Silly News Items Not Covered In The Shoutbox That Don't Warrant Individual Threads

[honeykid]

Star Wars creator George Lucas reveals why he is quitting blockbusters
George Lucas has decided that he won’t be making any more big-budget films, saying that he’ll be embarking on a "new destiny" after he takes a step back from the blockbuster movie business.

The creator of the ‘Star Wars’ franchise cites the growing animosity for him among film fans as one of the main reasons for his retirement.

“On the Internet, all those same guys that are complaining I made a change are completely changing the movie,” he told the New York Times, referencing fans who have made their own re-edits of the famous sci fi trilogy.

“I’m saying: ‘Fine. But my movie, with my name on it, that says I did it, needs to be the way I want it.’”

He’s currently promoting ‘Red Tails’ in the US - which he battled to get to the big screen and has funded himself as a consequence.

“Why would I make any more when everybody yells at you all the time and says what a terrible person you are?”, he said, referring of course to every movie he’s been involved with since ‘The Phantom Menace’ in 1999.

“I’m moving away from the business, from the company, from all this kind of stuff.”

His friend, producer Rick McCallum, explained: “Once this is finished, he’s done everything he’s ever wanted to do. He will have completed his task as a man and a filmmaker.”

Lucas says that he will continue to make films, but he’s more interested in smaller-scale movies that are personal, and similar to those he made while at USC film school in the 1960s.

The only blockbuster project he’s leaving open as a possibility is a fifth outing for Indiana Jones, but other than that he’s looking towards a quieter future, film-wise.
http://uk.movies.yahoo.com/star-wars-creator-george-lucas-reveals-why-he-is-quitting-blockbusters-.html

Cinema goers complain after discovering 'The Artist' is silent
The first silent film to win major awards in over 90 years ‘The Artist’, has, rather ironically, got everyone talking.

The buzz of the Golden Globe-winning film hasn’t quite reached everyone however; as several people have been given refunds after complaining about the film’s lack of dialogue.

When going to see the film at an Odeon cinema in Liverpool, film fan Nicola Shearer, 25, was asked if she knew the film was silent.

She did and enquired why the usher had asked in the first place.

"She then told me some people complained and asked for refunds because there is no sound and the screen is smaller,” Miss Shearer said (speaking to the Telegraph).

‘The Artist’ is presented in a smaller aspect ratio to mimic the films of the Golden Age of silent movies that director Michel Hazanavicius pays homage to.

The cinema first denied handing out refunds, before a spokesman changed their tune; "Odeon Liverpool One can confirm it has issued a small number of refunds to guests who were unaware that ‘The Artist’ was a silent film.

"The cinema is happy to offer guests a refund on their film choice is they raise concern with a member of staff within 10 minutes of the film starting."

‘The Artist’ charts the end of the career of silent movie star George Valentin (played by Jean Dujardin) as “talkies” begin to thrive. As his career plummets he sees the career of love interest Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo) sky-rocket as she becomes the first major star of the new era of film-making.

Supporting the relatively unknown but critically adored French leads are the likes of John Goodman, James Cromwell and Malcolm McDowell. And of course, Uggie the dog.

It picked up three Golden Globes at the weekend for Best Picture, Comedy or Musical, Best Actor, Comedy or Musical for Dujardin and Best Original Score.
http://uk.movies.yahoo.com/cinema-goers-complain-after-discovering--the-artist--is-silent.html

Mystery head in bag found under Hollywood sign
A murder inquiry has been launched by Los Angeles police after two hikers stumbled across a severed human head under the famed Hollywood sign.

The head, which is believed to belong to an Armenian male in his 40s, was found in a bag by the two women on Tuesday at 2.30pm (local time) after their dogs started playing around in some shrubbery along the Hollywood Hills hiking trail.

Upon making the grim discovery, the pair alerted the Canyon Park rangers, who then notified the police.

According to police, the murder may have occurred recently due to the “absence of animal bites and decay”.

[Related story: Smoke bomb thrown over White House fence]


“Two of the dogs began to play with the bag and what appeared to be an object. While the dogs were playing with it, at some point the object came out of the bag and they discovered that it was a head — a severed head,” Sergeant Mitzi Fierro told KCAL-TV.

Detectives from Los Angeles Police Robbery and Homicide Division are seeking help from the Los Angeles County coroner in order to identify the victim through dental records.

Last night, police were guarding the area, with a search for additional remains set to continue on Wednesday.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/mystery-head-in-bag-found-under-hollywood-sign.html

[honeykid]

Do we really need a leap second?
Everyone knows what a leap year is, but did you know there are also leap seconds? At least for now, because the leap second’s very existence is being debated in Geneva today: with Britain, China and Canada fighting to keep it against the USA, Germany and France.

Introduced globally 40 years ago, the leap second was designed to keep atomic time (used by computer systems) and astronomical or solar time (the Earth’s rotation) in sync with each other.

Discrepancy
Atomic time, which GPS and telecommunications depend on, is so accurate that it gains or loses no more than a second every million years.

However, astronomical time alters because of variations in the Earth’s rotation and can be affected by things like earthquakes. The leap second was needed to keep the two time scales coordinated so atomic time doesn't jump ahead of astronomical time, the International Telecommunication’s Union (ITU-R) explained to Yahoo! News.

In fact, a leap second has been added at irregular intervals – a total of 24 times since its introduction in 1972.

Without the leap second keeping time in check, it is predicted that the difference between atomic time and astronomical time will increase at a rate of approximately one second per year – meaning that in 550 years, the difference between atomic time and astronomical time will be about an hour, the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) projects.

The decision
Thursday’s Radiotelecommunication Assembly will see delegates from member states discuss the elimination of the leap second and voting for or against the controversial proposal.

A decision to remove the leap second completely would then need to be approved at the ITU-R’s World Radiocommunication Conference due to take place next week.

The next leap second is expected to be added at midnight on 30 June. However, Thursday’s debate, which an ITU-R spokesperson described as “very polarised” could see all that change.

Against the leap second
Countries like France, Italy, Germany and the USA are calling for an end to the leap second because telecommunications from GPS systems to mobile phone networks must be manually adjusted by a whole second to keep in sync with the change every year or two.

This adaptation of a second, critics argue, leaves systems open to the risk of error. If the leap second was abolished, time would be more standard.

The ITU-R, a United Nations agency, said in a statement: “The benefits of the change would be a continuous time scale available for all the modern electronic navigation and computerised systems to operate with and eliminate the need for specialised ad hoc time systems.”

For the leap second
Britain, China and Canada are opposed to the change because without that leap second, atomic and astronomical time will drift further apart, which would need to be corrected by adding a single leap second, minute or hour at an agreed point in time which would be even more technically challenging and costly.

“Without leap seconds we will eventually lose the link between our perception of time and our own experiences of day and night,” added the ITU-R’s spokeswoman.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/do-we-really-need-a-leap-second-.html

[honeykid]

I think this story should've been titled. "Idiot thinks his movies are real."

Mark Wahlberg ‘sorry’ for saying he could have stopped 9/11 attack
Mark Wahlberg has sensationally said that if he were on one of the hijacked planes that ploughed into the World Trade Centre on 9/11, “it wouldn’t have went down like it did.”

The 40-year-old actor, who was scheduled to be on one of the ill-fated flights, made the remarks in an interview with Men’s Health.

“If I was on that plane with my kids, it wouldn’t have went down like it did," he said, not at all deluded by his movie star status. "There would have been a lot of blood in that first-class cabin and then me saying, ‘OK, we’re going to land somewhere safely, don’t worry.’”

The star of the ‘Planet of the Apes’ and ‘Italian Job’ remakes later apologised after being called out by September 11 widow Deena Burnett-Bailey.

Ms Bailey told TMZ, “Does Mark Wahlberg have a pilot's license? Then I think hindsight is 20/20, and it's insignificant to say what you would have done if you weren't there."

She went on to describe the comments as “silly”, “grandstanding” and “disrespectful”.

In his apology the ‘Boogie Nights’ actor said: “To speculate about such a situation is ridiculous to begin with, and to suggest I would have done anything differently than the passengers on that plane was irresponsible.

"I deeply apologize to the families of the victims that my answer came off as insensitive, it was certainly not my intention."

It is not the first time Marky Mark has made such a blunder; in 2006 he said about the terrorist attacks: “We certainly would have tried to do something to fight. I've had probably over 50 dreams about it."
http://uk.movies.yahoo.com/mark-wahlberg-%E2%80%98sorry%E2%80%99-for-saying-he-could--have-stopped-9-11-attack.html

Kodak files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection
Eastman Kodak has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as it attempts to transform the 130-year-old photography pioneer into a digital company.

The company, which invented the hand-held camera, said in statement that it had also obtained a $950m, 18-month credit facility from Citigroup to give it the cash to keep going.

Antonio Perez, the chairman and chief executive, said: “Kodak is taking a significant step toward enabling our enterprise to complete its transformation.”

Kodak has been in the drawn-out process of creating a digital business while getting out of certain traditional operations.Since 2003 it has closed 13 manufacturing plants and 130 processing laboratories, and cut its workforce by 47,000.

While the company is credited with building the first digital camera in 1975 , it never realised the potential of the digital revolution.

Kodak's digital focus in recent years has been on consumer and commercial printers, but this has not resolved its financial difficulties or improved profits.

Like other established US companies, Kodak faces huge costs for pension and other benefits for workers and retirees that it is struggling to meet.

Mr Perez said: "Now we must complete the transformation by further addressing our cost structure ... to emerge a lean, world-class, digital imaging and materials science company.”

The Chapter 11 filing covers the company and its US subsidiaries and not subsidiaries abroad.
http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/kodak-files-chapter-11-bankruptcy-074409233.html

Developments in the story about the head found under the Hollywood sign.

More body parts found under Hollywood sign
More body parts have been discovered close to where hikers stumbled across a severed human head along a trail below the famed Hollywood sign.

Two human feet and two hands were found on Wednesday afternoon after Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) launched a murder inquiry.

The head, which is believed to belong to a male between 40 and 60 years old and of 'undetermined' ethnicity, was found in a bag by two women on Tuesday at 2.30pm (local time) after their dogs started playing around in some shrubbery along the Hollywood Hills hiking trail.

Both hands and feet were found within a 50-yard radius of the head and are believed to belong to the decapitated body, the LAPD said.

Detectives believe the victim - whose identity still remains a mystery - was killed elsewhere before the perpetrator dumped the body parts near the iconic sign.

Police said wild animals roaming in the Canyon Drive area may have moved the body parts.

Upon making the grim discovery, the pair alerted the Canyon Park rangers, who then notified the police.

According to police, the murder may have occurred recently due to the “absence of animal bites and decay”.

“Two of the dogs began to play with the bag and what appeared to be an object. While the dogs were playing with it, at some point the object came out of the bag and they discovered that it was a head — a severed head,” Sergeant Mitzi Fierro told KCAL-TV.

Detectives from Los Angeles Police Robbery and Homicide Division are seeking help from the Los Angeles County coroner in order to identify the victim through dental records.

The search is expected to continue in the area on Thursday.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/mystery-head-in-bag-found-under-hollywood-sign.html

[honeykid]

From the research of the bloody obvious.

Male sex drive 'to blame for wars'
Male sex drive is at the root of most conflict in the world, from football violence to world wars, scientists have claimed.

A review of psychological evidence concludes that men are shaped by evolution to be aggressive towards "outsiders".

The tendency, at the heart of all inter-tribal violence, emerged through natural selection as a result of competition for mates.

Today it can be seen in large-scale conflicts between nations as well as clashes involving rival gangs, football fans or religious groups, say the researchers.

Women, on the other hand, are said to have evolved to resolve conflicts peacefully. Natural selection has programmed them to "tend and befriend" to protect their offspring.

Professor Mark van Vugt, from the Institute for Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology at Oxford University, said: "A solution to conflict, which is an all too common problem in societies today, remains elusive. One reason for this might be the difficulty we have in changing our mindset, which has evolved over thousands of years.

"Our review of the academic literature suggests that the human mind is shaped in a way that tends to perpetuate conflict with 'outsiders'. Our research finds that conflict between rival groups of men has presented opportunities to gain access to mates, territory and increased status.

"We believe this has resulted through natural selection in an evolved psychology amongst men to initiate and display acts of inter-group aggression."

The findings, which support the so-called "male warrior hypothesis", are published in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B.

In all cultures and throughout history men rather than women have sought to get their way by initiating violence, the psychologists claim. Men were more likely to demonstrate prejudice and discrimination against other men viewed as outsiders, according to the research.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/male-sex-drive-blame-wars-190112475.html

[DexterRiley]

:laugh:

http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/409547_10150516635524821_510339820_9132750_839273449_n.jpg

[honeykid]

The latest in the conversation between Pot and Kettle.

Father slams Winehouse catwalk show
The grieving father of Amy Winehouse has accused a top fashion designer of cashing in on the late singer's death by using her as the inspiration for his latest catwalk show.

Mitch Winehouse said the collection unveiled by Jean Paul Gaultier at the Paris Fashion Week on Wednesday was "in bad taste" after models were dressed in the star's trademark style.

The former taxi driver, 60, told the Sun: "The family were upset to see those pictures, they were a total shock.

"We're still grieving for her loss, and we've had a difficult week with the six month anniversary of Amy's death. To see her image lifted wholesale to sell clothes was a wrench we were not expecting or consulted on."

During the showcase of Gaultier's spring-summer collection models were given the Back to Black singer's trademark beehive hairstyle, daubed in heavy eyeliner and smoked cigarettes. They also took to the runway to a barbershop rendition of Winehouse's songs, with all models wearing black veils during the show's finale.

Gaultier confessed although he had never met the star - who died at the age of 27 in her north London home last year - their "styles had always been similar".

Mr Winehouse said he was proud of his daughter's influence on fashion, but accused Gaultier of portraying a view of the singer when she was "not at her best".

"We're proud of her influence on fashion but find black veils on models, smoking cigarettes with a barbershop quartet singing her music in bad taste," he added.

"It portrays a view of Amy when she was not at her best and glamorises some of the more upsetting times in her life. That's upsetting for her family."

The British singer battled with a drink and drugs problem during her life prompting Mr Winehouse to set up the Amy Winehouse Foundation to help vulnerable youngsters in her memory. He added: "No one asked us for permission or offered to make a donation to the foundation."

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/father-slams-winehouse-catwalk-show-061857511.html

[honeykid]

Following on from the Marky Mark story I posted a week or so ago, not a story, but a link to a page I rather liked in which Marky Mark prevents other disasters and world events including the rise of Hitler.

http://www.theshiznit.co.uk/feature/other-terrible-world-events-mark-wahlberg-wouldnt-have-let-happen.php

Just made me laugh.

[will.15]

man suffered a heart attack Saturday after dining at the aptly-named restaurant the ‘Heart Attack Grill’ in Las Vegas, FOX5 reported.
"He was having the sweats and shaking," said ‘Nurse' Bridgett, a waitress who was working at the restaurant when the man began to complain of chest pains in the midst of eating a 'Triple Bypass Burger.'
Restaurant owner "Doctor" Jon Basso told FOX5 at first he thought it was a joke.
"One of the nurses came back to me and said, ‘Dr. Jon, we've got a patient who's in trouble,” Basso told the news station. Basso, who is not an actual doctor, called 911, and paramedics and EMTs arrived promptly to treat the man. According to reports, the man is alive and recuperating today.
The Heart Attack Grill, which opened last October, is infamous for serving high-calorie, high-fat foods. Foods on the restaurant menu are given names such as ‘Flatliner Fries’ and ‘Bypass Burgers,’ and a single meal can easily exceed 8,000 calories, according to FOX5.
While the staff glorifies bad health – people weighing over 350 pounds eat for free – Basso told FOX5 he felt ‘horrible’ for the man.
“Tourists were taking photos of him as if it were some type of stunt,” Basso said. “Even with our own morbid sense of humor, we would never pull a stunt like that.”
Basso told FOX5 there have been a “variety of incidents” at the restaurant, but this was the first full-scale coronary.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/02/15/man-suffers-heart-attack-while-dining-at-heart-attack-grill-in-las-vegas/?test=latestnews#ixzz1mV6Rduyb

[akatemple]

^I saw that restaurant on the Travel Channel, it looked so disgusting.

[honeykid]

Teen lifts car to save grandpa
MONROE, Mich. (UPI) -- A 15-year-old Michigan boy says he has no idea how he was able to lift a 2,000-pound Buick enough for his grandfather to escape from underneath.

Austin Smith said he was working on the 1991 Buick with his grandfather, Ernest "Papa Ernie" Monhollen, at his grandparents' Ida Township home Saturday when the car fell from the cinder blocks holding it up and trapped Monhollen underneath, WDIV-TV, Detroit, reported Tuesday.

"I was just so scared," Smith said. I didn't know what to do.

Smith said he instinctively grabbed the front end of the 2,000-pound car and was able to lift it enough for his grandfather to get out.

"Probably all the adrenaline," Smith said of how he was able to lift the car. I mean, I couldn't do it right now.

Monhollen was treated for a serious cut to his face, fractured ribs and a fractured eye socket.

"Thank God he was here because if it was just me and his grandmother it would have been over. That would have been it," Monhollen said.

Copyright 2012 by United Press International

Researchers identify hottest chile pepper
LAS CRUCES, N.M. (UPI) -- Researchers at New Mexico State University said they have identified the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion pepper as the hottest pepper in the world.

The school's Chile Pepper Institute said researchers grew several breeds of chile peppers reputed to be among the hottest in a plant science research field and the mature peppers were then harvested, dried and ground to powder.

The capsaicinoids, the compounds that produce the heat sensation, were removed from the peppers and examined. The Trinidad Moruga Scorpion was measured at more than 1.2 million Scoville Heat Units, while the second-hottest pepper, Chocolate 7-pot, was found to have nearly 1.17 million.

"Part of the reason we conducted this research is that rigorous scientific testing is required to ensure accurate determination of super hot heat levels," researcher Danise Coon said. The Chile Pepper Institute, as the leading authority on chile peppers, was a logical place for this research to be conducted.

Copyright 2012 by United Press International

Police: Women tried to flash for beer cash
ST. JAMES CITY, Fla. (UPI) -- Police in Florida said two women were arrested after their plan to show their breasts for beer money ended in a parking lot attack.

Workers at The Waterfront restaurant in St. James City told Lee County sheriff's deputies Alicia Martin, 28, and Kathryn Rayannic, 23, consumed "excessive quantities" of beer at the restaurant Wednesday and attempted to raise more drink money by offering to show their breasts to male patrons, WBBH-TV, Fort Myers, Fla., reported Friday.

"They were offering to show their boobs for drinks," waiter Shaun Bassett said. We had five guys that were like, 'Please, leave us alone.' They actually went up to tables [of men] who had their wives there.

Deputies said no one took the women up on their offer and they were escorted out of the restaurant by two employees, a male and a female. Martin allegedly shoved the female worker into a wall on her way out of the eatery then attacked the woman once they were in the parking lot.

The workers told police the male employee pulled Martin away from his colleague and the suspect threatened him with a knife before continuing her attack on the woman.

Martin was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and battery. Rayannic was charged with disorderly conduct.

Copyright 2012 by United Press International

[honeykid]

'The Simpsons' Duff beer to be made available in the UK
Homer Simpson's favourite beer Duff is to be made available to buy in the UK.

The famous fictional drink from The Simpsons - complete with its slogan, "Can't get enough of that wonderful Duff" - has been developed in real life by The Legendary Duff Beer company.

It has already proved very successful across Europe after being made by German-based company Brewmasters Gebeauts.

Duff beer will be available in bottles or cans, and can be purchased and shipped to various delivery locations in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The Legendary Duff Beer company describes the beverage as: "A premium German pilsner that poses a crisp, light refreshing taste along with iconic packaging.

"The product has certainly fulfilled its namesake in becoming a modern day legend, developing a cult following across the world."

The move coincides with the long-running Fox cartoon's 500th episode, which will air in the UK on Sky1 later this year.
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/odd/s195/the-simpsons/news/a367596/the-simpsons-duff-beer-to-be-made-available-in-the-uk.html

George Washington chicken nugget draws bids of $350 on eBay
A three-year-old McDonald's Chicken McNugget has been drawing bids of more than $350 (£220) on eBay.

The item, being sold by Rebekah Speights, bears a resemblance to the first American president George Washington, according to Sioux City Journal.

http://i1.cdnds.net/12/08/618x464/odd_george_washington_chicken_nugget.jpg

Speights, from Dakota City, recalled the time she came across the chicken nugget. She was eating at a McDonald's with her children when she was about to throw away the leftover food.

She said: "I looked down at the McNugget and just started laughing. I saw this portrait of George Washington staring back at me."

Speights stored the chicken nugget in her freezer but was eventually convinced to put it up for auction for charity for the Family Worship Center in Sioux City.

Yesterday (February 23), the highest bid was at $356 (£225).
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/odd/news/a367677/george-washington-chicken-nugget-draws-bids-of-usd350-on-ebay.html

[honeykid]

'Hitman' Web site creator in U.S. prison
LOS ANGELES (UPI) -- The Las Vegas man who created HitmanForHire.net, a Web site promising professional killers "at a moment's notice," is now in a federal prison in Mississippi.

Essam Ahmed Eid, 56, who was convicted in both Ireland and the United States of crimes related to his online business, is eligible for release as early as November 2013 after he was sentenced in Los Angeles to a 33-month jail sentence on a conspiracy relating to extortion charge, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.

Authorities said Eid, who was born in Egypt, approached a woman in Los Angeles in 2006 and told her someone had offered him $37,000 to have her killed. However, he said he only received a $17,000 deposit and would spare the woman's life if she paid the outstanding balance on the contract.

The woman sought assistance from the FBI, but investigators said Eid left the country for Ireland during their investigation.

Authorities in Ireland arrested Eid after he approached a man and said he had been offered $174,876 to kill him, his brother and their father. He offered to spare their lives for $134,520.

Eid was convicted of extortion and burglary in Dublin and sentenced to six years in prison. He was extradited to Los Angeles to face trial last year.

Authorities said Eid's scheme for the Web site, which is how he was contacted by the people seeking to have their acquaintances killed, went beyond extortion, as he had researched a method for silencing a pistol and even made poisonous ricin powder in his garage.

Copyright 2012 by United Press International

Apartment complex testing DNA of dog poo
WEST CHESTER, Ohio (UPI) -- The owners of an Ohio apartment complex said they are using DNA testing to determine the identities of residents who fail to clean up after their dogs.

Summit Management Services, which owns The Lakes of West Chester Village, said the "Poo Prints" DNA program will match dog droppings left on the property with DNA samples taken from residents' canines, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported Tuesday.

"With pet ownership comes responsibility, particularly in a community comprised of renters," property manager Jill Moorman wrote in a letter to residents. Aside from garden variety noise complaints … another antagonizing issue has become a major factor for pet owners and non-pet owners alike -- dog waste.

Moorman said the dog poo will be sent to the BioPet Vet Lab in Knoxville, Tenn., for identification and the owners will then be fined $200 per violation.

"The 'Poo Prints' DNA program was of great interest because it scientifically identifies the responsible resident, with no guesswork," said Rick Nixon, vice president of Summit Management Services. Clearly, we do not view dogs as culprits in the utilization of this program; rather, owners will be held accountable for their failure to comply.

Copyright 2012 by United Press International

[n3wt]

A three-year-old McDonald's Chicken McNugget has been drawing bids of more than $350 (£220) on eBay.
:facepalm::laugh::facepalm::laugh:

[honeykid]

Woman arrested for painting nails on plane
HOUSTON (UPI) -- A California woman was arrested for allegedly cursing at a Southwest Airlines flight attendant who asked her to stop painting her nails, officials said.

Jeanie Daniels of Burbank was detained for 10 hours after the Feb. 26 altercation, CBS News reported Tuesday.

Daniels was en route from Los Angeles to Houston to visit her boyfriend and said she asked the people sitting around her if they would mind if she painted her fingernails. She said they told her to go ahead, but a flight attendant told her to stop.

"I thought it was all going well until the attendant came over and was very upset I was painting my nails, saying it was offending everyone around me," Daniels said.

She said she went into the airplane's bathroom to finish the paint job, but a second flight attendant stopped her. When the first flight attendant confronted her about the incident back at her seat, Daniels said she got upset because the attendant "just kept carrying it on and on."

"She was getting so loud when I was sitting in my seat. I was like, just stop, and I was loud when I said [expletive] because she wouldn't end the conversation," Daniels told CBS News.

Daniels was arrested upon arrival in Houston for use of profane language, though the charge was later dismissed. Daniels said officers also accused her of attempting to hit a flight attendant when she raised her hand to give a high five to the first attendant in an attempt to apologize.

Copyright 2012 by United Press International

Police nab tutu-wearing burglary suspect
SAN DIEGO (UPI) -- San Diego police said a man arrested on suspicion of burglarizing a church was wearing a tutu and purple tights with his genitals exposed.

Investigators said officers responded to the Palisades Presbyterian Church on Birchwood Street around 4 a.m. on a report of suspicious activity and arrested a man wearing a white T-shirt, a tutu and purple tights with his genitals exposed, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported Wednesday.

Police said a pickup truck parked nearby was loaded with electronics, musical instruments and other items from the church.

The suspect's name and age were not released.

Copyright 2012 by United Press International

Fla. office blessed after hellish meeting
TAMPA, Fla. (UPI) -- A member of a Florida county board said he took umbrage at the blessing of an office where a contentious meeting had been held.

Pete Edwards, a member of the Children's Board of Hillsborough County, told the Tampa Bay (Fla.) Times in St. Petersburg that Luanne Panacek, the executive director of the agency, was out of line when she and another woman entered the office on a Sunday last month to pray and pour olive oil on desks and furniture.

The strange substance resulted in employees calling police the next day, but Panacek later said the office needed to be blessed after what she called "a meeting from hell" that included some terse exchanges with Edwards.

"I'm stunned that a person responsible to the board would stoop that low and imply I'm some type of demon," Edwards said. We don't need an executive director who does that kind of stuff.

Panacek said she was not trying to scare anyone and didn't think a little divine intervention would hurt. "There's nothing wrong with blessing a building," she told the Times. I wasn't doing it at a staff meeting. I was doing it on my time.

James Strange, a religion professor at South Florida University, said anointing with olive oil has long been practiced by the Roman Catholic church and was being increasingly used by charismatic Christians.

The board chairman told the Times he didn't think any further action was required but Edwards called for an emergency meeting to discuss the flap.

Copyright 2012 by United Press International

Web site: D.C. best place for an affair
WASHINGTON (UPI) -- Washington, D.C., may be the best place to have an affair, says the founder of an online dating service for people in relationships.

"The more successful you are, the more prone to cheating you are … and Washington is full of successful people looking for something outside their marriage," Noel Biderman, chief executive officer and founder of AshleyMadison.com, told the New York Daily News.

Powerful men and women, especially those in politics, "are massive risk-takers," Biderman said, and some are willing to transfer that to risk-taking to their personal lives.

The Web site says it has nearly 38,000 members in the nation's capital, the most per-capita among its 13 million users, the newspaper said Saturday.

The city outranked San Antonio, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Oklahoma City, Pittsburgh, Boston, Chicago, Dallas and Orlando as the top spot for affairs, based on the number of registered users in each city as a percentage of the total population.

Copyright 2012 by United Press International

[honeykid]

Research finds women feel happy when their husband or partner is upset
The detailed study found that wives or girlfriends were pleased when their partner showed emotion because they believed it demonstrated a healthy relationship.

The survey, carried out by Harvard Medical School, also found that when men realised their wife was angry, the women reported being happier, although the men were not.

It revealed women most likely enjoyed spotting when their partner was dissatisfied because it showed his strong “engagement” or “investment” in their time together.

Dr Shiri Cohen, the study’s lead author, said: “It could be that for women, seeing that their male partner is upset reflects some degree of the man's investment and emotional engagement in the relationship, even during difficult times.

“This is consistent with what is known about the dissatisfaction women often experience when their male partner becomes emotionally withdrawn and disengaged in response to conflict.”

The study, published by the American Psychological Association, recruited a diverse range of 156 heterosexual couples.

More than 100 of the younger, urban, couples were in a committed but not necessarily a married relationship. Other couples who varied in the way they resolved conflict and controlled emotions were also chosen, while the remaining participants were older, middle-class and married.

In total, 71 per cent of those questioned were white, 56 per cent were married, and the average length of their relationships was three-and-a-half years.

During the study, each participant was asked to describe an incident with their partner over the previous two months that had been frustrating, disappointing or upsetting.

The researchers recorded the participant making a brief statement summarising the incident and then brought the couple together to play each other's admission.

They were told to come to a better understanding of what had happened, with approximately 10 minutes to discuss the incident while they were filmed.

The video recording was then shown back to them while they rated their negative and positive reactions using an electronic device.

Later, six, 30-second clips of the most emotive discussions were then shown to the participants, who completed questionnaires about their feelings on watching the recordings. Overall satisfaction with the relationship was also measured, and whether those surveyed considered their partner's efforts to be empathetic.

The study concluded: “Overall, the findings from this study suggest that men may be more satisfied in their relationships when they can accurately read their partners’ positive emotions, while women’s relationship satisfaction may uniquely benefit when they can accurately read their partners’ negative emotions

“Women’s satisfaction was more strongly related to the perception that their partners were trying to understand their negative emotions than to men’s actual accuracy in reading those emotions.”
http://uk.lifestyle.yahoo.com/research-finds-women-feel-happy-when-their-husband-or-partner-is-upset.html

Coke and Pepsi change recipe to avoid cancer warning label
Coca-Cola and Pepsi are changing their recipes in the United States, to avoid having to put a cancer warning label on the drinks to comply with California law.

Although the exact formula for the drinks is a closely guarded secret, the caramel colouring in the drinks contains 4-methylimidazole (4-MEI), a chemical that is listed as a carcinogen in California.

Coca-Cola and Pepsi have already altered the recipes of drinks sold in California, to reduce the levels of 4-MEI and avoid the cancer warning labels.

The companies say the changes will be rolled out across the US to make manufacturing the drinks more efficient.

Related story: Coca-Cola secret ingredient revealed

Diana Garza-Giarlante, a spokeswoman for Coca-Cola in the US, told the Associated Press: "While we believe that there is no public health risk that justifies any such change, we did ask our caramel suppliers to take this step so that our products would not be subject to the requirement of a scientifically unfounded warning."

High levels of 4-MEI have been linked to the development of tumours in mice and rats, one study found.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is currently in the process of reviewing a petition from a US consumer group, the Centre for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), which wants to ban the use of caramel in food and drink products.

However, FDA spokesman Doug Kras, said: "It is important to understand that a consumer would have to consume well over a thousand cans of soda a day to reach the doses administered in the studies that have shown links to cancer in rodents."

A spokesperson for Coca-Cola in the UK added: "The European Food Safety authority specifically reaffirmed the safety of caramel colouring as recently as March 2011, following a comprehensive review of the literature, and stated that the presence of 4-MEI in caramel colouring is not a health concern.

"The science about 4-MEI in foods or beverages does not support the erroneous allegations that CSPI would like the public to believe.

"The caramel colour in all of our products has been, is and always will be safe. That is a fact."

And added: "In Europe, the caramel manufacturing process by our suppliers remain unchanged and continues to comply with European legislation and safety rules."
http://uk.health.lifestyle.yahoo.net/Coca-Cola-and-Pepsi-change-recipe-to-avoid-cancer-warning-label.htm

[Nausicaä]

Apartment complex testing DNA of dog poo
Good! can't stand people who don't clean dog muck up after them. Dirty people. Should be a massive fine, $200 is perfect - it's only about £30 where I am...

