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#151
02-02-10, 03:47 PM
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 "Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman 
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#152
02-05-10, 08:55 AM
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The Supernatural?
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman
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#153
02-06-10, 06:24 PM
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A boy’s last wish comes true
11 year old Brenden Foster was diagnosed with leukaemia, three years before this video was made. “The boy who once rushed through homework so he could play outside was now confined to a bed. “I had a great time. And until my time has come, I’m going to keep having a good time,” he said. His message to other children: “Live life to the fullest. Follow your dreams – don’t let anything stop you.” “He really inspired me because he’s not afraid and he wants to help people – he’s not selfish.” – Said 12 year old Daniel, who also suffers from leukaemia. Brenden’s selfless dying wish was to help the homeless. But he was too ill to feed them on his own. So volunteers from Emerald City Lights passed out sandwiches in Seattle; people in Los Angeles held a food drive; school-kids in Ohio collected cans; they gathered goods to feed the hungry in Pensacola, Florida, and in Brenden’s home town… Brenden’s last wish took on a life of its own…”
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman Last edited by Boo; 02-06-10 at 06:27 PM.
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#154
02-10-10, 09:30 AM
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__________________
"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman
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#155
02-10-10, 10:27 AM
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Planet-sized extraterrestrial or interdimensional UFOs accessing our solar system using the Sun as a star gate.
Invention of new technology by the firm of Ron Stewart/Ron Nussbeck appears to process NASA’s Stereo spacecraft images of the Sun and create prima facie evidence of planet-sized extraterrestrial or interdimensional UFOs accessing our solar system using the Sun as a star gate.
READ THIS ARTICLE AND VIDEO HERE!!!!! Giant ET UFOs near Sun now visible with close-up image technology, exposing possible NASA cover-up ESPECIALLY WATCH THE VIDEO!
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman
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#157
02-10-10, 12:51 PM
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3.8 magnitude earthquake hit between the towns of Virgil and Sycamore, IL
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman Last edited by Boo; 02-10-10 at 03:24 PM.
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#158
02-11-10, 12:27 PM
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Hey!!! Now you can get screwed even after you are dead!!!
Screw-in coffin patent issues
 This is a choice selection of images from the application for U.S. patent 7,631,404, which has since issued to Donald Scruggs of Chino, CA. The title is "Easy inter burial container."
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman Last edited by Boo; 02-11-10 at 12:29 PM.
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#159
02-12-10, 12:51 PM
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Sheep gives birth to human-faced lamb
 Source: The Daily Telegraph A SHEEP gave birth to a dead lamb with a human-like face. The lamb was born in a village not far from the city of Izmir, Turkey.  Erhan Elibol, a vet, performed a caesarean on the animal to take the lamb out, but was horrified to see that the features of the lamb's snout bore a striking resemblance to a human face. “I’ve seen mutations with cows and sheep before. I’ve seen a one-eyed calf, a two-headed calf, a five-legged calf. But when I saw this youngster I could not believe my eyes. His mother could not deliver him so I had to help the animal,” the 29-year-old veterinary said. The lamb’s head had human features on – the eyes, the nose and the mouth – only the ears were those of a sheep.Vets said that the rare mutation most likely occurred as a result of improper mutation since the fodder for the lamb’s mother was abundant with vitamin A, CNNTurk.com reports. A goat from Zimbabwe gave birth to a similar youngster in September 2009. The mutant baby born with a human-like head stayed alive for several hours until the frightened village residents killed him. The governor of the province where the ugly goat was born said that the little goat was the fruit of unnatural relationship between the female goat and a man. "This incident is very shocking. It is my first time to see such an evil thing. It is really embarrassing," he reportedly said. "The head belongs to a man while the body is that of a goat. This is evident that an adult human being was responsible. Evil powers caused this person to lose self control. We often hear cases of human beings who commit bestiality but this is the first time for such an act to produce a product with human features," he added. The mutant creature was hairless. Local residents said that even dogs were afraid to approach the bizarre animal. The locals burnt the body of the little goat, and biologists had no chance to study the rare mutation. __________________________________________________ ____________________ Convenient ! ...that biologists had no chance to study the rare mutation. 
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman Last edited by Boo; 02-12-10 at 12:57 PM.
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#160
02-12-10, 01:36 PM
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Very Important- For those who work on Computer-dont miss
For Computer Professionals
     
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman Last edited by Boo; 02-12-10 at 01:38 PM.
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#162
02-13-10, 10:35 PM
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World's Tiniest Scale Can Weigh Individual Molecules
Clever use of a microscopic resonator can quickly measure the masses of proteins and gold nanoparticles.
by Aline Reynolds From the December 2009 issue; published online February 10, 2010   Caltech/Akshay Naik, Selim Hanay Physicist Michael Roukes and his colleagues at Caltech have developed a microscopic device that can measure the mass of a single molecule in real time. Chemists use such sensitive weighings to help determine the chemical identities of unknown substances. The Caltech team says that its system could eventually allow scientists to analyze thousands of different proteins in a matter of milliseconds using much smaller samples than before. The device, a microscopic resonator measuring 2 micrometers long by 120 nanometers wide, consists of a metallic layer 1 on top of a silicon carbide layer 2, attached to a silicon substrate 3 by minuscule supports 4. To “weigh” a molecule, a solution containing the molecule is sprayed onto the resonator. When a single molecule lands on it, it causes a change in the way the resonator vibrates. The resonator is connected to an electric circuit that registers the vibration change and transmits it to computers that then calculate the molecule’s mass. Each time a molecule lands on the resonator, it produces a mass measurement; eventually, hundreds of molecules can pile up on the resonator, allowing the scientists to obtain additional data for increased accuracy. So far, Roukes has used this system to measure the masses of gold nanoparticles and three proteins found in the blood serum of cows. He is now working on a resonator that can vibrate in more complex ways, yielding even more precise readings.
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman
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#163
02-15-10, 10:15 AM
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Magenta Ain't A Colour
By Liz Elliott
A beam of white light is made up of all the colours in the spectrum. The range extends from red through to violet, with orange, yellow, green and blue in between. But there is one colour that is notable by its absence.  Here’s an experiment you can try: stare at the pink circle below for about one minute, then look over at the blank white space next to the image. What do you see? You should see an afterimage. What colour is it?  You should have seen a green afterimage, but why is this significant? All the colours in the light spectrum have complements that exist within the spectrum – except green. There seems to be some kind of imbalance. What is going on? Is green somehow being discriminated against?The afterimage always shows the colour that is complementary to the colour of the image. Complementary colours are those that are exact opposites in the way the eye perceives them. It is a common misconception that red is complementary to green. However, if you try the same experiment as above with a red image, you will see a turquoise afterimage, since red is actually complementary to turquoise. Similarly, orange is complementary to blue, and yellow to violet.  The light spectrum consists of a range of wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation. Red light has the longest wavelength; violet the shortest. The colours in between have wavelengths between those of red and violet light. When our eyes see colours, they are actually detecting the different wavelengths of the light hitting the retina. Colours are distinguished by their wavelengths, and the brain processes this information and produces a visual display that we experience as colour. This means that colours only really exist within the brain – light is indeed travelling from objects to our eyes, and each object may well be transmitting/reflecting a different set of wavelengths of light; but what essentially defines a ‘colour’ as opposed to a ‘wavelength’ is created within the brain. If the eye receives light of more than one wavelength, the colour generated in the brain is formed from the sum of the input responses on the retina. For example, if red light and green light enter the eye at the same time, the resulting colour produced in the brain is yellow, the colour halfway between red and green in the spectrum. So what does the brain do when our eyes detect wavelengths from both ends of the light spectrum at once (i.e. red and violet light)? Generally speaking, it has two options for interpreting the input data: a) Sum the input responses to produce a colour halfway between red and violet in the spectrum (which would in this case produce green – not a very representative colour of a red and violet mix) b) Invent a new colour halfway between red and violet Magenta is the evidence that the brain takes option b – it has apparently constructed a colour to bridge the gap between red and violet, because such a colour does not exist in the light spectrum. Magenta has no wavelength attributed to it, unlike all the other spectrum colours. The light spectrum has a colour missing because it does not feel the need to ‘close the loop’ in the way that our brains do. We need colour to make sense of the world, but equally we need to make sense of colour; even if that means taking opposite ends of the spectrum and bringing them together. Well, now we've got that sorted out, explain this: stare at the dot in the middle of the image below - you should see all the colours melt away.  In this optical illusion you can notice a green circling dot, if you fixate your gaze on the cross. The green dot does not exist in the picture proper but is produced by the retina as an afterimage complimentary in color to the magenta dots -Biotele A note from Biotele: It has come to my attention that some readers are confused by Liz Elliot's title of this article. Some readers have debated that magenta is a color, especially important in reflective media like paper. And many printers are based on the CMYK color scheme, where M stands for magenta. It is my opinion that the people debating the title have missed the point of the article. Magenta is an “extraspectral” color. Sir Isaac Newton noticed that magenta did not exist in the spectrum of colors from white light when he played with prisms. But when he superimposed the red end of the spectrum on to the blue end, he saw the color magenta (this can be done with two prisms to make two spectral spreads, "rainbows"):  Magenta is the only color that does not exist as a single wavelength of light. Some readers suggested that browns only exist as a mixture of wavelengths. But browns are dark shades of red and yellows and some browns can be generated by a low intensity single wavelength of red. For example 133:0:0 in the RGB scheme is brown (called maroon). Use the color wheel below to explore colors' RGB/Hex values and their respective names. Brown and green perception are very important in the animal world because they make the contrast between wood, dirt and leaves. So brown is sensed as a different color from red and yellow for evolutionary reasons. In most animals, the eye is also especially sensitive to green for the same reason.  The precise title for Liz Elliot's article could have been "Magenta is not a spectral color", "magenta is not in the rainbow" or "Magenta does not have a wavelength". But the point conveyed by her article is that color perception is not in a one to one correspondence with the physical world. Therefore for those that believe that color represents a wavelength of light then magenta is not a color. In summary, the representation of colors is solely dependent on the brain and color is only experienced in the mind. Light is colorless and color is a Quale. You can read the following for further detail:
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman Last edited by Boo; 02-15-10 at 10:21 AM.
