Obama was Right about Gates

Obama Was Right About the Gates Arrest

Uh huh. Uh huh. Back DOWN, crazy Massachusetts police chief.

This REALLY does not make me want to fly on any airplane in Russia...

Parents disown girl, 8, after rape

This has literally made me so angry I'm shaking.

Parents disown girl, 8, after rape
From: Agence France-Presse
July 25, 2009

ONE of four boys charged with raping an eight-year-old girl in the US state of Arizona last week will be prosecuted as an adult.

The details of the case have shocked local officials and provoked outrage across the United States after the parents of the young victim disowned her on grounds she had "shamed" her family.

Click here to read the full article on the website.

Cruise ship v. whale

Dead whale found wedged against cruise ship

Perception is reality

Sometimes it helps to be reminded that everyone has their insecurity moments... even those with whom I might think I'd like to switch bodies!

Healthkicker Weblogs

"Confessions of a Skinny Girl"

All my life I've been skinny. It's not my fault; I haven't done anything to become this way. I'm an active girl, I have a high metabolism. But I eat a lot and I've never once attempted to lose weight by starving myself or throwing up.

Skinny girls have body issues too. I've been accused of being anorexic and bulimic several times. I've been denied the right to hanging out with one of my best friends because I was a "bad influence". Her mom wrongfully assumed I had an eating disorder.

It seems like everyone is striving for skinny, but skinny isn't all that great. Skinny makes me self conscious. Girls I've known forever comment on how thin I am and either say they wish they were this skinny or that I need some meat on my bones. People attempt to feed me. They tell me to eat steak, they come up with these plans to make me gain weight.

"I EAT!" I want to scream at them. I eat as much as everyone else, more even! Every time I've gone to the doctor they tell me I'm healthy. They tell me I'm normal. I'm fine. There's nothing wrong with me and I don't need food shoved down my throat, thank you.

Then there's the "curvy" girls. "Guys like curves. They don't like stick thin girls."

Plans approved for huge mosque in Harrow

Huge mosque build given go-ahead | News | Construction News

I lived across a semi-main road from a mosque in London, and have seen the inevitable confusion that comes from large groups of people + Friday traffic + Friday drinkers. I'm glad to hear the extra conditions the Council imposed re parking, housing etc, and I hope it works.

The Kelly Gang

I've just read this: in 1879, the NSW/Victorian governments were offering rewards of £2000 each for the four members of the Kelly gang. Bearing in mind that the average policeman's annual income was ~£50, this would be the modern equivalent of AUD$2,000,000. Each.

SOURCES:
Pictures: The Story of The Kelly Gang (NFSA) & Wikipedia
Facts: "Red Centre, Dark Heart" by Evan McHugh

Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis

Apparently, this is one of those.

It's some sort of frog, according to Wikipedia:

Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis is a frog species belonging to the family Sooglossidae. It can be found in the Western Ghats in India. Common names for this species are Purple Frog or Pignose Frog. It was discovered in October 2003 and was found to be unique for the geographic region.

That is the weirdest frog I've ever seen. It is not an attractive beast, that's for sure! It looks like badly set milk pudding.

Description
Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis has the appearance of a typical frog. It has a squat body, somewhat rounded compared to other more dorsoventrally-flattened frogs. Its arms and legs splay out in the standard anuran body form. Compared to other frogs, N. sahyadrensis has a small head and a rather peculiar, pointed snout. Adults are usually dark purple in color. The specimen with which the species was originally described was seven centimeters long from the tip of the snout to the tip of the urostyle. Also, its cry sounds more like one from a chicken.

Don't look down...

(image via: Cool Hunter)

Anyone who’s afraid of heights might think twice about riding in this elevator, which seems to reveal a shocking view of a city far below the riders’ feet. But this is no glass elevator located at a dizzying distance above the ground - it’s just a large sticker affixed to the floor. The ad was created for a Swiss skydiving school, giving people a taste of what you experience when leaping from an airplane.

