It's okay, Luke, you can read my blog...

But my medical blog is R rated....

Your video of the day

Turn up speakers and enjoy...

Heads up from Princess Haiku...and check her blog for some beautiful photos of flowers...I'd add her to my blog list, but alas Google says I'm not allowed to add new links to my template until they fix googleads or I update to a new template.

a Daughter's tribute to Micheal Flanders.

The writer of the classic song "Mud Mud Glorious Mud" and British radio personality survived after his ship was torpedoed, but a bout with polio.
He went into radio after the university turned him down saying they weren't a home for cripples. He was a pioneer for equal rights for the disabled, although not an "activist" just because he insisted he be treated as a normal person.


Link is to the BBC show interviewing his daughter.

attention hunters. Tired of buckshot in your birds?

Seasonshot...AMMO WITH FLAVOR...

Season Shot is made of tightly packed seasoning bound by a fully biodegradable food product. The seasoning is actually injected into the bird on impact seasoning the meat from the inside out. When the bird is cooked the seasoning pellets melt into the meat spreading the flavor to the entire bird. Forget worrying about shot breaking your teeth and start wondering about which flavor shot to use!

The Mummies monks of Japan

For three years the priests would eat a special diet consisting only of nuts and seeds, while taking part in a regimen of rigorous physical activity that stripped them of their body fat. They then ate only bark and roots for another three years and began drinking a poisonous tea made from the sap of the Urushi tree, normally used to lacquer bowls. This caused vomiting and a rapid loss of bodily fluids, and most importantly, it killed off any maggots that might cause the body to decay after death. Finally, a self-mummifying monk would lock himself in a stone tomb barely larger than his body, where he would not move from the lotus position. His only connection to the outside world was an air tube and a bell. Each day he rang a bell to let those outside know that he was still alive. When the bell stopped ringing, the tube was removed and the tomb sealed.

Good news of the day

Five Cats domesticated us 12000 years ago...

Rewrite the history books:People in South America became farmers 12 000 years ago...

When was the last time you read a story about a good priest? LINK

Hamas hate teaching Mickey is no more...

Lileks has this week's most dubious comic book on line LINK

FREEDOM...Thousands of Venezuelan soccer fans used an international tournament to show opposition to President Hugo Chavez, rising to their feet with chants of "Freedom!"
(HeadsupInstapundit)

Terrorists kill eleven politicians

No, not Iraq...Colombia...

The French government pressured Uribe to release some FARC prisoners in the hopes that FARC would release a politician who was dual citizen..., so he did, and got nothing in return.

So now FARC instead has killed 11 politicians. They whine it was during a "failed rescue attempt", which may have been by private militia rather than the government. But translated this means when the liberators arrived, the hostages were executed.

Since the US left is trying to spin evil US companies associated with right wing militias, I suspect this will not get much play.

And the end result might be less appeasement, more war, alas...and if the government won't do it, I suspect the militias will...

Gift item of the day

Hello Kitty Bowling ball...

MacTeriaki burger

900 calories of delight.

Of course, here we have McRice burgers which are hamburgers with sticky rice buns, and you can have side dishes of spaghetti or rice if you don't like fries.
On the other hand, the local version is Jolibee, is right down the street. They include not only rice and spaghetti but fried chicken.

We rarely eat out, but on hot days go there for HaloHalo

Zim falls in hole, digs deeper, and asks for deeper shovel

In response to economic collapse the government of Zimbabwe last week announced that all mining industries would need to have majority shareholders from Zim...it is suspected this will lead to a takeover.

So now that Mugabe has ruined the farming, and now the mining industry, and the money is in free fall, what does he do in response to prices being increased hourly?

THat's right. He freezes the prices.

So now the shops aren't selling their merchandize, and a lot of people in the black market will get rich.

Tiny burger cookie

LINK2

Autism

Nightline is having a special about conspiracy theories and autism...but the most common cause of autism is fragile x syndrome.
I have an essay about it at the link.

Headlines under the fold

NYTimes notices a million Zim refugees in South Africa...hmm. The UN report last week mentioned Iraq, Sudan, and Afghanistan but must have missed these people.

The hottest investment opportunity....Kurdistan.

Hotdog eating champion develops TMJ...wonder if he will get workman's comp.

Gasoline rationing...in Iran? the dirty little secret is that they can export oil, but don't have enough refineries. Subsidizing cheap gasoline doesn't help either...

last week I wrote about Cordwainer Smith's underpeople. Via Secondhand smoke, links: Making Manimals .

Can robots be far behind? Or maybe not..

Glacier Girl finally makes it to England

GlacierGirl was part of the Lost Squadron of planes that crash landed in Greenland in 1942... was found and restored by a Kentucky businessman, and is now one of only a few P 38's in flying shape....Operation Bolero information here...my retelling here...and HERE is the story of the B17 crew's crash and survival. PHOTOLINK

Stuff under the fold

Headlines are nothing new, so let's look at the trivia today.

