Mummy Gummis

----------------
If you want to make your own Gummy worms, the recipe is HERE

------------------------
And for cat lovers, why wait for Haloween?
Here is the way to make a kitty litter cake.
or Dog food kibbles snacks.

1.9 millions displaced by storm

The link is to a sad story of a child who stayed at home, and her parent's attempt to get home to help them.

Lalaine’s body, along with her nanny’s, was found inside the Tobillos’ house. They were among the more than 50 bodies recovered in Provident Villages alone.

US NAVY SEALS rescue residents in Cainta, Rizal. They delivered relief goods, and aided in the recovery of more than 52 people on Sunday.

Leolanda Lizardo and her grandchildren take refuge in a makeshift shelter at Barangay Ampid in San Mateo, Rizal,

GoogleMap of affected areas

Death Toll is now 246 and expected to rise.


Business world notes:
."

And only a few days before the killer flood happened, the Senate Economic Affairs Committee chaired by Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago took to task national government officials for their failure to explain how the estimated P56-billion road users’ tax collections were used. If only one-third of that amount were used to finance the upgrading of the old, antiquated drainage system of Metropolitan Manila, the outcome would have been different. {We all know where the money went but that’s for another day.)

The article also pointed out

Experts, including international urban planner and architect Felino Palafox, Jr., disagree that the flooding of key areas in Metropolitan Manila is an act of God. "It’s neglect on the part of the government," he said.

Three decades ago, policymakers were warned that "Development should be restricted by the application of control in three major areas — in the Marikina Valley, the western shores of Laguna de Bay, and the Manila Bay coastal area to the north of Manila."

And another storm is due Saturday

In the meanwhile, aid is pouring in, but some areas of Manila are still flooded.

My reports on BNN are HERE and HERE

Stuck accelerators

One of the most frightening things on a highway is to be in a car and have the accelerator stick when you are traveling at 70 mph in heavy traffic.

This happened to me twice, both times in rented cars on the way from the airport to the motel.

Both times, I managed to downshift into neutral and get to the side of the road.

This warning is about removable floor mats. If you have a Toyota or Lexus, check the link

Stories below the fold

from the UKTelegraph: photos of signs that were altered by unknown artists.

---------------

They also report that the Wisconson Tourist Federation, aka "WTF" has decided to change their name

Good call, fellahs
-------------------------------
Life Magazine is now on line at Google Books.

Angels

InsightScoop publishes Philosopher Peter Kreeft's book on angels, and has a link to his audio podcast about them.

The Twelve Most Important Things to Know About Them

1. They really exist. Not just in our minds, or our myths, or our symbols, or our culture. They are as real as your dog, or your sister, or electricity.

2. They’re present, right here, right now, right next to you, reading these words with you.

3. They’re not cute, cuddly, comfortable, chummy, or “cool”. They are fearsome and formidable. They are huge. They are warriors.

4. They are the real “extra-terrestrials”, the real “Super-men”, the ultimate aliens. Their powers are far beyond those of all fictional creatures.

5. They are more brilliant minds than Einstein...
..
10. Angels often come disguised. “Do not neglect hospitality, for some have entertained angels unawares”—that’s a warning from life’s oldest and best instruction manual.
-----------------------

St Michael is usually shown in art wearing the "skirt" of a Roman warrior, with long hair: this makes him appear a bit effeminate.
But Andrew Greeley has him appear in one novel dressed as a Navy Seal.
And one major film has an angel as one of the heroes: In LOTR, Gandalf is an angel (messenger/spirit) according to Tolkien.

Musical interlude of the day

This is in memorial for 911 but could be a memorial for all those in Manila who lost homes and family.

Manila Flood heroes

there are complaints that the government was slow to do rescue work, something that always happens in disasters.
The UN is using the floods to push global warming, but the dirty little secret is that a lot of the flooding was caused by inadequate sewers that are choked with debris.

