Craft item of the day

Crochet your own Gollum hat.

CrochetMeBlog has a free down load for the pattern.

Photos from below the fold

Guess who will be on American Chopper...yes, America's sweetheart.


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

There is a lot of worry about the Pope visiting the Holy Land.
The CurtJester
suggests to use this vehicle instead of the Popemobile:

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Gift item of the week:

A Rubik's cube for the blind..


----------------------
Science triumph of the week:

Scientists have cloned a glowing Puppy.
.

Catholic post of the day

You heard of LOLCats?

Well, welcome to LOLSaints: This is an Icon of Ignatius of Antioch...and the link tells you about him.
(headsup the CurtJester)

Good news of the day

"A hormone released during the digestion of certain fats triggers long-term memory formation in rats, a new study says....

While Piomelli doesn't recommend that people binge on fast food to improve memory, his team's findings could explain why kids who eat breakfast and mid-morning snacks generally perform better in school.."

or maybe it helps because fat keeps you from being hungry

The world's weirdest festivals

Baby jumping, a Turnip festival, and of course, the beloved RedNeck Games...

slideshow at the UKTelegraph

Science headlines for the day

Suffolk UK firemen get a new helmet.





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Fortifying corn with vitamins...link
Though genetic engineering has been used to enhance vitamin content in a variety of crops -- including rice, potatoes, lettuce and tomatoes -- this is the first time scientists have been able to amplify multiple vitamins in a single plant.

........................
Tracing the origin of swine flu to a farm:
(the boy) contracted the disease on April 2, Cordova said, one of a group of residents who came down with what was at the time labeled a particularly bad case of the flu.....
In Perote, residents of the hamlet known as La Gloria have complained since mid-March that contamination from the pig farm was tainting their water and causing respiratory infections. In one demonstration in early April, they carried signs with pictures of pigs crossed out with an X and the word "peligro" -- danger. Residents told reporters at the time that more than half the town's 3,000 inhabitants were sick and that three children under the age of 2 had died.

----------------------------
Swine flu investigation helped by avian flu research.
Podcast at link

Craft item of the day

calliography tutorials. Youtube channel HERE



Headsup notcot

Recipe of the day

EpiLog has links to several Peanut butter cookie recipes.


This one makes me gain five pounds just by reading the recipe...

Headlines below the fold

Professor Glendon refuses invitation from Notre Dame...because they were merely using her name to deflect criticism on their honoring President Obama.
She points out that commencement is supposed to be a happy time for graduates, not a proper place to hold a debate ..

----------------------
An administration photo op scares the B'jesus out of a lot of New Yorkers...
Uh, fellahs, ever hear of Photoshop?

-----------------
StrategyPage again notes how the press helps the bad guys.

------------------------
Librivox has some new SciFi short stories on line.

-----------------------
Worried about the latest Flu bug?
Read this and really have nightmares..

--------------------------------
The Singularity by 2030?
We report, you decide...

Is secondhand smoke killing your cat?

Ah...so that's how to get rid of kitty

(just joking....George the Killer Dog does it a lot quicker...if he gets off the leash...sigh)

actually we have four kitties that look just like the photo...

Party Time

Hamster Amigurumi

pattern at link

Hamster LOL of the day

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Musical interlude for today

Headlines below the fold

Nebula Award winners announced...

-----------------------
Army stops using wound powder because it harms blood vessels (Probably the heat generated when it clots the blood). But it continues to use bandages with similar clotting powder that works almost as well.

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

Jaunty Jackalope links.

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

If you love Mugabe, you'll love Zuma....
---------------

Medscape has a discussion of using (adult) stem cells in bonehealing...

and:LINK there are now new ways of making adult stem cells work like embryonic stem cells.
------------------------

There was a big scandal in Iran, where "Chinese" oranges were found to have lables saying they were from Israel..
The latest? Nah, no zionist oranges, just Chinese counterfeits.
-------------------------------

Family news

Cheche's son was baptised...afterward we ate lunch there.,,and will go back at suppertime.

Chona and Emy have arrived...

Swine flu

Swine flu...the good news: it is sensitive to some anti viral medicines.

The bad news: A lot of Americans have been in contact with cases even the president.

----------------
update: BBC has local reports HERE.


