News – Mark Foley’s Technique

Americas

Wanna know what Foley was talking to the boys about? Here’s an example. Seriously.. wow.

Captain Augusto Pinochet Molina, grandson to the deceased Augusto Pinochet, made an unauthorized(and positive) speech at his grandfather’s funeral and could face disciplinary action for it.

Middle East

Tensions grow between Fatah and Hamas, in the wake of a new killing. It gets worse and worse and won’t change so long as Palestine lingers in this limbo of poverty and divided leadership.

Olmert steps in it again, accidentally acknowledging on TV that Israel has nukes. As if that’s a surprise to the majority of the world. Still, here come the resignation calls.

Ten gunmen dressed as soldiers steal $1 million that was being taken to Baghdad’s central bank. And other incidents are listed below that one.

Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the US quits suddenly. The default ‘spending time with family’ reason is given.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad mouths off some more, opining that Israel will disappear like the USSR. Which won’t happen because the US will likely bankrupt itself helping them before it allows Israel to go down. So Israel has little to worry about, due to the slavish devotion of our government. Outside of that, I can see it happening, because Israeli society is being warped by being in constant conflict with Palestine and their resources are being drained. It’s a state that can’t last forever.

Might Israel, concerned with the real effects of a collapsed Palestine, focus on a 2002 Saudi plan for peace? At this point, I’m tired of grasping at every little hope for peace and stability there, only to be disappointed by all sides involved. Either they will, or they’ll all eventually die to the hands of their neighbors. It’s their choice.

Iran has a Holocaust denial conference. People freak out and give it more and more attention, thus doing precisely what Iran and company want them to do. Good going. Have people forgotten how to ignore agitators like this, starving them of the attention they crave? Obviously they have.

In related news, John Bolton supports charging Ahmadinejad with inciting genocide because of all the talk of destroying Israel. Hmm.. personally I’d be careful with something like that, but by all means proceed.

Africa

Ethiopia’s PM plays down a thread from Somalia’s Union of Islamic Courts, giving them 7 days to withdraw troops from Somalia or face a ‘major attack’.

Satellites measure the loss of water from the continent of Africa. It’s a lot, but it’s a short study and experts stress no firm conclusions should be drawn from it.

Father Athanase Seromba is found guilty of involvement in Rawanda’s genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal and sentenced to 15 years of prison. He’s accused of ordering his own church to be destroyed by bulldozers while some 2k ethnic Tutsis were inside and sending in militia to kill any survivors. Personally, I think he got off easy if he did it(which I say because I don’t know the facts of the case). Normally, you don’t get 15 years for killing a lot of people, even if you don’t pull the trigger yourself.

Asia/Pacific

China is ending school tuition fees for 150 million rural kids. An excellent idea as education is what will help the poor by giving them a chance to rise above their meager holdings.

Japan’s government is embarrassed as it was revealed that ministerial forums, held to allow the common man to question their ministers, were staged. That’s not helpful to democracy.

Europe

While investigating the death of Alexander Litvinenko is important, what’s more important is finding out how his killers got a hold of polonium-210. The material is rare and has a very short half life(138 days) compared to most nuclear materials. Most of it is made by Russia and bought by the US.

Tenor Roberto Alagna walks off the stage after being booed and is now suing to get his ass back on said stage. He walked off and broke contract, he has no grounds to return if the opera house doesn’t want him.

Italy is cracking down on the Mafia. But can they carry though far enough to inflict lasting damage to the families?

General

Why you likely don’t need Windows Vista yet. As all should, most should wait a year or so before upgrading to let the early adaptors deal with initial bugs and let drivers and programs catch up with the new OS. It’s what I do with Mac OS usually. Here’s some screens for ya’ll.

The Blogs look at the Iranian Holocaust convention, the Saudi ambassador’s sudden departure and airport Christmas trees.

Today’s Papers has word that King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia told Vice President Dick Cheney that his country might give financial support to Iraqi Sunnis if the United States pulls out of Iraq and a sectarian war breaks out, news that Iraq has presented the United States a plan for its troops to take over most of the responsibility for security in Baghdad in early 2007, Federal investigators and safety advocates declaring they are worried the Airbus A380 double-decker plane and more in the one page news.

Amusements

Fred Phelp and circus ordered to pay family of killed soldier for invasion of privacy and defamation at funeral

“You’re playing the most phenomenal game ever created” – Dungeons and Dragons commercial from 1983

High school to stop publishing honor roll because it represents “an unhealthy focus on grades”

Penistone man upsets neighbours by putting up a 10-foot-tall penis-shaped Christmas tree in his yard (pic)

Top ten funny political quotes of 2006, including Bush recognizing the blind and John Kerry calling you stupid

Rare-book dealer loses $1 million manuscript, insists it was stolen. Finds the next day in binder, right where he left it (with pic of asshat dealer)

Evel Knievel claims Kanye West ripped off his look in the ‘Touch The Sky’ video. The Smoking Gun is there

Farker lets the world control his 15,000 Christmas Lights via the Internet for Celiac Charity. Click in and try it out

Germans drafting a law that will consider acts of cruelty against “human-looking videogame characters” as reason enough to fine, imprison

Pranksters draw penis on school roof that was so large, even Google Earth could see it. Yeah, there’s a SFW pic

Fantasy nerd? Check. Legal nerd? Check. Lawyers in dwarves clothing? Check

I-Mockery looks at the holiday phenomenon of buying up large quantities of hard-to-find popular items and scalping them for outrageous prices (some language NSFW)

County supervisor closes holiday speech to sheriffs with; “Shoot first and ask questions later, I’ll take care of the lawsuits.”

Mounties have Alberta community on the lookout for missing zebra. Difficulty: Zebra doesn’t have black and white stripes

How do you calm down an unruly child? In Florida, they throw them in a body bag. Sure, that’ll calm ’em down

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop this girl peeking through a fence

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop these statues

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop these images from the Japanese Nintendo Wii manual