Blog Heap of Links for the day 10 June 2009

Edward E. Whitacre Jr. built AT&T Inc. into the biggest U.S. provider of telephone service over a 43-year-career. By his own admission, he becomes chairman of General Motors Corp. knowing nothing about the auto industry.... [We're GM... We don't care. We don't have to!]

Snapshot Shows President With Feet On His Desk During A Phone Call With Netanyahu

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright says "them Jews" are keeping him from speaking to President Obama, according to the Daily Press newspaper of Virginia.

Caught On Tape: A newly released police tape shows an officer using a taser gun on a 72-Year-Old woman during a routine traffic stop. The woman claims she did nothing to provoke the attack.

Why Pedro Espada Jr., now a heartbeat away from the governorship, is an object lesson in everything that is wrong with New York State government.... His cronies stole food meant for poor, sick people and gave it out at his political rallies. He owes the city $61,750 in fines for fraudulent campaign fund-raising going back to 2001. He has failed to file 41 reports with the State Board of Elections, and has racked up $13,553 in penalties since 2002. He does not have an office in the district he was elected to represent in the Bronx. In fact, it looks as if he doesn’t even live there....

Horrified owners have been finding their cats killed and mutilated for the past month in two south Miami-Dade County communities. Many of the cats were missing fur and appeared to have been cut with a sharp, straight instrument, police said. In all, investigators are looking into about two dozen deaths, with enough evidence to try to prosecute at least 15 of the cases... manner of death indicates a person killed the animals, and that the deaths could be linked...

asked a teller to change a $1 million note. He reportedly told the teller that he needed $4 million for the bill.

An Oklahoma City filmmaker is apologizing for creating a scene of chaos near a busy highway... Upon closer inspection, police realized the torso in question was only a pair of pants that had been stuffed with soda bottles, chicken wire and lots of foam.... [film crew] accidentally left the fake torso behind...

Two cyclists are dead and a third was treated and released from the hospital after being hit by an SUV on Highway 51 in Sand Springs Tuesday afternoon.... Catron says the accident had a profound effect on her and the other witnesses who stopped to help. "Very tight knit group of people who came together, who were complete strangers and now I don't think any of us will forget the other,"

driving east on Oklahoma 51 when she swerved onto the south shoulder... hit three bicyclists [two killed]... continued driving for a quarter-mile before stopping... open container of alcohol in the SUV...

Two passengers with names linked to Islamic terrorism were on the Air France flight which crashed with the loss of 228 lives, it has emerged.

"I do feel I'm not guilty," Abdulhakim Muhammad told The Associated Press in a collect call from the Pulaski County jail. "I don't think it was murder, because murder is when a person kills another person without justified reason."

The first independent tests of screening software that will be installed on all Chinese computers finds it opens users to serious security risks.... communications between the software and the servers at the company that developed the program were unencrypted.... "...every computer in China potentially as part of a botnet..." system only runs on Microsoft Windows, allowing Mac and Linux users to bypass the software.... at least 3m computer users have already downloaded the software, opening them up to potential security problems.

spokesman for China's Ministry of Industry and Information Industry saying that users will have a choice whether to install the filtering software... [Right! Same choice you always get under tyranny. Install it or ELSE!!!]

Museum officials identified the guard as 39-year-old Stephen T. Johns of Temple Hills, Md. Johns, a special police officer, was a six-year veteran of the museum... suspect, 88-year-old James W. von Brunn... Holocaust denier....

The highlight of Gaddafi's trip to Rome is a meeting, personally requested by the Libyan leader, with 700 women from the worlds of "politics, industry and culture". So Berlusconi got down his Bumper Catalogue of Hot Stuff, got rid of any that were over 25, discarded those with a loud voice or body hair, and whittled down the rest by ballot until he got to 1,000, whereupon the disappointed remainder that didn't get to meet Muammar were given a senior post in his cabinet or a mini-break in his fancy villa with the pools and the elephants.

Comedy Central says it's bringing the animated comedy "Futurama" back from past cancellation for 26 new half-hour episodes... more than six years after ending its four-season run on... Fox ....

The US moves toward sending the Chinese Muslims to Palau, a remote Pacific island. But some experts say that would be a mistake... rather than allowing them to resettle on US soil... even the Bush administration did not classify them as enemy combatants. Yet their situation has been perhaps the most adversely affected by the recent debate in Congress about bringing detainees to America...

Mario Orion Bonilla, 24, pleaded guilty Nov. 25 to violating the federal drug-kingpin statute, which pertains to defendants who purportedly occupied management roles in drug-trafficking organizations involving at least five people who engaged in a series of felonies and made a substantial profit... pertained only to the marijuana aspect of the plot...

Attorney General Drew Edmondson today announced he's running for governor next year... U.S. Rep. Mary Fallin and state Sen. Randy Brogdon are running for the Republican nomination.... primary is July 27 and the general election is November 2.

Nearby Star May Be Getting Ready to Explode, Red giant Betelgeuse has suddenly shrunk in size, which means it may soon explode in a supernova.... It's possible we're observing the beginning of Betelgeuse's final collapse now.... If so, the star, which is 600 light-years away, will already have exploded — and we'll soon be in for a spectacular, and perfectly safe, interstellar fireworks show....

The program will accept paper, plastic and aluminum products. Glass will not be accepted for now. Hours of operation will be 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

proposed Sooner Park tennis court site would be the council's first option for a recycling drop-off...

Washington County voters by a 2-to-1 margin on Tuesday approved a proposal to construct a $14.5 million jail that will replace an outdated lockup that had been cited by the state for capacity violations.

A large crowd of law enforcement, county officials and court personal erupted into applause in the main Washington County Court room after County Treasurer Brad Johnson announced that the jail initiative had passed.

...700 feet up [picture!]

A bill that would allow nonprofit stores in Rhode Island to sell marijuana to medical patients is headed to the governor's desk.

examining the conduct of six officers connected to drug raids in November... found a large amount of cannabis... [OVER POT! THEY WERE WATERBOARDED OVER POT!] "Whilst the investigation is ongoing it is not appropriate to make assumptions...."

...on marijuana, distribution of marijuana and child neglect related charges... deputies told Cowan that due to the small size of the house and poor circulation that the 5-month-old was likely exposed to the marijuana smoke. The report states that when told this, Cowan (the child's mother) started to cry....

with actual user names

After nearly two decades in the business, Microsoft plans to stop selling its Microsoft Money personal-finance software...

An Oklahoma farm family could be the next global reality TV stars.... The Brits will be expected to attend church and help with chores around the farm.

The decision is a setback for the music and movie industries, which had praised the French law as a solution to illegal file sharing.

Surprised scientists say that typhoons which hit Taiwan unleash long, slow earthquakes, a phenomenon that may save the island from devastating temblors.

Tulsa Police and Fire are investigating an SUV found in the middle of the Arkansas River Wednesday morning.... at 31st and Riverside Drive... appears the vehicle has been in the river for a while...

Study calculates the odds that two planets collide or one crashes into sun in the next 5 billion years... For the new study, the researchers started with the best known information about the position and orbital velocity of each of the 10 bodies, and marched simulations forward in nine-day steps for the next 5 billion years, the projected life of the sun... Mercury collides with Venus about 1.76 billion years from now...

Sarah Palin lambasted late-night comedian David Letterman Wednesday for "sexually-perverted comments" about one of her teenage daughters - and rebuffed his moves to make nice.