Source = NPR

"A Kansas judge refused again on Tuesday to block confessed killer Scott Roeder from arguing at trial his belief that the shooting death of an abortion provider was a justified act aimed at saving unborn children."

Someone needs to strip this judge of his position! This killer walks up to a man in a church, puts a gun to his head and pulls the trigger. This type of person SHOULD NOT BE WANDERING AROUND MY SOCIETY! It does not matter what your "rationale" is...

"But what had been expected to be a simple trial was altered when Wilbert refused to bar Roeder's lawyers from building a defense case calling for a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter because Roeder sincerely believed the killing would save unborn children. A conviction for voluntary manslaughter could bring a prison sentence closer to five years, instead of a life term for first-degree murder."

Maybe we can all choose to be like Dexter! His killing is truly justified, right? Yay! Part of the problem here is that: "Kansas law defines voluntary manslaughter as 'an unreasonable but honest belief that circumstances existed that justified deadly force.'"

So Kansas law is seriously ff'ed up apparently. Figures. We should all become residents and waste all the CEOs of these big corporations and wall street bastards that have and continue to destroy this country. Come on, people...this is a JUDGE! A JUDGE thinks it is okay to allow this defense!!! What is wrong with this country?!? Oh, wait, too many things to get into. How about we just touch on guns for a minute.

ALL THOSE YAHOOS THAT THINK just anyone should be allowed to have a gun have no idea of the consequences. Check out this article: Shocking: Concealed Handgun Permit Holders Have Killed 9 Law Enforcement Officers and 108 Citizens Since May 2007

Oh, and that is not near a complete list: "These numbers may actually be a lowball estimate because many states that allow concealed firearms aren’t exactly forthcoming with data about incidents involving them. “It is likely that the actual number of fatal criminal incidents involving concealed handgun permit holders is far higher,” according to Mandy Wimmer at the VPC."

Source = wikinews.org

"Wolfgang Wodarg, a European health official, has said that the severity of the H1N1 swine flu pandemic was intentionally exaggerated by pharmaceutical companies so they could receive large profits.

Wodarg, who is the Council of Europe's head of health, claimed that the manufacturers of the anti-virus drugs pressured the World Health Organisation (WHO) to declare a global pandemic over the outbreak. The Council said it would investigate the allegations in a debate scheduled for later in January."

Okay...this is a rant. "Terrorism" can be effectively defined as pretty much anything these days and completely plays off of people's fears. Mostly third-world countries and those not playing with the Western agenda understand the use the the word as a tool to force them to conform to whatever the U.S. and its allies want.

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba angrily rejected on Friday U.S. accusations that it supports terrorist groups and demanded its removal from a U.S. list of "state sponsors of terrorism."

I am soooo sick of this political game BS.

So guess what....FIRST on my list of countries that practice "terrorism" is the U.S. Mainly because the U.S. is the most powerful nation still and COMPLETELY abuses its power instead of using it for good. Some great examples are organizations like Blackwater (now Xe), and the way we treat countries like Pakistan, Cuba, pretty much any country in South America...and all others who do not conform to what the U.S. wants.

(the list is huge)

The U.S. protects and refuses to prosecute people like George W. Bush, Carl Rove, any and all others who precipitated in the lying to convince the country to invade Iraq. WAR crimes...they should be prosecuted like Saddam Hussein.

How about Reagan and the Iran Contra scandal, not to mention all the other political takeovers and Coups that he authorized....Henry Kissinger....all committed war crimes...and all have been protected by the U.S. Ok, maybe Reagan was just a senile old man, and Bush was an uneducated moron...that is how Republicans like to control things...by using puppets.

Of course, this is all part of the evolution of the world and it will eventually right itself, but it is cruel and messy and we have the intelligence to avoid these things....right? Or is the human race destined to be eliminated? My guess is that we will soon create intelligence that will either GUIDE or CONTROL human behavior.

Source = BusinessWeek
Related Article from ComputerWorld

"The world is finally waking up to the full implications of Google's business, and they're not all pretty.

Leading the rebellion is News Corp. (NWS) CEO Rupert Murdoch, who is threatening to keep his newspaper content beyond the reach of Google (GOOG) searches. Murdoch wants to keep Google from reaping so many of the financial benefits of advertising placed adjacent to News Corp. content. He's being aided and abetted by Microsoft (MSFT).

In a scenario under consideration, Microsoft would pay News Corp. for making articles from The Wall Street Journal and other Murdoch-owned publications searchable exclusively through Microsoft's Bing search engine. If the effort encourages other powerful content providers to demand compensation from Internet companies that generate revenue from online ads, the Murdoch-Microsoft partnership could create a big problem for Google."

Source = Telegraph.co.uk

"The synthetic alcohol, being developed from chemicals related to Valium, works like alcohol on nerves in the brain that provide a feeling of wellbeing and relaxation. But unlike alcohol its does not affect other parts of the brain that control mood swings and lead to addiction. It is also much easier to flush out of the body. Finally because it is much more focused in its effects, it can also be switched off with an antidote, leaving the drinker immediately sober.

The new alcohol is being developed by a team at Imperial College London, led by Professor David Nutt, Britain's top drugs expert who was recently sacked as a government adviser for his comments about cannabis and ecstasy."

Source = TimesOnline (UK)

"SCIENTISTS have grown meat in the laboratory for the first time. Experts in Holland used cells from a live pig to replicate growth in a petri dish.

The advent of so-called “in-vitro” or cultured meat could reduce the billions of tons of greenhouse gases emitted each year by farm animals — if people are willing to eat it.

So far the scientists have not tasted it, but they believe the breakthrough could lead to sausages and other processed products being made from laboratory meat in as little as five years’ time."

"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." - Benjamin Franklin

Hmm, sound familiar? Like the U.S.'s actions under Bush? Patriot Act?

Colorado

• Coffman, Mike, Colorado, 6th - VOTED NO on the Bill
• DeGette, Diana, Colorado, 1st - VOTED YES on the Bill
• Lamborn, Doug, Colorado, 5th - VOTED NO on the Bill
• Markey, Betsy, Colorado, 4th - VOTED NO on the Bill
• Perlmutter, Ed, Colorado, 7th - VOTED YES on the Bill
• Polis, Jared, Colorado, 2nd - VOTED YES on the Bill
• Salazar, John T., Colorado, 3rd - VOTED YES on the Bill, VOTED YES to take away abortion coverage from women who currently have it

Source

Source = Lifehacker

I am not sure how scientific this is, but: "Health and home weblog Real Simple claims that by slouching, our body takes in as much as 30% less oxygen than we'd take in with good posture"