The Outlaw Rodeo, billed as the “World’s Largest Behind the Walls,” is a big draw in these eastern Oklahoma hills, with 12,000 people expected Friday and Saturday nights. Professionals also compete in the sanctioned event, but boosters say it’s the thrill of being inside a prison arena with convicted felons that brings the crowd.
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Inmate teams made up of 10 or so members come from 10 state prisons. When Barcus signed up, he was looking for a break from the Jackie Brannon Correctional Center, where he’s serving time for violating probation by taking marijuana into a county jail.

He learned this week he wouldn’t be an alternate but a competitor.

“It’s scary,” said the wiry 26-year-old who grew up in southern Oklahoma’s rodeo country.

[...]

Most of the inmates don’t get the chance to practice on live animals, and the barrel is a poor substitute, said Corey Swanner, one of five inmates on this team who claims some riding experience “out in the world.”

The big difference: “The bull,” he said, “is looking to kill you.”

US oil giant Exxon Mobil has posted a quarterly profit of $9.9bn (£5.55bn), the largest in US corporate history, on the back of record oil and gas prices.

Profit was up 75% and revenue rose 32% to more than $100bn.

But the results were short of analyst forecasts due to production damage from Hurricanes Rita and Katrina, and lower profit at its chemicals division.

Exxon's record earnings were revealed on the day Royal Dutch Shell said it made $9bn net profit in the quarter [up 68% since last year].

An unseen, sweet-smelling cloud drifted through parts of Manhattan last night. Arturo Padilla walked through it and declared that it was awesome.

"It's like maple syrup. With Eggos. Or pancakes," he said. "It's pleasant."

[...]

"We are continuing to sample the air throughout the affected area to make sure there's nothing hazardous," said Jarrod Bernstein, an emergency management spokesman. "What the actual cause of the smell is, we really don't know."

[T]ake our advice: when this thing climaxes, don't linger too long. With Rove, the devil is always in the denouement.

Whereas nicotine has several effects that promote lung and other types of cancer, THC acts in ways that counter the cancer-causing chemicals in marijuana smoke, Melamede explained in an interview with Reuters Health.

"THC turns down the carcinogenic potential," he said.

For example, lab research indicates that nicotine activates a body enzyme that converts certain chemicals in both tobacco and marijuana smoke into cancer-promoting form. In contrast, studies in mice suggest that THC blocks this enzyme activity.

Another key difference, Melamede said, is in the immune system effects of tobacco and marijuana. Smoke sends irritants into the respiratory system that trigger an immune-regulated inflammatory response, which involves the generation of potentially cell-damaging substances called free radicals. These particles are believed to contribute to a range of diseases, including cancer.

But cannabinoids -- both those found in marijuana and the versions found naturally in the body -- have been shown to dial down this inflammatory response, Melamede explained.

So smoke up, boys and girls! But remember: don't smoke pot and cigarettes if you still want to avoid most of the nasties. Nicotine's powers to harm are still far greater than THC's powers to help.

"In the last two or three months he has decided to spend or try to spend I think it is about $5bn on internet properties of various sorts," said Sir Martin.

"This was the second attempt by Murdoch and News Corp to penetrate this [market]. He must have been panicking because he even said he might hire [management consultants] McKinsey to help him out with his strategy.

"Why is it that he is so preoccupied with this and willing it appears to make investments almost willy-nilly? I think I can use the word panic - that is probably overdoing it but maybe I am not."

President Bush today "reluctantly accepted" Harriet Miers' withdrawal from her nomination to the Supreme Court, according to a statement from the White House. Miers, the White House counsel, said her nomination presented a "burden for the White House." The White House said Miers had to withdraw over concerns that senators wanted documents of privileged discussions between Miers and the president.

The memo also proposed that employees pay more for their spouses' health insurance, called for cutting the company's 401(k) contributions to 3 percent of wages from 4 percent and for cutting company-paid life insurance policies.

The memo acknowledged that Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, had to walk a fine line in restraining benefits because critics attacked it for being stingy on wages and health coverage. Chambers in the memo acknowledged 46 percent of the children of Wal-Mart's 1.33 million United States employees were uninsured or on Medicaid.

