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From Drudge: RASMUSSEN: 63% Angry at Policies of Federal Government; 43% Very Angry… And those people will show up on Nov. 2.

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Our Ribald Times: Public Sex in UK Could Be Discouraged…But It Might Lead to Suicides

The New York Times knows how to grab web traffic. One of its most popular articles right now is a Sarah Lyall dispatch from Thursday on the popularity in Britain of “dogging” — public sex, sometimes with an audience of admirers. Lyall takes a long time getting around to critics (paragraph 12), and then it sounds like this: Britons are a tolerant bunch, and most probably would not care who watched whom doing what in whatever configuration, as long as they all went somewhere else. Why, Puttenham residents wonder, do they have to do it 400 yards from the village nursery school?” But the spirit of the current moment is absolutely captured when someone argues that trying to close down a highway rest stop that’s a popular site, or policing the public sex will lead to yes, suicides: “It was like, ‘Are you taking this seriously?’ ” Ms. Paterson said. “One cabinet member said, ‘If you close this site, there could be an increase in suicides because these people have nowhere else to go.’” The Times headline was “Puttenham Journal: Here’s the Pub, Church and Field for Public Sex.” All of this colorful stuff came before any real mention of critics: Puttenham, about an hour’s drive from London, has fewer than 2,500 residents and is famous for its ancient church; its friendly pub, the Good Intent; and its proud inclusion in both the Domesday Book — an 11th-century survey of English lands — and “Brave New World.” Unhappily for many people here, it is also famous for being featured on lists of good places to go “dogging” — that is, to have sex in public, sometimes with partners you have just met online, so that others can watch. So popular is the woodsy field below the ridge as a spot for gay sex (mostly during the day) and heterosexual sex (mostly at night) that the police have designated it a “public sex environment.” Public sex is a popular — and quasi-legal — activity in Britain, according to the authorities and to the large number of Web sites that promote it. (It is treated as a crime only if someone witnesses it, is offended and is willing to make a formal complaint.) And the police tend to tread lightly in public sex environments, in part because of the bitter legacy of the time when gay sex was illegal and closeted men having anonymous sex in places like public bathrooms were routinely arrested and humiliated. Enthusiasts’ Web sites alert practitioners to known dogging locations — more than 100 in Surrey alone — and offer handy etiquette tips for the confused or overly excited. “Only join in or move closer if you are asked,” advises one site, Swinging Heaven, which says it has more than one million registered members. Richard Byrne, a senior lecturer in countryside management at Harper Adams University College in Shropshire, said that modern technology has made dogging much more convenient than it used to be, thanks to search engines, Facebook groups and people tweeting about their experiences. “And of course, everybody’s got mobiles,” he said. Swinging Heaven says that the practice began in Britain in the 1970s, and that the term comes from the phenomenon of voyeurs “doggedly” following people having sex. Others say that practitioners claim to be “walking the dog” when they are, in fact, going out to meet naked strangers in fields. Next came the “tolerant bunch” paragraph. Lyall never finds anyone to suggest explicitly that anonymous sex in the woods might be sinful (what do Puttenham’s clergy say?), or even pose a threat of sexually transmitted disease. That would apparently ruin the naughty fun of the whole piece. It concluded with the very tentative nature of Britain’s official morality, which seems much more timid than the “doggers” featured: Meanwhile, frazzled residents trade tales of woe: The half-dressed men who materialize from the shrubbery and theatrically pretend to be foraging for nuts and berries. The Internet reviews (“One site listed us as the No. 2 dogging site in Europe,” Ms. Perkins said wearily). The occasion when an unsuspecting motorist went for a bathroom break in the bushes, only to be surrounded by a crowd of eager men. “It was the quickest pee he’d ever done in his life,” Ms. Paterson said. The council has agreed to institute an “active management plan” that might include cutting down some shrubbery and putting in security patrols. And the police recently put up a sign warning people not to engage in “activities of an unacceptable nature.” “There was a lot of debate over the wording for that sign,” Ms. Paterson said. “I guess they didn’t want to say, ‘Don’t have sex.’ 