[cinemaafficionado]

Good! can't stand people who don't clean dog muck up after them. Dirty people. Should be a massive fine, $200 is perfect - it's only about £30 where I am...

Ha ha ha. You would have a problem with New York City. Lots of people there forget their doggie bags at home:)
What catches some unaware in LA, is when they throw a cigarette butt out of a moving vehicle, especially when it's still lit.
There is a $400.00 fine for that.

[Nausicaä]

I've been to New York and didn't seem to notice any lol.

[honeykid]

These homes are about to become worthless

Up to 200,000 British homes could soon become uninsurable, thanks to the end of a flood agreement between the Government and insurers.

Twelve years ago, in 2000, the Government and the insurance industry came together to produce a document called the Flood Insurance Statement of Principles. This governed insurers' treatment of policyholders in flood-prone areas and was renewed for five more years in 2008, but it is set to expire in June 2013. Also, the latest version does not cover homes built since January 2009.

Flood damaged

The trade body for insurance companies, the Association of British Insurers (ABI), has warned that the deal will not be renewed next year, as it 'grossly distorts' the market for home insurance.

The ABI's members no longer support this agreement, because policyholders in low-risk areas are paying higher premiums to subsidise those living on flood plains. The big insurers who signed this agreement are unhappy that they remain 'on the hook' for large numbers of high-risk homes. In other words, they no longer want to bear such a high proportion of flood claims.

A double whammy: uninsurable and unsellable

At present, the agreement means that even people in the highest-risk areas can buy home insurance and, therefore, enjoy some protection against flood damage to their buildings and contents.

But what happens to them when the deal expires?

Politicians and civil servants in the Local Government Association (LGA) fear that the end of this 13-year deal will leave some households unable to buy cover for damage to their homes and contents.

In fact, up to 200,000 of the UK's 26 million homes could be uninsurable. This comes to one in 130 homes, or 0.77% of the UK's housing stock. While 0.77% is a tiny proportion, the 200,000 households at risk could suffer terribly. Unable to buy buildings and contents insurance, they could be exposed to big bills from the next round of floods.

For example, just imagine not having insurance when a flood causes £20,000-£40,000 of damage to your property. In effect, your home could become uninhabitable, forcing you to move out and abandon your nest.

What's more, homes in high-risk areas could become practically unsellable. After all, who would buy a property that cannot be insured, yet has been flooded, say, twice in the past 10 years?

Without insurance, no mortgage lender would be willing to lend against these properties, leaving only cash buyers in the frame. However, taking such a big risk would be sheer madness, forcing cash-rich homebuyers and buy-to-let landlords to reject these properties and look elsewhere.

According to the LGA, if the Flood Insurance Statement of Principles is not replaced next year, it could leave homeowners nursing an £11 billion liability. Divided by 200,000 homes, this comes to £55,000 per household.

Is your home at risk?

Anyone whose home has been damaged by flooding in the past 12 years should be more than a little nervous. According to the LGA, those at risk of being priced out of the market for home insurance mostly live in Devon, Huddersfield, Kent, Nottinghamshire and Worcestershire.

In particular, those affected by the massive floods in Cockermouth, Cumbria in November 2009, or the devastating deluge that hit the Midlands and Yorkshire in 2007, should be most worried.

To find out whether your home is in a high-risk Flood Warning Area, simply check the flood maps shown on the Environment Agency's website or call Floodline on 0845 988 1188. These flood maps show the areas of the UK most at risk of flooding from rivers or the sea, as well as showing significant, moderate and low risks of flooding.

In addition, you can get help and advice from the National Flood Forum, a registered charity set up to help individuals and communities at risk of flooding. Also, read this guide to flood risk from the ABI.

Dealing with catastrophe

Critics of the insurance industry argue that insurers should not be allowed to 'cherry pick' the lowest-risk customers while excluding high-risk homes. However, since the birth of insurance, underwriters have always reserved the right to reject excessive risks.

On the other hand, without some kind of compromise or replacement deal, up to 200,000 British families could be teetering on the brink, waiting fearfully for the next storm. Until Britain invests more in flood defences, these folk are living on the edge.

When members of a nation are faced with catastrophic risks, the best way to bear those risks is to place them on the broadest, strongest shoulders. For example, earthquake risk in Japan is partly covered by the huge Japanese Earthquake Reinsurance scheme introduced in 1966.

Likewise, the US operates federal flood insurance programmes, which helped in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in August 2005.

However, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) does not want this flood burden to be paid for by an extra levy on hard-pressed taxpayers. Defra also argues that flood-hit homeowners should invest in their own defences, for example, buying sandbags and 'hard defences' such as embankments and walls.

Time for a new system?

With the Government refusing to subsidise flood insurance, another way to provide fair, affordable and widely available home insurance throughout the UK would be to introduce a compulsory levy on all such policies. This happens in France, where insurance premiums include a natural-disaster levy to meet flood costs, with the State acting as reinsurer to guarantee payment in extreme circumstances.
http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/these-homes-are-about-to-become-worthless.html

[Nausicaä]

I'm glad I live far enough away on top of a hill away from the flood areas. Horrible for the people who do. :(

I got this from that website about my area:

We do not have an assessment of flood risk for the area which you have selected. This may be because the area selected is outside the floodplain

[Bill]

OOH, I love ridiculous news stories that could have easily been mistake for an Onion piece.

And then there's The Sun. ;)

http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0lp0kuwjm1r43q0no1_500.jpg

[honeykid]

Accused thief: Car was already stolen
MINNEAPOLIS (UPI) -- Authorities in Minneapolis said a man accused of driving off with a department bait car told officers the car was already stolen when he obtained it.

Investigators said Joe Anthony Arnold, 24, was pulled over shortly after driving off Sunday in the bait car, one of several placed around the city in a bid to nab car thieves, the St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press reported Wednesday.

"After being informed that he was being arrested for auto theft, defendant Arnold stated that the vehicle belonged to a friend of his," Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Paul Scoggin wrote in the criminal complaint. When officers stated that the vehicle belonged to the city of Minneapolis, defendant Arnold further stated that he could not get in trouble as the vehicle was already stolen.

Arnold pointed out the car had a "peeled" steering column, which gives thieves the ability to bypass the ignition lock and start the car.

Arnold and his passenger, Jelora Jade Clark, 29, were charged with car theft Tuesday and were each jailed in lieu of $5,000 bail.

Copyright 2012 by United Press International

Mayor shelves gallows plans
MEDORA, N.D. (UPI) -- The mayor of a North Dakota town said he has withdrawn his application to build a gallows for staged hangings.

Medora Mayor Douglas Ellison said Monday he is withdrawing his application submitted to the Medora Planning and Zoning Commission last week after said panel members found the idea offensive, The Dickinson (N.D.) Press reported Tuesday.

"Some people were kind of upset," Ellison said. I think the people that were quick to criticize, I think just did not understand what I had envisioned.

Ellison said the gallows would have had a safety harness to absorb the impact from the mock-hangings, which he said would only be staged with himself as the hanging victim.

"If even a minority of visitors finds such an option offensive, I owe it to my hometown to remove the potential irritant," he said.

Copyright 2012 by United Press International

Medical pot delivery man: Ninjas robbed me
WEST COVINA, Calif. (UPI) -- Police in Southern California said a medical marijuana delivery man told them he was robbed by two people dressed as ninjas.

West Covina police said the man, who is in his 40s, told investigators he was returning to his vehicle after making a delivery shortly before 10 p.m. Friday when "he was approached by two subjects in ninja costumes who chased him with batons," the San Gabriel Valley (Calif.) Tribune reported Monday.

"The victim said he was scared and he dropped a bag with some marijuana and money. The suspects took it," police Lt. Alan Henley said.

Police said they had no reports of other recent crimes in which perpetrators were dressed as ninjas.

Copyright 2012 by United Press International

Porn stars banned from school's prom
OAKDALE, Minn. (UPI) -- A Minnesota school district superintendent said a high school senior will not be allowed to bring porn stars as his prom dates.

Mike Stone, 18, of Oakdale, said he sent Twitter messages to about 600 celebrities in January and February to find a date for the Tartan High School prom and he received affirmative responses from Internet porn stars Megan Piper and Emy Reyes, the St. Paul Pioneer-Press reported Thursday.

Stone said he is attempting to raise funds via Twitter to fly the porn stars into town for the prom.

However, Patty Phillips, superintendent of the North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale district, said all non-students wishing to attend the prom need to be approved by officials and the porn stars would not be allowed to attend.

Copyright 2012 by United Press International

[Devils Angel]

retired brazilian police officer pinheiro, dressed as super-hero batman, runs at santa terezinha square, in taubate city
retired brazilian police officer andre luiz pinheiro, 50, dressed as super-hero batman, runs at santa terezinha square, in taubate city, sao paulo state march 26, 2012. Pinheiro has been called to help police patrol the crime-ridden streets of taubate, in brazil. He was officially presented on march 17 in the districts with the highest crime rates in sao paulo state. Police captain warley takeo, one of the policemen who decided to bring in the character to help them fight drug traffickers, said the measure would bring long-term benefits. Takeo said making a connection between the police and batman would help children have a clearer idea of good and bad.

[Devils Angel]

Davey reveals pie job amid VAT row
(UKPA) – 4 hours ago
Energy Secretary Ed Davey has revealed he used to work in a pork pie factory amid the ongoing row over VAT on hot takeaway food.
Mr Davey declared he was a fan of Cornish pasties before mentioning his former role.
He told BBC Radio 5 live Breakfast: "I love Cornish pasties myself I have to say, I once worked in a pork pie factory so I know a little bit about pies, maybe a politician shouldn't admit to working in a pork pie factory should they."
The Prime Minister has defended the VAT reforms proposed by Chancellor George Osborne, which have been branded a "pie tax" by critics.
David Cameron said that imposing the 20% tax on hot food served by supermarkets and bakeries would be fair to small businessmen who run fried chicken restaurants, burger bars or fish and chip shops and already have to charge VAT on takeaway sales.
There was previous confusion over Mr Cameron's memories of buying a West Cornwall pasty at Leeds station, as it emerged that the firm's outlet there shut down five years ago.
Speaking to reporters at 10 Downing Street, Mr Cameron earlier described himself as a "pasty-eater".
Asked about the discrepancy, Mr Davey responded: "Listen, what I've found as a minister in the last two years and now as a Secretary of State is that your timetable, your diary is just full up with events and sometimes you don't know whether it's Monday or Friday or Tuesday or Wednesday, as you're propelled across the country from meeting to meeting."
Labour leader Ed Miliband and shadow chancellor Ed Balls sought to capitalise on the Government's difficulties by stopping off at a branch of high street bakery chain Greggs to buy sausage rolls during a visit to the Midlands.

[honeykid]

It's like living in a parallel world atm in Britain. Panic buying fuel when I strike isn't even close atm and the price of pasties dominating the news. :facepalm: I mean, the current lot are anything like heavyweight politicians, but this is even beneath them.

[Nausicaä]

^ Some woman is in hospital after burning herself with petrol here in Britain. Even though the silly person in Government started the panic buying mood, it's not his fault some silly woman decided to keep her petrol can in the kitchen and pour it out in the kitchen with a gas oven on in the same room...

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VpPpcLioN4o/T1DMpfmV7oI/AAAAAAAAaXw/uHCQSlBuEIE/s1600/garfield-well-duh.jpg

Horrible to be burnt, but common sense goes right out of the window with some people...

[will.15]

'The Simpsons' Duff beer to be made available in the UK

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/odd/s195/the-simpsons/news/a367596/the-simpsons-duff-beer-to-be-made-available-in-the-uk.html

George Washington chicken nugget draws bids of $350 on eBay

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/odd/news/a367677/george-washington-chicken-nugget-draws-bids-of-usd350-on-ebay.html
The nose is too long for wahington and chin too sharp. It looks more like alexander hamilton.

[honeykid]

Even though the silly person in Government started the panic buying mood...
Sorry, but this is incorrect and yet everyone seems to believe it. I guess if you hear something enough...

The papers started this panic (as they do a lot of things in this country) on Tuesday, with the Mail and Express front pages screaming PANIC! Wednesday was the same with The Mail, while The Express claim that panic buying has already started and The Mirror and The Sun both had pasty front pages, though The Mirror also mentioned panic buying on its front page.

I mention all that because all that took place before Francis Maude makes the Jerry can gaffe. Now, what he said was pretty stupid, moreso considering his audience, however it was his answer to a question about the fuel panic.

Despite all that, I've heard nothing all week about how it's the Government's fault or the Union's fault. No, it's the media's fault and, primarily, the tabloid press.

All this, two weeks before any strike would take place, if it does and most of the people who're panicing and causing havoc will probably have to fill up again before then anyway. I know I say I washed my hands of this country in 2005, but these idiots just know how to press my buttons. :mad:

I've now decided that this should be our new flag.

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01207/baa_1207449c.jpg

[Nausicaä]

Sorry, but this is incorrect and yet everyone seems to believe it. I guess if you hear something enough...



I haven't read much about it when it comes to the 'panic', so people are still blaming him for things like the above petrol woman burning, and he didn't even start the whole panic. :eek: Not very nice.

Sometimes, I'm glad I don't drive. Last time I looked, bicycles don't need petrol. :nope: Oh and I don't eat Pasties, so haven't followed what that's all about either.

[honeykid]

I haven't read much about it when it comes to the 'panic', so people are still blaming him for things like the above petrol woman burning, and he didn't even start the whole panic. :eek: Not very nice.
Pretty much. He didn't help matters and what he said added to it. It also didn't help that he's in trouble for what he said about the cash for access scandal of last weekend. He's actually more at fault in the case of this woman than he is the fuel panic.

It's mid-term (Galloway winning Bradford tells you that more than anything) so any and all Governments will get a bit of a kicking, but I think it's telling that even the traditional Tory press (and, less surprisingly, the Murdoch papers) have turned their backs on Cameron now. In short, it'll be their fault if we don't have a good summer. The only good thing for Cameron atm is Ed Milliband is Labour leader, making the Opposition completely inneffective.

Sometimes, I'm glad I don't drive. Last time I looked, bicycles don't need petrol. :nope: Oh and I don't eat Pasties, so haven't followed what that's all about either.
This truly is a non-story. We're used to non-stories dominating the news agenda a few times a years, but it's still annoying when it happens.

[Nausicaä]

Galloway winning Bradford tells you that more than anything


I was rather amused at this, considering he is most well known for this in Britain:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1NIuCt72bU

I can remember this, cringeworthy. I'm not that far from Bradford, yikes. :(

[honeykid]

The most affordable homes in the UK
House prices don’t mean much unless you take earnings into account too – and that’s just what a new study has done, revealing the most and least affordable cities in the UK.

The most affordable homes in the UK can be found in the North West, Northern Ireland and Yorkshire and the Humber, new figures reveal.

More than that, overall property is now more affordable than it has been since 2003, according to a study by Lloyds TSB.

The bank took a look at the average house prices in 59 cities across the UK and compared them with the average earnings in those areas to reach its results.

It found that Salford – home of the new BBC MediaCity after Auntie moved out of London – was the most affordable place to buy in the UK. Average house prices in the area are £102,391 – just 3.81 times the average Salford salary.

By contrast, Truro was found to be the least affordable city – with average house prices of £250,489 working out at 9.71 times average salaries in the Cornish city.

Overall, the average price for a property in a UK city was £173,202 – some 5.5 times average earnings in cities – the lowest this ratio has been since 2003.

"The improvement in housing affordability within many of our major urban conurbations has been significant during the past few years and reflects the decline in house prices over the period. There is, however, a distinct north-south divide to the locations of the most affordable UK cities,” said Lloyds TSB housing economist Suren Thiru.

We’ve rounded up the 10 most and least affordable cities below.

10 most affordable UK cities

City Region House prices/earnings
Salford North West 3.81
Londonderry Northern Ireland 3.87
Bradford Yorkshire and the Humber 3.98
Lancaster Northwest 4.00
Stirling Scotland 4.04
Belfast Northern Ireland 4.08
Durham North 4.08
Lisburn Northern Ireland 4.09
Hereford West Midlands 4.26
Birmingham West Midlands 4.43
UK cities average 5.51

10 least affordable UK cities

City Region House prices/earnings
Truro South West 9.71
Oxford South East 8.80
Winchester South East 8.76
Bath South West 8.14
Salisbury South West 7.51
Brighton & Hove South East 7.31
Exeter South West 7.26
Cambridge East Anglia 7.01
Southampton South East 6.84
Chichester South East 6.83

UK cities average 5.51
http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/salford-has-the-most-affordable-homes-in-the-uk.html

I can't be bothered to set out all the figures properly, but if you click the link the table will be much easier to read/understand.

[honeykid]

Why you won't see Jennifer Aniston on the cover of Vogue
Her face has launched a thousand magazines and sold even more, but Jennifer Aniston will not be appearing on the cover of Vogue in Britain any time soon.

Vogue's editor Alexandra Shulman has revealed that she refuses to put Aniston on the cover because of the actress's stringent demands over copy approval.

In an interview with the Observer Magazine, Shulman said: "Somebody like Jennifer Aniston will only do an interview with copy approval and picture approval. I've never had anybody on the cover, ever, who's had copy approval and picture approval. I just don't think it's a proper thing if you do."

The practice of demanding to read and amend an article and to choose which photos will be used before publication has become increasingly commonplace among celebrities anxious to protect their public image.

Shulman's stand is all the more surprising given that Aniston, who made her name in the 1990s sitcom Friends before starring in hit films including Marley & Me and Horrible Bosses, is one of the bestselling celebrities on the newsstands. When she appeared dressed in a tuxedo jacket on the front of Marie Claire in the US last July, the issue was their top seller of the year. In 2010, when Aniston was on the cover of Harper's Bazaar, sales went up 22%.

However, Shulman, 54, who has been editing British Vogue since 1990, said that she felt some PR people and celebrities now exerted too much influence.

She said: "It's this thing of people just basically treating you… as if you're bound to be doing something that is in some way going to be insulting to their client. I just find that so offensive."

In a wide-ranging interview, Shulman, whose first novel, Can We Still Be Friends, is published this month, also talked openly about her panic attacks – a recurring problem ever since she fell ill with glandular fever in her second year at Sussex University.

"When I first got them, I thought I was going to die," she said. "I literally thought I was dying. And then you've got this odd thing where half of your brain is going: 'This is a panic attack, it's fine, keep calm, it'll pass' and half of you is saying: 'I am going to die.' And it's so frightening that your body and your brain are out of sync with each other."

Shulman added: "I think if you have a susceptibility to it, it isn't something that you can eradicate completely so I'm sort of aware of a vulnerability to it."

Shulman was similarly candid when asked about her part in perpetuating a fashion culture where extreme thinness is equated with beauty.

She said: "I think it's one of the real blinkered aspects of the fashion industry, and I find it very frustrating and I don't know quite where it comes from but I think if I had to absolutely nail it, [it's] probably the designers, because they're the ones that are cutting the clothes so small. And if the girl can't fit into the clothes, then they won't get booked. So then you've got the model agent saying: 'You've got to lose weight.' And then, when it comes down the wire, the photographers – and to some extent the fashion editors – want to use the girls that they think are the cool girls, and the cool girls are the ones who have got to be working with the designers, so it kind of feeds itself."

In June 2009, Shulman wrote a letter to major international fashion houses including Karl Lagerfeld, John Galliano, Prada and Versace, complaining that their "minuscule" sample sizes were forcing fashion editors to use models with "jutting bones" and "no breasts or hips". But, three years on, she admitted that the letter did not have any great impact.

"I'm pleased I wrote it. Did it make any difference? I don't think so. But at least I tried to do something."

As a single mother – Shulman has a teenage son with her former husband, the US writer Paul Spike – she also had forthright views about maternity leave. "The reality is, if you take time out and have children, it does damage your trajectory in some way," she said. "You can't pretend it doesn't."

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media 2012
http://uk.lifestyle.yahoo.com/wont-jennifer-aniston-cover-vogue-003200206.html

[honeykid]

'Gay cure' bus adverts is banned
Adverts which suggested gay people could be cured have been banned from London buses, transport chiefs have said.

The campaign was due to run for two weeks on the side of vehicles serving five routes in the capital, including top tourist destinations such as St Paul's Cathedral, Oxford Street, Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus.

The posters, by Christian group Core Issues Trust, stated: "Not gay! Post-gay, ex-gay and proud. Get over it!" and were believed to mock pro-gay group Stonewall's recent campaign which featured adverts saying: "Some people are gay. Get over it."

But following a huge public outcry which labelled the Core Issues' campaign homophobic, London Mayor Boris Johnson, who chairs Transport for London (TfL), tonight ordered the adverts to be pulled.

Mr Johnson, who is standing for re-election next month, said: "London is one of the most tolerant cities in the world and intolerant of intolerance. It is clearly offensive to suggest being gay is an illness someone recovers from and I am not prepared to have that suggestion driven around London on our buses."

The doomed campaign, which was backed by Christian group Anglican Mainstream and cleared by industry regulator the Advertising Standards Authority, claimed therapy could change sexual orientation. It was due to run on London buses from Monday.

Core Issues' co-director Mike Davidson criticised the decision to axe the adverts, saying: "I didn't realise censorship was in place. We went through the correct channels and we were encouraged by the bus company to go through their procedures. They okayed it and now it has been pulled. I would be interested to know on what basis they have done that."

He added: "It is of deep concern that there can only be one point of view and that is the point of view of individuals who are determined to push through gay marriage and apparently believe that homosexuality cannot be altered in any possible way. That is not a universally held view. This is a disturbing development and it is disappointing the UK finds itself in this position."

But Stonewall spokesman Andy Wasley welcomed the move, saying: "We are delighted by TfL's clear commitment to diversity. It is fantastic that no adverts will be promoting voodoo, gay-cure therapy in London."

A TfL spokeswoman said: "The adverts are not currently running on any London buses and they will not do so. This advertisement has just been brought to our attention by our advertising agency, CBSO, and we have decided that it should not run on London's bus or transport networks. We do not believe these specific ads are consistent with TfL's commitment to a tolerant and inclusive London."

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/gay-cure-bus-advert-banned-174625264.html;_ylt=AtUqmEgopTOeeltN6UEVdPDFfMl_;_ylu=X3oDMTNubG9rajd0BG1pdANUb3BTdG9yeSBVS1NGBHBrZw NjN2YzZDFkOC1lY2YyLTM5NWUtYmRhNy1hMWExZmYyNDlkZGUEcG9zAzMEc2VjA3RvcF9zdG9yeQR2ZXIDYWEwMzZkM2UtODRkNC 0xMWUxLThiN2EtZDdlMjMwMzBjODRk;_ylg=X3oDMTFtOG01NnQ5BGludGwDZ2IEbGFuZwNlbi1nYgRwc3RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdAN1 awRwdANzZWN0aW9ucwR0ZXN0Aw--;_ylv=3

Mel Gibson ‘hates jews’ says screenwriter
Mel Gibson has been accused by screenwriter Joe Eszterhas of sabotaging his new historical epic ‘The Maccabees’ because he “hates jews”.

The shock comments were part of an angry nine-page letter from the writer, who was working on a draft of Gibson’s film about the 2nd Century Jewish revolt.

The film tells the story of the Jewish warrior Judah Maccabee, who defeated the Selucid Empire and is acclaimed as one of the greatest warriors in Jewish history. The film was dubbed by some as ‘the Jewish ‘Braveheart’’.

However, the project has now been shelved by studio Warner Bros., and Eszterhas suggests Gibson’s own ‘prejudices’ scuppered the film.

The letter, sent to The Wrap, suggests Gibson took on the film "to deflect continuing charges of anti-Semitism which have dogged you, charges which have crippled your career". He accused Gibson of using anti-Semitic slurs while they worked together and saying that the Holocaust was "mostly a lot of horses***".

Eszterhas, who wrote 'Basic Instinct' and 'Showgirls', added that Gibson also intended "to convert the Jews to Christianity" with the film.

He added that he is “worried” about Gibson because “there are as many guns around your house as crucifixes” and paints a picture of a man who is sometimes dangerously out of control.

It didn’t take Gibson long to furiously respond via rival blog Deadline. He accused Eszterhas of sour grapes after turning in an awful script, saying: "In 25 years of script development I have never seen a more substandard first draft or a more significant waste of time."

He added that “the great majority of the facts as well as the statements and actions attributed to me in your letter are utter fabrications” and asks why Eszterhas didn’t quit the project if he found Gibson such an unpalatable character.

He admits to losing his temper with Eszterhas, but only because he hadn’t started the script after “fifteen months” of research.

He ends: “I think that we can agree that this should be our last communication.”

Still, at least the Jewish community will be pleased to see Gibson's project stall. Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, told The Wrap:

"Jewish history will be better off without Mel Gibson playing Judah Maccabee."
http://uk.movies.yahoo.com/mel-gibson-%E2%80%98hates-jews%E2%80%99-says-screenwriter-.html

JK Rowling's first adult novel will be "blackly comic"
NEW YORK (Reuters) - J.K. Rowling's first book for adults will be a "blackly comic" novel set in an idyllic English town where all is not what it seems, its publisher said on Thursday.

The title of the closely guarded 480-page novel by the prolific "Harry Potter" author will be "The Casual Vacancy." It and will be available worldwide in English on September 27 in hardback, e-book and in audio form, Little, Brown and Company said in a statement.

The publisher promised it will be "blackly comic, thought-provoking and constantly surprising," and offered some general plot details.

Rowling's foray into the adult fiction world begins when a character called Barry Fairweather dies unexpectedly, leaving a town called Pagford in shock, before readers will realize that behind Pagford's facade is a town at war, according to the publisher.

"Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupil ... Pagford is not what it first seems," said the statement.

"And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?"

When the novel was first announced in February, Rowling, 46 said the successful "Harry Potter" series had given her the "the freedom to explore new territory." The seven-book series sold 450 million copies worldwide and resulted in eight top-grossing movies.

"The Casual Vacancy" is the British writer's first novel directly aimed at the adult market.

(Reporting by Christine Kearney; editing by Patricia Reaney)

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/jk-rowlings-first-adult-novel-blackly-comic-154759873.html

Sabrina The Teenage Witch to get movie remake
Archie Comics character ‘Sabrina The Teenage Witch’, most famous for the popular live-action sitcom starring Melissa Joan Hart, is heading to the big screen via Sony Pictures.

Deadline reports that it will be an origin story 'in the vein of Spider-Man', because it features a teenager coming to terms with extraordinary powers. Once again it will be in live-action but expect it to be 'edgier' than the TV series.

Salem - Sabrina’s talking black cat - will stick around, and Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari will write the script.

Mark Waters presented the idea to Sony, and may stay on to direct. Producers include Archie Comic’s Jon Goldwater, Jeff Stockwell, Don Murphy and Susan Montford.

But who will play the teenage witch? They’re reportedly looking for a lesser-known actress, and selling the film on the popularity of ‘Sabrina The Teenage Witch’ as a brand.

Former Teen star Melissa Joan Hart has appeared on ‘Dancing With the Stars’ and in TV movies since the sitcom finished.
http://uk.movies.yahoo.com/sabrina-the-teenage-witch-to-get-movie-remake.html

[honeykid]

Bollywood actress Meenakshi Thapar ‘beheaded by jealous rivals’
A young Bollywood star, Meenakshi Thapar, has allegedly been kidnapped and beheaded by two fellow actors.

The 26-year-old actress met Amit Jaiswal and his lover Preeti Surin on the set of her latest film, 'Heroine', The Daily Telegraph reports.

It was there that Jaiswal and Surin heard of her family's wealth, and allegedly hatched a plot to kidnap her.

The duo are said to have invited Thapar to a small town on the Nepalese border, where they took her hostage and demanded 1.5 million Rupees (£18,000) from her parents, and threatened to force her into pornography if they were not paid.

Although Thapar's parents are thought to have transferred some money to their daughter's captors, the young star was killed soon after.

A detective working on the case told The Telegraph some of the harrowing details:

"She was strangulated in a hotel and her body was hacked into pieces and thrown in a water tank. They threw her head from a moving bus while travelling back to Mumbai.”

The case is ongoing.
http://uk.movies.yahoo.com/bollywood-actress-beheaded-by-jealous-rivals.html

£5k sandcastle destroyed over safety fears
A sandcastle that was built to mark 100 days until the start of the Olympics, had to be demolished within hours of being built because of health and safety fears.

The castle on Weymouth beach took four days to build and cost £5,000, but once photographs were taken for publicity purposes, it was destroyed by a mechanical digger.

Olympic organisers Locog paid for the structure, but feared that it could topple onto somebody and injure them.

They also considered fencing in the sandcastle, but that would have required the employment of security guards to make sure nobody tried to get too close to it.

Instead, Weymouth and Portland borough council, who will host the sailing event at the Games, said that the motivation for building the castle was simply to gain an 'iconic photo image.'

"Images of the sandcastle have generated media interest across the globe and have helped to secure significant coverage for Weymouth and Portland and Dorset," a spokesperson said.

"Paid for by Locog, the image has secured tourism coverage valued way in excess of the cost of building the sandcastle and staging the photo shoot."

Simon Williams, head of the Weymouth and Portland 2012 operations team for Weymouth and Portland Borough Council, added: "It was an organisational decision. We took it down because it was constructed in a special way and we couldn't have just left it there in case it fell on a young child. We would have been criticised if that had been the case."

The designer of the castle, Mark Anderson, said he was aware his structure would be swiftly removed: "Demolishing it was all part of the plan because there would have been health and safety issues.

"People could have injured themselves on the council's land so there would be no way we could leave something like that."

However, some local businessmen admitted they were a bit miffed by the decision.

"It reminds me a bit like the programme Twenty Twelve, except this hasn't been made up," Craig Willis, owner of the Wilton Guest House in Weymouth said.

"It sounds like health and safety has gone a bit over the top but I suppose they have their reasons for demolishing it."

Georgie Rushforth, of the Lodmoor Premier Inn, said: "I thought the sandcastle was a good idea, I don't really understand why it was demolished. It's a bit overdramatic and I think health and safety has gone overboard."
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/londonspy/5k-sandcastle-destroyed-over-safety-fears-103629122.html

Matilda star Mara Wilson reveals why she quit acting
Mara Wilson has taken to her blog to explain why the 'Matilda' actress quit acting.

In a recent post titled ‘Are you still acting?!’, the former child actress, who won plaudits for her performance in 'Matilda', branded the celebrity culture around films as “ridiculous” and the auditioning process as “brutal and dehumanising”.

Having starred in huge hits from the Nineties such as 'Mrs Doubtfire', 'Matilda' and 'Miracle On 34th Street', Wilson also took a swipe at Hollywood's preoccupation with looks whilst downplaying her own ability.

“I think that there are many much more talented, much more conventionally attractive actresses out there who are taking the roles I would have been offered. To paraphrase the showtune, anything I can do, Anna Kendrick or Ellen Page or Jennifer Lawrence (or any actress from the plethora of actresses waiting to be “discovered”) can do better.”

Wilson says she still gets recognised as the seven-year-old from 'Matilda', even though she is now a 24-year-old playwright who recently attended New York University to study art.

“I get messages on my Facebook and Twitter nearly every day from people telling me that I was in their favourite movie. Matilda has been name-checked by librarians and feminist bloggers-alike, and I’m flattered, though the compliment does not seem to be mine to receive”

“Here is something no real celebrity will ever tell you: film acting is not very fun. Doing the same thing over and over again until, in the director’s eyes, you “get it right,” does not allow for very much creative freedom.

