The New Scientist

has an article: 13 things that do not make sense

Media Monitor in the Jewish Press

about balance at C-SPAN.

Chistopher Hitchens: This Was Not Looting

An analysis of the WMD cleanup mentioned in the NYT article below:

Very funny article about mass transit

in today's OpinionJournal.

Monty Python's

Spamalot. I saw an ad for this on the side of a bus the other day.

NYT: Saddam Had WMD Capabilities

From LGF:

Here’s an amazing reversal from the New York Times, who reported yesterday that Iraq had facilities for enriching uranium and manufacturing chemical and biological weapons that were looted immediately after the fall of Baghdad and taken to a neighboring state: Looting at Weapons Plants Was Systematic, Iraqi Says. (Hat tip: American Infidel.)

BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 12 - In the weeks after Baghdad fell in April 2003, looters systematically dismantled and removed tons of machinery from Saddam Hussein’s most important weapons installations, including some with high-precision equipment capable of making parts for nuclear arms, a senior Iraqi official said this week in the government’s first extensive comments on the looting.

The Iraqi official, Sami al-Araji, the deputy minister of industry, said it appeared that a highly organized operation had pinpointed specific plants in search of valuable equipment, some of which could be used for both military and civilian applications, and carted the machinery away.

Dr. Araji said his account was based largely on observations by government employees and officials who either worked at the sites or lived near them.

“They came in with the cranes and the lorries, and they depleted the whole sites,” Dr. Araji said. “They knew what they were doing; they knew what they want. This was sophisticated looting.”

Colorizing Images Using Scribbles

Via Slashdot:

Guspaz writes "Up until now, colorizing a video or image has been a painstaking and mostly manual task. However, researchers in Israel have come up with a new way of colorizing images just by making a few scribbles. The technique works on the premise that 'neighboring pixels in space-time that have similar intensities should have similar colors,' and also allows colorization of videos by 'marking' about one in ten frames."

Check out this mirror site for the images:

I don't know if this is for real...

Quints on onlysimchas.

Britney's Advice to Michael Jackson

She tells American magazine Allure, "If he did those things, I feel sorry for him. I feel like he probably feels alone, and he needs some help."

"He needs someone to be like, 'ok, let's buck you up, let's give you a moustache, let's rough you up, let's go to a bar, let's get drunk and be a man.'

"And if he didn't do those things, I feel sorry for him. Either way, he needs to get in a fight."

I will bite my thumb at them!

Romeo and Juliet, Act I, Scene I

SAMPSON

Nay, as they dare. I will bite my thumb at them;
which is a disgrace to them, if they bear it.

ABRAHAM

Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?

SAMPSON

I do bite my thumb, sir.

ABRAHAM
Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?

Meanwhile, in South Korea:

SEOUL, South Korea - Two South Korean demonstrators each cut off a finger outside the Japanese Embassy in Seoul on Monday to protest Tokyo's territorial claim to a set of islets controlled by South Korea and Japan recalled its ambassador over the same issue.

Wired has an interesting article

about nanobacteria, the problems they cause, and whether they are alive.

Stunning Choice of Words

From an AP article about an officer (Linnenkamp) who twice stunned a suspect (Wheeler) in a hospital for refusing to give a urine sample.

"After the second shock (Wheeler) stated he would urinate and calmed down enough to be given the portable urinal," Linnenkamp wrote.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating; Linnenkamp has been relieved pending the investigation's outcome.

Shouldn't that be Wheeler?
Then, later on:

Wheeler faces charges including possession of cocaine with intent to sell, escape and resisting without violence.

Oy.

March 15th

is the Third Annual International Eat an Animal for PETA Day.

Scrubs 4.17 - "My Life in Four Cameras"

J.D.: Well, I hope you had a good day, Mr. James!

Elliot: [Noticing the chart] Wait a second! This chart isn't for Charles James, it's for James Charles! He's the one who has cancer, not you!

J.D.: And who cares about him! He's anti-Semitic!

The audience laughs.

Religious Tolerance

From Arutz Sheva:

Ain't Gonna Rest On Saturday

Arab Press

The Iraqi government’s decision to make Saturday a day off has sparked much protest as Iraqis object to the observance of what they call “the Zionist holiday.”

The Iraqi government decided last week that in order to make up for the additional day off, the traditional six-hour Iraqi workday would be extended.

Many Iraqis went to work on Saturday anyway, saying they did not want to rest on the day when the Jews rest. They are demanding that the additional day off be Thursday instead.

A statement released by the student union at Baghdad’s Mustansariyah University described the government order as forcing “the Zionist holiday” upon Iraqis. The statement also said the decision had been made by an interim Iraqi government, and not the permanent one. "We declare a general strike in the University of Mustansariyah to reject this decision and any decision aimed at depriving Iraqis of their identity," the statement said.

In Samarra, one of the four Islamic holy cities, almost 80 miles north of Baghdad, a group of armed men forced the Mutawakal high school to open, threatening to kill the school’s teachers if they took the day off.

Students chanting "We don't want Saturday, it's a Jewish holiday" marched through the town of Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad.