Dowbrigade

 
How dominating is Tiger Woods’s lead in the world rankings? Consider that the 1,000th-ranked player in the world — Hsieh Chin-Sheng of Taiwan — is closer to No. 2 Jim Furyk (8.68 points behind) than Furyk is to Woods (11.17 behind).
from the Boston Globe Golf Notes
 
Tiger has reportedly converted a Korean War era aircraft [...]

A Scotsman is planning to become the first person to windsurf across the Atlantic - and then turn back and do it again.
Leven Brown, aka El Loco, would have to balance on the 20ft surfboard for around five months as he gets blown from the Canary Islands to Antigua, without any support vessel.
He would [...]

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a reposting of an older story which has been innundated with comment spam. For more on this, see below…
F.K. in Conway NH has an interesting question for Dr. Knowledge in today’s Boston Globe.  He writes, “Humans can’t fall from much more than one body height without risk of serious injury. How [...]

CARACAS, Venezuela - As university students clashed with the police in this country last May, attention focused not just on their demands to hold elections without government meddling but also on the names of the two leaders organizing the protests: Nixon Moreno and Stalin Gonz

JUNIN, Peru — In a small storefront on a bleak, wind-swept Andean plateau, Timotea Cordova offers an oxygen-deprived visitor a traditional elixir to ward off the breathless effect of the high altitude.
For hundreds of years, Quechua Indians have grown maca, the frost-resistant root that thrives in these frigid Andean highlands, to boost stamina and sex [...]

"The President does not know him. Nor does the President recall ever meeting him." - White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan - January 2006.
"I frankly don’t even remember having my picture taken with the guy. I don’t know him."
- George W. Bush on ABC News - January [...]

WASHINGTON - The obesity epidemic has spread to man’s best friend, and so many dogs are getting fat that the government stepped in Friday by approving the first doggie diet pill.
The Food and Drug Administration announced the approval of Slentrol, a prescription drug that can suppress Fido’s appetite while also blocking the absorption of fat [...]

In New York City, where there has been no snow at all this season, the cherry trees are beginning to blossom in temperatures that have been inching up all week and could hit 70 degrees on Saturday.
from the New York Times
New York, hell. This year, there’re probably tulips up in Nome. We know for [...]

The feeling here is that Hillary may be too late to become the first female President of the United States. According to the 25th amendment, the only thing standing between us and President Pelosi is the simultaneous resignation, or incapacitation, or impeachment, or abdication of the sitting President and Vice President.
That may not be as [...]

Just when you thought the Iranian leadership could stoop no further: A top advisor to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed in an interview with Iranian website Baztab that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s parents were both Jewish and that Hitler himself was one of the founders of the State of Israel.
[...]

Doing a little after-holiday shopping, in preparation for our own personal Christmas, as celebrated by the Church of the Latter Day Savings, we noticed a couple of changes to the most fundamental facet of the holidays, as celebrated in America - shopping itself.
First of all, there seems to be a dearth of deep-cut after Christmas [...]