Obama on Gulf spill.  In the first Oval Office address of his presidency, Barack Obama discussed what the federal government has done to clean up the BP oil spill and stop the leak, measures to assist hard-hit Gulf Coast residents and local economies, and steps to try to ensure a catastrophe of this magnitude doesn’t happen again.

The president also called for comprehensive energy reform, saying the country must end its dependence on fossil fuels and foreign oil to create a clean energy future, but offered few specifics. He vowed that BP will pay for the damage. And in closing, he called on Americans to rally together, echoing statements made in Pensacola, Florida, earlier Tuesday, when he announced: “Make no mistake: the United States of America has gone through tough times before. And we always come out strong. And we will do so again. This region . . . will thrive again.”  (Read More).
Get your anti Vuvuzela filter today!  An online company has begun marketing an “Anti Vuvuzela Filter” that promises to silence the sound of the controversial plastic trumpets that have become the trademark of South Africa’s World Cup.

The company’s web site, antivuvuzelafilter.com, sells an MP3 audio file for 2.95 euros (3.60 dollars) that the company says will cancel the vuvuzela noise for TV viewers by producing a sound wave similar to the horn’s that cancels the noise.

“Just download our specially designed vuvuzela noise cancellation MP3 and play it back on your home stereo system, computer, iPod, iPhone, etc.,” the web site says.

“Depending on the circumstances, the resulting soundwave may be so faint as to be inaudible to human ears.” (Read More).

 

Welcome to prison Joran!  Last week, a Peruvian judge ordered Joran van der Sloot, the young Dutchman charged in the killing of a 21-year-old Peruvian woman, held in Miguel Castro Castro, a maximum-security prison on the outskirts of Lima.

The move was surprising to legal analysts who expected van der Sloot to be incarcerated in Lima’s infamous Lurigancho Prison. However, an expert familiar with many of the world’s worst prisons told AOL News that the Dutchman didn’t catch much of a break.

“It’s not any better than Lurigancho,” said Michael Griffith, senior partner at the International Legal Defense Counsel. “It’s pretty much the same conditions. The prisoners run the prison, and the guards are an afterthought.”  (Read More).