Proposal Made to Seize Souter's Property - The Just Desserts Cafe...

Wow - this is either sweetly ironic, or downright mean. But I have to admit - I'm as impressed as heck at the swift thinking at work.

By way of background - The US Supreme Court ruled last week by a 5-4 decision that municipal governments can seize property from one pwner and give it to another - provided that doing so results in greater benefit for the municipality.

It's a ruling that has property rights advocates seething mad. So what did they do? Rather than stage meaningless, empty protests designed to do nothing more than be disruptive and gather cheap headlines, a group of citizens opposed to the decision have put their money where their mouth is.

And as a result, the town of Weare, New Hampshire, is considering a proposal to sieze US Supreme Court Justic David Souter's home, and convert it into the "Lost Liberty" hotel and museum.

Souter hasn't commented on the proposal yet.

Top 10 Ways to Destroy Earth

Stumbled across this and thought - "Hey, maybe I can send this to Greenpeace... after all, they're always claiming that unless we do something, we're going to destroy the planet."

A team of scientists have theorized about 10 potential ways to actually destroy the earth.

Much to the chagrin of activists everywhere, global warming isn't one of the methods used.

A Classic Case of "Defeating the Purpose"

Many of my readers will be familiar with my opinions on PETA. For years they've characterized themselves as an "animal rights group." Many others, myself included, feel they're basically nothing more than a bunch of headline grabbing caricatures, fronting eco-terrorist groups.

But - even if you were to disagree with my characterization, everyone would agree that the intent is a good one - PETA helps animals. You may disagree (in many cases, like myself, STRONGLY disagree) with their tactics, but hey - at least they're helping animals, right?

Right?

Apparently, someone forgot to explain that concept to two PETA employees in North Carolina, who are now facing animal cruelty charges.

Oops.

Attack of the virus-killer tomatoes

I'll admit - I don't like tomatoes. I never have. But I like getting SARS even less, thank you very much. Which is why I find it fascinating that - in yet another example of biotechnology crossing barriers into the public marketplace - scientists have developed a SARS vaccine which can be grown and administered in a tomato.

There's a "long way to go" before scientists know whether or not the experiment will either a) work in the long term or b) become commercially viable. But in the interim - mice who have eaten the 'anti-virus' tomatoes are developing antibodies to the SARS virus.

It will be interesting to see what impact this has on 'regular' tomatoes if this technology takes off - are people going to be scared at the thought of finding virii in their household fruit? Will they consider the local tomato farmer in the same category as a disease control lab? Will regulatory authorities require testing for fruit as it crosses the border, to determine if it's food or medicine? It's a whole new world we're entering, folks...