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Prepaid phone plans, where you pay the full price for a cellphone and then pay lower monthly rates without a contract, seem to offer what most budget-conscious people want. So why haven’t they really caught on?

An ill-advised attempt to break into a safe with a welding torch wound up costing two men their lives. According to investigators in New Hampshire, the thieves were using a welding torch to crack open the safe when they accidentally set off fireworks stored inside. Police say the two were trying to open up the four-foot-high, concrete-lined safe with an oxyacetylene torch at a landscaping shop when the explosion occurred. WCVB reports the resulting explosion was so powerful that it blew the huge safe through the building, landing it outside. Investigators don't believe the men knew there were fireworks inside...

The fragment is so large that divers have been unable to lift it. Instead, it's been dragged along the bottom of the lake on a metal sheet. At 1,257 pounds--that's 570 kilos--It will be almost as big as the Holsinger meteorite, which landed in Arizona 50,000 years ago, and broke the scales when it was weighed earlier today. The rock will be tested to verify that it is from space and not from somewhere more mundane.

Yet another student has landed in trouble for having something that represents a weapon, but isn’t actually anything like a real weapon. This time it’s an autistic middle school student in South Carolina who was suspended until further notice after he brought a cartoonish drawing of a bomb he drew to school, reports local NBC affiliate WYFF. The student, 13-year-old Rhett Parham, showed his drawing to some older students at Hill Crest Middle School in Greenville. They reported it to school officials. They boy said he got the idea to draw the bomb from a video game called Bomberman Hero....

Word For The Day, Wednesday, October 16, 2013-- assize ; In order that we might all raise the level of discourse and expand our language abilities, here is the daily post of "Word for the Day". assize [uh-sahyz]hear it pronounced noun 1. Usually, assizes. a trial session, civil or criminal, held periodically in specific locations in England, usually by a judge of a superior court. 2. an edict, ordinance, or enactment made at a session of a legislative assembly. 3. an inquest before members of a jury or assessors; a judicial inquiry. 4. an action, writ, or verdict of an...

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Over the weekend a very interesting op-ed appeared out of the Xinhua news agency. Before we get going let’s just remind ourselves just who Xinhua is – from wiki:The Xinhua News Agency (/ˈʃi�nhwɑ�/;[1]) is the official press agency of the People’s Republic of China and the biggest center for collecting information and press conferences in China. It is the largest news agency in China, ahead of the China News Service. Xinhua is subordinate to the State Council and reports to the Communist Party of China’s Propaganda and Public Information Departments. Xinhua’s headquarters complex, the “pencil building”, is at No. 57...

Bacon might be the least “ninja” ingredient out there. Aside from being bright-ass red, its scent alone has the power to send every fat kid (or fat kid at heart) running from within at least a three mile radius. Still, we wouldn’t want our ninja burgers made any other way. Starting October 25, Burger King Japan is rolling out a black-bunned hamburger called the “Black Ninja.” Like most of the country’s other chromatically-challenged eats, the BN gets its hue from the bamboo charcoal used to make it, which in this case, also happens to impart a nice smoky smell. But...

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It was the perfect end to a bizarre day of World Cup qualifying: the United States saved Mexico. The longtime rivals rarely do anything to help the other out, but on Tuesday there was no mistaking what took place. Mexico, which has struggled throughout the Concacaf qualifying tournament, was just minutes away from losing to Costa Rica, 2-1, and failing to qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 1982. El Tri’s only hope was that the United States, which was losing to Panama at the time, would somehow rally for at least a tie. The United States...

Capturing the essence of the 1940s and 50s in modern times is getting harder and harder for photographers. While there are plenty of hot rods out there to shoot these days, fewer and fewer “factory” vehicles can be found. But that’s not the only trouble. With modern construction, vintage buildings are also becoming scarcer by the day. This leads to a whole lot of hassle for those set on bringing back memories of the past through modern photography. But as photographer and car enthusiast Michael Paul Smith, who posts his work on Flickr, discovered, recreating the past may actually be...

