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Scheherazade
02-24-2006, 05:55 AM
Here is a thread for odd bits and bobs!

http://us.news1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/umedia/20060224/cp.b21f5a87829e84ed90a4b88523be3c35

Scheherazade
02-24-2006, 06:07 PM
Yes, you've got the perfect shade of lipstick and the little black dress…but is that all you need? Hardly.

1. A fabulous photo of yourself: We all have that photo: the one where your smile, hair, and (let's be honest) bod all come together in one sexy little package, whether it's that snapshot from your trip to the Grand Canyon or that cocktail party photo where you're dressed to kill. Stick that sucker at eye level on your fridge so your male guest can't help but notice it as he checks out if you have beer (see item #5). What he says: "Is that you?" What he means: "Wow, girl, you're hotter than I realised!" Keep a digital version handy so you can email it to online suitors or blind dates who want a glimpse of the goods beforehand. And never, ever throw it away—when you're eighty-something it'll serve as an instant reminder that back in the day, you were a total dish!

2. A pretty pair of heels: Admit it. You feel like Maria from West Side Story (You feel pretty, oh so pretty…) when you slip on a pair of nice heels. The good news is that these days, you can transform virtually any outfit to make it on-the-town ready by adding heels to a skirt, jeans, cropped trousers, whatever. And no, they don't have to be towering stilettos, even a pair of 1-inch kitten heels will make you stride a little more confidently. (Added bonus: the taller you are, the more fit men you'll be able to see around the room.)

3. An Eminem CD: What's one of the first places a guy peruses when he walks into a woman's home? Her music collection. Good for you if you have an extensive one. But if all he sees is a pile of cheesy girl bands (say, the Celine Dion, Girls Aloud, Joni Mitchell and the Bridget Jones Diary soundtrack), he's going to panic. Balance out your collection with one CD, any CD, by Eminem and you have no idea how relieved he'll be. It shows you have an open mind and aren't easily offended—and that's music to any man's ears.

4. A great chatup line…and a way to turn them down: In this post-chivalrous period, we can't always depend on guys to initiate contact, so prepare thyself with one simple, non-cheesy icebreaker to lay on that cutie who's making his way to your area of the bar. Our favourite: "Hi. Having fun?" (Though a friend of mine has recently taken to asking well-dressed men, "Hetero, homo or metro?") And in cases when a guy initiates contact and you're not interested, better to have a better turn-down than "Ummmm, no…" Our suggestion: "Sorry, I don't think the guy I'm seeing would appreciate it." Sure, it's a lie, but it'll let him down gently—without destroying his ego or making him think you're an idiot.

5. A six-pack of good bottled beer: A prepared single girl is ready to host and toast at any time. If you want to make a guy-guest feel at home and your girlfriends feel special, skip the mass-produced swill and go for the more exotic microbrews.

6. Bathroom reading: What man doesn't appreciate finding interesting reading in his sweetie's bathroom? So instead of tossing out your magazines when you've finished reading them, chuck them into a basket by the toilet. No need to go overboard with a stack of Sports Illustrated (if you're not a sports fan, that would just be weird) but consider The Week or even Cosmopolitan (hey, this may be the only time he's a captive audience and can learn a few things). Or, just buy a book that's made for the bathroom, like Schott's Original Miscellany by Ben Schott so he can learn a few things about shoelace lengths and sign language while he passes the, uh, time.

7. A business card: After the age of 18, it's no longer cute to scrawl your first name and phone number on a napkin and hand it to a man who wants to call you. So if your job doesn't provide a card or you'd prefer one with your personal email address and phone number on it, then have some made. A napkin he can lose. A card he'll file and keep.

8. Earplugs: Ah, there's nothing sweeter than a man who wants to cuddle up with you in bed for a long night's sleep. Unless—SNZZGGHGHRRJJZZZ!—he snores so loudly you can't get any sleep. Prepare thyself for surprise snorers with a pair of earplugs stashed in your bedside table.

9. A straight male friend on your speed-dial: Every girl knows she needs a gay male friend she can go to for fashion advice (a personal Queer Eye for A Straight Guy). But when it comes to relationship advice, you need another source. While your female friends may have good intentions, if you really want to know if you should call that guy, save the guesswork and go to someone who's been there, done that.

10. Protection: Hey ladies, you know the drill by now. If you want to be able to have spontaneous fun of the bodily kind, you have to prepare for it yourself. You can't always count on him to have something in his back pocket—or a 24-hour pharmacy on the route home. (Your new mantra: If you don't want it to break, you buy it.) http://msnuk.match.com/matchscene/article.aspx?articleid=5125&TrackingID=511021&BannerID=558924

chmpman
02-24-2006, 06:41 PM
I have to say the Cosmopolitan and Eminem CD really wouldn't do it for me.

IrishCanadian
02-25-2006, 02:05 AM
I wonder what the single guys need? Peaunuts comics?

The Unnamable
02-25-2006, 05:01 AM
10 Things Every Single Girl Must Own


3. An Eminem CD:


http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y73/stonemewhatalife/teresa_eminem.jpg

I’m a little behind the times. Which one is Eminem?


4. A great chatup line…and a way to turn them down:

How about Emma’s response to Mr Elton (whom, she assumes, “had been drinking too much of Mr. Weston's good wine”) after he proposes to her? -

“Command yourself enough to say no more, and I will endeavour to forget it."

Anyone able to provide the male equivalent of the list? I can only think of two:

1. The inclination.
2. The nerve.

The Unnamable
02-25-2006, 05:02 AM
Something you should NEVER do:

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y73/stonemewhatalife/candle_.jpg

The Unnamable
02-25-2006, 05:04 AM
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y73/stonemewhatalife/Composite_title1.jpg

Which film does this pictograph represent? Clue – each picture is a syllable, not a word.

papayahed
02-25-2006, 12:19 PM
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y73/stonemewhatalife/Composite_title1.jpg

Which film does this pictograph represent? Clue – each picture is a syllable, not a word.

Spaceballs?


http://msnuk.match.com/matchscene/article.aspx?articleid=5125&TrackingID=511021&BannerID=558924

Just 1 eminem CD? I dunno that may seem like your trying to hard. Especially if you don't know any of the tunes on the disc.

6pk of a good beer? But what if you don't like beer at some point the beer is gonna go shunky and serving skunky beer is way worse than not having any beer.

Scheherazade
02-25-2006, 12:40 PM
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y73/stonemewhatalife/Composite_title1.jpg

Which film does this pictograph represent? Clue – each picture is a syllable, not a word.Excalibur?



__________________

The Unnamable
02-25-2006, 01:16 PM
I fail to see how either Spaceballs or Excalibur can be made from the picture. Please take this seriously. Okay, Ex I can see, but calibur?
I'm not even going to think about Spaceballs.

;)

I thought we needed a counterpart:

10 Things every single male should own:

1. A wedding ring. Some birds go wild over married men. It fills them with the thrill of the illicit. Also, nothing motivates a woman as much as the opportunity to get one over on another woman.

2. A well-rehearsed repertoire of funny comments. The dollies always say they go for men with “a good sense of humour”. Of course, when they say this you have to bear in mind a few points: (i) By ‘good’ they mean ‘like theirs’, so you might have to prepare pitifully unfunny funny comments. (ii) They seldom mean what they say. It won’t matter how funny you are if you are physically repugnant. And it won’t matter how unfunny you are if you look like dear old Brad.

3. A baby. I was out with my best mate and his five-month-old son recently and the chicks loved it. They were all over us, even though the brat had crapped itself and stunk (we would have changed its nappy but my mate’s only had the thing for a few months and he hasn’t learned how yet - it’s a good job he’s married otherwise he’d have to pay someone). If women see you being all soft and cuddly with a baby, they usually fail to notice the sexually predatory side to you.

4. A huge bulge in your pocket, which denotes an engorged wallet. How else can you explain Peter Stringfellow?

5. The ability to pretend you are the slightest bit interested in anything they say.

6. A motorbike (and a leather jacket like Brando’s). If you can get one with an airbrushed image of Xena the Warrior Princess on the gas tank, all the better. Hurtling along an open road on a hot summer’s day with the wind rushing through their hair brings out the primitive in them. Though few would admit it, all women love to see a man with a big, powerful chopper between his legs.

7. The ability to use a sophisticated set of criteria by which to judge your pull so that you can regale your mates with the story afterwards (the best part of scoring anyway). This usually takes the form of a scale running from 1 to 10 where 1 means she’s got the face of Laetitia Casta / Heidi Klum and 10 means that she’s got the face of a waxworks pig in a fire, with a body to match.

8. A book of Byron’s Poetry – The fact that he was a grotesque, despicable, club-footed homunculus is irrelevant. Women don’t actually read Byron but they think he’s gorgeous and a great poet of love nevertheless.

9. Cushions – women love cushions.

10. Resilience - above all, you must remember that women are strange creatures. Be patient with her. Give her at least a fortnight. If you haven’t got anywhere by then, move on of course. It’s not as if they’re on ration.

kilted exile
02-25-2006, 01:53 PM
7. The ability to use a sophisticated set of criteria by which to judge your pull so that you can regale your mates with the story afterwards (the best part of scoring anyway). This usually takes the form of a scale running from 1 to 10 where 1 means she’s got the face of Laetitia Casta / Heidi Klum and 10 means that she’s got the face of a waxworks pig in a fire, with a body to match.

I see you use the simplified scoring method, I am in favour of the more complex multiplier system myself (for those unfamiliar with the system, firstly the scale is reversed with the higher the score the better and then a multiplier is assessed depending on the situation - I will not post the multipliers here, but if anyone is particularly interested in knowing what they are I can let you know).

rachel
02-25-2006, 02:02 PM
That list is a joke right dear Unnameable. Because:
1. to me a marriage covenant is sacred. I would loathe a gentleman that even looked my way if he was wearing one(or probably without one too!)
2.I love quiet serious men that have a sense of humour, not perform standup.
3.An infant that is not changed right away can get horrible painful rash. I would probably ask to change baby I would be so upset with the gentleman.
4. A bulging wallet denotes in my heart bragging and I would have a pretty good idea that the man was not using the money to help the poor.
5. If a man wants to talk to you and cares what you say they will actually talk to you in a manner that shows it, we aren't all that stupid. Not even Mary.
6.A bike and a leather jacket denotes player to me, there are some exceptions so I would just be kind and like the person for what he seemed to be and then forget he existed when I paid my bill and left.
7. the ability to use a sophisticated set of criteria:I really am naive then because I never thought that the average person did that, I thought they cared about the other as a valuable human being, although I have heard some girls do that.
8. A book of Byron's poetry- I have a friend Noel who looks so much like him it is uncanny. He is very pretty. I feel sorry for Byron's life and I do read his poetry.
9. cushions: I don't really understand this one. I personally would not use them in public because I am not tall enough then for my fee to touch the ground and I hate the smirks and winks. And that is from the ladies!
10.Resilience: I am at a loss at what to respond here and from now on I shall never look at men the same. I have many men friends, single, beautiful and I said no and explained why and they are still really close to me. They did you are right move on to other girls but long after they came and went they are still my dear friends.

And I know dear Unnameable, you would never do any of this, you are far too noble.

Petrarch's Love
02-25-2006, 02:08 PM
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y73/stonemewhatalife/Composite_title1.jpg

The Exorcist? (assuming that there is a cyst involved in that surgical procedure I've been having trouble figuring out).

papayahed
02-25-2006, 02:22 PM
How do I delete a post?

IrishCanadian
02-25-2006, 03:29 PM
[QUOTE=rachel]That list is a joke right dear Unnameable. Because:
1. to me a marriage covenant is sacred. I would loathe a gentleman that even looked my way if he was wearing one(or probably without one too!)
2.I love quiet serious men that have a sense of humour, not perform standup.
3.An infant that is not changed right away can get horrible painful rash. I would probably ask to change baby I would be so upset with the gentleman.
4. A bulging wallet denotes in my heart bragging and I would have a pretty good idea that the man was not using the money to help the poor.
5. If a man wants to talk to you and cares what you say they will actually talk to you in a manner that shows it, we aren't all that stupid. Not even Mary.
6.A bike and a leather jacket denotes player to me, there are some exceptions so I would just be kind and like the person for what he seemed to be and then forget he existed when I paid my bill and left.
7. the ability to use a sophisticated set of criteria:I really am naive then because I never thought that the average person did that, I thought they cared about the other as a valuable human being, although I have heard some girls do that.
8. A book of Byron's poetry- I have a friend Noel who looks so much like him it is uncanny. He is very pretty. I feel sorry for Byron's life and I do read his poetry.
9. cushions: I don't really understand this one. I personally would not use them in public because I am not tall enough then for my fee to touch the ground and I hate the smirks and winks. And that is from the ladies!
10.Resilience: I am at a loss at what to respond here and from now on I shall never look at men the same. I have many men friends, single, beautiful and I said no and explained why and they are still really close to me. They did you are right move on to other girls but long after they came and went they are still my dear friends.
[QUOTE]
If I was a few years older ... or rachel younger ... Golly.

The Unnamable
02-25-2006, 04:20 PM
The Exorcist? (assuming that there is a cyst involved in that surgical procedure I've been having trouble figuring out).


YES!!!!! :thumbs_up :thumbs_up :thumbs_up

It's funny the things we do to amuse ourselves. That kept the Grim Reaper silent for a while.

Sami
02-25-2006, 05:02 PM
9. Cushions – women love cushions
:lol: In my case this is very true. My husband is always complaining that the cushions get more space on the chairs and couches than he does!


9. cushions: I don't really understand this one. I personally would not use them in public because I am not tall enough then for my fee to touch the ground and I hate the smirks and winks. And that is from the ladies!


Rachel – I share this problem since I am not so tall either. I would say that the number 2 item on the “girls list”, is nearly always the way around the dilemma - unless of course you live in a place where there’s tones of snow all the time – “the pretty pair of heels” can become a lethal threat to your personal safety when it’s icy. You should be okay in BC though since heels pose no problem in the rain (although I suppose they’re none too practical for all the healthy hiking you do out west :p )

simon
02-25-2006, 05:53 PM
Do people take these lists seriously? They seem neither funny or usefull, everyone's got different tastes. The girl's one seems to involve making the girl out to be something she's not. And the Guy's one seems to revolve mostly around getting some by lying.

The Unnamable
02-26-2006, 02:41 AM
Do people take these lists seriously?
Some people appear to do so, simon. I think it gives them an opportunity to be pompous. ;)

simon
02-26-2006, 03:06 AM
Aaah to be pompous, this I understand.

Sami
02-26-2006, 11:50 AM
Er…sorry if my reply came across as pompous. I wasn’t actually taking the list seriously :)

The Unnamable
02-26-2006, 01:06 PM
Er…sorry if my reply came across as pompous. I wasn’t actually taking the list seriously :)
I'm really sorry that I somehow led you to think I was referring to you. :blush: I wasn't. I know you didn't take the list seriously and responded to it in the spirit in which it was posted. This whole thread is not meant to be taken seriously.

Sami
02-26-2006, 08:56 PM
Oh, no prob. I’m not very sharp at the best of times, and particularly not first thing on a Sunday morning. When I first read it I thought your ;) indicated that you were calling the other replies pompous, but on second thoughts I don’t think you were - (were you referring to yourself? Surely not?). Happy to say that I’m ever so slightly more focused on Sunday evenings!

rachel
02-27-2006, 12:36 AM
If Unnameable can cause this much confusion, hot feelings, and passion, think what his classes must be like. I WANT TO SIGN UP I WANT TO SIGN UP.

chmpman
02-27-2006, 12:39 AM
I wouldn't mind taking the porn class. lol

rachel
02-27-2006, 12:40 AM
yikes I forgot about that. HOW DO I UNSIGN, HELP!
Perhaps Chmpman you could take it and just give us a synopsis?

The Unnamable
02-27-2006, 04:31 AM
I wouldn't mind taking the porn class. lol
Sorry, no room left. You can manage this kind of class quite well on your own though, especially as you obviously have access to a computer and the 'net. It's probably consistent with those other windows you have open before you now. :D

IrishCanadian
02-27-2006, 07:23 PM
How old are the kids that you teach Unnamable?

The Unnamable
02-27-2006, 10:47 PM
How old are the kids that you teach Unnamable?
11-18 but this was when I was teaching at tertiary level. I wish I'd never mentioned it.

IrishCanadian
02-28-2006, 01:16 AM
Haha relax ... I don't think that your a kreepy old man that takes pleasure in showing naked people to childeren. Eeeeww, you dont DO that do you?? Just kidding. I think at that level its totally fine if the kids are mature about it, actually I think that its a very necessary thing to be educated about. Anyway ... talk about non sequiturs!

Scheherazade
03-03-2006, 01:07 PM
Monsters of the deep quiz (http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4763264.stm)

Scheherazade
03-04-2006, 09:57 PM
Marital rows do not just produce harsh words and hot air - they can harden your arteries too, a study suggests. But the cause of the damage differs depending on your gender, the research by University of Utah scientists involving 150 couples found.

They said arterial disease in women was linked to either partner demonstrating hostility, but in men it was linked to either showing controlling behaviour.

The research was presented to the American Psychosomatic Society meeting.

The researchers studied 150 married couples, with at least one partner in their sixties, who were all paid to participate in the study.

None had ever been diagnosed with cardiovascular disease.

Each couple was asked to pick a topic, such as money, in-laws, children, vacations and household chores - that caused disagreements in their marriage.

They were then videoed while they discussed the topic, watched by psychology students.

It was assumed such discussions were "muted" versions of what happened at home because the couples were being watched.

Calcification

The comments were coded as friendly or hostile, submissive or dominant or controlling.

For example, comments such as "you can be so stupid sometimes" or "you're too negative all the time" were coded as hostile and dominant.

Participants were also given a scan to check for signs of disease.

When the results were analysed, it was found that the wives who made the most hostile comments during the discussion had a greater the degree of calcification, which indicates that plaque is building up in the arteries that supply blood to the heart.

Particularly high levels of calcification were found in women who behaved in a hostile and unfriendly way and who were interacting with husbands who were also hostile and unfriendly, the researchers found.

However, husbands who displayed more dominance or controlling behaviour, or whose wives displayed such behaviour, were more likely than other men to have more severe hardening of the arteries.

Some couples who were most hostile were referred to marriage guidance by the researchers.

None of the people with plaque build-up were classed as a medical emergency, but some had scores which were high enough for them to be advised to talk to their doctor.

Professor Tim Smith, who led the research, said: "Disagreements are an unavoidable fact of relationships.

"But the way we talk during disagreements gives us an opportunity to do something healthy."

He added: "People get heart disease for lots of reasons.

"If someone said, 'what's the most important thing I can do to protect my heart health?' my first answers would be 'don't smoke', 'get exercise' and 'eat a sensible diet'.

"But somewhere on the list would be 'pay attention to your relationships'."

Strained relationships

British Heart Foundation head of medical information Belinda Linden said: "There is now good evidence that emotions such as depression, anger, hostility and conflict are linked with an increased risk of heart disease.

"This study focuses on how these emotions within a marital relationship might affect people's heart and circulation.

"These emotions can be triggered when relationships are strained, particularly if there are also other problems such as lack of support, or financial difficulties."

She added: "We know that pressures such as anger or hostility can release certain chemical in the body that may increase the risk of heart disease, but we still need to understand more about how this can affect our heart and circulation." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4771032.stm

Scheherazade
03-15-2006, 12:27 PM
Forget Friday the 13th. Ignore ladders, black cats, broken mirrors and spilt salt. Think instead of today, March 15, and beware.

As superstitions go, being wary of the ides of March is certainly more unusual. Yet the day does have a certain resonance.

In the complicated world of the Roman calender, there were 45 public festivals (not bad compared to the UK's eight bank holidays), as well as the ides of each month, days which were sacred to Jupiter.

In March, May, July and October, the ides fell on the 15th.

The Julian calendar, established by Julius Caesar, gave us the basis of our system of 365 days a year and 366 in a leap year. But for the most part, the Roman festivals of his time have had their day.

The ides of March, however, is one day that continues to appeal, marked because that was the date that Julius Caesar was assassinated in the senate, in 44BC.

Its modern-day memory is thanks, like so many things, to Shakespeare's way with words.

In act one, scene two of Julius Caesar, Caesar asks a soothsayer what the future holds.

Caesar: Who is it in the press that calls on me?
I hear a tongue, shriller than all the music
Cry "Caesar!" Speak. Caesar is turn'd to hear.
Soothsayer: Beware the ides of March.

Although today the reference will not be understood by everybody, David Ewing Duncan, author of The Calendar, wrote that it was not always so.

A Roman saying "four ides" (meaning four days before the ides) would be just as clear to other Romans as someone saying March 11.

And furthermore, the system lasted 2,000 years, well into the Renaissance, he wrote. This meant Shakespeare could include the line, and expect his audience to know what he meant.

Test of time

However, just four hundred years later, the ides seems set only to survive as a literary and historical reference - in spite of it being the date by which debts (including Caesar's) were usually settled.

Professor Eileen Barker, of the London School of Economics, said it was a shame but the ides probably only had significance for schoolchildren reading Julius Caesar.

"I was thinking about this when I saw what date it was, and I thought no wonder I'm feeling awful," she said.

One significant historical event that fell on the ides of March is, perhaps, worth noting. It was on this day in 1876 that Test cricket was born.

Reason for anyone to beware? Perhaps for the English.

It was against Australia. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/1999/02/99/e-cyclopedia/296942.stm

Mililalil XXIV
03-19-2006, 01:52 AM
So, have you spoken to a man about that list in the second post of the thread? (Point number 9 comes to mind.)
It sounds like band-aid, shallow trend advice. I'm sure you could do better than this from your heart, and not settle for some guy that would seem to fall for such cosmo-bait.

