Archive | January, 2009

Science Finds Hormone-The Girl Really Can’t Help it!

30 Jan

Doesn’t this explain soo much?

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Random MM pic.

The beautiful women who are programmed to be unfaithful… by the ‘Marilyn’ hormone
www.dailymail.co.uk  |  By Fiona Macrae  |  Last updated at 1:30 PM on 14th January 2009

With her drop-dead curves, Marilyn Monroe’s voluptuous figure has long been regarded as the absolute essence of what it means to be an attractive woman.

But the hourglass shape that made her so desirable is linked to a hormone that, scientists claim, lay behind her inability to hold down a steady relationship.

They believe the hormone they have identified is a major factor in establishing why beautiful women are more likely to be unfaithful.

Those with the most oestradiol, a form of oestrogen, are usually more physically attractive and find it easier to snare a man.

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Cows Can’t Detect Earthquakes

29 Jan

Darn.

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totally random cow photo.

Cows can’t detect earthquakes: Official
Swedish bovine earth-moving experiment ends in disappointment

By Lester Haines • Get more from this author  |  Posted in Biology, 14th January 2009  |  www.theregister.co.uk

Swedish scientists have disappointingly discovered that cows do not have “an innate ability to detect natural disasters”, thereby thwarting any possibility of deploying bovine imminent earthquake detectors in seismic hotspots.

According to The Local, researchers from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) fitted “advanced GPS sensors and animal monitoring devices” to eight ruminants in SkÃ¥ne and then checked out how they behaved during a quake which shook southern Sweden on the morning of 16 December last year.

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Oxytocin the real Big O

28 Jan

Not a new article, not the most authoritative source, but still very interesting.

The Big ‘O’ Isn’t Orgasm
www.reuniting.info  |  2005-06-23

The Dreamer AwakensResearchers are always seeking answers to fundamental questions about illness: “What is the cause of cancer?” “How does stress damage your cells and organs?” “What causes plaque to build up inside your arteries?”

The flip side of such questions is “what is the mechanism by which love and affection positively affect health?” The answer to this question is oxytocin. Oxytocin is a hormone and neurotransmitter. Once believed to confine its effects to inducing labor and milk ejection, oxytocin actually has far-reaching effects on both sexes. You could not fall in love without it. These days it goes by nicknames such as “the bonding hormone,” “the cuddle hormone,” and even “the love hormone.”

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Pooh Blocks Sewer Drain

27 Jan

Gosh, what were YOU thinking?

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Pooh blocks drains in Ballymoney
By Matthew McCreary  |  Thursday, 7 August 2008  |  belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Northern Ireland Water staff came across an unusual kind of pooh when they went to unclear a blocked drain recently.

Instead of the usual bathroom variety, engineers were confronted with a Winnie the Pooh soft toy.

It took the six-strong squad over two hours to remove the toy, which had become lodged in the pipe, and conduct a clean-up operation at the site in Ballymoney.

Now NI Water are urging customers not to dispose of inappropriate waste down the sewers or by flushing them down the toilet.

“Disposing of inappropriate waste items by flushing them down the toilet can create numerous problems, not only for the overall system, but if the blockage occurs on your property it may result in flooding in your home,” said the organisation’s Angela Torrens.

Torrens advised that items which should be ‘bagged and binned’ and not flushed include:

* Sanitary items — including towels, tampons, applicators, panty liners, backing strips.
* Disposable nappies, liners and baby wipes
* Condoms and femidoms
* Cotton buds and cotton wool
* Razors and toothbrushes
* Contact lenses
* Incontinence pads
* Colostomy bags
* Used bandages
* Syringes and needles
* Medicines

Over the next three years Northern Ireland Water will invest £1m per day in new or upgraded water and wastewater infrastructure.

Liberal New Yorker Sells “Drunken Negro Face Cookies”

26 Jan

Regional prejudices abound. One of the most persistent and annoying is that the North is full of racially tolerant liberals and the south isn’t. In the heart of Greenwich Village a baker is selling the cookies described below. Dig up some video of the baker, he’s very, uh outspoken. Apparently the baker has apologized after getting death threats.