“There is a saying amongst actors, said by Stella Adler or Uta Hagen or some other guru of the dramatic arts, ‘If you can live without [acting], you should.’ I have found that I can live without it.”
http://uk.movies.yahoo.com/matilda-star-mara-wilson-reveals-why-she-quit-acting.html

[honeykid]

Landlord sues over haunting claims
TOMS RIVER, N.J. (UPI) -- A New Jersey landlord is suing former tenants who fled the home in the middle of the night after only one week, claiming the residence is haunted.

Richard Lopez, an orthodontist and landlord, filed a state Superior Court lawsuit against Josue Chinchilla and Michele Callan, who left the Toms River home March 10 after living there a week with Callan's teenage daughter and 6-year-old son, the Asbury Park (N.J.) Press reported Friday.

Lopez's lawsuit alleges the couple diminished his ability to rent or sell the house when they told the Asbury Park Press about their experiences in the home. The couple said doors would creak and slam in unoccupied parts of the house and clothing and other items would be found in places other than where they were left.

They said they finally fled the home after Chinchilla felt an invisible hand on his arm and Callan saw a dark apparition in their bedroom.

Lopez is seeking $15,000 in damages.

Chinchilla and Callan previously filed a lawsuit against Lopez, alleging the landlord initially agreed to return their $2,250 security deposit and let them out of their one-year lease before changing his mind.

Copyright 2012 by United Press International

Man dies after bullet in head for 94 years
TURLOCK, Calif. (UPI) -- A California man who lived for 94 years and six months with a bullet in his head has died at the age of 103.

William Lawlis Pace, who was certified as a Guinness World Record holder in 2006 when he had lived for 89 years with the bullet in his head, died Monday at the Covenant Village retirement home in Turlock, The Modesto Bee reported Friday.

Pace said in 2006 the bullet entered his skull when he was accidentally shot by his brother, Marvin, in October 1917. He said doctors decided surgery would be too risky and left the bullet in place.

Guinness said Pace, who is survived by two sons, had a final record of 94 years and six months with the bullet in his head.

Copyright 2012 by United Press International

More than 100 turn out for dog wedding
PALM DESERT, Calif. (UPI) -- More than 100 people turned up at a California country club to witness the unusual wedding of a pair of small and furry lovers -- two dogs.

Ernie Rubin's dog, Scruffy, donned a custom couture dress, leash and veil made by Jan Farber for the canine wedding Sunday at the Palm Desert Resort Country Club; while Ann Carter dressed her dog, Snickers, in a doggie tuxedo designed by Spoiled Dog Design, The (Palm Sprigs, Calif.) Desert Sun reported Wednesday.

The wedding came complete with a cake, open bar and a reception following the ceremony.

Rubin and Carter, who used the ceremony to collect donations for the Orphan Pet Oasis Humane Society of the Desert in North Palm Springs, said they originally planned a small wedding, but the event grew as more and more people asked to attend.

"The whole thing just took on a life of its own and kept growing and growing," Rubin said. But that was OK because the donations we collected for the shelter were just amazing.

Copyright 2012 by United Press International

Troopers suspended over high-speed caravan
TRENTON, N.J. (UPI) -- A pair of New Jersey state troopers have been suspended after allegedly providing escort to a caravan of 30 exotic cars traveling in excess of 110 mph.

Officials said Sgt. 1st Class Nadir Nassry, 47, of Phillipsburg, and Trooper Joseph Ventrella, 28, of Bloomingdale, have been suspended. They are alleged to have been involved in escorting former New York Giant Brandon Jacobs and 29 other drivers of exotic vehicles, including at least two Lamborghinis, on three major expressways en route to Atlantic City, The (Newark, N.J.) Star-Ledger reported Tuesday.

Witnesses said the March 30 convoy traveled at speeds of more than 110 mph and some of the vehicles weaved dangerously around other cars traveling at normal speeds on the roads.

"We will not tolerate any conduct by a member of the State Police that puts the public in jeopardy, as this unauthorized caravan had the potential to do," New Jersey Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa said in a statement. He said those responsible will face serious discipline.

Copyright 2012 by United Press International

Man complains flight attendant woke him
INDIANAPOLIS (UPI) -- An Arizona man filed a complaint with police saying a flight attendant "rudely" woke him up by tapping his knee with a magazine.

Kevin Johnson, 37, told Indianapolis Airport police he was sleeping on a chartered Million Air flight as it taxied to the gate Sunday morning, when the flight attendant struck him on the knee to wake him up, The Indianapolis Star reported Monday.

Johnson said he was "rudely interrupted" by the flight attendant, whom he could not identify.

Officer Ricky Seconds wrote in the police report that Johnson "had no physical signs of injury, no complaint of pain and no paralysis from the magazine."

Copyright 2012 by United Press International

Neighbors want parking ban to stop sex
NEW YORK (UPI) -- Residents of a New York neighborhood say they want to ban street parking on weekend nights to prevent people from having sex in parked cars.

The residents along West 30th Street between Seventh and Eighth avenues in Midtown said patrons of nearby clubs Rebel NYC and The Parlour Midtown have been having sex in the backseats of their cars while parked on their block, the New York Post reported Monday.

The group won the support of Community Board 5, which is now lobbying the city to enforce a ban on street parking in the area on weekend nights.

"There's all kinds of problematic activity going on, like noise, violence, sexual activity and drug use," said Raju Mann, head of Community Board 5's Transportation Committee.

A spokesman for the city said the request is being reviewed by the city Department of Transportation.

Copyright 2012 by United Press International

[honeykid]

Experts recommend a ‘love pill’ to save marriages
Forget Viagra, the next relationship-saving drug that promises to up your libido and keep you in love ‘could soon be a reality’

‘Love pills’ could soon be available to help couples stay together, according to researchers at Oxford University.

With the divorce rate higher than it’s been since 2003 and a third of marriages ending within 15 years of the wedding day, it seems we really do need help to stay together.

The research was published in a study investigating how our brain chemistry affects our relationships. Researchers Julian Savulescu and Anders Sandberg believe that a pill containing chemical blockers and enhancers that work with our body chemistry could be the key to longer-lasting relationships and more loved-up couples.

The pill would potentially contain ‘cuddle chemicals’ oxytocin and vasopressom, hormones that are naturally occurring in high levels at the beginning of a relationship; pheromones, which trigger attraction and emotional response and testosterone to boost libido and increase sexual desire. CRH (corticotrophin-releasing hormone) would deepen the bond between two people by creating a fear of separation. Finally, entactogens, found in drugs MDMA and ecstacy would, in lower doses, improve connection and sociability by creating a feeling of openness and desire for closeness.

So forget about marriage counselling, the survival of our future relationships could be as simple as popping a pill. But is that a step too far?
http://uk.lifestyle.yahoo.com/love-pill-save-marraiges-relationships-couples.html

[honeykid]

What moms really want for Mother's Day
SAN FRANCISCO (UPI) -- Seventy-five percent of U.S. mothers say they would prefer a handmade card over a necklace from Tiffany & Co., a survey indicates.

Plum District, which provides locally relevant offers targeted for mothers, surveyed its 1 million members to find out what they want for Mother's Day.

The survey, which involved 19,256 of its members during March, indicated two-thirds would prefer to not pick out their own gift and 54 percent would choose to spend quality time with their own mother.

However, what mothers really want is some sleep. Eight-of-10 mothers said they would choose to sleep in versus a sunrise breakfast with the kids.

One-third of moms said they secretly want the day to themselves, while 52 percent would use an hour to themselves for a massage, while the other 48 percent would go on a bike ride.

"Some of the things we discovered in our survey were pretty surprising to us, like the fact that only 56 percent of husbands/significant others always remember Mother's Day," Megan Gardner, chief executive officers of Plum District (plumdistrict.com), said in a statement. What didn't surprise us is that at the end of the day, moms might crave some 'me' time, but their families will always rank first.

No margin of error was provided.

Copyright 2012 by United Press International

Suit: Motorcycle causes 2-year erection
SAN FRANCISCO (UPI) -- A San Francisco man's lawsuit against BMW alleges he has had an erection for two years as a result of riding on a motorcycle made by the company.

Henry Wolf, who named BMW North America and Corbin-Pacific Inc. last week as the defendants in his San Francisco Superior Court lawsuit, alleges the "rigid seat" of his 1993 BMW motorcycle caused him to suffer a priapism -- a long-lasting erection -- May 1, 2010, and he has been suffering from the condition ever since, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Tuesday.

Attorney Vernon Bradley said Wolf "has been experiencing continuing problems since his motorcycle ride."

"He is now unable to engage in sexual activity, which is causing him substantial emotional and mental anguish," Bradley wrote in the lawsuit.

The suit alleges Wolf suffered wage loss, hospital expenses, general damage and emotional distress as a result of his condition.

Copyright 2012 by United Press International

'Cash mob' helps struggling Pa. store
NEWTOWN, Pa. (UPI) -- An Internet-organized "cash mob" of about 100 people visited a 143-year-old Pennsylvania store to give a boost to the struggling business, its owner said.

About 100 residents of the Newtown area arrived Saturday at the Newtown Hardware House and each purchased multiple items to help the store remain afloat despite its recent cash-flow problems, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported Monday.

The store opened in 1869, was rebuilt in 1899 after a fire and has been owned by Dave Callahan for the past 27 years,

Andy Smith, a local publicist, said he was inspired to organize the "cash mob" on Facebook after hearing about similar events in other parts of the country.

"I've seen them popping up around the country for the past year or so," Smith said. I knew [the store's employees] were holding a campaign to increase business. So I figured it will take 10 minutes for a Facebook thing and we'll see what happens.

Callahan said the group helped him make $3,700, far more than the $2,000 he usually brings in on a Saturday.

Copyright 2012 by United Press International

'Dirty Cowboy' book pulled from schools
ANNVILLE, Pa. (UPI) -- A Pennsylvania couple convinced a local school board to pull award-winning children's book "The Dirty Cowboy" from school libraries, officials said.

The parents went before the Annville-Cleona School Board with their objections to the book and the board voted 8-0 to remove it from district libraries, the Harrisburg (Pa.) Patriot reported Monday.

The book follows the story of a "dirty" cowboy who takes a bath and his dog then refuses to return his clothes to him because he doesn't recognize the cowboy's scent. The couple objected to the book's depiction of the nude cowboy, whose private parts are covered by various objects in the book's illustrations.

Superintendent Steven Houser told the Lebanon (Pa.) Daily News the parents "were asked what do you feel might be the result of viewing or reading this material, and their answer was, 'Children may come to the conclusion that looking at nudity is OK and therefore pornography is OK.'"

Amy Timberlake, author of "The Dirty Cowboy," wrote on her blog that she was disappointed by the decision.

"To be clear, this fight is not about 'The Dirty Cowboy' ... This fight is about libraries providing access to all sorts of books [the ones we like and the ones we don't], for all sorts of people. None of us want a vehement few choosing the books we get to read," she wrote.

Copyright 2012 by United Press International

[honeykid]

Mexican police find 49 mutilated bodies
Mexican police said Sunday they had found the dumped and decapitated bodies of 49 people, probably killed in drug violence, whose hands had been cut off to prevent fingerprint identification.

The mutilated corpses were discovered in black plastic bags close to the northern city of Monterrey, 180 kilometers (110 miles) from the US border.

Jorge Domene, a public safety spokesman for the state of Nuevo Leon, said the victims comprised 43 men and six women and the bodies had been split into their four limbs and stacked up at the roadside.

The find came just days after police discovered the dismembered, decapitated bodies of 18 people in two abandoned vehicles in western Mexico, in what appeared to be a revenge killing involving powerful drug gangs.

Just a few days earlier, there were 23 killings in the city of Nuevo Laredo, in Tamaulipas state which borders the United States, comprising nine people found hanging from a bridge and 14 others that had been decapitated.

Adrian de la Garza, a prosecutor in Nuevo Leon state, said some of the bodies in Sunday's shocking find were naked and the hands had been cut off, though forensic experts were collecting DNA samples.

A note was found at the scene in which the Zetas -- a gang set up by ex-commandos that deserted in the 1990s -- claimed responsibility.

Initial investigations indicate that the victims were killed up to 48 hours ago in a different location, having likely been transported by truck to where they were found.

Suspected drug gang violence has risen across the country this month, with scores of deaths attributed to massacres and clashes with security forces.

Authorities have blamed much of the deadly violence on battles between the Zetas and groups allied to the Sinaloa Federation of Mexico's most wanted drug lord, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

The state of Veracruz has become a battleground between the Zetas and Guzman's Sinaloa grouping, and journalists have also been targeted.

Last week, the dismembered bodies of three photographers and a news company employee were found, wrapped in plastic bags, in a canal in the metropolitan area of Veracruz, a port city on the Gulf of Mexico.

Several days earlier the Veracruz state correspondent of the national weekly news magazine Proceso was found strangled in her home.

More than 50,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence since President Felipe Calderon launched an all-out war against the nation's drug gangs on taking office in December 2006.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/37-bodies-dumped-mexico-highway-officials-135904939.html

[honeykid]

Terminator 3 star Nick Stahl still missing

The Los Angeles Police Department has confirmed that Nick Stahl - who played John Connor in ‘Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines’ - is still missing.

His wife, Roseann Stahl, said her estranged husband was last seen in downtown Los Angeles on May 9. She reported him missing on Monday.

The actor – who played John Connor in the ‘Terminator’ sequel and also had roles in ‘Sin City’ and ‘The Thin Red Line’ – was involved in a custody battle with Roseann over their 2-year-old daughter Marlo.

In February his wife filed court documents requesting Stahl be denied unsupervised visits with their daughter because she feared he was using drugs, and that his visits were limited to just 8 hours a week.

Stahl, 32, was also in trouble with police in March for failing to pay an $84 taxi fare.

Sources told gossip site TMZ that the actor had recently been seen in Los Angeles’ Skid Row’ district, which is known for its homelessness and drugs.

Stahl took over from Edward Furlong to play freedom fighter John Connor in ‘Terminator 3’. The film received mixed reviews but made more than £270 million worldwide. Bizarrely, Furlong also had his own well-documented battle with drink and drugs. He’s been arrested several times, most recently in 2011 for violating probation.

Stahl has also appeared in HBO series ‘Carnivale’, Oscar-nominated drama flick ‘In The Bedroom’ and crime show ‘Law & Order: Special Victims Unit’.
http://uk.movies.yahoo.com/terminator-3-star-nick-stahl-still-missing.html

When worlds collide: Stunning picture of 'star wars' in Centauras A
Blink and you might miss it - this incredible image of Centauras A, the closest ‘radio galaxy’ to Earth, shows one system that lies within it ingesting another.

http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/fQn1QspSXY7Icbki1Rhv3w--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTYzMA--/http://l.yimg.com/os/251/2012/05/16/Centaurus-jpg_121839.jpg

Experts now think Centaurus A was formed by a merger between two separate galaxies – and this new image goes a long way to backing that theory, it is claimed. The dusty band at the centre of the newly-released image is thought to be the mangled remains of a spiral galaxy being ripped apart by a giant elliptical galaxy.

And the phenomenon is set to be a feature of our skies for a while yet as it will take another couple of hundred million years for the stricken system to fully disappear.

Centaurus A, which lies around 12 million light-years away from Earth, has a central black hole with a mass of about 100 million times that of the Sun. Astronomers believe that this vast black hole produces the system’s abnormally strong radio frequencies, as well as its bright nucleus and jet features.

The European Southern Observatory’s telescope in Chile captured the galaxy with an exposure time of more than 50 hours. The images reveal stunning details of the distant system which has been extensively studied.

“It is of interest because it is the closest radio galaxy to us, which makes it the easiest to study,” European Southern Observatory spokesman Richard Hook told Yahoo! News. “It has got this strange band of dust around the centre which is one galaxy getting sucked into another.

“This image has a very long exposure which means it shows very faint structure,” he added. “It is one of the best pictures which have been taken of the system”.

Centaurus A is so called because it was the first major source of radio waves discovered in the constellation of Centaurus back in the 1950s. It was first documented by British astronomer James Dunlop at the Parramatta observatory in Australia on 4 August 1826.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/-when-worlds-collide--stunning-picture-of-star-wars-in-centauras-a.html

Sugar can make you dumb, US scientists warn
Eating too much sugar can eat away at your brainpower, according to US scientists who published a study Tuesday showing how a steady diet of high-fructose corn syrup sapped lab rats' memories.

Researchers at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) fed two groups of rats a solution containing high-fructose corn syrup -- a common ingredient in processed foods -- as drinking water for six weeks.

One group of rats was supplemented with brain-boosting omega-3 fatty acids in the form of flaxseed oil and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), while the other group was not.

Before the sugar drinks began, the rats were enrolled in a five-day training session in a complicated maze. After six weeks on the sweet solution, the rats were then placed back in the maze to see how they fared.

"The DHA-deprived animals were slower, and their brains showed a decline in synaptic activity," said Fernando Gomez-Pinilla, a professor of neurosurgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

"Their brain cells had trouble signaling each other, disrupting the rats' ability to think clearly and recall the route they'd learned six weeks earlier."

A closer look at the rat brains revealed that those who were not fed DHA supplements had also developed signs of resistance to insulin, a hormone that controls blood sugar and regulates brain function.

"Because insulin can penetrate the blood-brain barrier, the hormone may signal neurons to trigger reactions that disrupt learning and cause memory loss," Gomez-Pinilla said.

In other words, eating too much fructose could interfere with insulin's ability to regulate how cells use and store sugar, which is necessary for processing thoughts and emotions.

"Insulin is important in the body for controlling blood sugar, but it may play a different role in the brain, where insulin appears to disturb memory and learning," Gomez-Pinilla said.

"Our study shows that a high-fructose diet harms the brain as well as the body. This is something new."

High-fructose corn syrup is commonly found in soda, condiments, applesauce, baby food and other processed snacks.

The average American consumes more than 40 pounds (18 kilograms) of high-fructose corn syrup per year, according to the US Department of Agriculture.

While the study did not say what the equivalent might be for a human to consume as much high-fructose corn syrup as the rats did, researchers said it provides some evidence that metabolic syndrome can affect the mind as well as the body.

"Our findings illustrate that what you eat affects how you think," said Gomez-Pinilla.

"Eating a high-fructose diet over the long term alters your brain's ability to learn and remember information. But adding omega-3 fatty acids to your meals can help minimize the damage."

The study appeared in the Journal of Physiology.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/sugar-dumb-us-scientists-warn-180918749.html

[will.15]

Rep was for sugar makes you dumb.

[will.15]

By Chris Francescani

May 21 (Reuters) - A New Jersey woman said on Monday that she was dismissed from a temporary job at a New York lingerie warehouse because her male employers felt she was too busty and dressed too provocatively for the workplace.

Wearing a form-fitting sequined black dress and black leather, sequin-studded boots, Lauren Odes, 29, said her Orthodox Jewish employers at Native Intimates told her that outfit and others like it were "too hot" for the warehouse.

"We should not be judged by the size of our breasts or the shape of our body," Odes said.

Odes's attorney, celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred, said she filed a gender and religious discrimination complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in New York.

Odes said she felt her wardrobe was appropriate for a business that sells "thongs with hearts placed in the female genital area and boy shorts for women that say 'hot' in the buttocks area."

Media photographers climbed on chairs and crashed into each other as Odes held a pose and Allred held up a series of purple, black and brown outfits she said also led to the woman's dismissal.

Odes said that on successive days during her week-long employment in late April she was warned that her attire was too alluring, that her breasts should be taped down to make them look smaller, and that she was asked to wear a red bathrobe to cover one outfit.

"This whole experience has been horrifying to me," she told reporters. "I love fashion and I always will, but I don't believe any woman should be treated as I was."

Odes, whose said her duties included data entry and coordinating the shipping of samples to customers, said she eventually agreed to purchase a sweater to wear over her dress, but was dismissed anyway.

"I understand that there are Orthodox Jewish men who may have their views about how a woman should dress ... but I do not feel that any employer has the right to impose their religious beliefs on me," she said.

An employee at the company had no immediate comment on Odes' claims.

(Reporting By Chris Francescani; Editing by Philip Barbara)

[Gabriella Lynn]

More like "*horifying"

[honeykid]

She should've worn one of these.

http://cdn.abovethelaw.com/uploads/2012/05/got_cleavage_tshirt-e1337700052429.jpg

And in other news.

Fury Over UK Auction Of 'Ronald Reagan's Blood'
The charitable foundation of late US president Ronald Reagan has condemned a British auction house for selling a vial that purportedly contains his blood.

Bids above £6,000 have been made for the specimen vial and supporting documentation, apparently from the hospital where the then president was treated after a 1981 assassination attempt.

"If indeed this story is true, it's a craven act and we will use every legal means to stop its sale or purchase," Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation executive director John Heubusch said in a statement.

The macabre memorabilia has been promoted on the Bristol-based website of Paul Fraser Collectibles and conducted by its Guernsey associate, PFC Auctions .

Both websites are registered to Paul Fraser in the Channel Isles.

The auction for the green-capped vial and letter from Bio-Science Laboratories is due to run until May 24.

PFC Auctions said the vial of dried residue was taken at George Washington University Hospital on March 30, 1981, after Mr Reagan was shot by John Hinckley Jr.

The provenance letter explained that the seller's late mother had worked at the medical lab where the presidential blood was examined.

The auction website showed a picture of the blood-filled vial with a typed label stuck to it showing the president's name.

Mr Reagan suffered a punctured lung and internal bleeding when he was shot by Hinckley outside the Washington Hilton Hotel.

Three other officials were shot but Hinckley was later found not guilty of 13 charges by reason of insanity.

Mr Heubusch said the presidential foundation had spoken to the hospital where Mr Reagan was treated and assured an investigation was under way into "how something like this could possibly happen".

But according to the seller's provenance letter, attempts were made to discuss the item with the Reagan representatives.

The seller said in the letter: "I said am I in any kind of trouble or will there be some black cars/SUVs or helicopters hovering above my home?"

"He called back in 25 minutes and said that everything was ok, National Archives was not interested in what I had, nor was the Secret Service , the FBI and other agencies."

PFC Auctions told Sky News Online: "We have not had any contact from The Reagan Foundation.

"The letter of provenance states that the original owner of the vial contacted the Reagan National Library - run by the foundation - and was told that they would accept the item as a donation, but that they would not pay for it."

The seller explained in the letter: "I told him that I didn't think that was something that I was going to consider, since I had served under President Reagan when he was my Commander in Chief when I was in the army from '87-'91.

"And that I was a real fan of Reaganomics and felt that Pres Reagan himself would rather see me sell it rather than donating it."
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/fury-over-uk-auction-ronald-reagans-blood-092109813.html

[honeykid]

Male contraceptive pill a step closer
Scientists are hopeful that a male contraceptive pill could soon be on its way, after trials in mice identified a gene essential to sperm production.

[Related story: Can the pill fail?]


The gene, called Katnal1, is important at the end of the sperm-creating process and scientists believe blocking it could induce temporary infertility. The breakthrough came when a team of researchers at the Centre for Reproductive Health at the University of Edinburgh were conducting investigations into male infertility.

Crucially, blocking the gene would be a temporary measure and, as the pill would potentially be non-hormonal, there should be few side effects.

It’s not the first attempt made at a male contraceptive pill but options for men currently remain limited to condoms or a vasectomy. Experts have called a non-hormonal contraceptive pill for men the ‘Holy Grail’.

"The key in developing a non-hormonal contraceptive for men is that the molecular target needs to be very specific for either sperm or other cells in the testicle which are involved in sperm production,” said Dr Allan Pacey, senior lecturer in andrology at the University of Sheffield.

"If they are not, then such a contraceptive could have unwanted side effects on other cells and tissues in the body and may even be dangerous.

"The gene described by the research group in Edinburgh sounds like an exciting new possible target for a new male contraceptive, but it may also shed light on why some men are sub-fertile and why their sperm does not work properly."
http://uk.lifestyle.yahoo.com/male-contraceptive-pill-men.html

[honeykid]

Lesotho star axed for seeking pay rise from £7.50
Motlalepula Mofolo has been dropped from the Lesotho national team after leading a protest against their allowances, according to reports in Africa.

Mofolo, 25, wanted an increase in their wages for their World Cup qualifying tie against Ghana from 100 loti (£7.50) to 4000 loti (around £303). The average GDP per capita in the southern African country is just £826.

But after a strained meeting with their board, Mofolo found himself dropped for what Lesotho FA public relations officer Baba Malephane described as "disciplinary problems".

"Yes it is true that we had a meeting with the players over an allowance dispute," Malephane told the Lesotho Times.

"We reached an agreement with them and they understood what we put on the table."

An unnamed player told the paper that a heated encounter had taken until the small hours of the morning, and the players were not satisfied with the outcome.

"The players were just too angry to listen to their coaches and the president had to step in and lead the way forward," said the source.

"As much as we were asking for a small amount of money, they should be able to manage it without blinking but that proposal was turned down and we were given an ultimatum that either we stay or we go home," said one of the players. "We feel we were not treated right."

England players, by contrast, earn several thousand pounds for every appearance they make at international level in addition to the wages they are paid by their clubs. They do, however, donate those fees to a selection of charities.

To add further farce to the Lesotho team's preparations for the World Cup qualifier against the eventual 2010 quarter-finalists, the squad were stranded in Johannesburg for two days having not secured the necessary visas to travel to Ghana.

Lesotho's Consul General to South Africa, Tumisang Mokoai, expressed his dismay with the Lesotho Football Association, having secured the team somewhere to stay while the visas were resolved.

"I am disappointed at the association, especially the president, since his office is directly responsible for the team," Mokoai said.

"LFA has previous experience of such trips, and they knew the team needed visas to get to Ghana. The team had to get off the plane upon discovery that they did not have any.

"When such things happen, it is the country's image that suffers, including the resources that are wasted in the process.

"It would be a miracle if the team comes back with any meaningful result from Ghana."

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/world-of-sport/lesotho-star-axed-seeking-pay-rise-7-50-131723509.html?nc

[honeykid]

Happy Birthday! You are more likely to die today
Analysing more than 2.4 million deaths over a 40-year period, researchers from the University of Zurich concluded that we are 14 per cent more likely to make like William Shakespeare and die on an anniversary of our birth.

That risk increases with age, with people over 60 18 per cent more likely die on their birthday.

Researchers put the spike down to an increased risk of dying from cardiovascular disease [18.6 per cent], while you are also 21.5 per cent more likely to suffer a stroke. Figures revealed that there was also a 10.8 per cent rise in deaths among people with cancer. Statistically there was also a 34.9 per cent rise in suicides amongst men.

Those planning to celebrate their big day in style may want to think twice as there was a 44 per cent rise in deaths from falls, added to a 28.5 per cent increase in accidental deaths.

Academics concluded that stress surrounding birthdays was also a determining factor as the “anniversary reaction” [more commonly known as the “birthday blues”] hits home.

“[The study] is a great example of the value of super-large amounts of human data,” University of Roehampton environmental physiology lecturer Dr Lewis Halsey told the Independent. “Only with national-level statistics, carefully recorded over many years, can subtle patterns such as these significant increases in death rates on birthdays be uncovered.

"One interesting finding is that more suicides happen on birthdays, though only in men,” he added. “The authors suggest that this increase could be related to more alcohol being drunk on birthdays.”

Perhaps a low key celebration this year?
http://uk.lifestyle.yahoo.com/more-likely-to-die-on-your-birthday-.html

Warner Bros opens new £100m UK studio
Warner Bros has invested £100 million into a new base of operations in Hertfordshire in a move that continues the British film industry’s recent successes.

Harry Potter, Bond and Sherlock Holmes have all filmed at the Leavesden studios, prompting Warner to take over the site.

President and managing director of Warner Bros UK Josh Berger told Sky News: “It clearly demonstrates the company's commitment to the UK and underlines our belief in the world class talent that resides on these shores.”

Last year a record-breaking £1.26 billion was invested in UK films, generating £4.5 billion for the economy.

It’s the first studio like this to be built in the UK for 70 years and the first time a major Hollywood studio has moved to the country.

The recently-opened and hugely popular Harry Potter studio tour is located nearby, turning an already bustling area for film fans into Hollywood's new base in the UK.

The 200-acre site includes huge sound stages, one of Europe's largest underwater filming tanks and an enormous 100-acre back-lot for outdoor scenes.

Warner's investment will mean the site can rival fellow UK studios Pinewood and Shepperton, which have housed numerous classic films over the years.

Before its takeover, the studio had also filmed 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' and 'Wrath of the Titans' at Leavesden.

Last year Warner were dominant in the UK box office takings, generating ticket sales of £206 million with an 18% market share.

Warner’s UK base will create 400 permanent jobs and hundreds more with each production that comes to the area. It’s hoped that the television, advertising and games industries will also take advantage of the state-of-the-art facilities.
http://uk.movies.yahoo.com/warner-bros-opens-new-uk-studio.html

[honeykid]

Girl, 10, receives major vein grown from own stem cells
A 10-year-old girl has been given a major vein, grown from her own stem cells, in an operation that raises hopes for other patients.

The youngster had a blockage in the vein which drains blood from the intestines and spleen to the liver, a potentially fatal problem.

To solve this, a replacement vein is normally harvested from the patient’s neck or leg. However, this is not ideal and can have knock-on effects.

This time, medics took a three-inch (9cm) section of groin vein from a dead donor and stripped it of all living cells, to leave only the inert protein ‘scaffold’.

Then the team, from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, injected it with blood-forming stem cells from the girl’s bone marrow. After two weeks in a stem-cell ‘incubator’, these had multiplied and converted into vein wall cells, to create a biologically-engineered replacement. This was implanted into her a year ago. She had another operation with a second piece of engineered vein to overcome narrowing.

Because the living cells are purely from the girl, her body recognises the organ and she does not need immuno-suppressants.

Writing in The Lancet, the authors wrote that she had grown two inches and put on 11 pounds in weight since the first operation a year ago.

They wrote: “The new stem-cells derived graft resulted not only in good blood flow rates and normal laboratory test values but also, in strikingly improved quality of life for the patient.”

Furthermore, they said it opened “interesting new areas of research”, including trying to make biologically-engineered replacement blood vessels for heart bypass surgery patients.

Frontiers in ‘regenerative medicine’ are rapidly being pushed back.

Two years ago, a 10-year-old British boy became the first child in the world to receive a stem-cell grown windpipe, again based on a scaffold from a dead donor, in an operation at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Prof Martin Birchall, head of translational regenerative medicine at University College London, who was part of the boy’s surgical team, was impressed with the latest development.

He said: “The young girl in this report was spared the trauma of having veins harvested from the deep neck or leg with the associated risk of lower limb disorders, and avoided the need for a liver or multivisceral transplantation.”

Last June a 36-year-old Eritrean man with an inoperable throat tumour received the world’s first totally artificial, biologically-grown organ. First his windpipe was scanned, a glass mould of it created, then a polymer ‘scaffold’ was dressed on that, and seeded with his stem cells before being transplanted. The technique did away with the need for a donor organ. The man is doing well.
http://uk.lifestyle.yahoo.com/girl--10--receives-major-vein-grown-from-own-stem-cells.html

Armstrong charged with doping
The US Anti-Doping Agency has notified seven-times Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong that formal procedures against him have commenced over allegations he used performance-enhancing drugs during his record-breaking career.

Although Armstrong has not been charged with any offences and has repeatedly denied ever cheating, USADA told the American they had forwarded their allegations to the Anti-Doping Review Board, which would decide whether to proceed with the case.

"This formal notice letter is the first step in the multi-step legal process for alleged sport anti-doping rule violations," USADA said.

"As in every USADA case, all named individuals are presumed innocent of the allegations unless and until proven otherwise through the established legal process.

"If a hearing is ultimately held then it is an independent panel of arbitrators, not USADA that determines whether or not these individuals have committed anti-doping rule violations as alleged."

