News: Spinach industry to collapse

Poor Popeye, he is going to get beat up by Bluto (I almost typed “Pluto” – woof!) and not be able to save Olive Oyl. Why? Because the FDA has released a nationwide notice today telling us not to eat bagged spinach and to toss any that we may have.

They don’t have definitive proof but they feel it MAY be the source of a multistate E. coli outbreak that has killed one person and made dozens sick.

“We’re advising people not to eat it,” said Dr. David Acheson of the FDA.

I’m surprised they haven’t punctuated their statements with, “We do not feel this is a terrorist attack.”

News: International Space Station

So, in case you were wondering where our tax dollars are going, here is an interactive diagram and video regading the assembly of the International Space Station.

What I find amusing is the number of sections that the USA is delivering compared to the number of sections Russia is delivering.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/graphics/shuttle_iss/flash.htm

News: Apparenlty we need to go to the moon

Today was one of the worst work days I’ve had in a while. But, I won’t bore you with that.

Instead, let’s mention this exciting tidbit:

On the “let’s waste more money” front, NASA announced today that they have awarded a multibillion dollar contract to Lockheed Martin to build a spaceship to return astronauts to the moon. Gee, I hope they build it with a place to stow a full bag of golf clubs so that they can hit some more golf balls on the moon.

It’s sad how we all just go on with our lives and forget that there is a war going on on the other side of the world, that there are homeless on our streets, American companies going out of business due to outsourcing, and lots of homeless and moreover, jobless people.

But, hey, you know what will solve all of that? Spending a couple billion dollars to send some putzes to the moon again.

News: Ass of the month

I can’t believe people like this exist:

Parents of the Year

Summary:
—
CINCINNATI, Ohio (AP) — The foster parents of a disabled 3-year-old boy wrapped him like a cocoon and left him for two days in a closet, where he died while they attended a family reunion, a prosecutor said.

The couple made several attempts to burn Marcus Fiesel’s body and concocted an elaborate sham to cover up the boy’s death, Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters said Tuesday.

“Marcus was wrapped in a blanket and wrapped in tape with his arms behind him — and this was not the first time,” Deters said in announcing additional indictments against Liz and David Carroll Jr.

A grand jury indicted the couple Monday on charges of involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment, and David Carroll, 35, on a charge of gross abuse of a corpse.

Tuesday’s indictments included two counts each of inducing panic and one count each of making false alarms. Liz Carroll, 30, also was indicted on two counts of perjury for her testimony Monday to a grand jury, Deters said.
—

News: Pluto is no longer a dog.. err.. Planet!

Well, on the “Don’t they have anything better to do, like work on world peace?” news front, it is official –> Pluto will be stripped of its status as a planet in our solar system. So, instead of 9 planets, we will only have 8. Astronomers said Pluto was too small. Guess he shoulda done steroids. But, even if he did, I’m sure it would have gotten out and he would have been stripped of his planetary title anyways like those in cycling… track and field… football… weight lifting…

Anyways, all those school projects that kids made of our solar system out of styrofoam balls will either need to be destroyed, or modified. Poor kids. All that work down the drain. I feel their pain.

News: JonBenet murder suspect

Okay, so they arrested some guy regarding the murder of JonBenet Ramsey. From this picture, I mean, it is wrong to judge people just on looks alone, but holy cow… Creeeeepy!

World: Jill Carroll story

I’ve been reading the Jill Carroll story the last few days here:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0814/p01s01-woiq.html

(Warning: the csmonitor site is slow to load – probably due to all the folks trying to read that article)

Pretty engrossing for me. If you don’t know who she is, she is a freelance reporter for the Christian Science Monitor and was held hostage in Iraq for 82 days.