It started off as a normal morning at Great Clips in San Jose, with employees snipping away and customers enjoying a trim. Then, just before 10 a.m., a customer with a pale purple Saturn - and a San Jose Sharks license plate frame - slammed into the hair salon at 2980 East Capitol Expressway, according to police Sgt. Heather Randol. The driver was pulled out of the car, but Randol said neither he nor anyone inside the salon was hurt. His name or age hasn't been released. Hairdresser Teresa Phuouc was in the salon at the time. "I don't know...

Pope Francis said it is true that in the past, people with epilepsy might have been mischaracterized as being possessed by demons, but that confusion did not refute the fact that the Devil exists and is so important that he “is on the first page of the Bible” and at the Bible’s end, “with the victory of God over the Devil.” … As for his comments on Satan and other demons, the Pope said, “Some may say, ‘But Father, you’re too old-fashioned. You’re frightening us with these things.’ No, it’s not me! It is the Gospel! And these are not...

Man who jumped into Bronx Zoo tiger den gets year in mental health facility The man who wanted to become “one with the tiger” will become a one-year patient in a mental health facility. David Villalobos, who survived a September 2012 leap into the Bronx Zoo’s tiger den, pleaded guilty Tuesday to trespassing in the strange case, the Bronx district attorney said. RELATED: MAN MAULED BY BRONX ZOO TIGER RE-ENETERS NOT GUILTY PLEA Under a plea bargain deal, Villalobos must complete a one-year stay in a mental health facility as part of his conditional discharge. Villalobos, 26, managed to pet...

Explanation: A jewel of the southern sky, the Great Carina Nebula, also known as NGC 3372, spans over 300 light-years, one of our galaxy's largest star forming regions. Like the smaller, more northerly Great Orion Nebula, the Carina Nebula is easily visible to the unaided eye, though at a distance of 7,500 light-years it is some 5 times farther away. This gorgeous telescopic portrait reveals remarkable details of the region's glowing filaments of interstellar gas and obscuring cosmic dust clouds. Wider than the Full Moon in angular size, the field of view stretches over 300 light-years across the nebula. The...

Police are trying to figure out how the hell they lost track of a 20-year-old female prisoner who wiggled her way out of her handcuffs and casually walked out of the Police Department over the weekend. The bizarre incident happened at about 5:40 p.m. on Sunday when the suspect was brought into the Northern Police Station for questioning about a car burglary. However, the suspect, later identified as Sonya Espinoza, lied to the cops about her identity and then declined to be interviewed. After the cops learned her real name, they also learned she had a no-bail warrant and was...

Mountain View police bust a nationwide drug ring and they did it with the help of a three year old lab named ZuesWhen it comes to sniffing-out illegal drugs, no nose may be better than the nose of a dog named Zeus. Zeus has only been a member of Mountain View's police force for 18 months, but in that time he's compiled quite the resume helping get mounds of drugs off the streets. "He has his own badge and probably the most popular person inside the station," said Police Chief Scott Vermeer. While that may be tough for the police...

A Florida woman posed as a teen to seduce a 14-year-old boy into a seedy sexual relationship before choking him when he tried to leave her home, police said. Naomi Dixon, 31, allegedly pretended she was just 17 after meeting the boy at a party near her home in Deltona.

"The Walking Dead" is now, by some ratings measures, the No. 1 show on TV. Sunday's season 4 premiere of AMC's zombie drama chowed down on 16.1 million total viewers, according to Nielsen. That's a record for the series, of course, as well as a remarkable 48% boost from last year's season 3 rollout. It also puts "Walking Dead" in the rarefied company of TV's most-watched shows. "NCIS," currently the No. 1 show on TV, averages around 20 million viewers for new episodes...... "

October 11, 2013 (WND) - So much for the left’s “consenting adults” rhetoric on sex. Forever the consummate conservationists, our self-described “progressive” friends at the ACLU, MSNBC and elsewhere have been ramping-up efforts to downsize from “consenting adults” to merely “consenting” – a far less cumbersome qualifier in the noble struggle for unrestrained sexual license. Tolerating “intergenerational romance” for “minor-attracted” adults is all the rage these days. Ever hear of Kaitlyn Hunt? Over the past year or so this poor, misunderstood lesbian woman’s “anti-gay persecution” has become a cause célèbre among “gay rights” activists and other left-wing purveyors of perversion....

