Two buses filled with Girl Scouts collide.

Show your support by buying me a box of Samoas. From NY Daily News:

A trip to Radio City Music Hall turned into a ride from hell for a Girl Scout troop from Massachusetts when their tour buses crashed in the Bronx, injuring a dozen passengers.

The buses, carrying about 90 girls and chaperones, left Norwood, Mass., about 6 a.m. Saturday. Just before 10 a.m. one of the Crystal Transport buses slammed into the back of the other, sending passengers flying from their seats.

[...] None of the passengers was seriously hurt.

Top 5 songs of the week, 11/2-11/8/08.

Here's what I'm most addicted to this week:

1. Polysics - Wild One

"Now Is The Time!" isn't my favorite album from this wonderfully spazzy Devo-adoring band from Japan, but the more I listen to it, the more I love it. It's more rock-structured and guitar heavy than my faves "Neu" and "Eno," but man does it rock! And nothing rocks more than their cute, synthy version of Suzi Quatro's The Wild One. Endearingly sung by the group's bassist, the song is fun, bouncy, and has the most addicting synthesizer solo since Rush's Tom Sawyer.



2. Suggs - Cecilia

My second fave song of the week is also a cover. Suggs of Madness has only had a handful of solo hits that have stuck with me (Camden Town being one), but his version of Simon & Garfunkel's Cecilia is one of my favorite dance songs. It's got syncopated rhythm, a C&C Dance Factory-esque repetitive whistle, and a dancehall bridge that altogether sounds more dated than its 1996 release, but it comes together so nicely. I can listen - and shake my booty - to this song all day.



3. Mr. T Experience - And I Will Be With You

Rarely does a week go by without listening to MTX, who make everything all right. For some reason, this tune has been stuck in my head all week. Is it the addicting beat, steady riffs, or Dr. Frank's adorable vox with the "you-oo-oo-oo" refrain? Whatever it is, their video is also a low-budget treasure, featuring a K-Tel-like comp-by-mail ad, cheerleaders doing the watusi, furries, and the band as a Jabberjaw cartoon.



4. Beck - Timebomb

Get.... this... song... OUT OF MY HEAD!!! AHHHHH!!!!

Tick tick tick tick... nah-n'nah-nah...



5. Sisters of Mercy - Lucretia, My Reflection

I've been in a bouncy mood, but this goth song has been in my head on repeat all week. The dripping bass, the steady drums, Andrew Eldritch's deep, dramatic voice... But what I think I love most about the song is when the guitars kick in, and then those parts where they drop out again for a second or two pause, and - POW! This dated video doesn't do it justice (although it actually isn't so bad all things considering), but close your eyes and get swept up in the blood-red tide.



(By the way, I notice he's wearing the same clothes and swinging a pool stick in the This Corrosion video too. Weird.)

Arizona loses data on 40,000 children in disk theft.

From ComputerWorld:

Arizona's Department of Economic Security (DES) is notifying the families of about 40,000 children that their personal data may have been compromised following the theft of several hard drives from a commercial storage facility.

The information stored on the stolen disks included the names, addresses and phone numbers of families whose children were referred to the DES for early intervention services over the past several years. In the cases of families that had applied for and received services from the agency, their records also included Social Security numbers, DES spokeswoman Liz Barker Alvarez said.

The DES provides services such as financial assistance and food stamps programs as well as ones that are aimed at preventing child abuse and neglect. According to Alvarez, the data on the stolen disks was password-protected but not encrypted. She said the disks were stored in a leased storage unit at a local Extra Space Storage facility that was broken into on Oct. 14, and were part of a much broader array of items — including furniture and electronics — that were taken from multiple units at the facility.

Applebee's offers free meals to military and veterans.

Haven't these brave men and women suffered enough? From Army Times:

Active-duty members, retirees and veterans can get a free meal at a limited number of Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill & Bar restaurants on Veterans Day, with proof of military service.

The 164 participating restaurants in 12 states are testing this promotion, which will offer one of the following entrees: House Sirloin, Riblet Basket, Fiesta Lime Chicken, Quesadilla Burger or Oriental Chicken Salad. Traditional side dishes are included.

