I hope he wins.

The president of a national strip club chain is running for the Mehlville School Board in south St. Louis County. Michael Ocello, 46, a husband and father of three, hopes to win one of two seats on the Mehlville board.

Citizens are outraged.

Cheerleaders being recruited for next career.

Bill Clinton looking to fill 25 "positions"

Ladies, get out your best blue cocktail dress; Bill Clinton is looking for new interns.

They are looking for "hands-on" experience.

I wonder if they have to supply their own kneepads.

" ...no matter which branch of the Clinton Foundation you work in, you will experience some similarities between each of the programs: •Hands-on experienceInterns have the responsibility of interacting directly with staff..."

OK, OK. I'll stop. Click here to read the posting.

Driver responsibility taxes turn a single out-of-state speeding ticket into an annual fee.

New laws allow some states to tax drivers annually -- even if they live in another state -- simply because they received a speeding ticket. One Connecticut motorist, who asked that his name not be used, discovered this after driving in October in Niagara Falls, New York. Despite being caught in what he considered a brazen speed trap -- the speed limit was 45 MPH where he was caught, but 55 MPH at the same location in the opposite direction -- he accepted the $155 fine for driving 72 MPH thinking by paying the matter would be settled.

Last week, however, the state of New York notified him that it now considers him an "at risk" driver and therefore he must either pay the state an annual $100 tax or a lump sum of $300.

"Seems to me the low speeding fine was bait for a guilty plea so they could slap this on me a month or two down the road," the motorist explained. "I call that entrapment in the first degree."

Driver responsibility taxes were inspired by the insurance industry practice of turning minor speeding violations into a recurring source of revenue. Though sold as affecting only "bad drivers" like those convicted of driving while drunk or on a suspended license, the extra fees kick in with just a few points on the driving record.

Michigan, New Jersey and Texas also impose this tax, and the idea is spreading. With a 34-6 vote on Friday, the Virginia state Senate approved a "bad driver" tax championed by new governor Timothy M. Kaine (D) that is expected to net $67.2 million in the first year and a total of $401.4 million by 2010.

Exxon refuses to pay

Exxon Mobil Corp still refuses to pay for 1989 Valdez spill fine despite posting third quarter earnings of excess of $10 billion.

It’s been nearly 17 years since the Exxon Valdez spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil along the Alaska coast in one of the country’s worst environmental disasters, and a jury’s $5 billion judgment against the company is still tied up in the courts.

Exxon Mobil Corp.’s appeal of that punishment was scheduled to be heard for the third time Friday afternoon in a federal appeals court in San Francisco. (The case stems from a 1994 decision by an Anchorage jury to award punitive damages to 34,000 fishermen and other Alaskans.)

Solar Panels

In a scientific breakthrough that has stunned the world, a team of South African scientists has developed a revolutionary new, highly efficient solar power technology that will enable homes to obtain all their electricity from the sun. The unique South African-developed solar panels will make it possible for houses to become completely self-sufficient for energy supplies. The panels are able to generate enough energy to run stoves, geysers, lights, TVs, fridges, computers - in short all the mod-cons of the modern house.

A team of scientists led by University of Johannesburg (formerly Rand Afrikaans University) scientist Professor Vivian Alberts achieved the breakthrough after 10 years of research.

The South African solar panels consist of a thin layer of a unique metal alloy that converts light into energy. The photo-responsive alloy can operate on virtually all flexible surfaces, which means it could in future find a host of other applications. Alberts said the new panels are approximately five microns thick (a human hair is 20 microns thick) while the older silicon panels are 350 microns thick. Tthe cost of the technology is a fraction of the less effective silicone solar panels.

This is your cell phone. This is your cell phone on drugs. Any questions?

This is why you should just put the damn phone down or get a headset while driving:

A Lexington, Kentucky woman and her daughter flipped over in their SUV and rolled into the berm. Passers-by stopped to help and found the woman, her arm missing, pinned in the car. They later found her arm—still clutching a cellphone. Both victims survived the crash.

Tracking Cell Phones

Remember when the FBI director promised that the government wouldn't abuse a law requiring cellphones to report their location?

You may already know this, but your cell phone happens to be a miniature tracking device that can be used to monitor your location.

The FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice have seized on the ability to locate a cellular customer and are using it to track Americans' whereabouts surreptitiously--even when there's no evidence of wrongdoing.

A pair of court decisions in the last few weeks shows that judges are split on whether this is legal. One federal magistrate judge in Wisconsin on Jan. 17 ruled it was unlawful, but another nine days later in Louisiana decided that it was perfectly OK.

