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Last Thursday, the Brady Campaign released its annual "scorecards," ranking each state on how draconian its gun laws are (with, naturally, the more tyrannical those laws are, the better). Their press release, starting with the very first word, praises California's ultra-restrictive gun laws: California continues to blaze legislative trails in adopting lifesaving gun laws, rising to a high of 81 points (out of a possible 100) on the 2011 Brady State Scorecard rankings, while too many states remain in the Zero-Sum Club with the weakest gun laws, the Brady Campaign announced today. In comments at John Richardson's No Lawyers -...

The National Hurricane Center warned that wind hitting upper floors will be stronger than those in most storms during Irene. New York (CNN) -- The National Hurricane Center on Saturday warned residents of tall structures in the path of Hurricane Irene that the wind hitting upper floors will be stronger than those in most storms. "As Irene moves through areas with high-rise structures, these structures will experience winds significantly stronger than indicated by the advisory intensity," forecasters said. "Winds at the 30-story level will likely be 20% higher than at the surface. And winds 80-100 stories up could be about...

MEXICO CITY — US giant General Motors will invest $540 million to produce two low-emission motors in central Mexico, the company announced here Thursday, accompanied by President Felipe Calderon. The latest project for GM in Mexico would create 500 direct and another 500 indirect jobs in its plant in Toluca, Calderon said. GM has four plants in Mexico, and has invested some $5 billion here since 2006, Calderon said.

Waves of Canadian women are getting extra ultrasounds during pregnancy, often three or more -- a rate that appears to be climbing for no apparent medical reasons. A new study based on nearly 1.4 million deliveries in Ontario shows more than a third of women -- 37% -- now receive three or more ultrasounds in their second and third trimesters.

Official guidance on how much we can eat each day has been underestimated for the last two decades, scientists have revealed. The daily intake of calories - currently 2,000 for woman and 2,500 for men - could be increased by up to 16 per cent, the equivalent of cheeseburger or two packets of crisps. An average adult could happily squeeze in an extra 400 calories a day and not pile on the pounds, Britain's leading nutritionists have admitted. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1227743/Its-official--eat-stay-healthy.html#ixzz0WuC35zPn

KANDAHAR MILITARY BASE, Afghanistan (AFP) – Extra troops called for by the head of foreign forces in Afghanistan would be sent mainly to the north and west of the country, the US military said on Saturday. "It is where we have the fewest troops," a US official told AFP on condition of anonymity. US General Stanley McChrystal, who commands 100,000 US and NATO troops in Afghanistan, has reportedly asked for up to 40,000 extra troops and warned that without reinforcements in the next 12 months, the mission could end in failure. North and west Afghanistan were calm until the start...

Source: University of California - Santa Cruz Date: September 14, 2007 Extra Gene Copies Were Enough To Make Early Humans' Mouths Water Science Daily — To think that world domination could have begun in the cheeks. That's one interpretation of a discovery, published online September 9 in Nature Genetics, which indicates that humans carry extra copies of the salivary amylase gene. A member of the Hadza tribe of Tanzania roasts basketball-sized tubers, the type of starchy food thought to have been a crucial addition to the diet of early humans. (Credit: Photo by N. Dominy) Humans have many more copies...

Nato plea for extra troops to fight Taliban will be ignored By Patrick Bishop, in Kabul (Filed: 13/09/2006) The chances of complete success in Nato's campaign against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan were jeopardised yesterday after it appeared that some key European allies will turn a deaf ear to an appeal for more troops. At the alliance HQ today, the 26 member nations will respond to a plea by Gen James Jones, Nato's top commander, for 2,000 extra men. But a senior Nato official admitted: "At the moment there's no indication of any substantive offers. The signs are that the...

DAMASCUS, Syria - Hamas' leaders in Syria insist they have nothing to do with the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier and hold no influence over his captors. Still, they have been changing homes and stopped using cell phones because of Israeli threats to target them. Israel has accused the Islamic militant group's top leader, Khaled Mashaal, of being the brains behind the June 25 kidnapping and indicated he was a possible target for assassination. "We take the Israeli threats seriously, and we know the occupation will not pass up the opportunity to get the movement's leadership," Osama Hamdan, Hamas' representative...

A state audit found University of California administrators skirted their own pay rules, giving senior managers millions more in bonuses, relocation packages and other perks than their publicly reported salaries. The report, released Tuesday, is the latest in a series of probes highlighting irregularities in how the 10-campus system rewards its leaders. The revelations, first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, have been an embarrassment for the prestigious system, particularly since they cover a period when UC officials raised student fees substantially in response to state funding cuts. The audit drew sharp responses from legislators, with state Sen. Jackie Speier,...

A growing number of schools and community colleges in California are refinancing voter-approved bonds to raise extra cash, a practice many financial experts say puts an additional burden on taxpayers and may violate state law. The process, known as cash-out refunding, is similar to refinancing a home mortgage to lower monthly payments and take out equity in cash. It's popular because the school districts get extra money - frequently millions of dollars - without going back to the voters. Most use the money to cover construction cost overruns, but critics say California law limits the use of refunded bonds for...

Australia to let in extra 20,000 immigrants By Nick Squires in Sydney (Filed: 15/04/2005) Australia will accept an extra 20,000 skilled immigrants next year, it announced yesterday, which is good news for Britons planning to make a new life there. Changes to the highly popular working holiday visa scheme will also make it easier for backpackers to double their stay to two years. The moves are part of a campaign to tackle a chronic shortage of skilled workers such as plumbers, lorry drivers, doctors and hairdressers. Mechanics, boilermakers, pharmacists, accountants and pastry chefs are also needed. John Howard, the prime...