And the government is pleading for international help. At least a quarter million people are in schools, gov't offices etc and probably many times that number are with relatives and will need help to rebuild their homes.

But a lot of police, military, government workers and civilians have risked their lives, and some have died, rescuing those stranded or in peril in the flooding.

The happiest story which I linked to is from the Inquirer:

The JetSki Judge.

“I was so shocked by the situation when I heard that around 150 houses were already flooded,” said Judge Ralph Lee of Regional Trial Court Branch 83.....

Lee drove from his Fairview home for the stricken community 30 minutes away with his personal water craft, life vests and two rubber boats he used on weekend wakeboarding sorties and mobilized a rescue effort that saved 100 lives.

But there are many other stories that didn't end so happily, like this one:

There were other super heroes, like Muelmar Magallanes, a powerful swimmer who braved rampaging floods to save more than 30 people, but ended up sacrificing his life in a last trip to rescue a baby girl who was being swept away on a styrofoam box.

Other rescuers were killed trying to save neighbors and relatives, but swept away by the strong currents.

Manila flooding

I wrote a report about it HERE, but except for local news (we didn't flood thank the Lord) most of it is from sources on line.

Probably as the roads clear, we'll get people moving back to stay with family until their homes are fixed or rebuilt, and we'll get more first hand reports. But we were pretty well isolated in the storm, not being able to get out etc. despite tradefair commitments.

We'll also have first hand reports if we make deliveries later this week.
------------------

StrategyPage has a good summary of what's going on HERE
The long term effects will affect millions.

Gift item of the day

Feel sad, like it's always raining on you?

Well, just wear a Happy Rain Cloud Broach and cheer yourself up

From WhiteHaarts' shop at Etsy.
Headsup Craft handmade website

Musical interlude of the day

played by the great pianist, Alicia Delarrocha, who recently passed away...

Dane and John

after their 5 km run.

Floods in Manila

ManuelQuezonIII has lots of photos of Manila's flooding.

Here, the streets have puddles but most of the street flooding has gone down...
Church was half empty.
The sun is shining but more rain is forecast.
The men are going to the fields to see if they can harvest the rest of the rice harvest...

Another day, another (almost) typhoon

Most of yesterday and last night we had very heavy rains and moderate winds...

Only a "signal 2", not quite a full typhoon, but the rain was really bad and of course the electricity went off and the streets were flooded.

The papers say we had a month of rain in one day...
and lots of flooding in Manila. Full reports not yet in from the provinces.

Gloria and Obama commercial

This is running on our local TV...
Obama is popular here...

The Ignoble prizes are coming

On October 1st, the Ignoble Prize ceremony will be held.


The UK Telegraph has the list, including this informative illustration of one paper..( Photo: POLAR BIOLOGY)
But I don't agree that the research is useless.
Did you know that dog fleas jump higher than cat fleas?

"A Comparison of Jump Performances of the Dog Flea, Ctenocephalides canis (Curtis, 1826) and the Cat Flea, Ctenocephalides felis felis (Bouche, 1835)," Veterinary Parasitology, 2000

Craft item of the day

I knit holding the thread up with my index finger, but the Portuguese ways loops it to your neck or a hook on your shoulder...

via Lionscraft website.

Best comment of the day

One technology impaired Senator insists that it is "too difficult" to put the health care bill on line: "it could take two weeks"...

Leading one geek to comment:

ladybug

Sep 24, 2009

If Senator Baucus' staff is having trouble getting the bill online, I'm sure any high school computer wiz would be more than able to do so, and probably for pay of food and praise.

Wikipedia has more about book scanning HERE.

History Channel on Tolkein

The History Channel has a series: Clash of the Gods and The One Ring Net reports that they will air a program about Tolkein's LOTR on it.

The production company's blog is HERE.

We don't get the History Channel, but I've downloaded two episodes of the series, both about ancient Greece (via torrents) and I give them a B....accurate, but not deep, and a bit graphic with an emphasis on the colour red.