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#164
02-15-10, 09:04 PM
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18 Billion Suns -Biggest Black Hole in Universe Discovered—and it’s BIG! A Galaxy Classic
 Whatever gave birth to this monster can be real proud. The biggest black hole in the universe weighs in with a respectable mass of 18 billion Suns, and is about the size of an entire galaxy. Just like in the Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny Devito flick “Twins”, the massive black hole has a puny twin hovering nearby. By observing the orbit of the smaller black hole, astronomers are able to test Einstein's theory of general relativity with stronger gravitational fields than ever before. The biggest black hole beats out its nearest competitor by six times. Fortunately, it’s 3.5 billion light years away, forming the heart of a quasar called OJ287. Quasars are extremely bright objects in which matter spiraling into a giant black hole emits large amounts of radiation. The smaller black hole, which weighs about 100 million Suns, orbits the larger one on an oval-shaped path every 12 years. It comes close enough to punch through the disc of matter surrounding the larger black hole twice each orbit, causing a pair of outbursts that make OJ287 suddenly brighten. General relativity predicts that the smaller hole's orbit itself should rotate over time, so that the point at which it comes nearest its neighbor moves around in space. This effect is seen in Mercury's orbit around the Sun, on a much smaller scale. In the case of OJ287, the tremendous gravitational field of the larger black hole causes the smaller black hole's orbit to precess at an impressive 39° each orbit. The precession changes where and when the smaller hole crashes through the disc surrounding its larger sibling. About a dozen of the resulting bright outbursts have been observed to date, and astronomers led by Mauri Valtonen of Tuorla Observatory in Finland have analysed them to measure the precession rate of the smaller hole's orbit. That, along with the period of the orbit, suggests the larger black hole weighs a record 18 billion Suns. So just how big can these bad boys get? Craig Wheeler of the University of Texas in Austin, US, says it depends only on how long a black hole has been around and how fast it has swallowed matter in order to grow. "There is no theoretical upper limit," he says. The most recent outburst occurred on 13 September 2007, as predicted by general relativity. "If there was no orbital decay, the outburst would have been 20 days later than when it actually happened," Valtonen told New Scientist, adding that the black holes are on track to merge within 10,000 years. Wheeler says the observations of the outbursts fit closely with the expectations from general relativity. "The fact that you can fit Einstein's theory [so well] ... is telling you that that's working," he says. Posted by Rebecca Sato
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman
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#165
02-16-10, 04:45 PM
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The Man Who Was a Dwarf and a Giant
The Man Who Was a Dwarf and a Giant
Written by Alan Bellows on 01 December 2005  Very few details are known about the life of Adam Rainer, but in a way, he represents an extraordinary piece of medical history. He was born in Graz, Austria in 1899, and as he grew and matured, it became evident that his stature was significantly shorter than the average man. He was classified as a dwarf, standing only 3 feet 10.5 inches (1.18 m) in 1920, his 21st year. But in his early twenties, Adam’s height suddenly began to increase at an astonishing rate, and without any signs of stopping. By his 32nd birthday, his unusually short stature of under four feet was increased to an unusually tall stature of just under 7 feet 2 inches (2.18 m). This incredible sustained rate of growth– about 3.6 inches per year– exhausted his body and left him bedridden. It seems likely that the secretions from the poor chap’s pituitary gland– the gland reponsible for the body’s growth hormones– went from a trickle to to a flood shortly after his 21st birthday. The malfunctioning organ caused his body to devote all of its resources to unchecked growth, leaving him weak and unable to stand. He lived in this unfortunate condition until he died on March 4, 1950, aged 51. At the time of his death, he was measured at 7 feet 8 inches tall (2.34 m), twice the height he been at age 21. Adam was the only person in medical history to have been classified both as a dwarf and a giant.
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman
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#166
02-16-10, 07:37 PM
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 The world's most massive living organism is likely one group of quaking aspen trees located in Utah's Wasatch Mountains and nicknamed Pando (Latin for "I spread") [source: Grant]. Pando is considered one organism because the trees in the group share an identical genetic code and a common, interconnected root system. The Pando trees are basically clones of one another. New trees are made as stems spread out as far as 100 feet (30 meters) from the base of the original tree and then periodically take root, creating new, genetically identical, connected trees. The process repeats itself with the clone trees, weather and other conditions permitting. The process, known as vegetative reproduction, is how strawberries and many other plants reproduce. Pando is 47,000 trees spread across 106 acres (43 hectares) and may be up to 80,000 years old [source: Grant]. But in testament to the massive size of California redwoods, this batch of 47,000 trees weighs about 6,600 tons (5,987 metric tons), only a few hundred tons in total more than General Sherman [source: Sugarman]. Individual quaking aspens have narrow trunks and grow up to 100 feet tall [source: NPS]. Owing to their reproductive process and ability to thrive in harsh environments, quaking aspens are the most common tree in the United States.
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman Last edited by Boo; 02-16-10 at 07:45 PM.
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#167
02-17-10, 09:16 AM
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First study of mummy DNA leads to all sorts of discoveries
By Maggie Koerth-Baker at 11:26 AM February 16, 2010  King Tut—plus 10 other royal mummies—recently became the first ancient Egyptians to get their DNA analyzed. The results, published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, turned up a treasure trove of new information about the famous boy king, his family and Egyptian royalty in general. Among the discoveries:
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman
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#168
02-17-10, 11:59 AM
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__________________
"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman
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#169
02-18-10, 09:31 AM
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__________________
"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman
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#170
02-18-10, 01:55 PM
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__________________
"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman
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#171
02-19-10, 05:53 PM
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New online ecyclopedia
Welcome to Wookieepedia
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman
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#172
02-19-10, 10:50 PM
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Kim Peek, the guy who inspired Rain Man, died of a heart attack recently.
Born to Mormons in 1951, Peek was a very advanced learner from early on, teaching himself to read before he was even two years old. Despite that, he still needed his parents to help him get dressed and brush his teeth. Although most people assume he was autistic, he in fact suffered from Agenesis of Corpus Callosum, which means that his brain was missing the one piece that divides the two sides and filters information. He’s the human Google. As the Times of London writes,
“By the time of his death he had committed more than 9,000 books to memory and Nasa made him the subject of MRI-based research, hoping that technology used to study the effects of space travel on the brain would help explain his mental capabilities. He would read eight books a day, taking just ten seconds to read a page. He could read two pages simultaneously, his left eye reading the left page and his right eye reading the right page. But throughout his life he still needed 24-hour care." I totally sympathize with that last part; the other parts, well, I’m reading two books right now. Been reading them for a couple of months. Kim Peek - The Real Rain Man You must see this video
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman
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#173
02-22-10, 02:06 PM
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Joe Arpaio takes care of Maricopa County, the economy, animal shelter, and inmates. Dog fanciers would like to “sic em” on Animal Rights Activists.
Remember Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona, the guy who painted the jail cells pink, invented Tent City, and made the inmates wear pink prison garb? We called to interview him last July but despite what you may think, he seeks no publicity and certainly, no self-promotion. Like the fence-mending cowboy of the old west, he doesn’t call a committee when something needs fixin’. Sheriff Joe just uses common sense, whatever tools are at hand, does his job, and rides on to the next problem. As editor, I share his values and with the country in worsening economic crises, Mexico in danger of collapse and drug gangs running murderous operations on both sides of the border, it seems like a good time to let readers know there are solutions to these problems. The rest of the country needs to know what Maricopa County residents know. Find and elect a “Sheriff Joe” to your state’s House and Senate, and quickly, before it’s too late, send them to Washington!  Maricopa County was spending approx. $18 million dollars a year on stray cats and dogs. Sheriff Joe offered to take the department over and the County Supervisors said okay. The animal shelters are now all staffed and operated by prisoners. They feed and care for the strays. Every animal in his care is taken out and walked twice daily. He now has prisoners who are experts in animal nutrition and behavior. They give great classes for anyone who'd like to adopt an animal. He has literally taken stray dogs off the street, given them to the care of prisoners, and had them place in dog shows. The best part? His budget for the entire department is now under $3 million. Teresa and I adopted a Weimaraner from a Maricopa County shelter two years ago. He was neutered, and current on all shots, in great health, and even had a microchip inserted the day we got him. Cost us $78. The prisoners get the benefit of about $0.28 an hour for working, but most would work for free, just to be out of their cells for the day. Most of his budget is for utilities, building maintenance, etc. He pays the prisoners out of the fees collected for adopted animals. I have long wondered when the rest of the country would take a look at the way he runs the jail system, and copy some of his ideas. He has a huge farm, donated to the county years ago, where inmates can work, and they grow most of their own fresh vegetables and food, doing all the work and harvesting by hand. He has a pretty good sized hog farm, which provides meat, and fertilizer. It fertilizes the Christmas tree nursery, where prisoners work, and you can buy a living Christmas tree for $6 - $8 for the Holidays, and plant it later. We have six trees in our yard from the Prison. Yup, he was reelected last year with 83% of the vote. Now he's in trouble with the ACLU again. He painted all his buses and vehicles with a mural that has a special hotline phone number painted on it, where you can call and report suspected illegal aliens. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement wasn't doing enough in his eyes, so he had 40 deputies trained specifically for enforcing immigration laws, started up his hotline, and bought 4 new buses just for hauling folks back to the border. He's kind of a 'Git-R Dun' kind of Sheriff. JOE ARPAIO IS THE MARICOPA ARIZONA COUNTY SHERIFF AND HE KEEPS GETTING ELECTED OVER AND OVER. THIS IS ONE OF THE REASONS WHY: Sheriff Joe Arpaio created the “Tent City Jail.” He has jail meals down to 40 cents a serving and charges the inmates for them. He stopped smoking and porno magazines in the jails. Took away their weights, cut off all but 'G' movies. He started chain gangs so the inmates could do free work on county and city projects. Then he started Chain Gangs For Women so he wouldn't get sued for discrimination. He took away cable TV until he found out there was A Federal Court Order that required cable TV for jails so he hooked up the cable TV again but only let in the Disney Channel and The Weather Channel. When asked why the weather channel he replied “So they will know how hot it’s gonna be while they are working on my chain gangs.” He cut off coffee since it has zero nutritional value. When the inmates complained, he told them, 'This Isn't The Ritz/Carlton......If you don't like it, don't come back.' Joe Arpaio, the tough-guy sheriff who created the tent city (in temperatures often exceeding 100 degrees) and long ago started making his prisoners wear pink and eat bologna sandwiches, is not one bit sympathetic. He said Wednesday that he told all of the inmates: 'It's 120 Degrees in Iraq and our Soldiers are living in tents too. And they have to wear full battle gear. But they didn’t commit any crimes, so shut your mouths.’ Way To Go, Sheriff! News Flash: We have just received word that Sheriff Joe may be under investigation by the Justice Department for alleged discrimination. Seems he has made an effort to arrest illegal immigrants. Phoenix has the highest kidnapping rate of any city, thanks to the Mexican drug cartel which operates on both sides of the border. According to Fox News and other networks, Mexico is in danger of collapse and total anarchy as the police THERE are so corrupted by the drug cartel that the government has had to call in federal troops to deal with gun battles in the streets. Joe Arpaio is investigated for trying to protect his constituents from the highest profile criminal element in Texas and Arizona? By the Dept. Of Justice? How just is that? If it weren't an ironic truth, it would be a joke. Our government launches investigation against him which will tie the Sheriff and his staff up in paperwork and prevent him from doing the job the citizens keep electing him to do. DOJ can't ignore complaints but on the other hand, it should be too busy meting out JUSTICE to criminals to have time to harass U.S. Peace Officers. Are we headed for anarchy along with Mexico?