The Marines send a not so subtle message to the government.

Four years after risking his life in Afghanistan, William D. Swenson solemnly received the Medal of Honor on Tuesday in a case of battlefield bravery with some odd twists: The young Army captain questioned the judgment of his superiors, and the paperwork nominating him for the award was lost. He left the military two years ago but wants to return to active duty, a rare move for a medal recipient. The nation's highest military honor — a sky blue ribbon and medal — was clasped around Swenson's neck by President Barack Obama at the White House. The president described how...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: We have Zack, 20 years old in college in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Hi. Zack, I'm glad you called. CALLER: Hey, Rush. How are you doing? RUSH: Very well. Thank you, sir. CALLER: I really felt compelled to call today. You know, like you just said, I'm 20 years old, I'm a college student, and I'm really angry, Rush. I'm really angry. I want to tell you why I'm angry, and that will lead me up to my question I have for you. I think yesterday I really reached my boiling point when I was watching the news, or...

So, you think you're a pretty good person: you call your mom on Mother's Day, you always try to give your employer two week's notice and you make a conscience effort to control your spending habits before filing bankruptcy. You think of yourself as a person who loves children and who is always kind to the elderly. Think again. Take the Death Row Serial Killer Quiz*

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On the 13th floor of a haunted house in Arizona, one woman was given a much bigger surprise than zombies or skeletons: a ring.

When over the weekend, a Xerox "glitch" shut down the EBT system, better known as foodstamps, for nearly the entire day across 17 states leaving millions without "funding" to pay for food leading to dramatic examples of the basest human behavior possible, some of the more conspiratorial elements saw this merely as a dress rehearsal for what may be coming in the immediate future. While there was no basis to believe that is the case, a USDA (the currently shuttered agency that administers the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) memo obtained by the Crossroads Urban Center in Utah carries in it...

If you happen to do anything other than sleep in a cave today, chances are you have Ada Lovelace to thank for it. She is responsible for the first ever computer program. And she came up with it long before the computer even existed. Today is the fifth annual Ada Lovelace Day, celebrating the achievement of a Victorian mother-of-three who would change the world. Let’s travel back through time for a moment. Before the ZX Spectrum and before the Atari 2600, there was a thing that historians like to call the 19th century. The computer may have existed as a...

In “Hitler’s Furies,” recently placed on the long list for the National Book Award, Wendy Lower presents the harrowing evidence of crimes committed by German women during the Holocaust. Dwight Garner wrote that previous books “have offered up poster girls of brutality and atrocity” and “Ms. Lower’s revisionist insight is to track more mundane lives, and to argue for a vastly wider complicity.” In a recent e-mail interview, Ms. Lower discussed the changing view of women’s role in the Nazi regime, the challenges of writing for a non-academic audience, what she found most shocking in her research and more. Below...

WINTER HAVEN — For more than a year, Rebecca Ann Sedwick's bullies tormented the girl by calling her ugly and urging her drink bleach to die. The harassment didn't stop — even after Rebecca's parents moved the 12-year-old Lakeland girl to a different middle school. The bullies reached her on her smartphone. Rebecca brought it all to an end by jumping to her death from a silo at an abandoned concrete factory Sept. 10. But even after her suicide, the cruelty didn't cease, family members and investigators say. 15 girls identified after cyber-bullied girl jumps to her death in Lakeland...

Following are excerpts from a TV show with Saudi cleric Saleh Bin Saad Al-Lohaidan, which aired on Rotana Khalijiya TV on September 29, 2013. Saleh Bin Saad Al-Lohaidan: Women are physiologically weaker than men. It is well known that their pelvis is wider than the pelvis of men, in order to provide space for the fetus. When a woman drives a car, her mind is preoccupied, and when she sits for a long time, her pelvis bounces, and this bouncing places pressure on the ovaries. Therefore, in Europe, and especially in South America – Argentina, Brazil, and Peru – there...