Justin Timberlake :
Demands the entire floor, private fitness studio, extra-large stereo unit and, since like Eminem he's undoubtedly a voracious reader, Nintendo [sic] PlayStation.

Quoting the booklet exactly: "The floor's air conditioning filters must be changed on his arrival. He insists all door handles be disinfected every few hours." And, since the man obviously worships with The Barbra Streisand Bible, "the hotel staff may under no circumstances address him."

The point is, when you get stuck with a wobbly table, is there any way to un-wobble-ify it? Most people attempt to stick a matchbook or piece of napkin underneath the leg. But André Martin, a physicist at CERN, would use a different trick: He'd rotate the table, working under the assumption that the legs were all the same length and that ground would eventually yield up four areas at the same level -- producing a perfectly stable table. He's always able to find a good orientation. That got him wondering: Could he mathematically prove his technique will always work?

Initially the site called MotherLoad will have five distinct channels and offer more than 450 video clips, with roughly 50 to 80 new clips added per week. The site will include short three-minute clips from original Comedy Central shows, including "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report."

It will also offer original content developed especially for the Web site. This will include titles such as "I Love the Thirties," "Odd Todd" and "Meet the Creeps." Each weekday, comedian Greg Giraldo, host of the network's "Friday Night with Greg Giraldo," will anchor a one-minute roundup of what's new on the site.

Despite the mounting death toll and the growing public dissatisfaction with the war, Bush said that the United States is making steady progress by killing enemy fighters, training Iraqi troops and guiding Iraq toward democracy. He cautioned that ultimate victory in Iraq -- which he called the central front in the global war on terrorism -- will come only with patience, determination and continued sacrifice.

"This war will require more sacrifice, more time and more resolve," he said in a speech hosted by military spouses at Bolling Air Force Base. "No one should underestimate the difficulties ahead, nor should they overlook the advantages we bring to this fight."

Rumors surrounding this service have been spreading over the past few days, and a handful of people have managed to catch the site when it's up (it's currently down) [WA: www.googlebase.com goes to Google]. It is not known when Google will officially launch the service, although they are holding a special invitation-only event today. Here's the text off of the front page of the site:

Google Base is Google's database into which you can add all types of content. We'll host your content and make it searchable online for free.

Examples of items you can find in Google Base:

• Description of your party planning service
• Articles on current events from your website
• Listing of your used car for sale
• Database of protein structures

You can describe any item you post with attributes, which will help people find it when they search Google Base. In fact, based on the relevance of your items, they may also be included in the main Google search index and other Google products like Froogle and Google Local.

Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp., Japans top telephone company, says it is developing the technology to perhaps make video games more realistic. But more sinister applications also come to mind.

I can envision it being added to militaries' arsenals of so-called "non-lethal" weapons

The phenomenon is painless but dramatic. Your feet start to move before you know it. I could even remote-control myself by taking the switch into my own hands.

There's no proven-beyond-a-doubt explanation yet as to why people start veering when electricity hits their ear. But NTT researchers say they were able to make a person walk along a route in the shape of a giant pretzel using this technique.

It's a mesmerizing sensation similar to being drunk or melting into sleep under the influence of anesthesia. But it's more definitive, as though an invisible hand were reaching inside your brain.

NTT says the feature may be used in video games and amusement park rides, although there are no plans so far for a commercial product.

I'll stick with the teacup ride, thank you.

I'd like to propose a couple alternatives for them to consider:

"Jesus Fucking Christ Will Someone Introduce the Democrats to Marketers with Brains or Balls?"

Or:

"How About Democrats Fire All the Student-Body-President Dimwits Running Things Over There and Start Acting as Though This Nation Is in The Crisis Everyone but Them Seems To Recognize?"

With shorter versions for bumper stickers, of course.

Rosa Parks probably never planned on being the Civil Roghts icon she is today, but nevertheless, she leaves quite the legacy behind her.