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman
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#174
02-22-10, 07:31 PM
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15 Things You Never Noticed on a Dollar
 Pull a buck from your wallet now and prepare to be amazed. We’re serious. Did you know a dollar bill has hidden pictures, flecks of color, and mysterious symbols? And that’s just the beginning. What do all those seemingly random letters and Latin phrases mean, anyway? The Basics: How much is a dollar worth? The question seems simple, but the answer is quite complex. Since 1973, the dollar bill has had no value tied to it. You cannot trade in a dollar to the government for gold, silver, or any other commodity. The value of the nation's currency is related to the decree by the government that a dollar is legal tender for all debts. This means if someone attempts to pay a debt using dollars, the person being paid must accept the money or the law no longer recognizes the debt. This is important enough that the phrase is printed on every bill the government creates. It is also vital for the nation's citizens to agree that the bills have value. If the members of a society decided that they did not believe in the currency, it would quickly be worth no more than the paper it is printed on. For the record, each bill costs the government 6.4 cents to print. What kind of paper are the bills made from? Bills are made from a blend of linen and cotton, which is why they don't fall apart in the wash the way paper does. If you look closely, you can see red and blue silk fibers woven throughout the bill. The threads are thought to be an anti-counterfeit measure. Hint: Look in the white spaces on the face of the bill for little bits of the colored thread. They look like lint but you can't scratch them off! On the face of a dollar, what does the letter inside the circular seal mean?  The black seal with the big letter in the middle signifies the Federal Reserve bank that placed the order for the bill. A = Boston, B = New York City, C = Philadelphia, D = Cleveland, E = Richmond, Va., F = Atlanta, G = Chicago, H = St. Louis, I = Minneapolis, J = Kansas City, K = Dallas, and L = San Francisco. The letter also corresponds to the black number that is repeated four times on the face of the bill. For example, if you have a bill from Dallas with the letter K, then the number on the bill will be 11 because K is the eleventh letter in the alphabet. Can you find any tiny owls or spiders hidden on the front of the bill?  Many people believe they can see a tiny owl (some say it is a spider) next to the large "1" on the upper right of the bill. If you look at the shield shape that surrounds that "1," the tiny owl rests on the top left corner. More than likely, the markings are nothing, just a point where the webbed design of the border varies. That won't stop some people from associating the peculiar detail with Masonic symbols, or with more practical things, like anti-counterfeit measures. The Great Seal of the United States The green back of the dollar bill features the two sides of The Great Seal of the United States. The founding fathers approved its design in 1782. Ben Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson all had a hand in devising it. The seal provides great insight into the values of the newborn nation and, like the Constitution, provides a direct link to its formative days. What does Annuit Coeptis mean? The first of three Latin phrases on the back of the bill is translated as "God has favored our undertakings." Many founders, Franklin and George Washington among them, believed that God's will was behind the successful creation of the United States. Beneath the pyramid, what does Novus Ordo Seclorum mean? These Latin words mean "New order of the ages." Charles Thomson, a statesman involved in the design of The Great Seal of the United States, proposed the phrase to signify the beginning of what he called "the new American Era," which he said began in 1776 with the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  The letters are Roman numerals for 1776. M is 1,000, D is 500, CC is 200, L is 50, XX is 20, VI is 6. Add the numerals on the pyramid together and you get the year 1776, when the Declaration of Independence was signed, and when the Novus Ordo Seclorum began. Why is there an unfinished pyramid with a glowing eye? Thomson explained the sturdy pyramid as a symbol of "strength and duration". He did not explain its unfinished state, but many believe it signified that our nation remained unfinished. The pyramid also stops at 13 steps, the number of the original colonies. The "Eye of Providence" is a visual representation of the words Annuit Coeptis, and reinforces the founders' notion that God looked upon the endeavor of the new nation with favor. Many theorists mistakenly believe the symbolism of the eye is related to the Freemasons (a secret society whose members believed they were under the careful scrutiny of God), but the symbolism of the glowing eye is far older than any Freemason thinking. Scholars have traced versions of the symbol as far back as the ancient Egyptians. What does E Pluribus Unum mean? "Out of many, one." The 13 disparate colonies came together to form one nation. Why a bald eagle? The founders wanted an animal native to America to be the new nation's symbol. In its talons the eagle holds arrows and olive branches, signifying war and peace. Fun activities you and the kids can do with a dollar bill Track your bills. Go to the website Where's George? and enter the serial number of the bill. If the bill has been in circulation long enough, you might be able to see where your bill has been as it travels from wallets to registers and back. After you enter your bills, check back later to see where they have gone. Play dollar-bill poker. Each of you takes a dollar bill and examines the green serial numbers as if they were a hand of playing cards. Make your best poker hand and see who wins.
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman
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#175
02-23-10, 10:25 PM
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Independence Day Quiz
 "How much do you really know?" 24 out of 30 is considered a passing grade. Supposedly 96% of all High School Seniors FAILED this test... AND if that's not bad enough, 50+% of all individuals over 50 did too!!
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman Last edited by Boo; 02-23-10 at 10:30 PM.
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#176
02-24-10, 08:05 AM
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10 More Enigmas That Defy Explanation
Published January 14, 2010 by xsilverwingzx and Spacespacecow What is it about the bizarre and mysterious that piques our curiosity? It entertains our sense of wonder and excites our imagination, for sure. Luckily for us, history is marked with strange, logic-defying occurrences to amuse us. Here is a list comprised of 10 more unexplainable and interesting phenomenon and incidents that we crave so much. This list is made up of a mixture of two submissions to the Christmas competition which shared some items, so it seemed a good idea to combine the two to give us ten things never before shown on the site. Also note, this list is in the newly created category “Mystery” and all of our lists involving mysteries can now be found under that category in the archives or on the mystery category page. 10 Ice Woman  Nature performs many astonishing feats, yet it is a different matter altogether when we human beings push past the boundaries of normal. It was a viciously cold morning in Lengby, Minnesota, when a man discovered his 19-year old neighbor, Jean Hilliard, lying in the snow. Her whole body was frozen solid from the night before, when temperatures dropped twenty-five degrees below zero. Apparently, Jean was trying desperately to reach her neighbor for help when her car skidded off the road. When her body was discovered she was immediately sent to the local hospital, where her condition stunned the doctors. One of the nurses said that Jean was “so cold, it was like reaching into a freezer” and that “her face was absolutely white, just this ashen, death look.” Jean was also seriously frostbitten, and none of her limbs would bend or move. The hospital staff did everything possible, yet the situation was dire. Even if Jean were to regain consciousness, she would more than likely have severe brain damage, and she was frostbitten to the degree that both her legs would have to be amputated. Her family gathered in prayer, hoping for a miracle. 2 hours later, Jean went into violent convulsions, and regained consciousness. She was perfectly fine, mentally and physically, although a bit confused. Even the frostbite was slowly disappearing from her legs to the doctors’ amazement. She was released 49 days later without losing a single finger, and sporting only minor scars. 9 Iron Pillar of Delhi  8 Carroll A. Deering  7 Hutchison Effect  6 Faces Of Belmez  5 Disappearing Lake  4 Raining Blobs  3 The Black Helicopter 
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#177
02-24-10, 08:05 AM
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2 Animals within Stone
 1 Donnie Decker 
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman
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#178
02-28-10, 07:59 AM
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The 12 Biggest Ripoffs in America
Jonathan Rivers
February 25, 2010 Many of us feel ripped off in our day to day spending, so much so that bringing up even a single rip-off story in a group of people is likely to trigger a flood of them from everyone else. Whether it’s at the movies, in restaurants or on vacation, we seldom believe we are getting as much for our money as we ought to. Of course, some rip-off stories are more debatable than others. Often times, what is called a ripoff is little more than someone’s subjective opinion of what they “really” deserve for their money, whatever that means. However, other purchases actually do appear, by all objective criteria, to be a raw deal just about all the time. Today, BillShrink analyzes some common ripoffs as mentioned recently by CNN Money, that most of our readers are likely to be well acquainted with. Movie Theater Popcorn  Text Messages  College Textbooks  Branded Painkillers  “Free” Credit Reports  Wine Service at Restaurants  Hotel Mini-Bars  All You Can Eat Buffets  Last edited by Boo; 02-28-10 at 08:08 AM.
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#179
02-28-10, 08:00 AM
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Premium Gasoline  Actively Managed Investments  In-Room Movies  Health Club Memberships  Printer Inks (Bonus Ripoff via BillShrink Readers)  Alternatives? We suggest finding a printer you can trust that has all the features you’ll need for years to come, and find a good alternative/generic brand ink cartridge set for that particular printer. You should note however that many generic brands may be manufactured from refurbished ink cartridges (there’s a huge industry for this), and at times, some generics or refilled ink cartridges may not work well. Always do your homework before you buy! Beyond the nine ripoffs mentioned by CNN, we’ve threw in three more ripoffs that we think fits the bill completely. What are some other ripoffs you can think of?
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman Last edited by Boo; 02-28-10 at 08:06 AM.
