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Saturday, December 13, 2008

Sunday - December 14, 2008 - Where the Jobs Are, !REVO OVEM, the 2008 Speedo Santa Run, KB Toys Goes Bankrupt, Weight Loss Camp in China, Klitschko!



Elam field goal gives Atlanta Falcons(9-5) 13-10 win in OT over Tampa Bay Buccaneers(9-5)
Jaguars(5-9) eliminate Packers(5-9) from playoffs, 20-16
Surging Houston Texans(7-7) win fourth straight, squeaking by Tennessee Titans(12-2) 13-12
Miami Dolphins coaching staff moves paying off
Dolphins(9-5) beat 49ers(5-9) 14-9 with their defense not allowing a TD for third week in a row
Jets(9-5) get last minute reprieve and skate by Bills(6-8) 31-27 after Buffalo's quarterback, Ellis, fumbles and Jets run it into end zone for TD

More NFL

Did magnetic blip cause mass extinction?







A Quick Must See and Read: Business Week's 31 photo slideshow of "Vanishing Jobs - The Recession Slams the Workforce"

A fascinating murder story: Invitation To A Murder - A Husband Becomes A Hero For Trying To Stop His Wife’s Murder. But Then The Twisted Plot Unravels. (Video from 48 Hours also)

British child molester murdered and mutilated (“Damage was caused to his genitals.”)

China to post a negative 1% (-1%) GDP for this current fourth quarter?

Left lane slowpokes drive you crazy? !REVO OVEM

Jim Jubak gives us 3 ways to fix the ratings agencies: Standard & Poors, Fitch and Moody's, listen up, you either change the way you do business or we put you out of business



One for the ladies . . . and guys: 35 photos of the Santa Speedo Run 2008 up in freezing cold Boston

If you want to run in next year's Santa Speedo Run, here's the info: http://www.santaspeedorun.com/details.php

Disgraced Illinois governor weighs legal options

A vignette of "Here's what it's going to be like if the Automakers are not bailed out"

GOING OUT OF BUSINESS: Say good-bye to KB Toys

Hear, Hear: Slate says "It's really time you started watching Dexter"

"Green" companies hit Hard Times

Slingin' Sammy Bradford, Oklahoma QB, wins the Heisman Trophy Award for 2008

While the Dallas Cowboys were trying to downplay a possible rift between Terrell Owens and Jason Witten, the two nearly came to blows on Friday



Miss Russia, Kseniya Sukhinova, 20, from Nizhnevartovsk, wins Ms. World title

Sadaam Hussein's palace is a hot ticket in the old town of Bagdhad for Iranian tourists


Alan Taylor's Big Picture Blog takes us into Guantanamo Bay's "Camp Justice"

Mexico Kidnapping Death Stokes Outrage

U.S. proposes a UN force to take on Pirates and Islamist militants in Somalia

NYT spotlight: An unpublished 513-page federal history of the American-led reconstruction of Iraq shows one blunder after another, poor planning, and little or no follow up

Since Friday in Afghanistan: 3 Afghan policmen, 3 Canadian troops and 4 British troops have died from in IEDs

Found: 2,000 year old preserved brain

Layoffs: Alcatel-Lucent plans 1,000 job cuts


Uplifting story: Alonzo Bland from Green Bay, Wisconsin, arrived in Beijing wieght-loss camp weighing 640 pounds . . . the largest client they ever took in. So far he has lost nearly 240 pounds -- a result of diet, exercise and traditional Chinese medicine such as acupuncture, which doctors say reduces appetite and increases metabolism.

Read this now, don't put this off: Why we procrastinate and what we can do to follow through

Obama's Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel had contact with corrupt Illinois Governor Blagojevich about possible Senate seat candidates

Arsonist(s) sets fire to Sarah Palin's church, doing $1 million in damage. Palin "apologizes" for undeserved negative attention she may have brought the church during her campaign.

How a Gift Allegedly Triggered the Murders of Members of Jennifer Hudson's Family

Canada will supplement any aid the US Government extends to battered Big 3. Thank you to our best allies up in the Great White North!





