Sunday, August 31, 2008

Dilemma...

Un homme, pendant son jogging, rencontre un enfant a vélo, pour s'amuser avec lui il fait une course.
Au moment de traverser une rue l'enfant ne voit pas un camion et est sur le point de se faire renverser quand le monde se gèle.
L'homme , témoin de la scène peut bouger dans le monde gelé. Il va tenter de sauver le garçon mais va devoir faire face à un dilemme...
Dilemma est un court-métrage de 10mn réalisé par Boris Paval Conen.


Kremlin critic shot in Ingushetia...

The owner of an internet site critical of the Russian authorities in the volatile region of Ingushetia has been shot dead in police custody. 

Magomed Yevloyev, owner of the ingushetiya.ru site, was a vocal critic of the region's administration. 

The Russian prosecutor's office said an investigation into the death had been launched, Russia media report. 

A post on Yevloyev's site says he was detained by police after landing at the airport of the main town, Nazran. 

The website owner was taken to hospital but died from his injuries. 

Reports quoting local police said Yevloyev had tried to seize a policeman's gun when he was being led to a vehicle. A shot was fired and Yevloyev was injured in the head. More...

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Internet Explorer 8 : Quelles sont les fonctionnalités proposées par IE8 ?

Microsoft a tout récemment publié la beta 2 de son célèbre Navigateur Web Internet Explorer 8.

Bien que je vous conseille plutôt d’utiliser Firefox 3 pour votre usage quotidien du web, vous aurez sans doute envie de tester IE8 pour savoir ce que Micorosoft nous prépare… et vous aurez bien raison, car il y a pas mal de nouvelles fonctionnalités !

Après tout, contrairement aux idées reçues, les équipes de développeurs de Microsoft savent aussi nous faiire de très bons produits innovants comme PhotoSynth…

Bref, vous pouvez télécharger Internet Explorer 8 beta 2 sur le site officiel de Microsoft.  Suite...

Voir aussi:


George Harrison on the Beatles' break-up...

When stealing bags of rice, make sure there are no holes in them!!!

Four thieves have been arrested after accidentally leaving a trail of rice for police to follow. 

They broke into a warehouse in the central Philippines, cutting barbed wire on walls, before making off with four sacks of rice, a TV and a tricycle. 

But they did not realise one of the sacks had a hole which left behind a trail of telltale rice. 

Senior Inspector Danilo Francisco said the four men were today charged with robbery, after officers followed the rice to their home 450 metres from the warehouse.

Source

See also:

Do Zebras Get Less Spam Than Aardvarks?


Email spam got you down? Is your first name Aaron? A study by Cambridge University security expert Richard Clayton shows that the first letter of your email address has a lot to do with the amount of spam you receive. 

The study (.PDF), titled "Do Zebras get more Spam than Aardvarks?" analyzed traffic logs from the U.K. ISP Demon Internet. The data analyzed was from the period Feb. 1st - March 27th of 2008. 

In the study, Clayton noted that those whose local part of their email address (this is the portion to the left of the "@") begins with "A" receive about 50% spam and 50% non-spam. Clayton called this group aardvarks. When the local part begins with "Z" (call them zebras) about 75% is spam.

You're probably saying, eh? This makes no sense based on what was said earlier. Ah, but it does. More...

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Burying alive 5 women is no big deal in Baluchistan; it's only tradition...

A Pakistani lawmaker defended a decision by northwestern tribesmen to bury five women alive because they wanted to choose their own husbands, telling stunned members of Parliament to spare him their outrage.

"These are centuries-old traditions, and I will continue to defend them," Israr Ullah Zehri, who represents Baluchistan province, told The Associated Press Saturday. 

"Only those who indulge in immoral acts should be afraid." 

The women, three of whom were teenagers, were first shot and then thrown into a ditch. 

They were still breathing as mud was shoveled over their bodies, according to media reports, which said their only "crime" was that they wished to marry men of their own choosing. 

Zehri told a packed and stunned Parliament on Friday that Baluch tribal traditions helped stop obscenity and then asked fellow lawmakers to stop making such a fuss about it. 

Several lawmakers stood up in protest, describing the so-called honor killings as "barbaric." 

Human rights groups accused local authorities of trying to hush up the executions, which according to local media reports and activists took place a month ago in Baba Kot, a remote village in Jafferabad district.

Source

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As Zimbabweans suffer under ridiculous inflationary levels, Mugabe gives Olympic medalist US$100,000!!!

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, whose country faces runaway inflation, on Friday gave 100,000 dollars (68,000 euros) to champion swimmer Kirsty Coventry who won gold and silver at the Beijing Olympics.

"You have done well daughter of Zimbabwe," Mugabe said presenting the cash to the US-based Coventry, who was accompanied by her mother to a ceremony in Harare where Mugabe welcomed the country's Olympic team.

"We wish you well in life. We should praise her (Coventry). She is our golden girl. Take care of her," he said.

Mugabe also handed out 10,000 dollars to the other Olympic finalists and others who were part of the team were given 2,000 dollars.

In 2004, Mugabe also gave Coventry 50,000 dollars and a diplomatic passport after the Athens games, where she won three medals comprising of a gold, silver and bronze.

Mugabe said since Coventry was still at school, she would use some of the money for her up-keep in the United States.

Zimbabwe sent a 13-member delegation to the Olympics and took home four medals, all won by Coventry.

Coventry won one gold and three silvers, which saw Zimbabwe finishing as the fourth highest African team on the medals table after Kenya, Ethiopia and Egypt.

Zimbabwe's political unrest has worsened an economic crisis with official inflation at 11.2 million percent which analysts say is a fraction of the real figure.