“It’s an honor to host an event that helps the neighborhood come together and say thanks to our veterans and active servicemen and women,” said Mike Archer, president of Applebee’s Services, Inc., in a statement announcing the offer.

Hot teacher guilty of lesbian tryst.

Teachers should not take advantage of underage students. That said... hot diggity damn! From News.com.au:

A teacher has been found guilty of pursuing an unlawful sexual relationship with a female student.

Amanda Louise Thompson, 28, pleaded not guilty in the Brisbane District Court to maintaining an unlawful relationship with a child between April 2003 and 2005.

Thompson fell for the 14-year-old student, who cannot be named, when she was teaching at a high school south of Brisbane in April 2003.

During the trial the court was told the friendship developed into a sexual relationship, with the pair meeting regularly for romantic trysts.

Film spoofs Das Boot.

A film spoof of Das Boot?! Really? From the Independent:

A film comedy which parodies the legendary, but deadly earnest 1981 submarine epic Das Boot has been released in Germany in the industry’s latest attempt to show that the Second World War is no longer off-limits as a subject for laughter.

U-900, by the German director Sven Unterwald, faithfully reproduces the menacing eeriness of Wolfgang Petersen’s original award-winning U-boat movie, down to the spooky film music and anguished submariners who bellow orders at each other while being depth-charged. But this time the U-boat is captained by a stand-up comedian who appears to be Germany’s answer to Ken Dodd. When he steps aboard U-900 he asks his grimfaced crew: "What are we supposed to do if we hit a whale, keep it as a pet or eat it?" The first mate wails: "Everything he says is complete drivel."

Amateur winemakers suffocate from fumes of stomped grapes.

From the Daily Mail:

Two amateur French wine makers have died after they were suffocated by the fumes from the grapes they were treading with their bare feet.

The victims had volunteered to help a friend make wine at his vineyard in the northern Ardeche region and had climbed into the six-foot wide vat to begin the traditional process of extracting the juice from the grapes.

But police believe Daniel Moulin, 48, and 50-year-old Gerard Dachis were overcome by carbon dioxide fumes that are given off during fermentation and collapsed.

Ants figure out traffic congestion problem.

I spent a lot of time looking at swarms of ants in the Panama rainforests. Those little buggers are highly well organized. Leaf-cutter ants, for instance, even have giant warrior ants who act as traffic guards and protect the highways of ants and keep the busy workers in line. It was really quite interesting and just goes to show that I have too much time on my hands. From New Scientist:

ANTS seem to have cracked a problem we humans haven't. While our cars get clogged in jams, ants help each other to move around their colony much more efficiently. Understanding how they do this could inspire more effective routing of road traffic.

Collective intelligence expert Dirk Helbing from the Dresden University of Technology in Germany and his team investigated how ants move around their colony. They set up an ant highway with two routes of different widths from the nest to some sugar syrup. Unsurprisingly, the narrower route soon became congested. But when an ant returning along the congested route to the nest collided with another ant just starting out, the returning ant pushed the newcomer onto the other path. However, if the returning ant had enjoyed a trouble-free journey, it did not redirect the newcomer.

The researchers created a computer model of more complex ant networks with routes of different lengths. The team found that even though ants being rerouted sometimes took a longer route, they still got to the food quickly and efficiently.

If human drivers travelling in opposite directions could pass congestion information to each other in this way, we would all be better off.

Coozer-Bits.

EurekAlert: MIT creates tiny backpacks for cells.

EurekAlert: Migraines cut breast cancer risk.

HuffingtonPost: Palin didn't know Africa is a continent.

NY Times: Scientists decode set of cancer genes.

Reuters: Victim drives sleeping rapist to police station.

Science Daily: Dried mushrooms slow climate warming in forests.

US air strike hits wedding party, kills 40 civilians.

From Xinhua:

KABUL, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- At least 40 Afghan civilians have been killed and 28 more injured as an airstrike of the U.S.-led Coalition forces hit a wedding gathering in southern Afghanistan's Kandahar province, officials and local villagers said Wednesday.