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UK carrier’s roadmap points to October 21 release for Windows Phone 7, over 2,000 apps at launch

The whole world and his neighbor’s dog may already know when Windows Phone 7 will be announced , but when are the actual phones going to hit actual shelves? If you’re in the US, that time still looks to be a month away , but the UK release window has just been narrowed down from late October to a single, albeit still speculative, date: October 21. Our tipster forwards the above snapshot from a Three UK document showing a “Windows 7Phone” nestled in between the BlackBerry Torch and Samsung Europa. Its Super AMOLED display tells us we’re definitely looking at a Samsung handset, while the 4-inch diagonal suggests it’ll be the Cetus ( SGH-i916 / 7 ). This sheet of revelation also finally gives us a hint as to the number of apps WP7 will start off with, enumerating them at “over 2,000 at launch.” We don’t know why Microsoft’s been so shy about that number — 2,000 good apps are more than enough. UK carrier’s roadmap points to October 21 release for Windows Phone 7, over 2,000 apps at launch originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 09 Oct 2010 08:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

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New threat from Hungary reservoir

Rescue workers have�evacuated a Hungarian village due to a heightened threat of a second flood of toxic red sludge from a broken reservoir at an alumina plant. A weakened wall in the reservoir from which one million cubic metres of sludge flooded several nearby villages, fields and waterways skirting the Danube river earlier this week is in danger to…

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Toss Sneakers, Take Part in NYC’s Largest Barefoot Run this Weekend (Event)

Barefoot runners have dirty feet. Photo courtesy Vivobarefoot . I usually write about footwear, but this event is noticeably about a lack thereof: This weekend, barefoot runners will take to the streets for the inaugural New York City Barefoot Run , sponsored by Vivobarefoot and Tip Top Shoes . For those not ready to go 100% shoe-free–in NYC, who could blame them?–t… Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Thinkflood survives recall, now shipping redesigned RedEye Mini

We’re guessing the past few months haven’t been the greatest at Thinkflood, who has been dealing with a nasty recall of RedEye Mini IR dongles . Based on information passed down from the company to us today, each one of the recalled units have been replaced, and now the redesigned / better-than-ever models are on sale for the same price as before. $49 nets you an IR adapter that plugs into your iDevice headphone jack, enabling your iPod touch, iPhone or iPad to control essentially any home entertainment component that understands Infrared. Crisis averted, as they say. Thinkflood survives recall, now shipping redesigned RedEye Mini originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 09 Oct 2010 06:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

