News

[Shalot]

A grandmother won second prize in a cake-baking contest at a fete, only to discover she was the only entrant. Jenny Brown, 62, entered her Victoria Sponge into the competition and was initially pleased to have come second.

But she was left shocked when a friend revealed to her that she was the only person to take part.

The contest was organised by the Wimblington Sports Committee and judges marked down the cake because it had indentations from a wire rack.

MORE (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cambridgeshire/6274044.stm)


That's hilarious :lol: And that picture of her with her prize. she looks sort of bummed out

[motherhubbard]

This same method is used in many competitions. It’s not about who’s is best really. They set a standard by which to score all of the entries and a scale that determines placement. It’s kind of like letter grades in school. Even if your grade is the highest in class if you only make a B they can’t just give you an A. She scored at a level below first place marks. But it sure does stink! I bet that it made the paper is worse than coming in second running only against herself.

[RobinHood3000]

I've always preferred Survivorman over Man Vs. Wild on the Discovery Channel. Now I've found vindication!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6911748.stm
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=470155&in_page_id=1770

[Scheherazade]

A woman in Germany who has spent 55 years with part of a pencil inside her head has finally had it removed. Margret Wegner fell over carrying the pencil when she was four. It punctured her cheek and part of it went into her brain, above the right eye.

The 59-year-old has suffered headaches and nosebleeds for most of her life.

Surgeons in Berlin were able to remove most of the pencil in a two-hour operation, but a 2cm section was so embedded it was impossible to remove.

MORE (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6933721.stm)

Reminded me of Homer's crayon:

http://www.myteespot.com/images/thumbs/t_7919.jpg

[Scheherazade]

...Indulging in a few mugs too many could result in symptoms such as restlessness, nervousness, excitement, insomnia, nausea, vomiting and a flushed face. The symptoms of a serious overdose include delirium and seizures.

Among its effects on the human body, caffeine is commonly thought to increase alertness, attention and mental ability by stimulating the central nervous system.

But too much could be lethal. Such a dose is dependent on an individual's weight and sensitivity, but for the average person is about 90 milligrams per two pints of blood, according to coffee website Cofcaf.co.uk. This is about 200 cups of instant coffee in a day for an average sized person, it says...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6945697.stm

[Scheherazade]

A powerful 7.9 magnitude earthquake has hit the coast of Peru, killing at least 337 people and injuring hundreds more, Peru's civil defence institute says.

All but one of the deaths were in the coastal province of Ica, about 265km (165 miles) south of the capital, Lima.

In Lima, buildings shook violently during the prolonged tremors, prompting residents to take to the streets.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6948888.stm

[motherhubbard]

Poll: One in four adults read no books last year
New survey shows biggest readers are women, older people


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20381678/

[Lote-Tree]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2302545.ece

[manolia]

Well, i am not going to comment on the moral issues..but i want to express my admiration! I mean, can he still do it at his age???

[Lote-Tree]

I mean, can he still do it at his age???

Yep. It seems men can go on forever!!! :D

[RoCKiTcZa]

nah, i don't think so. That is, if my previous health teacher was right.

[Virgil]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2302545.ece

That man is my hero! :thumbs_up Of course the irony is I haven't fathered any. :lol:

[SleepyWitch]

...Indulging in a few mugs too many could result in symptoms such as restlessness, nervousness, excitement, insomnia, nausea, vomiting and a flushed face. The symptoms of a serious overdose include delirium and seizures.

Among its effects on the human body, caffeine is commonly thought to increase alertness, attention and mental ability by stimulating the central nervous system.

But too much could be lethal. Such a dose is dependent on an individual's weight and sensitivity, but for the average person is about 90 milligrams per two pints of blood, according to coffee website Cofcaf.co.uk. This is about 200 cups of instant coffee in a day for an average sized person, it says...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6945697.stm

so 199 cups a day won't kill me? that's great news :D

[Scheherazade]

Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti has died at his home in the northern city of Modena, his manager has announced. The singer, who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last year, was 71.

His charismatic performances - particularly alongside fellow tenors Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras - helped bring a new audience to opera.

Pavarotti had cancer surgery in July 2006 in New York, five months after his last performance. He had not made any public appearances since then. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6981032.stm

[Lote-Tree]

Sad to hear that. It was Pavarotti that created an opera craze here in UK at the time of the Italien World Cup....

I still think he does the bestest Nessun Dorma...

[Nightshade]

He was that old really?:eek:

[Virgil]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6981032.stm


Opera legend Pavarotti dies at 71

Very sad. I loved his voice and was a fixture at home when I was growing up. I can almost hear him singing "O Sole Mio."


O SOLE MIO
G. Capurro / E. Di Capua

Che bella cosa na jurnata 'e sole,
n'aria serena doppo na tempesta!
Pe' ll'aria fresca pare gia' na festa...
Che bella cosa na jurnata 'e sole.

Ma n'atu sole
cchiu' bello, oi ne'.
'o sole mio
sta 'nfronte a te!
‘o sole, ‘o sole mio
sta 'nfronte a te!
sta 'nfronte a te!

Quanno fa notte e 'o sole
se ne scenne,
me vene quase 'na malincunia;
sotto 'a fenesta toia restarria
quanno fa notte e 'o sole
se ne scenne.

Ma n'atu sole
cchiu' bello, oi ne'.
'o sole mio
sta 'nfronte a te!
‘o sole, ‘o sole mio
sta 'nfronte a te!
sta 'nfronte a te!

Now he sings with the angels. :(

[SleepyWitch]

poor Mr Pavarotti :( why is it so many people die of cancer these days? it's like everyone has some form of cancer. is there a higher prevalence today or did people die younger/of other diseases in the past before they could develop cancer?


Web rivals plot answer to Wikipedia (http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article2409783.ece)

[Niamh]

its tragic the amount of people dying of cancer. My uncle died from the same cancer where he was 72. May Luciano Pavarotti Rest in Peace.

[RobinHood3000]

poor Mr Pavarotti :( why is it so many people die of cancer these days? it's like everyone has some form of cancer. is there a higher prevalence today or did people die younger/of other diseases in the past before they could develop cancer?


Web rivals plot answer to Wikipedia (http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article2409783.ece)I would imagine that cancer existed, but simply was not recognized, in the past.

[Nightshade]

Actually.....
Belinda by maria Edgworth written 1811 ( I think) around then anyway... several reerances to cancer.
Also one of Gene Stratton-Porter's books ( 1910s and 20s) talks about cancer burning, branding and slowly eroding a persons soul for years in a slow and painful death that would not be wished on anyone.
And if I sat here long enough I could probably think of a few more literary referances to it.

[Granny5]

There has been a 7.9 earthquake in Indonesia.

[Wizard272002]

A Gay Bomb? (http://cbs2.com/topstories/topstories_story_162114001.html)(link) This is crazy.

[Bakiryu]

:lol:

[Wizard272002]

:lol:

Click on the link (if you haven't already) and see if you are laughing then.

[Shalot]

Click on the link (if you haven't already) and see if you are laughing then.

It seems absurd to me. Just out of curiousity, why do you find this so disturbing?

[Virgil]

poor Mr Pavarotti :( why is it so many people die of cancer these days? it's like everyone has some form of cancer. is there a higher prevalence today or did people die younger/of other diseases in the past before they could develop cancer?


Web rivals plot answer to Wikipedia (http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article2409783.ece)

People are living longer, so there is more of a chance of getting it before you die of some other cause. Pavorotti died at 71. Twenty years ago life expectancy for a male was under 70.

[Lote-Tree]

Chaps it's official women come into heat like other animals during their most fertile period. And they also go for hunks rather than Mr Safe Dweebs.

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/sex/mg19526215.200-women-may-come-into-heat-like-other-mammals.html

What say you chaps and chappesses?

Is Evolutionary theory making animals out of us :D

In his 1970's gender-bending phase, David Bowie would have made a pretty dubious computer avatar, a new study suggests.

http://technology.newscientist.com/article/dn12199-genderbending-avatars-inspire-less-trust.html

[papayahed]

That reminds me - I need to change my avatar.

[Lote-Tree]

That reminds me - I need to change my avatar.

May not make difference for you Papay :D

Everyone loves a pig ;-)

[papayahed]

May not make difference for you Papay :D

Everyone loves a pig ;-)

But what about Beagles?

[Lote-Tree]

But what about Beagles?

Probably suggests bisexuality? :D

[Idril]

But what about Beagles?

I love beagles! I'm not a huge fan of dogs as a general rule, I'm more of a cat person, but I have a serious weakness for beagles.

[Lote-Tree]

I love beagles! I'm not a huge fan of dogs as a general rule, I'm more of a cat person, but I have a serious weakness for beagles.

But Cat's are the LAZIEST CREATURES ON EARTH!!:D

[papayahed]

I love beagles! I'm not a huge fan of dogs as a general rule, I'm more of a cat person, but I have a serious weakness for beagles.

they're just so darn cute.

http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/5364/showlettersf4.jpg

[Bakiryu]

But Cat's are the LAZIEST CREATURES ON EARTH!!:D

Beg to differ! Cat's are awesome, dogs are always sleep when I awake but cat's want to play! yay!

[Wizard272002]

It seems absurd to me. Just out of curiousity, why do you find this so disturbing?

Hmmm... chemically changing a straight normal guy (who has sex on his mind already and willing to fight to get back to the woman he loves)? I think that chemically changing a straight man into a gay man is not really something that the military should do that. It's not disturbing, just crazy.

[Idril]

But Cat's are the LAZIEST CREATURES ON EARTH!!:D

And they look so beautiful and graceful doing it. You have to admire that level complete disinterest in what any one thinks. ;)


they're just so darn cute.

http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/5364/showlettersf4.jpg

Exactly! And the reason why I couldn't resist getting one myself. This is Smeagol a day or two after we got him. He's now about 3 and a half and no longer this cute but he still has him moments. :p

http://mysite.orange.co.uk/uploadgallery/images/5-picture1.jpg

[SleepyWitch]

Hmmm... chemically changing a straight normal guy (who has sex on his mind already and willing to fight to get back to the woman he loves)? I think that chemically changing a straight man into a gay man is not really something that the military should do that. It's not disturbing, just crazy.

heehee, why not if it can prevent a war? make love not war :)


boohuuuuuuu :bawling: do you guys find my Sesshomaru-sama untrustworthy?

[SleepyWitch]

Chaps it's official women come into heat like other animals during their most fertile period.

it took a scientific study to find that out? I'm perfectly willing to believe that without even reading the article :blush: :D :lol:

[Scheherazade]

The chestnut tree that comforted Anne Frank as she hid from the Nazis in Amsterdam during World War II has won a reprieve from being felled.
Amsterdam city council ruled in March that the rotting 150-year-old tree must be felled as a danger to the public.

Following protests the council has given those who want to save the tree until January to come up with a plan. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7027533.stm

[Wizard272002]

Parents ban 10-year old from video games, ends in kid's suicide (http://www.qj.net/Parents-ban-10-year-old-from-video-games-ends-in-kid-s-suicide/pg/49/aid/104414) Sad that this had to happen.

[Bakiryu]

How idiotic, killing yourself because of games. His parents should never have bought them to him in the first place!

[applepie]

That is really sad. Thanks for sharing the story, and it is yet another reason to add to my list for not allowing my children unlimited access to video games and such. They're too young now, but even when they are allowed to play it will be for a very limited time. I see no reason for them to spend hours on the computer or PS2 surfing the internet and playing games. I'm a bigger fan of sending them outside to play.

[the silent x]

No video games during the school week and I barely get on during the weekend so my VG time is limited. I'm with you berry, send the kids outside to climb trees and get beaten up, makes them tough. And for those of you who don't decide to be daredevils, the fresh air improves your body anyway

[Tournesol]

I'm not a parent, and have no plans of such in the near future. But if and when I do bcome a parent, that's my plan as well. I feel that children need to interact and learn things through discovery and hands-on playing with real toys, climbing trees as you guys said.
Killing oneself over a video game?! What is this world coming to?! And who ever told the kid that the game was so important?!
Of course I blame the parents, how on earth could the child be allowed to become so attched to the darned thing?!

[Wizard272002]

Witness Says Drowsy Driver Was Going Up To 70 MPH

DENVER -- An admittedly drowsy driver has been ticketed following an incident that was all caught on videotape.
The woman drove for more than 30 miles in the Denver metro area while she was nodding off.

Christian Pruett and his wife were driving on Interstate 25 on Monday morning when they noticed a sport utility vehicle next to them drifting from lane to lane, and nearly sideswiping their car

The couple grabbed their video camera and photographed the sleeping woman with her head back as her vehicle moved along I-25 at speeds of up to 70 mph.

.............................................

In a recent study by Virginia Tech researchers (http://www.vtnews.vt.edu/story.php?relyear=2006&itemno=237), cameras were installed in 100 cars, most of them the study participants' personal cars, to film driving behavior for a whole year. The study's findings included the determination that drowsy drivers were a factor in about 12 percent of the crashes that occurred during the year. The study showed that drowsiness contributed to 20 percent of all crashes and 16 percent of near crashes. Researchers were concerned by the findings because they believe that drowsiness as a factor in car crashes or near-accidents is under-reported.

"People think drowsy driving means you fall asleep," a researcher said. "All it takes is a lapse of a second or two, and you might not be aware of it. The Virginia Tech research showed that the drowsy driver could be you. It could be me."

Click Here (http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/14360882/detail.html#) to see the video.

..............

[Wizard272002]

Hooker Mom used baby as drug prop

Authorities in New York say a woman arrested for prostitution early Monday morning also snorted cocaine off the stomach of her infant son while breast-feeding him between tricks.

Wendy Cook, a 37-year-old from Saratoga Springs, N.Y., was one of five women caught early Monday morning in Schenectady, N.Y., in an undercover sex sting operation.

..........

copied from:
http://www.abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=3679943

.....

[alexsears]

im not sure where you live but if there was a meteor shower and i missed it it must have been at like 1 a.m. :bawling:

[Scheherazade]

Women in Liverpool are the vainest in the UK - checking their appearance in a mirror up to 71 times a day, according to a new survey. The city topped the poll ahead of London and Newcastle.

The woman also re-apply make-up as much as 11 times a day - which is almost once an hour for an average day.

Rosalind Chapman, from Transformulas International, which commissioned the survey said it proved that British women like to look good.

She said: "British people often get criticised for not being as image conscious as our European counterparts but this survey is the proof that we love to check our appearance and look good."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/7079197.stm

[Wizard272002]

Click Here. (http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/health/2007/11/06/bpr.india.toddler.surgery.dutta.cnn) I hope that the surgery went well.

[Scheherazade]

A grandmother has been banned from giving sweets to her grandchildren after a court heard they had suffered dental problems. The grandmother, known as EM, launched a legal battle against her own daughter over access to the four children.

Perth Sheriff Court was told EM would often bring two carrier bags of sweets with her on visits.

Sheriff Daniel Kelly QC granted the grandmother one visit a month on the condition she did not give them sweets.

The grandmother took her daughter to court after contact with the four children was cut off in March 2006.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tayside_and_central/7109480.stm

[AuntShecky]

Death by Internet --
any time you hear warnings about how parents should strictly monitor their children's Internet sessions, believe it.

