Otters Holding Hands

Your weekend moment of syrupy sweetness.

Friday’s Random Ten

1. Ten Pins – The Connells
2. Hallelujah – John Cale
3. Know Your Rights – The Clash
4. Headshrinker – Oasis
5. White Spots – Marty Wilson-Piper
6. The Pogues – Lullaby of London
7. O’Stockholm – Marty Wilson-Piper
8. Knowing People – Matthew Sweet
9. Sinnerman – Nina Simone
10. Attitude – The [...]

British Teacher Murdered in Japan

Police on Tuesday were searching for a 28-year-old Japanese man who fled from his apartment where the body of a 22-year-old British woman was found in a bathtub on the balcony. Police have issued a warrant for the man, Tatsuya Ichihashi. The woman, who was identified as Lindsay Ann Hawker, worked as a teacher for [...]

Smugglers Force Passengers Into Stormy Seas

This is a horrible story:
SANA, YEMEN — Human smugglers sailing from Somalia to Yemen forced hundreds of illegal immigrants overboard in stormy seas in an effort to escape security forces quickly, officials said Monday. Thirty-one bodies were found, and nearly 90 people remained missing.
Passengers who resisted the smugglers were stabbed or beaten with wooden and [...]

Speak No Evil

Monica Goodling (pictured above), a 1999 graduate of Regent University School of Law, has decided to plead the fifth in regards to the US Attorney Firing Scandal. This just raises questions as to what criminal conduct she may have committed, does it not?
Aside from exposing more corruption and malfeasance from the Bush administration, [...]

The Hunt for the Homeland of Odysseus

ATHENS, Greece – A geological engineering company said Monday it has agreed to help in an archaeological project to find the island of Ithaca, homeland of Homer’s legendary hero Odysseus.
It has long been thought that the island of Ithaki in the Ionian Sea was the island Homer used as a setting for the epic poem [...]

Modest Mouse’s Sinking Ship

Modest Mouse (now with legendary guitarist Johnny Marr) has a new nautical-themed album entitled We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank. The first single, Dashboard, is a catchy little number featuring salty dogs taking a voyage to the Sargasso Sea:

Album review.

Another Expat Prison Memoir, This One Re Korea

Diane Rehm interviews an American who spent 3.5 years in a Korean prison for smuggling hashish into the ROK.
At age 23, Cullen Thomas was arrested in Seoul and sentenced to three-and-one-half years in prison for smuggling hashish into the country. He provides a view of South Korean society few Americans will ever see and describes [...]

Marriage, Korean Style

SEOUL, South Korea — When two young television stars called it quits only 12 days after their wedding recently, their very public and acrimonious divorce shined a rare spotlight on the underside of marriage in South Korea.
Lying in a hospital bed with a broken nose, Lee Min-young accused her husband, Lee Chan, of domestic violence, [...]

Don’t Fall Out of the Boat

GALVESTON, Texas – A man and woman fell overboard from a cruise ship in the Gulf of Mexico early Sunday, but both were rescued after a four-hour search and appeared to be in good condition, a cruise line spokeswoman said. The 22-year-old man and 20-year-old woman fell 50 to 60 feet from a cabin [...]