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This is Mr. Obama’s 9th vacation since taking office. As of today, he has spent all or part of 38 days on "vacation" away from the White House. He has also made 14 visits to Camp David spanning all or part of 32 days. It brings his total time away to all or part of 70 days.

It’s less than the "vacation" time taken during the same period by his immediate predecessor. (Former President George W. Bush gets the quotation marks too.)

As of this point in his 1st term, Mr. Bush had made 14 visits to his Texas ranch spanning all or part of 102 days. He also made 40 visits to Camp David spanning all or part of 123 days. His "vacation" total at this point in his presidency was all or part of 225 days away.

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The United States has already tied its yearly record for billion-dollar weather disasters and the cumulative tab from floods, tornadoes and heat waves has hit $35 billion, the National Weather Service said on Wednesday.

And it’s only August, with the bulk of the hurricane season still ahead.

But don’t worry, climate change doesn’t exist.

[Unless you're an insurance company]:

The number and scale of weather-related natural catastrophe losses in the first nine months of 2010 was exceptionally high. Two months ahead of the World Climate Summit scheduled for 29 November to 10 December in Cancún, Mexico, Munich Re emphasises the probability of a link between the increasing number of weather extremes and climate change

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[Quote]:

HP said Thursday that it will discontinue its WebOS operations as the company cut its outlook for the next two quarters. The company will also acquire Autonomy, an enterprise information retrieval outfit.

The company said it ”will discontinue operations for webOS devices”, specifically the TouchPad and WebOS phones.

Seven weeks from launching the touchpad to discontinuing it…

Add it up and HP is aiming to exit the consumer business—or at least quarantine those operations—to focus on the more lucrative software, systems and services business.

HP is going back to its roots:

And how many do you recognize? By number, please…

[Quote]:

Any woman in Madrid confessing abortion during Pope Benedict XVI’s visit will be forgiven and welcomed back into the Roman Catholic church, the Vatican said.

The "special" concession for a pregnancy-termination act normally deemed a sin punishable by excommunication is a result of an appeal by Madrid Archbishop Antonio Maria Rouco Varela for the Vatican to offer women who had abortions access to "the fruits of divine grace that will open the doors to a new life," Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said.

[..]

Special powers have been given to all priests in Madrid to absolve women who confess to abortion in the sacrament of penance during Benedict’s four-day visit to the church’s World Youth Day event, Lombardi said.

And if you live outside Madrid, well, sucks to be you.

“Normally, only certain priests have the power to lift such an excommunication, but the local diocese has decided to give all the priests taking confession at the event this power,” Lombardi told Britain’s The Guardian.

And they must begin their incantation with “Simon says..”

A Softer World