Rat-eating plant discovered in Philippines

A carnivorous pitcher plant that eats rats and insects has been discovered in the Philippines and named after Sir David Attenborough.

Click here to read the whole story via The Telegraph

Don’t like reading? Read on…

Just because you don’t enjoy reading a good book, doesn’t mean there aren’t many other uses for all of those books piled up in the attic.
Click here to see more ideas.

William Calley apologizes for My Lai massacre

By Dick McMichael - Special to the Ledger-Enquirer
William Calley, the former Army lieutenant convicted on 22 counts of murder in the infamous My Lai Massacre in Vietnam, publicly apologized for the first time this week while speaking in Columbus.

“There is not a day that goes by that I do not feel remorse for what happened that day in My Lai,” Calley told members of the Kiwanis Club of Greater Columbus on Wednesday. His voice started to break when he added, “I feel remorse for the Vietnamese who were killed, for their families, for the American soldiers involved and their families. I am very sorry.”

In March 1968, U.S. soldiers gunned down hundreds of civilians in the Vietnamese hamlet of My Lai. The Army at first denied, then downplayed the event, saying most of the dead were Vietcong. But in November 1969, journalist Seymour Hersh revealed what really happened and Calley was court martialed and convicted of murder.
Calley had long refused to grant interviews about what happened, but on Wednesday he spoke at a Columbus Kiwanis meeting. He made only a brief statement, but agreed to take questions from the audience.

He did not deny what had happened that day, but did repeatedly make the point — which he has made before — that he was following orders.

Make a shirt from a dollar bill

Start with a relatively clean, crisp bill. It will make it much easier. All folds should be sharply creased. It helps to go over the fold with a fingernail on a flat, hard surface.

This is the finished product. You can do it with the following steps from Stumble

As vets await checks, VA workers get $24M bonuses

Outside the Veterans Affairs Department, severely wounded veterans have faced financial hardship waiting for their first disability payment. Inside, money has been flowing in the form of $24 million in bonuses.

By KIMBERLY HEFLING, Associated Press Writer

In scathing reports this week, the VA's inspector general said thousands of technology office employees at the VA received the bonuses over a two-year period, some under questionable circumstances.

It also detailed abuses ranging from nepotism to an inappropriate relationship between two VA employees.
The inspector general accused one recently retired VA official of acting "as if she was given a blank checkbook" as awards and bonuses were distributed to employees of the Office of Information and Technology in 2007 and 2008. In some cases the justification for the bonuses was inadequate or questionable, the IG said.

Click here to read the rest

Reuters Photo above – A veteran walks through the lobby at the last reunion for World War II Veterans of the 10th Mountain Division.

Smokers decide to Grow Own Tobacco

By JIM CARNEY, The Akron Beacon Journal

AKRON, Ohio (AP) -- Standing on brown earth on a flat field hundreds of yards from the nearest road, Don Carey is surrounded by tiny plants.

He walks along a three-quarter-acre plot in a desolate spot in this rural township in northeastern Portage County and looks at the thousands of tobacco plants he is growing.Carey, 49, decided in April, when federal taxes on tobacco skyrocketed, to grow his own."I thought it was an April Fools' joke," he said of the tax increase that sent taxes on roll-your-own tobacco up 2,153 percent.

There is something "fundamentally wrong about picking on the smokers all the time," said Carey, whose experiment with growing tobacco comes as President Barack Obama last week signed the strongest anti-smoking bill in history.

The measure gives the Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate tobacco for the first time.A general contractor who lives in Peninsula, Carey has been a cigarette and cigar smoker most of his adult life.But when April 1 came and he read that taxes on tobacco products increased, he took action.Carey went on the Internet and found places where he could purchase tobacco seeds.

Within about a week, he had received 40 types of seeds and his life as a tobacco farmer was planted."This project is something of an experiment to identify varieties of tobacco suitable for growing in our climate," Carey said.

Read the rest via http://hubpages.com/hub/Tobacco-Growing-and-Curing-at-Home

Note: Photo is not of Don Carey referred to in this article.

Like at the snout on this guy! And those ears! He's so odd that he's cute...kinda of.

The long eared jerboa is a nocturnal mouse-like rodent found in the deserts of China and Mongolia. It has a long tail, long legs and extremely large ears. Being such a rare creature, it is in danger of extinction

source The Telegraph

Re-enacting the Vietnam War...the stupidist thing I ever heard of!

