Hey Grandpa, did you see the new Pushing Daisies?

cus other than me, you may be the only other one.
According to a study released by Magna Global's Steve Sternberg, the five broadcast nets' average live median age (in other words, not including delayed DVR viewing) was 50 last season. That's the oldest ever since Sternberg started analyzing median age more than a decade ago -- and the first time the nets' median age was outside of the vaunted 18-49 demo.

But what's important is the NOT DVR part. B/c that means people may still be watching. I mean let's be honest, when's the last time you sat down promptly at 8:59 on Tuesday to take in your favorite hour of network TV? [I can't remember mine, either.]

For the just-completed 2007-08 TV season, CBS was oldest in live viewing with a median age of 54. ABC clocked in at 50, followed by NBC (49), Fox (44), CW (34) and Univision (34).
At ABC, youngest series was "Supernanny" (with a median age of 41), while oldest was "Women's Murder Club" (57). At CBS, youngest was "How I Met Your Mother," "Kid Nation" and the Tuesday edition of "Big Brother," tied at 45; oldest was "60 Minutes" (60). NBC's youngest show was "Scrubs" (34), and oldest was "Monk" (58).
At Fox, the youngest shows were "American Dad" and "Family Guy" (29), while the oldest was "Canterbury's Law" (55). At CW, "One Tree Hill" was youngest (26), while "Life Is Wild" was oldest (45).

Among latenight gabbers, "Tonight Show With Jay Leno" is oldest, with a median age of 54, followed by "Late Show With David Letterman" at 53. Interestingly, "Nightline" -- which should conceivably be older than those talkers, is younger, at 52. ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live," meanwhile, passed the 18-49 threshold for the first time, clocking in with a median of 50. "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" is getting closer at 46.

jews have already cast thier vote. as usual, based on the safety they feel for israel.

From JPost: [granted its a blog, but still]
...there is so much of his life that reveals an absolutely sterling character, but remains largely unknown to the public. And in spite of the tremendous political advantages that publicity could confer, McCain instinctively keeps that information private. ...
...How aware is the public that McCain has raised seven children? Or that he adopted his two oldest sons as small boys (children from his wife's prior marriage)? Or that he has raised a Bangladeshi girl with severe health problems adopted from Mother Theresa's orphanage? Or that his own sons have served in the military, including in Iraq? ...
On POW status... But few are aware that he refused early release until all the POWs captured before him were freed, and that he refused special treatment offered once it was discovered that he was the "crown prince" (the son of the admiral in charge of the Pacific Fleet) because he wouldn't provide the enemy with any propaganda victories. Although broken and battered, after his release from Vietnamese captivity he went right back to the Navy, where he continued to serve for an additional eight years...

...McCain's father and grandfather were respected American admirals. Of McCain's four sons, three have gone the military route. One was a Navy pilot like his father, one enlisted in the Marines at age 17 and recently completed a tour in Iraq, and one is completing his education at the Naval Academy (raising the strong possibility that, for the first time in half a century, the United States will have a president with a son at war)...
continued. talk about disabled Asian daughter, etc.

for the record, I'm still gonna cry if he wins.

sights set on: Alaska!

Least visited National Park.
9 of Americas tallest peaks.
Scant Visitation.
Ample bear communities.
ICE ICE ICE
HUGENESS
Sounds like a blast.
Wrangell St. Elias NP

NY daily may not be the MOST reliable, but this is just heartbreaking.

sort of.
like earnest hemmingway, but....on myspace.

Love meant everything to her.
Supermodel Ruslana Korshunova poured her heart out on the Web in the months leading to her apparent suicide.

"Life is short, Break the rules, Forgive quickly, Kiss slowly, Love truly, Laugh uncontrollably," the sandy-haired knockout wrote in a poem that concluded: "And never regret anything that made you smile."

The Kazakh beauty wrote that love "blinds," "sets souls afire," and "is always the answer" in emotion-soaked passages posted on a social networking site.
Korshunova volleyed between Russian and English in her heartfelt prose, but love was a central theme no matter the language. "Do not confuse love and desire," she wrote in Russian in her most recent posting May 30. "Love is the sun, desire - only flash. Desire dazzles, and the sun gives life."

"Love does not take away from one in order to give to another," wrote Korshunova, a 20-year-old thousands of miles from her native Kazakhstan. "Love - this is the essence of life. But you will not give your life to another."
Korshunova's most telling message came three months ago: "I'm so lost. Will I ever find myself?"
She appeared angry in some postings, brokenhearted in others.

"I'm a bitch. I'm a witch. I don't care what you say!!!" she wrote March 11. "I know what it is. I know why my other relationships didn't work out, 'cause I'm unpredictable. Why are you afraid of it?"

In January, she wrote, "It hurts, as if someone took a part of me, tore it out, mercilessly stomped all over and threw it out.

"My dream is to fly. Oh, my rainbow it is too high," she wrote in a March note.

video of the day...UNreal.

new life plan:

rent out my womb.
being pregnant seems like easy money!

great hilarious ridiculous website

http://www.nomarriage.com/

youth dont give no shitz bout respek.

once I called my mom Marsha, because she calls her parents by their first names....my dad threatened to hit me.
Turns out, though, that the Globe thinks it's common, even cool to have lame ass nicknames for your parents.
Ro Ro and Cha Cha did not think so. We got kicked out of their house for callig them that. Alas, most my age are cooler than me:

Among some teenagers and twentysomethings, "Mom and Dad" are giving way to slangy, quirky nicknames.

Sometimes the nicknames spring up impromptu. Other times they migrate from kids' shorthand references for their parents into pet names. The simplest are variations on first and last names.

Consider "Shar Shar," the name a daughter's friend gave to Sharon Levitan in Weston.

" 'Shar Shar' sounds like I'm a cockapoo or something," Levitan lamented. "If they came up with something a little more mature, I wouldn't mind, since with these kids a nickname means you're endeared to them."

the article goes on to blame everything from text messages to IMs to myspace and even the hippie parents ways of rearing.

Regardless, it'll be a long time before you hear me call my dad"Sweet Man," "Glenzo," or "Pina."

