BBC programs now on line

I haven't had time to download any, but if you missed such sparkling BBC program such as Donny Osmond at Cyfartha Castle, check the link.

Medical tip of the day

Don't text and walk...or skateboard...or cook...or ride a bike, drive a car or a boat...

ER Docs are seeing lots of injuries from people who forget to watch what they are doing...

Dog adopts tiger cubs

CANEY, KANSAS: Three tiger cubs at a Kansas zoo are getting some maternal care from an unlikely source Isabella the golden retriever.

The tiger cubs were born on Sunday at Safari Zoological Park but their mother soon stopped caring for them. Isabella had just weaned her own puppies and was able to step in.

Zoo owner Tom Harvey says, "The timing couldn't have been any better."

He says it's unusual for dogs to care for tiger cubs, but it does happen. Isabella licks, cleans and feeds the cubs just like her own puppies.

The latest competitive SPORT

DOUBLE DUTCH IS NOW A SPORT IN NYC

Yum!

Chocolate covered bacon cake

(Via Instapundit)

Or, if you prefer, grilled twinkies....alternative with chocolate

YUM!an Eel flavored Softdrink!

"...The beverage, which translates as "Surging Eel", is a vivid yellow liquid and contains eel extract and vitamins found in the fish...

Many believe the fish boost energy during the summer's hot and humid conditions.

Kazunori Hayashi, spokesman for the company Japan Tobacco Inc, which produced the drink, said : "It is mainly for men who are exhausted by the summer's heat"...

(presumably women don' t have to worry about exhausted eels)

The beverage has a similar taste to broiled eels, a popular summer delicacy popular among the Japanese, and sells at about 65p (140 yen).

Unagi Nobori isn't the first drink with an unusual flavour to go on sale in Japan.

In 2007, for one summer only, you could buy Pepsi Ice Cucumber, concocted to taste like the cool green vegetable.

Not to be outdone, Coca-Cola also has its own vegetable-based soft drink – Water Salad.

Insomnia downloads of the day

Two great books for insomniacs:

Umbrellas and their history

Cocoa and Chocolate: their history from plantation to consumer.

put them on your mp3 player...it's better than counting sheep.

Gift item of the day

a Dead Bird Night Light...


made from recycled glass...
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

A good use for Tobacco?

South African scientists are working on a GM tobacco that turns green when grown near a landmine, making the mine easier to find.

Rice Paddy Art

the west has crop circles, Japan has rice paddy art

Headlines below the fold

Banned in Britain:
80 year old athlete no longer will be allowed to run up a down-escalators because it is too dangerous.

Guess he should try something safer, like jogging in traffic.
-----------------------------
Wash your feet,
Honey bees are disappearing...no, not global warming but a tiny mite.
Insecticides are not working too well...the possible solution?
A tiny foot bath full of anti mite fungus at the entrance to the hive.

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

How to get medicine past the blood brain barrier:
Viagra
-------------------
Floods in New Mexico...
wonder if my old house is still there...

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

Is the Yeti real?
Brits plan DNA analysis to be done on some yeti hair to see if they can identify where it came from .

Robin and the kids

blame global warming

now "experts" claim that global warming causes kittens.
(headsup TimBlair)
cross posted to BNN...

ET CALL HOME

Astronaut Edgar Mitchell had locals tell him what happened at Roswell.

Interesting, if true.

I used to live in the mountains that are between Roswell and White Sands testing ground, and the locals always saw strange planes and ignored them...figuring they were experimental aircrafts. And I always presumed that it was a secret experiment that was behind the UFO reports...

New Mexico Trivia: The NM National guard was sent to Manila just before the war, so the area still remembers the Death March (our church had a plaque for locals who served, including the parish priest at the time).

New Mexico Trivia two: when I was there, the Luftwaffe had a squadron there...for training purposes.

NM trivia three: Trinity site, where the first A Bomb was exploded, is open to the public only on certain days, usually once or twice a year.

NMTrivia four:Roswell has the UFO museum, but Alamagordo has a Space History Museum...

CAT PHOTO OF THE DAY

ALAS, when we got home from the hospital, we found the dog killed our half grown kitten. Sigh.

African news below the fold

Politician promises support, then disappears...so what else is new?
But Baldilocks, who has links with the locals, is asking for donations for the local school link
---------------------------

I'm leery about western reporters writing glowing reports about poor people using hand tools and buckets to grow stuff, (what, no pump? No rototiller? No wheelbarrel?)
but it points out two problems common to lands with food shortages: It's easier to import than to invest in local crops (and roads and infrastrcture needed to grow them) and two, that plantations disrupted traditional farming lands and people.
and note: China is taking over mines and building infrastructure that was neglected since the Belgiums left.

