Indeed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KsOqsyfr…

That pulsar looks like a face with a feather in its hat.

I think it kind of looks like the face of an owl.
Love your morning new Charles.

Holy smo! That Syrian photo looks like something out of a Hollywood disaster flick.

I really like the way you structure these news posts Charles.

Regarding the town banning roosters. I'm not entirely surprised. I have an aunt who lives in the small town of Dolores, CO. It's not far from some bigger tourist destinations and probably for that reason has seen an influx of retirees. Apparently some managed to get the town to ban chickens and other farm animals in city limits. This at a time when cities are revising statutes to allow them.

Small towns are becoming the suburbs of America as the suburbanites of the 70-00s retire and relocate to them. Dolores is a full day's drive from any major urban center. It's weird but made possible by the internet and cable TV.

People with exotic pets don't bother to check the rules of the new town when they decide to move with said exotic pet. This isn't news.

Gates lived in Skagit Co. splendor before he got asked to pull Bush's ass out of the fire.

$41k in personal non-mortgage debt. That's ridiculous. I assume Americans have more.

Since when is a rooster an exotic pet?

@2,3,

Looks like a surrey with a fringe on top.

Charles, it's just "Ukraine." It is not "the Ukraine." There is no reason to put "the" in front if it except that a bunch of people mistakenly believe they are supposed to, or perhaps they think it makes them sound smart. It is the equivalent of referring to Canada as "the Canada" or similar nonsense.

That image of waves of humanity surging up and merging into piles of rubble ought to be in the running for news photo of the year.

@6, I know all about that--helped push through an ordinance permitting urban chickens (no roosters, though) in my little town full of retirees from elsewhere who didn't want them. Seventy-five years ago we had a chicken ranch with hundreds of chickens (and roosters) right at the city limits. God only knows where the grocery-store eggs come from.

Just chiming in to say I also really like it when Charles does the news. That is all.

@12 It was part of the Soviet Union for so long, it became like subtext.

I'm glad we have a "Universe" component to the morning news now. Much appreciated.

After the war, the peace. . .
PEACE, n. In international affairs, a period of cheating between two periods of fighting.

@19, absolutely. Most urban-farming ordinances prohibit roosters, including Seattle's—I looked at theirs when developing ours. You'd be surprised how many people don't know you get eggs just fine without roosters.

If you've ever lived near a rooster you'd understand.

But crap, it's a rescue-rooster and little girl's pet. They could probably write the ordinance to allow just this particular rooster.

@Rob, it's true that hens lay eggs without a rooster, but according to my dad, the rooster will risk its own life to protect the hens, including putting himself in front of foxes and coyotes. (I'm sorry to say, not always successfully).