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

The Philippines will stop importation of pork from the US and Mexico to stop the spread...\this is funny, since the flu is being spread human to human, and our own pigs have Ebola Reston...


but of course it's fiesta time, and so far no talk of a human quarantine such as they did with SARS...

Gift item of the day

Your own genuine Titanium StarTrek Spork...

and yes, they even have a tribble in case you are lonely

Cardinal Newman

father Z notes that British Cardinal Newman is to be beatified.

Newman's theological writings are above my IQ, but they note that Newman's writings on conscience inspired the White Rose movement (against the Nazis)...LINK

And Newman's link with the Birmingham Oratory, which encouraged an "English" Catholicism (as opposed to the Irish or continental approach) is also something that bore good fruit.
----------------------------

Newman's most famous poem is a favorite Protestant Hymn...here it is sung by the Mormon Tabernacle choir:

Music interlude for today

Species of the week

The Hawaiian Happy Face Spider

"Scientists think the spider, which has the scientific name Theridion grallator and is harmless to humans, has evolved the patterns to confuse predators." Photo: CATERS

,
,

Headlines below the fold

A bunch of stories that have huge implications that need to be discussed on many levels, but probably won't be in a politicized 24/7 news cycle
-------------------

Mexico has a swine flu epidemic....tick tick tick...

and what about those cases of plague?

And did you hear about the "surge" in Juarez?
-------------------

Can traditional ways solve the problem of global warming?

Yes, if you want to live that way.
And has anyone calculated the carbon footprint of a husky that eats mainly fresh meat?
-----------------------------

StrategyPage reminds us about the Church committee...
A "CYA" CIA will lead to more 9-11's, but never mind...The Lord will make it all better in the long run....

-----------------------
Those who make abortion into politics are ignoring the real story PDF
With the idea that one human being has the right to take the life of another merely because the other’s life is inconvenient, our culture elevates into law the primacy of the strong over the weak. The discord that this year’s commencement has unleashed – between Notre Dame and the bishops, between members of the Notre Dame community, between Notre Dame and thousands of discouraged Catholic faithful – all this derives from an approach that for decades has treated abortion as one issue on a political scorecard. This is not the road to engagement. This is the route to incoherence,

Craft item of the day

forget the Legos,

just knit your village

(photoPA)

............................

more on miniture knitting at Buttercup website and Blog

Danger! Danger!

Clown shoes are being banned as a safety hazard...

The Moscow State Circus performer fell from the wire in a performance of the troupe's The Monk's Dream during an 11-day run in Liverpool...

But, on his return, he was told he could no longer wear his special shoes.

'I don't think it is a good idea for him to wear the boots because he is essentially walking blind – with barefeet he gets a much better grip,' said the circus's health and safety adviser, Larry Dewitt.

SHAKESPEARE! take two

Happy Talk Like Shakespear Day

Actually, since April 23 is Shakespeare's 445th birthday, Father Z says we should make April 23 "National Talk Like Shakespeare day".


Some rampallian staring at you at Starbucks? Macbeth wouldn’t have stood for that! No siree! Rather…. nay, Sirrah, he would not! You wouldn’t catch Macbeth saying, "Wanna take a photo?". Ho hum! Today, you can try this: "The devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced loon! Where got’st thou that goose look?" Or are you buying that potion post-haste? A simple "Take thy face hence", sufficeth.

Well, it beats a third finger salute...

The paradox of Earth Day

I have an essay up on the paradox of Earth day up on BNN...
mainly saying fine, but you have to be rich enough to "afford" green technology or the people will revolt.

On the other hand, pollution kills...
What has gotten little publicity are things like THIS...
New research suggests the Chinese nuclear tests from 1964 to 1996 claimed more lives than those of any other nation. Professor Jun Takada, a Japanese physicist, has calculated that up to 1.48m people were exposed to fallout and 190,000 of them may have died from diseases linked to radiation.

But the number of nuclear accidents from all causes is huge...most with only a few casualties a piece...
I once worked "downwind" from Trinity site...and always wondered if all the cancer among the Apache was due to their exposure to radiation...

GOOD NEWS STORY OF THE DAY

Obesity might be causing global warming, but being big bosomed might save your life

(After noticing a 57 year old lady witnessing a break in,)one of them fired a shot at her, a police spokesman said.

