Witnessing Life: President Obama, Marge Simpson, and CERN

Today is great evidence for the saying, "anything can happen." It's not even noon where I am, and there is news that our president has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, a cartoon character is featured in the world's sexiest magazine, and a physicist has been linked to Al-Qaida. Talk about variety.

Obama and the Nobel Prize

Today, President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for having a "more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting," according to the New York Times.

After hearing the Nobel committee's decision to honor him, Obama spoke of his efforts early on in his administration to get rid of the world's nuclear weapons and to stop global warming.

"These challenges can't be met by any one leader or any one nation," Obama said in the Times. "And that's why my administration has worked to establish a new era of engagement in which all nations must take responsibility for the world we seek."

Regarding global warming, Obama also said that "all nations must now accept their share of responsibility for transforming the way that we use energy."

Obama is the third sitting presidents of the U.S. to win the Nobel Peace Prize. The other two sitting presidents were Theodore Roosevelt in 1906 and Woodrow Wilson in 1919, and former President Jimmy Carter won the award in 2002, according to the Times.

Thorbjørn Jagland, the Norwegian Nobel Committee chairman, said that Obama won the award because of his "early international diplomacy efforts."

However, some people are cautious and even critical of Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize. Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth, said in the Times that he is concerned "that the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded President Obama this award on the basis of expectations that have not yet been met."

Head of the Republican National Committee, Michael Steele, said in a press release that Americans are asking what President Obama has actually accomplished. He also said that Obama "won't be receiving any awards from Americans for job creation, fiscal responsibility, or backing up rhetoric with concrete action."

Marge Simpson and Playboy

Marge Simpson, the famous blue-haired mother from the television show "The Simpsons," will appear on Playboy magazine's cover for the November issue (which comes out Oct. 16), according to Reuters.

She will be the first cartoon character to appear in Playboy, which according to Reuters, will put her on the same level as other sex symbols such as Marilyn Monroe and Cindy Crawford. However, Marge will be "tastefully concealing her assets behind a signature Playboy Bunny chair."

The cover is meant to celebrate "The Simpsons" 20^th anniversary, and all five main characters "have already been honored this year with a set of U.S. postal stamps."

CERN Physicist and Al-Qaida

A CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research, based in Switzerland) engineer and his brother were arrested by French police "on suspicion that [they] had links to al-Qaida in Algeria," according to theGuardian.

The older brother specialized in physics data anaylsis at CERN, which is known for its "particle collider (the Large Hadron Collider) that aims to recreate the conditions of the Big Bang," and French police believe he was in close contact with al-Qaida's north African wing, and that they may have planned on attacking French targets.

However, "there was no indication of a clearly established plot at this stage," according to the Guardian, and "no research at CERN was used for military applications."

Samuelsohn, Darren. "Obama Wins Nobel Przie in Part for Confronting Great Climatic Challenges.'" The New York Times.

"Marge Simpsons makes cover of Playboy." Reuters.

Chrisafis, Angelique. "Cern physicist arrested over al-Qaida link." the Guardian.