Blue Crab Boulevard

As much as eight inches of snow has blanketed Jerusalem - yes you read that right - and snow has fallen over a wide area in the Middle East. But wait! There's more! Temperatures are expected to drop and more snow is expected.

JERUSALEM - A rare snowstorm swept the Middle East on Wednesday, blanketing parts of the Holy Land in white, shutting schools and sending excited children into the streets for snowball fights.
 
The weather in Jerusalem topped local newscasts, eclipsing a government report on Israel's 2006 war in Lebanon.

Men in long Arab robes pelted each other with snowballs in the Jordanian capital, Amman, and the West Bank city of Ramallah, seat of the Palestinian government, came to a standstill.

"I'm originally from Gaza where snow never falls," said Bothaina Smairi, 28, who was out in Ramallah taking photographs. "The white snow is covering the old world and I feel like I am in a new world where everything is white, clean, and beautiful."

Jerusalem's Old City was coated in white. A few ultra-Orthodox Jews, wearing plastic bags over their hats to keep them dry, prayed at the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site.

Snow falls in Jerusalem once or twice each winter, but temperatures rarely drop low enough for it to stick. The Israeli weather service said up to 8 inches of snow fell in the city.

By late morning, the snow changed to rain, turning the city into a slushy mess. But forecasters said temperatures were expected to drop, and the snow would continue through Thursday morning.

Heavy snow also was reported in the Golan Heights and the northern Israeli town of Safed, and throughout the West Bank.

Many roads are closed in Lebanon and power disruptions are widespread there. Here's the global snow cover from Rutgers. There is a lot of ground covered in white this year. China is particularly hard hit, of course. 

The Wall Street Journal reports that Arnold Schwarzenegger's California "Universal Health Care" initiative has died. They are not grieving over the corpse.

So much for that. The California legislature is probably the most liberal this side of Vermont, and even Democrats refused to become shock troops for this latest liberal experiment. Mr. Schwarzenegger and Democrats in the State Assembly did agree on a compromise plan in December. But on Monday, only a single member of the Senate Health Committee voted to report the bill to the full chamber — and thus it joined a graveyard full of state "universal" health-care failures.

Like collapses in Illinois, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, this one crumpled because of the costs, which are always much higher than anticipated. The truth teller was state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, who thought to ask about the price tag of a major new entitlement amid what's already a $14.5 billion budget shortfall.

An independent analysis confirmed the plan would be far more expensive than proponents admitted. Even under the most favorable assumptions, spending would outpace revenue by $354 million after two years, and likely $3.9 billion or more. "A situation that I thought was bad," Mr. Perata noted, "in fact was worse."

This reveals that liberal health-care politics is increasingly the art of the impossible: You can't make coverage "universal" while at the same time keeping costs in check — at least without prohibitive tax increases. Lowering cost and increasing access, in other words, are separate and irreconcilable issues.

That is the fact, of course. These schemes have always turned out to be vastly more expensive than originally planned. In the end, when the taxes cannot be raised any further, the inevitable result is rationing of the health care. That is precisely what is happening in Canada and Britain - and I'm quite sure in every other socialized medicine nation. The money has to come from somewhere or the services have to be limited.

The problem is that under socialized medicine, you don't get to choose. Someone else chooses for you.

Fans of Oprah Winfrey will be somewhat less than pleased with the latest artistic endeavor of sculptor Daniel Edwards. He bronzed Oprah.

She has famously battled with her weight - but according to this tribute to the queen of daytime television, it appears to be a battle lost.

Controversial American sculptor Daniel Edwards latest work 'The Oprah Sarcophagus', is a very full-figured sculpture of Oprah Winfrey - and that's where the likeness begins and ends.

The work casts Miss Winfrey in bronze, as a nude, full-breasted woman with generous child-bearing hips.

However, it bears little likeness to the billionaire media mogul, save for the head of curly hair that fans out around her.

Instead, the artwork shares an uncanny likeness to the coffinette which held the body of Egyptian boy king Tutankhamun.

The Daily Mail has photos of some of Edwards other art projects. But not of his his last venture into bronze work: bronzed baby poop.

Swedish police have announced the details of an attempted bank heist that occurred last August. An alert bank employee noticed that his computer had begun a large transaction - apparently all by itself. On further investigation, the employee discovered a device hidden under his desk and connected to his computer. So he took quick action and pulled the plug, stopping the transaction.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - A gang of Swedish criminals was seconds away from completing a digital bank heist when an alert employee literally pulled the plug on their brazen scam, investigators said Wednesday.
 
The would be bank robbers had placed "advanced technical equipment" under the employee's desk that allowed them to take control of his computer remotely, prosecutor Thomas Balter Nordenman said in a statement.

The employee discovered the device shortly after he realized his computer had started an operation to transfer "millions" from the bank into another account, Nordenman said.

"By pulling out the cable to the device, the employee managed to stop the intended transfer at the last second," he said.

Authorities kept news of the attempted crime secret until they had the suspected thieves in custody. Seven people have been arrested. There is no word whether dwarfs were involved, however.

John Edwards is quitting the race for the Democratic nomination. The AP reports that he will not be endorsing either of the two remaining candidates - at least not right away.  

DENVER - Democrat John Edwards is exiting the presidential race Wednesday, ending a scrappy underdog bid in which he steered his rivals toward progressive ideals while grappling with family hardship that roused voters' sympathies but never diverted his campaign, The Associated Press has learned.
 
The two-time White House candidate notified a close circle of senior advisers that he planned to make the announcement at a 1 p.m. EST event in New Orleans that had been billed as a speech on poverty, according to two of his advisers. The decision came after Edwards lost the four states to hold nominating contests so far to rivals who stole the spotlight from the beginning — Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.

The former North Carolina senator will not immediately endorse either candidate in what is now a two-person race for the Democratic nomination, said one adviser, who spoke on a condition of anonymity in advance of the announcement.

I would expect that this could be trouble for Hillary Clinton. That's making the assumption that Edwards voters won't flock to the "establishment" candidate. Interesting that he is not endorsing anyone right away. One assumes he is angling for some position in government - so whoever offers him the best deal would presumably get his nod. But his supporters might not be willing to go over to Hillary Clinton. This could be interesting.

A volunteer at a community radio station in Austin, Texas became angry when the playlist he had submitted was changed. So he took direct action:

He set fire to the radio station.

AUSTIN, Texas - A volunteer at a community radio station set fire to the station because he was upset that his song selections for an overnight Internet broadcast were changed, police said.

Paul Webster Feinstein, 24, has been charged with second-degree felony arson for the Jan. 5 fire that caused $300,000 damage to the studios of 91.7 FM KOOP. He faces from two to 20 years in prison and a $10,000 fine if convicted.

Feinstein told investigators that he was "very unhappy" about the changes to his playlist, said Austin Fire Department Battalion Chief Greg Nye. The songs were intended for an Internet broadcast that occurs when the station is off the air.

"He had a dream of a career in radio and was very disappointed about where it had led him," Nye said.

Probably the most ironic thing about this is that Feinstein's radio program was named "Mellow Down Easy." Well, he'll have a long spell to mellow down in the Texas penal system (I'd bet on him getting the higher end of the sentencing range, frankly).

Michael Goodwin points out that things just are not going the way Hillary Clinton had planned. He says that the unraveling of the Clinton plan is at least partly do to with her style.

According to the plan, next week is when she was scheduled to secure the nomination.

Oops, it's not gonna happen. At least not yet.

One month of voting has shattered the plan. She got rid of the Gray Men, but Obama won landslides in two of four contests, Iowa and South Carolina. Nevada was a solid victory for her, but it came after New Hampshire, which she won because she teared up and women rushed to defend her.

South Carolina was the worst. The Clintons used up their entire supply of mud and most of it ended up back on them. Bubba is tarnished as a race-baiter and the bulk of black voters are lost, perhaps forever.

Part of her problem is generational. She's 60, about the same age as the last two Presidents, and iconic images are working against her. After the Iowa loss, the stage around her looked like a wax museum. Madeleine Albright and others from her husband's administration were yesterday's leaders, not tomorrow's.

Her personal style is old-school. Just as Obama was being swallowed by the exuberant crowd after the Kennedy coronation, Clinton was giving a speech to an audience that was kept far away from her by steel barriers. She might as well wear a sign that says, "Look, Don't Touch."

Even the crux of her case, that her experience means she is ready to be President while Obama is not, is under attack. Ted Kennedy went right at it Monday, saying of Obama, "I know he's ready to be President on Day One."

Those unexpected dynamics explain why the Clintons have resorted to tactical battles, such as leaking Kennedy's endorsement before Obama could. She has tried to bring Obama down from the pedestal by nitpicking at his words about Republicans and drawing distinctions about whose health care plan is more extensive. She's willing to be a dream-deflater by saying he's peddling "false hopes" about politics.

That sounds about right. Clinton has violated her pledges on Michigan and Florida because she absolutely will need those delegates to secure the nomination. Although she is polling ahead nationally at the moment, she has lost momentum. In the end, she is likely to prevail - but the cost is going to be very high.

In the world of the performing arts, bringing down the house is a good thing. It means you turned in a world-class performance. In the real world, it might mean something else. Like maybe the snow just collapsed you home or business. Which is what has been happening in Idaho today.

DENVER - A powerful storm system pounded a large swath of the nation Tuesday, spawning everything from heavy snow and numbing cold to thunderstorms and possible tornadoes, and forecasters warned more bad weather was on the way.
 
High winds associated with thunderstorms may have killed two people in Indiana, authorities said. Snow forced the closure of schools and highways in many areas, and avalanche warnings were issued for some Western mountainous regions.

Authorities received phone text messages from at least two snowmobilers lost in the mountains west of Denver on Tuesday but weren't sure whether a third missing man was with them.

Summit County sheriff's spokeswoman Paulette Horr said searchers believed they were closing in on the men's location but were having trouble deciphering the shorthand language used in the messages.

"They're really close," Horr said.

Efforts were delayed by bad weather and avalanche danger, Horr said.