Sarah Switlik, 18, a Babson College student from Princeton, N.J., said her mother, Pam, wasn't thrilled at first when Sarah called her P-Money. "Initially my mom said, 'Really, Sarah,' exasperatedly. Now when she's texting she signs off, 'Love, P$.' It makes her feel like one of the girls."
A remindeR: Mom's not supposed to be one of the girls.
She's your MOM. Respect her.

we want more faggots! faggots for the world!

from the BBC:

A family from West Midlands is trying to revive a British gastronomic pastime ---- faggots.
What is the only thing that could make this story better? The only thing that could make the sentence "my familys favorite food is faggots" a little funnier?
thats right. The DOODY family was recently crowned the national Faggot Family, and are launching a national Faggot Week.

Faggot facts
Faggots are like little meatballs.
Faggots were called "savoury ducks" in the Middle Ages
Faggots were named after the Latin word for bundle
Faggots were originally made with pig's liver and offal
Faggots are now made from pork liver and pork
Fans have published the Good Faggot Guide


"The nation knows that the Cornish pasty, Yorkshire pudding, haggis and fish and chips are great British dishes, but all too often the faggot is left off that list," said Janet Doody.

Her husband Fred added: "It's unfair because faggots were a British delicacy long before any of the others.

"The great British faggot is full of flavour and a great belly warmer at this time of year."

The family, including Lewis, 13, and Grace, 7, eat faggots twice a week, with mashed potato and mushy peas.

The competition was organised by faggot producer Mr Brain's Faggots, the largest Faggot producer in the UK.

DuPont not just sexy for the gays anymore.

WASHINGTON- A Metro station manager and a Metro custodian were arrested on prostitution charges after an undercover transit police investigation found they arranged sexual trysts for money from inside the Dupont Circle Metro station.

At one point the employees used the Metro loudspeaker system to facilitate an illicit sexual arrangement, according to police who arrested the pair last week.

Sharon Waters, a Red Line station manager, told an undercover police officer at the Dupont Circle station June 4 that she could arrange meetings with local prostitutes for him, according to court documents.

The officer returned to the station at 11:45 p.m. June 11 and met with Waters, who told him she was organizing a “sex” party in the Washington area for a $100 cover charge, court records show.

Waters then used the Metro loudspeaker system to page Pam Goins, a Metro custodian who Waters said would be interested, and the officer and Waters went to the Farragut North Metro station to meet her, according to the documents.

Goins told the officer she would have sex with him for $200, and the two agreed to meet in the officer's hotel room later in the week, after Goins grabbed his crotch and made several references to sexual acts she wanted to perform with him, records show.

Two days later, the officer requested Waters send a prostitute to him at his hotel room at the Washington Hilton, and she dispatched “Maria” and “Keisha,” who said they would engage in a “threesome” with him for $1,000.

When they didn't arrive after two hours, Goins said she would take a break from work and come to his hotel room for sex, according to the documents.

Waters has been a Metro employee since 1990 and is currently on administrative leave, Metro spokesman Steven Taubenkibel said. She earned a base salary of $56,647 in fiscal 2006.

School locked down after 'ninja' sighted in woods

BARNEGAT, N.J. - HOLY CRAP A NINJA!
Public schools were locked down after a student reported seeing a ninja running in the woods behind hte town elementary school.
Turns out. It was a camp counselor. Dressed as a ninja. The dude was late for costume day.

sad but true, animal rights do NOT include pudding desserts.

Ram Singh Munda, 35, brought an orphaned bear cub home from the forests to become part of the family, and consol his young daughter who had just lost her mother.

When wildlife officials saw the story in the local media last week, Munda was arrested and jailed for violating wildlife laws.

The bear was sent to a zoo where it refused to eat, and the abandoned 6 year old daughter was shipped off to a state-run boarding school.

"How will my daughter survive?... I cannot understand why I was punished for taking good care of a bear that was deserted in the forest and would have died had I not brought her home", says Munda. If convicted, he faces up to three years in prison.

Animal rights activists say the government is too harsh on Munda: "He never tortured the animal. Neither was he using the bear for any commercial purposes. Therefore, we feel he should not have been arrested". They are now trying to win Munda's freedom and reunite the family. dailymail, ndtv

Today's Life Plan.

Jeffry Simpson.
Love him.
Researcher.
Perhaps I will go to Minneapolis to work with him at the U of Minn.

Fuel Surcharge. On SPEEDING TICKETS!

HOLLY SPRINGS, Ga. — The surging price of gasoline has come to this: a "fuel surcharge" on your next speeding ticket.

Drivers caught speeding in this north Atlanta suburb soon will have to pay an extra $12 — to cover $4-a-gallon gas costs for the police officers who stop them.

The City Council passed the fee hike, effective July 1, to offset fuel prices that have eaten up nearly 60% of the police department's 2008 fuel budget, Police Chief Ken Ball says.

He expects the fee increase, which applies to all moving violations and can be rescinded if gas prices fall below $3 a gallon, to generate $19,500 to $26,000 a year for the town of 7,700.

Ball says he was seeking ways to maintain patrols despite record high gas prices. "I was hearing that Delta (Air Lines), pizza deliverers, florists were adding fuel charges to their services, and I thought, why not police departments?" he says.

Atlanta might be next. Monday, the City Council approved by a 13-0 vote Councilman C.T. Martin's proposal to add a $10-$15 surcharge for motorists convicted of speeding and other moving violations, Martin says. "I want to recover the cost of the extra gas … without raising property taxes," he says. The legislation awaits Mayor Shirley Franklin's approval.

Cop beats Tranny. In Office. With Camera.

MEMPHIS, TN (WMC-TV) -A recording from February 12th, shows Duanna Johnson in the booking area at the Shelby County Criminal Justice Center after an arrest for prostitution. A Memphis police officer walk over to Johnson - a transsexual - and hit her in the face several times.

"Actually he was trying to get me to come over to where he was, and I responded by telling him that wasn't my name - that my mother didn't name me a 'faggot' or a 'he-she,' so he got upset and approached me. And that's when it started," Johnson said.
Johnson said the officer was attempting to call her over to be fingerprinted. She said she chose not respond to the derogatory name the officer called her.

"He said, 'I'm telling you, I'm giving you one more chance to get up.' So I'm looking at him, and he started putting his gloves on, and seen him take out a pair of handcuffs," Johnson said.

