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Working in broad daylight, waving at passing motorists, two men slowly dismantled a three-bedroom brick house in order to sell it for drug money.

(AP: “Thieves make off with three-bedroom brick house” [March 23, 2005])

Wikipedia has an entire entry dedicated to kadigans (which are more reasonably referred to as “placeholder names.”). An entire entry, in other words, dedicated to the doodad, the whatchamacallit, and East Jesus, USA.

(via The Morning News)

But they can, through a strict training regimen, learn to distinguish one language from another. Dutch from Japanese, for instance.

(NYT: “Is It Dutch? Japanese? Why Not Ask the Rat?” by Nicholas Bakalar [Jan 11, 2005])

No, I didn’t think so. Neither do I. The First Amendment Center has answers, with information on most anything you could want to know about the Freedom of Information Act.

(via MeFi)

Watching America collects (and, by the looks of things, translates) articles from publications based in different countries around the world, the focus of these articles being America.

Seems similar to World Press Review, if somewhat less professional.

Il Dottore
by Ron Felber

First things first: as an account of a true story, Il Dottore is fascinating. And it’s obvious that author Ron Felber had a blast writing it. (Seriously, though—who wouldn’t?)

But whereas Il Dottore makes gains based on the inherently fascinating story of mob connections, double lives, and what-have-you, it takes those gains and fritters them away in the area of the writing itself. If it were a rough draft, I wouldn’t have a problem with it. As a “finished copy,” it sucks.

(Also in the vein of considering Il Dottore as a rough draft, I noticed a higher-than-average incidence of typos. Sure, there’s the possibility that I was primed to be on alert based on my opinion of the book. But there’s also the possibility that Il Dottore could have used a few more edits.)

As is, Felber manages to take a true story and make it seem phony. Unless of course it’s not a true story and he’s just pulling our collective leg, which—who’s gonna know? Take a “true” story involving mob figures (many of whom are now dead), anonymous characters (including the title Dottore), and hearsay, and who can possibly know how much is invented, exaggerated, etc.? All this is wanton speculation, however, and not particularly relvant. The bottom line is: Il Dottore is mostly great, if you can ignore the writing. The ending is nice, in a testament to the “Good Guys Don’t Always Finish Last” adage, but it feels a little phony. Dramatic license? Who knows.

A fun, quick read, but definitely not one to put on your “100 books to read before I die” list.

Where do famous chefs eat when they don’t feel like cooking? The answers here:

Mr. Keller says he used to have a weakness for Burger King’s Whopper with extra cheese and French fries, but now that he lives in California, he has switched his allegiance to the cheeseburgers at In-N-Out Burger, with French fries and a milkshake. He also favors Krispy Kreme doughnuts. “I like pretty much all junk food,” he said.

Crisis Pictures is a non-commercial organization dedicated to building awareness of global crisis areas through pictures. Our goal is to make distant events personal by showing real people living through them.

In what’s the only reasonable course of action, the company that produces the taser (Taser International) has decided to make a civilian-issue model.

Which, when you really think about it, is only reasonable. But only if you put too much effort into the thought and neglect common sense. Despite the lingering questions (and lawsuits), Taser officials (scientists? henchmen?) decided it would be a Good Idea to give the X26^c more juice. Specifically, the “civilian” version gives the unfortunate target bursts of electricity for 30 seconds, vs. the 5 second bursts of the police-issue model.

Better yet, the new taser doesn’t count as a weapon and can be carried—and concealed—without a permit in 43 states!

Like they say: kill ‘em all, and let the market sort them out.

Note: the taser pictured is not the X26.

(St. Petersburg Times: “Taser sales to public worry officers,” by Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler [March 5, 2005]; “Citizen Taser X26^c product page” ; “USA: Excessive and Lethal Force?” Amnesty International)

People with high self-esteem claim they are more likable, attractive and have better relationships than others, but these advantages exist mainly in their own minds, the researchers found.

(FSU.com: “FSU study finds self-esteem programs don’t work,” by Jill Elish; originally via Political Animal)

Once they were a byword for mindless docility. But cows have a secret mental life in which they bear grudges, nurture friendships and become excited over intellectual challenges, scientists have found.

Cows are also capable of feeling strong emotions such as pain, fear and even anxiety—they worry about the future. But if farmers provide the right conditions, they can also feel great happiness.

(Sunday Times: “The secret life of moody cows,” by Jonathan Leake [Feb 27, 2005])

It’s a little rough around the edges, and probably not something you’ll want to plan your trip around, but the appropriately titled “Budget Traveler’s Guide to Sleeping in Airports” has some handy information.

What is evil? Is it something in all of us, or is it limited to the most extreme criminals? These and other questions about “evil” are brought up in a NYT article, but to no avail.

(In fairness, evil is relatively hard to unpack in a three-page article. You’ve got your psychiatrists on one side saying, yes, evil is a useful concept, versus on the other side saying “When you start talking about evil, psychiatrists don’t know anything more about it than anyone else. Our opinions might carry more weight, under the patina or authority of the profession, but the point is, you can call someone evil and so can I. So what? What does it add?”)

At any rate, it’s an interesting article, and one you ought to read if evil is a concept you find perplexing.

(NYT: “For the worst of us, the diagnosis may be evil,” by Benedict Carey [Feb 8, 2005])

Not that this should necessarily come as news, but:

The [Heart and Stroke] foundation’s first study of urban versus non-urban living shows that car-dependent Canadians are more sedentary and at increased risk of being overweight or obese.

(via CBC News: “Cars killing suburban dwellers, heart foundation says” [February 10, 2004])

Last week, buried at the bottom of a press release on various management changes, funeral services giant Service Corp. International (SRV) noted that its vice chairman, B.D. Hunter, planned to step down, but would remain on as a consultant. What wasn’t included in the press release (but was in the 8-K the company filed on Tuesday) was just how much Hunter will be paid: $91,667 a month in exchange for devoting “substantially his full time to the business of the company” (whatever that means).

(via footnoted.org)

The Panopticist has an annotation of the first page of DeLillo’s White Noise which, if it’s the sort of thing you’re in to, is interesting.

If not, maybe you’d rather edit your own Psycho shower scene. Yes, the one from the movie. Create your own masterpiece, using the original footage. “All you need is Flash.”

Or combine the literary with the visual in Italo Calvino Vladmasters: a set of Viewmaster-type wheels of images drawn from Calvino’s Invisible Cities.

Did you notice? My apologies. The clocklike rigidity of days past is not likely to return for a while. Eh. You’re probably not missing anything.

(Also, whether you like it or not, this “new” site design will eventually be changed to reflect the older scheme. It just hasn’t happened yet.)