Five of Armstrong's associates, three doctors and two team officials, were also told that procedures had begun against them in what could be one of the biggest doping cases in sports.

Armstrong, who has never failed a doping test, denied the charges.

"I have never doped, and, unlike many of my accusers, I have competed as an endurance athlete for 25 years with no spike in performance, passed more than 500 drug tests and never failed one," he said in a statement.

USADA sent Armstrong and his associates a 15-page letter outlining the accusations against them between 1998 and 2011 that was later circulated among media organisations.

The allegations included prolonged use of a range of performance-enhancing drugs including erythropoietin (EPO), blood transfusions, testosterone, corticosteroids, human growth hormone and masking agents.

The Texan was also accused of trafficking and administering drugs to other cyclists as well as conspiring with team manager Johan Bruyneel, doctor Pedro Celaya, doctor Luis del Moral, doctor Michele Ferrari and trainer Jose Pepe Marti.

Armstrong is one of the most successful and controversial cyclists of all time. A cancer survivor, he returned to the sport after beating the illness and won the Tour de France an unprecedented seven times in succession from 1999 to 2005.

Although he never failed a doping test, he was dogged by accusations of cheating and foul play.

The US Justice Department spent two years investigating the claims against him but closed their case in February without laying any charges against him.

Armstrong said USADA's accusations were the same as the Justice Department's.

"These charges are baseless, motivated by spite and advanced through testimony bought and paid for by promises of anonymity and immunity," he said.

"Although USADA alleges a wide-ranging conspiracy extended over more than 16 years, I am the only athlete it has chosen to charge.

"USADA's malice, its methods, its star-chamber practices, and its decision to punish first and adjudicate later all are at odds with our ideals of fairness and fair play."

USADA said they "numerous riders, team personnel and others" had provided statements that Armstrong used drugs and would be prepared to testify against him. They did not identify any other witnesses.

USADA also said they had evidence that Armstrong tested positive for EPO during the 2001 Tour of Switzerland but the results were covered up.

Cycling's world governing body, the UCI, had previously denied any knowledge of a cover up when those same allegations were first made.

USADA also said blood samples taken from Armstrong in 2009 and 2010 indicated the use of EPO and/or blood transfusions.

If found guilty, Armstrong could face a life ban from competing, USADA said, although Armstrong himself said he could also be stripped of his seven Tour de France titles.

The 40-year-old Texan retired from cycling earlier this year but has taken up triathlon and had planned to compete in a race in France in two weeks.

The UCI said it had been informed of USADA's decision to commence proceedings but was not involved in the case.

"This is the first time USADA has communicated to UCI on this subject," cycling's governing body said a statement.

"The UCI is not aware of the information that is available to USADA on the persons concerned and has not been involved in the proceedings opened by USADA."
Reuters

[honeykid]

Canada best G20 country to be a woman, India worst
LONDON, June 13 (TrustLaw) - Policies that promote gender equality, safeguards against violence and exploitation and access to healthcare make Canada the best place to be a woman among the world's biggest economies, a global poll of experts showed on Wednesday.

Infanticide, child marriage and slavery make India the worst, the same poll concluded.

Germany, Britain, Australia and France rounded out the top five countries out of the Group of 20 in a perceptions poll of 370 gender specialists conducted by TrustLaw, a legal news service run by Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The United States came in sixth but polarised opinion due to concerns about reproductive rights and affordable healthcare.

At the other end of the scale, Saudi Arabia - where women are well educated but are banned from driving and only won the right to vote in 2011 - polled second-worst after India, followed by Indonesia, South Africa and Mexico.

"India is incredibly poor, Saudi Arabia is very rich. But there is a commonality and that is that unless you have some special access to privilege, you have a very different future, depending on whether you have an extra X chromosome, or a Y chromosome," said Nicholas Kristof, journalist and co-author of "Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide", commenting on the poll results.

The poll, released ahead of a summit of G20 heads of state to be held in Mexico June 18-19, showed the reality for many women in many countries remains grim despite the introduction of laws and treaties on women's rights, experts said.

"In India, women and girls continue to be sold as chattels, married off as young as 10, burned alive as a result of dowry-related disputes and young girls exploited and abused as domestic slave labour," said Gulshun Rehman, health programme development adviser at Save the Children UK, who was one of those polled.

"This is despite a groundbreakingly progressive Domestic Violence Act enacted in 2005 outlawing all forms of violence against women and girls."

TrustLaw asked aid professionals, academics, health workers, policymakers, journalists and development specialists with expertise in gender issues to rank the 19 countries of the G20 in terms of the overall best and worst to be a woman.

They also ranked countries in six categories: quality of health, freedom from violence, participation in politics, work place opportunities, access to resources such as education and property rights and freedom from trafficking and slavery.

Respondents came from 63 countries on five continents and included experts from United Nations Women, the International Rescue Committee, Plan International, Amnesty USA and Oxfam International, as well as prominent academic institutions and campaigning organisations. Representatives of faith-based organisations were also surveyed.

The EU, which is a member of the G20 as an economic grouping along with several of its constituent countries, was not included in the survey.

Canada was perceived to be getting most things right in protecting women's wellbeing and basic freedoms.

"While we have much more to do, women have access to healthcare, we place a premium on education, which is the first step toward economic independence and we have laws that protect girls and women and don't allow for child marriage," said Farah Mohamed, president and CEO of the Canada-based G(irls) 20 Summit, which organised a youth gathering that took place in Mexico in May, ahead of the G20 leaders' meeting.

Experts were divided on the situation in the United States.

Civil rights and domestic violence laws, access to education, workplace opportunities and freedom of movement and speech were positive. But access to contraception and abortion were being curtailed and women suffered disproportionately from a lack of access to affordable healthcare, some experts said.

"Many of the gains of the last 100 years are under attack and the most overt and vicious attack is on reproductive rights," said Marsha Freeman, director of International Women's Rights Action Watch.

BARRIERS TO DEVELOPMENT

It is more vital than ever to protect women's freedoms at a time of political upheaval in several parts of the world, some experts said.

"Times of political transition, we've learned the hard way, can also be times of fragility, and when rights for women and girls can be rolled back instead of advanced," said Minky Worden, director of global initiatives at Human Rights Watch.

Women's rights are particularly under attack in G20 host country Mexico, which ranked 15th in the survey. Mexico has a culture of male chauvinism, high rates of physical and sexual violence and pockets of poverty where healthcare and other services are no better than in some of the most marginalised communities of Africa, experts said.

Women are also victims of drug-related crime. Some 300 women were killed in 2011 in the violent border town of Ciudad Juarez with almost total impunity, said Amnesty USA.

"The violence affects men and women but often women disproportionately," added Worden. "Mexico is a place where law enforcement remains a challenge, and the government has an obligation to protect women, but often fails in that obligation, as it does to protect men."

Putting women's rights on the global agenda is the key to progress and to effective development, said Kristof. Countries that restrict women's rights and freedoms or fail to protect them from injustices will suffer long-term, socially and economically, he added.

While the poll was based on perceptions and not statistics, U.N. data supports the experts' views.

The Gender Inequality Index (GII), which looks at reproductive health, the labour market and empowerment of women through education and politics, named the same three countries as the worst places for women, although Saudi Arabia ranked the absolute worst in the GII, followed by India.

The GII, however, does not include gender-based violence or other elements such as the fact that many women carry additional burdens of caregiving and housekeeping.

When it came to what country was best, the expert perception did not match U.N. data. The GII ranked Germany, France and South Korea as the top three countries, in that order. Canada came seventh and the United States was in tenth place.

Activists were not surprised by the experts' favourable view of Canada, however.

"Having an understanding of Canadian culture and tracking the work they're doing around violence against women and gender equality, I believe that Canada really has been emerging as a model for what most countries should aspire to for a long time," said Jimmie Briggs, journalist, author and founder of the Man Up Campaign that works to engage youth to stop violence against women and girls.

HOW THEY RANK 1. Canada 2. Germany 3. Britain 4. Australia 5. France 6. United States 7. Japan 8. Italy 9. Argentina 10. South Korea 11. Brazil 12. Turkey 13. Russia 14. China 15. Mexico 16. South Africa 17. Indonesia 18. Saudi Arabia 19. India

(Additional reporting by Courtney Harvey and Lisa Anderson in New York)

(For full coverage of the poll visit http://g20women.trust.org)

(TrustLaw is a free legal news site run by Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters. Visit http://trust.org/trustlaw. For more information on the TrustWomen Conference visit http://trustwomenconf.com)

(Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/canada-best-g20-country-woman-india-worst-075634510--sector.html

[honeykid]

Rodney King Found Dead In His Swimming Pool
The man whose videotaped beating by police officers led to the 1992 Los Angeles riots has been found dead in his swimming pool.

Rodney King was surrounded and beaten by police officers in the city on March 3, 1991. The incident was caught on camera.

Four officers involved in the incident were acquitted of using excessive force the following year, and the verdict sparked riots which left more than 50 people dead.

Rialto Police captain Randy Deanda said King was found "unresponsive" at the bottom of his pool on Sunday morning by his fiancée Cynthia Kelley.

Police said there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding King's death, and an investigation will now be opened.

King suffered brain damage as a result of the police attack, and Ms Kelley was one of the jurors in the civil rights case that gave King £2.5m in damages.

Speaking ahead of this year's 20th anniversary of the riots, King said racism still has to be challenged.

"There's always gonna be some type of racism. But it's up to us as individuals in this country to look back and see all the accomplishments that we have gotten to this far."

Asked about his feelings toward the police officers who beat him, he said: "I have forgiven, because America has forgiven me for so many things and given me so many chances.

"You get to have a second chance, and I've been given a second chance," said King, who has had a number of brushes with the law since 1992.

"I have much respect for (the police), much respect... some of them went out of their way over the years to try to make it up to me. Not all of them is bad."
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rodney-king-found-dead-swimming-pool-153214003.html?nc

[will.15]

Hot dog hooker' sentenced to seven days in jail for selling sex from out of her food cart



By Daily Mail Reporter (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=&authornamef=Daily+Mail+Reporter)
PUBLISHED: 00:56 EST, 19 June 2012 | UPDATED: 00:58 EST, 19 June 2012
Long Island's so-called 'hot dog hooker' walked out of court on Monday after being sentenced to seven days in jail for selling sex from out of her food truck.

With a cigarette hanging from her mouth and flashing much of her bosom in her signature bikini top, Catherine Scalia was processed and released from the Hempstead, New York, courthouse for time served and was not sent back to jail, according to CBS 2 (http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2012/06/18/so-called-l-i-hot-dog-hooker-in-court-for-sentencing/).
The 45-year-old spent five days behind bars last month after pleading guilty to selling sex from out of her hot dog van in Baldwin.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/06/19/article-2161413-13AD8876000005DC-774_634x755.jpg Back at it: 'Hot dog hooker' Catherine Scalia, pictured, was sentenced to seven days in jail on Monday for selling sex out the back of her food truck

'I don't see anything illegal with it,' she told the station. 'You want to charge me with prostitution - I don't care. I'm out of the playboy mansion and into the real world.'





Ms Scalia was arrested after an undercover cop said she agreed to have sex with him for $50 when he visited her hot dog truck.
The East Rockaway mother-of-four denied she sold the police officer sex, insisting she was not a prostitute but a stripper and that he only got a lap dance before his colleagues arrived on the scene and arrested her.
According to CBS 2, Ms Scalia said she sold Sabrett hot dogs and other snacks from her food truck and then offered to strip for customers if they were interested.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/06/19/article-2161413-13AD90EA000005DC-583_634x348.jpg Smoking: Ms Scalia, pictured with her hot dog sign, said the arrest in May had been bad for business


http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/06/19/article-2161413-13ADA3FF000005DC-573_634x355.jpg Stripper: The mother-of-four, pictured, denies being a prostitute but admits to stripping for customers

But she said that despite the publicity, her arrest had been bad for business.
'It’s beautiful out there and now all the hot dogs are on sale, all the rolls, this is prime time and I’m sitting in court,' she told 1010 WINS.
Since the controversy, her request for a peddler's license has been rejected by Hempstead town but she said she would park her van at an industrial area in Oceanside while she tried to appeal it.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/06/19/article-2161413-13ADA3EE000005DC-749_634x355.jpg Not shy: Ms Scalia, pictured, waves to the media clearly enjoying the publicity



http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/06/19/article-2161413-13AD918E000005DC-540_634x398.jpg Truck: The 'hot dog hooker', pictured, has been denied a peddler's permit since her arrest

'Women and children , I will be selling the hot dogs like this (in my bikini) and I will be doing the stripping business but I will be checking for wires,' she said.
'To all the guys I’m gonna wiggle those wieners, we’re gonna have a good time.'
Ms Scalia returned to work the day after she pleaded guilty to prostitution in May but police soon shut her down and forced her to return home.

'I got my bikini top on, showing off my buns,' she told WPIX-TV (http://www.wpix.com/news/wpix-police-called-hot-dog-hooker,0,3275967.story) last month, flashing her bright-pink bathing suit.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/05/10/article-2142414-1305CDAD000005DC-791_634x328.jpg
Soaking up the attention: Catherine Scalia in her bikini top after returning to work selling hot dogs and lap dances from a food truck in Long Island



http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/05/10/article-2142414-1305CD9E000005DC-967_634x355.jpg Come and get it: Her loyal customers returned to her food stand, claiming they like her hot dogs

Male customers lined up to welcome her back to the neighborhood, claiming her hot dogs were tasty.
Ms Scalia handed out business cards for her private stripping business, along with wieners topped with homemade onion relish.

'I saw her on TV last night, and I had to see what it was about,' Michael DiSanto, 22, told the New York Post (http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/thanks_no_skanks_B78GhSwEAmQ3KFBGrAHdPL).

'To be honest, I think I’ll stick with the hot dogs, but I have her card here just in case. It’s just funny; I say let her do her thing.'
Other Long Islanders were less charitable.


http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/05/10/article-2142414-1305CDA5000005DC-932_634x349.jpg Sex worker: Scalia, a mother of four, also works as a stripper and handed out cards for her business, along with the hot dogs. She has been arrested twice for prostitution



http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/05/10/article-2142414-1305CDBE000005DC-429_634x355.jpg Arrest: Scalia pleaded guilty to prostitution after an undercover cop arrested her last week when she agreed to have sex with him for $50

'We’re here trying to make this community better, and now you have this skank coming in here and doing her disgusting business,' local civic association member Jessenia Mendez-Velazquez, 33, told the newspaper.
Even Scalia's family is fed up with her behavior. Her mother refused to bail her out of jail for several days after her arrest on May 3.

Her own son said getting busted might be good for her.

'I just feel like if she stays in jail and does the time, then she will learn her lesson,' the boy, 13, told The Post.


http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/05/10/article-2142414-1305CDBA000005DC-74_634x349.jpg Full-service: Scalia ran out of propane and had to change the tanks herself. Police later chased her out of the parking lot where she set up shop

She already served time in jail once before for prostitution.
But it seemed clear the attention she has received only encouraged her behavior.
'I feel like a celebrity. Do I look like Pamela Anderson?' she told WPIX.
'Who knows? I could be in the playboy mansion tomorrow. Who knows?'

[DexterRiley]

Thats a hilarious report. I love it when the media takes every opportunity to call out the skank for attention whoren, while simultaneously photographen her fun bags from every angle.

:laugh:

[honeykid]

Yes, you've gotta love the media. LOOK AT IT!!! IT'S TERRIBLE!!! LOOK AT IT!!! :D

A couple of 'nearly movies'.

The sinister E.T. sequel that was (thankfully) never made
It was July 1982 and Steven Spielberg had just become considerably richer. His charming alien fantasy ‘E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial’, which saw Henry Thomas play a little boy who befriends an excrement-shaped alien, was on its way to overtaking ‘Star Wars’ as the highest-grossing film of all time.

With studio Universal’s coffers quickly filling, Spielberg and ‘E.T.’ writer Melissa Mathison quickly began work on a nine-page story treatment for a sequel called ‘E.T. 2: Nocturnal Fears’. Thankfully it was never made.

The treatment, which can be found online and has been reviewed by several bloggers, featured child torture, evil albino aliens and almost nothing of the cute alien from the first film.

It opened once again with a UFO landing in a forest. But it’s not E.T. in there; it’s a bunch of albino mutant versions, led by an alien called Korel. They are there to investigate the distress beacon sent by ‘E.T.’ – whose real name is revealed as ‘Zrek’.

Apparently the story then switched to the kids, Elliott, Michael and Gertie. They miss their alien chum and when Elliott gets a feeling E.T. has returned they all head out to the forest to investigate.

Things then become really dark. The kids are captured, and Korel tortures Elliott for information about E.T. (sorry, ‘Zrek’). Apparently Elliott’s screams of pain echo through the forest.

Eventually Elliott’s mum, who has now shacked up with the scientist from the first film, finds E.T.’s radio and summons him to help out the kids. He returns and duly does just that, before re-programming Korel’s ship to fly to a ‘remote corner of the galaxy’, and heads off back into outer space himself.

Sci-fi boffins reckon the story, which would’ve doubtless been altered if it had ever gone into production, was based on another much darker alien idea Spielberg had called ‘Night Skies’. Developed after ‘Close Encounters’, it saw a family home menaced by extra-terrestrial nasties. The director ended up using some of the material in ‘Poltergeist’, which he produced.

Thankfully, Spielberg quickly decided a sequel to one of the most beloved sci-fi films of all time might be a bad move, saying (somewhat creepily): “it would do nothing but rob the original of its virginity’.

He’d already seen the legacy of his other big hit, ‘Jaws’, tarnished by increasingly awful sequels, though series nadir ‘Jaws 4: The Revenge’ hadn’t yet been released. Indeed it only adds to ‘E.T.’s considerable charms that this beautiful film never became a long-running and cynical franchise.
http://uk.movies.yahoo.com/the-sinister-e-t--sequel-that-was--thankfully--never-made.html

The mad Jurassic Park 4 film that was never made
‘Jurassic Park 4’ took one step closer to becoming a reality on Thursday morning with ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ duo Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver signed up to pen the script.

Steven Spielberg, who directed the classic original and its sequel in the 90s, announced last summer that plans were afoot and was discussing ideas with Mark Protosevich, the writer behind 2007’s ‘I Am Legend’.

Thursday’s reports make the much-delayed project seem that bit more tangible, though we’re still waiting on news of a director and the cast.

Whatever direction Jaffa and Silver take the franchise though, it can’t be as barmy as the ‘Jurassic Park 4’ script written by ‘The Departed’ screenwriter William Monahan back in 2007. Simply put, it would have been the maddest Hollywood movie ever made.

Steven Spielberg himself came up with the initial story, which he apparently referred to as "the mother of all ideas".

According to AICN’s review of the script it begins with a pterosaur attack on a baseball game and soon finds its soldier of fortune lead character on the original film’s island Isla Nublar, searching for the shaving cream can Dennis Nedry (Wayne Knight) used to try and steal away DNA samples for a rival company in the first film.

It then takes a turn for the worse as Nick is captured by the company which took over Jurassic Park. He then wakes up in a medieval castle in the Alps, imprisoned by the corporation who are genetically engineering their own dinosaurs... to use as soldiers.

They are described as like a ‘miniature T-Rex’, with modified fore-arms, dextrous fingers, dog DNA for extra obedience but human DNA so they can solve problems. Yes, this was really in the script.

Nick is tasked with training the dinosaurs, who he names Achilles, Hector, Perseus, Orestes and Spartacus (after warriors from Ancient Greek myth and classical Rome) and taking them on missions involving them killing drug dealers. The review didn’t go into much detail for the final third of the story, but hinted at “set pieces that are much, much bigger than anything we’ve seen in the other films, and much crazier.”

This version never saw the light of day. Perhaps it would’ve been too expensive. Perhaps Universal saw sense and decided it was just too bonkers. Whatever the reason, plans to revive the franchise stalled in 2007 and stopped completely after original author Michael Crichton sadly passed away the following year.

A series as lucrative as ‘Jurassic Park’ was never likely to stay dead forever though, and the latest incarnation of the sequel probably won’t follow the same militarised dinosaur path. Jaffa and Silver helped make a movie about a monkey taking over the world seem fairly realistic, and we expect their ‘Jurassic Park 4’ to be a bit more grounded.

Our idea? We’d like to see it set in a new dino theme park, this time in full swing and open to the public before the dinosaurs naturally escape. When the army are called in to save the day they draft a knowledgeable scientist like Ian Malcolm or Alan Grant to head up a group of marine types tasked with saving the day. Think ‘Aliens’... but with dinosaurs. Hollywood, that one’s on us.
http://uk.movies.yahoo.com/the-mad-jurassic-park-4-film-that-was-never-made.html

[The Rodent]

I knew it... ET with battle armour.

And Dinosaurs with guns... awesome. Sounds like something Rob Rodriguez would do.

[honeykid]

Kim Kardashian sums up everything that is wrong with society, headmistress says
Dr Helen Wright, headmistress of St Mary’s Calne, a girls boarding school in Wiltshire, will tell an education conference this week that the US reality TV star is part of a culture which sexualises women at an early age.

This culture, which is rife on TV, the internet and in magazines, sends the message that physical appearance is more important than character, according to Dr Wright.

She will say: “I have spoken out a lot over the last two years about the increasing dangers of premature sexualisation of young people, and the objectification of women which accompanies this.

“It is not too strong a statement, I venture to suggest, to say that almost everything that is wrong with Western society today can be summed up in that one symbolic photo of Miss Kim Kardashian on the front of Zoo magazine.

“The descent of Western civilisation can practically be read into every curve (of which, you will note, there are indeed many). Officially the hottest woman in the world? Really? Is this what we want our young people to aim for? Is this what success should mean to them?” Dr Wright will say.

Kim on the May issue of Zoo Magazine.She will claim that Ms Kardashian is famous for "the reality TV series, Keeping Up With The Kardashians, for hanging out with the rich and famous, for a sex tape, a 72-day marriage and a rather ample backside”.

"What is she telling our young people about life? As a society, we have clearly attached a value to her, and there may be some messages about hard work buried in there somewhere - I expect she has to slave in the gym to keep that posterior in shape - but these are very hidden messages, buried under the other messages surrounded by glitz and sparkle," Dr Wright will say.

Ms Kardashian, whose father is the late Robert Kardashian, one of the defence lawyers in OJ Simpson’s 1995 murder trial, shot to prominence when an erotic film of her appeared online in 2007. She has since gone on to become a household name on both sides of the Atlantic.

However people’s obsession with celebrities such as Ms Kardashian means that pupils are “soaking up a diet of empty celebrity and superficiality”, Dr Wright will say.

She will be speaking at the Institute of Development Professionals in Education (IDPE) conference later this week.
http://uk.lifestyle.yahoo.com/kim-kardashian-sums-up-everything-that-is-wrong-with-society--headmistress-says.html;_ylt=Av74ox1cJwbqQ_kVlwrtMyOdAb1_;_ylu=X3oDMTUycjJoYW9oBGNjb2RlA2N0LmMEbWl0A01vc3QgUG9wdWx hciBQYXJlbnRpbmcEcGtnAzE3MDc2YmQxLWFhZjUtMzhmZi1iYmI0LTQ2YmJjYjAzOTE4MgRwb3MDNQRzZWMDTWVkaWFCTGlzdE1 peGVkTW9zdFBvcHVsYXJDQVRlbXAEdmVyAzhhNDdlZGQ4LWJhY2MtMTFlMS1iYWZiLTdkMGE2NzZiZTNlYQ--;_ylg=X3oDMTJzNTA2dDQ3BGludGwDZ2IEbGFuZwNlbi1nYgRwc3RhaWQDMmZjZGEwN2MtOGRkMS0zYjFiLWIxOGMtMzc1MjZmYj k4ODAwBHBzdGNhdANwYXJlbnRpbmcEcHQDc3RvcnlwYWdl;_ylv=3

[will.15]

What I like about Kim Kardashian...she is a lot easier on the eyes than that skanky Paris Hilton and Kim's success is pissing off Paris as her fifteen minutes have finally run out.

[honeykid]

Murdoch slams Scientology as 'evil and creepy'
Rupert Murdoch has branded Scientology 'creepy, weird and evil' in the wake of the Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes split.

The media mogul caused a storm on Twitter with his remarks, which pulled no punches over his opinions on the religion, of which Cruise is its most high-profile follower.

“Scientology back in news. Very weird cult, but big, big money involved with Tom Cruise either number two or three in hierarchy,” he said, after hearing the news of the split.

“Watch Katie Holmes and Scientology story develop. Something creepy, maybe even evil, about these people.”

He later replied to 'attacks' made on him after making the comments.

“Since Scientology tweet hundreds of attacks. Expect they will increase and get worse and maybe threatening. Still stick to my story.”

He was also asked by followers his thoughts on Mormonism, and added: “Mormonism a mystery to me, but Mormons certainly not evil.”

It's claimed that Cruise's devotion to the religion will become the centre of the couple's divorce battle.

“There is no way her advisers will not be putting Scientology at the very core of this divorce,” legal expert Mike Paul told the Daily Mail.

“The only possible reason for Katie to push for [custody] is that she fears for the emotional wellbeing of her daughter. Suri is at an age where she will be becoming more and more involved with the church and Katie clearly wants to make the break before her daughter is dragged into Scientology.”
http://uk.movies.yahoo.com/murdoch-slams-scientology-has--evil-and-creepy-.html

[will.15]

Rupert Murdoch is evil and creepy.

Why is he even twittering?

Doesn't he have a media empire that needs his attention?

[will.15]

A talking urinal cake urges bar patrons not to drink and drive. All you have to do is pee on it to get it to talk. This leaves a disturbing visual for sure, but it’s one new way Michigan authorities are getting the “Don’t Drink and Drive” message out for this Holiday week.

The talking urinal cakes are federally funded and show up in four counties in Michigan over this Fourth of July Holiday. As soon as a stream of urine hits the urinal cake, a woman’s voice is heard reminding you to call a cab or a friend, but don’t drive drunk, according to C News. (http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2012/07/04/19949931.html?cid=rssnewsweird%20news)

The urinal cake also has the message “Call a Ride, Get Home Safe” printed on the outside of the package so the customer not only hears the message but sees it too!

Are talking urinal cakes really the way to go?

Anyone who is of legal drinking age knows the ramifications for drinking and driving. Is a woman’s voice coming out of a urinal while you’re relieving yourself really going to make a difference?

What about the women drivers? Women don’t usually use urinals, so this message is only getting out to half of the public in the bars. This doesn’t seem like an equal opportunity peeing experience at all!

Why does a woman's voice get activated when the urinal cake is urinated on, why not a man's voice? Somehow this seems a bit degrading towards women. It's a mans urinal, a man is peeing on the urinal cake, so why wouldn't a man's voice deliver the message?


According to the Daily Herald (http://www.heraldextra.com/news/weird-news/weird-news-michigan-deploys-talking-urinal-cakes-in-dui-fight/article_4ced397a-c488-11e1-b9f9-001a4bcf887a.html), this is not the first time talking urinal cakes have been used to deliver this message. Authorities realize people will take it as humorous at first, but the seriousness of the message is what they hope really comes through.

[DexterRiley]

Remember that little 13 year old Conservative Republican wonderboy?

You probably don't.

I do though. He wrote a conserative book and gave big speeches at Cpac that got people like Sarah palin all weak in the knees.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8SG8jx5Kqg&feature=related




http://www.theblaze.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/jonathan-krohn.jpg

Haha^ It doesn't seem real.

Well it turns out he's 17 now and he's not a conservative anymore and became an atheist.

http://freakoutnation.com/2012/07/04/conservative-turned-dem-jonathan-krohn-changes-political-leanings-right-wing-noise-machine-attacks/

He said he was brainwashed by right wing radio. :laugh:

[donniedarko]

I haven't seen it in here or the shoutbox but octomom is releasing a porn video

http://pinkie.ponychan.net/chan/files/src/134098838742.jpg

[honeykid]

UK’s top chocolate taster forced to quit on doctors’ orders
The UK’s most eminent chocolate taster has been forced to give up his sweet £30,000-a-year job because it’s playing havoc with his health.

Angus Kennedy, 47, who tastes chocolate for confectioners including Mars and Nestle, put on two stone and has developed dangerously high cholesterol after being in his dream job for two years.

Kennedy’s keen tastebuds have been relied upon by chocolatiers since 2010 and he also edits a confectionary trade journal, Kennedy’s Confection. But doctors have warned that if he carries on eating chocolate all day every day, he risks a heart attack. He’s also aiming to shrink down from 13 and a half stone to his normal 11 and a half, which has involved cutting all chocolate from his diet.

"Eating chocolate for a living really was the dream job. I was given a Golden Ticket to sample the world's craziest, tastiest new goodies and review them in the magazine,” Kennedy said.

"The only problem with eating chocolate from nine to five, of course, is the predictable weight gain and high cholesterol.

"In the last couple of years, I've put on some considerable weight and a recent check-up showed my arteries were far from fighting fit.

"It was with regret that I stepped down from the magazine to concentrate on a less harmful - but certainly less sweet - career."

Dubbed ‘Willy Wonka’, Kenndy has been known to eat 3lbs of sweet goodies (around 25 Crème Eggs!) in a single day at trade shows.

He now plans to focus on writing, but says, “I'll really miss being Willy Wonka."
http://uk.lifestyle.yahoo.com/chief-chocolate-taster-angus-kennedy-quits.html

[honeykid]

Nobel laureate, discoverer of HIV, sees 'hope' for cure

The Nobel laureate who helped to discover HIV says there is hope for an AIDS cure following recent discoveries, in an interview with AFP ahead of a global conference on the disease.

Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, who won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2008 as part of a team that discovered the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) which causes AIDS, said scientific research had made major strides since then.

She cited a patient in Berlin who appears to have been cured through a bone marrow transplant, "which proves that finding a way of eliminating the virus from the body is something that is realistic."

Other sources of optimism are the small minority of patients -- less than 0.3 percent -- who exhibit no symptoms of the virus without ever receiving treatment; and a small group in France who received antiretroviral drugs and now live without treatment or symptoms, Barre-Sinoussi said.

"There is hope... but don't ask me for a date because we do not know."

She also said that it would be possible "in principle" to eliminate the AIDS pandemic by 2050, if barriers to drug access could be eliminated.

The main barriers there were not scientific but political, economic and social, she said: the problem was lack of access to testing and drugs in poor and rural areas, as well as the stigma around the virus, which undermines early detection and treatment.

Some 25,000 people -- including celebrities, scientists and HIV sufferers -- are expected in the US capital on Sunday to call for more strident global action to address the three-decade AIDS epidemic.

"At the Washington conference we are expecting greater mobilization... to widen access to current treatments and to continue research into HIV," Barre-Sinoussi said.

Deaths and infections are down in the parts of the world most ravaged by the disease, while the number of people on treatment has risen 20 percent from 2010 to 2011, reaching eight million people in needy countries.

However this is only about half the people who should be on treatment worldwide, suggesting much more remains to be done.

More than 34 million people worldwide are living with HIV, a higher number than ever before, and around 30 million have died from AIDS-related causes since the disease first emerged in the 1980s, according to UNAIDS.
http://uk.lifestyle.yahoo.com/nobel-laureate-discoverer-hiv-says-cure-sight-061316413.html

[honeykid]

London could destroy Banksy’s valuable Olympic graffiti

http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/Ok9WSTS1KmjH2.2_2ZTMqQ--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTYzMA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en-GB/blogs/londonspy-uk/250712_Banksy_Olympics.jpg

While London and the world is enthralled with Olympians showing us what they worked their entire lives for, there will be distractions that take the focus away from the athletes. One individual who isn't competing in the Games but is sharing the Olympic spotlight is London-based street artist and Oscar-nominated documentarian, Banksy.

