Friday, January 7, 2011
Israel denies vulture detained by Saudis is a spy
Residents and local reporters told Saudi Arabia's Al-Weeam newspaper that the matter seemed to be linked to a 'Zionist plot' and swiftly alerted security services. The bird has since been placed under arrest.
The accusations went viral, according to the Israeli Ha'aretz newspaper, with hundreds of posts on Arabic-language websites and forums claiming that the 'Zionists' had trained the birds for espionage."
Video: Israel denies vulture detained by Saudis is a spy - Telegraph
'Cats do not talk': kitty litter manufacturer sues rival over TV advert
A voice-over claims cats choose Fresh Step rather than Super Scoop because they are "smart enough to choose the litter with less odours" and "know what they like."
"Fresh Step Scoopable litter with carbon is better at eliminating litter box odours than Arm & Hammer Super Scoop," it adds.
Church & Dwight's lawsuit states: "Cats do not talk and it is widely understood in the scientific community that cat perception of malodor is materially different than human perception.
It argues the Clorox advert gives a "false message" about its product, and that their claim that Fresh Step is "better at eliminating odours" is "literally false".
'via Telegraph/continue reading
Tears Are a Turn-Off for Men
In a paper published online Jan. 6 in Science, a team led by neuroscientists Shani Gelstein and Noam Sobel of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, presents the first evidence that human tears contain pheromones, substances that influence behavior via smell. “Our experiments suggest that women’s emotional tears contain a chemosignal that reduces sexual arousal in men,” Sobel says.
Chemical compounds in tears that douse men’s desire have yet to be identified.
via Discovery News/continue reading
Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com
Thanks Kyle Luke
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Naked passion of Christ calendar shocks Mallorcan Catholics
The wrath of the bishop of Mallorca has fallen on the Davallament youth group from the Spanish island's town of Sant Joan after they decided to make the stripped-down version of the Easter week story to raise funds.
The calendar features a semi-naked trio of young men raising the cross on which Jesus will be crucified and a Last Supper whose protagonists wear only crotch-hugging underwear. In other shots the protagonists are entirely naked, covering their genitalia with plumed roman helmets (above).
'It is a daring and original idea that emerged because we are young and wanted to do something new,' a group member, Antoni Company, told Ultima Hora newspaper.
The bishopric of Mallorca, however, has criticised them for shocking their more traditional elders. 'It turns Easter week into something banal,' the bishopric said in a stern written admonition. 'It does not respect Christian symbols and is insensitive to Catholic feelings.'"
via The Guardian/continue reading
Romanian witches to cast anti-government spell
Cat excrement and dead dogs, rather than eye of newt and toe of frog, will go into their cauldron – but they are hoping to put a Macbeth-style hex on the country's president, Traian Basescu, and his government after the imposition of a tax regime aimed at tackling the recession.
Witches will gather on Romania's southern plains and the banks of the Danube to protest against the laws and cast spells on the politicians who implemented them.
A dozen witches will hurl the poisonous mandrake plant into the river "so evil will befall them", a witch named Alisia said.
The threatened curse is not being taken lightly in a country with a long tradition of superstition. Basescu and his aides have been known to wear purple on certain days in an attempt to ward off evil.
via The Guardian/continue reading
Dogs Don't Understand Basic Concepts Like Moving
Hyperbole and a Half /continue reading
The Polish Divorce
A Polish man moved to the USA and married an American girl.
Although his English was far from perfect, they got along very well.
One day he rushed into a lawyer's office and asked him if he could arrange a divorce for him.
The lawyer said that getting a divorce would depend on the circumstances, and asked him the following questions:
Have you any grounds?
Yes, an acre and half and nice little home.
No, I mean what is the foundation of this case?
It made of concrete..
I don't think you understand.
Does either of you have a real grudge?
No, we have carport, and not need one.
I mean what are your relations like?
All my relations still in Poland .
Is there any infidelity in your marriage?
We have hi-fidelity stereo and good DVD player.
Does your wife beat you up?
No, I always up before her.
Is your wife a nagger?
No, she white.
Why do you want this divorce?
She going to kill me.
What makes you think that?
I got proof.
What kind of proof?
She going to poison me.
She buy a bottle at drugstore and put on shelf in bathroom, I can read... it say:
~~~Polish Remover~~~
Although his English was far from perfect, they got along very well.
One day he rushed into a lawyer's office and asked him if he could arrange a divorce for him.
The lawyer said that getting a divorce would depend on the circumstances, and asked him the following questions:
Have you any grounds?
Yes, an acre and half and nice little home.
No, I mean what is the foundation of this case?
It made of concrete..
I don't think you understand.
Does either of you have a real grudge?
No, we have carport, and not need one.
I mean what are your relations like?
All my relations still in Poland .
Is there any infidelity in your marriage?
We have hi-fidelity stereo and good DVD player.
Does your wife beat you up?
No, I always up before her.
Is your wife a nagger?
No, she white.
Why do you want this divorce?
She going to kill me.
What makes you think that?
I got proof.
What kind of proof?
She going to poison me.
She buy a bottle at drugstore and put on shelf in bathroom, I can read... it say:
~~~Polish Remover~~~
Can Fright Kill Animals?