--------------------------
Buying back guns in Central Africa...the various wars there have killed millions, but rarely get in the news. So any spark of good news is welcome.


------------------------------------
Zimbabwe agreement.... Will it work?

--------------------
White poverty in South Africa...well, yes. Not a new problem, but one that rarely gets reported.

the Black Eye Galaxy

aka the "evil eye" galaxy:

A collision of two galaxies has left a merged star system with an unusual appearance as well as bizarre internal motions. Messier 64 (M64) has a spectacular dark band of absorbing dust in front of the galaxy's bright nucleus, giving rise to its nicknames of the "Black Eye" or "Evil Eye" galaxy.

Gift item of the day

a mango stripper...

put it right next to your strawberryhuller and your corn stripper and your cherry pitter and your pineapple slicer and your papaya slicer and your apple divider and your lemon reamer and your avocado slicer/pitter and your melon baller...

(headsup The Unclutterer)

actually, the gadgets are useful for restaurants or those who have arthritis...

Right now, Mango season is over (we're at the end of pineapple season, and banana season...hmmm...no banana skin remover gadget?)

But if you can get mangos, try this recipe for mango Sorbet...

Ponca City Country-Western singer in the news

Educational website of the day

The University of Nottingham Periodic Table of Videos site.

They also have a youtube site where they show videos to explain the way various elements work.


Alas, as the UKTelegraph notes:

Many of the clips feature explosive experiments that are now rarely carried out in British schools, amid health and safety fears.

Stuff below the fold

A follow up on a previous post about St. Therese:
(headsup the CurtJestorBlog)
----------------------------

McCain backs timeline on Iraq: advocating the withdrawal from Iraq of Democrat presidential nominee Barack Obama, and several battalions of U.S. news anchors and reporters.

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

Adoption stories: LINK and LINK.
-------------------------

Good news: Brideshead movie...
review: good, but not as good as the BBC miniseries.
Bad news: Mamma mia.
review: chick film, and those ABBA songs just won't let up.

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

IT"S HOWDY DOODY TIME....

Podcast of the week

St. Therese, AKA the little Flower, wrote an autobiography when she was dying of TB, as a memoir for her older sister.

Only the first three chapters are available at present.

The first part is a charming picture of the stodgy but loving middle class family in France at the end of the 1800's, as told by a young girl.

But as she grows, the book shows the young girl, unable to serve God by doing "great deeds" due to sexism and due to poor health and limited talents, instead discovers that she can serve God by doing little things out of love, making each little action a prayer. Later, she enters a convent and dies of TB at a young age, but her biography is so down to earth that she quickly became a favorite of the lay people, everyone from Edith Piaf to missionaries.

No mysticism or feel good stuff here: just ordinary things that ordinary folks can do ...and believe me, it's a lot easier to say oom or feel "spiritual" than to hold one's tongue...or clean the bathroom as a prayer. (and yes, I know that the great masters of Zen point out the same thing).

For non believers, it can be seen as a biography of women who had few opportunities to be great due to sexism...but since she was barred from the journey to great deeds in the outside world, she substituted the journey within...

MariaLectrix Blog is carrying it in podcast mode...

Photo of the day

it is part of a set for Tosca on the lake...from the Bregenz festival..

The stage, dominated throughout by a huge eye, could arguably be one of the most spectacular "Tosca" sets ever made, complete with laser beams, state-of-the-art video projections and a wondrous stage technology that allows the gigantic 200-tonne eye and towering backdrop to slide and glide around silently and effortlessly.

There are some breath-taking moments, as when Cavaradossi, shot by a firing squad, plummets tens of metres into the waters of Lake Constance itself.

Tosca, too, sings the final act vertiginously atop the iris of the eye: one slip and the heroine could easily have been sent tumbling, too.

Don't p*** off the geek take two

administrators like to boss people around, and don't understand geeks.

Sounds like me and the administrators of some federal clinics where I worked. I thought my job was to cure people: he thought my job was to do my job but stay within our budget.

---------------------------
PS after sitting in jail, the geek gave in.
The amusing part of all of this was that the Cisco engineers couldn't break the guy's code....

maybe the Pentagon should hire him to keep the Chinese hackers out of the government's computer system

family news

Lolo talked his doctors into letting him out a day early so we are home.

Redneck humor

TIPS FROM THE REDNECK BOOK OF MANNERS
1. Never take a beer to a job interview.
2. Always identify people in your yard before shooting at them.
3. It’s considered poor taste to take a cooler to church.
4. If you have to vacuum the bed, it is time to change the sheets.
5. Even if you’re certain that you are included in the will, it is still considered tacky to drive a U-Haul to the funeral home.

