According to STLtoday, Anheuser-Busch is starting to make seasonal beers, beginning with a Pumpkin Spice Ale for the fall.

Under development for the last year, the new program will offer different beers to match each of the four seasons, said John Costello, product manager, Michelob Specialty Brands at A-B's domestic brewing subsidiary.

Using pumpkin for the fall beer seemed a natural choice, he said. "I like to describe Jack's as a wicked blend of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, clove and real delicious pumpkins."

Though pumpkin might seem unusual, Anheuser-Busch contends today's beer drinkers are adventurous enough to try the brew. "It's a well-rounded beer that goes with food very well," Kuplent said. "You could serve it with turkey and as a dessert beer."

Sounds interesting, but also kind of weird. Read on for more info.

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CNN is reporting on DARPA's (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) Grand Challenge.

Participants ranging from souped-up SUVs to military behemoths will be graded on how well they can self-drive on rough road, make sharp turns and avoid obstacles -- hay bales, trash cans, wrecked cars -- while relying on GPS navigation and sensors, radar, lasers and cameras that feed information to computers.

The competition is part of the Pentagon's efforts to have a third of the military's ground vehicles unmanned by 2015 to fulfill a congressional mandate.

This year's race will cover about 150 miles of desert and mountainous terrain looping to and from Primm, Nevada. While the exact route is kept secret until hours before the race, vehicles can expect to drive over rough desert roads, maneuver mountain trails and pass dry lake beds.

The first vehicle to traverse the entire course in less than 10 hours wins. If no one finishes -- a possible outcome -- DARPA may sponsor another competition.

Last year's inaugural race in the Mojave Desert ended without a winner when all the entrants broke down before the finish line. The best performer was a converted Humvee built by Carnegie Mellon University, which traveled only 7 1/2 miles before having engine trouble.

Read on for more info and some pictures.

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I finally got around to writing up a search for past stories. It allows you to enter multiple words and you can also search for exact phrases by putting them "in quotes." Give it a try and let me know how it works. I wrote most of it myself, so there's probably room for improvement. A search tool for comments should also be up shortly.

Update: the comments search is also up.

ABCnews has a story about a carjacker in Kansas City who, wielding a shotgun, forced a 26-year old man out of his Camaro. He then got in to drive it off, but didn't know how to drive stick. The carjacker ended up escaping in a different car.

According to a CNN article, former FEMA chief Michael Brown is being investigated by Congress for being kept on the federal payroll after his resignation.

Brown told congressional investigators Monday that he is being paid as a consultant to help FEMA assess what went wrong in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, according to a senior official familiar with the meeting.

Congressional aides told CNN that given all of the questions already raised about Brown's qualifications for the FEMA job, the decision to keep him on the payroll for about a month will be examined at Tuesday's hearing.

A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, FEMA's parent agency, said last week that Brown would be paid for about a month for "transitional purposes." The spokesman, Russ Knocke, said he did not know how much Brown was being paid. Brown's 2004 salary was $145,600, according to the Plum Book, a congressional reference guide to executive branch salaries.

Why, yes....my getting paid $1,000,000 now to investigate why I screwed up while getting paid some other ridiculous amount earlier seems completely legitimate.....right?

According to Yahoo, "Brown testified before a special congressional committee set up by House Republican leaders to investigate the government's handling of one of the most powerful hurricanes to ever hit the Gulf Coast. Democrats, who want an independent investigation not under the control of majority Republicans, largely boycotted the hearing."

Yahoo has a story about how UPN is allowing viewers to see the premiere of Chris Rock's new show Everybody Hates Chris online through the new Google Video service.

Television network UPN on Monday said it would run a four-day exclusive screening of the premier of its new comedy "Everybody Hates Chris" on a streaming video site run by Google Inc. -- a first for each company.

The entire pilot of the new television show, which is based on the childhood of comedian Chris Rock, is available via Google Video at http://video.google.com/chris beginning on Monday, the companies said.

The show has gotten good reviews and had high ratings for the pilot episode.

They're not quite sharks with freakin' laser beams, but The Guardian reports that there is a possibility that some military trained dolphins armed with toxic dart guns got loose in the Gulf of Mexico due to Katrina.

Armed dolphins, trained by the US military to shoot terrorists and pinpoint spies underwater, may be missing in the Gulf of Mexico.

Experts who have studied the US navy's cetacean training exercises claim the 36 mammals could be carrying 'toxic dart' guns. Divers and surfers risk attack, they claim, from a species considered to be among the planet's smartest. The US navy admits it has been training dolphins for military purposes, but has refused to confirm that any are missing.

Dolphins have been trained in attack-and-kill missions since the Cold War. The US Atlantic bottlenose dolphins have apparently been taught to shoot terrorists attacking military vessels. Their coastal compound was breached during the storm, sweeping them out to sea. But those who have studied the controversial use of dolphins in the US defence programme claim it is vital they are caught quickly.

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dave submitted this article about a crime that occurred in downtown Chicago where a family feud escalated into a stabbing. "The crazy part: This is less than a block from brit's apartment, and we could see the massive crime scene taped off from brit's window. Bananas."

The Mercury News has an article describing a situation where a plane took off from Burbank and was headed for New York's Kennedy International Airport.

Aboard the plane, passengers first learned of the problem 10 to 15 minutes into the flight when Burke announced that the plane had a problem with its landing gear, said Mastoon. The pilot said he was in contact with ground crews at Long Beach Airport, where JetBlue has its regional hub, and in New York to try to determine what the problem was.

In a twist that some passengers described as bizarre, the television news accounts were avidly watched on the plane as well. JetBlue provides small screens at each seat with a satellite feed that carries both Fox News and MSNBC, which gave many passengers the clearest indication of their predicament.

"My friend said, 'Hey dude, something's wrong with our plane. We're on TV,' " recalled Jorge Santiago, 24, of El Monte, saying he woke from his slumber and realized the severity of the situation. "Honest to God, I thought it was a dream."

Update: The front wheels of the plane were jammed sideways. Pictures in this CNN article.

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I completely forgot about The Office starting back up for its second season. It's on Tuesdays at 8:30(CST) on NBC. It started to pick up some momentum towards the end of last season, so I have high hopes for this season to really take off. It's a good cast, but the first season started out slow and a bit awkward. Things like Diversity Day showed some true comedic potential. I'll be leaving a comment here once I watch Tuesday's premiere which I missed.