from the okay,-I-noticed-your-”joke”.-can-we-go-back-to-reality-now? dept.

I refuse to link to any of the 17 bajillion April Fool’s jokes to be found on the net today. It’s been at least two years now since I found any of these even remotely funny. Wake me when it’s April 2, and I can go back to disbelieving things because their proponents are dangerously out of touch with reality, rather than because their proponents are intentionally spreading misinformation in a misguided attempt at humor. Hmm. Actually, I’m probably just jealous. Whatever.

from the Thomas-Jefferson-would-be-so-proud dept.

Striking a blow for coders everywhere, Timothy Boomer has won on appeal a case defending his right to curse like a sailor, in the process overturning a 105-year-old state law under which he had been ticketed in 1998.

from the this-message-brought-to-you-from-the-salvia-advisory-board dept.

Knowing that drug coverage is always good for ratings, ABCNews.com is running a fairly breathless article touting salvia divinorum as the new LSD. Hmm. What was wrong with the old LSD?

from the give-us-your-tired,-your-poor,-your…-confused dept.

According to a recent item in the Risks mailing list, more than 3,000 Pakistanis have recently applied for citizenship in the country of Ladonia, filling out the nation’s online citizenship application. This would be great, except that Ladonia is imaginary, existing only on the net and in the mind of one Lars Vilks, an otherwise-sane Swede who “created” the 1-square-kilometer nation, ostensibly located on the border between Sweden and Denmark, in 1996.

from the maybe-try-tabasco? dept.

Stopping just short of being fairly amusing, CNN recently ran a story in which a lawyer representing families of the victims of murderer-cum-human-flesh-gourmand Jeffrey Dahmer lashed out at Colorado-based Spectre Studios, a company that markets a line of Jeffrey Dahmer dolls. Speaking without apparent irony, the families’ lawyer criticized the dolls for their “bad taste,” failing, however, to offer any helpful suggestions on how their flavor might be improved.

from the bring-it-on,-Mr.-Nutty dept.

Anonymous nonbelieverineveryemailtrashtalkingidiot writes Subject: By Paul Harvey - Conveniently Forgotten Facts, and goes on to submit the entire Paul Harvey/Black Panther/Hillary Clinton hoax. Which is cool with me; anti-Hillary rants have a long and entertaining history at lies.com, dating back to the Web Walker’s postings on the way old version of the site. But before anyone’s blood pressure gets too high, I feel compelled to point to this more or less thorough debunking of the story.

from the screw-you dept.

A majority of Americans believes society is getting ruder, a new survey finds. Citing things like reckless driving, cell-phone use in theaters, and poor customer service in retail stores, 61% of those surveyed said they’d noticed a definite trend toward ruder behavior in recent years. “Americans have always had a reputation for being self-centered and ignorant, which foreigners sometimes interpret as rudeness,” observes Mark Ornosky of the National Rudeness Council. “But as a nation, the knock on us has always been that once you get to know us, we’re actually fairly nice folks. What this survey shows is that we’re making real progress in erasing that stigma, at least among ourselves.” The challenge now, according to Ornosky, will be to turn that rude behavior outward, displaying it consistently in our interactions with others around the world. “Like the French,” he says. “Those guys are assholes to everyone.”

from the ah,-more-about-Britney dept.

From the fine folks at BBspot comes a link to this gem: a Google page documenting the incidence of misspellings of “Britney Spears” in the search requests they see. So, there are apparently nearly 600 different ways to spell her name, all of which have been entered by at least a couple (and sometimes many more) users over the past few months, all of which Google will successfully interpret as being a search for her. Wow. That’s just… um, something.

from the I-must-have-this dept.

I’ve always been an avid collector of field guides, so when my friend Yarbelito showed me this one, I knew my life would never be the same: I will not rest until I’ve obtained my own personal copy of The Golden Guide to Hallucinogenic Plants.

from the onward-pinstriped-soldiers dept.

From Janus comes this mention of the IBM Songbook, a 1931 exercise in groupthink that I find both uplifting and disturbing.

from the if-only-they’d-use-English dept.