Klitschko KOs Rahman in seventh, retaining IBF, WBO heavyweight belts






Saturday - December 13, 2008 - Boston Bans Ciggy Sales in Drugstores and on College Campuses, Moon Was Bigger Than Usual Last Night,Ice Storm in NE

Cold shot of freezing temperatures and big snow hits the upper West

It's c-c-c-cold up in Washington state

Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa said he wants bondholders to accept a “very big” discount in debt renegotiations triggered by the South American country’s second default in a decade.

Australian gambling addict sues casino over his $900 Million gambling binge

Blast in illegal Chinese fireworks plant kills four

Forty Italian women issue ultimatum: sex or fireworks

Rolling Stone: Bush's Last F.U.

Goth girl, part of group of teens who like to suck each other's blood, accused of seeking to have her father murdered. Nineteen year old is held in girl's father's brutal murder

Are Dallas Cowboys melting down from locker room division?


Science Born Again in the White House, and Not a Moment Too Soon

Wyeth Pharmaceutical hired ghost writers to write favorable articles about one of its drugs in medical journals

Honda to reduce N. America production by 119,000 autos in the coming first quarter2009; GM will idle all of its assembly plants in N. America for different lengths of time during the coming first quarter 2009

Will the stock markets crash and our Economy become total chaos if Detroit is not bailed out?

Will Al Franken get the last laugh in the Minnesota recount?

Gas pump 1, Fraulein 0 (video: warning do not have mouthful of morning coffee when you watch the end of this or you will spew it on monitor laughing)

Colin Powell Slams Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh: "Nothing Wrong With My Value System" (VIDEO)

After just redrawing hours earlier, Russian troops retake Georgian village

Taxpayers get the middle finger from the Federal Reserve: no accounting for who has been given what



Update: Early this morning the estimate of those without power due to Northeast ice and snow storm is upped to 1.25 million. Emergency shelters filling up.

More questions raised about gargantuan Ponzi Scheme run by Bernard Madhoff: latest inquiries show the scam was NOT a hedge fund. Instead, Madhoff ran his side of things (the scam) as would an investment advisor: he invested money for clients and guaranteed them steady eddy returns for decades which other Wall Street pros said over and over were impossible to match to Madhoff's statements. Many red flag warnings were issued time and again. Now everything from a charity's endowment to old grey haired grandmother's retirement money has evaporated.

Jellyfish gone geometric in growth . . . huge spawns due to pollution is the theory . . . hurting vacation spots around the planet

Teenagers from the affluent class are feeling the credit crunch; some even get part-time jobs to help out at home

Werewolf's delight: The full moon last night was the brightest and closest in 15 years

Michael Vick's Virginia dogfighting home has no takers . . . again . . . at auction

Heresy: Boston Redsox redesign their logo

FTC closes down several sellers of scam "security software" which gave users false alerts to viruses and illegal porn which was never on the users' computers

Bring back Abe Lincoln: Illinois Attorney General says the Governor is "unfit to serve" and asks the State Supreme Court to force his removal. Billions of dollars in bills have gone unpaid and lawmakers move closer to impeaching the scandal-plagued politician.

Bomb goes off in Woodburn, Oregon bank, killing one police officer, injuring two

Feds shutter two more banks yesterday and turn them over to F.D.I.C. receivership

Least competent criminals of the week: cops follow footprints in the snow to suspects

Boston health regulators banned cigarette sales in drugstores and on college campuses yesterday, giving the city some of the most stringent antismoking laws in the nation.







Friday, December 12, 2008

Friday - December 12, 2008 - Bettie Page Dies, Earth's Rotation Slows Down, Missing Toddler . . . Is It Caylee Marie Anthony? Bank of America Layoffs




Former Key West citizen and famed 50's pinup girl, Bettie Page, dies in L.A.

Failure to prosecute the "villains" responsible for the financial crisis that brought the United States to its knees will leave the country without the moral compass needed to avert future crises, says Pioneer hedge fund manager, Michael Steinhardt. Hey Mr. Steinhardt, don't throw rocks inside glass houses. See the link directly below where Bernard Madoff used his hedge fund for a Ponzi Scheme to steal $50 Billion of investor's money.

