Weirdness on the Web

Weird Website: Brains for Zombies

2009-06-27T05:55:00.000-07:00

This is a very clever idea and funny - a website spoofing the Amazon.com model and it's all about brains. Hmmm... maybe there's something there for those pitiful creatures (see earlier post below) who actually believe what Rush Limbaugh has to say. Ha ha ha ha ha...

SEE THE WEBSITE

Now here's a pretty face

2009-06-27T05:49:00.000-07:00

Pabst competes in the World's Ugliest Dog Contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair on Friday, June 26, 2009, in Petaluma, Calif. The toothy 4-year-old Boxer mix won top honors.(Photo Credit: Noah Berger)

LOL, Rushbo Blames Sanford Adultery On Obama

2009-06-27T01:33:00.000-07:00

What's truly amazing here is that there are actually misguided, uninformed, racist, hate-mongering, ignorant people who lap up the Rush diarrhea like it was honey. Where did their own capacity for intelligent and analytical thought go? THAT is scary.

Evil, Weird, and Failed Toys

2009-06-26T23:34:00.000-07:00

This Is YOUR Food Supply On Steroids

2009-06-26T22:34:00.000-07:00

Hormones: Here's the Beef
Environmental concerns reemerge over steroids given to livestock

Each year, U.S. farmers raise some 36 million beef cattle. Farmers fatten up two-thirds of these animals by using hormones.

Many cattle are fed the same muscle-building androgens—usually testosterone surrogates—that some athletes consume. Other animals receive estrogens, the primary female sex hormones, or progestins, semiandrogenic agents that shut down a female's estrus cycle. Progestins fuel meat-building by freeing up resources that would have gone into the reproductive cycle.

While federal law prohibits people from self-medicating with most steroids, administering these drugs to U.S. cattle is not only permissible but de rigueur.

So far, almost all concern about this practice has focused on whether trace residues of these hormones in the meat have human-health consequences. But there's another way that these powerful agents can find their way into people and other animals. A substantial portion of the hormones literally passes through the cattle into their feces and ends up in the environment, where it can get into other food and drinking water.

Some scientists say that it's time to better manage livestock's hormone-laced waste stream, which has flowed unabated in North America for decades.

READ THE REST OF THIS STORY

Muslims ethnically cleanse Malmo Sweden...then Riot for free services

2009-06-26T22:22:00.000-07:00

Get Out!! But be sure to facilitate our Social Muslim Center and free services it provides or Else!

Swedish city hit by youth riots

'Youth Riots' is the dhimmi word for 'Muslim Invaders'.

Dozens of youths have rioted in the southern Swedish city of Malmo for a se More..cond consecutive night, setting cars on fire and clashing with police.

"We've had a very difficult evening," a police spokeswoman told the AFP news agency late on Thursday.

"There have been fires burning since this afternoon... extensive damage to public property, and... stone-throwing and bomb threats against police."

She said the trouble was linked to the closure of an Islamic centre.

The owner of the building, in an immigrant neighbourhood, had decided not to renew the centre's lease. The centre, which included a mosque, had to move out.

But some youths squatted in the premises, until they were evicted by police earlier this week.

Once police left the premises, the youths returned, setting fires in the area. They then clashed with police.

"The origin of the riots is the occupation of the building. But that's not really the reason now, now other troublemakers have just joined in, taking advantage of the situation," police spokeswoman Ewa-Gun Westford told AFP.

LINK

Man Molesting a Pinata Caught on CCTV Security Camera

2009-06-26T22:10:00.000-07:00

A 3-Year-Old Runs Heavy Machinery

2009-06-26T21:15:00.000-07:00

SMILIES: PART SIX

2009-06-26T20:48:00.000-07:00

This is for the friends online and, especially, my friends at numerous forums and messageboards around the 'net who've asked me "Where do you get all those cute/funny/sarcastic smilies?" I've wanted to share these for a long time with the friends on websites that allow the smilies to be displayed but you're not allowed to tell anyone where to find them. I know... sounds like nonsense to me, too.

Well, problem solved. Here's the first batch of smilies and the rest are on the way. Don't forget to bookmark this blog or this post.

Right-click and choose "Save Picture As" then save the image to your own hard drive. Upload to an image hosting service like Photobucket or your own webhosting space. Please do not direct link to the images here. Thank you.

INTERESTING RESORT: Poseidon Resorts (Fiji)

2009-06-26T20:38:00.000-07:00

About 70% of the exterior surface of each undersea suite is clear acrylic to afford panoramic views of life under the ocean. Five-star restaurants, an undersea wedding chapel, and full resort amenities (each with their own panoramic views of the ocean) all pressurized at surface pressure make this a truly unique experience.

Oh yeah, in case you get nostalgic for the open air, it seems they own the entire island where they are located and you have an entire island's worth of amenities, including a golf course, at your disposal.

The only bad news: They don't start taking reservations until January 2010.

VISIT THIS RESORT'S WEBSITE TODAY.

Murderer Mixed Victim in the Blender

2009-06-26T20:18:00.000-07:00

LA man convicted of dismemberment murder

LOS ANGELES — A parolee has been convicted of murder for dismembering a man's body and dumping it in two trash bins in December 2007.

Frank Ruiz had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity but was convicted on Thursday. The 23-year-old is scheduled to return to court Monday for the trial's sanity phase.

Authorities say the killing of 47-year-old Patrick Moore was discovered after a cleaning woman found what appeared to be meat in plastic shopping bags in Ruiz's room, and he was told to remove it. Moore's remains were found in two trash bins at a liquor store and a drug store.

Investigators also discovered a blender containing what appeared to be human tissue.

Ruiz had previously been convicted of burglary in 2004.

LINK

Lady Broke Lease by Being Murder Victim

2009-06-26T20:08:00.000-07:00

On Christmas Eve 2008, nine members of one family were massacred by an ex-husband of one of the adult women. See that story HERE.

Now the landlord of one of the murder victims is demanding money from her surviving children for penalties this woman accrued for "breaking the lease." Once she was dead, as in being murdered, she apparently stopped paying rent without notice and that violates the lease so the landlord wants the surviving children to pay up. Read that story HERE.

The landlord or property management firm are a bunch of morons.

SMILIES: PART FIVE

2009-06-26T19:47:00.000-07:00

Cool Optical Illusion - Can You See It Move?

2009-06-26T10:16:00.001-07:00

Impossible Trick Shots - Basketball

2009-06-26T10:09:00.000-07:00

Michael Jackson, Through the Years

2009-06-26T10:01:00.000-07:00

The American Idol Wannabe Who Killed Herself

2009-06-26T09:26:00.000-07:00

First, here's her audition:

Then came the stalking...

And then, tragedy...

Roller Coaster Girl

2009-06-26T09:05:00.000-07:00

Gosh, do you think she's having fun?

Dog Attacks Shark

2009-06-26T08:58:00.000-07:00

You may have to allow Windows Media Player's ActiveX control to see the video.

Hippo Swallows Dwarf

2009-06-26T08:50:00.000-07:00

5 Column Layout for Blogs

2009-06-26T08:45:00.000-07:00

If you would like to change the layout of your Blogspot (Blogger) Blog, check out this blog that offers templates for a five-column layout. Aside from the free templates, details are given for how to install templates and how to back up the blog layout you are currently using.

Ofra Haza - "Jerusalem of Gold"

2009-06-26T07:55:00.000-07:00

This lady's voice is hauntingly beautiful (as is the song). Her death haunts me, too. She literally died for Love. READ THIS REVIEW of a biography of Ofra Haza that was written by her longtime manager. It explains much of the tragedy of this bright, beautiful, beloved lady. She deserved much better than she got. That much is for certain.

"Not In My Cart!" (from the Consumer's Union)

2009-06-26T07:31:00.001-07:00

Did you know...

80% of all toys sold in the U.S. are now manufactured in China.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission inspects less than 1% of imported goods.
The FDA inspects about 1% of imported food.

Yeah. Not too reassuring, is it? The "Not in My Cart" website from the Consumer's Union posts the most recent recalls of products as well as asking you to encourage your lawmakers in Congress to pass laws that protect your safety and the safety of your loved ones.

From the website:

Bright toys coated with lead paint, savory fish with illegal chemicals, toothpaste with a poison used in antifreeze--the recent wave of recalls reminds us that ordinary things we use every day may not be safe. Consumers Union created NotInMyCart.org to give you a place to check for recent product recalls and take action to make all products safer in the future. The U.S. market is now flooded with imported products--tens of millions of items arriving in cargo ships stacked high with containers. Recalls, after a dangerous product is found on store shelves, are important, but not enough.

