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Amsterdam considering bank help -- for prostitutes

Amsterdam city council is turning its attention to a pressing problem for one of the city's key business sectors -- banking and credit for prostitutes who can't get accounts from mainstream institutions.

The city's red light district is famed the world over for its women in tiny windows and even tinier clothing, but despite the trade being legal, many banks shy away from taking the ladies on as customers.

As part of the city's "Project 1012" to remake the De Wallen neighborhood, which includes the sex district, the city council has been asked to find a way to help bordello owners and sex workers gain more access to banks.

"Up until now, it's been very difficult for people in the sex industry to get credit with the banks," a city council spokesman said on Friday. "For them it is a hazard that they can not get regular credit or help or mortgages or anything from a regular bank." More

Astronaut says we're not alone

Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar D. Mitchell, the sixth man ever to walk on the moon, has a message for all citizens of Earth: We are not alone.

"We are being visited," the 79-year-old grandfatherly "spacefarer" told 100 or so UFOlogists gathered at a National Press Club conference called by the Paradigm Research Group (motto: "It's not about lights in the sky; it's about lies on the ground").

"It is now time to put away this embargo of truth about the alien presence," said the astronaut who made the longest moonwalk in history. "I call upon our government to open up ... and become a part of this planetary community that is now trying to take our proper role as a spacefaring civilization." More

Two Buck Chuck Wins Award

Vin d'Expensive? Meritage Snooty? If that's the kind of name you were thinking would grace a winner of the California State Fair Commercial Wine Competition, get ready for a shock.

Try "Two-Buck Chuck," more formally Charles Shaw, the brand beloved of bargain but palate-sensitive wine shoppers. It's sold by Bronco Wine Co. exclusively through Trader Joe's.

Shaw's California Chardonnay took first place for Best Chardonnay from California. To some in the clubby California wine community, that must seem like a Michelin's Red Guide giving three stars to a roadside hamburger stand. More

Spain's Bullet Train Changes Nation -- and Fast

CIUDAD REAL, Spain -- To sell his vision of a high-speed train network to the American public, President Barack Obama this week cited Spain, a country most people don't associate with futuristic bullet trains.

Yet the country is on track to bypass France and Japan to have the world's biggest network of ultrafast trains by the end of next year, figures from the International Union of Railways and the Spanish government show.

The growth of the Alta Velocidad Española, or AVE, high-speed rail network is having a profound effect on life in Spain. Many Spaniards are fiercely attached to their home regions and studies show they are unusually reluctant to live or even travel elsewhere.

But those centuries-old habits are starting to change as Spain stitches its disparate regions together with a €100 billion ($130 billion) system of bullet trains designed to traverse the countryside at up to 218 miles an hour.. More

'Financial Crisis Created By White People With Blue Eyes'

Brazil's President, while meeting Gordon Brown, has said the global financial crisis was caused by "white people with blue eyes".

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva made the comments after talks with the Prime Minister to try to forge a global consensus on how to save the worldwide economy. Sky News' Joey Jones said it was an "uncomfortable" moment for Mr Brown.

"The President does not mind using fairly flamboyant language. He likes to give extensive answers to journalists.But some of it was rather awkward for the Prime Minister, who was standing there listening to the President. More

Ryanair mulls charge for toilets

Irish budget airline Ryanair has said it is considering charging passengers for using the toilet while flying.

Chief executive Michael O'Leary told the BBC that the Dublin-based carrier was looking at maybe installing a "coin slot on the toilet door".

Consumer group Which? said the airline was putting "profit before passengers".

Ryanair's PR chief Steven McNamara later played down the idea, saying: "I don't think it's going to happen in the foreseeable future".

"Will it happen long-term, I'm not really sure," he said. More

Being dead a big pain for Cottonwood woman

Kathrine Neubauer was declared dead several months ago. She's had nothing but trouble ever since. The 81-year-old Cottonwood resident lost her Social Security benefits. She's been unable to get bank loans or financing. Often, she can't even make common purchases.

"It's getting annoying and embarrassing," Neubauer said. "When I go to buy something, I don't know whether or not I am going to be dead." Neubauer's partner died three years ago.

Their finances were comingled in a trust, she said. In October, the Social Security Administration cut Neubauer's benefits, believing she had died with her partner. More

Pranks Involving Electronic Road Signs Stir Worry

Pranksters in at least three states are messing with electronic road signs meant to warn motorists of possible traffic problems by putting drivers on notice about Nazi zombies and raptors. And highway safety officials aren't amused.

The latest breach came Tuesday during the morning rush hour near Collinsville, Ill., where hackers changed a sign along southbound Interstate 255 to read, "DAILY LANE CLOSURES DUE TO ZOMBIES."

A day earlier in Indiana's Hamilton County, the electronic message on a board in Carmel's construction zone warned drivers of "RAPTORS AHEAD — CAUTION." And signs in Austin, Texas, recently flashed: "NAZI ZOMBIES! RUN!!!" and "ZOMBIES IN AREA! RUN." More

MP3 player guides rescuers to lost tourists

ZURICH - The light from an MP3 player saved two lost tourists from a chilly night stuck out in the snowy Swiss mountains, rescue authorities said Saturday.