In the midwest US, a teenage girl went to a online website in which a user presenting himself as a boy her age made "friends" with her. After a few weeks, though, he suddenly turned on her, and started blasting and insulting her. Other aquaintances soon joined the bandwagon and
sent her flaming emails.
One afternoon, her mother went to her bedroom and found that her daugher had hung herself.

But that's not the rest of the story though. It turns out that the boy wasn't a dude at all, but the PARENTS of another girl, the victim's classmate, who lived a few doors up the block. According to the msnbc website, where I first saw this story, there's no law against what those parents did.

[Scheherazade]

Officials in a central Indian state have stopped a text messaging service giving out drivers' contact details after men used it to pester women.

The facility, launched a year ago, was withdrawn after women complained to the Madhya Pradesh transport department that they were being harassed by men.

Under the scheme, anyone could send a text to access a vehicle owner's name, address and phone number.

Officials say most of the information being sought pertained to young women.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7103585.stm

[Shalot]

the lead singer of Quiot Riot died.

[Scheherazade]

Late author Norman Mailer has been announced as the winner of the Bad Sex in Fiction Award for the most awkward description of an intimate encounter. The US writer, who died earlier this year at the age of 84, won for his novel The Castle in the Forest.

Jeanette Winterston and Harry Potter actor David Thewlis were also among those in the running for crude and tasteless literary depictions of sex.

Four hundred guests toasted Mailer's memory at a ceremony in London.

The occasion was also used to pay homage to the renowned American literary figure and the rich variety of his work.

"We sure he would have taken the prize in good humour," said the judges.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7115451.stm

[B-Mental]

Here is a story that hits home...and by home, I mean the forums.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071127/ap_en_ot/digital_library

[Scheherazade]

A judge in India has summoned two Hindu gods, Ram and Hanuman, to help resolve a property dispute. Judge Sunil Kumar Singh in the eastern state of Jharkhand has issued adverts in newspapers asking the gods to "appear before the court personally".

The gods have been asked to appear before the court on Tuesday, after the judge said that letters addressed to them had gone unanswered.

Ram and Hanuman are among the most popular Indian Hindu gods.

Judge Singh presides in a "fast track" court - designed to resolve disputes quickly - in the city of Dhanbad.

The dispute is now 20 years old and revolves around the ownership of a 1.4 acre plot of land housing two temples.

The deities of Ram and Hanuman, the monkey god, are worshipped at the two temples on the land.

Temple priest Manmohan Pathak claims the land belongs to him. Locals say it belongs to the two deities.

The two sides first went to court in 1987.

A few years ago, the dispute was settled in favour of the locals. Then Mr Pathak challenged the verdict in a fast track court.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7132124.stm

[Scheherazade]

Humans have moved into the evolutionary fast lane and are becoming increasing different, a genetic study suggests.

In the past 5,000 years, genetic change has occurred at a rate roughly 100 times higher than any other period, say scientists in the US.

This is in contrast with the widely-held belief that recent human evolution has halted.

The research has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Professor Henry Harpending, an author of the study from the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, US, said: "The dogma has been these [differences] are cultural fluctuations, but almost any temperament trait you look at is under strong genetic influences.

"Genes are evolving fast in Europe, Asia and Africa, but almost all of these are unique to their continent of origin," he added. "We are getting less alike, not merging into a single, mixed humanity."

This is happening, he said, because "there has not been much flow" between different regions since modern humans left Africa to colonise the rest of the world. And there is no evidence that it is slowing down, he added.

"The technology can't detect anything beyond about 2,000 years ago, but we see no sign of [human evolution] slowing down. So I would suspect it is continuing," he told BBC News.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7132794.stm

[chasestalling]

newsflash: yes it's been confirmed. alex rodriguez's "hah" at the rogers center
cost the yankees the 2007 world series as baseball will no longer
tolerate gamesmanship of any kind whatsoever to which an
anonymous yankee fan cum baseball historian grumbled, "ty cobbs,
your days are numbered."

[papayahed]

HaHa:

http://www.wackywarnings.com/

[barbara0207]

:lol: :lol: :lol: Hilarious!

[Taliesin]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/13/terry_prachett_alzheimers/


Terry Pratchett has Alzheimer's
An embuggerance


Terry Pratchett has been diagnosed with a rare form of early onset Alzheimer's, as he announced yesterday with a post to the web. The best-selling author of the Discworld fantasy books is 59 years-old.

"I would have liked to keep this one quiet for a little while, but because of upcoming conventions and of course the need to keep my publishers informed, it seems to me unfair to withhold the news," Pratchett wrote on the web site run by Paul Kidby, who has provided Discworld cover art in recent years. "We are taking it fairly philosophically down here and possibly with a mild optimism."

According to The Guardian, Pratchett underwent some medical tests earlier this year after "having problems with hand-eye coordination and dexterity." At the time, it was suggested that he'd had a mild stroke, but Pratchett now says the culprit was Alzheimer's.

Pratchett calls his diagnosis "an embuggerance," but he says that he expects "to meet most current and, as far as possible, future commitments." He aims to complete his next novel, "Nation," and is beginning to lay down notes for another, "Unseen Academicals."

"Frankly, I would prefer it if people kept things cheerful, because I think there's time for at least a few more books yet," Prachett wrote.

"Nation" and "Unseen Academicals" are not part of the Discworld series. The latest Discworld instalment, "Making Money," arrived earlier this year. In all, Pratchett has sold 55 million books, according to The Guardian, and in 1998, he was awarded an OBE for services to British Literature.

After announcing his diagnosis, Pratchett added a post script: "I would just like to draw attention to everyone reading the above that this should be interpreted as 'I am not dead'. I will, of course, be dead at some future point, as will everybody else. For me, this maybe further off than you think - it's too soon to tell. I know it's a very human thing to say 'Is there anything I can do,' but in this case I would only entertain offers from very high-end experts in brain chemistry."

[Lote-Tree]

Woman jailed for testicle attack A woman who ripped off her ex-boyfriend's testicle with her bare hands has been sent to prison. Amanda Monti, 24, flew into a rage when Geoffrey Jones, 37, rejected her advances at the end of a house party, Liverpool Crown Court heard. She pulled off his left testicle and tried to swallow it, before spitting it out. A friend handed it back to Mr Jones saying: "That's yours." Monti admitted wounding and was jailed for two-and-a-half years.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/4253849.stm


ouuuuccccccchhhhhh!

[SleepyWitch]

ouch indeed. the poor little testicle. what a cruel woman!


Doctors were unable to re-attach the organ.
:lol: :lol: :lol: what a neat way of saying the couldn't sew the balls back on :)

[pussnboots]

OWWEEEE!!!! I guess there's one less nut in the world!!!!

[Niamh]

OWWEEEE!!!! I guess there's one less nut in the world!!!!
:lol: :bawling: :lol:

[Lily Adams]

AHAHAHAHAHAHA

I love you guys!!! Those last few posts made me have an annuerism because I laughed so hard...

This is the time where I REALLY need a ROTFL smiley.

[Wizard272002]

FROM:

http://sports.aol.com/story/_a/skater-proposes-to-partner-on-ice/20080127043409990001

Skater Proposes to Partner on Ice
By NANCY ARMOUR,
AP
Posted: 2008-01-27 10:57:47
ST. PAUL, Minn. (Jan. 26) - Keauna McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker got the title, John Baldwin Jr. got the girl.

John Baldwin shocked his skating partner and longtime girlfriend Rena Inoue with a marriage proposal after the pair had completed their routine at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships.

McLaughlin and Brubaker, last year's junior world champions, served notice they're going to be a threat on the senior stage as well, winning the pairs title at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships on Saturday. Their overall score of 190.74 was more than seven points ahead of Baldwin and Rena Inoue, two-time U.S. champions. Brooke Castile and Ben Okolski, last year's champions, were third.

"I can't believe we're national champions," McLaughlin said, her eyes wide.

Inoue and Baldwin have plenty to celebrate, too. As they took their bows, Baldwin dropped to his knees and asked his longtime girlfriend to marry him. Stunned, she could only stare at him at first.

"I didn't know. He didn't tell me and I don't think he told anybody," Inoue said. "At first I was just so shocked. I didn't know what was going on here."

Said Baldwin, "I told her she's the person I want to spend the rest of my life with, how much respect I have for her and that everything I've accomplished in my career and on the ice is because of her."

As the crowd cheered, Baldwin asked again. With tears rolling down her face, Inoue said yes.

There were no such surprises in ice dance, just more surpassing excellence from Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto. The Olympic silver medalists won their record-tying fifth title with a technically ambitious and beautifully executed performance to music by Chopin. They scored 216.07 points, easily beating training partners Meryl Davis and Charlie White.

"I said to Ben at the end, `This is the best in years,"' Belbin said.

The only thing tarnishing McLaughlin and Brubaker's win is the knowledge that they can't take on the world - yet. She only turned 15 in September, missing the age cutoff for the world championships in March by two months.

Still, you can bet the Germans and Chinese will be keeping an eye on these two.

"We want to be the first American team to win the Olympics, that's our big goal," McLaughlin said. "That's my dream."

....

[Anza]

awwwwwwwwwww

[Bakiryu]

eeeeeee, so sweet!

[Scheherazade]

Britons are losing a grip on fact and fiction - with nearly one in four believing Winston Churchill and Florence Nightingale are myths and more than half thinking Sherlock Holmes actually existed.

A very real figureIn a new survey, 47% of people thought that Richard the Lionheart, the 12th-century English king, was a myth.

They were also under the impression that Charles Dickens, one of the most famous writers in English literature, was a fictional character himself.

Indian political leader Gandhi; Cleopatra, ruler of ancient Egypt; adventurer Sir Walter Raleigh; British military leader Bernard Montgomery; and Boudica, famous for leading a major uprising against occupying Roman forces, were all thought to be characters dreamt up for films and books.

Britons thought fictional characters like Sherlock Holmes and pilot Biggles were real, according to the survey of 3,000 people commissioned to celebrate UKTV Gold's forthcoming Robin Hood season.

Over half of those questioned (58%) believe that the detective created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for his novels of the late 1880s actually lived in Baker Street, with sidekick Watson.

:: Historical figures and the percentage of Britons who believe they are myths:
1. Richard the Lionheart (47%)
2. Winston Churchill (23%)
3. Florence Nightingale (23%)
4. Bernard Montgomery (6%)
5. Boudica (5%)
6. Sir Walter Raleigh (4%)
7. Duke of Wellington (4%)
8. Cleopatra (4%)
9. Gandhi (3%)
10. Charles Dickens (3%)

:: Fictional figures and the percentage of Britons who believe they are real:
Sherlock Holmes (58%)
Biggles (33%)

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-1303814,00.html

[Niamh]

i think they need to make history compulsory in ALL UK schools. Thats just shocking!:p

[Wizard272002]

Mother sacrificed her life by refusing cancer treatment so her premature baby would live (http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23434133-details/Mother+sacrificed+her+life+by+refusing+cancer+trea tment+so+her+premature+baby+wold+live/article.do)

Four months into her pregnancy, Lorraine Allard was devastated to learn she was in the advanced stages of cancer.

Doctors advised her to have an abortion and start chemotherapy straight away.

Instead, with steadfast courage, she insisted on waiting long enough to give her unborn son a chance to survive, telling her husband Martyn: "If I am going to die, my baby is going to live."

A caesarean delivery was scheduled at 26 weeks, but Mrs Allard went into premature labour a week before and Liam was born on November 18.

She then started chemotherapy, but died on January 18 - having left her bed a handful of times to cuddle her son beside his incubator.

"Lorraine was positive all the way through - she had strength for both of us," Mr Allard said yesterday.

"Towards the end we knew things weren't going well, but she was overjoyed that she had given life to Liam."

The 34-year-old oilfield technician from St Olaves, near Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, and his 33-year-old wife already had three daughters - Leah, ten, Amy, eight, and Courtney, 20 months - when they learned they were expecting their first boy.

"We were going to have the full set and didn't plan to have any more children after that," said Mr Allard.

But in October last year, his wife started suffering stomach cramps and tests at James Paget Hospital in Gorleston revealed tumours on her liver.

It is believed the disease spread from bowel cancer that had been growing unnoticed for years.

"The doctors said they couldn't do anything because she was pregnant," said Mr Allard.

"She told them straight away they were not going to get rid of the baby. She'd have lost the will to fight."

Mrs Allard went into labour a couple of weeks after the diagnosis and gave birth at the Norfolk and Norwich University NHS Hospital in Norwich.

"Liam was so tiny, just 1lb 11oz, so the nurse picked him up and allowed Lorraine to give him a little kiss before he was taken to an incubator," said Mr Allard.

"She was so emotional. She had been so determined to give him the best chance and was happy that he had been born naturally, which meant she wouldn't have to recover for a couple of weeks after a caesarean before beginning the chemotherapy."

The treatment began almost immediately and Mrs Allard spent her time recuperating at home, apart from four visits to her newborn son.

The first was when he was two weeks old, during which a treasured photo of her cuddling him was taken.

Liam has responded well to his care and it is hoped he will be sent home from hospital in early March.

But his mother's health started to deteriorate just before Christmas and a scan on January 17 revealed the tumours were still growing.

She died the following day. Mr Allard said: "The doctors had said the cancer was no longer curable, although they were trying to shrink the tumours - which they thought might give her a couple of years.

"On the day Lorraine died, she hadn't eaten for two weeks and couldn't drink.

"I laid beside her and she was gripping my hand quite tight.

"We were like that for about half an hour. I could feel against my chest that her heart was slowing down. She just slipped away after that. It was very peaceful.

"When Liam is old enough, I won't tell him that Lorraine gave her life for him, but I will say she made sure he had a good chance of life.

"She told me she didn't want him to feel bad about it."

Mrs Allard's father, Tom Berry, said: "I was overwhelmed by the way Lorraine took it.

"She lived for her husband and children. She was a big personality with a heart of gold."

Babies born at 25 weeks have a 50 per cent chance of survival.

This goes down to 39 per cent at 24 weeks and 17 per cent - or a one in six chance - at 23 weeks.

[Pensive]

Mother sacrificed her life by refusing cancer treatment so her premature baby would live (http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23434133-details/Mother+sacrificed+her+life+by+refusing+cancer+trea tment+so+her+premature+baby+wold+live/article.do)

Four months into her pregnancy, Lorraine Allard was devastated to learn she was in the advanced stages of cancer.

Doctors advised her to have an abortion and start chemotherapy straight away.

Instead, with steadfast courage, she insisted on waiting long enough to give her unborn son a chance to survive, telling her husband Martyn: "If I am going to die, my baby is going to live."

A caesarean delivery was scheduled at 26 weeks, but Mrs Allard went into premature labour a week before and Liam was born on November 18.

She then started chemotherapy, but died on January 18 - having left her bed a handful of times to cuddle her son beside his incubator.

"Lorraine was positive all the way through - she had strength for both of us," Mr Allard said yesterday.

"Towards the end we knew things weren't going well, but she was overjoyed that she had given life to Liam."

The 34-year-old oilfield technician from St Olaves, near Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, and his 33-year-old wife already had three daughters - Leah, ten, Amy, eight, and Courtney, 20 months - when they learned they were expecting their first boy.