The officer hit Johnson several times with the handcuffs wrapped around his knuckles. In the video, you can see the flash of the metal. The tape shows another officer holding Johnson's shoulders as she tries to protect herself.

After taking several blows, Johnson stands up and swings back.
"I was afraid. I had had enough. Like I said, I thought the other officers that were witnessing this would at least try to stop him," Johnson said. "I mean, he hit me so hard. Like the third time he hit me, it split my skull and I had blood coming out. So I jumped up," Johnson said.

But then she sat back down, and the officer hit her in the face again. Then he maced her. On the tape, other people in the room are seen turning away and fanning their hands because of the smell.

"We wanted some acknowledgement - my client did - so she would know that the Memphis Police Department didn't condone this," said Murray Wells, Johnson's attorney. "We were optimistic that they would be as outraged about this as we are, and we haven't gotten any indication that they're interested in it at all.

A copy of the tape was reviewed by both the FBI and the District Attorney's office, the latter of which dropped all charges against Johnson. An FBI investigation into possible civil rights violations is still underway.

Meanwhile, the Memphis Police Department confirmed to Action News 5 that the officer holding Johnson was on probation, and has been fired. The officer who threw the punches is currently on non-enforcement status pending an administrative hearing.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday morning, the following statement was released by the Memphis Police Department: [excerpted]

The Memphis Police Department does not condone any misconduct of a police officer that will compromise official law enforcement duties or the rights or safety of our citizens.
As a standard departmental policy, a full, impartial hearing will be held with the accused officer.

Memphis Police can confirm the work status of the two primary officers involved in this complaint. Officer J. Swain was a probationary officer and has been separated from the Memphis Police Department. Officer B. McRae has been placed on non-enforcement status pending an administrative hearing.

Memphis Police can also confirm the Federal Bureau of Investigation had been notified and requested to look into the complaint further.
Regards,
Detective Monique Y. Martin
Memphis Police Department
Office of Public Information/Media Relations

Entwistle is a n00b

Neil Entwistle, accused of murdering his wife and baby daughter 2 years ago, googled "how to kill with a knife" barely a week before his loved ones' bodies were found, said forensic computer expert/police officer Lawrence James in testimony yesterday.

Entwistle was no stranger to the internet. He had naked pictures posted to attract "fun" sex partners [craigslist?], and was a member of a swinger website.
He also frequented the site Adult Sex Finder.

The bodies were found to be killed at close range, and there is evidence that he raped Rachel either just prior to or shortly after her death, clutching her baby.

Doesn't divorce seem a better option? The case should wrap by early July.

Life on Mars? Don't Place your bets yet...

The Phoenix has now probed twice, and scientists think it just needs to dig a little deeper...but no evidence has yet been found of water on the Red Planet.
Researchers remain confident that they are in the right area to find ice veins, which would be a good indicator of life on our neighbor.
But after two baking operations, not a single trace of water was present in the soil. CO2, however, was abundant....which is what the Martian atmosphere is largely made up of.

Though dissapointed by the lack of results, the mission researchers still have hope. Having gone only 3 inches below the top soil, the hope is that water lies just below that reach.
For now, though, the rover moves on to a region called Wonderland, with dreams of ice just below the surface dancing in the scientists heads.
There is no argument that there once was water. The hope is that its still there, meaning that mars may be still habitable.

iPods Kill.

Hearing Loss patients are becoming younger and younger due to the over-use of high-volume MP3 players.
Maybe I'm dating myself as old and cynical, but not a day goes by then I don't think to myself on the T "Jesus, turn that thing down! You're gonna go deaf with music that loud!"
Except for those days when I, too, have my iPod on.
A recent study of Australian youth show that over 70% have early signs of hearing loss, citing headphone use as a major cause.

The Australian Hearing survey found that tinnitus, or ringing in the ears, was more prevalent among 18 to 34-year-olds than elderly people, even though it is seen as one of the first signs of hearing loss.

The figures, based on a survey of 1,000 people, showed Australians who reported using headphones to listen to loud music or going to loud bars at least once a week were risking hearing loss, Australian Hearing said.

"Listening to loud music through headphones is thought to be more detrimental to hearing than other sources of leisure noise," Australian Hearing said.

"Despite this, more than two thirds of respondents said they listen to music through headphones regularly and 60 percent of these people often have the volume above safe levels."

It found that while the elderly were the most likely to experience hearing loss, the next most vulnerable group was teenagers.
So really, turn that shit down!

Fishing Monkeys!

It was long believed that what set humans apart from other primates was their ability to hunt. This has been long disproved by chimps and bonobos ---- both by their termite fishing and their hunting bush babies.
But more recently, scientists have made a (semi-)startling discovery: it's not just the great apes that have hunting abilities.

The Long-tailed macaques of Eastern Asia are very good at finding food - both in the wild, and by stealing from unsuspecting tourists.
But not until recently have they been discovered to FISH. These Indonesian monkeys have been spotted FOUR times in the past 8 years scooping fish out of the water with their hands in East Kalimantan and North Sumatra, say researchers from The Nature Conservatory and the Great Ape Trust.

Though known to forage for crabs, these are the first incidences of actual river fishing.

"It's exciting that after such a long time you see new behavior," said Erik Meijaard, one of the authors of a study on fishing macaques that appeared in last month's International Journal of Primatology. "It's an indication of how little we know about the species."

Meijaard is unsure what prompted the long-tailed macaques to go fishing, but adds that it shows the monkey's ability to change and adapt to their changing environment, and therefore shifting food sources.

The other authors of the paper, which describes the fishing as "rare and isolated" behavior, are The Nature Conservancy volunteers Anne-Marie E. Stewart, Chris H. Gordon and Philippa Schroor, and Serge Wich of the Great Ape Trust.

Other primates to show past fishing behavior include the Japanese macaques, chacma baboons, olive baboons, chimpanzees and orangutans.

Conn. police find pipe bomb stuffed inside chicken

SIMSBURY, Conn. - Authorities in Connecticut are wondering who stuffed a raw roasting chicken with a pipe bomb and left it on a roadside.

Simsbury police Capt. Matthew Catania says a motorist noticed the chicken Monday morning. He says the bomb was large enough to harm a person if it went off.