By Dave Stancliff
It’s never made any sense to me why someone would want to re-enact a battle, or a war.
War is not something to be proud of. It means that all chances of reasoning have failed. It means that innocent civilians have been killed. It means that soldiers on both sides are killed, or maimed for life physically or mentally.

War is chaos. Normal ways of thinking have to be modified so that a person can survive. Killing others before they kill you helps justify your actions. The instinct to survive is strong, and people will often do things that they would never have considered before. Like kill women and children.

When I read an article about military enthusiasts re-enacting the Vietnam War I was stunned. I’ve known for a long time that re-enactors having been doing the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and even the Spanish-American War. But Vietnam?

I suppose I can see the public’s interest in watching battles that happened over 100 years ago. What people wore, ate, and types of weaponry, is somewhat of a history lesson. But when the guns and cannons blaze and the re-enactors start falling in mock death, the whole thing becomes strange to me.

Is this a celebration of death? Is this really a history lesson, or just a chance for a bunch of guys and gals to dress up in period costumes and pretend to kill each other? There’s a general blood lust that lurks in crowds when scenes of violence are glorified. Secret desires to see what it would be like to kill another person stalks many viewers.

The ancient Romans were known for their bloodlust. Emperor’s had to satisfy the public by giving them gore masquerading as entertainment. There were no re-enactors in those days. Slaughter and mayhem were part of their normal lives.

America today reflects those bloody values in our sports and love for war. With the addition of mixed-martial-arts for both sexes, we see people "nearly" killed everyday. Little or no rules apply. Like the gladiators of old, we hold up our violent sport stars like idols, and worship them slavishly.

There’s no winners in war. In the end it’s just a feast for the grim reaper. We live with wars raging around the world in this new millennium, very much like the ancient Romans. Imperialism is alive and well in the USA.

I can’t imagine people watching a representation of a war that only ended 30 years ago. There’s thousands of survivors from both sides still dealing with the physical and emotional damage from that nasty little undeclared war. It’s not like seeing crude weapons from another era. Their still with us today.

The clothing that the Vietnamese survivors wear today is the same they’ve worn for centuries. The American veterans clothes from that era is also practically the same. There’s not much to be learned from that, is there?

So why the hell do people want to re-enact a shameful period of our history when we bullied another country for no good reason? We all know that for sure now. There’s no excuses to say what we did was righteous. It was wrong. All the more reason not to glorify it with some outdoor theater of the absurd.

The re-enactors will tell you it’s history and that they are honoring those that fought and died there. As far as I’m, concerned that’s bullshit! You don’t honor anyone by playing war games. What’s really happening is just another excuse to glorify war. And there’s always those folks who wished they had been in the military and now they have a chance to pretend they are.

Some of them might have been in the military but never saw action, and the opportunity to realize their dreams of killing becomes closer to reality. What’s next? Are re-enactors going to be doing the Iraq and Afghanistan wars before they even end?

Or, will they wait for a couple of decades and then re-enact our shameful grab for oil from those two nations?
As It Stands, war will always be wrong, regardless of how it’s portrayed.

Boys discover microbes that eat plastic

PhDs have been searching for a solution to the plastic waste problem, and this 16 year old finds the answer.

It's not your average science fair when the 16-year-old winner manages to solve a global waste crisis. But such was the case at last month's May's Canadian Science Fair in Waterloo, Ontario, where Daniel Burd, a high school student at Waterloo Collegiate Institute, presented his research on microorganisms that can rapidly biodegrade plastic.

NOTE: there are TWO high school students who discovered plastic-consuming microorganisms. The first was Daniel Burd (last year). The second was Tseng I-Ching (last month), a high school student in Taiwan.

Daniel had a thought it seems even the most esteemed PhDs hadn't considered. Plastic, one of the most indestructible of manufactured materials, does in fact eventually decompose. It takes 1,000 years but decompose it does, which means there must be microorganisms out there to do the decomposing.

Could those microorganisms be bred to do the job faster?

Click here to read the rest.

Upcoming release of convicted bomber stirs controversy

Should Scottish authortities release Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi?

Al-Megrahi, 57, has terminal cancer.
He was convicted in 2001 of taking part in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 on Dec. 21, 1988. The airliner — which was carrying mostly American passengers to New York — blew up as it flew over Scotland. All 259 people aboard and 11 on the ground died when the aircraft crashed into the town of Lockerbie.Should Scottish authorities release Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi?