In the wake of the recent 6.8-magnitude earthquake in Taiwan, officials at a wildlife park are reporting that 1,000 crocodiles started making strange grunting noises and scrambling for higher ground about 20 minutes before the quake struck. As is typical in such cases, human observers failed to make the connection between the animals’ unusual behavior and the impending catastrophe until it was too late. One crocodile, speaking on condition that he remain anonymous, likened the scaly beasts’ predicament to that of the character Legolas in the recent Lord of the Rings movie. “We say, ‘Hey. There’s some bad juju coming. We can feel it.’ But does anyone pay any attention to us? Of course not. We’re just dumb animals to you.” The creature went on to point out that his species has survived essentially unchanged since before the age of the dinosaurs. “T. Rex never paid any attention to us either.”

from the ashes-to-ashes,-kitty-litter-to-kitty-litter dept.

CNN is running this story of the explosive growth in the “pet-death industry”. Among the things mentioned are the rise in pet cemeteries, pet sympathy cards, and support groups for grieving pet-death survivors. “Yet even as the options for mourning a pet multiply, many owners still fear their grief might be mocked or misunderstood,” the article says. Oops. Look, for the record, I’m not the sort of choom who would mock somebody for their grief. Death is death, sorrow is sorrow, and people who can find it in their hearts to love and mourn for other living creatures, be they ape-descended tool-using hominids or otherwise, are okay in my book. Shame on me.

from the love,-honor,-and-obey-the-crackpot-whims dept.

Yahoo News has the story of 25-year-old Sian Thurkettle, a British woman who has seen E.T. (the sappy Spielberg movie with the not-yet-drug-addicted Drew Barrymore) no fewer than 773 times. What I find most amazing about the story is Thurkettle’s husband George, who despite having to endure his wife’s being moved to tears during at least 100 viewings at which he couldn’t manage not to be present, has so far managed to resist the urge to end either her life or his own. I guess he feels he owes her for her willingness to share the last name “Thurkettle”.

from the shining-happy-medicated-people dept.

Proving that having charismatic rock stars as character witnesses never hurts, REM guitarist Peter Buck has been acquitted by a British jury in his “air rage” trial. The jury apparently bought Buck’s assertion that it was an unintended side effect of a sleeping pill, rather than a prodigious quantity of wine, that caused him to wig out on the British Airways flight. The prosecution branded Buck a liar, but jurors apparently found the testimony of U2’s Bono, who characterized Buck as “famously peaceful,” more compelling. Cool.

from the forward-into-the-past dept.

From the summer of 1997 comes this reposting from the original lies.com site. This is the story I ran when I was thinking that the site might be taken away from me by George Rafter’s bogus trademark-infringement action, which had caused me to reflect on why I’d created the site in the first place. Anyway, here it is (again).

from the would-you-like-spies,-er,-fries,-with-that? dept.

From the LA Times comes this story of “mystery shoppers”: folks who pose as customers in order to spy on retail employees. This sort of thing isn’t particular new; I remember the dread with which we clerks viewed the prospect of being “shopped” by the owner’s spies back when I was ringing up ciggies and beer at Mr. B’s Liquor 20 years ago. But apparently the practice is growing, as businesses (especially fast food outlets) try to combat the erosion in customer service they’ve seen of late.

from the hold-still-for-a-second dept.

From Reuters (via Yahoo News) comes this story of a French mother of two who has been convicted of spraying tear gas on a stranger in a supermarket parking lot. The woman testified that she just wanted to see if the newly purchased product worked. (Jeez. French people. Why couldn’t she just test it on her kids, like an American mother?)

from the nobody’s-listening-to-me,-dammit dept.

The Washington Post is one of many outlets carrying the story of dubya’s increasing frustration with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon over the latter’s ongoing West Bank incursion. In any given war of words Bush is obviously going to be outgunned, but it’s not clear to me that this is going to remain a standard-issue Mideast-peace nuance-fest. The President’s “moral clarity” (read: near-total ignorance of the issues, combined with a post-9/11 sense of urgency) make him something of a wildcard, one that might play out in any number of interesting ways once he realizes (as everyone else already has) that he’s out of his depth here.

from the top-this dept.

From the LA Times comes this story of the 27th annual Pegleg Smith Liars’ Contest, an event in which a bunch of people huddle under blankets in the middle of the Anza Borrego desert and celebrate the memory of a one-legged alcoholic prospector who was also a pathological liar by telling made-up stories about the man. No, really.

from the retroactive-self-promotion dept.

Reuters has a report of a recent study showing that lying on job applications has increased sharply. The study, by a British employee screening firm, looked at a sample of 877 CVs submitted with job applications during the last half of 2001, finding that 54% of the applications contained “inaccuracies” about such things as educational background and previous employment. The study also found that the incidence of inaccuracies shot up by 20% during the last quarter of 2001, apparently a response to job seekers competing for fewer openings during the current economic downturn.

from the fratboy-diplomacy dept.