Source

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The 'consensus' on climate change is a catastrophe in itself...

As the estimated cost of measures proposed by politicians to "combat global warming" soars ever higher – such as the International Energy Council's $45 trillion – "fighting climate change" has become the single most expensive item on the world's political agenda. 

As Senators Obama and McCain vie with the leaders of the European Union to promise 50, 60, even 80 per cent cuts in "carbon emissions", it is clear that to realise even half their imaginary targets would necessitate a dramatic change in how we all live, and a drastic reduction in living standards. 

All this makes it rather important to know just why our politicians have come to believe that global warming is the most serious challenge confronting mankind, and just how reliable is the evidence for the theory on which their policies are based.

By far the most influential player in putting climate change at the top of the global agenda has been the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Chan ge (IPCC), set up in 1988, not least on the initiative of the Thatcher government. (This was why the first chairman of its scientific working group was Sir John Houghton, then the head of the UK's Meteorological Office.) More...

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Van Morisson is 63 today! Here's "Baby please don't go"

OMG! Roald Dahl was a big-time seducer of high society women!!!

He is known to the world as the author of bestselling children’s books such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach. Yet before he became a successful writer, Roald Dahl had a very different reputation – as the sexiest British spy in America. 

A ribald portrait of Dahl’s second world war years as an undercover agent attached to the British embassy in Washington emerges from the pages of a new biography that credits the writer with a very special talent for the Anglo-American special relationship. 

“Girls just fell at Roald’s feet,” declares Antoinette Marsh Haskell, the daughter of Dahl’s closest American friend. “I think he slept with everybody on the east and west coasts that [was worth] more than $50,000 a year.” 

Drawing on a previously unpublished trove of Dahl letters and other documents, Jennet Conant, an American journalist, has written what may prove the most comprehensive account of Dahl’s raucous wartime exploits as a charming RAF attaché.  More...

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Cuban punk rocker gives the Castros the finger...


A court in Havana, Cuba, has ordered a punk rock musician to pay a fine of $30 (£15) for public disorder for playing his band's music too loud. 

However, Gorki Aguila was cleared of a more serious charge that could have led to a jail sentence. 

The lead singer of band Porno Para Ricardo is known for songs that ridicule Cuba's communist government. 

He had faced a possible four year term in prison for the crime known in Cuba as social dangerousness. 

The controversial law allows the jailing of people who the authorities believe have been displaying behaviour that would indicate they could be on the verge of committing a crime. 

But, prior to the trial, prosecutors decided to drop the charge. Instead Mr Aguila was found guilty of public disorder for playing his group's music too loud while they were recording their new album. 

He was then ordered to pay a $30 fine and released. 

Minutes later, the outspoken bushy-haired singer told reporters gathered outside his house that it was clear the international interest in his case had played a key role in the last-minute decision by prosecutors to drop the more serious charge he was facing. 

He also vowed to continue criticising the Cuban government and its emblematic communist leaders like Fidel Castro and the current president, Raul Castro. 

Nothing, he said, could ever be gained by remaining silent. 

There has been no comment regarding the case from the Cuban authorities.

Source

See also:

'Environmental volunteers' will be encouraged to spy on their neighbours...

Pedophile Nervous For First Day Of School! Onion hilarity...

Worried about meeting new children and making friends, area pedophile Howard Dengal admitted Monday that he was feeling "pretty nervous" for the first day of school.

"I hope the kids at Hampstead Elementary like me," said Dengal, who spent the summer reading comic books, watching early morning cartoons, and hanging around the entrance of a local swimming pool. "It'd be nice to have someone to play with during recess."

In preparation for Tuesday's start to the school year, Dengal picked out his favorite Batman shirt, Yankees baseball cap, and knee-length trench coat to wear. The 37-year-old then carefully packed a blue knapsack with two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and some toys.

A change of shorts was also added to the knapsack.

"Maybe someone will see me in the morning and come up and say hello," said Dengal, who claimed that he's always a bit shy at first. "And maybe if we both like the same kind of stuff, and he has dark-brown hair, we could be friends." More...

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Did Reuters publish fake images of the war in Georgia?



Reuters a-t-il publié les images truquées de la guerre en Géorgie ?

  A few days after these pictures had been analyzed by the Russian blog ttp://russia-insider.livejournal.com and the Serbian blog Byzantine blog as fake ones, staged by the photographer David Mdzinarishvili, some of them have been simply removed from the website of Reuters. Here the deconstruction made by Byzantine blog. Click here...

 Quelques jours après que ces photos avaient été analysées par le blog russe http://russia-insider.livejournal.com et le blog serbe Byzantine blog comme des mises scène du photographe David Mdzinarishvili, certaines d'entre elles ont été tout smplement retirées du site web de Reuters. Voici la déconstruction faite par Byzantine blog.  Cliquez ici... 

Australia: are flying foxes waging biological warfare against humans?

Scientists are investigating whether flying foxes are involuntarily reacting to the loss of habitat in Queensland by spreading deadly viruses including Hendra.

A horse veterinarian died from the Hendra virus earlier this month and five horses were destroyed after an outbreak at the Redlands Veterinary Clinic in south-east Queensland.

Researchers are looking into a rising number of flying fox-related viral outbreaks in other parts of the world, including the deadly ebola virus in Africa and the 2003 SARS epidemic in southern China.

CSIRO virologist Dr Linfa Wang has told the ABC's Background Briefing there is an emerging theory that the animals' immune systems are reacting to human interference. 

"Some people even propose that the virus [is] good for bats," he said.

"It's like a biological weapon protect their ecological niche. Only when humans try to destroy that balance that the virus jumps out."