The bullet struck the underwire on the woman's bra and that saved her from a more serious injury, police said...

First Things alert

First Things magazine lost it's long time editor, but is hiring new writers.

For those not into "religion" it is a thoughtful magazine about the intersection of religion and culture (two things that interest me).

I used to subscribe, because their articles are so deep that they are the type to underline and ponder...not something one can read on the computer. Alas, I can't afford it nowadays.

Father Neuhaus' sardonic monthly article was the best part of the journal. So who we become their monthly curmugeon?

Well, they are hiring Spengler, (of the Asian Times)...he should make some from both ends of the political spectrum annoyed...

The lesson for today

Never again...
Whether you think the clip is about the West looking the other way as Arabs make Israel the scapegoat for their own corruption, or you think the clip is about a certain leader's pledges of Hope and Change means opposing him is evil, or you think the clip is about allowing torture of another human being, never mind

Just watch the clip and ponder.

Headline of the day

Mmm ... Milky Way tastes of raspberries

ASTRONOMERS searching for the building blocks of life in a giant dust cloud at the heart of the Milky Way have concluded that they taste vaguely of raspberries...In the latest survey, astronomers sifted through thousands of signals from Sagittarius B2, a vast dust cloud at the centre of our galaxy. While they failed to find evidence for amino acids, they did find a substance called ethyl formate, the chemical responsible for the flavour of raspberries

Illustration: Simon Letch

Craft item of the day

a nice spring hat for your tiny doll

pattern at above link.

It's in French but that shouldn't top any real crocheter

Video of the day

headsup notcot

LOL Cat item of the day

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Headlines below the fold

The Philippine military found/rescued another hostage in Basilan...this one a local farmer.
The bad news?
they found the other farmer they kidnapped a few days ago dead...
It's almost if they need someone to behead so that they can pressure money for the more importantt (read richer) hostages..

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Need money? Just steal funds from accounts at the local bank to pay your bills.

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UN Conference on Racism ends...three days early.
RogerSimon disusses why...
a demonstration in support of Darfur was staged outside the Palais. There was little interest in this genocide inside, just as there was very little interest in Rwanda. For the UN, it’s “All Palestine All The Time”.

But it didn’t work this time. Fewer people tuned into that network. For now the Durban II Conference is a fiasco...

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

Stuff below the fold

According to the UKMail, the new Startrek Movie will be a hit.

But why do all the faces in the photo look alike?

The answer: They casted young hot actors, not character actors, like the original show. They all have perfect faces (even the ethnics echo the idea of white upper class beauty, not the beauty of their own culture).

Peggy Noonan wrote last week that with the economic downturn, Hollywood might start replacing glamourous look alikes with actors who looked like ordinary men, like Clark Gable.
One hopes so.
It's getting harder and harder to tell the characters apart in a lot of movies.

------------------------------
and for Trekkies: Free Startrek Icon Downloads HERE.

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

It's not StarTrek, but one wonders how Captain Kirk would handle this:

The spin on "he's not a vicious pirate with a submachine gun, he's just an innocent kid" spin has started in the media. He even cried in court, poor dear.
It's a bit hard to be macho when you are not terrorizing unarmed Pinoy seamen with your AK 47.

It's Official

Fish get seasick...




Photo: PA

Musical interlude for today

The latest scapegoat for global warming

Fat (people) cause a billion tonnes of greenhouse gas

As compared to people starving to death, who don't eat food (growing food causes greenhouse gas) or (presumably) fart...
---------------------------
such nonsense requires an answer

I would like to explain how it came to pass that I got fat.
Ladies and gentlemen, I got fat as a public service.
When I was a child, my mother said to me,
"Clean the plate, because children are starving in Europe."
And I might point out that that was years before the Marshall Plan
was ever heard of.
So I would clean the plate, four, five, six times a day.
[ Find more Lyrics on www.mp3lyrics.org/mM1 ]
Because somehow I felt that that would
keep the children from starving
in Europe.
But I was wrong. They kept starving. And I got fat.
So I would like to say to every one of you who is either skinny
or in some other way normal--
When you walk out on the street, and you see a fat person,
Do not scoff at that fat person. Oh no!
Take off your hat. Hold it over your heart.
Lift your chin up high. And in a proud, happy voice say to him,
"Hail to thee, fat person!
You kept us out of war!"

