That’s right, a bacon cone filled with scrambled eggs, topped with country gravy and a biscuit. Arteries, it’s hardin’ time!
You just can’t make crap like this up. Unless you’re Stephen Colbert.
This study investigated biased message processing of political satire in The Colbert Report and the influence of political ideology on perceptions of Stephen Colbert. Results indicate that political ideology influences biased processing of ambiguous political messages and source in late-night comedy. Using data from an experiment (N = 332), we found that individual-level political ideology significantly predicted perceptions of Colbert’s political ideology. Additionally, there was no significant difference between the groups in thinking Colbert was funny, but conservatives were more likely to report that Colbert only pretends to be joking and genuinely meant what he said while liberals were more likely to report that Colbert used satire and was not serious when offering political statements. Conservatism also significantly predicted perceptions that Colbert disliked liberalism. Finally, a post hoc analysis revealed that perceptions of Colbert’s political opinions fully mediated the relationship between political ideology and individual-level opinion.
A jumbo jetliner that serves as Air Force One, escorted by a military jet, flew over Lower Manhattan Monday morning, frightening office workers and causing evacuations in what turned out to be a publicity operation approved by a unit of the U.S. Air Force.
Louis Caldera, Director of the White House Military Office, took responsibility for the incident, saying he approved the “mission” last week. “Last week, I approved a mission over New York. I take responsibility for that decision,” he said, “While federal authorities took the proper steps to notify state and local authorities in New York and New Jersey, it’s clear that the mission created confusion and disruption. I apologize and take responsibility for any distress that flight caused.”
He provided no details on the purpose of the flight. At around 10 a.m. EDT, a Boeing 747 was seen accompanied by an F-16 fighter jet flying low over the southern tip of Manhattan and at one point seen circling the Goldman Sachs Tower in nearby Jersey City, N.J.
The circling planes were part of a “photo op,” a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said.
The larger plane was one of two highly customized Boeing 747-200 series aircraft that serve as Air Force One when the commander in chief is on board. Technically, “Air Force One” is the call sign of any Air Force aircraft carrying the president. But President Barack Obama wasn’t aboard the plane Monday. “I’m annoyed — furious is a better word — that I wasn’t told,” Mr. Bloomberg said, calling the photo opportunity “ill considered” and “badly conceived.” He added that the federal government’s decision to stage such an event near the World Trade Center “defies good judgment.” He added that if he had known about the decision he would have worked to get it reversed.
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Daylife/Getty Images used by permission
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| Her other “favorite” program |
The home secretary, Jacqui Smith, today ruled out building a single state “super-database” to track everybody’s use of email, internet, text messages and social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter…
Instead the Home Office is looking at a £2bn solution that would involve requiring communications companies such as BT, Virgin Media, O2 and others to retain such personal data for up to 12 months.
Isn’t that a halfway George W. Bush kind of solution? Pay your Telco buds to do the spying?
Instead communications companies are to be required by legislation to ensure that all traffic data – who sent a text to whom at what time and from where – is collected and kept in Britain. They will also be asked to store additional third-party data crossing their networks including phone calls and internet use from outside Europe.
This goes far beyond the current data collected for billing purposes. The companies will also be asked to organise the data – for example, matching it where it relates to the same person so that the authorities can access it in a form that is immediately usable.
Doesn’t sound any less creepy.
A twist has emerged in the story of Israeli citrus fruit reportedly sold in Iran in defiance of a ban on commercial dealings between the two enemy states. It has now been revealed the fruit, a type of orange-grapefruit hybrid marketed as Jaffa Sweetie, were not Israeli in the first place.
The Sweeties were brought to Iran from China, where faking the origin of goods is a common practice.
The discovery of apparent Israeli origin caused a stir in Iran. Outrage followed, distribution centres stocking the fruit were sealed and accusations were traded. Such is the infamy of dealing with Israel that an Iranian official went so far as to accuse the opposition of a “citrus plot”.
However, Tal Amit, the general manager of Israel’s Citrus Marketing Board, told the BBC the fruit had not originated in his country.
“First of all, it’s a bit annoying that somebody is using our brand name and registered trademark without our permission,” he said.
Too many chuckles on this one. Take your choice!
It has not taken long for the global financial crisis to affect the world’s oldest profession in Germany.