"We were going to have the full set and didn't plan to have any more children after that," said Mr Allard.

But in October last year, his wife started suffering stomach cramps and tests at James Paget Hospital in Gorleston revealed tumours on her liver.

It is believed the disease spread from bowel cancer that had been growing unnoticed for years.

"The doctors said they couldn't do anything because she was pregnant," said Mr Allard.

"She told them straight away they were not going to get rid of the baby. She'd have lost the will to fight."

Mrs Allard went into labour a couple of weeks after the diagnosis and gave birth at the Norfolk and Norwich University NHS Hospital in Norwich.

"Liam was so tiny, just 1lb 11oz, so the nurse picked him up and allowed Lorraine to give him a little kiss before he was taken to an incubator," said Mr Allard.

"She was so emotional. She had been so determined to give him the best chance and was happy that he had been born naturally, which meant she wouldn't have to recover for a couple of weeks after a caesarean before beginning the chemotherapy."

The treatment began almost immediately and Mrs Allard spent her time recuperating at home, apart from four visits to her newborn son.

The first was when he was two weeks old, during which a treasured photo of her cuddling him was taken.

Liam has responded well to his care and it is hoped he will be sent home from hospital in early March.

But his mother's health started to deteriorate just before Christmas and a scan on January 17 revealed the tumours were still growing.

She died the following day. Mr Allard said: "The doctors had said the cancer was no longer curable, although they were trying to shrink the tumours - which they thought might give her a couple of years.

"On the day Lorraine died, she hadn't eaten for two weeks and couldn't drink.

"I laid beside her and she was gripping my hand quite tight.

"We were like that for about half an hour. I could feel against my chest that her heart was slowing down. She just slipped away after that. It was very peaceful.

"When Liam is old enough, I won't tell him that Lorraine gave her life for him, but I will say she made sure he had a good chance of life.

"She told me she didn't want him to feel bad about it."

Mrs Allard's father, Tom Berry, said: "I was overwhelmed by the way Lorraine took it.

"She lived for her husband and children. She was a big personality with a heart of gold."

Babies born at 25 weeks have a 50 per cent chance of survival.

This goes down to 39 per cent at 24 weeks and 17 per cent - or a one in six chance - at 23 weeks.


Wow, but mothers just seem to be like this...

[Scheherazade]

A Japanese equestrian competitor looks set to take part in the Beijing Olympics - four decades after first appearing in the Tokyo Games. Hiroshi Hoketsu, now 66, is aiming to be in Japan's Beijing dressage team later this year.

He came 40th in the show-jumping at the Tokyo Games of 1964 - the last time he took part in an Olympic event.

If all goes according to plan, he will become the oldest Olympic representative in Japanese history.

...

The oldest ever Olympic competitor was the Swedish shooter, Oscar Swahn, who took part in the Antwerp Games of 1920 at the age of 72.

He won silver - his sixth Olympic medal - in the running deer double-shot team event.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7232686.stm

[pussnboots]

I saw this on the internet this morning. How sad!


DAVIE, Fla. - Kim Sjostrom wanted a real-life version of the film "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," which played in the background as friends fixed her hair and makeup before her own marriage ceremony.

But less than an hour after she and Teddy Efkarpides were wed, Sjostrom crumpled in her husband's arms during a Greek song that means "Love Me."

At 36, Sjostrom was dead from heart disease.

The wedding had became a project at Davie Elementary School, where Sjostrom taught first grade. Fellow teachers provided the wedding gown, the flowers and decorations. One of them, an ordained minister, performed the ceremony.

"It was perfect for her," said Dominic Church, the minister friend.

[kilted exile]

Please let us be part of Scotland again:p Proof undeniable that the english really wish they were Scottish:D

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/tyne/7248529.stm


Residents in the Northumberland town of Berwick-upon-Tweed have "voted" in favour of becoming part of Scotland.

According to a poll by a TV company, 60% of those who responded wanted the town to be administered by Scotland.

Better financed public services, including free personal health care for the elderly, were the main reasons.

[Scheherazade]

Even the shortest of catnaps may be enough to improve performance in memory tests, say German scientists. Just six minutes "shut-eye" for volunteers was followed by significantly better recall of words, New Scientist magazine reported.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7254555.stm

Now we can all nap at work and claim to be "refreshing" our memories! :D

[kilted exile]

FIREFIGHTERS were called to a house three times in a week to lift a 45-stone man.

Crews of 10 firefighters were involved in shifting Robert Marsden around his home.

On one occasion, they helped him move from one side of bed to the other.

see here (http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2008/02/22/row-as-firemen-are-called-out-to-lift-45-stone-man-86908-20327259/)

[Shalot]

see here (http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2008/02/22/row-as-firemen-are-called-out-to-lift-45-stone-man-86908-20327259/)

how many pounds is 45 stones. this happened to my co-worker at my last job. she somehow got down on the ground and couldn't get herself back up. we didn't have to call the fire department, but several people had to come up and help. We had a trained nurse who was trained in lifting patients, but when you're dealing with 500 pounds there's not much that training can do

[kilted exile]

45 stone is 630 lbs

[Remarkable]

Take a look at this link http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23646684/ to read about the explosion in Albania.A very sad situation...

[Wizard272002]

Writer Arthur C Clarke dies at 90 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7304004.stm)

[Scheherazade]

A woman has been rescued from the jaws of a saltwater crocodile in Australia after her husband jumped onto its back and forced it to flee.

MORE (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7327984.stm)

OK, how many husbands you know would do this? ;)

[pussnboots]

MORE (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7327984.stm)

OK, how many husbands you know would do this? ;)

Not sure what my husband would do

[Scheherazade]

English students at Cambridge University have been asked to analyse lyrics by singer Amy Winehouse in a final-year exam.

They were told to compare Winehouse's Love is a Losing Game to songs by Bob Dylan, Billie Holiday and 16th century explorer Sir Walter Raleigh.

Winehouse recently won a prestigious Ivor Novello award for the song.

A university spokesman said English students had always been asked to compare writers of different times.

He said the question was "interesting, but not news".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7422730.stm

[Wizard272002]

Comic Harvey Korman Dead At 81 (http://www.us.imdb.com/name/nm0466327/news#ni0242870)!

He was a funny guy!

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e292/Wizard27/lw2145g.jpg

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e292/Wizard27/MV5BMjA1NDMzMzc5NV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTc.jpg

[pussnboots]

Kiss Of Deaf: L.I. Woman Loses Hearing From Smooch
4-Year-Old Daughter's Show Of Affection Turns Woman's Life Upside Down
Expert Says Sucking Action Damaged Ear Drum
Reporting
Jennifer McLogan HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. (CBS) ― Medical experts say a kiss on the ear by a 4-year-old girl has caused a unique chain of events that has severely damaged her mother's hearing.

And has CBS 2 HD has learned in this exclusive report, the unusual case has catapulted the family from Hicksville into the pages of medical history.

It was a kiss from a child. She is her mother's joy. It was an expression of unconditional love.

But for one Long Island mom, who we are not identifying because, of her concerns for her daughter's emotional scars, a big, suctioning squeaky smooch on her left ear from her then-4-year-old has left shocking permanent damage.

"It was a long sucking kiss in my ear. I couldn't push her away. I was almost frozen. When she stopped, and the kiss ended, I realized I had no hearing in that ear. Nothing," the mother told CBS 2 HD.

"I got very upset and yelled for my husband, 'I can't hear out of this ear! I can't hear!'"

Her daughter was devastated.
....

[pussnboots]

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?cl=8277206

check this out - its quite amazing

[Wizard272002]

George Carlin mourned as a counterculture hero

By KEITH ST. CLAIR, Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES - George Carlin, the frenzied performer whose routine "Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television" led to a key Supreme Court ruling on obscenity, has died.

Carlin, who had a history of heart trouble, went into St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica on Sunday afternoon complaining of chest pain and died later that evening, said his publicist, Jeff Abraham. He had performed as recently as last weekend at the Orleans Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas. He was 71.

"He was a genius and I will miss him dearly," Jack Burns, who was the other half of a comedy duo with Carlin in the early 1960s, told The Associated Press.

Carlin's jokes constantly breached the accepted boundaries of comedy and language, particularly with his routine on the "Seven Words" — all of which are taboo on broadcast TV and radio to this day.

When he uttered all seven at a show in Milwaukee in 1972, he was arrested on charges of disturbing the peace, freed on $150 bail and exonerated when a Wisconsin judge dismissed the case, saying it was indecent but citing free speech and the lack of any disturbance.

When the words were later played on a New York radio station, they resulted in a 1978 Supreme Court ruling upholding the government's authority to sanction stations for broadcasting offensive language during hours when children might be listening.

"So my name is a footnote in American legal history, which I'm perversely kind of proud of," he told The Associated Press earlier this year.

Despite his reputation as unapologetically irreverent, Carlin was a television staple through the decades, serving as host of the "Saturday Night Live" debut in 1975 — noting on his Web site that he was "loaded on cocaine all week long" — and appearing some 130 times on "The Tonight Show."

He produced 23 comedy albums, 14 HBO specials, three books, a couple of TV shows and appeared in several movies, from his own comedy specials to "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" in 1989 — a testament to his range from cerebral satire and cultural commentary to downright silliness (and sometimes hitting all points in one stroke).

"Why do they lock gas station bathrooms?" he once mused. "Are they afraid someone will clean them?"

He won four Grammy Awards, each for best spoken comedy album, and was nominated for five Emmy awards. On Tuesday, it was announced that Carlin was being awarded the 11th annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, which will be presented Nov. 10 in Washington and broadcast on PBS.

Carlin started his career on the traditional nightclub circuit in a coat and tie, pairing with Burns to spoof TV game shows, news and movies. Perhaps in spite of the outlaw soul, "George was fairly conservative when I met him," said Burns, describing himself as the more left-leaning of the two. It was a degree of separation that would reverse when they came upon Lenny Bruce, the original shock comic, in the early '60s.

"We were working in Chicago, and we went to see Lenny, and we were both blown away," Burns said, recalling the moment as the beginning of the end for their collaboration if not their close friendship. "It was an epiphany for George. The comedy we were doing at the time wasn't exactly groundbreaking, and George knew then that he wanted to go in a different direction."

That direction would make Carlin as much a social commentator and philosopher as comedian, a position he would relish through the years.

"The whole problem with this idea of obscenity and indecency, and all of these things — bad language and whatever — it's all caused by one basic thing, and that is: religious superstition," Carlin told the AP in a 2004 interview. "There's an idea that the human body is somehow evil and bad and there are parts of it that are especially evil and bad, and we should be ashamed. Fear, guilt and shame are built into the attitude toward sex and the body. ... It's reflected in these prohibitions and these taboos that we have."

Carlin was born on May 12, 1937, and grew up in the Morningside Heights section of Manhattan, raised by a single mother. After dropping out of high school in the ninth grade, he joined the Air Force in 1954. He received three court-martials and numerous disciplinary punishments, according to his official Web site. georgecarlin.com/home/home.html

...



salon.com/wires/ap/entertainment/2008/06/23/D91FLRJ80_obit_george_carlin/index.html

--

[pussnboots]

Study: World Gets Happier

Despite the anxieties of these times, happiness has been on the rise around the world in recent years, a new survey finds.

The upbeat outlook is attributed to economic growth in previously poor countries, democratization of others, and rising social tolerance for women and minority groups.


"It's a surprising finding," said University of Michigan political scientist Ronald Inglehart, who headed up the survey. "It's widely believed that it's almost impossible to raise an entire country's happiness level."


Denmark is the happiest nation and Zimbabwe the the most glum, he found. (Zimbabwe's longtime ruler Robert Mugabe was sworn in as president for a sixth term Sunday after a widely discredited runoff in which he was the only candidate. Observers said the runoff was marred by violence and intimidation.)


The United States ranks 16th.


The results of the survey, going back an average of 17 years in 52 countries and involving 350,000 people, will be published in the July 2008 issue of the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science. Researchers have asked the same two questions over the years: "Taking all things together, would you say you are very happy, rather happy, not very happy, not at all happy?" And, "All things considered, how satisfied are you with your life as a whole these days?"


A Happiness Index created from the answers rose in 40 countries between 1981 and 2007, and it fell in the other 12.


Scientists had thought happiness is stable over time when looking at entire societies. "Most previous research suggests that people and nations are stuck on a 'hedonic treadmill,'" Inglehart said. "The belief has been that no matter what happens or what we do, basic happiness levels are stable and don't really change."

....

[Niamh]

Dublin is now the third most expensive city in the world to live, with London and Oslo coming in first and second.
http://www.citymayors.com/economics/expensive_cities2.html
A cup of tea on average in Ireland could cost you €3. A basket of groceries bought in Tesco Ireland could cost you 43% more than in Tesco UK.
http://www.valueireland.com/media/irish_mirror.htm

[pussnboots]

And I thought NY was expensive!!!

[Virgil]

A survey released last week found one reason America doesn't top the list: Baby Boomers are generally miserable compared to other generations. Further, a public opinion poll released by the Pew Research Center in April found that 81 percent of Americans say they believe the country is on the "wrong track." The response is the most negative in the 25 years pollsters have asked the question.


Baby Boomers are the whiney Americans who are never satisfied. They started this culture of never growing up and they still haven't grown up. I wish I had been part of the WWII generation. Now there were adults who suffered and appreciated what prosperity.

[Nightshade]

Dublin is now the third most expensive city in the world to live, with London and Oslo coming in first and second.
http://www.citymayors.com/economics/expensive_cities2.html
A cup of tea on average in Ireland could cost you €3. A basket of groceries bought in Tesco Ireland could cost you 43% more than in Tesco UK.
http://www.valueireland.com/media/irish_mirror.htm

I knew there was a reason I didnt want to live in London! but Dublin too now.:(
3 euro for a cup of tea? is this the kind where they give you a paper cup, or the kind where you get a little pot? ....

[Niamh]

I knew there was a reason I didnt want to live in London! but Dublin too now.:(
3 euro for a cup of tea? is this the kind where they give you a paper cup, or the kind where you get a little pot? ....

No you get them in mugs. Very few places do the little pots of tea these days. but thats just the average. And dont worry. I know where we can get tea for €1-€1.50! :D (but that is in foam cups.)

I'll be the first to admit that Ireland is very expensive, but it doesnt really feel as bad as it sounds because we earn alot more than many of our european counterparts. Someone working as a sales assistant in a shop could be earning almost €400 a week. :nod: Thats a hell of a lot more than i was earning a week when i started working back in 2000.

[Bakiryu]

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=5302756&page=1

He looks so beautiful! :bawling: This is just inspiring. :D

[eyemaker]

indeed but..How is that poor child going to feel when she finds out how she was made?
hehe

[pussnboots]

Desk rage spoils workplace for many Americans By Ellen Wulfhorst
Thu Jul 10, 12:35 PM ET



NEW YORK (Reuters) - Get out of the way, road rage. Here comes desk rage.


Anger in the workplace -- employees and employers who are grumpy, insulting, short-tempered or worse -- is shockingly common and likely growing as Americans cope with woes of rising costs, job uncertainty or overwhelming debt, experts say.

