Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Quirky!

  • 16 June 2010, 9:12

Student's bizarre attack on Hell's Angels

Hell's Angels /Rex

A German student created a major traffic jam in Bavaria when he 'mooned' a group of Hell's Angels, hurled a puppy at them and then escaped on a bulldozer.

The 26-year-old drove into the grounds of the motorcycle gang members' clubhouse north of Munich, according to reports in local media.

The young man, who was not identified, then dropped his pants, threw the puppy, and then fled.

After making his getaway, he stole the bulldozer from a nearby construction site, and attempted to drive it to Munich.

However, it was not fast enough, and his snail-like pace caused a three-mile traffic jam near the southern town of Allershausen.

He then fled to his home nearby where he was apprehended by the police.

"What motivated him to throw a puppy at the Hell's Angels is currently unclear," said a spokesman for local police.

He added that the student had been suffering from depression. The puppy was now in safe hands at a local animal shelter.

(Mooning is the act of displaying one's bare buttocks by removing clothing, e.g., by lowering the backside of one's trousers and underpants, usually bending over, whether also exposing the genitals or not. ...en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mooned)

(The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club (HAMC) is a worldwide one-percenter motorcycle gangand organized crime syndicate[3][4][12][13] whose members typically ride Harley-Davidsonmotorcycles. In the United States and Canada, the Hells Angels are incorporated as theHells Angels Motorcycle Corporation. Their primary motto is "When we do right, nobody remembers. When we do wrong, nobody forgets".[-Wikipedia)


Technology.

Flying car set to take off

Terrafugia Transition /Rex

A flying car is to go into commercial production after manufacturers were given a special exemption by US aviation officials.

The Terrafugia Transition is designed as a 'light sport' aircraft, the smallest kind of private aeroplane under FAA classification.

But manufacturers found it impossible to keep under the 1,320lb weight limit, once they had added safety features - such as airbags, crumple zones and roll cage - required for road vehicles.

Uniquely, however, the FAA has granted the Transition an exemption - allowing it to be classified as a light sport aircraft despite being 120lb over limit, reports the Daily Telegraph.

Light sport aircraft licences require just 20 hours' flying time, making them much easier to obtain than full private licences.

The two-seater Transition can use its front-wheel drive on roads at ordinary highway speeds, with wings folded, at a respectable 30mpg.

Once it has arrived at a suitable take-off spot - an airport, or adequately sized piece of flat private land - it can fold down the wings, engage its rear-facing propellor, and take off.

Its cruising speed in the air is 115mph, it has a range of 460 miles, and it can carry 450lb. It requires a 1,700-foot runway to take off and can fit in a standard garage.

Terrafugia says that one of the major advantages of the Transition over ordinary light aircraft is safety - in the event of bad weather, it can simply drive home instead of being grounded or flying in unsafe conditions.

The car is expected to retail at about £130,000. The company says that 70 people have already ordered the car, leaving a £6,650 deposit each.

Petrified Finger

Posted: Sat, 19 Jun 2010 19:55:00 -0800

One of my children dug this up in our suburban Michigan backyard. It appears to be a finger and has what looks like a fingernail. When I ran my finger over the back of it I could feel where a joint would have been. As you can see it is the same size as my own finger.

--'Father Of Many'

Green

Interesting concepts that can help enhance road safety
Posted by: Aditi Justa | Jan 21 2010

road safety concept

With so many vehicles hitting the road each year, road safety has become an issue of concern. The ever-increasing cases of road-kills make news every day. So, making the lives of the commuters and drivers a little simpler and safer becomes extremely important. Bringing ingenious ideas and creativity together, a few designers have tasted the flavor of success in conceptualizing interesting concepts that can help enhance road safety. Here we have some of them…

The Web


The Web is constantly turning out new and extraordinary services many of us are unfamiliar with. During TED University at this spring's TED2007 in Monterey, Julius Wiedemann, editor in charge at Taschen GmbH, offered an ultra-fast-moving ride through sites in many different areas, from art, design and illustration, to daily news, blogs and curiosity. Now, by popular demand, here's his list of 100 websites you should know and use.