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#180
03-02-10, 03:37 PM
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Mega, Giga, Tera, and Now the Hella
NewsCore A campaign to name the number 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 "hella" is gaining support through an online petition. A campaign to name the number 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 "hella" is gaining support on an online petition, it emerged Tuesday. More than 20,000 users of Facebook, including scientists and students, signed the petition calling for "hella" to be officially recognized by the International System of Units (SI). Founder of the campaign Austin Sendek, a physics student at the University of California, said recent breakthroughs in science meant SI needed to go further with its classification of long numbers. "As you know, the largest number with a designated SI prefix is 10^24, which carries the name 'yotta-,'" Sendek wrote. "However, in our world of increasing physical awareness and experimental precision, this number is no longer a satisfactory 'upper bound' in scientific nomenclature." Sendek and his petition signatories believe naming numbers in the 10^27 category is of "critical importance for scientists in all fields." He said these numbers are vital to representing "the wattage of the sun, distances between galaxies, or the number of atoms in a large sample." For example, the energy released by the sun would be better described as 0.3 hellawatts according to Sendek, rather than 300 yottawatts. Sendek proposed the prefix hella as a tribute to Northern California, which is home to several notable scientific institutions. "However, science isn't all that sets Northern California apart from the rest of the world," Sendek wrote. "The area is also notorious for the creation and widespread usage of the English slang 'hella,' which typically means 'very,' or can refer to a large quantity (e.g. 'there are hella stars out tonight')." Official SI prefixes: 10 = deca 100 = hecto 1,000 = kilo 1,000,000 = mega 1,000,000,000 = giga 1,000,000,000,000 = tera 1,000,000,000,000,000 = peta 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 = exa 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 = zetta 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 = yotta 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 = unnamed
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman
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#181
03-09-10, 08:44 PM
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2.7m sewer snake found in toilet bowl
A Townsville man has had the shock of his life after a 2.7 metre python climbed through the sewerage pipes to emerge through his toilet bowl.  The snake in the Townsville toilet bowl. (Photo: Judy Dupont) Richard Eves found the massive carpet python in his toilet at around 9pm one night after coming up through the pipes. Despite its size, carpet pythons are largely harmless to humans but Mr Eves said it was still a shock to find it. "It is unusual having a python in your toilet bowl — it doesn't happen every day," he said. "I knew it wasn't dangerous but I was absolutely flabbergasted." The wrangler who removed the python measured it at an astonishing 2.7 metres, only 30cm off the Townsville area record, Mr Eves said. "It must have been in the sewer system chasing rats and it got stuck," he said. "That's how they wound up in a toilet." Queensland snake catcher Geoff Jacobs said it was quite common for pythons and green tree snakes to make their way into people's toilets. "It happens all the time...I would probably get called to about 10 year," he said. "The worst of all is pulling them out because you get covered in sewage. You generally vomit and then go home for a bath with Dettol." Mr Jacobs said snakes were attracted to the rats, mice and frogs which lived underground in the sewer system. Neighbour Judy Dupont said while pythons are fairly common in North Queensland, it was still a surprise to find one climbing through the plumbing. "It was such a bizarre thing to come across," she said. " It must have been in a very distressed state." The incident took place on December 29th but has not become public until today. (Aren't you glad you don't live in North Queensland Australia!)
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman Last edited by Boo; 03-09-10 at 08:49 PM.
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#183
03-13-10, 09:43 AM
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Amazing Facts About Our Oceans
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman
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#185
03-18-10, 09:36 AM
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How to Calculate a Dog's Age in Dog Years
A popular misconception is that dogs age 7 years for each calendar year. In fact, canine aging is much more rapid during the first 2 years of a dog's life. After the first 2 years the ratio settles down to 5 to 1 for small and medium breeds. For large breeds the rate is 6 to 1, and for giant breeds the rate is 7 to 1. Thus, at 10 years of age a Great Dane would be 80 years old while a pug would only be 64.  How to Tell a Dog's Age The Teeth: Dogs usually have a set of permanent teeth by their seventh month, so if you've come across a dog with clean pearly whites, he is likely a year old or thereabouts. Yellowing on a dog's back teeth may put the dog between one and two years of age, while tartar build-up at a minimal level could mean you have a dog between 3 and 5. Missing teeth or severe wear usually means the dog is a senior and could use some special dental care. Muscle Tone: Younger dogs are more likely to have some muscle definition from their higher activity level. Older dogs are usually either a tad bonier or a little fatter from decreased activity. The Coat: A younger dog usually has a soft, fine coat, whereas an older dog tends to have thicker, coarser (and sometimes oilier) fur. A senior dog may display grays or patches of white, particularly around the snout. The Eyes: Bright, clear eyes without tearing or discharge are common in younger dogs. Cloudy or opaque eyes may mean an older dog. Old Age in Dogs The age at which a dog can be considered elderly varies widely among models. In general, the larger the dog, the more quickly it declines. For instance, a Great Dane could be considered "senior" at age 5, while a smaller toy poodle would still be spry at twice that age. Remember, however, that just because a dog is chronologically old doesn't mean that an endless series of malfunctions is in store. In many cases an elderly dog can enjoy many healthy, active, pain-free years. One of the best ways to prolong the life and improve the functions of an elderly dog is to carefully regulate its fuel intake. Older dogs exercise less and thus need fewer calories. And since age reduces their ability to digest and absorb nutrients, high-quality food specifically formulated for their needs is a necessity. Excessive amounts of protein, phosphorus, and sodium can aggravate kidney and heart problems, so most such foods contain smaller amounts of higher-quality protein, along with reduced quantities of other elements. Levels of vitamins, zinc, fatty acids, and fiber, however, are increased.
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman
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#188
03-24-10, 07:58 AM
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Now how self centered is this?
The guy could have donated the money to charity - so it IS all about him!
World's cleverest man turns down $1m A Russian said to be the world's cleverest man has turned down a $1 million prize for solving one of mathematics' toughest puzzles.  The prize, the equivalent of £660,000, was given by the US Clay Mathematics Institute for solving the Poincare Conjecture, reports the Daily Mail. Dr Perelman posted his solution on the internet but failed to turn up to receive his prestigious Fields Medal from the International Mathematical Union in Madrid four years ago. At the time he stated: "I'm not interested in money or fame. I don't want to be on display like an animal in a zoo. "I'm not a hero of mathematics. I'm not even that successful, that is why I don't want to have everybody looking at me." Neighbour Vera Petrovna said: "I was once in his flat and I was astounded. He only has a table, a stool and a bed with a dirty mattress which was left by previous owners - alcoholics who sold the flat to him. "We are trying to get rid of cockroaches in our block, but they hide in his flat." The Poincare Conjecture was more than 100 years old when Perelman solved it - and could help determine the shape of the universe.
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman
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#189
03-27-10, 12:01 PM
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School children in Colombia have to ride zip lines suspended 1330-feet about the Rio Negro to school everyday. In addition to farmers using it to transport goods, "the 12 steel cables that connect one side of the valley to the other are the only access to the outside world" that a handful of families have.
Attaching herself to an old and rusted pulley system she drops over the edge before
plummeting at 40mph along a zip wire to the opposite bank half a mile away - a vertigo-inducing journey she has to take every day to get to school. 
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman Last edited by Boo; 03-27-10 at 12:08 PM.
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#190
03-27-10, 05:28 PM
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did you know studies revealed 50% of fountain drink dispensers were contaminated with fecal bacteria?
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman Last edited by Boo; 03-27-10 at 05:34 PM.
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#191
03-29-10, 04:14 PM
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman
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#192
03-30-10, 08:07 AM
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Did you know you can get a computer tan?!
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman
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#193
03-31-10, 10:05 PM
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Crack can kill a moose!!!
 This was an easy case to crack.... .......if it didn't crack you up first!
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman Last edited by Boo; 03-31-10 at 10:11 PM.
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#194
04-01-10, 08:39 AM
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman
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#196
04-03-10, 09:39 PM
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Watercone – An Ingenious Way To Turn Salt Water Into Fresh Water
Written by The Naib     The Watercone website has some really interesting information and I highly recommend checking it out. 1. Much cheaper than bottled water.
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman
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#197
04-04-10, 02:14 PM
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman Last edited by Boo; 04-04-10 at 02:24 PM.
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#198
04-04-10, 06:44 PM
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wow, thats some cool stuff, thanks for sharing Boo!
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love my babies  scamp. yellow sided green cheek conure Jack. beardie Sport .baby beardie bodie. beardie buddy. fat tailed gecko bella. leo gecko skipper. green anole sparky. bahamain anole twisty. chinese water dragon 3 aquariums of fish 4 bettas all are rescues except bodie, Sport, and fish
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#199
04-10-10, 06:25 PM
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I was with Oma (granny) Emmi in Heaven. She told me to go back really quickly. Back-from-the-dead boy, quoted by Professor Lothar Schweigerer
Clinically Dead Boy 'Saw Granny In Heaven'
A three-year-old boy brought back from the dead after his heart stopped beating for three hours has told how he saw his great-grandmother in Heaven.  The young boy has told of a heavenly experience while being clinically dead The youngster - who is named only as Paul - claimed he met his relative and she sent him back to Earth. Paul was playing on his own when he fell into a lake near his grandparents' house in the town of Lychen, north of Berlin, Germany. The child's grandfather later found him lifeless in the water. Paul was quickly dragged to the shore but the youngster remained unconscious. His father, who had had first aid training in the past, tried to resuscitate his son by giving him mouth to mouth and heart massage. A helicopter took him to Helios hospital in Buch and doctors also tried to resuscitate him but he was unresponsive.They were about to stop because the boy had been clinically dead for three hours and 18 minutes - but then a miracle happened. The team managed to get his heart beating again, defying the laws of medicine. The water in the lake was cold and the boy's core temperature was just 28C - it should normally be 37C. If the temperature had been higher, the team would have stopped trying to resuscitate after 40 minutes because the boy would definitely have been brain dead. Cold temperatures means the metabolism slows so body can survive with little oxygen. Professor of Paediatrics, Lothar Schweigerer, is from the Helios hospital in Buch. He told Sky News: "My doctors were close to saying 'we can do no more' after two hours of thorax compression. He said this was "because the chances of survival had gone and the little lad must have been brain dead". The professor added: "But then suddenly his heart started to beat again ... it was a fantastic miracle. "I've been doing this job for 30 years and have never seen anything like this. "It goes to show the human body is a very resilient organism and you should never give up. The boy is happy and healthy. It's a wonderful thing." He told daily newspaper Bild: "Paul said to his parents, 'I was with Oma (granny) Emmi in Heaven. She told me to go back really quickly.'"
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman Last edited by Boo; 04-10-10 at 07:05 PM.