Source

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Salaire de PPDA: Une blogeuse suisse s’énerve et à juste titre…


Renaud Revel, rédacteur en chef à l'express, révèle sur son blog [fr] que le salaire mensuel de PPDA, Patrick Poivre d'Arvor pour les non initiés, était de 71 500 euros / mois ! Ce montant faramineux se voyait en plus augmenté d'une prime annuelle, dont la raison n'est pas claire, s'élevant à 260 000 euros !!

Je ne vous cache pas que lorsque j'ai lu cette révélation, je n'ai pas pu en croire mes yeux !

Comment peut-on justifier un tel salaire ? Certainement pas par la qualité journalistique de PPDA, il y a de nombreux journalistes aussi bons voir meilleurs que lui. Tout est alors question de popularité.

Pour ma part, je me sentirais très mal à l'aise de recevoir un tel salaire qui ne repose sur rien. Le travail effectué n'est aucunement en lien avec le montant de la rémunération et ce problème concerne tout autant les petites gens, peu diplômées, qui travaillent d'arrache-pied à des activités éprouvantes et usantes physiquement et qui n'ont comme rémunération que de quoi survivre dans ce monde d'injustice.

À ce sujet, si vous êtes vaudois, n'hésitez pas à signer la pétition du POP Vaudois pour
le droit à un salaire minimum dans le canton de Vaud [fr], car la Suisse n'est pas forcement meilleure en matière salariale que les autres pays européens, tolérant des salaires de misères pour un travail éprouvant, et constatant avec inertie l'augmentation des working poor, travailleurs pauvres.

Le système salarial français, et certainement mondial, est une honte et un scandale, je le dis haut et fort ! Mais tout le monde s'en fout...

Source

Voir aussi:

Polar bears and huskies play at tenderness...

Les ours polaires et les huskies, un moment de tendresse…

Malaysian nut gets nut stuck around his penis!!!

A Malaysian welder had to have a nut removed from around his penis after an attempt to lengthen it before he gets engaged next week went embarrassingly wrong, a news report said Sunday. 

The nut got stuck on his penis following an erection, the Star newspaper said, forcing him to seek help at a hospital in southern Johor state. 

Staff from the Sultanah Aminah hospital had to drain some blood from the penis and cut away a top layer of skin before the object could be removed, the newspaper said. 

It said the fire and rescue department were also involved in trying to remove the nut from the unnamed welder, who is in his 20s and hoped the nut would weigh down his penis to make it longer. 

"The patient is now recovering and we hope to discharge him today (Sunday)," hospital director Daud Abdul Rahim told the Star. 

On August 25, another young man in Kuala Lumpur had tried to increase his sexual prowess by slipping a steel ring around his penis, forcing the fire department to cut off the ring after doctors were unable to remove it, the newspaper said.

Source

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Une femme en Indonésie a des fils métalliques qui poussent dans son corps !!!


C’est une nouvelle qui fait sensation en Indonésie en ce moment. Des fils métalliques de 10-20cm de longueur qui poussent dans le corps d’une femme ! Au début, des sceptiques croyaient que c’était un problème auto-infligé, mais les médecins ont renoncé à donner des explications scientifiques et médicales, penchant plutôt pour « d’autres » théories. 

La femme souffre de cette condition depuis 17 ans et subit actuellement une enquête menée par le Département de la Santé. Des contrôles initiaux par des médecins et des spécialistes montraient que les fils se trouvent aussi à l’intérieur de son corps. Pour le moment, disent-ils, il n’y a pas de explication médicale ni un cas similaire dans le monde. Donc, il s’agirait de la magie noire.

La femme s’appelle NOORSYAIDAH. Elle a 40 ans et elle est maitresse dans un jardin d’enfants à Sangatta dans Kutai de l’East. Les premiers symptômes commençaient à manifester en 1991. Les fils métalliques sortaient de sa poitrine et de son ventre. Il n’y avait pas d’explications à l’époque (ni maintenant). Les premières semaines, le fils tombaient de son corps et disparaissaient. Un mois plus tard, les fils repoussaient et cette fois ils restaient. Et depuis, il ne cesse de pousser !!

Une des sœurs de NOORSYAIDAH a essayé de tailler les fils mais, hélas, chaque fois les fils se retiraient comme si ils se cachaient et puis repoussaient dans une autre partie du corps de NOORSYAIDAH. 

Quatre spécialistes médicaux ont pris ce cas très au sérieux et ont essayé plusieurs traitements mais sans résultat et sans aucune indication quant à la cause de ce phénomène. Les images radios montraient qu’elle avait plus de 40 fils métalliques dans son ventre et que quelques-uns se forcent un chemin endors de son corps. Et ils ont l’air d’être vivants. De plus, ils ont la capacité de se déplacer à leur gré. De ce fait, les médecins sont obligés d’utiliser un aimant pour scanner l’emplacement exact des fils. Il n’y a pas de symptôme de tétanos mais NOORSYAIDAH dit qu’ils lui font mal comme des piqures d’aiguilles.

Source (en anglais avec vidéo en malais)

Voir aussi:

Saturday, August 30, 2008

7ft. giant Brenden Adams has stopped growing...

Doctors first realised Brenden Adams was unusually big at two months, at four months he had all his teeth, and by the age of eight he was the same height as a 15-year-old.

Now at just 12 years old he is a staggering 7ft 3ins and until a recent medical breakthrough it was feared he would not stop growing.

Brenden's runaway growth - caused by a unique genetic condition -has baffled doctors for years and they have frantically tried to find a way of slowing it down.   More...

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A world record ... for the most snails on your face???


There will be no need for a slow-motion replay to confirm this record-breaking feat.

Schoolgirl Tiana Walton has slithered into the record books - for having the most snails on her face at once.  