YUM! Peanut butter and jalapeno pepper toast

Henry Gump has a food blog...



(did I mention he's my grandson Dane? )

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a....uh ohMy

It' s kite flying time in the Philippines, and MySariSariStore photoblog has a lot of neat photos of past kite festivals on the site.

.
.
.

and don't worry if you can't afford a fancy design..

even an old pizza box will do.

Stuff below the fold

The latest cancer experimental treatment?
Carbon Nanotubes laced with scorpion venom...

===========
SPAM causes global warming...
no not the canned stuff, those thousand Nigerian emails you have to erase every day.
The energy used for those 63 trillion emails could power 2.4 million homes...

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

Want to learn about Syria? Creative Forum has a bunch of essays by Syrian bloggers on their everyday life and love of country.

----------------------------------
Roger Simon blogs from the Durbin II conference.

--------------
and the really important video of the day:
How to make a Dorodungo.

Clarity or poverty of language?

I used to argue for simple language in the Bible (against the KJV) by using as an examle the famous phrase "suffer the little children" is misunderstood by the average person who no longer understands the word "suffer" can mean "permit".

But the last time I argued, I stopped, because the Return of the King had just won the Academy awards, and of course one of the most famous scenes is when Aragorn confronts the King of the Dead who insists" The dead shall not suffer the living to pass" by answering "you shall suffer me".

Of course, the words are Tolkiens (albeit from a slightly different place in the book).

But when my grandson read the Lord of the Rings, he needed a dictionary.

So Father Z has two translations of the same prayer, and invites you to compare:

ICEL (1973 translation of the 1970MR):
God of mercy,
you wash away our sins in water,
you give us new birth in the Spirit,
and redeem us in the blood of Christ.
As we celebrate Christ’s resurrection
increase our awareness of these blessings,
and renew your gift of life within us.

Do you want to know what the Latin prayer really says?

A LITERAL TRANSLATION:
O God of eternal mercy,
who on this recurrence of the paschal feast
do kindle the faith of a people sanctified for Yourself,
increase the grace which You have given,
so that all may comprehend with worthy understanding
by what laver they were washed,
by what Spirit they were regenerated,
by what Blood they were redeemed.


I still prefer the simple version, but his "literal" translation has a beauty that brings tears to my eyes.

excuse the typing errors

I'm not dyslexic in my old age...

I am trying to touch type on my ASUS miniPC...and sometimes the keys stick or I hit the wrong keys because the keyboard is so small.

gatito Amigurumi Siames

Irka! blog has photos of her latest project, an amigurumi Siamese kitten.

Go to her blog for more photos, and
She has the pattern for free download too.
.
.
.
.

Puppie update

six puppies...

sigh...

Family news

I'm down with a mild cold, so didn't go to church.

It's probably better that I stay home: Our dog Blackie is in labour...one so far...black...

This is the third litter since we had her "fixed"...guess the operation didn't work

Food news you can us

tired of drinking wimpy "lite" beers with your pizza?

well, MachoMen, HellokittyHell suggests you drink this.

to wash don your HellokittyPizza, of course...

Musical interlude for today

your motivational poster of the day

headsup Grouchyoldcrippleblog

Dueling galaxies

The researchers found that four separate galaxy clusters are involved in a triple merger, the first time such a phenomenon has been documented. Galaxy clusters are the largest objects bound by gravity in the universe.

Rosy the Riveter and Wendy the WASP

no women allowed in combat, but

The WASP pilots that graduated from Avenger fanned out to air bases throughout the United States, where they flew cargo, transported new airplanes from factories, and assumed other aviation roles. One elite group, formed from Cochran’s best flyers, received an assignment to tow aerial targets at Camp Davis in South Carolina.

Anime Eyes.

(headsup Teinouwomanblog)

The "WTF" headline of the day

US scientists to grow brussels sprouts on Moon

the idea is to let astronauts eat fresh veggies instead of MRE's....

But Brussel Sprouts may cause other problems, as one Zoo found out:

The staff at Chessington Zoo fed the giant apes on the seasonal favourite as they are filled with nutritional goodness. However, they hadn't reckoned with the gassy qualities of the tiny veggies.