"It runs the gamut from just rudeness up to pretty extreme abusive behaviors," said Paul Spector, professor of industrial and organizational psychology at the University of South Florida. "The severe cases of fatal violence get a lot of press but in some ways this is more insidious because it affects millions of people."

Nearly half of U.S. workers in America report yelling and verbal abuse on the job, with roughly a quarter saying it has driven them to tears, research has shown.

Other research showed one-sixth of workers reported anger at work has led to property damage, while a tenth reported physical violence and fear their workplace might not be safe.

"It's a total disaster," said Anna Maravelas, author of "How to Reduce Workplace Conflict and Stress." "Rudeness, impatience, people being angry -- we used to do that kind of stuff at home but at work, we were professional. Now it's almost becoming trendy to do it at work.

"It was something we did behind closed doors," she said. "Now people are losing their sense of embarrassment over it."

Contemporary pressures such as rising fuel costs fan the flames, said John Challenger, head of Chicago's Challenger, Gray & Christmas workplace consultants.

"People are coming to work after a long commute, sitting in traffic watching their discretionary income burn up. They're ready for a fight or just really upset," he said.

Added to that, he said, are financially strapped workers having to cut back on paying for personal pastimes that might serve as an antidote to work pressures.

LET OFF STEAM

....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080710/bs_nm/workplace_usa_deskrage_dc

....

[Bakiryu]

indeed but..How is that poor child going to feel when she finds out how she was made?
hehe

so what? :lol:

[lugdunum]

Today is the last day of the Sanfermines. A local fiesta in Pamplona (Northern Spain) made internationally famous by the author E. Hemingway and it is now one of the major events in the world.

One of the main appeals of this event are the "encierros": a race in front of bulls. Anyone can join (given they are crazy enough to dare do something so stupid).

Every year people get badly injured - even die - (especially tourists). See for yourself and see what you think:

http://www.euronews.net/en/nocomment/10/07/2008/espana/

No comment.... :confused:

[Scheherazade]

Hundreds of women braved the British weather and stripped down to their bikinis to be photographed on a Teesside beach.

But the event at Redcar beach failed to beat the existing world record of 1010 women in bikinis which was set on Bondi Beach, Australia, in September 2007.

The 320 women who took part, including an 81-year-old, helped raise funds for the Great North Air Ambulance.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tees/7516169.stm

[kilted exile]

including an 81-year-old,

methinks they could have raised a lot more money allowing people to give donations to stop 81 year old women wearing bikinis.

yeah, yeah, yeah oink,oink

[Scheherazade]

UK drivers are set to benefit after a number of national supermarket chains and an oil company said they would lower the price of fuel.

Asda said it would cut the price of unleaded petrol and diesel by 3 pence per litre, while Morrisons said it would cut both prices by 4p per litre.

BP said petrol and diesel prices at the 223 stations it operates would fall on average by 1p a litre.

Sainsbury's and Tesco said they would look to match rivals locally.

Fuel prices have risen in recent months as the price of crude oil has increased. Oil prices hit record levels above $147 a barrel in early July.

However, oil prices have dropped recently, to about $132 a barrel, resulting in a 6% fall in the wholesale price of petrol since mid-July, according to the AA.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7518516.stm

[Nightshade]

UK drivers are set to benefit after a number of national supermarket chains and an oil company said they would lower the price of fuel.

Asda said it would cut the price of unleaded petrol and diesel by 3 pence per litre, while Morrisons said it would cut both prices by 4p per litre.

BP said petrol and diesel prices at the 223 stations it operates would fall on average by 1p a litre.

Sainsbury's and Tesco said they would look to match rivals locally.

Fuel prices have risen in recent months as the price of crude oil has increased. Oil prices hit record levels above $147 a barrel in early July.

However, oil prices have dropped recently, to about $132 a barrel, resulting in a 6% fall in the wholesale price of petrol since mid-July, according to the AA.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7518516.stm

Finally! :banana:

[Niamh]

There was a few places in Cornwall that where selling petrol and Diesel at around 183p a litre! :eek: Now THAT is expensive!

[Scheherazade]

A judge in New Zealand made a young girl a ward of court so that she could change the name she hated - Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii.

Judge Rob Murfitt said that the name embarrassed the nine-year-old and could expose her to teasing.

He attacked a trend of giving children bizarre names, citing several examples.

Officials had blocked Sex Fruit, Keenan Got Lucy and Yeah Detroit, he said, but Number 16 Bus Shelter, Violence and Midnight Chardonnay had been allowed.

One mother wanted to name her child O.crnia using text language, but was later persuaded to use Oceania, he said.

Allowed: Violence; Number 16 Bus Shelter; Midnight Chardonnay; Benson and Hedges (twins)

Blocked: Yeah Detroit; Stallion; Twisty Poi; Keenan Got Lucy; Sex Fruit; Fat Boy; Cinderella Beauty Blossom; Fish and Chips (twins)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7522952.stm

[Guinivere]

Allowed: Violence; Number 16 Bus Shelter; Midnight Chardonnay; Benson and Hedges (twins)

Blocked: Yeah Detroit; Stallion; Twisty Poi; Keenan Got Lucy; Sex Fruit; Fat Boy; Cinderella Beauty Blossom; Fish and Chips (twins)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7522952.stm

People are nuts !

[Virgil]

People are nuts but I can't believe the government or any judge actually has power over what a parent can choose to name their child. I know those are stupid names but it is the parent's choice. Allowing the government to have that power is even more nuts.

[pussnboots]

I've heard of some wierd names but I have never heard the name
"Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii", Yeah Detriot, Stallion, etc. What the heck were their parents thinking?

[motherhubbard]

I think it's mean an horrible to do that to a child. I think it shows a lack of respect for the child and makes them more of a object or possession.

[papayahed]

Yeah Detroit

Now that has a ring to it!!!!



(I read that the couple in question were in a bitter divorce and there were other factors involved in making Tulula does the hula from hawaii a ward of the court.)

[Niamh]

:lol: they are some of the most rediculous names i have ever heard in my life! that poor child. I think in cases like this where the child does potentially have a high risk of bullying etc due to the god awful name bestowed upon them by their parents (who were obviously on some mad caffine buzz when they named the kid), it is right that the courts do something like that to protect the innocence (and sanity) of the child. Lets hope she chooses something really nice.
I would never call my child a name like that. EVER! And I think a lot of famous people who are naming their children silly names have a lot of influence on similar things happening around the globe. They should just stop, and give them normalish names (its hard to define normal, particularly seeing as a common name in one country could come across as bizarre in another!)
I mean... number 16 bus shelter?!!!!!!

[Scheherazade]

number 16 bus shelter?!!!!!!Maybe that is where the baby was born... Or, even more importantly, where s/he was... "initiated"?

:D

Why is it OK to be called Brooklyn or Paris but not number 16 bus shelter?

[motherhubbard]

it kind of reminds me of George Costanza thinking he would name a child Seven

[Niamh]

Maybe that is where the baby was born... Or, even more importantly, where s/he was... "initiated"?

:D
:lol: probably. poor kid. :p


Why is it OK to be called Brooklyn or Paris but not number 16 bus shelter?

maybe naming kids after places is the new crazy. I know durning the late Victorian period? people went mad and started naming their kids after flowers which was more or less unheard off till then. Think of how people view Mrs Kirkpatrick in Wives and Daughters bacause her name is Hyacinth, and her daughters name was Cynthia, named of her. It was rare.
Maybe there are trends of these sort of thing. Next it will be major rivers! Nile, Themes, Rhine, Volga and Liffey here we come! :p

[Virgil]

Maybe that is where the baby was born... Or, even more importantly, where s/he was... "initiated"?

:D

Why is it OK to be called Brooklyn or Paris but not number 16 bus shelter?

I have an uncommon name. I lived. Lots of people I know have uncommon names. It didn't kill them. Where is the harm? Yes they are crazy silly names, but the child will get back bone and adjust. They's come up with a moniker. The precedent that a goverment official can over rule your parents's wish to me is really dangerous.

[Niamh]

So Virgil, Would you name your kid number 16 bus shelter? Or how about, funny monkey swinging in the zoo?;)

[Shalot]

I have an uncommon name. I lived. Lots of people I know have uncommon names. It didn't kill them. Where is the harm? Yes they are crazy silly names, but the child will get back bone and adjust. They's come up with a moniker. The precedent that a goverment official can over rule your parents's wish to me is really dangerous.

Well, no. What if the parents are somewhat retarded? Someone has to be able to say with authority, "no, you will not name your child Douche Bag."

[pussnboots]

I have an uncommon name. I lived. Lots of people I know have uncommon names. It didn't kill them. Where is the harm? Yes they are crazy silly names, but the child will get back bone and adjust. They's come up with a moniker. The precedent that a goverment official can over rule your parents's wish to me is really dangerous.

I think you missed the point here. We are not talking abt uncommon names but ridiculous names.

[motherhubbard]

You won't believe this, it's unbelievable. A woman once named her daughter Vagina in spite of the hospital’s efforts to convince her otherwise. She thought it sounded beautiful.

[Virgil]

So Virgil, Would you name your kid number 16 bus shelter? Or how about, funny monkey swinging in the zoo?;)


Well, no. What if the parents are somewhat retarded? Someone has to be able to say with authority, "no, you will not name your child Douche Bag."


I think you missed the point here. We are not talking abt uncommon names but ridiculous names.

I don't care. I did not miss the point. If parents are retarded than the grandparents or the aunts and uncles or whoever takes care of the parents. But not the government. Maybe then the government will demand, no not demand but enforce by the point of a gun (because that's what happens when the government enforces something-check out China enforcing what it doesn't agree with in Tibet) when you decide to name your child something some jusdge doesn't like. Who gave this judge such power? Thank God there is some semblance of limited government on my country.

[motherhubbard]

I agree with what you are saying about government control. It’s a frightening prospect. But when parents do not have a child’s best interest in the mind of the parent who can protect the child? Grandparents have no rights to the child.

[Scheherazade]

Virgil> Will you not mind if someone names their children "Heil Hitler" or "Long Live Osama"?

[Jozanny]

A judge in New Zealand made a young girl a ward of court so that she could change the name she hated - Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii.

Judge Rob Murfitt said that the name embarrassed the nine-year-old and could expose her to teasing.

You are fast Sche. I just read this article a few hours ago, and on this I side with the state. The parents are nearly engaging in an act of cruelty doing that to a child. Maybe Talula with an appropriate last name would have been fine, but a satirical sentence?

Maybe Atheist knows if this is an NZ phenom?

[sprinks]

There was a whole big thing in the news recently about Nicole Kidman calling her child "Sunday Rose". Many people think it sounds like "Sunday Roast". I wonder if it'd worse to have a right out ridiculous name or a semi-normal name that gets changed into something ridiculous by other people because they think its funny.

[lugdunum]

Jozanny
The parents are nearly engaging in an act of cruelty doing that to a child.

Here in Northern Spain, lots of people chose local (i.e Basque) names for their children (instead of Spanish names). They can therefore name their children either with the Basque version of Spanish names (for example Pedro will become Koldo, Juan will become Jon etc.) or use Basque words such as Ibai (River), Odei (cloud), Usua (dove) and so on.

This is fine, except that some parents will chose Basque words without knowing the meaning (as not everybody speaks Basque)... The most recent case was of parents who had chosen the name "Pusker" for their little boy without knowing that it means "fart"... :lol:

They didn't let them though! I'm sure the kid will be grateful....

[Scheherazade]

From Season 3, "I Married Marge":
Marge: Homer, I've been thinking, if the baby's a boy, what do you think of the name Larry?

Homer: Marge, we can't do that! All the kids will call him `Larry Fairy'.

Marge: Well, how about Louie?

Homer: They'll call him `Screwy Louie'.

Marge: Bob?

Homer: `Flob'. [?]

Marge: Luke?

Homer: `Puke'.

Marge: Marcus?

Homer: `Mucus'.

Marge: What about Bart?

Homer: Let's see... Bart, Cart, Dart, Ee-art... Nope, can't see any problem with that!

[Virgil]

Virgil> Will you not mind if someone names their children "Heil Hitler" or "Long Live Osama"?


You are fast Sche. I just read this article a few hours ago, and on this I side with the state. The parents are nearly engaging in an act of cruelty doing that to a child. Maybe Talula with an appropriate last name would have been fine, but a satirical sentence?

Maybe Atheist knows if this is an NZ phenom?
Based on what criteria? What is a dumb name and what isn't? And so what they have a difficult name. It won't kill them. I have an unusual name. Lots of people, espeicially immigrants do. There is a fellow from Egypt at work whose name is Mohsen. Well, that may be common in Egypt but I know of no one else with that name. If he wished to name his son Mohsen have and raise him in New York does a judge have the right to over turn it? Well that child will have a hard time of it. There is nothing wrong or disfiguring with someone having an unusual name. He and his friends will figure out a short cut. Or when he comes of age he'll call himself whatever he likes.


There was a whole big thing in the news recently about Nicole Kidman calling her child "Sunday Rose". Many people think it sounds like "Sunday Roast". I wonder if it'd worse to have a right out ridiculous name or a semi-normal name that gets changed into something ridiculous by other people because they think its funny.
Sunday rose sounds like something I think disfiguring. If I were a judge I woud force her to change it. :p

[Scheherazade]

People are subconsciously influenced by the weight of those around them - so fat friends can cause someone to put on weight too, researchers suggest.

An international team, including University of Warwick experts, dubbed it "imitative obesity" - or "keeping up with the Joneses" on calories.

Their study, presented to a conference in the US, looked at data on 27,000 people from across Europe.

But one expert said the causes for the rise in obesity were much more complex.

The work, by scientists at the University of Warwick, Dartmouth College, and the University of Leuven, is being presented to an economics conference in Cambridge Massachusetts.

They suggest choices about appearance, on which decisions such as job offers or being deemed attractive are based, are determined by the choices others around you make.

So, if people around you are fat, it is permissible for you to be fat too.

It found nearly half of European women feel overweight, while just under a third of men felt the same.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7524944.stm

[Shalot]

How 'bout fat coworkers can boost your size - it is true.

[Niamh]

Based on what criteria? What is a dumb name and what isn't? And so what they have a difficult name. It won't kill them. I have an unusual name. Lots of people, espeicially immigrants do. There is a fellow from Egypt at work whose name is Mohsen. Well, that may be common in Egypt but I know of no one else with that name. If he wished to name his son Mohsen have and raise him in New York does a judge have the right to over turn it? Well that child will have a hard time of it. There is nothing wrong or disfiguring with someone having an unusual name. He and his friends will figure out a short cut. Or when he comes of age he'll call himself whatever he likes.


Sunday rose sounds like something I think disfiguring. If I were a judge I woud force her to change it. :p

Virg, i think you need to differenciate between names that are common to a nation and not to others, which would make them unusual (mine would be a prime example) and names that are down right rediculous and not associated with any country, etnicity etc. Your name is very Italian. People would hear it and know its italian. The First thing i thought wa, "thats such a real italian name!" Mine is Irish and people abroad know its Irish, but would think the spelling is weird. The May be unusual outside their country of origin, but it shows our roots and where where came from. That does not make our names laughable or disputable in a case like this. But calling a child Talula with a Hula in Hawaii would be mocked and jeered in a lot of countries. That is the type of name that could emotionally scar a child an could potentially lead to unhappiness, isolation and maybe even suicide in future life. The Parents might be the idiots to come up with the names, but its the poor child that has to live with it.

