Hot off the Press: The looting of London edition

A BBC retrospective about when suicide was a crime in England and Wales: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14374296.

In an effort to curb sexual assaults, officials at Oktoberfest will be distributing 5,000 neon-green armbands to women, which they can use to write friend's contact or hotel information if they have had one too many märzens: http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,778148,00.html.

Cleaning up the damage caused my years of oil spills in Nigeria's Ogoniland region, where one community's water supply contained 900 times the recommended level of benzene, could take 30 years: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14398659.

During a time when state appropriations to Iowa's three state universities is shrinking and tuition is skyrocketing, the Board of Regents have given each university president a four percent raise: http://www.press-citizen.com/article/20110804/NEWS01/110804003/Sally-Mason-other-presidents-get-4-percent-raises.

Wind energy now accounts for 20 percent of Iowa's electrical capacity: http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/2011/08/05/iowa-hits-20-percent-wind-threshold/.

The EPA is thinking about introducing an Asian wasp to combat the invasive "brown marmorated stink bugs that took a $37 million bite out of the Mid-Atlantic’s apple crop last year": http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/as-stink-bugs-return-researchers-weigh-introducing-their-asian-predator/2011/08/03/gIQACQ6P1I_story.html?hpid=z5. I am not sure it is a good idea to fight one invasive species with what could potentially be another. It is not like you can stop growing apples and peaches for a season or two.

Terry Braindead defends his decision to veto tax cuts for the poorest Iowans while approving tax breaks for housing property owners whose land sits vacant and those who donate to "an organization for tuition purposes": http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/2011/08/08/iowa-tax-breaks-for-the-poor-were-too-costly-as-compared-to-other-new-tax-breaks-branstad-says/.

A DMR video of lawnmower racing at Carlisle: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/videonetwork/1099382315001.

Despite the fact the company says it is unnecessary, A-B InBev is changing the label design for Budweiser cans: http://www.stltoday.com/business/columns/lager-heads/article_cf27a2e6-bdf3-11e0-935b-0019bb30f31a.html.

Spring has sprung on Saturn's moon Titan: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/post/on-jupiters-moon-titan-spring-rains-but-no-spring-flowers/2011/05/11/AFiipOzG_blog.html.