Man Amputates Self to Save His Life, and An Unfair Sentence Overturned

- Not long ago, I noticed the clock in my bathroom stopped ticking. I popped the AA battery out of the clock, and went searching for a new one. It turned out that I didn't have a spare, so I just popped the battery back into the clock, and noticed it started ticking again. I put the clock back up on the wall, and thought nothing of it.

That was a month ago...the darn thing has worked since. The next time the clock should stop working, remind me to swap the "dead" battery with one from my TV remote control (we all know how long those things go without needing new batteries!).

- Not that I was doubting Amy, but the guy who screamed "NOOOOOOOOOOO!" when it was announced that Paris Hilton was going to have to serve her entire 45-day sentence has been identified as Jake Byrd, real name Anthony Barbieri, of Jimmy Kimmel Live fame.

- I hate poker. I really do. So why do I keep playing? Because I love losing an entire buy-in against the mother of all hands: the dreaded four-deuce.

- A 66-year-old in Iowa City, California, used a set of pocket knives to amputate his leg, in order to free himself from a felled tree. The man "had been cutting trees last Friday when one fell on him. After freeing himself, he cried out for help, and a neighbor passing through this sparsely populated area heard him." The guy was pinned under the trees for eleven hours!

I remember a similar story, where a guy cut off his arm--pinned under a rock, IIRC--to escape as well. I don't want to know how the guy pulled this off, but I don't think I could ever amputate myself, no matter the situation. And how the heck did this guy chop off a limb with a pocket knife? I better get a chain saw, or a machete, or maybe one of those ginsu knives. All I know for sure is, If I had to choose between amputation to save my own life, or certain death, give me death!

- A man who was sentenced to ten years in prison for consensual oral sex he had with a 15-year-old when he was 17 was ordered to be released by a Georgia judge on Monday. The sentence handed down on Genarlow Wilson, which came with mandatory registration in the sex offender registry, was widely criticized by many for being unfit for the crime. Although the judge has requested that the sentence be reduced to aggravated child molestation--a misdemeanor--without having to register as a sex offender, the Georgia Attorney General has filed an appeal. The A.G. argues that "Georgia law does not give a judge authority to reduce or modify the sentence imposed by the trial court."

I don't want to hear any of the "rules are rules" arguments; the fact is, the guy had consensual sex, and he did not deserve ten years in prison. Mr A.G., I do hope you get the "expedited" ruling you asked for, and I hope the Georgia Supreme Court rules in favor of Mr. Wilson. Then I hope Mr. Wilson is able to get his life back on track, once he is released.

That's all I've got for today.