Bringing home the bacon and using lard for soap. Hmmm...sounds like the good old days.

Tomatoes here in the Philippines are are old fashioned, sweet, and thin skinned Roma tomatoes...cross breeding thick skin took away the taste of most US tomatoes. The answer? Frankentomatoes. Yum....

What do you do when the currancy is worthless? You use dollars, and Euros and Rands, and if you don't have them, you barter...

Ubuntu alert...now if I can only get my software running until my WinRescue discs come...no, Bill Gates, I am not paying you 17000 pesos for Windows just because my disc crashed.

Germany vs Tom Cruise. Of course Scientology is a "cult". But for some people in Europe, ALL religion are cults...the real question is if Cruise can act outside of his personality..... I can't imagine Stauffenburg dancing on a table...

English troops withdraw...yup. It only took 37 years to calm the "insurgency" in Northern Ireland...

cyberwar. Pentagon email broken into: Hackers, Chinese, or terrorists?
Interesting fact: The US has most broad band, but second is China, and broad ban allows hackers a way to work more easily.

Smokers one, Al Qaeda zero

Michael Yon reports:
Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) had tarnished its name here by publicly attacking and murdering children, videotaping beheadings, all while imposing harsh punishments on Iraqi civilians found guilty of violating morality laws prohibiting activities like smoking. The AQI installed Sharia court had sanctioned the amputation of the two “smoking fingers” for those who violated anti-smoking laws....

Most Iraqis smoke and this particular prohibition appeared to have earned the ire of many locals. After an American unit cleared an apartment complex on the 23rd, LTC Smiley, the battalion commander, reported that residents didn’t ask for food and water, but cigarettes. In other parts of Baqubah, people have been celebrating the routing of AQI by lighting up and smoking cigarettes....

Alice in the park

Murphy's lesser known laws

1. Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

2. He who laughs last, thinks slowest.

3. Those who live by the sword get shot by those who don't.

4. Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.

5. The 50-50-90 rule: Anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there's a 90% probability you'll get it wrong.

6. The things that come to those who wait will be the things left by those who got there first.

7. Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he'll sit in a boat all day, drinking beer.

8. The shin bone is a device for finding furniture in a dark room.

9. A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.

10. When you go into court, you are putting yourself in the hands of 12 people who weren't smart enough to get out of jury duty.

Your email of the day from Col. Updraft

Attack of the Biker pigs.

No, not Miss Piggy's evil twin.
It's the piggy festival on St. John's day in Batangas.


LINK:

Hundreds of succulent, roasted pigs decked out in colourful costumes were paraded in the festival celebrating the sainthood of John the Baptist.

The pigs, known as “lechon” in the local language, were placed on motorized floats as residents soaked each other in water to recall the baptism of Jesus Christ.

If you don't have access to an entire suckling pig, try this LECHON RECIPE instead:

More photos HERE

Herb of the day

depressed? Try a banana...

Headlines below the fold

What if the MSM ignored "RAGEBOY" and reported reality, like Alqaeda's torture rooms, or noticed the real lesson of Lincoln?

On the other hand, the Vikings can beat rageboy at his own game...with humor.

What if the European Union was about people, not elite bureaucrats, making decisions? link?

On the other hand, Ireland and Denmark might actually insist to let their people vote on it.

What if A Mighty Heart actually was about a Jewish reporter murdered by evil men?

On the other hand, at least one Hollywood Diva has apologized for not realizing some people dislike fashion that applauds murderers.

What if there were no people on earth?

Why did the Taliban's "spring offensive" in Afghanistan turn out to be a dud?

And the good headline of the day: Americans give record $295B to charity
This is private and business donations to charities and trusts...83% is from individual gifts or bequests, and 93 billion went to church related charites.
Not included in the figure: Funds sent home by immigrants that support their families overseas. I couldn't find total amounts for the US , but this report says that $23 billion was sent to Latin American and Caribbean countries...

Medical apartheid

HNN blog interviews a historian who lists how the American medical establishment has experimented on blacks.

My rant is here, if you are interested.

Headlines below the fold

Good News: US congress bans funds to Saudi Arabia.
Probably only symbolic, since they have plenty of money.
Bad news: hardly noticed in the US. Nine stories so far in google.

Good news: the LATimes editorial notes few defend freedom of speech
Bad News: Instapundit wryly observes:
Frankly, I think the best argument for electing a Democrat as President is that as long as a Republican is in office the media powers-that-be will refuse to condemn even the worst atrocities on the part of Islamists, for fear of helping the real enemy in the White House...

Mark Steyn's take on it is HERE.

An article about the secret service code names for those they protect: LINK
Renegade? Tumbler? we report, you decide..

MALARIA...national geographic has an article and photos on line.. includes graphic depiction of cerebral malaria....and to their credit they mention the near eradication and then the resurgence due to decrease in funding and that the banning of DDT probably caused 20 million deaths.