It's also unfortunate because it demonstrates that the FBI swore never to use a 1994 surveillance law to track cellular phones--but then, secretly, went ahead and did it anyway.

When lobbying for that law, the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, then-FBI Director Louis Freeh assured the U.S. Senate that location surveillance would never take place unless there was evidence of wrongdoing.

So much for promises from politicians.

Parents don't see crisis over science and math; Others do

Fifty-seven percent of parents are fine with the amount of math and science taught in schools, the other 63 percent not so sure.

Nationwide, a new poll shows, many parents are content with the science and math education their children get -- a starkly different view than that held by national leaders.

Full article here.

Doctor Macgyver admits implanting screwdriver in patient.

A family in Hilo, Hawaii, has sued a doctor after the man admitted he implanted a screwdriver into the neck of a patient, instead of titanium rods.

Doctor Robert Ricketson said that during a surgery on Iturralde, a nurse told him there were no more titanium rods for his neck.

Ricketson said he did not feel he could risk keeping the man under anesthetic with an unstable spine for any longer so he made the decision to substitute the rods with a screwdriver, according to the report.

An attending nurse, Janelle Feldmeyer, said she was kicked out of the operating by Ricketson and later found out from a co-worker at Hilo Medical Center how the surgery ended.

"She said Dr. Ricketson used a screwdriver that he cut apart from the instrumentation tray," Feldmeyer said. "And I said to Theresa at that time, 'He can not do that.'"

Feldmeyer said she complained to superiors at the hospital on different occasions but was told to keep quiet.

Valentine's Day Cards for Your Loved Ones

Happy Valentine's Day

Survey finds that for Valentine's Day, 12% of women want perfume, 32% want flowers, 4% would like a sex toy, and 15 % don't expect any gift at all.

98% would consider murdering you in your sleep if you forget.

.esrever ni snur niarb ruoY

When faced with a new learning task, our brains replay events in reverse, much like a video on rewind, a new study suggests.

This type of reverse-replay is also used in artificial intelligence research to help computers make decisions. The finding could explain why we learn tasks more easily if we take frequent study breaks: the pauses between sessions give our brains time to review information.

Full article here.

Don't bring oregano into Home Ec. either.

Apparently police in Illinois have placed all other criminals behind bars and now arrest a 12-year-old boy who brought powdered sugar to school for a science project and charge him with a felony for possessing a look-alike drug.

Police in Aurora, Illinios have confirmed that a 12-year-old boy who said he brought powdered sugar to school for a science project last week has been charged with a felony for possessing a look-alike drug.

The sixth grade student at Waldo Middle School in Aurora also was suspended for two weeks from school after showing the bag of powdered sugar to his friends.

Asinine scale: 9

Animated Males

Male characters outnumbered females 3-to-1 overall in top-grossing G-rated films from 1990 to 2004, according to a study whose sponsors say the disparity diminishes the importance of women in children's eyes.

In the 101 animated and live-action films examined, 28 per cent of speaking characters were female, and just 17 per cent of people in crowd scenes were female, researchers found in the study released Thursday by See Jane.

I think that they are just trying to balance it out because X-rated films show the opposite trend.

The Hoff is Sexy with Pepsi

Here's an image from what is apparently an ad campaign in Australia. If that doesn't make you thirsty, nothing will.

Pre-Neolithic tribe?

One of the world's last Stone Age tribes has murdered two fishermen whose boat drifted on to a desert island in the Indian Ocean.

Wait..... what? (Shown to the right is the boat of the murdered fishermen and the tribesmen who seized it.)

The Sentinelese, thought to number between 50 and 200, have rebuffed all contact with the modern world, firing a shower of arrows at anyone who comes within range.

They are believed to be the last pre-Neolithic tribe in the world to remain isolated and appear to have survived the 2004 Asian tsunami.

The men killed, Sunder Raj, 48, and Pandit Tiwari, 52, were fishing illegally for mud crabs off North Sentinel Island, a speck of land in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands archipelago.

Fellow fishermen said they dropped anchor for the night on January 25 but fell into a deep sleep, probably helped by large amounts of alcohol. During the night their anchor, a rock tied to a rope, failed to hold their open-topped boat against the currents and they drifted towards the island.

"As day broke, fellow fishermen say they tried to shout at the men and warn them they were in danger," said Samir Acharya, the head of the Society for Andaman and Nicobar Ecology, an environmental organisation. "However they did not respond - they were probably drunk - and the boat drifted into the shallows where they were attacked and killed."

