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7:00 PM (et) 1 hr, 39 min Spycraft: The Secret History of the CIA's Spytechs from Communism to Al-Qaeda Author: Robert Wallace and Keith Melton

Time to dust off the whoopee cushions and hand buzzers. April Fools' Day is here and there's no better place for wisecracks and shenanigans than at work. In its annual April Fools' Day survey, CareerBuilder.com found 33 percent of workers have played a practical joke on a co-worker and 17 percent are planning office tricks for this year's holiday. Although it might be thrilling to finally one-up the office funnyman, pranks also help beat something that's no laughing matter: workplace stress. More than half of workers reported working under stress in another CareerBuilder.com survey. Stress and worry on the job...

OK, It is Saturday night and anyone on the computer does not have a life anyway...and I rightly posted this under vanitywhatever, so here goes. In another thread the question was asked, What does it mean when someone says, "Mind your P's and Q's? So far we have two answers 1) Ale used to be ordered in either pints or quarts and you needed to be careful which you were given. That's the explanation that I've heard. 2) My understanding is that it refers to typesetters. Its easy to confuse a small case p or q when you're setting type...

Barbecue sauces have a uniquely Southern and Western U.S. history. Most experts agree that the practice of adding sauce and spices to meat and fish began early in our history, with Native Americans teaching the art to early European settlers. The natives probably developed the process as part of an attempt to keep meats and fish from spoiling quickly. Salt played a major role in those early barbecue sauces, and salt is a well-known preservative in the meat curing process. Because the nations first European arrivals lived on the East Coast of America, that part of the country is credited...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A fake stone alleged to have been used by British spies to communicate with Moscow agents was a "wonder" of technology that cost tens of millions of pounds (dollars), Russia's FSB security service said on Thursday. FSB spokesman Sergei Ignatchenko praised the high-tech spy stone, which would look at home in a James Bond film, and listed its extraordinary qualities. The stone was revealed by the FSB on Sunday in a television programme that apparently showed four British spies using it as a dead letter drop. "This is like space technology in its qualities. You could throw...

"..caught red-handed financing a number of nongovernmental organizations.." "..the Russian special services offered us material that we evaluated as unambiguously sensational and exclusive. Do you think that, if the BBC received footage on which it was convincingly proved that four of our agents were working in London, that they wouldn't have aired it? " "The main crime of the British intelligence agents seems to be that their connections to Russian human rights organizations." http://www.kommersant.com/page.asp?idr=527&id=643044 http://www.kommersant.ru/doc.html?docId=643044

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) -- A Turkish court has fined 20 people for using the letters Q and W on placards at a Kurdish new year celebration, under a law that bans use of characters not in the Turkish alphabet, rights campaigners said. The court in the southeastern city of Siirt fined each of the 20 people 100 new lira ($75.53) for holding up the placards, written in Kurdish, at the event last year. The letters Q and W do not exist in the Turkish alphabet.

On the flight home this morning, I was unfortunate enough to have a bleeder sit next to me. By bleeder, I mean he was invading my space because he was large and his body was spilling over into my seat. I've seen worse cases than what I had today but let's hear your experiences.

I did it!!! For years I have been tying to post an article during normal freeping hours that nobody would comment on for over an hour. It is quite a challenge really. FR has a wide range of interests, and if an article is too weird, then people will comment on its weirdness. Anyway, every few weeks I have been trying to find an article just so totally boring that there would be no reason for anyone to comment on it, and at the same time not be too weird as to merit a comment based on its weirdness. I...

LONDON (Reuters) - Get out the rocket launcher camera, brandish your acid-shooting fountain pen and stick on your fake third nipple.Her Majesty's Government has a job for you.Britain is advertising for a new chief executive officer of the Government Communications Center -- the spy gadget lab boss known to James Bond fans as "Q."Tuesday is the deadline to apply for the job, which was advertised discreetly in newspapers a few weeks back.In the movies, Q's lab built everything Bond needed to escape from danger, from his Aston Martin sports car with ejector seat to the fake third nipple he used...

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<p>We must replace the income tax with a national retail sales tax (NRST), also known as the FairTax. This can be accomplished by passing the Fair Tax Act of 2003, known in the House as HR 25 and in the Senate as S 1493. The FairTax would replace all income and payroll taxes for both individuals and businesses with a tax-inclusive 23% NRST. Only goods and services purchased at the retail level would be taxed, while all goods and services purchased by businesses would not be. Because taxes will only be collected at the sales counter, there will no longer be any capital gains taxes on savings and investment. In order to ensure that we don’t end up with an income tax and a NRST, we must also repeal the 16th Amendment.</p>

By Alfred Hermida BBC News Online technology editor in Las Vegas It took nine months to come up with the Segway clone You could soon see a lot more people zipping around on stand-up Segway-type electric scooters. A US company has come up with an imitation of the invention that was supposed to revolutionise transport. The Rad2Go Q electric scooter looks like a Segway, but has four wheels and costs a quarter of the price. "The Segway is a marvellous invention," said Rad2Go President John Wang, "but for me it is too much technology for moving from point A to...

The captain of the USS Enterprise thinks people should stay on Earth instead of going into space. Patrick Stewart, who plays Captain Jean-Luc Picard in the TV series Star Trek, says he thinks interplanetary travel for humans is a bad idea. "I'm a bit of a wet blanket when it comes to the whole business of space travel," Stewart told the BBC. "I would like to see us get this place right first before we have the arrogance to put significantly flawed civilisations out onto other planets - even though they may be utterly uninhabited," he said. Stewart said he...

Why is there a 'q' after my freep name? Anybody help here? Golly geez.

CIA-Funded Software To Scour For Clues WASHINGTON - The CIA is bankrolling efforts to improve technology designed to scour millions of digital photos or video clips for particular cars or street signs or even, some day, human faces. The innovative software from fledgling PiXlogic LLC of Los Altos, Calif., promises to help analysts make better use of the Central Intelligence Agency's enormous electronic archives. Analysts also could be alerted when a helicopter or other targeted item appears in a live video broadcast. PiXlogic is set to announce that the CIA's venture-capital organization, In-Q-Tel, has invested an unspecified amount to help...

Cyanide-Shooting Guns Found in Baghdad .c The Associated Press BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Soldiers searching homes in a Baath Party enclave on Sunday turned up weapons straight out of James Bond movies - among them suitcases that concealed submachine guns and air pistols that fired cyanide pellets. The men of A Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, found 21 briefcases specially designed to hold Heckler and Koch MP-5K 9 mm submachine guns. The guns could be fired by pulling a trigger on the handle of the case. There were also several silencers for 9 mm pistols and a gold-plated MP-5...

An animal-rights activist dressed as Jesus was arrested during a protest at a church pig roast in Chester County on Saturday, police said. Four demonstrators with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) traveled from Norfolk, Va., to the Hibernia United Methodist Church County Fair and Pig Roast near Coatesville. "Blessed are the merciful! Go vegetarian!" Caleb Wheeldon announced to those at the fair when he arrived. Wheeldon, who said he was dressed as Jesus "to make sure that his words are taken as gospel," was arrested about an hour later for trespassing and disorderly conduct after walking onto...

Since I am approaching my one year anniversary of being a "freeper" and since I have never contributed a dime to FR, jim or the republican party, I am going to beat the powers to be at FR and voluntarily leave, rather than have them come up with one of the cock and bull stories to ban me. Been fun,Bye

Show me a honest politician and I will show you someone who has never won an election.