A smaller bite of news... it looks like the weekend update was too much.


~~~Politics & World News~~~

Bush announces the first pardons given since March. 14 pardons and 2 prison sentences commuted. A few drug convictions, a few environmental offenders, a few white-collar crimes. *shrug*

House Resolution 1532, introduced by NY Congressman Nathan Petrelli Jerrold Nadler, would curtail Bush's ability to pardon the members of his administration for crimes committed under Bush's reign, and would commission a Select Committee to investigate abuses of power, and call upon the next Attorney General to prosecute where illegal activities are found. \o/ Finally, some accountability! Even if it's just a chance at it, that's better than what we've been getting.

Here's a new way to bring transparency to the executive branch... what if whitehouse.gov was wiki-based? Daily updates on what's going on... blogs by staffers... a system where people can vote questions to the President up or down to receive attention and answers sooner.... that would be pretty sweet, yes?

Two men face up to 8 years in prison for selling fake penises. No, not dildos. These dicks are heated and come with powdered clean urine so people can pass drug tests undetected, even if they're being watched. They say "the prosthetic penis is very realistic..." Well, they'll be experiencing some realistic dicks behind bars. (oh, that was tasteless. But funny!)

~~~Entertainment and Style~~~

Horatio Sanz, the ex-Big Guy from SNL (you know, there's always a Big Guy...), lost about 100 pounds! He's actually not bad-looking when, you know, his face has a shape besides "completely round". Good for him.

First there were bros (bras for men). Then there was manscara and guyliner, and man purses. Now there is mantyhose. Yes. Nylons for men. I'm not quite sure how I feel about this... I can't get past thoughts of Peter Pan and Robin Hood. Hell, I don't even like to wear pantyhose, and it's halfway expected for women to do so.

I have just found my new favorite blog ever. superherofan, subtitled "objectifying men in pop culture." Apparently NPH was naked in last night's HIMYM? THANK YOU, SUPERHEROFAN! Also, Sendhil Ramamurthy from last night's Heroes... oh. oh man. Anyway, this post is going to be late because I spent too much time looking through there. Oooh, Michael C Hall shirtless...

A comic-book prequel to the new Star Trek movie. ...I don't get it, how is going back to TNG characters a PREQUEL? This makes no sense to me. I mean, obviously there is stuff going on with the film that we don't know about, but.... ah, fuck it, it's J.J. Abrams, NOTHING he does makes sense.

Batman is gonna die. No, really, they're killing him off. And the issue detailing his fate is being published... tomorrow? Huh, that's not a lot of advance notice. Go grab some cash and get ready to buy some of these to stick in plastic bags and stash for decades.

This is stylish, seriously: Two students sell junk food out of their lockers, since the school won't sell it in the cafeteria. But they don't profit off it-- they donate the money they make to a different charity each month. That is wicked respectable! It's so cool to see young people doing things for the community like this. ♥

~~~Science!~~~

This article is awesome because of pictures: toddler falls on keys, gets one lodged in his brain, makes full recovery. The accident happened three months ago and the kid is perfectly fine now. His eyesight wasn't even affected. Holy crap, that is one lucky freakin' kid.

NASA is going to launch a spacecraft to Jupiter for a detailed data-gathering mission. They plan to launch it in 2011, and it will reach the planet in 2016. The spacecraft's name? Juno. (lolz mythology) This is pretty neat... we'll see what happens in eight years, I guess.

Forget Heroes' impossible worldwide eclipse. An amazing conjunction of Venus and Jupiter is happening this week, and on December 1 the moon joins the party in an awesome sky triangle. This is visible from EVERYWHERE IN THE WORLD, and you don't even need a telescope to see it! I'm awfully ticked off that it's cloudt for the next couple of days here. -_- But all of you who can, go peek out and enjoy it!

Oh, not this again. There's a new black plague being spread by rats... of course, it's got a lower hit count than bird flu so far, but EVERYBODY PANIC anyway. *sigh* Why is it always rats? Why not mice? Mice suck. Make mice the enemy.

OH MY GOD EW EW EW! It's a squid WITH ELBOWS. Next thing you know they'll be walking out of the water and EATING OUR BRAINS, people, THIS IS WORRISOME. O.O (link via beachkid)

A growing number of patients are presenting with what doctors are calling "the Truman Show delusion." They think that their lives are reality tv, or completely fake as in the eponymous film, or unreal like in The Matrix. The doctor who came up with the term says that these people would be delusional anyway, this just gives them a new focus for their crazy. You know, sometimes I pretend my life is a reality TV show, but I don't actually believe it. I'm only so crazy, you know.