News I Can Use

I just found out that Finland’s prime minister is called Orpo.

Prime Minister Petteri Orpo.

Finallyland, all the pieces are in place! But how can I use this to make a buck?

Oh, and Happy New Year.

.

P.S.: Maybe I can get a shipbuilding contract:

America Turns to Finland for Icebreakers It Struggles to Build at Home
gCaptain | December 30, 2025 | Paul Morgan

The United States just signed contracts for Finland to build American warships, a stark admission that the world’s most powerful navy can no longer construct the specialized vessels it desperately needs.

Walrus Hasn’t Gone on Vacation Yet

Just sayin’.

But he is into one-upmanship.

Wilmington native faces several charges following hotel incident
Port City Daily | 12/29/2025 | Emily Sawaked

A 33-year-old Wilmington man was reported to be unclothed and causing damage to hotel property; he was also reported approaching hotel guests in the lobby. Police located him in a nearby wooded area, where he ran into a retention pond. The suspect was noted to have kicked an officer during the arrest.

Bond Girlathon Wednesday : Results from 12/24/2025 : New Matches for 12/31/2025

Hope everyone is ready to ring in the New Year. 2026? Really? So everyone knows the Big W will be in Las Vegas next week so these matches will be open for voting until the 12th of January. As he is coming home late that day they may even be a further delay. The man is so irresponsible.

Results from 12/24/2025

Cassandra HarrisNo PreferenceCarmen du Sautoy
104528

Kristina WaybornNo PreferenceFrancoise Therry
120135

New Matches for 12/31/2025

Match 1

(1) Barbara Bach (Anya Amasova) vs (14) Tina Hudson (Bianca)

ContestantRecordTotal Scores
(1) Barbara Bach6 – 0 – 01334 – 4 – 156
Anya Amasova

Actress:Barbara Bach
Nationality:American
Bond Movie:The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

Synopsis:

Anya Amasova, code name ‘Triple X’, was a KGB agent working under General Gogol. She had the same mission as Bond, to retrieve stolen microfilms for a submarine tracking system. After half co-operating and half getting in the way of each other, Bond and Amasova meet their bosses at the Egyptian HQ, who tell them that MI6 and the KGB are now co-operating, and the two should work together.

Barbara Bach

VS

ContestantRecordTotal Scores
(14) Tina Hudson4 – 2 – 0890 – 10 – 432
Bianca

Actress:Tina Hudson
Nationality:English
Bond Movie:Octopussy (1983)

Synopsis:

Bianca was an MI6 agent assisting Bond in Latin America. She helped Bond disguise himself as Colonel Toro so that he could infiltrate a military base and plant an explosive on a Cuban spy plane. When the mission went awry and Bianca saw Bond being taken away as a prisoner in an army jeep, she went into action. She drove alongside the jeep, and flirted with Bond’s captors, showing off her legs to distract them while Bond pulled their parachute cords.

Tina Hudson

Who do you prefer?
50 votes · 50 answers

Match 2

(9) Tanya Roberts (Stacey Sutton) VS (15) Sue Vanner (Log Cabin Girl)

ContestantRecordTotal Scores
(9) Tanya Roberts5 – 1 – 0959 – 3 – 521
Stacey Sutton

Actress:Tanya Roberts
Nationality:American
Bond Movie:A View To a Kill (1985)

Synopsis:

Stacey Sutton inherited the Sutton Oil company, which megalomaniac Max Zorin tried to take over. Zorin offered Sutton $5 million for her shares in the company, which she refused. Bond learnt of the cheque and confronted her at her home. Stacey was initially aggressive, pointing a shotgun at Bond. However, when some of Zorin’s henchmen arrived to persuade Stacey to sell, Bond sorted them out and gained Stacey’s trust. The pair escaped an attempt on their lives, and managed to kill Zorin.