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#200
04-11-10, 06:49 PM
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The Man with Half a Body – Meet Kenny (see video at bottom)
Kenny Easterday is an American man born with a rare disability called sacral agenesis. To improve his mobility, his legs were amputated at the hip when he was young.Easterday gained some notoriety following the 1988 release of the Canadian movie The Kid Brother (1988), in which he played a fictionalized version of himself. The film developed a small “cult” following in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom, as is evident from its reference on a variety of fan sites. To this day Kenny Easterday refuses to use a prosthesis, preferring to walk on his hands or use a skateboard. He was married at the age of 19 to an able-bodied woman named Sarah and he currently appears as a regular on The Jerry Springer Show as The Messenger.       Kenny Easterday Video On TLC
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman
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#201
04-12-10, 05:54 AM
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Regeneration
Regeneration is the ability to replace lost or damaged body parts. This ability varies greatly among living things.  Plants Plants can regenerate all body parts from precursor cells. Many trees, for example, can be cut off at the ground and, in due course, sprouts appear at the margins of the stump. These go on to develop new stems, leaves, and flowers. In the laboratory, entire plants can develop from a mass of undifferentiated cells growing in culture. For example, a fully-differentiated carrot root cell when grown in a suitable culture medium, begins to divide repeatedly, losing its differentiated structure as it does so. Then its descendants begin to differentiate, and they finally form all the organs of a mature carrot plant. The photo (courtesy of Roy De Carava and Scientific American) shows a carrot plant that grew in a flask from fully-differentiated root cells that had been isolated and induced to undergo mitosis. Invertebrate Animals Sponges Sponges can regenerate the entire organism from just a conglomeration of their cells. Hydra This cnidarian can also regenerate its entire body from cells. The cells that do the job are totipotent stem cells residing in the animal's body. Planarians   When flatworms (left) are decapitated, they can regenerate a new head. Double-amputees can regenerate both a new head at the anterior surface and a new tail at the posterior surface (right). They do this by the proliferation and differentiation of the totipotent stem cells that it retains in its body throughout its life. How do the cells know whether to develop into a head or a tail? Thanks to the ease with which individual genes can be knocked out by RNA interference (RNAi), it has been shown that hedgehog signaling and the Wnt/β-catenin pathway dictates where the head and tail form.
Starfish  These echinoderms can regenerate the entire organism from just one arm and the central disk. I have read that at one time oyster fishermen used to dredge up starfish from their oyster beds, chop them up in the hope of killing them, and then dump the parts back overboard. They soon discovered to their sorrow the remarkable powers of regeneration of these animals. The photo (courtesy of Dr. Charles Walcott) shows a starfish regenerating an arm. Vertebrates Newts and Salamanders  These amphibians can regenerate a missing tail, legs, even eyes. This remarkable ability is particularly pronounced in the larval stage. For this reason, larval salamanders are favorites for doing research on regeneration. For example, cutting the tail off a larval salamander initiates the following sequence of events:
For years, it has been unclear as to whether this regeneration depends on
Don't we wish that we had the same powers of regeneration that salamanders do: able to regenerate a severed spinal cord or grow a new heart! But unfortunately, we cannot. We can regenerate some skin and a large amount of liver. But that's about it. Just why we are so limited is not known (but is the subject of intense research). Much of the excitement of research on stem cells is because of the hope that they may provide a means of regrowing damaged or lost tissues or even organs. Genetic Control of Regeneration A number of genes have been found to implicated in regeneration. One of the most potent of these is Wnt.
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman
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#202
04-12-10, 11:19 AM
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It’s a Motorcycle! It’s a Sports Car! No, It’s…Snaefell?   Call it a tiny sports car with a motorcycle growing out of its side, or call it a sexy motorcycle with the world’s weirdest sidecar…but whatever you call it, the Snaefell is a feat of amateur genius. Built by Francois Knorreck, the wonderfully unique vehicle took more than a decade, 10,000 man-hours and more than 15,000 Euros to construct. The body of the sidecar was all custom-built, and inside it looks like an actual sports car.  The motorcycle portion is built on a Laverda triple 1000cc base, giving it power and grace. And it needs it when it’s hauling around a sidecar that’s as big as a commuter car. But taken together, the motorcycle and sidecar just seem to blend together like they were born attached at the hip, which is likely just what the amazing vehicle’s creator was going for.  The literal sidecar was built from various pieces of a Citroen Xantia, a VW GTI and an Audi 80. Rather than going for the usual configuration of a sidecar attached to a motorcycle with a bridge connector, Knorreck decided to build a smooth body encompassing both parts of this extremely unusual vehicle. The result is something you’d probably have no choice but to stare at enviously if you saw it passing you on the highway.  Two Tracks, One Tire: The WWII Half-Motorcycle, Half-Tank  Lean, Mean: Safer Motorcycle Takes Turns at an Angle  The Extra Terrestrial Vehicle, or ETV, looks like just the car to draw envious (and perplexed) stares from everyone it passes by.
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman
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#203
04-12-10, 07:07 PM
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The Top 10 Crazy People Who Actually Changed the World (For the Better)
G. K. Chesterton once said that imagination does not breed insanity, but reason. He argued that artists and poets rarely go crazy, but with scientists it’s pretty much par for the course, and one good look around the halls of fame of the scientific community seems to confirm this. Hell, Newton once stuck a giant needle under his eyelid to see what was back there. In tribute to the certifiable lunatics that made the world the way it was, we at Spike.com present nine doctors and scientists, and one president, who changed the world in spite of, and perhaps by virtue of, being completely insane. By Marc Russel 10. W. C. Minor  Source: Oxford University Press What he did: The Oxford English Dictionary was notable as being one of the first well-organized and well-compiled dictionaries. Indeed, it was more or less the first dictionary that didn't suck, and which made an attempt to catalogue all the words in the English language, not just the ones that were tricky. Eventually, a few professors realized that all the dictionaries of the time were aggravatingly laid out and just generally crappy, so they set about making a better one. One of the many problems they identified was that there weren't any good example quotations that demonstrated how to use the word in a sentence. Unfortunately to rectify that problem, they needed someone who could compile such quotations and definitions, and match them up to every word ever written. They were to busy to do it, and they didn't have the funding to pay anyone to do it, so they put out word that they needed volunteers for an frighteningly menial task. They didn't get a whole lot of go-getters. Of the people who did volunteer was William Chester Minor, an American surgeon who loved the English language. Minor compiled an enormous quantity of words with quotations and definitions that he could call up on demand. He compiled lists of every instance of every word in all the books he owned, and was by far the most efficient of the volunteers for the OED. He became close friends with the Editor of the OED, Dr. James Murray, and they would eat lunch several times a week. Indeed without his contribution, the OED would have probably been as poorly done as all the others and dictionaries would continue to suck to this day. So what's so crazy about him? He did all of this while incarcerated in the Broadmoor Asylum for the Criminally Insane, after going nuts and killing a father of six-with-one-more-on-the-way named George Merett, who Minor thought was out to get him. During his interment he had little else to do, so he hoarded definitions and quotations the way that lady down the street hoards stray cats. Meanwhile his mental condition became continued to deteriorate until he cut his dick off with a straight razor, and they shipped him back to America. 9. Tycho Brahe  Source: Eduard Ender What he did: Before Galileo, there was Tycho Brahe. Tycho Brahe catalogued the motion of every star, planet, UFO, and ball of ignited swamp gas in the heavens for much of his life, information that was surprisingly important for its time and allowed the creation of the laws of planetary motion. His carefulness and scientifically rigorous methodology are considered to have been essential for setting the stage of the scientific revolution. So what's so crazy about him? Many famous geniuses were drunks, but few were as spectacularly so as Tycho Brahe. Dinner at his house would put most modern day drunken college frat parties to shame. Not only did he tend to do stupid things when he was drunk (at a Christmas party when he was 20 he got into a duel with a man in a pitch black room and lost his nose in the process), but his house was like a goddamn circus. Since Brahe at one time had a net worth of about one percent of the entire wealth Denmark and lived in a castle, the guy knew how to throw a hell of a party. Among other shenanigans, one thing he was known for was having a dwarf in his employ named Jepp who Brahe maintained was clairvoyant. Jepp's full-time job consisted of wearing a jester's outfit, sitting under the table at dinner, and whatever else a psychic midget is supposed to do. He also had a pet moose that would drink with the rest of them, until one day it got totally drunk and fell down a flight of stairs. When was the last time you were at a party and a drunk moose fell down the stairs? We thought so. 8. Samuel Morse  Source: Project Gutenberg What he did: He invented the first electrical telegraph, and made Morse code, the language used in communication for over a hundred years. This worked wonders in the advancement of civilization, as it provided a means of communication over long distance in short time, as well being the forerunner of modern binary code. So what's so crazy about him? He was a little paranoid. He was determined that the Blacks, Jews, Catholics and the entire nation of Austria were working to destroy the White Anglo-Saxon Protestants of America. He wrote several books on the subject in which he talked about how the immigrants and lesser races were oppressing all the white people, how the Jews and Catholics were working together to kill Protestants, and how all of these groups met on a regular basis in the basement of an orphanage in Ireland. Oh, and Austria's in there too somewhere. Ironically, when the telegraph became widespread it allowed people to arrange in advance for their arrival when they immigrated. This led to a massive storm of immigration into the USA and filling it with people of different ethnicities, religions, and all the other things that are obviously conspiring against the poor oppressed WASPs of the country. So Morse ended up dying locked in his house afraid of going out for fear of the Catholic-Austrian-Immigrant Jews that were taking over the world. 7. Yoshiro Nakamatsu  Source: YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/Getty Images What he did: At 81 years old, Nakamatsu has over 3,000 patents, giving him the record for the most patents in the history of ever (Thomas Edison only had a little over a thousand, most of which he ripped off). Chances are you encounter several of his inventions on a regular basis. He invented the CD, the DVD, the digital watch, and the taxicab meter. So what's so crazy about him? Nakamatsu meticulously catalogues, records, and analyses everything he eats, in a bid to survive to the age of exactly 144. No more, no less, he is determined to die at that exact number. He sleeps only four hours a night, saying that sleeping over six hours is "very, very bad." His diet is almost exclusively made up of his "Yummy Nutri Brain Food", a combination of seaweed, cheese, yogurt, eel, eggs, beef, and chicken liver. What is most interesting is his method for inventing things. He holds his breath underwater until he almost dies. He himself says "A lack of oxygen is very important... I get that flash just 0.5 sec before death. I remain under the surface until this trigger comes up and I write it down with a special waterproof Plexiglas writing pad I invented." Usually when you need a near death experience just to get through the day, you're either insane, or you just have stones the size of basketballs. Or both. 6. Sergei Bryukhonenko  Source: Experiments in the Revival of Organisms/Prelinger Archive What he did: Sergei Bryukhonenko made enormous leaps for medical science, and indeed mankind, when in the early 1920s he invented The Autojector, the worlds first ever life-support machine. It acted as a mechanical heart and lung, and while primitive by today's standards it did the job pretty well. This was the template for pretty much all life support machines that came after, and we probably don't need to tell you how important those are. So, what's so crazy about him? In order to test his machine, he needed the dead and the dying, and even though this was back when medical ethics were pretty much left up to whatever the doctor's scruples were, he couldn't very well use people. Instead, he used dogs. Lots and lots of dogs. He would first kill them, then use his system of pumps and bowls to get them going again. As he went on, he got increasingly dramatic, practicing draining the blood from dogs' body, then restoring it and bringing the dog back alive (however brain damaged). Later he started testing if his machine would work only on the whole dogs, or if he could get away with only part of a dog. Like, say, just the head. As it turns out, it is possible to sever a dog's head, hook it up to a bunch of tubes, and keep it alive. Well, only for a few minutes, and in sort of a stupor, but it's the principle that counts. All things considered, the man was only a castle, a hunchback, and poorly recorded lightning track from being Victor freaking Frankenstein. 