Three years and three months before Ryan Maseth stepped into a shower Jan. 2 in Baghdad, an Army safety specialist identified electrocution as a "killer of soldiers."
Still, when the 24-year-old Shaler Green Beret turned on the faucet, water flowed from a pump powered by an improperly grounded electrical system manufactured in China. Borne on water, an electrical current surged through the pipes, out of the shower head and into his body.
The Air Force's top leadership sought for three years to spend counterterrorism funds on "comfort capsules" to be installed on military planes that ferry senior officers and civilian leaders around the world, with at least four top generals involved in design details such as the color of the capsules' carpet and leather chairs, according to internal e-mails and budget documents. Production of the first capsule -- consisting of two sealed rooms that can fit into the fuselage of a large military aircraft -- has already begun.
In Beirut, the five freed prisoners dressed in military fatigues walked a red carpet laid out for them to the grave of Imad Mughniyeh, a shadowy figure Israel and the West accused of masterminding terrorist bombings in the 1980s and 1990s...."We swear by God ... to continue on your same path and not to retreat until we achieve the same stature that God bestowed on you," said Samir Kantar, who had been the longest-held Lebanese prisoner in Israel.
He referred to Mughniyeh's "martyrdom," saying, "This is our great wish. We envy you and we will achieve it, God willing."...Kantar had been convicted of a notorious 1979 attack where he allegedly killed a father in front of his 4-year-old daughter, and then killed the girl by crushing her skull with a rifle butt.
Hizbullah is bolstering its presence in south Lebanon villages with non-Shi'ite majorities by buying land and using it to build military positions and store missiles and launchers, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
Does Osama bin Laden possess nuclear weapons? Has he smuggled these weapons into the United States? Does he have a plan to detonate these weapons in multiple American cities if Israel attacks Iran’s nuclear facilities? Dr. Hugh Cort, president of the American Foundation for Counter-Terrorism Policy and Research, believes the answer to all of these questions is yes.
A Republican challenger to Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania has raised more money than the incumbent in recent months, but also has more debt and has raised less overall. William Russell, a former Army lieutenant colonel who relocated to Murtha's district to run against him, raised nearly $670,000 in the fundraising quarter that ended June 30. Murtha, a Democrat, raised more than $119,000.
The American Physical Society, an organization representing nearly 50,000 physicists, has reversed its stance on climate change and is now proclaiming that many of its members disbelieve in human-induced global warming. The APS is also sponsoring public debate on the validity of global warming science. The leadership of the society had previously called the evidence for global warming "incontrovertible."
As if there weren't enough hype and heartbreak hovering over The Dark Knight, director Chris Nolan had one more headache facing him, right there in his garage, for his latest Batman film: how to top the Tumbler—a two-and-a-half ton, bulletproof Batmobile that leapt 60 ft. and did a sub-five zero to 60 in Batman Begins. His solution? Ditch the spoiler-and-fin sports car mod of Batmobile lore. Hell, ditch the sports car altogether. After all, Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne already has a Lambo in The Dark Knight, which opens tomorrow.
Enter the Bat-Pod, a motorcycle-ATV hybrid that lands eye-popping stunts sans CGI, a hand-built bike that fires grappling hooks—while shape-shifting.
This is my protest sign. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
My protest sign is my best friend–along with my Che Guevara t-shirt and my kick-ass pirate skull bong. It is my life. I must master the spelling of the words on it, even if it causes a lot of pain behind my eyes.
The guys at TheNoseOnYourFace.com are ruthlessly funny. Enjoy.
We recently asked YOU what Top Tens you’d like to see here on The Screengrab and, among the many fine suggestions, “Other Matt” proposed the Top Ten Ignominious Exits (i.e., “...films of an actor that are less than glorious and not [fitting] the last time we see them on celluloid”)...
Lately people have been turning their old CRT monitors into really cool aquariums. Basically you take a perfectly fine but old Cathode Ray Tube monitor, strip it of all of its parts (except for the glass at the front), make it so it doesn’t leak and fill it with a plethora of colourful fish.
He’s in the construction business, and just around then, things got very busy at work. He’d be at the office until the small hours—weekends too. Meiko was convinced he was having an affair. She accosted him: “It’s your fault my nerves are in shreds!” Late one night, Koichi awoke suddenly to find all the windows open and Meiko standing over him with a carving knife. He managed to calm her down, but from then on, living with her was intolerable.
