Utterly bizzare and happening pretty close to home (for me anyway).  The news story is full of weird details but the general idea is that a remarkable percentage of the people voicing opinions on this one are siding with the young couple.  If she was 21 and he was 29 it would be one thing.  But at 14, noone has any business getting married.

Lousy Nanny State Conservatives – Rape Charge Follows Marriage to a 14-Year-Old [NYTimes] Mr. Koso is 22. The baby’s mother, Crystal, is 14. He is charged with statutory rape, even though they were wed with their parents’ blessing in May, crossing into Kansas because their own state prohibits marriages of people under 17. The Nebraska attorney general accuses Mr. Koso of being a pedophile; they say it is true love.

(Via Metafilter)

 First story in this mornings readings serves as a perfect example of why I so firmly believe in the Bell Curve.  This guy is on the wrong side of the mean.

Man Has Girl Present Hold-Up Note at Bank (AP) – AP – Michael Lyons apparently had a funny practical joke planned for his daughter’s birthday. In the end, no one was laughing — especially Lyons.

(Via Yahoo! Oddly Enough)

 Oh goody.  I drive a Saturn 4 banger and I am paying over $20 a tank.  Maybe its time to get that bike I’ve been eyeing.

Katrina brings more bad news for U.S. pump prices (Reuters) –

Reuters – There is a new name for what ails U.S. drivers at the gasoline pump, and her name is Katrina.

(Via Yahoo! Top Stories)

 Yikes!  Not somewhere I want to be.  Here’s hoping that the city can survive some truly nasty weather.

Hurricane Katrina rips away part of Superdome roof – Hurricane Katrina tears holes in Superdome roof

by Associated PressNEW ORLEANS — Hurricane Katrina ripped away part of the roof on the Louisiana Superdome as thousands of storm refugees huddled inside Monday. Strips of metal were peeled away, creating two holes that were visible from the floor of the huge arena….

(Via ESPN To Stories)

 And I thought this only happened in bad movies about life in a women’s prison.

Man Locks Himself Up With Female Inmates (AP) – AP – Authorities are investigating how a male inmate managed to lock himself up with eight female prisoners at the Wilson County Jail.

(Via Yahoo! Oddly Enough)

 It would seem that Scott Adams has distilled the essence of what Gree Scissors really is.

Comic for 21 Aug 2005 –

(Via Dilbert)

 Brilliant!  Why shouldn’t a PC case blend in with surroundings.  To be honest though, I think folks would be suspicious of encyclopedias on my desk since everyone knows that I don’t use reference books.  Maybe I can do a case that looks like a bunch of D&D source books or software manuals.

PC disguised as a set of encyclopedia volumes – Cory Doctorow: The Encyclomedia is a case-mod that puts a PC into what appears to be a set of encyclopedia volumes. Now that Wikipedia has rendered print reference material obsolete (note to humorless nit-pickers: this is hyperbole, not a statement of fact), this has an especial piquancy. It would be an even nicer hack if there was a copy of the Wikipedia stored locally on the machine. Link (Thanks, Dan!)

(Via Boing Boing)

 Lets file this under "dear, you need to get a new hobby".

Man Launches Ice Cream Stick Viking Ship (AP) –

AP – A former Hollywood stunt man now living in the Netherlands launched his greatest project to date Tuesday: a 45-foot replica Viking ship made of millions of wooden ice cream sticks and more than a ton of glue.

(Via Yahoo! Oddly Enough)

 Ahh, the Googly Goodness that is an open API.  Boing Boing points us to a site that will let you pick two points on a Google map and then show you all the truckstops and campgrounds betwixt them that have WiFi coverage.

Camping geeks?  The heck you say! 

WiFi spots at campgrounds and truckstops – Mark Frauenfelder: Use this Google maps application to find wifi access points at truck stops and camping grounds along your route.
Link

(Via Boing Boing)

 This is being posted in many spots, so I recommend looking up the news stories and seeing the pictures.  My only advice to the coordinators of this event…  If you are going to sell good gear at low low prices, DON’T ADVERTISE!  At that cost, I’m sure word of mouth alone would have turned up a few thousand people.

Americans.  Gotta love us.  Can’t be bothered with little things like political action or environmental awareness but put a piece of tech on sale and we go ape sh!t. 

Henrico County iBook Sale Creates iRiot – pikester writes "What do you get when you combine 1000 used iBooks being sold for $50 and 1000 people desperately wanting to buy them? You get an iStampede of course! Add into the mix one guy who watches too much wrestling and one gal who re-lived her first Backstreet Boys concert by wetting herself and you’ll being looking for video of the whole thing. CNN has some extra details as well." From the article: "Officials opened the gates at 7 a.m., but some already had been waiting for hours in line. When the gates opened, it became a terrifying mob scene. People threw themselves forward, screaming and pushing each other. A little girl’s stroller was crushed in the stampede. Witnesses said an elderly man was thrown to the pavement, and someone in a car tried to drive his way through the crowd."

(Via Slashdot)