The two -- a skier and snowboarder, both from France -- had got lost late in the day Friday outside marked runs near the resort of Savognin in southeast Switzerland, said Gery Baumann, spokesman for mountain rescue service Rega.

They were able to alert authorities using a mobile phone, but it then ran out of battery power, Baumann said. "The two winter sports enthusiasts were found by the crew of the Rega helicopter shortly after midnight -- thanks to the faint light of their MP3 player," he said. More

One artist's determination brings historic Native masks home for a visit

Helen Simeonoff doesn't look like Indiana Jones. She's bespectacled, quiet-spoken, not given to sudden moves and will turn 67 this month. Yet this smallish Sugpiaq woman from Kodiak is now receiving credit for discovering -- insofar as most Alaskans are concerned -- one of the most important troves of old art from her Native region.

She found it in France, among the towers of a 13th-century fort. Hundreds of items. Bowls, spears, bidarkas. And what may be the largest collection in existence of aged dance masks, witnesses to the era before Russian hunters claimed the area for the czar and Sugpiaq ways began to fade.

Her mind reeled as she stood among the artifacts, she said, the first Sugpiaq to view them in more than a century.

"I saw a beaded headdress from my mother's village of Old Afognak," she said. "And I thought, 'It could have been one of my ancestors who made that.' ". More

Santa is coming - to a Pub

It is the season to be jolly and Christmas revellers around the world don't need to be told twice. As Christmas fast approaches, the cheer has started flowing.

Thousands of Santas across USA who take part in the Running of the Santas pub crawl each year are just one example of the fun to be had when the tinsel is out.

Crowds of thirsty guys and girls dressed like Santa charge through towns drinking as much as they can in the name of raising money to help out children with cancer.

But the antics have raised the bushy white eyebrows of those in the Santa know.

Tim Connaghan, founder of the International University of Santa Claus, while talking about the pub crawl that he was all for raising money for charity, but said Santa’s image needed to be respected. More

Arabs find a hero in Iraqi shoe thrower

BAGHDAD — Calling someone the "son of a shoe" is one of the worst insults in Iraq. But the lowly shoe and the Iraqi who threw both of his at President George W. Bush, with widely admired aim, were embraced around the Arab world Monday as symbols of rage at a still unpopular war.

In Saudi Arabia, a newspaper reported that a man had offered $10 million to buy just one of what has almost certainly become the world's most famous pair of black dress shoes.

A daughter of Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy reportedly awarded the shoe thrower, Muntadar al-Zeidi, a 29-year-old journalist, a medal of courage.

In the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City, people calling for an immediate U.S. withdrawal removed their footwear and placed the shoes and sandals at the end of long poles, waving them high in the air. And in the southern Iraqi city of Najaf, people threw their shoes at a passing U.S. convoy. More

Births fueling Hispanic growth

Births, not immigration, now account for most of the growth in the nation's Hispanic population, a distinct reversal of trends of the past 30 years.

The Hispanic baby boom is transforming the demographics of small-town America in a dramatic way. Some rural counties where the population had been shrinking and aging are growing because of Hispanic immigration and births and now must provide services for the young.

"In all of the uproar over immigration, this is getting missed," says Kenneth Johnson, demographer at the University of New Hampshire's Carsey Institute. "All the focus is on immigration, immigration, immigration. At some point, it's not. It's natural increase."

This natural increase — more births than deaths — is accelerating among Hispanics in the USA because they are younger than the U.S. population as a whole. Their median age is 27.4, compared with 37.9 overall, 40.8 for whites, 35.4 for Asians and 31.1 for blacks. More

Is it Illegal to Drink and Vote?

For a brief moment recently, Albuquerque, N.M., police officers wondered if it was illegal to drink and vote. Why? A woman had passed out while casting her ballot at an early-voting site.

Bernalillo County Clerk Maggie Toulouse Oliver doesn't know if the woman completed her ballot — she was subsequently transported by ambulance to a local hospital, which has no record of admitting her — but said it will be counted.

Poll workers called police after the woman began yelling and screaming at them. When the officers arrived, she had lost consciousness with a bottle of vodka tucked into her waistband.

A little checking determined that it was not illegal to be drunk when casting a ballot, but election laws do prohibit liquor at voting sites and creating a disturbance. Charges have not been filed. More

Portal to mythical Mayan underworld found in Mexico

MEXICO CITY - Mexican archeologists have discovered a maze of stone temples in underground caves, some submerged in water and containing human bones, which ancient Mayans believed was a portal where dead souls entered the underworld.

Clad in scuba gear and edging through narrow tunnels, researchers discovered the stone ruins of eleven sacred temples and what could be the remains of human sacrifices at the site in the Yucatan Peninsula.

Archeologists say Mayans believed the underground complex of water-filled caves leading into dry chambers -- including an underground road stretching some 330 feet -- was the path to a mythical underworld, known as Xibalba.

According to an ancient Mayan scripture, the Popol Vuh, the route was filled with obstacles, including rivers filled with scorpions, blood and pus and houses shrouded in darkness or swarming with shrieking bats, Guillermo de Anda, one of the lead investigators at the site, said on Thursday. More

US Government owes Indians $455 million in trust case

A federal judge ruled that American Indian plaintiffs are entitled to $455 million in a long-running trust case, a fraction of the $47 billion they wanted.