Also from their website:

Consumers Union (CU) is an expert, independent, nonprofit organization, whose mission is to work for a fair, just, and safe marketplace for all consumers. CU publishes Consumer Reports and ConsumerReports.org in addition to two newsletters, Consumer Reports on Health and Consumer Reports Money Adviser with combined subscriptions of more than 7 million. Consumers Union also has more than 500,000 online activists who help work to change legislation and the marketplace in favor of the consumer interest and several public education Web sites. Since its founding in 1936, Consumers Union has never taken any advertising or freebies of any kind.

CHECK OUT THIS WEBSITE TODAY.

Yeha-Noha~ "wishes of happiness and prosperity"

2009-06-26T07:27:00.000-07:00

Yeha-Noha Native American Chant - The best home videos are here

99 Ways to Open a Beer Bottle Without a Bottle Opener

2009-06-25T22:55:00.000-07:00

Somebody has a lot of time to sit around drinking beer and thinking about this stuff. Funny. VISIT THE WEBSITE.

Men Are Like Videos...

2009-06-25T22:51:00.000-07:00

The Greenhouse Ring

2009-06-25T22:46:00.000-07:00

Wear a ring and grow a live plant at the same time. Really. LINK

Oh, I see, there is no link to actually buy it but there are for other strange rings to be found on the same page, including the "pistol ring." That's right, a ring that can shoot people dead... on your finger.

Ha! Ha! I love this quote!

2009-06-25T22:42:00.000-07:00

"If assholes could fly, this
place would be an airport."

America the Beautiful Picture of the Day

2009-06-25T22:34:00.000-07:00

You might have to click inside the iframe and hit refresh to make the gadget show up.

National Parks Picture of the Day

2009-06-25T22:29:00.000-07:00

You might have to click inside the iframe and hit refresh to make the gadget show up.

Signs, Signs, Everywhere There's Signs!

2009-06-25T22:19:00.000-07:00

...and some of them are very funny! Visit the Los Angeles Times' photo blog of photos of strange and funny signs sent in by Times readers. They have other photo blogs, too. Here's just a small sample of what you will find:

Okay, so who do YOU like better? Michael or Stavros?

2009-06-25T20:12:00.000-07:00

Riverdance - Lord of the Dance - 2 - The funniest home videos are here

Michael Jackson dies in LA hospital

2009-06-25T19:37:00.000-07:00

LOS ANGELES – Michael Jackson, the sensationally gifted child star who rose to become the "King of Pop" and the biggest celebrity in the world only to fall from his throne in a freakish series of scandals, died Thursday. He was 50.

Jackson died at UCLA Medical Center after being stricken at his rented home in Holmby Hills. Paramedics tried to resuscitate him at his home for nearly three-quarters of an hour, then rushed him to the hospital, where doctors continued to work on him.

"It is believed he suffered cardiac arrest in his home. However, the cause of his death is unknown until results of the autopsy are known," his brother Jermaine said. Police said they were investigating, standard procedure in high-profile cases.

Jackson's death brought a tragic end to a long, bizarre, sometimes farcical decline from his peak in the 1980s, when he was popular music's premier all-around performer, a uniter of black and white music who shattered the race barrier on MTV, dominated the charts and dazzled even more on stage.

His 1982 album "Thriller" — which included the blockbuster hits "Beat It," "Billie Jean" and "Thriller" — is the best-selling album of all time, with an estimated 50 million copies sold worldwide.

At the time of his death, Jackson was rehearsing hard for what was to be his greatest comeback: He was scheduled for an unprecedented 50 shows at a London arena, with the first set for July 13.

As word of his death spread, MTV switched its programming to play videos from Jackson's heyday. Radio stations began playing marathons of his hits. Hundreds of people gathered outside the hospital. In New York's Times Square, a low groan went up in the crowd when a screen flashed that Jackson had died, and people began relaying the news to friends by cell phone.

"No joke. King of Pop is no more. Wow," Michael Harris, 36, of New York City, read from a text message a friend had sent him. "It's like when Kennedy was assassinated. I will always remember being in Times Square when Michael Jackson died."

The public first knew him as a boy in the late 1960s, when he was the precocious, spinning lead singer of the Jackson 5, the singing group he formed with his four older brothers out of Gary, Ind. Among their No. 1 hits were "I Want You Back," "ABC" and "I'll Be There."

He was perhaps the most exciting performer of his generation, known for his backward-gliding moonwalk, his feverish, crotch-grabbing dance moves and his high-pitched singing, punctuated with squeals and titters. His single sequined glove, tight, military-style jacket and aviator sunglasses were trademarks, as was his ever-changing, surgically altered appearance.

"For Michael to be taken away from us so suddenly at such a young age, I just don't have the words," said Quincy Jones, who produced "Thriller." "He was the consummate entertainer and his contributions and legacy will be felt upon the world forever. I've lost my little brother today, and part of my soul has gone with him."

Jackson ranked alongside Elvis Presley and the Beatles as the biggest pop sensations of all time. He united two of music's biggest names when he was briefly married to Presley's daughter, Lisa Marie, and Jackson's death immediately evoked comparisons to that of Presley himself, who died at age 42 in 1977.

As years went by, Jackson became an increasingly freakish figure — a middle-aged man-child weirdly out of touch with grown-up life. His skin became lighter, his nose narrower, and he spoke in a breathy, girlish voice. He often wore a germ mask while traveling, kept a pet chimpanzee named Bubbles as one of his closest companions, and surrounded himself with children at his Neverland ranch, a storybook playland filled with toys, rides and animals. The tabloids dubbed him "Wacko Jacko."

"It seemed to me that his internal essence was at war with the norms of the world. It's as if he was trying to defy gravity," said Michael Levine, a Hollywood publicist who represented Jackson in the early 1990s. He called Jackson a "disciple of P.T. Barnum" and said the star appeared fragile at the time but was "much more cunning and shrewd about the industry than anyone knew."

Jackson caused a furor in 2002 when he playfully dangled his infant son, Prince Michael II, over a hotel balcony in Berlin while a throng of fans watched from below.

In 2005, he was cleared of charges he molested a 13-year-old cancer survivor at Neverland in 2003. He had been accused of plying the boy with alcohol and groping him, and of engaging in strange and inappropriate behavior with other children.

The case followed years of rumors about Jackson and young boys. In a TV documentary, he acknowledged sharing his bed with children, a practice he described as sweet and not at all sexual.

Despite the acquittal, the lurid allegations that came out in court took a fearsome toll on his career and image, and he fell into serious financial trouble.

Jackson was 4 years old when he began singing with his brothers — Marlon, Jermaine, Jackie and Tito — in the Jackson 5. After his early success with bubblegum soul, he struck out on his own, generating innovative, explosive, unstoppable music.

The album "Thriller" alone mixed the dark, serpentine bass and drums and synthesizer approach of "Billie Jean," the grinding Eddie Van Halen solo on "Beat It," and the hiccups and falsettos on "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'."

The peak may have come in 1983, when Motown celebrated its 25th anniversary with an all-star televised concert and Jackson moonwalked off with the show, joining his brothers for a medley of old hits and then leaving them behind with a pointing, crouching, high-kicking, splay-footed, crotch-grabbing run through "Billie Jean."

The audience stood and roared. Jackson raised his fist.

By then he had cemented his place in pop culture. He got the plum Scarecrow role in the 1978 movie musical "The Wiz," a pop-R&B version of "The Wizard of Oz," that starred Diana Ross as Dorothy.

During production of a 1984 Pepsi commercial, Jackson's scalp sustains burns when an explosion sets his hair on fire.

He had strong follow-up albums with 1987's "Bad" and 1991's "Dangerous," but his career began to collapse in 1993 after he was accused of molesting a boy who often stayed at his home. The singer denied any wrongdoing, reached a settlement with the boy's family, reported to be $20 million, and criminal charges were never filed.

Jackson's expressed anger over the allegations on the 1995 album "HIStory," which sold more than 2.4 million copies, but by then, the popularity of Jackson's music was clearly waning, even as public fascination with his increasingly erratic behavior was growing.

Cardiac arrest is an abnormal heart rhythm that stops the heart from pumping blood to the body. It can occur after a heart attack or be caused by other heart problems.

Billboard magazine editorial director Bill Werde said Jackson's star power was unmatched. "The world just lost the biggest pop star in history, no matter how you cut it," Werde said. "He's literally the king of pop."

Jackson's 13 No. 1 one hits on the Billboard charts put him behind only Elvis Presley, the Beatles and Mariah Carey, Werde said.

