Teacher: I was fired, said Bible isn't literal:

The community college instructor says the school sided with students offended by his explanation of Adam and Eve.

A community college instructor in Red Oak claims he was fired after he told his students that the biblical story of Adam and Eve should not be literally interpreted.
Steve Bitterman, 60, said officials at Southwestern Community College sided with a handful of students who threatened legal action over his remarks in a western civilization class Tuesday. He said he was fired Thursday.

"I'm just a little bit shocked myself that a college in good standing would back up students who insist that people who have been through college and have a master's degree, a couple actually, have to teach that there were such things as talking snakes or lose their job," Bitterman said.

Sarah Smith, director of the school's Red Oak campus, declined to comment Friday on Bitterman's employment status. The school's president, Barbara Crittenden, said Bitterman taught one course at Southwest. She would not comment, however, on his claim that he was fired over the Bible reference, saying it was a personnel issue.
"I can assure you that the college understands our employees' free-speech rights," she said. "There was no action taken that violated the First Amendment."

Bitterman, who taught part time at Southwestern and Omaha's Metropolitan Community College, said he uses the Old Testament in his western civilization course and always teaches it from an academic standpoint.
Bitterman's Tuesday course was telecast to students in Osceola over the Iowa Communications Network. A few students in the Osceola classroom, he said, thought the lesson was "denigrating their religion."

"I put the Hebrew religion on the same plane as any other religion. Their god wasn't given any more credibility than any other god," Bitterman said. "I told them it was an extremely meaningful story, but you had to see it in a poetic, metaphoric or symbolic sense, that if you took it literally, that you were going to miss a whole lot of meaning there."

Bitterman said he called the story of Adam and Eve a "fairy tale" in a conversation with a student after the class and was told the students had threatened to see an attorney. He declined to identify any of the students in the class.
"I just thought there was such a thing as academic freedom here," he said. "From my point of view, what they're doing is essentially teaching their students very well to function in the eighth century."

Hector Avalos, an atheist religion professor at Iowa State University, said Bitterman's free-speech rights were violated if he was fired simply because he took an academic approach to a Bible story.

"I don't know the circumstances, but if he's teaching something about the Bible and says it is a myth, he shouldn't be fired for that because most academic scholars do believe this is a myth, the story of Adam and Eve," Avalos said.
"So it'd be no different than saying the world was not created in six days in science class.

"You don't fire professors for giving you a scientific answer."

Bitterman said Linda Wild, vice president of academic affairs at Southwest, fired him over the telephone.
Wild did not return telephone or e-mail messages Friday. Bitterman said that he can think of no other reason college officials would fire him and that Smith, the director of the campus, has previously sat in on his classes and complimented his work.

"As a taxpayer, I'd like to know if a tax-supported public institution of higher learning has given veto power over what can and cannot be said in its classrooms to a fundamentalist religious group," he said. "If it has ... then the taxpaying public of Iowa has a right to know. What's next? Whales talk French at the bottom of the sea?"

Muslim dentist ‘made patient cover her head’

A Muslim dentist insisted that a young woman wear an Islamic headscarf before he would agree to treat her for toothache, the General Dental Council was told yesterday.
The patient, a community nurse, alleges that she reluctantly told Omer Butt, 31, who runs a dental practice in Bury, Greater Manchester, that she was a nonpractising Muslim.

It is alleged that the dentist then told her that he would refuse to register her as an NHS patient if she did not cover her head. She was in so much pain that she agreed to borrow a scarf from a nurse at the clinic.
The panel was told that when the dentist, quoting the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, told her to wait in the waiting room, she felt so humiliated that she left the clinic and made a complaint about his behaviour.

Mr Butt denies the charge that he has undermined public confidence in his profession by discriminating against a patient and failing to act in her best interests. If found guilty of the charge by the council’s professional misconduct committee he could be struck off the register.

After learning of the charges laid against him, he wrote to the council praising Allah. He referred to the patient as his “sister” and concluded: “May Allah protect us all from the evils of Shaitan [Satan].”

John Snell, for the council, said that the woman, referred to as Patient A, went to see Mr Butt at his clinic in April, 2005.

Mr Snell said: “He asked her if she was a Muslim and she asked him why it mattered. He said he needed to know.”
The nurse allegedly told her: “Inside the surgery it is Mr Butt’s world and his rules that apply.”
Patient A told the hearing: “I did ask what would happen if I did not wear a headscarf and was told I would not be able to register there as a patient. I did feel that I was under duress.”

Andrew Hockton, defending the dentist, said that Mr Butt asked Muslim women to cover everything except their hands and faces “in order to protect his honour”.

The hearing continues.
dude his name is mr. BUTT! I may be five, but this is hilarious.

Sex treats hangovers, painful menstruations and common cold

It is generally believed that regular sexual activity is good for people’s body and
iss doctors conducted a research several years ago to estimate that orgasm mobilizes the immune system of the human body as it increases the number of killer blood cells that detect and destroy foreign microorganisms.

Many women may have rather painful menstruations. Statistics shows that every tenth woman has to take analgetics to relieve from menstrual pain. Some people say that instead of anesthetic pills prescribed by doctors a woman can try having sex to ease pain during menstruation. The anesthetic effect of sex is connected with relaxation of organism and output of endorphins that are universally known as ‘hormones of happiness’. Indeed, generation of these hormones is closely connected with positive emotions; endorphins may also act as endogenous anesthetic.

Have you ever had hangover? There are lots of popular recommendations saying how to recover from hangover but none of them mentions sex.

Hangover usually means headache, thirst, stomach aches and depressive spirits that may also provoke suicides. The low spirits and poor health condition in hangover are connected with temporary disbalance of hormones that generate positive emotions. If a person suffering from hangover chooses to have sex then his or her organism will get the hormones of endorphins and oxytocins. Oxytocins stimulate muscle contraction and bring down people’s aggressiveness to others.

Mind that sex therapy must be obligatorily safe. So use condoms and other contraceptives to get protected from genital infections. One should know that sex is heavy physical and emotional job for the human organism, and it may be harmful for diseased or weak people. People suffering from heart diseases, coronary heart disease in particular, hypertension and the like must be particularly careful when enjoying sex therapy. If a human needs medical aid sex will on no occasion be a good substitution of medical care and medications in this case.

Regular active sex is a regular physical activity that strengthens heart, burns calories and exercises muscles. This must be the most pleasant type of fitness that costs you absolutely nothing.

As sex makes local blood supply better it works as wonderful prophylaxis of gynecological and urological disorders with men and women.

please

please please please if you ever do anything for me go to cbs.com and watch the Big Bang Theory. Or watch it on the tele at 8:30 p.m. on Mondays.
its THE GREATEST.
I'm obsessed.
who doesnt love awkward self conscious nerds hitting on the hot neighbor and fighting over quantum theory? (I know, this does not help my case, but just give it a shot.)

Officials eye ban on smoky dwellings: Health Dept. to survey landlords

uhh....seriously? What are we, Russia?

Scattered apartment units across the state already ban smoking. But early next year, the Department of Public Health plans to survey landlords, condominium associations, and tenants about the feasibility of making smoke-free residential zones the norm, rather than the exception.
There could even be a state-run registry to connect tenants with landlords and condo boards that offer developments entirely devoid of smoke.

The state review emerges as an influential coalition of health and housing officials is issuing a sweeping call to make smoke-free housing standard across New England. The Asthma Regional Council will issue a report today saying that mounting evidence about the dangers of secondhand smoke, especially to children, provides the best argument for establishing rules that restrict smoking in buildings with multiple units.

It is striking evidence that the war against tobacco has shifted to a new front: the home. Having succeeded in eliminating smoking from most public haunts, antismoking forces are now turning their attention to residences, equating the dangers of tobacco to lead or asbestos.

"For a lot of people now, they go to their workplace, and the workplace is smoke-free, and then they go home and they realize they're being exposed to secondhand smoke," said Eileen Sullivan, director of policy and planning for the state of Massachusetts Tobacco Control Program.
A 2006 US surgeon general's report concluded that secondhand smoke "is not a mere annoyance."
"It is a serious health hazard that can lead to disease and premature death in children and nonsmoking adults," the report said.

Still, health authorities in New England are treading lightly, concerned that if they push for measures that are considered draconian - backing laws that ban smoking in all homes, for example - they will be dismissed as the "public health police," their efforts derailed. Instead, they are championing an approach that combines education with voluntary smoking prohibitions.

Laurie Stillman, executive director of the Asthma Council, said her group has no interest in forcing landlords to go smoke-free. Instead, she said, the coalition is hoping "to get a snowballing effect where you get a few developments doing this, and then more and more will see this as more of a common thing."

That is precisely the course charted in Maine, where a Web-based registry of smoke-free units has proved successful. Landlords who promise their buildings are truly free of smoke can post their vacant units - there are 1,600 listed - and tenants weary of smoke seeping into their apartments can locate a new, smoke-free home.

The Smoke Free Housing Coalition of Maine appeals to a landlord's bottom line. "We emphasize the financial aspect," coalition chairwoman Tina Pettingill said. "They want to save money."

After grate accident, a dream shatters

I'm just putting a link because this is a pretty long article, but this is a really interesting follow-up on the family of the man who almost died at the wrath of a storm grate on 93 earlier this year.

Sixty-beer binge leads to four-week hangover

IT may be the longest hangover in the history of binge beer drinking.
When a 37-year old man walked into a hospital emergency room in Glasgow, Scotland last October complaining of "wavy" vision and a non-stop headache that had lasted four weeks, doctors were at first stumped, the British journal The Lancet reported today.