Click here to read all about this story, and the many views people have on it.

Woman, 63, missing for 5 days found on raft

She survives with only two cans of Mountain Dew and a bottle of water
IOWA CITY, Iowa - A 63-year-old woman trapped on a small raft caught in tangled river brush could hear passing cars and people talking but wasn't discovered until a fisherman on his way to his favorite hole spotted her five days later, the woman's son said Tuesday.
Jeanne Schnepp's odyssey began last week with a fishing trip on a tiny inflatable raft along the Wapsipinicon River. But when the Iowa woman found herself on raging waters that nearly flooded the banks, she partially deflated the raft and headed for the side.
Water masked the brush, which caught the raft and held it — and Schnepp — for five days before rescuers pulled her from the river Monday afternoon.
Click here to read the rest from the Associated Press
Photo via AP

Rep. Frank lashes out at protester for Nazi remark

Rep. Barney Frank lashed out at protester who held a poster depicting President Barack Obama with a Hitler-style mustache during a heated town hall meeting on federal health care reform.
"On what planet do you spend most of your time?" Frank asked the woman, who had stepped up to the podium at a southeastern Massachusetts senior center to ask why Frank supports what she called a Nazi policy.
"Ma'am, trying to have a conversation with you would be like trying to argue with a dining room table. I have no interest in doing it," Frank replied.
He continued by saying her ability to deface an image of the president and express her views "is a tribute to the First Amendment that this kind of vile, contemptible nonsense is so freely propagated."

Click here to read the rest from the Associated Press

The next healthcare battle: cutting Medicare Advantage

The program gives private insurers a federal subsidy to handle seniors' care. Some swear by it, but others say it's wasteful.
By Christi Parsons and Andrew Zajac
Reporting from Washington - President Obama, struggling to discredit bogus charges that his healthcare overhaul would create "death panels," soon could face another emotionally charged obstacle -- a plan to trim the federal subsidy for a program used by nearly a quarter of Medicare beneficiaries.The program, known as Medicare Advantage, pays insurance companies a hefty premium to enroll senior citizens and provide their medical services through managed-care networks.
Click here to read the rest at the LA Times

Easy is... snow diving!

Fred found that diving for his food kept him in shape and was a fun way to watch his weight!

The Mother of all buses...

Check this beast out click here. You really need to see more shots of it. The inside is stunning. The whole thing screams EXCESS!!

There's public & private options - you pick!

Thanks to Farleftside by Stanfill

9 reasons why there wasn’t stress in the good old days

Nowadays, people seem to be more and more stressed, even average people that at least apparently don’t take big gambles.
Researchers have put a lot of time and money into the study of this problem, and came up with a whole lot of theories, but really, don’t let those fool you. Here’s the real deal, here’s why it was so easy in those days.

Stickney and Poor’s (above photo) are known today mostly for spices, but back in the day, they also sold this syrup that helped babies sleep well; and if the opium inside wasn’t enough, then the 46% alcohol would definitely do the trick.

Bayer’s Heroin (photo on right)

Yeah baby, between 1890 and 1910, heroin was sold as a ‘less addictive form of morphine’. At some point, it was even recommended to treat the usual cough, but only in children.
Diacetylmorphine was first synthesized by Alder Wright, who concluded it was even more addictive than opium, and abandoned research in this direction. However, the Bayer company concluded that it was very effective in treating moderate pains and dealing with diseases such as asthma or tuberculosis, so they branded it as Heroin. What’s interesting is that it was branded pretty much at the same time with acetylsalicylic acid, that became later known as aspirin. It’s hard to say which one of these had more success…

Click here to read seven more examples of what passed for medicine in the good old days at ZME Science!

Prisoners' free health care plan beats anything on the streets

Dave Stancliff/For the Times-Standard

Posted: 08/16/2009 01:27:21 AM PDT

Recent court rulings call for improved medical care for California's prison population. The court said the care now provided to prisoners is unconstitutional. The reality is everything possible is being done for prisoners health care right now.

The prison system continues to be the biggest drain on California's budget. Billions of dollars come out of state coffers to meet every mental and medical need of prisoners according to the court's orders.

A 2005 court appointed receiver oversees the responses to the prisoner's needs. That almost resulted in new medical facilities to treat 10,000 ailing inmates and create “a holistic” environment with indoor basketball courts, handball courts, electronic bingo boards, stress-reduction rooms, music therapy, kitchens to teach cooking skills and outdoor gardens where inmates could relax in private.