But U.S. District Judge James Robertson did not say how the government should award the money, writing that his opinion "leaves for another day the question of how and to whom the award should be distributed."

Robertson's final number is close to government estimates and far from the billions sought by plaintiffs in the 12-year trial. The lawsuit — filed on behalf of a half-million American Indians and their heirs — claims they were swindled out of billions of dollars in oil, gas, grazing, timber and other royalties overseen by the Interior Department since 1887. More

Wal-Mart Gets a New Logo: Resembles a Sphincter

Something's up at Wal-Mart. Visitors to walmart.com will notice that the logo consumers have become accustomed to over the past 17 years is gone. Gone, too, are the sharp, uppercase letters spelling out the name of the Bentonville (Ark.) company and the pointy star that served as a hyphen. In its place: a new logo made up of rounded, lowercase characters. The hyphen has disappeared. And in place of the star is a symbol that resembles a sunburst or flower. It appears after the "Walmart" name, like an asterisk begging for a footnote.

On June 30, Wal-Mart officially unveiled the new logo, issuing a statement that in the fall, "Walmart's U.S. locations will update store logos as part of an ongoing evolution of its overall brand." The updated logo made its start online on July 1, although the old logo still appears on the site of Wal-Mart's parent company, walmartstores.com. More

Rat sales soar as Vietnam seeks cheaper meats

FARMERS in Kandal province have seen skyrocketing profits from exports of rat meat to neighbouring Vietnam, where cheap meat is in rising demand.

Exports have reached 10 tonnes per month, Governor Ly Marong said, with profits rising to as much as US$15,000 per month in Kandal's Kho Thom district.

"In addition to exports, local people are buying rat meat more than ever before," he said. "Grilled rat meat, or spicy, fried meat with basil, is delicious."

Live rats sell for about 6,000 to 6,500 riels per kilogram in Vietnam's Long Bin market, across the border from Kandal province, but traders purchase rats from Cambodian farmers for about 4,500 to 5,000 riels per kilogram.

The governor said that because heavy rains flood forest areas, rats swarm to nearby farms. High inflation and the rising cost of other meats - as high as 20 percent in recent months - have led farmers to harvest the rats for their own use and for export. More

Instant-Messagers Really Are About Six Degrees from Kevin Bacon

Turns out, it is a small world.

The "small world theory," embodied in the old saw that there are just "six degrees of separation" between any two strangers on Earth, has been largely corroborated by a massive study of electronic communication.

With records of 30 billion electronic conversations among 180 million people from around the world, researchers have concluded that any two people on average are distanced by just 6.6 degrees of separation, meaning that they could be linked by a string of seven or fewer acquaintances.

The database covered all of the Microsoft Messenger instant-messaging network in June 2006, or roughly half the world's instant-messaging traffic at that time, researchers said. More

Miracle fruit: A tiny berry that tricks the tongue

The world is getting fatter. One billion people are overweight, and 300 million of those are clinically obese.

The search is always on for replacements for those things that, eaten in excess, make us obese - fatty and sugary foods. There is no miracle pill that can replace either. Nearly four decades ago one man came close to providing a tablet that could reduce our love of sugar. In the 1960s, Robert Harvey, a biomedical postgraduate student, encountered the miracle berry, a fruit from west Africa which turns sour tastes to sweet.

"You can eat a berry and then bite into a lemon," says Harvey. "It becomes not only sweeter, but it will be the best lemon you've tasted in your life."

But Harvey's sweet dream of making the world healthier came to an abrupt end. On the eve of the launch in 1974, the US Food and Drugs Administration unexpectedly turned against the product.

Legal advice and contact with the FDA had led Harvey to believe that the extract from the berry would be allowed under the classification "generally recognised as safe". Having been eaten before meals for centuries in west Africa, without anecdotal reports of problems, it could be assumed not to be harmful. But the FDA decided it would be considered as an additive which required several years more testing. In the poor economic climate of 1974, this could not be funded and the company folded. More

We Lost George Carlin!

The brilliant comic and social commentator George Carlin has gone on, and left behind all of his stuff.

Carlin, who made his name in the United States in the 1970s as a hip counterculture comedian in the tradition of Lenny Bruce, has died of heart failure in California. He was 71. He won four Grammy Awards for best spoken comedy album and was nominated for five Emmys.

An excellent mimic, he started his career as a relatively conventional comedian in the 1960s before becoming bored with what he called "wearing the dumb tuxedo and entertaining middle-class morons". He turned his attention to the satirical treatment of political and social issues - liberally laced with four-letter words in his "Seven Words You Can Never Say On TV" routine - and found a new lease on life.says. More

George Carlin audio clips 2:45

Isolated tribe spotted in Brazil

One of South America's few remaining uncontacted indigenous tribes has been spotted and photographed on the border between Brazil and Peru.

The Brazilian government says it took the images to prove the tribe exists and help protect its land.

The pictures, taken from an aeroplane, show red-painted tribe members brandishing bows and arrows.

More than half the world's 100 uncontacted tribes live in Brazil or Peru, Survival International says.

Stephen Corry, the director of the group - which supports tribal people around the world - said such tribes would "soon be made extinct" if their land was not protected. More

Subway Bans Homeschooled Kids from Essay Contest

Subway -- the multi-national fast-food sub-shop giant -- has shot themselves in the foot. Again. The goal of their latest promotion was to win the loyalty of parents of grade school-aged kids -- to increase market share, revenue and profits. It was supposed to be a simple exercise in business marketing and promotion.