The U.S.-led troops called in gunship helicopters Monday afternoon to retaliate on militants who earlier that day attacked them at Wech Baghtu village in Shah Wali Kot district of Kandahar. However, the air bombing hit a wedding party being held near the hilly area where the Taliban insurgents' firing came from, according to locals.

Condemning the incident, Afghan President Hamid Karzai was saddened by "the killing of 40 civilians and injuring of 28 others in a Coalition air strike," a statement from his office said. "President Karzai has stressed repeatedly in the past that civilian casualties should be avoided but the Coalition forces usually carry out bombing without planning."

Airline passenger restrained with duct tape.

From Breitbart:

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - An airline crew used duct tape to keep a passenger in her seat because they say she became unruly, fighting flight attendants and grabbing other passengers, forcing the flight to land in North Carolina.

Maria Esther Castillo of Oswego, N.Y., is due in court Thursday, charged with resisting arrest and interfering with the operations of a flight crew aboard United Airlines Flight 645, from Puerto Rico to Chicago.

Castillo, 45, struck a flight attendant on the buttocks with the back of her hand during Saturday's flight, FBI Special Agent Peter Carricato said in a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Charlotte. She also stood and fell onto the head of a blind passenger and later started pulling the person's hair, the complaint stated.

Ankle cuffs kept slipping off Castillo, so the flight crew and two passengers were forced to use duct tape to keep her in her seat, the complaint states.

Demand for food assistance spiking.

If you can spare it, now would be a great time to donate to your local food bank. From the Philanthropy News Digest:

At a time of growing concern about joblessness and high heating prices, charities in Massachusetts are seeing a significant increase in the number of families seeking food and are bracing for a spike in holiday demand, the Boston Globe reports.

According to a recent survey of 163 pantries and soup kitchens conducted by the Greater Boston Food Bank, 90 percent of respondents reported a significant increase in need. At the same time, the Salvation Army has seen a big jump in the number of individuals seeking help with food or energy bills. Indeed, between October 2007 and May 2008, requests were up 48 percent in Milford, 66 percent in Framingham, and 86 percent in Greenfield.

To make matters worse, high food prices are squeezing the budgets of relief organizations. For example, the price of Thanksgiving turkeys increased from 77 cents a pound last year to $1.06 a pound this year, said the Greater Boston Food Bank. The increase means the Salvation Army's South End Thanksgiving Distribution program will be short four hundred turkeys this year and that senior citizens who expected to take a turkey dinner home will have to go to a group Thanksgiving dinner instead.

Zombie Watch: One step closer to Jurassic Park.

Speaking of Michael Crichton, a Japanese team has cloned mice from frozen bodies!

The whole premise of "Jurassic Park" was preposterous on its face. Making clones of long-dead animals? We know better.

But now a Japanese team has taken -- let's say, a step. They report, in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, that they cloned mice from bodies that had been kept frozen for 16 years. It's not bringing life back from the Jurassic, just the 1990s, but still, it's something most biologists would have thought impossible.

Dead: Michael Crichton.

From BBC:

Best-selling author Michael Crichton has died in Los Angeles aged 66 after a "courageous and private battle against cancer", his family has said.

He penned Jurassic Park, as well as books like Congo and Disclosure, all of which were adapted into films.

His books have sold more than 150m copies. He also created the long-running US hospital TV drama ER.

"He will be profoundly missed by those whose lives he touched," his family said in a statement.

Marijuana decriminalized in Mass.

I hadn't paid attention to the ballot initiatives. Some good news (besides Florida). From MSNBC:

Voters in Colorado and South Dakota on Tuesday rejected anti-abortion initiatives, Michigan approved medical marijuana and Massachusetts decriminalized the possession of an ounce or less of marijuana, according to NBC projections.

In Florida, voters agreed to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

Those results were among the first from 153 state measures across the country. Some of the nation's most divisive social issues — gay marriage, abortion and affirmative action — went before voters as 36 states.

Fungus discovered that produces diesel fuel.

Another good reason to not destroy our rainforests. Who knows - maybe there's a fungus yet to be discovered that can cure swamp ass. From Science Daily:

A team led by a Montana State University professor has found a fungus that produces a new type of diesel fuel, which they say holds great promise. Calling the fungus' output "myco-diesel," Gary Strobel and his collaborators describe their initial observations in the November issue of Microbiology.