[lugdunum]

Gourmets and fussy cheese sandwich lovers will be delighted to know that scientists have come up with the mathematical formula for the perfect cheese sandwich! :idea:

Lazy cooks, keep out!

The formula is :



W [1 + ((bd)/6.5)) - s + ((m-2c)/2) + ((v+p)/7t)] (100 + l/100)

W = the thickness of Cheddar in millimetres
B = The thickness of the bread
D = The dough flavour modifier
S = The thickness of margarine or butter
M = The thickness of mayonnaise
C = The creaminess modifier
V = The thickness of tomato
P = The depth of pickle
T = The tanginess modifier
I = The thickness of the lettuce layer

:crash:

Don't forget your ruler and calculator next time you go and make yourself a little snack :lol:

Complete story at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1027800/Scientists-discover-new-mathematical-formula--perfect-cheese-sandwich.html

[Jozanny]

Chilean mother kills daughter over homework

Reuters
Tuesday, July 22, 2008; 11:43 AM

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - A Chilean woman beat her daughter to death after she refused to do her homework, police said on Tuesday.

Erna Rivera, 26, admitted losing her temper on Monday when her 9-year-old daughter refused to read a book her teachers had assigned as a holiday task. She kicked and beat the child at their home in the Chilean capital, Santiago, police said.

The girl died shortly after -- on the eve of her 10th birthday. Rivera has been charged with murder

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/22/AR2008072201142.html

[Equality72521]

Morgan Freeman injured in Car accident.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/arts/AP-People-Morgan-Freeman.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[Niamh]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/04/arts/04arts-CHRISTINAAPP_BRF.html?scp=2&sq=christina%20applegate&st=cse

[Scheherazade]

Aimus should have gone to Australia instead of Canada: :D



An analysis of new census figures has shown that Australia is suffering from an unprecedented "man drought".

The statistics have revealed that there are almost 100,000 more females than males in Australia.

The problem is worse in the coastal cities, where women have moved seeking better jobs and lifestyles, while many men have gone overseas.

Thirty years ago Australia was with flush with men thanks to immigration policies that favoured males.

That position has been reversed because thousands of Australian men in their 20s and early 30s have gone overseas either to travel or to work.

It has caused a gender imbalance that is having far-reaching implications.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7589382.stm

[motherhubbard]

Maybe the men left because they couldn’t compete with the amazing good looks of Anthony Wiggle- hubba hubba ;)

http://img2.timeinc.net/people/i/2007/news/070430/anthony_field180.jpg

[Scheherazade]

Maybe the men left because they couldn’t compete with the amazing good looks of Anthony Wiggle- hubba hubba ;)
Who is Anthony Wiggle?

[motherhubbard]

OH! I can't believe it!!! He's one of the most beautiful men God ever made!
http://z.about.com/d/kidsmusic/1/0/f/4/group_full_blue.jpg

The Wiggles are a music group that sings children’s songs. They are from Australia. Anthony is the blue wiggle because he wears the blue shirt. I was lucky enough to see the wiggles live when I was just overdue with my third child. It was a fantastic performance! My sister took her son, I took my two girls and my brother came along incase I went into labor. My sister is a nurse and she could help me while he drove or managed kids. After the concert we all stood out near their tour bus and waited for over an hour. When they finally came out they signed T-shirts and visited with the kids, it was great. Anthony is breathtakingly beautiful!

[Scheherazade]

Well, who couldn't be in these outfits really? :D

Don't know them... Are they still together? Doing shows and all? Maybe I should check out youtube.

[motherhubbard]

I don't know, I think so. I have some old videos and that's what my kids watch. I think they had a show on disney, but I don't know.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4dmelafrvk

[Scheherazade]

I don't know, I think so. I have some old videos and that's what my kids watch. I think they had a show on disney, but I don't know.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4dmelafrvkROTFL!!!

This is priceless! :D

Can't stop watching them! :p

PS: "Hot Potato" is my favorite so far!

[Niamh]

Aimus should have gone to Australia instead of Canada: :D


:lol:

**************************
The wiggles are shown on TV over here, but they arent that big.

[sprinks]

Don't know them... Are they still together? Doing shows and all? Maybe I should check out youtube.

Oh I know this! :D :lol:. They are still together, including Dorothy the Dinosuar and Wags the Dog and that octapus thing and Captain Feathersword and the Big Red Car... and.... thats pretty shameful that I'm almost 16 and I know this still. But anywho, recently Greg (yellow wiggle) left due to illness. They replaced him with a younger guy who was his understudy, who is named Sam.

I remember back in year 6 I think it was, or year 7, my friends and I dressed up as the Wiggles (I was the yellow one) for Book Week, we even made a Wiggle-mobile, well thats what I named it. It was a cardboard version of the Big Red Car. Anywho, one friend chickened out and they were meant to be Jeff, so there was only 3 of us. We told the little kids that we ran over Jeff. Poor kids :p

[kilted exile]

More Stories making me proud to be a glaswegian


THESE shocking pictures expose the terrifying extent of Scotland's blade culture.

A young mum confronts her neighbour wielding a samurai sword in one hand and a kitchen knife in the other.

The mum-of-two, aged 24, who has a third weapon stuffed into her jeans, screams threats and waves the deadly blades as her six-year-old daughter stands at her side.

As the sickening scene unfolds, a group of youths hurl abuse at the unemployed single mum, who only backs off when someone shouts that the police are coming.

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2008/09/01/exclusive-latest-scots-blade-horror-as-young-mum-confronts-neighbour-with-samurai-sword-86908-20719836/

[Niamh]

More Stories making me proud to be a glaswegian



http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2008/09/01/exclusive-latest-scots-blade-horror-as-young-mum-confronts-neighbour-with-samurai-sword-86908-20719836/

Good God!!! glad i dont live in Glasgow! Or limerick for that matter!

[Scheherazade]

In the normally sedate gardens of the Edinburgh Book Festival, it is causing quite a furore.

From this autumn, a number of publishing houses will "age band" their children's books.

Each book will carry a specific marking indicating they are suitable for readers aged 5+, 7+, 9+, 11+ and 13+/teen.

Research within the book industry suggests people buying books for children would welcome the guidance.

But it is a scheme which has already enraged a number of writers, among them former children's laureate Michael Morpurgo.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/7568992.stm

[Scheherazade]

A giant statue of a Buddha has been discovered in central Afghanistan, near to the ruins of the world-famous Bamiyan Buddhas.

Archaeologists say the 19m (62ft) statue is in a sleeping position and dates back to the Third Century.

Other relics such as coins and ceramics were also found.

The Taleban blew up two giant standing Buddhas carved into the mountainside at Bamiyan - once a thriving centre of Buddhism - in 2001.

The statues, the tallest such standing Buddhas in the world at the time, were considered by the Taleban to be un-Islamic representations of the human form.

Archaeologists are working on restoring the largest of the two Buddhas in a project that is expected to take a decade.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7604519.stm

[Scheherazade]

Scientists have hailed a successful switch-on for an enormous experiment which will recreate the conditions a few moments after the Big Bang.

They have now fired two beams of particles called protons around the 27km-long tunnel which houses the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

The £5bn machine on the Swiss-French border is designed to smash particles together with cataclysmic force.

Scientists hope it will shed light on fundamental questions in physics.

The first - clockwise - beam completed its first circuit of the underground tunnel at just before 0930 BST. The second - anti-clockwise - beam successfully circled the ring after 1400 BST.

The beams have not yet been run continuously. So far, they have been stopped, or "dumped" after just a handful of circuits.

By Wednesday evening, engineers hope to inject clockwise and anti-clockwise protons again, but this time they will "close the orbit", letting the beams run continuously for a few seconds each.

Cern has not yet announced when it plans to carry out the first collisions, but the BBC understands that low-energy collisions could happen in the next few days.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7604293.stm

[Virgil]

My first thought after reading the title of the article was, "where did the bear get a bicycle?" :lol: This is a funny story and made funnier by the misplaced modifyer in the title. ;)


Teacher OK after crashing into bear on a bicycle
Wed Sep 10, 11:17 PM ET

MISSOULA, Mont. - A middle school teacher suffered some bruising and a big scratch on his back after he struck a bear while riding his bicycle to school.


Jim Litz said he was traveling about 25 mph Monday morning when he came upon a rise and spotted a black bear about 10 feet in front of him. He didn't have time to stop and T-boned the bruin.

He tumbled over the handlebars, his helmet hit the bear's back and the two went cartwheeling down the road.

The bear rolled over Litz's head, cracking his helmet, and scratched his back before scampering up a hill above the road. [Snip]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080911/ap_on_fe_st/odd_bicyclist_vs_bear

[Weisinheimer]

:lol: That's pretty funny. I can just see the dude and the bear rolling over each other down the road.

[kasie]

And not only did the bear have a bicycle, it was wearing a helmet and scratched its back, according to the last line.

And still there are doubts about the utility of the teaching of English Literature in schools....

[Remarkable]

And not only did the bear have a bicycle, it was wearing a helmet and scratched its back, according to the last line.

And still there are doubts about the utility of the teaching of English Literature in schools....

:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:...

[ClaesGefvenberg]

That reminds me of another encounter of the animal kind (I have already posted this on another site, but here goes)...

I was once clobbered by a swan... while windsurfing. That killer bird attacked from my six o'clock position and immediately gained the upper hand. I.e: Yours truly went into the water. Any attempt to get back onto the board resulted in a renewed attack. So there I was threading water, trying to defend myself while that hissing monster kept lunging at me. Did anyone ever try to get away from an angry swan,while towing a windsurfing board with the sail in the water? No? Well, its no fun. It hurts... Those wings pack an almighty punch, and I was black and blue all over the next day.

And you know what? I'm really glad that nobody caught it on film...:lol::blush:

/Claes

[wilbur lim]

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20080911/capt.a23d65162391453aa46f461f4095e14c.bicyclist_vs _bear_mtmis201.jpg?x=180&y=217&q=85&sig=nw3DFJeDeCD5q0w1WAosCQ--

That picture is adapted from the news,it sounds hilarious,but humanity must be shown for the hapless teacher.

[Virgil]

Oh this got moved here. I couldn't find it. I knew this couldn't get expunged. Anyway I do think a photo such as this should go aong with the bear story. :D

http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/04_03/bearG0205_468x551.jpg

[Scheherazade]

Children's author Eoin Colfer has been commissioned to write a sixth instalment of the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy series.

Mostly Harmless, the last Hitchhiker book, was written by its creator, the late Douglas Adams, 16 years ago.

Now Adams's widow, Jane Belson, has given her approval to bring back the hapless Arthur Dent in a new book entitled And Another Thing...

Eoin Colfer, 43, is best known for the best-selling Artemis Fowl novels.

He said he was "terrified" by the prospect of creating a new Hitchhiker book almost a quarter of a century after being introduced to what he described as a "slice of satirical genius" in his late teens.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7619828.stm

[Scheherazade]

Rwanda will be the first country where women will outnumber men in parliament, preliminary election results show.

Women have taken 44 out of 80 seats so far and the number could rise if three seats reserved for the disabled and youth representatives go to females.

Rwanda, whose post-genocide constitution ensures a 30% quota for female MPs, already held the record for the most women in parliament.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7620816.stm

[Virgil]

Rwanda will be the first country where women will outnumber men in parliament, preliminary election results show.

Women have taken 44 out of 80 seats so far and the number could rise if three seats reserved for the disabled and youth representatives go to females.

Rwanda, whose post-genocide constitution ensures a 30% quota for female MPs, already held the record for the most women in parliament.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7620816.stm

Doesn't that show that they didn't need the quota? I hate quotas.

[Virgil]

Here's an exciting piece of news.


New Mozart piece of music found in French library
By JOHN LEICESTER,

PARIS - A French museum has found a previously unknown piece of music handwritten by Mozart, a researcher said Thursday. The 18th century melody sketch is missing the harmony and instrumentation but was described as an important find.


Ulrich Leisinger, head of research at the International Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg, Austria, said there is no doubt that the single sheet was written by the composer.

"This is absolutely new," Leisinger said in a telephone interview. "We have new music here."

"His handwriting is absolutely clearly identifiable," he added. "There's no doubt that this is an original piece handwritten by Mozart."

The work, described as the preliminary draft of a musical composition, was found by a library in Nantes in western France as staff were going through its archives. Leisinger says the library contacted his foundation for help authenticating the work.

"It's a melody sketch so what's missing is the harmony and the instrumentation but you can make sense out of it," he said. "The tune is complete. It's only one part and not the whole score with eight or twelve parts." [Snip]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080918/ap_on_en_mu/eu_mozart_discovery_6

[JBI]

That reminds me of another encounter of the animal kind (I have already posted this on another site, but here goes)...

I was once clobbered by a swan... while windsurfing. That killer bird attacked from my six o'clock position and immediately gained the upper hand. I.e: Yours truly went into the water. Any attempt to get back onto the board resulted in a renewed attack. So there I was threading water, trying to defend myself while that hissing monster kept lunging at me. Did anyone ever try to get away from an angry swan,while towing a windsurfing board with the sail in the water? No? Well, its no fun. It hurts... Those wings pack an almighty punch, and I was black and blue all over the next day.

And you know what? I'm really glad that nobody caught it on film...:lol::blush:

/Claes

Hey Zeus! The Aegean is that-a-way!

[Virgil]

Now here is a really strange occurance:


No bull: Police lasso bull on NYC's streets
Sep 18 11:58 PM US/Eastern

NEW YORK (AP) - It looked like an urban rodeo on the streets of New York City.
Police say a young bull made a dash for freedom through the streets of Queens on Wednesday night but suddenly died before he could be taken to an animal sanctuary.

Police cars tried to steer the bull off the crowded roadways but the several-hundred-pound animal hit and damaged a squad car. An NYPD officer with urban cowboy skills lassoed the bull and it was tranquilized. ...[Snip]
...An NYPD spokesman says it's not known where the bull had been kept.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D939I8DO0&show_article=1&catnum=9

Now where in heaven's name does anyone in New York keep a bull? :confused: I wonder ifanyone got this on video. I would love to see this drama in the streets of New York. :lol:

[novelsryou]

Here's (www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Music/09/20/barker.plane.crash/index.html) one for you kiddies who may or may not be fans of Blink-182.

[wilbur lim]

Nearly 53,000 Chinese children sickened by milk powder

BEIJING, (AFP) - - Nearly 53,000 children in China have been sickened by milk powder contaminated by an industrial chemical, the government said Monday, dramatically ramping up its previous figures.A total of 52,857 children had been brought to hospitals after falling ill, an official in the health ministry spokesman's office told AFP.Most had received outpatient care and had "basically recovered" but 12,892 remained hospitalised, added the official, who declined to be named.(More information.) (http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20080922/tap-china-food-safety-child-toll-8d4ea94.html)

Let me articulate my perspective on this peculiar occurrence.My mother buys sweets chiefly manufactured from China,and we eat them as snacks,and this safe food is literally nothing to disparage China.But when these poisoned milks are given to babies,people feel chagrined.China does not take things acutely of manufacturing foods,and thereby sell in cheap price.I give my condolences to the demise of the poisoned babies and covet them to be died placidly.China now must ensure that they themselves must be liable for their products.