Bernard Madoff, former Chairman of the NASDAQ Stock Market, arrested over alleged $50 billion fraud

Russian mine blast kills 9, while 3 others are missing

Jim Rogers says, most of the largest US banks are "totally bankrupt."



Media cirucs surrounds Orlanda neighborhood where child's skeletal remains are found. Is it missing toddler Caylee Marie Anthony?

Sheila Bair: are her ideas to help homeowners backfiring as more homeowners redefault?

A select group of Youtube video posters making enough money to make it a full time job

Senate Armed Services Committee blames Rumsfeld and other top Neo-Cons for prisoner abuse at Abu-Ghraib and Guantanamo

An actor narrowly escaped death after slashing his throat on a Vienna stage with a real knife, instead of a blunt stage-prop blade.





Layoffs: Bank of America plans to chop 30,000 to 35,000 jobs . . . or 11% of their workforce

Pakistan places founder of an Islamic militant group accused of links to the Mumbai attacks under house arrest

Blackwater guards indicted over the 2007 fatal shooting of 17 Iraqis used machine guns and grenade launchers against unarmed civilians, prosecutors have said.

Suicide bomber kills 50, injures 100 in crowded Kirkuk, Iraq family style restaurant (article + video)

One of 14 detainees Belgian police arrest is female living legend of Al-Qaeda

Honk Kong health authorities have found the new strain of Bird Flu H5N1 on a chicken farm

Ship wreck off coast of Cameroon kills at least 40

Sorry Detroit: US Senate shoots down the Big 3 Bailout

Detroit workers angered, stunned by stall of Bailout in Senate committee

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Thursday - December 11, 2008 - Joe the Plumber Turns on McCain, Saxena aks "End of the World", Speed Pills Cure for Meth and Coke Addiciton?








Gold above $800 an ounce again

Puru Saxena: "End of the World?" shows a startling graph which points out 2008's drop is larger than 1929's. Still, Saxena is turning bullish. Good read for investors.

10 clues a new bubble is blowing






Joe the Plumber "appalled" by John McCain support of bailout





Before and after shots of crystal meth addicts








Jack in the Box junior bacon cheeseburger is ranked as 'the most unhealthful' value item available among the offerings of national fast-food chains, according to the Cancer Project.

The conversion of downtown LA condos which have been on the market too long into rentals

This 8,000 year-old giraffe rock carving in DaBous, Niger is considered one of the finest petroglyphs in the world. The giraffe has a leash on its nose implying some level of taming the animals. It was found relatively recently on the top of a granite hill by local Touaregs and dates to the Kiffian era of 7,000 - 9,000 years ago. (© Mike Hettwer) #11 out of 17 amazing photos

Alan Taylor of The Big Picture Blog shares a series of photos depicting the Sahara Desert (when it was grasslands and woods) through paleontology

Slowdown in China's exports and imports means country enters a new and more serious phase

Frugal Japanese begin to live even lower below their means

Pakistan may outlaw Muslim group, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, responsible for Mumbai attacks

Obama: "I'll reboot America's image" among the world's Muslims

Obama picks Nobel Prize winner as Dept. of Energy head

Mumbai's only living militant attacker to appear before judge tomorrow

Hubble telescope picks out CO2 in the atmosphere of extrasolar planet

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Wednesday - December 10, 2008 - China is Less Socialized in Retirement and Medical Plans than the West, Day Without a Gay, Saving a Cat's Face, More

Most incompetent criminal of the week: bare feet prints on the toilet seat did him in

Wife's desire for a late night sausage turns into a $4.2 million Lottery win in New Zealand

Woman finds $97,000 in Cracker Barrel restroom and returns it to owner, a woman who had sold everything to move to Florida

Illinois governor scandal could dog Obama









Edgar, a 4-year-old long-haired female cat, is seen with stitches running the length of her face while resting with an Elizabethan collar around her neck following surgery at the Angell Animal Medical Center, in Boston, Dec. 9, 2008. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)



















Irony: China trying to construct a social safety net like the United States, Great Britain, or other Western countries with socialized retirement and medical planning

Holidays should be cut to one so that alcoholics won't feel so melancholic and resentful?