The discovery may offer an alternative to fossil fuels, said Strobel, MSU professor of plant sciences and plant pathology. The find is even bigger, he said, than his 1993 discovery of fungus that contained the anticancer drug taxol.

Strobel, who travels the world looking for exotic plants that may contain beneficial microbes, found the diesel-producing fungus in a Patagonia rainforest. Strobel visited the rainforest in 2002 and collected a variety of specimens, including the branches from an ancient family of trees known as "ulmo." When he and his collaborators examined the branches, they found fungus growing inside. They continued to investigate and discovered that the fungus, called "Gliocladium roseum," was producing gases. Further testing showed that the fungus -- under limited oxygen -- was producing a number of compounds normally associated with diesel fuel, which is obtained from crude oil.

Thank You, America.

YES!

NY Post proclaims Obama the winner!

I'm surprised at the Post's enthusiasm. Never a paper to wait until the facts are in, they called Obama the winner as soon as he got Ohio. But for once, I'm hoping the Post's shoddy journalism is right.

Barack Obama Wins the Presidency

Barack Obama scored a barrier-breaking victory tonight to become the first black president of the United States - capping a 22-month quest that tapped into a national hunger for "hope" and "change."

At age 47 and still serving his first Senate term, the Democrat cleared a historic hurdle that seemed insurmountable just a few years ago - and was bolstered by Democrats padding their majority in Congress.

Obama held blue-tilting Pennsylvania and its 21 electoral votes by large margins, despite a massive effort by GOP Sen. John McCain to try to score a win there to shore up his faltering numbers elsewhere.

But for Obama, who merely needed to hold every state John Kerry won in 2004 and pick up one George W. Bush state in order to clinch victory, things started to break at around 9:30 p.m., when several media outlets called Ohio for the Democrat.

No Republican has won the White House without capturing battleground Ohio, which has 20 electoral votes.

Tina Fey changed the election.

The Guardian might have a point...

[...] Then, something truly astonishing occurred. Tina Fey, the lantern-jawed alumnus of Saturday Night Live, and creator of the critically esteemed sitcom 30 Rock, made a return visit to Saturday Night Live and began doing a dead-on impersonation of McCain's gee-whiz, aw-shucks running mate, Sarah Palin. Her send-up of the intellectually anaemic Alaskan was seen by countless millions on YouTube and soon became the No1 topic of conversation in America. Almost overnight, McCain's poll numbers began to drop precipitously, as the arrayed forces of electronically transmitted satire rained down on the GOP ticket. Before you knew it, Palin was viewed as a clown, a dolt, a joke, and McCain was condemned as a nitwit for selecting her as his running mate. For the first time in American history, a presidential candidate had seen all his hopes and dreams undone by the sheer emotive power of naked, unalloyed satire.

Obviously, Ms Fey did not accomplish this all by herself. Clearly, the savage nightly attacks by Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart played an important role in softening up the target. Surely the satirical tabloid The Onion should get some credit here. Without a doubt, the withering contempt of Bill Maher and Michael Moore played a vital role in causing the Republican colossus to come crashing to earth.

But the truth is, Moore and Maher and Stewart and Colbert had been flaying the Republican party for years without any notable effect. Not until Tina Fey stepped into the ring and began eviscerating the hapless Palin did the tide truly begin to turn. Like Horatius at the bridge, like William Tell versus the Austrian invaders, like George Washington at Valley Forge, Ms Fey had come to the aid of her country at the moment her country needed her most. She serviced it with a smile.

UK schoolchildren too fat for desks.

Too much bangers n' mash? From the Guardian:

Schools need to upgrade their furniture because today's children have outgrown the tables and chairs designed to meet the needs of 1960s pupils, experts say.

Pupils are so much bigger in height as well as girth that many no longer fit into standard school furniture.

There is also a much larger variation in the size of pupils meaning furniture needs to be redesigned to meet a wide range of shapes and sizes.

Your rights in taking time off of work to vote.

This is a great, handy-dandy state-by-state list of laws protecting your right to take a few hours off to vote and maybe catch a movie. Here ya go and sock it to your employer!