Click here to read the rest at The Times-Standard.

Birds of a feather drink together

They obviously have a better class of pigeon Down Under.

Instead of pecking around on the filthy pavements among cigarette butts and chewing gum, they prefer to sip filtered water and go to great lengths for a bath.

The trio pictured here, in Brisbane, Queensland, appear to have worked out a clever system of adapting the water fountain built by humans for their own pigeon purposes.

After waiting for the fountain to be free, one bird jumped on the lever and pushed it down to fill up the bowl, while another kept watch and the third splashed in.

Read more at The Daily Mail

BREAKING: Rush, Newt, and Sarah Supported Death Panels, Too!

From The Nation --

Attention, townhall protesters: Guess who else wants to pull the plug on granny and kill Sarah Palin's baby?

In some knock-out reporting, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow showed Thursday night that not long ago Rush Limbaugh promoted death panels on his own radio show, Newt Gingrich sung their praises in the pages of the Washington Post, and, as the half-term governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin actually proclaimed an official Death Panel Day for her state!

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Now, I wonder how long it will be before this must-see hypocrisy is featured on the nightly news and Sunday talk shows? Especially on your shows, Brian Williams and David Gregory, since you are, like Maddow, part of the "NBC family." Surely you're not going to ignore this major story at the heart of the health care debate, are you?

And for more must-see health care hypocrisy, viddy this: Glenn Beck on the Best Health Care in the World, from The Daily Show, aired the same night.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Glenn Beck's Operationwww.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Spinal Tap Performance

Early toolmakers were 'engineers'

Early modern humans in South Africa were using "heat treatment" to improve their stone tools about 72,000 years ago, according to new research.

By Griet Scheldeman

This technique may bridge a gap between the use of fire to cook food 800,000 years ago and the production of ceramics 10,000 years ago.

Evidence for this innovation was found at Pinnacle Point, a Middle Stone Age site on the South African coast.

The researchers have published details in the journal Science.

"We found that as early as 165,000 years ago, but definitely 72,000 years ago, people are doing more than just using fires for cooking, heat, light or protection," lead researcher Kyle Brown, from Arizona State University, US, told BBC News.

Click here to read the rest of this article.

8 WAYS HEALTH INSURANCE REFORM PROVIDES SECURITY AND STABILITY TO ALL AMERICANS

1. Ends Discrimination for Pre-Existing Conditions: Insurance companies will be prohibited from refusing you coverage because of your medical history.

2. Ends Exorbitant Out-of-Pocket Expenses, Deductibles or Co-Pays: Insurance companies will have to abide by yearly caps on how much they can charge for out-of-pocket expenses.
3. Ends Cost-Sharing for Preventive Care: Insurance companies must fully cover, without charge, regular checkups and tests that help you prevent illness, such as mammograms or eye and foot exams for diabetics.
4. Ends Dropping of Coverage for Seriously Ill: Insurance companies will be prohibited from dropping or watering down insurance coverage for those who become seriously ill.
5. Ends Gender Discrimination: Insurance companies will be prohibited from charging you more because of your gender.
6. Ends Annual or Lifetime Caps on Coverage: Insurance companies will be prevented from placing annual or lifetime caps on the coverage you receive.
7. Extends Coverage for Young Adults: Children would continue to be eligible for family coverage through the age of 26.
8. Guarantees Insurance Renewal: Insurance companies will be required to renew any policy as long as the policyholder pays their premium in full. Insurance companies won't be allowed to refuse renewal because someone became sick.
Learn more and get details:
http://tinyurl.com/nbn5fg
Click here to read 8 Common Myths about health reform.

Check out this film: 'Power & Control LSD in The Sixties'

Experiments with LSD. Wait till you see some of the people who dropped the hallucinogenic compound back before anyone in the public heard about it.

As usual, it involves some sneaky crap by the CIA and others who sought to exploit it's properties for no good.

Click here to see the YouTube Video - Part One. A film by Aron Ranen

Food for thought today...

LSD drawings from 1950 test by the government

Women spend one year, four months of life in tears

An average woman spends the equivalent of one year and four months of her life crying, new research has shown.
The survey of 3,000 females found, that during their first year, they will shed tears for three hours a day when they need changing, feeding or entertaining.