WEDDINGS ***
1. Livestock, usually, is a poor choice for a wedding gift.
2. Kissing the bride for more than 5 seconds may get you shot.
3. For the groom, at least, rent a tux. A leisure suit with cummerbund and a clean bowling shirt can create too sporty an appearance.
4. Though uncomfortable, say “yes” to socks and shoes for this Special Occasion.

MURDER ***
1. All the DNA is the same.
2. There are no dental records.

Save the world

If you really want to see the world saved, just check link to Dr. Horrible's sing along webpage.

Master plan HERE.
The bad news: the free streams are gone into space and will never return...

If it's Thursday, it must be Berlin

I'm busy with my husband at the hospital, but while CNNI/BBC is showing the magic mystery tour of Barry O', every day they show another photo op with another leader. For some reason they look like they just had their molars removed.

But the networks actually gave fiveminutes to the speech in Berlin.
No details, just platitudes about hope and renewing friendship with Europe.

I thought it was a listening tour, to learn the opinions of these places, but apparantly it's a "campaign" tour, which is why there was no half hour photo op with the wounded US troops in Germany.

Too bad he didn't bother to visit troops like Hillary did while she served in Congress.


And after all, it's not like their votes will be counted. LINK

Kids say the darndest things

1) NUDITY
I was driving with my three young children one warm summer evening when a woman in the convertible ahead of us stood up and waved. She was stark naked! As I was reeling from the shock, I heard my 5-year-old shout from the back seat, 'Mom, that lady isn't wearing a seat belt!'

2) OPINIONS
On the first day of school, a first-grader handed his teacher a note from his mother. The note read, 'The opinions expressed by this child are not necessarily those of his parents.'

3) KETCHUP

A woman was trying hard to get the ketchup out of the jar. During her struggle the phone rang so she asked her 4-year-old daughter to answer the phone. 'Mommy can't come to the phone to talk to you right now. She's hitting the bottle.'

4) MORE NUDITY
A little boy got lost at the YMCA and found himself in the women's locker room. When he was spotted, the room burst into shrieks, with ladies grabbing towels and running for cover. The little boy watched in amazement and then asked, 'What's the matter, haven't you ever seen a little boy before?'

5) POLICE
While taking a routine vandalism report at an elementary school, I was interrupted by a little girl about 6 years old. Looking up and down at my uniform, she asked, 'Are you a cop?' 'Yes, I answered and continued writing the report. My mother said if I ever needed help I should ask the police. Is that right?' 'Yes, that's right,' I told her. 'Well, then,' she said as she extended her foot toward me, 'would you please tie my shoe?'

6) POLICE # 2It was the end of the day when I parked my police van in front of the station. As I gathered my equipment, my K-9 partner, Jake, was barking, and I saw a little boy staring in at me. 'Is that a dog you got back there?' he asked.'It sure is,' I replied.Puzzled, the boy looked at me and then towards the back of the va n. Finally he said, 'What'd he do?'

Your email of the day from Col Updraft

blogging hiatus

Lolo had surgery late Tuesday and will be in the hospital until Saturday.

I'm staying with him, so no blogging.



He is doing fine today, just another day or two to make sure his waterworks are okay.

Family News

Lolo spent 24 hours getting his cardiac clearance and will have his minor surgery this evening.\

I'll try to keep Dr. Angie informed, and email Chona tomorrow with more information.

Robin is in the midst of moving but Luke gets on by borrowing WIFI.

I tried to do it here (The college next door has wifi) but they need a password. Bummer. I have to pay 50cents an hour to go on line.

IT'S THE CORRUPTION STUPID

the left wing blogs are trumpeting that Iraq backs Obama's withdrawal, and the right wing blogs are trumpeting the original audio tape that shows Spiegel translated Maliki's remarks incorrectly.

Strategy Page has a third take on the kerfluffle:It's the (bribe) money stupid:

The U.S. is negotiating, with the Iraqi government, a renewal of its authority to operate in Iraq. This authority expires at the end of the year. As part of the negotiations, the Iraqis are asking for a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops. This is popular with many Iraqis, especially those in the government who are getting rich by stealing oil money.

As long as the American troops are in the country, auditors have armed protection and can be very effective at revealing the thefts and getting the thieves punished. This makes thieving government officials very uncomfortable. Corruption in general remains a major problem (as it is in all Middle Eastern countries). While many Iraqis would like to see clean government, they are usually not the ones who get elected (elections involve a lot of bribery and trading of favors.)

Hmmm...sounds like here.

the kiss

She is pregnant;

he had just saved her from a fire in her house, rescuing her by carrying her out of the house into her front yard, while he continued to fight the fire.

When he finally got done putting the fire out, he sat down to catch his breath and rest.