MTV, MySpace join forces to make money off pirated videos.

From ComputerWorld:

While online video has proved to be one of the most popular Web 2.0 applications, the sites that show them are constantly battling to fend off copyright infringement notices from broadcast and media companies that own much of the video content posted by users.

MySpace and Viacom International-owned MTV Networks today moved to resolve some key online video issues by tapping a new technology that inserts advertising into any videos uploaded by users to MySpace -- whether they're authorized or not.

The deal pairs the two companies with Auditude, a start-up firm that has developed technology that can identify any uploaded professional video and allow the content owners to insert ads into the video, the companies said.

Dead: Jimmy Carl Black.

Not just "the Indian of the group," but the rhythm backbone for the Mothers of Invention and Zappa. He passed away on 11/1, but just found out.

Thanks for all the music, JCB. RIP.

Coozer PSA: 5 reasons why you should vote.

Should you vote? Short answer, no. Voting is a pain in the ass. But long answer - hell yes! And here's why:

1. It will get you out of work.

Standing on a line with geriatrics for four hours might not be your idea of a good time, but it beats working for a place that doesn't give you Election Day off. And, you know what? If everyone took four hours to stand in line, all of those lame workplaces will give up and make it a holiday. A vote for president is a vote for a day off.

2. Some voting places have free cookies.

I recommend snagging the box off their information table and running into a voting booth with them. While they debate the legality of following you into a booth, you can use the opportunity to scarf them all down!

3. You can feel morally superior.

This is especially true if you can find or steal an "I Voted" button. Wear it proudly and look down your nose at the unwashed jerks who don't have a brightly colored 3" button that states their banal daily actions. I'm going to wear mine alongside my "I Give Blood" and "I Floss" buttons. Again, stolen, but who's got time for that crap?

4. You can vote for Ralph Nader out of irony.

Think about it - that's hilarious!

5. You should exercise your right as a citizen, a right for which millions of young people gave their lives.

Just kidding. Voting places are a great place to meet girls, and kissing booths are conveniently already set up!

Cooties are real! Women have more germs than men!

It's a good thing I got my cootie shot in the 2nd grade. From New Scientist:

Ladies, your hands are a zoo. Sampling the bacterial DNA on human skin has revealed that while women's hands get washed more often than men's, they teem with a more diverse selection of germs.

What's more, the average person's hands probably carry at least 3000 different bacteria belonging to more than 100 species. This startling cornucopia may make it possible to tell which objects have been touched by someone, just by looking at the bacteria left behind.

[...] Unexpectedly, women had different bacteria from men and significantly more kinds, even though women reported washing hands more often; bacterial diversity needs time to recover when hands are washed. In a follow-up experiment, the team tracked eight people after they washed their hands. Some bacteria preferred clean hands, other types showed up much later, but men always had fewer types of bacteria on their hands.

Councils ban use of Latin terms.

Is England becoming an idiocracy? They're banning well-known Latin terms so dumb people don't get confused or have their feelings hurt. Qui bono? From BBC:

A number of local councils in Britain have banned their staff from using Latin words, because they say they might confuse people.

Several local authorities have ruled that phrases like "vice versa", "pro rata", and even "via" should not be used, in speech or in writing.

But the ban has prompted anger among some Latin scholars.

Professor Mary Beard of Cambridge University said it was the linguistic equivalent of ethnic cleansing.

Some local councils say using Latin is elitist and discriminatory, because some people might not understand it - particularly if English is not their first language.

[...] Other local councils have banned "QED" and "ad hoc", while other typical Latin terms include "bona fide", "ad lib" and "quid pro quo".

But the move has been welcomed by the Plain English Campaign which says some officials only use Latin to make themselves feel important.

A Campaign spokesman said the ban might stop people confusing the Latin abbreviation e.g. with the word "egg".

Japanese petition to marry anime characters.

Where do I sign up? (Oh, Gadget from the Rescue Rangers. Someday you will be mine.) From ABC News:

Whether the man of your dreams is Brad Pitt, Nelson Mandela, or Homer Simpson, most people accept that a crush is just a crush. A fantasy: something to dream about on a rainy afternoon. However, more than 1,000 people in Japan are petitioning to take it to the next level. Taichi Takashita is the man behind the plan: he has created an on-line petition asking for a law to permit civilians to marry comic characters.