Her act of civil disobedience, what seems a simple gesture of defiance so many years later, was in fact a dangerous, even reckless move in 1950's Alabama. In refusing to move, she risked legal sanction and perhaps even physical harm, but she also set into motion something far beyond the control of the city authorities. Mrs. Parks clarified for people far beyond Montgomery the cruelty and humiliation inherent in the laws and customs of segregation.

The newspaper regularly produces a parody of President Bush's weekly radio address on its Web site (www.theonion.com/content/node/40121), where it has a picture of President Bush and the official insignia.

"It has come to my attention that The Onion is using the presidential seal on its Web site," Grant M. Dixton, associate counsel to the president, wrote to The Onion on Sept. 28. (At the time, Mr. Dixton's office was also helping Mr. Bush find a Supreme Court nominee; days later his boss, Harriet E. Miers, was nominated.)

"This is the mother of all unfunded mandates," Mr. Hartle said.

Even the lowest estimates of compliance costs would, on average, increase annual tuition at most American universities by some $450, at a time when rising education costs are already a sore point with parents and members of Congress, Mr. Hartle said.

At New York University, for instance, the order would require the installation of thousands of new devices in more than 100 buildings around Manhattan, be they small switches in a wiring closet or large aggregation routers that pull data together from many sites and send it over the Internet, said Doug Carlson, the university's executive director of communications and computing services.

"Back of the envelope, this would cost us many millions of dollars," Mr. Carlson said.

I just had to call Fox News. Their hold music is actually George Bush giving a speech about Ronald Reagan. He tells all these boring anecdotes about Nancy writing on Air Force One stationary, etc. What blatant asslicking…I feel slightly dirty right now!

Don't shell out bucks for a shrink-wrapped letter-cruncher; edit on the web, free of
charge - in exchange for a little product placement.

We noticed when the Post originally reported that Kim had been with 17-year-old Jennifer Hare when he made his dive into the Hudson. Now we find out that the 22-year-old had a former girlfriend who was also 17. Exactly how former of a girlfriend was Nowak? Was Kim so lame that he was actually dating a 16-year-old back when he was twenty-one?

If we had a notebook full of our romantic writings about underage girls, we would also go to extremes to keep it in our possession. If we lost that notebook, we'd probably throw ourselves into the Hudson just to be spared the embarrassment.

There are enough lousy poets in this city that we never felt obliged to regret the loss of Kim's future work. Now we're not so sure we even care about some dead creep who couldn't do better than using his verse to score with high-school girls. Still, it's too bad we didn't know about Kim back when we were assigning those articles on Lolita.

Someone asked me recently, "Meghann, how can you say you don't mind people reading parts of your book for free? What if someone xeroxed your book and was handing it out for free on street corners?"

I replied, "Well, it seems to be working for Jesus."

I fail to see what the harm is in Google indexing a book and helping people find it. Anyone can read my book for free by going to the library anyway.

Given that nearly all our cells carry the same DNA, you might wonder why your eyes look different from your pancreas. The main reason is that genes don’t necessarily make their proteins in every cell. Instead, a particular gene in a particular cell might or might not be “expressed” (that is, switched on, and so making its protein). Part of the reason that your pancreas differs from your eye is that the insulin gene, among others, is expressed only in your pancreas and not in your eye. How particular genes get switched on or off plays an important part in the evo-devo story.

This is extremely foolish. The genome is essentially the design of a weapon of mass destruction. No responsible scientist would advocate publishing precise designs for an atomic bomb, and in two ways revealing the sequence for the flu virus is even more dangerous.

First, it would be easier to create and release this highly destructive virus from the genetic data than it would be to build and detonate an atomic bomb given only its design, as you don't need rare raw materials like plutonium or enriched uranium. Synthesizing the virus from scratch would be difficult, but far from impossible. An easier approach would be to modify a conventional flu virus with the eight unique and now published genes of the 1918 killer virus.

Second, release of the virus would be far worse than an atomic bomb. Analyses have shown that the detonation of an atomic bomb in an American city could kill as many as one million people. Release of a highly communicable and deadly biological virus could kill tens of millions, with some estimates in the hundreds of millions.