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Brenda O’Malley is home making dinner, as usual, when Tim Finnegan arrives at her door. “Brenda, may I come in?” he asks. “I’ve somethin’ to tell ya”. “Of course you can come in, you’re always welcome, Tim. But where’s my husband?” “That’s what I’m here to be telling ya, Brenda. There was an accident down at the Guinness brewery” “Oh, God no!” cries Brenda. “Please don’t tell me.” “I must, Brenda. Your husband Shamus is dead and gone. I’m sorry.” Finally, she looked up at Tim. “How did it happen, Tim?” “It was terrible, Brenda. He fell into a vat...

A veteran state lawmaker in North Carolina says she pushed the wrong button late Monday night in a marathon legislative session and accidentally opened up the state to fracking. Rep. Becky Carney, a five-term Democrat from Charlotte, burst into tears after mistakenly voting with Republicans to override Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue’s veto of the contentious legislation.

Chimpanzees produce 200 times more sperm than gorillas, the world's largest primates, and 14 times more than orangutans, scientists based in Japan reveal.

Below is a slide presentation given by David Archibald in Melbourne on February 5th. He’s asked me to repeat it here for the benefit of all. I’m happy to do so. He covers climate issues, oil and coal, plus Thorium reactors in this presentation of 110 slides. He also touches on his upcoming book, which we’ll have more on later. In the meantime, his current book is still available here Slides below, be patient while they load. There is a wealth of information here. A PDF is also available. – Anthony

UPDATE: 4 February An extraordinary new film of the tribe in these pictures has been released. It is the first aerial footage of any uncontacted community. Watch now » New photos obtained by Survival International show uncontacted Indians in never-seen-before detail. The Indians are living in Brazil, near the Peruvian border, and are featured in the ‘Jungles’ episode of BBC1’s ‘Human Planet’ (Thurs 3 Feb, 8pm, UK only). The pictures were taken by Brazil’s Indian Affairs Department, which has authorized Survival to use them as part of its campaign to protect their territory. They reveal a thriving, healthy community with...

Unless a dramatic and historical flurry of activity occurs in the next 9 weeks, 2007 will rank as a historically inactive TC year for the Northern Hemisphere as a whole. During the past 30 years, only 1977, 1981, and 1983 have had less activity to date (January-TODAY, Accumulated Cyclone Energy). For the period of June 1 - TODAY, only 1977 has experienced LESS tropical cyclone activity than 2007.

Papers, Please! Sensenbrenner ID Graphic Real ID = National ID Card This Tuesday, the US Senate is scheduled to vote on the implementation of a national ID card system. The Real ID Act is nothing less than a Real National ID Act. The only thing left to the individual states is to decide which pretty picture they will choose to put on the card: everything else will be controlled by Washington DC bureaucrats. The Real ID Act has never been debated on the US Senate floor. They've never talked about it in any committee. Heck, most of them haven't even...

A conservative group that strongly backed John Bolton's nomination to be U.N. ambassador is mounting a radio ad campaign against Senate Foreign Relations Committee member Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, who torpedoed Bolton's confirmation chances this week by withdrawing his support. "Shame on Senator Voinovich," Melanie Morgan, co-chair of Move America Forward (MAF), said Wednesday.

In the years 2008 and 2012, those living in Alaska, Hawaii and the Pacific, Mountain and Central time zones will see spring begin even earlier: on March 19. And in 2016, it will start on March 19 for the entire United States. There are a few reasons why seasonal dates can vary from year to year. 1. A year is not an even number of days and neither are the seasons. To try and achieve a value as close as possible to the exact length of the year, our Gregorian Calendar was constructed to give a close approximation to the...

Two weeks after intelligence officials confirmed that Osama bin Laden had sent a message to Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi, urging him to plan attacks on U.S. soil, details are emerging from one of al-Zarqawi's lieutenants about what the man behind many of the terrorist attacks in Iraq could have in mind. Intelligence officials tell TIME that interrogation of a member of al-Zarqawi's organization, who was taken into U.S. custody last year and has been described as a top aide, indicates that al-Zarqawi has given ample consideration to assaults on the American homeland. According to a restricted bulletin that circulated...

CNN's ticker tape said that Michael Moore was arrested for a concealed weapon at a NY airport (not specifying which airport). Anyone else see this? I've been searching CNN and other sources for any further info.

"George Michael has launched a withering attack on Elton John after his fellow pop star criticised his latest album, Patience, and told him to "get out more". Michael hit back after Sir Elton said in an interview: "George is in a strange place. There appears to be a deep-rooted unhappiness in his life." After reading the article in Heat magazine, Michael wrote an angry letter to the editor, published in this week's edition. He writes: "Elton John knows very little about George Michael and that's a fact. Contrary to the public's impression, we have spoken rarely in the last 10...

Cuba pressed on with its biggest military exercises in almost 20 years, with 400,000 reservists joining regular forces and millions of civilians in wargames which the authorities say are to deter a US invasion. About 100,000 Cuban regular troops are also taking part in the "Bastion 2004" exercises which started Monday, officials said. "The enemy will never catch us by surprise," the official communist party daily, Granma, trumpeted Tuesday in its coverage of the wargames which proceeded as ailing President Castro welcomed Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, his only close ally in the Americas, whose government helps keep Cuba's energy-starved economy...

" The original “Assassins” were a quasi-religious sect of murderous “defenders of Islam” formed in 1090 by “al-Hasan ibn-al-Sabbah” -– the same period that the Templars and the Catholic Church began their ill-fated attempt to “retake” the Holy Land in the Crusades. According to Islamic scholar Edward Burman, author of The Assassins - Holy Killers of Islam, though founded in Egypt, the Order soon moved to a mountainous region of Persia (modern-day Iran), organizing their campaigns against the invading knights from a well defended castle called “Alamut.” According to Berman, the cult was a ruthless, closed, secretive –- even occult...

President Clinton's new $165 million library here was funded in part by gifts of $1 million or more each from the Saudi royal family and three Saudi businessmen. The governments of Dubai, Kuwait, and Qatar and the deputy prime minister of Lebanon all also appear to have donated $1 million or more for the archive and museum that opened last week.

N Korea’s computer hackers target South and US By Anna Fifield in Seoul Published: October 4 2004 11:30 | Last updated: October 4 2004 11:30 South Korea/North Korea flagNorth Korea has trained as many as 600 computer hackers to be capable of launching a cyber-war on South Korea, the US or Japan, South Korea’s defence ministry said on Monday. Coming amid intelligence reports that Pyongyang might be preparing to test a ballistic missile, the report will exacerbate jitters over the extent of the communist state’s destructive ability. “North Korea’s intelligence warfare capability is estimated to have reached the level of...