Caption from X17: November 27, 2009: We spotted Samantha Ronson looking cool in her black fedora at Crown Bar the night after Thanksgiving. She was alone, but immediately met some friends on the patio and lit up a cigarette.

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X17

A secret government lab has been trying to create the ultimate killer using the DNA of infamous killers, but there’s one big problem: They’ve escaped! Bloody mayhem stretches across the United States as they go on the ultimate killing spree. Trying to stop the maniacal madness is Ringo, a hick warrior being trained by God, using only a shotgun and a bottle of whiskey. In his road trip to hell, he must first fight off his own demons, not to mention an army of Japanese ninjas! It all leads up to the ULTIMATE SHOWDOWN!


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{barack and michelle obama, obama administration, sarah palin & howard dean}



(Click here!)

Cars burned, windows broken at trade protest
Geneva police say 'situation is calmer' after rioting at anti-WTO march

GENEVA - Anti-capitalism protesters smashed the windows of banks, shops and cafes in central Geneva and set cars on fire on Saturday during a demonstration against the World Trade Organization.

Some demonstrators were breaking the windows of every building they passed and setting off fireworks in the main shopping street.

Police in riot gear headed off groups of violent protesters.

At least three cars were set on fire near the city bus station. A pall of smoke hung over the city center and tear gas drifted through the streets.

The violent protesters were a minority in an otherwise good-natured crowd of about 2,000 people, accompanied by a dozen tractors and a marching band, who were demonstrating against a three-day WTO conference that starts Monday.
( the rest )
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I hate how the media doesn't say a word about the protests until a few people get violent. Also, wtf at the random inclusion of that bit about the South Koreans.

Polish director Roman Polanski’s family is thanking French President Nicolas Sarkozy for being “very effective” in helping to win his release from a Swiss prison.

“I wouldn’t go so far as to say that it is thanks to the President that Roman has been freed, but he has been super,” Polanski’s sister-in-law, Mathilde Seigner, told Le Parisien newspaper. “The President has been very effective.”

The London Times speculated that Sarkozy’s wife, ex-model Carla Bruni, may have pressured her husband to intervene because she used to hob nob with Paris’ artistic community, which includes Polanski and wife Emmanuelle Seigner.

( Read more... )

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A German-Afghan man who stabbed his teenage sister to death in a grisly "honour killing" was sentenced to life imprisonment after a court in Karlsruhe rejected his appeal on Thursday.

In a crime that outraged Germany, the man, identified only as Ahmad-Sobair O. knifed his 16-year-old sister Morsal 23 times as he believed she brought dishonour to their family by wearing Western-style clothes and make-up.

The Federal Court of Justice said it was "convinced that the accused committed the crime because his sister, in his opinion, had 'stained the family's honour'."

The court rejected the appeal that the man was psychologically deranged and upheld the initial judgement by a lower court in Hamburg, in the north of the country.

The killer, aged 24 at the time, had said during his trial that he was "sorry from the bottom of his heart" for his actions. "That was my sister and I loved her," he told the court, breaking down in tears.

Germany has been shocked by around 50 so-called "honour killings" since 1996, mainly in the country's large Turkish diaspora.

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( Big ass posters )

Posters for: Precious, A Serious Man, Up, Coraline, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Ponyo, 9 (the animated one), Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Princess and the Frog.

Mostly animated ones now, I hope they release more soon.

EDIT: Brothers and The Hangover added.

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Tiger's SUV in a Tree -- The Photos
Tiger Woods doesn't like hitting his golf shots into the trees -- so hitting one with his SUV really sucks.

WFTV in Orlando obtained photos of Tiger's Escalade after it smacked into a tree early Friday morning. Tiger was taken to the hospital with minor injuries and released shortly thereafter.


Sources tell TMZ Woods and his wife, Elin Nordegren, were arguing right before the accident over allegations Woods had an affair.
Source

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

Synopsis: (from www.bn.com)

Levitt (economics, U. of Chicago) and writing collaborator Dubner (a writer for the New York Times and The New Yorker) dub the material in this work "freakonomics" because Levitt uses analytical tools from economics to address a range of questions that, at first glance, might seem to be far removed from the discipline of the "dismal science." They consider questions such as how to determine if teachers are aiding in students' cheating on standardized tests, the impact of information asymmetry on the operation of the Ku Klux Klan, how the organizational structure of crack gangs resemble other businesses, and the influence of parents on child development.

My take:

I'd had this book on my "shelf" for several years and now that the new "SuperFreakonomics" just came out, I thought I'd better get to it.  As with Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers, which I'd recently read and reviewed, I question the science employed here, but found the theories and anecdotal evidence interesting, if not compelling.

Apparently, this book stirred up quite a frenzy when it came out because of it's controversial stance that the decline in crime in the 90's is directly correlated to the passage of Roe v. Wade and the legality of abortion.  Essentially, the author proposes that the majority of abortions of unwanted pregnancies in the 70's eliminated individuals that would later grow up to commit violent crimes.

The author also prides himself on the fact that the book has no overarching theme other than the fact that he uses raw numbers to prove his theories.  It reminded me a lot of the saying:  "Lies, damned lies, and statistics".  Still, I was entertained throughout the book; not sure I'll pick up the sequel, though.