Links and Minifeatures 09 28 Thursday

Carnival of Liberty

**********



Sometimes corporations are good citizens despite profits: 7-Eleven Dropping Venezuela-Backed Citgo

"Certainly Chavez's position and statements over the past year or so didn't tempt us to stay with Citgo," she added.



Instead, 7-Eleven, which sells gasoline at 2,100 of its 5,300 U.S. stores, will now purchase fuel from several distributors, including Tower Energy Group of Torrance, Calif., Sinclair Oil of Salt Lake City, and Houston-based Frontier Oil Corp.

and

7-Eleven sold half its interest in Citgo in 1986 and the remaining stake in 1990 to Petroleos de Venezuela SA.

**********



Surgeons do 1st near-weightless surgery



No, this wasn't a free ticket into space for some public health recipient.

The five-man team and the patient landed safely at an airport in southwestern France after a three-hour flight, although doctors said the midair surgery to remove a cyst from the man's arm took only about 10 minutes.



Chief surgeon Dominique Martin said the near zero-gravity operation, the first on a human, was not technically difficult, but was aimed at breaking a barrier in medical expertise.

Yep. This way there is some understanding of what needs to happen before some construction worker gets hurt in orbit and they have to figure out everything on the spot.



**********



Army medic who went AWOL surrenders

Aguayo said he expected to face a court martial and some jail time.



"It's something I can live with," he said. "Something I can't live with is being a participant of war anymore."

This I could respect. Somebody who is willing to pay the price for changing his mind about military service midstream. I can also respect him for removing himself from the combat situation where other people would be counting upon him. Mind you, he still agreed to do however many years as a combat medic, but he's willing to pay the price, however belatedly, for changing his mind. If only he wasn't suing in civil court to get out of his commitment as well.



**********



Amazing. Scientists uncover why Spanish Flu was so deadly



**********



Running outside the party in China - into resistance

Mr. Yao phoned another candidate who was supposed to be joining the gathering. Their conversation ended abruptly. Yao looked around the table, his can-do smile down a notch. He explained that they would be one short as the police had detained their colleague for telling voters to write his name on the ballot. "The pressure just gets more and more," he sighs.

**********



NASA: Mars rover reaches rim of deep crater



Later, from Mars Rover Reaches Rim of Deep Crater

"We made it!"said rover principal scientist Steve Squyres of Cornell University.



The road to Victoria Crater, a half-mile wide and 230-foot deep impact crater, was tough. The six-wheeled Opportunity drove through what scientists called a"wasteland."At one point, it spent five weeks stuck hub-deep in a slippery sand dune before freeing itself.

**********



Iran head unwavering on nuclear position

The statements from the negotiators and the Iranian president continue a pattern of past months, in which Ahmadinejad publicly states a hard-line position of no compromise, often in front of large crowds, even as Iran's negotiators try to reach deals behind the scenes.

That's because the Ahmadinejad is not stating a bargaining position; the negotiators are playing a delaying game. It is the european negotiators who are being played for suckers here, and when Iran publically announces they have nuclear weapons, those insisting upon a negotiated end to this thing are going to have placed us all in a world where the crazy mullahs have nukes. Maybe we can arrange to have them strapped onto the Iranian warheads so at least they will be among the first to go?



**********



China carries out test of fusion reactor



**********



4000 ex-parrots terrorists.



Vaguely on the same subject, Belmont Club has the analysis of a letter to Zarqawi, and of the declassified portions of the NIE, as well as a link to what the declassified sections say here.



Wizbang has more, as does Powerline:

That would be hilarious, if it were not so contemptible. When Democrats in the bureaucracy illegally leaked misleading portions of the NIE's "key judgments" in hopes of influencing the election, that was fine with Kennedy. But when the administration declassified the entire "judgments" section so that the American people can read it all and judge for themselves, now Kennedy complains that the voters aren't getting "the full story." Absolutely outrageous, but typical of the Democrats' ever more hysterical campaign.

**********



Via Argghhh!, The Best Milk Commercial Ever



**********



Wizbang notes more evidence of the AP being a supporter of one political party.