speed and chicken massacre

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-- At the same time that researchers confirmed with a second experiment that there are things that move faster than the speed of light, the U.S. Army has conducted its first test of a missile that will travel at more than five times the speed of sound. Meanwhile, a Superman heist in Illinois ended with the perpetrator doing slower-than-light-speed time.

-- On a less zippy note, the Congress passed without fanfare or open acrimony a spending bill that will fund the government through December. The passage stands in stark contrast to the boondoggles of recent months, but extends the contrast with previous years in which Congress routinely passed spending bills for the whole year and not just month-by-month.

-- In a world where the agents of 'health' have increasingly donned the mantle of the merchandisers of pills, the sales pitch has worked so well that health officials are warning the public to be wary of the antibiotic pills they bought in to. Specifically, those antibiotics you saved after your last tooth extraction and then used for self-medicating purposes could in fact be a recipe for the creation of antibiotic-resistant illness. It's not a new warning, but as pill-pushing gains in popularity, I can imagine that the seriousness of the warning is increasing.

-- The legal tsunami spawned by a pedophile scandal at Penn State University is gathering steam. Like the Sioux tightening their noose at Little Big Horn, lawyers and litigants are lining up for the blood bath ... and a credible pay day. The vainglorious Custer of this metaphor is the smug and institutionalized willingness to sweep harmful actions under any available rug based on some imagined 'good' reason ... the integrity, or financial benefits, or other excuse. The Catholic Church did much the same with its pedophile scandal. Unfortunately, as with the Catholic Church, the underlying responsibility or causes are unlikely to be cleanly excised at Penn State. Blood, sweat and tears will be expended ... but the basis will remain intact. It may be infuriating, but that doesn't change the fact that it's true.

-- Locally, a group of those lovable canine companions which leave their hairs on your living room sofa are the chief suspects in the massacre of 51 chickens which have been described in equally lovable terms. Police are investigating and suspect a pack of 'domesticated dogs' as the perps. Domesticated dogs meet domesticated chickens and ... suddenly the word 'domesticated' is thrown into a cocked hat and those who use it so blithely are left with egg on their faces.
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