Tanya Roberts

VS

ContestantRecordTotal Scores
(16) Sue Vanner4- 2 – 0741 – 10 – 546
Log Cabin Girl

Actress:Sue Vanner
Nationality:English
Bond Movie:The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

Synopsis:

The log cabin girl, played by Sue Vanner, was a KGB agent, and a lover of James Bond. While Bond and the girl were curled up under some furs on the floor of an isolated log cabin, M sent a message to Bond’s wrist watch that he was needed at once at HQ. As Bond got up to leave, the girl said “But James, I need you.”, to which Bond replied “So does England.” After he left, the girl radioed to KGB henchmen that Bond had let.

Sue Vanner

Who do you prefer?
48 votes · 48 answers

Paying for Fraud

Here’s how it works:

The government focuses on some noble-sounding cause, and creates a bloated bureaucracy to address it forever.

Myriad non-profit organizations are created to address the same problem.

The government gives preferential and favored treatment to the non-profits, ahead of individual citizens.

The non-profits use government funding to give preferential treatment to certain individuals.

The individuals are naturally happy to be getting the preferential treatment.

.

This works, because it would be too obvious if the government just gave preferential treatment to individuals. The middleman agencies disguise the obvious injustice.

And neither the bloated government agency nor the non-profits can ever be abolished, because of their noble-sounding cause. The cancer can never be excised.

.

New NYC Law Gives Nonprofits a Leg up on Certain Property Purchases
planetcitizen.com | 12/28/25 | Diana Ionescu

Mission-driven groups will get an early chance to make offers on properties that can be rehabilitated and preserved as affordable.

The New York City Council passed a revised version of the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (COPA), a law that gives certain nonprofits an early right to bid on available properties that could be rehabilitated and preserved as affordable housing.

As Jeanmarie Evelly explains in City Limits, the law “specifically targets buildings with poor conditions or where an affordability provision is expiring.” The law allows “qualified entities” to purchase properties, make repairs, and maintain affordable rents.

First introduced in 2020, the new version of the bill narrows the types of buildings that qualify under the law, exempts small properties with fewer than four apartments, and creates more specific criteria for the organizations that are eligible to make bids. When an eligible property is put up for sale, owners are required to notify a list of nonprofits, who have 25 days to notify the owner of an intent to purchase and 80 further days to make an offer.

Babesleaga Group AJ : Week 7 : Selma Hayek vs Anne Hathaway

Good night.

Selma Hayek vs Anne Hathaway

Selma Hayek (6-0-0 Pts. 399 Avg. 66.50)

  • Week 1 Defeated Elizabeth Olsen 72-24
  • Week 2 Defeated Natalie Portman 52-22
  • Week 3 Defeated Jennifer Love-Hewitt 60-33
  • Week 4 Defeated Jessica Chastain 68-28
  • Week 5 Defeated Julianne Moore 74-20
  • Week 6 Defeated Emily Blunt 73-20

VS

Anne Hathaway (6-0-0 Pts. 350 Avg. 58.33)

  • Week 1 Defeated Jennifer Love-Hewitt 58-56
  • Week 2 Defeated Elizabeth Olsen 49-16
  • Week 3 Defeated Jessica Chastain 62-23
  • Week 4 Defeated Emily Blunt 61-25
  • Week 5 Defeated Natalie Portman 62-35
  • Week 6 Defeated Julianne Moore 57-44

Who do you prefer?
96 votes · 96 answers

Babesleaga Group AJ : Jennifer Love-Hewitt vs Emily Blunt

Good evening.