The other day I glanced at the web site of the Lake Chapala Society, a social club of sorts for expats around Mexico’s Lake Chapala, an hour south of Guadalajara (where I live). Clicking on “Safety,” I found a long list of reasons why you should never, ever use a firearm to protect your home and family. No. See, you might miss, or be scared, or the intruders might take it away and shoot you, and they might be all mad and hurt you when all they wanted was your television. No, the best thing is to let them do what they want, and then maybe they won’t do anything bad to you.
This supposedly was written by a retired cop but, if so, he (or quite possible she, judging by the tone) doesn’t sound like any cop I have known, which is whole lots. Anyway, his, her, or its advice, is “Leave the guns to people who are trained and prepared to use them.” Which he says he is.
NEW YORK—Hailed by media critics as the fluffiest, most toothless, and softest-hitting coverage of the presidential candidate to date, a story in this week's Time magazine is being called the definitive Barack Obama puff piece.
"No news publication has dared to barely scratch the surface like this before," columnist and campaign reporter Michael King wrote in The Washington Post Tuesday. "This profile sets a benchmark for mindless filler by which all other features about Sen. Obama will now be judged. Just impressive puff-journalism all around."
An investigation is being sought into how and why taxpayers in North Carolina paid $387,000 to producers of "Hounddog," the controversial Dakota Fanning movie that has been described as depicting "simulated pedophilia."
"We request that the North Carolina General Assembly appoint an independent investigation: Determine why the North Carolina Film Office approved the making of the film 'Hounddog' and whether North Carolina law officials were consulted," said a statement from the North Carolina chapter of Concerned Women for America, the nation's largest public policy women's organization.
Americans for Prosperity rallied taxpayers outside Al Gore's big global warming speech in Washington, and found that some Gore followers didn't exactly practice what he preached.
"Home Improvement" won the hearts of households worldwide when it debuted in September 1991 on ABC. The show featured stand-up comedian Tim Allen as an accident-prone handyman named Tim Taylor who hosted his own home improvement television show. "Home Improvement" became one of the most watched sitcoms of the decade, centering around Tim and his wife Jill (Patricia Richardson) as they raised their three sons, Brad (Zachery Ty Bryan), Randy (Jonathan Taylor Thomas) and Mark (Taran Noah Smith).
"What the president said is a fact - this is the longest a Congress has gone in 20 years without passing a single spending bill, so it's clear that the speaker is feeling some frustration at their inability to do so."
A federal appeals court has ruled the First Amendment rights of homosexuals at Philadelphia's taxpayer-funded "Outfest" celebration in 2004 trumped the First Amendment rights of counter-protesters, and has dismissed the civil rights complaint the Philadelphia 11 had filed.
According to Repent America, the counter-protesters on that day "were confronted by a militant mob of homosexuals known as the 'Pink Angels' who blew loud whistles and carried large pink signs in front of them to block their message and access to the event, while others screamed obscenities."
"The Philadelphia police, under the direction of Chief Inspector James Tiano, the city's 'police liaison to the gay and lesbian community,' refused to take any action as the counter-protesters were continuously followed, obstructed, and harassed, even though they respectfully cooperated with police, obeying orders to move, short of being directed out of the event."
As detailed in the vastly underappreciated Not Another Teen Movie, nothing ties a climactic scene in a movie together like a perfectly timed slow clap. So here for your viewing pleasure, are the five best sports movie slow clap scenes of all-time. (I’ve put the time in which the slow clap occurs in each video in parentheses.)
CNN's Jack Cafferty: When Barack Obama travels overseas to Europe and the Middle East, he won’t be alone.
Obama’s trip is becoming a media extravaganza. All three network anchors will join him – broadcasting their nightly newscasts from stops along his route. Also along to record Obama’s every move, top political reporters from major newspapers and magazines. 200 journalists have asked to join Obama on the trip, although the campaign will only be able to accommodate about 20% of them.
Meanwhile, Republican John McCain has taken 3 foreign trips in the last 4 months, and not a single network anchor has gone on any of them. It’s causing some concern among Republicans that the news media aren’t giving balanced coverage.
In the novel 1984, George Orwell used the word “doublethink” to describe the process of believing two contradictory ideas simultaneously. The concept invites an appropriate but superficial comparison to congressional Democrats’ current approach to gasoline prices. Idea Number One: High gasoline prices are good. A high price, imposed through federal carbon taxes or carbon caps, is precisely the mechanism by which Democrats hope to curb carbon emissions.
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