5. Henry Cavendish  Source: Hulton Archive/Getty Images What he did: Cavendish was an instrumental figure in the scientific community. Aside from discovering hydrogen, he also calculated the density of the planet earth with surprising accuracy using only a couple of lead balls and his own intellect. This may not sound too important, but it was influential in the field of astrophysics, because it led to many important breakthroughs, including the calculation of the gravitational constant of the universe. He also did great work with electricity, discovering the concept of voltage, the formula for the capacitance of a capacitor and a unit for it (now called the Farad), Ohms law, Coulombs Law, Richter's law of Reciprocal Proportions, Dalton's law of Partial Pressures, and Wheatstone's laws of parallel circuitry. So, what's so crazy about him? You may have noticed, all his discoveries are named after other people. Henry was a bit of a loner. He almost never left his house, except when he needed equipment, or to go to the Royal Society Club, where he barely talked to anyone unless they had something really important to say. He never entertained visitors at his house, and actually had a hidden staircase in his house so he could get around without encountering his housekeeper, who he communicated with via letters left on a special table. There is one account where a fan of his work ambushed him at his door in an attempt to tell him how great he was, only to have Cavendish scream and run into the woods, to be coaxed out two hours later. All the discoveries listed above under someone else's name, are there because Cavendish didn't publish them. Instead they sat in his attic for almost a hundred years collecting dust, until a man named James Clerk Maxwell showed up, and found them. By that point, people were starting to make these discoveries on their own. In essence, Cavendish was almost a century ahead of his time, but didn't get any credit for it because of his terrifyingly bad social skills. 4. Dr. John Harvey Kellogg  Source: Project Gutenberg What he did: Back in the 1800s, breakfast meant one of two things. If you were rich, it meant eggs. If not, it was porridge. John Kellogg and his brother Will changed that. They invented the first cereal in the world: Corn Flakes! A cheap and tasty (albeit slightly bland) breakfast food. This paved the way for a whole new era in the land of breakfast. An era where instead of gruel, porridge, or other boiled grains, one had dozens of foods to choose from, each represented by it's own anthropomorphic cartoon animal, with dozens of games and puzzles on the back, and toys and decoder rings on the inside. So what's so crazy about him? The thing which no one pays attention to, and which will never make that little side-panel on the box with the explanation of how "ever since its conception, Kellogg's has been dedicated to quality" is why he made Corn Flakes in the first place. Dr. Kellogg was a strong believer in nutrition, and felt that a simple diet low in sugar and energy, would be paramount in preventing little children from masturbating. Yes, for real. You see, Kellogg felt that masturbation was what was eating away at society and destroying all that was good in the world. You may laugh, but it's proven to cause a number of serious health problems including (but not limited to): insomnia, fatigue, excessive hair-loss, excessive hair growth, weight-loss, weight-gain, blindness, nausea, insanity, gout, cancer, homosexuality, and communism. He was the founding father of several movements including the "Race Betterment Foundation," part of the early eugenics movement. He was also a strong advocate of circumcision. Not circumcision at birth, mind you. He felt that it should be done as punishment when little Billy is caught fiddling with his boner in the bathtub: [The procedure] should be performed by a surgeon without administering an anesthetic, as the brief pain attending the operation will have a salutary effect upon the mind, especially if it be connected with the idea of punishment. In females, the author has found the application of pure carbolic acid [phenol] to the clitoris an excellent means of allaying the abnormal excitement.He maintained that circumcision would work almost one hundred percent of the time, because "following the cicatrisation of the wounds, the skin will cover the organ tight...which will considerably hamper masturbation or eradicate it altogether." For the record, it doesn't. Along with restrictive dieting, circumcision, and his diabolical acid treatment, he also advocated tying the subject's hands together, putting their genitals in special devices that would make an erection intolerably painful, electroshock therapy, and sewing the foreskin shut. He also once preformed a clitorectomy on a nine-year-old. If you don't know what that is, just take our word for it that you're better off not knowing. So that's why we have Corn Flakes. Oh, his brother Will was the one who invented Frosted Flakes. Johnny flipped, we don't mind saying. 3. Nikolai Tesla He hated jewelry (especially pearls, earrings, and pearl earrings), refused to touch anything with any amount of dust on it, and was terrified of anything round and/or metal. Of course that last one could just be a healthy reaction to working in a lab where most of the round, metal objects would fry you on contact. Source: Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images What he did: Tesla's contributions to humanity are too many to all be listed here. Among other things, he invented AC, the Induction motor, the Tesla Coil, Wireless Technology, Radio Astronomy, Radar, and Robotics. He was also the guy who thought up the Death Ray, although he never actually got around to building one (that we know of). So what's so crazy about him? Tesla was very OCD. And that doesn't just mean he washed his hands more often than Lady Macbeth. He had an obsession with the number 3 to an almost frightening extent. Whenever he entered a building, he first had to circle the blocks 3 times clockwise, he only stayed in a hotel room if the room number was divisible by 3, and he always used exactly 9 napkins, which he kept in three stacks of three, and spent many of his meals calculating the volume of his food before eating it. He also loved pigeons to the point that he would import special seeds for feeding them in the park, and would sometimes capture them live and take them back to his apartment with him. Last edited by Boo; 04-12-10 at 07:16 PM.
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#204
04-12-10, 07:09 PM
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2. Andrew Jackson  Source: Stock Montage/Hulton Archive/Getty Images What he did: Won a major battle in New Orleans in the War of 1812 (the one where Canada burned down the White House), securing the respect of his peers. He was elected as the seventh president of the U.S.A., where he helped form the American Political system, and got his face on the 20 dollar bill. In his term he reduced national Debt, caused several structural changes to the bureaucratic and political system (including the implementation of the Spoils System), and pushed for expansionism, allowing the US to grow to the size it is today. He also helped screw the Indians out of all their land. So what's so crazy about him? Jackson was what we in the Biz call a "Badass". He earned the nickname "Old Hickory" in his war days for being almost completely indestructible, and for regularly beating the stuff out of people with a hickory walking stick. He won the battle at New Orleans by virtue of his both being a hard-ass, and by hiring a crap-load of pirates to help out. That's right, freaking pirates. They even brought their cannons down into the artillery. His men won with only about 24 deaths. He was also known for participating in a great many duels. Understand that back then, duels were fought with muskets, the most hideously inaccurate gun in the history of guns. This meant a duel consisted of just shooting at one another until the other guy was so scared and/or bloodied that he surrendered. During his duels, Jackson sustained so many bullet wounds that (according to biographer Chris Wallace) he was known to "rattle like a bag of marbles" when he walked, and cough up blood on a regular basis. After seeing the guy take a few shots to the abdomen, and taking a few themselves, most surrendered, and Jackson only once ever actually killed a man in a duel. This unlucky individual was Charles Dickinson, who was convinced by Jackson's political opponents to make fun of his wife, who Jackson he married before she divorced her first husband. Jackson, who just didn't stand for that kinda stuff, challenged him to a duel. Then, even though Dickinson was well known as being an award-winning marksman, he let Dickinson shoot first. Just to reiterate, he actually had made money off of being particularly good at shooting things, and Jackson let him be first to try to shoot at him. Dickinson shot him square in the chest, missing his heart by about one inch. While any sane human being would have screamed all bloody hell and called for a medic, Jackson straightened up and shot the guy in the face, killing him instantly. Jackson was also the first president on whom an assassination was attempted. The would-be assassin (a guy named Richard Lawrence who thought he was King Richard the Third) opted to try to shoot Jackson, even though he was by now probably more bullet than actual living flesh. Lawrence ran up to him, pulled out his gun, pointed at Jackson's heart, and pulled the trigger. The gun misfired. So he pulled out a second gun he brought with him, pointed it at his heart, and pulled the trigger. In what can only be called a statistical miracle, it also misfired. Jackson charged the man with fire in his eyes, and proceeded to beat the living stuff out of him with his walking stick until his aides pulled him off, with the help of local bystanders (including Davy Crockett). Lawrence later said that he "only felt genuine fear when he saw the 67-year-old president charge." 1. Pythagoras  Source: Hulton Archive/Getty Images What he did: Pythagoras was one of the founding fathers of mathematics. Aside from being credited with writing the Pythagorean Theorem, he also conducted a great deal of work with sound and harmonics, and discovered the Golden Ratio. The Golden Ratio is a number that represents the geometric relationship "A is to B what B is to C" and it appears a good deal in nature as well as art. You may recall that there was a long and overall pointless chapter in The Da Vinci Code completely devoted to the subject. Pythagoras also created a model of the universe in which the universe was a series of glass spheres, all turning in harmony, with the earth at the center. This dominated astronomy for about 2,000 years, and was the favored view of the Catholic church who felt it was proof of God. And we all know that you can't argue with the Catholics, or they'll send the black Austrian Jews after you. So what's so crazy about him? He had a cult. A weird one. Not, you know, one of the average, Jesus-lives-in-a-spaceship-under-Antarctica cults. No, this was a number cult. Sure, they had all the weird rules. Have sex in the summer, not the winter, only drink water, only eat uncooked foods, don't wear wool, etc. Oh, and never ever eat beans. They make you fart and are "like the genitalia" therefore they are pure evil. But they were also obsessed with numbers and geometry. Every number was a shape and every shape represented a number. And every number-shape had a purpose, a divine meaning, and a place in the order of everything. And Pythagoras loved them all. Their symbol was a number-shape (of course), it was the number five, the pentagram, because the pentagram was infinite. The pentagram contained a pentagon. The pentagon, if all corners were connected, formed another pentagram, which was proportionate in every way to the original and which formed another pentagon. Pythagoras saw more numbers in music, in the ratios of the strings and the beauty of the notes. In fact, his views on philosophy can be summarized in his own words "All is numbers." Unfortunately his idea of numbers and geometry can only allow numbers to be expressed as ratios with nice whole numbers (i.e. 2/3 instead of .66666). Decimals didn't exist. This meant that irrational numbers such as Pi, which continue forever in a non-repeating decimal fashion and can't be represented as fractions, are impossible to represent. So when a guy named Hippasus said "hey guys, this doesn't work here..." Pythagoras did what any rational person does when someone is a threat to their beliefs. Which is to get their secret brotherhood of math nerds to kidnap him, tie him up, take him out in the middle of a lake, light the boat on fire, and disappear into the night. That's right, they killed the guy over Pi. And he wasn't the only one. Anyone who had a proof that was a threat to Pythagoras' vision of a perfect, rational, measurable universe was to be silenced. Pythagoras' end came when he denied a few people entry into his elite group of math nerds. They came in a mob to torch his house, and he ran away out the back with them hot in pursuit. Supposedly this continued until he came to a large field of beans. Given the option between the Angry Mob and the Bean Field, he just turned around and let them kill him. This guy made math what it is today. Last edited by Boo; 04-12-10 at 07:14 PM.