The Financial Times (among others) has the story of Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon’s ongoing rejection of dubya’s call for an end to the Israeli military campaign in the West Bank. Speaking to the Knesset, Sharon vowed to continue the operation “for as long as it takes.” In previous phone conversations with Bush, Sharon explained that he has been hampered in his efforts to wrap things up quickly by his concern over the large number of Palestinian civilians in the area. “They keep moving,” Sharon reportedly told Bush, “which makes shooting them much more difficult and time-consuming.”

from the backyard-sunbathers-take-note dept.

The Guardian is one of several outlets carrying an AP story documenting the end of the U.S. government’s traditional dominance in spy satellite imagery. Between the national programs of countries like China and India, and commercial entities like Ikonos, satellite surveillance is increasingly available to anyone who wants it. Speaking in a recent Senate hearing, CIA Director George J. Tenet gave a glum assessment of the situation: “The bottom line is, this is going to make it much more difficult for us to lie to other nations - and even to our own people. Frankly, it sucks.”

from the they-gave-him-lousy-grades-as-a-student,-too dept.

The Guardian has the story of Yale University’s decision to join other colleges in reimbursing students who lose federal financial aid due to drug offenses. Under a law passed in 1998, but not enforced until our current education President took office, students convicted of drug possession can lose their financial aid money. The Bush alma mater joins Hampshire College, Swarthmore, and Western Washington University in its decision to offer scholarships to affected students. “It’s really about fostering diversity,” explains Yale spokesperson Tom Conroy. “Some people, including President Bush, apparently, think hard drinking is all that higher education has to offer today. We want people to know, though, that a rich, vibrant tradition of marijuana, cocaine, and LSD use that is alive and well at Yale University.”

from the how-very-British dept.

I don’t know why it’s such a comforting thought, but there it is: the sun has long since set on their empire, their economy is in the loo, and their PM is a fratboy’s poodle, but the British continue to lead the world in being British. In this case, by standing cheerily in line all day to view the Queen Mum’s coffin. Well done.

from the do-as-I-say,-not-as-I,-well,-you-know dept.

From Reuters’ Oddly Enough (via Yahoo News) comes this unlikely item: New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will be featured in an upcoming ad campaign from the good people at NORML, in which the billionaire financial-information mogul is quoted as saying, in reply to a question on whether he ever smoked pot, “You bet I did, and I enjoyed it.”

from the Jeeves-was-never-this-conflicted dept.

Actor Stephen Fry, the quintessential Jeeves from the British TV series based on P.G. Wodehouse’s Jeeves and Wooster stories, has this fairly interesting interview currently running in the New Zealand Herald. The thing that makes it interesting to me, besides the fact that I love everything he’s done, is the way he comes across as so dreadfully exhausted with the whole endless treadmill of movie publicity (Gosford Park is opening in New Zealand on Thursday, apparently), that he’s just saying whatever nutty thing comes to mind, in the process painting a pretty compelling picture of a guy who really needs a vacation. This part, for example: “Fry appears perplexed when asked if he would ever entertain suicidal thoughts again. ‘How can I know?’ he asks in a tone of incredulity. ‘I haven’t the faintest idea.’”

from the yeah-baby dept.

After some nasty scuffling, it appears MGM will let New Line use the name “Goldmember” for the new Austin Powers movie after all, according to an article at E! Online. Apparently the thing that tipped the scales was New Line’s willingness to run trailers for Die Another Day, the upcoming Bond movie, before a certain heartbreakingly good fantasy trilogy from Peter Jackson & Co.

from the oh,-gee,-sorry-about-that dept.

The LA Times has the story of an Arizona man who has been freed from prison after DNA evidence showed he could not have committed the murder for which he had been convicted and sentenced to death. Death penalty foes say this marks the 100th time since the death penalty was revived in the mid 1970s that a person sentenced to death has subsequently been found to have been wrongly convicted. Ouch. So, anyway, sorry about the 10 years you spent in prison and the messed up life and all that, but hey, it could have been worse, right?

from the up-close-and-personal dept.