The unnamed patient "had no history of head injury or loss of consciousness; his past medical record was unremarkable, and he was taking no medications," Zia Carrim and two other physicians from Southern General Hospital said in a case report.

Body temperature and blood pressure were both normal, and a neurological exam scanned negative.
But when an eye specialist was called in, the fog began to clear, at least for the doctors.

The patient, said the ophthalmologist, had swollen optical discs, greatly enlarged blind spots and what eye doctors call "flame haemorrhages," or bleeding nerve fibres.
"We sought a more detailed history" from the patient, noted one named Zia.

This is when the man revealed he had consumed 60 pints - roughly 35 litres - of beer over a four day period, following a domestic crisis.
Doctors believe severe dehydration, caused by the alcohol, led to a rare condition called cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST). A scan of the brain's blood vessels confirmed the diagnosis.

CVST - which can cause seizures, impaired consciousness, loss of vision and neurological damage - strikes three or four people per million, mainly children, every year in Britain. The cause is generally unknown.

It took more than six months of long-term blood-thinning treatment to restore the man's normal vision - and to get rid of the headache, the doctors reported.

...over 4 days? thats nothing! 60 pints in 4 days...pussy.

awwww....... Son thinks mother too ugly to meet girlfriend

(China Daily)
Updated: 2007-09-28 08:52

A man, surnamed Chen, recently sparked great controversy in his hometown when he mailed his mother 2,000 yuan ($266.67) for cosmetic purposes before bringing his girlfriend back home to the city of Dongguan, Guangdong Province.

Chen did not want his homely mother to lose face when she saw his girlfriend.

Chen fell in love with a beautiful girl when he was a university student. With the help of his girlfriend's rich family, Chen landed a job in a city outside Guangdong after he graduated last year.

It will be the first time Chen's girlfriend will meet his mother, a cleaner at a local housing estate in the city's Fenggang Township. His mother was confused when she received the money and a letter from her son last week, asking her to improve her looks. Unsure what to do, she sought advice from her neighbors and relatives. Many local residents thought Chen had forgotten his family and his past suffering, and they felt Chen had disrespected his mother.

Come on, Jones Soda...so many of your flavors are just so good! Why? WHY?

Jones Soda's latest flavors: dirt, sweat
SEATTLE

Ever wonder what the Seahawks' locker room tastes like after a big game?

Apparently, Jones Soda Co. thinks Seattle NFL fans want to know. The company started taking online pre-orders Thursday for a five-pack of sodas with flavors it says reflect the hard work of professional football players.
Clare Bowles, a spokeswoman for the Seattle-based company, said the four literally named flavors -- Dirt, Sports Cream, Perspiration and Natural Field Turf -- are "pretty lifelike."

"Perspiration Soda is kind of salty tasting," she said, with a slightly higher sodium content than the average soda, with a smooth, "stinky football sock" finish.
A sip of Sports Cream Soda conjures up the experience of rubbing ointment into an aching muscle, while Natural Field Turf Soda is like "playing tackle football, and you get tackled really hard, you're down on the ground and you get a little bit of the grass in your teeth," Bowles said.

The only sweet soda of the bunch, Sweet Victory, has a berry flavor.
Each bottle features the photo of a Seattle Seahawks player. Limited quantities of the five-pack will be sold in select stores starting Oct. 1.

In May, Jones Soda announced it won a five-year contract to sell nonalcoholic beverages at the Seahawks' home stadium, Qwest Field, beating out The Coca-Cola Co.

Elijah Pollack Is Going To Be A Horror

GO GAWKER! YOU RAIL ON THIS LITTLE SHIT!

When is it okay to hate a 4-year-old? Maybe when the kid's name is Elijah Pollack. Elijah is the son of Alternadad Neal Pollack, the author and oh-so-hip dad who has been remanded to blogging his existence away on Epicurious. This week, they visit a cheese store and, well, Elijah is the worst. Now we know both he and his portrayal are at the mercy of his daddy.He is essentially a formless mass that has been fashioned into what he is by his father. But if we were to come across a sculpture that resembled, for instance, a large penis, we would be remiss not to mention that fact simply because the statue was created by a sculptor and did not form itself. And if you think we are somehow being hyperbolic or unnecessarily cruel in being so harsh on little Elijah, let us show you.

As a father, it's my duty to pass down my loves [of cheeses] to my son. We're training Elijah for cheese snobbery. The other day, at the grocery store, he did me proud.

There were three cheeses on taste display. The first was a nine-month-old Murray Bridge cheddar from Australia. I popped a cube in my mouth. It was pleasant but innocuous, something you could easily put in a child's lunchbox. Elijah tried one as well.

He shook his head.

"This cheese is too boring for me," he said.

The next selection was a "mammoth cheddar," cut from an enormous wheel made God knows where. It's cheese for people who don't like cheese. Elijah almost spit out his piece, but showed enough manners to swallow.

"Don't buy that one, daddy," he said.

A good rule of thumb, I think, is that the level of adult hatred towards a minor should be commensurate not with his biological age but at the age of his precocity. So it is both a compliment and just to describe Elijah Pollack as big, big trouble in the making.

The Democratic Dark Side

By GAIL COLLINS

All the major Democratic candidates for president have signed a pledge promising they will only go to Florida or Michigan when they want to raise money.
Among the really bad ideas in the history of the Democratic Party, this ranks somewhere between butterfly ballots and William Jennings Bryan.
An interjection: WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN IS my FAVORITE character in American history (character, becuase history is a story, not a fact. Just like the bible.) Anyways, WJB would have been a great president. And a fabulous ancestor. If only.... I mean come on! Clearly the trans-continental railroad was a terrible idea, and whomever believes that Darwinism crap is just Satanic. The only thing worse than evolution is that DAMNED WHISKEY!!! (and yet....I still love him...)

What a BABE.
Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Barack Obama have all vowed to honor the Democratic National Committee rule that only New Hampshire, Iowa, South Carolina and Nevada can hold primaries before Feb. 5. At the urging of the Democratic chairs of the four firsties, they signed a pact promising not to campaign in any state that tries to break into the front of the line. There is, however, an exception for “activities specifically related to raising campaign resources.”

Florida has moved to Jan. 29, and Michigan to Jan. 15. Cue the Democratic Death Star.

It's like crack...but better.

The affinity I have for grocery shopping runs so deep, I wonder if I'll ever break this addiction.

Song of the Day

song of yesterday

Thank you MOM (of all people) for sending me this.

Why men shouldn't take messages:

THIS IS AMAZING.

Trivia night at Goody Glover's - m4w
Reply to: [can't tell you, i'd have to kill you]
Date: 2007-09-20, 2:28PM EDT


Does anyone know the girls on the team calling themselves The Baldwins? I think one is named Rachel, I don't know the other's name.....Both pretty cute. Write me if you know who they are.




* Location: North End
* it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

my first missed connection! WEE!!! how HILARIOUS.

French PM Fillon tells farmers 'France is broke'

France is bankrupt and can no longer afford to pay its workers generous salaries and subsidies, its prime minister has declared.

Francois Fillon made the undiplomatic outburst during a trip to the French island of Corsica, where farmers were demanding more government money.
"I am at the head of a state that is in a position of bankruptcy," he said.
"I am at the head of a state that for 15 years has been in chronic deficit. I am at the head of a state that has not once passed a balanced budget in 25 years. This can't go on."

Mr Fillon's government is due to announce the 2008 budget this week with a deficit of €41.5billion (£29billion).
But his remarks drew immediate fire, both from within his own ranks and from the opposition.

Francois Bayrou, the head of the centrist Modem party, said Mr Fillon seemed to forget that both he and Nicolas Sarkozy, who was finance minister before becoming president, had been in government since 2002 without improving the situation.

He added that Mr Sarkozy's decision to spend up to €15billion (£10.5billion) on a package of tax cuts had only made things worse. One deputy from Mr Fillon's UMP party added: "This phrase was badly timed. The French are liable to ask why we committed all this spending on the fiscal package if we are in such a bad way."

It is the second time in two weeks that Mr Fillon has run into trouble over his tough-talking rhetoric.

The first came when he announced that he only needed "the word" from Mr Sarkozy to roll out a plan to enact state pension reforms, even before trade unions had begun negotiations. They called a strike for Oct 18.

This gaffe reportedly enraged Mr Sarkozy, who spent days reassuring the unions that they would be consulted.

There were rumours that Mr Fillon would be replaced in a reshuffle in the New Year. However, in an interview last week, the president showered his prime minister with praise, even describing the two men's views as "interchangeable".

Some observers say Mr Fillon has decided to speak out because he is tired of being stifled by the "hyper-president" and his media-friendly aides at the Elysee, and is keen to push ahead with reforms.

One colleague from the Sarthe region, where Mr Fillon is a deputy, said: "Fillon has immense pride. While Sarkozy continues to stifle him and wants to do everything, Fillon will try and give provocative speeches in order to exist. It's a process that could get out of control."

Others argue that his "spontaneous" outbursts are part of a co-ordinated double act, with Mr Fillon playing the tough guy and Mr Sarkozy the conciliator.

Either way, Le Monde praised Mr Fillon's "language of truth" in its editorial, adding that, given the parlous state of France's debt and deficit, he "had good cause for concern."

Ummm, what??!?!?!?!?

Des Moines police investigate attack by onion

...poor little guy...

