Thank you to all who have served

Going on vacation.

Seeya in a week or so.

Rock the vote.

There are campaign promises, there are dirty campaign promises and then there is Belgium's NEE party, which is offering voters something well beyond the bounds of decency, politics and, by some estimations, human capability. According to their Web site, Tania Derveaux, the "leading NEE party senate candidate in Belgium," is promising oral sex to 40,000 men in order to get voters to write the word "nee" ("no") on their ballots June 10th.

There is a website with the Terms of Servicing.

2. Description of Services
The Services consist of Tania performing fellatio on selected individuals who have requested the Services through this form. Travel and other expenses will be covered by NEE. Any sort of recording (video, audio or photographs) of the performance is strictly prohibited without written permission. We adhere to high standards of service but due to time limitations each performance can last no longer than 5 minutes, no exceptions will be made under any circumstance.

3. General Requirements and Rules of Conduct
Services will only be provided to those who meet the following requirements:

1. applicants must be 18yrs old or above


2. condoms must be used and provided and paid for by the user


3. the user shall not engage in any other form of physical contact


4. any attempt to influence the depth of insertion by the user will
   result in immediate end of service


5. Tania may deny service for hygiene reasons

That's no moon, that's a convention center.

The proposed Ras al Khaimah Convention and Exhibition Centre in the UAE bears a striking resemblance to the Death Star. Designed by Rem Koolhaas and Reinier de Graaf as part of their collaboration with OMA, the sphere holds a convention centre, hotel rooms, apartments, offices and retail space.

Oil Wars 2: The Emirate strikes back.

New Fantastic 4 trailer during Heroes

John Rambo

Hmmm, for some reason, I feel like having some chili.

Misc. Friday Ramblings...

Heard this week on Lex and Terry:
How do you get an old lady to say the 'F' word? Have the old lady next to her yell "BINGO".

• It's Photoshop Phriday.
  Scotty, we need more power!
  


• New Transformers Trailer.
  Holy Starscream.
  


• Top Gear crashes ANOTHER Koenisegg.
  The Stig needs a new job.
  


• Prostitute Killed In Hoe Attack
  But was it nappy headed?
  


• Hitchhiker steals car. Dies minutes later in crash.
  You dogma just got killed by Karma.
  


• Star Wars: Best effects ever.
  Then came the ewoks and Jar Jar.
  


• Can you hold Ken Griffey's jock?
  He's a brown bagger, eh?
  


• Die by the sword.
  When swords are outlawed, only outlaws will have swords.
  

Friday FIREPOWER!

• Anti-gun lawmaker wanted gun when almost mugged.
  

  It's funny how a gun can in stantly change your perspec tive on things, make you wish you could rewrite history.
  
  State Rep. Michael DeBose, a southside Cleveland Democrat, discovered this lesson the night of May 1, when he thought he was going to die. That's the night he wished he had that gun vote back.
  
  It was late, but DeBose, 51, was restless. The ordained Baptist minister knew his Lee-Harvard neighborhood was changing, but he wasn't scared. The idle, young men who sometimes hang out on his and adjacent streets didn't threaten him.
  
  The loud muffler on a car that slowly passed as he was finishing the walk caught his attention, though. When the car stopped directly in front of his house - three houses from where he stood - he knew there was going to be a problem.
  
  "When I started running, the short boy stopped chasing and went back to the car. But the tall boy with the gun kept following me. I ran to the corner house and started banging on Mrs. Jones' door."
  
  It was at that point that the would-be robbers realized that their prey wasn't worth the trouble. Besides, Cheryl, DeBose's wife, and a daughter had heard his screams and had raced out to investigate. Other porch lights began to flicker on.
  
  The loud muffler sped off, and DeBose started rethinking his gun vote.
  
  DeBose twice voted against a measure to allow Ohioans to carry concealed weapons. It became law in 2004.
  
  DeBose voted his conscience. He feared that CCW permits would lead to a massive influx of new guns in the streets and a jump in gun violence. He feared that Cleveland would become the O.K. Corral, patrolled by legions of freshly minted permit holders.
  
  "I was wrong," he said Friday.
  
  "I'm going to get a permit and so is my wife.
  
