^{Friday, October 10, 2008}
(10-10) 11:23 PDT PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) --

A couple in rural Cambodia has terminated their 18-year marriage with a divorce settlement that entailed sawing in two the wooden house they once shared, villagers said Friday. The husband, 42-year-old Moeun Sarim, has taken away with him all the bits and pieces of his half a house, said his 35-year-old wife, Vat Navy.

"Very strange, but this is what my husband wanted," she said by phone from a village about 62 miles east of Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh. She said they ended their marriage last month.

"He brought his relatives and used saws to cut the house in half," she said, adding that she now owns the other half that is still standing. The house is made from wood with a tile roof and propped up on wooden pillars, a typical style for a Cambodian country home.

She said her estranged husband and his relatives, after ripping apart half of the house, carried all the debris to his parents' house nearby.

She said the divorce was prompted by her husband's jealousy about her alleged relationship with a policeman in the village. She denied having an extramarital affair.

"He wanted a divorce, and I said, `Let's divorce,'" she said.

The husband could not be reached for comment.

Bou Bout, a village chief, said local officials and police were present as witnesses the day the couple split their 20-by-24 1/2 foot house into half.

"Local officials tried three times to get them to mend their differences, but the husband would not budge," Bou Bout said by phone.

Current Mood: weird

Swedish woman barred from flying with Ryanair - because her name is incompatible with the airline's computers.

Bonus: Ryanair's "customer service" people sold her multiple tickets that wouldn't scan to get her on the plane, and refused to speak to her about it until Heathrow Security stepped in. They gave her a number to fax a complaint in to get a refund, and the fax number has been disconnected.

Current Mood: weird

xposted to Goodbye·Earth! & Welcome·to·Earth

10:45 AM 7/9/08 · Earlier this week I had something of a heated, ironically, debate that was fairly short but nothing decisive had changed. It was about global warming and specifically that this person didn't believe in it. I was more than a little stunned by this...

...but then again McCain also doesn't (or didn't) believe in it either.

Yet another reason I'm not voting for him.

I think it may be more the fact that the term global warming is often associated with the fact that it's being caused by us humans having despoiled the environment and our excessive slavery to oil causing the climate to cook us on the surface. After many many years, literally decades ago the observation and term were first coined, it's as though we've been unconciously committing suicide.

Most people are hesitant to admit that they've ever tried to commit suicide...even those that actually did so.

Interestingly enough, scientists have said that even without all we've done to damage the environment this would've happened eventually anyway. We've merely brought it forth sooner by a hundred years or so; progressive species aren't we? Still, the evidence of the fact it's happening should be readily evident to anyone that's actually paying attention.

Take for example that for the first time in our lifetime, our parents lifetime, the lifetime of those of us that still have living grandparents (etc. etc. etc.) come this next year there won't be any ice at the North Pole. No more than 2 months back a chunk of ice the size of Texas that had not moved in a couple thousand years...broke off, floated away, and is now water.

The planet is getting hotter, weather conditions are going crazy, there are places that either haven't known snow or certainly not as much as they've been getting recently. That last one might confuse people (why more snow if things are warming) but it's fairly simple. The massive melting up North, and probably down South, are due to excess heat but that causes not heat related conditions the world over. For example, there are parts of the United States that have been hit with massive and multiple tornado strikes that never had them before...

...and we're talking not so many weeks ago too.

Call it global warming, call it what you will...it's still happening. There's that old phrase about calling a rose by any other name and it would smell just as sweet.

Frankly, I think the whole situation kinda stinks but it still works.

Current Mood: gloomy

Jose Martinez, a candy shop owner in Avile, Spain, holds a Spanish 1 euro with the face of King Juan Carlos and another showing King Homer. The altered euro was found in his cash register.

Current Mood: weird

Throughout China, thousands of newborns like these in Hefei are being named after the five Fuwa, or mascots of the Beijing Games. The five: Beibei (the Fish), Jingjing (the Panda), Huanhuan (Olympic Flame), Yingying (Tibetan Antelope) and Nini (Swallow).

Current Mood: rejuvenated

In Islamabad, Pakistani women call the release of Aafia Siddiqui, currently being detained in the United States. The MIT-educated Siddiqui has been linked to al-Qaida and faces charges that she tried to kill U.S. employees after grabbing a soldier's rifle in Afghanistan. Afghan police say they discovered suspicious documents about explosives and landmarks in her handbag.

Current Mood: frustrated

Thousands of cans labeled as tomatoes actually contain ecstasy tablets at a customs warehouse in Melbourne, Australia. Australian authorities seized 5 tons of the pills in what they called the world's single largest ecstasy bust.

Current Mood: surprised

A misting system for patrons of an Athens restaurant also cools passers-by. Temperatures reached 99 degrees in parts of Greece.

Current Mood: hot

A boy runs during a demonstration against kidnapping and the high cost of living in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The abduction of Americans, wealthy Haitians and foreign workers has become commonplace in Port-au-Prince, one of the world's poorest cities.

Current Mood: determined