A Des Moines man went to jail Wednesday afternoon for allegedly throwing an onion at his wife.

The police report begins: "(The victim) states her husband had been drinking and they got into an argument."

James Izzolena, 54, of 3515 Sheridan Ave., was charged with domestic assault causing injury. Police said he became upset with his wife, Nicole Izzolena, 27, and tossed an onion at her, striking her in the back of the head.

She told police it made her head hurt. James Izzolena admitted throwing the onion, police said, but he claimed he did not intend to hit her with it. He was being held without bond pending a court appearance today.

Cell Phone Service Coming to NYC Subway System- WOO HOO!

NEW YORK — Add another sound to the symphony of screeches and clatter in New York City's subway system: cell phone chatter.

All 277 underground subway stations — but not the tunnels — would be wired for cell phones and wireless Internet service in the next six years under a plan the Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced Wednesday. It still needs approval from the agency's board, but Chairman Peter Kalikow said he supported it and expected other members would join him.

A company called Transit Wireless would pay the $150 million to $200 million cost of wiring the stations, plus about $46 million in fees over 10 years to New York City Transit, a unit of the MTA. Straphangers would be able to use their cell phones only if their carriers signed up for service on the underground network, which Transit Wireless partner Gary Simpson predicted they would.

"There's a need and a demand by riders and customers to use their cell phones down in the stations," Simpson said.

That demand was highlighted when a rainstorm last month caused a subway system meltdown. Some passengers found themselves unable either to get information on the problem or to phone their co-workers and families to explain their whereabouts. Some 2.5 million transit customers were affected by the Aug. 8 flooding.

The MTA also plans to look at possible infrastructure improvements to avoid future flooding problems, such as raising vents at some sidewalk gratings, and redesigning stairwells to keep water out, according to a plan the agency released Thursday.

Almost 5 million passengers ride the subways on an average weekday. The 660-mile system includes 468 stations under and above city streets.

excellent.

Oh yes he did, Cydney, oh yes he did.

Poisonous Alcohol Kills 27 In Southern Pakistan

KARACHI, Pakistan — At least 27 people have died after consuming poisonous alcohol in southern Pakistan, police said Friday.

The deaths were reported late Thursday and early Friday after more than three dozen people were brought to various hospitals in Karachi, the nation's biggest city. Their relatives told doctors that they had consumed "poisonous alcohol," said Javed Bukhari, the city's police chief.

Well that just sucks....alcohol is poison gets a whole new meaning.

Our city.

HELLA fucked up!
What RETARDS we are!
We did it again. Mooninites pt. 2.
pics of the "device" to come.

some projects NOT including strapping on a fake bomb and chillaxin at the airport.

http://starbur.st/projects/

Girl, you make this too easy.

In a word: Star.

In a sentence, I'm an inventor, artist, engineer, and student, I love to build things and I love crazy ideas.

In a paragraph; I'm currently studying computers and how they work at MIT. I play at a student-run machine shop called MITERS. Before that, I lived for a long time in Hawaii, while traveling the world and saving the planet from evil villains with my delivered-just-in-time gadgets.

You too can fill my email lint-trap - stars at mit dot edu

I got to feel the power and speed of the Wrightspeed X1 - fastest street legal car on the planet, after Bugatti's Veyron, and entirely electric.

George Lange took these pictures of me and my friends at MITERS:

you fool.

Star Simpson
Current Mission: "To pass my classes at MIT while learning from them, to meet the unusual, creative, life-filled people of the world, and to make my ideas for neat things into realities."
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I stayed in Montreal while driving cross-country, with a wonderful host, a student at the University of Montreal. This man was amazing! He made my traveling buddy and I dinner, showed us the city, told good stories, and sent us off on our way with some delicious local food in the morning! What a good host!
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Tecktonik dance craze takes Paris by storm

A new homespun urban dance phenomenon has taken hold in Paris and is quickly spreading to the rest of France through Internet videos and word-of-mouth.

Tecktonik, a mix of hip hop and techno dance, was the talk of this year’s Paris Techno Parade, the annual dance music street carnival that took place in the French capital last Saturday.

Groups of teenagers were overheard chanting "Tecktonik" as dance-offs took place in the street and the evening news bulletins were full of images and testimony from the leaders of this latest craze.

The starting point for the scene is a complex of nightclubs on the southeastern outskirts of Paris called the Metropolis, but there are signs that it is spreading thanks to videos on file-sharing websites YouTube and Dailymotion.

"For seven years we’ve been organising nights called Tecktonik Killer where we play the harder sounds of northern Europe (Belgium, The Netherlands) and the softer sounds of the south (Italy, Spain)," the artistic director of the Metropolis, Cyril Blanc, told AFP.

"Little by little, the clubbers who came invented a choreography," he added, explaining how Tecktonik dancing came to be born.
EPIC.


In appearance, fans share similarities with the new-rave scene in Britain, where fluorescent colours, armbands and tight t-shirts are back in fashion in a clear tribute to the 1980s rave music scene.

"I started to practice at home by looking on the Internet," said Jackie, a 20-year-old regular at the Metropolis who works with young people in a northern suburb of Paris.
"It's a real pleasure to dance the whole day," including on the street, he adds.

Internet searches on YouTube and Dailymotion turn up a series of videos, including one by Jey-Jey, downloaded a million times, who demonstrates his take on Tecktonik in his garage.
oh, me so Francais! Je Dansé en mon basemént! Oui!


Another by Cali, who dances in his living room, also appears to be popular. though not quite as hilarious.

"A lot of young people don't have the courage to dance in nightclubs because they are worried about the prejudices of others. The Internet enables them to familiarise themselves with the dance," says Blanc from Metropolis.

The leaders of the Tecktonik craze can be found at meeting spots around Paris, including in the centre near the Pompidou modern art gallery, where dance-offs are organised between teams.
"Dancing has changed me," says Sofian, a 15-year-old from a tough Paris suburb who discovered Tecktonik recently.
"Before I was on the street. I was at the police station everyday. It's been two or three months now since I did anything stupid."

But Anne Petiau, a sociologist specialised in the study of electronic and pop music, says the scene is a mix of young people from different backgrounds.
"Techtonik has also reached the middle classes and beyond. There's a real mix," she says.

After starting in Paris, other nightclubs around France have begun putting on Tecktonik nights -- something not entirely to the liking of the original trendsetters.

Blanc from Metropolis says the organisers of the first Tecktonik night are to start a company.
"To protect the trademark, notably for the music compilations, we are in the process of starting a company," he said.

This is SICK. FINALLY, a dance I can't possibly look bad doing! OUI!

What are we, twelve?

'Oh God, I Need To Be Size Zero'

Models should be required to provide medical certificates from doctors who specialise in the recognition of eating disorders to prove they are fit to work, an inquiry has concluded.

It also said they should be banned from smoking and subject to random drug tests backstage - and those under the age of 16 should be banned from the catwalk altogether.
The report recommends Criminal Record Bureau checks on agents, designers and photographers working with models.

And it also said good quality food should be provided to models backstage.
But it stopped short of demanding the introduction of a minimum size or body mass index as has been imposed in Madrid and Milan.

The inquiry, led by Baroness Kingsmill, was in response to the controversy over "size zero" models following the death of two South American models last year.
Ana Carolina Reston and Luisel Ramos died from complications caused by anorexia.
Designer Paul Costelloe told Sky News that it was right for the industry to take responsibility for the health of its models, but wrong to impose arbitrary weight limits.

"I don't think it's right that the fashion industry should be dictated to by a booklet telling us that if a model is 5'10" she has to weigh nine stone, 10 stone, or whatever," he said.
"People are different: it's down to their bones, to their shape, to their genes.
"You know straight away, and I've been around this business long enough to know when a girl is a bit unhappy in herself, then that will show as soon as she puts on a garment and walks in front of you one should be able to tell.

"I would not use and generally my clothes would not fit a size eight anyway, and a person who is size eight and 5'10" that's nearly too thin. You need a good 10 or 11."
Nevertheless, there can be pressure on models to conform to extremes of body form.
Jo Lawden is a size eight, she's been modelling for nearly seven years, but she says it takes real strength of character to maintain your self-confidence when the competition is size zero.

"Nowadays in the industry there is a lot of pressure for girls to be skinny.
"I know a lot of people don't like the whole size zero thing however we all know it does exist and sometimes you can't help but think 'oh God I need to be a size zero.' It can be really detrimental to you.

"You worry about everything so much and there are so many girls out there fighting for the same job, we're all up for the same thing and it's very competitive."
It it too simplistic to blame the fashion industry for 'causing' eating disorders, indeed that would be patronising to those suffering from them.
But those trying to help them recover say there is a responsibility to be borne by the fashion industry in terms of normalising very low body weights.

Susan Ringwood, from the eating disorder charity BEAT, told us: "We interviewed over 100 young people who already have an eating disorder.
"We asked them to describe, did this play a part, did it make them ill in the first place and they all said, 'no, it wasn't what made us ill, but it makes it so much harder for us to get better.'

"When they see someone that's very thin, very celebrated on the front of the magazines and being held up as an example, and yet they're being told they're so ill they've got to go to hospital, that's a very difficult contradiction to explain to a 12-year old."

Anti-hippies = Anti-Christ.

Organic Farming Is a Load of--hmmm--Fertilizer

A comprehensive review of some 400 scientific papers on the health impacts of organic foods, published by Faidon Magkos and colleagues in 2006 in the journal Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, concluded there was no evidence that eating organic food was healthier.