Nine-year-old Tiana, who loves animals, bravely allowed 25 of the slimy creatures to cover her eyes, nose and mouth.

She smashed the previous record of 15, held by Australian Liam Kenny, and her unusual feat will appear in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Her previous personal best was just nine.

The rules state that competitors have just one minute to put the snails on their face before tipping their head forward for 10 seconds. 

Tiana, of Alvanley, Cheshire, said: "I am not squeamish. It is relaxing but it feels a bit cold. They are quite smelly and you can see their big long eyes facing you. I think my friends at school will say 'urgh'."

Local vet Ken Robinson witnessed the attempt and ensured no snails were harmed. He said: "It is a superb achievement and all the snails have been treated to a gourmet meal."

Tiana said her next ambition is to become an Olympic gymnast.

Setting records runs in the family as Tiana’s mother, Tommy, herself appeared in the Guinness Book Of World Records in 1980 for growing the largest lemon in the world weighing 3Ib 14oz..

Source

Watch the video here...

The Hole in the Wall, or how kids teach themselves...

Public Profiler links your surname to a specific place. Cool!

A website which maps global surnames has been launched to help people find the origins of their name and how far it may have spread. 

The Public Profiler site plots eight million last names using data from electoral rolls and phone directories. 

The site covers 300 million people in 26 countries, showing the origins of names and where families have moved to. 

David Beckham, for example, has an English name, but there are more Beckhams in the US than Britain. 

But the region of the world with the highest concentration of people called Beckham was even further from the footballer's east London origins - in the New Zealand province of Northland. 

The site - www.publicprofiler.org/worldnames - also reveals which of the five million forenames are most closely associated with different surnames and lists the top regions and cities for each surname. More...

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Indonesian woman has metal wires growing out of her body...


It's currently big news in Indonesia. Metal wires about 10-20 cm long grow from a woman's body! Skeptics initially thought that is must be "self-inflicted". Doctors however, have other theories but have given up on providing any scientific or medical explanations.

The woman had this problem for 17 years and currently being investigated by the Ministry of Health. Initial consultation with doctors and specialists found that the wires are also inside her body. At this stage, there were no current medical explanations or any case ever exist. Hence, there is but only one other possible consideration… Occult magic.

Her name is NOORSYAIDAH. A 40 years old kindergarten teacher from Sangatta, East Kutai. Her first symptoms started manifestating in 1991. The metal wires grew out of her chest and her belly. There was no explanation then (or even now). During the first week wires kept falling off from her body and were gone. A month later, the wires grew back again and from that time onward the wires did not fall. They kept growing!

One of her sisters said that she tried to help by trimming the wires. Alas, whenever she trimmed the wires, the wire retreated as if it were hiding and then popped up in another part of Noorsyaidah’s body.

There have been 4 Medical Specialists taking this matter seriously and have treated her in several ways. And as the result, doctors can’t figure out what exactly is happening to her. The doctors have taken an X-Ray image from her stomach and found that there are more than 40 metal wires inside her and some of them are bursting out of her skin. They looks like a living phenomenon. The wires are able mobile and therefore can change location at will, Thus the doctors are forced to use a magnet to scan the exact position of the wires. The wires bursted out without any symptoms of Tetanus, but she said that they’re hurting her like when needles sting.

Source

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Friday, August 29, 2008

What on earth is slow food?

Why does a black man living in Washington D.C. die younger than a man in India?

On average, a black man living in Washington, D.C., does not live as long as a man in India, and he certainly doesn't live as long as a white man in his hometown. The reasons — just like the reasons that the Japanese and Swedes live longer than the Ukrainians, and why aborigines in Australia on average die 17 years earlier than non-aborigines — are almost entirely social, according to a new report from the World Health Organization (WHO) released today.

It may seem obvious, or even inevitable, that a poor person would live a shorter, sicker life than a rich one. But consider also that a "social gradient of health" exists even among the rich: the outlandishly wealthy live healthier and longer than the rich, who live better than the merely comfortable. In every country around the world, WHO's Commission on the Social Determinants of Health found that the very best off had better health than people a few rungs below them on the socioeconomic ladder. "Even in Sweden" — a country with a strong history of social and economic equality — "if you look over the last 10 years, life expectancy has improved across the board. But it's improved more for people with high education than it has for people with low education," says Michael Marmot, chair of the Commission and a U.K.-based epidemiologist. More...

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Would you put your baby in a microwave oven and cook it to death? Someone did just that...

A mother intentionally put her month-old daughter in a microwave oven and cooked the child to death after a fight with her boyfriend, a prosecutor told jurors Thursday.

Defendant China Arnold and her boyfriend had argued over whether he was the biological father, Assistant Montgomery County prosecutor Daniel Brandt said during closing arguments in the woman's retrial. 

The argument got so heated that Arnold bit her boyfriend's lip and he slapped her, Brandt said.

Arnold, 28, of Dayton, is accused of killing her infant daughter Paris Talley in 2005. She could face the death penalty if convicted of aggravated murder.

Brandt said Arnold told a cellmate she put the baby in the microwave and turned it on because she was worried her boyfriend would leave her if he found out the child wasn't his, Brandt said.

"She could have stopped it with one finger, but she didn't," Brandt said. "We know she used that microwave as the instrument of death."

Defense attorney Jon Paul Rion told the jury there was evidence that someone else was responsible.

He cited testimony from a boy who said he saw another boy walk into the kitchen of a nearby apartment with the baby, heard the microwave go on, and then later saw the burned baby in the microwave.

"He told a very believable story," Rion said.