The road was closed while the Hartford Police Department's bomb squad came and blew up the chicken.

Nobody was injured. No arrests had been made Monday night.

Ovulation caught on camera.

A human egg was filmed close-up emerging from the ovary for the first time. The image was caught by a camera being used in a routine hysterectomy operation.

Human eggs are produced by follicles, fluid-filled sacs on the side of the ovary, which, around the time of ovulation, produce a reddish protrusion seen in the pictures.
The egg comes from the end of this, surrounded by a jelly-like substance containing cells.
The egg itself is only the size of a full-stop, and the whole ovary, which contains many immature eggs, just a couple of inches long.
They belonged to a 45-year-old Belgian woman, and Dr Donnez, from the Catholic University of Louvain, told New Scientist that the pictures would help scientists understand the mechanisms involved.
He said that some theories had suggested an "explosive" release for the egg, but the ovulation he witnessed took 15 minutes to complete.
Professor Alan McNeilly, from the Medical Research Council's Human Reproduction Unit in Edinburgh, said that this fitted with his own research into the ovulation process.
He said: "It really is a fascinating insight into ovulation, and to see it in real life is an incredibly rare occurrence.
"It really is a pivotal moment in the whole process, the beginnings of life in a way."


very cool, but this pic is honestly discusting.

good news for soldiers

Last month, two nonprofit organizations, Give an Hour and the American Psychiatric Foundation, announced that they will use a $1 million grant from the Lilly Foundation to recruit and educate volunteer mental health professionals to work with returning service members and their families.

Trouble for Israel: Abbas seeks reconciliation of Palestine.

Bouncing between Saudi Arabia and Egypt, Mahmoud Abbas has been spending his recent days working on a peace initiative to end one of the volatile stalemates in the Middle East: that between Hamas and Fatah.
Until recently, Abbas has said he would not negotiate with Hamas without preconditions. But he threw that goal away, as he works to reunite the Gaza Strip (under Hamas control) with his own West Bank.
The quest for a unity government looks great for Palestine, but not as much for Israel...or the US, as Bush has spent time attempting to isolate Hamas as a terrorist group not to be worked with or trusted on an international level.
Hamas does not recognize the state of Israel, and is the reason for almost daily mortar attacks on the nation.
The [somewhat negligible] success of their suicide missions has left Abbas in a weaked position, and this seems to be a move to re-align himself as the dominant leader of the Palestinian territories.


We'll see what happens.

World's First Church Uncovered in Jordan.

An archaeological dig has unearthed a church they claim goes back ~2,000 yrs...dating from 33AD to 70 AD.
"We have uncovered what we believe to be the first church in the world, dating from 33 AD to 70 AD," the head of Jordan's Rihab Centre for Archaeological Studies, Abdul Qader al-Husan, said.

He said it was uncovered under Saint Georgeous Church, which itself dates back to 230 AD, in Rihab in northern Jordan near the Syrian border.

"We have evidence to believe this church sheltered the early Christians -- the 70 disciples of Jesus Christ," Husan said.

These Christians, who are described in a mosaic as "the 70 beloved by God and Divine," are said to have fled persecution in Jerusalem and founded churches in northern Jordan, Husan added.

Researchers recovered pottery dating back to between the 3rd and 7th centuries, which they say suggests these first Christians and their followers lived in the area until late Roman rule.

Inside the cave there are several stone seats which are believed to have been for the clergy and a circular shaped area, thought to be the apse.

There is also a deep tunnel which is believed to have led to a water source, the archaeologist added.

Rihab is home to a total of 30 churches and Jesus and the Virgin Mary are believed to have passed through the area, Husan said.

Cigarettes linked to early[ish] memory loss

Smoking apparently presents an increased risk for memory loss in people at mid-life, a new study released Monday found.

The study by Severine Sabia and colleagues of France's Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale reviewed data from 10,308 London-based civil servants age 35 to 55 who took part in a study between 1985 and 1988.

The researchers said that they found strong links between smoking and cognitive and memory problems later in life.

"First, smoking in middle age is associated with memory deficit and decline in reasoning abilities," they wrote in a report in the June 9 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine

"Second, long-term ex-smokers are less likely to have cognitive deficits in memory, vocabulary and verbal fluency.

"Third, giving up smoking in midlife is accompanied by improvement in other health behaviors.

"Fourth, our results ... suggest that the association between smoking and cognition, even in late midlife, could be underestimated because of higher risk of death and non-participation in cognitive tests among smokers."

The authors stressed that "the results are important because individuals with cognitive impairment in midlife may progress to dementia at a faster rate."

"During the past 20 years, public health messages about smoking have led to changes in smoking behavior," they wrote.

"Public health messages on smoking should continue to target smokers of all ages."

Sun goes longer than usual period w/o producing spots.

In the past two years, the sun has failed to produce a single sunspot. This is good news for the tech world, which means less worry over interference with satelites.
But it has scientists concerned. Over 100 scientists from around the world met at Montana State University for a convention on "Solar Variability, Earth's Climate and the Space Environment."

The scientists said periods of inactivity are normal for the sun, but this period has been much longer than usual.

Dana Longcope, a solar physicist at MSU, said the sun usually operates on an 11-year cycle with maximum activity occurring in the middle of the cycle. Minimum activity generally occurs as the cycles change. Solar activity refers to phenomena like sunspots, solar flares and solar eruptions. Together, they create the weather than can disrupt satellites in space and technology on earth.

The last cycle reached its peak in 2001 and is believed to be just ending now, Longcope said. The next cycle is just beginning and is expected to reach its peak sometime around 2012. Today's sun, however, is as inactive as it was two years ago, and scientists aren't sure why.

In the past, they observed that the sun once went 50 years without producing sunspots. That period, from approximately 1650 to 1700, occurred during the middle of a little ice age on Earth that lasted from as early as the mid-15th century to as late as the mid-19th century.

Fingerprint Registry slipped into Housing Bill.

Sens. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) authored a bill (with 11 co-sponsors, including Sen. Barack Obama) that was incorporated into a housing bill passed by the Senate Banking Committee 19-2 before the Memorial Day recess — a bill that creates a national fingerprint registry.