Shedding Feudalism, a Channel Island Fights Over Its Future

Malaysia releases 5 terrorist suspects, one of whom supplied lodging to 9-11 terrorists

Spain rolling up its welcome mat to immigrants as unemployment spikes ever upward

Mexico fights corruption in public domain: some forty government agents are being investigated for presumed ties to drug cartels

Layoffs: 3rd largest miner on the planet, Rio Tinto, cutting 14,000 jobs

Protesters take to famed Brazilian beaches to spotlight 9,000 people they say have gone missing in the past 2 years

Union leaders in Greece refuse to call off general striker for today

UK witdrawal in Iraq begins this coming March

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Tuesday - December 9, 2008 - Patrick Fitzgerald Profile, Rich Saudis Urged to be More Humane

Bank of Canada cuts rate to 50 year low of 1.5%

Bird flu kills two in Indonesia

Standard & Poor's on Monday became the first ratings agency to downgrade Russia in a decade





Patrick Fitgerald: Profile of the tough fearless Federal Prosecutor who brought charges against Illionois Governor Blagojevich today

Lebanese man jailed for life for part in failed German train bombing

Japan contracts faster than expected

Congress tells four Fannie and Freddie execs that they ignored sub-prime crisis

The reasons why Greece is torn apart by riots this week

Iraq police arrest 30 in fatal truck bombing

German cruise ship evacuates to avoid pirates taking passengers as hostages

Indian Police name 10 Mumbai attackers. Say they were members of a group of thirty recruits from the Lashkar-e-Taiba Pakistani militant organization. Whereabouts of other 20 members unknown.

Swiss doctor assisted suicide of British man with motor neurone disease to be shown on BBC

Tuesday - December 9, 2008 - Illinois Governor and Chief of Staff Arrested by FBI

The FBI affidavit said Blagojevich had been told by an adviser "the president-elect can get Rod Blagojevich's wife on paid corporate boards in exchange for naming the president-elect's pick to the Senate." Told by two other advisers he has to "suck it up" for two years, the FBI says it heard Blagojevich complain he has to givethis "motherf***er [the president-elect] his senator. F*** him. For nothing? F*** him." The governor is heard saying he will pick another candidate "before I just give f***ing [Senate Candidate l] a f***ing Senate seat and I don't get anything."

One charge was for trying to auction off Obama's vacant Senate seat to highest bidder. Attorney General Patrick Fitgerald who brought the charges said, "He wasn't against a corrupt deal, he was against being stiffed in a corrupt deal." The affidavit quotes Blagojevich telling an adviser that a Senate seat "is a [expletive] valuable thing, you just don't give it away for nothing."

"I'm going to keep this Senate option for me a real possibility, you know, and therefore I can drive a hard bargain," Blagojevich said, according to the affidavit.




Details: Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich and his Chief of Staff, John Harris, were arrested today by FBI agents on federal corruption charges alleging that they and others are engaging in ongoing criminal activity: conspiring to obtain personal financial benefits for Blagojevich by leveraging his sole authority to appoint a United States Senator; threatening to withhold substantial state assistance to the Tribune Company in connection with the sale of Wrigley Field to induce the firing of Chicago Tribune editorial board members sharply critical of Blagojevich; and to obtain campaign contributions in exchange for official actions – both historically and now in a push before a new state ethics law takes effect January 1, 2009



Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich and his Chief of Staff, John Harris, were arrested today by FBI agents on federal corruption charges alleging that they and others are engaging in ongoing criminal activity

Tuesday - December 9, 2008 - New Hero Dog in Chile, Christ Born in June, Google Earth Aided Terrorists, Sea Level Rises in Venice







Google Earth accused of aiding terrorists

Police in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, rescue 130 women from brothel kept in "dog cages"