Scheherazade
03-21-2006, 09:06 PM
Japan survived a furious Cuban comeback to claim the inaugural World Baseball Classic title 10-6 on Monday. Japan jumped into a 4-0 first-inning lead at a sold-out Petco Park as Cuba's amateur hurlers needed three pitchers just to get the first three outs.

Cuba recovered from 6-1 down in the fifth when Frederich Cepeda's two-run homer in the eighth made it 6-5.

But Ichiro Suzuki's single and a bases-loaded, two-run double from Kosuke Fukudome sealed Japan's victory.

It was only their fifth win in 38 meetings with the Olympic champions.

"This is probably the biggest moment in my baseball career," said Seattle Mariner's All-Star outfielder Suzuki.

"I was always thinking we would need a good event to decide the world's best in baseball.

"We really wanted to win this game today and I didn't even think about the upcoming season.

"I didn't really care if I got injured in this game, that's how much I really wanted to win this one. That's how we were driven to this championship."

Fans packed into sports bars across Japan to watch the game live on what was Vernal Equinox Day, a national holiday.

"I thought my heart would stop," said Kanako Miyake, a 25-year-old ad agency worker. "But we won, so everything's fine."

Japan only reached the semi-finals thanks to Mexico's shock win over the pre-tournament favourites United States.

But they made the most of their reprieve to beat South Korea 6-0 for a place in the final.

"Up until Japan beat South Korea, I didn't think we would make it. But after that game, I finally thought we had a chance," said Shun Kando, 43, a theatre actor.

Baseball is the number one sport in Japan but has seen its popularity come under threat from football.

"I think that this win may bring Japanese young people back to baseball," added Miyake.

The final provided a fitting finale to an experimental 17-day, 16-nation competition that proved hugely popular, attracting 737,112 spectators to 39 games.

"This is a game that will go down in history," said Cuban manager Higinio Velez.

"This is the first Classic, it was the first final game of a Classic. Japan won and we congratulate them for that.

"They deserve these words of congratulations for the way they played, the courage, the type of game they played." http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/baseball/4828204.stm

papayahed
03-26-2006, 09:43 PM
http://www.thepocket.com/page7/mistakes.jpg

Scheherazade
03-28-2006, 02:03 PM
By Matthew Sakey

Men lie. Women lie as well, but it doesn't seem like they do it nearly as often. And while it's easy to dismiss dishonesty of any kind as wrong, sometimes there are extenuating circumstances that, while not necessarily excusing the deception, at least put it into some context. Remember, though, that there are at least as many reasons that men lie as there are men, and like those men, some reasons are good, and some are not so good. Take a look at a few of the more common reasons for deception:

1. He didn't want to hurt you Lying to protect someone's feelings is probably the closest thing to a "good lie" there is, with the exception of lying to protect national security. Men have been known to modify truths if those truths would hurt someone they care about, and in some cases, the victim of the lie can appreciate it as a kindness. "I will lie to spare her feelings if I can," says Marcus, 29. "In a way, I don't even consider it dishonest... it's a matter of doing something kind versus doing something right. That's a difficult choice."

2. He didn't want to hurt himself Ah, the classic "the truth would have embarrassed me" argument. Falling into the "nice try" category of excuses, a lie that protects the liar's feelings is a lot worse than one that protects yours. "I can't think of a single reason to lie just to spare my own feelings," says Tony, 38. "I suppose I've done it occasionally, but protecting yourself at the expense of someone else is wrong."

3. He said what he thought you wanted to hear Men are not the most astute readers of feminine desires, and sometimes they will tell a fib because they believe that you'd rather hear an untruth than something potentially hurtful. "I have occasionally defused a fight by saying something she wants to hear, even if it's untrue," says Bryan, 30. "It's not something I defend, just something that seems right at the time."

4. Some things are best left unsaid Occasionally, men will lie to protect a secret that is either not your business, would cause trouble if revealed, or both. The old "cover-up" comes in two types: a lie to conceal some wrongdoing, like cheating, and a lie to conceal something else, like the fact that he, too, used to be a woman. "Even close couples occasionally have secrets," says Peter, 29. "The fact is, not everything is everyone's business. Some sleeping dogs should be left alone."

5. He's an idiot Sometimes there is no excuse. Sometimes men lie, for whatever reason, and there's just no defence. Frustratingly, such men are often adept at concealing themselves, so you must trust your heart and instincts when you sense deception. If a man is habitually dishonest, he's probably not worth your time.

Cicero once said, "So great is the power of honesty that we esteem it even in an enemy." While lies can spare feelings, offset trouble and protect secrets, the fact is that honesty is an unassailable fortress, even if the truth sometimes hurts. You must take deceptions as you take your men: on a case-by-case basis. When you've been lied to, trust is in doubt forever, but can also be regained with a lot of hard work on both sides. Use your judgement, and above all, be honest with yourself. http://msnuk.match.com/matchscene/article.aspx?articleid=2000&TrackingID=511021&BannerID=558924

Scheherazade
03-30-2006, 01:35 PM
BBC's Energy Quiz (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4856996.stm)

Scheherazade
04-18-2006, 12:23 AM
A line from U2's 1992 hit One has been voted the UK's favourite song lyric. The line "One life, with each other, sisters, brothers" came top of a poll of 13,000 people by music channel VH1.

The song reached number seven in the UK chart when it was originally released, but a new version featuring Mary J Blige recently went to number two.

A lyric from The Smiths' song How Soon is Now? came second in the poll, followed by a line from Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit.

A call from Bob Marley to "free our minds" in his Redemption Song came fourth, with Coldplay's hit Yellow in fifth.

Memorable moments from Eminem, Robbie Williams, The Who, Radiohead and Marvin Gaye were also in the top 10.

John Lennon's Imagine did not feature in the top 20 despite coming top of a similar survey in 1999.

The top five lyrics in the VH1 poll were:


1. U2 - One. "One life, with each other, sisters, brothers."

2. The Smiths - How Soon is Now? "So you go, and you stand on your own, and you leave on your own, and you go home, and you cry, and you want to die."

3. Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit. "I feel stupid and contagious, here we are now, entertain us."

4. Bob Marley - Redemption Song. "Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds, have no fear for atomic energy, 'cause none of them can stop the time."

5. Coldplay - Yellow. "Look at the stars, look how they shine for you."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4915848.stm

Virgil
04-18-2006, 07:26 AM
Top 20 Sayings We'd Like To See On Those Office Inspirational Posters:

1. Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings, they did it by
killing all those who opposed them.
2. If you can stay calm, while all around you is chaos...then you probably
haven't completely understood the seriousness of the situation.
3. Doing a job RIGHT the first time gets the job done. Doing the job WRONG
fourteen times gives you job security.
4. Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
5. Artificial Intelligence is no match for Natural Stupidity.
6. A person who smiles in the face of adversity probably has a scapegoat.
7. Plagiarism saves time.
8. If at first you don't succeed, try management.
9. Never put off until tomorrow what you can avoid altogether.
10. TEAMWORK...means never having to take all the blame yourself.
11. The beatings will continue until morale improves.
12. Never underestimate the power of very stupid people in large groups.
13. We waste time so you don't have to.
14. Hang in there, retirement is only thirty years away!
15. Go the extra mile. It makes your boss look like an incompetent slacker.
16. A snooze button is a poor substitute for no alarm clock at all.
17. When the going gets tough, the tough take a coffee break.
18. INDECISION is the key to FLEXIBILITY.
19. Succeed in spite of management.
20. Aim Low, Reach Your Goals, Avoid Disappointment.

Jay
04-24-2006, 06:10 AM
At least it's not "Roses are red..." :p

Though not half as fun :D

Scheherazade
05-03-2006, 05:11 PM
For those working through the night or just staying up late, it promises to be a time when clockwatching should be positively encouraged.

In the early hours of Thursday morning, the clock ticks past a time which is sure to appeal to the statistically-minded or just those who like a little bit of order in their lives.

For just a second - naturally - the time will be exactly 01:02:03 on 04/05/06.

Or at least it will be in the UK and the majority of countries which list dates in day and month order. In the US, the same phenomenon was observed on 5 April. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4965234.stm

subterranean
05-03-2006, 07:52 PM
UNDERSTANDING WOMEN

"Yes" = No
"No" = Yes
"Maybe" = No
"I'm sorry" = You'll be sorry
"We need" = I want
"It's your decision" = You better select the option I’ve already chosen.
"Do what you want" = You'll pay for this later.
"We need to talk" = You did something wrong.
"Sure, go ahead" = You go ahead, you die.
"I'm not upset" = Of course I'm upset, you moron!
"You're so macho" = Can you please go and shave and shower?
"Be romantic, turn out the lights" = My thighs are flabby.
"This kitchen is so inconvenient" = I want a new house.
“Can’t we just be friends?” = There is no way in hell I'm going to let any part of your body touch any part of mine again.
“I just need some space” = Without you in it.
“We’re moving too quickly” = I want to find out if this guy at the gym has a girlfriend first.
"Do you love me?" = I want something expensive.
"Is my butt fat?" = Tell me I'm beautiful.
"You have to learn to communicate" = Just agree with me.
“I don’t know. What do you want to do?” = I can’t believe you have nothing planned!
“Sure, chicken rice is okay.” = You cheapo slob!
"I said, nothing’s wrong, okay?" = It's that time of the month.
"Are you listening to me!?" = Too late, you're dead.

I wanted to post the Understanding Men part, but considering the nature of this forum, I decided not to post it ;)

Xamonas Chegwe
05-03-2006, 08:04 PM
For those working through the night or just staying up late, it promises to be a time when clockwatching should be positively encouraged.

In the early hours of Thursday morning, the clock ticks past a time which is sure to appeal to the statistically-minded or just those who like a little bit of order in their lives.

For just a second - naturally - the time will be exactly 01:02:03 on 04/05/06.

Or at least it will be in the UK and the majority of countries which list dates in day and month order. In the US, the same phenomenon was observed on 5 April. ...

It just happened - which probably means I'm going to be late for work again! :p

papayahed
05-07-2006, 08:26 PM
http://happycarpenter.blogs.com/the_happy_carpenter/images/snowman_morbid_1.JPG

Basil
05-07-2006, 10:24 PM
http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/8561/sensitive9dh.jpg

Scheherazade
05-08-2006, 05:47 PM
Coca Cola is celebrating its 120th birthday...

Coca Cola quiz (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4984014.stm)

Nightshade
05-09-2006, 11:16 AM
booooohissssssssssssss

ShoutGrace
05-09-2006, 11:18 AM
Oh No. A dissension? What aspect of good ol Coke could possibly elicit these words?

Scheherazade
05-17-2006, 06:24 PM
The shortlist for the Turner Prize 2006 has been revealed, with four artists competing for the £25,000 first prize.

TOMMA ABTS

This German artist, born in 1967, is nominated for her "intimate and compelling canvases", which "build on and enrich the language of abstract painting", according to the competition organisers.

They have singled out her solo exhibitions at Kunsthalle Basel in Switzerland and London's Greengrassi gallery.

Ms Abts insists everything she creates must measure 48 x 38 cm (19 x 15 in) and begins every piece with no idea of what she is about to do.

Her work has been described as "disturbingly weird" by the Guardian newspaper, which noted that she finds the titles for each painting in a dictionary of German first names.

PHIL COLLINS

Phil Collins, 35, is based in Glasgow and specialises in creating videos and photographs of people in places of conflict.

The organisers praised the way he encourages his subjects to "reveal their individuality, making the personal public with sensitivity and generosity".

In Ramallah, he paid nine young Palestinians to take part in an eight-hour disco-dancing marathon for a piece called They Shoot Horses.

He has also filmed Iraqis silently auditioning for a non-existent Hollywood film and invited people in a Basque region of Spain to undress in a luxury hotel as part of a discussion on democracy and beauty.

MARK TITCHNER

The 33-year-old from Luton creates paintings, light boxes, animations and sculptures that include slogans from evangelical literature, musical lyrics, political manifestos and advertising campaigns.

He has made a series of giant billboards for the Gloucester Road underground station in west London.

A separate project invited people to shout into a contraption that translated their sound waves into ripples on a tray of water.

Organisers say Mr Titchner has worked across "a wide range" of media, and "continues to interweave a vast array of references from pop lyrics to philosophy".

REBECCA WARREN

She is nominated for her sculptural installations, which have been at the centre of solo exhibitions at New York's Matthew Marks Gallery and Galerie Daniel Buchholz in Cologne.

Ms Warren has also contributed to the Tate Triennial exhibition in London, which celebrates new developments in the art world.

Turner organisers say she combines "a wide range of sources with a strong formal awareness, injecting conventional materials with a sensual physicality to create something wholly new".

Born in 1965, she studied Fine Art at Goldsmiths College at the University of London as well as the Chelsea College of Art. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4985456.stm

Wondering if anyone has seen works of these artists?

PS: It will be boring this year without any dunk or unmade beds.

Scheherazade
05-19-2006, 05:44 PM
The Simpsons is more than a funny cartoon, it reveals truths about human nature that rival the observations of great philosophers from Plato to Kant... while Homer sets his house on fire, says philosopher Julian Baggini. With the likes of Douglas Coupland, George Walden and Stephen Hawking as fans, taking the Simpsons seriously is no longer outre but de rigeur.

It is, quite simply, one of the greatest cultural artefacts of our age. So great, in fact, that it not only reflects and plays with philosophical ideas, it actually does real philosophy, and does it well.

How can a comic cartoon do this? Precisely because it is a comic cartoon, the form best suited to illuminate our age.

To speak truthfully and insightfully today you must have a sense of the absurdity of human life and endeavour. Past attempts to construct grand and noble theories about human history and destiny have collapsed.

We now know we're just a bunch of naked apes trying to get on as best we can, usually messing things up, but somehow finding life can be sweet all the same. All delusions of a significance that we do not really have need to be stripped away, and nothing can do this better that the great deflater: comedy.

The Simpsons does this brilliantly, especially when it comes to religion. It's not that the Simpsons is atheist propaganda; its main target is not belief in God or the supernatural, but the arrogance of particular organised religions that they, amazingly, know the will of the creator.

For example, in the episode Homer the Heretic, Homer gives up church and decides to follow God in his own way: by watching the TV, slobbing about and dancing in his underpants.

Throughout the episode he justifies himself in a number of ways.

*"What's the big deal about going to some building every Sunday, I mean, isn't God everywhere?"
*"Don't you think the almighty has better things to worry about than where one little guy spends one measly hour of his week?"
*"And what if we've picked the wrong religion? Every week we're just making God madder and madder?"

Homer's protests do not merely allude to much subtler arguments that proper philosophers make. The basic points really are that simple, which is why they can be stated simply.

Of course, there is more that can and should be said about them, but when we make decisions about whether or not to follow one particular religion, the reasons that really matter to us are closer to the simple truths of the Simpsons than the complex mental machinations of academic philosophers of religion.

And that's true even for the philosophers, whose high-level arguments are virtuosi feats of reasoning, but are not the things that win hearts and minds. They are merely the lengthy guitar solos to Homer's crushing, compelling riffs.

However, being simple is not the same as being simplistic, which is one of the greatest crimes in the Simpsons' universe.

We can see this when Homer's house catches fire, in what could be seen as divine retribution for his apostasy.

But what actually led to the fire was not God's wrath but Homer's hubris and arrogance. Sitting on his sofa thinking smugly, "Boy, everyone is stupid except me," he falls asleep, dropping his cigar.

What really caused the fire was thus a slippage from the simple into the simplistic. Homer's mistake was to think that because the key points which inform his heresy are simple, that the debate is closed and he has nothing left to learn from others. But this is being simplistic, not keeping things simple.

Small dots, big picture

Revealing simple truths about simplistic falsehoods is not just a minor philosophical task, like doing the washing up at Descartes' Diner while the real geniuses cook up the main courses.

For when it comes to the relevance of philosophy to real life, all the commitments we make on the big issues are determined by considerations which are ultimately quite straightforward.

A rich philosophical worldview is in this sense like a pointillist picture - one of those pieces of art in which a big image is made up of thousands of tiny dots (see Seurat image, right). Its building blocks are no more than simple dots, but the overall picture which builds up from this is much more complicated.

Yet we need reminding that the dots are just dots, and that errors are made more often not by those who fail to examine the dots carefully enough, but those who become fixated by the brilliance or defects of one or two and who fail to see how they fit into the big picture.

And the Simpsons certainly plays out on a broad canvas.

Any individual or group is shown to be ridiculous when only their pathetic and partial view of the world is taken to be everything. That's why no one escapes satire in programme, which is vital for its ultimately uplifting message: we're an absurd species but together we make for a wonderful world.

The Simpsons, like Monty Python, is an Anglo-Saxon comedic take on the existentialism which in France takes on a more tragic hue. Albert Camus' absurd is defied not by will, but mocking laughter.

Abstract themes

Another reason why cartoons are the best form in which to do philosophy is that they are non-realistic in the same way that philosophy is.

Philosophy needs to be real in the sense that it has to make sense of the world as it is, not as we imagine or want it to be. But philosophy deals with issues on a general level. It is concerned with a whole series of grand abstract nouns: truth, justice, the good, identity, consciousness, mind, meaning and so on.

Cartoons abstract from real life in much the same way philosophers do. Homer is not realistic in the way a film or novel character is, but he is recognisable as a kind of American Everyman. His reality is the reality of an abstraction from real life that captures its essence, not as a real particular human who we see ourselves reflected in.

The satirical cartoon world is essentially a philosophical one because to work it needs to reflect reality accurately by abstracting it, distilling it and then presenting it back to us, illuminating it more brightly than realist fiction can.

That's why it is no coincidence that the most insightful and philosophical cultural product of our time is a comic cartoon, and why its creator, Matt Groening, is the true heir of Plato, Aristotle and Kant. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4995624.stm

Basil
05-20-2006, 02:26 AM
I refuse to participate in threads where the title is written in a language other than English. Sorry.

Basil
05-20-2006, 02:27 AM
The above post is a disclaimer; it should not be construed as "participation."

Basil
05-20-2006, 02:28 AM
The above post is a clarification. Also not participation.

Basil
05-20-2006, 02:41 AM
I don't even know what non sequitur means. Is it some kind of dance? Should I be doing the non sequitur as I type this?

Basil
05-20-2006, 02:53 AM
Somebody has just sent me a private message informing me that a non sequitur is apparently some kind of hat. Shouldn't that have been explained at the beginning of this thread?? Hello?

Basil
05-20-2006, 02:55 AM
(Thanks for the PM, Mililalil)

Basil
05-20-2006, 03:00 AM
I was also informed that while sheep go to Heaven, goats go to Hell. Poor goats.

Basil
05-20-2006, 03:02 AM
Is it true that in Europe they keep billy-goats on the roofs of the houses? I saw a picture of that once. Crazy!

Basil
05-20-2006, 03:10 AM
You know, I bet if I hang out here long enough, someone will come along and offer me some tea. Tea. I despise tea.

Basil
05-20-2006, 03:11 AM
Okay, I'm out of here. Have fun wearing your non sequiturs.

rachel
05-20-2006, 12:46 PM
come back dear Basil. here is a tray, cream or sugar, lemon or honey. Please.......don't go.

Basil
05-20-2006, 03:31 PM
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/4351/theteaparty1ya.jpg

rachel
05-20-2006, 08:40 PM
well there you go dear Basil, a tea party and becoming the object of your dear parent's love-solely. That is the spirit. As for the little sister, I have it on good authority that she wasn't that kind to her dear brother , however Rachel noticed she still breathed and whisked her away to faerie land to live with the elves who named her Barrwyn and she is happy there. Now where were we......oh yes, chocolate cake or white, cream or Irish Whisky in your tea dear?

Basil
05-21-2006, 01:18 AM
Oh, those dear faeries.

The faeries paid me a visit when I was a little boy. They crept in through my bedroom window late at night. They smelled kind of funny, like rubbing alcohol. Anyway, they whisked me off to Faerie Land, which turned out to be the vacant lot behind Earl's Auto Repair. There we played all sorts of fun faerie games; I can't tell you what they were because the faeries told me they were secret faerie games and I couldn't tell anyone about them (I didn't want to play some of them, but they made me anyway).

It was there the faeries left me; I had to find my own way home in the dark. I never thought I would meet real faerie folk, nor did I guess how closely they would resemble the hoboes who lived out at the old abandoned train depot. Their ways certainly are mysterious. Anyway, the reason I don't like tea is because the faeries kept making me drink "tea" that night, except it tasted really bitter and made my throat hurt and made feel really dizzy and sick and nauseous. Please don't make me drink tea, Rachel. Please?

rachel
05-21-2006, 12:04 PM
okay darling, I will tell you what. You write out the entire menu for our tea party, food and drink and where it will be and I will do all I can to please you.
And I am so sorry for what those strange faeries did to you. I promise you they are not from my faerie land, they sound a little like the members of Tuatha de dannan from ancient Celtic lore , I love them, but some were evil rogues. And because they were so skilled in dark magic they actually won wars because the other side could not compete nor even understand their dark and terrifying magik.
Well they had better never come back to bother you again dearest Basil. I know a thing or two that has been passed down to me. And I heard they cannot bear True Love , it hurts their eyes and makes them swoon. I shall use that against them and keep you safe.
So write the menu dear and I will see to your every heart's desire. See I threw the tea away. All gone.

kilted exile
05-28-2006, 10:00 AM
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41696000/jpg/_41696364_hopest203.jpg

Ok, I probably shouldnt be joking about this (guy got killed there on Friday night), but take a close look at the picture....notice anything wierd? I'm sure in most places in the world the police would use cones to tape off the area. Not in glasgow however, why use a cone when you've got a few kegs lying around?