Gift item of the day

Try one of these imitation bubble wrap stress relivers.


original site link

What has Osama been doing lately?

check link from YidwitLIDBlog

Yes, that was Osama you saw at the 7-11...but man, he brews a mean cup of coffee...
Special Agent Dale Cooper, who wished to remain anonymous, said it'd been 10 years since he'd eaten such heavenly cherry pie, or drank such a damn fine cup of Joe.

"It'd been 10 years since I'd eaten such heavenly cherry pie, or drank such a damn fine cup of Joe," gushed Cooper, who was recently re-assigned to the highly secret Tibetan field office, two miles beyond the Nepalese border, NNW of Katmandu.

Good morning it's Monday

China's mixed role in Africa

Summary: Growing China investing in Africa, without strings, so bad governments will get Chinese support.

Swiss army bubble maker

science experiments for kids

Bubbles experiments HERE.

AFI's newest list of 100 bets movies

The last list was ten years ago...the "new" movies on the list since 1990 or so are Saving Private Ryan, Toy Story, the Shawshank Redemptionand The Sixth sense and Fellowship of the Ring (NOT the much better Return of the King, or the trilogys? DUH)
Forest Gump, Goodfellas, Pulp Fiction, Titanic, Silence of the Lambs, and Unforgiven.

Did I mention that M*A*S*H* was number 54? The name Finest Kind Clinic and Fishmarket comes from the book MASH...actually from MASH in MAINE, the book's sequel, where Hawkeye set his clinic up over a Fishmarket. The doc who wrote the books was still a surgeon in Maine when I worked in Massachusetts, and when the movie came out, he became a bit of a celebrity.

.

The Purdue film

Of course, as you can see from the comments, it won't persuade the "truthers". Right now the top commenter insists steel buildings don't collapse, and then his post descends into misspelled gibberish
...ummm..an engineer would point out the stress bearing load of each steel column and how an increase of temperature and the increased load due to destruction of x number of load bearing columns and then say when it will collapse. That I might listen to, but not gibberish.

Then we have the guy who says there is no paper evidence of Alqaeda being behind the plan, which might be news to the Philippine police who discovered early versions of the plot after a local Alqaeda operative's apartment had a fire...bombing of airplanes and flying into buildings were already being proposed in the mid 1990's. Probably when the bomb didn't take down PAL flight 434, they decided they'd better fly them themselves.

Thirty ways to lace your shoes

Of course, it doesn't matter how you lace them, the boys still won't tie them.

The trick: use 1/4 inch elastic instead of laces, and voila, they can leave them tied instead of having the untied laces flop all over the place.

Local news

A police investigator from elsewhere was kidnapped and tortured to get information...he escaped when they stopped to pay the toll on the highway.

Reports said Barlis’s abductors wanted him to confess his involvement in the killing of the two children of Boy Pascual, a mayoral candidate of Gapan City....

Barlis believed that politics could be behind the incident since he is close to Eto Natividad, the current mayor of Gapan City

For non family members, it refers to this incident LINK
and an update HERE.

Although most of the hype in the US papers is about "extrajudicial killings" of leftists sympathizers of the NPA, a lot of the political killings in this area have more in common with Mafia fights over territory than with revolution.

For headlines/updates checkLINK and LINK...

Gift item of the day

swiss aviator pen...

History lesson of the day

Most slaves that came to the US came from West Africa.
But Arab slave traders took slaves from East Africa, and the Portuguese took the trade over when they conquered it in the 1600's.
The link is the little known history of Ibo Island, off the coast of Mozambique.

Art link of the day

David Roy's kinetic wood works. His bio states he actually has a degree in physics...and if you browse his website he talks about the techniques of designing.

Electric duet of love

Electric fish court each other by coordinated electronic "singing"....

Cornell researchers have discovered that in the battle of the sexes, African electric fish couples not only use specific electrical signals to court but also engage in a sort of dueling "electric duet."

The study is the first to compare electrical and behavioral displays in breeding and nonbreeding Brienomyrus brachyistius, a type of mormyrid electric fish, which emit weak electric fields from a batterylike organ in their tails to sense their surroundings and communicate their species, sex and social status with other fish.

Your fashion item of the day

Manolo says: White on Fright...
Time for brunch at Casa Dracula.

Now they're using algae

for biofuel that is...

Headlines below the fold

First Things notes the silence on the communist Holocaust museum...not just by the press, who have a the history of ignoring religious persecution by communists, but by religious leaders...