Now the zoo has issued an apology after guests at the zoo expressed their horror at the potent smell that started emanating from the gorillas' enclosure.

Science headlines below the fold

NYTimes dislikes talks of abstinence, but it finally has a column on the importance of teaching teenaged boys to respect girls.

----------------------------
How international law leads to terrorists and pirates having an advantage over civilized men...

------------------
the dangers of inbreeding proven by the Spanish Hapsburgs...

------------------
The secrets of WormGrunting

and don't miss this video of the Sopchoppy worm grunting festival:

Singing like an angel

The You tube link has 7 million hits so far, but can't be embedded, so go HERE to watch...

The UK Times reports:
At the pre-recorded audition, broadcast four days ago, audience members laughed at the frizzy-haired, church-going Catholic who lives alone with her cat in a rundown council estate....
Minutes later the audience were on their feet, applauding wildly after her soaring rendition of I Dreamed a Dream, from Les Miserables.

Born with a learning disability, Ms Boyle dreamed of becoming a professional singer but in order to care for her elderly mother, Bridget, limited her efforts to the church choir and karaoke. Two years ago, after the death of her mother, she stopped singing. “I though I would take a break - it seemed appropriate,” she said. Eventually she felt ready for a comeback, and chose Britain's Got Talent, her mother's favourite show.

Brittany in her prom dress

Musical interlude for today

Night Prayer part one


part two



------------------
for those who like Chant check out The Monastery of San Benedetto, go to Tenebrae 09 and they have chant podcasts from last weekend.

Poetry linnk for today

too many modern poems are bad prose and impossible to understand.

But the BBC has some practical poems on line, such as:

Ode on brewing Tea

Always, always warm the pot
whether you have time or not
Draw the water freshly too
as this ensures a better brew
If a litre's what you need
then four teaspoons will succeed
in filling six cups, medium strength.
Five full minutes is the length
of time before you pour
and with good leaf-tea nothing more.
Anne Connolly, Edinburgh

The "WTF" headline of the day

First cloned camel born in Dubai

and as the article reminds us:

Camels are a valuable commodity in the desert sheikdoms of the Persian Gulf. They are used for racing and transport. They are famous for healthy low-fat milk and can fetch owners millions of dollars at camel beauty contests.

The Philippines have a stake against the pirates

Around half of the 228 seamen aboard 13 ships being held hostage by Somali pirates are Filipinos, according to the International Seafarers Action Center.

well, the Philippines is too busy trying to stop Europeans from funding the terrorist group AbuSayya f ...the Army and government is taking a hard line...

And with all the talk about "international law" standing in the way of killing pirates (especially if they are "teenagers") one can see that President Obama can either get a backbone and become a cowboy or give in to the Euroweenies and let the Pinoys rot in Somalia...

Musical interlude for today

Headlines below the fold

The PC are aghast that the Americans fought the pirates. They prefer seamen to surrender.
And those killed were just poor "untrained teenagers with heavy weapons"...according to Gates.

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

If you are wondering about Thailand, strategyPage has a summary..also check HERE.

the Philippines is hoping to lure tourists who are worried about Thailand to come here instead.

-------------------------------
TORN discusses rumors about casting the Hobbit.

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

Signs of things to come: The Grand Duke of Luxembourg has taken a stand against euthanasia and it may cost him his throne...
--------------------------------

If the Ginsburg interview doesn't worry you, it should. The Volokh Conspiracy explains LINK2
in a sentence, the court usually cites foreign court cases to justify the fact that the judges are inventing laws that favor the progressive side of the culture wars.

------------------
No, no anti religious bias at the LA Times, which ridicules baptism and even has a headline calling baptism "dunking"...
and Ignatius blog has a "match the anti Catholic quote with the famous name" quiz.

Puns of the day

from SenseOfEventsBlog:

A time for groaning

1. A bicycle can't stand alone because it is two-tired.

2. What's the definition of a will? It's a dead giveaway.

3. A backward poet writes inverse.

4. Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.