Teenage girls cry for around two hours and 13 minutes a week and, by their mid-20s, they will cry for as much as 2.24 hours a week after falling out with their partner, watching a weepy film or losing a loved one, reports The Daily Express.

Researchers found from birth to the age of 78, she will be in tears for 12,013 hours.

The poll conducted by www.TheBabyWebsite.com also shows that the reasons why women cry change dramatically over a lifetime. But spokeswoman Kathryn Crawford said: “Feeling tired is one of the most common reasons adults and babies cry.”
Photo & Text from The Times of India

Read more about real Meat Lovers !

Meat is Good. Meat tastes good, smells good, and plumps when you cook it. Meat is one of those things that makes you glad you're at the top of the food chain so you can enjoy it. Meat makes friends. Meat is for Lovers.
Click here to read more about PWEETA (People who enjoy eating tasty animals) via Ooze

The 20th Century The Way It Should Have Happened

By Graeme McMillan
Part-Star Wars homage, part-alternate history, If Star Wars Was Real retells the history of the 20th century with some added players, offering up a Photoshopped-fantasia of nerditry and "What If"s. Click here to see more.

Here's 27 Links in 24 hours to my recent column about a government monopoly on cannabis cultivation

It's hard to believe that so many people viewed this column (There's a monopoly on marijuana growing & research in America.") in the last 24 hours.

It's was still number One in the Times-Standard Most Read Online as of 6 p.m.
Let's see what happens in the days and weeks ahead.
Meanwhile, check out some of these cool sites that carried this column so far:
Marijuana.com This site has everything you want to know about cannabis and it's many uses.
Magazine New Data Portal Magazine
This site has plenty of options from hemp to hash oil, to research.
Cannabis News
News about pot from Great Britain and the USA. It's collects news on the controversial herb.
Cannabis Lifestyle Network
On the news menu: politics, hemp, green earth, business, lifestyle, & entertainment.
UK420
Tips for promoting healthy plant growth from the UK
TWEETMEME
My column is listed under their "Hottest Links on Twitter!"
Current
This slick news site provided a picture of the "Pot Doctor" along with my column.
Stoner Nation
This cool blog likes to provide marijuana news that keeps people talking.
Medical Marijuana Referrals
This blog's Dr. Reefer is from Las Vegas Medical Marijuana Clinic
Home Grown BudThis blog has a membership forum with an online chat room: topic cannabis
Treating Yourself
This web site is a cannabis fueled forum for open discussion
Weed Bay
Another blog forum for marijuana talk and news
Vote4Pot
Shaggy on Twitter
Ajnag
This facebook fan has a lot of friends and enjoys news about cannabis
Marijuana Journal
Nice blog that features pot news and videos too.
High Memories
Another Twitter person with hundreds of friends who want to read about weed in America
BudHoe
Medicinal Marijuana Online Magazine -This sweet site has a picture of the good doctor next to my column, and a wide variety of news categories and videos
The Hemp and Cannabis Association/NORML Daily Audio Stash
Information on Medical Marijuana Clinics, news, entertainment, and more from this site by NORML
HydroCanna
A nice growing and smoking forum for those who like marijuana.
Medical Marijuana Inc.
Solutions for an emerging industry!
Canna Nation
An online cannabis community that shares information on the healing herb we call marijuana.
Jack Herer. com
I'm totally honored to have Jack's site pick up my column. The guys a legend. My day has been made. (see Aug.9th, 2009)
420 Magazine
I can't believe it! 420 Magazine. I read this mag as much as High Times! Again, I'm honored to have my column featured with such a sweet publication!
Rollitup
This site calls itself the Marijuana Source.
Identi.com
This is a microblogging service, that picked up my column, by Status.net. It runs the Laconica microblogging software, version 0.8.0, available under the GNU Affero General Public License.
420Attorney.com
Recent events in the California Marijuana Legal World (Kroger & Kroger Law Group)
The Marijuana Observer
Observations on Marijuana (See Aug 10 list)

There's a monopoly on marijuana growing and research in America

By Dave Stancliff/For the Times-Standard

Posted: 08/09/2009 01:28:32 AM PDT

I'd like you to meet Dr. Mahmoud ElSohly, the only person in the United States who can grow tons of marijuana and not worry the Feds will bust him.