According to a Martinez press release, the language merely “create[s] national licensing and oversight standards for residential mortgage originators.”

One of the standards, John Berlau of the Competitive Enterprise Institute says, may “require thousands of individuals working even tangentially in the mortgage and real estate industries — and not suspected of anything — to send their prints to the feds.”

Rupert Everett [P-Panty Waist] calls soldiers wimps.

Rupert Everett, the actor, has made an unreserved apology for calling soldiers "wimps" and suggesting they went into the Army to torture prisoners.

The star of My Best Friend's Wedding, 49, caused consternation with his attack in The Sunday Telegraph.

In an interview to publicise his new film The Victorian Sex Explorer, in which he plays the renowned explorer Sir Richard Burton, he said: "In Burton's day they were itching to get into the fray. Now it is the opposite. They are always whining about the dangers of being killed. Oh my God, they are such wimps now!

"The whole point of being in the Army is wanting to get killed, wanting to test yourself to the limits. Now you have to fly 15,000ft above the war zone to avoid getting hit. I don't think there is any point in having wars if that's how you're going to behave. It's pathetic. All this whining!"

Droppin Bombs, killin Pakistanis.

War with Pakistan.
Great.
Just what we need.
Couldn't just sit out his lame duck term, could he?

Google: possible Veep.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain joked on Monday that Google, the popular Internet search engine, had made investigating his list of potential candidates a little bit easier.

"You know, basically it's a Google," he said to laughter at a fund-raising luncheon when asked how the selection process was going. "What you can find out now on the Internet -- it's remarkable."

Vice presidential candidates go through rigorous screening to determine whether they would help a White House aspirant in a general election -- and to make sure there is nothing in their background that could be damaging down the road.

McCain, 71, has faced high scrutiny in his search because of his age.

The Arizona senator, who wrapped up his place on the top of the Republican ticket earlier this year, said he still had some time to complete the search for a number two.

Mars Lander can't get hard space dirt into oven.

That's what she said.

But seriously. They are having trouble getting the dirt through the screen and into the oven.
One option is to use the lander's robotic arm to grind up the dirt, but first they are going to try and shake the oven.
NASA is so tech savvy! Wow!
The reason to heat the dirt is to look for things that look like life. Not fossils, the lander cannot detect that...but chemicals.
NASA is pleased, however, that THIS is the problem they are coming across. They were concerned about not being able to gather enough soil. Clearly, their problem is quite the opposite.

Next up: Zurich

European cities offer the best quality of life for expatriate staff, according to a study of more than 200 locations.
The survey by Mercer, the international consultants, ranked the cities on the basis of personal safety, health and education facilities, transport, other public services, and social, economic, environmental and political factors.

The most attractive location for expatriate businesspeople was Zurich. The Swiss commercial centre, home of UBS, Swiss Re and Zurich financial services, scored 108 points under a ranking system that uses New York on 100 points as a base.

The US business centre, by comparison, was in 49th place, behind other US cities: Honolulu (28th), San Francisco (29th), Boston (37th) and Chicago and Washington DC (equal 44th).

Baghdad was in bottom place with just 13.5 points, ahead of Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic, with 29.3 points and Brazzaville, the Republic of Congo capital, with 29.5.

wow, you dirty sexy dogs.

NEW YORK (AP) - A city Health Department study finds that more than a fourth of adult New Yorkers are infected with the virus that causes genital herpes.
The study, released Monday, says about 26 percent of New York City adults have genital herpes, compared to about 19 percent nationwide.

The department says genital herpes can double a person's risk for contracting HIV.
Herpes can cause painful sores, but most people have no recognizable symptoms.

Among New Yorkers, the herpes rate is higher among women, black people and gay men.

Disabled placard abusers targeted

Globe- He lives in one of Wellesley's most exclusive neighborhoods, owns a $1.8 million Nantucket vacation home, and has a small fleet of luxury cars at his disposal. But when Gerald Hamelburg drives downtown, he doesn't like to pay his way, according to investigators with the state inspector general's office.
The Boston lawyer, they say, uses his deceased mother's handicapped placard to park his Mercedes convertible, free of charge, at meters near the High Street firm that bears his name.

Hamelburg, who has two Mercedes vehicles, a Lexus, a BMW, and a Jeep registered at his address, was a target of the original probe, but kept eluding investigators, the inspector general's office said. Investigators observed him illegally using the placard about six times, but he was able to move the car before State Police arrived to ticket him, the office said.

This week, however, investigators cornered him. They said they found his silver Mercedes - with the Basketball Hall of Fame license plate BB 712 - parked at Franklin and Batterymarch streets. He was called out of his office and ordered to give up the placard. He was also given a $25 ticket for the unpaid meter and a $500 citation for allegedly misusing the placard, and was ordered to a hearing where he faces a 30-day license suspension.

According to an investigator's report, Hamelburg seemed unclear about what he had done wrong. "He denied that he was 'displaying' the placard," wrote the investigator, who videotaped this week's exchange, "and stated that it was merely 'hanging there.' He questioned why he was being sanctioned for the use this time, saying that he had used it 'half a dozen times' before that and 'no one' had ever had an issue with his use of the placard before. [The trooper] asked him why he believed that was an appropriate defense to his having committed a serious violation by using the placard illegally. Hamelburg had no response to his question."

Police hunt for robbers wearing thongs as masks

ARVADA, Colo. - Police in a Colorado town are searching for two robbers whose masks showed plenty of fashion sense but little modesty: women's thong underwear.

A surveillance video released this week by police in Arvada, Colo., shows two unarmed men inside the convenience store. They stole an undisclosed amount of cash and cigarettes in the robbery May 16.

One man wore a green thong and the other wore blue. Each thong barely covered the man's nose, mouth and chin and left the rest of his face exposed. One also wore a pink backpack in which he stuffed the stolen items.

Man fined for throwing hedgehog at teen

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - A New Zealand man who assaulted a teen by hitting him with a spine-covered hedgehog has been fined by a court and ordered to pay most of his fine to his victim.

Whakatane District Court was told Thursday that William Singalargh picked up the hedgehog, a small prickly-backed animal similar to the porcupine, and threw it several yards at a 15-year-old boy in the North Island east coast town of Whakatane on Feb. 9.

