Aces Full of Links

You and James Do the News

• Ouch, Matt!
  • I’m sorry I missed this game. It seems as though the Sox really pulled together as a team in the face of adversity. Matt, Jeez I hope you’re OK!
• West Nile is in CA
  • Crappy virus confirmed in a second California victim. Stupid virus. There is some evidence it is waning in other areas. Any hope that someday soon it will self-limit out of existence?
• Scout Leaders Electrocuted While Pitching Tent
  • Young scouts look on in horror. Freakish and tragic. Lightning immediately came to mind, but it was a high power line, tagged by a swinging support pole.
• “American children may be exposed to pesticides at school more often than their parents realize, a new study suggests.”
  • Since I know a certain daycare that refuses to call an exterminator for professional treatment, and the state seems to have its head up its colon regarding the issue, I’m not at all surprised. But this story is actually about drift-over from farmland.
• Chinese pig disease toll hits 24
  • You know a disease is either new of hasn’t killed enough westerners when it’s still got a name like “Chinese Pig Disease.”
• A Croatian farmer was killed when a cow he was about to milk fell and crushed him, local media reported Tuesday.
  • Oompa Loompas are now rethinking the logic of hoisting cows and lashing them to make whipped cream. OK - it’s a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory reference. But it always seemed to me a little dangerous to get underneath such a heavy animal.
• An Italian couple stole 50,000 euros from a woman in the Sicilian city of Palermo after convincing her they were vampires who would impregnate her with the son of the Anti-Christ if she did not pay them.
  • No one wants to be the mom of the antichrist and risk having their likeness appear supernaturally in the patterns of deviled ham that satanists spread on their toast. Oooo. Creepy.
• Spaniards are no longer allowed to smoke as they take a Sunday stroll in the woods, under new government rules aimed at curbing the risk of fires such as a recent one in which 11 firefighters died.
  • Spanish smokers now searching for the thoughtless idiots who spoiled their smoking. And caused the deaths of 11.
  • You know, deadly force is legal in certain circumstances to prevent arson. I wonder if we should adopt a legal dope-slap for people who carelessly dispose of their lit cigarettes? My answer would be “yes.”
• In other news, one could make a weekly blog post called “What’s the White House hiding now?” and never want for material.