Welcome to America — now go home.

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The love story of Trevor Hughes and his fiancee began in an elementary school in the Himalayan foothills.

They were “global nomads.” He was a diplomat’s son. She the daughter of missionaries. They lived in Asia, attended school together, fell in love and want to get married in June.

But when Hughes’ fiancee, a German national, tried to visit him on a six-month tourist visa Monday, she was detained in Atlanta, handcuffed, jailed–even stripped of her diamond engagement ring.

Then, after 20 hours without food, she was put on a plane and shipped back to Stuttgart.

“This isn’t the America I fought for,” said Hughes, who served in the Navy and U.S. diplomatic corps. “You don’t expect that from a great country like ours.”

— Land of the Free?: Turned away at the border

(via Cory Doctorow)

Apple poised for big music push

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More and more, Apple is making a huge push into the music industry — and if the rumor mills are right, this week just may be their biggest foray yet.

Already having made a name for themselves over the past couple years with the one-two punch of the iPod and the iTunes Music Store, recently Apple has been exploring various exclusive promotions, such as live performances by bands at Apple Store locations that are later released exclusively through the iTMS.

Latest case in point: Thursday and Thrice, a pair of new rock acts from Island Records, are hyping an upcoming tour Wednesday (Oct. 15) with Apple in-stores on two coasts.

Thursday will take the stage at the Apple Store SoHo in New York. On the West Coast, Thrice will play at the Apple Store Third Street Promenade, located in Santa Monica, Calif. Each performance will be at 7 p.m. in their respective time zones.

The shows kick off a highly anticipated double bill — presented by Alternative Press magazine and MTV2 — which begins Oct. 17 in Pennsylvania.

The music performed at the events will be available exclusively for purchase at the iTunes Music Store.

Already, Apple Store performances can be found at the iTMS from Less Than Jake (iTMS link) and The Rising (iTMS link). I think this is a fascinating way to co-promote both the bands and Apple’s brand.

While it’s been known that Apple has a major event this Thursday that has a 90% or better chance of featuring the introduction of iTunes (and the iTMS) for Windows, according to both MacRumors and AppleInsider, there may be some nice surprises in store for Mac users, too. Possibilities include iTunes 5 (released for both Windows and Macintosh) featuring more encoding options, .wma support, and the ability to “borrow” tracks and albums from the iTMS before purchasing them; and iPod peripherals, perhaps featuring an add-on to allow recording directly to the iPod (touted as being aimed at students for recording classroom lectures).

Lots of fun toys coming down the pike, from the looks of it…

I used to believe…

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Randomly following links, I just stumbled across I used to believe, a site collecting all the wonderful and weird things that children believe about the world around them. It’s so worth spending some time going through.

When we were little, my mother had bought us a book titled, “How You Were Born”. In this book, there was an illustration of a sperm under a magnifying glass. For years, I thought the magnifying glass was a frying pan and was totally mystified by where and how the frying pan fit into the reproductive process.

I had a strange fear that if I closed my eyes in the bathtub, William Shakespeare would come up through the drain and kill me. I knew his name, but I had no idea who he was, so I just naturally assumed he was some sort of bathtub vampire.

'ello again

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Weekend’s done, time to start poking my head up again. Had a very pleasant weekend — Prairie came in, we spent Saturday housecleaning during the day and watching The Ring (not bad at all, for a modern horror movie) with her sister Hope in the evening, then spending time with my dad on Sunday as he passed through town for work.

Now back to the normal day-to-day…

One of life's eternal battles

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Okay, everyone, pay attention now — this is important.

When you replace the roll of toilet paper (because I’m sure you all do that as soon as the last roll is done, rather than letting the empty cardboard tube sit there, mocking whatever unlucky soul is the next to use the restroom, teasing them with the lack of available toilet paper as they desperately cast their gaze around the room, hoping that they’re not going to have to do a pants-around-the-ankles waddle across the bathroom because the fresh rolls are, of course, stored just out of arms reach)…

Over?

toilet paper over the roll

Or under?

toilet paper under the roll

Help Bush flush out the leak!

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Our dear Pres. Bush is apparently having some difficulties with the task of narrowing down just who in his staff would have been so underhanded as to leak Valerie Plame’s name and CIA affiliation to the press. However, we can help!

President Bush told the press on Tuesday that he doesn’t “have any idea” whether the senior administration officials who blew a CIA operative’s cover will ever be found. But if he just asked his staff to sign a legally binding affidavit confirming that they weren’t involved, and referred anyone who wouldn’t to the FBI, it’s possible he could flush out the perpetrators in a day. To date, the President hasn’t even discussed this matter with his staff.

We’ve already done the President’s homework for him by writing the affidavit. Now let’s show him how easy it is for innocent people to legally declare their innocence. You can sign the affidavit and send it to the President in under a minute by filling out the form…

(via Lane)

New $20 bills

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The US’s new twenty-dollar bills should start hitting banks today, soon to start circulating around to everyone else.

The most noticeable difference in the new design is the subtle introduction of background color, which makes it more burdensome for potential counterfeiters because it adds complexity to the note. The color will also make it easier to distinguish between denominations because different background colors will be used for each denomination.