Wow... talk about adding insult to injury..

ROME (Reuters) - An impotent Italian man who kept his problem a secret from his wife until after their wedding must pay her damages for 'eroding' her right to have a family, Italy's Supreme Court has ruled.

The woman, identified by the Italian media as Cristina S., was quick to get her marriage annulled in the 1990s after learning to her horror that her husband could not consummate it.

She then demanded damages, saying she had been robbed of her "right to sexuality" and the promise of a family. Despite losing legal battles in lower courts, she kept appealing, and finally the Supreme Court found in her favor.

"Her fundamental right (was) eroded to fully realize a family, as a woman and a wife, and eventually as a mother," according to excerpts from the court ruling published in Italian newspapers Thursday.

The amount of damages will be settled by a lower court in Sicily, where the unhappy couple were married.

Impotent ex-husband must pay damages

Nashville's (TDOT) federally funded ITS aka inteligent traffic system has made dealing with traffic / construction situations much easier by providing you with relevant overhead sign info (trouble ahead) or online traffic webcams to check before you leave. Despite our ongoing road construction woes, this use of technology has made daily use of the interstate system a much better experience. Kudos. Maybe someday, we will finally look at an effective mass transit system.

Overall in 2003, there were 3.7 billion hours of travel delay and 2.3 billion gallons of wasted fuel for a total cost of more than $63 billion.

"Urban areas are not adding enough capacity, improving operations or managing demand well enough to keep congestion from growing," the report concluded.
...
Take fast-growing Austin, Texas, for example. In 1982, the average peak-hour traveler was delayed by 11 hours a year. That delay increased to 51 hours in 2003, the report said.

"Austin didn't add transportation capacity in the '80s or '90s," Lomax said. "The 'If you don't build it, they won't come' philosophy didn't work."

Congestion can also be reduced by managing traffic better. The report said such techniques as coordinating traffic signals, smoothing traffic flow on major roads and creating teams to respond quickly to accidents reduced delay by 336 million hours in 2003.

Study: Traffic Jams Just Keep Spreading

Ya gotta love engrish.. I only wonder how a name like AirPie made it thru the focus groups.. Perhaps the Bearded Clamp bluetooth headset will be their next product :-p

Well, can't argue about the coolness of brand names, but "AirPie" seems to have a certain jazzy funk written all over it. This young company (sub-division of Tech Business Land, so it seems) is introducing its TH-11 MP3 player. Weird little device, this black bubbly box. It comes with a 65k color OLED, a basic memory of 256, 512MB or 1GB plus an SD-card slot for memory expansion purposes.

Air Pie mp3 player

I have wanted one a Smart ForTwo as a daily driver for a while. Now with gas over $2/gal and 17mpg, I really want one.

The Zap is 8 feet 2 inches long, or slightly more than half the length of the Prius, and at 1,588 pounds, it is nearly 40 percent lighter than the Mini Cooper. Campbell said the three-cylinder car appeals to urban dwellers who need to squeeze into small parking spaces and like the stylish colors.

The customizable car will be sold with door panels in a variety of colors that can be switched "within the time it takes to drink a latte," Campbell said.

The European version of the car, which is manufactured by Smart, a subsidiary of Mercedes-Benz, is rated to get 60 miles per gallon. However, Campbell said that after being modified by G&K Automotive Conversions to meet the tougher U.S. emissions standards, the car received an initial Environmental Protection Agency rating of just 37 mpg. He said the company's internal tests indicate that the modified car should get at least 50 mpg, so it has asked the EPA for a retest.

Wired: Smart Car Seeks Small Niche

You've seen all the Livestrong yellow bracelets, now we have Pimpstrong too. Too funny...

The Pimpstrong Wristband

About Pimpstrong

The Pimpstrong was created so that true players could express themselves without being all in your face.

In a world awash with awareness wristbands and bracelets isn’t it time you wore something you really cared about. Yourself! The Pimpstrong wristband, for pimps. Shows that you plan to not only livestrong, but that you will pimpstrong as well!

Keep it Pimpin People!

Pimp Strong !

GREAT IDEA - About freakin time... Rest in peace, not granite. I personally loathe ornate and fancy mausoleums.

CANBERRA (Reuters) - It will be standing room only for those being buried at a new Australian cemetery that aims to provide cheap, environmentally friendly burials.

Australia's Victoria state government has approved plans for the cemetery at Darlington, 200 km (125 miles) southwest of the Victorian capital Melbourne, where corpses will be buried vertically in body bags -- instead of caskets -- on grazing land. "When you die, you are returned to the earth with a minimum of fuss and with no paraphernalia that would affect the environment," a spokesman for Palacom, which will establish the cemetery, told Australian Associated Press on Thursday.

"You're not burning 90 kg of gas in a crematorium and there's no ongoing maintenance costs."

He said burials would cost about A$1,000 ($781), with bodies held in a morgue in Melbourne and transported to the cemetery in batches of up to 15 in a bid to reduce costs. Animals would be allowed to graze on the land again once it was stable.

Standing Room Only at New Cemetery

Did she get the finger, or did the finger get her?

SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- The woman who claimed she found a well-manicured finger in her bowl of Wendy's chili last month was arrested Thursday night in Las Vegas, police said.

Anna Ayala was taken into custody at her home, San Jose police spokesman Enrique Garcia said. He said police would not give any details until a news conference Friday afternoon. Las Vegas police also refused to comment.
...
Earlier Thursday, Ohio-based Wendy's International Inc. announced it had ended its internal investigation, saying it could find no credible link between the finger and the restaurant chain.

All the employees at the San Jose store were found to have all their fingers, and no suppliers reported any hand or finger injuries, the company said.

Woman in Wendy's finger case is arrested

Those kooky royals and their l4m3 c0mput3r skillZ....

LONDON, England -- Britain's Prince Harry, who is scheduled to start his army officer training next month, has been told to brush up on his computer skills after reportedly failing a test at the elite Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.

Col. Roy Parkinson, protocol officer at Sandhurst, said Friday that Harry underwent a series of tests, physical and academic, to measure his strengths and weaknesses ahead of his arrival on May 8.

Harry "had no problem with the physical tests," Parkinson told the UK's Press Association.

Prince Harry 'told to get with IT'

Wow... Blame Elvis.. I hate when dead guys are better compensated than me...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - McDonald's Corp. said on Wednesday it paid more than $5 million in bonuses to the estates of former Chief Executives Jim Cantalupo and Charlie Bell following their deaths.

Cantalupo, who died suddenly of a heart attack last April, received a bonus of $1.8 million in recognition of his "outstanding service," the company said in regulatory filing. McDonald's said the bonus was similar to one Cantalupo would have received had he remained employed throughout 2004.

Cantalupo's estate also received a prorated payout of $791,000 as part of the company's long-term incentive plan.

Bell, Cantalupo's successor, received a bonus of $3.2 million following his death in January from colon cancer. He stepped down as CEO in November due to his illness.

McDonald's pays deceased CEOs bonuses

A provincial court later commuted the sentence to 15 years in prison.

So the question is... If you've already done the time, can you still do the crime? I seem to remember an Ashley Judd/Tommy Lee Jones movie that had a similar theme.

Jailed 'Killer' Freed After Wife Turns Up Alive