CURIOSITY & KNOWLEDGE

reuters.com
research.philips.com
readme.cc
podtropolis.com
papertoys.com
new7wonders.com
lipsum.com
thomasedison.org
beelinetv.com
useit.com
submarinechannel.com/titlesequences
visual-literacy.org
cartype.com
captology.stanford.edu
bannerblog.com.au
ge.com
curiosityshoppeonline.com
creativecommons.org
lawsofsimplicity.com
gnu.org
digg.com

GRAPHICS, MUSIC & ARTS

yugop.com
vincent-vella.com
uva.co.uk
tutorialblog.org/free-vector-downloads
tate.org.uk
squidfingers.com/patterns
sohodolls.co.uk
radioblogclub.com
photogravure.com
netdiver.net/illustration
mine-control.com
matthewmahon.com
marcelod2.com.br
magwerk.com
kraftwerk.blocmedia.net
headbangers.tv
grupow.com/circulo
creaturesinmyhead.com
bernhardwolff.com
arturofuentes.com
alennox.net

E-COMMERCE EXPERIENCE

colette.fr
imaginemusicstore.com
canyon.com
coft1.com
heftyrecords.com
ourtype.be
freddyandma.com
nikeid.nike.com
feelthepower.biz
shopcomposition.com
oneill.com
agentprovocateur.com

SEARCHING & FINDING

trendwatching.com
thefwa.com
springwise.com
scirus.com
scholar.google.com
podcasts.yahoo.com
msdewey.com
maps.live.com
chacha.com
books.google.com

ONLINE RESOURCES

infopresse.com/prixboomerang
rjnet.com.br/2velocimetro_php
vixy.net
kuler.adobe.com
wikitravel.org
thinkingwithtype.com
dominiopublico.gov.br
madehow.com
icp.org
howstuffworks.com
dafont.com
dictionary.reference.com
gutenberg.org
nationmaster.com
en.proverbia.net
del.icio.us
touchgraph.com

TOP INTERACTIVE EXPERIENCE CREATORS

2advanced.com
akqa.com
almapbbdo.com.br
artless.gr.jp
bigspaceship.com
d-o-e-s.com
domanistudios.com
eurorscg4d.com
farfar.se
firstbornmultimedia.com
group94.com
heiwa-alpha.co.jp
hi-res.net
lowetesch.com
mecano.ca
northkingdom.com
rga.com
soleilnoir.com
wefail.com

You need to be a member of TED Talks to add comments!
Jon Aston Comment by Jon Aston 42 minutes ago
Great list - and I have to agree with @Lee_Carrol.
Lee Carroll Comment by Lee Carroll on May 1, 2010 at 2:35pm
Next time if your going to list web sites make sure that they link to that site.
Thomas Hertkorn Comment by Thomas Hertkorn on October 6, 2009 at 3:18pm
Amazing list, but what the heck does ICQ in there?
I missed the marketing part in the list such as seomozz...
Thanks for that list again, maybe some day marketing - online marketing & viral marketing get their place.
Kaffeevollautomat Comment by Kaffeevollautomat on October 6, 2009 at 3:12pm
Cool list. Thanks for this...
Angria Comment by Angria on October 5, 2009 at 1:24am
Great to be here.
ashraf150 Comment by ashraf150 on October 4, 2009 at 2:25pm
hello
Wood Notes: Advice From a Tree

Advice from a Tree
By Ilan Shamir

Dear Friend,

Stand Tall and Proud
Sink your roots deeply into the Earth
Reflect the light of a greater source
Think long term
Go out on a limb
Remember your place among all living beings
Embrace with joy the changing seasons
For each yields its own abundance
The Energy and Birth of Spring
The Growth and Contentment of Summer
The Wisdom to let go of leaves in the Fall
The Rest and Quiet Renewal of Winter

Feel the wind and the sun
And delight in their presence
Look up at the moon that shines down upon you
And the mystery of the stars at night.
Seek nourishment from the good things in life
Simple pleasures
Earth, fresh air, light

Be content with your natural beauty
Drink plenty of water
Let your limbs sway and dance in the breezes
Be flexible
Remember your roots

Enjoy the view!

Spy case- femme fatale of Russian spy case

NY suspect dubbed femme fatale of Russian spy case

NEW YORK — Anna Chapman has been called the femme fatale of a spy case with Cold War-style intrigue — a striking redhead and self-styled entrepreneur who dabbled in real estate and mused on her Facebook page, "if you can dream, you can become it."

Chapman's American dream, U.S. authorities say, was a ruse.

The 28-year-old Chapman, they say, was a savvy Russian secret agent who worked with a network of other operatives before an FBI undercover agent lured her into an elaborate trap at a coffee shop in lower Manhattan.

Though the U.S. has branded the operatives as living covertly, at least in Chapman's case, she had taken care to brand herself publicly as a striver of the digital age, passionately embracing online social networking by posting information and images of herself for the world to see.