[pussnboots]

Australia: No residency for boy with Down syndrome
Tanalee Smith, Associated Press Writer – 5 mins ago AP –
– A German doctor hoping to gain permanent residency in Australia said Friday he will fight an immigration department decision denying his application because his son has Down syndrome. Bernhard Moeller came to Australia with his family two years ago to help fill a doctor shortage in a rural area of Victoria state.

His temporary work visa is valid until 2010, but his application for permanent residency was rejected this week. The immigration department said Moeller's 13-year-old son, Lukas, "did not meet the health requirement."

"A medical officer of the Commonwealth assessed that his son's existing medical condition was likely to result in a significant and ongoing cost to the Australian community," a departmental spokesman said in a statement issued Thursday by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship.

"This is not discrimination. A disability in itself is not grounds for failing the health requirement — it is a question of the cost implications to the community," the statement said.

Moeller said he would appeal the decision.

"We like to live here, we have settled in well, we are welcomed by the community here and we don't want to give up just because the federal government doesn't welcome my son," he told reporters.

Moeller has powerful supporters. Victorian Premier John Brumby has pledged to support the family's appeal, and federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon said Friday she would speak to the immigration minister about the case.

Roxon said the case must go through proper channels — an appeal to the Migration Review Tribunal and then the immigration minister — but that "there is a valid reason for this doctor and his family to be eligible to stay here in Australia."

"As a government, we understand the importance of having doctors working in our rural and regional communities and we support them in many ways and continue to do this," Roxon said.

Don McRae, director of clinical services at Wimmera Health Care Group, said the hospital had invested a lot of time and energy in recruiting the German specialist to Horsham, about 100 miles northwest of Melbourne.

"We were very surprised by the decision," he said of the immigration department's rejection. "It's distressing for Dr. Moeller's family and distressing for the community who have welcomed him and relied on his medical services."

Immigration Minister Chris Evans has no power to intervene in the case until the review tribunal or a court upholds the department's decision.

David Tolleson, executive director of the Atlanta-based National Down Syndrome Congress, said he was disappointed by the decision.

"What is the cost implication to the community of a doctor shortage?" Tolleson asked. "I assume the son had the same costs for the last two years and they were happy to have the family and use the dad as a doctor."

Down syndrome, caused by an extra chromosome, is characterized by mental retardation of varying degrees. Those with Down syndrome also can have other problems: Nearly half will have a heart defect, some serious enough to require surgery soon after birth.

Tolleson said that people with Down syndrome have a spectrum of abilities.

"Some need more support, some go on to graduate from college with a four-year degree, and most are somewhere in between," he said.

The immigration department said it appreciates Moeller's contribution to the community but said it must follow the relevant laws in considering residency applications.

"If we did not have a health requirement, the costs to the community and health system would not be sustainable," the statement said.

More than 150,000 migrants settled in Australia in 2007-08, the department said.

Shortages of medical practitioners in rural parts of Australia have led a number of recent government initiatives to boost the numbers of doctors and nurses nationwide.

__________________________________________________ ________________________
I was upset after reading this article. In the article it says it is not discrimination but a question of the cost implications to the community. Is this one child going to bankrupt the community ? The hospital recruited the doctor and his family to come to Australia in the first place. They must have known then about his son.

[wessexgirl]

That's terrible. What on earth are they thinking? :(.

[Scheherazade]

Women who suffer regular migraines may have the comfort of knowing they face a much lower risk of breast cancer, say US researchers.

The discovery points to the potential importance of hormone levels in both.

The study of 3,412 women suggests a 30% lower risk for people with a history of disabling headaches.

However, the researchers, from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, warned more work was needed to confirm the link.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7710674.stm

[Scheherazade]

A manhunt is under way in western Germany for a convicted drug dealer who escaped by mailing himself out of jail.

The 42-year-old Turkish citizen - who was serving a seven-year sentence - had been making stationery with other prisoners destined for the shops.

At the end of his shift, the inmate climbed into a cardboard box and was taken out of prison by express courier. His whereabouts are still unknown.

The chief warden of the jail told the BBC this was an embarrassing incident.

The prison authorities in Willich, near Duesseldorf, said the man, who was tall and broad-shouldered, had hidden in a box that was about 150cm by 120cm.

When the weekly express courier arrived to pick up several boxes of merchandise, the one containing the prisoner was also loaded into the back of the lorry.

Shortly after it had passed through the prison gates, the inmate made his dash for freedom by cutting a big hole in the tarpaulin of the lorry and jumping off.

The driver alerted the police after he noticed the tarpaulin flapping in the breeze.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7730018.stm

[pussnboots]

Search starts for Kansas boy now missing 10 years

marks Print By ROXANA HEGEMAN, Associated Press Writer Roxana Hegeman, Associated Press Writer – Mon Jan 5, 8:42 pm ETEL DORADO, Kan. – The Kansas parents who failed to report their 11-year-old adopted son missing nearly a decade ago are "people of interest" as authorities search for him nationwide, a sheriff said Monday.

Investigators only recently learned Adam Herrman was missing and are focused on finding him, Butler County Sheriff Craig Murphy said. Adam was 11 when he disappeared in 1999 from a mobile home park in Towanda where he lived.

Authorities would not say whether they believed Adam, who would now be 21, is alive. "We are working it as if it is a death — but we are not leaning one way or the other," Murphy said.

Doug and Valerie Herrman adopted Adam at 2 1/2 years old, and he had been in foster care before that. The parents have not been arrested or charged with any crime, and Murphy said no charges would be filed while investigators focused on the search.

The family's attorney, Warner Eisenbise, said his clients did not harm the child. He said the Herrmans are innocent of any wrongdoing other than not reporting their son missing, which is against Kansas law.

"He was a problem child. He ran away frequently to the point of exasperation," Eisenbise said. "My clients feel very guilty that the last time he left they didn't make an attempt to locate him. Every other time, the police were called or he wandered back. They assumed he found one of his siblings or went back to his biological parents."

Murphy said investigators have not confirmed whether Adam had a history of running away. The family has cooperated with investigators, he said.

The Herrmans now live in the Wichita suburb of Derby, in neighboring Sedgwick County.

Adam was homeschooled when he disappeared, Eisenbise said.

Murphy said a search of the empty lot where the family's mobile home once stood gave investigators one answer they sought, but he did not elaborate other than to say no human remains were found.

Murphy's office did not receive a missing persons report until contacted recently by Sedgwick County's exploited and missing children's unit. He declined to say who tipped them off. It was not clear exactly when they learned of the boy's disappearance.

Investigators have not found any confirmed data on Adam's whereabouts since 1999.

Murphy asked the public for help and issued a plea to the missing boy himself: "If Adam Herrman is alive out there — and he would see this — I would ask him to contact us immediately."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++++++++++++++

I was shocked after reading this article. What parents in their right mind would not notify the police if their child was missing ? The article states that the boy ran away constatntly but one would think the parents would still want to know if child is ok and would do anything in their power to find the child. The article also states that the parents have not been arrested or charged with any crime . The only thing they are accused of at this point is not notifying authorities.

[Virgil]

I was shocked after reading this article. What parents in their right mind would not notify the police if their child was missing ? The article states that the boy ran away constatntly but one would think the parents would still want to know if child is ok and would do anything in their power to find the child. The article also states that the parents have not been arrested or charged with any crime . The only thing they are accused of at this point is not notifying authorities.

My guess is that they have something to do with it, like his death, and are covering up. Police probably can't find enough evidence to nail them.

[Joreads]

Women who suffer regular migraines may have the comfort of knowing they face a much lower risk of breast cancer, say US researchers.

The discovery points to the potential importance of hormone levels in both.

The study of 3,412 women suggests a 30% lower risk for people with a history of disabling headaches.

However, the researchers, from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, warned more work was needed to confirm the link.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7710674.stm


Wow I would never have believed that was an upside to the damn things.:D

[Scheherazade]

As winter gloom settles in across the UK, Tourism Queensland has cannily cast a wide net in its search for someone to take the caretaker job. The indigo skies and rolling golden sandy beaches of Hamilton Island couldn't look more appealing to your average Briton at the moment. As if these weren't enough, the job comes with a pay packet of nearly £70,000 and a rent-free three-bedroom villa, complete with pool.

In return, the successful applicant will be expected to spend the six-month contract exploring the idyllic surroundings, filing weekly blog, photo diary and video updates and conducting "ongoing media interviews". A geography background, any experience of wildlife management, a role as a forest warden, some kind of outdoor role involved in monitoring and observing - that's going to put you ahead of 75% of the other applicants

Interested? The first step in securing this role is to send a 60-second video application explaining why you are the ideal person for it. But what do you need to do, and to emphasise, to put your application near the top of the pile?

MORE (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7824386.stm)

[kilted exile]

Creator of Morph dies

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7836112.stm

[Niamh]

My guess is that they have something to do with it, like his death, and are covering up. Police probably can't find enough evidence to nail them.

Its still rediculous though!
I think they are hiding something. Why did they move away?

[kilted exile]

See this is why glasgow is messed up - we cant even have a snowball fight without it turning into a racial incident (fyi grew up in the area mentioned)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/glasgow_and_west/7879596.stm

[Niamh]

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20090225/twl-nine-killed-in-passenger-plane-crash-3fd0ae9.html

[Niamh]

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/blog/editors_corner/article/18968/

[weltanschauung]

this one was almost nice
spacecraft to blast off in search of "earths", CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/space/03/06/nasa.kepler.launch.planets/index.html)

this one was horrible, because when parents are relying on television characters to educate their children...
dora's "makeover" or whatever the heck, CNN (http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/showbiz/2009/03/06/am.costello.dora.teen.doll.cnn)

i dont know if we have a similar kind of thread..

rape row sparks excommunications, BBC NEWS (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7926694.stm)

hahahaha
u2 robbing the world's poor, yahoo news (http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20090226/ten-u2-robbing-world-s-poor-ea4616c.html)

[Scheherazade]

Chinese authorities are using contraceptive pills to cut down the number of gerbils in a north-western province plagued by the rodents.

Forestry officials are leaving pills by the gerbils' burrows to try to cut back the rodents' exploding numbers.

The gerbils, officials say, are threatening the fragile desert ecosystem in the vast Xinjiang region.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7963836.stm

[Emil Miller]

Chinese authorities are using contraceptive pills to cut down the number of gerbils in a north-western province plagued by the rodents.

Forestry officials are leaving pills by the gerbils' burrows to try to cut back the rodents' exploding numbers.

The gerbils, officials say, are threatening the fragile desert ecosystem in the vast Xinjiang region.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7963836.stm

The Chinese have a saying that that all creatures except humans can be eaten, so perhaps that is the answer to the problem.

[RobinHood3000]

The snack that smiles back?

[crystalmoonshin]

The Chinese have a saying that that all creatures except humans can be eaten, so perhaps that is the answer to the problem.

Do they really? Why are there reports about the Chinese eating fetuses because of the belief that it'll slow down the aging process? I'm not sure if it's true though.

[Emil Miller]

Do they really? Why are there reports about the Chinese eating fetuses because of the belief that it'll slow down the aging process? I'm not sure if it's true though.

There are a number of stories of a similar nature, such as cooking the afterbirth of a first born for example for the same reason. Who knows how true it is, China is a vast country with different ethnic groups; some of whom live in barely accesible regions. However, I was merely quoting what Chinese friends of mine have said.

[dramasnot6]

I remember I had a very scary Chinese teacher who enjoyed torturing me, the "class vegetarian," by describing in great detail the practice of removing a live monkey's brain for consumption. I wouldn't put anything past the general Chinese standard of things that are acceptable to eat.
Of course, as Brian says, China is very diverse. I think the expression is something along the lines of "eat anything under the sun"...I am having some trouble translating it.

[kasie]

While travelling through Sichuan province last year, we were told the Sichuanese 'eat everything with legs except the table and everything with wings except an aeroplane'! It made us very wary when we sat down to a meal but I think our hosts catered to our Western sensibilities and served only 'bland' food. We were kept away from the markets that sold some of the more 'unusual' foods, though some of the group were horrified by the pigs' heads for sale in a Yunnan market: while I didn't go out of my way to see them, at least I could remember seeing miscellaneous parts for sale in butchers' shops when I was young and rationing was a very recent memory.

[Scheherazade]

Playing action video games can boost an aspect of adult vision previously thought to be fixed, a US study shows.

Researchers found playing the games improved the ability to notice even very small changes in shades of grey against a uniform background.

"Contrast sensitivity" is important in situations such as driving at night, or in conditions of poor visibility.

The Nature Neuroscience study raises the possibility of using a video game training regime to improve vision.

Contrast sensitivity is often one of the first aspects of vision to be affected by ageing.

It can also be affected by conditions such as amblyopia, known as "lazy eye".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7967381.stm

[Scheherazade]

The first Harry Potter novel is England football star Wayne Rooney's book of choice, he revealed, as he backed a reading campaign for children.

The annual project run by the National Literacy Trust aims to use sporting figures to inspire children to read.

Rooney, who said the JK Rowling stories "really get your imagination going", was among 20 English Premier League players to reveal their favourite read.

Michael Morpurgo's War Horse, and Homer's Iliad were also chosen.

Muhammad Ali's autobiography, The Soul Of A Butterfly, was picked by Arsenal player Bacary Sagna, while England and Portsmouth goalkeeper David James recommended baseball tale Moneyball, by M Lewis.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7982803.stm

[optimisticnad]

woah...can anyone else see the serious cat at the top? ;-)

[Emil Miller]

Let me state right at the outset that I know nothing about football, but unfortunately the current obsession with "celebrities" ( ie. anyone that the media choose to tell you ) makes Wayne Rooney the footballer all too unavoidable.
However, the fact that he can read is nice to know, even if he didn't manage to get beyond the first book of the Harry Potter series.

[NikolaiI]

http://www.indiamicrofinance.com/2008/10/microfinance-changing-lives-of-afghan.html

[Scheherazade]

A cheap solar cooker has won first prize in a contest for green ideas.

The Kyoto Box is made from cardboard and can be used for sterilising water or boiling or baking food.

The Kenyan-based inventor hopes it can make solar cooking widespread in the developing world, supplanting the use of wood which is driving deforestation.

Other finalists in the $75,000 (£51,000) competition included a device for streamlining lorries, and a ceiling tile that cools hot rooms.

Organised by Forum for the Future, the sustainable development charity founded by Jonathan Porritt, the competition aims to support concepts that have "moved off the drawing board and demonstrated their feasibility" for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but have not gained corporate backing.

"The Kyoto Box has the potential to transform millions of lives and is a model of scalable, sustainable innovation," said Peter Madden, the forum's chief executive.

It is made from two cardboard boxes, which use reflective foil and black paint to maximise absorption of solar energy.

Covering the cooking pot with a transparent cover retains heat and water, and temperatures inside the pot can reach at least 80C.

