Expensive Purina One bill!

n one of this week’s more bizarre stories, a Nebraska man was arrested for smoking marijuana out of a bong that had his cat stuffed inside. The man, who claims he was trying to calm down his hyperactive pet, faces animal cruelty charges but thankfully the cat, who was understandably disoriented, seems to be on the road to a full recovery:

“This cat was just dazed,” Sgt. Andy Stebbing said. “She was on the front seat of the cop car, wrapped in a blanket, and never moved all the way to the humane society.”
Schomaker told deputies 6-month-old Shadow was hyper and he was trying to calm her down. The contraption she had been stuffed inside was 12 inches by 6 inches. Shadow was timid but in good condition Monday at the Capital Humane Society, executive director Bob Downey said.

MSNBC’s Tamron Hall covered the story and was unable to stifle her giggles as she introduced the “sad but true” story. The network evidently felt the story lacked a certain realism because they played the sound of gurgling water over the anchor’s report. Anchor Contessa Brewer couldn’t quite believe that the cat was stuffed inside the bong, but as Tamron informed her, “I understand you can make a bong out of anything.” There were then more giggles all around.

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If you’re not going to be a virgin, learn what birth control is!

Bristol Palin, the 18-year-old daughter of Sarah Palin whose pregnancy during the presidential campaign made headlines, taped an interview for Greta Van Susteren’s “On The Record” on Monday night.

Both Bristol, appearing with her 2-month old baby Tripp for the first time, and her mother expressed skepticism about abstinence-only programs which her mother backed when running for governor in 2006.

When Van Susteren mentions abstinence in discussing Bristol’s surprise pregnancy, Sarah Palin responded: “It sounds naive. Life happens.”

Bristol also said that “everyone should be abstinent but it’s not realistic… [sex] is more and more accepted among kids my age.”

Bristol also warned about the dangers of teen pregnancy and said that she should have waited 10 years before having children.

“Of course I wish it would happen in like 10 years so I could have a job and education and my own house… But he brings so much joy. i don’t regret it at all.”

At the end of the interview, Sarah Palin gave a passionate speech against the fairness doctrine, which has been painted by conservatives as a prerogative of Democrats. She lauded a few members of the media whom she admires for asking tough questions – and all of whom happen to work for Fox News: Van Susteren, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Glen Beck.

“Any attempt to squash these voices… that’s a threat to our democracy.”

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Gmail without internet?!

Now there’s one less excuse for not dealing with your e-mail.

Google Inc. is giving people a way to manage their e-mail even when they’re offline, marking the Internet search leader’s latest move to unshackle its services from the Web.

The offline feature introduced this week is aimed primarily at workers who rely on Google’s Gmail service as part of their jobs. But anyone with a standard account can choose the option. (This can be accomplished by clicking on “settings” and then entering Google’s “labs” section.)

After the e-mail box synchronizes with a computer’s hard drive, virtually all of Gmail’s usual tools become functional offline _ except for the ability to send and receive messages. Those chores are handled the next time a computer connects to the Internet.

Google is trying to lessen its dependence on Internet advertising by selling an online package of commonly used business programs that include a souped-up version of Gmail. The offline feature makes the e-mail program more competitive with rival Microsoft Corp.’s Exchange and Outlook programs, which are widely used by corporations.

Google previously added an offline feature to its word processing and spreadsheet programs, as well as its Picasa service for digital photography. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company plans to take its calendar application offline later this year.

By adding offline capability to Gmail, Google also catches up with rival Yahoo Inc., whose larger _ and also free _ e-mail service has been able to work without Internet access since last July.

To take Yahoo mail offline, users first have to download the company’s Zimbra software to their computers. The Zimbra program also can be used to work offline on competing services, including Gmail.

Gmail is making its offline leap through Gears, a Google-owned service that the much smaller Zoho relied on to provide offline access to its e-mail program last year.

Watch the below video to learn how to set it up:

A bird strikes again?

MSNBC is reporting that US Air Flight 1549, which has crashed into New York’s Hudson River en route from LaGuardia Airport to Charlotte, NC, may have been felled by a flock of geese in what is known as a bird strike.

While it sounds absurd, the bird strike is a dangerous phenomenon well known to pilots and aviation enthusiasts alike.

Wikipedia says that bird strikes happen most often during take-off or landing, or during a low altitude flight. One potentially serious danger is jet engine ingestion, where the flock of birds is ingested into the engine:

Jet engine ingestion is extremely serious due to the rotation speed of the engine fan and engine design. As the bird strikes a fan blade, that blade can be displaced into another blade and so forth, causing a cascading failure. Jet engines are particularly vulnerable during the takeoff phase when the engine is turning at a very high speed.

As Wikipedia says, and as below photos demonstrate, bird strikes can cause serious danger to aircraft:

Bird strikes can damage vehicle components, or injure passengers. Flocks of birds are especially dangerous, and can lead to multiple strikes, and damage. Depending on the damage, aircraft at low altitudes or during take off and landing often cannot recover in time, and thus crash.

The Bird Strike Committe USA says that bird strikes cause over $600 million in damage in the US each year:

Bird and other wildlife strikes to aircraft annually cause well over $600 million in damage to U.S. civil and military aviation. Furthermore, these strikes put the lives of aircraft crew members and their passengers at risk: over 219 people have been killed worldwide as a result of wildlife strikes since 1988. Within the United States there was no one forum where information or concerns dealing with this problem could be addressed. Bird Strike Committee USA was formed in 1991 to facilitate the exchange of information, promote the collection and analysis of accurate wildlife strike data, promote the development of new technologies for reducing wildlife hazards, promote professionalism in wildlife management programs on airports through training and advocacy of high standards of conduct for airport biologists and bird patrol personnel, and be a liaison to similar organizations in other countries.

Bird strikes do have historical precedence in the United States. The Bird Strike Committee says that five large jet airlines have been brought down by birdstrike since 1975. Here is a list of bird strike occurrences.

Wikipedia also lists various bird strike incidents in the last few years:

In the summer of 2007, Delta Air Lines suffered an incident in Rome, Italy, as one of its B-767 aircraft, on takeoff, ingested yellow legged gulls into both engines. Although the aircraft returned to Rome safely, both engines were damaged and had to be changed. United Air Lines suffered a twin engine bird ingestion by a B-767 on departure from Chicago’s O’Hare Field in the spring of 2007. One engine caught fire and bird remains were found in the other engine.
Virgin America Flight 837 performed an emergency landing at San Francisco International Airport on September 3 2007 due to a bird strike. The plane involved was “Air Colbert”, named for host of The Colbert Report Stephen Colbert.

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Steve Jobs’ Leave Of Absence, Tim Cook Taking Over Day-To-Day Operations

Apple Inc.’s CEO Steve Jobs says he is taking a medical leave of absence until the end of June.

Jobs told employees in an e-mail that his health issues are more complex than he thought.

Last week, Jobs announced he had a hormone deficiency that had caused him to dramatically lose weight.

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Don’t Vote???

This is astounding!