RIM ruling risks U.S. Blackberry shutdown

Nerd alert!

This could be serious. I know at least 3 of the authors of this blog are Blackberry junkies. This would suck.

Houston hotel vacancies might be rare

Nothing like a heaping helping of hubris for Houston.

The Houston Astros make it to the World Series for the first time in their history, and thousands of fans will flock to the City for the games. They're gonna need hotel rooms.

Hotel vacancies in Houston are tight but loosening up as thousands of Katrina evacuees are finding other places to live.

That may help in the long term for business travelers, but it may not be enough to satisfy Chicago White Sox fans who want to be close to Minute Maid Park if a World Series comes to town.

That's because nearly all the rooms booked next week near the park are already sewed up by more than 50,000 quilters attending a convention

Quilters? Quilters.

"We are asking hotels, all 500 hotels, to tell us what their availability will be on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday," Tollett said.

Sucks to be from Chicago to begin with, but this is icing on the cake. Enjoy your stay at Bubba's Flophouse Steakhouse.

Welcome to Texas. Now go home.

Report: U.S. Troops Burned Taliban Bodies

I am outraged by this! I think an investigation should be started to find out why these soldiers did not have the proper supplies to do the job right. Why were these bastards not wrapped in pig skin before they burned them? I suggest we ship some pigs over there immediately so they can do an even better job than they are already doing.

IS AVIAN FLU BEING OVERHYPED?

From Glenn Reynolds, via Instapundit.

As a medical researcher, I want to make a gentle but sincere plea to the blogosphere to calm down this flu hysteria just a bit. The main way that flu kills is by predisposing its victims to "superinfection" by bacterial illnesses - in 1918, we had no antibiotics for these superimposed infections, but now we have plenty. Such superinfections, and the transmittal of flu itself, were aided tremendously by the crowded conditions and poor sanitation of the early 20th century - these are currently vastly improved as well. Flu hits the elderly the hardest, but the "elderly" today are healthier, stronger, and better nourished than ever before. Our medical infrastructure is vastly better off, ranging from simple things like oxygen and sterile i.v. fluids, not readily available in 1918, to complex technologies such as respirators and dialysis. Should we be concerned? Sure, better safe than sorry, and concerns about publishing the sequence are worth discussing. Should we panic? No - my apologies to the fearmongers, but we will never see another 1918.

Patrick Cunningham M.D.
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Section of Nephrology
University of Chicago

I've been hesitant to post about this, because I've been observing the progression of the bird flu around the world, and have been waiting for confirmation of human-to-human transmission of the disease. I've heard none.

I've got a special interest in this story. My great-grandmother died in 1918 in New Orleans, one of the 25 million or so victims of the Spanish Influenza. Lucky for me, her offspring survived.

I suspect that while it's prudent to cull birds, get flu shots, and generally be aware of the danger that influenza presents to the young, elderly, and those with supressed immune systems, it's just as prudent to keep this thing in perspective.

The sky is not falling (yet).

U-S Senator Edward Kennedy attempts to rescue six fishermen

"Don't - ah - worry there, fellas. I'll get ya some help!"

"Help? Who are YOU?"

"Senator Ted Kennedy"

"Aw, crap."

Criminal sluggers:Thugs turn to baseball bats

Nice little editorial about the folly of gun control.

All this makes us wonder, will anti-gun types soon begin calling for the registration and regulation of ball bats? Will Louisville Slugger adopt the slogan, "Baseball bats don't kill people, people do"?

Of course, if any of the victims of these attacks had been carrying concealed firearms, the results might have been very different. But then, we can't have people walking around with guns under their belts, now can we?

MADONNA WARNS: ALL WILL GO TO HELL IF DON'T TURN FROM WICKED BEHAVIOR

Ring.........Ring.........Ring.........
Hello.
Hello, is this the Kettle?
Yes.
This is Madonna. You're black!

"I refer to an entity called 'The Beast'. I feel I am describing the world that we live in right now. To me 'The Beast' is the modern world that we live in."

I think "The Beast" is the crap that MTV is trying to pass off as normal behavior to our young people. Back when MTV actually played music videos, the fine work of Madonna was a big player. Her videos depicted sexual fetishes, homosexuality, out of wedlock pregnancy, sexual promiscuity, and depictions of religion that had the Catholic Church protesting her. Now, MTV has a separate channel called Logo that is a "cable channel providing programming geared towards lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender adults." MTV's current programming has soap opera type shows that depict high school age kids involved in the things depicted in Madonna's videos. They also have game show and reality type shows where the whole premise is based on kids hooking up.
The latest statements by Madonna on "The beast" would lead people to believe that she no longer condones this behavior and wouldn't support something that promotes it or tries to pass it off as normal behavior, but no. She was just on MTV promoting her new album.

Hypocrite.

Can I get a springroll with my "Toxic Soup?"

Say it ain't so. Again. The media might have over-dramatized the toxicity of the water flooding New Orleans after Katrina.

Although some experts and many news stories had warned of long-term contamination from the floodwater, yesterday's report was one of two suggesting that those fears were unfounded.

Surprised? Me neither.

‘Ninja' prompts helicopter search in McKinney

The McKinney PD's crack forces, including a K-9 unit and a DPS helicopter, were called upon this week to search for a mysterious assassin. High-tech was even used:

Redden said in the e-mail that one of the K-9 dogs found a scent but eventually lost it. He also said the helicopter searched the wooded area with a ”Forward Looking Infrared“ or thermal camera but no one was found.

Fortunately for the police, they received a call:

Just as police were about to call off the search, officers received a dispatch call from a man who said his 13-year-old son had been playing with his Ninja sword in the area and believed he might have accidentally scared the lady. Officers went to the man's home had ”a nice little chat with the father and his son,“ Redden said.

As Chief Wiggum would say, "Nice work, boys."