Pass the beef

Usually I get a salad in the company cafeteria, but today they had prime rib. That was a no brainer.

So I got back to my desk to chow down and surf (surf and turf?), and I stumble upon the mad cow story.

So how did the cow get the condition? It might not have "caught" it at all - there's a mutation that happens every so often that causes the condition to occur independently of outside influences. In humans a corresponding condition is called Creutzfeld/Jacob disease, or CJD.

Bottom line: the cow might well be the only one affected.

A popularization of this topic, perhaps dated now, is Deadly Feasts by Richard Rhodes.

Couldn't he just build a meth lab like everyone else?

Don't try this at home:

Golf Manor, a subdivision in Commerce Township, Mich., some 25 miles outside of Detroit, is the kind of place where nothing unusual is supposed to happen, where the only thing lurking around the corner is an ice-cream truck. But June 26, 1995, was not a typical day.

Ask Dottie Pease. Cruising down Pinto Drive, Pease saw half a dozen men crossing her neighbor's lawn. Three, in respirators and white moon suits, were dismantling her next-door neighbor's shed with electric saws, stuffing the pieces into large steel drums emblazoned with radioactive warning signs.

Huddled with a group of neighbors, Pease was nervous. "I was pretty disturbed," she recalls. Publicly, the employees of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that day said there was nothing to fear. The truth is far more bizarre: the shed was dangerously irradiated and, according to the EPA, up to 40,000 residents of the area could be at risk.

The cleanup was provoked by the boy next door, David Hahn. He had attempted to build a nuclear reactor in his mother's shed following a Boy Scout merit-badge project.

Much more here.

Stolen from Clayton Cramer.

Setting the record straight

Nothing that contains marshmallow cream can rightfully be called "fudge".

Merry Christmas, baby face

A jury Tuesday spared Lee Boyd Malvo a death sentence, deciding instead to send him to prison for the rest of his life for the murder of Linda Franklin at a Home Depot store in Seven Corners.

The convicted Washington-area sniper, who was 17 when the shootings occurred, was given a life sentence for each of the two counts of capital murder.

The jury, which deliberated about 8 and 1/2 hours on the penalty phase of the trial, found the aggravating factors necessary for the death penalty were present as circumstances in the murder, but nonetheless opted to give Malvo a sentence of life instead of death.

His formal sentence will be set by Judge Jane Marum Roush in March, but she cannot impose a death penalty without a jury recommending it.

Fairfax Commonwealth's Attorney Robert F. Horan Jr. said shortly after the penalty was announced that Malvo's immature appearance and the timing of the case may have helped him.

Malvo was "very lucky that he looks a lot younger than he is . . . ," Horan told reporters when commenting on the jury's decision.

"We used to have a theory when I was a very young prosecutor that whatever you do, don't try one on Christmas week."That must be the reason why this creep didn't get the same thing his buddy did - it's not as if he's not a cold-blooded killer.

When this "impressionable teenager" gets paroled, let's get him a bus ticket to Brookline, MA to pay back for Willie Horton.

Just imagine how it would be if we didn't discriminate

"For the first time since tracking began 20 years ago, U.S. women outnumber men in higher paying, white collar managerial and professional occupations."Sheesh, no wonder Viagra is so popular - in a few more years the only jobs for us guys will be as sex slaves.

The 100th Scourge of Richard Cohen!

Right here.

And our hero also writes of fun he had at a DUI checkpoint in northern VA not too far from here. It serves him right for not telling me he was in town.

Diplomacy with balls

More from the Corner: one of Jonah's flying monkeys suggests a reason for Muammar Khadafy's sudden policy change.

The great reckoning

Go ahead, capitalists, read this awful book and enjoy its laughable message that you are somehow virtuous. Enjoy this fantasy as long as you can because justice will soon be served to you. Howard Dean will become president and you will then pay for your rape of the environment, exploitation of workers and selfish pursuits. No more slaps on the wrists. Jail time will be the norm, as it should be! There's no place you'll be able to hide, and no one will be able to save you. Your reign of darkness will come to an end. Mark my word!

What book are they talking about? You'll just have to check out The Corner

Never let it be said that Eric Raymond is politically correct

Here he discusses racism and group differences.

If topics like that interest you, check out Gene Expression.

Stand up for our prisoners

How could the Danish prison system be so cruel?

Plan B

If the Kurds story mentioned below doesn't work, then the lefties will have another explanation for the capture of Saddam Hussein and the recent tractability of Muammar Khadafy. Just as the Iranians decided to release the hostages before Ronald Reagan got to the White House, the other two want to be clean before Howard Dean became President. After all, he was gonna get the UN to come down on them.

Nah, I don't think even the lefties could keep their faces straight for that one.

No way, Kurds

Jonah Goldberg isn't buying the story that the Kurds actually caught Saddam Hussein. Right here on the Corner.

Beware of geeks bearing gifts

Would you like ties with color photomicrograph pattern of an infectious agents? How about a James Watson bobble-head doll? (I hope he doesn't get a Crick in his neck). Anyway, Derek Lowe is the guy to see, right here.