"He was on the eve of potentially redeeming his career a little bit," he said. "People might have started to think of him again in a different light."

LINK

Ads That Were Banned

2009-06-25T15:14:00.000-07:00

This advertisement featuring a bar code on Tony Blair's upper lip was banned because it "made him look like Hitler" and that was considered offensive. I think it's hysterically funny and I'm Jewish.

See more banned advertising HERE.

Hogwarts Model Made of Matchsticks

2009-06-25T14:21:00.000-07:00

Oh... but that's not all. Artist Patrick Acton's latest work-in-progress is Minas Tirith, the castle from, "Lord of the Rings."

Visit Matchstick Marvels to learn more about this artist's work and see more models.

Them Rednecks Sure Know What's Tasty!

2009-06-25T14:15:00.000-07:00

The GIMP

2009-06-25T13:13:00.000-07:00

GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many languages. (more...)

FROM THE WEBSITE: "This is the official GIMP web site. It contains information about downloading, installing, using, and enhancing it. This site also serves as a distribution point for the latest releases. We try to provide as much information about the GIMP community and related projects as possible. Hopefully you will find what you need here. Grab a properly chilled beverage and enjoy."

Michael J. Hammel from his Graphics Muse Blog, has produced some stunning examples of what's possible with the GIMP. These are scaled-down thumbnails so I recommend a visit to Mr. Hammel's blog to see his artistry in higher resolution.

MR. HAMMEL'S SAMPLES:

Instant Business Card

2009-06-25T12:51:00.000-07:00

Instant Business Card

From the website: "Instant Business Card Has been designed to help you instantly build an effective and well designed business card quickly and easily. Business Card's are traditionally used as a means to quickly exchange contact information. However, Business cards can be used not only for business but also at reunions, passed among friends, and used to make a more effective impression at job interviews."Design and create your own business card online now by visiting the website.

Reefer Madness

2009-06-25T12:41:00.000-07:00

This 1936 Cult Classic is a must see! During the time it was made, this propaganda film was used as a scare tactic for teens experimenting with marijuana. Supposedly a serious film, it actually displays 1930's government paranoia and misconceptions of both teens and marijuana. Told through the eyes of a high school principal, this tale revolves around Mae and Jack, accomplices in the distribution of marijuana to the local high school kids. The lives of all those that smoke "reefer" in this film are inevitably shattered. One youngster becomes so addicted to the killer weed that a judge orders him to be committed for life to a mental hospital! You have to see it to believe it!

VISIT THE WEBPAGE

PRICE (as of posting this post and I'm not responsible for price changes made on another website): FREE (but you pay $7.47 s&h... free, my ass).

Farrah Fawcett, 1947-2009

2009-06-25T12:34:00.000-07:00

Thank you for your courage.

The Great Flydini

2009-06-25T09:43:00.000-07:00

WHAT THE HELL IS THIS??????

2009-06-25T09:19:00.000-07:00

I don't know, but it sure is funny...

SMILIES: PART FOUR

2009-06-25T07:59:00.000-07:00

Anniston, Alabama's Haunted Girls' Locker Room

2009-06-25T06:17:00.000-07:00

Shadowlands is a fabulous website that categorizes haunted and spooky stories State by State and Country by Country. It's up to you, Reader, to decide whether or not to believe them. You can visit the MAIN WEBSITE to begin your haunted tour of America and the World.

HERE IS JUST ONE STORY FROM THE STATE OF ALABAMA:

The legend of Anniston High School's locker room is known widely throughout the school. The legend is told to all the new coming female freshmen that go to their lockers to change clothes for P.E. They are told by the upper classmen to give the freshmen a little scare by warning them of a vengeful ghost.

The legend varies in detail from person to person but the main facts of the story are almost always the same: A girl is late getting changed and leaves a precious item behind. She decides to go back to get it while sending her friend to hold the bus for her. A man then tries to rape and kill her in the locker room but he ends up dead and the body never gets recovered. The obvious conclusion is never go into the girl's locker room by yourself. Always go in with one of your friends and never leave anyone alone in there.

The true incident that started this legend occurred in 2001.

This is what happened: There was this girl (name is unknown) who always changed for P.E. She was usually the first to change for P.E. and also the first to leave P.E. and change back.

One day while coming in from playing outside, she was late in changing. It was the last period of the day and she was hurrying so that she wouldn't miss her bus. Her best friend was also late and they only had two minutes to change, instead of their normal five minutes.

While they were hurrying to change, other girls who had already changed left to wait in the gym for the bell that signaled the end of the day to ring. Her friend was faster at putting on her school clothes but her friend stayed to wait with her in the locker room. They rode the same bus home, so they both knew that it was almost always one of the first buses to be there and didn't want to get left behind.

So the girl finally finished putting on her clothes and they both walked out to sit with the rest of the students in the gym to wait for the bell. As the bell rang, the girl just remembered that she left her purse in her locker. She was concerned about leaving it because it contained all of her money. The girl's best friend offered to go back with her to get it, but the girl insisted that her friend should get on the bus and tell the bus driver to hold it for her until she got on.

So the girl ran down the steps and entered the locker room to get her purse and her
friend ran out to get on the bus. The friend relayed the message to the bus driver.

As the girl got her purse and began to close her locker, she heard the door creak and thought someone had come in. Thinking it was her coach, she called her name and yelled, "Coach! Coach! It's me, I left my purse. Please don't lock the door just yet." She got no answer. She then heard footsteps that seemed to draw closer to her.

She then began to grow scared. Suddenly, she heard breathing that was so loud she was sure the person w as right behind her. She panicked and dropped her purse. She ran the other way around the lockers toward the doors, but was yanked to the back of the lockers as she turned the corner.

She kicked and screamed as the hands of a big strong man tore off her shirt and began to rip off the rest of her clothes. He began to strangle her and scream at her to shut up. She continued to fight back and tried to scream, but her throat closed and she couldn't scream anymore. She still didn't give up.

In her last attempt, she pulled down a set of lockers on top of him. He laid there motionless and breathless... he was dead.

In a fright, she ran out of the locker rooms to the bus stop. But she had taken too long and despite her friend's desperate attempt to hold the bus, she had been left alone. She was still frightened by what had happened and called her mom to come and
get her.

After telling the shocking story to her mother with great trouble of reliving the incident, they called the police. But when they inspected the scene, they only found the pulled down lockers, the girl's purse and a pool of blood. The body was nowhere to be found.

The girl was more shocked then ever. She was sure the man was dead and the amount of blood on the floor indicated that it was impossible for him to still be alive.

Her fear was just too great to go back to where she had been raped and strangled, so they moved and were never heard from again.

The man was never found, but many say that his ghost still lurks in the locker rooms waiting for an unsuspecting girl that's by herself to take his revenge.

Many didn't take this seriously until a similar incident occurred when a girl in the band who was to play at a football game was left by herself to get dressed. The band left her in the locker room and played all night without noticing she was gone.

After the game had ended, she was sitting in the parking lot crying. She wouldn't say what had happened, but appeared to have been strangled and her clothes were ripped and covered in blood. She then moved away without telling anyone of her dreadful story.

Many girls have been known to hear footsteps drawing closer when no one's there, lockers close and shut, and the door creaks open as if to let in an unwanted stranger when no one is there. You might also feel a cold chill come over you and hear loud breathing coming from someone right behind you, but always cease when you turn around.

GREAT PHOTO: "gettin' nowhere" by B.Collins on Flickr

2009-06-25T06:05:00.000-07:00

See more of B.Collins' work by going here.

Redneck Mobile Home

2009-06-24T23:47:00.001-07:00

The Official Outhouses of America Tour

2009-06-24T23:19:00.000-07:00

The Outhouses of America Tour is dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Outhouses, backhouses and loos. What began as a joke in 1996 has grown into a "World-Famous" web site about Outhouses. We hope you enjoy your stay with us. We are always looking for pictures of your favorite Outhouse. Preferably, you either built it yourself or you restored an old Outhouse back to life.

VISIT THE WEBSITE

Rosie's Needle Book Museum

2009-06-24T22:54:00.000-07:00

FROM THE WEBSITE:

According to HGTV's "Collectible Treasures", most needle books are advertising premiums from the 20's through the 50's. Unfortunately they did not tell the whole story. I have seen catalogs which feature them for sale and I have some in my collection that pre-date the 1920's. This collection began with one needle book purchased at a yard sale for less than a dollar. I fell in love with the beautiful graphics and decided to collect them.

