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