Ralph Nader has a novel

And he discusses it at the FreeLibrary podcast LINK

Nader's first novel imagines a cadre of wealthy individuals who become a driving force in the United States to organize and institutionalize the interests of its citizens.

There is also a side link to Frank McCourt's interview on "Tis"...

Ancient world links

I'm persuing the weekly gods Graves Glyphs articles this week on Free Republic.

Some links from their articles:

How are the Sami people (AKA Lapps) of northern Scandanavia related to other ethnic groups?
I found another link to the Ainu
This site has a lot of information on indigenous peoples and other groups at risk...

And a geology item that's new to me: the Carolina Bay depressions...which is fascinating. more links HERE.

Tweet Tweet

Go to link and hear the warble of a grey warbler, or the song of a kiwi (heh I never knew they sang) or kaka or kakapoo...

Stuff below the fold

40 000 Christians, along with Mayor Blumberg's blessing, pray in Time Square,
only one MSM report, and that one mocked them.
If I am familiar with the group, it is because the Time Square church was founded by the guy who also founded Teen challenge, an anti drug organization which I got to know about while working in the slums during training...so the organization goes back a bit.

-----------------------
The latest refugees in NYCity: Bhutanese...
They are ethnic Nepal farmers who were ethnically cleansed by Bhutan, and Nepal doesn't want them, so in 2007, the US agreed to resettle 60,000 of them.

------------------------

Another day, another storm...(tropical depression)...
We did manage to harvest the rice between storms last week, but had to pay the rice mills to dry it for storage.
So Chano just arranged to buy a rice drier.
But this is bad news for the poorer farmers, who usually dry the rice on the roads in the hot sun...
---------------------------------
Aging Asia will see a lot more fractures from osteoporosis.
Yes, they are already advertising milk products on the TV here.even though most people are lactose intolerant...

--------------------------------
The latest scandal in China: The Army's chow trucks have a spoon and fork logo...
Chinese use spoons and chopsticks, thank you very much...

------------------
Latest news here: Enrile defends Erap from smears, Lim backs Noynoy. And the US/AFP agreement is being discarded (so that it can be rewritten)...mostly politics, and a lot of lost money...

The Kinder, Gentler Star Wars

(headsup the Primate Diaries)

Science stuff

Uyghurs are a hybrid, and more about DNA studies

----------------
Dark Matter part I and Dark Matter part II:
Where is all that missing mass?
Or is the theory of Gravity wrong?
-----------

Bill Maher pushing pseudoscience, libels Pasteur.
No, Pasteur did not deny the germ theory when he died...
--------------------

Beware of Cyberbugs!

GIft item of the day

a HelloKitty Hand Granade...
no, not real: For gamers...

but you can place them with your collection of Hello Kitty guns in the garage, next to your Hello Kitty armoured personnel carrier.

(from HelloKittyHell of course)

Headlines below the fold

This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius...OBMAVISION

or maybe not...but notice the comments.... VDHansen says it's ivorytower chic...Michael Barone's says it's the 1970's dream come true....
My take?
Peace in our Time...

---------------------------
uh oh: Sarah Palin: The female Ron Paul?
Instapundit reader says no, just a common sense approach.

--------------------
I don't know which of these ideas is worse: Cutting funds to schools, or taxing doctors to fund Medicaid.
What a great way to encourage doctors to leave the state!

---------------------------
Good news: Three teachers kidnapped by the Abus have been freed. "rescued by police"....

The initial (ransom) demand was P20 Million, which was later reduced to P10 Million and further reduced to P3M...wonder what the final price was...gov't forbids ransom, but families will pay if they have the money

--------------------
Caught in a post Apocalypse world?
Don't forget the beer.

-------------------

Iran's only AWACs has crashed....collided in a parade "fly over" and crashed into Khomani's tomb...
(place conspiracy theories here)
(last two links also via Instapundit)
-----------------------
NYTimes: huge gang take down in LA.