 

(image via: Oddee)

Would you even step foot into this elevator if it appeared to have no floor, especially considering that a sign at the entrance cautions users that the elevator is still under construction? If you were brave enough to walk inside you’d find that it’s actually a cleverly designed paint job that gives the illusion of a bottomless elevator shaft underfoot.

 

(image via: Advertolog)

Design firm Ogilvy Beijing of China created this ad for Maxwell House as a ’shot of adrenaline’ - when the doors opened, sleepy people in an office building were shocked awake, providing an effect that the designers figured mimics the effects of drinking a cup of coffee. The ad reportedly caused a commotion on the morning of its launch as surprised office workers crowded the lobby. It drew a crowd from people in neighboring buildings for the next week.

 

more at weburbanist.com

RSI

The happiness of most people we know is not ruined by great catastrophes or fatal errors, but by the repetition of slowly
destructive little things.

-- Ernest Dimnet

MasterChef - who cares?

My cousin's girlfriend made a comment on his Facebook status, that she wished Poh had won MC because Julie "is a fat ugly moll". I'd just like to say for the record: (a) it's a COOKING SHOW; (b) no-one "deserves" to win because of what they do or don't look like; (c) it's a COOKING SHOW; and (d) fat ugly molls are people too.

Thank you.

The Duh of The Day - July 18, 2009

Hello Duhism Master,

Enjoy today's Impractical Wisdumb from Bob Tzu:

What color are the bus driver's eyes?

We are driving the bus of our own destiny. Of course, we lost the map, we're low on gas, and the restrooms need cleaning...

May your life be untouched by the profounditudenessity of Duhism!

In Balance/Schmalance, Bob Tzu, Bobbie Sue Tzu, Billy Bob Tzu and Petting Tzu

check out: The blog; Twitter; Facebook; YouTube

People are weird

15 Craziest Personal Names - on Oddee.com

Leone Sextus Denys Oswolf Fraudatifilius Tollemache-Tollemache de Orellana Plantagenet Tollemache-Tollemache

Captain Leone Sextus Denys Oswolf Fraudatifilius Tollemache-Tollemache de Orellana Plantagenet Tollemache-Tollemache (1884 - 1917) was an officer in the British Army who died during the First World War. A common misconception is that he had the longest English surname on record, or the English surname with the most multiple barrels.

His surname at birth was "Tollemache-Tollemache", his father having doubled his original surname, "Tollemache", after his second marriage. "de Orellana" derives from his mother's Spanish ancestry and is a forename rather than part of his surname. The first "Tollemache-Tollemache" also seems to be an unusual forename. Leone was Ralph's sixth son, hence "Sextus". "Fraudatifilius" is Latin for "son of the defrauded one". "Leone" repeats a pattern seen in the names of his elder brothers and sisters (Lyonel, Lyonesse, Lyulph, Lyona, Leo, Lyonella and Lyonetta). His first five initials, "LSD OF", may include a reference to the divisions of the pre-decimal British currency, £sd, for pounds, shillings and pence. Similarly, an elder brother was named Lyulph Ydwallo Odin Nestor Egbert Lyonel Toedmag Hugh Erchenwyne Saxon Esa Cromwell Orma Nevill Dysart Plantagenet Tollemache-Tollemache - his first 15 initials spell "LYONEL THE SECOND". In practice, Leone shortened his name to "Leone Sextus Tollemache".

The things people do to their children...

Humane Treatment for Iran's Protestors?

The names and stories of the Iranians who have been brutalized or killed in the aftermath of the post-election protests are gradually seeping into a memorial vault of the faces of suffering and endurance in the name of sociopolitical reform.

[...]

On Friday July 19, a large group of mourners gathered at the Ghoba mosque in Tehran to await a speech about the martyrs of the post-election protests by presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi. According to one Iranian blog, 28-year-old Taraneh Mousavi [whose first name is Persian for "song"] was one of a group of people that was arrested by plainclothesed security forces for attending the gathering.