Pendragon
05-28-2006, 10:56 AM
If I remember correctly, (and I'm over 40) non sequitur means something like "It does not follow" or words to that effect, an oxymoron type of thing. Something like why do we park on a driveway and drive on a parkway? Or if skull size is related to intelligence, shouldn't the T-Rex have been the predominate species? Does SPAM (the canned kind) really stand for SPiced hAM or Stuff Posing As Meat? :lol: :lol: :lol:

Scheherazade
05-30-2006, 07:16 PM
It is the end of the Internet! (http://www.shibumi.org/eoti.htm) :eek2:

Virgil
05-30-2006, 08:31 PM
It is the end of the Internet! (http://www.shibumi.org/eoti.htm) :eek2:
Oh when I saw ths my first thought was concerning our recent controversey. We were all going to get banned from the entire internet! :D

cuppajoe_9
05-31-2006, 12:41 AM
Nice going Basil and Rachel, the top of my screen now contains three advertisements for tea.

Speaking of tea:

Tea leaves darken with exposure to oxygen after they are picked in much the same way that any other leaf changes colors in the fall. There are four different categories of tea: green, white, oolong and black. They are diferentiated by the ammount of time that they are allowed to darken after they are picked. White tea is the least processed, and therefore the most expensive and sought after kind of tea.

This is the kind of crap you learn when the girl who works at the health food store is really attractive.

Scheherazade
06-01-2006, 06:46 PM
Nutrition test (http://msntestyourself.netdoctor.co.uk/interactivetests/nutritionquiz.php)

cuppajoe_9
06-02-2006, 04:22 AM
Got a 48. I don't really like that test. My result was probably marred by the fact that I eat quite a bit less than most people (and am still slightly overweight) and the fact that I am a vegetarian.

Scheherazade
06-09-2006, 06:31 PM
Experts have warned of the dangers of overuse of mobile phones and game consoles in children after a young girl developed repetitive strain injury. Isabelle Taylor, aged eight from St Anne's, Lancashire noticed pain in her fingers and wrists after sending up to 30 text messages a day.

RSI is normally associated with office workers who spend hours hunched over a computer keyboard.

But the condition is becoming common in children addicted to technology.

Isabelle's mother Jane Taylor, 40, said her daughter was "constantly" texting on her mobile but that it wasn't until she was diagnosed with RSI that the extent of her texting became apparent.

"She got the phone when she was six and she's constantly on it.

ADVICE FROM THE BRITISH CHIROPRACTIC ASSOCIATION
Support your arm on a chair or table to take the 'load' off the neck and shoulder muscles
Massage your arm from the wrist to the elbow at regular intervals and swap hands regularly
Sit in a neutral upright position - head over shoulders and arms comfortably near the body

"I tried to take it off her but she started sneaking it to school. But then she started complaining about pains in her arms and hands a couple of months ago."

Mrs Taylor has limited Isabelle's texting to 30 minutes before and after school and she is doing exercises to alleviate the condition.

Sending text messages can lead to RSI because mobile phone users tend to hold down their shoulders and upper arms when pressing the buttons, cutting off blood to the forearm.

Technology overload

Dr David Cosgrave, who treated Isabelle said he sees two children a month with RSI from overuse of gadgets.

"A lot of youngsters who operate their Playstations or use their phones a lot can suffer inflammation which can be quite painful in the upper arms and wrists.

"Many times these pains are put down to growing pains when there is actually something else causing it.

Tim Hutchful, from the British Chiropractic Association said that text messaging regularly, over a long period of time, could cause repetitive strain which may cause both short and long term injuries.

"As mobile phone technology develops, mobiles are getting smaller, with buttons closer together. Small, fine movements tend to aggravate more than larger movements - this coupled with the smaller buttons can lead to injury as smaller buttons are harder to activate.

"When you are text messaging, you tend to hold your shoulders and upper arms tense. This cuts down the circulation to the forearm, when in fact it needs a greater than normal blood flow to achieve the fine movements of the thumbs and fingers."

Earlier this year the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy issued guidance for mobile phone users on avoiding injury.

Physiotherapist Bronwyn Clifford who helped develop the guide said: "Excessive texting and prolonged use of the buttons and dials found on an array of modern handheld gadgets, including MP3s, Blackberry devices and portable games consoles, can contribute to hand, wrist and arm problems.

"The small, definite, repetitive movements used to manoeuvre controls on these tiny handsets can begin to cause pain over time.

"The thumb, while good for gripping, is not a very dextrous digit and is particularly susceptible to injury."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5063364.stm

kilted exile
06-09-2006, 06:52 PM
Here's a far better solution: Take the infernal noisy contraption away from the kid......why children need mobile phones I have no idea.

Scheherazade
06-09-2006, 07:46 PM
I would like to know why a child of 6 was given a mobile phone (or of 8 for that matter) and whom they are texting... to say what?

Scheherazade
06-14-2006, 07:35 PM
Hot Weather Quiz (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/5079682.stm)

Scheherazade
06-15-2006, 06:15 PM
The Magazine could not possibly condone bunking off to watch the World Cup. So how best to catch the game without annoying the boss? The union Amicus has been red-carded for advising workers on how to pull a sickie in order to watch England play Trinidad and Tobago. While kick-off is late in the working day (1700 BST) for nine-to-fivers, rare is the World Cup fan prepared to wait until then to bag a vantage point.

So how to keep up with the action while keeping the managers sweet (assuming they're not "working from home").

1. Get online - our sport website streams every BBC TV game live, allowing broadband-connected workers in the UK to watch at their desks. IT firms have duly warned that corporate networks might grind to a halt and, aware that some companies might wish to prevent this, the BBC has published the URLs carrying live streams for IT managers asked to restrict access. For those into delayed gratification, TV viewers can replay the match during the evening at the touch of a red button.

2. Bring in a radio. It may seem a tad old-fashioned in a world of high-definition television and live streaming over the internet, but the radio has long been the traditional back-up for football fans unable to watch a match. If your boss needs some persuading tell him it's a solution endorsed by Investors in People, an independent body which sets and measures employment standards.

3. Get a buddy system going. Make friends with those in the office who don't like football - they're the ones who think Rooney's fortunes were inextricably tied to Judy Garland's - and get them to cover your shift and offer to do the same for them when they want time off, maybe to watch tennis, go shopping or go to their kid's school sports day.

4. Team building exercises are all the rage. Suggest to management that allowing people to watch the England match together would be a great team building opportunity. As the union Amicus quite rightly points out, it's a lot cheaper than an away day.

5. Watch at work, on a TV provided by the company. Another team building opportunity, and a way for bosses to avoid the problem of absences while boosting morale and employee relations. A big screen in the corner of a conference room may not have the atmosphere of watching down the pub (even if libation is laid on), but if enough people pile along, you can make your own atmosphere.

WORLD CUP-ITIS
Four out of 10 football fans took 'sickie' during 2002 World Cup
This cost business about £390m
13% of men - and 4% of women - called in sick to watch a match, or recover from post-game drinking
This rose to 16% among men and women aged 18-29

6. Work through lunch and leave early, if the boss agrees. With a goal in mind - finishing in time for kick-off - workers may even be more productive in the time available. "We're allowed to leave a little early for the 5pm games, provided we make up the time," says reader Bruce Castle, of London.

7. And suggest flexible hours, at least during the tournament, so employees can make up time. A recognised business tool, this is known as the "peakie" system. Investors in People also advises employers to extend break times during matches, and suggests a rota for finishing early so that everyone knows they'll get their chance.

8. Take annual leave on match day (ok, you might be a bit late for this option). But be prepared for a knock-back if too many others want the same day off. Richard Smith, employment services director at Croner consultancy, says companies need a fair system for granting leave, such as random selection or on a first-come-first-served basis.

9. Keeping non-footie fans happy is vital - for managers as well as lovers of the beautiful game. They are the people who will cover shifts and hold the fort as everyone else settles down for kick-off. Keeping them motivated by offering similar perks is a good idea, says Investors in People. TV access during Wimbledon anyone?

10. Be self-employed. Then you only have to ask yourself for time off. As reader Gareth Haman from Edinburgh says: "My boss lets me take as much time off as I like to watch the World Cup - he's even happy for me to sit and have a beer in the office. Oh, did I mention I was self-employed?" http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/5082896.stm

Scheherazade
06-17-2006, 07:54 PM
Football's governing body has explained why up to 1,000 Dutch fans watched a World Cup tie wearing no trousers.

Around 1,000 fans arrived for the Ivory Coast tie in their traditional bright orange trousers - but bearing the logo and name of a Dutch brewery.

To protect the rights of the official beer they were denied entry, so the male fans promptly removed the trousers and watched the game in underpants.

Fifa said an attempt at an "ambush" publicity campaign was not allowed.

Fifteen major companies have paid up to $50m (£27m) each for the right to be official partners at this World Cup.

The American firm Anheuser Busch, which makes Budweiser, won the exclusive right to promote and sell its beverage in the stadiums and other venues.

There has been a wider resentment in Germany that a US brewery has the exclusive rights in a country which prides itself on the quality of its beer and has very strict laws governing its composition. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/5091154.stm

Scheherazade
06-22-2006, 01:21 PM
Public libraries are on the verge of extinction warn campaigners. How can they be protected for the future?

Be honest - when did you last use your local library? Do you even know where it is? There is a chance you might find out too late and it'll have closed.

Most of us probably know library usage has been falling for years. But how many realise that a crossroads may be looming for a prized public service - and do we care?

Across the UK more than 100 libraries now face being shut as councils search for savings to ease budget deficits.

"Public libraries are on the verge of extinction and action is needed now to halt their decline," warns campaign website Libri.org.

If the cuts go ahead, campaigners say a network once central to communities will be lost forever - and they are starting to fight back.

Unconvincing

"There is widespread concern that the rationale for closure is unconvincing," says a press release from residents in the Fleetville area of St Albans.

They were responding to news that their local branch and another of the city's four libraries have been earmarked to close.

Hertfordshire County Council says Fleetville library does not meet disability access requirements, that there are "catchment overlaps" and that visits and borrowing are low.

"To ascertain which libraries would be proposed for closure a series of tests were carried out against all the libraries in Hertfordshire," director of children, schools and families, John Harris, told local MP Anne Main in a letter in June.

To offset the proposals, the council says it plans major improvements and extended opening in other libraries.

Local residents deny Fleetville library is poorly used and want more regular opening hours.

Little has been done to tailor the service to local needs and many people will find it harder to visit the main library in town, they say. They are to meet the council to advise ways of improving the library after a four-month review was granted.

Long-term cost

Basic lessons from the book retail trade should be learnt, Fleetville residents say.

Tailored stock, 21st Century opening hours, a stronger service ethic, promotions, community outreach and learning partnerships are all suggestions they plan to put to the council.

The United Kingdom's 3,500 public libraries cost more than £1bn a year. In many cases, shutting a branch saves a few tens of thousands of pounds when councils are millions in debt.

Short-term gain at long-term cost, say supporters who see libraries as having intrinsic value as places of discovery and learning.

"I practically lived in my local library when I was growing up and I'm sure that's why I'm a writer now," says children's laureate Jacqueline Wilson, a prominent supporter of the Love Libraries campaign.

"I think it is such a shame that so many of them are now under threat of closure."

Social benefits

Since Victorian times, public libraries have played a key role in social improvement in Britain for millions of people. Greater literacy affects the types of job people do and their standard of living. Young children who read more are more likely to prosper at school.

The benefits of extending literacy and knowledge are immeasurable - but times have changed dramatically since the Public Libraries Act of 1850. In today's information age, it seems libraries must adapt or die.

Although library spending has risen nationally for the sixth year in a row, book issues continue to fall - down 40% over the past 10 years. The average consumer price paid for books has also fallen. Surveys show young people largely see public libraries as irrelevant these days.

Despite this, when asked, most people don't want the service to disappear.

Essex County Council found that a majority of respondents thought libraries were a sign of "a civilised, caring, responsible society".

Users and non-users alike said society would lose out if services closed. Essex is trying to transform its library service and wants them to be seen as a "front door" for council and other public services.

Working together

Sixteen branches are now open seven days a week and strong community links are being forged.

"Because of the beneficial contracts we can negotiate with our suppliers and because we manage our processes in a very efficient way, we are able to buy 39% more books and other items than we did in the early 1990s," says libraries manager Michele Jones.

"All we wanted was one reading group per library. We now have 350 across 73 libraries and 43,000 children attended our summer reading activity last year."

Essex has invested in its libraries and borrowing rates remain healthy, she says.

Librarians are having to be more than "gatekeepers" stamping books in order to deliver a dynamic, relevant service these days. They must publicise what's on offer and embrace change.

In Cumbria, officials are talking about setting up "library links" in village shops as a way of avoiding closures.

Library supporters say maintaining adequate book stocks - a library's "core business" however many internet access points it has - is also essential.

Spending on books now accounts for just 9% nationally - while staff costs eat up more than 50%.

Tim Coates, who runs the influential Good Library Blog, says it's really about efficiency, not money - and radical reform could bring huge savings. He says London is a case in point with 330 libraries over 33 boroughs - but no effective co-operation.

"The service in London costs £220m per annum. It should have one website, one library card," he told a parliamentary forum last week. Doing so would eliminate £30-40m a year in "wasted replicated management effort" in London alone, he says.

Officials might dispute his figures - but it's increasingly clear that big ideas are needed if the public library network is to survive. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/5105580.stm

Scheherazade
06-23-2006, 01:19 PM
Hooray! It's Friday June 23, time to celebrate. What's that you say? Why? Didn't you know that today is officially the happiest day of the year? A scientist said so, so it must be true. Dr Cliff Arnall devised a formula to find the most joyous day in our calendar - so what do you think?

Time to rejoice folks, today is the happiest day of the year, according to a scientist from the University of Cardiff. Dr Cliff Arnall has put together a formula that measures good mood using increased outdoor activity, high energy levels and exposure to sunlight.

Dr Arnall believes the combination of fine weather and the prospect of jetting off on holiday means that today the British population will be feeling particularly gleeful. The football World Cup and forthcoming Wimbledon tennis championship will only add to some people's level of euphoria, as will the fact that the day falls on a Friday. Dr Arnall used a similar formula to pinpoint 23 January as the most depressing day of the year.

So how does Dr Arnall's formula work? His equation is simple: O + (N x S) + Cpm/T + He. O stands for outdoor activity, N for nature, S for social interaction, Cpm for childhood summers and positive memories, T for temperature and He for holidays and time off work.

Dr Arnall told the BBC: "Happiness is associated with many things in life and can be triggered by a variety of events. Whether it's a sunny day, a childhood memory, or something as effortless as eating a delicious ice cream, I wanted my formula to prove the key to happiness can really be that simple."

So what do you think of Dr Arnall's formula? Is he accurate - do you feel happier today than you have so far this year? Are you full of national pride as British tennis stars prepare to take on the world at Wimbledon or - if you're English - as England continue their march to World Cup glory? Or do you think it's a load of old nonsense, that it's a day like any other? http://www.msn.co.uk/health/feedback/Default.asp?MSPSA=1

Pensive
06-23-2006, 02:24 PM
Oh yeah, I feel really very happy but it is because, my mother's operation went successful and now, she is really very fine!!!!

Singing:
Oh yeah, I am a happy girl today
I feel pretty, oh so witty
I feel like a rose today
I feel charming, so alarming charming
Oh yeah, I feel happy today
I do, I do, I do, I do, I do

*loves to make her own song by dragging other songs lyrics and combining them*

Scheherazade
06-26-2006, 12:15 PM
Consumers are willing to pay up to an extra £108 ($197) for a PC containing fewer chemicals, a survey has found. People also feel manufacturers should take responsibility for the disposal of old machines, the research shows.

So-called e-waste is a growing global problem, with 30 million PCs being dumped each year in the US alone.

The study by Ipsos-Mori for Greenpeace coincides with an announcement by PC maker Dell to phase out a number of toxic chemicals in its products.

The nine-nation research found that UK computer users were willing to pay an extra £64 ($117), while people in China were prepared for spend up to £108 ($197) for a more environmentally sound PC.

E-waste

HAZARDOUS WASTE

1: Lead in cathode ray tube and solder
2: Arsenic in older cathode ray tubes
3: Selenium in circuit boards as power supply rectifier
4: Polybrominated flame retardants in plastic casings, cables and circuit boards
5: Antimony trioxide as flame retardant
6: Cadmium in circuit boards and semiconductors
7: Chromium in steel as corrosion protection
8: Cobalt in steel for structure and magnetivity
9: Mercury in switches and housing

A report published by the UN University in 2004 said making the average PC required 10 times the weight of the machine in chemicals and fossil fuels.

The study also found that the short life of computer equipment was leading to a mountain of toxic waste, mainly in India and China.

Electronic waste, or e-waste, is a massive global problem. Thirty million computers are thrown out every year in the US alone.

About 70% of heavy metals, such as lead and mercury, in landfill sites come from e-waste.

Greenpeace International spokeswoman Zeina al-Hajj said: "Consumers not only want greener PCs but they are willing to pay extra for them.

"Dell's decision to remove these harmful chemicals reflects a move within the electronics industry in the right direction to become cleaner."

The environmental group has long campaigned for the sector to move to cleaner production methods.

Dell says it will eliminate the use of all brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in its products by 2009.

A number of other firms, including Hewlett Packard, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson, have also made commitments to phase out the use of hazardous chemicals in the near future. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5107642.stm

literaturerocks
06-26-2006, 03:01 PM
wow..i had no idea that computers were so harmful to the environment.... i have a dell so i guess thats a little better than some others but wow..that article really suprised me..cool...learn something new every day :banana:

cuppajoe_9
06-26-2006, 04:05 PM
The fact that Bud is the official beer of the World Cup this year is one of the funniest things I have ever heard. I'm sure everybody was very excited to go to Germany so they could drink American beer.

Jay
06-29-2006, 12:49 PM
The fact that Bud is the official beer of the World Cup this year is one of the funniest things I have ever heard. I'm sure everybody was very excited to go to Germany so they could drink American beer.
Ahem (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budweiser_Budvar) ;)
*too short*

Scheherazade
06-29-2006, 07:07 PM
A survey has suggested two-thirds of us are regularly late when meeting people, with the mobile phone the main suspect.
And as well as punctuality, the mobile phone is corroding the whole manners of meeting up. Here's a few markers of the mobile-inspired decline of man.


PUNCTUALITY
The advent of the mobile phone harks back to a different age of etiquette, the time before watches. In the Canterbury Tales era, if you had arranged to meet the other pilgrims at the crossroads with the big tree on the 29 June, you were allowed a bit of leeway. Maybe noon was suggested, but it could hardly be enforced.

Thanks to mass produced watches and clocks we have had years of enforced punctuality, but now mobile phones allow us to call to apologise. Or rather, they allow sheepish text messages. And there is a code.

"I'll be a couple of minutes late" translates as anything up to 15 minutes after the agreed time. "I'll be 15 minutes late" translates as anything up to half an hour. "I'm running very late" means it might be time to look for more punctual friends.

You might choose to use an excuse. "Because I left the house late" doesn't really wash, however often it might turn out to be the truth. Sounding better: "I witnessed a murder and had to stop to give a statement." Even better: "I saw an little old lady collapsed at the bus stop and had to stop to revive her."


IGNORING PEOPLE
So your friend/date has arrived late and you're in a pub drinking. There's only two of you, but the other person seems to think it's acceptable to take a call. Now two seconds of "I'm sorry, I'm out, I'll call you later" is irritating but the right side of acceptable. Fielding a five minute call, though increasingly common, is not.

What are you supposed to do during this time. You have to resort to fiddling with your own phone. Perhaps delete some old messages in my inbox.

The same activities as when the other person goes to the toilet. What did people do before the mobile. Did they make origami animals? Whittle sticks? Compose haiku? It's difficult to remember.

There is something severely incongruous about a mobile phone on a pressed white linen tablecloth. It's just plain wrong. Switch it off or face the wrath of the righteous. You wouldn't pull out a cryptic crossword during dinner, so why a mobile.


ASKING FOR A MEETING
The flexibility of having so many ways of contacting people is creating a slew of text messages and mobile calls only leading to further text messages and mobile calls and an eventual "I'll text you on the day". The golden age of asking to meet people occurred in the novels of Jane Austen.

Notes on cards in copperplate handwriting in scented envelopes delivered by discreet footmen are how it should be. Not vague indications of a meeting with no particular time discussed.

The modern mobile-wielding meeter often leaves the house with only a rough idea of location/timing, awaiting final confirmation. It will not do.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/5128394.stm

grace86
06-29-2006, 08:28 PM
Awww, I didn't like the article about the libraries closing. Makes me feel bad about my comments in Buy vs. Borrow. But I think my library is severly underfunded, understaffed, and has lousy hours.

Scheherazade
06-29-2006, 08:39 PM
I agree, Grace. It is such a shame that libraries would close while there are new cafes or Starbucks opening in every high street. Libraries are much more than places to borrows book. They encourage children and parents to form reading habits (they have reward schemes for children, Mother and Baby groups, Reading sessions, Book Clubs). They offer the right atmosphere for those students who cannot get the chance to study at home. They offer internet and computer services for those who do not have access. And all comes for free! At an age when one would expect to see more investment in libraries, closing them is a shame.

grace86
06-29-2006, 08:45 PM
You are very right Scheherazade, it is a shame. You know, a lot of parent - child relationships are strengthened that way too. But then again, a lot of parents aren't around these days. I remember when my mom took me to get my library card.

Pensive
06-30-2006, 09:53 AM
I agree, Grace. It is such a shame that libraries would close while there are new cafes or Starbucks opening in every high street. Libraries are much more than places to borrows book. They encourage children and parents to form reading habits (they have reward schemes for children, Mother and Baby groups, Reading sessions, Book Clubs). They offer the right atmosphere for those students who cannot get the chance to study at home. They offer internet and computer services for those who do not have access. And all comes for free! At an age when one would expect to see more investment in libraries, closing them is a shame.
Oh, I have never been to a library (no library nearby, our government deserves to be hung for it) except perhaps my School's Library which does not count because after Library lesson (which is of fifteen minutes) teacher would scare us away and we could not borrow even a single classic or some good books we like. All there is stories of Enid Blyton (only good thing) and some Fairy Tales for us. :bawling:

Scheherazade
07-04-2006, 07:50 PM
As many hot dogs as you can eat in 12 minutes. That's the challenge contestants will be facing in Coney Island's world-famous hot dog-eating contest on Tuesday. But what are the best tactics?