Yup, and they are still silent: China destroying religious shrines...Catholic and Buddhist.
Protests, anyone? Anyone?
------------------------------

Marines one, black bears zero...he did it with a log...and got a ticket for it.
--------------------

Lamb one, Savage Zero... Brian Lamb is one of the unsung heroes of civilized politics which, alas, is limited to one network, CSPAN, which I can only watch via the internet...
---------------------------------

Obama one, blogger zero...
no bloggers allowed in his meetings with the hoi polloi...wonder if he knows about Flickr and podcasts and videophones?
Of course, Congress also seems to be out of touch with their base...
----------------------------------

Indeed, there seems to be a major disconnect between congress and what is going on in Iraq.. Heh. Strategy Page even slightly optimistic.

And SP seems to know what is going on here...
--------------------

Then there is World refugee day with all the headlines stressing Iraq or Afghanistan...no mention of the 4 million refugees from Zimbabwe? Anyone? Anyone?
Pray for that country...the currancy is tanking and economy in freefall...and hunger stalks the land
-----------------------------

Lileks has the quote of the day about a play called Osama my hero:
The play is described as “provocative.” Naturally. There's no finer word in the modern artist’s lexicon. That’s the role of art: to resist the affirmation of societal confidence, because it leads to things like war and big cars and bigger houses in cul-del-sac burbs.....Come and give us a grant, or we shall be forced to provoke you again with a play in which the Pope wears a suit made out of wet fresh placentas and goose-steps around the stage singing Lili Marlene!

Well, not art is provocative. Sliced carrots are not quite what I want on my wall, but it doesn't upset me...and at least this guy is honest.
---------------------------------

And finally: Bare breast protest in Manila...no, not sex workers. Breast feeding advocates...I explain what it's about at BNN...

Gift item of the day

Hmmm...if I put a coat like that on Puti, he'd bit my hat off and eat it.

Drew's blog has lots of free designs HERE
Headsup from Scout's swag

Hello Kitty Jason

Dustbury gives us Hello Kitty Jason...(via HelloKittyHell)



And Catlover Snitch posts this comment:

This is more my speed. So's this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, and this. Hasta la vista, kitty.

Posted by: Mister Snitch! at 4:36 PM on 20 June 2007

Headlines below the fold

A few days ago, I posted about teaching children to meditate and "find the answer within", saying it posed not only questions about religion but implied logic and knowledge were not as important as what you thought inside yourself.

This is why this Perdue study won't convince conspiracy theorists any more than the previous Popular Mechanics study.
----------------

NYTimes allows Hamas to explain how peaceful they are...they're just misunderstood.
Yup...just ignore those rockets hitting Israel...nothing new here, folks, just move along.
--------------------

The story behind Rushdie's knighthood is here...
Don't forget to invest in British Flag companies...they'll make a bundle from all the flag burnings...
-----------------

Bill Roggio has a summary of what's up in Iraq...
,------------------------------------

Global warming? It's the sunspots, stupid. The real danger may be global cooling...
-----------------------------------
Massive web attack. Great. I just had my windows knocked out by a virus, and now this danger...
--------------
And finally, the really big headline of the day: Flushed bra causes sewer collapse.

Your educational video of the day

Warning: NOT work friendly...

Hmmm...did you know National Lampoon has a podcast?

D'Joan, C'Mell, and Cordwainer Smith

moved to Boinkie's blog and BNN...

Gift item of the day

A soft, plushie Yoda Doll....

Green Item of the day

A biodiesel powered jet...

Podcast of the day

The ever sardonic Shire Network News has an interview about a meeting in Indonesia that was missed by the MSM:

It was designed at act as a counterweight to the recent Iranian Conference which maintained that A) the Holocaust didn't happen, B) it did happen but it was nowhere near as bad as those pesky Jews keep saying, and C) it did happen but Hitler didn't do a thorough enough job so now the Muslims have to finish it for him.

But at last week's conference, held on the mainly Hindu island of Bali, Indonesia's former president, Abdurrahman Wahid, also known as Gus Dur, denounced Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for branding the Holocaust a myth. The meeting was organised by the Libforall Foundation

Headlines below the fold, with spin

Blogfather links to michaelyon-online.com
and others about the ongoing battle in Iraq:

This is a serious battle, and much more important that the news is making out. My guess is that most media have little idea of the consequences or magnitude of the Battle for Baqubah, and so it's slipping by.

MudvilleGazette has lots of links HERE

The IHT (NYTIMES EUROPE) already says it's a failure, citing a recent car bomb at a mosque.

So I guess the recent bus bombings in the Philippines prove the war here is a failure?
---------------------------------------------
----------------------------
When Ehrlenmeyer flasks are outlawed, only outlaws will have Ehrlenmeyer flasks...
Make magazine reports that although you can buy a gun in Texas without registering it, you can't buy chemistry equipment without filling out forms...

It's to stop the Meth labs, of course.
My way to stop the drug use epidemic is to have preachers preach against such use. But in Oklahoma, only the Assembly of God church had an active outreach to help addicts. The Catholic church sponsored AA...and never preached against drug/alcohol abuse...

Craft Item of the Day

a baby viking helmet to knit for your little one.

