Yahoo has an article (spoiler warning: contains possible Season 4 spoilers) focusing on the fact that the Lord of the Rings actor Sean Astin is to be in Season 5. Maybe he'll shadow Jack going "You can't give up Mr. Bauer! Not when we've come this far!" Then he'll start crying. Ridiculous. More importantly, they're playing 4 episodes in 2 days (January 8th and 9th, 8-10pm) and then resuming their once a week on Mondays at 9. Now I know how long I have to watch Season 4 before 5 starts up :)

There's an AP article about a garbage truck whose contents caught fire somehow. Firefighters that were dispatched were unable to stop the fire in the truck, so they had to have the truck dump its flaming trash on the driveway of a business called Four Wheel Drive Specialists. They then put out the fire using foam. That's gonna be one smelly business for a few weeks.

dave submitted the following ESPN article:

'Milk does a body good, but it didn't do good for one batboy. On a $500 dare, a Florida Marlins batboy tried to drink a gallon of milk in under an hour without throwing up. But not only did the batboy not succeed in the challenge (exceeded time, but didn't throw up), the Marlins suspended the unidentified batboy for the team's upcoming six-game homestand. "It's kind of ridiculous that you get a 10-game suspension for steroids and a six-game suspension for milk,' Penny (the Dodgers pitcher who made the dare) told the Herald."

dave submitted an article from CBS News describing a situation where an SUV owner filled up $52 worth of gas at a gas station, then attempted to drive off without paying. The gas station owner proceeded to try and stop him.

"Police say Caddi, owner of the Fort Payne Texaco, was killed when he grabbed hold of a vehicle and the driver dragged him across a car park and onto a highway. Caddi fell from the vehicle and was run over by the vehicle's rear wheel. A search for the driver and a gold or tan Jeep-style SUV continued Monday.

The Petroleum & Convenience Marketers of Alabama tells gas retailers to 'never try to take action themselves' during robberies, said Arleen Alexander, the group's executive director.

'But I can understand why someone would want to fight for their property,' Alexander said. 'Fifty-two dollars doesn't sound like that much, but with the little they're making these days, that's a lot.'"

Gasoline theft cost retailers nationwide $237 million in 2004 - more than twice the $112 million loss in 2003, according to NACS.

On average, one in every 1,100 gasoline fill-ups was a gas theft last year, the group said. With about one cent per 1 gallon as profit, a retailer would have to sell an extra 3,000 gallons to offset each $30 stolen, Lenard said.

Yeah, $52 is worth getting killed. And "little they're making these days"?!? With the price of gas it's hard to believe they're not making much money. Though I guess those oil barons in the Middle East gotta make enough to make a living.

A company called Quoin has created a device (warning: their pictures (and website) really suck) for the US military that can be used to ascend buildings. The Army versions of the device fire a grappling hook using a propellant cartridge, while the commercial version will be battery (and helicopter, according to the webpage) powered. The grappling hook attaches to the top of a building, and the other end of the rope is attached to a harness that lifts you up. It can lift 300 lbs. at 1 meter per second. The website says the battery-powered civilian version had been designed with commercial applications such as building repair, logging or window washing in mind. Or you can use it to fight crime and injustice!

According to Yahoo, police in Siberia arrested a bear for begging:

"According to the RIA-Novosti news agency, police picked up the female bear after reports she had been cajoling food from drivers parked at a roadside cafe.

'Capturing the bear didn't require much effort,' a local police commander told the news agency, adding that the bear had obviously lived with humans for a long time.

She appeared to have fled from her owner or had been abandoned like a 'useless toy', the officer said.

Despite her apparent familiarity with humans and good behaviour, the bear has been put behind bars, although the officer stressed it would be a temporary detention.

'We are feeding her honey and cake,' he said."

Yahoo's got an article about an SUV crashing into an operating room in New Jersey. The surgeon in the room was providing cataract surgery to a patient.

"No one was injured, but Dr. Bernard Spier said that if the accident had happened moments earlier, it could have hurt the patient's eye.

Spier had removed the cataract and had just used a plunger to implant a silicone lens when the crash threw him onto the partially sedated patient.

'The plunger could have done some damage,' he told The Star-Ledger of Newark for Wednesday's newspapers.

Police said Floyd Hunt Jr., 77, of Newark, was trying to back his Toyota 4Runner out of a parking space outside the operating room, but failed to put the car into reverse.

The front end of the red sport utility vehicle smashed through a wall and stopped just inches from doctor and patient when its back tires snagged on a curb.

The vehicle bent steel beams, buckled the ceiling and damaged a $70,000 ultrasound machine used to remove cataracts, the newspaper reported."

If the SUV was able to go through the wall, it would have had to have gained some speed...how would you not notice you were going the wrong way long enough to plow through a wall?!? You'd have to blindly shift into drive and slam on the gas. That or the operating room is in the middle of a parking lot.

Yahoo reports:

"Google Inc. updated its software for searching PC hard drives and the Internet, giving the free program a new look and adding tools that deliver personalized information based on a user's Web surfing habits.

The latest Google offering includes several twists. Beyond providing search results, it monitors the user's behavior and presents relevant information in a resizable and moveable vertical window called the Sidebar.

One module aggregates e-mail messages from a variety of accounts, including Google's Gmail service or the user's Internet provider. Others display stock prices, personalized news headlines, weather reports and what's popular on the Web.

Another module pulls Really Simple Syndication feeds from Web sites that have been visited and offer that service. Unlike other feed aggregators, the user need not take any action for a feed to be added.

'For the novice, it's very easy. They don't even have to know what RSS feeds are,' said Nikhil Bhatla, Google Desktop's product manager. 'They'll just start seeing them in the Sidebar. Advanced users can go in and customize to their hearts' delight.'

A photo module displays pictures from the local PC. It also pulls pictures from Web-based galleries that have been visited."

All that, and Desktop 2 also has a timeline, viewing all the pages you’ve been to and emails and chats you’ve received, in order. Read more for a picture of the sidebar.

Read More...

According to Yahoo,

"Belgian women's soccer team SK Berlaar had to stomach a 50-1 defeat against rival KV Mechelen on Saturday because their goalkeeper had opted to attend a music concert instead, a local newspaper said.

'Our keeper went to Pukkel Pop. That's why,' substitute goalkeeper Charlotte Jacobs told Het Laatste Nieuws daily on Monday.

KV Mechelen scored their first goal after only four seconds.

'At half-time the score was 27-0. But after half-time we were able to recover. We had to stomach only 23 goals and we scored once ourselves, right at the end. They allowed us to score. That was sweet of them,' Jacobs added."

According to this article, "A man wearing a ninja mask and dressed in black crawled into an Orange County, Fla., Steak 'n Shake restaurant early Wednesday and robbed several workers at knife-point, according to police.

Investigators said the man was on his stomach when he entered the restaurant located at the 7700 block of south Orange Blossom Trail at about 2 a.m. Wednesday and surprised workers.

"He jumped up, threatened workers with a knife and demanded money," Local 6's Lauren Rowe said. Police said the man, still wearing his ninja costume, escaped police by running into a nearby industrial park.