Judge John Kessler declared a mistrial in February after he privately heard the youngster's account. The boy, now 8, testified at the retrial Tuesday.
In rebuttal, however, the 8-year-old's mother testified Wednesday that they lived some distance away and they were not at Arnold's apartment complex when the baby died. Her former live-in boyfriend also testified that he was certain the boy was not at the location.

Source

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L'UBS, Marcel Ospel et les Etats-Unis...


Dans l'ouvrage, qui paraît aujourd'hui, Myret Zaki, journaliste au quotidien Le Temps, met en exergue le fait que la chute d'UBS est intimement liée à l'histoire d'un homme, un autodidacte fasciné par les Etats-Unis. Compte rendu.

En voulant faire de l'établissement suisse le numéro un mondial de la banque d'affaires, Marcel Ospel a fait prendre tous les risques à UBS en se lançant sur le marché très risqué des subprimes (crédits hypothécaires de piètre qualité).

Dans son avant-propos, Myret Zaki le rappelle clairement: le français est le parent pauvre du monde de la finance, intrinsèquement anglo-saxon. Résultat, pour suivre la chute vertigineuse d'UBS depuis le premier trimestre 2007, il fallait de préférence se plonger dans les publications américaines que dans la presse francophone.

Ce n'est pas le seul mérite du livre «UBS, enquête sur un désastre» publié aux Editions Favre. La journaliste romande explique en termes simples, accessibles à tout un chacun, la descente aux enfers d'UBS, jusqu'ici réputée pour sa prudence.  Suite...

Voir aussi:

WTF! Genetically Modified Orgasms!!!!

Politics Brings Out the Fools in Nearly All of Us...

Here's a letter that (Donald J. Boudreaux) sent today to the Washington Post:

George Will is correct: most of Barack Obama's economic ideas are idiotic ("Little Rhetoric Riding Hood," August 24). But, along with many of John McCain's equally moronic ideas, they sell big-time - which is the very reason these candidates persistently deliver such preposterous lines.

Washington is no less diligent than is Hollywood at satisfying the public's demand for heroic adventures, epic fantasies, and fairy tales. Each production stars supercilious superstars portraying characters boasting magical powers and godly goodness.

The only difference between Hollywood and Washington is that, while audiences understand Hollywood's leading men and women to be acting, this same ability to distinguish fantasy from fact disappears when the executive producer is Uncle Sam.

Sincerely,

Donald J. Boudreaux

Source

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Thursday, August 28, 2008

A look at that great English word "Fuck..."


Les chats chinois se poussent des ailes!!!


Un chat a commencé à développer des "ailes" au cours d'une période de grande chaleur, dans le Sichuan, une province du sud de la Chine qu'un tremblement de terre dévastateur avait frappé le 12 mai dernier. 

Bien que ces croissance semblent duveteuses, elles sont constituées d'os. Selon les vétérinaires, ces croissances ne nuisent pas à la qualité de vie du chat ni à sa sécurité.

Plusieurs autres chats dans le Sichuan ont été photographiés avec une fourrure protubérante par un photographe d'un journal local.

"Au début, il y avait que deux bosses, mais elle ont commencé à croître rapidement, et après un mois, il y avait deux ailes", a déclaré un propriétaire de chat, surnommé Feng.

"Beaucoup de chattes en chaleur sont venues le harceler, puis ses ailes ont commencé à se développer", a-t-elle dit au journal local Huashang News.

Bien que Feng ait attribué le changement physique de son animal à l'état de stress d'un "félin en amour" et à la chaleur de la région, les scientifiques ont une explication bien moins romantique.

Cette croissance inhabituelle serait due à une mutation génétique...

Source

Voir aussi:

Hey you wankers! Did you know that masturbation is more dangerous than smoking? Hilarious!

Masturbation is more dangerous than smoking. Doctors of a generation ago knew this, but since the Sexual Revolution of the 1960's, this fact has been lost in the "if it feels good, do it" mentality.

Myth: Masturbation is harmless.
Reality: Christianity proves that chronic Masturbation causes weakness, depression, forgetfulness and nearsightedness.

Myth: There are bigger problems than Masturbation, like drugs and AIDS.
Reality: Experts estimate that there are at least 150,000 Americans masturbating RIGHT NOW! Masturbation costs American businesses at least $3.14 billion in lost productivity every month!

Myth: Masturbation is not immoral.
Reality: Read your Bible. God was so offended when Onan spilled his seed upon the ground that God struck Onan dead! It is true that Onan wasn't Masturbating, but the point is that God hates it when men waste sperm, no matter what the reason.

Myth: Masturbation is a "Victimless Crime."

Reality: Theological experts on Masturbation have come to the conclusion that Masturbation is what is known as a "gateway" sin. This means that Masturbation leads to more serious offenses. In fact, practically all rapists, Sodomites, child molesters and pornography addicts started out as Masturbators. Full story...

See also:

Here's one blogger's opinion as to why Indian athletes don't shine...

Suresh Kalmadi is one good reason.

According to today's Times of India, The Indian Olympics Association President, who had nothing to do with Abhinav Bindra's, Vijender Kumar's and Sushil's Kumar's medals, and who will, no doubt, best remember this year's Olympics for his tour of China, tried to position his posterior on a seat reserved for medalist Sushil Kumar at a felicitation ceremony for the sporststar at Rashtrapati Bhawan yesterday.

When Kalmadi was told to scram, he 'left in a huff.' (To steal Vijender Kumar's seat?)

Kalmadi found other ways to show the sportsmen his appreciation; to prove to them that they were valued by their country, and that their lifetime of sweat and blood had, in fact, been worth it.

