Blog Heap of Links for the day 8 April 2009

Cyberspies have penetrated the U.S. electrical grid and left behind software programs that could be used to disrupt the system, according to current and former national-security officials. The spies came from China, Russia and other countries, these officials said, and were believed to be on a mission to navigate the U.S. electrical system and its controls. The intruders haven't sought to damage the power grid or other key infrastructure, but officials warned they could try during a crisis or war.

A Chinese man can finally sit in comfort after doctors removed a broken syringe needle which had been stuck in his bottom for over a quarter of a century.

The two Morris County men who staged a series of UFO hoaxes earlier this year ... fined ... $250 each and sentenced the two to 50 hours of community service for creating a disturbance. ... released helium balloons with traffic flares tied to them on five separate occasions....

The president's new science adviser said Wednesday that global warming is so dire, the Obama administration is discussing radical technologies to cool Earth's air. John Holdren told The Associated Press in his first interview since being confirmed last month that the idea of geoengineering the climate is being discussed. [Save the climate: have Obama administration officials quit blowing hot air]

A cat named Felix was found alive and well beneath the rubble of a six-storey building in Cologne that collapsed five weeks ago.... The 12-year-old cat was in surprisingly good health....

Lee Ermey went on a recent drive with crew member Harlan Glenn to a museum when Lee spotted a black object on the road. He pulled over to find the black object was a bag full of money. ...appeared to be on route to a bank to be deposited.

A MELBOURNE father's speedy rescue of his two kidnapped sons has embarrassed Swedish police, who struggled with the case for six months. Armed with just a pair of binoculars and a rental car, it took the dad only one week to find his missing sons, aged 11 and ten, in Sweden. ... The boys were allegedly abducted in October last year by their Swedish mother. She was charged with their kidnapping and became a wanted fugitive in Sweden.

What happened next on the March 28 flight depends on who is talking. Correa said he ran straight to the business class bathroom. "I had no choice," he said in a telephone interview. Correa said flight attendant Stephanie Scott put up her arm and blocked his entry into business class, according to an FBI affidavit. Correa then grabbed her arm to keep his balance. Scott, however, said Correa stormed up the aisle and insisted to use the bathroom. She said she lightly placed her arm on his shoulder and asked him to move back. Correa then grabbed her right arm, pulled it downward and twisted it, she told an FBI agent.

A police car and rescue helicopter were called in to save a screaming man in a German forest, but it turned out that the man was in fact screaming with laughter... at a very funny book. [What book is not known]

Food marketers have come to realize that simplicity sells.... "It's a convergence of health, food safety, taste and traceability," said Phil Lempert, a food and consumer behavior analyst who calls himself the Supermarket Guru. "People are reading labels more carefully than they were previously. When they pick up a product and it has 30 ingredients and they don't know what half of them are, they are putting it back on the shelves."

signed photo of Saddam Hussein by US marines after the former Iraqi leader was shown their movie in prison.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are now the longest waged by an all-volunteer force in U.S. history. Even as soldiers rotate back into the field for multiple and extended tours, the Army requires a constant supply of new recruits. But the patriotic fervor that led so many to sign up after 9/11 is now eight years past. That leaves recruiters with perhaps the toughest, if not the most dangerous, job in the Army. Last year alone, the number of recruiters who killed themselves was triple the overall Army rate. Like posttraumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, recruiter suicides are a hidden cost of the nation's wars.