A photographer from the Charlotte , North Carolina newspaper, noticed her in the distance looking at the fireman.

He saw her walking straight toward the fireman and wondered what she was going to do.

thanks for the headsup from tiamaria

Menu of the day take two

Menu of the day take one

ah,the good old days

from tiamaria

Tsar's kids found and other history stuff

the two kids not in the grave with the Tsar and his family have been identified in a nearby grave.

Presumably they were separated so that the ID would be harder.
------------------------

And LINK shows a lot of people stay close to home.

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

In other news, that pesticide in the sunken ferry is not the only chemical danger from Typhoon Frank...87 barrels of Toluene fell off another ship...
-----------------

and PEEPS

GI Jo

more at NPR

The Pope meets some native Aussies

Gift item of the day

Yup. That's HelloKitty....whoops....she forgot to put on her dress,and forgot to use sunscreen, so she's turned pink from sunburn....



from the website:


Say “aloha” to a new friendship! With a golden glow, a beary pretty hibiscus flower and furbulous flower lei, this tropical traveler will hula her way into your heart.

It's Build a Bear website, so you can add extras to Kitty. I*heart*hello Kitty Blog has a photo of the various accessories.

and the main website notes that you can add "elephant sound" for $3...

Craft item of the day

Tat Cat

From Umi&TsuruBlog:

Pattern PDF
is from Mike Tat-Man Webpage
he has lots of stuff there including how to tat instructions and starting pages for bobbin lace...

And yes, I know how to tat but am not good at it, so didn't bring my shuttle with me when I moved here.

family news

we took Lolo to the doctor, and he needs minor surgery next week in Cabanatuan.

So blogging will be slow.

OLYMPIC NEWS

The Olympics will be guarded with Surface to air missiles, in case some rogue terrorist wants to try to take out their stadium...

On a lighter note, they've also banned dog food (i.e. Fido stew) and bald taxi drivers.

Recipe of the day

Key Lime Pie...check above link...
07/14/2008
Key Lime Pie

Posted: July 15, 2008 12:28 AM

Updated: July 15, 2008 12:28 AM

Featured Video What's For Dinner - 07/11/2008

WWSB has recipes and videos of their local chef program at link.

Headlines below the fold

PC gone mad: A Rabbi writes about the problem of granting apes human rights while denigrating human lives...

------------------------
I just finished a podcast about Mesopotamian history that started with mentioning the "looting" of the museums, and then informed their listeners that most of the stuff was hidden by caretakers and returned.
The WSJ editorial now reminds people of this fact.

---------------------
Even Thomas Friedman reminds the NYTimes readers of a world without the US would be worse than it is today... China and Russia would fill the gap, the same guys who are enabling Mugabe to destroy Zimbabwe in clear view of the world.

more on Zim at Frontline PBS site.
-----------------------------------

Hillary in 2012!
You go, girl....

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

Musical interlude for today

This is the core group from the Kilyawan Boy's Choir...the full choir just won a couple medals in choir contest in Austria.
Congratulations.

West must intervene to liberate Zimbabwe

from the Irish Times.

Yup. I can just see Ireland sending down a dozen Garda to arrest President Mugabe.
What the author means is "let George do it", or let the UK do it...
but without a ten year commitment for peacekeeping and wiping out the bad guys, it won't work.
-------------------
item moved to Makaipablog.

Africans should go back to subsistence farming

From National Geographic

The article discusses high food prices, and suggests people plant small gardens. So far so good. But then we see the usual bunk: Go back to susistence farming (i.e. backbreaking work for an iffy harvest that will feed your family in good years but not pay school fees or buy luxuries like radios or clothes).

full rant moved to Makaipablog.
(sorry I posted it on the wrong blog).

Craft item of the day

How to make soap...in a slow cooker...

caution: uses lye, and if you pour it fast into water, it spits and burns you.

How to make item of the day

660curries blog has instructions on how to make cheese.

When I was in the US, I showed my grandkids how to make yogurt based cheese. But the above recipe is soft cheese from milk.

And the author has a book out about Indian cooking...interview at EpiLog.

Headlines below the fold

In the US, a running joke is asking people after a crisis or triumph what they now plan to do, and the answer is "go to Disneyland".

But Ms. Betancourt, after her release from FARC captivity, plans to go to Lourdes to thank Mary for her release...Get Religion comments how the press is ignoring this angle.
--------------------------------

Attention SanFrancisco: Don't P*** off the geek...
-------------------------

Attention girlwatchers: Don't P*** off L/Cpl Hodge AKA Combat Barbie...
-------------------------------------------

Attention Homeland security: you need to confiscate these dangerous spoons...
------------------

and the headline of the day:

Camel urine trade flourishing

Catholic Trivia

Cardinal Newman is due to be reburied in the Birmingham Oratory, which he founded.
Oratory is prayer house, and the Birmingham Oratory emphasized beauty in worship and a British slant to Catholicism (at a time when most Catholics were Irish immigrants).