From CNN (or AllPolitics, or Time, or something; I guess it doesn’t make much difference these days) comes this insider’s look at dubya’s recent change of heart about the need to pay attention to the Arab-Israeli conflict. I find it pretty interesting, but I realize that for some it will fall squarely into the category of the sort of sausage-making that is better left unexamined. Like a train wreck, though, it’s hard not to watch the President’s mind at work, the wheels slowly turning as he listens to the miniature devils and angels on his shoulders, the Rumsfelds and Cheneys and Powells with their “nuke ‘em! nuke ‘em all!” or, conversely, “be a statesman! make peace!” exhortations.

from the want-some-candy,-little-girl? dept.

According to an article in the Washington Post, The Food and Drug Administration has cracked down on three online pharmacies that were selling nicotine-containing lollipops, saying the “smoking cessation products” had not been tested for safety. FDA attorney David Horowitz explained that “we at FDA understand the tobacco industry’s need to find innovative ways to promote tobacco use among children, but they need to follow the rules.”

from the meals-ready-to-mutate dept.

From ABC News comes the story of a breakthrough at the Army Soldier Systems Center: a sandwich that remains edible (for certain values of the term) for up to three years. The secret? Control of the “water activity” of the included meat, achieved via an “array of chemicals”. Yum.

from the have-a-cookie dept.

From Guardian Unlimited comes the story of a claim by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB - the successor to the KGB) that CIA agents secretly administered psychotropic drugs to a Russian defense worker in an effort to obtain information from the man. A CIA spokesman and the U.S. Embassy in Moscow declined comment.

from the yes,-just-the-PREVIEW dept.

The Louisville Cardinal wins some sort of award for this: A review of the 4-minute preview for The Two Towers that has been spliced onto the end of the The Fellowship of the Ring. So, um, is it December yet? Darn. How about now? Darn!

from the bribery,-extortion,-racketeering,-tax-fraud… dept.

A jury in Cleveland has found U.S. Representative James Traficant (D-OH) guilty of a host of corruption charges, according to this CNN report. Traficant added to the news value of his conviction by his characteristically “flamboyant” behavior during the trial; representing himself (though not a lawyer), yelling at the judge, questioning a prosecutor’s manhood, vowing to “kick their [the prosecution’s] ass”, etc. Traficant, who faces up to 63 years in prison, has vowed (profanely) not to give up his House seat, despite House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt’s (D-MO) call for him to step down in the wake of his conviction.

from the welcome-to-the-future dept.

This is one of those stories that starts off sounding pretty boring but just gets weirder and weirder the more I think about it. As described in an article from Newsday, owners of a building in Times Square are suing Sony (backers of the upcoming Spiderman movie) because in images of Times Square that appear in the movie’s trailer (and presumably in the movie itself), ads for Samsung (a Sony competitor) that were displayed on the building at the time of the filming have been airbrushed out and replaced with ads for USA Today and Cingular Wireless. The specific charges in the suit are “deceptive trade practices” and “trespass”. Trespass?

from the oops,-sorry dept.

Highlighting the unique nature of a sport where octogenerians participate in headline events, 89-year-old golfing legend Sam Snead teed off the opening ceremonial shot at the U.S. Masters golf tournament yesterday, sending a 100-yard slice into the gallery. Spectator Phil Harrison was knocked down and had his glasses broken by the errant shot, but apparently was otherwise unhurt.

from the kids’ll-stick-anything-in-their-mouths dept.

From CNN comes this story of a 12-year-old Nigerian boy who arrived in New York yesterday on a British Airways flight, then became ill, went to the hospital, and told police he had swallowed 87 condoms filled with heroin in return for a promise of $1,900 for smuggling the drugs into the U.S. The boy is in stable condition, facing charges, while the investigation continues.

from the no,-not-THOSE-women-of-Maxim dept.

From the Boston Globe comes this story about the women who work behind the scenes at men’s magazine Maxim, giving the magazine a kinder, less-sexist side. Those interviewed claim that the resulting feminist influence is a key part of the magazine’s success. Well, that, and the pictures of naked women.

from the he’s-joking.-I-hope. dept.

Worth a look is http://www.realultimatepower.net/, a site all about ninjas, at least as interpreted by a frighteningly typical adolescent American male. Then there’s this site, which is a parody of the first one (I think, though since the first one is hopefully a parody already, I’m not sure if that’s completely kosher), with the focus shifted to hippos.

from the she-always-picks-such-nice,-wholesome-young-men dept.

Just in time to take our minds off the ongoing Middle East bloodbath, the L.A. Times is one of several outlets carrying the AP story on Kid Rock’s marriage proposal to Pamela Anderson last night, and her acceptance of same. Wishing them every joy.

from the does-he-or-doesn’t-he? dept.