On Monday, Banksy posted photos on his website of his latest works: "Hackney Welcomes the Olympics" and "Going for Mould." Both stencils, locations unknown, are Olympic-themed and may trouble the International Olympic Committee which maintains an iron fist over Olympic branding, not to mention the British Transport Police (BTP), which have been busy arresting alleged street artists and banning them from coming within a mile of any Olympic venue.

The Guardian reported last week that the BTP had begun a pre-emptive sweep of alleged graffiti artists in preparation for the London Games. Street artists in London have also told the BBC that, "walls which they say have not been touched in years are now being cleaned off."

If and when Banksy's new pieces are found, officials may want to think twice about removing the world-renown artist's work. In March, 18 original Banksy artworks sold for over £400,000 at an auction in London. In the ever-present battle of street art vs. vandalism, Banksy's form of self expression has grown from being viewed as a criminal act into a valuable commentary on society.

Helen Bingham of Keep Britain Tidy told the BBC: "There's a difference between low-grade tagging and the work people like Banksy do … You have to look at it and know the difference - it's not a black and white thing."

From The Guardian's Jonathan Jones:

Tourists don't come to London for shining perfection. They come for old and new in chaotic ungainly juxtaposition. And they come, partly, for Banksy. The prince of street art is our most famous contemporary artist, however much the moneyed art world would like to believe otherwise. Banksy postcards and canvas Banksy reproductions sell alongside royal memorabilia in London — West Country man as he may be. So how is the Olympics benefiting London by enforcing a clean-up of its most globally recognized art movement?

This is not just about the freedom of a few artists to mess up the pristine Olympic bubble. It is about the identity of London.

On Banksy's website there is a frequently asked questions page in which the street artist answers critics who say his work is "crass, dumb and simplistic." Banksy's response is that they are correct. "Most of this stuff is designed to be viewed from a moving vehicle."

http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/BbIeltRps6tJEVYPvvutBQ--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTYzMA--/http://l.yimg.com/dh/ap/default/120725/abnkswatcmca.jpg

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/londonspy/london-could-destroy-banksy-valuable-olympic-graffiti-091627080.html

[Nausicaä]

Oh please, like he doesn't have permission to put his stuff on these walls... :rolleyes: They say he doesn't but I think it's a load of bull to be honest, not as much a 'rebel' as he is made out to be.

Don't remove them, let a group of children colour the images in. :D

[honeykid]

Top 10 banned books
Fifty Shades of Grey may have been banned in some US states this year, but it’s just the most recent in a long list of books considered ‘too explicit’ for our delicate minds. Here are our favourites

1. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley, 1932
This book was banned in Ireland when it was first published and continues to be challenged in some US states today. Explicit sexual scenes caused controversy as Huxley imagined a world where birth control and reproduction were controlled for society rather than by individuals. For Catholic Ireland, the idea was just too much!

2. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov, 1955
This is the tale of literary scholar Humbert Humbert and his sexual obsession with ‘Nymphets’ and in particular 12 year old Dolores (Lolita) who becomes his step daughter. Nabokov had trouble getting the novel published due to its contentious material and though there is little that is explicit in the novel, the themes of paedophilia and incest were enough to ban it in France, England, Argentina, New Zealand and South Africa.

3. And Tango Makes Three, Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson, 2005
Based on a real life penguin family, the story of Tango the penguin and his two dads was written to teach children about same-sex parent families. It was revealed to be the most banned book at the American Library Association’s Banned Books Week, mostly having been removed from US libraries and schools.

4. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini, 2003
Now a major film, the Kite Runner was banned in Afghanistan, where the story is set, for its rape scene of a young male character. It’s also banned in some parts of the US because of the sexually explicit scene and offensive language.

5. The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood, 1985
Describing a bleak future where women are sexual slaves, the Handmaid’s Tale regularly appears on most ban request lists and was removed from the English curriculum in Texas after complaints by parents that it was anti Christian.

6. The Well of Loneliness, Radclyffe Hall, 1928
An early lesbian novel, Hall’s story, thought to be a thinly veiled account of her own life, was feared by the authorities for introducing ideas of homosexuality to women. It was banned soon after publication but this probably only served to make the British population far more aware of lesbianism.

7. Ulysses, James Joyce, 1922
Banned in the US in 1928, the UK in 1926 and named a prohibited import to Australia in 1933, Ulysses was considered ‘obscene’ by the authorities thanks to a scene where the main character masturbates. In 1933 it was ruled ‘pornographic’ but not obscene and the ban was lifted.

8. Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller, 1934
Miller’s book has been credited with giving literature the free speech we now take for granted. Its US publication in 1961 tested American pornography laws but in ‘obscenity trials’ the tome was declared ‘non obscene’. Loosely based on Miller’s own life in Paris, the protagonist’s sexual experiences are recounted in detail and the book is considered one of the most important in 20th-century literature.

9. Fifty Shades of Grey, EL James, 2011
Banned in libraries in the states of Georgia and Wisconsin (Florida lifted its ban), the rather badly written sexual exploits of Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey have been dubbed ‘mummy porn’ for their popularity with older women. Despite being banned by these conservative states, the book topped the best seller charts in both the US and UK.

10. Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (Fanny Hill), John Cleland, 1748
When it was published, Fanny Hill was ignored by the authorities, but a year later its publishers were charged with "corrupting the King's subjects". Sold underground, it was also banned in the US in 1821. Strewn with details of sex acts, the book depicts prostitution, lesbianism and mutual masturbation. The ban was lifted in the 1970s after the book was decided to be a historical source and of literary value.
http://uk.lifestyle.yahoo.com/top-10-banned-books.html

[Nausicaä]

I've only read four of those. From what I've heard, the only reason to ban 50 Shades of Grey is because it's terrible and apparently some women read this in public to make people think they have an exciting sex life... quite sad really.

[Critics]

I saw 50 Shades of Grey all over my facebook a few days ago, not sure what the big deal about it is.

[Gabrielle947]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/15-year-old-lithuanian-swimmer-ruta-meilutyte-wins-100-breast-ahead-of-rebecca-soni/2012/07/30/gJQAT0YxKX_story.html

"Fifteen-year-old Ruta Meilutyte of Lithuania won the 100-meter breaststroke at the London Olympics on Monday.

Meilutyte finished in 1 minute, 5.47 seconds to hold off a late charge from world champion Rebecca Soni of the United States, who touched second in 1:05.55."

amazing :P

[honeykid]

Weird and wonderful homes of the future

With a distinct lack of jet packs, hover cars or robots to do the housework, 21st century technology hasn't panned out the way some of us had hoped — but that hasn't stopped experts trying to predict the future of home technology.

We've asked two prominent futurologists, as well as interior designer Kelly Hoppen and TV homes guru Kevin McCloud, for their take on the houses of the future.

10 years from now
Forget huge TVs, we'll soon be watching our favourite shows on visors worn over our heads, according to futurologist Ian Pearson.

"In 10 years time homes will still have one or two communal screens but visors will be commonplace too. Eventually people will prefer to use contact lenses which work in the same way — basic versions of these should be available in the next decade.

"At the moment different members of the family go off to separate rooms to watch TV but in future people will be able to sit together and watch different things. It could have the effect of bringing the family back together."

And another futurologist, Richard Watson, thinks that more of us will be "talking to our appliances and devices and having them talk back to us" as voice-recognition technology improves.

Watson also predicts that energy monitoring and saving will become crucial to home technology.

"I think we will begin to see an 'internet for energy' develop — widespread harvesting and transmission of energy and water at a very local level - exchanging and selling at a local level too.

"Energy dashboards will be common, with energy pricing possibly based on the nature of use rather than time of day - so electricity for a dishwasher could cost more than for a home dialysis machine."

And Kevin McCloud, ambassador for Grand Designs Live Birmingham (12th — 14th October 2012, NEC) thinks we'll be modifying our existing homes to meet more stringent levels of eco-friendliness — rather than knocking our houses down and rebuilding.

He explained: "By the middle of this century the bulk of the UK's housing stock will have been constructed in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries - and will need to be upgraded.

"Even homes built as late as the 1980s will need to be 'retrofurbished' with materials to make them more energy efficient. It makes sense to stay put, because we've already experienced a period of excessive consumption and it was really distasteful."

25 years from now
Fast forward a quarter of a century and our appliances won't just be speaking to us — they'll be talking down to us.

"Appliances and devices will now have a serious level of awareness and intelligence. Computers will be more intelligent than humans on most levels (except in dealing with humans)," says Watson.

And our homes are likely to be less cluttered thanks to miniaturisation and convergence of technology, according to Pearson.

"Most of the technology we have in our homes at the moment will 'disappear' because we'll do all the techy stuff virtually," he explained. "We won't need to have separate big boxes or screen for different functions — just some very small devices and video visors — or contact lenses."

And he predicts the arrival of "augmented reality" where virtual images are mapped onto real-life objects.

"You could live in a dive of a flat but when you put your visor on it becomes a palace," he explains.

"Augmented reality is capable of combining all the things in the virtual world with all the things in the physical world - and it will be a bigger change than the world wide web."

But interior designer Kelly Hoppen feels there will always be a place for the physical comforts of home.

"I think in the short term and long term, people will continue to have very personal and comforting things in their homes, like paintings, photos and sculptures, which have been passed on to them from family - these items are timeless.

"In terms of furniture materials, in the mid and long term I think furniture will have a very global feel as the world becomes smaller. I also think that bigger items like sofas, beds and dining tables will be modular so you can change the shape and size as you want."

50 years from now
By the 2070s Kelly predicts that technology will be applied to textiles and soft furnishings in innovative ways: "In terms of textures in 50 years from now, I believe bed linen, sofa covers and rugs will be ultra soft and amazing to touch - almost skin like as techniques in textiles advance."

While relaxing on an ultra-soft sofa sounds nice, Watson reckons we're just as likely to be having a deep and meaningful conversation with the fridge.

"Assuming we're still here I suspect we will be trying to explain to our machines what it means to be human," he says.

But some of us may avoid this awkward chat — by having our own refrigerated compartments.

He continued: "Also, there will be somewhat problematic issue of having organic and post-human people walking around — because those with the money and the inclination will have merged with machines - thereby creating a new form of 'them and us'."
http://uk.lifestyle.yahoo.com/blogs/british-gas/weird-wonderful-homes-future-112136144.html

[honeykid]

Tobacco firms lose Australia plain packet case

Global tobacco firms lost a "watershed" court challenge to Australia's plain packaging laws for cigarettes on Wednesday in a closely-watched case health advocates said would have a worldwide impact.

The High Court of Australia ruled the measures, stipulating that tobacco products should be sold in drab, uniform packaging with graphic health warnings from December 1 this year, did not breach the country's constitution.

Four companies led by British American Tobacco (BAT) had challenged the law, claiming it infringed their intellectual property rights by banning brands and trademarks from packets, and was unconstitutional.

But the court rejected the argument by BAT, Japan Tobacco International, Imperial Tobacco and Philip Morris that the law represented "an acquisition of (their) property otherwise than on just terms".

"At least a majority of the court is of the opinion that the Act is not contrary to (Australia's constitution)," the court said in a brief notice of judgement.

The court's full reasons will be delivered at a later date, and the tobacco firms were ordered to pay the government's legal costs.

They cannot appeal further in the Australian legal system.

Canberra estimates there are 15,000 deaths nationally each year from tobacco-related illnesses and that smoking costs more than Aus$30 billion (US$31.4 billion) a year in healthcare and lost productivity.

The World Health Organization welcomed the decision and hoped it would have a "domino effect" in other countries.

"The industry's attempt to derail this effective tobacco control measure failed," said the UN health agency's director general Margaret Chan.

"Plain packaging is a highly effective way to counter industry's ruthless marketing tactics," she added.

Australia's Attorney-General Nicola Roxon said the case was "a victory for all those families who have lost someone to a tobacco related illness" and should be a "clarion call to every country grappling with the costs and harm of tobacco".

"This is a watershed moment for tobacco control around the world," she said in a statement.

Britain, Canada and New Zealand are mulling similar measures, and Roxon said China, South Africa and the European Union were also following the Australian case with interest.

"With so many countries lined up to ride on Australia's coattails, what we hope to see is a domino effect for the good of public health," she said.

Mike Daube, head of an expert panel that originally recommended plain packaging to Canberra, said it was "the biggest defeat for the global tobacco industry that I've seen in 40 years".

"Now this decision's through I think we're going to see plain packaging in the UK, we're going to see it in New Zealand, we're going to see it in Norway," he told Sky News.

"It really is the tobacco industry's worst nightmare come true."

BAT said it would respect the "bad law", but warned it would cause black-market cigarette sales to skyrocket as the packaging would be easy to fake and so "only benefit organised crime groups".

Philip Morris noted that a number of other legal challenges had been launched, including a case in Hong Kong alleging the law breached Australia's bilateral investment treaty with the Chinese territory.

"The legality of plain packaging, including whether Australia will have to pay substantial compensation to Philip Morris Asia, remains at issue and will be considered in other ongoing legal challenges," said spokesman Chris Argent.

Australia is also facing formal complaints at the World Trade Organization over the plan from countries including Honduras, Ukraine and the Dominican Republic.

Roxon said Wednesday's decision would "only improve the government's ability to defend strongly any actions that are taken in international forums".

But Philip Morris said it would have "no legal bearing on these international cases or on other jurisdictions" and it believed the Hong Kong and WTO challenges were on a strong footing.
http://uk.lifestyle.yahoo.com/tobacco-firms-lose-australia-packaging-challenge-234014187.html

[honeykid]

Brains, not brawn, for knockout karate punch: science

Brain power, not brute strength, may explain how karate experts can break bricks with a bare-handed strike, according to scientists who say years of martial arts training alter the organ's wiring.

Researchers in Britain compared the short-range punches of a dozen karate masters to those of 12 physically fit novices and found the black belts' secret lay not in muscle power but an ability to coordinate the peak velocity of their shoulder and wrist.

This allowed higher acceleration and a bigger impact force, the scientists say in the latest issue of the journal Cerebral Cortex.

The scientists then scanned the two groups' brains, and found that those who threw the bigger punch had changes in the structure of their white matter, which transmits signals between the brain's processing regions.

The longer they had been training, the more changes.

"The karate black belts were able to repeatedly coordinate their punching action with a level of coordination that novices can't produce," study co-author Ed Roberts of Imperial College London's medicine department said in a statement.

"We think that ability might be related to fine tuning of neural connections in the cerebellum (the part of the brain that governs motor control), allowing them to synchronise their arm and trunk movements very accurately."

Scientists believe that through the process of learning a skill, patterns of brain activity adapt as performance improves.

Now they believe they have also found proof of changes to the actual brain structure.

"This has implications for our understanding of the role of white matter connectivity in motor coordination," said the paper.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/brains-not-brawn-knockout-karate-punch-science-160116694.html

[honeykid]

Bookies won’t pay out granny’s Olympics bet

Family pride wasn't the only reason Linda Aldred was elated to see her grandson Sam Oldham win a surprise bronze medal in men's gymnastics at the London Olympics.

The 66-year-old from Ramsgate also had made a lucrative bet before the Games began that Oldham would take home a medal.

Aldred placed a £5 bet at 200-to-1 odds with Betfred in honour of her late husband and Oldham's grandfather, Eric, whom she described as "a betting man."

She attempted to cash in her bet after the Olympics, but bookmakers said they wouldn't pay her the £1,000 she thought she was due because Oldham's medal came in the team competition rather than as an individual.

"I was stunned," Aldred told the Thanet Times. "I am really happy Sam won, it is more the principle than the money, but I could have used the winnings to pay for my ticket to see Sam at the 2016 Olympics in Rio."

It's tempting to suggest that a grandmother who has never bet before might have simply misunderstood the wager she was making, but Aldred's betting slip appears to corroborate her argument.

Nowhere on that slip does it specify that Oldham needed to capture an individual medal for her to win. The 200-to-1 odds also would be reasonable either way since a British team hadn't won a medal in men's artistic gymnastics in 100 years.

Aldred said she has taken her complaint up with The Independent Betting Adjudication Service. Whether Betfred is right or wrong, the company might be wise to pay her. The money isn't worth the bad publicity the company has received for withholding a grandmother's winnings.
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/world-of-sport/bookies-won-t-pay-granny-olympics-bet-113426341.html

Here's hoping the publicity shames them into paying.

[honeykid]

Darth Vader star explains feud with George Lucas
David Prowse’s new book reveals how he was shut out by Star Wars hierarchy

David Prowse shouldn’t give interviews. The man who played Darth Vader reckons two chats with journalists permanently poisoned his relationship with George Lucas and the ‘Star Wars’ machine.

But he has an autobiography to plug, the entertaining ‘Straight from the Force’s Mouth’, so he’s chatting to us.

Bodybuilding champion, minor character in ‘A Clockwork Orange’, Green Cross Code Man and of course, the bloke inside the most famous suit in movie history, it’s fair to say there’s a lot to talk about.

His later years have sadly been spent battling illness, but he’s still a regular on the convention circuit. Except the official ‘Star Wars’ one, after he annoyed George Lucas. Again.

In 2010 he gave an interview that ended up in ‘The people versus George Lucas’, a one-sided documentary by Alexandre O Philips that criticised Lucas’ tinkering with the original ‘Star Wars’ trilogy.

“I travel all the way round the world, and people always ask ‘can I do an interview with you’.” he told Yahoo! Movies. “You have no idea where these interviews are going to go and this one found its way into this documentary.

“Obviously Lucas didn’t like it, and as soon as the film hit, they put the block on me.” It means he now can’t attend the official ‘Star Wars’ conventions, or the Disney ‘Star Wars’ weekend.

“They were lovely.” He sighed. “It’s a shame for the fans as well. How can you have a ‘Star Wars’ convention without Darth Vader?”

A recurring theme in ‘Straight from the Force’s Mouth’ is how the ‘Star Wars’ hierarchy tried to limit Prowse’s involvement in the films.

Chosen for his build and size, Prowse was physically perfect to play the imposing villain Darth Vader, but was a limited actor. His best known role before ‘Star Wars’ was a bodyguard in ‘A Clockwork Orange’.

In the book, Prowse recounts several humiliations heaped upon him.

He was given fake dialogue for the climactic “I’m your father” scene in ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ (Prowse only found out the real plot twist at the premiere).

Also in ‘Empire’, British fencing champion Bob Anderson was hired for the lightsabre battles, so Prowse was barely present for the climactic duel.

He was replaced with Sebastian Shaw when Vader was unmasked at the end of 'Return of the Jedi', because Shaw was friends with Alec Guinness, apparently.

Most famously, James Earl Jones was picked to be the voice of Vader, with no one telling Prowse.

“The thing that hurt was it was all done without telling me. It was all done in a very underhand way. I didn’t like it one little bit,” he said.

Prowse said his Bristol accent wasn’t to blame for Jones doing the voice (even though, according to legend, Prowse was dubbed ‘Darth Farmer’ on set).

He claims it was cheaper for Lucas to use an American actor in the LA-based sound stages, rather than fly him over to the States.

In the book, Prowse still reckons that “given the opportunity, I could have delivered an acceptable Darth Vader voice”.

Prowse recounts the first time he was banished from Lucas’ empire. He gave an interview to the Daily Mail while filming ‘Jedi’, whose reporter told him Vader would die and Shaw would play the unmasked villain.

Prowse knew nothing about this, but the story appeared that weekend citing Prowse as the source. The actor was hauled in front of a furious George Lucas and barely used on set from then on. Director Richard Marquand and Lucas himself never spoke to him again.

“Lucas regards me as a blabbermouth,” said Prowse.

At one stage he also had problems with LucasFilm about how he signed autographs.

“I put ‘Dave Prowse IS Darth Vader’. They didn’t like this, so I turned round to them and said ‘who’s name is next to Darth Vader in the credits on the movie’. They said ‘yours’. I just wanted to make sure the fans know that I was the man in the suit.”

According to some fans, he used to charge £15 an autograph. Perhaps this is because of his well-publicised struggle to get his hands on some of the ‘Star Wars’ cash.

In 2009 Prowse said he never got royalties for ‘Return of the Jedi’ “because the film never went into profit”. ‘Jedi’ made £300 million at the box office, and (adjusted for inflation) is the 15th most successful film of all time.

Despite all his issues with the ‘Star Wars’ machine, Prowse is effusive about Lucas’ abilities in his book, comparing him to Stanley Kubrick. “[I] was working with a cinematic genius… I feel very proud to be one small part of ‘Star Wars’ and to be able to say that I’ve actually worked with George.”

He said: “Nothing was ever ready [on the original ‘Star Wars’]. We had all these creatures wandering around, strange sets falling over. All sorts going wrong. I didn’t know how it would all fit together. Little did I know that after Lucas did all the special effects it would be incredible.”

His proudest moment from the series was his first scene as Vader, striding onto the rebel ship.

“You know instantly that this is the bad guy. That pleased me no end. It came over immediately to the audience… The original walk was how I established Vader.”

Prowse also clearly enjoys the conventions he’s still allowed to go to, although more people recognise him for being the Green Cross Code Man. The question he’s asked the most is: “How hot was it in the Darth Vader suit?”

And even if his beef with LucasFilm is never settled, Prowse will always be the man inside that suit.

http://uk.movies.yahoo.com/darth-vader-star-explains-feud-with-george-lucas.html

If you click the link, you can find a link to hear Prowse's voice sayiing Vader lines.

[gandalf26]

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/brains-not-brawn-knockout-karate-punch-science-160116694.html

Not so much Brain Power as technique I reckon.

For example I could hit a Golf Ball way further than a novice Bodybuilder because I have the required technique/swing/balance that even the strongest novice couldn't muster without practice.

Same with hitting a break shot in a game of pool, put a small skinny pro up against a novice strongman and the skinny pro wins every time.

Could be applied to most things really.

[gandalf26]

http://uk.movies.yahoo.com/darth-vader-star-explains-feud-with-george-lucas.html

If you click the link, you can find a link to hear Prowse's voice sayiing Vader lines.

If that is true that David Prowse wasn't told or kept in the loop about the voice change, or Sebastian Shaw in the unmasking scene, and a replacement for the dueling scenes then that is fairly douchey behavior by George Lucas.

Is it so hard just to tell someone what is going on?

Hard to get all the facts when you only hear one side of the story though. Maybe Prowse was a bit of a douche aswell.

[honeykid]

I don't know if it's true or not, but it is something I've heard for a great many years. If it is a lie, it's one that's been doing the rounds for the last 20+ years.

I do recommend clicking the link, though. I always thought it'd be funny to hear Prowse as Vadar and I was right. :D

[honeykid]

Cricket trying to crack America as ‘baseball on steroids’

Cricket is making a major push to crack the American market with the creation of a star-studded Twenty20 league and a catchy new tagline: "Baseball on steroids".

Given the recent history of America's favourite sport you might be forgiven for thinking that baseball is already baseball on steroids, but the director of Cricket Holdings America, Neil Maxwell, is unrepentant.

"Twenty20 cricket is baseball on steroids," he told The Times. "It's far quicker and there's a lot more activity."

Maxwell also predicted that the element of physicality will work in the ancient game's favour.

"Bowlers are allowed to bowl at your head," he said, "and the fielders field without mitts. Americans are intrigued."

The new league will be modelled on the IPL, with six teams playing a month-long tournament next July. New York and San Francisco are among the likely venues for the first season.

The final details have yet to be ironed out, but the CHA is confident that a myriad of big names can be lured from Australia, South Africa and New Zealand during the southern hemisphere off season - raising the intriguing prospect of the likes of Shane Warne or Brett Lee taking part, while Shane Watson, David Warner, Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard, Shahid Afridi and Kumar Sangakkara have also apparently indicated that they are interested.

Lee seems particularly keen.

"I would love nothing more than to play in front of a packed house in New York," he said. "My bags are packed."

But will it work? Many have pointed out that even football has never been able to truly break into the big time in America - but cricket is to throw everything into the showbiz accoutrements that have become common in Twenty20: think music, cheerleaders and yelling at sixes rather than polite applause for a well-timed forward defensive stroke.

If you think this is beginning to sound less and less like cricket, that's exactly what Maxwell is aiming for.

"It's about promoting an entertainment product," he said. "Almost remove the reference to cricket and create a thing called Twenty20 that competes with movies. Link it with Hollywood and Bollywood and provide all the razzmatazz that goes with it."

In case you're wondering, that noise you hear is the sound of WG Grace spinning in his grave.
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/world-of-sport/cricket-trying-crack-america-baseball-steroids-131757590.html

[Nausicaä]

Researchers/studies, using 2000 people, have been working sooooo hard to come up with the following very important conclusions...

People who have Purple coloured bedrooms have the most sex and people with Grey, Beige or Green have the least sex.

People with purple bedrooms have the most sex, according to a new study.


Clocking up 3.49 intimate encounters every week, couples with purple bedclothes, walls or furniture have more sex than those with rooms leaning towards any other colour scheme.

People with red bedrooms notch up a pretty respectable 3.18 sex sessions per week onto their crimson bedposts, while those with sky blue boudoirs manage 3.14.

Putting up a valiant battle not to be outdone by those at the top, people with pink bedrooms make love on average 3.02 times every week, and couples with black rooms slip just below the 3.0 mark with an average of 2.99 times.

Meanwhile, those poor loveless souls in grey rooms tend to have sex only 1.8 times per week, green only 1.89 and beige only 1.97, all below the national average of 2.55.

The survey of 2,000 adults by retailer Littlewoods.com also revealed that in terms of bedding, people with silk sheets are likely to have more sex than those with any other type of bedding, tallying up a whopping 4.25 times each week.

On the other end of the spectrum, people who snuggle up under duvets may be snuggling up alone: beds with duvets see action only 1.8 times per week, compared with bed clothes made of cotton (2.72), nylon (2.35) and even polyester (2.33).

Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, Homes Style Expert for Lttlewoods.com, said: 'For years I have been telling British homeowners, a beige bedroom makes for a beige sex life.

'That's one thing I wouldn’t want to wish on anyone.'

BEDROOM COLOUR / SEX PER WEEK

1. Purple - 3.49
2. Red - 3.18
3. Sky blue - 3.14
4. Pink - 3.02
5. Black - 2.99
6. Navy blue - 2.76
7. Yellow - 2.43
8. Orange - 2.36
9. Brown - 2.10
10. White - 2.02
11. Beige - 1.97
12. Green - 1.89
13. Grey - 1.80


TYPE OF BEDDING / SEX PER WEEK


1. Silk - 4.35
2. Cotton - 2.72
3. Nylon - 2.35
4. Polyester - 2.33
5. Duvet - 1.80

[Mysticalunicornfart]

:suspicious:.. My room is green.

[gandalf26]

My room is Navy Blue and I'm currently having 0.00 sex per week.

[DexterRiley]

My bedroom will never be purple, and i dont want to contemplate a week of less that 3 nights of whoopee.

..

Man sentenced to jail for collecting rainwater in Oregon


An Oregon man is expected to spend a month in jail after being convicted on nine misdemeanor charges related to his illegal use of…water. Gary Harrington was sentenced after being found guilty of illegally collecting water on his own rural property.

Harrington, of Eagle Point, Oregon, has been fighting for his right to do what he wishes with water since 2002. Now more than a decade after he first defended himself over allegations that the man-made ponds on his 170 acres of land violated local law, Harrington has been sentenced to 30 days behind bars and fined over $1,500.

Authorities say that Harrington broke the law by collecting natural rain water and snow runoff that landed on his property. Officials with the Medford Water Commission contested that the water on Harrington’s property, whether or not it came from the sky, was considered a tributary of nearby Crowfoot Creek and thus subject to a 1925 law that gives the MWC full ownership and rights. Therefore prosecutors were able to argue in court — successfully — that three homemade fishing and boating ponds in Harrington’s backyard violated the law.

For filling “three illegal reservoirs” on his property with runoff water, Harrington has been convicted on nine misdemeanor charges in Circuit Court. He says he will attempt to appeal, but as long as the conviction stands to serve 30 days of imprisonment. He has also been sentenced to an additional three years of probation.

"Thirty days in jail for catching rainwater?" Harrington tells the Mail Tribune. "We live in an extreme wildfire area and here the government is going to open the valves and really waste all the water right now, at the start of peak fire season.”

"When it comes to the point where a rural landowner can't catch rainwater that falls on his land to protect his property, it's gone too far," he adds to the Associated Press. "This should serve as a dire warning to all pond owners."

Taking his outrage to CNS News, Harrington says that others should be fearful of how they could come after attack next. In his own case, he was issued permits in 2003 by the state that allowed him to do what he wished with the water on his own property. And although the state Water Resources Department saw no fault at first, they shortly after revoked that license and left Harrington to fight for another nine years.

“The government is bullying. They’ve just gotten to be big bullies and if you just lay over and die and give up, that just makes them bigger bullies. So, we as Americans, we need to stand on our constitutional rights, on our rights as citizens and hang tough,” he tells CNS.

“This is a good country, we’ll prevail,” he insists.

http://rt.com/usa/news/rain-water-harrington-oregon-439/

[Nausicaä]

I leave my watering cans out to collect water when it rains so I can use it to water my flowers/plants if it's sunny the next day.

*Runs out to empty her watering cans and hide them in the shed*

:eek:

[honeykid]

^^http://dogwoof.com/assets/_sized/assets/_remote/http_goodwithfilm.com/library/films/images/Even-the-Rain-Dogwoof-Documentary_375_250_85_s_c1.jpg^^

OK, not quite, but I'm sure you get the idea.

[honeykid]

McDonald's to post calories for its menu

First they began offering salad, then they added fruit. On Wednesday, McDonald's announced it would put something else on its menu to help customers watching their waistlines: calorie counts.

The fast food giant said that starting next week, it will begin listing calorie information at its more than 14,000 restaurants and drive-through windows across the United States.

"At McDonald's, we recognize customers want to know more about the nutrition content of the food and beverages they order," said Jan Fields, president of McDonald's USA.

"As a company that has provided nutrition information for more than 30 years, we are pleased to add to the ways we make nutrition information available to our customers and employees," she said in statement.

McDonald's over the years has come under fire for offering too few healthy menu items at a time when obesity, the number one public health scourge in the United States, afflicts one in three Americans.

The company on Wednesday announced additions to its menu that it said would give consumers more wholesome choices, without mentioning the obesity issue as such.

America's most popular restaurant, McDonald's serves more than 25 million customers every day.

The company said the new menu offerings would include more fruit and vegetables such as blueberries and cucumbers in season, and that it would also add more grilled chicken items.

But the changes coincide with additions to the chain's most calorie-laden fare with menu items such as the Angus Bacon and Cheese hamburger, which serves up a hefty 790 calories.

McDonald's also this year began offering its mammoth, super-sized soft drinks for the same $1 price as its smallest beverages, at a time when sugary beverages have been fingered as a main culprit for everything from America's increasing girth to an epidemic of diabetes.

Nevertheless, food and nutrition experts were encouraged by the decision to post the calorie count of its menu, although some said they suspected they were prompted by an awareness that mandatory guidelines from the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will soon go into effect making such postings mandatory for most large retail food establishments.

"My guess is that they are doing this because they think they will have to as soon as the FDA rules come out," Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition and public health at New York University, told AFP.

"I want to see how they do it before breaking into applause," she said.
http://uk.lifestyle.yahoo.com/mcdonalds-post-calories-menu-210310572.html

And for the film historians.


World's First Colour Video Footage Unveiled

The earliest colour moving pictures ever made have been rediscovered after more than 100 years and will go on show in a new exhibition.

The footage, made by cinematic pioneer Edward Turner in around 1901, was found in the archives of the National Media Museum in Bradford and with the help of experts at the BFI National Archive was transformed into watchable digital files.