If the Birmingham Oratory sounds familiar, it might be the Tolkien link... Calley'sKitchenBlog tells of a visit to the site.

Photo of the day

Chinese soldiers....
Firing weapons from a ....Segway?

CNET points out:

Shooting guns accurately takes considerable practice to begin with. Now put yourself on a continuously mobile platform and give yourself a rifle with a good kick and that fires many rounds per second, and you may just find yourself falling into the line of your buddy's fire.

and of course you can't fall flat if the others shoot back at you...

(headsup InTheAgoraBlog)

Gift item of the day

Save your loved ones from West Nile Virus, Dengue fever and malaria.

HelloKitty Mosquito repellant patches.

and yes, you can buy them on EBay

Your heartwarming post of the day

check link: Tony Snow gave an interview about his cancer before his death about faith and illness.

...

His gift was to remind everyone around him that even though God doesn't promise us tomorrow, he does promise us eternity—filled with life and love we cannot comprehend—and that one can in the throes of sickness point the rest of us toward timeless truths that will help us weather future storms.

Through such trials, God bids us to choose: Do we believe, or do we not? Will we be bold enough to love, daring enough to serve, humble enough to submit, and strong enough to acknowledge our limitations?... We may not know how our contest with sickness will end, but we have felt the ineluctable touch of God.

What is man that Thou art mindful of him? We don't know much, but we know this: No matter where we are, no matter what we do, no matter how bleak or frightening our prospects, each and every one of us, each and every day, lies in the same safe and impregnable place—in the hollow of God's hand.

Philippine and Asian news

Another day, another typhoon...
another earthquake too, but not near here.
-----------------------------------

One clueless senator says ferry passengers need Electronic ID bracelets so that in case of an accident, their bodies can be identified...
yet the ill fated ferry didn't even have a decent Distress signal device that was mandated ten years ago for all ferries.
More info coming out: The ferry captain said he'd detour away from the storm to avoid the signal 2. And then there is that pesticide; so far it's not leaking but why was it on a passenger ferry?
----------------------------------------

Obama might be the choice of the "in crowds", but VietNam would vote for McCain...they admire his character, but they also are thankful that he worked on normalization of trade in the 1990's..

------------------------------
Last year I wrote about the Rapunzels, the maids locked inside by employers who jumped from windows to escape the Lebanese war.
Now 17 maids were taken from a rich UAE family after one escaped and complained to authorities.
This is the tip of the iceburg...

---------------------
100,000 due at World Youth Day in Australia...the press emphasizes sex abuse and global warming, but it's actually about holiness...about 2500 Pinoys are attending, with smaller groups from Korea, Indonesia and Japan...and an unknown number from China.

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

The really important news items of the day

another beloved tradition hits the dust:No more mooning Amtrack...some people went too far...

---------------------------------
A website devoted to the music of LOTR...LINK

and TORN reports that Christopher Lee is willing to do the voice of Smaug, as long as he doesn't have to fly to New Zealand...

---------------------------------------
Manolo loves the Pope's shoes, and links to an earlier article about Sts. Crispen and Crispian, the patron saint of cobblers.

and a half dozen more saints too...

------------------------------
Attention conspiracy buffs (and congressfolks)
The Electromagnetic pulse threat is still a threat...(as most ArtBell listeners know if you set off an atomic bomb in the air, all your computers crash)

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

The History of the Milleneum (so far)

it's Dave Barry....

Family news

internet problems...but we are well...lots of rain (as usual in monsoon season).

Got a recipe?

HappyLoveStrawberryBlog is holding a blogaversary party, and wants recipes and photos.

• , since I'd love to try your recipes for the real thing.
• The theme is anything whimsical, weird and wonderful (WWW, since this is my online party. Ohoho. Sorry, I'll stop making jokes).
• Think trompe d'oeil food, layers, spirals, food on sticks , bright colours &c. &c.
• Entries can be sweet or savoury, and in any measurements (I can translate pretty quickly now)

----------------
Don't look at me...somehow I don't think Lechon is what she has in mind...

WTF stories of the day

parents wanted them to learn about islam in the old country, but the kids ended up stranded for three years since they weren't allowed an exit visa.

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

For some reason this was touted in the Google headlines as a Bush defeat...it's actually a defeat for everyone's lungs...

The court ruling was that the EPA didn't have the legal right to make the rules...and essentially nullified the Clean Air act.

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

Austen Bay: the Obama withdrawal proposals ignore simple things like logisitics.