CNN has a story about German Chancellor Gerhard Shroeder’s efforts to get a court to stop a German news agency from saying he dyes his hair. The court declined to make a decision today, instead postponing its ruling until May 19. Apparently the issue is important to him because some conservative opponents have suggested that the 58-year-old’s alleged hair dying reflects poorly on his trustworthiness.

from the life-during-wartime dept.

As legal maneuvering continues in the upcoming trial of “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh, Pentagon sources have acknowledged that they possess souvenir photographs showing a shackled and blindfolded Lindh being “posed” alongside his Special Forces jailers. Lindh’s lawyers say the photographs, which have not yet been provided to them, demonstrate that Lindh was not treated in accordance with the Geneva Convention, and that statements obtained from him therefore should not be admissable in court. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, speaking to reporters at the Pentagon, bristled at the suggestion that Lindh was mistreated. “Hey, give me a break. We’re trying to fight a war here. Sure; we put his nuts in a vise until he talked. You happy now?”

from the lies,-damn-lies,-and-Texas-narcotics-officers dept.

Guardian Unlimited has the story of the dropping of charges against Tonya White, a woman accused of selling cocaine to Tom Coleman, a narcotics officer whose undercover investigation during 1998 and 1999 led to the arrests of 43 people. The problem in White’s case was apparently that she didn’t live anywhere near Tulia, Texas (the site of the alleged drug sale), and was able to produce bank records proving she was in Oklahoma, hundreds of miles away, at the time Coleman says she was selling him drugs. White’s attorney says the outcome shows that Coleman, who worked alone and used no audio or video surveillance, was simply a liar willing to send innocent people to prison to further his own career.

from the with-criticism-like-this,-who-needs-praise? dept.

Washington Post film critic Stephen Hunter has written a delicious review of Cameron Diaz and her new film, The Sweetest Thing. What makes the review so much fun is the way Hunter complains about Diaz’s complete lack of acting talent, while admitting that he can’t look anywhere else when she’s on-screen. Anyway, you shouldn’t miss it. (The review, I mean. I wouldn’t suggest going anywhere near the movie.)

from the first-casualty dept.

An interesting, if depressing, story connected with the ongoing Israeli military operation in the West Bank is the war of words regarding the number, and nature, of Palestinian deaths in the Jenin refugee camp. As of yesterday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had announced they were going to start burying the bodies of dead Palestinians; Palestinians cried foul, claiming the IDF was seeking to cover up large-scale massacres of Palestinian civilians. In response, the Israeli Supreme Court issued an injunction last night halting the burials. The dead were unavailable for comment.

from the new,-IMPROVED-Gore dept.

As reported in the Nando Times, Democratic hearts (well, some of them) are a-flutter in the wake of Al Gore’s speech yesterday to the Florida Democratic Convention. Gore was clean-shaven and feisty as he offered his support for Bush’s ongoing War on Terra, while criticizing the administration on issues like the environment and the squandering of the Social Security surplus.

from the geopolitical-incompetence dept.

The L.A. Times has a fairly scathing op-ed piece from Immanual Wallerstein, in which the Yale University scholar says Bush has painted himself into a corner on Iraq, and now has little choice but to pursue a war with Saddam Hussein that will be a “disaster” for the United States.

from the glad-to-say-I-was-wrong dept.

From March of 1996 comes this story in which I (Perfect Tommy, I mean) talked about the Challenger space shuttle disaster, and predicted that another such calamity would occur in the near future due to NASA budget cuts. Five years later, it’s clearly time for an apology to all the hard-working folks at NASA, who’ve managed to keep their astronauts very much alive since then. I was reminded of the story by a news item about Barbara Morgan, a teacher who was Christa McAuliffe’s backup on the original Challenger mission, and who later quit teaching, joined NASA full-time, and now is slated to fly in an upcoming mission. Anyway, follow the link below, or scroll down, to see the original story.
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from the gubment-do-take-a-bite,-don’t-she? dept.

Again from the L.A. Times Opinion section comes this story by John Balzar, titled Only Suckers Pay Taxes. Balzar lays out in painful detail just how badly the tax code in this country is broken, and who’s paying the price. Hint: It’s not the fat cats. So, anyone remember Jerry Brown’s flat-tax proposal? Filling out the back of a postcard looks pretty good right now.

from the guilty-pleasure dept.