In case you are asking yourself, "What is a needle book?", a needle book is literally a booklet of sewing needles. They are made of lightweight cardboard, kind of like the cover of a paperback book, though the older ones do not have the "shine" of today's covers and are made of thicker paper. Their average size is about the same as that of a post card. Inside there are various sized needles and usually a needle threader. The needles are foil-stuck, cloth-stuck, or presented in little packets. They were much prettier than comparable items available to women today. It is amazing to think that at the time, many were giveaways.

Eventually, I will display my entire collection. I hope you enjoy your visit to my museum. I plan to update my exhibit during the first week of each month.

VISIT ROSIE'S NEEDLEBOOK MUSEUM

SOME EXAMPLES:

Police save frogs from juicers

2009-06-24T22:10:00.000-07:00

Police in Peru have launched a campaign to save frogs from being turned into an aphrodisiac drink.

'Frogshake' is popular among native Peruvians as a stimulant that enhances male sexual performance.

Police saved 4,000 frogs from being juiced to make the drink in a raid on a warehouse in Lima.

LINK

Play "Frog in a Blender" HERE at JoeCartoon.

Cafe painted over dead rat

2009-06-24T22:03:00.000-07:00

A cafe owner who painted over a dead rat rather than pick it up has been fined £12,300.

The rat was just one of a series of finds which also included a giant fungus, other rodents both dead and alive, cockroaches and dinners rescued from bins before being re-served.

LINK

SMILIES: PART THREE

2009-06-24T21:37:00.000-07:00

Inventor turns dead cats into diesel

2009-06-24T21:13:00.000-07:00

A German inventor says he's found a way to make cheap diesel fuel out of dead cats.

Koch said the cadaver of a fully grown cat can produce 2.5 litres of fuel - meaning around 20 cats are needed for a full tank.

He said: "I tank my car with my own diesel mixture and have driven it for 105,000 miles without any problems."

LINK

World's Most Expensive Camper Van

2009-06-24T21:07:00.000-07:00

The world's largest luxury camping van, costing more than £1m, has been custom built for an oil Sheik.

Austrian company Action Mobil built the 40ft long vehicle for use on long desert trips, with a huge 13-litre, 600hp engine - which runs at a gas-guzzling 5mpg.

The Desert Challenger took one and a half years to build and includes a large lavishly furnished living room and a state-of-the-art kitchen.

The Mother of All Excuses Place

2009-06-24T20:11:00.000-07:00

This website has a funny collection of excuses that people have used for getting out of work as well as sections for missing school and homework excuses, police or accident excuses, kids excuses, getting out of family events and holiday functions, breaking dates, doctor excuses, doctors note, missing church, wedding, diet excuses, why I ate that, debt excuses, tax excuses, not paying the rent, getting out of home repair excuses, unwanted house guest excuses, jury duty, defense excuses, not voting, no sex, miscellaneous excuses, excuse related humor and funny things that people do stories.

Here's a work excuse that someone actually used: "I can't come to work today because I forgot my car at home."

Homework excuse: "My cat killed my dog which ate my homework, then flushed him down the toilet."

School excuse: "While I was walking to school, my shoes fell apart. I went back home to see if I had any more. I didn't and my mom wouldn't let me leave the house without any shoes."

Police excuse: "Please excuse me from this speeding ticket. My wife ran off with a state policeman and when I saw your flashing lights I didn't stop because I thought you might be the trooper who is trying to bring her back to me."

Dating excuse: "Hello Jennifer I can not meet you tonight and go out like we wanted to. I went surfing today and I like got washed out to sea and you know like it took me all day to get back in so I'm still here and like I won't be home in time for our date."

Dieting excuse: "Foods that are frozen have no calories because calories are units of heat. Examples are ice cream, frozen pies, and Popsicles."

Debt excuse: "I only spent $500 so I only repaid you the $500. That is fair." The man had borrowed $1,500.

Tax excuse: "It was my accountant's job to file the tax return." [United States v. Boyle, 469 U.S. 241 (1985).].

Jury Duty excuse: "I'm a professional psychic so I would know who is guilty even before the trial." (Excuse not accepted, man ordered to report for jury duty) [Reported in "Juror Excuses: Creativity Reigns" by Scott Goldstein, New Jersey Law Journal, 7 February 2000, p. 1].

No Sex excuses: "I can't have sex with you tonight because my feet smell."

Rent Excuse: "Sorry I can't pay my rent my car was repo'd and My paycheck was in it."

...and lots, lots more!

SMILIES: PART TWO

2009-06-24T19:34:00.000-07:00

SMILIES: PART ONE

2009-06-24T18:33:00.000-07:00

Cigar Box Art Collection

2009-06-24T08:50:00.001-07:00

pictures of the labels from old cigar boxes

VISIT THE WEBSITE

Toilegami - Origami with Toilet Paper

2009-06-24T08:39:00.000-07:00

Main Website: HERE. Instructions for Flapping Bird HERE.

Weird eBay Auctions

2009-06-24T07:43:00.000-07:00

From the WhatTheHeck website, you can find all sorts of "stuff" people have been peddling on eBay. They show you the actual eBay page. Here are a few goodies:

Hair plus cheese equals lawsuit

For Sale: 24 Small Children for Factory Work - seller will provide shipping boxes but airholes cost extra.

Fully functional kidney for sale: the guy was serious.

A young man's virginity. If I understand the page correctly, the young man allowed bidding to start at $10 and the ending bid was $10,000,000. The young man (a minor at 17 years old) stated he was willing to sell his virginity to either a man or a woman.

A serial killer's fingernails. Ew.

The right to name someone's newborn child. This is just sad.

Drug and Alcohol Free Urine, Female - anybody need to pass a test?

Melissa's booger

...and visit the website to see the rest!

Three-Year-Old girl beheaded 'in land dispute'

2009-06-23T23:53:00.000-07:00

A THREE-year-old girl has been beheaded in Papua New Guinea in an attack thought to be over a land dispute.

Police made the shocking discovery yesterday in Madang province, on PNG's northeastern coast, after residents reported that up to seven men had abducted the girl from the coastal village of Bogia.

Four men have been arrested over her killing.

The police commander of Madang province, Chief Inspector Anthony Wagambie, told PNG's The National newspaper that he was "disgusted'' by the gruesome killing, which he he said was linked to tensions over land.

"Police will continue investigations until all seven suspects are apprehended,'' he said.

The men allegedly attacked the mother, who managed to escape with another child, an infant, Wagambie said.

The body of the girl was still missing.

The murder is believed to be connected to conflict between resettled Manam islanders and Bogia locals.

A series of volcanic eruptions in 2004 forced 15,000 islanders to flee to the mainland and settle in Bogia.

Earlier this year four islanders were reportedly killed during land disputes between the groups.

Kuluguma local ward councillor Charles Yanda said local people want PNG Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare to settle the matter through better land allocations.

"Under no circumstances will the Manam people return to the destroyed island,'' he said.

Lawrence Konaka, president of the Iabu local government area, has also appealed to Mr Somare to intervene on behalf of the islanders.

"The Bogia people hate us and we cannot return to the island because it is in a terrible state,'' he said.

LINK

Oscar Winner Charged With Raping Eleven Women

2009-06-23T22:49:00.000-07:00

23 June 2009 3:00 PM, PDT From wenn.com See recent WENN news

Oscar-winning songwriter Joseph Brooks has been charged with raping 11 women.

The 71 year old is due to be arraigned on the sexual assault charges in New York on Tuesday.

According to Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, a number of the alleged victims answered online adverts seeking women to audition for acting roles.

His assistant Shawni Lucier has also been charged with criminal facilitation. Prosecutors allege she helped arrange for the women to visit Brooks at his New York apartment.

The songwriter won an Academy Award for the tune You Light Up My Life, from his 1977 movie of the same name - about a comedian who has a one-night stand with a director.

LINK

ND deputy accused of vomiting at concert arrested

2009-06-23T22:19:00.000-07:00

FARGO, N.D. – A sheriff's deputy and his mother face charges of disorderly conduct after the deputy vomited on people at a Kenny Chesney concert in Fargo and refused to leave, authorities say. Police Sgt. Mark Lykken said Stark County Deputy Justin Krohmer, 26, and his mother, Susan, 47, whose husband is the Ada, Minn., police chief, were arrested after the Saturday night incident.

Lykken said Justin Krohmer was asked to leave the Fargodome about 11 p.m. Saturday after vomiting on people in front of him, but he refused to do so.

Susan Krohmer is accused of pulling and pushing officers, screaming profanities and of trying to prevent an officer from escorting her son out of the concert.

MORE...