Police said the teen was hit in the leg, causing a large, red welt and several puncture marks. The injury did not require medical treatment.

Singalargh was convicted of common assault and offensive behavior following a defended hearing. He had pleaded innocent to the charges.

It was not known whether the hedgehog was dead or alive at the time of the attack, but Senior Sgt. Bruce Jenkins said earlier that it was dead when collected as evidence.

Evangelical Shake-up: OBAMA to get large hunk of vote?

"With clients like Focus on the Family, Franklin Graham, and Campus Crusade for Christ, Mark DeMoss may be the most prominent public relations executive in the evangelical world. A former chief of staff to Jerry Falwell, DeMoss became then-presidential candidate Mitt Romney's chief liaison to evangelical leaders."

In a new interview with Dan Gilgoff for BeliefNet's God-o-Meter, DeMoss explains the lack of religious enthusiasm for McCain and predicts a potential major shift to Obama.

How is John McCain doing among evangelicals, a crucial Republican constituency?

The evangelical world or the conservative religious world is not his natural habitat, so he doesn't strike me as being all that comfortable with it. I think that's evidenced by the strong comments made in 2000 about Falwell and Robertson. ...

You represent some of the nation's most powerful evangelicals. What do those leaders say about McCain?

This is one guy's perspective, but I am surprised by how little I've seen or read in conservative circles about McCain since February. I don't think I've gotten one email or letter or phone call from anybody in America in the last four months saying anything about this election or urging that we unite behind John McCain and put aside whatever differences we have. Back in the fall and winter, you'd get several things a day from conservatives saying, "The future of the Supreme Court is at stake. We have to stop Hillary Clinton. Get behind so and so--or don't' go with this guy." It's just very quiet. It could meant there's a real sense of apathy or it could mean they're' waiting for the general election to begin. But it's a surprise, given the way email networks work now.

Barack Obama is trying hard to win evangelical voters. Does that effort stand a chance?

If one third of white evangelicals voted for Bill Clinton the second time, at the height of Monica Lewinsky mess--that's a statistic I didn't believe at first but I double and triple checked it--I would not be surprised if that many or more voted for Barack Obama in this election. You're seeing some movement among evangelicals as the term [evangelical] has become more pejorative. There's a reaction among some evangelicals to swing out to the left in an effort to prove that evangelicals are really not that right wing. There's some concern that maybe Republicans haven't done that well. And there's this fascination with Barack Obama. So I will not be surprised if he gets one third of the evangelical vote. I wouldn't be surprised if it was 40-percent.

Obama Watch 2008

---Rasmussen puts Obama at 5 points ahead of McCain after news of Clinton's exit from the race.
---Edwards says he will support Obama however he can...short of running for Veep. Will he keep his word, or buckle?
---Clinton and Obama had a secret (no press, no staff) meeting in the home of Diane Feinstein. It lasted an hour, and both came out laughing.
---Obama stands by his statement that Jerusalem should remain in Israeli hands.
---Bob Dylan officially backs Obama, saying that he is "redefining the nature of politics from the ground up".
---Clinton says that the role of VP is to be decided by Obama and him alone.
---Tom Delay states that Obama is undoubtedly a Marxist.
---Now that Obama is the nominee of the Dems, Dean has agreed to discontinue the practice of taking funds from Lobbyists and PACs for the DNC. WOW!

Pundits on Pounds

from slate.com
The presidential campaign—well, one in particular—has introduced a new greeting to the political world: the fist pound. Last night, we saw perhaps the most high-profile pound of all time, as Michelle and Barack Obama bumped fists on national television before he took the stage.

What’s hilarious is watching the formal, AP Stylebook-loving media trying to figure out what to call it. In an article about Obama’s body man Reggie Love, the New York Times called Love’s preferred greeting a “closed-fisted high-five.” Last night produced other assorted references:

“Taking a fist-pound from wife Michelle, Obama stepped to the podium Tuesday”—MTV.com

“Michelle Obama (L) gives her husband, Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Senator Barack Obama, a knuckle-bump as a sign of support before he speaks to supporters.”—Monsters and Critics

“At 09:09:27 Central Time, Michelle Obama gave Barack Obama a pound in St. Paul, Minnesota.”—Lola New York

“... Obama, who was joined on stage by his wife Michelle, with whom he shared a celebratory fist-bump.”—Reuters

“Obama, began with a loving fist to fist thumbs up with Michelle.”—Capitol Hill Blue

“Michelle is not as ‘refined’ as Obama at hiding her TRUE feelings about America—etc. Her ‘Hezbollah’ style fist-jabbing ...”—Human Events

Year long cell-phone monitoring has shocking results about movement/travel.

(AP) --Researchers secretly tracked the locations of 100,000 people outside the United States through their cell phone use and concluded that most people rarely stray more than a few miles from home.

Nearly three-quarters of those studied mainly stayed within a 20-mile-wide circle for half a year.
The scientists would not disclose where the study was done, only describing the location as an industrialized nation.
Researchers used cell phone towers to track individuals' locations whenever they made or received phone calls and text messages over six months.

Knowing people's travel patterns can help design better transportation systems and give doctors guidance in fighting the spread of contagious diseases, he said.
The results also tell us something new about ourselves, including that we tend to go to the same places repeatedly, he said.

"Despite the fact that we think of ourselves as spontaneous and unpredictable ... we do have our patterns we move along and for the vast majority of people it's a short distance," Barabasi said.

The study found that nearly half of the people in the study pretty much keep to a circle little more than six miles wide and that 83 percent of the people tracked mostly stay within a 37-mile wide circle.

But then there are the people who are the travel equivalent of the super-rich, said Hidalgo, who travels more than 150 miles every weekend to visit his girlfriend. Nearly 3 percent of the population regularly go beyond a 200-mile wide circle. Less than 1 percent of people travel often out of a 621-mile circle.

The reason that TSA dude is smiling is cus he's checking out your rack.

USA TODAY — Body-scanning machines that show images of people underneath their clothing are being installed in 10 of the nation's busiest airports in one of the biggest public uses of security devices that reveal intimate body parts.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) recently started using body scans on randomly chosen passengers in Los Angeles, Baltimore, Denver, Albuquerque and at New York's Kennedy airport.

