Dow plunges 679 to fall to lowest level in 5 years

Dow plunges 679 points to trade below 9,000 for the first time in 5 years in afternoon sell-off NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks plunged Thursday, sending the Dow Jones industrial average down 679 points — more than 7 percent — to its lowest level in five years. Stocks took a nosedive after a major credit-rating agency said it might cut its rating on General Motors and Ford, further rattling investors already fretting over the impact of tight credit on the economy.

IT’S MORNING IN ASIA, AND THEIR MARKETS ARE FALLING LIKE A ROCK

Asian Stocks Fall, Set for Worst Week on Record; Banks Plunge

Oct. 10 (Bloomberg) — Asian stocks fell, with the region’s benchmark index headed for its worst week on record as a credit freeze deepened, worsening the outlook for the global economy.

UT student David Kernell pleads not guilty in Palin e-mail hacking
David Christopher Kernell walked into federal court this morning in handcuffs, shackles and tennis shoes to plead not guilty to hacking Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s personal e-mail account.

At least those pretty curls will come in handy on talent night . . .

NEW YORK (AP) — A stock market empowered by an emergency interest rate cut tried to find some stability Wednesday, rallying several times before another late-day drop left Wall Street down for the sixth straight day. Still, the pullback, while fed by comments from Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, was milder than the massive declines of earlier in the week.

Clay Aiken is up in arms over an annual festival in Peru that serves up hundreds of fried CATS to locals. The ‘Gastronomical Festival of the Cat’ – dubbed the ‘Massacre of the Moggies’ – sees townsfolk in Canete, near Lima, feast on the fluffy pets for two days. They believe that eating cat burgers – and fried cat legs and tails – can cure bronchial disease. It is also believed that feline meat serves as an aphrodisiac.

The cats are bred especially for this festival – which takes place at the end of September on the Day of Santa Ifigenia. But it has also generated fury among animal rights groups. A PETA spokesman said: ““If Peruvians really eat poor old Moggy because they think his meat cures bronchitis, that’s about as bizarre as it gets, although remember that Asians eat monkey bits thinking that will cure their impotence and even Europeans butcher poor old Bessie the cow or Henny Penny the hen, because they see them as nothing more than a bit of nourishment. “Having toured slaughterhouses for dogs in Taiwan, horses in Texas, and chickens and cows in Europe, PETA’s staff says the last thing we need to do is add yet another poor animal to the list of those being frightened and slaughtered for a taste.”

French virologist Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, is one of three scientists who have won the Nobel Prize in Medicine October 6, 2008. One German and two French scientists won the 2008 Nobel prize for medicine or physiology for their discoveries of two viruses that cause severe human diseases.  Barre-Sinoussi plans use the prize money to redirect her research efforts to perfecting human eyebrow transplant surgery.

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks fell in quiet trading Tuesday as enthusiasm over the Federal Reserve’s latest efforts to inject frozen credit markets with a dose of much-needed confidence gave way to concerns about the balance sheets of some financial companies. Trading remained fractious, and the major indexes alternated between gains and losses a day after the market suffered another huge drop.

U.S. stock markets appeared ready to follow global markets lower Monday as investor worries spread that a $700 billion financial system rescue plan in the U.S. would not do enough to halt rising bank failures, tightening credit, and economic slowing worldwide. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped to 9,843 just before noon, marking the first time the Dow went below 10,000 in four years. Nasdaq dropped 5.5 percent to 1,840 before lunchtime.

European stock markets tumbled Monday. The FTSE 100 Index fell 245.58 points, or 4.93 percent, to 4,734.67 on the London Stock Exchange, while the Dax Index declined 293.49 points, or 5.06 percent, to 5,503.54 on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. More bank failures roiled European trading. In Germany, a $68 billion bailout was arranged for Hypo Real Estate Holding AG while France’s BNP Paribas SA agreed to buy the operations of Fortis in Belgium and Luxembourgfor $19.8 billion.

[ Hah!  DIGG farked this guy’s site — oh well ]

1979 Pakistan Airlines ad in French magazine (allegedly) — pretty funny grouping of ads at link

I wonder who this “leader” is she is referencing–it can’t possibly be Mr. Teleprompter, and His Hope & Change Empty Promises Tour.

Islamo-fascist rule days
Learnin’ ’bout ‘stonin’ those heretics
‘Cause my madrassa was phophetic . . .

. . . because he is unqualified to host the Today show because he misspoke, and no one competent ever misspeaks.