Jennifer Love-Hewitt vs Emily Blunt

Jennifer Love-Hewitt (3-3-0 Pts. 313 Avg. 52.17)

  • Week 1 Lost to Anne Hathaway 56-58
  • Week 2 Defeated Julianne Moore 49-25
  • Week 3 Lost to Selma Hayek 33-60
  • Week 4 Defeated Elizabeth Olsen 62-28
  • Week 5 Defeated Jessica Chastain 65-26
  • Week 6 Lost to Natalie Portman 48-51

VS

Emily Blunt (2-4-0 Pts. 216 Avg. 36.00)

  • Week 1 Lost to Natalie Portman 50-54
  • Week 2 Defeated Jessica Chastain 39-29
  • Week 3 Lost to Julianne Moore 30-45
  • Week 4 Lost to Anne Hathaway 25-61
  • Week 5 Defeated Elizabeth Olsen 53-41
  • Week 6 Lost to Selma Hayek 20-73

Who do you prefer?
85 votes · 85 answers

Babesleaga Group AJ : Week 7 : Natalie Portman vs Jessica Chastain

Good afternoon.

Natalie Portman vs Jessica Chastain

Natalie Portman (4-2-0 Pts. 256 Avg. 42.67)

  • Week 1 Defeated Emily Blunt 54-50
  • Week 2 Lost to Selma Hayek 22-52
  • Week 3 Defeated Elizabeth Olsen 54-20
  • Week 4 Defeated Julianne Moore 43-40
  • Week 5 Lost to Anne Hathaway 35-62
  • Week 6 Defeated Jennifer Love-Hewitt 51-48

VS

Jessica Chastain (1-5-0 Pts. 195 Avg. 32.50)

  • Week 1 Lost to Julianne Moore 42-49
  • Week 2 Lost to Emily Blunt 29-39
  • Week 3 Lost to Anne Hathaway 23-62
  • Week 4 Lost to Selma Hayek 28-68
  • Week 5 Lost to Jennifer Love-Hewitt 26-65
  • Week 6 Defeated Elizabeth Olsen 47-36

Who do you prefer?
82 votes · 82 answers

Straight Line of the Day: To Get Quoted as a Source by the Media…

NPR Creates New Rule After They Quoted One ‘Expert’ In 77 Different Stories
Daily Caller | 12/24/2025 | Natalie Sandoval

NPR has a resolution for 2026: Stop quoting University of Richmond law professor Carl Tobias.

Tobias “appears 77 times on NPR’s website, and seems to be a dial-a-quote for NPR and numerous other media outlets on a very wide range of topics,” NPR’s standards chief, Tony Cavin, reportedly complained in an email sent to staff. That email — subject reading “GUIDANCE: Don’t I know you from somewhere?” — was shared with Semafor.

Tobias’ “hobby seems to be getting himself quoted about anything and everything in news stories,” the email reads. …

“Tobias casts his net far and wide, from California to the New York Island. And it’s not just on the coasts, he’s quoted by outlets across the country including The Minneapolis Star Tribune [,] The Fresno Bee, the Beaver County Times in Western PA, the Superior Telegram in Duluth MN, and even the Chronicle in the New York City suburb of Croton-on-Hudson, population 8,300,” the email continues, before proposing that “as a collective New Year’s resolution we give the professor some (well deserved) time off.”

Ann Coulter noted, in 2003, that a New York Times (NYT) piece on “Hillary-mania” hinged on the testimony of a Gregory F. Packer.

“It was easy for the Times to spell Packer’s name right because he is apparently the entire media’s designated ‘man’ on the street’ for all articles ever written. He has appeared in news stories more than 100 times as a random member of the public. Packer was quoted on his reaction to military strikes against Iraq; he was quoted at the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, the Thanksgiving Day Parade and the Veterans Day Parade. He was quoted at not one — but two — New Year’s Eve celebrations at Times Square. He was quoted at the opening of a new ‘Star Wars’ movie, at the opening of an H&M clothing store on Fifth Avenue and at the opening of the viewing stand at Ground Zero. He has been quoted at Yankees games, Mets games, Jets games — even getting tickets for the Brooklyn Cyclones. He was quoted at a Clinton fund-raiser at Alec Baldwins house in the Hamptons and the pope’s visit to Giants stadium.”