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TheNewYorkTimes.com
ROME — An “unbalanced woman” jumped the barriers in St. Peter’s Basilica and knocked down Pope Benedict XVI as walked down the main aisle to begin Christmas Eve Mass, a Vatican spokesman said on Thursday.
But the pope quickly got back on his feet and celebrated Mass before thousands of people, urging them in his homily to become “truly vigilant people.”
Television images showed a woman in red leap toward Benedict as he began to walk up the central aisle, as the police and bodyguards scrambled to the aid of the 82-year-old pope.
The woman also knocked down Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, said the spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi.
CnetNews.com
Tech stocks typically have to break significant price milestones or have dramatic dips to make CNET’s news story queue. Likewise, we try not hop on the Apple rumor bandwagon unless there’s something credible or/and novel to report.
But being as it’s Christmas Eve and all, we’ll go out on a limb and offer you this nugget anyway. Apple’s stock closed Thursday at an all time high of $209.04, up 6.94 points (3.43 percent) in a shortened day of trading on unconfirmed rumors that the company might unveil a long-awaited portable tablet computer next month.
The Apple blogosphere went wild Wednesday following several reports that the company told some of its key developers to prepare versions of their iPhone apps that will work on a device with a larger screen, in time for an event next month.
Looks like a Merry Christmas for those of you who own Apple stock.
According to a Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Occurrence Report, “Shock and Detonation Physics Group researchers heard a loud unusual noise from Technical Area 15, Building 562 after firing a shot from a large-bore powder gun (LBPG).” The researchers accidentally blew a building apart at Technical Area-15, on December 16, 2009 while testing a gun which acts like a Civil War cannon.
While no one was hurt, sources advise POGO that there was over $3 million in damage to property. The explosion blew the doors off the building — which is described in the report as, “two doors were propelled off the facility.”
The Facility Operations Director “declared a management concern due to the significant facility structural damage incurred resultant of the shot.” Parts of the cannon were found outside the building.
“I must say that this is a new twist in the long history of screw-ups by Los Alamos,” said POGO’s Senior Investigator, Peter Stockton. “I have no idea in the world why they have a gun like this, let alone testing it.”
Sounds like these guys may need some supervision. Read more here.
CHARLOTTE, N.C., Dec 24 (Reuters) – Disgraced financier Bernard Madoff was hospitalized late last week and treated for facial fractures, broken ribs and a collapsed lung, a Raleigh, North Carolina television station reported on its Web site on Thursday. The injuries, the station reported, citing unidentified sources, were consistent with an assault.
Madoff, 71, was treated at Duke University hospital late last week, and was discharged earlier this week, the station reported. But the hospital where Madoff was reportedly treated denied the report. “There’s been no patient at our hospital with that name,” said Debbe Geiger, a Duke University Medical Center spokeswoman. She declined to comment further.
A Federal Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman declined to comment on the report and Madoff’s lawyer was not immediately available for comment. On Wednesday, the prisons bureau confirmed Madoff had been moved to the prison’s medical facility for undisclosed reasons last week.
Probably tried to swindle someone out of their smokes.
New York Times – For a millisecond there was silence in the chamber. Had he lost it? Was he joking? Within half a second, Mr. Reid had switched his vote to “yes.”
And after 25 straight days of bitter, partisan debate, senators on both sides of the aisle busted up laughing.
Mr. Reid, exhausted, briefly hung his head toward his knees. He smiled sheepishly. He gave a huge shrug. His colleagues continued laughing. The clerks moved on to Senator Jim Risch, Republican of Idaho, who voted “no” for real.
Not this guy. As you can see he’s only number 20. Check out the other 19. Then check out the best tattoos of the year.
And there’s still a week left to get yours posted. Just do something stupid and get arrested. DU readers, we know you of all people can do it!
Marc Faber is described in Wikipedia as “a contrarian investment analyst and entrepreneur” who said in 2008:
If we spend that money at Wal-Mart, the money goes to China. If we spend it on gasoline it goes to the Arabs. If we buy a computer it will go to India. If we purchase fruit and vegetables it will go to Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala. If we purchase a good car it will go to Germany. If we purchase useless crap it will go to Taiwan and none of it will help the American economy. The only way to keep that money here at home is to spend it on prostitutes and beer, since these are the only products still produced in US. I’ve been doing my part.
Watch parts 2 & 3 of this interview.
And for those working stiffs who think you’re smarter than your boss who makes too much money, read this.
Festivus still is about the best truly American-style celebration of the Winter solstice. All the others either mandate or suggest some kind of superstition. So, this will do until there is a December manifestation from the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
Since many of our readers live and work within the boundaries of nations and cultures that celebrate something-or-other, this month – just thought I’d take the opportunity to wish you happiness in the coming year. Enjoy your family and friends.
A great response by VC Chris Dixon to Google’s ridiculous post on the company openness:
Google makes 99% of their revenue by selling text ads for things like plane tickets, dvd players and malpractice lawyers. Many of these ads are syndicated to non-Google properties. But the anchor that gives Google their best “inventory” is the main search engine at Google.com. And the secret sauce behind Google.com is the algorithm for ranking search results. If Google is really committed to openness, it is this algorithm that they need to open source.
A great media distraction. I still find it weird that what the Heenes did is illegal. They’re still idiots.
- Blackberry outage a disaster. It’s going to get worse.
- Apple developers given the go-ahead to “supersize” iPhone apps. Obviously this is for the iPad or whatever they will call it.
- Kindle hacked.
- Nook out NOW!
- Earthquakes can be predicted.
- Blu-ray now a good price.
- Next iPhone camera is 5 Mpixels.
- People spend 13 hours a week online.
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Berlusconi attack ‘a hoax’ to create sympathy – The Australian — Wouldn’t surprise me if it was a set up. Berlusconi is dodgier than a 3 dollar bill. Anyone able to translate the Italian into English?
A VIDEO posted on YouTube questions the December 13 attack on Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi by hinting it was staged to create sympathy for the embattled leader.
The clip shows television footage in which Berlusconi immediately covers the lower part of his face with a black plastic bag after the attack and keeps it there while being bundled into a car with no blood visible.
Here’s a rough translation of the captions. Took quite a while because there is, of course, no cut and paste. To those who demanded a translation, which even The Australian didn’t provide, put your money where your mouth is and donate to the blog.
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