Even if it can't be proved that eating organic is healthier, advocates claim it is nutritionally superior. Some studies, especially those reported by the organic farming advocate group, the British Soil Association, show that organic produce has a higher content of vitamin C, minerals and anti-oxidants such as flavonols, polyphenols, lycopene and resveratrol.

However, some of the compounds present at higher levels in organic food are actually natural pesticides. According to Bruce Ames, a variety of insect-resistant celery had to be taken off the U.S. market in the late 1980s because its psoralen levels were eight times higher than normal and caused a rash in people who handled it. There was a similar story with a naturally pest-resistant potato variety that ended up being acutely toxic because of its high levels of solanine and chaconine – natural toxins that block nerve transmission and cause cancer in rats. Organic farmers who rely on 'naturally resistant' plant varieties may also be producing plants with high levels of 'natural' toxins. And in this case, 'natural' is not likely to mean better. Think of Abraham Lincoln's poor mother, who died after drinking the milk of a free-range cow that had grazed on a snakeroot plant.

Regardless of how it is grown, the nutritional content of fruit and vegetables is more likely to be affected by freshness or varietal differences. One study reported by Magkos tried to narrow things down by growing the same variety of plums in adjacent fields, with one using organic and the other conventional methods: the conventionally grown plums contained 38 per cent more of the potentially beneficial polyphenol compounds than the organically grown ones did.

What about claims for sustainability? With regard to preserving topsoil, no-till farming using genetically modified crops wins hands down. To wit:

An 11-year farming experiment by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Beltsville, Maryland, compared crops grown three ways: conventional tillage, organic methods, or no-till. Compared to the conventional tilled plot, the organic plot was likely to hang on to 30 per cent more soil. But compared to the organic plot, the no-till plot hung on to 80 per cent more soil.

What about the alleged health dangers of synthetic pesticides?

If chemical pesticides are hazardous to health, then farm workers should be most affected. The results of a 13-year study of nearly 90,000 farmers and their families in Iowa and North Carolina — the Agricultural Health Study – suggests we really don't have much to worry about. These people were exposed to higher doses of agricultural chemicals because of their proximity to spraying, and 65 per cent of them had personally spent more than 10 years applying pesticides. If any group of people were going to show a link between pesticide use and cancer, it would be them. They didn't.

A preliminary report published in 2004 showed that, compared to the normal population, their rates of cancer were actually lower. And they did not show any increased rate of brain-damaging diseases like Parkinson's. There was one exception: prostate cancer. This seemed to be linked to farmers using a particular fungicide called methyl bromide, which is now in the process of being phased out. According to James Felton, of the Biosciences Directorate of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, who also chairs the study, "The bottom line is the results are coming out surprisingly negative. It's telling us that most of the chemicals we use today are not causing cancer or other disease."

Health of the planet and protecting nature?

...many agricultural scientists estimate that if the world were to go completely organic, not only would the remaining forests have to be cleared to provide the organic manure needed for farming, the world's current population would likely starve.

Yields?

...the poor yield of organic farming means that food production would be a major problem. In Australia, for instance, organic farming yields 50 per cent or less per square kilometre because of pest problems and phosphate-depleted soils. (Phosphate is locked away in the ancient clays; conventional farmers help themselves to highly soluble chemically-made superphosphate. Organic farmers can't use a chemical, so they use poorly soluble rock phosphate.)

One critical point to note is that conventional farming using genetically modified crops has been reducing its effects on the natural world over time using the findings of science. Since organic is an ideology, its ability use of scientific findings to reduce its impact on the natural world is heavily constrained.

Look folks, eat all the organic food you want. Just don't be fooled into thinking that you're doing something good for your health or for the health of the planet. You're not.
HARSH!

Google Offers $20 Million X Prize to Put Robot on Moon

Maybe it was the edible wafer-paper-and-soy-ink menus or the "sustainable" blue-cheese mousse whipped up by Google's chefs. Maybe it was the full-size replica of the indie commercial spacecraft SpaceShipOne suspended overhead. Or Robin Williams' jokes. Whatever the reason, the hundreds of Silicon Valley grandees who packed the Googleplex one Saturday evening last March were in an expansive mood. They had dropped $1,250 or more a head to benefit the X Prize Foundation, the nonprofit dedicated to spurring innovation through public competitions that promise big payouts to the winners. Supersize possibilities hung in the air.

A morning brainstorm featuring Google's Larry Page and Virgin's Richard Branson had already turned up scores of possible new X Prize targets, from early cancer detection to ultracheap solar energy. During a break for lunch, Page dropped one more on X Prize chief Peter Diamandis: He and Google cofounder Sergey Brin had been "kicking around" the idea of sending low-cost robotic landers to the moon.

Diamandis, who has been launching extraterrestrial enterprises since he was an MIT undergrad in the 1980s, grabbed his laptop and disappeared, returning half an hour later with a freshly minted PowerPoint deck. Page looked it over, then said, "Talk to Sergey." That evening, as the guests sipped cocktails in the shadow of the little white spaceplane, Diamandis cornered the Google technology chief and pitched. Brin loved it. "Some endeavors are too speculative, even for venture capital," he says. "If they're really worth doing, you try to find some other way."

Thus was born the Google Lunar X Prize, the latest and, well, farthest-out of the foundation's efforts to bolt competitive afterburners onto some of mankind's signature quests. Three years ago, SpaceShipOne won the first X Prize — officially the Ansari X Prize, named for the family of software entrepreneurs that underwrote it. Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen and serial aeronaut Burt Rutan collected $10 million for building the world's first privately funded reusable manned spacecraft. Since then, Diamandis has announced competitions for ultra-rapid gene sequencing and hyper fuel efficient vehicles. This latest challenge: Put a robotic lander on the moon, take a spin across the lunar landscape, and beam back visuals — with minimal or no government assistance. Pull that off before anyone else and the galaxy's richest, most audacious Internet company will hand over $20 million. You can win up to $5 million more for extras like traversing greater distances, visiting historic landing sites, and surviving the lunar night. There's a $5 million consolation prize if you come in second or land safely but fail to complete the rest of the mission. (No prize for guessing the name of the competition's official Web video service.)

The challenge goes beyond merely reaching the lunar surface. Pound for pound, putting anything on the moon — let alone sending back panoramic photos and YouTube clips — makes even manned suborbital flight look like a walk on the Mojave runway. Winning will require the biz-dev skills to muster funding and the technical savvy to manage squirrelly orbital mechanics, remote-control robotics, and bring-your-own bandwidth. Sure, the Russians made the first soft lunar landing more than 40 years ago, using Cold War era hardware. And yes, today you can fire up an iPhone and check the view from NASA's rovers on the Red Planet, another 90 million or so miles farther out in the cosmos. What you can't do — at least for now — is go off-planet without the kind of boondoggle budget that only governments can cough up. "How cool would it be," Diamandis says, "to do what NASA does at a tenth the cost? Or a hundredth? The technologies are there. What we need is a competitive model that can make it happen."

In fact, X Prize-style competitions tend to be less about the technological bleeding edge than busting down cost barriers. Charles Lindbergh's famous Spirit of St. Louis, the gold standard for prize-driven innovation, was adapted from a stock production plane, after all. The Ansari X Prize required a tremendous feat of aeronautics, but its real accomplishment was making it cheaper to get into space — and thus opening a flight path to space tourism. The Google Lunar X Prize aims to do the same for Earth's nearest neighbor, transforming what has been a combination celestial junkyard and stone-dead nature preserve into a viable human frontier. "Today, Earth's economic sphere extends out to geosynchronous orbit — 22,000 miles," Diamandis says. "We want to increase that by an order of magnitude."

Two dozen registered teams took a crack at the original X Prize, though few of them made it off the ground. Will the higher stakes of the lunar challenge pull a bigger, wealthier crowd? One likely participant, Paul Allen, won't comment. Neither will Idealab chair Bill Gross, whose bubble-era startup, Blastoff, had a strikingly similar lunar mission — and a CEO named Peter Diamandis. Google, in particular, hopes to see a global pool of challengers; China, India, Japan, Russia, and plenty of European countries boast the requisite technical skills, pride, and billionaires. (An international judging committee will watch for under-the-table government aid.) Launch costs alone could burn up tens of millions of dollars, so the foundation is hoping to lure high-profile corporate sponsors.

Of course, it took almost a decade to award the Ansari X Prize; the winner emerged only after a midcourse adjustment dropped the altitude requirement from 100 miles to 100 kilometers. ("Thank god we did," Diamandis says. "Or we'd still be waiting.") Aiming to bring the lunar showdown to a conclusion by 2012, Diamandis and company spent last summer debating how high to set the bar. "It's audacity versus achievability," says Will Pomerantz, the foundation's space prize director. "Too hard, and you won't have a winner. Too easy, and you don't drive breakthroughs." Then there's the question of affordability: The $20 million grand prize probably won't cover the cost of getting something up there, and losers will likely spend at least that amount with no return on investment.

Which raises the question: What's in it for Google? Lunar data centers? Google Maps Street View for Tranquility Base? For the record, Mountain View's corporate feet are planted squarely on terra firma. "Companies today spend more on stadiums and sailboat races than we will spend on this," says Brin, who was barely out of diapers back in Moscow when the last — Soviet, as it happens — moon lander, itself a robot craft, sent a scoop of soil back to Earth three decades ago. "Expanding science and technology is a far better way to reflect Google's values," he says. Plus there's the possibility of putting a Google logo on the moon.