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#206
04-15-10, 07:09 AM
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Can you choose whether you are an interesting person or a dull person?
To a large extent you can. There are things you can do to make your company and your conversation interesting and there are things you can do that will make you boring. If you want to be dull try the following list. If you want to be interesting do the opposite:
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman Last edited by Boo; 04-15-10 at 07:13 AM.
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#207
04-16-10, 04:58 PM
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Earhart's Final Resting Place Believed Found
Amelia Earhart mostly likely crash landed near a tropical island in the southwestern Pacific.
By Rossella Lorenzi | Fri Oct 23, 2009 11:03 AM ET  Amelia Earhart appears above in her flight gear in this undated photo. AP Photo Legendary aviatrix Amelia Earhart most likely died on an uninhabited tropical island in the southwestern Pacific republic of Kiribati, according to researchers at The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR). Tall, slender, blonde and brave, Earhart disappeared while flying over the Pacific Ocean on July 2, 1937 in a record attempt to fly around the world at the equator. Her final resting place has long been a mystery. WATCH VIDEO: Heroes Of Aviation: Amelia Earhart For years, Richard Gillespie, TIGHAR's executive director and author of the book "Finding Amelia," and his crew have been searching the Nikumaroro island for evidence of Earhart. A tiny coral atoll, Nikumaroro was some 300 miles southeast of Earhart's target destination, Howland Island. A number of artifacts recovered by TIGHAR would suggest that Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, made a forced landing on the island's smooth, flat coral reef. According to Gillespie, who is set to embark on a new $500,000 Nikumaroro expedition next summer, the two became castaways and eventually died there. "We know that in 1940 British Colonial Service officer Gerald Gallagher recovered a partial skeleton of a castaway on Nikumaroro. Unfortunately, those bones have now been lost," Gillespie said. The archival record by Gallagher suggests that the bones were found in a remote area of the island, in a place that was unlikely to have been seen during an aerial search. A woman's shoe, an empty bottle and a sextant box whose serial numbers are consistent with a type known to have been carried by Noonan were all found near the site where the bones were discovered. "The reason why they found a partial skeleton is that many of the bones had been carried off by giant coconut crabs. There is a remote chance that some of the bones might still survive deep in crab burrows," Gillespie said. Although she did not succeed in her around-the-world expedition, Earhart flew off into the legend just after her final radio transmission. Books, movies and television specials about her disappearance abound as well as speculation about her fate. Theories proliferated that she was a spy, that she was captured by the Japanese, that she died in a prisoner-of-war camp, and that she survived and returned to live her life as a New Jersey housewife. A new biopic about Earhart's life, starring Hilary Swank and Richard Gere, opens this weekend. The general consensus has been that the plane had run out of fuel and crashed in the Pacific Ocean, somewhere near Howland Island. But according to Gillespie, the "volume of evidence" TIGHAR has gathered suggests an alternative scenario. "Propagation analysis of nearly 200 radio signals heard for several days after the disappearance make it virtually indisputable that the airplane was on land," Gillespie said. Eventually, Earhart's twin-engine plane, the Electra, was ripped apart by Nikumaroro's strong waves and swept out into deep water, leaving no visible trace. "The evidence is plentiful -- but not conclusive yet -- to support the hypothesis that Amelia landed and died on the island of Nikumaroro," forensic anthropologist Karen Ramey Burns told Discovery News. The author of a book on Earhart, Burns believes that the strongest of the amassed evidence comes from the report related to the partial skeleton found by Gallagher. "The skeleton was found to be consistent in appearance with females of European descent in the United States today, and the stature was consistent with that of Amelia Earhart," said Burns. According to Burns, another piece of documentary evidence comes from the accounts of Lt. John O. Lambrecht, a U.S. Naval aviator participating in the search for Earhart's plane. Lambrecht reported "signs of recent habitation" on what was an officially uninhabited atoll. Lambrechet's report begs the question: Why did no one follow up? "I have stood in plain sight on Nikumaroro in a white shirt waving wildly as a helicopter flew over me and was not noticed until the video tape of the flight was examined," Burns said. "I find it very easy to believe that Amelia and Fred would not have been seen by the pilot. If the Electra was not visible at the time, their last chance of rescue was lost in Lambrecht's notes," she added. Abandoned on a desert island where temperatures often exceed 100 degrees, even in the shade, Earhart and Noonan likely eventually succumbed to any number of causes, including injury and infection, food poisoning from toxic fish, or simply dehydration. The coconut crabs' great pincers would have done the rest, likely removing some of the last physical traces of this pioneering aviatrix.
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman Last edited by Boo; 04-16-10 at 05:00 PM.
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#208
04-18-10, 10:05 AM
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........
 - Uncanny ability to solve medical mysteries without using lab equipment. - Inability to identify with humans. - Strange drug habit to balance body chemistry. - Mutilated leg in mysterious 'accident'. Why didn't we see this before?
Dr. House is obviously a bitter, crash-landed, alien stuck for hundreds of years on earth trapped in human form and awaiting rescue while trying to make the best of it.
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman Last edited by Boo; 04-18-10 at 10:07 AM.
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#209
04-19-10, 11:34 AM
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12 Interesting Things About Dogs and Cats
by papaleng on May 20, 2009 If you think you have enough knowledge about dogs and cats, then this will prove you wrong. Most of us love dogs and cats and to show our affection, we are taking them as companion or pets. But did you know that these animals possess remarkable traits and behavior that we ought to know. You will be in for a surprise after reading this article. 6 Interesting Things About Cats image source
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman
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#210
04-19-10, 12:10 PM
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Exoskeleton the farmers
April 12th, 2010 Goto comments Leave a comment RoboCop and Iron Man can dodge bullets and crush villains, a new powered suit from Japan promises its elderly users more modest powers, such as pulling up radishes without getting a backache. Unlike its heavily armed Hollywood counterparts, the Power Assist Suit aims to make life easier for Japan’s army of greying farmers. The metal-and-plastic exoskeleton boasts eight electric motors that amplify the strength of the wearer’s arms and legs, as well as sensors that can detect movements and respond to commands through a voice-recognition system.  Prof. Shigeki Toyama and his team developed the power-enhancing suit at the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, and Toyama plans to set up a company to start producing the futuristic outfit by the end of the year. “If the farmer bends over to grasp a radish, his back will be firmly supported,” said Gohei Yamamoto, a student working on the team. “A brief vocal instruction will instantly straighten the rods along his legs, giving him the power he needs to pull the vegetable without effort.” Fifteen years in the making, the robo-suit can reduce the user’s physical effort by 62 per cent on average. 
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman Last edited by Boo; 04-19-10 at 12:17 PM.
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#211
04-19-10, 07:11 PM
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Do you know how to pronounce the name of the Iceland Volcano,
the one that is spewing ash over Europe and shutting down the airlines?
Eyjafjallajökull - You're doing it wrong!