Members of the largely Hispanic gang would also spray paint racist threats around neighborhoods to intimidate black people, according to prosecutors.

A while back, Baldilocks had been threatened by the gangs...

Congratulations to BryanBoy

who got mentioned as a major fashion blogger in InStyle.

I don't link to him because this is a PG rated blog, and I rarely cover fashion, but BryanBoy is famous in the Philippines as our number one blogger.

LOL cat photo of the day

moar funny pictures

USAF National Guard Restoring smiles

QUANG TRI PROVINCE, Vietnam - If anyone knows the importance of a smile, it's a dentist, and dentists like Maj. (Dr.) Diep Le....
Dr. Le, a reservist from Travis Air Force Base, Calif., was born in Vietnam and immigrated to the United States when she was 5 years old. The doctor jumped at the opportunity to return to her native land because of the connection she has with her Vietnamese heritage.


Photo:Doctor Le (on the left) is a dentist and Air Force reservist from Travis Air Force Base, Calif. (U.S. Air Force photo/Tech. Sgt. Kerry Jackson)

"Being in Vietnam is an opportunity for me to do something I absolutely love, for people I have such a meaningful connection with," said Dr. Le. "It is an experience that I'll remember for a very, very long time."

Dr. Le is part of a team of Air Force medical professionals and civil engineers in Vietnam Sept. 15 to 24 to provide humanitarian assistance in cooperation with local authorities to Quang Tri Province residents during Operation Pacific Angel 2009....
more Photos HERE.

Pacific Angel is a Pacific Air Forces operation led by 13th Air Force at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii. Two previous iterations of Operation Pacific Angel 2009 were conducted in July -- one to Indonesia and another to Timor Leste.


These type of mission go on all the time here in the Philippines, and when they are in our area I try to report on it.

But this is the first time I was aware that they were helping in rural Viet Nam...

Depressing stuff below the fold

I was going to post headlines, but the gentle Anchoress had done it for me.

and she refers to this video
-------------------
and I moved some more stuff to my b*****Blog.

Musical interlude of the day

Turn up speakers and dance!

Gift item of the day

Buy a happy Plush Uterus for one you love...

complete with her "Hello Kitty" bow!



Or if you prefer something less clinical, just make a HelloKitty is Pregnant cake.






(headsup HelloKittyHell)

Cute photo of the day

from Epicute, the cute food blog...

Chicken cartoon of the day

Depressing Stuff below the fold

The Anchoress is reminded of The Stand: ...time to chose...

--------------------
Be afraid...be very afraid....

And the ever so politicized BMJ can't imagine why disabled people are against euthanasia,
uh, maybe because they are the main victims of the practice?

--------------------

Bush's HIV program is being changed by Obama to push contraception.
Figures.
When I worked in Africa, every village had a "pill lady", but few villages had clean water (until our hospital arranged money to help dig wells). Priorities, you know...
-----------------
"Confusopoly"...sounds about right.
I used to tell my patients that "I'm a doctor, not an insurance specialist"...

---------------------
The ChinabeatBlog attends the Summer Davos meeting.
Key quote:
Creative architects and scientists discussed inventions for improving city life, such as a biodegradable tracking device that would let people know what happens to their garbage...

Quote of the day

from the UKGuardian:

one official said: "Obama is now driving this process. He is saying these are the president's weapons, and he wants to look again at the doctrine and their role."

so he is president, so there!

Family News

Chano is sponsoring a bunch of businesspeople for luncheon and lectures.

The puppies have been banished from the kitchen and are in our dining room (we have marble/cement floors so cleaning is easy) but after last night's rain dries up a little we'll put them in the garden with the other dogs.

I am achy all over: probably from the thunder storm last night. So blogging might be light.

And no, we didn't "feel" last week's earthquake, which was south of Manila...only a loud rumble like a truck...