If your company wants to do research on marijuana, he's the guy to see. Dr. ElSohly's lab at the University of Mississippi has an exclusive contract with the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), which supplies the pot to approved researchers who study its ill effects.

Despite the federal government's efforts to suppress marijuana's positive aspects for the last 72 years, researchers everywhere watch with interest as Big Pharma gets involved with the controversial herb and its therapeutic qualities.

Click here to read the rest of this column.

Obese Texas inmate hides gun in his flabs of fat

HOUSTON — An obese inmate in Texas has been charged after officials learned he had a gun hidden under flabs of his own flesh.

Twenty-five-year-old George Vera was charged with possession of a firearm in a correctional facility after he told a guard at the Harris County Jail about the unloaded 9mm pistol. The Houston Chronicle reported Thursday that Vera was originally arrested on charges of selling illegal copies of compact discs.

The 500-pound man was searched during his arrest and again at a city jail and the county jail, but officers never found the weapon in his rolls of skin. Vera admitted having the gun during a shower break at the county jail.

photo and text via AP

Before marriage and after marriage

Online Optical Illusion: The Hidden Tiger

By Boomeryearbook

Do you believe the statement “The first impression is the last impression” is true? Think again. There are various online optical illusions that will prove this quote wrong. When individuals look at an image, they try to perceive it in relationship to something that is most closely related to something they have experienced before. Psychological articles tell us that banking on this nature, creators of online optical illusions have created various illusions to play trick on the viewers.

The ‘The Hidden Tiger’ is one of those online optical illusions that tricks the human eye based on the way the human organizes visual sensory input.

What is your first impression of this online optical illusion? Your first impression may be that it is a picture of a tiger in the woods. You will also see the trees and the grasses. This is where our first impression can prove to be deceptive or incomplete.

Take another look. Do you see anything else? To be more precise, do you see ‘The Hidden Tiger’ in this online optical illusion? Take a closer look and try to find ‘The Hidden Tiger.’

If you still cannot find ‘The Hidden Tiger’, look closely at the tiger’s stripes. Can you now see the ‘The Hidden Tiger’ in this online optical illusion? Most probably yes. Are you wondering how you missed it in the first trial? Well, you are far from alone and there is nothing to worry about. The majority of people looking at this online optical illusion tend to see the “whole” of the big tiger, not the hidden tiger as the way we perceive something is based on matching the perception of the new stimuli and generalizing it to something familiar of which we have stored prior knowledge.

Taking a first look at this online optical illusion of ‘The Hidden Tiger’ demonstrates that first impressions are seldom true; they are more accurately based on past perceptions and not just current stimuli. Thus the human brain’s way of generalizing sensory information provides the source of online optical illusion tricks, and encourages us to take a closer look at what we see in the world around us.

So, after “reframing” how you look at this online optical illusion, do you still believe the statement “The first impression is the last impression” is true? We at Boomer Yearbook would love to encourage you to look again.

image via Google Images

20 Strange and Mysterious Medical Syndromes

Doctors have come across some baffling day-to-day ailments, but few conditions are as strange as these 20 disorders, which range from biological to psychological to cultural in nature.

Foreign Accent Syndrome
Foreign accent syndrome (FAS) is a speech disorder that causes sudden changes in speech pattern, intonation and pronunciation so that the victim is perceived to speak with a "foreign" accent. FAS usually results from severe trauma to the brain, such as a stroke or head injury, and typically develops within one or two years of the injury. Of the 50 to 60 cases that have been verified since 1941, only a few FAS sufferers regained their normal speech pattern, although some experienced success through speech therapy.

900 Boxes of Coffee Laced With Viagra Seized

It's been a strange day for me so this interesting little story seems to fit...

Malaysian authorities have confiscated 900 boxes of coffee laced with Viagra, a newspaper report said Sunday.

Health Ministry officials raided a company in Kuala Lumpur that marketed the coffee as an energy booster, The New Straits Times said. The report did not say whether the package labeled Viagra as an ingredient.

Sunday's report said the 900 confiscated boxes containing some 9,000 coffee packets were worth more than 72,000 ringgit ($20,000). Some of the Viagra-laced coffee had been distributed nationwide, it said.

Click here to read the rest at NBC Washington

Why the State Sovereignty and Secession Movements? The Feds Are Selling Us Into Servitude

by Brian Roberts

Washington is selling servitude.

