your energy company...supplies enough energy to melt 7 tons of glacier?

and you were proud? it was a different time.

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The part-time census worker found naked, bound and hanging from a tree had staged his suicide to make it appear like murder, authorities said today.


Authorities are investigating the death as a potential hate crime.
When the body of Bill Sparkman, 51, was found near a rural Kentucky cemetery in September, he was gagged, had duct tape over his eyes and neck, his hands and feet were bound with tape, and he had "fed" scrawled on his chest.

Authorities initially investigated whether Sparkman had been a victim of anti-government sentiment, but today they said in a statement that he died during an "intentional, self-inflicted act that was staged to appear as a homicide."

Two life insurance plans had also been taken out by Sparkman, a single father, right before the time of his death, but payment for suicide was precluded, said police.

If Sparkman had been killed on the job, his family also would have been be eligible for up to $10,000 in death gratuity payments from the government, according to the Associated Press. He was not eligible for a separate life insurance policy through the government because his census work was intermittent, Census Bureau spokesman Stephen Buckner said in September.

According to the Kentucky State Police, DNA evidence shows that Sparkman was the only person who "handled the key pieces of evidence" and there was no evidence of involvement by other individuals.


Kentucky State Police Capt. Lisa Rudzinski said an analysis found that "fed" was written "from the bottom up." He was touching the ground, and to survive "all Mr. Sparkman had to do at any time was stand up," she said.

Sparkman had also "discussed ending his own life," according to the police statement, and had often talked about the "perceived negative attitudes toward federal entities" by members of the community.

Sparkman's mother, Henrie Sparkman of Inverness, Fla., bristled at the conclusion. "I disagree!" she wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

Police said the official cause of death was asphyxiation and strangulation.

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AMPATUAN, Philippines — A politician whose wife and relatives were among 57 people massacred in the southern Philippines this week in an apparent bid to stop him from running for governor has filed his candidacy for the election.

Ismael Mangudadatu says "only death can stop me from running."

[link]

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SHANGHAI — The virus that causes AIDS is now spreading fastest in China through heterosexual sex, a trend demanding new strategies to stave off a rebound in the epidemic after years of progress in containing it, a United Nations report said.

[link]

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Dear Blog Readers:

Happy Holidays. Please enjoy a brief interlude while I make a decision.

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Apple Has Filed The Following Patent -- Speculate Wildly.

In an application filed last year and made public last month by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Apple is seeking a patent for technology that displays advertising on almost anything that has a screen of some kind: computers, phones, televisions, media players, game devices and other consumer electronics.

Filing a patent application, of course, doesn’t necessarily mean that the company plans to use the technology. But the application shows, at the least, that Apple has invested in research to develop what it calls an “enforcement routine” that makes people watch ads they may not want to watch.

Its distinctive feature is a design that doesn’t simply invite a user to pay attention to an ad — it also compels attention.

[link]

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Worst News Story of the Year:

Not posting an excerpt.

[link]

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18-button office mouse.

The 18 programmable buttons can all be double-clicked, and the mouse comes with an obligatory scroll-wheel, 512k of flash memory and support for over 60 separate configs

[link]

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