Prius to be built in U.S.; Toyota slashes truck production

Toyota will build its hot-selling Prius in a plant under construction in Mississippi, with production starting in late 2010.

The Prius will join the Camry hybrid, which is assembled in Kentucky, as the second hybrid Toyota builds in the United States.

Meanwhile, as fuel prices soar, Toyota is cutting production of its truck lineup in the United States. The Tundra, built in Indiana and Texas, will be consolidated into the Texas plant in the spring of 2009. – autoweek

Home Invasion Video Stolen; Theft Caught on Camera

One day after three men robbed a young mother at gunpoint, inside her home – someone stole the surveillance video from detectives. That theft was caught on camera.

Doctor Royce McGowan refuses to watch Wednesday’s surveillance video of the invasion into his Arlington home. His wife, mother-in-law and baby were inside the home when the men kicked in the front door.

“I just listened to it once. I can’t listen to it again. It enrages me,” said McGowan.

He gave the video to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. He hopes the clear pictures of the men will help detectives find them.

However his home surveillance video was stolen from police. The theft was caught on his office surveillance camera Thursday. “Crime is everywhere – you can’t escape it,” said McGowan.

While a JSO detective was interviewing the couple inside the office, the surveillance cameras caught a man pulling up next to the detectives car in the parking lot.

After scoping out the car for more than 10 minutes, the man broke out the car’s back window and stole the laptop.

Inside that laptop was a DVD of the surveillance video from Wednesday’s home invasion. “Without that… we wouldn’t have any recollection on who did it,” said McGowan.  – fcn

Journey to the Center of the Earth: Theatrical Trailer

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F.C.C. Chief Backs Sanctions Against Comcast Over Blocking

Kevin J. Martin, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, said on Friday that Comcast, the nation’s largest cable company, should be sanctioned because it interfered with the Internet connections of users who wanted to exchange files with each other.

Mr. Martin’s recommendation is a strong statement in favor of network neutrality, the idea that Internet access providers like Comcast should not be allowed to favor some uses of their networks over others. Internet companies like Google and free speech advocates have backed this approach.

The cable and phone companies that provide most of the nation’s Internet service have argued that such rules are not needed. They have said they should be free to run their networks as they see fit, and that there had been no cases of problems with such discrimination.

Comcast’s practice of slowing the use of BitTorrent, a method of trading video, music and software files, provides such a case.

Mr. Martin’s recommendation, which will need to be approved by the full commission, would not impose a fine. But it would force Comcast to change its practices and disclose what it did in the past. – nytimes

Oil hits record above $147

Oil prices jumped $5 to a record high above $147 a barrel on Friday amid growing worries about threats to supplies from Iran and Nigeria and a strike by Brazilian oil workers next week.

Analysts said oil’s rally could run further if problems with U.S. mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac feed into the commodities boom by reducing the chances of an interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve.

The troubles with the mortgage giants — which control $5 trillion in debt — helped pare crude’s gains after it hit new highs as dealers focused on U.S. economic turmoil that has already slowed oil consumption in the world’s top energy user. – reuters

American Santas plunged into civil war

America’s professional Father Christmases have been plunged into civil war amid accusations of profiteering, unethical behaviour and even Claus-on-Claus violence.

Rival Santa Claus leaders have been engaged in a decidedly unfestive power struggle that has polarised the lucrative US grotto market and forced hundreds of Father Christmases to choose between warring rival groups. The hostilities have spilled on to the internet, in this case Elf Net, an online chat group where Santas go to exchange information on belt supplies and beard dyeing.

Organisers of the annual convention in Kansas of the Amalgamated Order of Real-Bearded Santas, fear it will be disrupted by splitters from rival groups such as the Fraternal Order and the Red Suit Society. The trouble started last year with a row on the board of the Amalgamated Santas, a 700-member group which was set up in 1994 by 10 Santas doing a television commercial in Hollywood.

Tim Connaghan, the organisation’s chief, was forced out after a rival board member, Nick Trolli, accused him of unethical behaviour by acting as a booking agent for 200 members hired for Christmas events and taking a $25,000 consultancy free from a film company. Mr Trolli took over but he also proved controversial, expelling some 20 members for offences that included maligning fellow Santas on Elf Net. In January, one of the banned members tried to gatecrash an Amalgamated Santas board meeting in California.

Before he was escorted out by security guards, he claimed the Elf Net’s 6’4 tall administrator “used his elbow to bounce me off the wall” while Mr Trolli said the interloper charged into him “like a linebacker”. The fracas prompted another ousted board member, Tom Hartsfield, to shut down the group’s website in protest.

“They threatened me with the FBI, and called me a thief and a terrorist,” he told the Wall Street Journal. Leaders of the group deny the charge. – telegraph

Besides being worthy of mention as just a strange story, this caught my attention due to a poem written by Becca Costello, a former reporter for the Sacramento News and Review. The poem is about a real humorous and bizarre experience at a festival called Burning Man where she encounters a large group of Santa Clauses as well as a large group of clowns all in the same room co-mingling. Imagine the picture above with much more ragged Santa’s and an equal number of clowns.

UPDATE: The Santa war has now spilled into my email box. John Degel, who is also a reporter,  posted a comment on this site inviting readers to write to him for more information. I did so, asking for a summary of his points and got his permission to post it. Other things kept me busy, so I didn’t get around to doing that. Meanwhile, Jeff Germann wrote to me requesting that I remove John Degel’s post as it was intended to defame him personally. Germann let me know that if I don’t remove Degel’s post my web site will be added to the information for the lawsuit and the depositions in taking Degel to court. Degel has publicly called Trolli a liar and a thief hoping he would, in fact, sue so he could subpoena his minutes and financial records for the organization and show that his statements were accurate and, therefore, a not defamation.

Given the claims of these men to me that they both want a lawsuit to settle this, I’m inclined to leave Degel’s post up so Germann can sue him. If these men get into court things can get settled and perhaps they can all get back to Ho Ho Ho’ing before X-mas.

Priest gets fruit basket with fetus in cheese spread bottle

A man of the cloth and his family got the shock of their lives Monday morning after finding a four-month-old fetus hidden in a basket of fruits.

Monsignor Gerry Santos had just celebrated Mass at the Quiapo Church in Manila around 9 a.m. when he received a basket of fruits from an unknown donor.

“After the mass, pinauwi sa akin ng mother butler. I brought the fruits to my parents’ home because it was our regular lunch and my parents’ house helper showed it to me. It was inside a bottle of Cheez Wiz. Maybe it’s four months old,” Santos said in an interview Monday over the Church-run radio station, Radyo Veritas.

Santos said the aborted baby’s hand and feet were already formed. He said a rosary was also placed inside the cheese spread bottle, which was hidden in a pile of apple and bananas.

He said his family wasn’t able to continue eating lunch after the shocking discovery. His parents were “very disturbed” and “traumatized” by the experience.

After recovering from the trauma, the prelate said his family immediately brought back the fetus to Quiapo Church, “and then I blessed the aborted fetus.” – abs

The smoke is making me sick

The smoke is making me sick, originally uploaded by xeno735.

Czech missile shield: Russia to ‘retaliate’ over US plan, President Dmitry Medvedev says – Telegraph

Heh heh. Condi said, “un-Czeched.” Retaliate, eh? What are they going to do, nuke Guantanamo? Sneak 100 small nuclear weapons into Cuba like they did in 1962?

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