In one of the few countries where prostitution is legal, the industry has responded with an economic stimulus package of its own: modern marketing tools, rebates, discounts and gimmicks to boost falling demand.
Some brothels have cut prices or added free promotions, while others have introduced all-inclusive flat-rate fees. Free shuttle buses, discounts for seniors and taxi drivers, as well as “day passes” are among marketing strategies designed to keep business going.
[…]
Berlin’s Pussy Club has attracted media attention with its headline-grabbing “flat rate” – a €70 admission charge for unlimited food, drink and sex between 10am and 4pm. “You’ve got to come up with creative solutions these days,” said club manager Stefan, who requested his surname not be published. “We’re feeling the economic crisis, too, even though business has, fortunately, been more or less OK for us so far.” Stefan, who runs other establishments in Heidelberg and Wuppertal besides the Berlin club, said the flat rate had helped to keep the 30 women working in each location fully employed. Other novel ideas include loyalty cards, group sex parties, and rebates for golf players. Hamburg’s GeizHaus is especially proud of its discount €38.50 price.
No haggle, flat rate, eh? Kind of like CarMax.
 (Click photo to enlarge.) |
An Oklahoma City man who announced on Twitter that he would turn an April 15 tax protest into a bloodbath was hit with a federal charge of making interstate threats last week, in what appears to be first criminal prosecution to stem from posts on the microblogging site.
Daniel Knight Hayden, 52, was arrested by FBI agents who identified him as the Twitter user CitizenQuasar. In a series of tweets beginning April 11, CitizenQuasar vowed to start a “war” against the government on the steps of the Oklahoma City Capitol building, the site of that city’s version of the national “Tea Party” protests promoted by the conservative-leaning Fox News.
“START THE KILLING NOW! I am willing to be the FIRST DEATH!,” read a tweet at 8:01 PM that day. “After I am killed on the Capitol Steps, like a REAL man, the rest of you will REMEMBER ME!!!,” he added five minutes later. Then: “Send the cops around. I will cut their heads off the heads and throw the[m] on the State Capitol steps.”
Hayden’s MySpace page is a breathtaking gallery of right wing memes about the “New World Order,” gun control as Nazi fascism, and Barack Obama’s covert use of television hypnosis, among many others…
Hayden’s penultimate tweet at 12:49 AM on April 15 returned to the subject of his martyrdom. “Locked AND loaded for the Oklahoma State Capitol. Let’s see what happens.”
The FBI arrested him at his home later that day, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Oklahoma City, which otherwise declined to comment on the case.
Warms the cockles of your heart to see a nutball truly deserving the title.
In footage which is being watched with horror by Pakistanis, the couple try to flee when they realise what is about to happen. But a gunman casually shoots the man and then the woman in the back with a burst of gunfire, leaving them bleeding in the dirt.
Moments later, when others in the execution party shout out that they are still alive, he returns to coldly finish them with a few more rounds.
Their “crime” was an alleged affair in their remote mountain village controlled by militants in an area that was only recently under the governments sway. It was the kind of barbarity that has become increasingly familiar across Pakistan as the Taliban tide has spread.
But this time, with black-turbaned gunmen almost at the gates of Islamabad, the rare footage has shown urban Pakistanis what could now await them.
related link:
Taliban behead geologist
Found by Norman Speight.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Two FBI workers are accused of using surveillance equipment to spy on teenage girls as they undressed and tried on prom gowns at a charity event at a West Virginia mall. The FBI employees have been charged with conspiracy and committing criminal invasion of privacy.
They were working in an FBI satellite control room at the mall when they positioned a camera on temporary changing rooms and zoomed in for at least 90 minutes on girls dressing for the Cinderella Project fashion show, Marion County Prosecutor Pat Wilson said yesterday.
Gary Sutton Jr., 40, of New Milton and Charles Hommema of Buckhannon have been charged with the misdemeanors and face fines and up to a year in jail on each charge if convicted. Sutton has been released on bond, Wilson said, and Hommema is to be arraigned later this week.
The workers were described in a complaint as “police officers,” but prosecutors did not say whether the men were agents or describe what kind of work they did.
The FBI issued a brief statement saying that its Office of Inspector General was investigating.
Sick puppies.
