Poor Mojo's News Show Podcast No. 54 for Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Poor Mojo's News Show Podcast No. 54 (64 kbps .mp3 8:59 4.2 Mb)



We're the little boy with the chicken.



IT’S POOR MOJO’S NEWS SHOW! FOR TUESDAY, FEBRUARY TWENTIETH, TWO THOUSAND AND SEVEN



A DAILY ROUNDUP OF THINGS THAT SEEMED IMPORTANT .



http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/02/19/MNG3AO7BT11.DTL

WE AT POOR MOJO'S NEWS SHOW, AND ESPECIALLY OUR OWN MOJO, WISH TO SAY: Gung hay fat choy! S-F GATE DOT COM WELCOMED IN THE CHINESE YEAR OF THE PIG WITH THE PASSING OF THE LUNAR NEW YEAR THIS WEEKEND. People born this lunar year, or who turn 12, 24 or any multiple of 12, are all pigs and believed to be lucky, especially those born in a "fire pig" year like this one. Pregnancies are up in South Korea and China and among followers of the lunar calendar in the United States trying to bestow more luck on their families.



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070219/ap_on_sc/regrowing_fingers

IS IT POSSIBLE TO GROW BACK A FINGER AFTER IT IS BLOWN OFF OR BURNED UP? WITH SO MANY WOUNDED RETURNING FROM THE WARS IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN, THIS QUESTION IS INCREASINGLY PERTINENT. WIRE SERVICES REPORT THAT EXPERIMENTS WITH EXTRACT OF PIG BLADDER AND OTHER EXOTIC SUBSTANCES SEEK TO GIVE THOSE WHO HAVE LOST MOST OR ALL OF THEIR FINGERS ANOTHER CHANCE AT HOLDING THINGS. SO FAR, There's the guy who sliced off a fingertip but grew it back, after he treated the wound with an extract of pig bladder. And the scientists who grow extra arms on salamanders. And the laboratory mice with the eerie ability to heal themselves.





A WOMAN FROM DEVON, IN THE UK, CLAIMS SHE CAUGHT Mesothelioma when SHE WAS SIX, HUGGING HER FATHER WHO CAME HOME FROM WORKING WITH THE CARCINOGEN ASBESTOS. ACCORDING TO B-B-C NEWS THE MINISTRY OF DEFENCE WILL WORK QUICKLY TO BRING A SETTLEMENT OF Debbie Brewer'S SEVENTY-FIVE THOUSAND POUND CLAIM IF IT IS DETERMINED HER CASE HAS MERIT.



THIS IS POOR MOJO'S NEWS SHOW!



http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleid=D7C80F75-E7F2-99DF-3F71D9FC07888C4F&chanId=sa017

IS AUTISM GENETIC? SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN ONLINE SAYS RESARCHERS HAVE PINPOINTED TWO GENETIC CULPRITS IN THE LARGEST GENOME SCAN EVER CONDUCTED TO PINPOINT AUTISM. the genomes of 1,168 families WERE COMPARED WITH THOSE OF at least two autism sufferers. IT IS HOPED THAT NEW THERAPIES CAN BE DEVELOPED FROM THE DATA. In the last decade, the diagnosis of autism has increased 10-fold. It's now believed to affect one in 166 children born in the U.S. and four boys for every girl.



http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070218/sc_nm/asteroid_deflector_dc_5

What if only a ragtag bunch of deep sea oil platform jockeys can save us FROM DEATH BY ASTEROID? ASKS OUR OWN EDITOR MOJO. WIRE SERVICE REPORTS TELL OF HOW an asteroid named Apophis HAS A 1 in 45,000 chance of striking Earth on April 13, 2036. EVEN IF, LIKE ME, YOU EXPECT TO BE SAFELY DEAD BY THEN, YOU WON'T BE HAPPY TO LEARN THAT CALLS FROM CONGRESS FOR NASA TO IMPOVE IT'S ASTEROID TRACKING WILL TELL US WHAT WE DON'T WANT TO KNOW -- THAT THERE ARE POTENTIALLY HUNDREDS -- OR THOUSANDS -- OF NEAR-EARTH OBJECTS READY TO SCREW UP YOUR DAY.



http://environment.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn11215&feedId=online-news_rss20

DO COUNTRIES LIKE THE UNITED STATES, RUSSIA, OR FRANCE -- THAT HAVE A OFFICIAL OR NEARLY OFFICIAL LANGUAGE WHICH PUSHES OUT ALL OTHERS -- SUFFER FROM A LACK OF FOLK WISDOM ABOUT USEFUL PLANTS AND ANIMALS? WHAT DO WE LOSE WITH EACH LANGUAGE'S DEATH IN THE WAKE OF ENRCOACHING MODERN MASS CULTURE? NEW SCIENTIST ONLINE ASKED linguist and cultural expert David Harrison at Swarthmore College.

Information about local ecosystems is so intricately woven into these languages that it cannot be replaced simply through translation, he explains. The indigenous taxonomy alone can provide a huge range of information about species, which young speakers in these tribes acquire instantly through learning the name.