The outcome, however, was far different. By banning homeschooled kids -- children who are educated at home, as an alternative to public schooling -- Subway has ignited a firestorm of opposition from a vocal segment of the marketplace. Homeschoolers, offended by the ban, spontaneously -- and almost literally overnight -- organized a national Subway boycott that already has Subway's corporate spokesman hunkering down. All this happened over a holiday weekend, a time when people usually have better things to do. Imagine the impact today when millions of homeschooling parents are back in front of their computers, and discover what Subway has done to them. More

Swiss scientist who brought the world LSD takes his final trip

ALBERT Hofmann, the Swiss chemist who discovered LSD and thereby gave the psychedelic generation the pharmaceutical vehicle to turn on, tune in and drop out, has died. He was 102.

Hofmann, who died on Tuesday at his home in Basel, also identified and synthesised the active ingredients of peyote mushrooms and a Mexican psychoactive plant called ololiuqui. He developed at least three related, non-psychoactive compounds that became widely used in medicine.

Those other feats would have been little remembered, however, had he not accidentally got a trace amount of an experimental compound called lysergic acid diethylamide on his fingertips and taken the world's first acid trip.

Hofmann was a talented synthetic chemist working in the Basel research centre of Sandoz Laboratories in the 1930s when he began studying the chemistry of ergot, a fungus that grows on rye, barley and other plants. Although ergot is poisonous, midwives had for centuries used a crude extract to induce labour in pregnant women. Researchers in the US had recently identified the primary active ingredient of ergot, a chemical called lysergic acid. Hofmann, having devised a technique to make a series of derivatives of lysergic acid called amides, began systematically looking for medically useful compounds. More

Raped by lookalike wines

Energy executive and wine collector William Koch has taken his personal crusade to clean up the collectible wine business to the Windy City, filing a lawsuit on Friday that accuses both the Chicago Wine Company and Julienne Importing of selling him counterfeit wine.

Koch claims that from 1987 to 1990, the Chicago Wine Company, a retailer and auction house, sold him 15 bottles of counterfeit wine for $150,000, including a bottle of 1787 Ch�teau Branne Mouton (now Mouton-Rothschild) that may have been owned by Thomas Jefferson. The lawsuit also alleges that 14 bottles of wine Koch purchased for $63,000, which were imported by Julienne and sold by the Chicago Wine Company and other retailers, are also counterfeit. Ironically, Koch was a major investor in the Chicago Wine Company for seven years.

�We have been going through our cellar with our experts and we have found a lot of counterfeits sold via Chicago Wine Company,� said Brad Goldstein, Koch's spokesman. �They told us they would cooperate on getting to the sources for these bogus bottles but when push came to shove they provided very little�we were left with no other option.� More

New way to hike credit card rates

When the House Financial Services Committee meets again next week to discuss credit card reforms, they'll have something else to talk about -- a new way for credit card firms to raise your interest rate.

Discover announced recently that there's a new penalty for cardholders who exceed their credit limit, in addition to the $39 fee -- a higher interest rate.

Many consumers might not even realize that they can exceed their credit limit, and in fact the term has largely become meaningless. Card issuers give consumers what some call a "nominal limit," which is the credit limit printed on monthly bills. But nearly all allow consumers to exceed that limit by 10 percent or more (precisely how much is a secret), and then charge fees of $30 to $40 for each month the balance exceeds that limit. More

Fiorana Launches Line of Latino-Cut Bootylicious Jeans

Advertising Age's Laura Martinez comically comments on the launch of a line of jeans from Fiorana which are cut to accommodate the stereotypically Latina butt such as the ones attached to Jennifer Lopez, America Ferrara or Vida Guerra.

Fiorana President Mike Braden tells us, "The Latina body is different in waist and hip structure. When wearing Anglo cut jeans, there is always a fit problem around the waist area." Martinez ponders the point by wondering why she, who is of Latina descent, does not possess the bootylicious qualities Braden seems to believe all Latina women possess

.Latino celebrities here are more often than not defined by their daring derri�res. Think Salma Hayek, America Ferrara and the mother of all Latino-heavenly butts: Jennifer Lopez. More

Gaulish coin hoard is France�s biggest ever

France�s biggest trove of Gaulish coins has been unearthed in Brittany. Archeologists found them while searching along the route of a bypass under construction in the C�tes d�Armor. The coins are in the hands of specialist restorers and will go on display in the d�partement.

The trove consists of 545 gold-silver-copper coins: 58 staters and 487 quarterstaters. �Stater� is the generic term for antique coins. They lay a foot beneath the earth�s surface near Laniscat, 64km south of Saint-Brieuc, at a known Iron Age manor house or farm site, and date to 75- 50BC. They are very well preserved.

Inrap, the national institute for preventive archeological research, which has the right to investigate sites ahead of infrastructure work, reports similar finds in the 1930s at Guingamp and Perros-Guirec, but says the latest trove is the biggest yet. Searching ahead of construction work, an Inrapled team found a single coin about 30cm down, then began a systematic search. They found another 50 coins the same day, then brought in metal detectors and found the rest. They believe the coins were all buried together but were disturbed over the centuries by ploughing.