A GIRL of 17 was given a £4,000 boob job on the NHS – because she was jealous of school pals’ bigger busts.
Amanda Ryan was just 16 when she decided she fancied the op, even though her body was not fully developed. Girls under 18 are almost always turned down, but after hearing how the stress of being flat-chested was making Amanda grumpy a counsellor at her health centre put her forward.
Now she wishes it had NEVER been done as she has been plagued by problems ever since. She told News of the World: “It is worryingly easy to get a free boob job at an age when you might not be ready for it. “If I could advise anyone, I would tell them to wait until they are at least 18. You aren’t ready for it at such a young age.”
Campaign group TaxPayers’ Alliance hit out at the decision. Spokeswoman Susie Squire said: “The NHS is struggling to provide basic and life-saving surgery. “Cancer drugs should always come above boob jobs. Some serious questions need to be asked about the spending priorities of this NHS trust.” Amanda – a petite size 8 – went to her GP 16 months ago because she was feeling moody and losing her temper with her family.
She said: “I was a bit down and getting annoyed all the time. I was referred to a counsellor at my GP’s surgery and went once a month for four months. “I wanted to be one of the girls with big boobs. I felt everyone was laughing at me behind my back for having a smaller chest. “But I was amazed when the counsellor said I could have a boob job-all I needed was a signature from my mum.
“My mum wasn’t happy about me being so young but knew I would probably have it done privately when I turned 18 anyway.”
So being cranky is considered an illness in the UK?
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Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission
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| Mexican soldiers delivering masks for public distribution |
Countries planned quarantines, tightened rules on pork imports and tested airline passengers for fevers as global health officials tried Sunday to come up with uniform ways to battle a deadly strain of swine flu. Nations from New Zealand to France reported new suspected cases.
World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan held teleconferences with staff and flu experts around the world but stopped short of recommending specific measures to stop the disease, urging governments to step up their surveillance of suspicious outbreaks.
Governments including China, Russia and Taiwan began planning to put anyone with symptoms of the deadly virus under quarantine…
Some nations issued travel warnings for Mexico.
Chan called the outbreak a public health emergency of ”pandemic potential” because the virus can pass from human to human. Her agency was considering whether to issue nonbinding recommendations on travel and trade restrictions, and even border closures. It is up to governments to decide whether to follow the advice…
New Zealand said that 10 students who took a school trip to Mexico ”likely” had swine flu. Israel said a man who had recently visited Mexico had been hospitalized while authorities try to determine whether he had the disease. French Health Ministry officials said four possible cases of swine flu are currently under investigation, including a family of three in the northern Nord region and a woman in the Paris region. The four recently returned from Mexico. Tests on two separate cases of suspected swine flu proved negative, they said…
Mexico closed schools, museums, libraries and theaters in a bid to contain the outbreak after hundreds were sickened there. In the U.S., there have been at least 11 confirmed cases of swine flu in California, Texas and Kansas. Patients have ranged in age from 9 to over 50. At least two were hospitalized. All recovered or are recovering.
The WHO’s pandemic alert level is currently at to phase 3. I’m betting on phase 4 within the week. Phase 5 is what we get when the virus is confirmed in at least two countries in the same region.
Phase 6 would indicate a full-scale global pandemic. Which no one wants to see or experience.
A man in northern Idaho says he has seen a massive hand of God in his life, and he is willing to share it with the highest bidder.
Paul Grayhek, 52, listed the rock formation he dubbed the “Hand of God Rock Wall” on the online auction Web site eBay. The highest bid was $250 early Sunday, with three days left to go in the auction…
However, the winning bidder on eBay should not start clearing out his backyard. Grayhek is not planning to part with the formation.
The buyer will “basically be buying the rights, complete and exclusive rights” to the rock, including literary and movie rights, according to Grayhek…
“People think I’m some holier-than-thou person trying to get rich. I’m not,” Grayhek said. “The purpose is to spread the story of God and eBay is just a vehicle.”
I’ve seen “vehicles” like this my whole life. The Pope rides in one. So, does Al Sharpton.
For Kindle and with free ePub version. Only $9.49 Great reading.
Here is what Gary Shapiro CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) said: Dvorak's writing sings with insight and clarity. Whether or not you agree with John's views, he will get you thinking and is never boring. These essays are worth the read!
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