Weeks later, according to the blog, her mother received an anonymous call from a government agent saying that her daughter has been hospitalized in Imam Khomeini Hospital in the city of Karaj, just north of Tehran -- hospitalized for "rupturing of her womb and anus in... an unfortunate accident".

When Taraneh's family went to the hospital to find her, they were told she was not there.

According to another Iranian blog which claims to have original information about Taraneh from her family, Iranian security forces contacted Taraneh's family after the hospital visit warning them not to publicize Taraneh's story and not to associate her disappearance with arrests made at post-election protests, claiming instead that she had tried to harm herself because of feeling guilty for having pre-marital sex.

Witnesses have come forward to the various Internet sites who are covering Taraneh's story, stating that she was mentally and physically abused in Tehran's notorious Evin prison and also that a person who matches her physical description and injuries had been treated at the Imam Khomeini Hospital, was unconscious when witnessed and was later transferred out of the hospital while still unconscious.

Read more here:
The Rape of Taraneh: Prison Abuse of Iran's Protesters

Woman Eats Baby's Brain, blames Devil "voices"

Well, I'm glad she's blaming the voices. I'd hate to think any remotely rational person could do this:

A woman charged with murdering her three-and-a-half-week-old son used a knife and two swords to dismember the child and ate parts of his body, including his brain, before stabbing herself in the torso and slicing her own throat, police say.

Otty Sanchez, 33, is charged with capital murder in the death of her infant son, Scott Wesley Buchholtz-Sanchez. She was recovering from her wounds at a hospital, and was being held on $US1 million ($A1.22 million) bail.

San Antonio police chief William McManus said the attack early on Sunday morning occurred a week after the child's father moved out. The child's aunt and two cousins, ages five and seven, were in the house, but none were harmed.

McManus, who appeared uncomfortable as he addressed reporters on Monday, said Sanchez apparently ate the child's brain and some other body parts.

She also tore his face off, chewed off three of his toes and decapitated the infant before stabbing herself.

"It's too heinous for me to describe it any further," McManus said.

Read more here

Today's quote

My auto-quote thingy has this from Nelson Mandela today, which I thought was worth posting:

If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.

Pat Buchanan mocks Sotomayor's English

Pat Buchanan Mocks Sotomayor During Appearance At English-Only "Conferenece"



Nicely played - Republicans laughing at Sotomayor (who put in extra work to make sure her English was perfect), while standing under a misspelled official "Conferenece" banner. Well done.

argh

In the midst of a paragraph of complete waffle about his art - featured on WallBlank.com - Scott Nyerick says:

The shapes incorporated in my paintings conger thoughts of mechanical and industrial subjects.

I am assuming this was meant to say "conjure" rather than "conger", although the statement is still optimistic at best. The shapes incorporated in the painting *I* was looking at, conjure up "slightly lateral use of stencils" if anything.

The ultimate task lies within the viewer’s eyes. It isn’t art until the viewer decides it is.

Hmmm. Viewer decides it's not.

Next.

misinformation

This really irritates me.  I'm doing research into Diabetes and treatment and symptoms, etc etc, because I don't like not knowing what's going on with me. This is taken from the website of the Garvan Institute, but there are a lot of similar lists out there.

What are the causes and symptoms?

Type 2 diabetes occurs because some people cannot respond normally to the insulin they make (unlike type 1 diabetes which is characterised by the body not producing enough insulin). This results in high concentrations of glucose in the blood, which can damage many of the body’s systems, especially blood vessels and nerves.

[...]

You are in a high-risk category of developing type 2 diabetes if you fit any of the following criteria:

• Over 45 years of age, overweight and/or have a high blood pressure
• Over 45 years of age and have a family member with diabetes
• Have heart disease or have suffered a heart attack
• Have/had high blood glucose levels or have impaired glucose tolerance
• Have/had gestational diabetes
• Are overweight (i.e. have a Body Mass Index higher than 25)

[...snip...]