Pattern can be ordered HERE
.
.
.
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Attention James Bond

"The Tam Rocket Belt costs $250k, flies for 30 seconds and has a top speed of over 60MPH. The Jetpack H202 goes 70MPH, flies 33 seconds and is bargain at $155k. Both weigh over 100 pounds, include lessons with the purchase price, and are powered by hydrogen peroxide."



no information if they come with optional accident insurance.

The mills of the gods

Grind slow, but grind indeed...especially when trials are tried in the press and distorted for political reasons

First the case against the Duke Lacrosse team collapsed, leading to the D.A. being disbarred..

Now is the Haditha murder charges against the twelve Marines collapsing?...This blog says that the videos support the Marines' story-- True??

the North Country Times is covering the story in detail..
The most interesting detail is that despite locals who claimed that there was execution slaying of the Iraqis, (whose bodies were buried) the walls show bullet sprays that don't suggest execution...then the fact that the accused passing polygraphs... or one of the so called victims was a Jordanian who was listed as a civilian because he wasn't on terrorist watch lists, but who did possess several passports...

What's next? Libby's conviction for outing a CIA agent being overturned? Whoops....he wasn't the one who did it....but since the prosecutor urged a guilty virdict for that "crime" and not perjury, I wonder how long til that is overturned also...

If 100 million people are killed and the press doesn't report it, is it news?

The Victims of Communism Memorial was dedicated on Tuesday morning, June 12, 2007, in Washington, D.C. Rep. Tom Lantos, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, gave the keynote address while Rep. Dana Rohrabacher delivered remarks. President George W. Bush has also spoke. A crowd of 1,000 including Congressional leaders, members of the diplomatic corps, ethnic leaders, foreign dignitaries, and Memorial supporters, attended the historic event.
-------

The lady at the right is the goddess of democracy, who once resided in Tianamen square....
My rant about this event being ignored was moved to Bloggernews

pencil carvings

HOMEPAGE

Top 20 Hello Kitty Gadgets

My favorite?


The HELLOKITTY FIRE EXTINGUISHER

Circlemakers

yup...those nasty little gremlins who make crop circles now have their own website... complete with photos of their designs.

and did you know they joined with greenpeace to protest genetically modified crops... but of course they aren't against taking moneyfrom greedy capitalists

Had surgery to get thin? Watch the alcohol

If you had stomach surgery to lose weight, the bad news is that you now can get drunk with less alcohol.

Or is that the good news?

We report, you decide....

Nose art

In the good old days before political correctness, you could still paint things like this on your airplane.

Link has 14 pages of examples, many from WWII era.

Headlines below the fold

NYTimes reports a major offensive in Iraq...Blogfather quotes Michael Yon as saying it's bigger than reported.
Remember the soldiers in your prayers...agnostics and athiests can pray "to whom it may concern"...

Personal note: I have a son in law in Iraq...

In the old days, teachers settled children down with a prayer and bible reading; now it's Tibetan gongs and Buddhist meditation techniques. What's wrong with this picture?
Meditation is self hypnosis, or deep concentration, something I used as a doctor for pain control...it has many pros and cons, including the problem that it opens the mind to suggestions. But as a scientist, my real worry is this line:

“If we can help children slow down and think,” Dr. Haick said, “they have the answers within themselves.”

Silly me, I thought kids were supposed to find answers in the library...

Bus bombing last week in the Philippines killed seven, but didn't get much attention...the Star thinks it's merely a new method of extortion from the NPA, but the FBI is checking the bomb to see if it's the NPA or the J.I./islamic terrorists behind the murders, since the NPA, like the Mafia, rarely kills bystanders.

And Finally, from Dustbury:

• Iran's Foreign Minister has complained about the British government's conferring of knighthood on Salman Rushdie, author of the novel The Satanic Verses and several lesser-known works, two or three of which I've actually tried to read.
• Said Mohammad Ali Hosseini:
• Giving a medal to someone who is among the most detested figures in the Islamic community is ... a blatant example of the anti-Islamism of senior British officials. The measure that has taken place for paying tribute to this apostate and detested figure will definitely put British statesmen and officials at odds with Islamic societies, the emotions and sentiments of which have again been provoked.
• In other news, Wile E. Coyote has filed yet another complaint with the state of New Mexico, objecting to the naming of the Roadrunner as the state bird in 1949.

And how was YOUR day?

The Curse of the Iceman

Everyone likes a ghost story, and everyone loves the story of King Tut's curse.

But did you hear the story of the curse of the iceman?

Seven people who have been in contact with the mummy have died prematurely. Helmut Simon, Ötzi’s original founder, disappeared while hiking. His body was later found trapped in ice… just like the mummy’s. A person who was involved in recovering Ötzi from the ice had a heart attack an hour after Simon’s funeral. The others died from an automobile accident, avalanche, brain tumour, blood disease, and complications from multiple sclerosis.

