Cadbury and Mocca, a couple of cheeky wombats at a wildlife centre in Melbourne, spot a camera and make a beeline for it before clambering all over it and sticking their noses in every nook and cranny…
Picture: Craig Borrow/Newspix / Rex Features (via Animal pictures of the week: 5 November 2010 - Telegraph)
A mouse looks out from the jaws of a huge voracious African bullfrog. These carnivorous amphibians have an aggressive temper and can jump 3.5 metres. The huge predatory frogs sit and wait for animals to pass by. They are stimulated by movement and will lunge at pretty much anything that comes within range, including this unlucky mouse. Picture: SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / MARK ABBOTT / BARCROFT MEDIA
Mousetrapped
This year, fewer than 40% of voting age Americans will actually vote.
A serious glitch in self-marketing, I think.
If you don't vote because you're trying to teach politicians a lesson, you're tragically misguided in your strategy. The very politicians you're trying to send a message to don't want you to vote. Since 1960, voting turnouts in mid-term elections are down significantly, and there's one reason: because of TV advertising.
Political TV advertising is designed to do only one thing: suppress the turnout of the opponent's supporters. If the TV ads can turn you off enough not to vote ("they're all bums") then their strategy has succeeded.
[More...]
Ideas spread when people to choose to spread them. Here are some reasons why:
By Matt DeLong
This post was updated at 6:28 a.m.
The Louisville Courier-Journal reports that a female MoveOn.org supporter was attacked by backers of Kentucky GOP Senate candidate Rand Paul on Monday when she attempted to approach Paul outside his final debate with Democrat Jack Conway in Lexington.
Alex Anderson, the cartoonist who created the famously pun-loving 1960s cartoon characters Rocket “Rocky” J. Squirrel and Bullwinkle J. Moose, has died. He was 90 and died Oct. 22 in Carmel, Calif. He had Alzheimer’s disease.
Many people, included me, have long thought that Jay Ward was responsible for the creation of Rocky and Bullwinkle, whose media-savvy adventures made them
a cult favorite for generations of kids who felt cooler for watching their show. But it was Anderson who created the clever squirrel and his dim-bulb moose pal; Ward was Anderson’s business partner early on, a strong influence on The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, and did much to keep the show’s memory alive. Still, Anderson had to sue Ward’s heirs in the 1990s to regain full credit as creator of the characters.Rocky and Bullwinkle first appeared on TV in 1959, and their escapades matching wits with their Russian enemies Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale were undisguised critiques of cold-war tension. William Conrad, later famous for starring in the TV series Cannon, did the voiceover narration. The show was constructed like an old movie cliffhanger, with breathless plugs to tune in for the next installment, which would have titles such as “Avalanche Is Better Than None, or Snow’s Your Old Man.”
Bob Dylan and Allen Ginsberg at Kerouac’s grave, Lowell, MA - 1975
(photo by Ken Regan)
Stewart will be in Washington next week to do episodes of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," Obama is a scheduled guest for Wednesday, Oct. 27.
The President has already endorsed the rally -- kinda. At a roundtable discussion last month, Obama told residents of RIchmond, Va., he was "amused" by the idea of Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity (which has since been merged with Stephen Colbert's March to Keep Fear Alive), adding that it was "really important" for people who expect common sense and courtesy in their daily interactions to have a rally where their voices can be heard, as the AP reported at the time.
Life-size monopoly house by An Te Liu."An Te Liu is 1967 in Tainan, Taiwan to the world. ..(Read...)
The great Benoît Mandelbrot has passed away, in Wired:
It has yet to be confirmed by the mainstream media, but it seems that Benoît Mandelbrot, the father of fractal geometry and one of the most famous mathematicians of all time, has passed away about a month shy of his 86th birthday.
America's nastiest rappers in shocking revelation – they've been evangelical Christians all along
Scary clown make-up, obscene lyrics, violent fans. But, hey, God is on their side. Photograph: Jim Newberry 
Judge orders 'don't ask, don't tell' injunction (AP)AP - A federal judge has issued a worldwide injunction stopping enforcement of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, ending the military's 17-year-old ban on openly gay troops.
Open Limerick To The Anti-Government Crowd
By Madeleine Begun Kane
You folks who cry out for less gov
Have lots of gov programs you love:
You think Medicare’s great
And you’d surely berate
Any pol who gave SS a shove.
You hate taxes for highways and schools,
But you don’t want your kids taught by fools.
And you’re quick to unload
When your bridges corrode.
Please wake up — don’t be Tea Party tools.