A BMI of 25+ puts you in the HIGH-RISK CATEGORY?!?  Bullshit.

I stand 157cm (5'2").  If I had a BMI of 25, I'd weigh 140 lbs, or 63 kilos.  That is NOT high-risk.  That's WAY normal.

The Duh of The Day - July 12, 2009

This one appears to summarise my week: 

   Enjoy today's Impractical Wisdumb from Bob Tzu:

Whack-a-dude

Standing up every time you're knocked down tells the Universe that haven't learned to duck.

    May your life be untouched by the profounditudenessity of Duhism!

In Balance/Schmalance, 

Bob Tzu, Bobbie Sue Tzu, Billy Bob Tzu and Petting Tzu

 

Detectives Question Woman with Squirrel Sitting in Cleavage

Squirrel. Cleavage. Why?

Detectives Question Woman with Squirrel Sitting in Cleavage
--------------------

Staff Writer

Ohio Police questioning a woman were shocked when a squirrel popped out from inside of her shirt Monday. The surveillance video clearly shows the animal ducking in and out of her cleavage during the interview.

The complete article can be viewed here

argh

¤¤ sigh ¤¤

* multiple instances of "grizzly" instead of "grisly": "the grizzly corpse" - really? A dead bear? In Lancashire?

* a few slightly mangled idioms: "buddha wouldn't melt in her mouth"; "I need that like I need a bird in the hand".

* some old favourites: "he was wrapped to see her"; "they poured over the documents"; "it's the principal of the thing".

I could go on.

State of the Nation

John Birmingham is an author of renown, and also writes for the Brisbane Times, John's blog Blunt Instrument is always entertaining - this one deserved to be re-posted in its entirety.

State of the Nation
July 06, 2009

I'm not sure how we got off topic, while discussing Nick Earls' latest book at my private blog t'other day, but things turned decidedly parochial when trying to explain regional Australian differences to my American readers.


A certain Bob of Nowhere, chimed in with the pithy observation that generally speaking Queenslanders are tall, strong, fit, likeable, easy going and sun-kissed. New South Welshman, on the other hand, are all "crooks, fast talking schemers or waxed-back active participants in The Gay, Lesbian and Transgender Mardi Gras with tans from sun beds". He thought Victorians to be old moneyed snobs, clinging to aspirations of high culture as a drowning man would cling to flotsam, frequently pallid and a touch Undead looking, while Tasmanians entirely too frequently marry close blood relatives, resulting in high numbers of ginger kids with stark white freckled skin. Bob explained to our American friends that there no actual West Australians, simply transient shift workers flying in and out. South Australians and Northern Territorians meanwhile were all "truck driving psychopaths with a tendency to stab people with screwdrivers" before dumping the bodies down disused mineshafts, or in barrels at the back of old bank safes.

Well, I'll not have it, Bob, I tell you. You're wrong.

You completely forgot to mention that South Australian serial killers are differentiated from their northern neighbours by a penchant for donning black leather mankinis when on the job, and that there are a number of bona fide West Australians, but they're all resident in Bali, where they can be found at most busy intersections vomiting up magic mushroom omelettes while still bartering for the best morning price on a $2 Weagles singlet.

Nor are all Victorians uptight, cadaverous nimrods with mouths like puckered cats' anuses. Some instead are cadaverous and uppity tightwads with tiny little coin purses fashioned from pussycat scrotums out of which they are want to worry a penny or two to rub together around escaped Tasmanians, other mental patients and anyone of even vaguely loose moral turpitude, in the hope of encouraging any of the above to offer the sort of gymnastic sexual shenanigans that fit, tanned, Queenslanders grinning like Cheshire cats are rumoured to enjoy on an almost daily basis with holidaying swimwear models, Olympic dive champions and Playboy Bunnies.

Such rumours being true of course.