This explanation seemed bird-brained to many people, including those who posted in response to the Discovery News piece. Their skepticism is understandable: Fright killed the birds? An animal might die from any number of causes, such as blood loss, trauma, or the heart or lungs ceasing to function. But fright cannot kill anything."
read more
Why Gerry Rafferty's Baker Street is the perfect pop song
Beautiful and bittersweet, luxuriously textured, with a gentle melancholic verse melody counterweighted by a lusciously explosive instrumental chorus, it’s one of those rare songs that everyone responds to. Baker Street is Rafferty’s claim to immortality, and, without delving into his difficult childhood as the son of a violent alcoholic, it tells us everything we need to know about why his life unfolded in the way it did. The characters he addresses are all versions of himself, caught between town and country, despair and hope, drunken nights and regretful mornings: “He’s got this dream about buyin’ some land / He’s gonna give up the booze and the one night stands / And then he’ll settle down, there’s a quiet little town / And forget about everything …”
That’s the dream. Here is the wistful acceptance of his own reality: “But you know he’ll always keep moving / You know he’s never going to stop moving / Cause he’s rolling / He’s a rolling stone …”
And there, perhaps, is the reason the song resonates so powerfully with everyone who hears it. Because there is surely nothing more human than the triumph of hope over experience. And it plays on in my head and my heart as I rattle down the Bakerloo line, with that beautiful guitar solo shooting like fireworks and the tenor saxophone weeping."
RIP Gerry Rafferty.
via Telegraph Blogs by Neil McCormick/read more
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Dogs Don't Notice Nutty Behavior in People
Previous research had suggested that dogs can distinguish between rational and irrational acts by dogs and humans -- the latter being something like pointing to the location of food with your toe when your hands are free to do the same.
But new research from Germany concludes that dogs don't really pick up on rationality.
Instead, they cut to the chase and pay attention to the matters that most concern them, like food or toys."
via Discovery News /read more
Geeky one-liners
I’m not anti-social; I’m just not user friendly.
Computers make very fast, very accurate mistakes.
There are three kinds of people: those who can count and those who can’t.
Microsoft: “You’ve got questions. We’ve got dancing paperclips.”
If at first you don’t succeed; call it version 1.0.
Hacking is like sex. You get in, you get out, and hope that you didn’t leave something that can be traced back to you.
If you give someone a program, you will frustrate them for a day; if you teach them how to program, you will frustrate them for a lifetime.
Latest survey shows that 3 out of 4 people make up 75% of the world’s population.
via
Computers make very fast, very accurate mistakes.
There are three kinds of people: those who can count and those who can’t.
Microsoft: “You’ve got questions. We’ve got dancing paperclips.”
If at first you don’t succeed; call it version 1.0.
Hacking is like sex. You get in, you get out, and hope that you didn’t leave something that can be traced back to you.
If you give someone a program, you will frustrate them for a day; if you teach them how to program, you will frustrate them for a lifetime.
Latest survey shows that 3 out of 4 people make up 75% of the world’s population.
via
How to make a decent cup of tea, following George Orwell's golden rules. - By Christopher Hitchens
"Just after World War II, during a period of acute food rationing in England, George Orwell wrote an article on the making of a decent cup of tea that insisted on the observing of 11 different "golden" rules. Some of these (always use Indian or Ceylonese—i.e., Sri Lankan—tea; make tea only in small quantities; avoid silverware pots) may be considered optional or outmoded. But the essential ones are easily committed to memory, and they are simple to put into practice.
If you use a pot at all, make sure it is pre-warmed. (I would add that you should do the same thing even if you are only using a cup or a mug.) Stir the tea before letting it steep. But this above all: "[O]ne should take the teapot to the kettle, and not the other way about. The water should be actually boiling at the moment of impact, which means that one should keep it on the flame while one pours." This isn't hard to do, even if you are using electricity rather than gas, once you have brought all the makings to the same scene of operations right next to the kettle.
It's not quite over yet. If you use milk, use the least creamy type or the tea will acquire a sickly taste. And do not put the milk in the cup first—family feuds have lasted generations over this—because you will almost certainly put in too much. Add it later, and be very careful when you pour. Finally, a decent cylindrical mug will preserve the needful heat and flavor for longer than will a shallow and wide-mouthed—how often those attributes seem to go together—teacup. Orwell thought that sugar overwhelmed the taste, but brown sugar or honey are, I believe, permissible and sometimes necessary."
via Slate Magazine/read more
If you use a pot at all, make sure it is pre-warmed. (I would add that you should do the same thing even if you are only using a cup or a mug.) Stir the tea before letting it steep. But this above all: "[O]ne should take the teapot to the kettle, and not the other way about. The water should be actually boiling at the moment of impact, which means that one should keep it on the flame while one pours." This isn't hard to do, even if you are using electricity rather than gas, once you have brought all the makings to the same scene of operations right next to the kettle.
It's not quite over yet. If you use milk, use the least creamy type or the tea will acquire a sickly taste. And do not put the milk in the cup first—family feuds have lasted generations over this—because you will almost certainly put in too much. Add it later, and be very careful when you pour. Finally, a decent cylindrical mug will preserve the needful heat and flavor for longer than will a shallow and wide-mouthed—how often those attributes seem to go together—teacup. Orwell thought that sugar overwhelmed the taste, but brown sugar or honey are, I believe, permissible and sometimes necessary."
via Slate Magazine/read more
Sony Offers Bonus iTunes Extras Content Not on DVD
The media outlet said that Sony has added these features for The Other Guys (Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg), Salt (Angelina Jolie), and Resident Evil: Afterlife (Milla Jovovich)."
via The Mac Observer/read more
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