-year old’s bed while clutching a purse after eating all the family’s cookies is brought to you by Kuala Lumpur

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop what could possibly go wrong

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop theme: Insects

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Royal Mint plans to replace Britannia with an “an image representing modern Britain” on new coins. Photoshop your suggestions (link to story with pic)