] NEW YORK, Aug. 13 -- It was the summer of 1998. The bull
] market was kicking into full swing. Wall Street banks
] barely gave a second thought to hiring young whiz kids
] straight out of college.
]
] Historically staid brokerage giant Merrill Lynch & Co.
] sensed an opportunity to make big money in the new Wild
] West world of deregulated energy trading. But no one at
] the firm understood the market. So Merrill went out and
] hired people who said they did.
]
] Among the recruits was a 22-year-old wonder boy named
] Daniel L. Gordon. At an age when many students are just
] finishing college, Gordon already had a master's degree
] in international economics from Yale and had spent a year
] working at an energy-trading firm in Baltimore.
]
] Within two years of joining Merrill, prosecutors allege,
] Gordon would steal $43 million. If true, it would be one
] of the most audacious heists in Wall Street history.
] Gordon has not been charged with any wrongdoing. His
] attorney, Alan Levine, declined to comment on the
] allegations and said Gordon would be unavailable for
] comment. Merrill would not comment on either the
] allegations or Gordon's tenure with the firm.

Interesting read.

A Merrill Lynch Whiz Kid, and Then a Suspect (washingtonpost.com)

"A man has been jailed for 50 days for dissecting his daughter's guinea pig believing it was a government spy."
""It's not often you have someone this paranoid from using drugs that they think a guinea pig is spying on them for the government," Deputy District Attorney Tom Connors said. The paranoia was apparently a byproduct of Zavala's methamphetamine use, not mental illness."

Its the government I tell you... They're in it with the hamsters and the mice!!!

Man jailed for killing guinea pig he thought was a spy

] A Briton has been arrested in the US after a suspected
] plot to supply a lethal surface-to-air missile to
] terrorists.
]
] It is thought the alleged target might have been a
] commercial aircraft or the US President's personal
] aircraft.
]
] Western intelligence officials have confirmed to the BBC
] it was a multinational sting operation, involving agents
] from the US, Russia and Britain.
]
] It resulted in the arrest of a British arms dealer at
] Newark in New Jersey on Tuesday.
]
] Two people were later arrested in New York and the trio
] are expected in court on Wednesday.

BBC NEWS | Americas | Briton arrested in 'terror missile' sting

] LONDON, England (Reuters) -- An armada of small, faded
] yellow toy ducks is expected to make landfall in Britain
] within weeks at the end of an epic 11-year voyage from
] the Pacific Ocean.
]
] They are the survivors of a consignment of 29,000 bath
] toys washed overboard from a container ship in 1992 that
] have since floated across the ocean, round the United
] States, through the Arctic and past Greenland.

CNN.com - England braces for rubber duck invasion - Jul. 26, 2003

] A few weeks ago, you asked questions of Ryan Lackey, CTO
] for HavenCo, a company dedicated to providing secure
] off-shore data hosting from Sealand, a principality off
] the coast of England.

A little dated, but Ryan Lackey addresses real world questions about taking data havens out of sci-fi and into, in this case, the north sea.

Slashdot | Answers From Sealand: CTO Ryan Lackey Responds

] Gwinnett's midsummer crime wave continued Tuesday with an
] apparently successful bank robbery in Lawrenceville.
]
] About 8:30 a.m., two robbers clad in ninja garb ambushed
] two female employees as they arrived at Atlantic State
] Bank at McKendree Church Road and Duluth Highway, police
] said.

Ninjas on the loose in GA.

ajc.com | Gwinnett | 'Ninjas' rob bank in Lawrenceville

] "The action we are taking is intended to protect the
] privacy rights of our customers," SBC spokesman Larry
] Meyer said.
]
] "It's about the fact that anyone can without any effort
] obtain one of these DMCA subpoenas," said Meyer,
] referring to the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

SBC Sues RIAA to stop subpoenas

] A drunken Croat flasher got more excitement than he
] bargained for when he pushed his penis through a woman's
] fence and her dog bit it, local newspapers said on
] Friday.

admit it... you've done it too!

Dog Gives Flasher His Come-Uppance

] One company's target customer is a gourmand who likes
] natural food; the other's is a carbo-loader who needs a
] sugar fix. Together, they are two businesses that appeal
] to our fixations for great-tasting food, but do so from
] opposite ends of the spectrum -- the yin and yang of yum,
] you might say (or not).

Showdown: Whole Foods vs. Krispy Kreme

] Sen. Norm Coleman on Thursday began an inquiry into the
] recording industry's copyright lawsuits against online
] music swappers, saying the tactics could ensnare innocent
] people.

Sen. Norm Coleman raises eyebrow at RIAA