] Hybrid cars are hot, but not as hot as their owners, who
] complain that their gas mileage hasn't come close to
] well-advertised estimates.
]
] Today's the Day. Pete Blackshaw was so excited about
] getting a hybrid gasoline-electric car that he had his
] wife videotape the trip to the Honda dealership to pick
] up his Civic Hybrid.
]
] But after a few months of commuting to his job in Cincinnati,
] Blackshaw's hybrid euphoria vanished as his car's odometer
] revealed that the gas mileage he was hoping for was only a pipe
] dream. Honda's Civic Hybrid is rated by the EPA to get 47 miles
] per gallon in the city, and 48 mpg on the highway. After nearly
] 1,000 miles of mostly city driving, Blackshaw was getting
] 31.4 mpg.

Wired News: Hybrid Mileage Comes Up Short

] Based on this week's clubbing of the fixed-income market,
] it appears to me that the Fed has lost the confidence of
] the fixed-income market. Going forward, if this market
] begins to act like a vigilante instead of a liquidity hog
] and the dollar continues to go south while precious
] metals firm, it would be the clearest statement that the
] markets have at last concluded the Fed has blown it.
]
]
] Of course, the Fed blew it a long time ago. The only
] question has been when the masses would come to that
] conclusion

The Fed has lost the bond market’s confidence

] An 18-year-old German high school student has admitted
] creating the Sasser internet worm, police say.
]
] The worm spread through an estimated 18 million computers
] across the world last week, continually shutting down and
] rebooting them.
]
] The teenager was arrested on Friday in the town of
] Rotenburg in northern Germany, and has now been released.

German Teen 'confesses' to Sasser worm

] He estimates that the Nasdaq, S&P 500 and German DAX have
] about 42%, 30% and 45%, respectively, to fall to revisit
] their 2002 lows, but the Brazilian market could fall as
] much as 58%.

Prepare for worst, market seer warns

] 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

] WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush will ask Congress
] for an additional $25 billion for military operations in
] Iraq and Afghanistan, breaking a pledge not to seek more
] money before the November election, congressional aides
] said on Wednesday.
]
] White House budget director Joshua Bolten and other
] senior administration officials on Wednesday started
] briefing key lawmakers on the plan, which would add $25
] billion to Bush's budget for fiscal 2005 starting Oct. 1.

This is almost as good as "Read my lips... no new taxes" - GHB

Bush to Seek $25 Bln More for Iraq, Afghanistan

] The movie (produced by Buffett's daughter, Susie) then
] went into sci-fi mode, taking the audience forward to the
] year 2104, when Microsoft was about to take over Wal-Mart
] and Starbucks to form MicroWalBucks, a "strategic
] alliance" to take over the world.
]
]
] In a pastiche of PlayStation and Saturday morning
] cartoons, Buffett and Munger, dressed in Fruit of the
] Loom undershirts and boxers, battled Arnold
] Schwarzenegger to bust up the alliance. The Warrenator
] and the Charlanator ended up defeating the Terminator by
] splattering the windshield of his monster truck with a
] can of Cherry Coke.
]
]
] The rest of the movie cut back and forth from animated
] shorts and satiric features to commercials for Berkshire
] Hathaway products and services -- Dairy Queen,
] Larson-Juhl picture frames, Dexter shoes, Nebraska
] Furniture Mart, GEICO insurance, Acme bricks, Helzberg
] diamonds, and on and on.

Folksy fun at Buffett meeting

] Better stop calling them the Wachowski brothers. We hear
] "Matrix" co-creator Larry Wachowski is ready for the
] sex-change operation that will finalize his conversion to
] a woman named Linda.
]
] Last May, he wore women's earrings at "The Matrix
] Reloaded" premiere. At the time, the estranged husband of
] an alleged Los Angeles dominatrix told newspapers that
] Wachowski was a client of his wife. The source said he
] had seen Larry "in her bondage room...lying there in a
] dress, no panties and a blond wig."
]
] Several "longtime friends" say Larry - who is in the
] middle of a divorce with his wife, Thea Bloom - is now
] ready for the operation, reports the Chicago Sun Times.

Larry Wachowski is ready for the sex-change operation

] FORM S-1
] REGISTRATION STATEMENT
] Under
] The Securities Act of 1933
] GOOGLE INC.

Hopefully this will lift the markets for the time being.

Google files S-1 to go public

] TORONTO (Reuters) - Nortel Networks Corp. (Toronto:NT.TO
] - News; NYSE:NT - News) fired its top three executives on
] Wednesday and said accounting problems already under
] investigation by regulators ran deeper than expected.
] The surprise announcement from North America's largest
] maker of telecommunications equipment sent its shares
] plunging as investors speculated that an accounting
] review begun last year was developing into a full-blown
] financial scandal.

Nortel Fires CEO in Accounting Probe