Blog Heap of Links for the day 2 August 2011

Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, President-Elect Barack Obama's choice for chief of staff in his incoming administration, is co-author of a book, The Plan: Big Ideas for America, that calls for, among other things, compulsory service for all Americans ages 18 to 25.

Militants in Pakistan seized 13 Afghanistan-bound trucks — one carrying two Humvees — without firing a single shot. ... Pakistani Taliban militants hijacked a convoy carrying wheat and military vehicles headed for Afghanistan Monday, underscoring for NATO forces the vulnerability of their only practical supply route into landlocked Afghanistan.

Frank Hafemann never did care for Humphrey Bogart. "We didn't strike a chord," said Mr Hafemann of the famed 1940s Hollywood actor yesterday as he nursed a beer in Launceston's Lloyd's Hotel yesterday. "I got to know Bogart when I worked on Key Largo with him, not my type, so aloof, but John Wayne, now there was a guy, he'd have a drink with you anytime," recalled the retired Hollywood special effects man, who is in Launceston on what he termed "an indefinite holiday." "So how did I come to get here?" the spry 86-year-old white-bearded Mr Hafemann asked himself softly. "I was looking for a holiday in Australia, but I couldn't believe the noise in Sydney, I hated it, so I asked where would I find a place which was a bit quieter and I was told Tasmania was the answer," Mr Hafemann said. His Hollywood career as a special effects man and builder stretched from 1945 to 1981.

Fox has canceled one of its longest-running shows — the late-night sketch comedy veteran "Mad TV." The Saturday night mainstay's current 14th season will be its last on the network

Yma Sumac died Saturday at age 86. There may have been, at some point in human history, a singer with a wider vocal range than this woman. But that singer never entered a recording studio.

People in a vast seismic zone in the southern and midwestern United States would face catastrophic damage if a major earthquake struck there and should ensure that builders keep that risk in mind, a government report said on Thursday. The Federal Emergency Management Agency said if earthquakes strike in what geologists define as the New Madrid Seismic Zone, they would cause "the highest economic losses due to a natural disaster in the United States."

A bone marrow transplant using stem cells from a donor with natural genetic resistance to the AIDS virus has left an HIV patient free of infection for nearly two years, German researchers.

MEMBERS of frisbee team Mental Discs have thrown a wobbly after being told to change their name because it might offend mental health patients.

Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales have been indicted on separate charges related to alleged prisoner abuse in federal detention centers, Willacy County, Texas, District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra told CNN Tuesday. ... The indictment stems from Cheney's investment in the Vanguard Group -- an investment management company that reportedly has interests in the prison companies in charge of the detention centers, according to The Associated Press. It also charges Gonzales halted an investigation into abuse at the detention centers while he was attorney general.

A last-minute Bush administration plan to grant sweeping new protections to health care providers who oppose abortion and other procedures on religious or moral grounds has provoked a torrent of objections, including a strenuous protest from the government agency that enforces job-discrimination laws. The proposed rule would prohibit recipients of federal money from discriminating against doctors, nurses and other health care workers who refuse to perform or to assist in the performance of abortions or sterilization procedures because of their "religious beliefs or moral convictions."

A man wearing a McCain-Palin T-shirt during a Philadelphia celebration on election night was arrested, cuffed and stuffed into a police cruiser, and supporters said it was for no more than wearing the endorsement of the GOP nominees for president and vice-president. Although the man protested that he didn't want to cause any trouble, officers manhandled and arrested him, the video posted on YouTube shows.

Her face was plastered on billboards. The press had her staked out. She couldn't go anywhere without the Secret Service and an entourage, so when did she conduct these clandestine shopping sprees? If you believe that, than you are dumb enough to believe that the woman who took on corruption in her state and ousted a sitting governor from her own party didn't know that Africa was a continent, not a country, or the parties to the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Former U.S. presidential candidate John McCain on Tuesday shrugged off criticism leveled at his running mate, Sarah Palin, saying he expects her "to play a big role in the future of this country."

"I did not order the clothes. Did not ask for the clothes. I would have been happy to have worn my own clothes from day one," she says. "But that is kind of an odd issue, an odd campaign issue as things were wrapping up there as to who ordered what and who demanded what." She continues, "I haven't really heard how all of that evolved until we started getting criticized for supposedly asking for all of these clothes, my family and me. And I still don't have all of the answers. But it just seems like such an irrelevant issue when you consider what is going on in the world today and how a new administration is being ushered in and people being concerned about the direction of the nation and policies that will be adopted and also being excited about this moment in our nation's history, clothes just seem irrelevant." Governor Palin says she finds it "puzzling" that critics accused her of not knowing—among other things—what countries made up NAFTA or whether Africa was a continent or a country. "I remember that discussion," she says, referring to NAFTA. "But there was never a question about, well, who are the participants in NAFTA? So for my discussion there to be spun into something that it was not and then being broadcast on national television, again, based on anonymous sources, that's been another puzzling thing to me." So, is Africa a country or a continent? "Never, ever, did I talk about, well, gee, is it [Africa] a country or is it a continent?" she says. "I just don't know about this issue. So I don't know how they took our one discussion on Africa and turned that into what they turned it into."

Because it has abandoned moral absolutes and its historic Christian faith, the U.S. is moving closer to a Nazi-style totalitarianism, warns a former German member of the Hitler Youth in a new book.