For the felicitation ceremony, he had them booked at a two star hotel in Delhi (apparently changed to a four star, when the media got wind of it). And while he and his buddies flew to China and back on business class, our medallists and all our other hard working and dedicated sportsmen and women were shoved into economy. Questioned about this, one of the officials said 'there were no seats available (in business). When we offered (Sushil and Vijender) our seats, they refused.'

Because they have class enough for all of you?

Source

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45 years ago today,MLK: I have a dream...

Bangladesh: Two-headed boy, Kiron, is dead...

A two-headed baby born in Bangladesh on Monday has died after his parents took him home because they could not afford medical care, Agence France-Presse reported Thursday.

The boy, named Kiron, was born by Caesarean section at a clinic in Keshobpur, 85 miles from the Bangladesh capital of Dhaka. He weighed 12 pounds, 1 ounce.

Kiron was under police guard at the hospital because officials felt that the baby and his mother were at risk from the anxious crowd of 150,000 that had gathered to see him.

Babies born with physical abnormalities in Bangladesh and India are often hailed as living gods. An eight-limbed girl named Lakshmi born in India last October was believed by villagers to be a reincarnation of the four-armed Hindu goddess of wealth.

Kiron died at home Wednesday night.

The baby was a unique case with one body, but two heads, his mother's gynecologist told AFP.

"He has one stomach and he is eating normally with his two mouths," Dr. Mohamad Abdul Bari said prior to his death. "He has one genital organ and a full set of limbs." 

Bari said the baby developed from one embryo "but there was a developmental anomaly."

Source

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Bangladesh: le bébé à deux têtes n'a pas survécu...

Kiron, est né avec 2 têtes. Un phénomène très rare, qui nécessite une attention et des soins particuliers. Sa famille n'avait pu payer son transfert dans un hôpital de Dacca (Bangladesh), où il aurait pu être traité. Elle était donc rentrée à la maison avec son bébé. Le nourrisson a développé de la fièvre et a commencé à éprouver des difficultés à respirer. Il est décédé dans la nuit de mercredi à jeudi.

Sa venue au monde a déplacé les foules...150 000 curieux se sont déplacés pour voir Kiron, un cas "très rare" selon le pédiatre de l'hôpital dans lequel il est né. Du coup, il avait été placé sous protection policière.

Selon le gynécologue, "un seul embryon au départ s'était développé de manière anormale". S'il est né avec deux têtes, Kiron "avait un estomac unique et s'alimentait normalement, mais avec ses deux bouches" a déclaré le gynécologue Mohamad Abdul Bari.

Les médecins n'avaient pas été en mesure de déterminer si le bébé disposait ou non de tous ses organes vitaux en double.

Source

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OMG! Chinese cats are growing wings!!!


One animal started to develop the "wings" during a period of hot weather in Sichuan, a large province in southern China where a devastating earthquake struck this spring. 

Although the growths appear fluffy, they contain bone. But veterinary experts say that despite the hard inner core, the flaps do not harm the cat's quality of life or safety. 

Several animals were photographed with the furry protuberances by a local newspaper photographer. 

"At first they were just two bumps, but they started to grow quickly, and after a month there were two wings," said one cat's owner, who was only identified as Feng. 

"Many female cats in heat came to harass him, and then the wings started to grow," she told the local Huashang News. 

Although Feng attributed her pet's condition to the stress of a feline love life and the hot Sichuan summer. However, scientists said the wings had a less romantic explanation. 

In fact, the hairy growths probably developed because of unusual grooming habits, a genetic defect or a hereditary skin condition.

Source

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Most Sung-About Body Part? The Eyes Have It...

Visual artists Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg analyzed over 10,000 songs to find out which parts of the human body were mentioned the most and broke down the resulting data by genre. The result: An interactive graphic work called "Listen" that correlates musical genres with the body parts they mention the most, as part of their ongoing Fleshmap project. Clicking on each genre brings up a more detailed representation of its chief bodily concerns.

"Listen investigates the relationship between language and the body," reads one sentence of the project's manifesto. "Verbal manifestations of human physicality in music, poetry and religion are distilled to their basic elements." By presenting those elements in such an intuitive way, Viégas and Wattenberg bring data to life graphically, so that it can be grasped in seconds. More...

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Antiquiet blogger arrested for releasong Gun N' Roses songs...

A man accused of posting nine previously unreleased songs by the rock band Guns N' Roses on a website where they could be accessed by the public was arrested at his home early today on suspicion of violating federal copyright laws, authorities said.

Kevin Cogill, 27, is accused of posting the songs, which were being prepared for commercial release, on the Internet blog Antiquiet in June, according to an arrest affidavit. The site received so much traffic after the songs were posted that it crashed, the affidavit states.

Cogill admitted to posting the songs when he was questioned by an FBI agent, according to the affidavit. He was arrested at his home in Culver City this morning and is expected to appear in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles later today, said Assistant U.S. Atty.

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Une façon cool de faire vos achats...

Here's a cool way of doing your shopping...


Rage Against the Machine and Iraq veterans say "NO" to war...

Thousands of anti-war demonstrators converged near security gates outside the Democratic National Convention hall on Wednesday, chanting slogans and asking to talk to party officials about getting U.S. troops out of Iraq.

Police in riot gear ordered the group to disperse, and after about 15 minutes many protesters drifted off. But about 400 gathered several blocks away, still within sight of the Pepsi Center, where the Democrats were nominating Barack Obama for president.

The protesters wanted to give Obama a letter asking that he agree to an immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq, provide full health care benefits for returning troops and veterans and provide reparations to the Iraqi people for damage caused by the war. More...

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'Inconsolable' baby elephant re-united with mother! Cool!


The mother of a newborn baby elephant is no longer tethered, and is now together with her baby, nursing it.