It includes footage of a macaw, soldiers marching through London and a group of children believed to be Turner's young family.

Film historians had long thought Turner's technique, which involved filming through red, green and blue filters and superimposing the frames on top of each other, was a failure.

The inventor patented his idea in 1899 with his financial backer Frederick Lee but died four years later aged 29 before he could take full advantage of it.

The museum's curator of cinematography Michael Harvey said: "We sat in the editing suite entranced as full-colour shots made 110 years ago came to life on the screen.

"The image of the goldfish was stunning: its colours were so lifelike and subtle.

"Then there was a macaw with brilliantly coloured plumage, a brief glimpse of soldiers marching and, most interestingly, young children dressed in Edwardian finery.

"I realised we had a significant find on our hands.

"We had proved that the Lee and Turner process worked."

The footage will go on show at the National Media Museum in Bradford from Thursday.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/worlds-first-colour-video-footage-unveiled-211655914.html

If you click the link, you can see the footage.

[Nausicaä]

I can tell you now, the people who are not health freaks(or want to lose weight/get healthy) are going to take no notice whatsoever of the food intake numbers on the menus and so on.

[honeykid]

No, but it's all about keeping off the tobacco-like payouts that'll those in the know say will almost certainly start in the next 5 to 10 years.

[DexterRiley]

Man accused of ‘Tebowing’ after assaulting 17-year-old boy

Police in Shenango Township, Pennsylvania on Wednesday announced that they had arrested a 53-year-old man who they say prayed in a “Tebow” pose after assaulting a 17-year-old boy in August.

The Shenango Township Police Department said that David Edward McCosby had confessed to assaulting the teen and was charged with misdemeanor simple assault, according to The Smoking Gun.

A police report last month indicated that a male suspected had confronted the 17-year-old boy because he had briefly driven a lawnmower into the road, blocking the man’s car.



“The male in the vehicle, possible a 1980′s Chrysler New Yorker maroon in color, stopped,” the report said. “He knocked the juvenile off the lawn mower and assaulted him in the front yard of the residence.”

“The male then walked back towards his vehicle, stopping and kneeling down as if in prayer (a ‘Tebow’).”

“Tebowing” is a neologism for the act of praying by kneeling on one knee and placing a fist on the forehead. The pose was named after Christian football player Tim Tebow and was officially recognized by the Global Language Monitor in 2011.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/09/12/man-accused-of-tebowing-after-assaulting-17-year-old-boy/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xz1nNgUEcdg

[honeykid]

Stephen King to publish sequel to 'The Shining' next year
Author will release 'Doctor Sleep' in September, following the story of Danny Torrance

Stephen King has revealed that his sequel to 'The Shining' will be published next year.

'Doctor Sleep' will be unleashed on September 24, 2013, the follow-up to his original 1977 novel, which was then adapted for the screen by Stanley Kubrick in 1980.

The book centres around Danny Torrance, the boy from the original book, and son of Jack Torrance, the deranged hotel caretaker played by Jack Nicholson in the film.

The plot follows Danny, now a middle-aged hospice worker and recovering alcoholic, as he settles in a New Hampshire town.

In his work, he helps patients to die painlessly using his powers of 'shining'.

He also befriends a young girl who possesses the same powers as him.

But he and his new charge are soon pursued by a shadowy tribe of 'psychic vampires' called The True Knot, who feed on the energy produced by children with the shining.

It's thought that studios will be clamouring to sign the rights to make the sequel into a film.
http://uk.movies.yahoo.com/stephen-king-to-publish-sequel-to--the-shining--next-year.html

[honeykid]

Jesus Fresco Artist 'Asking For Royalties'

A pensioner who horrified the congregation of her local church in Spain with a disastrous attempt to restore a fresco of Jesus, has reportedly struck again.

According to Spanish website elcorreo.com , 81-year-old Cecilia Gimenez has demanded royalties for her handiwork, after the Sanctuary of Mercy church decided to charge visitors to see the painting.

The decision apparently angered Ms Gimenez, who believed she should be rewarded for her attempt to restore Ecce Homo to its original state, after the painting began to peel.

The fresco, originally by Elijah Garcia Martinez, had been admired in the church in the northern city of Zaragoza for 120 years.

When Ms Gimenez's restoration tragedy became public it caused a sensation. Pictures of her work were published in newspapers around the world, including Iran, China and the Virgin Islands.

Tourists and visitors eager to see the famous fresco soon flocked to the church, which then began charging for admission.

According to reports, the church collected 2,000 euros in the first four days.

Ms Gimenez is said to have become a recluse after news of her astonishing art skills became public. Her supporters have even set up a Facebook fan page for her.

"For all the fans of Cecilia Gimenez, who noticed that an oil painting of Jesus Christ on the wall of her local church near Zaragoza was deteriorating and decided to take it upon herself to fix the 120-year-old fresco," it says.

Wine maker Bodegas Ruberte have even launched an Ecce Homo vintage to cash-in on the story.

A statement on their website said: "Some works remain unchanged over the years. Others, such as Ecce Homo, are interpreted to write a new chapter in its history.

"A story that is part of the land of Garnacha, and that inspires the creation of a wine, whose freshness and boldness combined with more traditional processes to reveal the pleasure that newfound taste".

A group of painters calling themselves Wall People have set-up a wall in honour of Ms Gimenez's work where fans can post pictures and postcards of her fresco.

Spanish graffiti artists The Graffiti Company have also paid tribute to Ms Gimenez by creating a mural depicting her alongside her Ecce Homo artwork.

The Santi Spiritus Hospital Foundation, the owner of the church, has reportedly instructed a solicitor to handle Ms Gimenez's remuneration demand.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/jesus-fresco-artist-asking-royalties-121714677.html;_ylt=AmO9xoPcnvWpjfzulxkgg.zEfMl_;_ylu=X3oDMTRucDNwbTBpBG1pdANlZGl0b3JzIHBpY2tzIFJIIE NvbCAxNzA5MTIEcGtnA2I0ZmU5ZWE3LWZhM2UtMzY3Zi05YmJhLTdlYzkwZmQ2YjMxOARwb3MDMgRzZWMDTWVkaWFCQ2Fyb3VzZW xNaXhlZExQQ0FUZW1wBHZlcgNlZjQzZDZkMy0wMzI1LTExZTItYmM2Zi04YTc0YjEzMDJkNzA-;_ylg=X3oDMTJsbjI4MDB0BGludGwDZ2IEbGFuZwNlbi1nYgRwc3RhaWQDYWE4ZmY0M2YtZTliYy0zM2M5LWJmYmQtZjFhOTBhZm E2ZmFlBHBzdGNhdAN1awRwdANzdG9yeXBhZ2U-;_ylv=3

Psychopaths have poor sense of smell: scientists
Psychopaths have a remarkably poor sense of smell, according to a study published on Thursday.

Researchers in Australia tested a theory that psychopathy -- a severe personality disorder characterised by lack of empathy, antisocial behaviour and callousness -- may be linked to impaired smell ability.

Both phenomena have been independently traced to dysfunction in part of the brain called the orbito-frontal complex (OFC).

Mehmet Mahmut and Richard Stevenson of the Department of Psychology at Sydney's Macquarie University trialled the olfactory skills of 79 individuals, aged 19 to 21, who had been diagnosed as non-criminal psychopaths and lived in the community.

Using "Sniffin' Sticks" -- 16 pens that contain different scents, such as orange, coffee and leather -- they found the participants had problems in correctly identifying the smell, and then discriminating it against a different odour.

Those who scored highest on a standard scorecard of psychopathic traits did worst on both counts, even though they knew that they were smelling something.

The finding could be useful for identifying psychopaths, who are famously manipulative in the face of questioning, says the paper, published in the journal Chemosensory Perception.

"Olfactory measures represent a potentially interesting marker for psychopathic traits, because performance expectancies are unclear in odour tests and may therefore be less susceptible to attempts to fake 'good' or 'bad' responses."

The OFC is a front part of the brain responsible for controlling impulses, planning and behaving in line with social norms.

It also appears to be important in processing olfactory signals, although the precise function is unclear, according to previous research.

Odour molecules bind to specific nerve cells in the base of the nose, which then send signals via the lateral olfactory tract to the primary olfactory cortex.

From there, the signals go to OFC via a brain organ called the mediodorsal nucleus, located in the thalamus.

The study makes clear that a poor sense of smell does not by itself mean that someone is a psychopath. Olfactory dysfunction can also occur in schizophrenia, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease, it notes.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/psychopaths-poor-sense-smell-scientists-140614064.html;_ylt=AlPcZnqVWscNiMfIxzlCHjDEfMl_;_ylu=X3oDMTRuaXR0MXU5BG1pdANlZGl0b3JzIHBpY2tzIFJIIE NvbCAxNzA5MTIEcGtnAzA1MTYxMmRjLWZhODgtMzk5Mi1hMjUwLTQ2ZjM1ZWI0YjE1NwRwb3MDMQRzZWMDTWVkaWFCQ2Fyb3VzZW xNaXhlZExQQ0FUZW1wBHZlcgMwZDAzMzQ0MS0wMzM1LTExZTItYjNkZS0zM2I2MzhhMGRmZDQ-;_ylg=X3oDMTJsbjI4MDB0BGludGwDZ2IEbGFuZwNlbi1nYgRwc3RhaWQDYWE4ZmY0M2YtZTliYy0zM2M5LWJmYmQtZjFhOTBhZm E2ZmFlBHBzdGNhdAN1awRwdANzdG9yeXBhZ2U-;_ylv=3

[Nausicaä]

Someone told me once that people who love the smell of petrol/gasoline are more likely to be a serial killer or become one. I adore the smell of petrol actually. :D

[honeykid]

Me too. Of course, I also love lighting fires, so that probably accounts for the all bodies in the basement. :D


Blowhard silencer, dead-fish brain science win spoof Nobel prizes

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Psychologists who discovered that leaning to the left makes the Eiffel Tower seem smaller, neuroscientists who found brain activity in a dead salmon, and designers of a device that can silence blowhards are among the winners of Ig Nobel prizes for the oddest and silliest real discoveries.

The annual prizes are awarded by the Annals of Improbable Research as a whimsical counterpart to the Nobel prizes, which will be announced early next month.

Former winners of the real Nobels hand out the Ig Nobel awards at a ceremony held at Harvard University in Massachusetts.

Ig Nobels for 2012 also went to U.S. researchers who discovered that chimps can recognize other chimps by looking at snapshots of their backsides, and to a Swedish researcher for solving the puzzle of why people's hair turned green while living in certain houses in the town of Anderslöv, Sweden. (The culprit was a combination of copper pipes and hot showers.)

Marc Abrahams, editor of the Annals and architect of the Ig Nobels who announced the winners on Thursday, said one of his personal favourites was this year's Acoustics Prize.

Japanese researchers Kazutaka Kurihara and Koji Tsukada created the SpeechJammer, a machine that disrupts a person's speech by playing it back with a very slight delay.

"It's a small thing you aim at someone who is droning on and on," Abrahams said. "What the person hears is just off enough that it completely disconcerts and discombobulates them, and they stop talking. It has thousands of potential good uses."

Abrahams' panel of experts also cited the work of Dutch psychologists Anita Eerland, Rolf Zwaan and PhD student Tulio Guadalupe for their study, "Leaning to the Left Makes the Eiffel Tower Seem Smaller."

The work explored how posture influences estimations of size: with leaning to the left correlating with lower estimates, and leaning to the right correlating with higher estimates.

The team tested this by placing 33 undergraduates on a Wii Balance Board, which tilted slightly to the left or the right while they were asked to guess the size of objects, including the height of the Eiffel Tower.

As expected, those who leaned left had lower guesses than those who leaned to the right or stood up straight.

DEAD SALMON 'THINK'

One of the more infamous studies winning an Ig Nobel was for research detecting meaningful brain activity in a dead salmon.

It started as a lark, explains Craig Bennett of the University of California, Santa Barbara, who studies adolescent brain development using functional magnetic resonance imaging or fMRI, a technique for measuring brain activity.

Before starting tests on people, scientists first check their equipment using a phantom object, typically a sphere filled with mineral oil. But since any object will do, Bennett and colleagues had been trying out a variety of items, including a pumpkin, a Cornish game hen, and finally, an Atlantic salmon.

In the salmon test, the team showed photos to the dead fish and asked it to determine what emotion the person was feeling.

"By random chance and by simple noise, we saw small data points in the brain of the fish that were considered to be active," said Bennett. "It was a false positive. It's not really there."

The often-quoted study exposed the perils of fMRI science, which can be prone to false signals, and underscored the need to do statistical corrections to safeguard against such silly findings.

"It's a great teachable moment for how we should process the MRI data," he said.

OTHER WINNERS: - Physicists at Unilever led by Dr. Patrick Warren and at Stanford University led by Professor Joe Keller for their use of mathematics to explain why ponytails take on their distinctive "tail" shape. The Ig Nobel is Keller's second. - Igor Petrov and colleagues at the SKN Company in Russia for using technology to convert old Russian ammunition into new diamonds. - Rouslan Krechetnikov and Hans Mayer of the University of California, Santa Barbara, for illuminating why carrying a cup of coffee often ends up in a spill. - French researcher Emmanuel Ben-Soussan on how doctors performing colonoscopies can minimize the chance of igniting gasses that make their patients explode. - The U.S. Government General Accountability Office, for issuing a report recommending the preparation of a report to discuss the impact of reports about reports.

(Editing by Michele Gershberg and Richard Chang)

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/blowhard-silencer-dead-fish-brain-science-win-spoof-010330176--sector.html

[akatemple]

Tycoon Offers $65M to Man Who Woos Gay Daughter

Cecil Chao Sze-tung is Hong Kong’s perennial playboy. Call him the city’s Hugh Hefner, minus the pajamas and add a pair of shades.
Never married, real estate and shipping tycoon Chao, 76, has been a staple of the Hong Kong tabloid and social rags since the 1970s. For over 40 years he’s proudly paraded what seems to be an endless supply of female arm candy in front of the flashing bulbs.
Tales of his romantic dalliances are tabloid staples. He once boasted about having slept with over 10,000 women. Just last year the septuagenarian Chinese Casanova, as to prove his virility has not been dashed by time, posed in a magazine photo spread surrounded by young bikini-clad models.
He has fathered three children from three different women.
He has thumbed his nose at the institution of marriage. Until this week.
Chao’s respect for a traditional marriage was prompted by his daughter Gigi, 33, being quoted recently in the Beijing press saying she had married her long-time girlfriend Sean Eav earlier this year in Paris. Hong Kong currently still does not legally recognize same-sex marriages.
Rather than accepting his daughter’s decision, Chao has announced a dowry-bounty of sorts: HK$500 million ($65 million US Dollars) to the man who can woo his lesbian daughter away from her wife.
“I don’t mind whether he is rich or poor. The important thing is that he is generous and kind-hearted,” Chao told the South China Morning Post while dismissing reports of his daughter’s same-sex marriage as being “false.”
“Gigi is a very good woman with both talents and looks. She is devoted to her parents, is generous and does volunteer work,” he said.
His offer has been met with an enthusiastic response around the world. Within a day, Gigi’s Facebook and Twitter accounts were inundated with requests and followers.
On her public facebook feed, Gigi wrote: “where do all these people come from? Jerusalm(sic)? Ethiopia? Istanbul? Ridiculous.”
Meanwhile on Gawker.com, a shirtless reader – allegedly a Brazilian Algae-researching-mountain-climber – is interested. He wrote the website, asking for help to connect: “I think this girl is gorgeous and as I love women I am willing to fly to hk to meet with her. Can you please let me know how to arrange a meeting with them?”
Speaking to the SCMP Wednesday, Gigi Chao laughed off her father’s marriage bounty, telling the newspaper she found it all “quite entertaining.”
In the interview the younger Chao would not confirm or deny the rumors of her marriage and her sexual orientation.
“I’m not afraid to admit anything. But I do want to respect my parents,” she told the paper.
Much of Hong Kong society maintains fairly conservative views on homosexuality. Gigi Chao acknowledges this telling the paper, “It’s still an uncomfortable issue for many people.”
When asked by the SCMP whether her father disapproved of her alleged same-sex marriage because his “pronounced heterosexuality,” Gigi simply replied: “He loves the attention.”

I need a plane ticket to Hong Kong immediately. :D

[honeykid]

Albert Einstein's "God Letter" to be auctioned online

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A letter handwritten by physicist Albert Einstein a year before his death, expressing his views on religion, will be sold on eBay this month with an opening bid of $3 million, an auction agency said on Tuesday.

Known as the "God Letter," the correspondence offers insights into the private thoughts about religion, God and tribalism of one of the world's most brilliant minds.

"This letter, in my opinion, is really of historical and cultural significance as these are the personal and private thoughts of arguably the smartest man of the 20th century," said Eric Gazin, the president of Auction Cause, a Los Angeles-based premier auction agency, which will handle the sale on eBay.

"The letter was written near the end of his life, after a lifetime of learning and thought," he added.

Einstein wrote the letter in German on January 3, 1954, on Princeton University letterhead to philosopher Erik Gutkind after he read Gutkind's book "Choose Life: The Biblical Call to Revolt."

"...The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation, no matter how subtle, can (for me) change this," wrote the German-born scientist, who in 1921 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.

The anonymous seller of the letter, which will be auctioned with the original envelope, stamp and postmark, purchased it from Bloomsbury Auctions in London in 2008 for $404,000.

Since that time the letter has been stored in a temperature-controlled vault at a public institution.

Although the opening bid of the eBay auction is $3 million, Gazin, who handled previous high-profile online auctions, said he expects it will fetch double or triple that amount during the October 8-18 auction at www.einsteinletter.com

"eBay has the widest possible audience and it is so global and so accessible," he explained, adding that 10 years ago the last major Einstein letter sold for more than $2 million.

"We feel this is a reasonable starting price given the historic importance and the interest in Einstein," Gazin added.

(Reporting by Patricia Reaney; editing by Christine Kearney and Gunna Dickson)

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/albert-einsteins-god-letter-auctioned-online-204652856.html

[honeykid]

Scientists to create 'black holes'

British scientists are to mimic black holes in the laboratory as part of a £2.35 million project looking at how matter and energy interact.

The team from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh will produce laser pulses whose energy is measured in trillions of watts.

They will be used to simulate conditions found around a black hole, a place where gravity is so strong that light cannot escape and the normal laws of physics break down.

Lead scientist Daniele Faccio said: "What we are creating is the same space-time structure which characterises a black hole. But we're doing this with a light pulse, so we don't actually have the mass which is associated with black holes.

"Gravitational black holes are generated by a collapsing star. We don't actually have this collapsing star, so there's no danger of being sucked into the black holes we're generating here."

The university has been awarded a three million euro (£2.35 million) grant by the European Research Council to investigate new areas of quantum physics.

Another study will look at how single photons and electrons interact with each other in computer chips.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/scientists-create-black-holes-151942948.html

[Yoda]

This'll end well.

[honeykid]

As they don't have the mass, I can't see them becoming a problem. One of the following, however...

Prometheus: Science fiction vs science fact

Ridley Scott's sci-fi epic 'Prometheus' throws up a lot of questions. Is it a prequel to 'Alien'? What are David's (Michael Fassbender) motives? But most importantly, will we all be visiting far-flung planets in twenty years time?

Well, we flew out to the SIRIUS* astronaut training facility in Boston to chat to some boffins about the technology featured in 'Prometheus' and they told us the differences between science fiction and science fact.

Cryosleep is the sci-fi idea of "sleeping" or "hibernating" for long periods of time in a controlled environment. Janna Kaplan, MS, SIRIUS Program Lead and Senior Scientist revealed that "you CAN induce suspended animation of cryosleep"!

Before you start booking your tickets to Pluto, Kaplan dampened the mood saying it isn't possible for humans to do this yet. She explained that "you can't take human tissue below freezing and revive it, organs and eggs yes, but not the complete whole body."

The professor then told us the grizzly truth about the cryosleep process, should it ever become a reality. She said, "when one would consider putting someone in to cryolseep you would not just freeze them as is, you would go through cleansing procedures, they would not have stuff in their stomachs."

Are skinny space suits in fashion?
The crew of Prometheus are kitted out in much more svelte gear than the clumsy white gilet-like outfits you see on real-life space men. Would they even help in space?

Well, Kaplan says that "because there was no gravity difference on the planet, the suits just needed to protect from whatever elements are in the atmosphere (and to give them a dramatic feel!)."

Apparently, the crew could have done without them on that planet but the expert confessed that they looked "much prettier" with the suits.

She continued: "In real life the space suits are pressurised so they are inflated. But space suits like these [in 'Prometheus'] are already in the works. Prototypes of space suits at the moment are body-contoured."

Will we ever have androids doing the washing up?
According to Kaplan the life-like aspect of the 'Prometheus' android (Michael Fassbender) is extremely plausible, claiming that "that's the easiest part". The tricky bit is the "movement control of robots" (i.e. making it move properly).

Fellow boffin Paul DiZio PhD threw a spanner into the works, announcing: "What's more likely to evolve is the cyborg technology on earth where humans and machines become so integrated."

"That is happening — machine augmentation of humans is happening at an incredible rate. People are swallowing nano-technology and getting things embedded. So the decision isn't going to be 'do humans create artificial intelligence?', the decision is going to be 'do cyborgs create a totally non-human being?'"

Scary stuff...

Are the mapping drones real?
In the film these 'mapping drones' are the red floating balls that fly off, take a scan and produce an accurate map of the surrounding area.

According to Joel Ventura PhD they already exist! He claims that the military has developed machines "fitted with cameras to fly in to areas and look for threats". Although not as impressive as the ones in the film, we are well on our way to making them.

Kaplan chips in to say that she can "definitely" see them becoming reality. She confirms the existence of military prototypes (although not as flashy) and claims "that technology I see developing."

So when can we go to space?
Janna: "The definite things that are happening and will be available in the next two years are private, commercial space flights. The industry is deliberately slowing it down because of the recession and so the market isn't ready yet. But within two years, once there are more people that want to buy the services, the services will be ready."

*SIRIUS Astronaut Training, and The Ashton Graybiel Spatial Orientation Laboratory at Brandeis University, USA

Edited by Edward Bovingdon
http://uk.movies.yahoo.com/blogs/movie-editors/prometheus-science-fiction-vs-science-fact-163604715.html

[will.15]

[-]

Florida Man, 32, Dies Shortly After Winning Pet Store's Roach Eating Contest


Edward Archbold, 32, collapsed after winning a roach eating contest at the Ben Siegal Reptile store. Archbold was competing for a free python.

Investigators reported that Archbold "wasn't feeling well and began to regurgitate" shortly after the contest's conclusion.

"He had consumed dozens of roaches," a sheriff's spokesman noted.

The county medical examiner is awaiting test results to determine Archbold's cause of death.

[honeykid]

Mixologist claims new world record

A cocktail maker has claimed to have set a new record for the most expensive cocktail in the world.

Mixologist Salvatore Calabrese says "Salvatore's Legacy", made using ingredients dating back to before American independence and the French Revolution, will set you back a cool £5,500 per glass.

Guinness World Records said it is investigating the claim which would topple the record holder, a cocktail costing £3,766.52 served in a Dubai hotel.

The attempt was made at Salvatore's, Mr Calabrese's bar at the Playboy Club London, with a bar spokeswoman saying: "Earlier on today legendary mixologist Salvatore Calabrese, also known as The Maestro, broke the Guinness World Record for the world's most expensive cocktail.

"He created Salvatore's Legacy, a classic blend of vintage ingredients, costing £5,500 a glass."

The cocktail uses four ingredients: a 1778 Clos de Griffier Vieux Cognac, a 1770 Kummel liqueur, a circa-1860 Dubb Orange Curacao and two dashes of Angostura bitters dating from around 1900. The attempt was planned for July but was delayed when a bottle of one of the ingredients smashed.

"I was devastated when my bottle smashed and thought my dream of breaking the world record was over, but thankfully it has all worked out and nothing will stop me now," Mr Calabrese said before the attempt.

A spokeswoman for Guinness World Records, said: "GWR can confirm that we have received an official claim for the most expensive cocktail record attempt, taking place in London tonight.

"The current record for the most expensive cocktail commercially available is '27,321', costing 27,321 United Arab Emirates dirham (£3,766.52, 7,439 US dollars) which can be found on the menu of The Skyview Bar of Burj Al Arab Hotel, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

"GWR will only be able to confirm if the attempt has been successful or not three working days after we have received the evidence."
http://uk.lifestyle.yahoo.com/mixologist-claims-world-record-174155069.html

[honeykid]

Who really won the Tours de Lance?

Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme has announced that he does not want Lance Armstrong's seven titles to be re-attributed in the wake of USADA's damning 1,000-page report.

By all intents and purposes it seems that Armstrong's seven Tour wins between 1999 and 2005 were accumulated largely thanks to a systematic doping ring that made the doctors of the Eastern bloc look like a bunch of interns at Boots.

At best, it has also been argued that the UCI effectively cast a blind eye at what was going on at Armstrong's US Postal team during the seven years following the Festina scandal of 1998.

Supposing Blazin' Saddles was unanimously voted in as the new UCI President to replace the faltering Verbruggen-McQuaid empire — who would your faithful cycling scribe feel comfortable to choose to retrospectively mount the podium in Paris during those turbulent years?

It's a tricky task, given the overwhelming number of riders from that era having failed doping tests during their careers or having been linked to the Festina and Operacion Puerto scandals...

1999: Current podium

1. Lance Armstrong

2. Alex Zuelle

3. Fernando Escartin

Alternative winner: Daniele Nardello

The unheralded Italian classics specialist finished in seventh place more than 17 minutes behind Armstrong but was never involved in any doping scandal during his successful yet far from stellar career. Zuelle was dragged through the Festina dirt and so really should not have been riding the '99 Tour, while Escartin was a frequent client of Michele Ferrari, although the Spaniard never tested positive. Laurent Dufaux of Switzerland and Spaniards Angel Casero and Abrabam Olano — all of whom finished above Nardello — all either tested positive during the 90s or have admitted to doping during their careers.

2000: Current podium

1. Lance Armstrong

2. Jan Ullrich

3. Joseba Beloki

Alternative winner: Daniele Nardello

This time Nardello finished 10th in Paris but those above him are a veritable Who's Who of doping dastardliness: we're talking the likes of Christophe 'Morals' Moreau (Festina), Roberto 'Helas' Heras (EPO), Richard 'I didn't do it' Virenque (Festina), Santiago 'EPO Solero' Botero (Puerto), Escartin (see above) and Francisco 'Man & EPO' Mancebo (Puerto) — as well as Puerto-implicated runners-up Ullrich and Beloki: all in all, enough 3am blood-like-jam wake-up calls to revive Festina's flagging watch business.

Of course, virtual back-to-back wins for the little-known Italian might as well be a hat-trick: Nardello finished seventh in the 1998 Tour won by the late Marco Pantani — and those above him then were more or less about as crooked as one of Alpe d'Huez's famous hairpin bends. Heck, Nardello finished 18th in the 1997 Tour won by Ullrich — and even that may have been enough to see the Italian open up his account. Four-time Tour de France winner Daniele Nardello, eh?

-----------------------------

2001: Current podium

1. Lance Armstrong

2. Jan Ullrich

3. Joseba Beloki

Alternative winner: Andrei Kivilev

For the second successive year it's an identical podium in the Paris — and their training methods were probably pretty much identical too. Kazakhstan's Andrei Kivilev of Codifis was fourth on GC — and although his nationality, team (three years later Cofidis were rumbled for an internal doping programme and chucked off the Tour) and close friendship with a certain Alexandre Vinokourov all combine to send alarm bells ringing, there's no evidence to suggest that the late Kivilev was riding anything other than 'paniagua' (on bread and water). Kivilev was killed two years later after a crash in Paris-Nice. He would be remembered as the main catalyst for the UCI implementing the compulsory wearing of helmets — but not as a Tour de France winner.

-----------------------------

2002: Current podium

1. Lance Armstrong

2. Joseba Beloki

3. Raimondas Rumsas

Carlos SastreAlternative winner: Carlos Sastre

Like in 2000, you have to sink to lowly 10th place to find a worthy winner of this Tour. Alongside Armstrong on the podium were Puerto-implicated Beloki and the Lithuanian Rumsas, who not only got rumbled for EPO use in the 2003 Giro, he had to live with the psychological burden of having a mother-in-law hooked on a cocktail of corticosteroids, testosterone, growth hormones and anabolic steroids.

Sastre — who was separated from the podium by the likes of chancy Colombian Botero, iffy ONCE pair Gonzalez de Galdeano (failed test) and Azevedo (Puerto and Postal), suspect Spaniards Heras and Mancebo, not to mention self-confessed EPO engine Levi Leipheimer — is awarded the win, despite finishing more than 19 minutes down on the Texan. There would be a podium place for David Moncoutie too, who finished an unlucky 13th. Sastre won the Tour outright in 2008 — but evidence suggests he should well have opened his account much earlier.

-----------------------------

2003: Current podium

1. Lance Armstrong

2. Jan Ullrich

3. Alexandre Vinokourov

Alternative winner: Haimar Zubeldia

Like Armstrong, Jan 'Doping for Hair' Ullrich and Alexandre 'Blood Brother' Vinokourov have to be discounted, while we now all know about the antics of fourth-place Tyler Hamilton — who had joined CSC from US Postal — following his explosive book 'The Secret Race'. That would make fifth-place Spaniard Haimar Zubeldia, then of Euskaltel, the de facto 2003 winner, with Sastre standing alongside him on the virtual podium by virtue of the dodgy blood provenance of Iban Mayo (EPO), Ivan Basso (Puerto) and Christophe Moreau (Festina).

The fact that Hamilton was brought to CSC by Bjarne Riis to be a team leader underlines the extent that flagrant dopers were allowed to flourish in the peloton.

-----------------------------

2004: Current podium

1. Lance Armstrong

2. Andreas Kloeden

3. Ivan Basso

Alternative winner: Carlos Sastre

Ullrich became the first — and only — German winner of the Tour in 1997 but given what we know about his training habits, perhaps Andreas Kloeden should well have taken that accolade in 2004? Not so, given Kloedi's apparent degree of doping studies at the University of Fribourg that came to light in 2006.

Basso must be disqualified (merely because of his 'intention to dope', mind), while Azevedo (Puerto), Mancebo and Austrian journeyman Georg Totschnig (blood transfusion) were found to be riding on anything but Gerolsteiner fizzy water alone. That makes Sastre a virtual double winner of the Tour three years before he finally mounted the podium for good in 2008 — a sorry state of affairs for a dedicated rider who always gave it his all. With former team-mate Tyler Hamilton now at Phonak, Sastre's path at CSC was once again blocked by a "better prepared" rider — this time Basso.

-----------------------------

2005: Current podium

1. Lance Armstrong

2. Ivan Basso

3. Jan Ullrich

Cadel EvansAlternative winner: Cadel Evans

In 2011, Evans became the first Australian to ever win the Tour de France — a feat he could well have achieved in his debut Tour in 2005 were he not surrounded by men powered by enough orange juice to make the Man from Del Monte say "Yes! Yes! Yes!" for more than a decade.

Evans finished the race in eighth position almost 12 minutes down on Armstrong and was separated from the podium by MancEPO, VinEPO, 'Hay Fever' Levi and the not-so-free-range chicken, Michel Rasmussen (kicked off the 2007 Tour by his Rabobank team for "violating internal rules") . Before winning the race in 2011, Evans would finish second to Alberto Contador too...