Chinese Eatery Sold Donkey in Tiger Urine

2009-06-23T21:01:00.000-07:00

SHANGHAI, China - A restaurant in northeastern China that advertised illegal tiger meat dishes was found instead to be selling donkey flesh - marinated in tiger urine, a newspaper reported Thursday.

The Hufulou restaurant, located beside the Heidaohezi tiger reserve near the city of Hailin, had advertised stir-fried tiger meat with chilies for $98as well as liquor flavored with tiger bone for $74 a bottle, the China Daily reported.

Raw meat was priced at $864 per kilogram.

The sale of tiger parts is illegal in China and officers shut down the restaurant, only to be told by owner, Ma Shikun, that the meat was actually that of donkeys, flavored with tiger urine to give the dish a "special" tang, the newspaper said.

The report didn't say how the urine was obtained.

MORE...

The Chocolate Fairy

2009-06-23T20:25:00.000-07:00

While walking in the woods Douglas saw a young fairy who had fallen into the river and bravely dived in to rescue her.

In gratitude the fairy granted Douglas three wishes. He wished for a huge pile of gold, and ‘poof’ there it was.

Then he wished for a huge palace, again ‘poof’ and there it was.

Finally he wished he could be irresistible to all women.

There was a blinding flash, a mighty roar and ... poof - he turned into a box of chocolates.

Marry an Ugly Millionaire Online Dating Agency

2009-06-23T20:10:00.000-07:00

The online dating agency with a BIG difference!!

Having trouble finding Mr or Mrs Right? Always in debt? Massive overdraft?

Welcome to Marry an Ugly Millionaire - the online dating agency created for people like you. We provide a unique dating and marriage service. A service that you will not find elsewhere on the internet. For we are about to solve both your financial problems and your relationship problems with just a few clicks of the mouse!

Akebono! Akebono! Akebono!

2009-06-23T00:02:00.000-07:00

Classic ZZ Top - "Sharp Dressed Man"

2009-06-22T23:56:00.000-07:00

Jake the Snake

2009-06-22T23:48:00.000-07:00

by Kelco at Flickr

How Not to Kiss

2009-06-22T23:33:00.000-07:00

Is This 'Champ,' the Lake Champlain Monster?

2009-06-22T23:08:00.000-07:00

In reading one story on this video shot by cellphone, some "experts" theorized what was out there swimming in the lake was actually a moose or some other so-called normal animal. And as you see the beginning of the video and you take note of the shape of the head sticking out of the water you could easily think, "Why, yes, that does indeed look like a moose."

Then, from 1:14 onwards in this video it all gets very, very, very, not possibly normal weird.

I noticed the back of what I assumed was the major portion of the trunk of the animal rise a bit above the surface of the water and float there for a moment. It could still have been a very long moose. Maybe.

Then yet another portion of "trunk" floated above the water's surface even as the first portion was still above the water and this part of the body was yet another long moose length away from the head.

And then there was a tip of yet another portion of this creature trailing along at the rear of the body portion parade. Even as these parts of the whole slipped under the lake's surface, they were very near to the water's surface and with careful observation, you could see this..was..no..moose. See for yourself...

Man Sings Eminem While Killing Family

2009-06-22T22:55:00.000-07:00

How homophobic are you? Take the test.

2009-06-22T19:43:00.000-07:00

For much of this century, homosexuality was defined by the medical and scientific community as a psychiatric disorder. In the last several decades, however, "homosexuality" has been removed from the diagnostic manual of disorders, and research emphasis has shifted to the other side of the problem: the study of the negative, sometimes pathological, reactions to homosexuals by heterosexuals.

The term "homophobia" has gained currency as a one-word summary of this widespread problem. Since the early 1980's, scientists attempting to measure homophobia have developed a number of different homophobia scales and questionnaires.

In 1996, as part of his study on homophobia, Dr. Henry Adams and his colleagues at the University of Georgia developed their own "Homophobia Scale" by modifying scales used by other researchers in earlier studies. It's a 25-item questionnaire "designed to measure your thoughts, feelings and behaviors with regards to homosexuality." The instructions stressed: "It is not a test, so there are no right or wrong answers."

TAKE THE TEST

Compare Cities

2009-06-22T19:31:00.000-07:00

You can compare crime rates (the page I linked to), cost of living, schools, and climate at this website. Find out how your hometown stacks up.

Iran Murders Its Youth

2009-06-22T17:03:00.000-07:00

Family, friends mourn Neda Agha-Soltan, Iranian woman whose death was caught on video

Neda Agha-Soltan, 26, 'was a beam of light' and not an activist, friends say. The video footage of her bleeding to death on the street has turned her into an international symbol of the protest movement.

By Borzou Daragahi
12:49 PM PDT, June 22, 2009

Reporting from Tehran -- The first word came from abroad. An aunt in the United States called her Saturday in a panic. "Don't go out into the streets, Golshad," she told her. "They're killing people."

The relative proceeded to describe a video, airing on exile television channels that are jammed in Iran, in which a young woman is shown bleeding to death as her companion calls out, "Neda! Neda!"

A dark premonition swept over Golshad, who asked that her real name not be published. She began calling the cellphone and home number of her friend Neda Agha-Soltan who had gone to the chaotic demonstration with a group of friends, but Neda didn't answer.

At midnight, as the city continued to smolder, Golshad drove to the Agha-Soltan residence in the eastern Tehran Pars section of the capital.

As she heard the cries and wails and praising of God reverberating from the house, she crumpled, knowing that her worst fears were true.

"Neda! Neda!" the 25-year-old cried out. "What will I do?"

Neda Agha-Soltan, 26, was shot dead Saturday evening near the scene of clashes between pro-government militias and demonstrators who allege rampant vote-count fraud in the reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The jittery cellphone video footage of her bleeding on the street has turned "Neda" into an international symbol of the protest movement that ignited in the aftermath of the June 12 voting. To those who knew and loved Neda, she was far more than an icon. She was a daughter, sister and friend, a music and travel lover, a beautiful young woman in the prime of her life.

"She was a person full of joy," said her music teacher and close friend Hamid Panahi, who was among the mourners at her family home on Sunday, awaiting word of her burial. "She was a beam of light. I'm so sorry. I was so hopeful for this woman."

Security forces urged Neda's friends and family not to hold memorial services for her at a mosque and asked them not to speak publicly about her, associates of the family said. Authorities even asked the family to take down the black mourning banners in front of their house, aware of the potent symbol she has become.

But some insisted on speaking out anyway, hoping to make sure the world would not forget her.Neda Agha-Soltan was born in Tehran, they said, to a father who worked for the government and a mother who was a housewife. They were a family of modest means, part of the country's emerging middle class who built their lives in rapidly developing neighborhoods on the eastern and western outskirts of the city.

Like many in her neighborhood, Neda was loyal to the country's Islamic roots and traditional values, friends say, but also curious about the outside world, which is easily accessed through satellite television, the Internet and occasional trips abroad.

The second of three children, she studied Islamic philosophy at a branch of Tehran's Azad University, until deciding to pursue a career in the tourism industry. She took private classes to become a tour guide, including Turkish language courses, friends said, hoping to some day lead groups of Iranians on trips abroad.

Travel was her passion, and with her friends she saved up enough money for package tours to Dubai, Turkey and Thailand. Two months ago, on a trip to Turkey, she relaxed along the beaches of Antalya, on the Mediterranean coast.

She loved music, especially Persian pop, and was taking piano classes, according to Panahi, who is in his 50s, and other friends. She was also an accomplished singer, they said.

But she was never an activist, they added, and she began attending the mass protests only because of a personal sense of outrage over the election results.

Her parents and others told her it would be dangerous to go to Saturday's march, said Golshad. On Friday, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had warned in his weekly prayer sermon that demonstrators would be responsible for any violence that broke out. Even Golshad stayed away. At 3:30 the two friends spoke.

"I told her, 'Neda, don't go,' " she recalled, heaving with sobs.

But she was as stubborn as she was honest, Golshad said, and she ended up going anyway.

"She said, 'Don't worry. It's just one bullet and its over.' "

"She couldn't stand the injustice of it all," Panahi said. "All she wanted was the proper vote of the people to be counted."

Her friends say Panahi, Neda and two others were stuck in traffic on Karegar Street, east of Tehran's Azadi Square, on their way to the demonstration sometime after 6:30 p.m. After stepping out of the car to get some fresh air and crane their necks over the jumble of cars, Panahi heard a crack from the distance. Within a blink of the eye, he realized Neda had collapsed to the ground.

"We were stuck in traffic and we got out and stood to watch, and without her throwing a rock or anything they shot her," he said. "It was just one bullet."