  "I've changed my mind. You need a way to protect yourself and your family.
  
  "I don't want to hurt anyone. But I never again want to be in the position where I'm approached by someone with a gun and I don't have one."
  
  DeBose said he knows that a gun doesn't solve Cleveland's violence problem; it's merely a street equalizer.
  
  "There are too many people who are just evil and mean-spirited. They will hurt you for no reason. If more people were packing guns, it might serve as a deterrent.

  
  Funny how those that judge from on-high change their tune when they are transformed into nothing but a common-man's victim.
  


• VSI's Helmet Mounted Display System flies on Joint Strike Fighter
  

  A Helmet Mounted Display System (HMDS) made by Vision Systems International, LLC (VSI) recently flew for the first time on an F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft. It was worn by Lockheed Martin's Jon Beesley, who piloted the advanced fighter.
  
  The HMDS provides critical flight information to the pilot throughout the entire mission. In addition to standard HMD capabilities, such as extreme off-axis targeting and cueing offered on VSI's other HMDs, Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System (JHMCS) and Display & Sight Helmet (DASH), this system fully utilizes the advanced avionics architecture of the F-35.
  
  The HMDS provides the pilot video with imagery in day or night conditions combined with precision symbology to give the pilot unprecedented situational awareness and tactical capability. Also, by virtue of precise head tracking capability and low latency graphics processing, it provides the pilot with a virtual heads-up display (HUD). As a result, the F-35 is the first tactical fighter jet in 50 years to fly without a HUD.
  
  "Since the F-35 has no HUD, providing virtual HUD capability has become a mandatory requirement, entailing precise head tracking and display operation near zero latency. We are proud to be a key partner to the F-35 industrial and government team," said VSI President Drew Brugal.

  
  No HUD? Who the hell designed that fighter, Stevie Wonder? However, the helmet looks cool as hell. Someone must be a Halo fan.
  
  
  


• Good link from Tamara about a new Oleg wallpaper.
  
  

Save Jericho!

Keys to Success
For any of this to have a hope of having ANY impact at this point a few things need to happen

1. Stay on the CBS Jericho board for as long as possible. It serves 2 purposes:
   
   • It's a very easy way for us to say in CBS's face. Server logs and site traffic are important too.
   
   
   • Upset fans who want to vent are crawling out of the woodwork. The CBS board is where they are going to naturally initially stop by. They shouldn't have to look all over the internet for our battlefront headquarters. If they lurk, the need to see a huge amount of positive activity trying to save the show. If they actually sign up, get an account and post - they need to be kindly greeted and told how to help.
   
   
2. ALL communications to the network and advertisers MUST be polite but firm and resolute. We are serious about wanting the show back - we cannot appear to be stark raving mad (despite the fact that most of us are very upset with the announcement).


3. That receptionist at the network and the network voicemail - needs to stay busy for days. Activity has to build (just like ratings) not wane the further from the announcement we get. The knew they would get feedback today - its what happens tomorrow, Friday, and so on that really counts. Remember, we need the CBS phone folks as allies. The decision wasn't theirs. They just answer the phones. Be nice to them.


4. Email needs to flood in from as many different email addresses as possible (this includes feedback forms) for days.


5. Nuts away - the nut campaign can't be a passing fancy. Planters, Fisher, etc... (all nut manufactures) need to see an odd sudden increase in their sales figures for the month of may.


6. Other media need to take notice of our efforts- I have posted comments on the Jericho cancellation article on cbsnews.com, cnn.com and several other sites today. Local (particularly NYC and LA) attention on our efforts - print, radio, TV news - is critical. CBS stopped paying attention to this board probably a week ago - they knew what they would read here when the word came down. We need to get the message out.

Days of future past. Original Fallout 3 tech demo.

This was a prototype tech demo from 2003 for the since canceled Van Buren project worked on by Black Isle Studios.

This tech demo is very buggy, and is not at all related to the actual Fallout 3 product being developed by Bethesda Studios.

I'm still unsure of what Bethesda is going to do with Fallout 3. Changing from isometric veiw to full 3d is pretty much a given, but if they take out the turn-based goodness that was the heart of Fallout's combat, I probably won't buy it. Call me old school, but games like Fallout and Xcom are made for turn-based play, not real time.