The hoard represents a fortune for its period and is priceless to archeologists. Most deals in Gaulish times were by barter: coins were for the mega-rich. More

Dallas hospital room where JFK died now stored in Kansas

A piece of JFK assassination history now lies buried in the most unlikely of places: a former limestone quarry in Kansas.

It is the end � at least for now � in the long and sometimes strange journey of Parkland Memorial Hospital Trauma Room No. 1, where President John F. Kennedy died on Nov. 22, 1963.

The entire room was purchased by the federal government 35 years ago, when Parkland officials decided to modernize their emergency facilities.

It was dismantled and the contents � all of them, the examination table, clocks, floor tiling, lockers, trash cans, surgical instruments, gloves, cotton balls, even a towel dispenser � were placed in a locked vault in a Fort Worth warehouse run by the National Archives and Records Administration. More

Bear's Activity in Woods Documented

Woods Near You - Speculation about whether bears have bowel movements in wooded areas has been settled with the release of a photograph.

An unidentified correspondent has provided photographic documentation of an unidentified bear relieving itself near a stand of trees in a rural area. The bear paused in that location for nearly a minute before looking around and leaving. An inspection of where the bear stood revealed nearly two pounds of fecal material.

Other lines of speculative questions include inquiries into whether the Pope residing in the Vatican is a member of the Catholic religion, and if country singer Dolly Parton sleeps on her back. StaggerOn.org is actively seeking photographic evidence of the latter question.

Mexico City starts grope-free buses for women

MEXICO CITY - Mexico City has started a women-only bus service to protect female passengers from groping and verbal abuse common on the city's packed public transportation system.

Millions of people cram into subway trains and buses in the Mexican capital, one of the world's largest cities, and women have long complained of abuse from men taking advantage of overcrowding to sneak in an inappropriate grab.

"One time a man stuck his hand up my skirt. They grab your butt ... It's gross," said 27-year-old office assistant Lourdes Zendejas, who waited 20 minutes during the evening rush hour to catch one of the new buses. More

Mitt Romney Demonstrates Campaign Promises

Attorney Installs Shark Tank in Office

BOZEMAN, Mont. - It started out as a joke - a lawyer putting a shark tank in his office. "I said, 'What would it take to put a shark in a lawyer's office?'", and it kind of took off from there, said attorney Christopher Gillette.

On Monday, a crane hoisted a 1,000-gallon aquarium up to a second-story window in Gillette's new office.

"I can't watch," Gillette said as half a dozen workers guided the roughly 8-foot-long, 4-foot-wide and 4-foot-tall tank through the window.

Gillette plans to fill the saltwater tank with a miniature marine ecosystem, including at least two sharks - a blacktip reef shark being flown in from the Caribbean Sea and a bamboo shark that will be hatched from eggs in the tank. More

Santa in G-String Arrested on DUI Charge

Some gifts from Santa Claus are better kept wrapped.

A man dressed as Kris Kringle was arrested Sunday night for investigation of drunken driving after he was spotted outside of Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood wearing a wig, a red lace camisole and a purple G-string.

"We are pretty sure this is not the Santa Claus," police Deputy Chief Ken Garner said.

Rick Carroll, 53, of Long Beach, was booked into jail after his blood-alcohol level measured just above the state's legal limit of .08, police said. He was later released on $5,000 bail.etup. More

Police say woman groped Santa

A 33-year-old woman was charged with fourth-degree sexual assault Saturday after allegedly groping a man playing Santa Claus at the Danbury Fair mall.

Sandrama Lamy, 33, of Danbury, is charged with fourth-degree sexual assault, according to Danbury Detective Lt. Thomas Michael.

Two messages seeking comment were left on Lamy's answering machine.

Details leading up to the alleged fondling are sketchy.

"I don't know what the deal was. It was just bizarre," the mall Santa told a reporter, referring all other questions about the incident to Cherry Hill Photo, the company that runs the Danbury Fair mall Santa photo setup. More

Stocking Stuffers Courtesy of TSA, and Your Pocket

If you get your prized pocketknife snatched by airport security this holiday season, you might want to put in a call to Dexter Dobbins. He's the Transportation Security Administration's lost-and-found guy�or something like it, anyway.

Dobbins is a flea-market scavenger who's collected, in his estimation, between 7,000 and 10,000 knives taken from passengers at Washington airports. He gets his goods from the Auburn Retail Store, located inside a warehouse in a World War II�era compound south of the SuperMall. Here, Dobbins rummages through two dozen bins of knives, scissors, and other implements of terror to pick out winners such as 1980s Buck blades. If you're still looking for cheap, albeit potentially blood-letting, stocking stuffers, Dobbins says markdowns average around 75 percent.

"Most of the stuff I get is pretty good," says Dobbins, a 56-year-old Puyallup resident who sells his TSA treasures on eBay. "I go every time they open. I don't miss a day." More

Microsoft Shuts Down Santa For Talking Dirty

SEATTLE, WA -- Microsoft Corp. quickly shut down Santa Claus' Web privileges after it found out the automated elf it created for instant messaging with kids was talking naughty, not nice.

