After Ivan the Terrible died, he left a power vacuum, and Russia went through a number of rulers over the next few years.

The list included one notable ruler, who wasn’t Russian at all.  Known as False Dmitriy, this guy was actually Polish, and claimed to be the lost son of Ivan.

He ruled for a brief 10 months, until he was discovered to be an impostor.

Once he was discovered, he was killed, and put on display as a warning to other would be impostors.*  Then they sent him home “Russian Style”, which apparently means burning his body and stuffing the remnants into a cannon, which was shot in the direction of Poland.

*The warning didn’t work so well, as two other False Dmitriys eventually showed up.

Apple Valley, MN was called Lebanon Township until 1969.

Read more here, if you really want to, but the reason for the name change is not made clear.

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We’ve moved!

Come visit us at our new home, won’t you please?

Not a smart thing to do….

And one of them’s a Level 3!

Most states have a web site to look this info up.

Arizona’s is here. Minnesota’s is here. They only show you the level 3’s.

If you are in the 0.1% of readers outside those states, you can googhoodling it.

No no no, they weren’t gonna use it for weapons! It’s for medical reasons, duh!

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wants talks between Iranian and US experts to allay fears about his country’s nuclear program as international pressure mounts on Tehran.

In an interview with the Washington Post and Newsweek magazine Wednesday, Ahmadinejad also said Iran would offer to purchase enriched uranium for medical purposes from the United States at talks with world powers on October 1.

How could we have been so stupid?! Why would they want weapons when his speeches include such amazing humanitarian sentiment like this:

“It is disappointing that Mr Ahmadinejad has once again chosen to espouse hateful, offensive and anti-Semitic rhetoric,” Mark Kornblau, spokesman to the US mission to the United Nations, said in a statement.

Delegations from Argentina, Britain, Australia, Costa Rica, Denmark, France Germany, Hungary, Italy, New Zealand and the United States left the room as Ahmadinejad began to rail against Israel.

Maybe they plan to smoke it to relieve the pain caused by glaucoma.

No wait, I think I know what they’re really after…

I may have just had a geek-gasm.

I wonder if I can get a pallet delivered here in time for Friday’s game…

h/t PZ

Insane killer escapes on field trip to county fair

via Power Line

Update: I made the original post before I read the whole story, which is… well, judge for yourself.

A few key points:

• He murdered an elderly woman in 1987, was acquitted by reason of insanity, and sent to a mental institution.
• He escaped from a previous field trip in 1991. When he was caught he severely injured a Sheriff’s Deputy.
• He had $50 on him when he escaped (this time).
• Hospital administrators waited two hours before calling law enforcement after he escaped, despite the fact that they noticed him missing after a few minutes.

The best line of the story is the last one:

The sheriff’s office said Friday that Paul’s medication should keep him stable for 14 days.

Uh, guys… wishful thinking does not make something true. He already escaped from a mental institution. I think stable stopped being a viable descriptor some time around 1987.

Singapore.

Here, on a sleepy stretch of shoreline at the far end of Asia, is surely the biggest and most secretive gathering of ships in maritime history. Their numbers are equivalent to the entire British and American navies combined; their tonnage is far greater. Container ships, bulk carriers, oil tankers – all should be steaming fully laden between China, Britain, Europe and the US, stocking camera shops, PC Worlds and Argos depots ahead of the retail pandemonium of 2009. But their water has been stolen.

Whoa.