Cop denies heroism in kidnap rescue

what a great story....
A modest cop who rescued a terrified young woman from the clutches of a knife-wielding kidnapper and then chased down the attacker yesterday insisted: “I’m no hero.”

Boston police officer Peter Giannopoulos darted into action when he saw the 22-year-old victim screaming for help as she was dragged at knifepoint on Cambridge Street in Allston at about 3 a.m. yesterday.

The suspect saw the police cruiser and bolted. But determined Giannopoulos gave chase over fences, trash cans and through yards before using his radio to guide fellow cops to arrest the suspect on railroad tracks near the Mass Pike.

“I was just doing my job. Anyone would have done the same thing,” said Giannopoulos, 26, when asked whether he considered his rescue effort heroic.

But Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said: “There is no telling what could have happened to this young woman had police not spotted her in time.”

Suspect Bruce L. Saidi, 24, denied charges of kidnapping, armed robbery and trespassing at Brighton District Court yesterday.

Another man, believed to be an accomplice, took the kidnapped woman’s bike but was not caught by police.

The accent transplant: Brain surgery leaves Yorkshire boy speaking like the Queen

With her nine-year-old son William lying desperately ill in hospital following emergency brain surgery, Ruth McCartney-Moore prayed that she would one day hear his voice again.

But when he did speak weeks later, she was in for a shock.
He had lost his strong Yorkshire accent and was now speaking the Queen's English.
"We noticed that he had started to elongate his vowels in words like 'bath' which he never did before," said Mrs McCartney-Moore, 45, a music teacher from York.
"He no longer has short vowel sounds - they are all long. It's bizarre."

William was taken to hospital after suffering a fit in March last year.
"It all began with a headache," said Mrs McCartney-Moore, whose husband Barry is an IT consultant.
"William said his head really hurt above one eye and he had a high temperature.
"There was a bug going around school, so my husband and I didn't think it was any more than that. But a few days later he had a massive seizure."

Doctors discovered he had an abscess on his brain, known as a subdural empyema, which is caused by a rare strain of meningitis. He needed a lifethreatening operation to remove the fluid.
"All the doctors and surgeons thought he was going to die - nobody thought he was going to come out of surgery," added his mother.

"Before he went in I cut off a lock of his hair to keep." [CREEP]

Following the operation William, a pupil at Hempland Primary School in York, was in hospital for more than four weeks. He lost the ability to read and write and his memory was also affected.
But remarkably he was able to play the piano and trumpet much better than before.

After he came out of hospital William went on a family holiday to Northumberland with his parents and brothers Alex, 16, and Edward, 15.
"William was playing on the beach," said Mrs McCartney-Moore.
"He suddenly said, 'Look, I've made a sand castle' but really stretched the vowels out, which made him sound really posh.

"We all just stared back at him - we couldn't believe what we had just heard because he had a northern accent before his illness.
"But the strange thing was that he had no idea why we were staring at him - he just thought he was speaking normally."
Mrs McCartney-Moore, who took 18 months off work to nurse her son back to health, added: "He went from being such a bright, lovely, wonderful boy who was confident and socially aware, to being like a two-year-old who followed me everywhere like a toddler.

"It was such a shock because he had always been such a sparky, healthy little boy."
William has since returned to normal in everything but the way he speaks.

Brain surgeon Paul Eldridge, who works at the specialist Walton Neurological Centre, Liverpool, said it was possible that the infection and abscess had affected the area of the brain which controls language skills, forcing William to learn how to speak again.
"It's as if he's re-learnt how to talk from listening to language from sources different to those that prompted his speech first time around."

Phil Edge, head of therapy at the brain injury charity, Brainwave, said: "I've heard of other patients developing changes in their speech or behaviour following a head injury or brain surgery, but not quite to this extent that an accent completely changes.

"Usually, a person's speech changes in pitch or tone, but it's interesting that this boy's lost his Yorkshire dialect completely.
"Obviously there has been some change to the central speech centre of his brain which has caused differences in how it is functioning now, compared with before the operation."

Last week the Daily Mail revealed how Czech speedway rider Matej Kus started speaking fluent English after he was knocked unconscious in a racing accident.

Despite knowing only basic English phrases before the crash, the 18-year-old, who made a full recovery, was able to chat with paramedics as they treated his injuries.

just a reminder:

EVERYONE WATCH KID NATION. LET'S MAKE THIS SHITSHOW WORK...TOGETHER.

kid nation.

'Dead' Man Wakes Up Under Autopsy Knife

A Venezuelan man woke on the autopsy table when examiners cut into his face.
uummmm.....what? How did that happen?
CARACAS (Reuters) - A Venezuelan man who had been declared dead woke up in the morgue in excruciating pain after medical examiners began their autopsy.

Carlos Camejo, 33, was declared dead after a highway accident and taken to the morgue, where examiners began an autopsy only to realize something was amiss when he started bleeding. They quickly sought to stitch up the incision on his face.

"I woke up because the pain was unbearable," Camejo said, according to a report on Friday in leading local newspaper El Universal.

His grieving wife turned up at the morgue to identify her husband's body only to find him moved into a corridor -- and alive.

Reuters could not immediately reach hospital officials to confirm the events. But Camejo showed the newspaper his facial scar and a document ordering the autopsy.

wow...lucky they started with his face, and not...oh, you know....cracking his ribs open.

A really interesting article about the conservative battle over illegal immigration.

How it's pandering garbage and lies and deciet.

THE HOTNESS.http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

ummm....what? How is this LEGAL?

State Sen. Ernie Chambers Sues God
Chambers Aims To Make Point About Frivolous Lawsuits
OMAHA, Neb -- State Sen. Ernie Chambers is suing God. He said on Monday that it is to prove a point about frivolous lawsuits.
Chambers said senators periodically have offered bills prohibiting the filing of certain types of suits. He said his main objection is that the constitution requires that the doors to the courthouse be open to all.

"Thus anybody can file a lawsuit against anybody -- even God," Chambers said.
Chambers said he decided to file the lawsuit after a suit was filed in early September in federal court against Lancaster County Judge Jeffre Cheuvront. He's the judge who was hearing a sexual assault case in which the plaintiff wants to use the words rape and victim during her testimony.

Chambers lawsuit, which was filed on Friday in Douglas County Court, seeks a permanent injunction ordering God to cease certain harmful activities and the making of terroristic threats.
The lawsuit admits God goes by all sorts of alias, names, titles and designations and it also recognizes the fact that the defendant is omnipresent.

In the lawsuit, Chambers said he's tried to contact God numerous times.
"Plaintiff, despite reasonable efforts to effectuate personal service upon defendant 'Come out, come out, wherever you are,' has been unable to do so,'" Chambers said.

The suit also requests that the court, given the peculiar circumstances of this case, waive personal service. It said that being omniscient, the plaintiff assumes God will have actual knowledge of the action.

The lawsuit accuses God "of making and continuing to make terroristic threats of grave harm to innumerable persons, including constituents of Plaintiff who Plaintiff has the duty to represent." It says God has caused "fearsome floods, egregious earthquakes, horrendous hurricanes, terrifying tornadoes, pestilential plagues, ferocious famines, devastating droughts, genocidal wars, birth defects and the like."

The suit also says God has caused "calamitous catastrophes resulting in the wide-spread death, destruction and terrorization of millions upon millions of the Earth’s inhabitants including innocent babes, infants, children, the aged and infirm without mercy or distinction."

Chambers also says God "has manifested neither compassion nor remorse, proclaiming that defendant will laugh" when calamity comes.

Chambers asks for the court to grant him a summary judgment. He said as an alternative, he wants the judge to set a date for a hearing as expeditiously as possible and enter a permanent injunction enjoining God from engaging in the types of deleterious actions and the making of terroristic threats described in the lawsuit.

AMAZING.

They just keep getting younger. [How low, can you go?]

Boy, 6, accused of sex abuse

THE Education Department has investigated claims a six-year-old student ran a "sex club" at an eastern suburban primary school, involving up to up to half a dozen grade 1 students.
One mother said her son, also six, was asked to perform a sex act, and that the alleged perpetrator also exposed his genitals to students.

Following an investigation, the department has admitted that the student exposed students to sexual conversations and proposed activities, but denied the existence of a "sex club". The alleged perpetrator received counselling.
The mother has been unable to make a police report because the law states sexual assault by a child under 10 cannot be prosecuted.

"Victims of a perpetrator who is under the age of 10 should still have the same rights as any other victim of a sexual crime," she said.
The case puts the Brumby Government under pressure to address the problem, barely two months after releasing new procedures guiding parents, teachers and schools on how to respond to allegations of student sexual assault.

The woman is critical of the department's investigation of sexual assault and bullying in schools and has united with parents from four other state schools to form SWAG, the Student Welfare Action Group.

The group will lobby to have the department's Student Critical Incident Advisory Unit removed from the department and established as an independent body, such as the ombudsman's office.

Parents Victoria executive officer Gail McHardy said the case raised concerns about the ability of the current legislation to protect young children. "There's a whole lot of questions around the children who are under 10. If the police can't take a statement, then how can they report their incident and then who takes carriage of it?"
"The culture (in the department) seems to be one of hiding the problem instead of fixing the problem," he said. There was a "gaping hole" in the regulations, which needed to be re-written.

