Des Moines' well-endowed flood control

Because there can never be too many dick jokes:

City design with a vast difference

And this one:

The nearly four-acre basin was constructed about two years ago and "took some of the load off of the pipe downstream"

Man accused of crashing UBS servers

Note to management: do no piss off your IT staff.

He created the logic bomb which would delete all the files in the host server in the central data centre and then every server in every branch. Some 2,000 servers did go down and 400 branch offices were hit. Backup systems did not work and files were deleted.

"So what?," you might say.

A US court has heard how a disgruntled IT manager allegedly wiped out all UBS Paine Webber servers for a day leaving traders unable to trade because he was unhappy with his bonus.

Ouch.

Nonetheless, I don't feel sorry for this guy:

Roger Duronio was paid a salary of $125,000 by the bank and was expecting a bonus of $50,000. When he only got $32,000 he decided to take revenge on the bank, prosecutors claim.

I'm sure he'll get a dose of reality in Federal PMITA prison.

Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi Killed in Air Raid

Adios, mother f*cker!

Study says millions have 'rage' disorder

I think the "researchers" that did this study missed the real cause of road rage. It's caused by stupid assholes who drive 50 mph in the left-hand lane, because the slow lane is apparently the left lane where they come from, those stupid bunch of inbred, 2 bucket-of-chicken-eating, cousin-marrying, mouth-breathing, trailer-dwelling pederasts, who shouldn't be behind the wheel of a car in the first place. Dammit. Of course, "scientists" have their own explanations:

Coccaro said the disorder involves inadequate production or functioning of serotonin, a mood-regulating and behavior-inhibiting brain chemical. Treatment with antidepressants, including those that target serotonin receptors in the brain, is often helpful, along with behavior therapy akin to anger management, Coccaro said.

Wait - you can get drugs for having this? Cool. But wait, there's more. This disorder has a name:

For a couple of decades, intermittent explosive disorder, or IED, has been included in the manual psychiatrists use to diagnose mental illness, though with slightly different names and criteria. That has contributed to misunderstanding and underappreciation of the disorder, said Coccaro, a study co-author.

IED. Where have I heard that before?

The Concealed Handgun Law: Ten Years Later

I missed this article when it came out - a friend referred me to it today. It's a testament to the effectiveness of the CHL laws in Texas, and a testament to the anti-gunner's folly.

Ten years later the facts paint a different picture. Texas under the Concealed Handgun Law isn’t the Wild West, but the Mild West. No recurrent shootouts at four-way stops, no blood in the streets. Quite the contrary, Texans are safer than before.

There are even stats to back this up:

Since the passage of the Concealed Handgun Law, the FBI Uniform Crime Report shows an 18% drop in handgun murders, down from 838 in 1995 to 688 in 2004. And a 32% drop in handgun murders per 100,000 population, down from 4.5 murders per 100,000 Texans in 1995 to 3.08 per 100,000 in 2004.

Not only that, but it proves those of us with CHLs are actually good, responsible citizens:

According to the report, the more than 200,000 Texans licensed to carry a concealed firearm are much more law-abiding than the average person.

The report illustrated that Texans who exercise their right to carry firearms are 5.7 times less likely to be arrested for a violent offense. They are 14 times less likely to be arrested for a non-violent offense. And they are 1.4 times less likely to be arrested for murder.

My favorite part of the whole article is the quote from John Holmes (no, not that John Holmes), former Harris County DA:

"As you know, I was very outspoken in my opposition to the passage of the Concealed Handgun Act. I did not feel that such legislation was in the public interest and presented a clear and present danger to law abiding citizens by placing more handguns on our streets," Holmes wrote. "Boy was I wrong. Our experience in Harris County, and indeed state-wide, has proven my initial fears absolutely groundless."

The biggest point of this whole article is that a government should spend more time legislating crime, and less time legislating law-abiding citizens.