About 3 feet of snow has fallen in the area since Sunday morning, said Kyle Fredin of the National Weather Service. Snow began to taper off Tuesday, but up to a foot more was expected before the weekend, Fredin said.

The system also dragged bitterly cold air across the northern Plains, with the Weather Service reporting a midday temperature of minus 24 at Glasgow, Mont. North Dakota registered wind chill factors of minus 54 at Garrison, with an actual low of minus 24 at Williston.

"Now's when you need to have your winter survival kit," North Dakota Highway Patrol Sgt. Aaron Hummel said.

Heavy snow Monday pummeled mountain areas from Washington state to northern Arizona as two storms converged, one from hard-hit California and another from the Gulf of Alaska, meteorologists said.

"It's very unusual," said Doug Abromeit, director of the U.S. Forest Service's National Avalanche Center in Ketchum, Idaho. "Typically the storm is not this widespread."

Those storms were followed Tuesday by a third that threatened up to 20 inches of snow in Idaho's mountains into Wednesday, said Jay Breidenbach of the Weather Service office in Boise.

A fourth storm was on the way. "By Thursday, the next storm will be right on our doorstep. This is quite a storm system," Breidenbach said.

Snow collapsed the roofs of several businesses Monday in northern Idaho, while avalanches forced the evacuation of dozens of homes. There were no injuries.

Where I am it is bitterly cold and dropping (rapidly) with high winds that make it feel even worse. We have only had a small amount of snow, but it is evil outside right now. The last puppy walk was a race to see who could get back inside first (she won - I let her - she's still little). It has been a really cold and nasty winter here in the Midwest.

CNN projects that John McCain has won the Florida Republican primary.

(CNN) — Sen. John McCain will win the Florida Republican primary, CNN projects based on election results and exit polling, edging out rival Mitt Romney.

The results could deliver a fatal blow to the campaign of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who was a distant third as results came in Tuesday night.

While Giuliani didn't say he was withdrawing from the race, he did speak of his campaign in the past tense at one point.

"I'm proud I ran a positive campaign," he told supporters. "I ran a campaign that was uplifting."

With 76 percent of Republican precincts reporting, McCain held a 36-31 percent lead over Romney. Giuliani had 15 percent of the vote, followed closely by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee who held 14 percent.

A top campaign official from McCain's camp has been in "ongoing discussions" with Giuliani's campaign about endorsing McCain's candidacy, a GOP official familiar with talks told CNN Tuesday.

A source close to Giuliani confirmed that discussions were taking place and said there is talk among the staff that an endorsement could come Wednesday in California. The source said McCain and Giuliani need to talk, but "we are working to make it happen."

"Tonight, my friends, we celebrate. Tomorrow, it's back to work," McCain said as he claimed victory. "We have a ways to go, but we're getting close, and for that, you all have my profound thanks."

The Associated Press is reporting that Rudy Giuliani will drop out of the race and endorse McCain.

ORLANDO, Fla. - Rudy Giuliani, who bet his presidential hopes on Florida only to come in third, prepared to quit the race Tuesday and endorse his friendliest rival, John McCain.

The former New York mayor stopped short of announcing he was stepping down, but delivered a valedictory speech that was more farewell than fight-on.

Giuliani finished a distant third to winner McCain and second-place finisher Mitt Romney. Republican officials said Giuliani would endorse McCain on Wednesday in California. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the public announcement.

"The responsibility of leadership doesn't end with a single campaign, it goes on and you continue to fight for it," Giuliani said, as supporters with tight smiles crowded behind him. "We ran a campaign that was uplifting."

It's beginning to look like McCain might take it.

No, not a typo. I didn't mean a drive-by and am not referring to political correctness. How about a fully functional personal computer, internet ready, that will fit into a drive bay of your regular desktop PC? With a motherboard about the size of a credit card?

I've built my share of small-form-factor PCs over the years, but Via's new Artigo kit is by far the tiniest–and most interesting–I've laid hands on. The $300 bare-bones kit provides the starter hardware for a fully functional PC that's small enough to fit in a desktop PC's 5.25-inch drive bay, opening up a world of geeky possibilities.

The Artigo is based on Via's Pico-ITX motherboard form factor. Via has been pushing this mobo format–which is slightly larger than a credit card–as an alternative to bigger products that use AMD's and Intel's notably faster processors. The Epia PX-branded motherboard included here uses Via's VX700 chip set and UniChrome Pro II graphics chip. The Artigo kit also includes a preinstalled 1-GHz Via C7 NanoBGA2 processor and fan.

The Epia PX is a marvel of miniaturization. Within its 10cm-by-7.2cm confines Via manages to cram in everything from a SODIMM socket (underneath) to an ethernet controller with an RJ45 jack (in the back) and support for four USB ports (up front). Oh, and you also get PATA and SATA connectors, as well as audio jacks for speakers and a microphone.

The kit retails for under $300 (one vendor is here). While the geek in me screams for one of these, the practical me says, "What in heck do I need another computer for?" On the third hand, so to speak, VIA mentions that they supply Linux drivers. Uh oh.

I wonder what I could use as a peace offering for my wife……