What will we tell the children?

Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson go on a camping trip. After a good dinner and a bottle of wine, they retire for the night, and go to sleep.

Some hours later, Holmes wakes up and nudges his faithful friend. "Watson, look up at the sky and tell me what you see."

"I see millions and millions of stars, Holmes," replies Watson.

"And what do you deduce from that?"

Watson ponders for a minute.

"Well, astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, I observe that Saturn is in Leo. Horologically, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three. Meteorologically, I suspect that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. Theologically, I can see that God is all powerful, and that we are a small and insignificant part of the universe... What does it tell you, Holmes?"

Holmes is silent for a moment. "Watson, you idiot!" he says. "Someone has stolen our tent!"

The US Senate Armed Services Committee said its researchers had uncovered 1,800 cases in which the Pentagon had been sold electronics that may be counterfeit.

In total, the committee said it had found more than a million fake parts had made their way into warplanes such as the Boeing C-17 transport jet and the Lockheed Martin C-130J "Super Hercules".

It also found fake components in Boeing's CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter and the Theatre High-Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) missile defence system.

"A million parts is surely a huge number. But I want to repeat this: we have only looked at a portion of the defence supply chain. So those 1,800 cases are just the tip of the iceberg," said Senator Carl Levin.

what, me worry?

It's a fine line between homage, parody, and consumer opportunism. Jess Walter

Police link shootings in Tulsa, Okla.; 3 killed:

Police believe the same attacker or attackers are behind a series of early-morning shootings in which three people were killed and two others were critically wounded within a three-mile span of north Tulsa.

Homicide detective Sgt. Dave Walker said investigators don't have the results of forensic tests yet, but police think the early Friday morning shootings are linked because they happened around the same time in the same general area and all five victims were out walking when they were shot.

Tulsa has a history of these kinds of things.

Ever since I learnt about confirmation bias I've started seeing it everywhere

There is something funny going on here -

10 trillion dollars missing in the mortgage market - someone somewhere bought the securitized mortgages with real dollars.

a billion dollars a day missing in fraudulent petro dollars missing even though it has finally been admitted that there is lower demand, more production, and ample refinery capacity.

Another trillion in kickbacks in the nuclear power revival.

Another trillion or two in givebacks at the industrial level.

And perhaps another 5 trillion or so in high speed computerized trading

Now of course perhaps some 20% is skimmed off in the form of inflated salaries, bribes, the congressional 1% rule, various fees, trading fees, etc.

So where is the 7 or 8 trillion left /

I mean where is the money ?

I'm amazed they let him publish that (much less that he wrote it)

Wind power

Boston, MA - The likely culprit in sharp worldwide declines in honeybee colonies since 2006 is imidacloprid, one of the most widely used pesticides, according to a new study from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH).

The authors, led by Chensheng (Alex) Lu, associate professor of environmental exposure biology in the Department of Environmental Health, write that the new research provides "convincing evidence" of the link between imidacloprid and the phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), in which adult bees abandon their hives.

The study will appear in the June issue of the Bulletin of Insectology.

"The significance of bees to agriculture cannot be underestimated," says Lu. "And it apparently doesn't take much of the pesticide to affect the bees. Our experiment included pesticide amounts below what is normally present in the environment."

Pinpointing the cause of the problem is crucial because bees--beyond producing honey--are prime pollinators of roughly one-third of the crop species in the U.S., including fruits, vegetables, nuts, and livestock feed such as alfalfa and clover. Massive loss of honeybees could result in billions of dollars in agricultural losses, experts estimate.

"It's funny," said the High Times writer. "You hardly tasted the cannabis at all. Usually the problem is the opposite -- it has such a strong, sweet-nutty flavor that the trick is covering it up, often with chocolate. Either he's a really good chef, or I'm missing something."

France does not have a luxury car-maker, yet the political class, from the president down to local mayors, cannot ride around in anything that isn't made domestically, so Peugeot and Citroën have always manufactured big cars that almost nobody else wants. My personal car is a Citroën C6 (above), which is the same vehicle President Sarkozy is driven around in. So specific is the design of this car that everything about the rear seating is skewed to make a tiny little man look imposing - the seats are raised and the window glass has a magnifying effect when viewed from the outside.

So, what do they do during Pesach, when it comes to buns? Well, as you may or may not know - McDonald's is divided into Kosher and non-Kosher brancיes in Israel. But most of them offer Kosher buns. In fact, they limit the menu to meals with kosher buns. So, you can't get a Big Mac, for example. You can only get a Royal (Quarter pounder in the States).

But -- you can get it with cheese.

So you can keep Kosher, but not really Kosher.

I always find this little ritual that McDonald's does every year to be very telling of Israeli society. And corporate capitalism, too.

It might not be everyone's idea of a relaxing holiday cruise, but today 1,309 passengers will set sail from Southampton on a voyage recreating the exact journey the Titanic took on its ill-fated maiden voyage a hundred years ago.

The MS Balmoral will leave Southampton today, with the exact same number of passengers on as the famous cruise liner. The departure date and location are part of the attempt to create an authentic Titanic experience.