Bin Laden is Dead

Big news: Osama bin Laden is dead! President Obama shared the news in a public television address late on a Sunday evening. Just short of a decade after 9/11, the mastermind behind the attacks on New York and Washington DC was found and killed in a firefight at a secure compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. In Obama's Osama speech, we heard: "Justice has been done."

A team of Navy SEALS raided the compound in the middle of the night and completed their task in just 40 minutes. The operation was conducted in secrecy. Most world leaders, including Pakistan, were unaware of the attack until is was done. The only American loss was a helicopter that malfunctioned and was destroyed. The choppers were only intended to hover over the scene, but due to a technical malfunction, one of them landed or fell — "not a crash," the official said. (Sounds like movie scene. Instead of letting the enemy have access to a mostly capable piece of equipment, the team blows it up and leaves the charred remains behind.) The explosion alerted Pakistani officials to an unusual event at the compound.

Bin Laden's body was quickly taken away for burial at sea (to comply with Muslim law for burial within 24 hours of death), but not before a DNA match was done to prove his identity. The military took pictures of the body for evidence, but these will probably remain classified, as will video of the firefight since it shows operational tactics.

The compound itself was unusual. A far cry from the simple mountain cave dwellings where intelligence suspected bin Laden hid in the years following 9/11, this facility was custom-built to hide someone of significance. It was surrounded by 12 to 18 foot high walls and had two restricted-access security gates. The residents burned their trash, unlike their neighbors. Although it was built in 2005, it did not have telephone or internet access. Finally, the plot was 8 times larger than other homes in the area.

The final piece of intelligence came from detainees held in hidden East European prisons. They identified a courier with special access to bin Laden and tracked him over several years. Among the dead and captured were bin Laden, one of bin Laden's sons, a courier, and the courier's brother.

U.S. officials conceded the risk of renewed attack. The terrorists "almost certainly will attempt to avenge" bin Laden's death, CIA Director Leon Panetta wrote in a memo that congratulated the agency for its role in the operation. "Bin Laden is dead. Al-Qaida is not."

But for the time, Americans and others throughout the world celebrate the downfall of this terrorist leader.

Marketing Tricks

This is part of a real ad in the May 2011 issue of Reader's Digest.

"I need it in the middle of the night." "I want it now."

Can you guess the product?



The full ad is below:



Really? A sleep aid? Without the product shown, the picture looks seductive like it belongs to a bedroom aid or an ED pill. With context of the product, the man and woman look exhausted. Interesting marketing trick.

A Crappy Valentine

Using seven loads of fresh manure, a farmer in southern Minnesota created a half-mile wide heart against the white background of a snowy field. He hired an aerial photographer to capture his masterpiece. By the time news agencies caught word of the odd story, a dusting of snow lightened the image. It probably disappeared completely today under another significant snowfall.


How did his wife react? She says it's cute and "Why not do something fun with what you got?"

Bad English

This is an AFP article that I found amusing. Especially number 3.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090909/od_afp/britainlanguageoffbeat_20090909112500

Bush, Arnie top English Gobbledegook Poll
Wed Sep 9, 7:20 am ET

LONDON (AFP) – Former US president George W. Bush topped a poll of the worst examples of mangled English released Wednesday, followed closely by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Donald Rumsfeld.

French footballer-cum philospher Eric Cantona and former US president Bill Clinton also produced prime examples of gobbledegook, according to the online poll of 4,000 people inspired by the Plain English Campaign.

Notoriously language-challenged Bush romped to the top accolade for his: "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." Second came bodybuilder-turned-actor-turned-California governor Schwarzenegger, who during an election campaign in 2003 minted the puzzling: "I think that gay marriage should be between a man and a woman."

The rest of the top 10 in the poll, commissioned by an insurance company after it won an award from the Plain English Campaign, were:

- 3. Rumsfeld, in February 2002: "Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns: the ones we don't know we don't know."

- 4. Murray Walker, motor racing commentator: "The lead car is absolutely unique, except for the one behind it which is identical."

- 5. John Motson, football commentator: "For those of you watching in black and white, Spurs are playing in yellow."

- 6. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, explaining budget plans to lawmakers in July this year: "Total spending will continue to rise and it will be a zero percent rise in 2013-14."

- 7. Clinton, in 1998 grand jury testimony about Monica Lewinsky: "It depends upon what the meaning of the word 'is' is. If 'is' means 'is and never has been' that's one thing -- if it means 'there is none', that was a completely true statement."

- 8. Cantona, 1995: "When the seagulls follow the trawler, it's because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea."

- 9. Bush, July 2001: "I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe -- I believe what I believe is right."

- 10. London mayor Boris Johnson, on British satirical gameshow "Have I Got News for You" in 2003: "I could not fail to disagree with you less."

CARS Suspended

Leave it up to the government to cause such a mess. An AP article said nearly 23,000 vehicles were purchased through the program through late Wednesday and nearly $96 million had been spent. A survey of 2,000 dealerships found 25,000 deals waiting to be approved. That's an average of 13 per dealer. By my figures, the program allows an average of 10 sales per dealership. Because of the backlog, the Transportation Department made the decision to suspend the program at midnight Friday. In other words, the government may have found a way to burn through $1 billion in one week.

Maybe I should say, "yet another way..." Obama really needs to reign in spending to get this country back in line. First, it was $750 billion for the banks. Then, it was billions more for the auto industry. Now, he's wants to provide national health care. This is all in addition to the cost of the military and social security. No wonder the national debt has exceeds $11.6 trillion. It has increased more than $900 billion since the beginning of 2009 and nearly $2.1 trillion in 12 months. Wow!

And That's the Way It Is

Walter Cronkite died today at the age of 92. And that's the way it is.

Although the news legend ended his anchor career on CBS prior to my birth, there is no reason I should not know who he is/was. Sixteen million tuned in to the nightly national news to hear the facts told by the "most trusted man in America." With the competition among broadcast, cable, and online news sources these days, Katie Couric pulls in audiences one-third the size.

Cronkite's death comes three days before the 40th anniversary of NASA's moon landing. According to one news report, Cronkite was uncharacteristically speechless when Apollo 11 touched down on the moon on July 20, 1969, with less than 30 seconds of fuel reserve. "Man on the moon," he declared, then stammered for the next two minutes as he listened to the cross-chat between Houston and the Sea of Tranquility. "Oh, jeez. Oh, boy. ... Whew. Boy. Oh, boy."

While America reacted en masse to the death of Michael Jackson on June 25, the loss of Cronkite deserves as much or more recognition.

Cookie Decoration No-No?

Karen Youso addressed the following question in the Fixit column for the Minneapolis Star Tribune:

Q: Are those silver BB-like balls on decorated Christmas cookies safe to eat?
A: No. Remove them from the cookie before eating, is the advice from the FDA. Called "dragees" (dray-jays), they're classified as a non-food item by the FDA because of the very minute amount of foil coating on the hard sugar spheres. Dragees are sold at grocery and cake decorating stores, except in California where they are banned, much to the chagrin of cooking and cake decorators there.

I remember eating those balls as a kid. I enjoyed biting into the hard spheres. Now I learn they are classified as a non-food item. No wonder I turned out how I did. (We are assuming that the Food and Drug Administration knows a thing or two about food.)