What a mess!

Mario Scaramella, the Italian academic who met with the late Alexander Litvinenko on November 1st, has reportedly tested positive for Polonium-210. This is the same highly radioactive element that was discovered in Litvinenko's body. Scaramella had gone into hiding in fear for his life due to the demise of the former Russian spy.

Related to this mess is Yegor Gaidar, a former acting Prime Minister and economist who became severely ill in Ireland. He has since been taken to a Moscow hospital where he has reportedly, been recovering. Also, one of three planes removed from service in the UK, has been cleared of radiation. Despite this, a hotel in Sussex, England, was evacuated to search for Polonium-210.

The British government is demanding cooperation from the Russian government into this case. Litvinenko accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of culpibility in his poisoning and Putin has denied any involvement in the matter. However, Russia has pledged that it will cooperate with the investigation.

Though there are many mysteries - even going back to the October 7th slaying of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya - one of these is where the radioactive materials came from. So far, no nuclear labs are reproting any thefts. Sergei Kiriyenko, head of Russia's state atomic energy agency Rosatom, has stated that only 8 grams of the substance are made a month. He also said it cannot be "obtained illegally there". A lethal dose would be as little as 6.8 picograms (I really went and looked that up and even found out what a picogram is. 1 pg is 1/1,000,000,000,000 of a kilogram. This makes it awfully minute. I'm such a little investigative reporter!). It is also notoriously dangerous to handle but has a half life of roughly 138 days.

In an article posted in CNN yesterday, the Republican party wants a law outlining when fetuses feel pain. It seems the bill is less about actually creating such language in legislature but is actually an act to shore up Republican loyalty. When the Democrats take leadership of congress next year it is likely that few, if any, abortion restrictive bills make it even to the floor of either house. Douglas Johnson, legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee, even called the Democrats "Hardcore pro-abortion loyalists." I think thats a little generalist. There are some Democrats who are not pro-choice. And to call anyone pro-abortion is demeaning. No one is for abortion. They are for the choice. Hitler was pro-abortion.

Other news today: Typhoon Durian has killed 388 people so far. There are also 75 people missing. The Phillipines has been socked by four such storms in four months. At the same time a real whopper of a storm is pummeling the midwest with rain, snow and everything in between. Fortunately, I'm up north in Minnesota where its a balmy 23 today. Thats warm for this week!

On this day in 1941, New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia signed into action the Civil Air Patrol.

On this day in 1955, Rosa parks was arrested for not getting up and moving to the back of the bus for a white person. It sparked the Montgomery bus boycott which helped catapult Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to his role as Civil Rights Leader.

Back on this day in 1990, while we were gearing up for Gulf War I, The two sides, Anglish and French, met underneath the English Channel to unite both sides of the Chunnel. It would be another 4 years before it actually did business but it made it possible to walk on dry land from England to the mainland for the first time in 8,500 years ago. This was the last ice age.

In 1991, the Ukraine voted to get the hell off the sinking ship known as the USSR. The Soviet Union's days were already numbered.

Glad I don't live There!

I had a wonderful post all set to go but I didn't save it. Suddenly, all my Firefox windows went skittering to a screeching halt. So, I must go back to news aggregating to find other neat things to write about.

Since I'm so disheartened I will mention briefly those things I was going to talk about:

Professor at University of Pennsylvania arrested for possession of child pornography. A customs agent flagged him after noticing his frequent trips to Thailand.

Two buildings collapse in Egypt killing 8 so far. Reason: Dude, buildings really REALLY suck in Egypt. There wasn't even an earthquake.

South Africa is thinking about enriching uranium to start a nuclear energy program. Allegedly, they will try to stay within international "obligations". Al-Jazeera ran that one.

Kofi Annan told Hezbollah to give up the two soliders so I srael will lift its blockade of Lebanon. He'd like to see them handed over to the Red Cross. Little do most people realize but the cease-fire merely means stop shooting (more like "Reload") and does not require Israel to cease its isolation of the beleagered nation.

And according to Pravda, Paris Hilton has a clone. It's in Ukraine.

Tropical Storm Ernesto leaves Cuba and heads north for Southeast Florida. This means Miami. It will likely return to hurricane status after sitting over the the bath water like Gulf of Mexico. God be with you all those in its path. We're pulling for you.

That was about it. I'll have more in the morning.

☺

How thick could you get?

The baggage of one Howard McFarland Fish, 21, of Conncecticut, was found to have dynamite in it. Yeah, the stuff created by some Swedish guy named Nobel to blow shit up with. Reportedly there was a half stick as well as other bomb making components. The man was on his way back to college presumably. Though authorities don't believe he was engaged in terrorism nor planned any terrorist acts, his motives are unknown as well as his intentions. All I know is, he's a dumbshit.

Following up on a story reported here, the FDA's controversial decision to allow drugmaker Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc. to make the drug over-the-counter has some reactions. Time Magazine is running a story on its website that "both sides of the debate were quick to decry the FDA's ruling as political." Andrew von Eschenbach, the acting FDA commisioner is still in the running to be confirmed as the commisioner. After the drug was aprroved, two senators namely Patty Murray and Hillary Clinton withdrew their objections to his nomination. They both were adamently opposed to von Eschenbach unless he aprroved the pill. In response, fatih-based groups called on President Bush "to withdraw von Eschenbach's nomination altogether because of the pills that, if taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex, can greatly reduce the chance of pregnancy". So now the truth comes to light. Its all political maneuvering. The FDA did limit the purchase of the drug to those 18 and older though the drug company is still targetting those as young as 16.

Now here I will editorialize: I understand the faith-based groups desire to make sure every life is born regardless of it being wanted, cared for and nourished, but saying a woman cannot get a pill to prevent conception in an emergency is insane. THere is no life killed; just prevented. Also, they are currently limiting the purchase to those who are adults, who've acheived majority. This means they are supposedly capable of taking their own matters into their own hands. I needed to after my stupid boyfriend at the time decided to take the condom off when I had been out of my pills for a week or so. I was worried and I had to run around and spend a lot of money to get the stupid thing.

Now, I also have a problem with Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc. You want to to market this drug to 16-year-olds? You also would like to due clinical studies on 15-year-olds!?! I see serious ethical dilemnas on the horizon for you. And social conservatives worried that this will encourage promiscuity: If you don't want it, don't have it. Promiscuity is very old. Older than you.

Former Prime Minister of Ukraine (Україна) was jailed here in the US on charges of fraud, extortion and money-laundering. The guy is a real winner. Pavlo Lazarenko (Павло Іванович Лазаренко) has also been convicted of laundering $6.6M through Swiss banks and with ordering the 1996 killing of a prominent politician, Yevhen Shcherban, and two failed assassination attempts on high-ranking officials in Ukraine. He has been sentenced to nine years prison time and a fine of $10M.

According to the BBC, Pakistani born Javed Iqbal stands accused of offering the Hezbollah (حزب الله) run station al-Manar (المنار) to consumers in New York. The man claims its a violation of his first amendment rights. First of all, it is not. It is a violation of his right to make a profit. However, I do agree that he has the right to broadcast the station for interested persons in New York. Secondly he was doing business with a terrorist group. That is what he is officially charged with. Its gonna be a tough one to fight that. Even though I think he shouldn't be charged with anything, I can't see the courts being unbiased enough.

On this day back in 1718, the port city of New Orleans (Nouvelle-Orléans) was founded in Louisiana, then territory of France.

Conicidently, on this day a year ago, Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Florida before returning to the water, that being the very steamy Gulf of Mexico, where it would strengthen to a Category 3 storm the following day and proceed on its fateful and fatal clash with New Orleans.