5. In democracy it's your vote that counts. In feudalism it's your count that votes.

6. She had a boyfriend with a wooden leg, but broke it off.

7. A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.

8. If you don't pay your exorcist, you get repossessed.

9. With her marriage, she got a new name and a dress.

10. Show me a piano falling down a mine shaft, and I'll show you A-flat minor.

11. When a clock is hungry, it goes back four seconds.

12. The man who fell into an upholstery machine is fully recovered.

13. A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum Blownapart.

14. You feel stuck with your debt if you can't budge it.

15. Local Area Network in Australia: the LAN downunder.

No trees were killed in posting these puns, however a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.

General competency exam

Think you are competent in general knowledge?

Take this exam and find out


1) How long did the Hundred Years' War last?

2) Which country makes Panama hats?

3) From which animal do we get cat gut?

4) In which month do Russians celebrate the October Revolution?

5) What is a camel's hair brush made of?

6) The Canary Islands in the Pacific are named after what animal?

7) What was King George VI's first name?

8) What color is a purple finch?

9) Where are Chinese gooseberries from?

10) What is the color of the black box in a commercial airplane?
------------------------------

answers:


1) How long did the Hundred Years War last? 116 years

2) Which country makes Panama hats? Ecuador

3) From which animal do we get cat gut? Sheep and Horses

4) In which month do Russians celebrate the October Revolution? November

5) What is a camel's hair brush made of? Squirrel fur

6) The Canary Islands in the Pacific are named after what animal? Dogs

7) What was King George VI's first name? Albert

8) What color is a purple finch ? Crimson

9) Where are Chinese gooseberries from? New Zealand

10) What is the color of the black box in a commercial airplane? Orange (of course)

passing grade is 4 out of ten.

Your email of the day from Col Updraft

Family news

Sorry, it's just so hot that I haven't blogged.

Will catch up tomorrow

The only "family news" is that the yellow kittens are out of their "nest" and wandering around...and a grey kitten walked into our kitchen, and so now we have five kittens for Lolo to play with.

When they're older, we'll take them to the farm to catch the mice

Craft item of the day

one of the cutest things I've seen in quite awhile:
an smiley egg cosey

(free registration required)

The rosary

for Tagalog readers the rosary mp3 can be found HERE

for English speakers, the Anchoress has a nice podcast LINK

EWTN has several rosary downloads HERE

in Spanish LINK

-----------------------
The next time you hear a "catholic" politician brag that he might be pro abortion but "carries a rosary in his pocket", the correct question is "ah,,but when was the last time you used it to pray?"
The rosary is not a lucky charm...
and if you only rattle off the words it's worse than nothing.
You hold the beads while your lips say the prayers...and your mind ponders the "mysteries" and how this shows how God fits into your daily life.

The "WTF" Photo of the day

more strange faces HERE

Have a Joyous Easter

Rejoice, heavenly powers! Sing, choirs of angels!
Exult, all creation around God's throne!
Jesus Christ, our King, is risen!
Sound the trumpet of salvation!

Rejoice, O earth, in shining splendor,
radiant in the brightness of your King!
Christ has conquered! Glory fills you!
Darkness vanishes for ever!

Bunnies!

Recipe for Cinnamon bunny bread HERE
.
---------------------------
ham is traditional in the US for Easter,
but if you are a vegetarian, the recipe for Tofu Ham is HERE. More HERE

---------------------
We probably will eat pork (fresh of course) or chicken (our two main "meats" here...)

-------------------
and finally, the classic Bunny commercial

Space photo of the day

the "crown of thorns" galaxy...
NASA, ESA and W. Harris (McMaster University, Ontario, Canada)

A new Hubble image highlights striking swirling dust lanes and glittering globular clusters in oddball galaxy.

---------------------
and NASA is searching for Theia, the theoretical planet that collided with earth to cause the moon.
More information HERE.


Theia is the Titan goddess who is the mother of the earth goddess Selena

Musical Interlude for Today

Your "WTF" religion headline of the week

'Lap-dancing nun' performs for Church

...Several years ago, she swapped her old life for the Church, after a visit to the shrine of St Francis in Assisi, a place of pilgrimage for millions of Catholics in Umbria.

Sister Nobili, then joined the order of nuns called the Working Lady Nuns of Nazareth House, and it is through them that she tours prisons and hospitals performing her modern Christian dance....

Father Mike Dalton RIP

(...legendary padre with the Essex Scottish, who landed at Normandy in 1944), ...

