Bits & Pieces

 

Bits and pieces from this reporter’s notebook.

Da-deet-da-deet-deet....A new study says that putting anti-missile systems on the 6,800 commercial airliners in the U.S. would cost around $11 billion to install and over $2 billion a year to maintain. And no one’s sure it would work. Too expensive considering the airlines this year have lost $2 billion on their own.

Da-deet-da-deet-deet.....A homeless person trying to stay warm during a blizzard started a fire that got out of hand and burned through a communications control center in the New York City subway system. Apparently, two major lines will suffer reduced service for five years. That’s right, years. Because for years, pols have looted the capital budget to reduce operating expenses and they didn’t do the necessary rewiring. Some of which that needed to be replaced dated back to the 1930s.

Da-deet-da-deet-deet....There was another small fire that got out of hand; this in a village south of Bombay. It occurred during an annual religious festival and sparked a stampede among some of the 300,000 worshippers. Hundreds were killed, hundreds more injured, mostly women and children, of course. Local authorities noted that lethal stampedes were not uncommon, citing several over the past few years, but they said that there was nothing that could be done to prevent them, considering the size of the crowds.

Da-deet-da-deet-deet....If you’ve been worried about the destructive power of The Bush Boy naming people to the Supreme Court, you can get a jump on terror with the current black-robed nine. They just voted that the police can use drug-sniffing dogs on your basic traffic stop. An Illinois man was pulled over for exceeding the speed limit by six miles per hour. Though there was no evidence of his having drugs, they walked a dog around the car. The dog got excited. They found marijuana in the trunk. So much for the Fourth Amendment.

Da-deet-da-deet-deet....Finally, a web designer is leasing the space on his forehead for an advertisement for an alleged snoring remedy. The Omaha man pitched the billboard on eBay and is getting $37,375 to wear a corporate logo atop his brow for a month. Said the corporate executive who thought this was a good buy of the man who got the money, he is "a man who clearly has a head for business in every sense of the word." So terribly clever.

And that’s SetonnoteS...I’m Tony Seton.

 

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