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NYC Bakery Sells Tasteless ‘Drunken Negro Face’ Cookies
By  PATRICE EVANs  |  Fri, Jan 23, 2009  |  www.nbcnewyork.com

Clearly one of the challenges in the post-election will be determining a new threshold for sensitivity to racism. In the Bush era, New York City ’twas a town ruled by fear and inflammatory sound bytes. At the drop of a stereotype, the race police would be at your door.

But with our new African-American President, the rush to racist judgment is tempered, just a bit, by a desire to be … thoughtful. Like Obama, we want to be comprehensive and consider things like context and intent. Yet and still, we know the racists will play. And so begins the tale of a little downtown bakery bringing one our first WTF? moments in the Year One of Our Lord Obama.

Gothamist informs us that Fox’s Arnold Diaz is the reporter on the case, busting the Lafayette French Pastry and tasteless bakemaster general Ted Kefalinos, for selling offensive “Drunken Negro Face” cookies.

The name is odd, and the cookies look odder — they’re chocolate covered with red jelly eyes, like Obama and other black people — and it’s all a little shocking until you find out Mr. Kefalinos’s last brainstorm was to come up with “Dead Geese Bread” in honor of the Hudson Plane Crash. Ah, clearly we have a genius at work!  And so in tune with the complexities of human emotions. Both “Drunken Negro Face” cookies and “Dead Geese Bread” give you that warm fuzzy feeling in your heart, no?

With names like that, however, one realizes the Lafayette French Pastry shop isn’t selling cookies, so much as peddling cutesy edible drink-coasters for hipsters. This is Modern Ethno-Cultural Art! And in downtown New York City, you probably either think that’s cool or you don’t.

Upon repeated interrogation, Mr Kefalinos denies any and all charges of racist intent. Which leads to the greatest takeaway from this little brouhaha of insensitivity: we probably need to start distinguishing between crazy-racist, and just plain crazy.

Patrice Evans eats racially-insensitive cookies for dinner at his blog The Assimilated Negro.

Copyright NBC Local Media / NBC New York

Mom Rips Toddler From Hungrys Snake’s Maw

26 Jan

Gee maybe keeping a 300 lb snake a 3 year old toddler in the same small apartment is NOT such a good idea. This giant snake  fought 6 grown men after it had been stabbed repeatedly. THEN t took 6 people to carry the giant snake when it was dead. It’s so ludicrous it’s like an episode of Reno 911, where’s Niecy Nash yelling “HELL NO FOOL. GET THE GIANT SNAKE AWAY FROM THE BABY”

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Las Vegas toddler survives 300 lb snake attack
Updated: Jan 22, 2009  |  www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28802226

A Las Vegas toddler was pulled from the jaws of an 18-foot-long, 300 lb snake.

“That was the only thing I was thinking was I need to try and save this kid’s life,” neighbor Marlo Vinson said. Vinson was the first neighbor in the apartment complex to try and help the toddler’s mother free him from the snake’s grasp.

“That’s when I saw the 3-year-old on his knees with the snake constricted around him,” Metro’s Sergeant Steve Custer explained. “I’ve been a police officer for 36 years and I’ve never seen anything like this ever.”

Custer was one of the first officers on scene. “It’s the biggest thing I’ve ever seen, with a big old head and it’s angry and it’s hissing.”

The toddler’s mother told Metro that while she was in the bathroom, her son entered the bedroom where the snake was being kept. “The snake bit him, right here like in the armpit,” said Custer. ”

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Sculptor van Bruggen Dies

25 Jan

I adore these works and until I read this obit never realized what an integral role she played in their construction. What a lovely, strong, smart woman.

JAPAN ART

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Coosje van Bruggen dies at 66; art historian made sculptures with husband Claes Oldenburg
By Suzanne Muchnic  |  January 13, 2009  |  www.latimes.com
Coosje van Bruggen was a respected art historian, writer and curator known for her almost scientific approach to looking at an artist’s oeuvre. She collaborated with her husband, artist Claes Oldenburg, to build startlingly large sculptures of ordinary objects.