-----------------------------

So, perhaps one day you'll be surfing through Wikipedia and you'll see a list containing this sequence: Nardello, Nardello, Kivilev, Sastre, Zubeldia, Sastre, Evans. More likely, however, you'll see a constantly changing series of DSQs, dashes and asterisks.
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/blazin-saddles/really-won-tours-lance-153516263.html

[honeykid]

Dolphins 'stay awake for 15 days'

Dolphins can stay alert and active for 15 days or more by sleeping with one half of their brain at a time, scientists in the United States have learned.

The trick of keeping half the brain continuously awake is vital to the sea mammals' survival, experts believe.

It allows them to come to the surface every so often to breath, and remain constantly vigilant for sharks.

Scientists in California tested the ability of two bottlenose dolphins to echolocate accurately over periods of time which would have left other animals sleep-deprived and exhausted. The dolphins, a male called Nay and female called Say, had to swim around a pen looking for phantom sonar targets.

Each of the eight targets consisted of a device that picked up dolphin sound pulses and sent back "phantom" echoes. When a dolphin detected an echo from an activated target, it responded by pressing a paddle. Correct detection triggered a tone, signalling success, and the dolphin was rewarded with a fish. False alarms led to no tone and no reward.

Over three sessions of five continuous days both dolphins did well, with success rates of up to 99%, but Say outperformed her male partner. The scientists then went on to test Say further by repeating the same experiment over a period of 30 days.

In the event, a storm cut the trial short after 15 days had elapsed. However, during this time Say's performance hardly deteriorated at all. The findings were published in the online journal Public Library of Science ONE.

Lead researcher Dr Brian Branstetter, from the National Marine Mammal Foundation in San Diego, said: "These majestic beasts are true unwavering sentinels of the sea. The demands of ocean life on air breathing dolphins have led to incredible capabilities, one of which is the ability to continuously, perhaps indefinitely, maintain vigilant behaviour through echolocation."

The scientists wrote: "From an anthropomorphic viewpoint, the ability of the dolphin to continuously monitor its environment for days without interruption seems extreme. However, the biological, sensory and cognitive ecology of these animals is relatively unique and demanding.

"If dolphins sleep like terrestrial animals, they might drown. If dolphins fail to maintain vigilance, they become susceptible to predation. As a result, the apparent 'extreme' capabilities these animals possess are likely to be quite normal, unspectacular, and necessary for survival from the dolphin's perspective."

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/dolphins-stay-awake-15-days-211555881.html

[honeykid]

Apple ordered to reveal profit margins
Apple could lose out big time as a result of winning a patent case against Samsung.

Apple (NasdaqGS: AAPL - news) has been dealt a double blow after a US judge said it should be forced to reveal sensitive information about its profit margins and the technology giant lost a legal battle in Britain.

The judge who presided over a high stakes court battle between Apple and Samsung in August has ordered that key data used as evidence in the case is made public. They include details about the iPhone maker’s sales, profits and margins.

Samsung was ordered to pay Apple $1.05bn (£650m) in the patents battle, after the Korean company was found guilty of copying Apple’s designs for the iPhone and its iPad device. However, the American technology giant stands to lose a considerable amount more if the information sparks a backlash amongst customers and dents sales of its expensive products.

As a listed company, Apple regularly reveals information about its revenues and profits, but it is careful not to disclose the mark up on its products. It has argued that the details will hand its rivals an unfair advantage.

The US court is unconvinced, however. “Apple has not established that public availability of its product-specific unit sales, revenue, profit, profit margin and cost data would actually provide its competitors with an advantage,” judge Lucy Koh wrote.

Apple still has another chance to keep the information under wraps. It will not be unsealed until the US Court of Appeal also examines whether the data should be made public.

Meanwhile in Britain, Apple failed to overturn an earlier ruling that cleared Samsung of copying certain elements of the iPad for its own tablet device, the Samsung Galaxy Tab.

Apple has been ordered to run an advertisement in a number of national newspapers spelling out that Samusng has not infringed its rights. It could still appeal the verdict by taking the case to the UK Supreme Court.
http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/apple-ordered-reveal-profit-margins-124806170.html

[honeykid]

St Peter's Church records CD of 'the sound of silence'

A church desperate to raise funds has recorded 'the sound of silence' on to a CD which has become a surprise hit with its congregation.

Members of St Peter's Church in East Blatchington, Sussex, recorded 'a little bit of the silence' of the building's atmosphere.

The unusual audio has been a surprise hit with churchgoers, with St Peter's selling their first copies at an open day and taking more orders since.

The recording of St Peter's atmosphere features the ambient sound of footsteps, voices, background traffic noise - but mostly nothing at all.

Robin Yarnton, a church technician at St Peter's, said: "It does what it says on the tin. Silence is all you get.

"Mostly people have said it's nice and they like it, and that it's quiet and peaceful."

Mr Yarnton admitted to having mixed feelings about the idea suggested by churchgoer Roger Bing, but released the recording after inviting church members to 'tune out and tune in'.

The full CD features a 30-minute track, with a spoken introduction from the Reverend Canon Dr Andrew Mayes, closing words, and 28 minutes of silence.

It has been described as a 'meditation aid, with a spiritual or faith element' but churchgoers have been urged to use it 'in any way they like'.

The recording does not have a set price, with buyers able to decide how much they think it is worth and make an appropriate donation to the church.

Mr Bing said the first batch of CDs were a sell-out, with more copies now on the way.

He said: "The point was to have silence but not total silence. You need the occasional background noise such as a footfall or the sound of someone squeaking in a pew."
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/st-peter-s-church-records-cd-of--the-sound-of-silence-.html

[The Rodent]

^ It'll sound better than some of the crap that's released in the charts these days anyways :D

[will.15]

http://www.movieforums.com/community/7448335.bin (javascript:void(0);)

This illustration from the New York Daily News website shows Catarina Migliorini and a man named Alexander, soon to be stars of a documentary film concerning the auctioning of their virginities..




Shrugging off global outrage and denying that she is no more than a prostitute, a 20-year-old Brazilian woman has sold her virginity for $780,000 US.
Catarina Migliorini, a physicial education student, auctioned her favours online and attracted 15 bidders, according to the New York Daily News. The winner was a man known only as Natsu, from Japan.
Migliorini, whose date with Natsu will be followed closely by an Australian documentary film crew, said she will put $20,000 and 90 per cent of the final auction price into a non-governmental organization that will construct modern houses for poverty-stricken families in her home state of Santa Catarina.
She has fended off criticism, saying: “I saw this as a business. I have the opportunity to travel, to be part of a movie and get a bonus with it.
“If you only do it once in your life, then you are not a prostitute — just like if you take one amazing photograph, it does not automatically make you a photographer.
“The auction is just business. I’m a romantic girl at heart and believe in love. But this will make a big difference to my area,” she told a Brazilian newspaper.
Migliorini will be “delivered” to her buyer on board a plane between Australia and the U.S.
Natsu will be tested for sexually transmitted diseases prior to the encounter, and Migliorini will be interviewed before and after the sexual act.
The intercourse itself will not be filmed and Natsu will retain a right to be anonymous, without his picture appearing in the media.
Sex toys will be banned from use and a condom will be compulsory. Migliorini said she is prepared to prove to any skeptics that she has not had sex before.
Migliorini signed up for the project two years ago when she saw an ad by Thomas Williams Productions looking for virgins to film.
A male virgin named Alexander, who is also being followed as part of director Justin Selsey’s documentary, sold for $3,000 to a Brazilian woman called Nene B.



Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/Brazilian+woman+auctions+virginity+online/7448334/story.html#ixzz2AMF03Ahq (http://www.theprovince.com/Brazilian+woman+auctions+virginity+online/7448334/story.html#ixzz2AMF03Ahq)

[honeykid]

TV and tablets blamed for thousands of children’s lack of basic development skills
‘Lazy’ lifestyles mean our overprotected children fail to learn basic development skills such as crawling, by the time they start school

Thousands of children are starting school without basic physical skills, according to new research.

And as we might have guessed, modern entertainment (think iPads and TV) is getting the blame.

Experts have suggested that combined with ‘TV parenting’, preschoolers spend so much time playing with these tablets and hi-tech toys, they’re falling behind on physical development and motor skills.

In the research 60 reception children at a West Midlands school were given short tests to determine their physical development. Almost half showed signs of delayed development and a further 30 per cent had some signs of physical immaturity.

Many of the children found basic tasks such as crawling and standing on one leg for three seconds difficult or impossible and experts were alarmed that some appeared to have lost some baby reflexes - such as lifting their arms and simple head movements.

Our overprotected ‘cotton wool’ culture has also taken a share of the blame, with experts suggesting our reliance on prams and travel systems mean we don’t actually physically pick up our children as often as parents used to. Tots also walk and crawl less for fear of their safety.

Former primary head teacher Pete Griffin, who ran the study, said: “The main issue is that children don’t have the same kind of physical challenge and upbringing they might have had 40 or 50 years ago.

“There’s less creativity involved in playing on the screen or watching TV.”

He added that attention spans would also suffer: “TV comes in very small bites so children are not used to concentrating for long periods, video games move from one stimulus to another very rapidly.”

Worrying, of the children with physical development problems, more than three quarters (77 per cent) were also found to be behind academically. And with our exam-based culture, Mr Griffin warned that these children would find it hard to catch up.

http://uk.lifestyle.yahoo.com/children-behind-on-physical-development-motor-skills-screens.html

[Powderfinger]

One of my brothers started to walk at 9 months.....my Mother was 15 months,,,:D

[honeykid]

Blimey! She had him young.

[Powderfinger]

Blimey! She had him young.

My Mother isn't related to my brothers. He's 49 and my Mother is 63. My Dad is 78.

My sister isn't related to my brothers. I'm related to all of them...;)

[Nausicaä]

I was mostly climbing trees, making dens, cycling, playing sports in the park all day when I was little instead of video games, but then video games were not as popular when I was younger, not like now with technology. And this wasn't that long ago actually. The only time we played video games was when it was raining outside or no one was in to come out and play. I hope I'm wrong and the majority of children still do all the outdoors things mostly!

Now it seems to be a world where children are told off for climbing trees in case they fall, or don't make a den because you will poke your eye out with a branch and a paedophile will try to abduct you from the park if no parents about...

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

This is an interesting list that came out a few months back, called 50 things to do before you are 11¾:

1. Climb a tree
2. Roll down a really big hill
3. Camp out in the wild
4. Build a den
5. Skim a stone
6. Run around in the rain
7. Fly a kite
8. Catch a fish with a net
9. Eat an apple straight from a tree
10. Play conkers
11. Throw some snow
12. Hunt for treasure on the beach
13. Make a mud pie
14. Dam a stream
15. Go sledging
16. Bury someone in the sand
17. Set up a snail race
18. Balance on a fallen tree
19. Swing on a rope swing
20. Make a mud slide
21. Eat blackberries growing in the wild
22. Take a look inside a tree
23. Visit an island
24. Feel like you're flying in the wind
25. Make a grass trumpet
26. Hunt for fossils and bones
27. Watch the sun wake up
28. Climb a huge hill
29. Get behind a waterfall
30. Feed a bird from your hand
31. Hunt for bugs
32. Find some frogspawn
33. Catch a butterfly in a net
34. Track wild animals
35. Discover what's in a pond
36. Call an owl
37. Check out the crazy creatures in a rock pool
38. Bring up a butterfly
39. Catch a crab
40. Go on a nature walk at night
41. Plant it, grow it, eat it
42. Go wild swimming
43. Go rafting
44. Light a fire without matches
45. Find your way with a map and compass
46. Try bouldering
47. Cook on a campfire
48. Try abseiling
49. Find a geocache
50. Canoe down a river

^ I did all the things in bold during that age range. A list all children should look through. :D

[will.15]

Over Husband Obamacare, Weird News (http://www.movieforums.com/weird-news)

#news_entries #ad_sharebox_260x60 img {padding:0px;margin:0px}

http://i.huffpost.com/gen/859458/thumbs/s-HOLLY-SOLOMON-RUNS-OVER-HUSBAND-large.jpg?4 Holly Solomon



A wife furious at her husband for not voting, (http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/local/cop_shop/article_b72e4362-2cf5-11e2-b71c-0019bb2963f4.html) ran him over in a Gilbert, Ariz. parking lot, according to police.
The East Valley Tribune reports that, on Saturday night, Holly Solomon, 28, (http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/local/cop_shop/article_b72e4362-2cf5-11e2-b71c-0019bb2963f4.html) was arguing with her husband over his lack of voter participation when, witnesses said, they heard yelling and saw Solomon get into a Jeep and allegedly chase her husband through the parking lot.
MyFox Phoenix reports that the argument was fueled by Solomon's fear and hatred of the Affordable Care Act, (http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/story/20073992/2012/11/12/obamacare-dv-case) commonly called Obamacare.
Solomon's husband first tried to hide behind a light pole, but Solomon drove around it while yelling at him, a Gilbert Police report said.
When the husband tried to flee, Solomon drove after him, eventually hitting him and pinning him between the SUV and the curb, cops said.
ABC 15 reports that Solomon's husband was taken (http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/region_southeast_valley/gilbert/gilbert-pd-man-run-over-by-wife-for-not-voting#ixzz2C2zAHEyo) to a local hospital where he is in critical condition.
Solomon was charged with domestic violence and aggravated assault.

[honeykid]

Can anyone crack the pigeon's wartime code?

LONDON (Reuters) - A World War Two code found strapped to the leg of a dead pigeon stuck in a chimney for the last 70 years may never be broken, a British intelligence agency said on Friday.

The bird was found by a man in Surrey, southern England while he was cleaning out a disused fireplace at his home earlier this month.

The message, a series of 27 groups of five letters each, was inside a red canister attached to the pigeon's leg bone and has stumped code-breakers from Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), Britain's main electronic intelligence-gathering agency.

"Without access to the relevant codebooks and details of any additional encryption used, it will remain impossible to decrypt," a GCHQ spokesman said.

The message is consistent with the use of code books to translate messages which were then encrypted, according to GCHQ, one of Britain's three intelligence agencies.

However without knowing who the sender, "Sjt W Stot", is or the intended destination, given as "X02", it is extremely difficult to decipher the code, GCHQ said.

Although the code books and encryption systems used should have been destroyed, there is a small chance that one exists somewhere.

A spokesman for GCHQ said it was "disappointing" that the message brought back by a "brave" carrier pigeon cannot be read.

He added: "It is a tribute to the skills of the wartime code-makers that, despite working under severe pressure, they devised a code that was undecipherable both then and now."

The Curator of the Pigeon Museum at Bletchley Park, north of London, Britain's main code-breaking centre during World War Two, is also trying to trace the identity numbers of the pigeon found in the message, according to GCHQ.

Pigeons were used extensively in the war to carry vital information to Britain from mainland Europe. Flying at speeds of up to 80 km per hour, they can travel distances of up to 1,000 km but were vulnerable to hungry hawks and bored soldiers who used to take pot-shots at them as they flew overhead.

For a Reuters video on the pigeon's discovery: http://uk.reuters.com/video/2012/11/02/wwii-carrier-pigeon-remains-found-in-uk?videoId=238829953

(Reporting By Dasha Afanasieva, editing by Paul Casciato)
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/anyone-crack-pigeons-wartime-code-125411737.html


Boxing - Hector 'Macho' Camacho dies after shooting
Three-time world boxing champion Hector "Macho" Camacho has died four days after he was shot in the face in a drive-by shooting. He was 50.

Camacho was pronounced dead after being taken off life support following a second heart attack early Saturday morning, Rio Piedras Medical Director Ernesto Torres said.

Puerto Rico officials planned a public wake for the boxer at the Department of Sports & Recreation headquarters in San Juan, but details were pending.

The former U.S. boxing champ had been declared brain dead on Thursday after he was shot on Tuesday while sitting in a car with a friend, Adrian Mojica Moreno, 49, outside a liquor store in the San Juan suburb of Bayamon, Camacho's birthplace.

Two gunmen opened fire on the car, killing the driver, Mojica Moreno, and hitting Camacho in the jaw. The bullet fractured two vertebrae and lodged in his shoulder, damaging the arteries that carried blood to the brain, doctors said.

Police found nine small bags of cocaine in the driver's pockets and one open in the car.

The shooting is under investigation and no arrests have been made.

Camacho, a left-handed fighter who grew up in New York's Spanish Harlem neighborhood, had a record of 79-6-3 with 38 knockouts. His three-decade career featured fights with a "who's who" of boxing and a flamboyant style that included entering the ring in an outfit based on the Puerto Rican flag.

Camacho's body was taken to the hospital's pathology section and brought to the Institute of Forensic Sciences as required by law, Torres told reporters.

El Nuevo Dia newspaper reported the family planned a funeral in New York, where Camacho grew up.

Family members had debated removing him from life support, with some members including his son Hector "Machito" Camacho holding out hope for his recovery.

On Friday evening, his mother Maria Matias acknowledged during a brief talk with reporters at the medical center that that "God has taken him" and indicated that she was waiting for the arrival of Camacho's other children to Puerto Rico before disconnecting him.

Some family members had discussed organ donation, but Torres said too much time had passed from when the former fighter was declared brain dead on Thursday morning to donate his organs now.

Camacho Jr. lamented the crime and violence confronting Puerto Rico. "You have to stop the violence and the drugs. Rap singers have to stop glorifying violence. This is for the youth. All the street promises them now is death, drugs, and jail."

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/news/boxing-hector-macho-camacho-remains-life-support-182749213.html

[honeykid]

Pan's Labyrinth to be made into a musical

'Pan's Labyrinth' is to be adapted into a stage musical.

Director Guillermo Del Toro has already written the script for the stage version with newcomer Jeremy Ungar.

There's also Oscar-winning composer Gustavo Santaolalla on board to write the music and songs, and Paul Williams to write lyrics.

Said Santaolalla: “I’m so excited about translating Guillermo’s magical vision into music and songs. I’m such a longtime fan of both Guillermo and Paul that to work on this with them is truly a dream come true.”

The film was released to critical rapture in 2006, many critics naming it the film of the year.

It also went on to win Oscars for best art direction, best cinematography and best make-up.

The films follows the life of a young girl, Ofelia, who retreats into a world of fantasy while under the tyrannical authority of her vicious, pro-Franco stepfather in post-Civil War Spain.

It's not yet known where the musical will debut.

Meanwhile, Del Toro continues to be one of the hardest-working directors in Hollywood.

His forthcoming blockbuster 'Pacific Rim' is gearing up to release its first trailer, with some enticing teaser material already hitting the web.

The film, in stark contrast to the dark fantasy of 'Pan's Labyrinth', sees the planet threatened by monstrous creatures called 'kaiju' that emerge from the oceans.

They are then battled by soldiers piloting giant robots, in what Del Toro describes as 'a beautiful poem to giant monsters', influenced by the creatures of Japanese film.

It stars Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba and Ron Perlman, and is due out on July 12, 2013.
http://uk.movies.yahoo.com/pan-s-labyrinth-to-be-made-into-a-musical-085008879.html


Hit zoomable London map shows exactly where German bombs fell

A new interactive map shows off the horrifying scale of the German aerial assault on London during World War II.

A new interactive map shows off the horrifying scale of the German aerial assault on London during World War II.

The Bomb Sight project is a zoomable map which zooms down to street level, showing where individual bombs fell during one of the most intense periods of the Blitz.

Many London streets were hit several times during the period, when the Luftwaffe bombed London for 57 consecutive nights, dropping tonnes of bombs.

A Bomb Sight app lets users look ‘through’ their phone’s camera to see where bombs fell on a ‘live’ version of London – superimposing devastating German attacks over today’s rebuilt London.

The map uses information from a ‘bomb census’ between 1/10/1940 and 06/06/1941 – and mixes information on bombs, with text and photographs from the period.

Locations for individual bombs are mapped along with photographs from the Imperial War Museum and text from the BBC ‘People’s War’ archive.

The information was previously only available in the National Archives.

“Previously available only by viewing in the Reading Room at The National Archives, Bomb Sight is making the maps available to citizen researchers, academics and students wanting to explore where the bombs fell and to discover memories and photographs from the period,” the academics behind the project say.

The map works in any web browser and is accessible here. There is also an Android app in development which allows users to look 'through' their phone cameras to see the locations of bombs.

“The augmented reality view shows you markers hovering over where bombs fell, scaled to show closer locations with larger markers and smaller ones for those further away,” say its creators.

“We add a label with the name of the street it fell on. If you click on the marker, you’ll get a bit more information about the bomb and how far away from your location it fell.”
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/hit-zoomable-london-map-shows-exactly-where-german-bombs-fell-171414985.html

Here's the link to the site.

http://www.bombsight.org/#15/51.5050/-0.0900

[honeykid]

'Fido smells of dog': Most ridiculous excuses of owners getting rid of their pets revealed

The saying "A dog is for life, not just for Christmas" was coined 34 years ago by the Dogs Trust, but it seems its relevancy is just as pertinent today as it was back then.

The very worst excuses used by dog owners getting rid of their pets have been disclosed today by the animal welfare charity - and they make for sober reading.

A sample of excuses given to the Dogs Trust:

It's not as cute as it used to be

It's too big for the house

It snores too loudly
It can't do tricks

It keeps passing wind

It smells of 'dog'

The dog doesn't match the sofa

It scares the goldfish

It keeps barking at butterflies

It doesn't look like he did on the website

The dog was too old and no longer brought me any joy

It hurts my back to pick up my dog’s poop

I need a smaller dog

He wouldn’t fit in my handbag or wear the outfit I bought him

It can’t walk on the lino in my house

The dog gets too much attention

The dog doesn’t like me (after 24 hours)

Although some owners have legitimate reasons for giving up a dog, too often a flimsy reason is presented to staff at the charity's rehoming centres.

Four year old Terrier, Kirk, was handed in as his owners felt he got too excited when he was taken for walks.

A total of 16,000 dogs have been cared for by the Trust over the past year but the charity is bracing itself for a Christmas influx of unwanted pets.

Too many owners do not think through the commitment, dedication and money necessary to own a dog, according to Clarissa Baldwin, the CEO of Dogs Trust.

She said: "We see a number of dogs handed into our rehoming centres in the days and weeks following Christmas when the appeal of a cute puppy has worn off.

"It seems that people are still giving puppies as Christmas presents without considering the long term ramifications.

"Dogs can provide a world of happiness and enjoyment, and we urge anyone considering a new addition to the family to think it through properly and remember that the only place a puppy should be is on the outside of the wrapping paper, not inside it.”

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/dogs-trust-christmas-reasons-why-people-give-up-dogs--122646030.html


Justin Bieber: Murder And Castration Plot Foiled



Justin Bieber was to be strangled and castrated as part of a gruesome kidnap plot ordered by an obsessed jailed killer, according to a bizarre court case in the US.

Mark Staake, 41, and his 23-year-old nephew Tanner Ruane from New Mexico were allegedly commissioned by convicted killer Dana Martin to murder four men, including the pop superstar and his bodyguard.

Martin, who met Staake in prison, apparently gave exact details as to how the plot was to play out.

It included the use of a paisley tie - his old calling card - to strangle the victims and the offer of a \$2,500 (£1,600) bounty for each of the men's testicles.

But Staake was arrested in Vermont on November 19 on outstanding warrants for previous offences before any murders could take place, KRQE-13 TV in New Mexico reported.

A day later he was secretly recorded by police on the phone to Ruane, talking about the alleged plot.

The younger man was picked up in upstate New York, as Bieber prepared for performances at Madison Square Garden.

According to court documents, he was found with a pair of pruning shears and documents including the identities of the intended victims.

The 18-year-old star's management team issued a short statement on Wednesday night.

"We take every precaution to protect and insure the safety of Justin and his fans,” it said.

Ruane's mother, Kristin Cashman, told the New York Post the whole case was ridiculous.

"My son was not planning to kidnap or hurt anyone. He has nothing to do with any of this," she said.

"This has got to be some crazy thing Dana Martin made up. Everything about it is made up."

Martin, who is described as being obsessed with the Canadian singer, is also reported to have told the authorities about the alleged plot.

Staake and Ruane face two counts of conspiracy to commit murder and two counts of conspiracy to commit aggravated battery.

http://uk.omg.yahoo.com/news/justin-bieber-murder-castration-plot-foiled-151043931.html

[Powderfinger]

Warnie! you bad Man..lol!

http://au.sports.yahoo.com/cricket/news/article/-/15773431/warne-banned-for-one-big-bash-league-match/

[Powderfinger]

Queensland! Nature beast. You can't even have a swim here..lol!

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/suspected-irukandji-strike-on-fraser-island-20130107-2cclv.html

[Powderfinger]

Bushfire Season...Jesus. 2 states at the moment are suffering.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/queensland/a/-/newshome/15772786/no-deaths-in-tas-bushfire-so-far-police/

[Powderfinger]

Some states are getting temperatures about 113 - 116 F.

[Powderfinger]

http://au.news.yahoo.com/full-coverage/australian-bushfires/a/-/article/15789354/cool-change-offers-relief/

[honeykid]

It's such an awful situation down there for so many people. Even for those who aren't directly affected by the fires, how hot? F'cking hell. It's so hot that, if it'd been that hot when we discovered it, we never would've sent you there. :p

[Powderfinger]

It's so hot that, if it'd been that hot when we discovered it, we never would've sent you there. :p

Why do so many inbred Poms come and live in Australia now? I know why, as we're the most beautiful country in the World. Also, Poms know Britain are like dogs in heat, the sniff bums, but they never get anything..:D

[honeykid]

Why do so many inbred Poms come and live in Australia now?
I don't know. To live among their own kind?

I know why, as we're the most beautiful country in the World.
Why ask the question if you know the answer? Here's one for you, why do so many Australians leave paradise and come to Britain? It's not like we have a shortage of pub workers or waiters/waitresses.

Also, Poms know Britain are like dogs in heat, the sniff bums, but they never get anything..:D
OK, I honestly have no idea what this is about.

*BTW, for any other antipodeans reading this, this is just for. and aimed towards. PF. We slag each other off, it's what we do.*

[Powderfinger]

I don't know. To live among their own kind?

How can I put it! They only last in my beautiful country one year because their 2 year visa doesn't last, as they miss their brother/husband.

Why ask the question if you know the answer? Here's one for you, why do so many Australians leave paradise and come to Britain? It's not like we have a shortage of pub workers or waiters/waitresses.

Because Brits hate work, where Aussies are hard workers. Brits have to have an economy even though without Aussie workers Britain will end like Greece.


OK, I honestly have no idea what this is about.

Well, you're a cat person and that explains a lot..:D

[Powderfinger]

Bad Language

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oEvl4go1Kk

:D

[will.15]

What are all those Australian actors doing in Hollywood? Doesn't Australia have enough work for them there?

[Powderfinger]

Well, that was the Australian version of Wilfred....the best one. The American version is crap.

The Australian version at times can be crude and insulting, but it's in good humour. The American version is all froth and bubble....:bored:

[Powderfinger]

http://wentworth-courier.whereilive.com.au/news/story/perkal-brothers-cobbling-a-life-together-in-surry-hills/

IT'S hard not to be moved by the Perkal brothers.

At 93 and 91, Morris and Adam have been bootmakers for the past 62 years.

In that time, they've made shoes for everyone from the Queen to The Beatles, the Bee Gees, Frank Sinatra and Kerry Packer.

But their story goes beyond their humble shop in Surry Hills. The Polish brothers are Holocaust survivors. Their mother and brother were burnt alive by the Nazis in 1939.

While Morris used his bootmaking trade to work in Russia, Adam hid in Germany until he was captured and taken to a concentration camp. For 11 months, he was imprisoned in three camps before being liberated by the Americans in 1945. The brothers arrived in Australia within two years of each other, but it was only by chance they were reunited.

"I didn't know he was alive, he didn't know I was alive," Morris said.

It was through a letter Adam sent to their uncle who lived in Wollongong, that the pair found each other. Since then, they have been inseparable.

They live around the corner from each other in Dover Heights and despite being in their 90s, continue to work five days a week in their Crown St store.

"We've still got some clients from 40 years ago," Adam said.

So, what's the secret to their longevity?

"You need good food three times a day. You need a good breakfast, good lunch, plenty of food," Adam said.

But that wasn't the case for Morris, who said: "The secret is having wives. Having someone to argue with."

[honeykid]

Ten ‘almosts’ of the Star Wars universe

Chewbacca almost wore shorts
We’re not easing you into this, we’re going for broke straight away! Yep, Chewbacca almost wore shorts. 70s studio executives weren’t entirely convinced by the seven-foot-three rug walking around set wearing just an ammo belt, so at one point they suggested he cover up.

"I remember the memos from 20th Century Fox,” said Mark Hamill of the fuss. “’Can you put a pair of lederhosen on the Wookiee?'”

The Skywalkers were almost the Starkillers
In the early stages of the script Luke Skywalker went by the name of Luke Starkiller, which certainly sounds cooler, but it doesn’t exactly scream “fairy tale hero” does it?

If it was Anakin Starkiller running around the prequel trilogy doing morally questionable things and toeing the line between the light and dark side we’d have to question the intelligence of Obi-Wan and Yoda. Starkiller is the name of an evil person, so just stop him already!

Burt Reynolds and Bill Murray almost played Han Solo
Not just Burt Reynolds and Bill Murray but Christopher Walken, Al Pacino, Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, Nick Nolte, Kurt Russell and Billy Dee Williams (who went on to play Lando Calrissian of course) all either auditioned or were considered for the role of the smuggling scoundrel.

It’s hard to imagine anyone other than Harrison Ford playing Solo now but closest out of all the other potential candidates was Burt Reynolds, whose intense moustachioed gravitas would have completely changed the entire trilogy.

For example, Leia wouldn’t have thought twice about who to choose out of Han and Luke if Solo had boasted Burt’s manly charms.

Luke, Owen and Beru were almost dwarves
Another almost of the early scripts would have seen Luke, his uncle Owen and aunt Beru as a family of dwarfs. Most long-running fantasy series (see also: Harry Potter) are inspired in some way by the work of J.R.R Tolkien but making the hero a little person would have been a step too far.

The series would have changed immeasurably if this had been the case. Would Vader have also been a dwarf? If not, it would certainly have made the revelation that he was Luke’s father an even bigger shock for movie fans.

The Force was almost a large crystal
Early on in the scripting process George Lucas envisioned the Force as being a physical entity, a large crystal. A sort of galactic Holy Grail. It’s hard to imagine Lucas would have included mentions of such an object without making it part of the plot.

How such a MacGuffin would have changed the film is pure speculation, but the idea of a quest for it returned to Lucas when Indiana Jones eventually trotted the globe in pursuit of the original grail in ‘The Last Crusade’.

‘Star Wars’ almost started a real war
Whilst filming in Tunisia the Libyan government thought the sand crawler being used for a scene towards the beginning of the film was a military vehicle. Filming was taking place close to the Libyan border so in reaction they sent the Tunisian government threats of military mobilisation unless the alleged war machine backed off.

Tunisian authorities asked George Lucas to move the sand crawler and he duly complied, never to return so close to the border again. Certainly puts those online wars about which is the best film of the saga into some kind of perspective.

Admiral Ackbar almost had a sad backstory
Admiral Ackbar was nearly a lot more than the “It’s a trap!” guy, he almost had a small but quite sad backstory in ‘Return Of The Jedi’. A story that was later told and padded out in the ‘Star Wars’ expanded universe fiction.

Ackbar was once the ill-treated personal servant of Grand Moff Tarkin (played in ‘A New Hope’ by Peter Cushing), doing whatever he asked and acting as his own interpreter. This part of his tale was intended to explain his knowledge of the Death Star and his usefulness to the Rebel cause.