But consulting psychologist John Cheetham said six-year-olds did not have a developed sense of right and wrong. "They are too young to put themselves into someone else's shoes," he said. "We've got to be very careful about putting an adult take on it, it's all about context."
A department spokeswoman said the school acted appropriately, and "counselling had been offered to the students".

thats right, johnny, keep your cock in your pants. YOUR BALLS HAVEN'T EVEN DROPPED YET, WHAT IS THERE TO SEE?!?!?

This is Jerry Springer type material, right here.

Firefighters Use Forklift to Rescue 900 Pound Michigan Man From Home

LANSING, Mich. — Firefighters in Lansing, Mich., used a forklift Tuesday to lift a 900-pound man in need of medical treatment from the second floor bedroom of his home, the Lansing State Journal reported Wednesday.

More than 50 neighbors and onlookers gathered outside the home to watch the dramatic rescue, during which rescue workers cut a large hole in the wall of the house, extricated the man using a forklift, placed him on a platform, covered him with a blue tarp to shield him from the public and finally transferred the man to a flat-bed trailer to be transported to Sparrow Hospital, according to the report.

The man, 33, suffers from a genetic condition, Prader-Willi Syndrome, that causes chronic feelings of hunger, his brother said Wednesday. The man had not left his home since 2003, the paper reported. Tell me, is this genetic disease being a fucking fat ass? Do a crunch...it goes a long way, I promise. Especially at your size. For god's sake, man!

He was reportedly in stable condition at the hospital.

Woman Claims Doctor 'Spilled' Cancerous Tissue into Stomach

DES MOINES, Iowa — A woman is suing her gynecologist for allegedly not telling her that he accidentally cut open a tumor he removed from her ovary, spilling cancerous tissue in her abdomen and causing her cancer to spread.

The lawsuit, filed in Polk County District Court by Lavonne Schroeter, alleges that Dr. Curtis Hoegh's negligence during and after the operation "will cause her premature death." The lawsuit also names his employer, Iowa Health Physicians and Clinics, as a defendant.

The 53-year-old Schroeter says the Des Moines doctor removed her tumor in 2002, but he never mentioned it was cancerous or discussed any mishaps during surgery. However, Hoegh had Schroeter undergo an electronic scan after a blood test raised concerns three years later, and more growths were found.

Another surgeon removed several cancerous tumors and prescribed medication, but the cancer continued to spread, the lawsuit states. Last year, a doctor at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., told her that Hoegh had accidentally cut into her tumor and caused the spread of the cancer, which is terminal but treatable, according to the lawsuit.

Schroeter's lawyer, Roxanne Conlin of Des Moines, says the Mayo doctor found out about the mistake by reading her client's medical records.

Hoegh's "negligence was a proximate cause of injuries and damages to (Schroeter)," the lawsuit states.


SPILLING cancer? Who even knew that could happen?!?

HORRIFYING.

HORRIFYING.

What tools Americans are, really. are you kidding?

Giuliani: I'm Among Best Known Americans
LONDON (AP) - Rudy Giuliani was on the trans-Atlantic campaign trail Wednesday, schmoozing with conservative idol Margaret Thatcher and bragging about his international credentials.
"I'm probably one of the four or five best known Americans in the world," Giuliani told a small group of reporters at a posh London hotel as onlookers gathered in the lobby to gawk at actor Dustin Hoffman, who was on a separate visit.
Really? Oh, I don't know.....George Bush,. OPRAH, Bill Gates, Bill Clinton....Trump? Forbes? Fucking Britney Spears?!?!? Fat chance, you ninny. You wish you were that famous.

The former New York mayor is the latest GOP presidential candidate to travel to Britain, meeting the country's new political guard and rubbing elbows with Thatcher, an icon for American conservatives.
Giuliani told reporters he has made 91 trips to 35 countries in five years and many governments seek him out for advice on security. He was given an honorary knighthood in 2002 by Queen Elizabeth II for his leadership after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

But who are the four other best-known Americans?

"Bill Clinton ... Hillary," he said, but he was whisked away for another engagement before he could throw out any other names.

You go, Girl!

Darth Cheney

"Vice President [Dick] Cheney came up to see the Republicans yesterday. You can always tell when the Republicans are getting restless, because the Vice President’s motorcade pulls into the Capitol, and Darth Vader emerges," Hillary Clinton said just now (video) at a $100-a-head fundraiser at town hall near New York's Times Square, referring to Cheney's efforts shore up Republican congressional support for the Iraq war.

"I’m not invited to their meetings and I don’t know what he says or does," she said, in an informal conversation on stage with former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack and retired General Wesley Clark. "But all the brave talk about bringing our troops home, and setting deadlines, and getting out by a certain date just dissipated."

She was referring specifically to the White House's successful effort to stem Republican support for Senator Jim Webb's legislation to limit troop deployments, which failed today in the Senate by a vote of 56-44, short of the 60 it needed to pass.

Jesus Lord... THIS is why i hate fat people

bitch is 489 pounds!

Tase: r-r-REmix!

Thisa is ABSOLUTELY disgusting.

Atchison indicted
>
J.D. Roy Atchison, the federal prosecutor accused of traveling from Gulf Breeze to Michigan with the intent of having sex with a 5-year-old girl, will remain jailed in Detroit.

Clad in a long-sleeve white T-shirt, thin-rimmed glasses and wearing ankle chains, Atchison waived his detention hearing today and stood mute as he heard three charges that could put him in prison for life.

A not guilty plea was entered on his behalf.

Atchison, 53, was arrested Sunday after getting off an airplane in Detroit.

Since Aug. 29, he’d been having almost daily online chats with an undercover officer posing as a mother interested in offering her fictitious 5-year-old daughter for sex, law officers said.

Atchison arrived at the airport Sunday with a Dora the Explorer doll, hoop earrings and petroleum jelly.

A MySpace.com page that a criminal complaint identified as belonging to Atchison says he enjoyed spoiling young girls.

Under the user name fldaddy04 and captioned “Experienced, understanding Daddy,” Atchison allegedly described himself in his profile as: “Handsome, educated, professional, experienced Daddy. I love younger girls. Like everything about you ... how you think, talk, act. I’m very understanding and supportive ... never ever judgmental.”

The Internet profile goes on to say that he would like to “pamper, spoil, change and take care of” girls.

His general interests are listed as “surfing, diving, boating ... everything to do with the water ... music and cute girls.”

Magistrate Virginia Morgan agreed with a request from Atchison’s attorney to take him off suicide watch.

“We think he is not a risk to himself and it certainly can be argued that he is not a risk to others,” said Detroit-based lawyer James Thomas.

When Morgan asked if he was comfortable being housed like any other prisoner, Atchison replied: “I am, your honor.”

Atchison was indicted on three charges:
-- Attempted enticement of a minor using the Internet, a charge carrying a potential 30-year sentence.
-- Aggravated sexual abuse, a charge also carrying a potential 30-year sentence.
-- Traveling across state lines to have sex with someone under 12, a charge that was added today and carries a maximum of life in prison upon conviction.

ughh. the worst is how heavily it implies he's raped other young girls. disgusting. absolutely disgusting.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, EMOTICONS!!!

:) :) :) :)

'Stunned': Judge overrules guilty verdict in sex offender case

A Sheboygan County judge on Wednesday overruled a jury’s guilty verdict, acquitting a previously convicted sex offender accused of trying to lure a 9-year-old Sheboygan girl into a park shelter, officials said this morning.

Judge Timothy Van Akkeren overturned the verdict after a daylong jury trial, saying the shelter was not a “secluded place” as required by state statute, said Sheboygan County District Attorney Joe DeCecco.

Mitchell D. Pask, 44, had been charged with felony child enticement, a charge that requires prosecutors to prove he attempted to cause the girl to enter a secluded place with intent to have sexual contact. Pask, of 1014-C Erie Ave., faced up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

DeCecco, promising an appeal this morning, said he was “stunned, just absolutely stunned” by the ruling.

“You get that lift when (the jury) comes back with guilty, and you say, ‘Good, we’ve got another sex offender off the streets,’ and then minutes later you’re told the case is being dismissed,” he said. “I’ve done this for 18 years now. Not only has it never happened to me personally — a judge dismissing after a guilty verdict — I’ve never heard of it being done.”

According to a criminal complaint, Pask approached the 9-year-old while she was with friends at Worker's Park on June 8, saying, “Look at those sexy little salty girls.” He repeatedly offered the girl candy while gesturing she should follow him toward the area of the shelter and the shelter’s bathroom, but she refused.

The jury, which earlier traveled to the park, found Pask guilty after about 30 minutes of deliberations. But Van Akkeren then overturned the verdict, saying the jury could not have determined the shelter was a secluded place as required by statute.

DeCecco vehemently disagreed, adding that such a ruling is typically made far earlier in the trial process or left to the jury, which was instructed that to find Pask guilty they had to determine that the shelter was a secluded place.

“In our opinion, any area can be ‘secluded,’ including a park shelter, trees and large bushes — any area where a child may be sexually assaulted out of the view of other persons,” DeCecco said. “The jury, having visited the site of the incident, obviously concluded we had met that burden beyond a reasonable doubt.”

DeCecco said prosecutors were prepared late Wednesday to seek an emergency order from the District II Court of Appeals to block Pask’s release, but didn’t pursue that after realizing he would remain in custody on a $5,000 cash bond from another pending case.

In that case, Pask is charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct for allegedly touching a woman’s breast and telling her “you are my sweetie” while both were at Bethesda Thrift Store, 1019 North 8th St., according to a criminal complaint.

