Marines assault Taliban town in Afghanistan

DAHANEH, Afghanistan – Helicopter-borne U.S. Marines backed by Harrier jets stormed a Taliban-held town in southern Afghanistan before dawn Wednesday, the launch of a new operation to uproot Taliban fighters from a longtime base and provide security for next week's presidential election.

The troops exchanged heavy fire with insurgents, killing at least seven in an offensive they hoped would also cut Taliban supply lines and isolate their fighters.

Associated Press journalists traveling with the first wave said militants fired small arms, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades after helicopters dropped the troops over Taliban lines. Fighting lasted more than eight hours, as Harrier jets streaked overhead and dropped flares in a show of force.

It sounds like tough going from all the news reports, but Marines are winning. After they expel the Islamic fascists Taliban the locals can keep them out.

Why doesn't this surprise me?

By now, we've all heard that high-fat diets are bad for our health in the long run. But what about the short-term?

A new study on rats finds that 10 days of eating a high-fat diet caused short-term memory loss and made exercise difficult. While the finding may not seem a big surprise, the researcher say it might suggest that high-fat diets make humans lazy and stupid.

I'm pretty sure you can walk around any mall in the south and see this evidence. Good work scientists, now lets get busy on that cancer stuff.

Dogs as Smart as 2-year-old Kids

The canine IQ test results are in: Even the average dog has the mental abilities of a 2-year-old child.

The finding is based on a language development test, revealing average dogs can learn 165 words (similar to a 2-year-old child), including signals and gestures, and dogs in the top 20 percent in intelligence can learn 250 words.

And the smartest?

Border collies, poodles, and German shepherds, in that order, says Stanley Coren, a canine expert and professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia. Those breeds have been created recently compared with other dog breeds and may be smarter in part because we've trained and bred them to be so, Coren said. The dogs at the top of the pack are on par with a 2.5-year-old.

I thought it was 3 or 4 year old kids. Of course I've met some kids in my children's junior high school that still aren't as smart as my German Shepard, Zep. We had to spell a lot of words, just like you do with toddlers, around Zep. She was able to figure out what we were saying and anticipate what we were about to do. More rankings.

Obese Texas inmate hides gun in his flabs of fat

HOUSTON – An obese inmate in Texas has been charged after officials learned he had a gun hidden under flabs of his own flesh.

Twenty-five-year-old George Vera was charged with possession of a firearm in a correctional facility after he told a guard at the Harris County Jail about the unloaded 9mm pistol.

What's that song?
You've got to work what you got, be a little or a lot...

I'm surprised he gave it up. But he was only in for illegally copying CDs, so maybe it's not so surprising.

Not mentioned in the story he also found a cheeseburger, a TV remote and an ex-girlfriend hidden in there.