Africa is open for business

I usually ignore the G8 and economic conferences, since usually CNN mainly reports on the protesters.

But I have an African blog, and there's a lot of Buzz in African blogs about changing the paradigm of Africa from basket case for dogooders to that of a thriving continent for business...
LINK
LINK

If you have to read one article about it, read THIS ONE

And this one on how photographers bias their photos to show victimhood (aka "developmental photography") is alas too true also.

You mean the MSM has an agenda? nah, couldn't be...

Photo of the day

What do you feed a giraffe made from celophane tape?


Plastic bags, of course...

Your email of the day from Col. Updraft

The worst jobs in science

headsup from instapundit...

Analyze whale poop....carcass preparer...diving in sewage...

Yup. your scientist at work

Adventure books

National Geographic has a list of the 100 best adventure/travel books...

I figure I've read ten of them...so many books, so little time...

Trivia item of the day

Fettucini Alfredo:
Alfredo di Lelio was an early 20th century Italian chef who invented this dish for his wife that cardiologists today refer to as a "heart attack on a plate." He invented sometime between 1914-1920 and served it in his restaurant in Rome. The dish became famous when Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks praised it to the skies after their visit to Rome in 1927. The original recipe contained no cream sauce, only several types of butters.
------------------------
Recipe HERE

Low cal version HERE

Fettucini alfredo is macaroni and cheese for adults.
Mitch Hedberg

Gift item of the day

Yup. But alas, it's not in stock at Amazon...so I can't give you the price

That's what that thing in the rest room is used for: To give your cats a bubble bath...

I'm only joking. The real HelloKittybathtub is HERE...

Book of the day

Are you old enough to remember all those exercizes so you could write neatly?

Well, the Palmer method of writing book is now on line.

Blog of the day

Like ugly mailboxes, well just check link.

Headlines below the fold

The Good news: Socialized medicine pays for basic care...
The bad news: Forget the stomach stapling and anti cancer medicine..

Sounds like our conferences in the IHS except we paid for cancer care, but would to discuss if we had funds left over to pay for elective things like fixing bum knees ...and no, we didn't pay for stomach stapling.

The Good News: Indos got one boss behind the Bali bombings.
The Bad news:Thirteen schools torched...in Thailand...

The good news: the Infidel sage notes that private police were used to keep New Orleans safe.
The bad news:Mercenaries?!!! DANGER DANGER!!

Pendragon hyperventillates, but actually, there is a need for them.
Actually, as Boston.com article points out, a couple thousand of them could stop Dafur...

The Good News: Making your own biodiesel to stop dependence in oil is popular.
The Bad news? well, it's illegal without paying taxes...LINK..

The Good news: the I PHONE is here...
The bad news: don't use it in North Korea

The Good news: photos from the Flores de Mayo parade...we watched it from our second floor.
The bad news: Dengue season is here...

The good news: If you build it, they will come..
The Bad news:After spending 14000 dollars to build the Davis toad tunnel... the toads never used it...

Headlines below the fold

The democrats decide the war is lost and the surge isn't working, but Stratewgy page has a more nuanced and hopeful analysis, and usually gets things right on the Philippines and Africa, where I have actual on the ground experience...

Here's an excerpt:
There are fewer bombs going off in Baghdad, so the bombers are trying to make each one count more. Thus, in the last week, three truck bombs took out bridges and overpasses, seeking to make life miserable for an many Iraqis as possible. This is because, despite all the dismal news from Iraq, what doesn't get reported is that most of the country is quiet, and there has been 4-5 percent growth in the overall economy for the past four years. Actually, there was a huge jump in economic growth, about 40 percent, in the year after Saddam fell. That has now settled down. Anyone who has been to Iraq, particularly American soldiers, can't help but notice the traffic jams, shops full of goods, and all those Iraqis walking around with their new cell phones. Yes, it's a war zone, but it's also a growing economy.



The Terrorists are also trying to get through to Shia religious shrines, as part of the al Qaeda strategy to enrage the Shia enough to cause a civil war in Iraq. To that end, a second successful attack was made on the Shia Golden Mosque was made, bringing down the two minarets (which are a distance from the golden dome of the mosque itself.) This has enraged Shia, but that is not making much difference. The Iraqi army and police are mostly Shia, with a Kurdish minority. The Shia security forces regularly terrorize Sunni Arab civilians, and encourage them to leave mixed (with Shia or Kurds) neighborhoods, and either leave the country, or move back to wholly Sunni Arab areas, like the Baghdad suburbs, or western Iraq. Iraqis Sunni Arab neighbors have already told the terrorists, publicly and privately, that they will not come to their aid. At least not as long as the Americans are their. The Arabs can count, and note that for each American soldier killed, at least ten of the attackers die.

Light blogging/

my hard drive crashed again. Guess it was a power surge not a virus. Had to reformat and reload windows and Ubuntu.So not much time to surf the net.