Lt. Jeff Johnston of the Sheboygan Police Department said this morning that he was “certainly disappointed by the ruling.”


“I feel our officers did a thorough investigation, which is supported by the fact that no reasonable doubt of guilt existed in the mind’s of the jury,” he said. “I’m in agreement with the DA’s appealing this decision, and this will not affect our diligence in investigating these crimes in the future.”

If Van Akkeren’s ruling were overturned on appeal, the guilty verdict would stand, and Pask would stand convicted of the felony charge.

Pask was previously convicted of having sexual contact with a 12-year-old girl in March 1991 and has spent 11 of the last 20 years in prison on a variety of charges, officials said.

WHAT this is disgusting how do such fucking freaks get off?!?!??! (other than by jerking off in front of little girls...)

Inmates go on sausage 'temper tantrum'

HOBBS, N.M. - Some Lea County inmates set fires and broke toilets and windows after being told they would be allowed only one sausage at dinner. Jail officials said the inmates began yelling and banging on their doors in what they described in a news release as a "temper tantrum."

Officers from the Lea County Sheriff's and Hobbs Police departments were called in to restore control, and the jail was locked down after Tuesday night's incident.

Some 33 prisoners were involved, Warden Jann Gartman said.

The remaining 300-plus prisoners at the jail accepted the meal without incident, authorities said.

The damage to the jail was light, with some smoke damage and broken toilets and windows, the warden said.

Campus Police Subdue Student at John Kerry Event

Use this link to watch the shocking video

Bro! Don't Taser Me!

Teen won't return explicit book to library

BROOKWOOD -- Lysa Harding, 15, couldn't believe the sexually charged prose of the novel she checked out from the library at Brookwood High School. Her grandmother was offended, too.
Now they're refusing to return the book, "Sandpiper" by Ellen Wittlinger, saying other teens shouldn't be exposed to it.

The school library won't allow the student to check out another book until "Sandpiper" is returned. She also faces late fees or a $25 charge to replace the book if it's not returned by Friday.
Lysa said she won't comply, and her grandmother, Pam Pennington, has filed a complaint with the high school.

The novel tells the story of a 15-year-old girl named Sandpiper Hollow Ragsdale who is on a "sexual power trip and engages in random hookups," according to a review by the School Library Journal.

The book has been favorably reviewed and is intended for older teens, said Jane Smith, library media specialist for the Tuscaloosa County School system.
"It's a cautionary tale for teenagers that oral sex is sex," Smith told The Tuscaloosa News. "You serve a wide range of people in a library, and you have to have something for all of them."

"This book is sick," said Pennington. "I'm 50 years old, and I've raised 11 sets of kids and been through many a library, and I've never seen a book like this in a school library before."
Lysa, who checked the book out at random last week for a book report, said it goes into too much graphic detail for high school students.

"I honestly believe that it should not be at school, because at my school they teach abstinence and no sex before marriage, but then all the book is teaching is how to do those things," she said.

A committee will be formed at Brookwood High to determine whether Pennington's complaints are valid, and whether the book should be pulled from the shelves. Pennington must make her complaints to that committee, and Smith said the dispute could wind up before the county school board.

Porridge pioneer in 'superbowl' bid

IT has to be one of the biggest breakfasts ever made in Edinburgh.
Tony Stone is aiming to create a massive stir when he bids to break the world record for the largest ever bowl of porridge.

Weighing more than 90 kilograms, the bumper breakfast is expected to feed up to 2000 people at the Edinburgh Farmers' Market.
The porridge pioneer is aiming to smash the existing record, which was set at 66.26 kilograms at a farmers' market event in Warwickshire.

Ian Broadfoot, of Edinburgh City Centre Management, helped come up with the idea to promote healthy eating and Scottish Food Fortnight.
Together, they have hired a 218-pint stock pot from caterers to cook it in, while a craftsman has designed a special 1.6 metre long cherry wood spurtle. This will be heated by two gas burners at the market on Castle Terrace tomorrow.

Tony, who set up the country's first mobile porridge bars, will be putting 110 litres of water and milk on to boil at 8am. He will then add salt and 50 kilograms of organic oats, and stir for around two hours.

The finished product will then be dished out to hundreds of local schoolchildren, as well as hungry shoppers.

Tony said: "I think Scotland is the rightful home of the world record. If it's anything over 90 kilos, we'll be happy. The key rule is it's got to be edible, and produced in the traditional manner.
MAKE YOUR OWN BUMPER HELPING

Ingredients
25 kg organic jumbo rolled oats
25kg organic flaked oats
94 litres water
16 litres semi-skimmed milk
a good sprinkle of salt

Method
Put the water and milk on to boil. Once it has boiled, add the salt, followed by the porridge oats. Stir constantly to stop it burning. Porridge should traditionally be stirred clockwise, as stirring it anti-clockwise would invoke the Devil.

Web Service Gives Alibis for Adulterers

PARIS (AP) - Looking to get away for a weekend fling without getting caught? A new French company provides would-be adulterers with custom-made excuses that help take the danger of discovery out of cheating.
Founded six months ago by former private eye Regine Mourizard, Web-based Ibila can cook up invites to phony weekend seminars, fake emergency phone calls from work, invitations to nonexistent weddings - anything to justify cheating spouses' absence.

Mourizard said her service is aimed at protecting couples and families by allowing adulterers to live their flings undetected.
"If the alibi is well done and the spouse doesn't suspect anything, this can sometimes save marriages," Mourizard told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Here's how it works: In an e-mail message or call to Ibila, the prospective client requests an alibi for a specific date and time. Mourizard concocts just the right excuse, taking into account the client's profession and personal circumstances.
She and her co-worker, a computer specialist, draw up fake restaurant and hotel bills, receipts and other documents to help shore up what Mourizard calls her "little white lies."

If the adulterer was supposed to have been away for a seminar, the company can even provide the kinds of freebies - pens, hats and tee-shirts - sometimes given at such events.
Mourizard said she that because of privacy issues, she could only give details about one of her past clients, whom she called "Geraldine."

Married to a "strict man," Geraldine was desperate to get out of the house for an hour-long meeting with an ex-boyfriend who lived abroad and was briefly passing through town.
"This man was practically the love of her life and she had to see him," Mourizard said. Together, they hatched a plan.

Geraldine owned a driving school, so on the appointed day, Mourizard called her home pretending to be a student who needed a last-minute lesson before her driving test the following day.
"The husband totally bought it. He even offered to get the car out of the garage for her," Mourizard said.

The simplest excuses - like Geraldine's - cost euro19 (US$27), while more the more elaborate and time-consuming alibis can run upward of euro150 (US$207).

Mourizard insisted her business is completely above board because she concocts fake bills from invented companies, hotels and restaurants and does not doctor or forge real documents. She also requires clients to sign a document pledging not to use her materials to swindle their employers or the French government.

Upon request, the company can handle the logistics for clients' secret rendezvous, from making hotel reservations to booking train and plane tickets. Ibila also offers to buy illicit gifts, so that suspicious purchases at flower, perfume or chocolate shops don't appear on clients' bank statements.

Most of her clients - about 60 percent - are men, Mourizard said. They range in age from 25-60, but most are in their mid-forties.

Mourizard, a 50-year-old mother of two, said it was her experience as a private detective that led her to open Ibila - Europe's second such service, she said.

"For 20 years, I worked to keep people from doing what they wanted to do. And I then thought, 'what if I help them do it, in a safe way?'"

Following a "very amicable" divorce from her first husband, Mourizard remarried two years ago. Asked what her spouse thinks of her new business, she said: "He thinks I have some pretty bizarre ideas."

Is he suspicious when she gets strange phone calls or receives unexpected invitations in the mail?

"No, he trusts me completely. And I trust him. I mean, if he were cheating, I'd find him out in a second," she said.

Man calls 911, complains to police his pot was stolen

SHELBY — A man who told police marijuana and liquor were stolen from his home was arrested Wednesday after he repeatedly called 911 and cussed at a dispatcher.

Patrick Darnell Hunt, 39, told police he returned home after spending four days in jail to find his house broken into. Among the items Hunt told police were stolen included three TVs and three DVD players as well as a half-pound of marijuana and white liquor.

Officer D.P. Halloran wrote in his report that someone cut Hunt’s screen door, pulled a piece of wood over a door window and unlocked the back door to gain entry to Hunt’s Legrand Street home.

According to police documents, Halloran responded to the home shortly after the break-in was reported Wednesday at 6:42 p.m.

Within an hour, Hunt was in handcuffs.

According to his arrest report, Hunt called 911 five times after Halloran left the home.

“He was yelling, preaching and cussing to the dispatcher,” Halloran wrote in his report.
Hunt was charged with misuse of 911 system and disorderly conduct and given a $1,000 secured bond.

Parents Jailed For Children Wearing Shock Collars

JACKSBORO, Tenn. (AP) - A Claiborne County man has been accused with raping and abusing his children, while his wife has been charged with failing to report the alleged abuse.

Police arrested Wayne Burkhart Tuesday, and later charged him with two counts of rape and aggravated child abuse after his 17-year-old daughter reported abuse to a high school resource officer.

Police arrested Burkhart's wife, Rebecca, the day before.

The couple's five children range in age from 11 to 18-years-old.

An arrest report said Wayne Burkhart shocked some of the children regularly with a dog shock collar he used to train hunting dogs.

The Department of Children's Services took the Burkhart children, while the 18-year-old stayed with a friend.

Wayne Burkhart's bond was set at $1 million. Rebecca Burkhart's bond was set at $100,000.

