NATO airstrike kills at least 27 Afghanistan civilians

A NATO airstrike that killed at least 27 Afghanistan civilians in the south is another blow to the new US 'hearts and minds' strategy




A NATO airstrike mistakenly killed at least 27 Afghanistan civilians in the southern province of Uruzgan on Sunday, Afghan officials said Monday, in one of the deadliest attacks since a September strike killed up to 140 civilians in Kunduz province.

The airstrike was not related to the massive NATO offensive ongoing in Marjah, in neighboring Helmand Province, but is another blow to the new US strategy of winning over the local population by protecting civilians.

Read More...

RELATED: Dutch confirm Afghan withdrawal, starting domino effect leads to more nations leaving

Breaking News: We'd do Kate Winslet

Click here to find out more! Your request is being processed... New Credit Card Laws: What You Need To Know About Rates And Fees

Would you like to be violated with a broom stick or a mop stick?


The new credit card law is finally here. Starting Monday, banks will need to abide by new regulations on terms and disclosures. The idea behind the landmark law was to prevent banks from using practices that often dug borrowers deeper into debt.

A look at how the credit card law affects key aspects of your account.

Read More...

VIDEO: The Bloom Box An Energy Plant In A Box To Power Your Home

This is what they tried to kill Keanu Reeves for in that movie


Watch CBS News Videos Online

Can a Midday Nap Make You Smarter?

See, boss, we weren't sleeping on company time, we were getting smarter on company time


Devote your lunch hour to a restful nap, and you may perform and learn better in the afternoon, a new study suggests.

Nappers performed better than non-nappers on a test, says study researcher Matthew Walker, PhD, an assistant professor of psychology at University of California, Berkeley. He presented his findings this week at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Diego.

''The brain's ability to learn information is not stable across the day," Walker tells WebMD. The area of the brain that stores memories may get ''clogged up'' as the day goes on, akin to a full email in-box on your computer, he says.

Napping at midday, when the brain's ability to learn may have deteriorated, may clear the brain's memory storage area and make room for new information, Walker says.

Read More...

Apple removes the sexy from App Store

Nothing says "cool" like a censorship. Say what you want about non-iPhones, but when we pay for other cellphones with our own money, we can do whatever we want with them. Hey, iPhonies, get off the bandwagon. iPhones are so last year anyway




Apple has removed around 5,000 apps from its App Store, including some that it claims feature "overtly sexual" content.

Dozens of developers received a message from Apple stating that the company was refining the guidelines under which the App Store operates, and that content that it had "originally believed to be suitable for distribution" were now no longer deemed appropriate, following "numerous complaints from customers about this type of content."

Read More...

Bong Hits for Boomers

The day grand dad smoked our stash was the same day we put him in the home




In her 88 years, Florence Siegel has learned how to relax: a glass of red wine; a crisp copy of The New York Times, if she can wrest it from her husband; some classical music, preferably Bach; and every night like clockwork she lifts a pipe to her lips and smokes marijuana.

A survey by the federal government found the percentage of people 50 and older using marijuana went from 1.9 percent in 2002 to 2.9 percent in 2008.

The rise was most dramatic among 55- to 59-year-olds. Their reported marijuana use more than tripled from 1.6 percent in 2002 to 5.1 percent. Observers expect further increases as 78 million boomers born between 1945 and 1964 age.

Read More...

FBI enters case of a school's spying using laptop web cams

Principals secretly watching teenage boys in their bedrooms. What's wrong with that?




The FBI has now entered the case involving allegations that a suburban Philadelphia school district spied on students using remotely activated Web cams embedded in the laptops issued to students.

The story broke last week when the parents of one 15-year-old student at Harriton High School accused the district of illegal spying.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that the FBI is now involved in the case as is the Montgomery County district attorney's office.

Read More...

Missouri: tax everything but the yachts

Wait a minute, Missouri's landlocked




Cash-strapped legislators have recommended spending cuts for Missouri schools and shelters for battered women, but so far the yachting class can enjoy another season of clear sailing.