Col. Updraft and friends in drag

Actually, it's the Mikado.

Mystery of the day

Who are these guys on the Windows Vista CD?

(check link to see where the photos comes from)


(headsup from MakeBlog)

New Jersey as Paradise

A far green country under a swift sunrise...
Sung to the tune of The Rolling Hills of the Border

Chorus:
When I die, bury me low
Where I can hear the petroleum flow.
A sweeter sound, I never did know
The rolling mills of New Jersey.

Down in Trenton, there is a bar
The bums, they come from near and from far
They come by truck, they come by car
The lousy bums of New Jersey

Down in Hoboken, there will be
Garbage as far as the eye can see.
There's garbage for you, there's garbage for me.
The garbage dumps of New Jersey.

When at last, I decided to roam,
Far away from my home in Bayonne.
I sat down, and wrote this poem.
I wrote an ode to New Jersey.

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Copyright John Roberts and Tony Barrand

(music at link)

Where on earth was middle Earth?

StrangemapsBlog has an interesting discussion on the geography of LOTR's...

The Hobbits are described as inhabiting ‘the North-West of the Old World, east of the Sea’, and therefore it’s tempting to associate their home with Tolkien’s own, England. Yet, Tolkien himself wrote that ‘as for the shape of the world of the Third Age, I am afraid that was devised ‘dramatically’, rather than geologically, or paleontologically.” Elsewhere, Tolkien does admit “The ‘Shire’ is based on rural England, and not any other country in the world.”

He goes on to list each area and correspond them to modern Europe...Ireland as the Gray Havens...Mordor as Transylvania...Gondor as Italy...

As for me, everytime I hear Gandalf telling Pippin about the "far green country under a swift sunrise"...I always think...NEW JERSEY.


the blog then links to Prof Bird's page HERE...Maplink HERE...and the good professor has this neat rotating globe gif of techtonic plates HERE...

Figpeep LIVES!

Who is Figpeep?

Some say he can't talk.
Others say he simply chooses not to.

Some say he is Legopeep's "companion".
Others say he is his archenemy.

Some think he looks like a Jelly Bean.
Others have impeccable taste.

Link to Lord of the Peeps HERE.

Figwit LIVES!

And the really big news of the day: FIGWIT will be on Letterman...Photo here...
Who is Figwit? LINK

	Q: Who is Figwit? A: Figwit is an elf who was first sighted in the Council of Elrond. He has dark hair. He has no audible speaking lines. He is, in a word, gorgeous. Or another, stunning. Or another, enigmatic. Or another, hypnotic. Or another, stupendous. Or another, captivating. Take your pick.

And, naturally, there is a "Figwit is evil" website...uh oh, who is that with Osama and Burt?

Don't worry, Lolo, I'm only looking...I really prefer bald men...

Headlines below the fold

Feisty old farmers, one.
Big strong Russian Ninjas, zero.

Good news, maybe: Sudan will allow AU/UN taskforce to stop Genocide in Dafur...

LA Times has an article about those who care for family members who are sick or handicapped...
In contrast, this highfalutin A****** tell us that we need to follow Jesus by "helping the marginalized", which for him means political activism....guess he doesn't notice people who sacrifice to care for family members.

And finally: Another day, another bomb: the Pinoy cops were on alert and got this one before it went off.
Way to go, fellahs!

Real time Web information

Interesting picture that shows activity and attacks on the web.

headsup from Geek press

Parkinson breakthrough?

Commonly used blood pressure drug stops or reverses Parkinson's disease in rats.

ISRADIPINE

Does this mean that it works in humans? And do other similar drugs (called calcium channel blockers) stop Parkinson's from developing? If so, a population study should show a statistical difference. I mean, we use these medicines all the time...

Another reason that the hype that ONLY embryonic stem cells can cure and it's Bush's fault has more to do with Bush Derangement syndrome than with reality.

Headlines below the fold

Suicide bomber in Kenya...not the first one either.

Husband keeps pressuring wife into becoming a suicide bomber...she says no...and talks to the BBC...


Funding the arts in Iraq...

Cuba in a time warp...another BBC report. Attention Michael Moore: They complain about lacking food and medicine.

You know that fake protein chemical that killed a lot of cats? It was also placed into plasma given to Chinese patients...and then there is the fake baby formula and poisoned toothpaste...

Some NATO countries are helping in Afghanistan, but too many of them bitch about sending a couple hundred troops, or won't let their soldiers fight... India however sent 400 crack troops to defend workers building a highway there...even though it is politically risky.

And the Indonesians catch a J.I. terror chief. This is good news for the Philippines, since they also bomb us here.

Taliban give back live hostages for a dead leader's body...guess he was important too, but I guess not important enough for headlines on CNN to mention his killing as a success for Bush's policies.

Hello kitty video of the day

Turn up speakers, and watch your blood sugar...