Trucks. Ships. Planes. Moving people and things. ... This is about a basic understanding of material reality, not political poetry. Obama may move hearts with a well-turned phrase, and get Chris Matthews knees to tingle, but how good is he at scheduling convoys?

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

The usual suspects veto sanctions against Zimbabwe...because they would interfere with national sovereignty...

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

And your headlines of the day:

Iran Apparently in Possession of Photoshop

The Egyptian temples and the Ethiopian connection

Jerusalem Post article on history:
Egypt once had two Jewish temples that copied the design of the temple of Jerusalem, and were built in 500 BC.

It would have taken a large, prosperous population to build such things, but where did they go? Could this be the missing link between the Ethiopian Jews and Israel, and is this why the Ark of the Covenant (either the original or a copy) is so revered there?

The "everything you eat kills you" recipe of the day

The link is for tilapia paksiw...marinated in vinegar. The recipe is actually modified to use trout, but it's cooked the same.

And for more tilapia recipes check LINK

Oh no, not my tilapia

Some bozos found the omega 6 to omega 3 ratio of farm grown tilapia is lousy.

The latest heart prevention diet is all about AA and Omega 3/omega 6 ratios.

Presumably the fish nannies will outlaw it along with eggs and pork and donuts.

But we eat it all the time. My take at link.

Coming soon: Intrepid Ibex

I just went back to gutsy gibbon since hardy herron wouldn't play my mp3's...but next step will be intrepid ibex.

Oh, this is talking about the ubuntu operating system.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

collecting belches isn't easy, but scientists now have found that cows emit
1000 liters of belches each day, causing global warming...

and that doesn't include the F***s or the methane from cow pats.

Headlines that make you want to say WTF

Remember those feet being found in Canada?
Now someone is finding feet in Sweden...

---------------------------
Lileks confronts man with clipboard...

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

Your debate of the week:
Al Sharpton debates Christopher Hitchens on the existence of God..

.With friends like Al Sharpton, God doesn't need enemies...

-----------------------------------
Ugandan journalist says the Zim crisis is made up by the west....after all, look at all those well dressed people attending the rallies...

Craft item of the day

why throw away the dirt when you can crochet your own and have to soak and clean the dang thing?
More links HERE

or you can crochet these and let your toddler lose...


actually, we use old fashioned dust mops...

Attention Homeland security

better watch out for those dangerous HDTV's

hello kitty saving the world

HellokittyAnti Virus software

(HelloKittyHell via headsup gizmodo).

more here
and note that the Japanese Kitty is on a box with Chinese writing...it sells in China.

Of course, this probably won't stop those Chinese hackers...

Or the HelloKitty worm....

or help you find your laptop if you forget it at LAX....

Ms patriot

From dustbury...

More HERE

(MI­DI, score)

Stuff below the fold

Heh. Bush is a hero to Africa...
Nah, saving black people doesn't count...

--------
EWTN Interview with Col. Hal Moore...if you don't know who he is, don't bother to listen. hint...

--------------------------------
A lot of terrorists have criminal records in the US...LINK

--------------------------
NYTimes latest Christian bashing story is nonsense, but they didn't bother to ask any Christians about it. Get religion blog has the commentary....

----------------------------
another religion note for my classmates:
St A's pastor now a bishop in the Virgin Islands...

--------------------------------
Be skeptical about those "first contact" stories says SavageMindsBlog...the dirty little secret is that all peoples trade with one another, visit their neighbors and marry cute girls from other tribes...

---------------------
Ces got suspended...she had been warned by management not to go into a dangerous area,...mayor's son heard she was coming and saw dollar signs?

Colombia update

you don't just go in and rescue hostages...you turn the country around economically, slowly upgrade the military (getting rid of the "bad cop"types) and do a lot of teaching on intelligence gathering first.

InFromTheColdBlog has the background of the Colombia rescue raid.

Recipe of the day

If you have to feed a bunch of kids breakfast, here is the recipe for you...

have the kids tear up the onion rolls and cut the butter and break the eggs...

Next morning, stick in oven...

(headsup tipnut blog)

---------------
Actually, when I was a mom, I used to do a variation that used Bisquick, eggs, and fried onions and bacon and cheddar cheese.

This is a similar recipe.

And when I was really lazy, I used bacon bits or bacon that I had precooked and froze and preshredded cheddar cheese and microwaved it...you have to watch the center (which stays raw)...the trick is to place a glass in the middle of a round dish when you microwave...

Music interlude of the day

Pinay musician on youtube...check link above for story

Headlines below the fold

NYTimes magazine has an interesting article on Rush Limbaugh...I haven't listened to him since the early 1990's...sounds like he hasn't changed...