Prosecutors have charged Chapman and 10 other suspects with following orders by Russian intelligence to become "Americanized" enough to infiltrate "policymaking circles" and feed information back to Moscow.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Farbiarz has called evidence against Chapman "devastating." She is "someone who has extraordinary training, who is a sophisticated agent of Russia," he said.

Chapman and nine others accused of being ring members were arrested across the Northeast and charged with failing to register as foreign agents, a crime that is less serious than espionage and carries up to five years in prison. Some also face money laundering charges. An 11th suspect was arrested in Cyprus, accused of passing money to the other 10 over several years.

Prosecutors said several of the defendants were Russians living in the U.S. under assumed names and posing as Canadian or American citizens. It was unclear how and where they were recruited, but court papers said the operation went as far back as the 1990s. Exactly what sort of information the agents are alleged to have provided to their Russian handlers — and how valuable it may have been — was not disclosed.

The FBI finally moved in to break up the ring because one of the suspects — apparently Chapman, who was bound for Moscow, according to court papers — was going to leave the country, the Department of Justice said Tuesday.

The court papers allege that some of the ring's members were husband and wife and that they used invisible ink, coded radio transmissions and encrypted data and employed methods such as swapping bags in passing at a train station.

Farbiarz called the arrests "the tip of the iceberg" of a conspiracy by Russia's intelligence service, the SVR, to collect information inside the U.S. The arrests raised fears that Moscow has planted other couples.

Such deep-cover agents are known as "illegals" in the intelligence world because they take civilian jobs instead of operating inside Russian embassies and military missions.

Russian officials initially denounced the arrests as "Cold War-era spy stories" and accused elements of the U.S. government of trying to undermine the improving relationship between Moscow and Washington. But the White House and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin expressed confidence that the arrests would not damage ties between the two nations.

At a court hearing Monday in federal court in Manhattan, where Chapman was jailed without bail, her attorney called the case against her weak. He said she had visited the United States on and off since 2005 before settling in Manhattan to start a business.

Chapman took an apartment a block from Wall Street and began using online social networks, including LinkedIn and Facebook, to develop business contacts and to market her skills. On her LinkedIn page, Chapman is listed as the chief executive officer of PropertyFinder Ltd., which maintains a website featuring real estate listings in Moscow, Spain, Bulgaria and other countries.

"Love launching innovative high-tech startups and building passionate teams to bring value into market," Chapman's LinkedIn summary says.

She lists previous jobs at an investment company and a hedge fund in London. The summary also says she earned a master's degree in economics at a Russian university in 2005.

In more than 90 photos posted to Facebook, Chapman is pictured in various countries, including Turkey, where she is in one of the rooms of the luxurious Hotel Les Ottoman, in Istanbul. There are also what look like family photographs from Russia and photographs of her dressed in a student uniform.

Her Internet footprints also include a photo of her posing with a glass of wine between two men at the Global Technology Symposium at Stanford University in March — it cost more than $1,000 to attend — and video clips, speaking in Russian about the economic opportunities in her adopted home.

Media reports quickly branded her a femme fatale, and tabloids splashed her photos on their front pages.

An acquaintance, David Hartman, owner of a New York real estate company, described Chapman as "pleasant, very professional, friendly."

"There's nothing too crazy about her that I knew of," he said.

A criminal complaint alleges that, unbeknownst to her business contacts such as Hartman, Chapman was using a specially configured laptop computer to transmit messages to another computer of an unnamed Russian official — a handler who was under surveillance by the FBI.

The laptop exchanges occurred 10 times, always on Wednesdays, until June, when an undercover FBI agent got involved, prosecutors said. The agent, posing as a Russian consulate employee and wearing a wire, arranged a meeting with Chapman at a Manhattan coffee shop, they said.

During the meeting, they initially spoke in Russian but then agreed to switch to English to draw less attention to themselves, the complaint says in recounting their recorded conversation.

"I need more information about you before I can talk."

"OK. My name is Roman. ... I work in the consulate."

The undercover said he knew she was headed to Moscow in two weeks "to talk officially about your work," but before that, "I have a task for you to do tomorrow."

The task: To deliver a fraudulent passport to another woman working as a spy.

"Are you ready for this step?" he asked.

"S---, of course," she responded.

The undercover gave her a location and told her to hold a magazine a certain way — that way, she would be recognized by a Russian agent, who would in turn confirm her identity by saying to her, "Excuse me, but haven't we met in California last summer?"

