official? no shit, dudes.

News Alert: It's Official: U.S. Economy in Recession‏
From: NYTimes.com News Alert (nytdirect@nytimes.com)
Sent: Mon 12/01/08 12:44 PM
To: paistey@HOTMAIL.COM

Breaking News Alert
The New York Times
Monday, December 1, 2008 -- 12:32 PM ET
-----

It's Official: U.S. Economy in Recession

The National Bureau of Economic Research, a panel of academic
economists charged with the official designation of business
cycles, said that the United States economy has been in
recession since December 2007, when economic activity peaked.

Read More:
http://www.nytimes.com/?emc=na

Quote of the day:

A word on cats, from the First Edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica:

OF ALL DOMESTIC ANIMALS, THE CHARACTER OF THE CAT IS THE MOST EQUIVOCAL AND SUSPICIOUS. HE IS KEPT, NOT FOR ANY AMIABLE QUALITIES, BUT PURELY WITH A VIEW TO BANISH RATS, MICE AND OTHER NOXIOUS ANIMALS FROM OUR HOUSES....CONSTANTLY BENT UPON THEFT AND RAPINE, THEY ARE FULL OF CUNNING AND DISSIMULATION; THEY CONCEAL ALL THEIR DESIGNS, SEIZE EVERY OPPORTUNITY OF DOING MISCHIEF, AND THEN FLY FROM PUNISHMENT....IN A WORD, THE CAT IS TOTALLY DESTITUTE OF FRIENDSHIP.

Kids are dumb, don't know aardvark from aardwolf.

A recent British test shows children have lost touch with the natural world and are unable to identify common animals and plants.

Half of youngsters aged nine to 11 were unable to identify a daddy-long-legs, oak tree, blue tit or bluebell, in the poll by BBC Wildlife Magazine. The study also found that playing in the countryside was children's least popular way of spending their spare time, and that they would rather see friends or play on their computer than go for a walk or play outdoors.

The survey asked 700 children to identify pictured flora and fauna. Just over half could name bluebells, 54 per cent knew what blue tits were and 45 per cent could identify an oak. Less than two-thirds (62 per cent) identified frogs and 12 per cent knew what a primrose was.

Children performed better at identifying robins (95 per cent) and badgers, correctly labelled by nine out of 10.

A surprisingly large number of children incorrectly identified the bluebells as lavender, and the deer was commonly misidentified as an antelope.
The newt, recognised by 42 per cent, was mistaken for a lizard while the primrose was thought to be a dandelion.

Media Study Claims Bush Administration Lied Hundreds of Times About Iraq

WASHINGTON — A study by two nonprofit journalism organizations found that President Bush and top administration officials issued hundreds of false statements about the national security threat from Iraq in the two years following the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The study concluded that the statements "were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses."

The study was posted Tuesday on the Web site of the Center for Public Integrity, which worked with the Fund for Independence in Journalism. White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said he could not comment on the study because he had not seen it.

The study counted 935 false statements in the two-year period. It found that in speeches, briefings, interviews and other venues, Bush and administration officials stated unequivocally on at least 532 occasions that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or was trying to produce or obtain them or had links to Al Qaeda or both.

"It is now beyond dispute that Iraq did not possess any weapons of mass destruction or have meaningful ties to Al Qaeda," according to Charles Lewis and Mark Reading-Smith of the Fund for Independence in Journalism staff members, writing an overview of the study. "In short, the Bush administration led the nation to war on the basis of erroneous information that it methodically propagated and that culminated in military action against Iraq on March 19, 2003."

Named in the study along with Bush were top officials of the administration during the period studied: Vice President Dick Cheney, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and White House press secretaries Ari Fleischer and Scott McClellan.


Fucked Up.