Independence Day in the United States is marked in many ways, but on one street corner in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York, it all comes down to hot dogs and the coveted "Mustard Yellow International Belt".

It is on the corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenue that the world-famous hot dog eating contest is held every 4 July. The event is hosted by Nathan's Famous Corporation at the site of their first restaurant.

The event is believed to have started in 1916 when four immigrants had a hot dog-eating contest on the street corner to settle an argument about who was the most patriotic.

'Kobayashi Shake'

After 12 minutes, Irish-born Jim Mullen had eaten 13 hot dogs and the other three contestants could not go on, hence the time limit of the contest.

The winner for the last five years has been Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi from Japan, who holds the world record for speed-eating 53.5 hot dogs in 12 minutes. He also holds the world record for eating 57 cow brains in 15 minutes.

Another big player in the world of competitive eating is Sonya "The Black Widow" Thomas. The Korean-American, who weighs just seven stone, currently holds over 25 world records for speed-eating. These include: 161 buffalo wings in 12 minutes, 80 chicken nuggets in 5 minutes and 65 hard-boiled eggs in 6 minutes, 40 seconds.

But how do you speed eat? As a champion "gurgitator" - as they are known in the world of speed-eating - Mr Kobayashi expands his stomach for a competition by gradually eating larger and larger amounts of food in the weeks before the event. He then exercises to ensure that fat will not impede expansion of his stomach during a competition.

To rest his stomach ahead of a contest, he skips dinner and breakfast the day before. He once starved himself for three days ahead of a competition.

He is also known for his trademark body wiggle, known as "The Kobayashi Shake". He uses it to force food down his oesophagus and settle more compactly in his stomach.

He eats the hot dogs by splitting the frankfurter in half, swallowing both parts at once. He tightly squeezes them before eating and sips lots of water to soften the buns. He calls this the Solomon method.

Coordination

He also does weight training throughout the year to increase his metabolism. The training is used to prevent excess calories from being stored as fat, as the "band of fat theory" suggests larger eaters struggle to expand their stomachs because they are constrained by the fat.


Ms Thomas puts her success down to "hand speed and hand-eye coordination", as well as chewing and swallowing fast. She eats with one hand, using the other to take sips from a bottle to ensure food doesn't get stuck in the throat. A true professional, she also watches video footage of her challengers' performances to better understand their tactics.

While there are no studies showing proven dangers, doctors have warned of the potential risks of speed eating.

The International Federation of Competitive Eating (IFOCE) says that speed eating is only suitable for those 18 years of age or older and only in a controlled environment with appropriate rules and with an emergency medical technician present. It is also against at-home training of any kind, especially on your own.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/5129762.stm

Scheherazade
07-05-2006, 06:17 PM
Space Shuttle Quiz (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/5150324.stm)

Scheherazade
07-10-2006, 01:41 PM
1. You get to go wherever you want and do whatever you want on holiday. If you hate cold weather, you don't have to risk losing toes to frostbite just because your sweetie is a ski buff. And once you get wherever you're going, if you decide to stay in the hotel room all weekend with room service and an on-site masseuse while ignoring the historic blah blah blahs? No problem... Nobody's gonna know!

2. You get to sing out loud—badly, without embarrassment—to your iTunes whenever you're home.

3. The remote control is all yours, all the time. And you don't have to worry about anyone else making fun of you because it's switched to Trisha or hours of live Big Brother coverage.

4. You can comfortably put up that Star Wars poster you've had since you were a kid or paint the bathroom walls petal-pink—after all, decorating isn't a team sport.

5. Your friends all instinctively make you their "... and guest" when they go to an event. You get prime invites to concerts (especially popular during the summer), weddings (ditto) and other ticketed events every time someone's significant other has to bail.

6. You get to indulge all of your interests, no matter how bizarre, without negotiating. That means you can hide away with piles of true-crime books or drive an hour for the fairy exhibition at a nearby museum without ever having to explain yourself.

7. You can try all of Ben & Jerys ice cream flavours... twice... before noon... and not have to hide the fact that you ruined your appetite for lunch.

8. When you get to the front of the line at Blockbuster, you know with certainty that you're not going to have to pay someone else's late fees for a film you'd never watch.

9. You never, ever have to look over your shoulder before drinking straight from the milk bottle. In fact, being single means you can leave the toilet seat up, the toothpaste cap off and your dirty undies on the bathroom floor. Let your inner slob run free!

10. You get to go to parties and barbecues without worrying that the person you lugged with you is bored, annoyed, or getting embarrassingly drunk. (And you get to flirt with every hot prospect there!)

11. If a sexy, brooding plumber with a mysterious past moves in next door and captures the attention of all the local ladies, you don't have to agonise over whether or not to leave your mate to pursue your one shot at true love. If things click, you're untethered, and it's game on, toilet boy! (For guys, substitute a pair of sexy blonde cheerleader twins for the brooding plumber.)

12. Nobody ever hogs your side of the bed, steals your cover, wakes you up with freezer-toes or flops his or her sweaty night-bod on you. And every single night, you nod off knowing that you're in the company of someone who really loves you.

Single girl Laura Gilbert is a freelance writer in New York City. Her recycling often consists of nothing but Domino's boxes and Gatorade bottles, and she's proud of it.
http://msnuk.match.com/matchscene/article.aspx?articleid=4396&TrackingID=511021&BannerID=558924&ER=sessiontimeout&trackingid=511021

Scheherazade
07-11-2006, 05:58 PM
France's football hero Zinedine Zidane ended his glorious career in spectacular style - getting a red card for headbutting an opponent in the World Cup final. How are you meant to leave the office in a way that won't be forgotten? Here are some ideas... and send us your suggestions.

1. Use your leaving speech to deliver a verbal Zidane-style headbutt. Affairs, expenses scams, inflated bonuses, wigs, how the place has gone to the dogs. Feel the room get colder than an eskimo's beer fridge as you give them your wit and wisdom.

2. Leave a challenge for your successor. When President Bush's staff took over the White House they complained that the Ws were missing from the computer keyboards (as in George W Bush) and that an office had been renamed Office of Strategerie.

3. If David Beckham can cry when he's leaving his job (as England captain) then so can I. Don't. Bad move. Nothing is going to fill an office with more horror than the prospect of Jeff from accounts showing emotion. It's not what open plan is about.

4. Leaving speech II. Talk at interminable length about your own glittering career - that time you really showed them who was boss over the faulty photocopier - and deliver rambling anecdotes about characters who left years ago. Just keep talking, it's your last day. What are they going to do? Sack you? You've listened to them for long enough. Look, I can just keep going...

5. Hand your identity dog tag to the craziest frother in the shopping centre and tell them where they can get free coffee and meet lots of new and hospitable friends.

6. The Mozambique chardonnay has all been drunk at the leaving party, they're playing the get-your-coat-on music ... and that special co-worker is just about to say a final goodbye. But it's never, ever a good idea to tell someone you've worked with for 20 years that you love them. Life isn't a Christmas special edition of The Office. It's much more cruel.

7. When you read your leaving card there's always a great big signature and a message from someone you've never heard of. Find out who they are and promise to meet them for a drink... since you're such big friends. It'll scare the hell out of them.

8. Check your e-mail in-tray for the *****iest messages from your colleagues - you know, the ones slagging off people in earshot - and then threaten to send them out to the entire organisation. Watch your leaving present fund grow and grow.

9. Refuse to admit that you're leaving and just carry on as if nothing has happened and that you'll be there forever. This is technically known as "the Prescott".

10. That "exit" interview. This will be the first time you've come across the gleaming 20-storey office block occupied by floor upon floor of the "human resources" team. It's your big chance to tell them exactly... Are they listening? Hello?


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/5164468.stm

Scheherazade
07-19-2006, 08:39 AM
The mercury's rising, with temperatures expected to set a new record high for the UK. What does extreme heat do to people's behaviour - and how best to cope when it's hot?

Britons do not have a good track record in dealing with extreme heat.

We look forward to summer, up until a heatwave coincides with a working day. Faced with a badly ventilated place of work, reached by overcrowded, inefficient transport, we get angry. Very angry indeed.

MOOD
There are scientists who believe the weather can have a direct effect on our state of mind.

Some researchers say the presence of large numbers of negative ions - negatively charged particles - in the air we breathe can lighten our mood. These are thought to occur in greater numbers where there is moving water or on mountains.

Psychologist Professor Alex Gardner says many people might be feeling the shortage of negative ions as they swelter in breezeless cities.

"You get this dull heavy atmosphere. When you are at the seaside or up in the mountains there is a buoyant atmosphere. The Moors used to design inner courtyards where water was always running, with trees to soak up the heat.

"People get a bit fidgety, as when there is the possibility of thunderstorms."

But there's dispute over whether an Innovations catalogue-style ion generator can demonstrably improve your mood. So if the boss is amenable, head for a waterfall, mountain range or the seaside. Although it must be said that seaside resorts rarely play host to those under the calming influence of negative ions.

There are other changes in our behaviour that arise from the heat.

"When you are dehydrated, your body is under stress. It changes your mood and you choose stereotypical solutions rather than rational solutions. You get into the 'child state'. You whine and moan. There is anger, irritation, poor judgement and fatigue, says Prof Gardner.

"We are normally good at multi-tasking but when it gets too hot you become an accident risk to yourself and other people."

Psychologist Dr Joan Harvey studies the effects of high temperatures on workers in foundries and bakeries.

"If you are not 'adapted', at anything between 77-85f (25-29C) you will start to feel uncomfortable if the humidity is high. A high humidity temperature of 25C can feel as bad as a temperature in the 30-35C range."

And the advice to improve your psychological state? Protect your physical state. Drink lots of water, avoid unnecessary activity, stay in the shade.

ON THE MOVE
To experience the mood-changing nature of extreme heat in full effect, get in a car and hit the road.

Edmund King, executive director of the RAC Foundation, is convinced that extremely hot days see a jump in incidents of road rage.

"We have looked at road rage over the past five or six years. You do tend to find there are more incidents when the weather is hotter. People get stuck in road works, they get frustrated because it is hot, particularly if they don't have air conditioning. They tend to literally lose their cool. You might have children and they might be crying."

Where pedestrians might bump into each other, apologise, and move on, the most minor incidents on the road can be blown out of proportion.

Mr King advises that motorists allow extra time for journeys, check the Highways Agency website so as to avoid jams, and most importantly do not respond in any way to inconsiderate drivers.

"Try not to over-react. If a car cuts in front of you, rather than flashing your lights or beeping, try to put it into context. He will only be one car ahead of you. You can minimise the risk of being a victim by not abusing other drivers yourself."


CRIME RATES
But does hot weather and frayed tempers lead to increasing crime?

The academic study, the Impact of Exceptionally Hot Weather in 1995, commissioned by the government and carried out by the University of East Anglia, found "no significant relationships" between the total number of offences and the weather.

But it noted that sexual offences were 5-15% higher in the unusually hot months in 1976, 1989 and 1990. In 1995, there was "no weather-related response".

A US study from Harvard University paints a more subtle picture, suggesting that a heatwave can trigger a short-term rise in crime, just as cold and very wet weather can reduce crime.

But in the days and weeks following such a "weather shock", the crime rate re-adjusts itself - with crime falling after a heatwave and rising after a cold snap - so that the average figures show little difference.

BEAT THE HEAT

David Ross, general manager of Knowsley Safari Park, thinks we can learn from the lions and other exotic animals he looks after.

"Only mad dogs and Englishmen work in the sun. The animals of the Serengeti won't be working for a living. They'll be chilling out, finding shade and water.

"Elephants like swimming, or a mud bath. Rhinos wallow in mud. In the Serengeti, there won't be much activity in the heat of the day."

DRESS TO AVOID STRESS

The TUC has called upon employers to let their workers dress down to beat the heat. But spare a thought for those whose jobs means there is no latitude for open-necked shirts and short.

At the Ritz in London, doormen will still appear in top hats and long coats. And over at Buckingham Palace, the guards will be sporting their bearskin hats as usual.

A spokesman for the MoD says: "Many of them are already stood in the shade. We make sure they take on board plenty of water. Service in Iraq and Afghanistan has helped educate people more about the effects of heat.

"We will shorten the rotations from two hours down to one hour. We can move some of the sentry positions so they are in the shade. But the hats stay on."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/5193800.stm

Scheherazade
07-21-2006, 09:25 AM
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41913000/jpg/_41913192_formula203.jpg

A maths professor has worked out an equation to calculate how long into a car journey it takes a child to ask: "Are we nearly there yet?"
Professor Dwight Barkley, of Warwick University, calculates there are three key factors that decide the timing of the wearisome question.

Crucial in putting off the first prompt about the proximity of the destination are on-board activities for children.

So no activities equals a question before leaving the driveway, he said.

The equation for the time it takes for a child to ask the question is: one, plus the number of activities to do, divided by the number of children in the car squared.

To get the final answer, that figure is then added to the time it took the family to get into the car and set off on their journey.

"Mathematics can help answer many of life's questions," said Prof Barkley

"This equation can be a fun way to think about the problem of keeping children entertained on a family car journey."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/coventry_warwickshire/5201552.stm

literaturerocks
07-22-2006, 12:34 PM
haha snoopy..gosh i havent read those comics since i was maybe 6 ..however that is only 7 years ago....

Scheherazade
07-24-2006, 12:34 PM
Madonna's Like a Prayer, condemned by Christian organisations as blasphemous upon its release in 1989, has topped a poll of videos which "broke the rules". The clip showed the singer dancing around burning crosses and kissing a black Christ-like figure in a church.

It came first in a survey of 10,000 MTV viewers, with Madonna's songs Ray of Light and Vogue also in the top five.

Baby One More Time by Britney Spears was number two, with Michael Jackson's 13-minute epic Thriller in third place.

Madonna - one of the icons of the MTV age - has been excluded from the network's playlist on more than one occasion because of the content of her videos.

VIDEOS WHICH BROKE THE RULES

1. Madonna, Like a Prayer
2. Britney Spears, Baby One More Time (pictured)
3. Michael Jackson, Thriller
4. Madonna, Ray of Light
5. Madonna, Vogue
6. Michael and Janet Jackson, Scream
7. Robbie Williams, Rock DJ
8. Eric Prydz, Call on Me
9. Jamiroquai, Virtual Insanity
10. Spice Girls, Wannabe
Source: MTV survey

It refused to show Justify My Love in 1990 because of its sexual themes.

Erotica and What it Feels Like For a Girl - depicting an angry woman on a crime spree - would be screened only in the early hours when they were released in 1992 and 2001 respectively.

Schoolgirl

Spears's video, which featured her dressed in school uniform, was her debut hit, and reached number one in the US and UK in 1999.

The release of Thriller 23 years ago was a global news event.

It was directed by John Landis, who was behind the film An American Werewolf in London.

It broke the record for the longest video and featured Jackson and a cast of zombie-like characters.

Jackson and his sister Janet shared a duet on Scream, a futuristic black-and-white video from 1995 which is at number six in the MTV survey.

Rock DJ by Robbie Williams is in seventh, and was edited for pre-watershed viewing because it featured the singer peeling off his own skin.

Leotard-clad women were the stars of Eric Prydz's dance hit Call on Me, which made eighth place.

Jamiroquai's Virtual Insanity - in which the band's lead singer Jason Kay appeared to be dancing in a room with moving walls - and the Spice Girls' single-take Wannabe made up the rest of the top 10.

The full top 100 will be played as part of MTV's 25th anniversary on 1 August.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5209714.stm

Scheherazade
07-25-2006, 01:17 PM
Star Trek actor James Doohan, who played the engineer Scotty in the original TV series, will now have his remains blasted into space in October. The actor's ashes were supposed to be sent into orbit last year, but the flight was delayed as tests were carried out on the rocket.

Doohan died of Alzheimer's disease and pneumonia in July 2005, aged 85.

His family will hold a service on the day of the rocket's launch for fans to pay tribute to him.

The actor's ashes will be sent into space along with the remains of around 100 other people, including astronaut Gordon Cooper, who first went to space in 1963.

After a short flight, the rocket will return to Earth, with a subsequent launch putting Doohan's remains into orbit in December or January.

They will remain there for several years, after which they will drop back towards Earth, burning up on re-entry.

'Final wish'

In a letter to fans last year, Doohan's widow, Wende, said the actor would have "given almost anything to be able to actually go into space".

"He finally gets his wish, I can't think of a more fitting send-off than having some of his fans attend this, his final journey," she said.

The flights have been arranged by Texas company Space Services, which previously sent the ashes of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and 1960s drug guru Timothy Leary into space.

Doohan's Star Trek character Scotty manned the Starship Enterprise with Captain James T Kirk, played by Shatner, and Mr Spock, played by Leonard Nimoy.

The original crew lasted for three series, starting in 1966, before the show was axed.

However, they reunited for seven feature films between 1979 and 1991.

Canadian-born Doohan had been a successful character actor on radio and TV before landing the role in the pilot Star Trek episode.

He quickly became typecast as the Scottish space engineer, finding it difficult to get other roles, but he learned to embrace his place in sci-fi history.

His final public appearance was in October 2004 when he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5212644.stm

Scheherazade
07-27-2006, 10:30 AM
A company that sells software to stop spelling mistakes on the internet has had to reissue its latest press release after letting through a typing mistake. Canadian company TextTrust, which sells software to eliminate "the negative text impressions on Web sites", had to send out its own statement again.

The release listed "the 16 million we (sic) pages it has spellchecked over the past year".

"It's very embarrassing," said the company's PR representative.

'Egg on the face'

The press release listed words including "independent", "accommodation" and "definitely", which were spelled "independant", "accomodation" and "definately".

But it did not list the word "web".

"I made the mistake, not TextTrust - they do a much better job," said PR manager Pat Brink. "It's certainly egg on the face of this public relations person."

TextTrust said it used a combination of human editors and special spell-checking software to find spelling errors on the web.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/5219220.stm

Scheherazade
08-02-2006, 09:08 AM
Hits by the likes of Status Quo and S Club 7 are among the Top 50 tracks people are too embarrassed to admit they own.

Q magazine's Top 10 includes Rebel Yell by Billy Idol and Rock & Roll Part 2 by Gary Glitter and Quo's Whatever You Want.

Barbra Streisand's epic Woman In Love, Devil Woman by Sir Cliff Richard and I Could Be So Good For You by Minder star Dennis Waterman also make the list.

But the top spot goes to the Electric Light Orchestra with their 1976 hit Livin' Thing.

"ELO may never be fashionable, but in terms of sheer aural elation, this betters more revered bands' entire back catalogues," said Q.

More Than A Feeling by Boston was second, followed by S Club 7.

Also hiding away in the Top 50 were Ronan Keating's Life Is A Rollercoaster, Letter From America by The Proclaimers and Livin' La Vida Loca by Ricky Martin.

Q said: "They're the records it's OK to love."

Top 20 Guilty Pleasures

1 Livin' Thing - ELO
2 More Than A feeling - Boston
3 Don't Stop Movin' - S Club 7
4 I'm Not In Love - 10CC
5 Rock'n'Roll Part 2 - Gary Glitter
6 Cold As Ice - Foreigner
7 Rebel Yell - Billy Idol
8 Whatever You Want - Status Quo
9 Baker Street - Gerry Rafferty
10 I Will Survive - Gloria Gaynor
11 Since You've Been Gone - Rainbow
12 Centrefold - J Geils Band
13 Summer of `69 - Bryan Adams
14 Never Ever - All Saints
15 Mr Boombastic - Shaggy
16 Owner Of A Lonely heart - Yes
17 Manic Monday - Bangles
18 Don't You (Forget About Me) - Simple Minds
19 Time After Time - Cyndi Lauper
20 Rock On - David Essex

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1229521,00.html

Basil
08-03-2006, 01:47 AM
Never heard "Livin' Thing" but ELO's "Telephone Line" is one of my all-time faves.

Pensive
08-03-2006, 04:00 AM
Summer Of 69 is one of my favourites! I am not at all embarrassed to admit it!

Scheherazade
08-04-2006, 09:31 AM
I spent last night listening to these 'Top 20 Guilty Pleasures' songs because I didn't know / couldn't remember some. I did not hear of ELO till this list nor their songs. After listening both 'Livin' Thing' and 'Telephone Line', I can say that they are not my thang.

I cannot stand Gary Glitter, Billy Idol or Shaggy.

I like these and not embarrassed to say so:
I Will Survive - Gloria Gaynor
Centrefold - J Geils Band
Summer of `69 - Bryan Adams
Never Ever - All Saints
Manic Monday - Bangles
Don't You (Forget About Me) - Simple Minds

I am neutral about the rest of the songs. Not sure why people find it hard to admit they like certain songs... We wouldn't feel in the same way, say, about our food choices, would we? Like I like toast and jam! :banana:

Scheherazade
08-06-2006, 07:44 PM
Some of the songs we love are branded embarrassing and calling students 'clever' is a no-no these days:
ELO are the band we love, but hate to admit it, according to a list this week, while Top of the Pops became a victim of its unhip-ness. But when it comes to what's in and what's out, haven't we gone beyond cool, asks Alan Connor.

Finding music used to need a bit of savvy and a lot of elbow grease: due attention to the appropriate radio shows and magazines, and a trip to a bigger town to find a shop with more than a few tapes.

Now you can't move without being told about how many bazillions of members have signed up to community music sites; online bookshops will have more albums than any megastore can hold and sites like Last.FM even provide computers to eavesdrop on your listening habits and tell you what to try next.

Which, you might have thought, doesn't leave a lot of room for the munificent tastemakers, mavens and with-it-ologists to helpfully guide us in making sure that our listening is stylistically correct.