Blood poured out of the right side of her chest and began bubbling out of her mouth and nose as her lungs filled up.

"I'm burning, I'm burning!" he recalled her saying, her final words.

Those nearby gathered around. A doctor tried to help, Panahi said, telling him to put his palm over the wound and apply pressure. A driver coming from the other direction urged the crowd to put her into his car. A frantic search for a hospital followed. They took a wrong turn down a dead end and switched her limp body to another car.

Along the way, protesters and ordinary people screamed at other drivers to clear a route in the snarled traffic.

The medical staff made a heroic effort to rush her to the operating room, but it was too late. She was dead by the time they arrived at the emergency room of Shariati Hospital, Panahi said.

"This is a crime that's not in support of the government," he said. "This is a crime against humanity."

Iranian authorities have strenuously denied that police were using lethal force to quell the protest. During tours of the riot scene before, during and after the worst of the melee, there were no signs of security officials using guns to quash the protest, which is considered illegal.

The prosecutor's office has launched an investigation into the killing of "several people" in Saturday's violence and arrested one "armed terrorist," the website of Iran's Press TV broadcaster announced. At least 13 people were killed in Saturday's rioting.

"Policemen are not authorized to use weapons against people," said Tehran Police Chief Azizollah Rajabzadeh, according to Press TV. "They are trained to only use antiriot tools to keep the people out of harm's way."

The government has suggested loyalists to the exiled, outlawed opposition group Mujahedin Khalq Organization may bear responsibility for the killings. But family members and friends suspect that zealous pro-government paramilitaries, the Basijis or the group Ansar-e-Hezbollah, might have been responsible. Panahi said witnesses at the scene said the shooter was not a police officer but among a group of plainclothes security officials or militiamen lurking in the area.

On Sunday at the Agha-Soltan residence, friends and relatives came in droves, weeping and bent over, clutching one another. A steady murmur of sobs and wails emanated from the apartment.

Mascara streamed down cheeks of the women, some in sweeping black chadors and others in shapely designer mini-coats and sunglasses.

The men's eyes were sore and bloodshot. Two helped a distraught young man walk along the hallway, one of her two brothers, someone said.

"She died full of love," Golshad said.

The relatives and friends piled into minivans for the hour-long trek to Tehran's Beshesht Zahra cemetery, where she was buried. Her loved ones were outraged by the authorities' order not to eulogize her, to loudly sing her praises and mourn her loss. But they were too afraid and distraught to speak out, except for Panahi, who said he had nothing more to lose.

"They know me," he said. "They know where I am. They can come and get me whenever they want. My time has gone. We have to think about the young people."

Neda, he said, was smart and loving. She had a mischievous streak, gentling teasing her friends and causing them to laugh. She was passionate about life and meant no one any harm, they said. In the election unrest, friends found in her an unexpected daring, a willingness to take risks for her beliefs.

"For pursuing her goals, she didn't use rocks or clubs," said Panahi. "She wanted to show with her presence that, 'I'm here. I also voted. And my vote wasn't counted.' It was a very peaceful act of protest, without any violence."

As to the person or persons responsible for her death, they will not be forgiven, he said. "When they kill an innocent child, this is not justice. This is not religion. In no way is this acceptable," he said. "And I'm certain that the one who shot her will not get a pass from God."

SOURCE

WARNING: VIDEO IS EXTREMELY GRAPHIC WITNESS TO WHAT REALLY HAPPENED IN IRAN

Stay in School, Kids.

2009-06-22T11:19:00.001-07:00

Ballet Class

2009-06-22T11:14:00.001-07:00

Love this picture.

Doodie.com

2009-06-22T11:10:00.000-07:00

doodie.com
They make poop cartoons.

Weird New Jersey

2009-06-22T10:44:00.001-07:00

Your Travel Guide to New Jersey's
Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets

For those of you who are wondering just what Weird N.J. is all about, let us try and explain. Weird NJ is a travel guide and magazine to places you won't find on state funded maps or located on any tourist attraction pamphlets.

In Weird N.J. we travel to places that are seen for what they are; weird, odd or unique, all told by New Jerseyans to Mark Sceurman and Mark Moran, publishers of Weird N.J., while traveling the backroads of the Garden State in search of local unwritten history and modern folklore.

When we travel the state of New Jersey, we are looking for tales told only inside the perimeters of a town. These stories and places tell a story that cannot be found in any history books and are not often perceived as "history,"...until we arrive.

The Weird NJ journal also has interviews with people we meet along the road who we feel have a story to tell, and stories sent in by subscribers telling their own Weird experience living in New Jersey. We also feature Weird N.J. News, a collection of newspaper articles compiled over the year, and the usual selection of places you may not want to visit, including underground tunnels, sewer drains, abandoned property and other sites that are brought to our attention at the local diner or "old man bar."

Some of these sites deal with haunted dwellings, graveyards, UFOs and Bigfoot sightings, but that is a small part of what we are trying to accomplish. Our main goal is to record what people think or remember as being weird or odd in their town. It could be anything from a lawn filled with bowling balls, to an abandoned Nike missile base right in your backyard!

Many of the sites we've recorded you can actually go see. Some are told just in legend, but never before recorded for publication. Some sites you cannot visit, but we thought you'd like to know they exist...somewhere in New Jersey.

The Weird N.J. newsletter started in 1989, self-published and sent out to just a few subscribers who somehow got ahold of our mailing address. Since that time we've published nine issues, once a year, and the mailing list keeps growing with each issue. Since all of the early issues are out of print, we are traveling back to some of the earlier sites and updating the history of these "odd" places, and photographed many of these sites. If you know of a place that you think belongs in Weird N.J., sent us a note. We'll be glad to check it out.

One might think of a "weird" site as something mysterious, possibly forbidden and better off left alone for others to trespass on. There have always been "Dead Man's Curves" and places associated with local legends that come and go with generations. Fortunately for New Jersey, almost every town has their own unique brand of weirdness.

The collection of sites you'll find in upcoming issues are a culmination of interviews, letters and traveling miles of highways seeking out what New Jerseyans consider weird and unique about their state. We've met some incredible people along the way, and all of them had a story they wanted to tell.

GO TO THE WEBSITE

Our Soldiers Having Fun in Iraq

2009-06-22T08:41:00.000-07:00

Awesome Musical Performance in a Movie

2009-06-22T08:32:00.001-07:00

One of the best musical performances in movies that I've seen in a long time. Features the Steve Vai/Ry Cooder duel from the movie, "Crossroads."

You all can thank me later for posting this. Does this not f'ing blow you away????

Wynton Marsalis and Wycliffe Gordon "duel" from their hotel windows

2009-06-22T08:22:00.000-07:00

North Korea may fire a missile toward Hawaii

2009-06-22T08:16:00.000-07:00

By HYUNG-JIN KIM – 16 hours ago

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea may fire a long-range ballistic missile toward Hawaii in early July, a Japanese news report said Thursday, as Russia and China urged the regime to return to international disarmament talks on its rogue nuclear program.

The missile, believed to be a Taepodong-2 with a rang More..e of up to 4,000 miles (6,500 kilometers), would be launched from North Korea's Dongchang-ni site on the northwestern coast, said the Yomiuri daily, Japan's top-selling newspaper. It cited an analysis by the Japanese Defense Ministry and intelligence gathered by U.S. reconnaissance satellites.

The missile launch could come between July 4 and 8, the paper said.

While the newspaper speculated the Taepodong-2 could fly over Japan and toward Hawaii, it said the missile would not be able to hit Hawaii's main islands, which are about 4,500 miles (7,200 kilometers) from the Korean peninsula.

A spokesman for the Japanese Defense Ministry declined to comment on the report. South Korea's Defense Ministry and the National Intelligence Service — the country's main spy agency — said they could not confirm it.

Tension on the divided Korean peninsula has spiked since the North conducted its second nuclear test on May 25 in defiance of repeated international warnings. The regime declared Saturday it would bolster its nuclear programs and threatened war in protest of U.N. sanctions taken for the nuclear test.

U.S. officials have said the North has been preparing to fire a long-range missile capable of striking the western U.S. In Washington on Tuesday, Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said it would take at least three to five years for North Korea to pose a real threat to the U.S. west coast.

President Barack Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak met in Washington on Tuesday for a landmark summit in which they agreed to build a regional and global "strategic alliance" to persuade North Korea to dismantle all its nuclear weapons. Obama declared North Korea a "grave threat" to the world and pledged that the new U.N. sanctions on the communist regime will be aggressively enforced.