• We watched as they destroyed the financial sector by forcing banks to give loans to people that could not afford them… then they stepped in to “save the day” by gaining direct control of our financial sector.
• We watched as they destroyed a once powerful automotive industry through excessive regulation and labor union control… then they stepped in to “save the day” by gaining direct control of our automotive industry.
• We listened as they verbally assaulted capitalism when government regulations were to blame.
• We watched as they asked the American people to fund a $1 trillion dollar stimulus bill, they yelled emergency as they slipped cash from our children’s pockets to their political allies.
• We watched, as they worked to destroy the rule of law by arbitrarily dictating revised terms to legal contracts and installing a Supreme Court justice that promotes social justice over rule-of-law.
• We know, they intend to control our children, it’s written in the GIVE Act.
• We know, they intend to control our resources, it’s written in the Cap and Trade Bill.
• We know, they intend control of our very lives, it’s written in the Health Care Bill.
• We know, they intend to control our votes, the 2010 census is now controlled by the white house and the ones registering voters are corrupt
• We watch and wait as they install unaccountable czars for dictating not representing
• We watch and wait as they increase “organizer” funding from millions to billions of our tax dollars. And we wonder how these groups will be used to steal our life, liberty and property from us.

The fifth sentence of the Declaration of Independence states, “But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

A movement based on the 10th amendment is undeniably lawful and moral.
Click here to read the rest at LewRockwell

Meet Samsam the Bubbleman!

How does one go about becoming world famous for bubbles?
Just ask Samsam Bubbleman (aka Sam Heath) who started his love affair with them almost 20 years ago, in 1989.

It all started with just a single bubble," he said. "I was sitting in a field and a bubble just floated past. I took the word away from the object and just looked at it for what it was. I captured my imagination and I just thought what an amazing thing that was. It's like one of those anomalies of nature that just shouldn't exist."

Samsam Bubbleman now earns a living doing what he loves best. He eventually formed a company called Bubble Inc and now sells mixtures, equipment, clothing (bubble tights?) and performs shows for large audiences.

Photo & text via The Telegraph

The Afghan Crop Currency

The U.S. sent agents to help shut down Afghanistan's opium industry--the business that funds Taliban operations and provides the world's major opium supply. But how can the U.S. win this war?
Click here to see a video on Newsy about what the U.S. is doing in Afghanistan, and the challenges we face if we eradicate their opium crops. It's a Catch 22 if I ever saw one.

Listen to some famous radio broadcasts

Check out these voices from this historical archive
(Example links below)
Listen to some of the most famous speeches and broadcasts of the yesteryear.
Japan Surrenders
Hiroshima News Bulletin
Eleanor Roosevelt
Hitler Opens The Olympics
Click here to hear the rest at Old Radio World

Learn more about how the British live

This is Britain.

We live here. We are called the British people. Find out all about us and the way we live!

This is a guide to Britain written for Americans who may be planning a visit here. Use this guide to help you become familar with the many complex, sometimes strange customs of the British People.

Click here to find a guide to British language, culture and customs which will help to know the people better.

Someday I hope to visit England as that's where my roots are. The Stancliff's have lived in America for nine generations, going back to William Stanclift. Before that we were stonecutters in Yorkshire and other areas.

President Obama faces 30 death threats a day, stretching US Secret Service

President Obama is the target of more than 30 potential death threats a day and is being protected by an increasingly over-stretched and under-resourced Secret Service, according to a new book.

By Toby Harnden in Washington

Since President Obama took office, the rate of threats against the president has increased 400 per cent from the 3,000 a year or so under President George W. Bush, according to Ronald Kessler, author of "In the President's Secret Service."

Some threats to Obama, whose Secret Service codename is Renegade, have been publicized, including an alleged plot by white supremacists in Tennessee late last year to rob a gun store, shoot 88 black people, decapitate another 14 and then assassinate the first black president in American history.

Click here to read the rest at The Telegraph

One in 200 men alive today is a relative of Genghis Khan

An international team of geneticists have found an astonishing statistic; one in every 200 men alive today is a relative of Genghis Khan. These men have the same male Y chromosome as the great warlord Genghis Khan.
Genghis Khan conquered many countries during his reign (between 1162 and 1227) and in this campaign he captured many beautiful women and fathered many children on the way. According to on Persian historian, that within a century of Khan’s birth and his extravagant mating habits had resulted in more than 20,000 children. And now his descendants make about 8% of the men in Central Asia after a genetic study of these men.