Well, you might have thought that, but you'd be wrong. Newspapers and TV bulletins this week are falling over themselves to tell us about the list of "guilty pleasures" compiled by Q magazine: songs which we were previously told it was uncool to like, but which are now apparently acceptable.

On the one hand, this is the archetypal silly season story: a concoction of list format, press release, water-cooler talking point and a large dose of fluff.

But there may not even really be a talking point.

Cheesy music

The idea of "guilty pleasures" can be traced back to BBC local radio DJ Sean Rowley, who started a search for songs that people liked "in spite of themselves".

It catches the ears for a moment, and then you start to wonder: who on earth listens to music "in spite of themselves"?

TOP FIVE GUILTY PLEASURES
1. ELO - Livin' Thing
2. Boston - More Than A Feeling
3. S Club 7 - Don't Stop Movin'
4. 10cc - I'm Not In Love
5. Gary Glitter - Rock'n'Roll Part 2
Source: Q Magazine

Look through the CDs of normal people. and you're unlikely to find Yes, All Saints and Hall & Oates hidden away in a corner of shame: these are multi-platinum artists, after all.

And when the Today programme ran an article on "cheesy music" this week, you could hear four million listeners saying "...but I didn't even know that ELO were forbidden. Do you mean I've been listening to them without the proper permissions?"

The new establishment

Moreover, who's doing the deciding? In the case of "Guilty Pleasures", the edicts are coming from the punk generation. For the benefit of younger readers, in the 1970s, various fans and critics declared a "Year Zero", pronouncing that music had gone stale.

If you believe the tales of these elders, punk was necessary because every previous song of the 1970s had been a 14-minute epic about hobbits, performed in a tricky 11:8 time signature.

Now those young punks have become the establishment, the previous diktats have been revised and suddenly "it's OK to love" Dire Straits.

One set of rules has been replaced by another, and this is supposed to be a celebration of individual taste.

The feature in Q isn't a poll; it's a list compiled by a magazine which has never exactly been cutting edge, and it contains some frankly bewildering entries.

The Bangles? (If we're counting, the band was rated by Prince, a paragon of cool in anyone's book.) And Cyndi Lauper? (The same goes here, double, with regard to Miles Davis.)

Some acts appear to have made the "guilty" list solely because they had haircuts that were fashionable during their heyday. Other tracks are guilty of little more than being fun.

Cold hard sales

It seems likely, though, that Meat Loaf, Cliff Richard and ELO are too busy counting their Himalayan heaps of cash to keep up with whether a few London scenesters have decided that they're "cool" again.

The last few years of Top Of The Pops saw the programme lambasted by more spokespeople for cool, decrying the show for being in grave danger of not being trendy enough: of not being "relevant".

The core of TOTP, though, was the songs which had built up the most cold hard sales since the previous edition. If British people bought cool records, they were in.

You'd have to be frighteningly easily entertained to have liked every song on TOTP, but it did offer a central unarguable starting point.

With even that gone, and with cultural commentators descending into incoherence, how is the music fan to pick a direction through the acres of back catalogue and hordes of new bands?

Well, you could always try trusting your own ears. If a song is playing and its "cool rating" even crosses your mind, you should probably be listening a little less to pundits and a little more to actual music.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/5245294.stm

Scheherazade
08-09-2006, 10:54 AM
Are You Psychic? (http://home.freeuk.net/wil.walker/html/psychic01.html)

Jay
08-09-2006, 11:35 AM
There's something VERY wrong with my brain ;)... or with the site :p

Scheherazade
08-10-2006, 03:51 AM
1. Roll on your side down a grassy bank

2. Make a mud pie

3. Make your own modelling dough mixture

4. Collect frogspawn

5. Make perfume from flower petals

6. Grow cress on a windowsill

7. Make a papier mâché mask

8. Build a sandcastle

9. Climb a tree

10. Make a den in the garden

11. Make a painting using your hands and feet

12. Organise your own teddy bears' picnic

13. Have your face painted

14. Play with a friend in the sand

15. Make some bread

16. Make snow angels

17. Create a clay sculpture

18. Take part in a scavenger hunt

19. Camp out in the garden

20. Bake a cake

21. Feed a farm animal

22. Pick some strawberries

23. Play pooh sticks

24. Recognise five different bird species

25. Find some worms

26. Ride a bike through a muddy puddle

27. Make and fly a kite

28. Plant a tree

29. Build a nest out of grass and twigs

30. Find ten different leaves in the park

31. Grow vegetables

32. Make breakfast in bed for your parents

33. Make a mini assault course in your garden/the park

http://lifestyle.uk.msn.com/schoolholidays/article.aspx?cp-documentid=598368

Pensive
08-10-2006, 10:26 AM
Hehe, I used to do this number five thingy a lot before ten:

5. Make perfume from flower petals

I woudn't mind trying it even now!!! Give me some Roses and I will make you the most wonderful scent ever!!!!

Scheherazade
08-19-2006, 04:04 PM
Geniuses Test (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4798235.stm)

Scheherazade
08-20-2006, 08:54 AM
As Andrew Lloyd Webber tries to find his Maria for a West End revival, why does this slice of camp continue to have such a profound grip over so many people?

It's based on a true story. It's got children. Scenery. Singing nuns. It's even got Nazis. Little wonder The Sound of Music is one of a select group of films with both mass appeal and an enthusiastic cult following.

The Sound of Music is the epitome of chirpy optimism and innocence. Even though the central element of the plot is a middle-aged man trying to pull a young nun, it's regarded as the height of wholesomeness.

TRUTH AND FICTION

The real von Trapps married in 1927, not 1938
Escaped by train to Italy, not by foot to Switzerland
Children's names were changed
Edelweiss was written for the musical - it's not an anthem
Eldest child was a son, not daughter
It's been described as "Hegel with songs" and a "fantasy rewriting of the Reformation", and to some it's a self-help film, a ballad of the outsider and a paean to tolerance.

For those who have been living in a cave for the past 40 years, the 1965 film sees Julie Andrews play novice nun Maria, sent out of her convent to be the governess of the von Trapp children, the seven daughters and sons of a retired navy captain.

Maria and the captain fall in love, marry and are forced to flee the Anschluss, the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany. In the film they hike over the mountains to Switzerland. In real life, the family got a train to Italy and then went on to the United States, where they toured successfully as the Trapp Family Singers.

Children's courage

Forty years on, an incarnation of the von Trapp Children is still touring, comprising four of the great grandchildren of the captain: Melanie von Trapp, 16, along with sisters Sofia, 18, Amanda, 15, and 11-year-old Justin. They will be coming to the UK next summer.

"It is something that is just really wholesome," Melanie says, from the family's Montana home.

"It's such a wonderful story and the fact it's all true makes it even more special. We aren't ashamed at all. We love the story.

"It is the courage that the children and the whole family had to stand up against what was so wrong and so evil. Most of Austria was letting Hitler come into the country."

Four decades on from the film, and Salzburg in Austria welcomes 300,000 Sound of Music fans a year. According to the authorities, the appeal of the film version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical runs Mozart close as an attraction.

Joerg Steinitz worked as an assistant director on Robert Wise's film.

"It contains everything that makes a good film for Americans - it is a migration film, there are children, there's music, the landscape, and Nazis. All you need."

Swastika controversy

But in Austria the film is far from being an institution, and there has long been a strange ambivalence towards it.

"To be quite honest we were really afraid it would flop. I try and explain to Americans by saying it is as if a Japanese crew went to Nebraska to film a Western. It wouldn't generate a lot of interest," Mr Steinitz says.

"It is a strange attitude for the Salzburg people. To say the least, they don't know it. On the first run the film was shown for only three days. A lot of people were upset that it didn't look Austrian."

And, he says, there was controversy at the time over how the Anschluss would be portrayed. The director originally wanted 500 arriving German soldiers being greeted by an equal-sized crowd of extras, but the eventual compromise with the town meant a much smaller force, indifferent townspeople, and only three Swastika flags allowed.

In the event filming ran late on the day the scene was shot and the flags baffled arriving officials at a nearby international conference. "The Soviet delegates weren't impressed," recalls Mr Steinitz.

"But the political and historical picture is so much in favour of Austria. They should go down on their knees and thank The Sound of Music. It shows the whole country more or less as being anti-Nazi, and being raped by the Anschluss."

In the film one of the children utters the immortal line: "Maybe the flag with the black spider on it makes people nervous."

Doh a deer

But it's probably safe to say that such political nuances are not a factor for many of the film's fans.

COSTUME CHOICES

Goats
Nuns
Brown paper packages tied up with string
The hills
Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes
Maria
The Sun

For seven years Sing-a-long-a-Sound-of-Music has toured the country, as well as a permanent berth at London's Prince Charles Cinema. Every month, zealots turn up in fancy dress. Many come as nuns, or as brown paper packages tied up with string. A few even wear fake grass to as "the hills".

Supposedly inspired by group singing sessions in an Inverness old people's home as a form of group therapy, it's been heralded as a unique bonding experience.

Abi Finley, 23, is one of 10 finalists competing to star in Andrew Lloyd Webber's revival in BBC One's talent quest How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? The Mancunian singer claims to have seen the film more than 1,000 times.

"Maybe I should get some medical help. But it is such a beautiful story. The message behind it is confidence and believing in yourself.

"It is great to be in a room of 500 people obsessed with the show. They sigh at the same time, laugh at the same time, well up at the same time. And it's got some sort of moral fibre."

Gay Times arts editor Joe Heaney says that Maria's transformation is key to the story's enduring popularity.

"It's about someone who is a complete outsider, she has been living in a convent and is very afraid to live in the real world and yet she is able to conquer her fears."

And that is something that has universal appeal.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/5262588.stm0

Pensive
08-20-2006, 11:06 AM
Watching Sound of Music again and again, and singing "I am sixteen" are a few of my favourite things.:D

Scheherazade
09-11-2006, 11:41 AM
Slimming photos (http://www.hp.com/united-states/consumer/digital_photography/tours/slimming/index_f.html)

Taliesin
09-11-2006, 01:31 PM
OK, we can't remember the name of the artist, but we remember him making pieces of art with human figures also slimmed like that. We think that he was a post-war artist, showing how hungry and in how bad conditions the people were.

Scheherazade
09-12-2006, 05:27 PM
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/42078000/jpg/_42078904_museumfish203pacred.jpg
A fish at a Scottish museum has undergone surgery after visitors complained it was too ugly. A harmless but unsightly growth was removed from the goldfish, which was on show at the Royal Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.

The operation was paid for using coins thrown into the fish pond at the popular visitor attraction.

A spokeswoman for the museum would not say how many complaints had been made about the fish.

Scientists decided to remove the unsightly growth after people expressed concern.

The lump, which did not seem to distress the fish in any way, was removed along with one of its eyes. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/5337358.stm

Madhuri
09-14-2006, 01:05 PM
1. The shortest war on record took place in 1896 when Zanzibar surrendered to Britain after 38 minutes.

2. The longest war – called The 100-year War – between Britain and France lasted 116 years, ending in 1453.

3. Since 1815 there have been 210 interstate wars. And since 1495, no 25-year period has passed without war.

4. The NATO attack on Serbia in 1999 during the Kosovo war killed more animals than people.

5. The very first bomb that the Allies dropped on Berlin in World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin zoo.

6. When killed in battle, Japanese officers are, by tradition, promoted to the next highest rank.

7. The first reference to a handgun was made in an English order form for iron bullets in the year 1326.

8. The Peloponnesian War in 500 BC, saw Spartans use sulphur to beat enemy – the first instance of chemical warfare.

9. Global spending on defence totals more than $700 billion. Global spending on education is less than $100 billion.

10. In 1997, the US exported $15.6 billion in arms to developing countries, 54% of which went to non-democratic regimes.

Virgil
09-14-2006, 03:10 PM
3. Since 1815 there have been 210 interstate wars. And since 1495, no 25-year period has passed without war.


This is the most interesting of all the facts listed. I've come to the conclusion that it is within the nature of humanity to be at war. It also tells you you better think about the defense of your country.

Madhuri
09-14-2006, 11:22 PM
This is the most interesting of all the facts listed. I've come to the conclusion that it is within the nature of humanity to be at war. It also tells you you better think about the defense of your country.

I agree!

Another fact that was interesting to me was the amount of money spent on defence, it shows how insecure nations are, that they have to spent more on warfare than education.

Virgil
09-15-2006, 08:29 AM
I agree!

Another fact that was interesting to me was the amount of money spent on defence, it shows how insecure nations are, that they have to spent more on warfare than education.

Yeah, but Madhuri. Given that there has always been wars and given the threats out there, don't you think it makes sense to spend on defense?

cuppajoe_9
09-17-2006, 03:21 PM
Philisophical questin : is it possible to be off topic on a thread titled Non Sequitur?

AimusSage
09-17-2006, 04:16 PM
For those of you who are not yet ready for tuesday, or talk like a pirate day I found this very useful Instruction video (http://loadingreadyrun.com/showmovie.php?x=480&y=360&url=talklikepirate.mov) :)

Madhuri
09-18-2006, 04:01 AM
Do you believe in superstitions ? Here's where you can find all about it from across the world Superstitions (http://www.leftfield-psi.net/mysteries/superstition.html)

Scheherazade
10-04-2006, 12:18 PM
Proof of God's existence (http://www.godlessgeeks.com/LINKS/GodProof.htm)

Madhuri
10-08-2006, 02:56 AM
Bats:

Bats avoid obstacles and nab insects on the wing by emitting ultrasonic squeaks and interpreting the echo the sound waves make after bouncing off objects in the environment. This biological sonar, called "echolocation," is also used by dolphins to navigate murky waters.

Sharks:

Never play hide-and-seek with a shark because you'll lose. Sharks have special cells in their brains that are sensitive to the electrical fields other creatures generate. This ability is so refined in some sharks that they can find fish hiding under sand by the weak electric signals their twitching muscles emit.

Boas:

Temperature-sensitive organs located between the eyes and nostrils of boas and pit vipers allow the snakes to sense the body heat of their prey. There is one located on each side of the snakes' head, so the animals can perceive depth and strike with deadly accuracy even in complete darkness.

Hummingbird:

The eyes of insects and birds are attuned to wavelengths of light outside the visible range that humans see in. Birds that appear drab to us are often radiant in colors we don’t even have names for when seen in near-ultraviolet light. Telescopes like Hubble make ultraviolet images, which are colorized by technicians so we can enjoy them.

Cats:

Cats have a mirror-like membrane in the backs of their eyes that lets them hunt and move in almost complete darkness. Called a "tapetum lucidum," the membrane reflects light after it has already traveled through the retina, giving the eyes another chance to nab the photons as they make their second trip.

Snake:

A snake flicking its forked tongue might look ominous to us, but it's just the animal sniffing its surroundings. A snakes use its tongues to collect particles wafting in the air. The coated tongue is then dipped into special pits in the roofs of the snake's mouth, called Jacobson's organs. There, the odors get processed and translated into electrical signals that are sent to the brain.

Moths:

For moths, the term "love is in the air" is something to be taken literally. The furry insects can detect chemical love signals, called "pheromones," emitted by the opposite sex from up to seven-miles away. Some studies show humans also detect pheromones, but the effect seems to require close encounters.

Rats:

Most rats have poor vision, but they make up for it with the "whiskers on their snouts. They use the long hairs, also called "vibrissae," in the same way that blind people use canes. By whisking the hairs across objects the come across, rats and other rodents form mental pictures of their surroundings.

Drum fish:

Some fish like this drum fish "hear" using their air bladders. The bladders detect sound vibrations and relay them to the inner ear via a set of bones in the middle ear called the "Weberian apparatus." Hair cells in the inner ear respond to the vibrations and transmit the sound information to the fish's brain.

Migratory birds:

Many birds, especially those that migrate, can use the "Earth's magnetic field to stay their course during long flights. Scientists still aren't sure how they do it, but one recent study suggests birds might have a form of synesthesia that lets them "see" the planet's magnetic lines as patterns of color or light that is overlaid on their visual surroundings. Humans must rely on familiar landmarks or the sun's position to locate North, and many can't even manage that.

Animal Senses (http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/top10_animal_senses.html)

Beautiful Image -- Dew Drop -- Refraction (http://www.livescience.com/amazingimages/cte.php?guid=44b7338680db88.44803909&cat=l)

Taliesin
10-08-2006, 10:35 AM
Proof of God's existence (http://www.godlessgeeks.com/LINKS/GodProof.htm)
Hilarious!:lol:
Actually, we are not an atheist, but these are still funny.

We especially liked these:


121. ARGUMENT FROM PERSECUTION (II)
(1) Jesus said that people would make fun of Christians.
(2) I am an idiot.
(3) People often point that out.
(4) Therefore, God exists.

72. ARGUMENT FROM INSANITY
(1) No sane person could have thought up Christianity.
(2) Therefore, it must be true
(3) Therefore, God exists.


and, especially:

46. CALVINIST ARGUMENT, a.k.a. TERTULLIAN'S ARGUMENT
(1) If God exists, then he will let me watch you be tortured forever.
(2) I rather like that idea.
(3) Therefore, God exists.

Scheherazade
10-10-2006, 06:28 PM
Paris and Nicole feud 'is over'

Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie have agreed to film a new series of the reality show The Simple Life. The show had been put in danger by a year-long feud which saw the pair filming their sections separately.

But it has been confirmed they will play the role of children's camp counsellors in the newest adventure, set to begin production next month.

The show's executive producer, Jon Murray, said: "The thing the viewers love is the two girls together."

Survivalists

Mr Murray said for the next season of the programme he plans to put the pair on a deserted island with a group of survivalists.

The decision was reached after they agreed to appear side-by-side again.

"They reached out to each other in universal disdain for the island concept and rekindled their friendship," he said.

The two went public with their seemingly reconciled relationship on Sunday, arriving together at a restaurant in Los Angeles.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6036331.stm

Scheherazade
10-13-2006, 11:53 AM
It’s Friday the 13th, which could mean a day of horror for superstitious people who dread the number 13. And not only that, this Friday, all of the date's digits - 13-10-2006 - add up to a total of, guess what? 13 (cue Omen music).

So could we all be doomed to a day of ultra unluckiness - or is it all just a load of old codswallop?

You’ve got to be pretty unlucky to suffer from paraskevidekatriaphobia, or the fear of Friday the 13th, for a start because no one can say it. But even more so because, as with most superstitious fears, it is one that’s ultimately self-inflicted. It stands to reason that if you think, “I can’t drive today unless a black cat crosses my path because it’s Friday 13th and I’ll end up pranging the car,” the chances are you’ll be much more nervous and therefore increase the likelihood of that happening.

Some people are so paraskevidekatriaphobic (try saying it three times – you'd be lucky) that they won't go to work on Friday the 13th, which is pretty unlucky for their colleagues. Some won't eat in restaurants (unlucky for the chefs) and many wouldn't think of setting a wedding on the date (poor bored vicars).

But while all this may sound trite, it’s actually a very serious matter. The fear of the number 13 has a strong grip on western society. Many cities in the States don’t have a 13th Street or Avenue. And many buildings don't have a 13th floor. And you’ll need as many four-leaved clovers as you can carry if you have 13 letters in your name, for legend has it you’ll have the devil's luck. Jack the Ripper has 13 letters in his name, see? (Though one suspects it might have been more than a bad luck day that sent him on a rampaging psychopathic killing mission.)

Here’s another bad luck fact: there are reportedly 13 witches in a coven. But there were only three “Weird Sisters” in Macbeth and they managed to cause enough trouble between them in the Scottish Highlands.

It has been proposed that fears surrounding the number 13 are as ancient as the act of counting. Primitive man only had his 10 fingers and two feet to represent units, so apparently he couldn’t count higher than 12. But the most mysterious thing about this theory is that primitive man hadn’t worked out how to count with his toes too. That’s pretty primitive.

Psychologist Dr Richard Wiseman of the University of Hertfordshire has carried out extensive research into the matter and he believes that – to a certain extent, people make their own luck. "Unlucky people tend to buy into negative superstitions, like having seven years bad luck after smashing a mirror,” he says.

“If you're one of these people, the fact that it's Friday the 13th could make you anxious and that will make you more likely to have accidents, drive less well, and perhaps find it harder to relate to other people. So your bad luck could be your own doing," he sagely advises.

Wiseman (how lucky for a doctor to have such a clever-sounding name?) conducted a survey featuring 4,000 people and found that those who were "lucky" tended to believe in superstitions designed to bring good luck, such as touching wood, crossing fingers and carrying a lucky charm. While "unlucky" people were drawn to bad luck superstitions, such as breaking a mirror, walking under a ladder, or having anything to do with the number 13.

Wiseman even goes so far as to suggest that some people might even use bad luck as an excuse for failing at something. Well it is pretty unlucky if your dog ate your homework. But if you left it in his basket then just maybe you just helped that bad luck to happen.

But then, just as people base their faith in their horoscopes, or believe in the hand of fate, maybe superstitious beliefs are just our ways of explaining – and coping with – the things that we want to understand but cannot rationally explain. Why for example, of all the days, is the train cancelled when you’re going for that important interview? Why did that pigeon poop have to land on your head this morning? (That’s lucky by the way, though quite why is a mystery entirely.) And why did your suitcase go missing on that flight when every other passenger has theirs?

Some of these accidents can be put down to human error – the clumsiness of the baggage handler, the train company failing to make sure its trains were in full working order. But some are simply down to the random forces of nature. The tree that fell through the garage because a gale was blowing in that direction, or the river that burst its banks and flooded the cottage. (But then could that be put down to human error too, because the cottage should have been built on higher ground?)

So some kinds of bad luck can be avoided through preparation, preparation and preparation. Having the foresight to see what could possibly go wrong doesn’t make a person a pessimist, it just means that some potential problems could be avoided. But not everyone is as careful as they can possibly be all of the time. Not everyone is perky and alert 24/7.

