Restaurant critics throughout the UK are united in condemnation of a jury which upheld a libel action by a restaurateur. Irish News restaurant critic Caroline Workman, in a 2000 review of Belfast’s Goodfellas restaurant, described staff as unhelpful, the cola as flat and the chicken marsala as ‘so sweet as to be inedible’.

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First rigorous research looked at HIV patients. Doctors at San Francisco General Hospital reported Monday that HIV-infected patients suffering from a painful nerve condition in their hands or feet obtained substantial relief by smoking small amounts of marijuana in a carefully constructed study funded by the state of California.

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Iranian armaments, including mortar shells, have markings in the Farsi language on them when discovered in the Sudan in 1997, but Iranian arms alleged to have killed 170 US soldiers in Iraq have no Farsi markings on them when captured in 2007.
Go to original at Booman Tribune

A Washington radio station is hoping to tap into increased concerns about the environment and global warming by switching not only its format but also its source of power. Read more »

There is no “silver bullet” solution to our energy crisis. But a new study shows that the right combination of renewables may be our best bet.

The American Solar Energy Association (ASES), with the backing of several U.S. representatives and a senator, released its new nuts and bolts approach to reducing carbon emissions with a combination of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies. Read more »

“We’ve had all of these torture experts come by recently, and they say, ‘You don’t realize how many people are affected by this. Be careful.’ They say torture doesn’t work. But I don’t believe that.” –Joel Surnow, producer of 24
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Helicopters risky, but still best option in Iraq, Army pilot says

BAGHDAD — An Army pilot said Sunday that enemy fire hit at least 17 U.S. helicopters a month in Iraq but that flying time for troops was growing because of the risks of road travel. Read more »

WASHINGTON – More American troops were killed in combat in Iraq over the past four months — at least 334 through Jan. 31 — than in any comparable stretch since the war began, according to an Associated Press analysis of casualty records.
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Most Americans — 62 percent — think an increase in poverty in the United States would threaten national security, according to the latest Poverty Pulse survey by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD). Read more »

The advocacy group Human Rights First says there’s been a startling increase in the number of torture scenes depicted on prime-time television in the post-2001 world. Even more chilling, there are indications that real-life American interrogators in Iraq are taking cues from what they see on television, said Jill Savitt, the group’s director of public programs.

Read original by Associated Press TV writer David Bauder

Photograph by Anita Brown, Feb. 11, 2007

Feeling frisky? Well then don the black “200 OK” panties and see where they take you. Alternatively, the white “403 Forbidden” style sends a very different and hopefully clear message.

Go to original at ThinkGeek.com.

The latest numbers are out: nearly 800,000 Americans were arrested on marijuana charges in 2005. When will the insanity stop?

American taxpayers are now spending more than a billion dollars per year to incarcerate its citizens for pot. That’s according to statistics recently released by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics. Read more »