On the road to success, a strong vocabulary is an extremely valuable tool. Luckily dictionaries can also be fun if you use them to look up dirty words.

Now thanks to our old pal the Internet, we can actually hear professional voice-over people demonstrate the proper way to say them.

Please enjoy the following educational collection of audio links to the Merriam Webster online dictionary. (And while the thought of more than one vagina always sounded like a good idea to me, I had no clue the plural of vagina would be this entertaining.)

Hah!

The Sneeze - Half zine. Half blog. Half not good with fractions.

The United States' second-richest man has delivered a blunt message to the Bush administration: he wants to pay more tax.

Warren Buffett, the famous investor known as the "Sage of Omaha", has complained that he pays a lower rate of tax than any of his staff - including his receptionist. Mr Buffett, who is worth an estimated $52bn (�25bn), said: "The taxation system has tilted towards the rich and away from the middle class in the last 10 years. It's dramatic; I don't think it's appreciated and I think it should be addressed."

During an interview with NBC television, Mr Buffett brandished an informal survey of 15 of his 18 office staff at his Berkshire Hathaway empire. The billionaire said he was paying 17.7% payroll and income tax, compared with an average in the office of 32.9%.

"There wasn't anyone in the office, from the receptionist up, who paid as low a tax rate and I have no tax planning; I don't have an accountant or use tax shelters. I just follow what the US Congress tells me to do," he said.

Warren Buffett: "I should pay more tax"

EDINBURGH, Scotland (AP) — Donovan, famous for '60s pop hits such as "Hurdy Gurdy Man" and "Mellow Yellow," has announced plans to open the Invincible Donovan University, where students will adhere to the principles of transcendental meditation.

...

"I didn't know what to do because I couldn't do this on my own. But then I met David Lynch, who told me about the positive effects of TM in education. Although it's taken me 35 years, I will do what the Maharishi told me to do."

The Associated Press: Donovan Plans Meditation University

Decius wrote:

Two well-respected US peace activists, CODEPINK and Global Exchange cofounder Medea Benjamin and retired Colonel and diplomat Ann Wright, were denied entry into Canada On October third. The two women were headed to Toronto to discuss peace and security issues at the invitation of the Toronto Stop the War Coalition. At the Buffalo-Niagara Falls Bridge they were detained, questioned and denied entry.

Database sharing between the U.S. and Canada begins to have political implications, as acts of civil disobedience can now make you unable to cross the border.

"You're anti-war??!!!, Damn it, sorry, you're not violent enough to enter our country. We only allow those who are enthusiastic about lots of wanton slaughter. What kind of American are you?"

RE: FBI Puts Antiwar Protesters on Criminal Database; Canada Uses It To Ban Protesters From Entry

Of course, Giuliani made his career as a prosecutor rather than a philosopher, and there are certainly Catholic teachings he has repudiated or ignored. In 1989, wanting the New York Liberal Party's endorsement for his GOP mayoral bid, Giuliani renounced his past opposition to abortion and Roe v. Wade. But his exposure to Catholic and classical political thought clearly had a lasting impact on him. At a forum on crime in March 1994, sponsored by the New York Post, Giuliani voiced views on liberty and authority that seemed to flow from these teachings. He criticized liberals for seeing only "the oppressive side of authority." "What we don't see is that freedom is not a concept in which people can do anything they want, be anything they can be," he said. "Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do."

Freedom is Slavery.

Authority Figure

A man has been placed on the sex offenders’ register after being caught trying to have sex with a bicycle.

?

Man who had sex with bike in court - Telegraph

"We have data that happy drivers' accident rates are drastically lower than depressed ones, so this robot stays there to make sure the driver is happy always," said Masato Inoue, chief designer at Nissan's exploratory design group, in an interview at the Motor Show. "This guides the driver and sometimes cheers up the driver. For example, if the driver is irritated it might say 'Hey, you look somehow angry. Why? Please calm down.'"

It doesn't take a robot to do this. The same function could be accomplished by cameras mounted in the car's dashboard, but Inoue said there's a conscious choice behind the robot.

ITworld.com - Nissan adds a robot helper to its concept car

Pope Benedict better watch where he places his pope hat or the Kuka robot might just steal his place. Kuka is a robot programed to rewrite the entire Martin Luther bible in a beautiful calligraphy style font.

GEARFUSE � Holy Crap! It's A Holy Robot!

Scientists at North Carolina's PULSTAR nuclear reactor facility fired a positron bean five times stronger than any other ever created earlier this month, breaking a record previously held by a team in Germany. The antimatter device -- which apparently looks like a Star Trek warp reactor -- was developed as part of a two year project by NC State, the University of Michigan, and Oak Ridge National Labs. Now that the device is working, the team is looking for practical applications for the tech, including building an "antimatter telescope," which would allow even closer observations of atomic interactions. Or they could use it to blow up the universe. You know, whatever.

Researchers fire most powerful antimatter beam ever - Engadget

PARIS - October 26 - Today, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) along with the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), and the French League for Human Rights filed a complaint with the Paris Prosecutor before the “Court of First Instance” (Tribunal de Grande Instance) charging former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld with ordering and authorizing torture. Rumsfeld was in Paris for a talk sponsored by Foreign Policy magazine, and left through a door connecting to the U.S. embassy to avoid journalists and human rights attorneys outside.

“The filing of this French case against Rumsfeld demonstrates that we will not rest until those U.S. officials involved in the torture program are brought to justice. Rumsfeld must understand that he has no place to hide. A torturer is an enemy of all humankind,” said CCR President Michael Ratner.

“France is under the obligation to investigate and prosecute Rumsfeld’s accountability for crimes of torture in Guantanamo and Iraq. France has no choice but to open an investigation if an alleged torturer is on its territory. I hope that the fight against impunity will not be sacrificed in the name of politics. We call on France to refuse to be a safe haven for criminals.” said FIDH President Souhayr Belhassen.

“We want to combat impunity and therefore demand a judicial investigation and a criminal prosecution wherever there is jurisdiction over the torture incidents,” said ECCHR General Secretary Wolfgang Kaleck.

The criminal complaint states that because of the failure of authorities in the United States and Iraq to launch any independent investigation into the responsibility of Rumsfeld and other high-level U.S. officials for torture despite a documented paper trail and government memos implicating them in direct as well as command responsibility for torture – and because the U.S. has refused to join the International Criminal Court – it is the legal obligation of states such as France to take up the case.

I wonder if they'll manage to catch him while he's still in france... I hope there's video of rumsfeld jumping off the top of a building dangling from a rope attached to a black helicopter as he laughs maniacally and flies away. Until he lands and a group of kids pull off his very obvious mask discovering that he was really just a robot all along.

International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) / CCR: Donald Rumsfeld Accused of Torture While Visiting France