So I get a phone call from Nathan Petrelli....

So last night, at around 7:30, from Nathan Petrelli.

“Hi, this is Nathan Petrelli and I’m running for congress. You know, I believe our children deserve a better future: a future where they don’t have to face their fears along. A future where they can look into the darkness and find hope. Help me build this brighter future. Let’s do it together. Let’s show them all exactly what we’re capable of. For more information about my campaign, please visit votepetrelli.com. Again, thank you for my time.”

I live in Florida. How the hell can I vote for someone running for NY senate seat? Someone in the viral marketing department needs to work on that. :)

Jericho Cancelled.

Dammit, Dammit, Dammit!

It may not have had the best actors or writers, nor did it have anyone with enough military proficiency to lead the defense of a clean litter box against a 2 month old kitten with diarrhea.

However, it brought out something...primal. No government. Self-preservation. The Road Warrior. Fallout. Treachery. Those things made for a great show.

UPDATE:
The executive producer, Carol Barbee, has updated the fans on the official CBS Jericho website as to what happens next. It looks like they won't shop the show around, but at least will give the fans some closure.

I so appreciate the offer and I would like to speak to
or write to the fans, but it's a little too fresh
right now. I don't trust what I might say and I would
rather come up with a measured response. We're
talking here about how to get info to the fans about
what would have happened on Jericho Season 2 and
beyond, and solving the mysteries of the show. But I
have to inform CBS and Paramount before I do it.

Please tell your listeners how much their support has
meant to me personally, as well as to the show. I
won't leave them hanging for long.

Love,
Carol

Woman survives decapitation.

A car crash in Nebraska on Jan. 25 threw Malloy up against the vehicle's dashboard. In the process, her skull became separated from her spine. The clinical term for her condition is called internal decapitation.

"I remember the impact and then I had no control over my head," said Malloy. "I wasn't focused so much on the pain. I just kept thinking, 'I have to stay alive.'"

Dr. Gary Ghiselli, a chiropractor at the Denver Spine Center, said Malloy's will to survive is what saved her.

"I've seen it once before and, unfortunately, the patient didn't make it," said Ghiselli.

Five screws were drilled into Malloy's neck. Four more were drilled into her head to keep it stabilized. Then a thing called a halo -- rods and a circular metal bar -- was attached for added support. It's not exactly a pain-free procedure.

"My skull slipped off my neck about five times. Every time they tried to screw this to my head, I would slip," said Malloy.

Off with her....oh....nevermind...

Happy Mother's Day

Misc. Friday Ramblings...

Johnston Green (Jericho):
What do you want me to say? I get it. The man has a satellite and doesn't want anyone to know. I am about to go to war against New Bern, Kansas. Home of the nearest Costco. Today is already about as weird as I can handle. I'm not asking anymore questions.

• It's Photoshop Phriday!
  Classing up some classless movies.
  


• Man Named Stoner Arrested for Growing Marijuana
  Self fulfilling prophecy.
  


• IBM makes chip the builds itself.
  John Conner last seen running for the hills.
  


• Paris becomes a prison bitch.
  I hear she likes it in the pokie.
  


• Heinous black on white crime with little media coverage.
  I guess it would be too much to ask for a white religious leader to be outraged at this.
  


• Fallout 3 teaser coming soon.
  Vault dwellers unite!
  


• Top 10 worst consoles.
  Proudly, I can say I never owned any of those.
  


• Israeli motorists drove around dead body on road
  

  Israelis have a reputation for rushing to the scene of accidents or Palestinian bombings to help victims, and the apparent apathy shown in Yisraeli's case touched off a public debate over whether Israeli society has become uncaring.

  
  I would like to think that they were suspicious that the body could have been a trap.
  


• Take my wife....please!
  I want my fifty dollars!
  

Friday FIREPOWER!

• Supreme Court, here we come....I hope...
  