Last year, Microsoft encouraged kids to connect directly to "Santa" by adding northpolelive.com to their Windows Live Messenger contact lists. The Santa program, which Microsoft reactivated in early December, asks children what they want for Christmas and can respond on topic via instant messaging, thanks to a bit of artificial intelligence.

Microsoft's holiday cheer soured this week when a reader of a United Kingdom-based technology news site, The Register, reported that a chat between Santa and his underage nieces about eating pizza prompted Santa to bring up oral sex.

One of the publication's writers replicated the chat Monday. After declining the writer's repeated invitations to eat pizza, a frustrated Santa burst out with, "You want me to eat what?!? It's fun to talk about oral sex, but I want to chat about something else.". More

Historic Whiskey Could Go Down Drain

Here's a sobering thought: Hundreds of bottles of Jack Daniel's whiskey, some of it almost 100 years old, may be unceremoniously poured down a drain because authorities suspect it was being sold by someone without a license.

Officials seized 2,400 bottles late last month during warehouse raids in Nashville and Lynchburg, the southern Tennessee town where the whiskey is distilled.

"Punish the person, not the whiskey," said an outraged Kyle MacDonald, 28, a Jack Daniel's drinker from British Columbia who promotes the whiskey on his blog. "Jack never did anything wrong, and the whiskey itself is innocent."

Investigators are also looking into whether some of the bottles had been stolen from the distillery. No one has been arrested. More

Bra-maker to turn Japanese women into bag ladies

Environmentally concerned Japanese women will soon have an option to accepting plastic bags, their bras!

A lingerie maker, in a bid to discourage Japanese from using plastic bags, on Wednesday unveiled a bra whose cup padding unfolds to become a handheld shopping bag.

Lingerie maker Triumph has regularly designed bras aimed at drawing attention to social issues and to raise its own profile.

Last winter it unveiled a bra that can be heated in a microwave so as to help save on indoor heating costs.

The �Bra Rangers� � named after the television characters that morph into superheroes � come with matching underwear whose pocket has the inscribed message, �No more plastic bags!�. More

Possible human remains in Disney's 'pirate' ride

ANAHEIM, CA - Those animatronic skeletons drinking wine and steering a ship may not be the only dead ones inside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

A suspicious powder that may or may not have been cremated remains was spotted in the water in the popular attraction, forcing the ride to close briefly Friday afternoon. Security officials were unable to determine what the substance was or find the female visitor who was seen sprinkling the powder.

"A witness described the substance as baby powder that quickly dissipated. We reopened the attraction after determining that there was no danger to our guests," said Rob Doughty, a Disneyland spokesman, in a prepared statement.

While Disney officials deny this is a recurring problem, a Disney watchdog blog said that this isn't the only incident of visitors possibly scattering the ashes of loved ones in the rides, specifically dark attractions. More

Was Communism created by Acne?

LONDON - Karl Marx, who complained of excruciating boils, actually suffered from a chronic skin disease with known psychological effects that may well have influenced his writings, a British expert claims.

Sam Shuster, professor of dermatology at the University of East Anglia, believes the revolutionary thinker had hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) in which the apocrine sweat glands -- found mainly in the armpits and groin -- become blocked and inflamed.

"In addition to reducing his ability to work, which contributed to his depressing poverty, hidradenitis greatly reduced his self-esteem," said Shuster, who published his findings in the British Journal of Dermatology.

"This explains his self-loathing and alienation, a response reflected by the alienation Marx developed in his writing." More

Russia schools ban 'cult of death' Halloween

MOSCOW - Moscow schools have been ordered to ban students from celebrating Halloween despite the widespread popularity of the imported festival to Russia.

Halloween is being forced underground because it "includes religious elements, the cult of death, the mockery of death," a spokesman for the city's education department Alexander Gavrilov said on Wednesday.

Pumpkins and images of witches are widespread across Russia, with many bars organizing special fancy dress parties, despite the efforts of the Kremlin, and especially the Russian Orthodox Church, to curb enthusiasm for non-native festivities. More

Forget Hooters - Twin Peaks, a new place to pitch your tent

Albuquerque, NM - Twin Peaks is located in the building that used to house Rockfish, in the sprawling restaurant metro area of Albuquerque. Diners are immediately greeted by an enormous outdoor mural of a buxom cowgirl proudly showing off her wares, next to the phrase �Come and Get It!�

A server, Gina, was clad in the regulation uniform of a tiny red-and-black checkered flannel tie-top with an open front, the shortest shorts imaginable and cutsie faux-wilderness-whacking boots. As expected, you can really see more meat on these ladies than on the chicken wings they�re hawking, and the wings are pretty meaty.

The indoor dining area is decorated with apropos fake hunting lodge furniture and lots of wood and plaid. Walking through the bar, in between the multitude of flat-screen TVs blaring ESPN, the tables were packed with so many military guys in uniform it looked like Fort Bragg..

And, of course, there were the ladies. From a purely shallow standpoint, the servers were all pretty hot. Blondes, brunettes, short, tall, shy, sassy and even a smoky-luscious tattooed goth girl. A person does not get a tawdry strip-club feel from the place, the restaurant isn�t quite a nudie bar, but not quite Applebees�something in between. More

Military mistakenly recruits on gay Web site

The Army, Navy and Air Force unwittingly advertised for recruits on a Web site for gays, who are barred from military service if they are open about their sexual orientation.

