News of the Day

[Hoek]

Haha I suppose it should go in the funny thread but it goes with the news..

http://xkcd.com/829/



Alt text: "According to a new paper published in the journal Science, reporters are unable to thrive in an arsenic-rich environment."

[Sotnos]

Awesome

[Alex]

Beautiful. That was good.

[Hoek]

Interesting little piece on the researcher behind the discovery

The announcement by NASA this past Thursday of the discovery of an amazing arsenic-guzzling bacterium has made the bug's discoverer, Felisa Wolfe-Simon, into an overnight celebrity. What few people know, however, is the story behind the initials for her GFAJ-1 microbe, the first known organism to depart from the usual chemical formula for life. GFAJ stands for "Give Felisa a Job."

[Hoek]

Tension grows between Calif. Muslims, FBI after informant infiltrates mosque

[Craig] Monteilh's mission as an informant backfired. Muslims were so alarmed by his talk of violent jihad that they obtained a restraining order against him.

He had helped build a terrorism-related case against a mosque member, but that also collapsed. The Justice Department recently took the extraordinary step of dropping charges against the worshiper, who Monteilh had caught on tape agreeing to blow up buildings, law enforcement officials said. Prosecutors had portrayed the man as a dire threat.

Compounding the damage, Monteilh has gone public, revealing secret FBI methods and charging that his "handlers" trained him to entrap Muslims as he infiltrated their mosques, homes and businesses. He is now suing the FBI.

I'm so glad we're using our resources to try and frame people instead of you know, actually doing investigation.

[Bolthed]

What the fuck is going on out there on the west coast? First Portland and now this.

[Avery86]

In other depressing news, looks like Obama is going to cave on the tax cuts.

We're screwed.

[Donnie D]

Fuzzy math from the Governor elect. According to Scott having state employees contribute a portion of pension costs will save the state $1.2 billion a year. The entire state contribution to the pension system was less than $800 million.

Must be the same math his company was using when they defrauded the government.

Originally Posted by Avery86

In other depressing news, looks like Obama is going to cave on the tax cuts.

We're screwed.

The problem is that he had 16 months to push his agenda through and his own party blew it. He could not get those in control of the House and Senate to get the job done. This is truly unbelievable since he had a majority in but the House and Senate.

[Avery86]

Originally Posted by WaiverWire

I hope you're not cheering for the crushing debt load this is about to put on the country on top of what's already there.

I have no idea how these so called "deficit hawks" can possibly think trickle down economics still work. Budget deficits (and the federal deficit) are higher than ever and the response is to put another estimated $700 billion on top of that and HOPE that the rich decide to get around to creating jobs?

I guess I missed the countless millions of jobs those policies have helped create before now.

I think my biggest gripe with this concession is it extends the cuts for two years. What happens in two years? Oh. Right. A presidential election. Just keep kickin' that can down the line.