Puppy secretary

moar funny pictures

Puppy photo of the day

Cute Animal photo of the day

Via SeaWayBlog: A piglet Squid

More HERE

(photo©serpent project 2006)

(Headsup Webecoist)

Food Links for today

Ah, a fourdollar gourmet hamburger.

Just looking at the picture makes my cholesterol go up (and yes, we have McDonalds and Jolibee hamburgers here in town). The prices are about the same as in the US, but most people only eat the smaller hamburger. The side dish can be fries, or rice.

Of course, you could just make one yourself: Recipe HERE and HERE

This site has links to Vegetarian Burger recipes...

Ironically, here the beef is terrible, and expensive.They do have some local beef, but the best beef is imported from Australia and is expensive.

We do eat Water buffalo meat (Carabao)which is a bit cheaper, but tough. (We usually eat chicken, pork or fish).

If you want American style lettuce and tomatoes, they are expensive because they are grown in the mountains in Baguio, and brought down each day. The local tomatoes are "roma" (small pear shaped tomatoes which in the US is used in sauces). And our onions are red skinned onions.

But we can't make veggie burgers either because we don't have tofu or most of the beans/peas either, only lentils and string beans.

Mary Travers RIP

Turn up speakers and try not to cry

Family news

It's hot and we had another brownout yesterday.

Chano and Joy go to a local businessmen's meeting today.

We have a ceiling in the dining room with glass that allows sunlight in. This morning, our tomcat "Precious" ran across the glass, and four panes fell down, along with Precious, right on top of George, the killer Lab.
Both George and Precious are unhurt.

Iran: the news is not good

According to the UKTimes, both Moussavi and Khatami have been attacked during Qoms day anti government protests by the Green movement...These guys are not "radicals" but establishment figures who ran the country in the past, so it gives you an idea how radical and potentially violent those who run the country actually are.

TehranLive has photos...

You tube is blocked, but some are still posting around the firewall, on YouTube and on other sites.


Sigh.
In our prayers.

Green revolution update

It's Qods day in Iran.

The Green movement is asking that the day of solidarity with the Palestinians turn into the day for solidarity in support for their own human rights.


NYTimes is following HERE

UKGuardian HERE

Or watch the latest YouTube videos

Puppies!

Subliminal message alert

Dangerous Minds reports this dangerous subliminal message promoted by a major auto company...


(headsup Improbable research)

Gift item of the day

Tired of old fashioned calculators losing their battery charge in the middle of an exam.

ThinkGeek has the answer for you: A genuine slide rule:

Product Features

Performs the following calculations: Multiplication, Division, Squares, Square Root, Cubes, Cube Root, Proportion, Logarithms, Sine, Cosine, Tangent, Cotangent

• No batteries required

And yes, I used to use one...

Imelda! the Musical

Pinoycentric reports that Imelda the Musical is opening off-Broadway.




Alas, Variety pans it.

Family news

We had a scheduled brownout yesterday, so the internet was off, so no blogging.

Joy and Chano went to the big Trade Fair in Manila and got back late last night.

LOL photo of the day

GIV ME CHEEZBURGER
I HAZ LITSABER

(HEadsup Jawas)

Gift item of the day

A HelloKitty Nerd Wallet.
Do you want me to send you one, Takato?

Me Gusto

(via BoingBoing)

how to make Chicha...



Incan Corn Beer...

Patrick Swayze RIP

"...He was the star of such movies as "Ghost," "Dirty Dancing," and "Road House...."

LINK

Not to mention ToWongFoo, and Next of Kin...or the cult classic "Red Dawn"...

OK guys, altogether now:

Wolverines!

Mark your calenders

Sept 17 is International Talk Like a Pirate day...

Pirate cartoons HERE.

My pirate name is:

Iron Jenny Vane

A pirate's life isn't easy; it takes a tough person. That's okay with you, though, since you a tough person. You tend to blend into the background occaisionally, but that's okay, because it's much easier to sneak up on people and disembowel them that way. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

Musical interlude of the day

Ceebuuu....