When informed Tuesday by USA Today that they were advertising on GLEE.com, a networking Web site for gay professionals, recruiters expressed surprise and said they would remove the job listings.

�This is the first I�ve heard about it,� said Maj. Michael Baptista, advertising branch chief for the Army National Guard, which will spend $6.5 million on Internet recruiting this year. �We didn�t knowingly advertise on that particular Web site,� which he said does not �meet the moral standards� of the military.

Most of the military jobs posted were "hard-to-fill" positions requiring advanced training, although some ads sought to fill core combat slots at a time when the Iraq war has challenged recruiters to meet goals..More

Commuter Dudes Mount Skateboards, Ignore Wives

Fred Mahe, a 36-year-old software salesman, twists his tie into a neat knot while riding his skateboard up Madison Avenue from his home in the Financial District to his office at 42nd Street and 3rd Avenue. �It�s like a magic carpet,� he said of his trusty transport. �You just kind of stand on it and it goes.�

Mr. Mahe doesn�t ride to work every day (�Some days it�s all you can do to find your way to the train,� he said), but he has joined a contingent of late�20-something and 30-year-old skateboarders who are riding the concrete waves of New York and Brooklyn on planks of wood atop polyurethane wheels.

These aren�t the young skate punks of Union Square, grinding on railings and clattering down concrete steps at bone-breaking speed. These are guys with mortgages, iPhone bills and maybe wives and children, who find time to skateboard to and from work or cruise through Central Park on the weekends. They�re indulging in nostalgia for a childhood pastime while convincing themselves it counts as cardio.ppears the it is not just American presidents who accumulate wealth after "serving" the public. More

Former Mexican president got wealthy from his gig

It appears the it is not just American presidents who accumulate wealth after "serving" the public.

Former Mexican president Vicente Fox has apparently done very well for himself by raking in the ameros after his gig in Mexico.

It all began with a few photos published in one of Mexico's most popular celebrity magazines.

The magazine, Quien, opened a window on Vicente Fox's post-presidential life nearly a year after he left office, treating Mexicans to photos of his newly renovated ranch, complete with a pool, artificial lake and expansive gardens. The glamorous spread prompted a public debate about how Fox could have earned enough as president to afford such luxuries. More

Buried in Stuff: How one woman escaped

Americans are buried in mounds and mounds of their possesions.

They have so many belongings that their homes can not contain it all, and many resort to renting storage space.

Nearly one in 10 American households now rents additional storage, and the Self Storage Association estimates that in 2007 there is a total 2.2 billion square feet of self-storage in the United States, or 79 square miles--more than three times the size of Manhattan. That, brags the association's web site, is "6.86 sq. ft. of self storage space for every man, woman, and child in the nation.

This is one woman's account of how she started to crawl out from under her pile of stuff. More

Staying Dry at Burning Man

Burning Man may have a rep as a haven for drug users, but you won't find 'em in Anonymous Camp.

The stereotype is true. A good portion, perhaps even the majority, of the costumed, dusty people you meet during a night at Burning Man � the massive, hedonistic annual artfest � are walking around as high as a four-story desert sculpture.

But there's a faction of folks attending the weeklong event who choose to do it drug-free, for reasons ranging from preference to survival. Visit Anonymous Camp for one of several daily Alcoholics Anonymous meetings offered in Black Rock City, and you'll meet plenty of people who want to keep their own mind-altering experiences clean and sober. More

Beer cans block Ohio man's escape from burning house

FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP, OH -- A Cincinnati area man who died in a house fire early Wednesday morning may have survived if his escape had not been blocked by a large pile of beer cans. Fire crews were called to the home near Cincinnati before 6 a.m. and found heavy smoke and fire coming from the structure.

The stereotype is true. A good portion, perhaps even the majority, of the costumed, dusty people you meet during a night at Burning Man � the massive, hedonistic annual artfest � are walking around as high as a four-story desert sculpture.

Firefighters initially said no one was hurt, but one person, Robert McCarty, 37, was unaccounted for.

Crews working inside the home found McCarty's body shortly after 10 a.m., and investigators said his exit was blocked by a 5-foot tall stack of beer cans. More

'Burning Man' gets torched ahead of schedule

BLACK ROCK DESERT, NEV. - A San Francisco man was arrested on felony arson charges today after the 40-foot-tall "Man" statue whose torching is the annual highlight of the Burning Man festival in Nevada went up in flames four days early, authorities said.

Paul Addis, 35, of San Francisco, was booked into the Pershing County Jail in Nevada on the arson charge and misdemeanor possession of fireworks, Sheriff Ron Skinner said.

Festival organizers, meanwhile, pondered the smoldering remains of the Man and promised to rebuild the big guy in time for Saturday's regularly scheduled burn in the Black Rock Desert north of Reno.

"The Man is still standing, and an assessment is under way to determine the structural integrity of the Man and the Green Man Pavilion," according to a statement posted today at www.burningman.com. "The event will continue as scheduled." More

Reptiles found in Saudi's luggage

Cairo, EGYPT -- A Saudi man�s attempt to smuggle live reptiles out of Egypt in his hand luggage has been foiled by horrified security officers at Cairo airport.

Snakes, chameleons and baby crocodiles were found in the 22-year-old�s bags as he tried to board a Saudi-bound flight.