------------------------
Brendan Frasier in a new movie...it's 3D and rotten tomatoes liked it...but Hellboy 2 seems to be getting a bigger buzz...

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You know that yellow cake that Saddam didn't have? Well, 550 tons of it are being moved to Canada to reprocess into nuclear fuel for civilian reactors. My take HERE.

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The "we're all gonna die" link of the day (viaInstapundit):

Maybe Chicken Little Wasn’t Paranoid After All

everyone worries about big asteroids, but a small one that hit the right place would be pretty bad too...

musical interlude for the holiday

Caveman music and Barbara

The prior link (below) is about cavemen and music.
In the comedy "What's up Doc", the Ryan O'Neil character was a musicologist who was examining the source of music in ancient stones.

So here is your real musical video for the day:

The CaveMan boogie

Ancient hunters painted the sections of their cave dwellings where singing, humming and music sounded best, a new study suggests.

Analyzing the famous, ochre-splashed cave walls of France, the most densely painted areas were also those with the best acoustics, the scientists found. Humming into some bends in the wall even produced sounds mimicking the animals painted there.

And Neanderthals sang like Sopranos FRLINK HERE with discussion.

Key sentence:

In a recent University College London seminar, Mithen explained that Neanderthal anatomy suggests the early hominins had the physical ability to communicate with pitch and melody.

Yum! Pickled Watermelon Rind

With all the brownouts, I finally got around to reading the entire article on the Viagra effects of watermelon:

"Watermelon may not be as organ-specific as Viagra, but it's a great way to relax blood vessels without any drug side effects," says Bhimu Patil, a researcher and director of Texas A&M's Fruit and Vegetable Improvement Center.

But here's the bad news buzz kill: You'll probably need to eat about six cups of watermelon to get enough of the key ingredient -- citrulline -- for it to have any effect.

Powerline (from Minnesota) points out that the chemical in question is highest in the rind, not the pink area...

If you didn't grow up in the Midwest, this may not have meant much to you. But if, like me, you came of age in an environment in which nearly every middle-aged and elderly lady made watermelon pickles from the fruit's rind, and such pickles were a staple at every church picnic and similar social event, today's news may have suggested, not for the first time, that those ladies knew what they were about...

Actually it is probably a German thing rather than Midwestern in origin...here is a recipe from SouthernFoods on About.com
And Chest of Books has another recipe.

Stuff below the fold

Like to listen to chant? no money?
The Monastery podcast is for you.
The bad news? The first hymn they sing is modern. UGH.
the rest is chant. Semi ugh...I hate chant myself...puts me to sleep.

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If you prefer choral music, try BBC3's choral evensong...alas like most of the Beeb it's streaming realplayer...

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Bluewyvern won the Arte y pico award...go to the blog and give a congratulations to her...

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Understanding China... Stangemaps suggests you think of central China as an island, and then you can understand the need for trade and expansion of the heartland in Chinese history.

Agata Mroz

from the Corner: The daughter of basketball and volleyball coaches, Agata became a superstar in her home country when she led the Polish national volleyball team to European championships in 2003 and 2005. When she wasn’t competing in international competition, she was leading her Polish-league team to championships in 2003, 2004 and 2006 and guiding a Spanish-based team to victory in 2007. Once nicknamed the “great wall of China” for her excellence as a blocker, she had a knack for turning what seemed to be opponents’ advantages into points for her side. Her fame was magnified by her beauty, which helped to make the stunning six-foot-three-inch slender blonde a regular fixture in newspapers, magazines and on television...

But when pregnant, she postponed her bone marrow transplant in order to give life...alas, dying after the birth of her daughter and after the postponed bone marrow transplant.


Agata Mroz learned the lessons of sports and applied them in life. Accustomed to giving all she had on the court, Agata indeed gave the best of herself to her husband and every last ounce of herself to her daughter. She learned that there were things more important than herself, ...

Making fancy baloons

Pingmag has a nice article about a small factory in Japan that designs and makes fancy baloons...

Includes short film clips.

Happy July 4th

Happy Independence day...

Craft item of the day

check link on making Prince Caspian's sword from two toothbrushes, a wire coat hanger, a cabinet knob, stiff cardboard and some other stuff.


one of many project on Instructables from the Dadcando blog.
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.
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Zim atrocity of the day

amnesty to the thugs who beat up and even killed voters and the opposition

The dreaded puppie of blasphemy

The latest UK insult to the religion of peace:

I wonder if these nut jobs are aware that the warnings on dogs are health suggestions, and not in the Koran, and that watchdogs and hunting dogs are allowed?

They know what you watched last summer

Everyone on Youtube has had their information turned over to Viacom...theoretically your privacy is protected, but we've heard that before...

The court order includes the login names and IP addresses of each viewer, which The Times said could potentially be used to identify each person who viewed a YouTube clip.