But Chapman was leery, prosecutors said.

"You're positive no one is watching?" they say she told the undercover agent after being given the instructions.

Afterward, authorities say, she was concerned enough to buy a cell phone and make a "flurry of calls" to Russia. In one of the intercepted calls, a man advised her she may have been uncovered, should turn in the passport to police and get out of the country.

She was arrested at a New York Police Department precinct after following that advice, authorities said.

Authorities say the undercover's parting words to her had been, "Your colleagues in Moscow, they know you're doing a good job. So keep it up."

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Pete Yost in Washington, D.C., and David Caruso and Eva Dou in New York.

Corruption in High Places

Another Theodore Roosevelt Gem

If we begin to think that the corruption we see in Washington

and on Wall Street is something new, we need only read up

on the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt.

It is not new.

The abbreviated version is contained in the following quote:

"A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car;

but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad."
--Theodore Roosevelt

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Homemade---How to make popcorn at home.

Easy Homemade Microwave Popcorn

by Marie on November 4, 2009

Yes, homemade microwave popcorn, and it really works! I was skeptical. I didn’t believe it could be that easy, but IT IS! Lisa, from Snack Snoop, has shared her how-to for Homemade Microwave Popcorn.

Homemade Microwave PopcornIt’s as easy as 1, 2, 3:

  1. Put 1/4 cup popcorn in a brown paper bag. Fold top over a few times and tape it.
  2. Place in microwave folded side upfor 2 to 3 minutes or until there is 5 seconds between pops.
  3. Eat plain or add flavors (such as salt, butter, sugar, etc.)

Easy Homemade Microwave Popcorn

With this system of microwave popping, you can:

  • control the amount of salt and butter
  • reuse the paper bag again and again
  • save money from buying the corn kernels, which yields a lot more popcorn
  • pop popcorn fast, without getting out the heavy machinery

I just can’t get enough of this popcorn, we make it all the time! It’s been a great after-school snack. Thanks, Lisa!

Health---stem cells therapy for blind patients a roaring success.

Some blind patients regain sight via stem cells


Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Dozens of people who were blinded or otherwise suffered severe eye damage when they were splashed with caustic chemicals have had their sight restored with transplants of their own stem cells, a stunning success for the burgeoning cell-therapy field, Italian researchers reported last week.

The treatment worked completely in 82 of 107 eyes and partially in 14 others, with benefits lasting up to a decade so far. One man whose eyes were severely damaged more than 60 years ago now has near-normal vision.

"This is a roaring success," said ophthalmologist Ivan Schwab of the University of California at Davis, who had no role in the study.

Stem cell transplants offer hope to people who suffer chemical burns on their corneas from heavy-duty cleansers or other substances at work or at home. Such accidents affect thousands worldwide every year.

The stem cell approach would not help people with damage to the optic nerve or macular degeneration, which involves the retina. Nor would it work in people who are completely blind in both eyes, because doctors need at least some healthy tissue that they can transplant.

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In the study, published online by the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers took a small number of stem cells from a patient's healthy eye, multiplied them in a lab and placed them into the burned eye, where they were able to grow new corneal tissue to replace what had been damaged. Since the stem cells are from their own bodies, the patients do not need to take anti-rejection drugs.

The study involved 106 patients treated between 1998 and 2007. Most had extensive damage in one eye, and some had such limited vision that they could only sense light or perceive hand motions. Many had been blind for years and had had unsuccessful operations to restore their vision.

Adult stem cells have been used for decades to cure blood cancers such as leukemia and diseases including sickle cell anemia. But fixing damaged eyes is a relatively new use.

Researchers have been studying cell therapy for a host of other diseases, including diabetes and heart failure, with limited success.

Health---Beetroot juice can lower blood pressure.

Nitrate content 'behind benefits of beetroot juice'

Page last updated at 23:01 GMT, Monday, 28 June 2010 00:01 UK

A study in the US journal Hypertension found that blood pressure was reduced within 24 hours in people who drank beetroot juice or took nitrate tablets.

The higher the blood pressure, the greater the impact of the nitrates.

This research suggests there is hope of using a more "natural" approach to bring down blood pressure. Nitrates are found in a number of vegetables.

A previous study found that drinking a pint of beetroot juice lowered blood pressure significantly in people with normal blood pressure.