As many as two billion people in the world use firewood as their primary fuel.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7991654.stm

[JBI]

What's with this orientalism toward Chinese culinary practices? As far as I know, French people and Sicilians like eating horses, Christians in general eat pigs, and cows are consumed daily. On another level, one could see that many Indians, for instance, will not kill cows. Does that mean somehow that they are "cleaner"? Does the fact that Jews and Muslims (practicing ones at any rate) not eat pork make them somehow cleaner?

It seems like there is an inherent stereotyping of Chinese as willing to eat anything, whereas one could say that, for instance, an upper class business man from New York is willing to snort cocaine that was smuggled into the States inside a humanly digested condom, that was later crapped out, spilled out, and sold.

If the quality of food, that is, the availability of quality food, is greater in The U.S. for instance, that is only because the American economy is more supportive. As for the savage eating habits, perhaps some do eat rats, but I doubt out of anything but desperation. In various places in the Caribbean, for instance, Guinea pigs are eaten as a delicacy, yet no one is about to go and proclaim West-Indians will eat anything.


As for the gerbil problem - well, we'll just need to wait until they are all dead before we know how affective the treatment was.

[Emil Miller]

What's with this orientalism toward Chinese culinary practices? As far as I know, French people and Sicilians like eating horses, Christians in general eat pigs, and cows are consumed daily. On another level, one could see that many Indians, for instance, will not kill cows. Does that mean somehow that they are "cleaner"? Does the fact that Jews and Muslims (practicing ones at any rate) not eat pork make them somehow cleaner?

It seems like there is an inherent stereotyping of Chinese as willing to eat anything, whereas one could say that, for instance, an upper class business man from New York is willing to snort cocaine that was smuggled into the States inside a humanly digested condom, that was later crapped out, spilled out, and sold.

If the quality of food, that is, the availability of quality food, is greater in The U.S. for instance, that is only because the American economy is more supportive. As for the savage eating habits, perhaps some do eat rats, but I doubt out of anything but desperation. In various places in the Caribbean, for instance, Guinea pigs are eaten as a delicacy, yet no one is about to go and proclaim West-Indians will eat anything.


As for the gerbil problem - well, we'll just need to wait until they are all dead before we know how affective the treatment was.



The Chinese will be the first to tell you that they will eat almost anything edible. More than one of my Chinese friends has told me so and I see no reason to disbelieve them.

[JBI]

The Chinese will be the first to tell you that they will eat almost anything edible. More than one of my Chinese friends has told me so and I see no reason to disbelieve them.

Well, seeing as one person on this thread of Chinese descent has already denied that claim, I think it is safe to say you are generalizing, despite what ever your friend says.

[Emil Miller]

Well, seeing as one person on this thread of Chinese descent has already denied that claim, I think it is safe to say you are generalizing, despite what ever your friend says.

I would refer you to the posts on this thread by Dramasnot6 and Kasie.

[JBI]

I would refer you to the posts on this thread by Dramasnot6 and Kasie.

Yes, they too are Orientalist perspectives. If some Chinese people eat Monkey brains, does that mean they eat anything? when touring the countryside of one Chinese province, being told that the people there will eat anything, does that mean it is so, or even that that province of China represents the country, or the people as a whole?

That's like saying Texans are statistically large people relative to the rest of the world, therefore all Americans are fat. Not only does that generalize, it even insults skinny Texans.

So far, from what I can tell, unless Kasie is Chinese, the only person of Chinese descent who has commented on your statement has contradicted it, by stating that just because someone says something doesn't mean it is true. I guess the English are pompous tea drinking colonialist self-superior elitist snobs. Get the point? Reductionism, especially coming from a perspective limited to second hand experience, or, if you have been there, outsider experience, is more dangerous than informed.


The fact that some people will buy a pigs head (an animal, by the way, considered unclean by over a Billion people in this world, despite what the English may eat for breakfast) does not mean they will eat gerbils, or other rodent pests.

I also find it ironic, that this is coming from a Western perspective, where people will eat the most unhealthy garbage, such as McDonald's, and all other forms of unhealthy junk, yet criticize the culinary habits of others they know nothing about.

[Equality72521]

Yes, they too are Orientalist perspectives. If some Chinese people eat Monkey brains, does that mean they eat anything? when touring the countryside of one Chinese province, being told that the people there will eat anything, does that mean it is so, or even that that province of China represents the country, or the people as a whole?

That's like saying Texans are statistically large people relative to the rest of the world, therefore all Americans are fat. Not only does that generalize, it even insults skinny Texans.

So far, from what I can tell, unless Kasie is Chinese, the only person of Chinese descent who has commented on your statement has contradicted it, by stating that just because someone says something doesn't mean it is true. I guess the English are pompous tea drinking colonialist self-superior elitist snobs. Get the point? Reductionism, especially coming from a perspective limited to second hand experience, or, if you have been there, outsider experience, is more dangerous than informed.


The fact that some people will buy a pigs head (an animal, by the way, considered unclean by over a Billion people in this world, despite what the English may eat for breakfast) does not mean they will eat gerbils, or other rodent pests.

I also find it ironic, that this is coming from a Western perspective, where people will eat the most unhealthy garbage, such as McDonald's, and all other forms of unhealthy junk, yet criticize the culinary habits of others they know nothing about.

You really have no idea how much fun it was for me to read that.

[Emil Miller]

Yes, they too are Orientalist perspectives. If some Chinese people eat Monkey brains, does that mean they eat anything? when touring the countryside of one Chinese province, being told that the people there will eat anything, does that mean it is so, or even that that province of China represents the country, or the people as a whole?

That's like saying Texans are statistically large people relative to the rest of the world, therefore all Americans are fat. Not only does that generalize, it even insults skinny Texans.

So far, from what I can tell, unless Kasie is Chinese, the only person of Chinese descent who has commented on your statement has contradicted it, by stating that just because someone says something doesn't mean it is true. I guess the English are pompous tea drinking colonialist self-superior elitist snobs. Get the point? Reductionism, especially coming from a perspective limited to second hand experience, or, if you have been there, outsider experience, is more dangerous than informed.


The fact that some people will buy a pigs head (an animal, by the way, considered unclean by over a Billion people in this world, despite what the English may eat for breakfast) does not mean they will eat gerbils, or other rodent pests.



I also find it ironic, that this is coming from a Western perspective, where people will eat the most unhealthy garbage, such as McDonald's, and all other forms of unhealthy junk, yet criticize the culinary habits of others they know nothing about.



You appear to be taking this thread too seriously. I'm sure that none of the comments were meant to imply that there was something wrong with Chinese eating habits but simlpy to point out that, as exemplified by an old Chinese maxim, they will eat anything edible. It may be that some Chinese are generalising in stating such or it may have some basis in truth when one considers the famines that the country was subjected to in the past.
I have been involved with Chinese people for a number of years, and more than one has mentioned the phrase about eating all things edible, and whilst I have never seen particularly unusual eating practices on those occasions when I was in China, there are parts of the country that are very different to the urban areas that I visited. As I said in a previous post on this thread, who knows, apart from the inhabitants, how true some of the more bizarre stories regarding Chinese food are in those distant regions?

[JBI]

You just enforce my point with your "Who knows..." The fact that you don't know means you cannot comment without making an assumption or relying on exterior perspectives, etc. "Some of my friends say," or "there is an old Chinese Maxim," or "I was only talking about the remote areas," don't really signify anything, as whatever Chinese Maxim this is (a Cantonese one, a Wu one, a Mandarin one, certainly not an English one) stands for nothing.

One shouldn't report things on a "serious discussion" thread, unless they are serious.

[Emil Miller]

You just enforce my point with your "Who knows..." The fact that you don't know means you cannot comment without making an assumption or relying on exterior perspectives, etc. "Some of my friends say," or "there is an old Chinese Maxim," or "I was only talking about the remote areas," don't really signify anything, as whatever Chinese Maxim this is (a Cantonese one, a Wu one, a Mandarin one, certainly not an English one) stands for nothing.

One shouldn't report things on a "serious discussion" thread, unless they are serious.

Well, seeing that it was I who initiated this sub-forum, after discussion with the moderators, I do of course realise that it is for serious debate but how serious does anyone need to be on a thread about gerbils and Chinese food ? Unless of course one is arguing for the sake of it.
I thought it might be interesting at this point to mention one of your New Year's resolutions for 2009:

d) argue less, though in all likelihood, I will probably argue more.

Plus ca change.

[Scheherazade]

Women may be better at sniffing out biologically relevant information from underarm sweat, a US study suggests.

Researchers found it was difficult to mask underarm odour when a woman was doing the smelling, but quite easy to do so when it was a man.

They speculate that a woman's highly attuned smell radar might help her select a mate.

The study, by Philadelphia's Monell Center, appears in Flavour and Fragrance Journal.

In the study, women and men rated the strength of underarm odours, both alone and in conjunction with various fragrances.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7981133.stm




Those who would like to carry on with the Chinese cuisine debate can do so via PMs.

[papayahed]

Women may be better at sniffing out biologically relevant information from underarm sweat, a US study suggests.

Researchers found it was difficult to mask underarm odour when a woman was doing the smelling, but quite easy to do so when it was a man.

They speculate that a woman's highly attuned smell radar might help her select a mate.

The study, by Philadelphia's Monell Center, appears in Flavour and Fragrance Journal.

In the study, women and men rated the strength of underarm odours, both alone and in conjunction with various fragrances.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7981133.stm


I know, I put my sniffer up against any bloodhound any day.

[Sapphire]

I read about this too: I wonder whether it is because guys do not care as much about smells like that and thus learned themselves not to notice it, or whether it is really in the genes. I think the last one, as there is a difference between not caring for an odour and totally not smelling it. But still, does this mean that guys have an excuse not to change their shirts after a game? :p

[Scheherazade]

Police in Australia say they are "dumbfounded" by the dumping of a live shark on the doorstep of a newspaper in Victoria state.

The two-foot (60cm) creature was found lying at the front door of The Standard in Warrnambool city under cover of darkness after midnight on Wednesday.

The fish - a Port Jackson shark - was said to be relatively harmless.

Police released it into the harbour after carrying it in a bucket of water borrowed from a McDonald's restaurant.

Police said the juvenile Port Jackson shark - a common species on Australia's south coast - was spotted in the early hours of Thursday by a man leaving the fast-food restaurant, located next door to the offices of The Standard.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8015205.stm

[motherhubbard]

It couldn't have been there long. I wonder how long a shark will live out of water

[Stargazer86]

That's pretty sad about the shark. I hope its being out of water doesnt do it any long term harm. Who would do such a thing and why, I wonder?

Amusing news:
as reported by msnbc.com

"MONTCALM COUNTY, Mich. - A western Michigan man helped deliver his wife's baby boy — though he hadn't known she was pregnant.

The Grand Rapids Press reported the man called 911 early Thursday as his wife was in labor. The man told the dispatcher that he had not known his 27-year-old wife was pregnant. He said they recently quit smoking and thought her recent weight gain was related.

The couple has two children, and the mother has an additional child from a previous relationship.

Following the successful delivery, the dispatcher talked the man through post-birth procedures. The child was taken to a hospital"


Oh man...I thought this was pretty funny. That woman was either really good at hiding it or the man is a total idiot.

Although, I have to wonder why she didnt tell him...hopefully the baby is a welcome surprise in the home!

[motherhubbard]

I've heard about women not knowing they were pregnant, but I find it a little hard to believe. They move around in there. One of mine had the hickups for the last three months! I wonder what I would have thought about that if I hadn't known I was pregnant:)

[skib]

I read about this too: I wonder whether it is because guys do not care as much about smells like that and thus learned themselves not to notice it, or whether it is really in the genes. I think the last one, as there is a difference between not caring for an odour and totally not smelling it. But still, does this mean that guys have an excuse not to change their shirts after a game? :p

I think it depends on the guy- some notice and don't care, and some don't even notice. I have never met a guy who commented on a foul smelling person unless it was absolutely horrid. I notice myself when I smell, but I don't tend to notice other people at all. Regardless, a guy should change his shirt after a game unless he is going straight home. If he isn't, and is planning on making any more public stops, he should have a fresh one ready.

[Stargazer86]

I've heard about women not knowing they were pregnant, but I find it a little hard to believe. They move around in there. One of mine had the hickups for the last three months! I wonder what I would have thought about that if I hadn't known I was pregnant:)

I also find it VERY hard to believe that by 8-9 months a woman doesnt know she's pregnant. I find that damn near impossible to believe! I've heard of girls not knowing until they're like 6 months for thier first pregnancies. Between weight gain, baby movement, irritability, frequent bathroom use, and the zillions of other pregnancy symptoms its astounding that some people just do not realize.

[Zee.]

... well that's because everybody is different..
Whether you believe it or not is irrelevant to the fact it is true. There have been countless situations where women have gotten very bad cramps, gone to the toilet and had their baby. Like i said, a fact like that doesn't need to be "believed" by anyone. It's a medical truth. Just because you aren't confronted with it daily does not make it any less realistic.

[Wilde woman]

I saw this on my local news last night. A banker in Washington randomly saw a family of ducks on top of a building. The ducklings started jumping off the ledge and the guy ended up catching all of them, and then escorting the mother and all her ducklings through the city to the river. He's being called the "Duckman" now. :lol: So cute!

Watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prRmQ-OldyE

[Scheherazade]

A New Zealand couple nearly found themselves in a financial hole when their three-year-old daughter bought an earthdigger in an internet auction.

The child, Pipi Quinlan, was trying out her online skills while her parents were asleep in bed.

They only unearthed the truth when they received an email demand for NZ$20,000 (£8,000) from the seller.

Pipi's mother, Sarah, had left the computer logged on. The owner of the digger is not insisting on the sale.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8063769.stm

[Scheherazade]

An association of blonde women in Latvia says it hopes to dispel some of the Baltic state's economic gloom with a parade and ball in the capital, Riga.

It hopes to field 500 fair-haired women for a weekend of events, including a concert, a fashion show and "blonde golf", said organiser Marika Gidere.

"People are depressed, they don't have enough positive emotions," she added.

Latvia, home to 2.3 million people, is going through one of the most severe recessions in the European Union.

Unemployment is rising and public sector salaries are being cut.

"The economic situation is such that society needs these types of events," Ms Gidere, head of Latvia's Blondes' Association, told the French news agency AFP.

"And this is something very positive and fun. And we know that blondes have more fun."

Sunday's blonde parade, to be held under the motto "Make the world a brighter place," will involve an orchestra composed of fair-haired women, she told the Russian news agency Ria Novosti.

The parade will be followed by a ball and contests to find the best "blonde lawyer", "blonde journalist" and others.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8072955.stm

[Nightshade]

After 68 years of waffling, Archie Andrews has made his choice. It’s the raven-haired heiress over the girl next door, Veronica Lodge over Betty Cooper.

Just eight days after Archie Comics announced that Archie would finally choose between his two high-school hotties, the word is out: Archie gets down on bended knee to present Veronica with his proposal and a ring while poor Betty looks on and wipes away a tear. Veronica replies to the proposal with a resounding, “Yes!”

The red-haired all-American boy’s choice is likely to upset many Archie fans. Ever since news that Archie would get married broke, they have been filling the message boards at ArchieComics.com with their opinions on which girl should get the ring.