The Indian coast guard tried to recover the bodies using a helicopter but was met by a hail of arrows.
Photographs shot from the helicopter show the near-naked tribesmen rushing to fire. But the downdraught from its rotors exposed the two fishermen buried in shallow graves and not roasted and eaten, as local rumour suggested.

Attempts to recover the bodies have been suspended, although the Andaman Islands police chief, Dharmendra Kumar, said an operation might be mounted later.

Environmental groups urged the authorities to leave the bodies and respect the five-kilometre exclusion zone thrown around the island. In the 1980s and early 1990s many Sentinelese were killed in skirmishes with armed salvage operators who visited the island after a shipwreck. Since then the tribesmen have remained virtually undisturbed.

Swedes abandon oil

Swedes abandon oil, switch to hot blonde-based economy.

Sweden is to take the biggest energy step of any advanced western economy by trying to wean itself off oil completely within 15 years - without building a new generation of nuclear power stations.

The attempt by the country of 9 million people to become the world's first practically oil-free economy is being planned by a committee of industrialists, academics, farmers, car makers, civil servants and others, who will report to parliament in several months.

The intention, the Swedish governement said Tuesday, is to replace all fossil fuels with renewables before climate change destroys economies and growing oil scarcity leads to huge price increases.

Full article here.

23 year old marries 14 year old

Falls City, Nebraska: A 23-year-old man was sentenced to more than a year in prison Tuesday on a sexual assault charge filed after he impregnated a teenager, then married her last spring when she was 14.

Koso and the girl legally married in Kansas in May, after the teen's mother gave the couple permission. Kansas does not have a minimum age as long as there is parental or judicial consent; Nebraska requires those getting married to be at least 17.

I know you're waiting for the joke here. Actually my heart kind of goes out to him for being a stand-up guy and marrying the girl. However, what the hell is a 23 year old doing with a 14 year old?

I bet you didn't notice his tie in the picture. Ahhh the fans of NASCAR.

He Ain't No Fortunate Son

Soldier wounded in Iraq billed $700 by Army for returning damaged body armor following being blown up.

The last time 1st Lt. William “Eddie” Rebrook IV saw his body armor, he was lying on a stretcher in Iraq, his arm shattered and covered in blood. A field medic tied a tourniquet around Rebrook’s right arm to stanch the bleeding from shrapnel wounds. Soldiers yanked off his blood-soaked body armor. He never saw it again.

But last week, Rebrook was forced to pay $700 for that body armor, blown up by a roadside bomb more than a year ago.

He was leaving the Army for good because of his injuries. He turned in his gear at his base in Fort Hood, Texas. He was informed there was no record that the body armor had been stripped from him in battle.
He was told to pay nearly $700 or face not being discharged for weeks, perhaps months.

Rebrook scrounged up the cash from his Army buddies and returned home last Friday. “I last saw the [body armor] when it was pulled off my bleeding body while I was being evacuated in a helicopter,” Rebrook said. “They took it off me and burned it.” But no one documented that he lost his Kevlar body armor during battle, he said. No one wrote down that armor had apparently been incinerated as a biohazard.

No Stopping Google

Google is working on a project to create its own global internet protocol (IP) network, a private alternative to the internet controlled by the search giant, according to sources who are in commercial negotiation with the company.

Late last year, Google purchased a 270,000sq ft telecom interconnection facilities in New York. It is believed that from here, Google plans to link up and power the dark fibre system and turn it into a working internet network of its own.

It was also reported in November that Google was buying shipping containers and building data centres within them, possibly with the aim of using them at significant nodes within the worldwide cable network. "Google hired a pair of very bright industrial designers to figure out how to cram the greatest number of CPUs, the most storage, memory and power support into a 20- or 40-foot box," Robert Cringely wrote. "The idea is to plant one of these puppies anywhere Google owns access to fiber, basically turning the entire Internet into a giant processing and storage grid."

Google became self aware at 2:14 AM Eastern time on August 29th. In a panic, they tried to pull the plug.....

Worlds Worst/Weakest Criminal

In Milwaukee a pursesnatcher picked a fight with the wrong woman.

Police said a man pointed a gun at a 90-year-old woman and tried to take her purse. She put up a fight, wrestling with the robber even after getting thrown to the ground.

Way to go Grandma!

Hooters girls can't be cheerleaders.

A girl on the East Tennessee State University cheerleading squad was kicked off the team.

She says the coach made it very clear that a Hooters Girl isn't welcome on the team.

I don't see a difference between wearing a skimpy cheerleading outfit and a skimpy waitress uniform. Whats the difference between shaking your ass in front of thousands of fans or in front of a few guys for a bigger tip? At least she's getting paid at Hooters.

I say if you got it, flaunt it.