(headsup InsightBlog)

Stuff below the fold

As a Catholic, I knew that the feast of our Lady of the Rosary on October 7 was the PC renaming for the feast day of Our Lady of Victories, which commemorated the Victory of Lepanto.
But now historian ElenaMariaVidal reminds us that Sept 12, became the feast of The Name of Mary, to remember the victory over the Turkish seige of Vienna.

Churches are sometimes called "communities of memory" because they remember these things. Presumably, a thousand years from now, the attack on the Twin Towers will someday be commemorated as the feast of St Mychal of New York...

------------------------------
AboutCom has a series on the spread of the Black Plague in Europe...includes some great maps...

One of the books I brought with me was Tuchman's book A Distant Mirror...it starts out with describing the famines caused by the "little Ice Age", which contributed to the high mortality of the plague...

------------------------------------
Archeology magazine has an article on Egyptian artifacts in New York City.

Actually, I prefer the almost unknown exhibit at the Univ of Pennsylvania museum myself.(photo from the book of the dead at that website)...

---------------------------
Cheap AK 47's are a major public health problem in parts of Africa, says StrategyPage, by fueling crime and societal disruption...and societal disruption means more disease and less aid.

---------------------
Welcome to the World Dog Surfing championship...
Photo: REUTERS


.
.
.
.
.
.

Puppies!

Chloe's puppies are now in the "cute" stage...

PuffPuff, our Scottie, inspecting the puppies...



The bad news is that their father is Gorgeous George, the killer Lab...
The Good news is that everyone wants one as a watch dog, because they know George is a good watchdog...

The Cat Piano:

THE CAT PIANO:
Athanasius Kircher designed the cat piano and documented it in the Musurgia Universalis in 1650... The musician would select cats whose voices were at different pitches then arrange them in the pens accordingly. The piano delivered sharp pokes into thetails of the cats.

(headsup
From Neatorama)

Headlines below the fold

Bermuda Triangle plane mystery 'solved'

the planes just ran out of gas.
-----------------

Another celebrity want a kid.

Like Madonna, this proves that being a celebrity means the ordinary rules don't apply.
Promiscuity and unstable homelife....check.
Long history of drug abuse....check.
Over age 50 (or more than 40 years older than the child's age)....check.

------------------------

STOP CON ASS NOW

Yes, opponents of Constitutional change in the Philippines are now on facebook...
--------------------
Men lie 6X a day, twice the rate as women...

----------------------
Attention conspiracy theorists: (from the UKTimes, May 24,2009)
Billionaire club in bid to curb overpopulation

SOME of America’s leading billionaires have met secretly to consider how their wealth could be used to slow the growth of the world’s population and speed up improvements in health and education.

The philanthropists who attended a summit convened on the initiative of Bill Gates, the Microsoft co-founder, discussed joining forces to overcome political and religious obstacles to change.

Described as the Good Club by one insider it included David Rockefeller Jr, the patriarch of America’s wealthiest dynasty, Warren Buffett and George Soros, the financiers, Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York, and the media moguls Ted Turner and Oprah Winfrey.

Musical interlude of the day

turn up speakers and dance!

Norman Borlaug take two

Penn and Teller say it all

Norman Borlaug RIP

How many men can say that their work saved the lives of hundreds of millions?

Norman Borlaug, whose name is not as famous as the average rock stark, is a man who can.

He is the father of the "green revolution", that enabled the world to feed itself.

Family news

Chano and Joy at an international Trade Fair in Manila.

Most of the staff trying to harvest the rice before the next storm hits...

and the cat moved the kittens from her box into the bottom of our closet...right on top of my dresses. Oh well. They are washable...

The Great Perogi Race

Recipes recipes

We eat what our cook knows how to cook. Luckily she is good at it: we had adobo chicken for lunch...

