The New York Times has a story today on the hottest new trend in Emergency response: fee for service.

ABOUT a year ago Cary Feldman was surprised to find himself sprawled on the pavement in an intersection in Chicago Heights, Ill., having been knocked off his motor scooter by the car behind him. Five months later he got another surprise: a bill from the fire department for responding to the scene of the accident. Read more »

The new York Times has a fascinating article on the sudden return of the common bedbug after an apparent absence of 40 nearly years. It is an engaging read, very educational and loaded with information on this curious creature (did you know that unlike cockroaches or mosquitoes, bedbugs are not known to spread disease?)

But the most fascinating moment in the article (for yours truly) comes when we learn about the laboratory strain upon which most research is performed. And what’s most interesting about this strain, probably, is the way it has been lovingly cultivated by a dedicated, nameless Army researcher:

The classic bedbug strain that all newly caught bugs are compared against is a colony originally from Fort Dix, N.J., that a researcher kept alive for 30 years by letting it feed on him.

Your’e welcome, Stinquers. Not stop complaining about your job and get back to work… SLACKERS!!!

The New York Times this morning reports on the rise of an ultra-nationalistic, ultra-xenophobic, far-right movement in Japan:

The demonstrators appeared one day in December, just as children at an elementary school for ethnic Koreans were cleaning up for lunch. The group of about a dozen Japanese men gathered in front of the school gate, using bullhorns to call the students cockroaches and Korean spies. Read more »

Forget The Onion. Do you want to know what humor will look like 15 years from now, in the 13th year of the Palin presidency? Then you’ll want to check out a funny Fox News photo feature titled “A New Look for the ‘God Squad.'” Just bear in mind that when I say “funny” I don’t mean “ha, ha, funny.” Rather, I mean depressing, humorless, joy-killing, religious themed “Photoshops” that appear to have been produced by a blind octagenarian nun using MS Paint and a gummed-up ball-mouse. My only question at this point: given that Fox appears to have made the tranformation to overtly evangelical prosletyzing right-wing proaganda newtork, when will the merger talks with the 700 Club actually take place?

“When a friend allows you the use of his vacation home,” my mother always used to say to me, “be sure to leave the place better than you found it.” It is a good rule of thumb –I think most people would agree– especially if you ever want to be invited back. Now, as the U.S. begins a slow draw-down of military units from Iraq, its is worth asking the question: are we leaving the place better than we found it? Yes, a hated dictator is gone, but what about… well… everything else?   Read more »

 Quick, five Stinque points and a chocolate cookie for the first stinquer to point out what’s so amusing about this article:

LINK

(Via Roger Ailes ..no, not that Roger Ailes)

Late last night, John McCluskey (pictured left) and his accomplice, Casslyn Welch, were arrested by sheriff’s deputies in a northeastern Arizona forest. The duo were wanted after having escaped from prison, and are suspected in the murder of an older couple at a campground not far from where they were apprehended.

But it is the nature of their escape from prison that is, perhaps, the most notable aspect of the story. You know how advocates of government privatization are fond of claiming that everything the government does, the private sector can do better? Well, guess what. McCluskey was being held in a private prison when he escaped. A local ABC affiliate has details of the daring, nearly impossible escape, carried out against all odds laughable prison security that made their escape possible:

Read more »