  Gun-rights advocates are cautiously optimistic these days, and with good reason. The latest Second Amendment news is that a federal appeals court will not reconsider a panel judgment against the District of Columbia's gun ban. This means that the options facing pro-gun-ban Mayor Adrian Fenty are, at least by his lights, all bad. The District may now either take the case to the Supreme Court or admit that the gun ban is defeated. City officials must decide by the second week of August.
  
  What a Catch-22 for the gun-control crowd. For reasons clear enough to any Supreme Court-watcher, few gun-controllers want Mr. Fenty to pursue the case there. Assuming that the court agrees to hear it, the current justices are likelier than any group in recent memory to scale back gun-control laws now that conservative Justice Samuel Alito has replaced Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

  
  Of course, taking it to the SCOTUS is a double-edged sword. If they rule against the ban, there is national precedence to remove similar bans anywhere in the US. However, if ruled for the ban, then that legitimizes the control crowd on a national level, giving federal law a chance to overcome anti-control local legislation.
  


• How terrorists get weapons to attack a base in the US?
  They get them from the street and the black market. Wow, go figure. Even the illegal aliens know that they can't get guns legally through the current system. You mean current laws work? Heaven forbid!
  


• Law professors starting to see 2nd Amendment as individual right.
  

  Startled by the recent federal appeals court decision overturning D.C.'s gun ban, The New York Times suddenly notices the impact of scholarship favoring the position that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to arms. It notes that the work of left-liberal legal scholars inclined to favor gun control, beginning with University of Texas law professor Sanford Levinson's 1989 Yale Law Journal article "The Embarrassing Second Amendment," has been especially influential. Why, after all, would leading scholars such as Lawrence Tribe reverse themselves and endorse a view of the Constitution at odds with their policy preferences unless the evidence supporting that view was too strong to ignore? Just to be contrary, according to the nicely named Carl T. Bogus, a law professor at Roger Williams University who favors an interpretation of the Second Amendment that renders it null and void. "Contrarian positions get play," he says. "Liberal professors supporting gun control draw yawns."
  
  The Times reports that these contrarians have "in a remarkably short time upended the conventional understanding of the Second Amendment"—so much so that (as the Times fails to note) the individual-right interpretation is now known as "the standard model." Yet the Times leaves unquestioned this claim by Dennis Henigan of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence: "The overwhelming weight of scholarly opinion supports the near-unanimous view of the federal courts that the constitutional right to be armed is linked to an organized militia. The exceptions attract attention precisely because they are so rare and unexpected." It's not clear how Henigan is weighing scholarly opinion, but the pro-gun-rights scholar Don Kates reports that "over 120 law review articles have addressed the Second Amendment since 1980," and "the overwhelming majority affirm that it guarantees a right of individual gun owners." Furthermore, as the Times also neglects to mention, this was the standard view until 20th-century gun controllers started pushing the claim that the Second Amendment has nothing to do with individual rights.

  
  Don't they know anything. Only amendements 1 and 3 through 10 were to apply to the individual. Where is a good revisionist when you need them?
  

"Real" Florida pirates arrested.

Donald Ridenbaugh and his friends do not remember who started the whole pirate motif. A skull tattoo here, a Jolly Roger flag there, and soon it had escalated to wearing knives on their belts almost every time they went out for an evening on the town.

For spring break, they took it a step further when they hacked their own pirate fort out of the Brazilian pepper on Jim Neville Preserve.

Preparations took four months.

They poached long-forgotten furniture from dozens of old campsites they found there, and moved out to the isle in late March. There was a kitchen with grills, pots and pans, a tiki bar stocked with booze, hand-drawn maps of the isle and, of course, skull-and-crossbones flags.

Eight days later, the pirate camp was raided by deputies who had decided to make an example of the 13 campers, who ranged in age from 17 to 22. They were charged with lighting illegal campfires and illegal camping on the preserve. Two campers, a 19-year-old woman and a 17-year-old boy, were charged with marijuana possession.

It took two dozen canoe trips delivering furniture and supplies -- including pirate swords and 24 gallons of tiki torch fuel -- for the campout the last week of March.

"There are dozens of old campsites on that island; that was another reason we thought it would be OK," Brandon Hiatt, 19, said.

The pirate camp, nicknamed Nassau Point, included a large fire pit and tiki torches that lit the way back to at least seven camping areas.