Works include a dropped ice cream cone in Germany; a bow and arrow in San Francisco; a broom and dustpan in Denver, ‘Toppling Ladder with Spilling Paint’ in downtown L.A. and binoculars in Venice.

Coosje van Bruggen — an art historian, writer and curator whose professional partnership with her husband, artist Claes Oldenburg, turned ordinary objects into startling monuments around the world — died Saturday at her Los Angeles residence. She was 66 and was battling metastatic breast cancer.

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4800 year old Artificial eye Found

24 Jan

Archaeology is always interesting. One of the saddest things about the current war in Iraq and cultural conditions in Iran is that they have some of the BEST ancient ruins and sites there.

Photo: Archaeologist Mansur Sajjadi holds the 4800-year-old artificial eye, which was discovered at the Burnt City in 2006, in an undated photo.

Photo: Archaeologist Mansur Sajjadi holds the 4800-year-old artificial eye, which was discovered at the Burnt City in 2006, in an undated photo.

Bulletin published on 4800-year-old artificial eye of Burnt City
www.tehrantimes.com  |  Sunday, January 4, 2009  |  Tehran Times Culture Desk

TEHRAN — All studies on the 4800-year-old artificial eye from the Burnt City were published in an English-Persian bulletin early last week.

“The bulletin contains all comprehensive studies and analysis of the experiments carried out on the artificial eyeball,” an expert on the Burnt City, Mansur Sajjadi, told the Persian service of CHN on Friday.

The Governor’s Office of the Sistan-Baluchestan Province has financed the bulletin’s publication, which has been prepared by the Burnt City Cultural Heritage Center.

The eyeball was discovered by an archaeological team led by Sajjadi in late 2006 at the 5200-year-old Burnt City located 57 kilometers from the city of Zabol in Iran’s Sistan-Baluchestan Province.

It belonged to a large woman who died when she was 25 to 30 year old.

Studies show traces of an abscess in the upper arch of the eye, and tracks made by the eyelid are visible on the lower part of the artificial eye.

It has been made of natural tar mixed with animal fat.

The thinnest capillaries on the eyeball have been made with golden wires with a thickness of less than one millimeter for aesthetic reasons.

The pupil of the eye has been placed in the center of the eyeball and some parallel lines forming an almond pattern are visible around the pupil.

The eyeball has two holes in its two sides, which were used for fixing the eye in the eye socket.

A joint Italian-Iranian archaeological team led by Sajjadi has begun the 12th season of studies at the city since last week.

They plan to classify the information gathered during the previous seasons of excavation at the Burnt City.

Copyright © 1998-2007 The Tehran Times Daily Newspaper, Tehran-Iran All Rights Reserved.Email : Info@tehrantimes.com

Subgenius Says ‘World Ending July 9, 2009″

23 Jan

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Uh oh, all the pinks out there better bend over and kiss their sweet butts goodbye.  If you want to become a legally ordained minister in the Church of the Subgenius, then hurry up.  Your editor has a soft spot for Ivan Stang’s outreach ministry because HIGH WEIRDNESS BY MAIL had the power to change lives in the time before the interweb.

The Church of the SubGenius has announced that the end of the world will take place on Sunday, July 5, 2009.
www.prurgent.com  |  Release Date: 2009-01-05

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CLEVELAND, Ohio, January 2, 2009: The Church of the SubGenius has announced that the end of the world will take place on Sunday, July 5, 2009. In preparation for the fulfillment of this doomsday prophecy, the Church is requesting that all of its members participate in a bizarre religious ceremony taking place in upstate New York, during the final weekend before the arrival of the apocalypse.

Since its inception in 1953, Church founder J.R. “Bob” Dobbs has predicted that a fleet of flying saucers will arrive at the beginning of July to destroy the worldwide Conspiracy against the Church of the SubGenius, while all ordained SubGenius ministers will be rescued by escape vessels piloted by the Alien Sex Goddesses, also known as the Xists.

