Tuesday is Befuddled

Today is just another day. Just as the last and the next.


Iraq's oil is officially up for grabs. Iraqi people will get to "keep" 17 of their over 80 oil fields. (iht.com)

Fidel Castro Resigns as President of Cuba [politics] (rds.yahoo.com)

Kosovo is Officially Independent! Congratulations! (news.bbc.co.uk)

Federal Judge Shuts Down Controversial Whistle-Blower Site "Wikileaks" [politics] (huffingtonpost.com)

An attack on Wikileaks should be seen as an attack on the First Amendment itself (enstereo.wordpress.com)

USDA Recalls a Record 143 Million Pounds of Beef (cnn.com)

White House to veto Senate ban on waterboarding [politics] (afp.google.com)

The Protect America Act expired last night. Do you feel less safe? No? Maybe American can finally dismiss what comes out of Bush's mouth as fear mongering and ignore him until January 20th, 2009. [politics] (theseminal.com)

So-called Protect America Act allowed to expire because of citizen action toward Congress--stay involved! (downsizedc.org)

Brilliant strategy? I don’t get it. "U.S. BACKED Sunni militants have challenged the U.S.-BACKED Iraqi government in Baghdad" [politics] (alternet.org)

China has a plan for using industrial espionage to turn their country into the mightiest industrial and military power on the planet. [politics] (strategypage.com)Scientists: Bush Censors, Suppresses and Falsifies Scientific Data [politics] (ipsnews.net)

Obama's words inspire Clinton and McCain so much they copy them in their slogans. [politics] (caribbeanworldnews.com)

The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve: "The Federal Reserve is the world's largest and most successful scam." [politics] (amazon.com)

"Drinking bottled water should be made as unfashionable as smoking" (telegraph.co.uk)

Pilot: 'My life was ruined after 9/11' [politics] (guardian.co.uk)

Obama: "I think even my six-year-old would understand it would not be fair for Senator Clinton to be awarded delegates when there was no campaign" [politics] (guardian.co.uk)

Do you like to eat seafood? Well, say your goodbyes. (scienceblogs.com)

Are Americans Hostile to Knowledge? - New York Times (nytimes.com)

Lockheed Gets $1 Billion FBI Contract, To Keep Track Of You [politics] (cnn.com)

First telco immunity, now this: Sen. Jeff Sessions sponsors an unusual provision granting the banks immunity against an active patent lawsuit, potentially saving them $ billions [politics] (correntewire.com)

PUTIN RIPS HILLARY: 'At a minimum, a head of state should have a head' [politics] (politico.com)

Democrats Grow A Spine, Will Kill Telecom Immunity Bill In The House: "[We are] not a lap dog of the president or the United States Senate any more than they are of us." [politics] (blog.washingtonpost.com)

Reddit power! White House blaming the internets for Congress' reluctance to pass telco immunity [politics] (politico.com)

Of the leading contenders, so far, only Senator Barack Obama has released his full income-tax returns — a level of disclosure once routine for candidates after the political corruption of Watergate. [politics] (nytimes.com)

US President George W Bush has given his first interview to the BBC in almost seven years. Here is the full transcript of his conversation with BBC World News [politics] (news.bbc.co.uk)

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann Spanks Bush for FISA; Concludes Bush Is a Fascist (MSM Uses the F Word) [politics] (afterdowningstreet.org)

"I, for one, do not intend to back down – not to the terrorists and not to anyone, including a President, who wants Americans to cower in fear." [politics] (speaker.gov)

The Age Of Unreason: Unable to grasp the basic principles of scientific method, Americans buy into a host of bogus ideas - religious fundamentalism, junk science, and simplistic politics [politics] (salon.com)

The House of Representative Grows A Pair, Stands Up To Bush's Fearmongering, and Lets FISA Expire! [politics] (theseminal.com)

Bush uses scare tactics to railroad flawed spying act [politics] (news.yahoo.com)

Way too many people claim "If you're doing nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear." They couldn't be further from the truth. [politics] (populistamerica.com)

How "flat earth" news is killing journalism (mwaw.net)

22,000 People Died As Bayer Reaped Profits, Withheld Key Study From FDA [business] (consumerist.com)

Stevia occurs naturally, is 10-15 times sweeter than table sugar, and requires no patent to produce it. That's why you haven't heard of it, but you've heard of aspartame. (stevia.com)

Stevia caused Rat's Testicals to Shrink and Sperm to Decrease. Still think it's a good sugar replacement? (cspinet.org)

Who could imagine a private citizen would do an aspartame experiment with 108 rats for 2 years and 8 months? [science] (myaspartameexperiment.com)

Cuba demands US gives back Guantanamo Bay [politics] (news.com.au)

Mysteries of computer from 65 BC are solved [science] (guardian.co.uk)

Mt Huashan Hiking Trail: For Acrophobics only [Pics] (ssqq.com)

Telekinesis and Quantum Field Theory [science] (cosmicvariance.com)

Total Lunar Eclipse on Wed, February 20th - the last one until Dec. 2010 [science] (science.nasa.gov)

Like Ants, Humans Are Easily Led [science] (telegraph.co.uk)

The best hybrid animals [Pics] [science] (hemmy.net)

50 Weird Science Tidbits & Oddities [science] (sciencenewsreview.com)

Who Are the Japanese, by Jared Diamond -- Discover Magazine, Non Linkjacked (discovermagazine.com)

As a reaction to the hops shortage, Sam Adams is selling 20,000 pounds of excess hops to microbrews at cost. (samueladams.com)

Marijuana news: Influential and respected group of doctors urge US goverment to roll back prohibition [science] (scientistlive.com)

This machine KILLS fascists (pic) (en.wikipedia.org)

How Porn Ruined Sex: How About You Don't Ask To Come On My Face On The First Date? [sorta nsfw] (jezebel.com)

Los Alamos says it can manufacture gasoline from CO2 in the air at a price of $4.60 a gallon. [science] (dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com)

The Golden Gate Suicide Spot Location [Image] (matterr.com)

How To Make A Million Before You Turn 20 (forbes.com)