"My friend was shopping there last night, and saw some of the Bettas weren't doing too well,and asked an employee if the fish were ok. The employee said the bettas aren't fed, but it's common for them to die. WHAT??? they purposely and intentionally don't feed their betta fish, so when they get shipped in those plastic containers, they stay there!"

Just saw the statement from Pelosi.. that the bill the House is putting on the floor is "a decision to default" Sounds like an out and out rejection to me. The Republicans couldn't give much more!!! WTF! This reminds me of when Israel gave Yasir Arafatass EVERYTHING... and they STILL rejected it.

Say hi to Lucy. Lucy is part of Generation Y, the generation born between the late 1970s and the mid 1990s. She's also part of a yuppie culture that makes up a large portion of Gen Y. I have a term for yuppies in the Gen Y age group—I call them Gen Y Protagonists & Special Yuppies, or GYPSYs. A GYPSY is a unique brand of yuppie, one who thinks they are the main character of a very special story. So Lucy's enjoying her GYPSY life, and she's very pleased to be Lucy. Only issue is this one thing: Lucy's...

A German couple's marriage got off to a rocky start when the groom forgot his bride at a highway gas station on the way home from their honeymoon, only noticing she was missing after hours had passed.

Michelle Chapman is trying not to cry over spilled milk. The Surrey, B.C., resident was shocked to discover last month that a June fender bender she caused that left almost no visible damage to either vehicle escalated into a $4,800 writeoff. She was more shocked to discover the reason why. “They’re writing off the truck for spilled milk,” said Chapman, whom the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia is holding responsible for the claim. The tale of the curious claim begins in June, when Chapman was stopped behind a black Dodge Dakota truck in her Chrysler Sebring sedan at a Vancouver...

Obama: "Our nation needs this ceremony today. Will reminds us what the US can be at its best......meet our obligations to eachother not just when it is easy. Patriotism and professionalism we should strive for whether we wear a uniform or not, not just on particular occasions but all the time. "(Excerpts)

The victim was slashed after refusing to give the man more than $1A Long Island panhandler was arrested Sunday after allegedly slashing a man who had just given him money, tossing a brick through a store window and showing up at the same hospital where his victim was being treated. The suspect approached the man on Meacham Avenue near the Hempstead Turnpike in Elmont about 3 a.m. and asked the man repeatedly for money, Nassau County police say. The victim gave the suspect $1, but the panhandler asked for more when he saw extra cash in the victim’s wallet. When...

Circular Intronic RNAs Defy Junk DNA Dogma by Jeffrey Tomkins, Ph.D. * A completely new category of circular RNAs has been discovered, adding another layer of amazing complexity to human genetics. These circular RNAs are formed from the intron regions inside a gene that were once thought to be nothing but junk DNA.1 Genes in plants and animals are copied (transcribed) into messenger RNA molecules (mRNAs) that are subsequently processed to remove segments that do not end up in the mature RNA transcript. The gene regions that remain in the final coding RNA transcript correspond to regions in the genetic...

Squirrels are working White house garden while Michelle’s gardeners will get paid for doing nothing. House gardeners are allowed only to water the plots and cannot harvest the vegetables. Park Service gardeners who normally tend the mushrooms, peppers, squash and other tasty items have only been permitted to water the plants. Under the peculiar rules in effect, they are not allowed to rake or weed or even mow the grass. Pounds and pounds of ripe organic bounty have gone to waste. Weeds are springing up

Good thing British authorities are keeping foes of jihad such as Pamela Geller and me out of the country, eh? If they let us in, people like these men with "roots in Turkey, Pakistan, Algeria and Azerbaijan" might get angry and start plotting violence. UK Death Watch Update: "British authorities break up terror plot," from AP, October 14 (thanks to Jerk Chicken):

Investigations underwayAir India said Tuesday an investigation was underway after a passenger found worms in his sandwich mid-flight. The passenger made the discovery during a flight from New York to New Delhi on September 28 on India's struggling flagship carrier. The passenger reported the incident to Air India, but said he did not hear anything back for two weeks, according to the Press Trust of India. "We are investigating the caterer regarding this incident," airline spokesman Prasad Rao told AFP in New Delhi. The spokesman said the airline maintained high standards, including hygiene conditions, adding that this was a "very...