They would wake up in the morning, eat and then have a camp cleanup, Ridenbaugh said. Then the group would dress up as pirates and paddle their canoes to nearby Turtle Beach, offering their services to children, bikini-clad women and tourists who wanted to take a photo with some real Florida pirates.

At low tide, they took their plastic chairs to sandbars and chilled out. That's what some of them were doing the first time the sheriff's helicopter flew overhead.

They ate ramen noodles and a stock of 320 hot dogs. They made supply runs. At night they went into town to hang out, or stayed around the fire and drank, belting out pirate drinking songs.

"They destroyed that island, no question," Sheriff's Office spokesman Lt. Chuck Lesaltato said. "They made porta potties. They cut a hole in the chair and put it over a hole in the ground."

The site remains a collection of trash, with piles of empty liquor bottles, ripped tents and mucked up plastic furniture.

People have been talking about it for weeks, after hearing a few news accounts that inaccurately cast it as a sort of a "Gilligan's Island" hideaway.

Even Sheriff Bill Balkwill went to the preserve to check out the campsite last weekend.

But there are also signs someone has stayed there since the pirates got busted.

As they returned to the site on Monday with a reporter, one of the tents left out there had been moved and set up again.

"What the hell?" said Tyler Martineau, 18. "We took this down."

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me.
We pillage, we plunder, we rifle, and loot,
Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho.
We kidnap and ravage and don't give a hoot,
Drink up me 'earties, yo ho.

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me.
We extort, we pilfer, we filch, and sack,
Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho.
Maraud and embezzle, and even high-jack,
Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho.

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me.
We kindle and char, inflame and ignite,
Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho.
We burn up the city, we're really a fright,
Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho.

We're rascals, scoundrels, villans, and knaves,
Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho.
We're devils and black sheep, really bad eggs,
Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho.

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me.
We're beggars and blighters, ne'er-do-well cads,
Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho.
Aye, but we're loved by our mommies and dads,
Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho.

EDIT: Hello Andrea!

The stars at night....

Light pollution is a serious concern to astronomers. With more and more lights in the environment, finding a dark place to observe the sky is getting harder. The link provided above is to a panoramic photo taken in Death Valley, California. You can't observe the sky like that with light around.

The small neighborhood I live in was quite old when we moved there. The road narrow, the utilities old, trees all around. Over the years, though, housing developments have sprung up onto the once pasture land. With these developments come the additions to infrastructure that are needed. The roads are scheduled for widening. New utility poles were installed further back off the street. These new poles also contained new street lamps. Bright lamps. So bright, that the ambient light level has been increased to the point where it interferes with casual astronomical observations from the back yard. If not for the few remaining trees surrounding my house, it would be quite hard to observe anything that didn't have the brightest of luminosity.

Spidey lives in my ears.

What began as a faint popping in a 9-year-old boy's ear -- ''like Rice Krispies'' -- ended up as an earache, and the doctor's diagnosis was that a pair of spiders made a home in the ear.

''They were walking on my eardrums,'' Jesse Courtney said.

One of the spiders was still alive after the doctor flushed the fourth-grader's left ear canal.

His mother, Diane Courtney, said her son insisted he kept hearing a faint popping in his ear -- ''like Rice Krispies.''

Dr. David Irvine said it looked like the boy had something in his ear when he examined him.

When he irrigated the ear, the first spider came out, dead. The other spider took a second dousing before it emerged, still alive. Both were about the size of a pencil eraser.

Jesse was given the spiders -- now dead -- as a souvenir. He has taken them to school.

''It was real interesting, 'cause two spiders in my ear -- what next?'' Jesse said.

So much for not listening to complaints about earwax buildup. Maybe he was doing a bit too much Mary Jane to care.

Car stolen twice in same day

A Stevens Point man thought he was lucky to recover his car after it was stolen -- until it was stolen again later that day.

York Heiden's pearl-colored 1990 Audi Quattro was stolen from a grocery store parking lot April 27 while his wife was running errands. The keys had been left in it.

Heiden, 36, who owns an automotive repair shop, quickly called some friends and the car was found nearby, without keys.

