There is a town in Austria called "Fucking." This Google map link shows that there are a number of Fucking roads there, and a quick fucking glance at the fucking satellite view shows a whole fucking lot of trees and farmland nearby. Fucking Link. (Thanks, Ken)
Summary: A retired chemist and food plant manager converted his car to run on a vegetable oil / diesel blend. He has used it this way for the last four years.
He gets a visit one morning at his home from agents of the Illinois Department of Revenue. He is being investigated for criminal activity.
Turns out, Illinois wants him to pay retroactive fuel taxes on the vegetable oil. They also want him to apply for a license to become a special fuel supplier as well as a special fuel receiver. He also has to pay a $2500 bond as insurance that his "business" will pay the taxes in the future.
The State also sent him a cease and desist letter, threatening him with felony charges if he continued to operate his vehicle without giving the State their cut and dancing their dance.
Thankfully, there is a State Senator taking up his cause, but this is just patently wrong on its face. Why send agents out to someone's house who is trying to do the right thing? Why use that Gestapo tactic? I hate seeing people being bullied like that.
Worth a read, article has some good points.
On first read, this seems too stupid to believe. This man is doing something that should be commended. Garage level innovation in alternative fuel sources is something that should be encouraged. Someone needs to look at the big picture here, and see that a stop is put to the harassment he and anyone else in his situation is receiving. This is a story that should be tracked.
From Spaceflight to Attempted Murder Charge - New York Times
Topic: Society
1:31 pm EST, Feb 7, 2007
She is charged with the attempted murder of a woman she believed to be her rival for the affections of a fellow astronaut. Police officials say she drove 900 miles to Florida from Texas, wearing a diaper so she would not have to stop for rest breaks. In Orlando, they say, she confronted her rival in a parking lot, attacking her with pepper spray.
Captain Nowak was in disguise at the time, wearing a wig, the police said. She had with her a compressed air pistol, a steel mallet, a knife, pepper spray, four feet of rubber tubing, latex gloves and garbage bags.
Why couldn't this scenario have happened in space? That would be so Sci-Fi...
FeralChildren.com | Feral children: isolated, confined, wild and wolf children
Topic: Society
12:17 pm EST, Jan 25, 2007
Feral children, also known as wild children or wolf children, are children who've grown up with minimal human contact, or even none at all. They may have been raised by animals (often wolves) or somehow survived on their own. In some cases, children are confined and denied normal social interaction with other people.
So do you adopt these things via a pet rescue or through regular means? Oh, and there are pics.
Edge Designs is an all-women run company that designs interior office space. They had a recent opportunity to do an office project in NYC. The client allowed the women of this company a free hand in all design aspects. The client was a company that was also run by all women execs. The result, well, we all know that men never talk, never look at each other, and never laugh much in the restroom. The men's room is a serious and quiet place, but now, with the addition of one mural on the wall......lets just say the men's restroom is a place of laughter and smiles.
I was sent this image and figured I would share. Unfortunately there are not embedded images here so clink on the linky
RE: U.S. bans sale of iPods to North Korea - Yahoo! News
Topic: Society
3:33 pm EST, Nov 29, 2006
Mike the Usurper wrote:
The Bush administration wants North Korea's attention, so like a scolding parent it's trying to make it tougher for that country's eccentric leader to buy iPods, plasma televisions and Segway electric scooters.
HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! What an enormous pile of crap.
I want a picture of Kim on a segway!
"GO! Super Death Chariot Scooter of DOOM! Kim Kim go Vroom! Vroom!"