Amrita Ahluwalia, author of the study and professor of vascular pharmacology at Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry said they had now proved why.The hope is that we could take a dietary approach and advise people to eat vegetables with high nitrate content

Amrita Ahluwalia London School of Medicine

"We showed that beetroot and nitrate capsules are equally effective in lowering blood pressure, indicating that it is the nitrate content of beetroot juice that underlies its potential to reduce blood pressure," she said.

The research shows that the inorganic nitrate content in beetroot is changed into the gas nitric oxide when eaten. This gas keeps the blood vessels open and relaxed and keeps blood pressure down.

World problem

Cardiovascular disease kills over 110,000 people in England every year.

More than 25% of the world's adult population is hypertensive, and it has been estimated that this figure will increase to 30% by 2025.

Eating fruit and vegetables is known to be good for our cardiovascular health.

But researchers say green, leafy vegetables like lettuce and beetroot are best at reducing the risk of strokes and heart attacks because of their high inorganic content, which comes from nitrates in the soil.

"The hope is that we could take a dietary nitrate approach and advise people to eat vegetables with high nitrate content," said Professor Ahluwalia.

Victoria Taylor, senior dietician at the British Heart Foundation, which funded the study said: "Although beetroot was used in this study it seems that the important thing here is the nitrates.

"More research is now needed to confirm these findings and to identify if the same effect is seen with other vegetables.

"The study seems to add more weight to the fact that we need to eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables each day," she said.

The study also found that men and women reacted differently to beetroot juice.

The decrease in blood pressure after taking beetroot juice was much more pronounced in men.

Researchers say this could be because women are better at naturally processing nitrate in their bodies.

Monday, June 28, 2010

This is Life!



THE SITUATION - In Washington , DC , at a Metro Station, on a cold January morning in 2007, this man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, approximately 2,000 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.
After about 3 minutes, a middle-aged man noticed that there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds, and then he hurried on to meet his schedule.

About 4 minutes later:
The violinist received his first dollar. A woman threw money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.

At 6 minutes:
A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

At 10 minutes:
A 3-year old boy stopped, but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head the whole time. This action was repeated by several other children, but every parent - without exception - forced their children to move on quickly.

At 45 minutes: The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while.
About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.

After 1 hour:
He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed and no one applauded. There was no recognition at all.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before, Joshua Bell sold-out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100 each to sit and listen to him play the same music.


This is a true story. Joshua Bell, playing incognito in the D.C. Metro Station, was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people’s priorities.

This experiment raised several questions:
*In a common-place environment, at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty?
*If so, do we stop to appreciate it?
*Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?


One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this:
If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made …
How many other things are we missing as we rush through life?

Badass of the Week.

Juliane Koepcke

On Christmas Eve 1971, in the skies above the desolate, remote jungles of Peru, LANSA Flight 508 got its ass rocked like a hurricane by a ginormous bolt of lightning that blew the entire fuselage apart like a humongoid human-filled flying pipe bomb with wings. Juliane Koepcke, a quiet seventeen year-old high school senior on her way to visit her father, fell two miles out of the sky, without a parachute, crunching into the dirt floor of the Amazon Rain Forest with enough velocity to fracture the skull of Bahamut the World Fish. When she somehow miraculously awoke and came to her senses (a feat which few of her fellow passengers managed to accomplish), she was still strapped in to her seat. She had a broken collarbone, a severe concussion, deep cuts in her arms and legs, and one of her eyes had been swollen shut like Stallone the end of Rocky II. You know, the sort of injuries you'd expect from someone who just plummeted through a few thousand feet of freefall and splashed down in a goddamned rainforest.

Juliane unbuckled her apparently-indestructible airline seat belt (she was obviously paying attention when the flight attendant was going through that whole "here's how you properly fasten your safety belt" portion of the spiel) and briefly surveyed the wreckage. All she saw were corpses and empty seats. She was alone in the Amazon, with the thick canopy jungle above her preventing her from signaling for help, and effectively crotch-stomping any hope for a successful or timely rescue. Juliane Koepcke had no food, no tools, no gear, no powerbars, no means to make fire, no maps, and no compass. Shit, she only had one shoe, having lost the other one during that whole "careening through the atmosphere" thing, which I guess is understandable. It was just her and the wilderness, mano-e-womano.



The Amazon.