English footballer-actor, Vinnie Jones, gets blindsided by beer mug in Sioux Falls, South Dakota bar brawl . . . gets 48 stictches in his face

The web of Western Islamic militant recruits grows

The Power of Negative Thinking

Balloon launches by South Korean citizens and defectors drop leaflets all over North Korea
















Sunday, December 7, 2008

Monday - December 8, 2008 . . . "Redefault" Enters the Lexicon, Criminal Marks Himself for Life with Bad Tats, Good-bye Trigger Happy Mercenaries,

Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich and his Chief of Staff, John Harris, were arrested today by FBI agents on federal corruption

Tribune Co., owner of LA Times, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Cubs and more, files for bankruptcy

San Diego median home prices drop 6.1% in just a one month time frame (Oct to Nov 2008)

The leaders of 14 Caribbean nations urged US President-Elect Barack Obama to lift the decades-old trade embargo against Cuba

Growing consensus Marines in Western Iraq will shift to Afghanistan






Trigger-happy cowboys in Iraq have had their day

Chinese whistleblowers on corruption are not rewarded . . . sent to Mental Hospital instead

Two F-15 jets collide over the Gulf of Mexico off Eglin AF Base: one pilot dies after rescue

US F-18 crashes into heavily populated San Diego neighborhood, just missing a High School (video)

Riots intensify in third day of youngsters vs. Greek Police

Foreclosures have come to wealthy neighborhoods

Miles and Miles of Unsold Imported New Cars Stack Up Around the USA

State of Illinois tells Bank of America to settle with strikers at plant or suffer no state business







Frugal farmer who lived in a trailer leaves $2 million to his 80 member Church

Jihadists plan to invade Youtube

Wadena, Minnesota man takes horrifying work related accidents in stride. Don't open if you get queasy easy

NY Times to use its Manhattan HQ building as collateral for $225,000,000 loan

Five Blackwater mercenaries surrender to authorities in Utah over Iraqi death charges

Even as gas prices drop and unemployment rises, mass transit uses continues to surge

Doris "Tanta" Dungey of the Calculate Risk Blog passes away from ovarian cancer. She was one of the best















Homeowners refinancing frenzy

Layoffs: 3M cuts 1,800 jobs

Markets around the world surged earlier today on Economic Stimulus Plans in the USA

Taliban leader warns new President-elect that any increase in US Armed forces in Afghanistan will result in violent response by Islamic jihad forces

Seventy-year old Indian woman who received IVF treatments gives birth?

Pakistan arrests alleged mastermind of Mumbai massacre

McClatchy wants to sell the Miami Herald

Jim Kuntsler's latest just released at 8:40 AM today says,"Even CNBC's Lawrence Kudlow has been reduced to searching for stray "mustard seeds" of hope on hands and knees in a bleak and tortured financial landscape." Says we are transitioning from a wealth society to a hardship society.




Watchdog, debt rating agencies caught napping in this Credit Crisis . . . have had to downgrade "thousands" of security ratings it mis-graded early on

Taliban expanding in Afghanistan with permanent footprint in 3/4 of the country

Pressure grows from outside the company to oust CEO Wagoner of GM

Why Japanese carmakers do not want to see any of the Big 3 go under

Montana becomes the third state where doctor assisted suicide is legalised

Brain steroids will change the way we think, remember, work and take tests. Debate rages over the ethics.

Intel is claiming "world record" performance in optical communications using silicon photonics




First Vietnamese-American, Anh Cao (R-LA), is elected to the House of Representatives

Atlantic City Council Stars in Sex, Lies and Videotape

How marketing using research into neural brain patterns tricks you into becoming a member of the Holy Consumer Congregation

Gators and Sooners scheduled to play January 8th for the BCS Title Game

The Recession has killed the recyclables business

Joe the Plumber, Sarah Palin and Barbara Bush's dog: Typing without a clue

Pakistani Taliban militants destroy more than 100 NATO trucks loaded with supplies in Peshawar


Two US and one Russian hacker are charged with International Banking Trojan scheme

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