inter net.
I’m imploring people I’ve never met to pressure a government with better things to do to punish a man who meant no harm for something nobody even saw.
- Ned Flanders
An airline in Canada is removing lifevests from all its planes to cut weight and to reduce fuel costs.
The String Quartet - Number Five With A Bullet (Taking Back Sunday Cover)
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
The roughly 5,000 flights that were in the air when the breakdown happened were not affected — just those that were waiting to take off.
Two elderly Chinese women have been sentenced to a year of “re-education through labor” after they repeatedly sought a permit to demonstrate in one of the official Olympic protest areas
But, listen, let’s review the rules. Here’s how it works: the president makes decisions. He’s the decider. The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Just put ‘em through a spell check and go home. Get to know your family again. Make love to your wife. Write that novel you got kicking around in your head. You know, the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration. You know - fiction!
— Stephen Colbert, Press Correspondence Dinner
Last week, California Gov Schwarzenegger ordered a pay cut, to minimum wage of $6.55/hr, for 200,000 state workers because a state budget hadn’t been approved yet. The state controller, who has opposed the pay cut on principle and legal grounds, now says the pay cut isn’t even feasible because the state’s payroll systems are so antiquated. He says it would take 6 months to go to minimum wage, and 9 months more to restore salaries once a budget is passed. The system is based on COBOL, according to the Sacramento Bee, and the state hasn’t yet found the funds or resources, in 10 years of trying, to upgrade it.
slashdot
The Department of Homeland Security disclosed today that US Customs and Border Protection and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement have the right to confiscate and search a traveler’s laptop or other electronic device without any suspicion of wrongdoing.