He said he had a friend disable the car's ignition by removing a coil wire while he left it to pick up a spare key. When he returned, the car was gone. He had forgotten, he said, that the model Audi had a two-coil system and could be driven with just one.

"I was speechless," Heiden said, recalling how he stood where the car had been found, keys dangling from his fingers, the emotional high of finding the car dashed. "All I could do was hold the key up in my hand and look at it."

"Everyone says, 'You shouldn't have left it,'" Heiden said, laughing. "But I know, I know ... So many what-ifs: I shouldn't have done this, I should have taken the tire off."

Police later found the car in the same neighborhood. It had a broken taillight and a broken piece of interior trim.

What did Heiden learn from his ordeal?

"Don't leave your keys in the ignition," he said. "And if you find it, do not leave it."

Misc. Friday Ramblings...

Bloodhound Gang - Bad Touch:
Sweat baby sweat baby sex is a Texas drought
Me and you do the kind of stuff that only Prince would sing about
So put your hands down my pants and I’ll bet you’ll feel nuts
Yes I’m Siskel yes I’m Ebert and you’re getting two thumbs up
You’ve had enough of two-hand touch you want it rough you’re out of bounds
I want you smothered want you covered like my Waffle House hashbrowns
Come quicker than FedEx never reach an apex like Coca-Cola stock you are inclined
To make me rise an hour early just like Daylight Savings Time

• It's Photoshop Phriday.
  Grindhouse movies....grrrrr....
  


• PS3 kills X360. Film at 11.
  I find the lack of cooling....disturbing...
  


• Need an erection? Get a spider bite.
  That sticky stuff ain't webbing.
  


• Robbery victim: naked and glued to exercise bike.
  At least he was able to get motivated for a good workout.
  


• Turn 2d photo into 3d.
  No word on if they can do foobies or not.
  


• Mom drowned baby, put remains in dumpster.
  No level of hell severe enough...
  


• The voice of Pikachu.
  I wonder what she sounds like when she gets excited.
  


• So long Black Isle and Fallout 3.
  *sigh* Great games deserve more sequels. Fallout 2 is going on 10 years old. Bethesda can't release Fallout 3 soon enough.
  


• When requesting bikini pictures...
  ... don't use an email account that your wife shares. But dayum...she's hot.
  
  


• If you want nice bikini pictures, check out SBB.
  


• Voting: Filipino style.
  The mayor will not be in the campaign....for the rest of his life.
  

Friday FIREPOWER!

• Javelin to the noggin.
  


• US Attorney General doesn't think arming folks will help.
  

  Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Wednesday that having more guns on college campuses is not the way to prevent campus violence like the massacre at Virginia Tech.
  “I don’t think that is the answer quite frankly,” said Gonzales, who was participating in a governor’s task force to study safety and security on Oklahoma college campuses.
  “We can’t guarantee complete security,” Gonzales said. “We need to see what we can do as a government — on the federal level, on the state level — to ensure the safety of our students.”

  
  It may not be "THE" solution, but it sure as hell can be "A" solution. Disarmament has been tried...and it has been failing. Read the following to see when armament can indeed help.


• When mass killers meet armed resistance.
  

  It took place at a university in Virginia. A student with a grudge, an immigrant, pulled a gun and went on a shooting spree. It wasn’t Virginia Tech at all. It was the Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, not far away.
  
  Bridges pulled a .357 Magnum pistol and he later said he was prepared to shoot to kill if necessary. He and Gross both approached Odighizuwa at the same time from different directions. Both were pointing their weapons at him. Bridges yelled for Odighizuwa to drop his weapon. When the shooter realized they had the drop on him he threw his weapon down.
  
  Luke Woodham was a troubled teen. He felt no one really liked him. In 1997 he murdered his mother and put on a trench coat. He filled the pockets with ammunition and took a handgun to the Pearl High School in Pearl, Mississippi. In rapid succession killed two students and wounded seven others.
  
  What Woodham hadn’t planned for was the actions of Assistant Principal Joel Myrick. Myrick heard the gun shots. He couldn’t have a handgun in the school. But he did keep one locked in his vehicle in the parking lot. He ran outside and retrieved the gun.
  