This son of a Goderich farmer is the most decorated padre who ever served in the Canadian Army. He marched at the front lines with his fellow soldiers, often carrying their weapons when they tired of battle.

Besides the Military Cross for bravery, Father Dalton was the first Catholic priest to receive the Member of the British Empire. The day King George VI pinned the decoration on his tunic at Buckingham Palace, he dug deep into his pockets and handed the monarch a Catholic religious medal....

(headsup Father Z)

The "We're all gonna die" post of the week

beware the DeathStar

"...The pretty pinwheel that makes the system so distinctive is now know to be a combination of two stars - a blue star orbiting the Wolf-Rayet 104. Note that the "Wolf-Rayet" name is the astronomical equivalent of a beeping red LCD countdown reading "0:01" - it's a swollen star getting ready for final supernova detonation...."

the problem? When it collapses into a black hole, it will release a huge gamma ray outburst.

Musical interlude for today

Mozart "said" it the best

Stuff below the fold

Michael Totten reports from Sadr City...some of the best writing on the web...

============
Pinoys in the news...all Filipinos in Italy are okay according to local papers.
But one of the Victims in the Binghampton center was a Fiipina lady.
-----------------

Obama is trying to get physicians to go against their consciences but how many MD's does this incude?
Well, this NEJM article suggests the rules may bully 30% of physicians.

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

Today is the anniversary of the Bataan Death March.
100thousand surrendered, 54thousand made it to Camp O'Donnell...and most of the were Filipinos...



the NewMexico NG was there too...including Father Braun and several of my Apache patient's relatives from Mescalero where I used to work...the New Mexico memorial march was last week.

from 2007:

Human camoflague

(headsup 2dayblog)

Rumi's poetry

more Rumi poetry HERE.


--------------
more poetry videos HERE.

Tia Maria's observation for today

Stuff that makes you go WTF

UFO over London?
---------------

The ultimate hangover cure: A Bacon sandwich...
Ok, college students: Let's do an experiment:
Compare the efficacy of bacon sandwiches vs a large Coke and Fries from McDonalds to see which one works best.

--------------------------
Obama still doesn't get it...Father Z reminds the press that some things don't change...
Guess Father Z didn't get those "talking points"....

--------------------
Bill Clinton's real legacy? We report you decide...wonder if that vaccine will help...

------------------
HistoryNet discusses a little known battle in 1939, and it's place in World War II...

----
The Female King of ancient Egypt...
nor was she the first...link
(headsup FR)

Stuff below the fold

Heinlein described this in one of his books, but now scientists are making one: A 3-d map of the universe

and they mention that the galaxies are clustered, due to dark matter.


also check out this long lecture: LINK

Stuff below the fold

Ender's UncleOrson has movie reviews, discusses videophones, and links to a wearable computer demonstration.

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GraniteStudio remembers Mao's "Hundred Flowers" movement of 1957 as if it were merely a domestic quarrel...
In the following year, over 300,000 intellectuals were branded as ‘Rightist Deviationists,’ forced out of their jobs and/or sent to labor camps...
So when Mao instituted his "great leap forward" ideas that probably resulted in the starvation of 20 million people, no experts were left to speak up and tell him why his ideas were not realistic...
Deepak Chopra says there is no evil, only bad psychology... and the idea of Satan has to be discarded...

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Did Gamma rays cause a mass extinction 440 million years ago?
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Luddite story of the day:
the AP is going to war against Drudge, Google News and other websites that aggregate news as a service to busy people.

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Where was the Shroud of Turin during it's missing years? The Knights Templar had it...

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US Aids fighting program in Africa prevented a million premature deaths...
It's Bush's fault...

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and the dog story of the day:
The castaway dog who swam SIX miles through shark-infested waters, then survived FOUR months on a desert island ...before being reunited with her owner.
The dog's name is Sophie Tucker...

Whoops

your email of the day from Tia Maria

If I worked in the US I'd be fired

President Obama is planning to remove civil rights protections from health care providers who refuse to cooperate or do abortions.

So I added the button on the side.

As Senator Coburn MDpoints out, some docs will quit or change jobs if they try to force them to cooperate with abortions...
Will the Democrats nex move be against Federal Docs in the military or the IHS ?