Mistakes happen and worrying about them happening is pointless. They’re random and nothing to be frightened of. We learn from them and (here’s the touchy-feely part) become better at handling situations because of them. So this Friday 13, just keep your fingers crossed, touch wood and forget it's all happening - and it will pass like any other day. Incidentally, isn’t it lucky that it’s Friday 13 – and not Monday 13 – that would be really awful. May the luck of the Irish be with you.http://lifestyle.uk.msn.com/features/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1059060

Scheherazade
10-19-2006, 06:39 PM
Santa Claus and Barbie are among some of the "most important characters" to have shaped society, behaviour - or even swayed the course of history. Topping the list in a book of The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived is Marlboro Man - a 1950s marketing creation to boost cigarette sales.

The book's three US co-authors say that his biggest influence has been to cause the death of millions from cancer.

At number two is writer George Orwell's Big Brother, followed by King Arthur.

According to the book's authors, King Arthur - held by some to be a historical figure - embodies for many the ideal qualities of a monarch or leader.

'Surprising consequences'

Only characters that have managed to "shape society, change our behaviour, and set the course of history" made the list.

TOP 10 MOST INFLUENTIAL

1 The Marlboro Man
2 Big Brother
3 King Arthur
4 Santa Claus
5 Hamlet
6 Dr Frankenstein's Monster
7 Siegfried
8 Sherlock Holmes
9 Romeo and Juliet
10 Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

"The figments of our imaginations, the creatures we push out of our minds into the real world are fully capable of pushing back with surprising consequences," Jeremy Salter, one of the book's authors, told Reuters news agency.

Santa Claus registers at number four because he "makes us believe we are entitled to goodies just for living in an affluent society, and governs our entire economy for the last quarter of the year".

Characters such as the Ugly Duckling, Ebenezer Scrooge, Shylock and superhero Batman are also included.

Each entry is accompanied by a short description, explaining the significance of the character - be it good or bad.

Secret agent James Bond, positioned at 51, is praised for his "intrigue, sex appeal and British suavity with the highest technologies of modern age".

Meanwhile, Barbie - "the bodacious plastic babe" at number 43 - is blamed for "setting an impossible standard for beauty and style".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6066724.stm

cuppajoe_9
10-22-2006, 12:18 AM
http://www.mbl.is/folk/dilbert/img/05/1226.gif

"Easy pal, that horseradish won't jump a fence."

"You're blind, Mr. Magoo, this is the crossroads for me."

"Suzy, that's fish four days old, I won't buy it."

"He's a big man, he wins all the marbles."

"Rest in peace, Kelly! You're skinny, but JJ says you're sweat."

Scheherazade
10-25-2006, 02:10 PM
A survey this week found one in five British children could not find the UK on a map of the world.

What about other countries? Test yourself by identifying the 10 countries highlighted in the following questions.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6083496.stm


PS: I could answer only 7 correctly :-/

AimusSage
10-25-2006, 06:05 PM
10 out of 10!!!

Yay, I know where the Netherlands is on the world map, it's right where I left it :D :p Wow! amazing, it just sunk into the North Sea. Now I'm glad I live on the second floor :nod:

Logos
10-25-2006, 07:33 PM
Just in case anyone is missing the old forum styleee :D

http://www.online-literature.com/images/top.png

Scheherazade
11-01-2006, 12:06 AM
The sinister side of Halloween is being exploited, says one leading church figure, when it could celebrate the triumph of good over evil. Can Halloween go cuddly? Halloween, Fright Night, All Hallow's Eve. Call it what you will, but it's supposed to be scary... right?

Not according to one cleric, who wants people to come away from Halloween's darker side.

The Rt Rev David Gillett, the Bishop of Bolton, says the "more horrific" of masks prove too scary for many children. With the Mothers' Union - a Christian parenting group - Bishop Gillett is backing a campaign called Halloween Choice to promote the lighter side of the festival.

"The emphasis has become so evil and scary, I've spoken to children and adults who find it too scary," he says.

Bishop Gillett wants a shift away from horror character masks, like Hannibal Lecter, towards the Christian celebration of good over evil. And, he wants an end to the trick or treating-style harassment that brings out extra police patrols and can be a nuisance to some.

Costumes could have a brighter side, he says, and home-made outfits would let people set their own fear factor. Shops could stock up on hair braids, bright balloons, face paints and glow tubes, instead of fake blood and evil eyes.

"Why not lighter costumes? Brighter colours?" he asks. "Face masks that people could paint themselves in a way that sets their own level of spookiness?

"It's not to do with the occult, or asking supermarkets to stop what they are doing. It's saying when children are in a supermarket and asking 'Get me something for a Halloween outfit', they can buy something other than the horrific choices.

Creepy cash

Party-wise, churches have begun to organise alternative events for children around Halloween - parties with songs, games, quizzes and stories. But Halloween's creepy roots stretch way back, to the Celtic feast of Samhain as well as All Hallow's Eve, and in the last few years, selling scariness has been highly lucrative for supermarkets.

UK spending on Halloween will top £120m this year, says Bryan Roberts from industry analysts Planet Retail. This compares with £12m five years ago. The pumpkin market alone is worth £25m. It is the third most profitable seasonal push in supermarkets after Christmas and Easter, with whole aisles turned over to pumpkin costumes, witches hats and the like.

The make-you-jump thrill is, surely, part of the attraction. Would children trade all this dressing up and trick or treating for a "nice" Halloween?

At outlets like Angels Fancy Dress, in London, it is standing room only at peak shopping time as workers take their lunch not with a knife and fork but complete with a devil's trident.

But Halloween is not all about "hell and horror", says owner Emma Angel. The choice, to which Bishop Gillett refers, exists already.

Alongside its vampire teeth, scream-style masks and sinister clown outfits, Angels has sold Ghostbusters gear, banana costumes, "mad" doctor's scrubs, and, for children, a pink candy witch. Hardly spine-chilling.

We are already in touch with Halloween's brighter side, she says.

"It's just a great fun time of year for people to dress up, adults and children. Ghostbusters outfits are fun, not evil.

"People don't come in and say, 'I want to be Satan in disguise' or 'I really want to scare people'. They just want to put a pair of vampire's teeth in a funny way."http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6099008.stm


Tonight, when I opened the door to couple of 'trick-or-treaters', the youngest of the group, who seemed around 4-5, looked at me and said, 'That is too scary for me, that is!' and I couldn't help feeling guilty (and no, I wasn't wearing a mask; I had just removed my daily make up :p). Is it true that Halloween has become 'too scary'?

cuppajoe_9
11-01-2006, 12:28 AM
Too scary for what? Childhood is the only time when one can get really properly scared without actually being in any serious danger, and no sissy-pants bishop is going to take that away from them if I have anything to say about it.

Scheherazade
11-18-2006, 08:30 PM
He championed free-market economics and was said to be the intellectual godfather behind the Thatcher and Reagan eras. But Milton Friedman, the economist who has died aged 94, will perhaps be remembered best for his observation "There's no such thing as a free lunch".

The Monitor is inclined to agree – at least, when the much-lamented Lunchtime Bonus Question was in its prime, there really was no such thing as a free lunch as it would devote its hour-long break to churning through e-mail responses sent in by fanatical LBQers.

In a monetary sense, however, the Monitor must take issue with Mr Friedman's glib observation. Free lunches are there to be had, you just need to know where to look?

So, in a one-off revival of the Friday Challenge – all for the good of Children in Need, you understand – where is the best place to look for a free lunch?

You can read the suggestions and make your own at:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2006/11/friday_challenge_1.shtml

Scheherazade
11-19-2006, 06:28 PM
A new generation of superheroes is on its way to save the world - thanks to mums and dads who are film fanatics.

Records have shown two boys born in recent years have been named Superman.

And six youngsters now answer to the name of Gandalf, after the wizard in The Lord Of The Rings.

Other proud parents, presumably inspired by the silky football of Thierry Henry, have called their children Arsenal.

Three families have named sons David Beckham - and 29 have named theirs Gazza.

Golf-mad dads have apparently had their say too, with nearly 2,000 children named Tiger, according to the research of birth certificates since 1984 by family history website findmypast.com.

Rap stars Dr Dre, Tupac, Jay-Z and even Snoop Dogg have had children named after them.

More predictably there have also been more than 6,000 Kieras - reflecting the rise of actress Kiera Knightley.

Kylie is still a more popular name for girls, however, with more than 7,000 born in the past 22 years.http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91059-13552569,00.html

ennison
11-19-2006, 06:48 PM
Many a poor child has had his or her life blighted by mad parents calling them loony names. A sure sign of a dysfunctional family is to name your sprogs after celebs. Certain names are meant for neds and nutters only. Some names lead the bearer to become caricatures of themselves. They have to 'live' the associated image.

Basil
11-27-2006, 04:13 AM
Let's play a quick game of...

Which of these things is not like the other?

http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/8497/picture1lg5.jpg

Scheherazade
11-27-2006, 08:06 PM
Starring: Tom Hanks and Audrey Hepburn, with a cameo from Gene Kelly Singing (and dancing) in the Rain

The Kiss: Dirty Dancing's dance floor classic


Comedy: Life of Brian Monty Python genius

Action: Futuristic fight scenes from The Matrix, car chases from The Italian Job and explosions from Independence Day
Best One-Liner: "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn" – Rhett to Scarlet in Gone With The Wind

Twist Ending: Ghostly happenings in The Sixth Sense

Here's a more in-depth look at your choices…

1. Leading Man: Hollywood A-Listers Tom Hanks, Robert De Niro and Samuel L Jackson each polled 16% of the public vote to top the popularity poll for best leading man. Surprisingly there was no place in the top three for heart-throbs Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise.

2. Leading Lady: Eternal silver screen goddess Audrey Hepburn stole the show in this category, polling nearly a third (30%) of the British public vote. The modern day female hearth-throbs fared much better than their male counterparts; Halle Berry and Angelina Jolie join Hepburn in the top three with 12% and 8% of the vote respectively.

3. One-liner: The one-liner often makes or breaks a movie scene and nearly a fifth (18%) of the country said the immortal "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn" from Gone with the Wind was their favourite line of all time.

4. Action: The Ultimate Movie would have three key action scenes – a fight, car chase and explosion. One in five (20%) of the public chose the explosion of the White House in Independence Day as their favourite 'big bang' in Hollywood. The best fight scene was a three-way tie, with Rocky III, Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade and The Matrix, all polling a combine total of 30% of the vote. The car chase from the 60s classic, The Italian Job had the most popular car chase in movie history.

5. Kiss: Just under a fifth of the nation (18%) had the time of their lives when voting for their favourite kissing scene as Dirty Dancing's smooching romped home with the majority of the vote.

6. Laughing and Singing: The Monty Python gang walked away with the top comedy moment for the "I am Brian" scene in the famous film after beating the competition with 23% of the vote. The dancing scene in the Ultimate Movie would come courtesy of Gene Kelly in Singing in the Rain, who narrowly edged out the famous Greased Lightning scene from Grease to take the lead with 18% of the vote.

7. Ending: No movie would be complete without one and the majority of the British public (17%) voted for the final scenes of The Italian Job as their favourite movie ending. They really don't make them like they used to; the top three was completed by The Wizard Of Oz and Gone With The Wind, who each polled 12% of the vote. For best ending with a twist, The Sixth Sense came out trumps with 29% of the vote.http://movies.uk.msn.com/features/press.aspx

Scheherazade
12-01-2006, 08:53 PM
A James Bond fanatic has changed his name by deed poll to match his hero's - and used the title of all 21 films as his middle names.

David Fearn is now known as James Dr No From Russia With Love Goldfinger Thunderball You Only Live Twice On Her Majesty's Secret Service Diamonds Are Forever Live And Let Die The Man With The Golden Gun The Spy Who Loved Me Moonraker For Your Eyes Only Octopussy A View To A Kill The Living Daylights Licence To Kill Golden Eye Tomorrow Never Dies The World Is Not Enough Die Another Day Casino Royale Bond.

The 23-year-old council worker told The Daily Mirror he wanted to prove he was one of the world's biggest Bond fans.

"I can't wait for the first time somebody asks what my name is," he said.http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91059-13552567,00.html

brainstrain
12-01-2006, 10:04 PM
Haha, i would change my name to David Rush Inkheart if i could. I hate my last name (not so much because of it, but the family with which i share it >_<). But still...if you ever had to sign a form with your "full name"...could you even remember all that?

I would hope so ^_^

n.b. Inkheart is the name of my favorite book ever

Nightshade
12-02-2006, 01:28 AM
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91059-13552567,00.html

has the man even thought about how hell fit all that on official documents?

Madhuri
12-13-2006, 05:25 AM
Heights for something.....:D



HEIGHT OF ISOLATION:
Two persons sitting side by side using emails to communicate with each other.

HEIGHT OF COWARDICE:
Two persons fighting through emails.

HEIGHT OF HELPLESSNESS:
Receiving no emails for a week.

HEIGHT OF FRUSTRATION:
The email server being down.

HEIGHT OF CARELESSNESS:
Writing a love mail and doing a 'Send All.'

HEIGHT OF ACHIEVEMENT:
A person sending email to a girl wanting to become friends and getting a reply.

HEIGHT OF TIMEPASS:
A person sending email to himself.

HEIGTHT OF EXPECTATION:
Sending Indian cricket team an e-mail, wishing them to win a match
...

HEIGHT OF REPETITION:
Forwarding an email to someone and receiving the same email forwarded back to you By some one in the receiving chain.

HEIGHT OF BROWSING:
U r swimming in the water tank and shout "F1 F1 F1?" instead of shouting "HELP" when u are unable to swim...

HEIGHT OF MY FRIENDSHIP:
I always mail, u don't.

HEIGHT OF HAVING NO WORK:
You reading such mails.

Nightshade
12-13-2006, 02:37 PM
:lol::lol::lol::lol:

Scheherazade
12-14-2006, 01:07 PM
BBC's Test Yourself: Teen Slang (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6179573.stm)

AimusSage
12-14-2006, 05:16 PM
Yay I got 3 out of 10 :D

kilted exile
12-14-2006, 05:25 PM
BBC's Test Yourself: Teen Slang (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6179573.stm)

Phoey "Teen slang", yet more BBC use of England and extrapolating it to the entire world as they are too lazy to go 50miles outside of London and actually do some research

Pensive
12-15-2006, 04:09 AM
BBC's Test Yourself: Teen Slang (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6179573.stm)


Yay I got 3 out of 10

I beat you into it, Aimus! :p

2/10: in which one was just a blind guess. This leaves me with "1" score. I must be a shame to these teens.

Madhuri
12-15-2006, 07:43 AM
Asian Heroes (http://www.time.com/time/asia/2006/heroes/opener.html?cnn=yes) who featured in the Time magazine in last 60 yrs.

Nightshade
12-15-2006, 08:55 AM
Wait a minute thats innercity teen slang. Or even more correctly chav slang. the rest of us dont use that .... we have a differant type of slang.

AimusSage
12-15-2006, 12:08 PM
I beat you into it, Aimus! :p

2/10: in which one was just a blind guess. This leaves me with "1" score. I must be a shame to these teens.

I'm just better at guessing than you pensive :p

Scheherazade
12-17-2006, 12:23 PM
Millions of adults in England have reading skills too poor to enable them to belt out many favourites from a karaoke autocue, research suggests. The lyrics of the 10 most popular karaoke songs have been assessed and rated by government literacy experts.

Those tackling Robbie Williams' Angels needed the reading skills required to pass five good GCSEs (Level 2).

Experts from the Get On literacy campaign said 17.8 million adults would not be able to follow the song.

Those adults are estimated not to have not reached Level 2 reading skills.

They would also have trouble following the lyrics of Gloria Gaynor's I will Survive, the Commitments' Mustang Sally and Queen's Don't Stop Me Now, the research says.

These people may also have trouble working out a household budget or comparing products and services.

And the 5.2 million adults thought not to have attained Level 1 reading skills would struggle with Summer Lovin' from the film musical Grease, Elvis Presley's Suspicious Minds and Abba's Dancing Queen.

Those without this level of skills may not be able to check a pay slip or read bus and train timetables accurately.

Skills minister Phil Hope said: "Whilst we might think we know these tunes inside out, it's only on reading the lyrics properly that we realise that some of our favourite numbers are complicated.

"There are many pitfalls involved in public singing, but once you've got the mic in your hand you don't want your reading skills to let you down."

Wannabe

Anyone who is a wannabe Elvis or a secret Olivia Newton-John who sometimes struggle with the words should think about brushing up their skills in the New Year, he says.

"After all, getting help with your reading and writing could help you get on in your job, as well as improve your turn in the spotlight."

The government is offering hundreds of free courses to boost the basic skills of those who have a difficulties with literacy, language and numeracy.

The prime minister launched the Skills for Life Strategy in 2001 to tackle the legacy of adults with poor literacy, language and numeracy skills within England.

The strategy aims to help create a society where adults have the basic skills they need to find and keep work and participate fully in society.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6183405.stm

Scheherazade
12-21-2006, 09:36 PM
A new football team to rival the traditional giants of the Italian game is being planned - by the Vatican.

In a country where football is like a religion, the proposal has been backed by the game's leading European officials.

However, it is not known whether the side would be a domestic or international club as the Vatican City is a sovereign state.

Home games could be a problem as the Vatican - the world's smallest state - is the size of just five football pitches.

The God Squad idea has been revealed by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Pope's "number two" and avid football fan.

He said: "I don't exclude the possibility that in the future the Vatican could field a football team of the greatest value, at the level of the most famous professional clubs."

Bertone said the huge number of Brazilian religious students at the Vatican could be drafted in to create a divine side, which would play in yellow and white.

A Uefa spokesman said: "The Vatican is a sovereign state recognised by the UN, and we would have no problem in accepting it as a member."http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91059-1244606,00.html

With God on their side, do you think anyone can beat this team? ;)

Scheherazade
12-25-2006, 03:45 PM
By Stephen Tomkins

What are you doing reading this - haven't you got anything better to do, on this of all days? Do you, as the great poet said, know it's Christmastime at all?

I hate to leap to conclusions about anyone, but I say, from what I know of you, that you're an unsociable Scrooge, creeping away from the jolly throng singing carols around the tree, to check your e-mails, browse aimlessly, gorge on humbugs and skulk. You're probably not even wearing your paper crown.

Admittedly, you're not alone. Last year almost 1.3 million people found time out of their festivities to visit this website on Christmas Day. That's a fair few, but just a third of those who visit on a normal day. It seems there are plenty of people for whom family fun and a stodgy pudding have more attraction than the internet.

Of course there are all kinds of reasons why you might be reading this on Christmas Day, other than anti-social behaviour.

Perhaps your job is so important you have to come in to work today. Though if your job allows you to sit around reading this, what is so important about it? Go on, go home, where your delighted family will turn from the flickering fireside and offer you a roasted chestnut. No-one will mind.

Online addict

More likely, you're an addict. You're an internet user. You mainline online, and simply can't make it through to Doctor Who without your daily fix.

I bet when you come home from a holiday the first thing you do is turn on not the kettle or even the light, but the computer, to catch up with your spam, to see whether the worldwide web has missed you, and just because that chime makes you feel normal again. Don't worry, you're amongst friends now.

Or perhaps you just wanted to touch base with the outside world, to check with the BBC whether anything important had happened. Which is legitimate, in theory. Except that you're reading this, and if you believe it's going to get useful and informative in the second half, you are only fooling yourself. Addict it is, and the sooner you admit it the sooner you will be able to tear yourself away and go and have a drink.

That said, I should not overlook the possibility that you are spending the nativity season alone, without friends or family, through no choice of your own. In which case, I apologise for my insensitivity, and belatedly acknowledge that Christmas must be a miserable time of the year for some people, and I've probably made it worse, and I feel very bad about that. There, now you've spoilt my Christmas too. Thanks.

Then again, global reader, you may live in a part of the world where Christmas simply doesn't happen. Last Christmas, 39% of readers of the BBC news website were from outside the UK, compared to 31% on a normal day. That's a pretty watertight excuse.

Reality bites

Another possibility is that a merry Yule is going on all around you, but you refuse to let it happen to you. You may, for example, be a non-Christian who can't see why the fact that Jesus was born on an unknown date should oblige you to cover a fake fir tree with tinsel, eat sprouts and watch The Vicar of Dibley in his name.

You may, for that matter, be a Christian who can't see why the fact that Jesus was born on an unknown date should oblige you to cover a fake fir tree with tinsel, eat sprouts and watch The Vicar of Dibley in his name.

And yet, after all that, perhaps the reason you're surfing today is simply that it's something to do. We like to think that Christmas should be a day unlike any other, but once you've opened your presents, eaten your dinner and played with your children's toys, what you've got left is pretty much a day like any other, except with better TV.

The image we carry around of friendly robins, wall-to-wall jollity and snow-covered windows through which Dickensian lantern-swinging urchins sing God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen rarely seems to materialise. And when reality fails us, there's always cyberspace. So here we are.

Ah well, merry Monday, and a happy new week.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6200383.stm

Taliesin
01-02-2007, 06:44 AM
Don't remind us of Banjo! (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0080.html)

Scheherazade
01-03-2007, 01:23 PM
BBC's CV (Resume) Spelling Quiz (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6228071.stm)

Nightshade
01-09-2007, 04:18 PM
some amusing ecards

http://00fun.com/lifebefore.shtml

http://00fun.com/oxymorons.shtml

enjoy!!

:D


BBC's CV (Resume) Spelling Quiz (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6228071.stm)

6/7 Im amazed!

Scheherazade
01-10-2007, 02:36 PM
Saying sorry used to be a way of apologising, but these days the s-word has come to mean many different things, and its heavy use says much about modern British attitudes.

"It always seems to me that sorry seems to be the hardest word."

So sang a bespectacled, flares-wearing Elton John in his famous 1976 hit Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word.

Not anymore, Elton. Today, sorry seems to be the easiest word.

According to a survey of 1,100 people conducted by Esure car insurance company (famous for their "Calm down dear!" adverts starring Michael Winner), the average Brit will say sorry a staggering 1.9 million times in his or her lifetime.