Airports in Dallas, Detroit, Las Vegas and Miami will be added this month. Reagan National Airport in Washington starts using a body scanner today. A total of 38 machines will be in use within weeks.

"It's the wave of the future," said James Schear, the TSA security director at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, where two body scanners are in use at one checkpoint.

Schear said the scanners could eventually replace metal detectors at the nation's 2,000 airport checkpoints and the pat-downs done on passengers who need extra screening. "We're just scratching the surface of what we can do with whole-body imaging," Schear said.

The TSA says it protects privacy by blurring passengers' faces and deleting images right after viewing. Yet the images are detailed, clearly showing a person's gender. "You can actually see the sweat on someone's back," Schear said.

Israel shows fangs, again.

An Israeli deputy prime minister on Friday warned that Iran would face attack if it pursues what he said was its nuclear weapons programme.
"If Iran continues its nuclear weapons programme, we will attack it," said Shaul Mofaz, who is also transportation minister.

"Other options are disappearing. The sanctions are not effective. There will be no alternative but to attack Iran in order to stop the Iranian nuclear programme," Mofaz told the Yediot Aharonot daily.

He stressed such an operation could only be conducted with US support. [which Israel will undoubtedly have]

A former defence minister and armed forces chief of staff, Mofaz hopes to replace embattled Ehud Olmert as prime minister and at the helm of the Kadima party.

Think they mean it this time or is it all just pre-election talk?

Weekend Heatwave approaches.

As forecasters get their panties in a bunch over high 90's temps in NYC and Boston and specualte that it could get up to 110 in DC, I can't help but be excited.
I LOVE SWELTERING HEAT.

Bring your best, Global Warming.

I just...think this letter is great.

Dear Class,

Unfortunately there was an incident of cheating on today's midterm. Before I contact the person who is at fault. I would like to give you the opportunity to come forward. There will be consequences either way, but they might be reduced if you email me ASAP!

Remember that cheating is insulting to me, your classmates, and your own abilities. It can affect your grade and position at BU. I am willing to work with everyone to understand these concepts and feel good about their grades- but I expect the same diligence in learning the material in return!

If this email relates to you WRITE ME BACK ASAP!

Sincerely,
Chelsea Shields Strayer

The reson I like it is this: you get kicked out of school for cheating.
For gds sake, proofread it!
and don't use so many exclamations, it's just rubbing your nose in other's imminent doom.

Thank you Beep for passing along this vid of genius

A dying community: Baghdad Jews Have Become a Fearful Few

[NYT]Written in broken English but with perfect clarity, the message is a stark and plaintive assessment from one of the last Jews of Babylon.

Just over half a century ago, Iraq’s Jews numbered more than 130,000. But now, in the city that was once the community’s heart, they cannot muster even a minyan. They are scared even to publicize their exact number, which was recently estimated at seven by the Jewish Agency for Israel, and at eight by one Christian cleric.

Among those who remain is a former car salesman who describes himself as the “rabbi, slaughterer and one of the leaders of the Jewish community in Iraq.”
Although many of his Muslim friends and immediate neighbors know he is Jewish (“I’m proud, I’m Jewish, not ashamed. I’m not hiding,” he wrote at one point.), he was wary of being named because it could draw more dangerous attention to him or his friends.

“I do my prayer in my house because we closed the synagogue from the war until now. If we open it, it will be a target,” he wrote, adding later: “I have no future here, I can’t marry, there is no girl. I can’t put my kova on my head out of the house. If I’m out of Iraq, I’ll share with people in all our feasts and do my prayer in the synagogue and will be with my family.”

Some of the remaining handful of Iraqi Jews are middle class, including two doctors. Others, including Saleh’s grandson, are poor and unemployed, dependent on handouts.

“We see each other if there is something necessary, like a death, or to discuss some important things, or if someone needs help,” he wrote. “We take care about the people in the Jewish community only, not the half or part-Jewish. We don’t know about them after they left us.”

The holdout’s father says that he regrets leaving Iraq, the country of his birth, five years ago, but that he would not return in the current dangerous climate.
“Why did we have to leave?” he said, sighing. “In Iraq I was always with my friends. Everyone was very, very, very, very nice. I had Muslim friends for 50 to 60 years. They were friends, like family. I used to spend more time with Arabs than Jews.”

His son says he knows the risks. “I’d like to leave, but I have my house, I can’t leave it,” he wrote. “I have no future here to stay.”

“If I’m faithful in GOD, I’m not afraid of anything,” he wrote, “and GOD BLESS ME.”

Have We made no headway since 1952?

TAMPA — Next year, a giant Confederate flag may tower above the tree line near the junction of Interstate 75 and Interstate 4.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans wants drivers in the Tampa area to see the massive flag — 30 feet high and 50 feet long — atop a 139-foot pole, the highest the Federal Aviation Authority would allow. It would be lit at night.

With the pole already in the ground and building permits in hand, the group is on its way to having what it calls the "world's largest" Confederate flag in place by mid 2009. The group just needs about $30,000 more, said Douglas Dawson, Florida division commander.

Several nearby business owners don't mind. It's history, they say, and it's on private property. Tampa resident Marion Lambert owns the small triangular plot just west of Interstate 75 along U.S. 92 E.

But when Hillsborough County NAACP president Curtis Stokes heard about the plans to have the flag flying next year, he was shocked.
"I'm surprised that they would allow something like this to go on in Hillsborough County," he said.

The county has wrestled with sensitive Confederate issues in the past. In 1994, the Confederate flag was removed from the county seal. Last year, county commissioners recognized Confederate commander Robert E. Lee on the same day they honored a black civic leader. Commissioners later apologized and haven't since recognized Lee.

Plans for the flag, which is part of a memorial for Confederate veterans, started about four years ago, said John W. Adams, a Deltona resident who co-chairs the Confederate Veterans' Flags Across Florida project.

Flags Across Florida started about eight years ago, after the Confederate flag was removed from the Capitol in Tallahassee. So far the group has two major flags erected: one in Suwannee County along Interstate 75 and one in Havana along U.S. 27.

Adams insists the flag isn't about racism or slavery. "It's about honoring our ancestors and about celebrating our heritage," he said. "It's a historical thing to us."

....RIGHT....