Finally, if this succeeds, the next step is requiring cooperation with euthanasia...
and if you think I'm paranoid, it's because you haven't been watching the BBC or keeping up on what some bioethicists and bean counters are promoting...

Can't we all get along?

(thanks for the headsup from Eng. Ziayee)

Ten uses for red rubber bands

In the UK one of their papers is in trouble because it uses wide red rubber bands to keep it intact, and people keep dropping and littering the ground. so the BBC is sponsoring a contest on what to do with all those rubber bands.

1. Use them as cheap Kabbalah wrist bands and save $26...

2. Use them to build a giant red rubber band monument and erect it in your town Park

3. Fire them at political candidates, at those giving overlong speeches at formal dinners, or at you minister when he gets boring.

4. Fire the across the room, and consider picking them up as the latest trendy exercize plan.

5.Tie them on your trees and bushes to celebrate Chinese New Year

6.Make a red rubber band ball. This is similar to a tan rubber band ball. But red.

7.Encourage your kids to collect them. That will keep them busy, and is cheaper than collecting stamps.

If you are a patient/obsessive person you might consider this option

8. Use them to enrage bulls. Ignore those people who think that bulls are colour blind and therefore just as likely to be annoyed by a tan coloured band.

Coin a new simile - "like a red rubber band to a bull".

9. Give your child's Barbie or Barbie-style doll a fetching red belt, or a Rambo-style red headband for that matter.

10. Gather them and sell them back to the Royal Mail as a protest for harming the environment.

Working from home can make you more efficient

your email of the day from TiaMaria

How to make yogurt

Epilog has a discussion on how to make yogurt...

Scald milk, let it cool, add a tbsp or two of fresh yogurt that has active cultures, and then keep at 100 degrees overnight.

I used to make it, but like the discussion tended to get it too cold or too hot, so eventually I got a yogurt maker.

Here in the Philippines, they sell Yogurt drinks, so I don't tend to make my own...

Musical interlude for today

Vivaldi played by Anne-Sophie Mutter.

TeaAtTrianon reminds us Vivaldi was an ex priest...but remained pious. More here.
but alas he died, a beggar, in Vienna, after his royal patron died...

Since it is Lent, here isVivaldi's "Sabat Mater"...played by Philippe Jaroussky...

Dog story of the day

We have five watchdogs, but only one, Puti, is mean enough to bite a robber.

Although we got our two females fixed, they still have a batch of puppies each year. Usually we give them away: Every house has a dog or two for protection.

One puppy we named "Bruno" (or "Bruna" since she was a female) because of her tendency to disobey and fight everyone. She is a watchdog at our farm, and has become quite sweet after bearing a litter of puppies.

Well, last week, someone tried to steal some equipment or chickens from the farm, and Bruna tried to stop them: they didn't steal anything, but Bruna suffered a machete (bolo) chop to her neck...

It was too deep for us to suture (anesthesia was needed) so we took her to the vet to get it sewed up. She is now here recovering.

So it seems that Bruna is living up to her name.

Dog story of the day

Psychologists prove that dog owners look like their dogs...but alas you can't predict their personality from looking at their dogs...

SportsGuy has a powerpoint of examples HERE.
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And Librivox has the audiobook HisDog HERE
it's by the author of "Lad, a Dog"......

ebook for download here....

Science stuff below the fold

Baking tumors with gold nanospheres..

Once the nanospheres attach to cancer cells (by using antibodies)... (they) respond to a narrow range of infrared light by becoming hot. When the laser is shined onto the skin, the nanospheres heat up to searing temperatures and essentially bake the cancer cells to death.

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More girls than boys are born in tropical countries?
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Fight breaks out when organs taken from brain dead boy...

problem? Only one day between accident and taking the organs. How did they diagnose brain death?

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There's a link between dark matter and dark energy

Does dark matter exist, or do we just need to redefine gravity?

Family News

Ruby's dance at her school's end of year celebration

History lesson for today

Did you ever wonder what Caesar wore under his toga?
Or those medieval peasants?

How about Henry VIII?

well, wonder no more...
Mosaic in the Villa Romana del Casale, Piazza Armerina, Sicily, 2nd to 4th century
Photo by Calvin Wyckoff,