Now, I touched on the Amazon River Basin somewhat in my article on EL TITANOBOA MONSTRUO, but perhaps this would be a good time for me to get into this in a little more detail. The Amazon is one of the most insane, hardcore jungles ever devised – a ghastly hellhole of unrighteous suckitude filled with horrors beyond that which most hack basement-dwelling sci-fi authors could ever dream up in their wildest LSD-inspired psychotic delusions. This place is right up there with the Congo, rural Siberia, and the Sahara Desert in terms of "terrible places you would only really want to visit if you enjoy being miserable and suffering a slow and painful death". It is home to thousands of species of venomous creatures, dozens of other non-poisonous things with large, pointy, flesh-rending teeth, revolting man-eating monsters, and giant evil gorillas that can face-punch people so hard their necks explode. It's the home of the Candiru Fish, a sick reject from God's murderous asshole that makes its living by swimming up peoples' urethras and embedding itself with a couple of horrific, groin-cringingly sharp spines. I mean, this place almost killed Teddy Roosevelt, a guy who is pretty much widely believed to be one of the most badass men to ever take a dump in the bathroom of the Oval Office, so you KNOW it's not something you should really jerk around with if you can help it. Shit, the fact that I even need to reference the TITANOBOA when talking about this place should give you a good idea of how retardedly insane this place is. You’d have better odds for survival working as a custodial technician in Ravenholm or sweeping out air ducts on LV-426.

Well, as I mentioned previously, Juliane Koepcke was just a young high school senior, but I should also say that she was working towards a degree in flippin' zoology at a school in Lima, Peru, so it wasn't like she was awkwardly terrified of a little bit of torrential rain or knee-deep mud or giant carnivorous predators or anything. It also didn't hurt that both of her parents were famous German biologists, either. In fact, she'd grown up living in a number of different research stations in the middle of this godforsaken jungle, so I guess I don't have to tell you that this ridiculously tough broad wasn't going to give up and start digging her own grave with a broken set of chopsticks just because she was lost and alone in one of the cruelest and most inhospitable jungles on the planet. Forget that. She wasn't going down without a fight, and she had every intention of giving this nightmarish deathzone a giant barefooted roundhouse kick right in its horrible dripping serrated mandibles. Juliane searched through the wreckage, grabbed the few pieces of candy and food that she was able to scrounge up from the debris, and started walking off into the jungle.



Good times.


Though she was disoriented and concussed, Juliane kept her wits about her and didn’t just go running around screaming and falling down all over the place like some slutty bimbo in a bad horror movie. This unbreakable survivor knew that her best chance of making it out of this craptastic situation was to link up with civilization as quickly as possible, and that most people tend to live near waterways of some form or another, so she pressed through the underbrush until she found a small creek, and she just started following it downstream. When the creek ran into a larger body of water, she followed that. When the vegetation on the river bank was too thick, she waded through knee-deep, piranha- and candiru-infested waters without even giving a crap. She just constantly pushed herself on, fighting forward, driving ahead through sheer force of will alone.

For eleven days (!) Juliane Koepcke trudged through the Amazon Rain Forest without any gear or food, smashing her way through the snarls of vegetation and plant life, avoiding the man-eating crocodiles she routinely encountered, and fighting off insect swarms, clouds of leeches, and other disgusting creatures of blood-sucking and/or multi-legged insanity. She drank river water, battled through infection and disease, foraged for whatever scraps of food she could get her hands on, and did a bunch of other badass Bear Grylls-types of shit just to stay alive long enough to find help.

Finally, after a week and a half of this hellish, ball-sucking death march, the semi-conscious, zombie-esque Koepcke shambled into a remote, makeshift logging camp on the edge of the rain forest. She fell down, curled up, and waited for help, which arrived the following day. The loggers gave her some very rudimentary first aid (part of which involved pouring gasoline on her to clean out her wounds, which sounds like it was probably a whole lot of fun), and took her on a seven-hour canoe trip to the nearest town, where a local pilot then flew her to the hospital for treatment. Of the 92 people on board Flight 508, this unassuming 17 year-old woman was the only one who walked out of the wilderness alive.

Of course, Juliane Koepcke wasn't done yet. She went on to get a PhD in Zoology, proving that this survivor could take the most horrible shit mother nature could throw at her and it wasn't even going to slow her down. Nowadays she studies bats in Germany or something, which is pretty sweet if you ask me. Her survival story remains one of the most badass demonstrations of human endurance that I've ever come across.



Kopcke returned to the debris-riddled crash site in 2000 to film a documentary.

She's just hard like that.


A 6 yr old Terrorist?

6-year-old Indian American girl on US terror list


Washington: Santhosh Thomas, an Indian-American doctor, is at a loss to understand how his six-year-old daughter Alyssa turned up on the US government's terror watch-list or how to get her off it.