Timewaster of the day

So cute. The little girl with the pet alligator walked in on Panda taking a shower then blew her up.

Presumably this is cute in Japanese...

Or you can watch this philosophical film about talking bread..

Gift item of the day

What do you do when you want to wear both your support panty hose and sexy sandals?

Open toe stockings...

Headlines below the fold

Stategypage has the latest on the Philippines...
They mention that not only are Christians moving into Mindanao, but Muslims are moving out. This is true. We have relatives there running a pharmacy. And one now sees Muslim women on the street. Much of our help comes from the Visayas, but a neighbor has a Muslim maid, and Mindanao women also go to Saudi to work as maids.

Serbia, Kosovo, and the Muslim/Christian fight...BBC newsreaders gritted their teeth last night reporting the warm reception... the Albanian/Bosnia/Muslim thing goes back centuries, and may be one reason Putin is so mad. LINK and the "muslims" used to be Bogomils, but asked the Turks in to stop persecution...

And notice the speech about Wilson? Lots of our problems go back to the treaty of Versailles...

Miss Manners, move over...the NYTimes reports the etiquette of Jihad...essentially it's okay to kill innocent women and children, but first you need daddy's permission...

And if the news is depressing, go to Miss Cellania; she has a bunch of engineer jokes today including how engineers are different than people:
Normal people ... believe that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Engineers believe that if it ain't broke, it doesn't have enough features yet.

Hey, Luke, sounds like you are an engineer...

STEAM TREK!

(headsup tech republic)

Everyday hero

Link2

Cuba Gooding sees a man shot outside a restaurant, and goes to his aid, staying with him and applying first aid until the ambulance arrived.

stinking gladwyn?

Stinking gladwyn leaves remain green through the winter; a nice addition to a garden where winters are long and cold. Gerard mentioned, "Gladdon groweth in many gardens [and] I have seene it wilde...in woods and shadowie places neere the sea." Gerard, of course, stated the most famous characteristic of the iris's leaves, "...being rubbed, of a stinking smell very lothsome." (The Herbal, 1633 edition)
Your herb of the day from Killerplants

Loving the trees not the locals

Editorial says what I think every time I see those National Geographic specials on saving primitive cultures. Hint: Yup. You guys think it's nice, but how would you like doing all that hard work of planting and cooking from scratch, while risking death having a baby every year, and know that half of them will die before they are six?

Family Photos

Summer is here 2007

Yum! Watermelon!

Yum! the Skoda commercial

Turn up speakers and enjoy...

And the BBC has an article on how it was done...

Mermaids in folklore

and paintings of mermaids HERE

I was going to link to a mermaid joke, but I can't find any that are G rated...

Craft item of the day

Sew your own Mermaid in cross stitch.


Offe's cross stitch page has designs and "how to" information.

But she does ask that you don't use her designs to make money.

Gift Item of the day

Silk Mermaid dress for your little girls.

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When there is no doctor

These basic emergency medical books are great if you are backpacking or traveling to exotic places, or just want them in your emergency box.

You don't have an emergency box? Shame on you. When we lived in Oklahoma, I always kept my box in my garage, figuring that if we had a tornado that it would be blown to Kansas for someone there to use.

Here in the Philippines, it's just Bahala na...

Green blood?

No, not a Vulcan; Sulfhaemoglobinaemia...

And while writing about it on BNN, I ran across the classic medical detective story: Eleven Blue Men...about Methemoglobinemia, caused by someone putting nitrates into the salt shaker.

Africa stuff

I have a blog about Zimbabwe.

Rev. Mufaro has a BBC Interview about Zimbabwe
His blog is HERE if you want an "insider" report by someone who used to be a Mugabe supporter.

And THIS is a summary about using food to destroy political opponents in that country

The Music of the Spheres

Musica Universalis, or the Music of the Spheres, is an ancient philosophical concept dating back to Pythagoras which holds that there is a divine harmony in the universe that causes celestial bodies to move in proportions equivalent to pure musical intervals.

“Carmen of the Spheres” is Greg Fox’s modern attempt to make audible that harmony. It has links to download the music, and this link describes how he translated light into musical forms.

BUGS!

Interested in Philippine bugs? This is a page dedicated to beetles, complete with pictures.

Did you know there is actually a beetle web ring with 46 members?

what brought all this on is that our cook found a junebeetle and was teasing me that she was going to cook it for supper in adobo...Luckily Lolo said no, but only because usually the beetles are caught and cooked fresh when they emerge in the morning, and the bug was old.

Your inspirational thought of the day

Nope, no privacy here, folks, and it's not Bush's fault

Your podcast of the day, on medical privacy in the computer era

The REALLY IMPORTANT HEADLINE OF THE DAY

Paris Hilton released from jail

Paris Hilton will not be allowed out of her house for parties Release statement

Celebrity heiress Paris Hilton has been released from jail after serving just three full days of her sentence.
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