The Church is inviting all of its members worldwide to gather together for the final hours in Sherman, New York from Wednesday, July 1 to Sunday, July 5, at a clothing-optional outdoor campground called Brushwood Folklore Center. The first gathering at this compound took place in 1996, and the event has increased in size and participants each following year. 1998 was designated the first true “X-Day,” and each successive year has added one to the total. This year’s celebration in 2009 is X-Day 12, or X-Day XII.

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Icy Outcome to Locking Keys in Car

22 Jan

Bummer, but as the officials say, it happens living near the ice. Story sent to me by Mr Buddy of the Heater Company..

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random 1994 Buick

After driving onto frozen river, man locks keys in car, engine melts ice
freep.com  | January 21, 2009  |  BY TAMMY STABLES BATTAGLIA, FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

A dive team in Port Huron is fishing a car out of the Black River today after a man who drove onto the ice accidentally locked his keys in the car, and the running engine melted ice beneath it.

“It happens a lot more downriver, in Anchor Bay,” St. Clair County Sheriff’s Lt. Matt Paulus said about fishing vehicles out of the river. The river freezes solid and is often used by snowmobiles and cars during winter months, he added. “We usually get a couple a year. We already had two snowmobiles go in last week.”

The man told police he was looking for his dog when he drove out onto the frozen river from Strawberry Lane in Port Huron Township on Tuesday afternoon, Port Huron City Police Lt. Thom Case said. The St. Clair County Sheriff’s Office dive team planned today to help fish out the 1994 Buick, a loaner from a local collision shop while his car was being repaired.

Myrtle Beach SC Seeks to Regulate Bikers, Pudding Wrestling

21 Jan

Wow, hard to believe “family fun friendly” Horry County hasn’t already regulated  “wet T-shirt contests, pudding wrestling, motorcycle or car washes, stunt shows, burn-out pits and just about any outdoor event” during the biker rallies. HOWEVER I don’t think they should burden vendors with higher fees. As Councilwoman Liz Gilland said  “If you don’t have vendors, what are folks going to do?” she said. “I don’t want to invite folks here to have a rally with our name on it when we don’t provide anything to do other than you come, you gather at the bars, and you drink all day.”  ((smirk-pudding wrestling))

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random pudding wrestling image.

Horry County to debate new motorcycle rally rules
By Mike Cherney  |  mcherney@thesunnews.com  |  Tue, Jan. 20, 2009

The area’s motorcycle rallies will be back in the spotlight today as Horry County Council discusses again whether to restrict where vendors can sell their wares, raise the price of required vendor permits and reduce the time merchandise can be sold.

Some residents are looking for the county to take action against the noise, congestion and rowdy behavior they say accompany the Harley-Davidson spring rally and the Atlantic Beach Bikefest, both in May. Biker groups, though, say restricting vendors is the wrong way to go.

“People don’t come for the vendors,” said Sonny Copeland, the owner of Myrtle Beach Bike Week LLC, which sells merchandise online. “That’s a great misconception that the locals seem to have, that the vendors make the rallies. People come to these events because they enjoy the area.”

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Rats Back In Hamelin

21 Jan

Upon reflection, the Pied Piper was maybe the creepiest fairy tale. No other fairy tale deals with infestation and the plague it must have brought. Where did all the children go? Were they drowned in the river? Were they happier with the Piper than their cheap ass parents? In my small brain the Pied Piper was maybe related to the stinky green killing mist in the 10 Commandments movie that would kill the oldest child of people who DIDN’T smear blood on their doorway. If you smeared blood on your doorway would the Piper leave your kids? Were kids and rats somehow related in deep meaningful ways?

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random unrelated photo of Hamln


Rats return to Pied Piper’s town
news.bbc.co.uk  |  2008/11/19 13:46:29 GMT

The Pied Piper’s services might be needed again in Hamelin, northern Germany – because the rats are back.

An abandoned allotment site on the edge of town has become a haven for rats, with plenty of discarded food and rubbish lying around.

According to legend, in 1284 Hamelin – called Hameln in Germany – was infested with rats but a Pied Piper lured them out of town by playing a pipe.

He later lured the children out too – but the town still celebrates the tale.

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