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I want a Littlefee Flora with sleepy head. So. Cute.
BAGHDAD – The director of an Iraqi orphanage says a sculpture honoring an Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at former President George W. Bush has been removed.
Fatin al-Nassiri says Iraqi police told her the statue had to be removed from the orphanage in Tikrit because government property should not be used for something with a political bias.
She says the sofa-sized statue of a shoe was taken down on Saturday after being unveiled on Thursday.
Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zeidi threw his shoes during a Dec. 14 news conference in Baghdad. Throwing shoes at someone is a sign of extreme contempt in Arab culture.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090131/ap_
not gonna lie, i'm kinda pissed that we didn't get to throw shoes at him too...
He becomes the 11th Time Lord since the programme first aired in 1963.
Mr Smith will replace David Tennant at the helm of the Tardis, and is due to first appear on our screens as the revered doctor in 2010.
Smith, 26, is the youngest ever Doctor and although relatively unknown, has appeared in Alan Bennett's play The History Boys at the National Theatre in London, and alongside Christian Slater in Swimming with Sharks in the West End.
He said he was delighted to take on the role.
He explained: "I've got this wonderful journey in front of me. I've got six months to build this Time Lord and that's such an exciting prospect."
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20090103/te
Matt Negrin
Posted: Dec 23rd 2008 11:45PM
Filed under: Politics, Boston University
It doesn't look like Dick Cheney is making it onto Santa's nice list this year.
In a confidential FBI report, the ever-unpopular vice president admits that he helped unmask the identity of Valerie Plame, once an undercover CIA agent whose husband ticked off the Bush administration by alleging that the White House twisted intelligence information to justify going to war in Iraq.
The revelation comes courtesy of Murray Waas, an investigative journalist, who reports that Cheney admitted to the FBI that he rewrote talking points for the press in 2003, making it "much more likely" that Plame's identity would be revealed. Cheney revised the notes on July 8, 2003 -- the same day that Scooter Libby told New York Times reporter Judith Miller of Plame's identity.
This news probably doesn't come as a shock to Bush, who promised in 2005 that he would fire anyone in his administration who was involved in illegally leaking Plame's identity. "If somebody committed a crime, they will no longer work in my administration," he said.
Oops.
Waas writes, "That Cheney, by his own admission, had revised the talking points in an effort to have the reporters examine who sent Wilson on the very same day that his chief of staff was disclosing to Miller Plame's identity as a CIA officer may be the most compelling evidence to date that Cheney himself might have directed Libby to disclose Plame's identity to Miller and other reporters."
Libby was convicted last year of lying, perjury and obstructing justice while he sought to protect himself and his cronies from legal consequences in leaking the name of an undercover CIA agent. Cheney, of course, has never seen an ounce of discipline for his role. Though as Waas points out, a juror in the Libby case said he and other jurors suspected that Libby was a "fall guy" and had lied about himself to protect Cheney.
At least the vice president had the integrity to tell the FBI some of the truth. But with less than a month ticking away on the Bush-Cheney White House, it hardly holds the gravitas it could have five years ago.
http://brighthall.aol.com/2008/12/23/me
As NASA prepares to double the number of astronauts living aboard the International Space Station, nothing may do more for crew bonding than a machine being launched aboard the space shuttle Endeavour on Friday.
It's a water-recycling device that will process the crew's urine for communal consumption.
"We did blind taste tests of the water," said NASA's Bob Bagdigian, the system's lead engineer. "Nobody had any strong objections. Other than a faint taste of iodine, it is just as refreshing as any other kind of water."
"I've got some in my fridge," he added. "It tastes fine to me."
Delivery of the $250 million wastewater recycling gear is among the primary goals of NASA's 124th shuttle mission, which is due to launch at 7:55 p.m. EST on Friday (0055 GMT on Saturday) from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.
Meteorologists predicted a 70 percent chance the weather would be suitable for launch.
With no technical issues, NASA managers told the launch team on Friday morning to fuel the shuttle for liftoff, a three-hour operation to pump 500,000 gallons (1.9 million litres) of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen into the spaceship's tank for the 8.5-minute climb into orbit.
If the shuttle lifts off on time, it would arrive at the space station on Sunday so astronauts could begin 11 to 12 days of home improvements.
In addition to the water recycler, Endeavour carries two small bedrooms, the station's first refrigerator, new exercise gear, and perhaps most important for a growing crew -- a second toilet.
"With six people you really do need to have a two-bathroom house. It's a lot more convenient and a lot more efficient," said Endeavour astronaut Sandra Magnus, who will take over as a space station flight engineer from Greg Chamitoff.
Chamitoff has been aboard the outpost since the last shuttle flight in June.
NASA wants to make sure the water recycling system is working well before adding another three astronauts to the station's crew.
SHUTTLE SUPPLIES DRYING UP
Reusing water will become essential once NASA retires its space shuttles, which produce water as a byproduct of their electrical systems. Rather than dumping the water overboard, NASA has been transferring it to the space station.
But the shuttle's days are numbered. Only 10 flights remain, including a final servicing call to the Hubble Space Telescope. NASA is preparing to end the program in 2010, after which Russian Soyuz spacecraft will be the only way to ferry crew to the space station.
"We can't be delivering water all the time for six crew," said space station flight director Ron Spencer. "Recycling is a must."
NASA expects to process about six gallons (23 litres) of water per day with the new device. The goal is to recover about 92 percent of the water from the crew's urine and moisture in the air.
The wastewater is processed using an extensive series of purification techniques, including distillation -- which is somewhat tricky in microgravity -- filtration, oxidation, and ionization.
The final step is the addition of iodine to control microbial growth, Bagdigian said.
The device is intended to process a full day's worth of wastewater in less than 24 hours.
"Today's drinking water was yesterday's waste," Bagdigian said.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20081114/ts
- Author David Sedaris, on undecided voters
If you were poor who would you want for pres? I don't think I can afford a reb or a dem. My ends barely know each other much less meet. Detroit isn't the only depression area. It is bad out here.
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rosie says:
obama
as chris rock said
vote for the guy with one house
www.rosie.com
who could come out and help us and gosh, for the life of
us, the pickins were slim there. Who's quasi-conservative
out there in the celebrity land?" - Sarah Palin