The worst thing Alyssa has ever done is probably threatening her sister and that the doctor from Westlake, Ohio, says he's sure is not enough to land her on the no-fly list of suspected terrorists.

"She may have threatened her sister, but I don't think that constitutes Homeland Security triggers," Thomas told CNN.

An airline ticket agent informed the family of their predicament when they embarked on recent trip from Cleveland to Minneapolis. "They said, 'Well, she's on the list.' We're like, okay, what's the story? What do we have to do to get off the list? This isn't exactly the list we want to be on," Thomas was quoted as saying.

The Thomases were allowed to fly that day, but authorities told them to contact the US Department of Homeland Security to clear up the matter. Now they've received a letter from the government addressed to 6-year-old Alyssa, telling her that nothing in her file will be changed.

Federal authorities have acknowledged that such a no-fly list exists, but as a matter of national security, they won't comment on whose names are on it nor why.

"The watch lists are an important layer of security to prevent individuals with known or suspected ties to terrorism from flying," an unnamed spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration told Fox News.

"She's been flying since she was two-months old, so that has not been an issue," Alyssa's dad said. "In fact, we had travelled to Mexico in February and there were no issues at that time."

That's likely because of a recent change by the Transportation Security Administration, which used to check only international passengers' names against the no-fly list, but since earlier this month has been checking domestic passengers as well.

The Thomases told CNN they plan to appeal against Alyssa's status to the US Department of Homeland Security again, and will be sure to leave plenty of extra time for check-in the next time they fly.

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Citizen: Anything is possible in some places. May be because her name starts with 'Ali'.


honour-killing --Stricter Laws being considered.

Stricter law against honour killing: Moily


Stricter law against honour killing: Moily

Mr. M Veerappa Moily the Union minister of Law and Justice said on Sunday that the Centre was coming up with a stricter provision in the law to stop honour killings. Moily said the government would propose an amendment to the Special Marriage Act to bring down the period of notice for court marriages to 0 from 30 days.

Moily came to the city to attend a Regional Law Conference. It was for the implementation of 13th Finance Commission recommendations for improving justice delivery system in the country.

Union Law minister Mr. M Veerappa moily’s literary work can be a handy weapon for the state Congress which had been weighed down by scandals and debacles.

His version of Ramayana has got parallels to the mining industry in the state. In his literary works Moily had pointed out the ruining effects that the mining industry has on the lives of ordinary people.

Political circles equate this portrayal to the modern day happening in Karnataka’s mining hub Bellary, and the throttle hold of the cash rich BJP trio consisting of Tourism minister Janardan Reddy, Revenue minister Karunakar Reddy and the Health minister B Sriramalu.

This trio formed the monetary backbone of the BJP when it came into power in the state. This trio is also causing BJP problems as the UPA govt. is voicing their dissent and cracking the whip against the Bellary mine owners as they are violating the environmental rules.

It was seen that The Lok Ayukta had also thrashed the BJP govt. for not taking action against illegal mining in Bellary.

Karnataka Pradesh Congress committee president R. V. Deshpande had been found saying the incidents that took place in the era of Ramayana and Mahabharata are significant in today’s world, The BJP state govt. had joined the hands with the people involved in looting the state’s resources and the time has arrived for the oppressors to start retaliating.

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Stricter Laws are needed. Citizen agrees. But what about the caste system? What about educating the people? Why do people resort to such heinous crimes? Should we not root out the root cause?



Animal Advantage!

"Animals have these advantages over man:

they never hear the clock strike,

they die without any idea of death,

they have no theologians to instruct them,

their last moments are not disturbed by unwelcome and unpleasant ceremonies,

their funerals cost them nothing, and no one starts lawsuits over their wills."

~ Voltaire

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Missouri's Stripper Anti-Stimulus

Jun 22 2010, 12:20 PM ET | Comment

A job's a job, right? Even when the job means stripping, and especially when the job means stripping during a downturn. But Missouri's Republican legislature is looking to crack down on the adult entertainment industry, even if that means piling onto the state's unemployment rate of 9.3%. From the WSJ:

Last month, the Republican-controlled legislature passed one of the nation's toughest state laws aimed at strip clubs and other adult-entertainment venues. It would ban nude dancing and the serving of alcohol in adult cabarets, force strip clubs to close at midnight and forbid seminude dancers to touch patrons.