Mitch McDonald, the general manager of a nearby crane rental business, said he won't mind the flag. "The bigger, the better," he said.
But he's worried that it might offend a black employee of his, who was angered by the sighting of a Confederate flag on an earlier assignment.

The Most Helpful thing for Runners EVER

Have you ever thought to yourself: Man, I wish I could draw out my running route on google maps. that would be the best. B/c im never sure exactly EXACTLY how far I've fun.
Well, TURNS OUT, you can!

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/

as people wait longer and longer to procreate, new problems emerge.

A mass study found that deaths of children fathered by over-45s occurred at almost twice the rate of those fathered by men aged between 25 and 30.

children of older fathers are more likely to suffer particular congenital defects as well as autism, schizophrenia and epilepsy.
researchers believe the findings are linked to the declining quality of sperm as men age.

A total of 100,000 children born between 1980 and 1996 were examined, of whom 830 have so far died before they reached 18, the majority when they were less than a year old.

The deaths of many of the children of the older fathers were related to congenital defects such as problems of the heart and spine, which increase the risk of infant mortality. But there were also higher rates of accidental death, which the researchers believe might be explained by the increased likelihood of suffering from autism, epilepsy or schizophrenia.

The research also found higher death rates among children of the youngest fathers, especially those below the age of 19. However, the study said these differences were explained by the risks of teenage motherhood and poorer diet and lifestyle.

Previous research using the same data found that older men were four times as likely to father a child with Down's syndrome, while other studies have found that the genetic quality of sperm deteriorates as men age.

Tissue of dead humans to be cloned

Scientists are to be permitted to use tissue from dead people to create cloned human stem cells for research, under a legal change put forward by the government.

Health ministers have proposed that laboratories should be allowed to use stored human tissue to create cloned embryonic stem cells without the explicit consent of the tissue donor. This would allow research to be done on tissue donated for medical research as long as 30 years ago. Scientists would also be able to use cells from people who have died since they donated their tissue or who cannot be contacted.

Many laboratories have banks of stored tissue which act as DNA libraries that can play a vital role in finding cures for serious disorders such as diabetes and motor neurone disease.

Ministers have until now insisted that scientists contact tissue donors to gain explicit consent before DNA can be used to create cloned embryonic stem cells.

I know it's not, but it seems so creepy to use dead people's DNA!

America the Free, Home of the Assholes.

The United States is operating "floating prisons" to house those arrested in its war on terror, according to human rights lawyers, who claim there has been an attempt to conceal the numbers and whereabouts of detainees.

The analysis, due to be published this year by the human rights organisation Reprieve, also claims there have been more than 200 new cases of rendition since 2006, when President George Bush declared that the practice had stopped.

According to research carried out by Reprieve, the US may have used as many as 17 ships as "floating prisons" since 2001. Detainees are interrogated aboard the vessels and then rendered to other, often undisclosed, locations, it is claimed.

The Reprieve study includes the account of a prisoner released from Guantánamo Bay, who described a fellow inmate's story of detention on an amphibious assault ship. "One of my fellow prisoners in Guantánamo was at sea on an American ship with about 50 others before coming to Guantánamo ... he was in the cage next to me. He told me that there were about 50 other people on the ship. They were all closed off in the bottom of the ship. The prisoner commented to me that it was like something you see on TV. The people held on the ship were beaten even more severely than in Guantánamo."

"By its own admission, the US government is currently detaining at least 26,000 people without trial in secret prisons, and information suggests up to 80,000 have been 'through the system' since 2001. The US government must show a commitment to rights and basic humanity by immediately revealing who these people are, where they are, and what has been done to them."

A US navy spokesman, Commander Jeffrey Gordon, told the Guardian: "There are no detention facilities on US navy ships." However, he added that it was a matter of public record that some individuals had been put on ships "for a few days" during what he called the initial days of detention. He declined to comment on reports that US naval vessels stationed in or near Diego Garcia had been used as "prison ships".

CIA "black sites" are also believed to have operated in Thailand, Afghanistan, Poland and Romania.

In addition, numerous prisoners have been "extraordinarily rendered" to US allies and are alleged to have been tortured in secret prisons in countries such as Syria, Jordan, Morocco and Egypt.

Men No Longer Needed to Create Sperm

Scientists at the University of Newcastle have managed to create human sperm cells using a female embryonic stem cell.

The researchers, led by Prof Karim Nayernia, had previously created primitive sperm cells from male bone marrow. They’re currently working on making the cells from female bone marrow, which would be much easier and more practical than creating them from embryos.

The creation means that lesbian couples could soon have children that shared the DNA of both women, rather than having one male biological father. A sperm cell created from one partner could fertilize her partner’s egg.

There is some question about whether a sperm cell created from a female could produce viable, healthy offspring. The human female sperm cells could not in their current state produce offspring as they do not have the correct amount of genetic material. The team must next have the cells undergo meiosis to make sure the cells have the correct amount of genetic material.

That will likely only be a minor roadblock. Prof Nayernia has already overcome this problem with sperm cells created from male cells. In 2006, he used sperm created from embryonic stem cells to impregnate mice. The mice produced 7 pups, although one died and the other six had health problems.

French skydiver prepares for record jump from 40km (25 miles)

French skydiver Michel Fournier takes his life in his hands when, weather permitting, he leaps from a balloon 40 kilometres (25 miles) above Canada's western plains.
The 64-year-old parachutist said it was his life's dream to make the record jump, which will begin at the outer reaches of the stratosphere -- about four times higher than the cruising altitude of a commercial jet.

Fournier spent Sunday resting and making the final arrangements in the small city of North Battleford, Saskatchewan, from where he will head up into the heavens in a stratospheric balloon and then throw himself off.

He will be wearing a pressurized suit capable of withstanding temperatures of minus 100 degrees Celsius (minus 148 Fahrenheit) as he hurtles to Earth at more than 1,500 kilometers per hour.

If he succeeds, Fournier will actually break four world records: for fastest freefall, longest freefall, highest jump, and highest altitude reached by a man in a balloon. It could also someday lead to rescuing astronauts in-flight.

"This project is a great scientific and human challenge," said Fournier, a former military officer. "This is my baby, my dream. I just want to realize my dream."