Alongside the petition, Takashita explained that he is putting forward the unconventional law because he feels more of a connection with the "two dimensional world" than with reality. "I am no longer interested in three dimensions. I would even like to become a resident of the two-dimensional world," he wrote. "However, that seems impossible with present-day technology. Therefore, at the very least, would it be possible to legally authorize marriage with a two-dimensional character?"

Takashita is not alone in this sentiment. The popularity of formalizing the union between cartoons and humans was instantly apparent. The proof is in the petition. Among the 1,000 supporters who signed, one man expanded on his plea: "For a long time I have only been able to fall in love with two-dimensional people and currently I have someone I really love. Even if she is fictional, it is still loving someone. I would like to have legal approval for this system at any cost."

Palin duped by prank call.

You must check out the audio. From the BBC:

US vice-presidential hopeful Sarah Palin has become the victim of a prank phone call by a Canadian comedian posing as the French president.

Marc Antoine Audette convinced Alaska's governor she was speaking to Nicolas Sarkozy during a six-minute chat aired on a Montreal radio programme.

Topics discussed ranged from the beauty of Mr Sarkozy's wife, Carla Bruni, to the prospect of a joint hunting trip.

A spokesperson for Mrs Palin said she was "mildly amused" by the prank.

At one point during the phone call, aired three days before the US election, Mr Audette told Mrs Palin he could see her as president one day.

Laughingly, the Republican candidate replied: "Maybe in eight years."

I'm amazed this part didn't tip her off.

Mr Audette said he would be keen to join her on a helicopter hunting trip.

"I just love killing those animals. Mmm, mmm, take away life, that is so fun," he said in an exaggerated French accent.

"I'd really love to go, so long as we don't bring along Vice-President [Dick] Cheney."

In 2006, Mr Cheney infamously shot and injured a hunting partner while quail-hunting in Texas.

Mrs Palin responded: "I'll be a careful shot."

Ryanair to offer $10 flights from the UK to the US.

I need to move to the UK so I can get around the US cheaper. From the BBC:

Budget airline Ryanair is to offer flights to the US for eight pounds, by buying planes from struggling rivals.

The plan will be revealed when chief executive Michael O'Leary announces the firm's quarterly results on Monday.

"Economy class will be very cheap, around 10 euros, but our business class will be very expensive," he said in a newspaper interview.

Ryanair's second quarter profits are expected to fall, due to higher fuel prices and its decision to cut fares.

Mr O'Leary is expected to announce plans to buy more than 50 extra aircraft, as part of plans to beat the recession by undercutting more expensive rivals.

"We'll just have to keep flying more aircraft, opening up more routes and offering people more cheap flights," Mr O'Leary said.

Photographer offers divorce albums.

Wow, this sounds like it would be painfully awkward. I love it. From Ananova:

Divorcing couples in Italy are flocking to a photographer who's offering to shoot a wedding-style album of their split.

Gianni Fasolini, from Valeggio sul Mincio, had the brainwave after reading that the divorce rate was going through the roof.

"People celebrate a marriage as a milestone in their lives, but a divorce is an important event too," he explained.

Trend Spotting: Hi-tech toilets.

ABC News has a feature on Japanese toilets. I was in Japan four years ago and fell in love with these futuristic commodes. The seats heats up, and a control panel allows you to spritz water, deodorize, and dry your bum. Those toilets can do anything.

Coming back to America and having to clean my own ass using paper was a culture shock. It's sad to think about how great this country once was, and far we've slipped behind butt-cleaning technology. This is why we are no longer a superpower.

Trailer: My Name Is Bruce.

"Legendary B-movie actor Bruce Campbell plays himself in the new film MY NAME IS BRUCE, which opens theatrically on October 31 in New York. MY NAME IS BRUCE doesn’t have a standard issue release date because we’re doing something for the film that doesn’t seem to be done anymore. Campbell is traveling to every opening city to be at the opening theatre for the first night or two. As such, Bruce is working his way across the country between November and December, in a new city every few days.."