But if you pack a lunchbox here are some suggestions:

EpiLog has more HERE, and more lunchbox hints HERE

From the LATimes: Pan Bagnat.
(photo:Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
----------------------

The NYTimes has discovered BentoBoxes

slideshow HERE

--------------------------------

Perogies, the ultimate Sports food? asks Epilog, and links to their video and recipes HERE

Or watch how Baba does it:

----

Did I mention that I once lived in a coal town where the local restaurant was called the Perogie Palace? And it served tacos...

Stuff below the fold

The Attack of the Giant Tit

apparantly, blue tits like flying in front of webcams...
-----------------------

I never heard of Republicans marching before...
Vodkapundit has Photos here...and LGF has photos of the weirdos...
WTF?
------------------------
The Full Bronte:
Hike across the moors, just like Heathcliff and Cathy...
------------------------------
Politicos Ban Spotted Dick
Suet pudding is now called "Spotted Richard"...

Lolo and Chano

 

This is my bed

 

lolo and kitty

 

History post of the day

Webecoist has a great post about sinkholes and open pit mines...

But this one, Chand Baori, was news to me:
A giant stepwell built in Ninth century India...


more HERE and HERE

Gift item of the day

These are embroidered vintage silk stocking for sale at Etsy...

(headsup SweetSassafras)

Or for the geriatric set, just embroider your Jobst stockings.... and wow 'em at the Senior Center...

Coffee break audio

Usually I will link to the latest insomnia curing audiobooks on line.

But today, the link is to short stories that you can listen to on your coffee break LINK

or how about a Cat Tales?

Lots more collections HERE.

Larry Gelbart RIP

Larry Gelbart, who adapted M*A*S*H* for TV, has died. His work also includes Tootsie, OhGod, and A Funny Thing Happened to me on the way to the Forum. He also wrote for many comedians.

YouTube has a long interview with him HERE...

Health news below the fold

Infant Mortality going down in the Philippines.

-------------------
Public health statistics in Afghanistan ...still bad..
Not as high as in post civil war Sierra Leone...more here....most of these easily preventable deaths are in sub Sahara Africa, but many other countries have dropped their child mortality rates by half

-----------------------
Fact check on abortion in the health care bill:
The problem: it's the Capp amendment...
The LATimes insists it's a "reasonable compromise" but the US Bishops say it's a ruse, and at least one bluedog Democrat agrees....

-------------------
Herd immunity is the best defense against an influenza epidemic...

--------------------
and the most important medical research of the day:

How alcohol blunts the ability of hamsters to 'rise and shine'


---------------

Musical Interlude of the day

Today is the anniversary of the terrorism attack on New York City and Washington DC...

This video is from a different war, but it could be a fitting tribute to those who died to help others to live.



----------------------

Link to a WaPost story of those in the Pentagon...
One of my classmates was there...treating the casulaties

Karnak the Magnificent

Visit the Digital Karnak

UCLA has a webpage with information on the ancient Egyptian city of Karnak.
the site includes lots of videos, but some of them can also be seen on their youtube channel.

Stuff below the fold

Bookmarked for later reading and pondering: Rights and babies.

------------------
Swine flu take two might overwhelm hospitals, even if only one percent of people are very very sick.

--------------------
How did Mikey get so rich?
ABS CBN continues their series on political corruption...

-------------------------
How to fix brain disease:
Snorting Stem cells...
But for Alzheimers, the science suggests treating inflammation instead.
--------------------

Greenland's ice sheets melting:
Another "we're all gonna die" global warming threat?
Or just Greenland becoming Green land, like in the days of the Vikings?

Similarly, in a podcast about the Aneid, the podcaster noted that Carthage had more rain back then (remember Hannibal's elephants?)
Now StrategyPage noted a bumper crop for Algeria's farmers due to abundant rain.

Climate change?

Musical Interlude of the day

-----------------------

The words of the Magnificat in English.