  As Myrick headed back toward the school Woodham was in his vehicle headed for his next intended target. Myrick aimed his gun at the shooter. The teen crashed his car when he saw the gun. Myrick approached the car and held a gun to the killer who surrendered immediately. There would be no further victims that day, thanks to armed resistance.
  
  Many people probably forgot about the shooting in Edinboro, Pennsylvania. It was a school graduation dance that Andrew Wurst entered to take out his anger on the school. First he shot teacher John Gillette outside. He started shooting randomly inside the restaurant where the 240 students had gathered.
  
  It was restaurant owner James Strand, armed with a shot gun, who captured the shooter and held him for police. There would be no further victims that day, thanks to armed resistance.
  
  It was February 12th of this year that a young man entered the Trolley Square Shopping Mall, in Salt Lake City. The mall was a self-declared “gun free zone” forbidding patrons from carrying weapons. He wasn’t worried. In fact he appreciated knowing that his victims couldn’t defend themselves.
  
  What he didn’t know is that one patron of the mall, Kenneth Hammond, had ignored the signs informing patrons they must be unarmed to enter. He was a police officer but he was not on duty and he was not a police officer for Salt Lake City. By all standards he was a civilian that day and probably should have left his firearm in his vehicle.
  
  It’s a good thing he didn’t. He was sitting in the mall with his wife having dinner when he heard the shots. He told her to hide and to call 911 emergency services. He went to confront the gunman. The killer found himself under gun fire much sooner than he anticipated. From this point on all his effort was to protect himself from Hammond, he had no time to kill anyone else. Hammond was able to pin down the shooter until police finally arrived and one of them shot the man to death. There would be no further victims that day, thanks to armed resistance.

  
  

Authorities charge man with rare 'murder by duel'

The annoying buzz of an all-terrain vehicle may have triggered a deadly shootout that led police to file a rare charge of "murder by duel," authorities said.

The count, based on a dueling law that predates West Virginia's statehood, was filed Monday against Steven Bryant Simpson, 47, said State Trooper J.S. McCarty.

Simpson is accused of killing Dana Martin, 39, in an April 20 shootout a few hundred yards (or meters) from Simpson's home.

The law, written in 1849, reads: "If any person fight a duel in this state and in so doing inflict a mortal wound, he shall be deemed guilty of murder." West Virginia became a state in 1863.

The felony carries the same penalty as first-degree murder, up to a life sentence, McCarty said.

Witnesses saw the men argue in the road, part ways to retrieve handguns and return with weapons, Bell said. Testing determined that both weapons were fired. Martin was fatally shot in the torso.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Dadburn Rabbit!

Hooligans. You are all hooligans!

Authorities in Milan have enforced a blanket ban on the sale of alcohol this Wednesday in a bid to stave off the threat of trouble between Manchester United and AC Milan fans.

AC Milan host United for the second leg of their semi-final a week after United won the first leg 3-2 at Old Trafford.

More than 5,000 United supporters are expected in Milan for the decider, and local authorities, fearing an alcohol-fuelled free-for-all following several incidents prior to and during United's quarter-final against Roma, have banned the sale of alcohol in shops througout the city and the airport.

The only place fans will be able to drink alcohol is in restaurants.

The decision seems to be inspired by the authorities in Rome, who said alcohol was the main reason behind the dozen or so incidents which marred the first leg of United's quarter-final against Roma in the Italian capital.

However there remains widespread doubt that the alcohol ban in Milan will be respected.

The day after the Roma v United match the Italian media reported that despite a similar ban in Rome spirits and beer were seen to be freely on sale.

Prohibition. When having the police beat the shiat out of you just isn't enough. Worked so well in the US. BYOB 4 life!

Employee killed at Legoland

A 21-year-old employee at the Legoland amusement park was killed in a roller-coaster accident, police and park officials said Monday.

The woman, who was not identified, died immediately Sunday after being hit by a coaster car, police said. She had apparently jumped over a security fence to pick up a wallet that a passenger had lost near the track when the accident happened.

Security fences aren't there for decoration. While saddened at the loss, I find it puzzling why they didn't pop the yellow part on the white peg.