Click here to read the rest at Digital Journal

Pete the Pug gets an early start on being a booze hound!

Photo via Imgur

Pollution free cars are coming soon

We are now entering the era of pollution free driving. Car maker Nissan has unveiled the world's first affordable zero-emission car. The car can be easily charged from home (like your cell phone) and will have a range of 100 miles after it is juiced up. Nissan has not announced the cost of this vehicle yet, but they state it will be "competitively priced." The car will be launched late 2010 in Japan, the USA, and Europe.
Last year I wrote a column about another pollution free car "Vehicles that run on air are ready" that got a great reader response. I can't help wondering what happened to "Zero Pollution Motors (ZPM) who had plans to release a new car in America this year.

Blogs that picked up today's column: 'Hot dogs under fire: Study slams an American icon

Check out "Bump's Guide" and you'll find all hot dog related issues and news, and today's column.

See today's column at the American Cancer Society News Circle (look under Recent Hot Dog News)

Read today's column in the Op Ed section of the North Coast Blogthing

Thanks!

Hot dogs under fire: Study slams an American icon

By Dave Stancliff/For the Times-Standard

Posted: 08/02/2009 01:15:16 AM PDT

A $4 billion industry and a piece of Americana are under fire from the American Institute for Cancer Research.

The group filed a lawsuit in a New Jersey Superior Court in Newark against three New Jersey firms on July 22, asserting that hot dogs are hazardous to your health and should carry warning labels on the packages.

Click here to read the rest in The Times-Standard

Amelia Earhart Mystery Solved? 'Investigation Junkies' to Launch New Expedition

DNA Evidence on a Remote Island May Reveal the Truth About Earhart's Disappearance

By CHRISTINA CARON
It has been 72 years since famed aviator Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared while attempting to fly around the world. But the mystery remains unsolved: Nobody knows exactly what happened to Earhart or her plane.

Now researchers at the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, or Tighar, say they are on the verge of recovering DNA evidence that would demonstrate Earhart had been stranded on Nikumaroro Island (formerly known as Gardner Island) before finally perishing there.

During May and June of next year, Tighar will launch a new $500,000 expedition, continuing the archaeological work it has been doing on the island since 2001.

"We think we will be able to come back with DNA," said Tighar's Executive Director Ric Gillespie, who is working with two DNA labs in Ontario, Canada, Genesis Genomics and Molecular World. "We were out there in 2007 under the impression that in order to extract DNA we would need to find a piece of a human, and we didn't find anything like that. But we did find what's best described as personal effects of the castaway that died there."

Photo and story via ABC News online

Pen pals: Giraffe and goat form unlikely friendship when kept in same enclosure

They'll always have a very different outlook on life.

But even though Gerald the giraffe is rather lofty and Eddie the goat is more down to earth, they are the perfect pairing.

They have formed an unlikely bond after Eddie was placed with 15ft Gerald as a short-term solution to keep the giraffe company at Noah's Ark Zoo Farm in Bristol.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1203459/Pen-pals-Giraffe-goat-form-unlikely-friendship-kept-enclosure.html#ixzz0MxBM5QNG

Republican moms for marijuana: 'Time to legalize is now'

It will take conservatives and women to help turn tide against pot prohibition

By Jessica Peck Corry, For the Colorado Daily

BOULDER, Colo. — As a Republican mother committed to legalizing marijuana, political life can be lonely. But while many in my party whisper about the Drug War's insanity, we should shout it from the rooftop: the time to legalize is now.

Calling for a new approach doesn't make me a pothead. In fact, while I freely admit to having previously smoked marijuana -- as do more than 95 million other Americans, including our last three presidents -- I choose not to be an active marijuana user today.

While opponents may argue that legalization is all about a bunch of twentysomethings wanting to get high, the debate deserves a more respectful and truthful analysis.

Take medical marijuana. On July 20, Colorado's Health Board voted down a proposal that would have effectively shuttered the medical marijuana dispensaries serving as crucial sources of legal marijuana across the state. As a result, courageous patients, including AIDS survivor Damien LaGoy, will not have to take to dangerous streets to obtain marijuana.

Instead, the state's nearly 10,000 patients can continue their existing relationships with dispensaries, many of who deliver to the homebound and hold extensive knowledge about the benefits and side effects of specific strains.

Click here to read the rest at the Colorado Daily.com

photo is of Jessica Peck Corry