Definitely Not Good for the Company
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A chemistry student in the Ukraine was found dead with his jaw blown off by what is believed to be exploding chewing gum, according to reports.
…
The student apparently had a bizarre habit of chewing gum after dipping it into citric acid, Russian news agency Ria Novosti said.
Officers found both citric acid packets and a similar-looking unidentified substance, believed to be some kind of explosive material, on a table near the body, the agency continued.
Investigators suspect that the student simply confused the packets and put gum covered with explosive material into his mouth.
Forensic experts were to travel from Kiev to investigate the substance, as local authorities feared it may explode if transported.
Wow, I don’t think “oops” covers this. I’ve never been tempted to chew gum coated with citric acid, and I definitely don’t keep look-alike packets of explosives in the house, and I don’t think I know anyone else who does either. I’m sorry for this guy’s relatives, and may they be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem, but this guy definitely gets a Darwin award.
(Via)
This will be quick. Today is reading day and I’ve spent it trying to cram for my Econ final that’s tomorrow at 8:00 in the morning. I didn’t do as well as I had hoped on my exam yesterday. I got 187 out of 250. I’m a little disappointed because I studied really hard for that test. I hope I do better on the final, but if I don’t, I’ll still end up with a B in the class. It’ll be a low one though and I was hoping to be able to raise my grade. But then, the test was worth 250 points and there were only 40 questions on it so the questions were worth a lot and if you miss one then that’s a lot of points. More later on.
By Judson Berger
Chamber of Commerce CEO Tom Donohue is a wanted man — at least according to
the liberal activist group that’s put a de facto bounty on his head.
<http://www.foxnews.com/…mber-boss/>
Shown here is the ad asking for damaging information about Chamber of
Commerce CEO Tom Donohue. (Velvet Revolution)
Chamber of Commerce CEO Tom Donohue is a wanted man — at least according to
the liberal activist group that’s put a de facto bounty on his head.
A network of liberal groups known as Velvet Revolution started an ad
campaign offering $200,000 for information leading to the arrest and
conviction of the man whose trade organization has become a thorn in the
side of the Obama administration and congressional Democrats.
The group is not leveling any specific charges of criminal behavior. Rather,
it is casting a wide net, fishing for any whistleblowers from Donohue’s past
who might come forward with allegations of wrongdoing. The campaign against
the Chamber was launched in response to the group’s opposition to climate
change legislation and health care reform, and its plan to spend $100
million lobbying against these and other initiatives.
"On every issue, the Chamber is kind of the lead corporate advocate for the
status quo," said Kevin Zeese, a lawyer who sits on the board for Velvet
Revolution, calling Donohue a "knee-jerk reactionary" and the Chamber a
"right-wing extremist group."
The Chamber of Commerce, meanwhile, decried the ad campaign and threatened
possible legal action.
"The media should be following the money trail behind this scurrilous group
instead of giving credence to its outrageous tactics — and we are
considering legal options with the ad," spokesman Eric Wohlschlegel said.
The Chamber has already taken a lot of heat from the White House. Top aides
tried to neutralize the group earlier in the year by doing an end-run around
the organization and dealing directly with members, as some big companies,
like Apple, peeled off from the Chamber due to disagreements over issues
like climate change.
The organization was also not invited to Obama’s jobs forum in Washington
last week.
But Zeese said the White House has nothing to do with the bounty on
Donohue.
"It’s individual donors. We have no connection to the White House or unions
or anything like that," he said.
Velvet Revolution launched the StoptheChamber campaign in October and
started offering a bounty for information on Donohue a month later. A
$100,000 reward was increased to $200,000 early this month, thanks to what
Zeese called a "handful of larger donors" whom he would not identify.
A full-page print ad that looks like a "wanted" poster out of the wild West
began to run in the Washington City Paper this week. It features a head shot
of Donohue and offers a tip line for "insiders and whistleblowers possessing
information not already in the public domain."
The tip line is live. When FoxNews.com called, the operator asked for
"criminal" information about Donohue.
Zeese said that a handful of tips have come in which the group is
"pursuing."
He said the hope is to forward any damaging information onto the Justice
Department or Congress for further investigation.
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Right about now, the record executives involved in this have got to be thinking that life really sucks. While the major record labels were dragging file-sharers and BitTorrent sites to court for copyright infringement, they were themselves being sued by a
conglomerate of artists for exactly the same offenses. Warner, Sony BMG, EMI and Universal face up to $60 billion in damages for pirating a massive 300,000
tracks. And given that they’ve spent so much time ruining the lives of single mothers and the like, I don’t think the jury’s going to be too kind to the record companies. After all, they’ve done all this very publicly. The labels have made a habit of using songs from a wide variety of artists for compilation CDs without securing the rights. They simply use the recording
and make note of it on “pending list” so they can deal with it later. This has been going on since the 1980s and since then the list of unpaid tracks (or
copyright infringements) has grown to 300,000.
Growing tired of the label’s piracy, a group of artists have filed a
class-action lawsuit
in Canada against four major labels connected to the CRIA, the local equivalent of the RIAA. In October last year Warner Music, Sony BMG Music, EMI Music
and Universal Music were sued for illegal use of thousands of tracks and at present the case is still underway.
How and why this blatant copyright infringement could go on for years is a mystery, but the label’s double standard has been noticed, and pointed out, by the plaintiffs
as well. “The conduct of the defendant record companies is aggravated by their strict and unremitting approach to the enforcement of their copyright interests
against consumers,” the artists argue in their claim for damages.
And even though the suit is still ongoing, already the labels have admitted to owing at least $50 million for infringing the rights of artists, and this figure could
grow as high as 60 billion. So, pot, kettle on line 2.
Given that I need to be up early, I have no business being up right now writing this. But I wanted to post one of my periodic updates.
We’re in the run-up to finals, and thus it’s very Busy around here. Also, I have a meeting tomorrow morning at DSS to come up with a last-minute Word assignment for the Office class. It’ll have to be something I can do in an evening or less, because I have a test Tuesday morning at 08:00 in Economics, and then the final for Economics on Thursday. Tuesday is the last day of class. I also have some Cavi work to get done, and even though the course doesn’t officially end until June of 2010, I’d like to finish that up before the beginning of 2010. And while I’m at it, I’ll plug Cavi.
Cavi is the Cisco academy for the Visually Impaired. They provide accessible, VI-oriented training for CCNA certification and its prerequisite, and they are a non-profit group. You can get more information about Cavi here. And if you’re feeling charitable, and you’re a technophile, feel free to drop them a donation. They’re doing a good thing for the blind community. I’ve been using their material to help with my on-campus hardware course, and it has been most helpful.
So anyway, back to the subject of this post. Along with the final I have this week, I have my hardware final next Monday, and I get to not take my Business Law final, because I’ve done the extra credit assignment. I’ll be posting the write-up in a few days, but I want to expand it for this space as well as add some hyperlinks, because there is some content here that’s relevant. After the semester ends, I’m off to Florida to visit Wil and Denise and the crew down there. We should have a good time. I’ll be there till after the first of the year, and then it’s back here to start the spring semester and start making plans for the summer sessions.
I’ll end for now, but look for the extra credit write-up in the next week or so.