I presume the singer is Isabel Christina the revival singer,whose talent to praise the Lord inspires all, not the model Isabel Cristina Estrada whose beauty makes men praise God...

Talk about white knuckle flights...

This is a routine landing at my son's town...
The only thing that is more frightening than flying there is the taxiride UP into the city, because the taxi drivers routinely pass slow vehicles on hairpin turns..

Gift item of the day

Yum.

Donut earrings.

--------------

And yes, we have Mr Donut and Dunkin donuts here, and in Manila you can even buy KrispyCremes...

Headsup Epicute who also links to this

Frappucino inspired Bento meal...

and yes, we do have Starbucks, but not in our town. We have to make do with San Mig 3 in 1...

Take one cup hot water and mix two SanMig mild 3 in one, and voila, a decent cup of coffee...
Or you can just mix Nescafe with sugar and Carabao milk...

Death by butter

Well, why worry about being nuked by North Korea or Iran when you can die from high cholesterol?


Death by butter...what a way to go...Recipe HERE.
(viaInstapundit)

Or you might prefer a less fattening snack:
How about a Deep Fried dill pickle?

My favorite would be a DeepFried Peanut butter cut (and alas we cant buy Peanut butter cups in the Palenke)



Of course, we could always make them..

And, here is a recipe for Vegan Peanut butter cups

Peanut butter is a high protein (and high fat) item. We used to mix it with porridge for our Kwashiorkor kids living at the nutrition village when I worked in Africa.

Peanut butter can be used in many recipes, as Epicurean blog notes here, including claims that there not only is peanut butter and jelly pizza, but that you can wash it down with peanut butter beer.

Stuff below the fold

Hubble has been fixed again...check out their new images in this video...
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This headline doesn't sound very nice:
Rare tongue-eating parasite found

luckily, it only eats fish tongues.
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More rumors on that Russian Ship "hijacking"...
It's Israel's fault (that they got caught).

Two weeks ago, this ship was stopped ...
North Korean arms to Iran?

and then there is THIS...China buying arms so they can copy them and sell them to make a profit?
Or will the designs end up in North Korean hands?
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Noynoy is running...everyone is excited...
But the bad news is that Erap might run too...
he is the favorite in our area, but his diabetes and health problems are against him... (Yes, he is a convicted and pardoned felon, but folks here figure he was so honest he was caught, unlike other politicians).

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How low can they go?

BENNINGTON — Police said they caught four people trying to get the giant pepper off Chili's restaurant early Sunday morning.

(From DaveBarry)

LOL photo of the day

moar funny pictures

The attack of the Killer cookie

headline in the UKTelegraph:
Half of Britons injured by their biscuits on coffee break, survey reveals

and the worst offender?

"The custard cream biscuit was found to be the worse offender to innocent drinkers. "(photo UKMirror)

(Biscuit is British for cookie).

Stuff below the fold

Modesty making a comeback? as in self respect, not prudery...
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It's hard for us "full figured gals" to be modest...often we find our clothes don't fit right.
here is a "bounce o meter" guide that shows what I mean...
Don't laugh...bouncing can cause skin abraisions and even galactorrhea...
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Webecoist has a list of Frankenfoods: The good, the bad and the ugly...
Golden rice could prevent vitamin A deficiency, a major cause of blindness in some third world countries.
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Homemade cough remedies...
Here in the Philippines, we use ginger tea...
but chocolate works too....and I use either coffee or strong tea for coughing...the caffeine relieves mild asthma that can cause coughing.
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Green golfing...use a Llama instead of a golfcart to carry your bags, and walk...
but watch where you step...
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Death by algae... Nitrogen waste from farming increase the amount of sea lettuce, which releases Hydrogen Sulfide gas as it rots.
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and your heartwarming story of the day:

Lucky the Box turtle had his front legs bitten off by a Racoon. He has now had furniture sliders fitted under his shell so he can slide around Photo: BARCROFT