In Seoul, Vice Unification Minister Hong Yang-ho told a forum Thursday that the North's moves to strengthen its nuclear programs is "a very dangerous thing that can fundamentally change" the regional security environment. He said the South Korean government is bracing for "all possible scenarios" regarding the nuclear standoff.

The independent International Crisis Group think tank, meanwhile, said the North's massive stockpile of chemical weapons is no less serious a threat to the region than its nuclear arsenal.

It said the North is believed to have between 2,500 and 5,000 tons of chemical weapons, including mustard gas, phosgene, blood agents and sarin. These weapons can be delivered with ballistic missiles and long-range artillery and are "sufficient to inflict massive civilian casualties on South Korea."

"If progress is made on rolling back Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions, there could be opportunities to construct a cooperative diplomatic solution for chemical weapons and the suspected biological weapons program," the think tank said in a report released Thursday.

It also called on the U.S. to engage the North in dialogue to defuse the nuclear crisis, saying "diplomacy is the least bad option." The think tank said Washington should be prepared to send a high-level special envoy to Pyongyang to resolve the tension.

In a rare move, leaders of Russia and China used their meetings in Moscow on Wednesday to pressure the North to return to the nuclear talks and expressed "serious concerns" about tension on the Korean peninsula.

The joint appeal appeared to be a signal that Moscow and Beijing are growing impatient with Pyongyang's stubbornness. Northeastern China and Russia's Far East both border North Korea, and Pyongyang's unpredictable actions have raised concern in both countries.

After meetings at the Kremlin, Chinese President Hu Jintao joined Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in urging a peaceful resolution of the Korean standoff and the "swiftest renewal" of the now-frozen talks involving their countries as well as North and South Korea, Japan and the United States.

"Russia and China are ready to foster the lowering of tension in Northeast Asia and call for the continuation of efforts by all sides to resolve disagreements through peaceful means, through dialogue and consultations," their statement said.

The comments — contained in a lengthy statement that discussed other global issues — included no new initiatives, but it appeared to be carefully worded to avoid provoking Pyongyang. In remarks after their meetings, Medvedev made only a brief reference to North Korea, and Hu did not mention it.

South Korea's Lee said Wednesday in Washington that was essential for China and Russia to "actively cooperate" in getting the North to give up its nuclear program, suggesting the North's bombs program may trigger a regional arms race.

"If we acknowledge North Korea possessing nuclear programs, other non-nuclear countries in Northeast Asia would be tempted to possess nuclear weapons and this would not be helpful for stability in Northeast Asia," Lee said in a meeting with former U.S. officials and Korea experts, according to his office.

LINK

Random Hall Bathroom Server

2009-06-22T07:28:00.000-07:00

So this is what an expensive education at M.I.T. will get you, lol... designing and implementing a "bathroom server" that knows and can report when any bathroom in your building is "in use." Actually, that can be quite useful when you've really gotta go bad and you don't want to waste time heading to the wrong head. Know what I mean?

These clever geniuses got the building blueprints and hooked up the hardware and designed the website so now anyone in that building who's got the urge can go first to their computers, log onto the internet, type in the url, go to the website and find out where the non-busy bathrooms are. That is, if they haven't already piddled away their problem by then...

LOL LOL LOL!!!

Go find an open bathroom right now!

Worst Country Song Titles

2009-06-22T07:04:00.000-07:00

Aw, come on, you're kidding me... there's really such a thing as a bad country song title? Really? LOL, this website has compiled a list of their favorites and here's just a few examples:

All I Want From You (Is Away)

Am I Double Parked by the Curbstone of Your Heart?

Are You Drinkin With Me Jesus?

Billy Broke My Heart at Walgreens and I Cried All the Way to Sears

Come out of the Wheatfield Nellie, You're Going Against the Grain

Don't Chop Any Wood Mother, I'm Comin' in With a Load!

Drop Kick Me Jesus (Through The Goal Posts Of Life.)

Feelin' Single and Seein' Double

Get Off The Stove,Grandma, You're Too Old To Ride The Range

Get Your Biscuits In The Oven, And Your Buns In The Bed

Get Your Tongue Out Of My Mouth, Because I'm Kissing You Goodbye

How Come Your Dog Don't Bite Nobody But Me?

I Gave Her the Ring, and She Gave Me the Finger

I Want a Beer as Cold as My Ex-Wife's Heart

If My Nose Were Full of Nickels, I'd Blow It All On You

I've Got the Cob, If You've Got the Corn

Jesus Loves Me But He Can't Stand You

My Wife Ran Off With My Best Friend, And I Sure Do Miss Him

We Feed Our Babies Onions So We Can Find 'Em In The Dark

You Were Only A Splinter As I Slid Down The Banister Of Life

...and lots, LOTS more at the website!!!

Save the Planet

2009-06-22T07:00:00.000-07:00

Fondling in Bed

2009-06-21T22:32:00.000-07:00

After 20 years of marriage, a couple was lying in bed one evening when the wife felt her husband begin to fondle her in ways he hadn't in some time.

It almost tickled as his hands started at her neck and then began moving down past the small of her back.

He then caressed her shoulders and her neck, slowly working his hand down over her breasts, stopping just over her lower stomach.

He then proceeded to place his hand on her left inner arm, caressed past the side of her breast again, working down her side, passed gently over her buttock and down her leg to her calf. Then, he proceeded up her inner thigh, stopping just at the innermost portion of her upper leg. He continued in the same manner on her right side, then suddenly stopped, rolled over, and started to watch TV.

As she had become quite aroused by this caressing, she asked in a loving voice, "That was wonderful. Why did you stop?"

He said, "I found the remote."

The Internet Pizza Server

2009-06-21T22:03:00.000-07:00

Order up a virtual pizza here and while you're on the site, take the time to read up on the history of this place. It's actually interesting.

Virtual Gifts 4 U

2009-06-21T21:47:00.000-07:00

Send presents that will be nicely virtually gift-wrapped and choose from various categories such as: Send a Celebrity, Food and Drinks, Home and Office, Vacations and Places, Vehicles, Flowers, Special Things and Holidays and Events. VISIT THE WEBSITE.

Here's one of my favorites:

Virtual Chocolate

2009-06-21T21:40:00.000-07:00

Send some virtual chocolate to that special chocoholic in your life by clicking here. Other chocolate related resources also here, including free wallpapers.

Free Online Haircut!

2009-06-21T21:32:00.000-07:00

Ya think?

The Death Clock

2009-06-21T13:57:00.000-07:00

When are you going to die?

FIND OUT.

Disturbing Auctions

2009-06-21T12:19:00.000-07:00

FROM THE WEBSITE:

A lot of people have discovered that they can make a little extra money by auctioning off on the internet those extra knick-knacks they have lying around. After all, as the saying goes, one person's trash is another's treasure.

But sometimes, trash is just trash.

This site is dedicated to the research and study of the most bizarre items found for sale on internet auction sites. Not the obviously fake auctions, like the infamous human kidney, but truly tacky stuff that people really, honestly, believed that someone would (and in some cases did) buy.

How Pure Are You?

2009-06-21T10:58:00.000-07:00

Just in case you didn't know, now you can take a test to find out. LOL, now I've seen everything. There are all sorts of purity tests here. You'll be sure to find a category that fits you.

FIND OUT HOW PURE YOU ARE!

A Weird Little Game Website... I think.

2009-06-21T10:51:00.000-07:00

It just looks weird, okay? Anyway, one of the games lets you be a microbe trying to outrace viruses that want to kill you before you reach the pill you have to take. Pleasant little time-waster, eh? VISIT THE SITE.

The Museum of Menstruation and Women's Health

2009-06-21T10:44:00.000-07:00

Actually, just go see for yourself. This is not a joke website. It is quite comprehensive and provides a lot of resources.

Definitely Qualifies As Weird

2009-06-21T10:41:00.000-07:00

I hardly know how to describe this one. It's an interactive something-or-other in that if you can "catch" the falling person with your cursor, you can control its movements to a degree but geez... what is this thing????

Would You Really Like Fries with That?

2009-06-21T09:27:00.000-07:00

This is a forum for people who work in the restaurant/bar industry and is part of the BitterWaitress website. It's a place to vent for the working folks and an eye-opener for you civilians.

Some things I can recall from my own working past in the restaurant industry (CAUTION: THIS IS BOUND TO OFFEND SOME PEOPLE, MAYBE A LOT OF PEOPLE):

The lousiest tippers, without fail, make the most demands of your time as a food or drink server and have the shittiest attitudes - they would never tolerate being treated the way they treat others.