You also neglect to mention the high number of escaped convicts and parole violators who make up 103 per cent of the Northern Territory's population, the statistical anomaly being due to the double counting of certain individuals who've added identity theft and welfare fraud to their core skill sets of abducting backpackers and driving at 400kmh between Alice Springs and that bit of the highway where they hit an echidna and their ute explodes.

Fair call on the New South Welshman though.

Anti-slavery publicity

 

---

 

Getty Images 7 months ago

A woman is locked up in a transparent suitcase reading "Stop Human Trafficking! 60 Years of Human Rights" on a luggage belt at the airport in Munich, southern Germany, on December 11, 2008. The Human Rights organisation Amnesty International staged the action commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations. Based on France's 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and the 1776 US Declaration of Independence, the 30-point non-binding text of the declaration was initially adopted by 58 states, with World War II's atrocities fresh in their minds. "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights," proclaimed Article 1 of the text.

Mismatched text/image

I think this is one of the oddest text/image mixups I've seen...

"Foreign Partner"

Yet another uninspired 419 email.

From: Soumaila Sorgho asorgho320@msn.com
Reply To: soumaila_sorgho@voila.fr
Subject: Foreign Partner

Foreign Partner

This message might meet you in utmost surprise. However, it's just my urgent need for foreign partner that made me to contact you for this transaction. I got your contact from chambers of commerce search while I was searching for a foreign partner. I assured of your capability and reliability to champion this business opportunity when I prayed about you.

Most of that just makes me *yawn* and hit "Report Spam". But "I assured... when I prayed about you"? Bad form.

Can this really be more profitable than getting a REAL JOB?!

capsicum / bell peppers

I am allergic to capsicum ("bell peppers", for the 'Murcans), which is handy since I also loathe the stuff. Just the smell of it, raw, makes me heave. Cooked... **shudder**

Since no one has ever heard of capsicum allergy, I get a lot of "you're allergic to... what? Capsicum?!", with attitude. Yes, I am. Every single commercial sauce on the market seems to have paprika (powdered red capsicum) in it; it's in salad, in great chunks; it's added to meat I would have otherwise quite enjoyed, as delicate curls of garnish. Even ordering hawaiian pizza isn't a guarantee, the random "oops" bits contaminate whole slices.

But then... I discovered a fellow sufferer! I told @kissability that I would post a (true!) story about the social challenges of being allergic to something other people eat as a matter of course.

Next post.

argh

Just looked in my drawer at work for something to nibble on as my mouth is bored and I am falling asleep. Hmmm. Jelly beans, condensed milk, butterscotch lozenges... and sardines. Diabetes, people! There's only one healthy option, and that's not really what I had in mind as a "snack"!

diabetes

The phone call I never wanted to get:

Results of your blood tests are unequivocal. You have diabetes. Book a double appointment this week so we can discuss a plan.

Not sure how I made it to the end of that conversation before losing it, but I did. Just.

This is one of the Big Five, the quintet of Bad Things That May Happen Because You're Fat.
* heart failure
* cancer
* high cholesterol
* high blood pressure...
* and diabetes.

I've known for a long time that I'm at risk of developing one or more of these, but it's always been a distant and remote possibility. I've dodged the bullets for so long I'd almost forgotten that the weight might have serious repercussions above and beyond Being Fat.

I am scared to death, and that fucking Black Dog is telling me there's absolutely no point in going on.

gp

E-mail to my boss just now:

I have to go to the GP again - 1:45pm departure, unfortunately. Sorry. Will try to earn enough to have a personal physician so I can dictate appointment times etc. On 2nd thoughts, if I have enough money to have a personal physician I won't have to work anymore at all. And then I wouldn't need a personal physician because I could make it to the GP anytime, so then I wouldn't have one. So if I earn enough to have one, I won't need one. So that would be a moot point, and a confusing / slightly incidental tangent from the information you actually need.

Summary: leaving here 1:45

"I don't have anything against Jesus, but I don't like his fan club very much"

I can't remember who said that.  But it fits this story well.