Bao Sinh Dog-Cat Resort is testament to changing times Relatives offered words of comfort to a teary-eyed woman paying her last respects as an undertaker slammed shut the door of the cremation chamber and flames engulfed the small coffin of a cherished family member. The hastily arranged prayers, cremation and scattering of ashes in Vietnam's capital was for Capi, a 13-year-old dog that died that day after a battle with diabetes. Capi's owner had called Bao Sinh Dog-Cat Resort, a one-stop shop with services rivalling anything on offer to humans. "I'm so glad this place exists. Otherwise I wouldn't know...

Sacrificial goats have been stolen from the house of Pakistani Test cricketer Imran Farhat in Lahore. According to police report, Farhat – a resident of Valencia Town in Lahore – had bought two goats for sacrifice ahead of Eid Al Adha which will fall in Pakistan on Wednesday October 16. Last night, thieves broke into Imran Farhat’s house and whisked away two goats which were bought for Eid Al Adha. The family had filed a police complaint. Opening batsman Imran Farhat has not been included in the current Pakistani team which is playing its home series against South Africa in...

The UK is facing its greatest risk of blackouts since 2007/08 in the coming winter. The National Grid, responsible for balancing the country’s supply and demand of energy, last week has given this warning because Britain’s reserves of electricity have halved in 12 months. The UK and the USA are in the same boat here. Both countries have governments that have – or pretend to have — fallen for the Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) theory hook, line, and sinker.

Tracey Payntar says she spotted a huge snake in the lake next to her Suffolk house as it was attacking a river otter. The mother of four says she had just gotten out of her car and the disturbance in the water got her attention. "I ran to the shoreline freaking out and tried to take some video with my phone. I was so scared I could not concentrate very well," said Payntar. Payntar and her husband contacted Suffolk Animal Control who referred a snake expert from a company called Zoo Pro. Based on her description, the professional wildlife workers...

NASHUA, N.H., - Some parents with children at a New Hampshire elementary school said they disagree with the principal's decision to ban playing tag at recess. Principal Patricia Beaulieu of Charlotte Avenue Elementary School in Nashua posted a statement to the school's website saying the playground game was being banned due to recent injuries involving games of tag, WMUR-TV, Manchester, N.H., reported. "Playgrounds offer a chance for children to be active," Beaulieu wrote. "However, playgrounds also have risks, and numerous injuries have resulted recently on our playground, prompting us to review school playground rules with all students." "As you know,...

National Park Service (NPS) rangers removed the handles from some 40 public water pumps and closed restrooms in the 184.5 mile- C&O Canal National Historical Park, but they haven’t been able to keep hikers and bikers off the popular trail known as a “cyclist’s dream.” “It’s full every day,” said Gail Hall, who runs Mountain Side Bikes at the trailhead in Cumberland, Md. “They’re bringing in their own water and utilizing the tree-lined areas [of the park] for restrooms. Some towns like Harper’s Ferry even brought in potties to accommodate them. As long as they can pedal, they don’t care.”

Top 10: 1: 'Bama2: Oregon3: Clemson4: FSU5: THE Ohio State University6: LSU7: TAMU8: UCLA9: Louisville10: Baylor

Nielsen has conducted an investigation into the ratings for Megyn Kelly’s new Fox News Channel show, “The Kelly File,” following grousing by MSNBC chief Phil Griffin. The investigation has revealed that the numbers for Kelly are accurate. Last Tuesday, the day after its debut, “The Kelly File” doubled its audience, crushing “The Rachel Maddow Show,” its MSNBC competition.