It's an exciting development for zoo handlers after the elephant mother Rose-Tu initially displayed aggression toward the newborn elephant.

Zoo staff have been busy since the baby elephant's birth, working to insure the baby's survival.

On Monday, Oregon Zoo Deputy Director described the scene to Portland news station KGW, which has been reporting the story from the beginning. 

"Rose-Tu and her calf have been together since 5 p.m. last night," said Keele. "The staff has been working day and night to help ensure this critical reintroduction is successful."

The 286-pound calf approached Rose-Tu and nursed on both sides of her during the supervised reintroduction. Rose-Tu has been lifting her front leg forward and tucking the calf under her, almost like a hug, according to Keele. More...

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Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Anna Göldi,«La dernière sorcière» enfin déclarée innocente...

Le canton de Glaris a officiellement réhabilité mercredi Anna Göldi, «dernière sorcière d'Europe», 226 ans après sa condamnation par l'Eglise et sa décapitation. La gouvernante avait été jugée pour avoir empoisonné une fillette dont elle avait la garde.

Anna Göldi (1734-1782) est considérée comme la dernière victime européenne des procès en sorcellerie, et cela à une époque, fin du 18e siècle, où ils avaient déjà presque partout disparu. En Allemagne, la dernière victime de cette justice particulière avait été exécutée en 1738.

Le destin tragique de la servante Anna Göldi s'est noué à Mollis, petit village du canton de Glaris, où la superstition et le fanatisme religieux le disputaient à l'abus de pouvoir.

L'an dernier, l'affaire est ressortie des tiroirs et des archives après la publication d'un livre-enquête du journaliste Walter Hauser. Il y publiait de nouveaux documents selon lesquels le tribunal saisi pour juger Anna Göldi n'avait pas la compétence de le faire.

Walter Hauser montrait aussi que le maître de la gouvernante avait fait pression sur les autorités, parmi lesquelles il siégeait, pour condamner la jeune femme. «L'affaire m'intéressait car je suis Glaronais et avocat de formation. On pourrait dire que j'étais prédestiné à écrire sur Anna Göldi!», a-t-il expliqué à swissinfo.  Suite...

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Inde: 49 bébés morts pendant des essais de médicaments...


Une semaine après l’enquête du « Times of India » révélant que 49 bébés indiens sont morts à New Delhi au cours de tests thérapeutiques, les réactions et les nouvelles révélations se poursuivent.

Le 18 août, le quotidien révélait que 49 bébés, dont la plupart avaient moins d’un an, sont morts à l’Institut des sciences médicales de New Delhi (AIIMS). Tous étaient des cobayes pour de nouveaux médicaments pédiatriques avant leurs mises sur le marché (contre les carences en zinc, l’hypertension artérielle ou encore une maladie du foie). 

En deux ans et demi, le département de pédiatrie de cet hôpital, le plus grand d’Inde, a réalisé 42 séries de tests sur 4 142 bébés pour le compte de laboratoires étrangers, en particulier les suisses Roche et Novartis et le japonais Sankyo pharma. 

En Inde, une loi sur le « droit à l’information » permet à tout citoyen d’interroger un organisme d’Etat. En juin, Rahul Verma, le président de la Fondation Uday pour les défauts congénitaux et les groupes sanguins rares, a posé par écrit des questions à l’hôpital, qui lui a répondu ce mois-ci. Rahul Verma a fourni ces documents à Aujourd’hui l’Inde, partenaire de Rue89. 

On y découvre que les médicaments en phase de tests en Inde ont été fournis par la filiale américaine du suisse Novartis, le suisse Roche et le japonais Sankyo Pharma. Suite...

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Un bébé né avec deux têtes...


Le nourrisson de sexe masculin est venu au monde par césarienne dans une clinique de Keshobpur à 135 kilomètres de Dacca et pesait 5,5 kg à la naissance. Pour l'instant, le bébé et sa mère âgée de 22 ans se portent bien.

Le nouveau-né a un estomac unique et s'alimente normalement, mais avec ses deux bouches, a expliqué mercredi à l'AFP un gynécologue de l'hôpital. D'après l'obstétricien, le bébé possède un seul organe génétique et dispose de tous ses membres.

La nouvelle de cette naissance s'est propagée comme une traînée de poudre dans la bourgade et 150 000 personnes se sont rendues mardi à la clinique.

Le bébé et sa mère ont alors été transférés dans un plus grand hôpital, dans la ville de Jessore, et «nous avons appelé la police pour qu'elle monte la garde autour de l'établissement», a raconté le médecin.

De nombreux curieux ont fait des dons d'argent à la famille de l'enfant, selon le journal local «Samakal».

Le secteur hospitalier du Bangladesh, un pays musulman laïc de 144 millions d'habitants, a été confronté ces dernières années à plusieurs anomalies à la naissance, notamment des bébés-siamois.

Source

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911: "Coincidences" or Synchronicities?

Beauty contest for nuns? The Church is not amused...

An Italian priest who had planned an online "pageant" for nuns has suspended the project, saying he was misinterpreted and had no intention of putting sisters on a beauty catwalk.

"My superiors were not happy. The local bishop was not happy, but they did not understand me either," Father Antonio Rungi told Reuters by telephone from his convent in southern Italy Tuesday.

"It was not at all my intention to put nuns on the catwalk," said Rungi, a priest of the Passionists religious order, speaking from his convent in the town of Mondragone.

Rungi's idea appeared in newspapers around the world after he wrote of a contest for nuns on his blog, called by some "Sister Italy 2008."

"It was interpreted as more of a physical thing. Now, no-one is saying that nuns can't be beautiful, but I was thinking about something more complete," he said.