Missouri's strip club scene is a $4 million industry that employs about 3,000 people, according to its backers (read: might be slightly exaggerated).

But Kansas City isn't the first recession-city to face stripping crackdowns. Detroit passed a law to tighten strip club regulations in February this year, as the U.S. attorney general has named the city's clubs as human trafficking hot spots.

I see this as an important distinction. That state law should crack down on human trafficking is a moral obligation that exists above and beyond the question of stimulus spending. But the Missouri law to ban alcohol and force clubs to close at midnight sounds like a broad death warrant for the industry rather than a reasonable bill that aims to root out a particular illegality associated with Kansas City strip clubs.

Threat to Safety and Security.

Arms-laden ship brought to Kolkata port

NDTV Correspondent, Updated: June 27, 2010 15:27 IST

· Kolkata: The suspect ship M V Aegean Glory laden with explosives, that was bound for Pakistan, has been brought to the Kolkata port from Diamond harbor.


Kolkata Police had halted the Pakistan-bound ship off the coast of
Kolkata yesterday.

The ship was carrying a consignment of arms and ammunition and had not declared the goods on board; 19 sailors have been detained.

The Karachi-bound cargo vessel from
Bangladesh carrying military hardware and explosives was kept cordoned off on Saturday at Diamond Harbour in South 24 Parganas district. The captain of the ship was disembarked and questioned by the police


It had set sail from Chittangong in
Bangladesh and had anti-aircraft guns, rocket launchers, five tonne of explosives, besides a huge quantity of ammunition and smoke bombs in two large containers on board.

West Bengal Director General of Police Bhupinder Singh had described the incident as "alarming" and said it was surprising why the Pakistani-bound vessel was passing through Indian waters.

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Freedom in peril. Defend it with all your might


India--Marching Forward.


Intra-nasal H1N1 vaccine soon in Pune

AMRUTA BYATNAL

The HinduUnion Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad during the launch of the VaxiFlu-S (purified A(H1N1) flu vaccine) indigenous vaccine in New Delhi. File Photo: R.V. Moorthy

The Serum Institute of India, Pune, has come up with an intra-nasal form of H1N1 vaccine which will be available in the market in the next 10 days, according to Dr. Cyrus Poonawalla, Chief Managing Director of the Institute, one of the lead players in paediatric vaccines.

His team has been involved in research and development of the vaccine following clinical trials.

Having been at the epicentre of the swine flu epidemic last year, the city is preparing in full swing to fight it this time.

FAVOURABLE CONDITIONS

With the onset of the monsoon, the conditions have become favourable for the virus to spread. Health officials in the city say that the last one year has seen a lot of helpful inventions.

“According to the World Health Organisation [WHO], the pandemic can affect 20 per cent of the population in a year. We are prepared for that. We even have the vaccine in place now,” said R. R. Pardeshi, Chief Medical Officer, Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC).

Officials said five swine flu-related deaths had been reported this month since the rains started.

“Forty-three centres, including Naidu Hospital, are open in the city to treat the positive cases. If there is a need, we will train [doctors and staff of] private hospitals too,” Dr. Pardeshi said.

The availability of Tamiflu and the vaccine that was introduced earlier this month would prove precautionary, he told The Hindu.

India--Marching Forward.

Indian Saina retains her Indonesia Open championship


English.news.cn 2010-06-27 19:29:18

JAKARTA, June 27 (Xinhua) -- The defending Women's Single (WS) champion in Indonesia Open, Indian Saina Nehwal, retained her championship after trashed her Japanese contender Sayaka Sato in final match of 2010 Indonesia Open here on Sunday.

With her latest victory here, Saina has championed three international badminton tournaments three weeks in a row. Prior to Indonesia Open she championed India Open and Singapore Open.

Saina ended the match in three games scored 21-19, 13-21 and 21- 11. .

"She was good and moving fast the second game that made me hardly able to return her shots. She leads in the second game with her excellent drop shots. So I tried to correct my performance with cross shots and net playing. It worked out, I managed to control the third game," Saina said of her contender playing in the match in a press conference held after her victory.

Saina's victory in 2010 Indonesia Open was rewarded with a prize money worth 18,750 U.S. dollars. Meanwhile, the runner up Sayaka Kato received 9,500 U.S. dollars.

Saina, who was seeded no. 6, singled out as the winner of WS group 2009 Indonesia Open championship after dumped Chinese shuttler Wang Lin, seeded no. 3, in the final match in three games ended 12-21, 21-18 and 21-19.