According to Subhra Jain, a freelance reporter in New Delhi, she bumped into a very senior Indian Military official in a nightclub in New Delhi. While talking what she came to know will make the rest of the world sit up all night. According to her, Extra Terrestrials have been visiting India and the rest of the world for thousands of years. In recent days most of the super powers have been formally contacted. India is no exception in recent days. ’They always contact through the ground radar stations of the military’, she says. Indian Himalayas and Ladakh (China-India) border...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Calling next year's budget shortfall an $8.1 billion problem, the governor's top financial adviser said Friday the administration is talking with education officials about withholding a $1.4 billion unanticipated revenue windfall from schools. Finance Director Tom Campbell said his recommendation to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will not seek new taxes to close the deficit or rely on the kinds of gimmicks and accounting tricks that have characterized recent budgets, including this year's. Although he spoke only in general terms about the proposed spending plan - which is still being put together and is still subject to Schwarzenegger's approval...

The late Carl Sagan once asked this question, “What does it mean for a civilization to be a million years old? We have had radio telescopes and spaceships for a few decades; our technical civilization is a few hundred years old... an advanced civilization millions of years old is as much beyond us as we are beyond a bush baby or a macaque.” Although any conjecture about such advanced civilizations is a matter of sheer speculation, one can still use the laws of physics to place upper and lower limits on these civilizations. In particular, now that the laws of...

I once thought that worrying about what we should broadcast to extraterrestrials made as much sense as fretting over the small talk I’d venture with King Carl XVI Gustaf if I won the Nobel Prize. I reckoned there was no need to dwell on the problem, as it was both hypothetical and irrelevant.

Chirac's jet flew an extra 1,200 miles to let him sleep By Christian Jennings (Filed: 09/09/2004) The most direct route from Paris to Moscow by aircraft is to fly due east. Unless you are President Chirac, that is. The French premier likes his sleep so much that, en route to a Black Sea summit with President Putin and Chancellor Schröder, he had his flight diverted by 1,200 miles so that he could have a long sleep. Le Canard Enchainé, France's version of Private Eye, tells a tale this week headlined "Chirac's sleep is priceless". On August 31, Chirac was due...

Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus: outside the Church, there is no salvation. This “hard saying” has been consistently taught as a dogma of the Faith from the very inception of the Church — affirmed by the Gospels and epistles, insisted on by the early Church Fathers, and later solemnly defined in holy councils and papal statements. Naturally, it is the primary dogma being attacked today, because the modern Creed of the unwashed masses (and that includes liberal Protestants and Catholics) has only one article of faith: I believe in tolerance and respect for every religion. In an age where truth is...

Extra Unemployment Benefits Lose in Senate 6 minutes ago By LEIGH STROPE, AP Labor Writer WASHINGTON - A Senate measure to extend federal unemployment benefits failed by two votes Thursday despite the election year support of 12 Republicans from states hit hard by layoffs. Democrats tried to attach the amendment to a gun liability bill, but it failed 58-39 in the GOP-controlled Senate. The measure would have extended the emergency benefits program for six months, providing 13 weeks of extra unemployment benefits to people who exhaust their state benefits — usually after 26 weeks. The unemployment rate dropped to 5.8...

US sends in extra troops to quell unrest By Andrew Buncombe in Washington 27 May 2003 A further 20,000 US troops are to be deployed in Iraq amid growing concerns that there are insufficient forces to bring law and order to the country after the American-led invasion. Over the next few weeks, troops from the 1st Armoured Division will start to arrive in the country, bringing the total number of US forces to about 163,000. Whether forces from other countries will be deployed is unclear, though there are certainly no plans to add more American troops to the so-called stabilisation...

Gordon Brown has pledged an extra $100 million for the reconstruction of Iraq in his Budget. He has also announced extra EU aid to tackle poverty and £247 million for humanitarian aid in Iraq. Mr Brown pledged to take every step to preserve and protect the security of the United Kingdom as he presented his first lunchtime Budget. Mr Brown told the Commons he was setting aside an extra £330 million for additional domestic counter-terrorism measures. He paid tribute to the armed forces for their "zeal, bravery and resilience" in fighting the conflict in Iraq. And he said the nation...

    Four-winged dinosaur makes feathers fly   19:00 22 January 03 Jeff Hecht   Long flight feathers adorn the hind legs of Microraptor gui (Image: Xing Xu) A stunning set of six fossils discovered in China could rewrite our understanding of how and why birds first took to the sky. The fossils clearly show a small dinosaur that had flight feathers covering its legs, as well as tail and arms, forming an extra pair of wings never before seen by palaeontologists. News of the find comes just days after scientists published work showing that baby partridges flap their tiny wings to...

 Feeling Undertaxed?By Edwin Feulner President, The Heritage Foundation March 26, 2002 In December, the governor of Arkansas created the "Tax Me More Fund," so people who consider themselves undertaxed can donate more to the state government. Even with the economic recovery underway, state lawmakers nationwide are finding it tough to balance their budgets. As a result, many have been lobbying for - you guessed it - higher taxes. They haven't made much headway in Arkansas, though. Gov. Mike Huckabee has refused to sign off on tax hikes, provoking howls of protest from those who warn of cutbacks in "vital"...