"No degree of dullness can safeguard a work against the determination of critics to find it fascinating." - Harold Rosenberg

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Winning 4D with the HELP of DEVINE SPIRIT - Kumantong: bought 3038 today - "I bought 3038 today. Came out 9380 as 1st Prize. Look like prediction is reaching bullseye soon."
I happened to check on him and saw this. Will he go bankrupt first or hit the jackpot first? Maybe he needs to consult a bomoh, witch or wizard.

The Abyss: Letter to God - "I am a 23 year old singaporean, studying electrical engineering... The next time you send someone to convert me, let her have long flowing black hair and nicely shaped breasts."

Central Asia | No tulips please - "State television in oil-rich Kazakhstan['s] reporter then calculated that the protests had cost Bishkek $130,000 in lost revenues each day, not counting the losses suffered by traders and investment that had been deterred. “Pseudo-democratic freedoms can give a country pride, but leave it hungry,” he huffed... Their efforts to convince their own populations that democracy cannot be imported and is simply bad for business are less than subtle. The state-run press does not portray Kyrgyzstan's tulip revolution of March 2005, which brought Mr Bakiev to power, as a triumph of people-power protests against corruption and family rule. Rather, it harps on the two days of looting in Bishkek at the time."
Hmm, sounds familiar.

Hillsborough: School newspaper censored - "There are few issues in American education as widely discussed as the achievement gap, the racial divide that separates the academic performance of white and minority students. But not at Hillsborough High School, where the principal pulled an article detailing the school's achievement gap from the student newspaper. Principal William Orr called the content inappropriate, even though it focused on data the federal government publicizes under the No Child Left Behind Act."
Sounds like blocking newspaper stories because they will undermine public confidence in public institutions.

Lottery 'insiders' win big bucks - "A statistical analysis of the number of insider wins concluded that fewer than 60 insiders, such as ticket retailers or clerks, should have won major prizes during the period that was investigated. The odds that the 214 insiders who claimed major prizes — $50,000 or more — since 1999 won as a result of pure luck, is one in a trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, said University of Toronto professor Jeffrey Rosenthal, who conducted the analysis."

Chesapeake sells chesapeake.com name for $120,000 - "For nearly 10 years, Lizz Gunnufsen e-mailed a Massachusetts-based software company asking about the domain name on its intranet, chesapeake.com. Gunnufsen, a coordinator in Chesapeake's public communications department, reminded the company every six months that the city was interested in the site... In fall 2005, the company, Aspen Technology, decided it no longer needed the site and gave the domain name to the city for nothing. However, this summer, Chesapeake Energy Corp., a natural gas company, approached the city with an offer for the newly acquired domain. Negotiations ensued, and on Tuesday, the City Council voted to sell the name for $120,000 to Chesapeake Energy Corp."

Man denies intent in turkey's death - "A Springfield man pleaded innocent Tuesday to charges that he deliberately ran over a wild turkey in September on his way to anger management class."

O.J. Simpson: I Knew Book Profits Would Be 'Blood Money' - "The book, said to describe how he theoretically would have committed the murders of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman, had been scheduled for release Nov. 30 following the airing of a two-part Simpson interview on Fox on Monday and Wednesday. News Corp., owner of Fox Broadcasting and publisher HarperCollins, canceled the project after a public outcry and objections by advertisers and booksellers."
!@#$%^&*()

Holiday Snowglobe - This is incredibly annoying and yet irresistably attractive.

Laptop Battery Fire Video - "We intentionally created conditions in which the Li-ON battery pack would explode inside a generic portable. The results are dramatic. There are numerous conditions where these fires can occur in real life. Faulty battery packs (driving the recalls), faulty protection circuits inside the PC, exposure to excessive heat, and blunt force are some of the major ways that this could happen to you."