] The most blunt assessment came from Microsoft chief Bill
] Gates, who has put more than $700 million into reducing
] the size of high school classes through the foundation
] formed by him and his wife, Melinda. He said high schools
] must be redesigned to prepare every student for college,
] with classes that are rigorous and relevant to kids and
] with supportive relationships for children. (MSNBC is a
] joint venture of Microsoft and NBC.)
]
] Americas high schools are obsolete,� Gates said.
] By obsolete, I dont just mean that theyre
] broken, flawed or underfunded, though a case could be
] made for every one of those points. By obsolete, I mean
] our high schools — even when theyre working as
] designed — cannot teach all our students what they need
] to know today.

MSNBC - Summit told U.S. high schools 'obsolete'

] Natasha, a 5-year-old black macaque walks at the Safari
] Park near Tel Aviv Tuesday July 20, 2004. The young
] monkey began recently walking exclusively on her hind
] legs after a stomach ailment nearly killed her,
] zookeepers said.

wild picture

] Three of four attackers who killed 22 people in the Saudi
] oil city of Khobar were allowed to escape because they
] were threatening to kill 242 people being held as human
] shields, a senior Saudi Interior Ministry official says.
]
] A group connected to the al Qaeda terrorist network
] claimed responsibility for the weekend attacks, saying
] they were intended to show the Saudi government cannot
] protect its oil workers
] The three men fled in a car belonging to a resident of a residential
] complex they had penetrated. They changed cars several times
] and eluded Saudi security forces, the official said.

So they let the terrorist go. Al Qaeda must be backed by the Saudis.

CNN.com - Saudi: Gunmen allowed to escape - May 31, 2004

] In press conferences, TV ads, and interviews this year,
] President Bush has manifested a series of
] psychopathologies: an abstract notion of reality,
] confidence unhinged from facts and circumstances, and a
] conception of credibility that requires no correspondence
] to the external world. Tonight, as he vowed to stay the
] course in Iraq, Bush demonstrated another mental defect:
] incomprehension of his role in history as a fallible
] human agent. Absent such comprehension, Bush can't fix
] his mistakes in Iraq because he can't see how or even
] that”he screwed up.
]
] Here's how Bush, in his speech this evening, described
] Iraq's place in history:

Very good read as to the perception of Bush and his policies.

MSNBC - About last night

] To start with, London and Washington should recognise
] that they are now combating a full-blown nationalist
] insurgency - not simply conducting a counter-terrorism
] campaign. Indeed, the coalition's most dangerous
] adversaries are no longer foreign fighters or former
] regime holdouts, but growing numbers of nationalist
] insurgents. Their fervent nationalism gives them
] legitimacy and appeal among the very population that
] US-led troops are trying to secure. One does not defeat
] such a movement simply by killing insurgents, but by
] winning popular support and marginalising the rebels. An
] occupied population looks to its occupiers for one thing
] above all - not democracy nor electricity, but security.
] This is what the US and UK have so far failed to provide.
] If the coalition is to have any chance of regaining Iraqi
] consent for its presence, it must put public security at
] the forefront of counter-insurgency strategy. If public
] security is the primary objective, reducing Iraqi
] casualties is the means. If fewer Iraqis are killed for
] whatever reason month to month, the coalition is winning.
] If the number goes up, the coalition is losing - as it is
] at present. A form of "reverse body count" should be the
] metric for success.

RAND | Changing Course In Iraq Is Not an Option

] In its weekly bulletin distributed to 18,000 agencies,
] the FBI says to look out for people wearing bulky jackets
] on warm days, smelling of chemicals, or even individuals
] whose fists are tightly clenched.
]
] The bulletin also says suicide bombers may disguise
] themselves in stolen police uniforms or even as pregnant
] women.

Watch out for pregnant women who clench their fists; THEY ARE TERRORIST.

CNN.com - FBI warns of possible suicide attacks - May 20, 2004

] At current rates of production, there were 40.6 years of
] consumption covered by proven reserves in 2002, the latest
] data available, according to the Wall Street Journal.
]
] The newspaper, citing the BP Statistical Review, said
] that in 1989, there were 44.7 years left of consumption.
]
] "[A shortage] will probably happen in the next 10 to 20
] years," Professor David Goodstein, a physicist at the
] California Institute of Technology, told CNNfn.

American better shift gear to Hydo/Electric vehicles in the
next decade.

As prices rise, concerns grow about world oil supplies

] A man who said he was fed up with his cellular phone
] service went to a Fargo mall and started hurling phones
] across a store, striking an employee and causing more
] than $2,000 in damage, authorities said.
]
] Jason Perala, 22, of Fargo, told The Forum newspaper that
] he planned only to yell at employees at Verizon Wireless.
]
] "Then I just lost it," he said. "I just started grabbing
] computers and phones and throwing them. I just destroyed
] the place. ... I kind of regret that I did it, but I hope
] my message got across."

Damn.. Verizon service must really suck.

CNN.com - Man angry at Verizon hurls phones

] DALLAS (Reuters) - A Texas man is suspected of using a
] bubble bath by candlelight and soothing music as bait to
] set a date with death for his wife.
]
] Police said on Monday that William Joseph Wolfe, an
] emergency room nurse, has been arrested for attempted
] murder after he tried to electrocute his wife in the
] bathtub by dropping a radio into her bathwater -- a
] method of execution he researched on the Internet.
]
] Wolfe is suspected of drawing the bath for his wife and
] bringing in a radio with an extension cord attached so
] his wife could listen to music during her soak.

Moral of the story: watch out for bubble baths.

Yahoo! News - Man Used Bath in Bid to Kill Wife - Police

BEIJING (AFP) - China has shut down 8,600 Internet cafes in the last two months as part of an ongoing crackdown on the media.

"Since our video conference on this issue on February 19, we have banned 8,600 underground Internet bars," the People's Daily quoted Minister of Culture Sun Jiazheng as saying.

Yahoo! News - China shuts down 8,600 Internet cafes in two months