The word sorry is uttered 368 million times per day in the UK.

The s-word was traditionally used to express regret for having done something wrong. Now, according to Esure, it appears to have "transformed into a common and over-used figure of speech that makes its way into most daily conversations".

WHO DO WE SAY SORRY TO?
37% of our use is aimed at partners
19% to strangers
14% to our children
14% to work colleagues
8% to friends
5% to parents
3% to siblings
1% to the boss

These days, we use the word sorry not only to express sorrow for a misdemeanour, but also as an alternative to "pardon" ("Sorry, I didn't quite catch that") and "excuse me" (as in saying sorry when we bump into someone - or even, rather bizarrely, when they bump into us).

The average Brit says sorry often, but admits that they don't mean it more than a third of the time.

A majority of Britons - 86% - believe that people use the s-word flippantly, as a cheap and convenient way of excusing anti-social or inappropriate behaviour.

Indeed, Esure found that saying sorry for actually having done something wrong - the traditional use of the word - is now at the bottom of the list of reasons why people utter the word.

In the top five reasons for saying sorry,

• number one is when we don't have time to speak to someone or do something ("Sorry, I don't have time to talk right now");
• two is to apologise on someone else's behalf, such as our children, a partner or a colleague ("Sorry, little Jimmy is always smashing things");
• three is when we didn't hear what someone was saying ("Sorry, can you repeat that?");
• in fourth place is when you want something to be explained to you again ("Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean");
• and right at the bottom, at five, is when we actually feel the need to apologise for having double-crossed, lied to or let someone down - "I'm sorry."

We are most likely to say sorry to our partners, and least likely to say it to the boss.

Twenty-seven percent of our uses of the word sorry are aimed at our partners; 19% are said to strangers; 14% to our children; 14% to work colleagues; 8% to friends; 5% to parents; 3% to siblings; and just 1% to the boss-man (or woman).

It seems Britain is developing a reputation as a nation of sorry-sayers.

One textbook for foreign people learning English, published by Longman in 1997, has a section on our peculiar use of the word "sorry".

Next to a set of illustrations of Brits saying sorry in various situations - "Sorry, can I say something?", "Sorry, you've given me the wrong change" - the book explains, "When people say 'sorry' in English, they are not always apologising". It then asks: "Do you use the same word for all these situations in your language?"

How did sorry become the easiest word? It used to be uttered sparingly, as a way of confessing both guilt and sorrow for a mistake. According to one Dictionary of Etymology, sorry has its origins in the Old English word 'Sarig', meaning "distressed, full of sorrow." Now we use it to mean everything from "What?" to "Whatever".

What explains Britons' endless apologetics, our over-reliance on the s-word in all sorts of situations?

For Mark Tyrrell, a psychotherapist at Uncommon Knowledge, a group that promotes personal development and emotional intelligence, a lingering culture of deference is to blame.

"Saying sorry so much is a deep-rooted British characteristic. The class system is largely to blame, as 'sorry' comes out of politeness, which is there for social cohesion.

"The new middle classes had to apologise for no longer being working class, but also for not really being upper class either. The vast majority of Brits belong to the middle classes so saying sorry has become endemic."

Tyrrell believes we also play games with the s-word, sometimes using it to our advantage.

"[In some situations], one partner tries to emotionally blackmail the other so they feel somehow at fault or guilty.

"We also say sorry a lot if we feel that we are to blame for something - which is called 'internalising' - such as when someone bumps into you and you end up saying sorry to them instead of the other way round."

Ed Barrett, a columnist for the satirical website Anorak who has written on modern manners and mores, thinks we sometimes say sorry to show that we are good, upstanding moral citizens, rather than as a way of actually taking responsibility for some wrong or other.

"Sorry is the comic tick of the nervous middle-class caricature found in old sitcoms", he says.

"And then today there is a rise in the theatrical public mea culpa apology - such as Blair's half-apology for slavery - which is usually about ostentatiously displaying oneself in an appealing light. It has nothing to do with contrition."

Barrett thinks there was actually something positive in the old "culture of deference", and it was a world away from today's narcissistic fashion for public apologising.

"Deference was not the same as subservience. Deference means paying people respect and treating them courteously out of deference to their age, position, experience or the service that they provide you. It is not just a case of looking up to people; it's as much about paying deference to your juniors or 'inferiors' as it is vice versa.

"True manners, true politeness, are about being considerate and thoughtful."

And perhaps if we were more truly thoughtful these days, we wouldn't be using "sorry" as a default word - almost as a get-out clause - everywhere from the home to the workplace to the street corner.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6241411.stm

Nightshade
01-10-2007, 03:18 PM
(as in saying sorry when we bump into someone - or even, rather bizarrely, when they bump into us

guilty guilty guilty, sorry even comes out when somen else walks into somthing. Sorry sorry sorry.

kilted exile
01-12-2007, 03:59 PM
An interesting read I was told of a couple of days ago: www.bloodbus.com
It is the adventures of a bus driver in Glasgow (think Taxi Driver but true)

Jay
01-12-2007, 05:28 PM
An interesting read I was told of a couple of days ago: www.bloodbus.com
It is the adventures of a bus driver in Glasgow (think Taxi Driver but true)
Now that one is funny! :lol:

Scheherazade
01-19-2007, 09:48 PM
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/42467000/jpg/_42467693_baby_sp_rowell_416cred.jpg

Each decade has its iconic poster. Man and Baby, which sold at auction for thousands this week, was the defining image of the 1980s, capturing the then nascent New Man and making fortunes in the process.
By the photographer Spencer Rowell's own admission, Man and Baby, or L'Enfant, is "a bit cheesy". There's a cute baby, but the eye is drawn to the buffed and muscular male specimen cradling said infant in his lap.

It made model Adam Perry a hit with the ladies, and a fortune for the photographer and the poster shop Athena, selling more than five million copies.

Twenty-one years after its release, at auction on Thursday, a print of the image went for £2,400 - considerably more than the price paid in the late 1980s by scores of students and young professionals keen to brighten up rented walls.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/42470000/jpg/_42470481_hepburn203pa.jpg

Today, pinning up posters remains a way to make a rented house a home. At Exeter student Simon Manning's flat, classic images - Audrey Hepburn and co - jostle alongside posters for bands.

The Blu tac ban familiar to many is still in place. But in a world of house makeovers, framed prints from homeware shops are also present.

The original Athena chain has folded, but a newer purveyor of pictures operates under that name on many a High St. For many of the chain's customers, the medium matters as much as the image, with large, chunky, frameless canvases popular sellers, typically of sunsets and seascapes.

Also popular with today's poster buyers are iconic images from the 90s, such as the Gallagher brothers and Pulp Fiction. Then there's the growing trend for DIY artwork - well, enlargements of our own digital photos.

But in past decades there were defining images - how and why were they so iconic?

THE 1960S: HENDRIX ET AL

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/42467000/jpg/_42467755_jimi_pa_203260.jpg

Hendrix - everything a rebel wanted
Marianne Faithful in unzipped tight leathers for the poster promoting Girl on a Motorcycle summed up the music and film zeitgeist of 60s posters.

But the ultimate image was a monochrome Jimi Hendrix headshot, "because it's everything your parents didn't want you to have anything to do with," says David Lee, editor of art paper The Jackdaw.

"The long hair, spaced-out expression, the fag. Youth culture was about identifying with something your parents thought ridiculous."

This was the first generation to put the blown-up poster of his face on student walls and squatters digs - alongside other prominent rock and roll images, such as The Who guitarist Pete Townshend, arm aloft, about to windmill into a guitar chord. Or the psychedelic pink, yellow and green of Cream's Disraeli Gears album.

This was about more than simply expressing a preference for a rock band, says Mr Lee.

"It was nothing to do with rock 'n' roll. It was something new, because prior to that, everyone had been very polite, and in Pete Townshend, here was a guy who was about to smash his guitar to pieces."


THE 1970S: TENNIS'S SOFT SIDE

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/42467000/jpg/_42467685_tennis_m_elliott_one_use.jpg

Enter the 70s, and walking away from the camera is a teenage model, tennis dress hitched up as she scratches her knickerless bottom. Tennis Girl by Martin Elliot is an image recalled by critics and public alike.

But experts find little to recommend such a popular image. Of those contacted, some refused to discuss the image - one dismisses it as "mere masturbation material" and another derides it as "of an unreconstructed time".

For Howard Sounes, the author of Seventies: The Sights, Sounds and Ideas of a Brilliant Decade, it is "just soft porn". And its massive sales can be attributed to "teenage boys who had it on their bedroom walls - if your mum would let you - or at public school, where they encourage that kind of thing.

"I don't imagine any girls bought it; I can't imagine any adult having it. It is the equivalent of a picture today of Kelly Brook in a playboy bunny outfit."

It has of-the-decade soft focus and muted colours. Dated it may be, yet its huge sales have made a lasting impression. Both Kylie and tennis player Anna Kournikova have recreated the image in photo shoots.

Mr Elliot admits his poster is "not a picture I would buy", but puts its appeal down to the seaside postcard spirit of the image, coupled with "one of the world's fantasies that you are going to see up a woman's skirt".

But for Mr Sounes, the defining images of the decade should be David Hockney's paintings, the Pompidou Centre, David Bowie, Joni Mitchell, above the "naff, nasty stuff" recalled by children of that decade.


THE 1980S: NEW MAN BARED

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/42467000/jpg/_42467693_baby_sp_rowell_416cred.jpg

Three factors led Man and Baby selling by the truckload, says Andrew Renton, curating director at Goldsmiths, University of London and a Turner Prize judge.

The image of a smooth-chested hunk, skin to skin with a baby boy subverts more than 1,000 years of art history, replacing the Madonna and child. "The bloke is left holding the baby, and art history never did that before," says Mr Renton.

The 1986 image perfectly depicts the era's ideal of a caring, sharing New Man. A man toned, but not bulging; caring, not aggressive; "an impossible vision" of manhood.

Where young males bought Tennis Girl, young women plumped for Man and Baby - not just for eye-candy, but because of the message it gives off.

"It's not just 'phwoar', it's a much deeper rooted fantasy. It says 'I want this man and I want babies'. It's a complex fantasy that combines sexuality and a nurturing desire - but one wouldn't normally mean to be so public about it."

Today, it looks dated - the square-jawed model, the airbrushing, stonewash jeans, the Chippendale-esque pectorals, the man holding the baby while the power-suited woman goes off to run the company.

"It's definitely the 80s equivalent of the 70s Tennis Girl scratching her bum. It told us how reconstructed we had all become." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6275997.stm

Scheherazade
01-26-2007, 10:59 AM
A US advert starring Britney Spears' estranged husband, Kevin Federline, has angered a fast food trade group. The 28-year-old pokes fun at his stalled music career as he daydreams of hitting the big time while serving French fries at a takeaway.

The National Restaurant Association says the advert suggests restaurant work is "demeaning and unpleasant".

But advertiser Nationwide Mutual Insurance insists Federline is the only one being mocked.

The commercial will be shown on 4 February during the Super Bowl - US TV's highest-rated broadcast, commanding the highest fees for advertising.

Rapper Federline, also known as K-Fed, launched his music career amid a blaze of publicity but only sold 6,500 copies of his debut album, Playing with Fire, in the first week of its release.

The backing dancer-turned-musician split from Spears in November after two years of marriage.

Court papers filed in November revealed he plans to fight the pop star for sole custody of their two children. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6301525.stm

Basil
01-28-2007, 04:23 PM
http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/2144/48728247sw1.jpg http://img470.imageshack.us/img470/4066/62741414rw5.jpg


http://img470.imageshack.us/img470/4240/21495535ak9.jpg http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/7411/25466590mq4.jpg

Scheherazade
02-07-2007, 10:20 PM
Most adults would prefer to cuddle up with a good book at bedtime rather than make love to their partner.

A survey of 2,000 people showed lovemaking was fourth in a list of "favourite activities" when hitting the sack, behind reading, watching TV - and going to sleep.

Women were more likely to prefer to read at night, according to the survey by hotel chain Travelodge.


The most popular books of the moment were The Da Vinci Code, Lord of the Rings, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, To Kill a Mocking Bird, and Treasure Island.

Travelodge spokesman Wayne Munnelly said: "Reading is the perfect way to wind down at the end of the day.

"Anxiety levels will drop as it provides a gentle distraction, pushing any worries out of your mind which will ultimately help you relax and fall asleep."http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91059-1250309,00.html

kilted exile
03-07-2007, 12:14 PM
Something I got in an e-mail:


As you know, Glasgow will be applying to host the Commonwealth Games in
2014. What you may not know is that many of the famous events which go
to make up this spectacular event, are to be especially altered for 2014
to boost Glasgow's bid. A copy of these changes has been leaked, and is
reproduced below:


OPENING CEREMONY

The flame will be ignited by a petrol bomb thrown by a native of
Castlemilk, in the traditional dress of Burberry baseball cap and a
white shell suit.

The flame will be contained in a large overturned police van situated on
the roof of the stadium.


THE EVENTS

In previous Commonwealth Games, Scotland's competitors have not been
particularly successful. In order to redress the balance, some of the
events have been altered slightly to the advantage of local athletes.


100 METRES SPRINT
Competitors will have to hold a DVD player and microwave oven (one in
each arm) and on the sound of the starting pistol, a police Dog will be
released from a cage 10 yards behind the athletes.


110 METRES HURDLES
As above but with added obstacles (i.e. car bonnets, hedges, garden
fences, Walls etc)


HAMMER
Competitors in this event may choose the type of hammer they wish to use
(claw, sledge etc) the winner will be the one who can cause the most
physical damage within three attempts.


FENCING
This event shall be sponsored by Cash Converters who shall also provide
the hardware. The contest itself shall be based outside kebab shops in
Baillieston, Riddrie, Drumchapel, and Easterhouse....the winner shall be
the one who can leave A & E first.


SHOOTING
A strong challenge is expected from local men in this event. The first
target will be a moving police van. In the second round, competitors
will aim at a post office clerk, bank teller or Securicor-style wages
delivery man.

The traditional .22 rifle has been replaced in this event by a choice of
either a Browning automatic handgun or Sawn-off 12-bore shotgun.


CYCLING TIME TRIALS
Competitors will be asked to break into the Glasgow University bike shed
and takes an expensive mountain bike owned by some mummy's boy on his
first trip away from home. All against the clock.


CYCLING PURSUIT
As above, but the bike will be owned by a visiting member of the
Australian rugby team, who will witness the theft.


MODERN PENTATHLON
Amended to include mugging, breaking and entering, flashing, joyriding,
underage drinking and arson.


SWIMMING EVENTS
All waterways are currently being tested for toxicity levels, once one
is found that can support human life, swimming events will be organised,
please note that the Synchronised Swimming event for this year will
comprise of dropping acid and watching all the funky ripples on the
pool, the specific musical support to this event will be provided by
"Belle & Sebastian".


THE MARATHON
A safe route has yet to be decided.


MEN'S 50KM WALK
Unfortunately this will have to be cancelled, as the police cannot
guarantee the safety of anyone walking the streets of Glasgow,
especially anyone that appears to be mincing...


THE CLOSING CEREMONY
Entertainment will include formation rave dancing by members of the
Govan Health in the Community, anti-drug campaigners, synchronised rock
throwing, and music by the Dennistoun community choir. The flame will be
extinguished by police riot water cannon following inevitable pitch
invasion by confused old firm fans.

The stadium itself will then be boarded up before the local athletes
break into it and remove all the copper piping and the central heating
boiler.

Scheherazade
03-12-2007, 01:56 PM
The fourth Harry Potter novel and David Beckham's autobiography are among the books least likely to be finished by Britons, according to a survey.
Booker winner Vernon God Little was the least-finished fiction title, followed by Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Autobiographies by David Blunkett, Bill Clinton and David Beckham topped the non-fiction unfinished list.

A Teletext survey of 4,000 Britons found that almost half of the books they bought remained unfinished.

UNFINISHED FICTION
1 Vernon God Little, DBC Pierre
2 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
3 Ulysses, James Joyce
4 Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis De Bernieres
5 Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell
6 The Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie
7 The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
8 War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
9 The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
10 Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky

Some 35% of those who bought or borrowed Vernon God Little, DBC Pierre's story of a US high school massacre, admitted not finishing it.

The figure was 32% for the fourth instalment in the Harry Potter series, while 28% said the same for James Joyce's Ulysses, third on the list.

The fiction top 10 also included Louis De Bernieres' Captain Corelli's Mandolin (27%), made into a film starring Nicolas Cage and Penelope Cruz.

Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses, over which a Muslim fatwa was issued ordering the writer's execution, was unfinished by 21%.

UNFINISHED NON-FICTION
1 The Blunkett Tapes, David Blunkett
2 My Life, Bill Clinton
3 My Side, David Beckham
4 Eats, Shoots & Leaves, Lynne Truss
5 Wild Swans, Jung Chang
6 Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking
7 The Downing Street Years, Margaret Thatcher
8 I Can Make You Thin, Paul McKenna
9 Jade: My Autobiography, Jade Goody
10 Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze?, Mick O'Hare

On the non-fiction list, former home secretary Blunkett's The Blunkett Tapes was too much for 35% of readers, followed by Clinton's My Life (30%) and Beckham's My Side (27%).

The average Briton spent more than £4,000 on books during their lifetime, the survey found.

Less than a quarter of people found time to read every day, with 48% saying they were too tired. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6440981.stm

Scheherazade
03-16-2007, 10:09 PM
It's big business but who really objects to spending money on spoiling their mum on Mother's Day? Only the woman who invented it.

Mothers, they're lovely. They kiss you better when you hurt yourself, cook your favourite dinners and always take your side when someone is nasty to you.

The High Street shops might make a mint out of Mother's Day, but who really objects to splashing a bit of cash on their mum on her special day? One woman did and spent 40 years of her life trying to get rid of all the cards and presents - the woman who invented the day.

The old English Mothering Sunday has its roots in pre-Christian times, but modern-day Mother's Day - the cards, flowers, chocolates etc - was started in the United States by Anna Jarvis.

The ninth of 11 children, she made it her life's work to commemorate every mother after her own mother died. The idea - like Mothering Sunday - was for families to get together in church to recognise the real value of motherhood.

Horrified

Firstly she got her local church involved and after tirelessly campaigning for almost a decade, US President Woodrow Wilson officially dedicated a day to mothers in 1914 - the second Sunday in May.

UK MOTHERING SUNDAY
Roots stretch back to pre-Christian times
In 18th and 19th Centuries, servants were given the day off to visit their mothers
Britons sent 23 million cards in 2005, about 30% homemade

But within years it had become commercialised. Ms Jarvis was horrified. She tried to take action, incorporating herself as the Mother's Day International Association and claiming copyright on the date.

Along with her sister Ellsinore, Anna spent the entire family inheritance on trying to undo the damage done to Mother's Day. One of her protests even got her arrested for disturbing the peace. She died in 1948, in poverty and without success.

In one respect what Ms Jarvis wanted from the day lives on - it has taken on huge significance and is a celebration of motherhood. However, how most people chose to celebrate it would make her turn in her grave.

Say it with flowers

Consumers are pressured by advertising and businesses to measure goodwill in terms of presents, says branding expert Jonathan Gabay.

"Mother's Day has become a yearly windfall to business. It's an opportunity to market everything from cut flowers and greetings cards to nostalgic CDs, perfume and beauty products."

He's not wrong. The UK greeting card industry is worth more than £1.2bn a year, according to market research group Mintel. Mother's Day is one of the biggest events in the industry's calendar and Britons sent about 23 million cards to their mothers in 2005.

According to the Flowers & Plants Association, 3.7 million mixed bouquets, 394,000 bunches of roses, 294,000 bunches of tulips, 293,000 bunches of freesia and 93,000 foliage plants were bought on Mother's Day last year.

What Mother's Day needs is a re-launch without its commercial sponsors, say some. Professor Ralph Fevre says the day is supposed to make mothers feel valued but its commercialism means it "isn't up to the job".

"We have a particular problem in the UK drawing a line around those parts of our lives that we want to keep sacrosanct from the market," he says.

"When we find some aspect of our lives that we want to value, or honour as the Americans say, we always end up involving the market in some way."

He suggests making it a weekday public holiday.

Breakfast in bed

"We need to try a bit harder to put work in its place. Having Mothers Day on a Sunday lets us off the hook.

"To have it on a weekday would show that we can resist that pull that takes us into work and which makes us value everything in economic terms."

Many mothers agree with his views, and there is a real movement among them to shift the focus away from buying presents to helping others, says one of the founders of Mumsnet, Carrie Longton.

"We don't want the day to disappear or for people to stop treating their mothers. We just want people to focus on what the day is about and not just grab a card and bunch of flowers from a petrol station on the way over to their mum's house," she says.

"It's inevitable that businesses will see the day as a way to make money, but most mothers would be happier with a homemade card because it shows some thought and effort has been put into it.

"There is a real movement among mothers at the moment to think about mothers who are less fortunate. We are encouraging people to make a donation to charities that help mothers worldwide rather than buy flowers.

"I will be working on a cake stall on Mother's Day to raise money for HIV mothers in Africa. It costs just £7 to buy the medicine to make sure they don't pass HIV onto their children."

It's this type of action that Ms Jarvis would approve of. Especially as she hated Mother's Day cards, calling them "a poor excuse for the letter you are too lazy to write". http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6409411.stm

Madhuri
03-27-2007, 09:51 AM
Something I got in an e-mail:

:lol: :lol:

Basil
04-14-2007, 02:38 PM
http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/8650/pinata2vf1.jpg

Scheherazade
04-16-2007, 05:01 AM
Couples in their 20s had their heart rates and brains monitored whilst they first melted chocolate in their mouths and then kissed.

Chocolate caused a more intense and longer lasting "buzz" than kissing, and doubled volunteer's heart rates....

