Best of the web 22/02/10 – 28/02/10

(c) altemark

Hello and welcome to my weekly review of what was good on the intertubes during the last 7 days.

Southampton man cut free after getting penis stuck in steel pipe

A MAN who got his genitalia stuck in a steel pipe had to be cut free by eight firefighters using an industrial grinder.

The heavy duty cutting gear had to be used to remove the three-inch long hollow pipe after medics were unable to release it.

Commons perk for disgraced ex-MPs

Such a perk — which was previously granted only to long-serving MPs — would be regarded as highly unusual in most working environments. Critics point out that a significant number of the ex-MPs are likely to be hired by lobbyists seeking to influence Westminster. This is borne out by documents released under freedom of information laws after a two-year battle between the Commons and Spinwatch, a pressure group that campaigns for transparency in lobbying.

The Coffee Party

MISSION: The Coffee Party Movement gives voice to Americans who want to see cooperation in government. We recognize that the federal government is not the enemy of the people, but the expression of our collective will, and that we must participate in the democratic process in order to address the challenges that we face as Americans. As voters and grassroots volunteers, we will support leaders who work toward positive solutions, and hold accountable those who obstruct them.

Under attack

Trapped between the shore on one side and the warm water on the other, sardines swim straight towards the enermy. They fall back to their instinctive defence mechanism and shoal together in a huge mass to confuse their predators. But the dolphins have a strategy which turns this ball of fish to their advantage.

How money can distort the democratic process

Labour Party activists will be alarmed to hear not only that the Conservatives have amassed a £10m fund to fight the coming election but that they have already spent an additional £6m preparing the ground in just 117 of the constituencies which are regarded as the key swing seats. The drive has been masterminded by the party’s deputy chairman, the Belize-based billionaire, Lord Ashcroft, who has bankrolled the Tories for the past three decades.

1 out of every 3 killed by U.S. drone in Pakistan is a civilian

32% of those individuals obliterated in northwestern Pakistan by U.S. drones over the past 6 years have been civilians, according to a recent report by the New America Foundation which compiled and analyzed the results of 114 drone strikes that killed over 1,000 people.

Why did a Chinese tycoon buy 5,000 copies of Cherie Blair’s new book?

It is a riddle which at first appears as baffling as the most inscrutable Chinese puzzle.

Why would a man with a fortune of at least £100 million spend his money on 5,000 copies of Cherie Blair’s autobiography?

That is precisely what Chinese property tycoon Miles Kwok has done, prompting bemusement in political and literary circles in Britain.

The Boy Who Heard Too Much

He was a 14-year-old blind kid, angry and alone. Then he discovered that he possessed a strange and fearsome superpower — one that put him in the cross hairs of the FBI