Results tagged “newsworld”

Charles Simonyi, the man who gave us Microsoft Word, has been sent into space by the Russian government as punishment for the development of "smart quotes."

Wire service stories are the postcards that we never would have sent. Instead of picking out something mundane or kitschy, the AP and UPI sent our college roommate in Wisconsin, aunt in Boston, and childhood friend in Georgia an inane little note in their local papers yesterday. It says that the place we live in--and keep asking them to visit--is full of uptight people with too much time on their hands: Dog Store Sign Angers Seattle Residents.

A special report from national advertising correspondent Pauls Toutonghi

Well, you've been right so far. :P

"The Decider" will be yakkin at you tonight, beginning at 6pm PST, in a nationally-televised address expected to last for about 30 minutes. The topic: The Iraq War, which President Bush wants to try to win--understandably so, as his other option is to pull out and go down in history as the guy with sole responsibility for the senseless deaths of 2,997 American soldiers (as of Saturday). That's exactly the same number of people as died on 9/11. (Guess what, Osama? We can get 3,000 people killed for no reason too! SNAP!)

President Gerald Ford's memorial service is today, we thought we'd present these remarks Ford (shown here with George Harrison) made about Seattle upon his visit here as president on September 4th, 1975. Not the most interesting reading, but they seem extemporaneous and are perhaps a good snapshot of what one president thought when he thought of Seattle in the 70s: fish, Boeing, and international trade:

It is really wonderful to be in Seattle, and I do thank you for the beautiful salmon. We are now the beneficiaries in my State of Michigan, not of salmon quite as large as that, but salmon. We started developing a few years ago by transplanting some salmon from this area of the world, and we now have tremendous supplies in Lake Michigan of Coho salmon. And we are proud of it. They don't match that salmon in size, but they do remind us of the west coast and the wonderful opportunities that all of you have who live here.

Continue reading "Gerald Ford on Seattle"

Fresh on the heels of Seattle schools discovering that, despite their sub-par educational efforts, children that attend them are smart enough to forage for junk food, a group of public health wonks in Britain want clothing manufacturers to print the phone number to an obesity help line on any plus-sized garments.

So far as we know, the great "rubber county tube" debate has not been resolved. Is daily traffic on the Viaduct seriously 75,000 rather than 110,000 cars (or "autos" as you'll read in more upscale news provisioners)? The major daily papers haven't responded to the Stranger's claim that the much lower number is reality.

A few weeks back we suggested you might lay off the local salmon, you know keep your mercury levels in check and all that good stuff. However, in even more doomsday-ish news, some marine biologists are concerned that we might not have fish to avoid eating within the next 40 years.

Consider two of the "ten most emailed" articles from yesterday's (registration required):

The P-I has an article today that explores the panic that the North Korean missile tests of 5, July have struck into area hearts. "I don't think Seattle will be a target," David Cahn stuttered in terror. "America has occupied their country for 50 years. America's policy is the provocation for this sort of thing," Ted Roberts told the paper while impaired by fear . "Even if (the missile) could reach the U.S., it would be wildly inaccurate, and lucky to hit the continent," expert Victoria Samson --obviously lying in order to prevent mass riots and chaos in the region-- imparted.

Though official reports don't agree, we gather that Washington state is sending at least nine to ten athletes to the winter Olympics in Torino, Italy. The majority are competing in skiing events, along with two skaters, one hockey player, and a bobsledder. Ceremonies, running with flaming objects, and non-stop news coverage are all set to commence this Friday, February 10. In the media run-up to opening day, "we're desperate for a popular culture article" magazine The Scientist has paused to ask: Just what is in those olympic athletes' genes?

"We're talking about cartoons. I mean listen, we're sitting here talking about cartoons, not a book, not a play, not a speech, but we're talking about cartoons. Not the Gaza Strip that people go out there and die for every day, but we're talking about cartoons, man. How silly is that?

We want in on the giant animal mania. Recent reports of jumbo jellyfish overwhelming local fishing populations along the coast of Japan have us green with bonafide National Enquirer headline envy. "Giant Jellyfish Invade Japan"--it doesn't get much better than that.

The Corrie family is making world headlines again after narrowly escaping a Palestinian attack near the Rafah border crossing. Of course you remember that their daughter Rachel Corrie was killed in that area by Israeli bulldozers while she was trying to prevent them from leveling Palestinian dwellings. The Corrie parents were visiting the Nasrallahs in Rafah (apparenlty they often do, as the two families tour and speak together) where there has been a rash of abductions in the wake of the Isreali pullout from Gaza and the recent arrest of a Palestinian accused of kidnapping three Britons in the area. Gunmen broke into the Nasrallah home intending to kidnap the Corries, but were chased off by a neighbor afflliated with Palestinian security forces.

A collaborative team of international genetic researchers led by a former Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center member recently published the entire genome sequence for dogs. While this research will have a direct impact on treating diseases specifically in dogs, humans serve to benefit from our proverbial best friends as well.

Again, bombs have exploded in the London tube, and again our brethren at Londonist are on top of it. See their site for links to UK news outlets and regularly updated transit reports. Apparently this time a number of detonators went off, but didn't generate blasts and there are few injuries. Check out the Londonist posting for the previous attack here.

London was struck at rush hour this morning by a series of bombs on three subway trains and a double-decker bus. Thirty-three people are reported dead, with an estimated 1,000 more injured.

The cardinals in Rome have let the white smoke fly and announced the new head of the Catholic Church today. The flock didn't have long to wait to find out whether the new pope would come in the form of a healer or a hard-ass, and the word is that he's a hard-ass dressed up as a healer.

The pope died in Italy today at 9:37 (12:37 PST). History's most travelled pope and an active diplomat, Pope John Paul II had been deteriorating rapidly over the past week, although he had appeared frail for several of the last of the 84 years of his life.

You probably remember the story of Rachel Corrie from many many internet years ago. Rachel is the Evergreen College student who was killed by an Israeli bulldozer while attempting to sheild Palestinian homes from destruction.

From Seattle blogger and UW staff member Harry Love we find a link to the harrowing account of a UW Professor caught with his family in Thailand during the devastating December 26th tsunami.

Continuing Seattlest's new feature, Downer Friday: Sites around the world have been commemorating the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, a place Seattlest has personally visited and personally been marked forever by.