THIS IS POOR MOJO'S NEWS SHOW!



http://www.newswire.poormojo.org/archives/014198.php

WHO THE HELL KNOWS WHAT'S GOING ON WITH DAIMLER CHRYSLER? THE AWKWARD MARRIAGE BETWEEN HIGH-END GERMAN ENGINEERING AND PEESASHIT GUTBUCKETS THAT GET YOU TO WORK AND BACK IS UNRAVELING, BUT DAVE-O DISCOVERED DISSONANCE AT THE AUTOMOTIVE DESK OF DETROIT'S NOT WONDERFUL NEWSPAPER, THE FREE PRESS. HE WROTE:

Now, February 19, according to the Detroit Free Press, KOREAN CONCERN Hyundai is both rumored to want Chrysler and totally uninterested in Chrysler. Fascinatingly, the two Freep business writers who wrote these articles made their diametrically opposed conclusions based on the same factless, unsourced Times of London article:.

Frankly, Detroit, we sound like the auto industry's stilted ex-boyfriend, still mooning over a crumby relationship that went sour years ago. She isn't coming back, fellas. Maybe we need to find another mate to complete us.



http://www.rawstory.com/showarticle.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nypost.com%2Fphp%2Fpfriendly%2Fprint.php%3Furl%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.nypost.com%2Fseven%2F02192007%2Fbusiness%2Fheavenly_deal_business_peter_lauria.htm

CAN OPRAH AND HOWARD STERN LIVE TOGETHER? WILL SIRIUS SATELLITE RADIO HONCHO MEL KARMASIN HAVE THE PLEASURE OF PUTTING HIS FOOT UP THE ASSES OF OPIE AND ANTHONY, WHOM HE PASSIONATELY HATES? SIRIUS AND ITS ARCH RIVAL, X-M, ARE DEEP IN MERGER TALKS. AT PRESS TIME THE TALK IS STILL ALL TALK, AND THE DEAL MUST PASS REGULATORY MUSTER, BUT IF IT GOES AHEAD, ACCORDING TO THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE PURPORTED MERGER OF EQUALS WILL ACTUALLY BE SIRIUS EATING X-M.





IS THERE A WORSE IDEA ON TELEVISION THAN FOX NEWS TRYING TO RIP OFF THE DAILY SHOW? THEY COULD BRING BACK COP ROCK, OR TELEVISE PENILE IMPLANT SURGERY... NO, SORRY, THERE IS NO WORSE IDEA. KUNG FU ROGERS EXPLAINS WHY TALKING POINTS DON'T MAKE THE FUNNY: This is obviously someone who's never worked a real comedy writer's room. For topical runs, you start with "okay, what happened today," and you look at everything. Everything. This is because comedy has maybe a 10% success rate on the pitch, and that's just for joke-like objects, never mind actual functioning funny jokes. To fill a show with a couple dozen funny jokes, you don't have the time or luxury to stick to talking points.



http://www.bookninja.com/?p=2290

GOOGLE -- FRESH FROM HELPING THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT CENSOR THE WEB FOR ITS CITIZENS, -- CONTINUES TO DO EVIL IN POLAND, THIS TIME PICKING ON POETS. BOOKNINJA DOT COM SAYS THE Grupa Mlodych Artystow i Literatow,” or Group of Young Artists and Writers — told AFP that Google had turned to the country’s IT and telecommunications tribunal to try to stop them using the Web site address www.gmail.pl. GOOGLE SAYS THEY'RE CYBER SQUATTERS, AND THE POLISH POETS TAKE UMBRIDGE AT THE VERY IDEA.



http://www.rawstory.com//news/2007/Columnist_Authoritarianism_can_happen_in_United_0219.html

SLATE COLUMNIST JOE CONASON ASKS YOU IF YOU'RE READY FOR AN AUTHORITARIAN AMERICA. IN AN ARTICLE ON RAW STORY, CONASON SAYS IT'S ON THE WAY, COMING CLOSER WITH EACH PRESIDENTIAL SIGNING STATEMENT THAT SUBVERTS THE WILL OF CONGRESS, EACH U-S ATTORNEY REPLACED WITH A POLITICAL HACK WHO WON'T INVESTIGATE GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION, EACH SMEAR OF DISSENTERS. FROM THE ARTICLE: "we do not know the full dimensions of the scandals behind Iraq and Katrina, because the Republican leaders of the Senate and the House of Representatives abdicated the traditional congressional duties of oversight and investigation." CONASON CONTINUES: for the first time since Nixon, Americans have "reason to doubt the future of democracy and the rule of law in our own country."...



## C L O S E R ##





OTHER STORIES WE COVERED TODAY AT POOR MOJO'S NEWSWIRE:



THE X-K-C-D WEBCOMIC OFFERS WORDS TO LIVE BY - FUCK THAT SHIT!

Viceland's fashion: Do's -- The Racism Repairman

John McCain tells everyone what they want to hear

Killer Korean Cameras

White House advisor caught funding terrorist training camps

Another great video from Ok-GO

Skiing the moon

Trailer: The Simpsons Movie

Giuliani, in drag, making out with Trump

A Nazi toaster?

Custom Mii Sculptures of your wii avatar

AND

Advice on fatherhood from Penny Arcade's Tycho



OUR THEME SONG IS AN UNTITLED PIECE FROM THE DISC "HIMNO NASIONAL" BY THE FIGURES, AVAILABLE AT FINGERPRINT DASH RECORDS DOT COM.



FIND US ONLINE AT P-O-O-R-M-O-J-O DOT O-R-G, AND FOLLOW THE LINK TO THE NEWSWIRE



THIS HAS BEEN POOR MOJO'S NEWS SHOW, I'M ALAN BENARD.