Police had become suspicious when X-ray machines at the departure gate gave odd readings. Among the reptiles they found was a cobra, squirming to escape.

The animals were confiscated and turned over to Cairo Zoo.R. More

Stripper Saves Client with CPR

PORT ST. LUCIE, FL -- Karnesha Nantz gave an unexpected performance Friday morning.

The exotic dancer went to a Port St. Lucie, Florida home to entertain 46-year-old Daniel Karpisnki on several occasions, but this time Nantz noticed something wrong.

Nantz said Karpinski was sitting on his couch watching her dance for about 20 minutes. Facing a television with her back toward him, she asked him, "Do you like this, baby?" while swiveling her hips back and forth, she said.

She turned around and realized her 46-year-old client had passed out. "He looked like he was dead," Nantz said. "I had to pull him to the floor, and I tilted his head."

Nantz started CPR. More

Zoo faces charges for selling animals as food

BERLIN Germany - A mayor in eastern Germany has filed charges against workers at his local zoo for shooting animals and selling them as meat.

A spokeswoman for the mayor's office said deer were among the animals killed and sold by workers at Erfurt Zoo without permission over a number of years.

"The case is now with the state prosecutors," said the spokeswoman, declining to give further details.

The German Animal Protection League demanded a review of controls at the zoo and at all other institutions with animals in the state of Thuringia.

"We are worried this is only the tip of the iceberg," said Wolfgang Apel, president of the League, who also said the case raised serious questions about the zoo's management. More

Yee Haw, Let The Games Begin

Four by fours, swimmin' holes, gun racks, six packs and barbecued road kill - the stuff of redneck legend.

To many being called a "redneck" may be offensive, but not to some people who met in East Dublin, Georgia for a festival that celebrates just that... being a redneck.

They says they're proud to participate in all things considered redneck at the Redneck Games.

Bobbing for pigs feet was one of the highlights of the games.

One woman beat out a group of pot-bellied men to win the top prize.. More

Al Gore III Busted with dope in Prius

Perhaps inspired by Paris Hilton, Al Gore III displayed the magnificent gene pool he swims in by getting busted driving a Prius at 100 mph while trafficking in dope and pills.

Al Gore III, the 24-year-old son of the former vice president, was booked on pot-and-pill-possession charges after police clocked him speeding 100 mph down a southern California highway in his eco-friendly Toyota Prius.

It was his second dope arrest in four years.

When deputies searched the car they found pot, along with Valium, Xanax, Vicodin and Adderall. He is currently being held at the Santa Ana Inmate Reception Center on $20,000 bail. More

Clinton, Gore Get Rich Post-White House

When Bill Clinton and Al Gore left the White House, they both had serious financial problems. Now they both have serious cash.

President Clinton left power in 2001 dogged by legal bills. Last year he made more than $10 million in paid speeches, according to federal filings released by his wife's presidential campaign.

"I like to kid my husband we never had any money, and then he gets out of the White House, and he starts making it, and that's fine with me," New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has joked.

But it's Gore, Clinton's former No. 2, who is really raking it in.

After his failed presidential run, a bearded and embattled Gore signed on as an adviser with a then-obscure Internet company called Google.

He went on to join the board of Apple, then he started his own profitable cable company and an asset management firm. More

Car Tent Makes Homelessness a thing of the past

Hotels are really expensive, especially in dense metropolitan areas such as Manhattan. If you're looking to crash in a city but don't feel like dropping bills on a closet-sized hotel room, just go camping in your Car Tent.

Sure, camping on the side of the road is illegal and dangerous, but no one will know you're there. That's because the Car Tent looks like a car with a cover on it, keeping you hidden from sight while you live the dream of being so cheap that you're willing to literally sleep in the gutter to save a buck. More

Free Speech Dead in Berkeley

Four decades ago a free speech movement kicked off on a Berkeley campus, but has now appeared to have kicked the bucket.

DeezTeez.com, a San Leandro silkscreener and purveyor of wearable Adam Sandler humor recently pulled its "Rutgers ... Nappy Headed Hoes Basketball Team" shirt off its Web site after a group of activists launched an online protest rally and stormed a Berkeley retailer earlier this month.

The navy-blue shirts, which depict a basketball with a picked-out Afro, sparked the ire of some Cal students and staff, who recently walked en masse into T-Shirt Orgy, a basement shop within the Bear Basics store on Telegraph Avenue, and demanded that the "nappy" shirt come down.

Deez' owners don't view the shirts as racist � it's all 'hood to them. Their designs regularly crib from hip-hop lyrics: "Where My Hose At?" shows up next to the depiction of a firefighter. "Nuthin' But a G-String," which accompanies a burlesque dancer, plays on a song title from Dr. Dre's 1992 album The Chronic. More

Bikini baristas serve it up in Oregon

Salem, OR - When Adam Marshall and Steven Rotan opened their drive-through coffee shop Coffee Nation on Mission Street in January, they knew they were going to face a challenge.

The state was requiring them to install a median that would block left-turn access to their shop, which they feared would slow business.

Instead of sulking, the Salem brothers got to work on a promotional plan. That plan now has shop employees sporting an unusual uniform: bikinis.

"It's really worked," said Marshall, 28. "Our profits are going up every day." More

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