US First Lady Michelle Obama shot up 40 places on this year's Forbes magazine list of powerful women to claim the top spot, replacing German leader Angela Merkel, reported on October 7, 2010. Obama's new ranking ends Merkel's four-year reign at the top of the magazine's listing of the most influential women in the world.
I pledge that I will actually read the Constitution before pledging to uphold it. And I pledge that if I am too stupid to understand its intent, I won’t become a politician.
I pledge not to start two wars, give tax breaks to millionaires, ruin the economy and then get mad when someone shows me the bill.
I pledge not to be a hypocrite or a Tea Party Republican – whichever comes first.
I pledge to remember that religious freedoms apply to all religions including the lack of a religion. And I pledge to remember that no matter how much I believe in my religion, I will remember that my neighbor believes in his religion just as much. And finally, I pledge that if I believe in my religion too much I will keep it to myself.
I pledge to stop calling Sarah Palin a stupid bitch when she finally admits that she is too stupid to run this country. At that point I will simply call her a bitch and let the stupid speak for itself.
I pledge that I won’t hate gay people in public and then sleep with them in private.
I pledge to accept the fact that John McCain really can’t pull his head out of his ass at this point. It’s in too deep.
I pledge not to be shocked when Rick Sanchez announces his new show on Fox News.
I pledge to remember that there are 6 billion people in the world and only 300 million of them live in the United States . And with 300 million Americans to choose from, we can’t do better than John Boehner? Really?
And Margaret, my dear, I pledge that I will vote on November 2. I meant it. Really.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
That about sums it up, dear. That and Endust is as good if not better than Pledge.
By Oiwan Lam
A few hours ago, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced its decision to award the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China.
It is a moment of great joy for concerned Chinese citizens as Liu Xiaobo represents human rights activists' determination in struggling for the peaceful transformation of China's political system. He was arrested in June 2009 and sentenced to 11 years imprisonment under the charge of “inciting subversion of state power” afterCharter 08, a proposal for constitutional reform, was published.
The Jailed Nobel Peace Award Winners
However, the Chinese government, in response to the Nobel Committee's decision,claimed that [zh] Liu is a criminal who has been found guilty in a Chinese court and that the Committee's decision has violated the mission of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time, which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very little, which made him rather frail and with his odd diet, he suffered from bad breath. This made him ……. A super calloused fragile … mystic hexed by halitosis.
Rain Chacon, March 5th, 1972–September 22nd, 2010. RIP.
Iranian nuclear programme targeted by computer virus
Maryam Sinaiee, and Michael Theodoulou
In the tech community and in the automation/manufacturing community we have been reading about this for weeks. I wonder what aspect of it finally gave traction to the mainstream media to pay attention. Could it be... nuclear programmes? It is about flipping time.
TEHRAN // Iran revealed yesterday that a so-called computer worm – which experts say shows unprecedented ingenuity and is unique in its ability to seize control of industrial plants – has infected the personal computers of staff at its first nuclear power plant.
This tiny albino hedgehog is currently being cared for by the Kuziomski Igliwiak Foundation in Krakow, Poland. The hedgehog centre, which is run by animal lover Andrzej Kuziomski, is the only one of its kind in the country. Dedicated Andrzej mans a 24-hour helpline and ambulance service dedicated to helping injured hedgehogs
Picture: EAST MEWS / REX FEATURES (via Pictures of the day: 21 September 2010 - Telegraph)
Senate Republicans are rolling out a plan to permanently extend an array of expiring tax breaks that would deprive the Treasury of more than $4 trillion over the next decade, nearly doubling projected deficits over that period unless dramatic spending cuts are made.
So, McConnell is going to use the same mechanism that President Obama will use, a bipartisan deficit commission, "if it's a responsible report that I can support." (Translation: if the bipartisan report meets McConnell's Republican agenda then he will support it. If it doesn't then he will summarily dismiss it as a left leaning initiative.)Asked how McConnell would cover the cost of his proposal, the Tax Hike Prevention Act, aides noted that he has backed a bipartisan plan to freeze spending that would save an estimated $300 billion over the next decade - a drop in the bucket compared with his $4 trillion-plus plan.For the rest of the cash, McConnell has said he will turn to the same place as Obama: a presidentially appointed, bipartisan deficit commission that is due to issue its report in December."This is not going to be your typical commission that's going to issue a report, sit on the shelf and gather dust," McConnell said last month on NBC's "Meet the Press." "We'll wait for their report. And I intend, if it's a responsible report that I can support, to encourage my members to support it."
(
John Lennon 