Many restaurant managers must go to secret Asshole School to hone the craft of being primo buttheads. If you are a customer waiting overlong for your food order and you can see that the restaurant is busy, do your own Asshole Survey: What is the manager doing at that moment? Is he/she digging in and taking food orders out to tables or bringing drinks or bussing tables or doing anything that remotely qualifies as "active duty?" No? What do you mean, he/she's parked on his/her butt at the cash register or way in the back? Your food is getting cold and your food server is slammed! Hello... Mr. Asshole, your customers are getting pissed...

Another major factor in slow food service that food servers are ALWAYS blamed for and almost always suffer for in the way of lousy tips is the cooks' slowness in getting out food orders. Many times, the cook is just slammed but many times, it is inexperience and not knowing how to budget time and how long different things take to cook that cause long delays in service to the customer. The food server has no control over that. It sucks when a cook puts up a partial plate or partial order and you have to wait for the rest of it so your entree might be cold by the time the side dishes make it to the plate or vice versa. Sometimes, the cook's service is so extremely substandard that it would be embarrassing to take that plate out to a customer so you have to make the cook start the whole thing over again. More delays.

This is an observation after years of being a food server and NOT a racial/ethnic comment but hey, let the chips fall or whatever... Black families on Sundays were always my favorite customers. It never mattered how many children were in the family, every single one was perfectly well-behaved and said "Please" and "thank you" and "May I..." and used "Ma'am" and "Sir" and showed respect to one another. Children behaving nicely in public... to each other... shocking, isn't it? One of the headaches of the food server universe is serving a large group that includes several children because it is almost inevitable that you will have crumbs and food droppings and wet messes under the table and the top of the table looks like a disaster zone. Not one crumb was ever detected under one of my black families' tables. And all the plates would be neatly stacked, waiting for me or the busboy to remove them. Oh man, they didn't have to tip me (but they always did, without fail) because I would have paid them to be my customers.

Food poisoning lurks everywhere in restaurants and a goodly portion of it if not all of it is 100% avoidable but for lazy employees who refuse to do their jobs. Here are just a few examples:

Ketchup Bottles (and other condiments) are ALWAYS refilled. This is NOT a problem for your health, as a customer, if the employees completely empty out the glass bottles or containers, sterilize the bottles by washing them out in scalding hot water then refill with brand new ketchup and only then pour back in the older ketchup to the top. This is not the way lazy employees work and chances are good that the bottles are never emptied, never sanitized, and new ketchup is used to "top off" the old. That means the remains of old ketchup stay in the bottle and ferment. Fermentation is caused by bacteria. Bacteria causes food poisoning. So, if your ketchup bottle is bubbling, don't open it. Don't touch it at all. In fact, you are better off bringing in your own ketchup.

Ice Cream Sundae fruit toppings: See above warning about ketchup bottles. Lazy employees will "top off" the big vats or dispensers of toppings rather than do it the right way. Most people don't think they can get food poisoning from something so cold like ice cream. It's not the ice cream that will have you puking all night and suffering diarrhea. It's what's on top of the ice cream.

And double down on the "topping off" warning when it comes to salad dressings. Knowing what I now know, I won't even eat salad in a restaurant anymore. I have seen vats of salad dressing with dried hardened old dressing crusting around the top of the container and I know that container hasn't been scrubbed out in days. So that tells me it's only been topped off in all those days since the last time it was my job to clean them all and refill the old on top of the new and not the other way around. In fact, if the manager wasn't watching me too closely, I'd dump the whole thing and make all fresh dressings.

Also, avoid eating any salad in any restaurant that uses open containers of the elements of the salad that are set out on the back counter. You can usually see this from where you sit as a customer. If each container does not have its lid or is covered and protected in some fashion, you can be 100% certain there's a lot more than just salad that's fallen into those containers. I've seen servers and busboys walk the length of the back counter with dripping wet filthy dishrags to wipe down that counter and they aren't careful around those open containers so a lot of customers are consuming dirty germy dishwater along with their salad greens. And that's not the only thing that gets into open containers of food.

Do you see your food server wash his/her hands inbetween visits to tables and the touching of food plates? They should be radically pro-active in defending your safety when it comes to food service. Most aren't.

The cleanest (best kept health standards) restaurant I've ever worked has been Coco's Restaurants in Southern California. I would feel safe eating in any of their establishments knowing how strict they are about cleanliness and the proper handling of anything that comes into contact with food. I'm sorry I can't say the same about that restaurant chain that rhymes with "Lenny's."

FDA Warnings for Consumers (that's YOU!)

2009-06-21T08:29:00.000-07:00

FDA Warns Not to Eat Nestle Refrigerated Cookie Dough

2009-06-21T08:08:00.000-07:00

FDA Warns Not to Eat Nestle Toll House Prepackaged, Refrigerated Cookie Dough

On June 19, 2009, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned consumers not to eat any varieties of prepackaged Nestle Toll House refrigerated cookie dough due to the risk of contamination with E. coli O157:H7 (a bacterium that causes foodborne illness).

What to Do

Throw away any prepackaged, refrigerated Nestle Toll House cookie dough products you may have in your home.
Do not cook the dough because you might get the bacteria on your hands and on other cooking surfaces.
Contact your health care professional immediately if you or your family have recently eaten the dough and have had stomach cramps, vomiting or diarrhea, with or without bloody stools.

If you have additional questions about the recalled products, contact Nestle consumer services at 800-559-5025 or visit the company’s Web site.

What Action Has Been Taken?

Nestle has voluntarily recalled all varieties of prepackaged, refrigerated Toll House cookie dough and is fully cooperating with the ongoing investigation by FDA and CDC.
CDC is conducting an ongoing study with the help of several state and local health departments.

Since March 2009, there have been 66 reports of illness across 28 states. Of 25 people who were hospitalized, 7 have a severe complication called Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome. No one has died.

About E. coli O157:H7

The bacteria cause stomach cramping, vomiting, and diarrhea, often with bloody stools.
Most healthy adults can recover completely within a week.
Young children and the elderly are at highest risk for developing Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome, which can lead to serious kidney damage and even death.

Safe Food Handling

FDA reminds consumers they should not eat raw food products that are intended for cooking or baking before eating. Use safe food-handling practices when preparing these products, including

following package directions for cooking at proper temperatures
washing hands, surfaces, and utensils after contact with these types of products
avoiding cross-contamination
refrigerating products properly

This article appears on FDA's Consumer Updates page, which features the latest on all FDA-regulated products.

Date Posted: June 19, 2009

The Love Calculator

2009-06-21T06:10:00.000-07:00

Calculate the chances for a successful relationship between any two people by clicking here.

SOME NAMES I COMBINED (chances for success expressed as percentage with commentary):

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon: 67% - Dr. Love thinks that a relationship between Ben Affleck and Matt Damon has a reasonable chance of working out, but on the other hand, it might not. Your relationship may suffer good and bad times. If things might not be working out as you would like them to, do not hesitate to talk about it with the person involved. Spend time together, talk with each other.

Sarah Palin and Matt Damon: 42% - The chance of a relationship working out between Sarah Palin and Matt Damon is not very big, but a relationship is very well possible, if the two of you really want it to, and are prepared to make some sacrifices for it. You'll have to spend a lot of quality time together. You must be aware of the fact that this relationship might not work out at all, no matter how much time you invest in it.

Barack Obama and Michelle Obama: 18% - Dr. Love thinks a relationship might work out between Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, but the chance is very small. A successful relationship is possible, but you both have to work on it. Do not sit back and think that it will all work out fine, because it might not be working out the way you wanted it to. Spend as much time with each other as possible. Again, the chance of this relationship working out is very small, so even when you do work hard on it, it still might not work out.

Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet: 66% - Dr. Love thinks that a relationship between Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet has a reasonable chance of working out, but on the other hand, it might not. Your relationship may suffer good and bad times. If things might not be working out as you would like them to, do not hesitate to talk about it with the person involved. Spend time together, talk with each other.

Paris Hilton and Paris Hilton: 84% - Dr. Love thinks that a relationship between Paris Hilton and Paris Hilton has a very good chance of being successful, but this doesn't mean that you don't have to work on the relationship. Remember that every relationship needs spending time together, talking with each other etc.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie: 77% - Dr. Love thinks that a relationship between Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie has a very good chance of being successful, but this doesn't mean that you don't have to work on the relationship. Remember that every relationship needs spending time together, talking with each other etc.

Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston: 58% - Dr. Love thinks that a relationship between Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston has a reasonable chance of working out, but on the other hand, it might not. Your relationship may suffer good and bad times. If things might not be working out as you would like them to, do not hesitate to talk about it with the person involved. Spend time together, talk with each other.