Opera teaches one how to date

excerpt:

Go for the old woman. Sometimes she's hot. (Flute)

Love your woman even though she's fickle and unfaithful like all women? (Cosi)

Be SURE you know his or her gender, if that sort of thing is important to you. (Fidelio)

Stay the fuck away from tenors. I mean,seriously. (Rigoletto)

The hot ones are always crazy. (Lucia, Puritani, Carmen)

"If he's dead, he can't say no" (Salome)


headsup via Cacciaguida.

Congratulations Colombia

Blackfive is happy they found a good use for those "CHE" teeshirts...

A daring rescue that should be getting headlines. (we have brownouts and internet outage, so I'm behind in the news).

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LINK

The U.S. military contractors — Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes and Keith Stansell — had been held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia since their drug-surveillance plane went down in the jungle in February 2003. Nowhere in the world have American hostages currently in captivity been held longer, according to the U.S. Embassy in Bogota.

The three were rescued when Colombian spies tricked leftist rebels into handing them over along with kidnapped presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt. She was also freed Wednesday, as were 11 Colombian police and soldiers.

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Full BBC Coverage HERE...most of their coverage is on Betancort...

Why a book is better than a "kindle" reader

Lifted from The View from the Old Lighthouse

Top Ten Reasons Why a Used Book Beats an eBook

10. You won’t short out your book if you spill something on it.

9. Pixels don’t have that same well-read feel.

8. If your kids step on your book, it won't cost hundreds to replace (usually).

7. Have you tried reading your laptop on the beach?

6. How about on public transportation?

5. The batteries won’t die in the middle of a chapter.

4. Trading eBooks isn’t as much fun.

3. You don't have to take it out of your carry-on for inspection.

2. Reading in the tub isn't life-threatening.

1. Who collects eBooks?

Marfan syndrome?

Hmmm...long arms, long fingers, gangly and tall....

wonder why no one in the MSM noticed the problem?

Of course, knowing them, they'll probably just say "he looks like Abraham Lincoln", who had the syndrome.

I'm writing an essay on Marfan on BNN if I can get the internet to work

------>update done...

Gift item of the day take two

Windup Hopping Lederhosen.

Bavarian folkpants with a mind of their own.

Lederhosen, which literally means "leather pants," are a traditional folk costume worn mostly in the mountainous regions of Bavaria and Austria. They are a happy sort of short trouser often involved in singing and dancing.

And drinking. During the Oktoberfest, Bavarians and their guests drink 1.2 million gallons of beer."

Please don't eat the Hyacinth

we docs know a lot of plants are poisonous...link is to a site of the twenty deadliest plants.

Most of them are common US flowers or weeds...and they forgot some of the worst ones. But if you have kids, you might want to take a look..

(headsup DarkroastedBlendBlog)

and a longer list of dangerous plants is HERE...

first aid? Well, call poison control, or go to the ER and don't forget to take the plant with you...

Gift Item of the day

Dress your dog in a patriotic dress, and if Wesley Clark questions your patriotism, sic 'em on the SOB...

only $20
From PamperedPoochBoutique.

Hannibal!

No, not Hannibal Lector: The curly headed African who almost destroyed Rome with his elephants.

I am working my way through University of Berkeley's history of Modern Europe, and just figured out how to download Stanford University Podcasts without an IPOD or ITunes.
The bad news: the downloads keep messing up my RSS feed, so I put it into Rhythmbox, which downloads and then tells me it fails. But if I ask Rhythmbox what is the property of the MP4, it gives me a link to paste into Firefox, which then asks me if I want to listen or download it, and voila, instant podcast.


The history of 19th century of Germany, with unification is interesting and includes a lot of information on kulturkampf that I didn't know.

So now I'm downloading the history of Hannibal from Stanford, since it meshes with another Berkeley course and Mike Duncan's history of Rome Podcast.

Just some links for those who want to learn...

Stuff below the fold

Annie Coleman is back from her honeymoon and back to podcasting Anne of Green Gables LINK.-------
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SilverSurfer as Elven King?
Why not? If Matrix guy can be one, and Magneto can be Gandalf, and Rudy can be Sam...

Speaking of Rudy, they play old movies on HBO Asia and Rudy was on last week...
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As for DamBusters, Spielburg may direct, Jackson produce...
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my rss tells me that NPR is changing their podcast links...there goes CarTalk...until I can figure out how to link it again.
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The Obamamessiah followers are getting as bad as the RonPaulites...they are getting Hillary blogs removed from Blogger...by reporting them as "spamblogs"...

I wrote about it on BNN, so if this blog disappears you know why

------->Update: NYTimes writes about it on their technology (not political) blogsite.