Thanks to a longstanding tax exemption, Missouri’s marina set can opt to pay a small fee in lieu of sales taxes and shave as much as $30,000 off the purchase of a $500,000 boat.

That tax exemption alone is depriving state and local coffers of more than $6 million a year, according to some estimates. It’s just one of more than 130 untaxed transactions that are getting renewed attention in Jefferson City because of the state’s continuing budget crisis.

Read more: In a time of budget cuts, yacht sales sail through untaxed in Missouri - KansasCity.com



Read More...

USA beats Canada, eh

USA medal counts increases, Disney will probably make sappy movie starring Dennis Quaid and, best of all, millions of Canadian kids cry




Team USA pulled off the country's biggest Olympic hockey upset since the Miracle on Ice, stunning Canada 5-3 on Sunday. The Americans not only win Group A over Canada, but will have one of the top-two seeds in Wednesday's quarterfinal round. Canadian forward Corey Perry's reaction to American Ryan Kesler's empty net goal with 45 seconds left summed up the feeling across the host nation of Canada.

Read More:

ALSO: Latest Medal Count & Schedule

Toyota memo shows bragging for savings $100m inrecall

Here's an artist's rendering of the company...




Toyota's reputation for safety has come under renewed scrutiny after an internal memo showed that the carmaker's executives boasted of saving $100m (£65m) through a limited recall of floor mats connected to a potentially dangerous acceleration defect.

The memo was among documents released to a US congressional committee investigating Toyota's handling of safety issues. Its contents were revealed just days before the company's chief executive appears in front of the committee.

The memo shows that in a confidential presentation at its Washington office last July, Toyota said it had slashed costs by persuading US regulators to agree to an "equipment recall" to fix defective floor mats in about 55,000 Camry and Lexus ES350 models.

Read More...

CoOlDiGgY celebrates Black History Month: Nia Long

Nia's middle name is "makes us"

Obama puts forward $1 trillion health care plan

How will a good idea like health care reform be mutated until a soul-sucking, tax-draining, ineffective societal burden? Find out...




WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is putting forward a nearly $1 trillion, 10-year health care plan that would allow the government to deny or roll back egregious insurance premium increases that infuriated consumers.

Posted Monday morning on the White House Web site, the plan would provide coverage to more than 31 million Americans now uninsured without adding to the federal deficit.

It conspicuously omits a government insurance plan sought by liberals.

But it's uncertain that such an ambitions plan can pass, since Republicans are virtually all opposed and some Democrats who last year supported sweeping health care changes are having second thoughts. After a year in pursuitof his top domestic priority, Obama may have to settle for a modest fallback.

Read More...

"Boner" from 'Growing Pains' goes missing, battling depression

Doing a search with the terms "GROWING" and "BONER" was quite the experience. But, seriously, we have our fingers crossed for Andrew Koenig's safe return




The parents of Andrew Koenig -- who has reportedly been missing for the past week -- described their son as "suffering from depression" and "not doing good" in the days leading up to his disappearance.

Judy and Walter Koenig (who played Pavel Chekov in the "Star Trek" series) tell TMZ the last time heard from Andrew was on February 9. They say his cell phone is turned off and that they have learned the last time his phone received a text was on February 16 in Vancouver.

Read More...

Lawmaker wants retirement age lowered to 60 for six months

Makes sense and that's reason enough it won't pass. Look at the guy's wife, he obviously knows what he's doing




Congress could temporarily lower the age at which Americans can claim Social Security benefits as a jobs bill, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) said Sunday.

Kucinich, a liberal Democrat from the Cleveland area, said a $15 billion proposal he's floating would create 1 million jobs for the U.S. economy.

Read More...

Breaking News: Mila Kunis still hot

...we've been monitoring this situation continually. We will not stop monitoring Mila Kunis until her restraining against us goes into effect