• 6 months in prison for a guy who got some CRAZY Japanese manga source

• The release of Ms. Bishop did not sit well with the police officers, and I can assure you that this would not happen in this day and age.
• Braintree, Mass. chief of police Paul Frazier • Regarding Alabama professor Amy Bishop, who reportedly killed three professors on Friday, on a cold case involving Bishop’s brother. In 1986, Seth Bishop was killed during an argument at their home in Braintree. Police are considering re-opening that 24-year-old case as a result of the most recent murders. The shooting was classified as accidental at the time, but an officer at the scene claimed it took place after an argument between the two parties. source

• 57M number of people that got swine flu in the U.S. since the outbreak began last April
• 257k number of people that had to be hospitalized as a result of a strong swine flu case
• 12k number of people that died as a result of getting swine flu, which isn’t really that bad

A little perspective on H1N1:

• 35,000 people usually die from the flu yearly

• » Demographic changes: H1N1 is an odd outbreak, because while it has killed far fewer people than a traditional outbreak, many of those people are younger than 65, a change from traditional influenza, which is often deadlier for the elderly.
• » Did swine flu replace the normal flu? One of the things that researchers found was that most people who they tested with flu symptoms had swine flu, not a normal strain. Which suggests that the swine flu outbreak may have neutered a normal flu season.
• » More’s still on the way: We’re still not out of the woods yet. Flu activity, whether H1N1 or traditional, is still expected for several more months. As long as we don’t have to pull Dustin Hoffman to save the day again. source

• 50% of overweight teens were overweight by 24 months of age
• 90% of overweight teens were overweight by 5 years of age source

• This is not an issue of freedom of the press. The concern is not the content per se, although some of it is alarming – homophobic and racist and so forth.
• Virginia Tech Vice President for Student Affairs Ed Spencer • Regarding the school’s push to take funding away from the school paper, The Collegiate Times, due to the fact that their site allows anonymous comments. Apparently, it breaks some stupid policy. While the paper has independence from the school, they do receive $70,000 yearly, along with free office space. In case you need a single reason why this is a bad idea, whatever the policy may be, we have a pretty good one: The paper’s excellent coverage of the school’s 2007 shooting. Student journalism needs to be protected. (hat tip Charles Apple) source

• 150 passengers stuck at one of D.C.’s busiest metro stations, Farragut North (it’s downtown)
• 90 minutes stuck on a freaking train during rush hour; scary, but nobody was injured at all
• three hours the government has been back at work since the snow shut it down for a week source

• 54
  years the amount of time a Kennedy has been in Congress in some way, shape or form
• early
  2011 the period when that’s probably going to end; blame Ted’s kid, Patrick, for this source

• 12.5″ it’s called snow, Texans; get used to it source

• A couple of stents were apparently all he needed. The ex-president’s bum ticker seems to be ticking just fine again after a procedure restored blood flow in one of his coronary arteries. That’s why he got the stents. Apparently, he was due for a 5,000-mile tune-up for his freaking heart or something. source