I’m ugly-American enough to get a kick out of Engrish (wacky English, as delivered by our good friends in Japan), and this collection from Syberpunk.com is one of the best I’ve seen.

from the replacing-meat-with-chemicals dept.

Food activist Rich Ganis has an op-ed piece in the L.A. Times today (last one, I promise) looking at the new veggie burger announced last month by Burger King. Although the folks from PETA (that’s the ethical-treatment PETA people, not the easting-tasty PETA people) think it’s a great idea, Ganis disagrees.

from the shiver-me-timbers dept.

This story in Ananova caught my eye, in part because I just recently got the Pirate’s Booty habit. I was unaware, though, that in January Robert’s American Gourmet Food, makers of the snack, recalled it in order to correct an error in its labelling. Previously the label said each serving contains 2.5 grams of fat; in fact, outside testing has revealed that each serving actually contains 8.5 grams of fat. (Though this bag I’m scarfing from now says 5 grams. Hmm…) Anyway, a New York woman, Meredith Berkman, has now sued the company for $50 million, claiming the incorrect labelling made her gain weight. She refuses to say how much weight, exactly, though presumably that will come out if it actually goes to trial.

from the oops,-goofed-again.-sorry dept.

From Reuters comes the story of a report to be issued soon by the Illinois commission charged with coming up with reforms to reduce the number of innocent people executed in the state. Among the suggestions are the outlawing of convictions based solely on the uncorroborated testimony of accomplices and jailhouse informants, and the videotaping of the entire police interrogation process, rather than just the confession obtained at the end. The commission unanimously concluded that no reforms would eliminate the possibility of innocent people being executed (no reforms short of doing away with the death penalty altogether, that is, a step that a majority of panelists reportedly supported). The commission, which spent two years preparing its report, was impaneled by Illinois Governor George Ryan after DNA testing led to a wave of overturned death-penalty convictions in the state.

from the another-drug-war-propaganda-related-death dept.

From ABC News comes this 20/20 story about 16-year-old Brandy French, who died after taking Ecstasy for the first time, while the friends who gave her the drug spent hours, literally, trying to decide if they should risk calling 911 or taking her to a hospital. Now the girl’s father is suing her friends, hoping to send a message to others who might find themselves in a similar situation. Too bad he didn’t name the Partnership for a Drug-Free America in the suit, for the role that organization plays in fostering the environment of fear and ignorance that leads to deaths like these.

from the pay-per-view-rights-alone-would-be-astronomical dept.

It’s only mentioned briefly in the course of an otherwise garden-variety piece on the Israelis’ and Palestinians’ irreconcilable differences, but Dan K. Thomasson has a suggestion for resolving the current Mideast impasse: let Sharon and Arafat fight each other directly. Which I realize is an old idea, but it got me to wondering, seriously, if you did that, which one would win? Arafat isn’t getting any younger, but Sharon was carrying some extra pounds the last time I checked.

from the statement-of-desire-does-not-a-policy-make dept.

Slate’s Anne Applebaum has written an opinion piece that points out the obvious about emperor dubya’s new Middle East clothes: he isn’t wearing any. More specifically, the President’s demand that Sharon withdraw from the West Bank immediately, followed by Sharon’s casual ignoring of same, has left U.S. prestige in the region at a new low. “If rhetoric could have solved his conflict, it would have been over a long time ago. But in order to create a genuinely new policy, Bush would have to take sides, one way or another, and put his money, or his military, where his mouth is.” So far, no sign of either from dubya; it’s all mouth so far.

from the good-luck-on-this-one dept.

Skirmishing continues over the question of how many Palestinians have been killed in the Jenin refugee camp, and in what manner. Israeli military sources put the death toll at “dozens”, most of them gunmen shot in house-to-house fighting. Palestinian sources claim “hundreds”, many of them civilians, including women and children buried alive as buildings were demolished by Israeli bulldozers and tanks. Some interesting items to appear today are a piece from the Independent, in which a reporter who managed to enter the camp paints a picture very much in line with the Palestinian position, and an editorial from the Jakarta Post, calling for a United Nations investigation. Ananova also has a story about an Amnesty International team that has arrived to investigate.

from the ants-go-marching-one-by-one-hurrah dept.

CNN is one of several outlets carrying an AP story about a supercolony of Argentine ants that stretches for 3,600 miles along the European coastline from the Italian Riviera to northwest Spain. The ants, which were accidentally introduced to Europe in the 1920s, cooperate with neighboring colonies, rather than competing with them.