The couples' scheduled court appearance will be Sept. 24.

WHAT?!? I have no words for this...nothing to say. It's awful. So awful, indeed, that I almost feel guilty for giggling. Not at the plight of the children, per say, but the image....kind of like Abu Gharib.
...I mean.....
crap.

You had a baby? How would you liek a NEEEWWWWWW CCAAAAAARRRR!!!!

In Russia, parents could win a car for having a baby

ULYANOVSK, Russia - Make a baby, win a car.
Do not be surprised if the streets are empty and curtains drawn in this central Russian region today as residents take up an offer by the regional governor to help stem Russia's demographic crisis.

Governor Sergei Morozov of Ulyanovsk has decreed Sept. 12 a Day of Conception and is giving couples time off from work to procreate. Couples who give birth nine months later on Russia's national day, June 12, will receive money, cars, or other prizes.
It is the third year that the Volga River region, about 550 miles east of Moscow, has held the contest. Since then the number of participants, and the number of babies born, has been on the rise.

"If there's a good, healthy atmosphere at home within the family, if the husband and wife both love each other and their child, they will be in good spirits and that will extend to the workplace. So there will be a healthy atmosphere throughout the country," Morozov told AP Television. "The leadership (of the country) is interested in the family."
Russia's population has dropped since the 1991 Soviet collapse, hurt by declining birth rates, a low life expectancy, a spike in emigration, a frayed healthcare system, and other factors. The world's largest country now has 141.4 million citizens, making it one of the most sparsely settled nations.

The first year, 2005, just 311 women signed up to take part, and qualify for a half-day off from work. The next June, 46 more babies were born in Ulyanovsk's 25 hospitals compared with the previous June, including 28 born on June 12, officials said.
More than 500 women signed up in 2006 - resulting nine months later in 78 babies, more than triple the region's daily average.

"I don't think people get pregnant just to get a prize on the 12th (of June) but if the dates coincide and they give you a . . . car, there's nothing wrong with that," said Yuri, a 28-year-old father-to-be who declined to give his last name.

In Ulyanovsk, everyone who has a baby in a local hospital on June 12 gets some kind of prize. The winners of the grand prize - a locally made sport utility vehicle called a UAZ-Patriot - are couples judged by a committee on criteria such as "respectability" and "commendable parenting."

uh-oh, what are those silly europeans going to do NOW?

Shrinking kilogram bewilders physicists
PARIS - A kilogram just isn’t what it used to be. The 118-year-old cylinder that is the international prototype for the metric mass, kept tightly under lock and key outside Paris, is mysteriously losing weight - if ever so slightly.

Physicist Richard Davis of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in Sevres, southwest of Paris, says the reference kilo appears to have lost 50 micrograms compared with the average of dozens of copies.
"The mystery is that they were all made of the same material, and many were made at the same time and kept under the same conditions, and yet the masses among them are slowly drifting apart," he said. "We don’t really have a good hypothesis for it."

The kilogram’s uncertainty could affect even countries that don’t use the metric system - it is the ultimate weight standard for the U.S. customary system, where it equals 2.2 pounds. For scientists, the inconstant metric constant is a nuisance, threatening calculation of things like electricity generation.
"They depend on a mass measurement and it’s inconvenient for them to have a definition of the kilogram which is based on some artifact," said Davis, who is American.

But don’t expect the slimmed-down kilo to have any effect, other than possibly envy, on wary waistline-watchers: 50 micrograms is roughly equivalent to the weight of a fingerprint.
"For the lay person, it won’t mean anything," said Davis. "The kilogram will stay the kilogram, and the weights you have in a weight set will all still be correct."

DAMN! So close.

song of the day.

ewww. dirty boy! -you nasty, naughty, dirty boyy.

Clinton's Secrets In His Sock Drawer

(US News) It's a good thing former President Bill Clinton had lots of socks.

It's where he kept all of his secrets, recorded on tape. Author Taylor Branch reveals that Bubba invited him into the residence over 70 times to record Clinton's oral history.

Clinton kept the tapes in a sock drawer. He later used them for his autobiography.

After the sessions, Branch would tape his own recollections on his drive home.

His tape-based book, Wrestling History: The Bill Clinton Tapes, is out next year.

Finding room for the tapes wasn't hard because Clinton "had a lot of socks," Branch said in an appearance at the Clinton School of Public Service at the University of Arkansas.

Behind the Music: The Singing Senators

They were the most powerful quartet in Washington: Four GOP lawmakers bound by a love of rockin' out, barbershop-style. Now the Singing Senators are little more than a memory. Learn the story of their rise and fall and rebirth when The Reliable Source goes Behind the Music. With your host, Style politics writer Sridhar Pappu.


Part 1: Bright Beginnings.
It began with "Happy Birthday." That's what brought a handful of Republican senators together in harmony at a 1995 party celebrating fellow Sen. Bob Smith.
How exactly the original lineup -- Trent Lott, John Ashcroft, Jim Jeffords and Larry Craig -- was formed remains shrouded in mystery, and little is known about the decision to exclude Orrin Hatch, at the time the Senate's most successful Christian recording artist. But from that moment, the quartet was unstoppable.

They honed their unique sound in Lott's office before officially debuting in October 1995 at a Young Political Leaders of America meeting. Within months, they were booked on "Today." Things never looked brighter for the band originally called the Vocal Majority. Little did they know those high times wouldn't last.

Coming up: Unimagined success, and betrayal, when "Behind the Music" returns.

Part 2: Glory Days

It was 1997, and the Singing Senators had just recorded their debut album, "Let Freedom Sing." A performance with the Oak Ridge Boys brought down the house in Branson, Mo. Their signature song, "Elvira," was hailed as a lyrical masterpiece.

Larry Craig, in December '97: "It changes the whole character of politics. . . . The act of singing expresses your vulnerability and at the same time is a very humanizing act."
Though Craig was lead vocalist, baritone Ashcroft was the group's undisputed leader, having already done a stint as a recording artist. But he seemed to put his ego and individual success aside for the sake of the group.
Their sound was certainly gaining traction as the Clinton era wore down. In 1998 the four performed at a gala for the Republican National Committee. Life was sweet, with partisan rancor by day smoothed over by sweet harmony at night.

But storm clouds were brewing. There was grumbling that Jeffords sided too much with Senate Democrats. In 2000 Ashcroft lost his reelection bid, forcing him to settle for the post of Bush's attorney general. In 2001, Jeffords, the tenor, left the GOP in a move that shifted the balance of power in the nation's capital.
Suddenly, the Singing Senators were silent.

Jim Jeffords, in June 2001: "I'm disappointed. I know John Ashcroft wants to get together, but the other two seem less than enthusiastic."
The darkest days were yet to come.

Coming up: A stalled solo career, and the comeback.

Part 3: Reunion
By 2001, the former members of the Singing Senators were on a roller coaster ride they could not control.
Without one another, things seemed to fall apart. Ashcroft was mired in Gitmo. Jeffords had gone indie. Lott, the bass, was forced out as Senate minority leader over remarks perceived as supporting segregation. Then, Hurricane Katrina wiped away Lott's home.

Meanwhile, Ashcroft's attempt at a post-S2 career had stalled, as he was repeatedly mocked for his solo patriotic ballad "Let The Eagle Soar."
But by June 12, 2007, all wounds seemed repaired. Craig, Ashcroft and Lott gathered to perform at an Arlington fundraiser for the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute. A little older, a little wiser, the Singing Senators blended their voices for "Elvira," just like in the old days, and ended the gig with a rousing encore of "God Bless America."

They were back -- and ready for a return to the spotlight. But only one of them that night knew of the incident at a Minnesota airport barely 24 hours earlier that would once again divide them and change their lives forever.

Coming up: A stall. A wide stance. The death of a dream.

fucking hippies. PETA freaks. I hate you!

Now I am all about thinking global warming is real. Jury's still out on whether what we are doing
a. affects it, or
b. will reverse negative impact we've already had,
but even if you did believe that global change could reverse the warming trends, THIS is just ridiculous.


Activists take Al Gore to task on his diet

He may be the hero of the environmental movement for his crusade against global warming but Al Gore is about to be targeted by animal rights activists over his carnivorous contribution to greenhouse gases.
Citing United Nations research that the meat industry is worse for the environment than driving and flying, animal rights groups are directing a campaign at the former American vice-president's diet.

When he delivers a lecture on global warming in Denver next month, protesters will display billboards bearing a cartoon image of Mr Gore eating a drumstick and the message: "Too chicken to go vegetarian? Meat is the No 1 cause of global warming".

The campaign is being organised by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) and is backed by other animal rights groups.
"For Al Gore, the fact that his diet is a leading contributor to global warming is a highly inconvenient truth - pun intended," said Matt Prescott, a spokesman for Peta.

Mr Gore won an Oscar this year for An Inconvenient Truth, the documentary based on his lecture-circuit presentation detailing how man is allegedly destroying the environment.
But he is now under fire for failing to highlight the impact of meat-eating.

According to recent UN Food and Agriculture Organisation research, animal agriculture generates 18 per cent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions - more than the 13.5 per cent produced by all forms of transport combined.
Mr Gore's eating habits have previously drawn attention only because of his dramatic weight fluctuations.

He cut a far slimmer figure in the run-up to the 2000 election than since - and observers would regard a reduction in his waistline as a likely sign that he intends join the Democrats' race for the White House next year. [ie - americans hate fat people. TRUTH.]