He said his concept for the contest, in which nuns would vote for themselves on his blog, would include attributes such as their spirituality, social awareness, charity and other qualities.

Rungi wrote in his blog that his intention was to show "the interior beauty" of a nun and the work she does for the Church and for society, mostly in education and health care.

"We have to draw more attention to the world of nuns, who are often not sufficiently appreciated by society," he wrote, adding that he had hoped his initiative would help boost sagging vocations to religious lie. 

"Many monasteries in Italy are dying because of a lack of religious vocations," he wrote.

Rungi said he received a lot of calls of support but also many sharp emails by people who attacked him for wanting to create a Miss Italy-style event.

"Some of them were really nasty," he said.

Source

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Two-headed boy born in Bangladesh...


The boy, named Kiron and weighing 12 lbs 1 oz, was born by Cesarean section on Monday at a clinic in Keshobpur, 85 miles from the capital, Dhaka.

But an estimated 150,000 people from the region descended on the clinic to try to catch sight of the boy so he was moved to a larger hospital. Police are now mounting a round-the-clock operation to protect him and his family from intrusion.

Dr Mohamad Abdul Bari, his mother's gynaecologist, said: "He has one stomach and he is eating normally with his two mouths. He has one genital organ and a full set of limbs.

"He was born from one embryo but there was a developmental anomaly."

The clinic had been unable to determine whether the baby had one or two sets of vital organs, Dr Bari said.

Kiron's life was not in immediate danger but he and his 22-year-old mother were moved to the hospital in the nearby city of Jessore city because of the large crowds that had gathered at the clinic, the doctor said.

"Around 150,000 people gathered yesterday from different areas. It became tough for us to care for the baby.

"We called police to tackle the situation and they are guarding the hospital in Jessore as well," he said.

The Samakal newspaper said that many well-wishers had left money for the baby's family.

Source

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Switzerland exonerates Europe's last executed witch, Anna Goeldi...

Anna Goeldi was executed for being a witch more than 220 years ago — the last witch beheaded in Europe. On Wednesday, the Swiss decided the least they could do was clear her name.

The parliament of the Swiss canton (state) of Glarus decided unanimously Wednesday to exonerate Goeldi as a victim of "judicial murder," said Josef Schwitter, a government spokesman.

Goeldi was executed in 1782 for an alleged case of poisoning.

Several thousand people, mainly women, were executed for witchcraft between the 14th and 18th centuries in Switzerland, and elsewhere in Europe. Yet Goeldi's trial and beheading in the village of Mollis took place at a time when witch trials had largely disappeared from the continent. 

Goeldi, a maidservant in the house of prominent burgher Johann Jakob Tschudi, was convicted of "spoiling" the family's daughter, causing her to spit pins and have convulsions. Yet Tschudi, a doctor and magistrate, was alleged to have had an affair with Goeldi — and if that came out, his reputation would have been seriously damaged.

The case was brought to light through a book by local journalist Walter Hauser.

The move to exonerate Goeldi came after a long debate in the eastern Swiss region, and was taken after talks with both the Protestant and Roman Catholic churches.

Last year, the canton's executive branch and the Protestant Church council both rejected even considering an exoneration, but the Glarus parliament urged the executive branch to reconsider. In June, the Glarus executive branch did, and asked parliament to ratify Goeldi's exoneration.

The Glarus government said the Protestant Church council, which conducted the trial, had no legal authority and had decided in advance that Goeldi was guilty. She was executed even though the law at the time did not impose the death penalty for nonlethal poisoning.

"This is to acknowledge that the verdict handed down came from a nonlegal trial and that Anna Goeldi was the victim of 'judicial murder'," the government said two months ago.

Goeldi's torture and execution was even more incomprehensible, the government said, because it happened in the Age of Enlightenment when "those who made the judgment regarded themselves as educated."

"In spite of that, they tortured an innocent person and had her executed, although it was known to them that the alleged crime was neither doable nor possible and that there was no legal basis for their verdict," the government said.

The exoneration was also an acknowledgment that an unknown number of other innocent people whose cases cannot be reviewed had been killed over the centuries. The Glarus government did not assume any responsibility, however, for past wrongdoings.

A museum on Goeldi opened in Mollis last year on the 225th anniversary of her death. The Glarus government is also donating $118,000 to create a theater play about her life.

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Tuesday, August 26, 2008

France:Big Brother est arrivé, ou plutôt Big Sister...

Orwell nous l’avait promis pour 1984.

Avec un peu de retard, le voilà en train de s’installer dans notre pays.

Il devrait plutôt l’appeler « Big Sister », car il s’appelle Edvige.

C’est un décret paru le 27 juin 2008 qui lui a donné naissance.

Sa mission ?

« Centraliser et analyser les informations relatives aux personnes physiques ou morales ayant sollicité, exercé ou exerçant un mandat politique, syndical ou économique ou qui jouent un rôle institutionnel, économique, social ou religieux significatif, sous condition que ces informations soient nécessaires au Gouvernement ou à ses représentants pour l’exercice de leurs responsabilités ».

Pour parler plus clairement, elle va nous espionner.

Syndiqué, élu, commerçant, religieux, militant, et institutionnel, manifestants… ce qui regroupe pas mal de monde, pour ne pas dire tout le monde.

Ceux qui pensent ne pas l’être devrait se rappeler de cette parabole :

« quand ils sont venus chercher mon voisin qui était militant, je n’ai pas réagi, 

quand ils sont venus chercher un autre voisin qui était noir, juif, arabe (barrer la mention inutile) je n’ai pas réagi,

maintenant il ne reste plus que moi, ils frappent à la porte, et il n’y a plus personne pour m’aider ».  
Suite...

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