Although kissing set the heart pounding, the effect did not last as long as that seen with the chocolate, which increased heart rates from a resting rate of about 60 beats per minute to 140.

The study also found that as the chocolate started melting, all regions of the brain received a boost far more intense and longer lasting than the excitement seen with kissing.
MORE (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6558775.stm)




__________________

Virgil
04-16-2007, 11:42 AM
Although kissing set the heart pounding, the effect did not last as long as that seen with the chocolate, which increased heart rates from a resting rate of about 60 beats per minute to 140.

Huh? Can't be. I have a heart rate monitor/stop watch and it takes me a quarter mile of running to get up to 140 beats/min. I doubt chocolate in your mouth hardly does anything. Hmm, I can actually do this experiment.

cuppajoe_9
04-16-2007, 03:16 PM
Nothing says "safety" like blindfolded children armed with baseball bats, eh?

Virgil
04-23-2007, 09:16 AM
Check this out...too funny!!!!


1. go to www.google.com
2. click on "maps"
3. click on "get directions"
4. type "New York" in the first box (the "from" box)
5. type "London" in the second box (the "to" box) (hit get directions)
6. scroll down to steps #23 & 24

kilted exile
04-23-2007, 10:02 AM
I also like the way it sends you to France first.

Virgil
04-24-2007, 12:58 PM
I also like the way it sends you to France first.

I guess one gets tired from all that swimming and needs to rest. :lol:

Scheherazade
04-29-2007, 08:06 PM
Zombie movies quiz (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6589329.stm)

Scheherazade
05-03-2007, 06:08 PM
http://img470.imageshack.us/img470/527/peanuts2007366580503cu6.gif (http://imageshack.us)

Scheherazade
05-04-2007, 08:06 PM
http://img483.imageshack.us/img483/5512/fridayey9.gif (http://imageshack.us)

Scheherazade
05-05-2007, 04:49 AM
A vote for the worst lyric in pop has awarded the dubious title to soul singer Des'ree's hit Life. The offending lines are "I don't want to see a ghost/It's the sight that I fear most/I'd rather have a piece of toast/Watch the evening news".

Listeners to Marc Riley's BBC6 Music show have been voting for the past three weeks on a top 10 list of shame.

Second place went to Snap's Rhythm is a Dancer which goes "I'm as serious as cancer/ When I say rhythm is a dancer".

In third place was "And I met a girl/ She asked me my name/ I told her what it was" from Razorlight's 2005 hit Somewhere Else.

TOP 10 WORST LYRICS
1. Des'ree - Life
2. Snap - Rhythm is a Dancer
3. Razorlight - Somewhere Else
4. ABC - That Was Then But This is Now
5. U2 - Elevation
6. Toto - Africa
7. Oasis - Champagne Supernova
8. Duran Duran - Is There Something I Should Know?
9. Human League - The Lebanon
10. Black Sabbath - War Pigs

Source: BBC6 Music poll
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6626239.stm

Madhuri
05-08-2007, 03:42 AM
Spider in the ear (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/US_doctor_finds_spiders_in_boys_ear/articleshow/2016003.cms)

How did the spiders reach the ear drum in the first place?

Scheherazade
05-15-2007, 06:57 PM
http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/6809/peanuts2073317070515dg1.gif (http://imageshack.us)

Wizard272002
05-19-2007, 07:41 AM
Will Turner to die in Pirates 4? (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/news/comments/?entryid=368571)

andave_ya
05-21-2007, 11:49 PM
fascinating. I didn't even know there was going to be a pirates 4. I'm just waiting for pirates 3.

Scheherazade
05-28-2007, 05:18 PM
http://img399.imageshack.us/img399/2671/pillyt1.gif (http://imageshack.us)

Scheherazade
05-29-2007, 02:13 PM
http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/6884/griefqb4.gif (http://imageshack.us)

Scheherazade
06-14-2007, 09:58 AM
To all the men out there who are losing their hair... fast! :D
Slaphead, chrome dome, baldie - people can be nasty when you lose your hair. So what's the solution?
At the age of 16, I was confronted with the stark realisation that God found my face too pretty for my fringe. I had started losing my hair.

I went to my GP to ask if he could please, please halt the hair dropping like stone from my adolescent head. He suggested a crew cut. With adolescent hormones raging, the news that I'd be bald before some of my peers' voices broke hit hard.

A decade on, I'm still coming to terms with my bald pate. I am not alone - almost one third of men are noticeably balding by the age of 30, and most seek to hide the receding tide of their hairline by shaving off what remains. MORE (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6748861.stm)

Scheherazade
06-16-2007, 06:33 PM
http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/7443/securemi8.gif (http://imageshack.us)

Wizard272002
06-19-2007, 09:20 PM
Cute. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zBxt_w8_zQ)

Shalot
06-19-2007, 09:45 PM
That was adorable

Brigitte
06-21-2007, 03:25 PM
Awwww. Cute little girl. She could sing well, it was just so kid-like. Cuuuteness.

Scheherazade
06-27-2007, 05:23 PM
http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/8927/facelc6.gif (http://imageshack.us)

Scheherazade
07-06-2007, 08:27 PM
The common notion that women are the more talkative sex has been dispelled by scientists in the US. Researchers who bugged 400 students to log their chats found little difference in word count between the sexes.

The University of Arizona study, in Science, conflicts with previous US research suggesting women talk almost three times as much as men.

Whether someone was an introvert or an extrovert was more important, said relationship experts.

In the study, women spoke a daily average of 16,215 words during their waking hours, and men 15,669 words.

The researchers say this difference is not significant.


MORE (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6269204.stm)

spa girl
07-06-2007, 11:17 PM
I think women do talk more but only because men don't listen & we have to constantly repeat ourselves

Shalot
07-06-2007, 11:23 PM
I think women do talk more but only because men don't listen & we have to constantly repeat ourselves


I agree. When I tell my husband to do something or ask him a question about why something is a mess, not working or out of order, he responds with "Do What?" or "What you'd say?"

They never listen.

Lily Adams
07-26-2007, 01:24 AM
http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa144/shesoutofsync/bob.jpg

I love subliminal messages. Even though I'm not a SubGenii.

Scheherazade
08-06-2007, 06:01 PM
BBC's Map Symbols Quiz (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6933352.stm)

I have got 9/10... Another badge to add my Geek collection.

motherhubbard
08-06-2007, 06:07 PM
7/10, but I really guessed at all of them.

Lily Adams
08-06-2007, 06:40 PM
I don't drive yet, but somehow I got a 7 out of 10.

Mortis Anarchy
08-06-2007, 06:46 PM
I agree. When I tell my husband to do something or ask him a question about why something is a mess, not working or out of order, he responds with "Do What?" or "What you'd say?"

They never listen.

Actually a friend of mine told me that the reason sometimes he doesn't understand what I say or whatever is because "When women talk it doesn't go through clean so its hard for men to stay focused." Thats what he says...I don't think I phrased it write, but he says he read it somewhere...whatever that means. All I say is, excuses excuses!

papayahed
08-06-2007, 06:57 PM
6/10.

Scheherazade
08-19-2007, 07:27 PM
LEAST CONVINCING SCREEN PARTNERSHIPS

1 Natalie Portman and Hayden Christensen - Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones

2 Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez - Gigli

3 Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom - Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy

4 Madonna and Adriano Giannini - Swept Away

5 Catherine Zeta Jones and Sir Sean Connery - Entrapment

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6953790.stm

Lily Adams
08-28-2007, 11:22 PM
http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa144/shesoutofsync/the_right_to_bear_arms.jpg

Haaaaaaaaa haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. I love it.

Scheherazade
09-06-2007, 09:18 AM
We may soon be able to scale vertical walls like Spider-man thanks to scientists. What other superhero characteristics are achievable for mere mortals?

It's the stuff of dreams, but a spider-man suit that allows the wearer to scale vertical walls could become a reality.

Italian scientists have worked out how the natural technology used by real spiders could allow a person to crawl up the side of a skyscraper or hang upside down from a roof.

Has science finally caught up with comic book, and what other superhero characteristics could humans soon have?http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6968934.stm

Nightshade
09-06-2007, 12:03 PM
And here I was thinking I was super already *sniff* :bawling:

Scheherazade
09-06-2007, 12:06 PM
Well, then you would be super-duper!

Scheherazade
10-06-2007, 07:31 PM
Ebony and Ivory featured on McCartney's Tug Of War album Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder's paean to racial harmony, Ebony and Ivory, has been named the worst duet in history by listeners to BBC 6 Music.

BEST MUSICAL COLLABORATIONS

1. Foggy Dew - Sinead O'Connor & The Chieftains
2.Fairytale Of New York - Kirsty MacColl & The Pogues
3. Under Pressure - Queen & David Bowie
4. Where The Wild Roses Grow - Nick Cave & Kylie Minogue
5. Walk This Way - Run DMC & Aerosmith


WORST MUSICAL COLLABORATIONS

1. Ebony & Ivory - Paul McCartney & Stevie Wonder
2. You're The One That I Want - Arthur Mullard & Hilda Baker
3. Dancing In the Streets - Mick Jagger & David Bowie
4. Little Drummer Boy - Bing Crosby & David Bowie
5. Save Your Love - Rene & Renata

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7031695.stm

Virgil
10-06-2007, 08:03 PM
Well that's funny. I happen to think that Jagger and Bowie did a nice job with Dancing In the Streets and how boring Queen and Bowie were on Under Pressure.

Bakiryu
10-06-2007, 08:07 PM
what other superhero characteristics could humans soon have?

I want the ability to annoy people....

Wait.

I ALREADY HAVE IT :D :lol:

papayahed
10-06-2007, 08:22 PM
Well that's funny. I happen to think that Jagger and Bowie did a nice job with Dancing In the Streets and how boring Queen and Bowie were on Under Pressure.

HaHa, Virgie I don't think we'll ever agree on anything:lol: :lol: I was thinking the opposite.

I kinda like Ebony and Ivory


...side by side on my piano, keyboad.....


and Little Drummer Boy?? It was no Bob Segar but Ihardly think it should be in the bottom.

Niamh
10-09-2007, 02:18 PM
BBC's Map Symbols Quiz (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6933352.stm)

I have got 9/10... Another badge to add my Geek collection.

I got 8/10. Of the two i go wrong, the first i'd never seen before and the second connotes something different in other maps so got a bit confused.

Madhuri
10-11-2007, 10:25 AM
"H2O is hot water, and CO2 is cold

"There is no Nitrogen in Ireland because it is not found in a free state."

"Mushrooms always grow in damp places and so they look like umbrellas."

"The pistol of a flower is its only protections agenst insects."

"The tides are a fight between the Earth and moon. All water tends towards the moon, because there is no water in the moon, and nature, abhors a vacuum. I forget where the sun joins in this fight."

"A fossil is an extinct animal. The older it is, the more extinct it is."

"Germinate: To become a naturalized German."

"Vacuum: A large, empty space where the pope lives."

"For dog bite: put the dog away for several days. If he has not recovered, then kill it."

"To prevent milk from turning sour, keep it in the cow."

"When you breathe, you inspire. When you do not breathe, you expire."

"To remove dust from the eye, pull the eyelid down over the nose."

"The parts of speech are lungs and air."

"The inhabitants of Moscow are called Mosquitoes."

"A census taker is a man who goes from house to house increasing the
population."

"A virgin forest is a forest where the hand of man has never set foot."

"The general direction of the Alps is straight up."

"Most of the houses in France are made of plaster of Paris."

"The people who followed the Lord were called the 12 opossums."

"The spinal column is a long bunch of bones. The head sits on the top and you sit on the bottom."

"We do not raise silk worms in the United States, because we get our silk from rayon. He is a larger worm and gives more silk."

"A scout obeys all to whom obedience is due and respects all duly constipated authorities."

"The four seasons are salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar."

"The climate is hottest next to the Creator."

"Oliver Cromwell had a large red nose, but under it were deeply religious feelings."

"The word trousers is an uncommon noun because it is singular at the top
and plural at the bottom."

"Iron was discovered because someone smelt it."

"One by-product of raising cattle is calves."

"Syntax is all the money collected at the church from sinners."

Scheherazade
11-11-2007, 01:21 PM
Yet another Movie Quiz (http://quiz.uk.msn.com/quiz/quiz.aspx?id=445b8a2f-982e-4f4c-8ae9-d58a77240ed9)

Scheherazade
02-17-2008, 05:56 PM
If you are up for something experimental, put your headphones on, close your eyes and enjoy this audio show (listening without the headphones will ruin it):

Virtual Barbershop (http://ccgi.bluerabbit.plus.com/virtualbarbershop/)


PS: It is safe for all ages and no trickery involved.

PPS: If it gets stuck, click on the PLAY button again and it will carry on.

Niamh
02-17-2008, 06:03 PM
got 8/10 on that movie quiz. Told me i was smarter than the avarage participant.:p

Weisinheimer
02-18-2008, 10:23 PM
that virtual barbershop thing is pretty cool :thumbs_up .


got 8/10 on that movie quiz. Told me i was smarter than the avarage participant.:p
I got something like 4/10 or maybe 5/10 and it said I was smarter than the average participant :rolleyes: .

Scheherazade
04-29-2008, 11:56 AM
http://img234.imageshack.us/img234/4694/constantkn5.png (http://imageshack.us)

Scheherazade
04-30-2008, 07:37 PM
http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/4354/hurtqb0.gif

Scheherazade
05-23-2008, 06:48 AM
Viva fair play!

http://i30.tinypic.com:80/aylrn6.gif

khall12807
05-27-2008, 01:14 PM
http://img234.imageshack.us/img234/4694/constantkn5.png (http://imageshack.us)

Aww. Poor Snoopy :P

Scheherazade
06-03-2008, 07:52 PM
http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/3097/educatedap1.gif

Scheherazade
06-30-2008, 02:42 AM
http://img382.imageshack.us/img382/4699/leastyb4.gif

Scheherazade
06-30-2008, 02:48 AM
Can 13 people fit in a Volvo? (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7471260.stm)

Scheherazade
07-01-2008, 01:47 PM
Four Weddings and a Funeral has been named the best British film of all time, just beating Monty Python's Life of Brian in a new poll.

Sir Sean Connery and Sir Anthony Hopkins shared the title of the country's favourite actor while Dame Judi Dench was named best actress.

...

Richard Curtis's 1994 romantic comedy took 22% of the vote in the poll, squeaking past the Life of Brian by just 1%.

Trainspotting, about heroin users in Scotland, was third with 15% of the vote.

Life of Brian's mixture of comedy and religious themes prompted controversy when it was released in 1979.

...

Casino Royale, starring Daniel Craig as James Bond, made it into fourth place with 10% and Guy Ritchie's gangster film Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels came fifth with 8%.

The top 10 was completed with Lawrence of Arabia (8%), Withnail and I (5%), Atonement (4%), The Wicker Man (4%) and Get Carter (3%).

Dame Judi took nearly a third (29%) of the votes in the best actress poll, more than double that of her nearest rivals Dame Helen Mirren and Julie Walters, both on 14%.

Behind Sir Sean and Sir Anthony in the best actor poll were Sir Michael Caine, Grant and Sir Ian McKellen. Some 1,000 people were questioned in the survey for Virgin Media.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Showbiz-News/Four-Weddings-and-a-Funeral-named-best-British-film-of-all-time/Article/200806415017583?lpos=Showbiz%2BNews_0&lid=ARTICLE_15017583_Four%2BWeddings%2Band%2Ba%2BF uneral%2Bnamed%2Bbest%2BBritish%2Bfilm%2Bof%2Ball-time

Scheherazade
07-16-2008, 11:40 AM
Daniel Powter's 'Bad Day' has been announced as the most played song in the UK over the last five years.

...

PRS data analysts collated the information on national music usage from across all radio and TV outlets and UK registered websites.

Public address plays at the country's 7,000 live music venues were also added to discover the nation's most played songs.

Their research revealed that the country's most popular ten songs are:

1. Bad Day - Daniel Powter
2. Because Of You - Kelly Clarkson
3. You're Beautiful - James Blunt
4. I Don't Feel Like Dancin' - Scissor Sisters
5. Chasing Cars - Snow Patrol
6. This Love - Maroon 5
7. Shine - Take That
8. Put Your Records On - Corinne Bailey Rae
9. Leave Right Now - Will Young
10. The Sweet Escape - Gwen Stefanihttp://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Showbiz-News/Daniel-Powter-Bad-Day-Beats-Kelly-Clarkson-And-James-Blunt-In-Most-Played-Chart/Article/200807315036792?lpos=Showbiz%2BNews_1&lid=ARTICLE_15036792_Daniel%2BPowter%2B%2527Bad%2B Day%2527%2BBeats%2BKelly%2BClarkson%2BAnd%2BJames% 2BBlunt%2BIn%2BMost%2BPlayed%2BChart

Can't stand some of the songs listed!

pussnboots
07-16-2008, 12:00 PM
Is it pathetic that I only know the first 3 songs ?

sprinks
07-16-2008, 12:09 PM
It's probably better for your sanity that you only know the first 3 songs :p.

I don't like many that are listed either.

Virgil
07-16-2008, 12:15 PM
Is it pathetic that I only know the first 3 songs ?

I don't know any!!! :lol: Why am I so proud of that? :D :D

Scheherazade
07-16-2008, 02:47 PM
I don't know any!!! :lol: Why am I so proud of that? :D :DBecause it gives away which age bracket you belong to? ;)

I am in a benevolent mood :p so I will post the links to each song on youtube for those who are interested:

1. Bad Day - Daniel Powter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7g6LenMQ5E

2. Because Of You - Kelly Clarkson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLi0yBmPe0k

3. You're Beautiful - James Blunt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y7WDWP8WMs

4. I Don't Feel Like Dancin' - Scissor Sisters: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXZ1tygRaVw

5. Chasing Cars - Snow Patrol: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ajy0w1XPJk8

6. This Love - Maroon 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aD0KPipoOuA

7. Shine - Take That: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1Q7HBvM4lM

8. Put Your Records On - Corinne Bailey Rae: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVNK_VDQY8I

9. Leave Right Now - Will Young: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFthp-dFg5c

10. The Sweet Escape - Gwen Stefani: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tEROk-Y27Q

My personal favorites are "Chasing Cars" and "Leave Right Now".

kilted exile
07-17-2008, 04:48 PM
So, now that I am one of those management types I decided to get a new toy (http://www.ewis.ca/onlinestore/scripts/prodView.asp?idProduct=2191)
http://www.ewis.ca/onlinestore/share/ProdImages/jazz-hdv188.JPG

Taliesin
07-21-2008, 08:53 AM
This is a thread for random posts!

Nightshade
07-21-2008, 08:58 AM
kilted is a managmnet type now?! when did that happen, and CONGRATS!!

Scheherazade
07-21-2008, 01:21 PM
This is a thread for random posts!That's a little bit obvious, isn't it?

Taliesin
07-21-2008, 05:05 PM
Thank you, Captain Obvious!
Wait, that is me.
Which means I am thanking myself.

papayahed
07-21-2008, 05:15 PM
Thank you, Captain Obvious!
Wait, that is me.
Which means I am thanking myself.


Wait! But which one??

Nightshade
07-21-2008, 05:46 PM
:lol: :lol:

sprinks
08-05-2008, 10:44 AM
http://www.savagechickens.com/blog/2008/08/something-wicked.html

:lol: well this made me laugh heaps!! :D

If only they let him leave it in... :D :lol: *sigh*

Niamh
08-05-2008, 06:21 PM
Is it pathetic that I only know the first 3 songs ?


It's probably better for your sanity that you only know the first 3 songs :p.

I don't like many that are listed either.


I don't know any!!! :lol: Why am I so proud of that? :D :D
Yikes i know all of them except the Gwen Stefani one. And i love most of them!

Because it gives away which age bracket you belong to? ;)

I am in a benevolent mood :p so I will post the links to each song on youtube for those who are interested:

4. I Don't Feel Like Dancin' - Scissor Sisters: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXZ1tygRaVw

5. Chasing Cars - Snow Patrol: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ajy0w1XPJk8

6. This Love - Maroon 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aD0KPipoOuA

7. Shine - Take That: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1Q7HBvM4lM

8. Put Your Records On - Corinne Bailey Rae: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVNK_VDQY8I

My personal favorites are "Chasing Cars" and "Leave Right Now".

The ones i left in above are my favourites. I absoloutely LOVE Chasing Cars.

Scheherazade
08-13-2008, 06:08 PM
http://img360.imageshack.us/img360/8241/happyjz0.gif

Virgil
08-13-2008, 07:56 PM
That's a good one Scher. :lol: Reminds me of my wife. ;)

Scheherazade
08-20-2008, 11:13 AM
In that case, here is the continuation, Virgil:

http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/6531/shippedbackbp1.gif (http://imageshack.us)

http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/1373/happinessxx4.gif

Scheherazade
08-30-2008, 05:40 AM
http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/9568/missothmaroa2.gif (http://imageshack.us)

Scheherazade
09-03-2008, 08:06 AM
http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/6323/disappointmentwz2.gif (http://imageshack.us)

Scheherazade
11-09-2008, 12:11 PM
http://img122.imageshack.us/img122/1781/wallbeaglejn6.gif (http://imageshack.us)

Scheherazade
01-08-2009, 12:25 PM
http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/3341/birthdaywl1.gif (http://imageshack.us)

Scheherazade
01-15-2009, 06:31 PM
http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/3285/greedyto5.gif (http://imageshack.us)

Scheherazade
03-25-2009, 06:43 PM
http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/8866/smartest.gif (http://img187.imageshack.us/my.php?image=smartest.gif)

weltanschauung
03-25-2009, 07:01 PM
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c224/facist_jockitch/Predator1Head.jpg

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c224/facist_jockitch/1189627739567.jpg

weltanschauung
03-28-2009, 02:50 PM
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c224/facist_jockitch/cmx/11134218056274zs.jpg

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c224/facist_jockitch/cmx/goodlord.jpg