It’s not even close. A strong majority feel wholesome Betty should get the nod over snooty Veronica.

Not the people’s choice
“I hope it's Betty! I've read these comics for over 30 years and waited for the day he woke up and chose Betty,” wrote fan Rachel.

“I think he should ask Betty,” agreed reader Rob. “Veronica is too sophisticated and too richy rich for him. Betty is very laid back, sort of like the All American Girl she has always been. Betty has a big heart, she would make a great wife to Arch, and I would be disappointed if Archie chose Veronica! Good luck to Archie.”

Among the minority who felt Veronica was the obvious choice was “archielover,” who wrote: “OMG! Pick Veronica! He doesn't deserve Betty, he always makes her do all his chores and fix his car and help with his homework, while he treats Veronica like a little princess! I can't wait to see what happens :)”

But mind you, Issue 600 will deal only with the engagement. Whether Archie and Veronica actually get hitched as the story plays out over several issues remains to be seen. Given Archie’s history of indecision, would it be unreasonable to assume that there are more plot twists ahead?

morehttp://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30983247/

[breathtest]

I read that a three year old girl accidentally shot her younger brother in California after finding a gun in the house . This is such horrible news and i think this will finally make the american government put in place laws to prevent the legal purchasing of fire-arms. If this doesn't, i don't know what will

[Emil Miller]

I read that a three year old girl accidentally shot her younger brother in California after finding a gun in the house . This is such horrible news and i think this will finally make the american government put in place laws to prevent the legal purchasing of fire-arms. If this doesn't, i don't know what will

In this particular case I think the parents should be charged with negligence rather than blaming the gun. It is inconceivable that anybody that had a fire-arm on their premises would not have it kept it safely out of the reach of children. I have nothing against people arming themselves in a lawless environment and, in any case, isn't the right to bear arms written into the US Constitution?

[The Atheist]

An association of blonde women in Latvia says it hopes to dispel some of the Baltic state's economic gloom with a parade and ball in the capital, Riga.

Oh boy, are they selling tickets?

There was another great Kiwi story a day or two before that - a country doctor without proper medical equipment borrowed a drill from the janitor to drill holes in a boy's head to save his life. The boy is recovering well.


I read that a three year old girl accidentally shot her younger brother in California after finding a gun in the house . This is such horrible news and i think this will finally make the american government put in place laws to prevent the legal purchasing of fire-arms. If this doesn't, i don't know what will

The second coming.


In this particular case I think the parents should be charged with negligence rather than blaming the gun. It is inconceivable that anybody that had a fire-arm on their premises would not have it kept it safely out of the reach of children.

Quite right. Out of reach and locked up with the ammunition locked up elsewhere. They should shoot the parents.


I have nothing against people arming themselves in a lawless environment and, in any case, isn't the right to bear arms written into the US Constitution?

Certainly is.

[breathtest]

In this particular case I think the parents should be charged with negligence rather than blaming the gun. It is inconceivable that anybody that had a fire-arm on their premises would not have it kept it safely out of the reach of children. I have nothing against people arming themselves in a lawless environment and, in any case, isn't the right to bear arms written into the US Constitution?

Well yes but if the gun wasn't there in the first place then there would be nothing to be negligent about. By making guns illegal, less people will die from accidents involving guns and from deliberate shootings. You can say that people need them for protection, but i believe that less deaths would occur from people not having guns to protect themselves than psychos going round massacreing people or from accidents like this one.

[JBI]

In this particular case I think the parents should be charged with negligence rather than blaming the gun. It is inconceivable that anybody that had a fire-arm on their premises would not have it kept it safely out of the reach of children. I have nothing against people arming themselves in a lawless environment and, in any case, isn't the right to bear arms written into the US Constitution?

Isn't it an amendment? The irony is, that if it is an amendment, meaning it was added later, what difference would it make if it was amended over, in terms of legality. There have been enough bystanders killed in violence between gun waving nutters that even a rare tragedy like this shouldn't be a wake up call.

As for the bit about lawless society - when last I checked, lawlessness can be attributed in many places to gun ownership. Either one has to accept that guns are necessary in maintaining order in the country, implying that the government is a failure, and the country's civil justice and enforcement is a failure, or quite simply, guns should only be in the hands of those who need them, which is very, very few people (or should be, if no body else owned guns).

Quite simply, if a case arises when a gun must be used, one can be damned sure that the person one is going to shoot will be carrying a gun too. Either way the day ends in some sort of disaster; one might as well avoid that. The myth that people need guns to protect themselves from the government is also rather silly. The US Army, with full force, could quite easily plow the entire population to the ground if it wanted to - in truth, it could probably wipe out life on this planet - I don't think some pistol-waving-tobacco-chewing-gun-nuts are going to stop them.

Quite simply, the parents should, if this were a functional system of justice, be charged with second-degree murder, and put on trial for that.

[breathtest]

I second that!

[Jozanny]

Isn't it an amendment? The irony is, that if it is an amendment, meaning it was added later, what difference would it make if it was amended over, in terms of legality.

Here is one version of the second amendment:


A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Most contemporary American Constitutional scholars interpret it as the right of the state to maintain the national guard. The SCOTUS recently disagreed after never ruling on 2A directly, the majority opinion being that an individual right is implied, though restrictions are applicable. It was based on the draconian restrictions instituted by our capital banning hand guns. The majority opinion overturned these restrictions, and SCOTUS rarely overturns itself out of respect for stare decisis.

If you are going to argue about the morality of owning weapons like guns, maybe you should have some facts on hand.

[Emil Miller]

Since the Dunblane shootings, in which 16 chidren and a teacher were killed in 1996, the UK goverment has banned all firearms from the country except for those required by the army and police. The result is that we now have what police describe as a gun culture, because prohibition has made guns more glamorous and they are easily obtained from smugglers bringing them in from abroad. There have been numerous shootings in the UK since the ban was introduced, which raises the question as to why ban something if the ban cannot be enforced?

[1n50mn14]

It still cuts down on legally obtained firearms. Despite having a higher population than us here in Canada, and a more condensed population, we have far more shootings in the city of Toronto alone in a few months than you do in your entire country in a year. (That may be an exaggeration, but certainly not a gross one.)

[motherhubbard]

nevermind

[Emil Miller]

It still cuts down on legally obtained firearms. Despite having a higher population than us here in Canada, and a more condensed population, we have far more shootings in the city of Toronto alone in a few months than you do in your entire country in a year. (That may be an exaggeration, but certainly not a gross one.)

We are averaging about one a week

[The Atheist]

Since the Dunblane shootings, in which 16 chidren and a teacher were killed in 1996, the UK goverment has banned all firearms ...

Shouldn't that be handguns rather than firearms?

I'd be cautious about blaming the ban as a reason to explain the increase in handgun usage - my understanding is that there's more of a knife culture than gun culture in UK right now?

Crooks will use whatever they have handy - we had a cop killed earlier this year with a CO2-powered air rifle!

[Nightshade]

Knives are restricted too now, actually. To the point wear an under 18 ( or is it 16) year old can not buy a razor.

And don't even get me started on kitchen knives. :rolleyes:
is that one a week per city Brian, or over all?

And farmers are still allowed guns. I had this explained to me earlier in the year but I phased the main explation of the law out.

[Emil Miller]

Knives are restricted too now, actually. To the point wear an under 18 ( or is it 16) year old can not buy a razor.

And don't even get me started on kitchen knives. :rolleyes:
is that one a week per city Brian, or over all?

And farmers are still allowed guns. I had this explained to me earlier in the year but I phased the main explation of the law out.

Farmers may be licenced to use shotguns for killing predators against their stock but my average gun use relates to human killings overall and not just gun related crimes which are very much higher.

[kilted exile]

I knew someone whose niece was killed in the dunblane tragedy.



The handgun ban though was never likely to have too much effect on incidents involving real criminals - its job was to prevent the likes of a whackjob like Thomas Hamilton (who wouldnt have likely got hold of one by underworld means) from being able to do this. Yes there are still illegal handguns and that is a further job for government/law enforcement to deal with.


Just remembered a blog I wrote elsewhere on the 10 year anniversary of dunblane:


Wow, it's been 10 years already. Most of you reading this (If any of you read this) will be thinking probably something like 10 years since what. I'll tell you what its 10 years since a mentally unstable man named Thomas Hamilton walked into a Primary School in Dunblane (Scotland) and proceeded to execute a classful of 5/6year old kids, together with their teacher with his legally owned Browning 9mm pistol. One of the kids killed was the niece of my highschool Latin teacher, we were in her class when the news broke & I can honestly say I have never seen someone so distraught in my life, and I pray I never will do in the future.
After the horrific events of that day handguns were banned in the UK, a decision which annoyed the hell out of those people who owned handguns for using at shooting ranges. 10 years on, a lot of these people still dont see the problem with owning a handgun. I am fed up hearing every March 13th that "people kill people, guns dont kill people" or the sickeningly inconsiderate "cars kill a lot more people, why not ban cars".
Either these people are being deliberately obtuse, or they are completely stupid. I'll deal with the "people kill people, guns dont kill people" comment first: Of course its people who kill people, however you give someone a .44 Magnum handgun and he'll kill a lot more people in a lot less time. An addition to this comment I have seen is the suggestion that Hamilton would have caused just as much trouble with an ordinary household hammer, which has to be the stupidest thing I've ever heard. If he had been armed with a hammer, someone may have stood a chance of disarming the crazy **** (surprised I've made it this far without swearing).
Now for the "cars kill a lot more people, why not ban cars" brigade, do I really have to do with this crap? Little explanation the majority of people killed by cars are due to accidents, not someone deliberately trying to drive into people!!!The majority of people killed by handguns however are caused by someone pointing the gun at their "target" and blowing their brains out.
Now I know a lot of innocent people have been "inconvenienced" by this but if it prevents more Dunblanes I dont give a **** how inconvenienced you are. There hasn't been a Dunblane since.

Now to a more depressing subject, those kids should be turning 15/16 and getting ready to make their mark on the world. Instead they lie in graves, while inconsiderate arseholes complain about not being able to fire projectiles at sheets of paper.

[Scheherazade]

A US company which monitors internet traffic predicts that the millionth new English word will be coined imminently.

Global Language Monitor searches for new words and once a word has been used 25,000 times, it recognises it.

By calculating that a new word is created in English every 98 minutes, it estimates that the millionth word will be recognised at 1022 GMT.

However, traditional dictionary makers are casting doubt on the claim and the methods behind it.

GLM, based in Texas, makes its money telling organisations how often they are mentioned in new media, such as the internet.

What they can also do is search for newly coined words.

Once a word has been used 25,000 times on social networking sites and such like, GLM declares it be a new word.

Landmark doubted

However, lexicographers - dictionary professionals - doubt the GLM claim.
Dictionaries have tighter criteria about what constitutes a new word - for example, it has to be used over a certain period of time.

Lexicographers say the exact size of the English vocabulary is impossible to quantify, but if every technical term or obscure specialist word is accepted then we are already beyond one million.

And if the inclusion of specialist slang is restricted, then there are possibly three quarters of a million words in English.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8092549.stm

[The Atheist]

Once a word has been used 25,000 times on social networking sites and such like, GLM declares it be a new word.

So, lulz, lmao, rofl, lol, imho and other acronyms are now words.

I demand that ziggiferlt be included in the English language.

Please join me in getting the 25,000 necessary social site uses of the word.

A ziggiferlt is a person who does ziggifering.

[Jozanny]

700, 000 excluding certain technical terms seems a bit low to me Sche, especially with the internet explosion, which started roughly around 94 or so. I base this on the fact that in the early 90's, I was still working, but did not get online access myself until 97.

Email and blog entered common usage fairly quicky, though text shorthand is another issue, and not so much about new words as it is new code. I believe I heard on public radio that English passed the one million mark about a year and a half back.

Of more interest to me is the ability of English to continue to serve as a linga franca, which gained currency because of Britain and then the rise of the United States as the last two world powers. The British Empire ended, at least, de facto, in 1945, and the U.S., whether one sides with declinists or not, is showing cracks in the facade. Yet it would seem English will remain international for some time, unless someone knows something I don't.

An average speaker generally employs about 20,000 words, with the most common usage being "you know". Even very literate speakers say "You know" frequently. Some of us on Lit Net probably have a higher usage than 20k.

[Mr Endon]

So "bahahahahahahaha" (35,700 hits) and "zxcvbnm" (297,000) are words, apparently. I'll try to use these in my next conversation, then.

And this just in,


Time to PANIC (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/un_un_swine_flu). :D :) ;)

[Scheherazade]

700, 000 excluding certain technical terms seems a bit low to me Sche, especially with the internet explosion, which started roughly around 94 or so. I am just the messenger!
A ziggiferlt is a person who does ziggifering.That is such a ziggifertish comment!

Are you one of those we have ziggifertilised or one of those we could not ziggifertilise?

*grins ziggerfeltishly*

[kilted exile]

any ideas how many times we are short to make litnet the millionth word?

[The Atheist]

any ideas how many times we are short to make litnet the millionth word?

24,996 after I've ziggerferlted Scheherazade!

[1n50mn14]

We are averaging about one a week

From what I picked up watching ten minutes of the news the other week, there were three shootings and two stabbings in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) in a week. Pathetic.

[Scheherazade]

24,996 after I've ziggerferlted Scheherazade!Not in a million ziggerferlts!

[Niamh]

http://www.smh.com.au/national/tram-lifted-off-trapped-pedestrian-after-chinatown-accident-20090714-djop.html
This happened just around the corner from my sisters job.

[The Atheist]

That looks fairly painful!

[Helga]

very very painful...

[1n50mn14]

Uhm... how the Hell does that happen to somebody, without them being A)Very, very stupid. B)Very, very accident prone or C)Having pissed somebody off very, very much.

??

[Virgil]

Yikes. He's lucky to be alive. Becca, he's 78, and probably not as sharp as a younger person. Plus I've learned in life that any crazy situation can happen to anyone. It's the right confluence of events just coming together.

[kasie]

Uhm... how the Hell does that happen to somebody....??

I was warned about the trams when I went to Sydney - they move quite fast, they are more or less silent, can't stop very quickly and, of course, they can't swerve out of the way. If one is coming towards you, you get out of its way, it can't avoid you. It's best to be extra specially careful (and fairly nimble) when crossing roads on tram routes - obviously that poor man wasn't.

[JacobF]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/iconic-anchor-walter-cronkite-dead-at-92/article1223127/

Walter Cronkite has died. He was the good side of journalism.

[Nightshade]

Library fan nears 25,000th book

An avid reader in south west Scotland is on the brink of borrowing her 25,000th book from her local libraries.
Louise Brown, 91, from Stranraer, took her first book on loan from Castle Douglas library in 1946.

Since then she has borrowed at least six books every week throughout each year and has recently increased that to about 12 volumes every seven days.
more (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/south_of_scotland/8172355.stm)
I want to be that lady!!!

[wessexgirl]

I heard that today Night. Fantastic. They were asking if anyone could beat it. It just shows how fantastic free libraries are doesn't it? That someone can have access to all those books, enriching their lives.

[TheFifthElement]

It's official, the Scots stole haggis from the English. Shameless ;)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8180791.stm