Sigourney Weaver and Meryl Streep almost played Princess Leia
Glenn Close, Kathleen Turner and Kim Basinger also auditioned for the role of the ultimate damsel in distress turned space heroine. Much like Solo, it’s hard to imagine anyone else playing the part but just imagine if Meryl Streep played Leia? It’s a weird image and would probably have changed her entire career.

Then there’s Sigourney Weaver, who three years after auditioning for ‘Star Wars’ starred in ‘Alien’, finding major success in an altogether different kind of sci-fi. If she had been Leia it’s unlikely Ridley Scott would have hired her for ‘Alien’, and cinema history would have changed in many ways.

Steven Spielberg almost directed ‘Return Of The Jedi’
George Lucas and Steven Spielberg are famously best buddies, so it’s no surprise that the ‘Star Wars’ creator once wanted the then director of ‘Jaws’ and ‘E.T.’ to direct the final part of his trilogy.

According to the documentary ‘Empire Of Dreams’, which chronicled the making of the trilogy when it was re-released on DVD in 2004, Spielberg was once in line to direct. However it never came to be because Spielberg was part of the Director’s Guild, which Lucas had left after disagreements over ‘The Empire Strikes Back’.

Miss Piggy almost had a cameo on Dagobah
Okay so we’ll admit this one was never going to actually happen, but Miss Piggy did once act alongside Mark Hamill in an important scene. Upon meeting Frank Oz, who voiced Yoda, Hamill asked the puppet master to do his Miss Piggy voice in rehearsals as a practical joke on the crew.

However, this just gave Oz an even better idea. Whilst filming the scene in which Yoda tells Luke to follow his feelings, Skywalker replies that he had been following his feelings before Miss Piggy sprung up and said the following…

"Feelings? You want feelings? Get behind the couch and I'll show you feelings, punk. What is this hole? I've been booked into dumps before, but never like this. Get me my agent on the phone!"

Well, it certainly would have made for an unforgettable scene.
http://uk.movies.yahoo.com/blogs/movie-editors/ten-almosts-star-wars-universe-200930116.html

[Powderfinger]

Drew Barrymore

http://blogs.babycenter.com/celebrities/drew-barrymore-screw-01152013-baby-weight-berating/

Drew Barrymore: “Screw” baby weight berating
Sara McGinnis


Drew Barrymore absolutely refuses to get all uptight about losing the baby weight. The actress, who welcomed daughter Olive Kopelman in September, is biting back at what she believes are “impossible expectations.”

Speaking to USA Today, Drew Barrymore explained, “It takes time. Screw these impossible expectations. I’m doing it very healthy and sensibly. You gotta be nice to yourself. What kind of parent are you going to be if you’re to be berating yourself in the mirror?”

Elaborating that the body-after-baby pressure goes beyond her own vanity, the 37-year-old shared of Olive, “I want to instill in her that when she’s happy on the inside she’ll be the most beautiful on the outside. I have to live by that same mantra and it’s a lot easier because I get to eat.”

Take a look at what other Hollywood beauties have shared about the pressure to slim down:

[Powderfinger]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7J7278vtzo

[will.15]

Friday, December 12, 2008

KFC Teen Skank Workers Fired For Bikini Girl on Girl Bathing in Sink (http://gutteruncensoredarchiveb.blogspot.com.au/2008/12/kfc-teen-skank-workers-fired-for-bikini.html)


Well, of all things I would expect to happen at KFC, this is one of the last things that came to my mind. Two female workers of the Kentucky Fried Chicken in Anderson, California are getting it on becoming hot with each other in the kitchen while wearing bikinis. A total of three KFC teenage girls are in some very hot water after their swimming excursion in a KFC kitchen sink. They bathed in a deep KFC sink that is used to clean dishes in the restaurant. One of the young women posted photos on MySpace.com of the trio posing in underwear and swimwear. She filed these photos under a gallery called "KFC moments," including the titles with "haha KFC showers!" and "haha we turned on the jets." These skanky employees were determined to take a bath in the KFC sink, they even brought swimwear to work. This KFC had a little more than the 11 secret herbs and spices in their recipe for goodness. The local KCRA-TV station reports:


Two female employees of the Anderson Kentucky Fried Chicken have been fired for bathing in a deep sink (http://bossip.com/64128/random-ridiculousness-bathing-in-a-kfc-sink/#) used to clean dishes, while a third earlier quit her job (http://bossip.com/64128/random-ridiculousness-bathing-in-a-kfc-sink/#).
One of the young women posted photos on MySpace.com of the trio posing in underwear and swimwear, KCRA-TV reported.
The photos were filed under a gallery called “KFC moments.” Captions included “haha KFC showers!” and “haha we turned on the jets.” A KFC manager said the young woman who quit expressed an interest in taking a bath in the sink, but the manager told her not to do it.
KFC officials issued a statement that the company has “zero tolerance” for such violations of operating standards.



Sexy poses in the KFC sink? Oh no... I am going to be taking my business back to my beloved Popeyes. The really chubby one in the red outfit is going to be hurting next week when she has to pay for spicy wings that used to be free. Click on pictures to enlarge!

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8N89F7wqiU8/SUIQA9CatGI/AAAAAAAAHyo/uSbzbWCqf1w/s400/KFC+Teen+Skank+Workers+Fired+For+Bikini+Girl+on+Girl+Bathing+in+Sink+www.GutterUncensored.com+kfc-moment-4.jpg (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8N89F7wqiU8/SUIQA9CatGI/AAAAAAAAHyo/uSbzbWCqf1w/s1600-h/KFC+Teen+Skank+Workers+Fired+For+Bikini+Girl+on+Girl+Bathing+in+Sink+www.GutterUncensored.com+kfc-moment-4.jpg)http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_8N89F7wqiU8/SUIQBeWX5bI/AAAAAAAAHzA/Y1R15mKGI14/s400/KFC+Teen+Skank+Workers+Fired+For+Bikini+Girl+on+Girl+Bathing+in+Sink+www.GutterUncensored.com+kfc-moment-1.jpg (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_8N89F7wqiU8/SUIQBeWX5bI/AAAAAAAAHzA/Y1R15mKGI14/s1600-h/KFC+Teen+Skank+Workers+Fired+For+Bikini+Girl+on+Girl+Bathing+in+Sink+www.GutterUncensored.com+kfc-moment-1.jpg)http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_8N89F7wqiU8/SUIQBTUH0hI/AAAAAAAAHzI/U9jl4_TVkK4/s400/KFC+Teen+Skank+Workers+Fired+For+Bikini+Girl+on+Girl+Bathing+in+Sink+www.GutterUncensored.com+kfc-moment.jpg (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_8N89F7wqiU8/SUIQBTUH0hI/AAAAAAAAHzI/U9jl4_TVkK4/s1600-h/KFC+Teen+Skank+Workers+Fired+For+Bikini+Girl+on+Girl+Bathing+in+Sink+www.GutterUncensored.com+kfc-moment.jpg)http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8N89F7wqiU8/SUIQBDQVOnI/AAAAAAAAHy4/NOF6n4ro7BU/s400/KFC+Teen+Skank+Workers+Fired+For+Bikini+Girl+on+Girl+Bathing+in+Sink+www.GutterUncensored.com+kfc-moment-2.jpg (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8N89F7wqiU8/SUIQBDQVOnI/AAAAAAAAHy4/NOF6n4ro7BU/s1600-h/KFC+Teen+Skank+Workers+Fired+For+Bikini+Girl+on+Girl+Bathing+in+Sink+www.GutterUncensored.com+kfc-moment-2.jpg)http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8N89F7wqiU8/SUIQBCDBehI/AAAAAAAAHyw/Va_Y_YCvbEg/s400/KFC+Teen+Skank+Workers+Fired+For+Bikini+Girl+on+Girl+Bathing+in+Sink+www.GutterUncensored.com+kfc-moment-3.jpg (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8N89F7wqiU8/SUIQBCDBehI/AAAAAAAAHyw/Va_Y_YCvbEg/s1600-h/KFC+Teen+Skank+Workers+Fired+For+Bikini+Girl+on+Girl+Bathing+in+Sink+www.GutterUncensored.com+kfc-moment-3.jpg)http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_8N89F7wqiU8/SUIPb210IrI/AAAAAAAAHyQ/E-ci3jSKtsU/s400/KFC+Teen+Skank+Workers+Fired+For+Bikini+Girl+on+Girl+Bathing+in+Sink+www.GutterUncensored.com+KFC1.j pg (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_8N89F7wqiU8/SUIPb210IrI/AAAAAAAAHyQ/E-ci3jSKtsU/s1600-h/KFC+Teen+Skank+Workers+Fired+For+Bikini+Girl+on+Girl+Bathing+in+Sink+www.GutterUncensored.com+KFC1.j pg)http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_8N89F7wqiU8/SUIPcDDqTCI/AAAAAAAAHyY/9UBsRQBoFXw/s400/KFC+Teen+Skank+Workers+Fired+For+Bikini+Girl+on+Girl+Bathing+in+Sink+www.GutterUncensored.com+d327_o .jpg (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_8N89F7wqiU8/SUIPcDDqTCI/AAAAAAAAHyY/9UBsRQBoFXw/s1600-h/KFC+Teen+Skank+Workers+Fired+For+Bikini+Girl+on+Girl+Bathing+in+Sink+www.GutterUncensored.com+d327_o .jpg)http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_8N89F7wqiU8/SUIPckI95FI/AAAAAAAAHyg/m3GPIV5FA_w/s400/KFC+Teen+Skank+Workers+Fired+For+Bikini+Girl+on+Girl+Bathing+in+Sink+www.GutterUncensored.com+8d8216 .jpg (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_8N89F7wqiU8/SUIPckI95FI/AAAAAAAAHyg/m3GPIV5FA_w/s1600-h/KFC+Teen+Skank+Workers+Fired+For+Bikini+Girl+on+Girl+Bathing+in+Sink+www.GutterUncensored.com+8d8216 .jpg)

I was planning to go to Kentucky Fried Chicken later today, but I just lost my appetite for the next two weeks.
-------------------------------------------------

The "KFC moments" would have been a secret if not for one of the young women who posted the photos on MySpace.com gallery with them in underwear and swimwear. “I’m a KFC worker, they are my best friends and my family,” she said on her site.

The photos, which appeared to have been posted late last month, showed the girls bathing in the deep commercial sink and posing in their underwear and swimwear. After the KFC management has found out their photos in MySpace, they were suspended from work.

Three employees of a Kentucky Fried Chicken were suspended for bathing in a deep sink used to clean dishes. But later one quit and today the other two were fired. An assistant manager to the restaurant said no manager was on duty when the photos were likely taken and the three girls closed the restaurant themselves. In her more than a year at the store, they haven’t had any incidents similar to this.
The story broke before the unidentified girl could scrub public access to her profile. On her MySpace page, the girl listed herself as a 17-year-old worker at the Anderson KFC near Redding.

KFC spokesman Rick Maynard said the three unidentified female employees were initially suspended for allegedly bathing in a dishwashing sink in Anderson, Calif., but were later fired over the incident. "KFC has zero tolerance for violations of our operating standards, and our franchisee has taken immediate action by terminating the employees who were involved," Maynard said in an e-mail.
Not only are the photos shocking to the restaurant's managers, but to officials with the Shasta County Environmental Health Department.
"It's not okay to do, it's not okay by law,” said Environmental Health Director Fern Hastings. “There are a couple of sections in the law that say you shouldn't be doing that."
Hastings says her main concern was whether or not the sink was sanitized after the incident.
But when she went there for an inspection, she was pleased to see that the sink had been sanitized with the proper chemicals.
Still, she says the incident never should have happened.
"Obviously that should never be done,” she said. “They should never be getting into a dish washing sink, it's for dish washing. Hand sinks are just for hand washing. They have specific sinks that shouldn't be used for anything else," Hastings said.
By the way, these stupid teenage girls are not the first weird people to take a dip in a fast food bathroom. In August a 25-year-old Burger King worker Timothy tackett in Xenia, Ohio, was fired after a four-minute video of him taking a birthday bath in the restaurant’s sink appeared on MySpace.com and YouTube.com.

Timothy Tackett became a minor celebrity earning national news attention for the video, in which he appeared to be naked in the sink.

[gandalf26]

The word "Skank" in the title is both completely hilarious and completely appropriate!

[wintertriangles]

The thing is they do much worse to the food.

[Powderfinger]

I like KFC , actually like the spicy chicken meal ;)

[honeykid]

The worst thing about the story is that they describe KFC as a "restaurant".

Car left on island of asphalt by Edinburgh Waverley workers

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/65657000/jpg/_65657252_station.jpg

A driver is in for a shock after workers at one of Scotland's busiest railway stations cut up the car park around his vehicle, leaving it on a tiny island of asphalt.

Workers at Edinburgh Waverley blocked off an area of the parking compound on Thursday ready for resurfacing work.

But, when they turned up for work in the morning, a Mercedes had parked in the middle of the cordoned-off area.

Undeterred, the crew dug up the surface all around the dark blue car.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote

The car park had been cordoned off, but the motorist moved the barriers and parked in the worksite”

Network Rail spokesman

Workers did build a tiny ramp in front of the car to allow its owner to drive away on his or her return.

A Network Rail spokesman said: "The car park had been cordoned off so we could begin work to resurface it and improve the lighting at the facility for our passengers.

"The motorist moved the barriers and parked in the worksite, but we've left a ramp for them to exit and will be happy to return their vehicle once they contact us."

Pictures of the stranded car made their way around social media after being spotted by members of the public.

One commuter said: "I came back to my car and saw this Merc totally on its own.

"It is pretty hilarious really. The owner has obviously totally ignored the cordon that had gone up and has been left there.

"Fair play to the workers, they've just got on with their jobs."

The work is part of Network Rail's £130m refurbishment project, which includes the roof being replaced at Waverley Station along with new entrances created and refurbishment to the station's concourses.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-21292873

[TheUsualSuspect]

Lil Kim Then:

http://www.vibevixen.com/glennishamorgan/files/2011/12/VibeVixen_Lil-Kim.jpg

Lil Kim Now:

http://cdn02.cdn.thesuperficial.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/04/the-crap-we-missed-0204-39-435x580.jpg

[Godoggo]

Good grief. Does anyone think that's attractive? She doesn't even look entirely human.

[honeykid]

So she's now an Asian female Michael Jackson impersonator?

[Powderfinger]

Chrissie Swan, don't worry. As my Mother smoked when she had me and my sister. She also drunk like a fish also ;) I turned out normal :D Though, it wasn't the smoking what affected me, it was her constant drinking.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Knlp8XpLXx0

[Powderfinger]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8Yr2FQcTR0

[honeykid]

Chubby Checker sues HP over penis size app using his name

Chubby Checker is suing two computer companies over the use of his name on an adult-themed app.

The 'Chubby Checker' app for Hewlett-Packard's Palm OS platform allows users to guess the size of a man's penis.

The 'Twist' singer's lawyers are demanding half a billion dollars for causing "irreparable damage and harm" to Checker.

"This lawsuit is about preserving the integrity and legacy of a man who has spent years working hard at his musical craft and has earned the position of one of the greatest musical entertainers of all time," said attorney Willie Gary.

The Chubby Checker app was removed from all Palm and Hewlett-Packard listings in September 2012, reports WebOSNation.

However, an old listing of the app reads: "Any of you ladies out there just start seeing someone new and wondering what the size of there [sic] member is? … All you need to do is find out the man's shoe size and plug it in and … there is no need for disappointment or surprise."

The app was created by the now defunct studio Magic Apps.

Chubby Checker - real name Ernest Evans - trademarked his stage name back in 1997, and his lawyers claim that the app has potential to "blur and tarnish" his reputation, as it links his name with "obscene sexual connotation and images".

They added that people who have purchased the app "are being misled into believing that plaintiffs have endorsed defendant's app".

He is now seeking "all profits" amassed by the defendants connected with the Chubby Checker app - which reportedly is as high as $500m (£320m).

However, a response by software website TCPalm states that the $0.99 app has only been downloaded 84 times.

Chubby Checker scored big hits in the early 1960s with 'The Twist' and its sequel 'Let's Twist Again'.
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tech/news/a458939/chubby-checker-sues-hp-over-penis-size-app-using-his-name.html

Apple TV could destroy console market, says Xbox co-founder

Apple could pose a serious threat to the console market if it brought games to its TV hardware, a co-founder of Xbox has warned.

Nat Brown believes that the Cupertino firm could knock Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo out of the sector if it added gaming apps to Apple TV or its much-rumoured smart TV venture.

The engineer believes that developers will turn their backs on traditional console projects in favour of working with the more lucrative iOS ecosystem.

"Apple, if it chooses to do so, will simply kill Playstation, Wii U and Xbox by introducing an open 30% cut app/game ecosystem for Apple TV," Brown wrote on his blog.

"I will be the first to write apps for Apple TV when I can, and I know I'll make money. I would for Xbox if I could and I knew I would make money."

Brown went on to criticise his former employer Microsoft, claiming that the company fails to cater for small developers the way iOS and Android does.

"Xbox's primary critical problem is the lack of a functional and growing platform ecosystem for small developers to sell digitally/network-distributed (non-disc) content through to the installed base of Xbox customers, period," he added.

"Why can't I write a game for Xbox tomorrow using $100 worth of tools and my existing Windows laptop and test it on my home Xbox or at my friends' houses? Why can't I then distribute it digitally in a decent online store... like I can for Android or iPhone, or for iPad?"

Both Microsoft and Sony are expected to unveil next-generation consoles this year, with the latter tipped to lift the lid on the PlayStation 4 at a media event on February 20.
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/gaming/news/a458749/apple-tv-could-destroy-console-market-says-xbox-co-founder.html

[will.15]

http://autos.aol.com/article/6-year-old-attempts-to-drive-to-chinese-restaurant-while-parents/

[gandalf26]

Outrage at news station duped into reporting false and racist names for the Asiana crash pilots... as it emerges NTSB INTERN 'confirmed' the names to station.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/07/13/article-2362486-1ACA2A10000005DC-972_634x347.jpg
In poor taste: KTVU News read these names live on television today stating that the National Transportation

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2362486/KTVU-prank-Outrage-news-station-names-pilots-racially-insensitive-monikers.html

LAWL!

Evidently the intern, Sum Dum Ho was served a legal notice by Fox's legal adviser, Mi-Su Yu

[The Gunslinger45]

I heard this on talk radio yesterday! Funny as hell!

[honeykid]

One in ten Brits 'believe Australia is further away than the Moon'

One in ten people polled in a survey about our solar system showed themselves to be space cadets by saying the Moon is closer to Britain than Australia.

In fact, it’s 384,000km (238,000 miles) away – the equivalent of 25 one-way trips Down Under.

If you fall into this category and you’re in line for geography exam results this summer, don’t expect miracles.

More worryingly, 25 per cent think it’s possible to get a mobile phone reception to call home while in orbit.

Despite being clueless about space, a tour of the solar system is fast becoming a dream holiday destination for Brits, as 40 per cent would prefer to take off there rather than heading to Spain.

The poll comes from deodorant maker Lynx, as part of its Deep Space promo to send a customer into space.
http://metro.co.uk/2013/07/12/home-and-away-britons-believe-australia-is-farther-away-than-the-moon-3879872/


Firing Attractive Woman Legal, Court Rules

A court has decided that an Iowa dentist did not discriminate against a female assistant when he fired her for being "too attractive".

The case began when Dr James Knight sacked dental hygienist Melissa Nelson after more than 10 years' service because he found her too attractive and his wife saw her as a threat.

In December, the all-male the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that Dr Knight did not discriminate against Ms Nelson.

She had argued she would not have been fired if she were a man, and her lawyer, Paige Fiedler, argued in seeking a second hearing that their decision was a setback for gender equality in the workplace.

In late June, the justices decided to reconsider the case.

"We ultimately conclude the conduct does not amount to unlawful sex discrimination in violation of the Iowa Civil Rights Act," Justice Edward Mansfield wrote.

Dr Knight had hired Nelson in 1999 and on several occasions in the 18 months before he fired her in early 2010, he complained that her clothing was too tight, revealing and distracting, the decision said.

She denied wearing anything inappropriate.

Ms Nelson and Dr Knight began texting each other in 2009, the opinion said.

Most messages were work-related or otherwise innocuous, but some were more suggestive, including one in which the dentist asked his hygienist how often she had an orgasm, the opinion said.

Ms Nelson did not answer that text.

"The fact of the matter is Nelson was terminated because of the activities of her consensual personal relationship with her employer, not because of her gender," Chief Justice Mark Cady wrote in a separate 'special concurrence'.

In late 2009, Dr Knight's wife, Jeanne Knight, learned that her husband had been exchanging texts with Ms Nelson while he was on an out-of-state vacation with their children.

She insisted that he dismiss her, saying "she was a big threat to our marriage", the opinion said.

Dr Knight read Ms Nelson a statement when he fired her that said in part that their relationship had become a detriment to both of their families.

Ms Nelson's lawyer said on Friday she was "beyond distressed at the lack of awareness and understanding this decision demonstrates".

Ms Fiedler said in a statement: "Women already have to balance on the very fine line of being respected, professional and well-liked in the workplace without having their perceived charm or attractiveness garner unwanted sexual advances, harassment and discrimination."
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/firing-attractive-woman-legal-court-rules-150422461.html#n2e4m3g

[honeykid]

Armed PC who had sex with married woman while on duty KEPT his job - because he could still reach gun in holster round his ankles

An on-duty firearms officer who had sex with a married woman with his gun around his ankles kept his job because he could still reach his weapon, it was revealed today.

PC Shaun Jenkins, 36, was on armed patrol when he picked up his lover and took her to his house where they had sex while a colleague waited in a squad car outside.

The officer, who has two awards for bravery, enjoyed a 40-minute liaison with the woman in 2010.

The unnamed woman's husband found out about the afternoon tryst and reported PC Jenkins to his senior officers who later sacked him for gross misconduct.

PC Jenkins appealed and was reinstated because his gun was never out of his control and he could 'have been back in the police vehicle within a minute or two'.

But the Police Appeals Panel's decision to give the Gwent officer his job back was criticised by the Independent Police Complaints Commission today.

Tom Davies, the head of the IPCC in Wales, said he was 'bemused' by the panel's decision to let him off.

He said: 'The finding that the gun was never out of PC Jenkins' direct and immediate control because it was in a holster, attached to his trousers, which were attached to him, albeit around his ankles, is surprising.

'I am also bemused by the panel's conclusion that his conduct did not significantly downgrade the protection to the public because there was nothing to suggest he could not have been back in the police vehicle within a minute or two.

'These findings can only undermine public confidence in the credibility of the police discipline system.'

Mr Davies also said the way Gwent Police dealt with a complaint about PC Jenkins from the husband of the woman he had sex with was 'unacceptable'.

Despite this the officer will still keep his job.

Pc Jenkins was on duty in Caerphilly in April 2010 when he invited the woman, who he knew, to his home for sex.

An investigation by Gwent Police initially resulted in a final written warning but when the IPCC told the force to treat PC Jenkins' actions as gross misconduct he was sacked.

But in April 2012 he successfully appealed against his dismissal and was reinstated.
Pc Jenkins had already won a bravery award when he was caught having sex on duty.

But after being reinstated he won a Chief Constable's Award for bravery award for clinging onto the arm of a suicidal woman who was threatening to jump off a railway bridge.

Pc Jenkins held on for 75 minutes until help arrived saving the woman's life.

But despite his awards Mr Davies said Pc Jenkins' behaviour and the force's handling of the complaint against him were 'unacceptable'.

He said: 'Any officer having sex on duty is unacceptable behaviour that falls well below what is expected of all police officers.

'Those who carry firearms are rightly subject to the highest standards of training, procedures and discipline.

'The manner in which this complaint was originally handled by Gwent Police is unacceptable and their attempts to "fast-track" the complaint and deal with it outside the formal regulations are not good enough.'

A spokesman for Gwent Police said today: ‘We note and fully accept the findings of the IPCC report which was critical of the Force’s handling of a complaint against a serving officer.

‘Our complaints handling processes have been reviewed and improved as part of our on-going efforts to ensure we provide the best possible service to the public.’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2390211/Armed-PC-sex-married-woman-duty-kept-job-reach-gun-holster-round-ankles.html

[christine]

You can see why the poor cleaner made this mistake!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-26270260

[honeykid]

Yeah, cleaner in a modern art gallery has got to be a nerve-racking job. :D

[honeykid]

An angry Sloane Street director messaged 50 staff to ban nookie in the workplace - who would have guessed someone would leak it? Disgruntled director Richard Gutteridge crafted the message after Pimlico Plumbers spent seven hours at the Sloane Street offices this week fixing a blockage in the ladies' loo. The culprit was eventually fished out - in the form of a tangled clump of used condoms that had been blocking the pipes. After the issue was rectified at great cost, the branch boss bashed out an all-agency email asking his 50-strong staff to refrain from 'such activity' in the office' - The Daily Mirror.

[n3wt]

I saw this pop up in my newsfeed earlier...

Women filmed giving BIRTH in the wild with no help from doctors for new reality show

The Born in the Wild series is inspired by a woman who clocked up 20 million hits on YouTube when she delivered her baby in a tropical creek

A new reality show will film young mothers giving birth in the wilderness.

Born in the Wild will tell the story of mums who not only wish to forego pain relief and birthing pools, but want to deliver their babies with no help AT ALL.

Birthing locations are expected include creeks, woods and forests in America.

Announcing the show, Lifetime said: "What happens when the craziest experience of a woman's life becomes truly wild, and soon-to-be parents decide to take on an unassisted birth in the outdoors?"

The series is inspired by a shocking YouTube video showing a woman giving birth in a tropical creek in the US.

The shocking video has been watched more than 20 million times.

But the controversial au naturel programme has drawn criticism, with Ron Jaekle, a specialist at the University of Cincinnati Medical Centre, telling Entertainment Weekly: "I understand everybody wants to believe we over-medicalise pregnancy and that it's a natural process.

"But it's a natural process that historically has caused an extraordinary loss of life."

Eli Lehrer, Lifetime's head of nonfiction programming, said: "Our presence at these births is going to make them far safer than if they were doing it on their own."


http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/women-filmed-giving-birth-wild-3647922

[honeykid]

'A vain Malaysian man who ordered a penis enlarger online was stunned when the device was delivered - a magnifying glass!

'To add insult to injury the magnifying glass came with an instruction that would at least prevent the man from causing injury to himself. It read: Do Not Use in Sunlight.

'The victim of an elaborate scam, which cost him the equivalent of £100 for a £5 magnifyer has been named only as Ong, the chairman of Malaysia's customer complaints bureau, Mr Seri Michael Chong, told The Star newspaper.

'As you can imagine, he is feeling rather disgruntled,' said Mr Chong' - the Daily Mail.

[Tacitus]

Good old Mediawatch - Reading MailOnline so you don't have to. ;)

[honeykid]

I know, and they come back with such good stories too. :D

[honeykid]

RJ Reynolds told to pay wife of cancer victim $23.6bn

Ms Robinson argued that RJ Reynolds was negligent in informing consumers of the dangers of consuming tobacco.

A US court has ordered the country's second largest cigarette company to pay $23.6 billion (£13.8bn) to the wife of a smoker who died of lung cancer.

RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company was hit with the punitive fine in addition to $16.8m (£9.8m) in compensatory damages.

Cynthia Robinson took action against the firm in 2008, seeking compensation for her husband's death in 1996.

A company official said the verdict was ``grossly excessive and impermissible under state and constitutional law.''

During the four-week trial, lawyers for Ms Robinson argued that RJ Reynolds was negligent in informing consumers of the dangers of consuming tobacco.

This negligence, the lawyers said, led to her husband Michael Johnson Sr contracting lung cancer from smoking after becoming "addicted" and failing multiple attempts to quit.

'A message for tobacco firms'

"RJ Reynolds took a calculated risk by manufacturing cigarettes and selling them to consumers without properly informing them of the hazards," Ms Robinson's lawyer Willie Gary said.

"We hope that this verdict will send a message to RJ Reynolds and other big tobacco companies that will force them to stop putting the lives of innocent people in jeopardy," he added.

RJ Reynolds plans to appeal against the court's decision, vice president and assistant general counsel Jeffery Raborn said in a statement.

"This verdict goes far beyond the realm of reasonableness and fairness, and is completely inconsistent with the evidence presented," he said.

``We plan to file post-trial motions with the trial court promptly, and are confident that the court will follow the law and not allow this runaway verdict to stand.''

The punitive damages awarded to Ms Robinson were said to be the largest of any individual case stemming from a class action lawsuit filed in Florida.

Several similar cases have resulted in smaller payouts after the state's highest court ruled that smokers and their families only had to prove addiction and that smoking caused their illness.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-28389273

[honeykid]

http://www.picturevip.com/v2/images/2014/09/06/0XGzk.png
I don't think the story is even needed, is it?

[The Gunslinger45]

http://www.picturevip.com/v2/images/2014/09/06/0XGzk.png
I don't think the story is even needed, is it?

Oh my! Just when you thought the dead squid was the most outrageous thing tossed onto the ice by fans.

[honeykid]

Goodfellas Actor Suing Fox Over Simpsons Character

Frank Sivero, a character actor who played Frankie Carbone in “Goodfellas,” filed a $250 million lawsuit against Fox on Tuesday, claiming that his likeness was ripped off for use as the wiseguy Louie character on “The Simpsons.”

Sivero claims that he was “the originator of the idea and character” of Louie. He contends that “Simpsons” producer James L. Brooks was aware of who he was and that he created the role of Frankie Carbone and that Louie would be based on the character. In his lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, Sivero argues that, in 1989, he lived in the same apartment complex as writers from “The Simpsons” and “they saw each other almost every day.”

The character of Louie is a mafiosa and second in command to mob boss Fat Tony. Louie has appeared in 16 episodes of the show, starting on Oct. 10, 1991.

Sivero claims that he was told by Brooks’ production company, Gracie Films, that he would be “part of the future in connection to the success of ‘The Simpsons.’”

Neither Brooks nor Gracie Films is named as a defendant.

The suit claims infringement of the right of publicity, misappropriation of name and/or likeness, misappropriation of ideas, interference with prospective economic advantage and unjust enrichment.

A spokesman for Fox could not immediately be reached.
https://uk.yahoo.com/movies/goodfellas-actor-suing-fox-over-simpsons-character-100659978351.html

[honeykid]

Footballer banned for 50 - FIFTY - years after referee incident

A footballer in Switzerland has been slapped with a 50-year ban from playing the game after a remarkable incident with a referee.

Ricardo Ferreira of Portugal Futebol Clube was an unused substitute for his side in their 1-0 defeat by SC Worb in the Bern league, but he still managed to make quite an impact.

Ferreira, according to Swiss newspaper Blick, kicked the ball in the referee's face and then proceeded to spray him with water.

That response came while he was busy hurling insults at the official as he left to depart down the tunnel at full-time.

As for why the ban is so long for the offence, the lawyer of Switzerland's amateur football league attempted to explain.

"We do not want such a player in our league,” said Robert Breiter, the lawyer of Switzerland’s amateur football league.

"Unfortunately we encounter such cases about once a year."

As for Ferreira, he was left utterly bewildered by the whole situation and was left sounding pretty distraught.

"I had expected one or two years maximum. But 50 years? Football’s my life," he said.

Given that football is his life, it's perhaps a shame that he has not been able to control his emotions so he can continue to participate in the sport.

It is not the first time for the volatile player, who was once banned for 45 matches after being found guilty of assaulting opposition players and abusing officials.

His new suspension means that he will be free to return to football on June 5, 2064, when he will be at the ripe old age of 78. Maybe he will have found some self-control by that stage of his life.
https://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/early-doors/footballer-banned-for-50---fifty---years-after-referee-incident-094530693.html