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Imagine the furor if a televangelist went on a major TV network and told viewers Christianity would conquer the world and that the flag of Christianity would fly over the White House. Network reporters, Hollywood celebrities and the pundit class likely would seize the moment as an example of the evils of America’s supposed Christian theocracy. The story might be tied to the dangers of evangelical religion and likely even to the Tea Parties. Across the oceans, radical Islamists would likely do as they did during the Koran burning episode or after the Danish cartoons were published. They would riot. Cars, businesses and maybe even embassies might  burn. People might die. Thankfully, that didn’t happen. What did happen is far scarier. ABC News held a townhall meeting, bringing on experts from left and right to ask the question: “Should Americans fear Islam?” Thanks to ABC, we know the answer. Americans absolutely should. One of the network’s “experts” was Muslim cleric Anjem Choudary, who Britain’s Sunday Times called “the leader of the now-outlawed extremist group Islam4UK.” His comments on “This Week” bore out everything conservatives criticize about radical Islam. “We do believe as Muslims the East and the West will be governed by the Sharia,” Choudray said. “Indeed we believe that one day the flag of Islam will fly over the White House.” According to Choudary, “Islam has a solution for all of the problems that mankind faces.” You don’t need to read between the lines to know what he was talking about. That is, if you could find those lines anywhere. Our allegedly unbiased media have done almost nothing with the story. No network used the clip except ABC and that was just in its original program. Only two major newspapers mentioned it, and none of the top papers – New York Times, Washington Post, etc. Even ABC, which aired the program, tried to spin things against conservatives. Host and pro-Islamist Christiane Amanpour told one guest that “a series of politicians have used the Islamic center, have used sort of Islamophobia and scare tactics in their campaigns.” The dictionary calls a phobia “a persistent, irrational fear.” There’s nothing irrational about fearing radical Islam. It’s stupid not to do so. Instead, the only things the media fear these days are the continued decline of their profession, and the rise of the Tea Parties. You can find a story bashing Tea Party folks for not recycling. That kind of petty criticism is to be expected. The media hate them. If you laid all of the lefty/media attacks against the right end to end, they’d probably reach all the way to Mecca. Convenient that. The Tea Party people alone have been called “racist,” “crazy,” “nuts,” “unusual,” “mental” and “screwballs.” And those are the ones mild enough for print. But when a representative of radical Islam goes on a major network and calls for global domination, you’d think that, too, would make news. Instead, all we got was ABC chastising conservatives like the Rev. Franklin Graham for pointing out the dangers of radical Islam.  Another guest, Reza Aslan, a scholar and a contributing editor and The Daily Beast, said Graham’s position “is actually the definition of bigotry.” Meanwhile, radical Islam was doing its part to remind us of the dangers and the costs of its efforts. The world is on alert because of yet another Islamic-linked terror attempt. This time, a group of Sl Qaeda spinoffs seems to have been planning attacks on five European airports. CNN reported “police in France seized 12 people for suspected terrorist ties.” On Oct. 3, the State Department “issued an alert warning for Americans traveling to Europe to be vigilant about possible terrorist attacks,” according to Bloomberg. Around the same time, several foreign militants training in Pakistan were killed by a U.S. drone. CNN reported “the militants killed are believed to have been members of the group Jihad al Islami.” (Imagine if the group name had been Crusaders for Christ.”) Let’s not forget that the attempted Times Square bomber also just got life in prison, but not before sounding a warning that sounds significantly like Choudary’s. Convicted terrorist Faisal Shahzad told the judge: “We are only Muslims … but if you call us terrorists, we are proud terrorists, and we will keep on terrorizing you,” he said, adding that “the defeat of the U.S. is imminent,” according to The Washington Post. A separate Post article noted U.S. airline stocks had been unharmed by talk of a terror attack. What the story didn’t mention was … this time. Because there is always a next time. The media won’t discuss the potential harm those attacks would have, not just to life, but to the economy already battered by Washington’s liberal leadership. Finally, how many terror attacks will it take before the media stop blaming America and start blaming radical Islam? The sad answer is: too many. Dan Gainor is The Boone Pickens Fellow and the Media Research Center’s Vice President for Business and Culture.

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Kingston introduces Class 4 32GB microSDHC card, charges dearly for the speed

Well, at least you’ve got options now. Just days after SanDisk’s once-rare 32GB microSDHC card fell to $87 , along comes Kingston with a nearly identical unit of its own. The difference? It’s Class 4 instead of Class 2, which means that you can look forward to a 4MB/s minimum data transfer rate. Of course, you’ll be paying dearly for the speed boost when it starts shipping on Monday with the card alone priced at $153. Slow and cheap, or pricey and snappy? Decisions, decisions… Kingston introduces Class 4 32GB microSDHC card, charges dearly for the speed originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 09 Oct 2010 03:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

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Arab leaders weigh alternatives

Arab ministers have agreed to give the US another month to try to keep Israeli-Palestinian peace talks from collapsing. The decision came on Friday at an Arab League summit in the Libyan city of Sirte. The Arab leaders want the US to persuade Israel to renew a freeze on West Bank settlement construction. They have supported the Palestinians’ decision to stop direct talks with Israel unless the Israelis agree to halt all settlement construction in the West Bank. The Arab

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Rescue workers near their goal as Chile awaits

Wait for miners ‘like living in a dream’ Copiapo, Chile (CNN) — There may be light at the end of a nearly completed tunnel for the 33 men trapped since August 5 almost half a mile below ground, with rescuers expected to reach them within a day, Chile’s mining minister said Friday afternoon. “Hopefully before that,” Mining Minister Laurence Golborne told reporters about the time when a rescue drill is expected to pierce the roof of the mine. As of Friday afternoon, it was 40 meters (about 130 feet) away. “Maybe tomorrow morning, early Saturday. We have to wait and see.” Once the mine has been reached, the rescue process could begin within three to four days, Golborne told reporters….

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