Faith Healing, or Inhumane Sacrifice?

[...]

While Ava’s head grew at a normal rate, Mato said, because the body was so desperate to protect her brain, the rest of her body steadily wasted away: “She stopped growing. That is not an overnight event. That takes months … Her growth reflects there was a chronic problem.”

Not a fatal one, however, for your average, God-fearing parent. Just a signal to go see a doctor, and gently place your child in the hands of someone who understands that bacteria and disease aren’t tests of faith, but the inconveniences of life in a fallen world.

Unfortunately, the Worthingtons’ faith and the Worthingtons’ church shun those interventions. “I don’t believe in (doctors),” Ava’s father told detectives in Clackamas County’s child-abuse unit. Medical treatment “is not a question. It’s not even thought.”

Wack jobs.

Engrish Funny

"ragamuffin" - there's a word you just don't see very often anymore...

---

Engrish Funny: Engrish Pictures That Is Your Funny Engrish

---

No tinder? But I carry it everywhere! Posted: 06 Jul 2009 04:00 AM PDT Notes for Entering the tower 1. The ragamuffin,drunken people and psychotics are forbidden to enter the Tower. 2. No smoking at non-appointed spot. 3. Prohibit carrying tinder and exploder( banger, match, lighter ), restricted. knife,scissors,fruit knife,sword and so on)and metal- Submitted by: dunno source via Engrish Funny Submissions

Saeed Valadbaygi

Facebook Admin

The blogger Saeed Valadbaygi, who has spoken out about electoral and human rights violations in Iran following the *internationally recognised* sham election held there, has been heavily censored & attacked by the Islamic Regime of Iran.

He is now receiving vaguely worded warnings from Facebook re "excessive use" of his account. Neither he nor any of his supporters understands the rationale behind this. I personally know multiple people who use FB a LOT, what I would consider to be excessive use, who have never received such a warning.

We the global community call on Facebook to support the principles of free speech - even, if actually necessary, to allow "excessive use" on the account of someone putting himself and his family at very real risk of physical harm in the name of democracy and freedom.

Pleare consider these factors when addressing the use of Saeed's account.

Thank you.

Parents Keep Child's Sex a Secret

Parents in Sweden have never told their 2.5 year old child whether he or she is a boy or girl. This is based on the theory that gender-based values are societal constructs. Or that the child's parents are barking mad, one or the other.

Read more here

Shared via AddThis

NOT sleep-typing. And not me.

This was in an e-mail from my boss last week:

This could be sent out to the wider stakeholder list, although the covering email for the first distribution needs to be sell why a what we will are communicating.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

"Unless a great many people learn the basics of online crap detection and begin applying their critical faculties en masse and very soon, I fear for the future of the Internet as a useful source of credible news, medical advice, financial information, educational resources, scholarly and scientific research. Some critics argue that a tsunami of hogwash has already rendered the Web useless. I disagree. We are indeed inundated by online noise pollution, but the problem is soluble."

-- Howard Rheingold

Engrish again

Ah, how funny.

Fat is Sexier

Dear Kim

Thank you. Thank you thank you.

Every human in the Western world should be forced to read this. Every condescending, snide thin woman; every patronising, contemptuous man; every ashamed, self-loathing teenager; every coward who wants a fat woman in his bed but not in his life; every apologetic, cowering woman who hides herself so the world doesn't have to cope with her obscene inability to control her body.

Fat is Sexier

Shared via AddThis

Drowning woman rescued from dam by construction worker lowered by crane...

For full story and more pictures, go here

WORLD EXCLUSIVE: NASA finds missing moon landing tapes

Daily Express | UK News :: WORLD EXCLUSIVE: NASA finds missing moon landing tapes

Apparently the famous grainy black and white footage of the moon landing was the equivalent of a 4th-generation fax, and these tapes are the fresh-off-the-typewriter originals. Fascinating!