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman
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#212
04-20-10, 08:47 AM
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UFO picks up Laconia, NH car with teens and drops 180 feet away
 Windshield cracked and air bag deployed. MUFON image.  .Photo: Asphalt impact area. MUFON image. ...  Photo: Asphalt impact area and tire marks in the grass. MUFON image. Two New Hampshire teenagers sitting in a parked car were approached by a black-colored UFO in Laconia on March 20, 2010, lifted into the air and then dropped back onto pavement 180 feet away, according to testimony from the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) database. MUFON New England State Director Steve Firmani confirmed his investigation of the case today by telephone and said witness interviews had been completed. The 18-year-old girl and 16-year-old boy both offer testimony about their encounter. The two used the girl's mother's car and went to a Laconia destination that has not been released. "We were just sitting there and I looked up at the moon," the female witness stated. "I saw this weird black-shaped object. And then, I said to my boyfriend, 'What was that?'” Both accounts describe the same events. They saw an object coming toward them from the sky and began to panic. When they attempted to drive away, the car they were operating was lifted up off the ground. Both describe an odd smell during the incident. When the car hit the pavement 180 feet away, the windshield cracked and the air bags deployed. Firmani said there was no damage to the body of the car, but that there was about $5,000 damage to the underside of the car. The male witness descibed the UFO. "I don’t know how to explain this but it turns into a ball when it wants to slow down and move around quickly and when it wants to go fast, straight, it turns into a flat plate with maze box-shaped lined lights. These were on all the time." He describes attempting to drive away. "The front end got picked up and the car could not move. We steered left and right but the car just kept on going up into the air." When the car hit the ground, they drove quickly away to the girl's home where her mother called the police. Firmani said there were three-inch divets in the curbing at the impact point where the car hit the ground. He said further study would be made to the under carriage body parts, which MUFON has retained from the body shop. Laconia is a city in Belknap County, New Hampshire, population 16,411, This case was originally reported to Peter Davenport at the National UFO Reporting Center. Davenport referred the case to Firmani. The following is the witness testimony from this case. NH, March 20, 2010 - 2 Witness Accounts (Credit: Peter Davenport - NUFORC). MUFON Case # 22880. “My name is E and I’m eighteen years old. I live in Laconia. Last Saturday night, my boyfriend D came up to see me and we went out. When we got to (edited), in Laconia, we parked in the back in the separate parking lot. We turned off the car and it was totally silent. Photo: Asphalt impact area and tire marks in the grass. MUFON image. We were just sitting there and I looked up at the moon. I saw this weird black-shaped object. And then, I said to my boyfriend, “What was that?” He looked up at it and he said, ”If it gets any closer, we need to leave.” I kept staring at the moon to see if it was just a plane or something. It moved back across the moon. It was huge and it looked like it was zig-zagging or changing shape. I couldn’t tell. He said, “I think it’s coming closer.” It flew so fast over the trees getting closer to where we were. It felt like it was zeroing in on us. It blocked the moon. And then, we started panicking and driving away. I thought were were going to hit the Bingo building. We turned left but it felt like we went off of a jump – you know that feeling? like we were on a rollercoaster? And we were in the air. I was trying to pay attention to everything that was going on but it felt like I couldn’t. When I looked up, everything was black. The smell was not nice but it was like something you could stand. It was an odor I’ve never smelled before. I heard absolutely nothing – it was silent. I felt immobilized like I had no control over what I was doing or over my body. I could see nothing. It was like opening your eyes in a pitch black room. I felt really nervous and scared. I don’t remember crying or screaming. I held on to the center console because I felt like I was lifted. I was holding on so tight that my thumbprint is imprinted on the center console. And then, when I finally realized what was happening, I was so close to the windshield that my body was going forward with my arms behind me. Everything was black. I heard a loud noise like a horn. Once. And then, the car just dropped. I hit my eye on the dashboard and the airbags came out. I couldn’t believe what had just happened. I held my face and I looked over at my boyfriend. I saw that his left arm had blood. I said, “Are you OK?” I looked at the windshield and it was cracked, totally, but only on the passenger side. I could see D but I couldn’t see anything outside. The only thing that made the car drop was the sound of the loud horn. When the car dropped, there was a loud boom. After that, we just drove so fast out of there. The smell went away after we drove away. And I started crying. And I said, “What the h—l just happened?” My boyfriend said, “I don’t know, I don’t know.” I didn’t feel like they were following us. When we got home, my Mom said that she could hear me from the outside while I was freaking out. I couldn’t stop crying. My Mom said, “Calm down and tell me what happened.” I said, “You’re never going to believe me.” “Is it my car?” she asked. And I said, “Let me explain,” because I felt that if I didn’t explain it fast enough, it was just going to go away from my mind. At about 12:15 am, a cop arrived. I told him what had happened while I was sitting down at the dinner table. My boyfriend was sitting next to me – it was then that I noticed that there was no more blood on his arm or his clothing. The cop didn’t believe me at first until he finished looking at the car. He told my Mom that there was no reason for the air bags to come out because nothing else on the car was damaged. He didn’t check underneath the car but we found out later that the underside was totaled. The cop said that he was going to the place where we had been. I just felt thankful that we’d gotten out of there. But I couldn’t stop crying for more than 2 hours afterwards. My Mom said, “You should go take a shower and get the airbag dust off of you.” But I didn’t want to be alone at all. I felt lucky. And there were no scratches or anything anywhere on my body. The first night, my dream was that I was a little girl, maybe 6 or 7 years old, in an Elementary School classroom. I was looking at myself as a little girl. And then it was like the teacher called me up and I couldn’t talk or say anything - but everybody else seemed to say something for me. Like everything I wanted to say, everybody else was saying it except for me. They were saying exactly what I wanted say. I have never had a dream like this before – where I am a little girl and see anything about the past. I did not feel right at all. I am better now. I still worry about seeing this thing again and I pay attention to the sky at night. I really don’t go out at night, anymore, because I’m scared. “ 2nd Witness Account: My name is D. I am sixteen years old and I live in New Hampshire. Last Saturday night I went out with my girlfriend, who lives in Laconia, when we had the following experience: I was with her around 11. We wanted to take her Mom’s car because it was nicer and we wanted to go look at the stars. We went to (edited) at the back parking lot in Laconia. There were 8 cars already there when we arrived. Little by little, the cars started leaving one by one. We were the last car in the parking lot. Then the lights of the parking lot and the lights of the houses around us and the lights of the houses down the street started to go out one by one. Then my girlfriend noticed something blocking the moon and asked, "What was that?" I knew it wasn’t a cloud because it moved back against the wind and blocked the moon again. I don’t know how to explain this but it turns into a ball when it wants to slow down and move around quickly and when it wants to go fast, straight, it turns into a flat plate with maze box-shaped lined lights. These were on all the time. The colors were dim yellowish white and did not change. I cannot tell whether these were part of the bottom or not. It flipped a lot. I did not know which side was right or up on it. It was doing this over the trees across the street from the parking lot. It suddenly crossed the street towards our car. Its size was as big as 14 houses. It was really quiet. That’s when we had to leave. But I did not have time to turn on the headlights. We put the clutch in to start the car and jammed it into 1st and floored it. The front end got picked up and the car could not move. We steered left and right but the car just kept on going up into the air. My girlfriend was scared and she had boogers coming out of her nose while I was cursing. The car was going up and the back wheels were off of the ground. Then I looked out of my window and saw that the parking lot park lines started getting smaller. Both our windows were down this whole time. The front windshield started to crack and shake and the cracks spread from the passenger side to the driver’s side. It popped outwards like it was pulled out. Something yanked my wrist. Not aggressively. And the whole time in my head something was telling me “Don’t panic,” or “Don’t be scared.” And it wasn’t in English in my head but I got the meaning. It wasn’t a language – I don’t know how to explain it. And on my girlfriend’s side, it had her half-way out of the window. Her butt was off of her seat, maybe one-and-a-half or two feet? and the car was pointed almost completely straight up at the stars – yet I saw no stars. Every time I tried looking at it, in front, a white film went over my eyes. It was kind of like staring at the sun with your eyelids closed. I could not hear her screaming but I know that she was screaming. My ears felt like they kept on popping from the altitude. I couldn’t hear. The smell was like unbearable, like you want to close your nose. It was spicy, like pepper-sprayish, and clean at the same time – it was a smell that you could stand but you would close your nostrils because it still smells bad. When I tried to fight and get my wrist back in the car, that’s when the grip got stronger. It was pulling my left arm up out of the window – there was no pain but it was strong – …. I was trying to fight off the grip on my wrist. My tongue was numb. The horn beeped by accident and the grip got a little loose. It beeped again in the struggle and my arm flopped down in the car. My girlfriend also fell back in her seat and we realized we were still up in the air. ! It took 2 seconds for the car to drop. When we dropped, the air bags came out. We floored it as fast as we could through the town. It was almost a straightaway to go to my girlfriend’s house with very few turns to take. During this time, both of us couldn’t stop crying. We arrived at her house and her Mom asked, “What happened?” All this took place from 11pm to 12:30 am. It seemed like we were in the air for 10 minutes and it felt like it was forever. Her Mom called the police, and a policeman came. The policeman did not believe us when we first told him what had happened until he looked at the vehicle. There were no scratches or dents or anything. He said that there was no reason for this to have happened to the car when there are no dents or scratches and no reason for the windshield to shatter and pop out the way it did. He had no explanation for why the windshield popped outwards. Also, when I went to open my cell phone in front of the policemen, I got shocked by it. On Monday, I went to my doctor to get a whole physical to make sure I was OK. My wrist had a puncture wound while my forearm has a cut that is semi-circular and there’s blood on it. I do remember that when I first looked at my arm after I got it back in the car, it was red with blood. But by the time we got to my girlfriend’s house, there was no blood anywhere. On the center consul of the car, there is an imprint of her hand. I don’t quite understand what the policeman said but it was something about the skin of her hand leaving an impression. Now, I don’t like to feel bumps in the car, or feel anything that trembles like a boombox. I don’t want to be out in dark areas at night. I also don’t like to walk out to my Mom’s car, anymore, outside. “
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman
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#214
04-23-10, 08:37 AM
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman
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#217
04-25-10, 08:02 AM
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Top 10 Charity Scams
The internet is truly the wave of the future for all people, but then we have to include scammers and “matchstick men” into that equation.
Scammers have used the same “patterns of hustle” since antiquity, but now they’ve taken a new form: a virtual one. There’s almost no greater way to bilk someone out of money than to convince them that the money is going towards a worthy cause, so when you mix the anonymity of the internet with just the right emotional appeal, there’s no wonder there’s so many lecherous, but effective schemes to rob someone blind. Here we have a list of the Top 10 most notorious, desperate, and dangerous charity scams that con-artists, virtual and otherwise, have used and will continue to use…all in the name of philanthropy. 10. Tsunami Victim Scam Before the advent of the Internet, there was a saying that you “couldn’t cheat an honest man”. Through the internet, there are now literally hundreds of ways to bilk even the most righteous human being, but the old axiom still holds true. Mike and Carol Hall were visiting the far East in 2004 when the tsunami disaster struck; they were unfortunately killed. Scam artists then solicited e-mails stating that the couple had 10 million in their bank account when they died, telling individuals that if they pretended to be relatives to collect the inheritance, the couple’s lawyers would back up their claim for a share of the inheritance money. Where the scammer profit came in was the “trust” fee that would be sent to the “lawyers” in good faith. It’s unknown if these wretches were even arrested, but anyone who fell for this one deserved it may’ve whatever happened to them. Read More:http://419.bittenus.com/8/2/celsoribeiro.html http://419mail.blogspot.com/2007/04/...arol-hall.html 9. Virginia Tech Charity Scam An official fund for the victims of the VA Tech shootings was set up online and at Virginia Tech itself following the tragedy, but given 25 fraudulent funds were set up online at the same time as the real one, it was difficult to discern which VA Tech charity was the real one. People who fell victim to this VA Tech scheme faced the threat of identity theft more than simply being robbed. Thankfully, the US Computer Emergency Response Team was instrumental in rapidly shutting these fraudulent sites down. Read More:http://www.v3.co.uk/vnunet/news/2187...-brace-virgina 8. The Missouri AFCEF Charity Scam The Armed Forces Children’s Education Fund is a legitimate, Washington-based charity that gives the proceeds of their donations to the children of soldiers killed during the Iraq War. However, a Missouri man who placed candy inside of several local vending machines and claimed that money from these sales would go to AFCEF was never an employee of AFCEF, and District Attorney Jay Nixon made this clear to Henry County, MO citizens with an indictment against the scammer. Read More:http://ago.mo.gov/newsreleases/2006/052606.htm 7. The Foundation of Hope Scam There are literally thousands of e-mail scams out there, but most of them are very transparent to the untrained eye. The Foundation of Hope e-mail scam is different in that the misleading e-mail is actually very convincing and professional in its appearance; making a heartfelt plea to the mark to donate money for disadvantaged Canadian youth. The commendable people of scamwarners.org deserve the credit for notifying people of this scam, and a few others like it very similar in its design. The eloquently-written FoH letter itself can be found at http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/vie....php?f=8&t=266. 6. French Scientology Fraud The Church of Scientology is not entirely corrupt, but to be fair, the late L. Ron Hubbard’s religious organization has been involved in more than too many financial-based scandals. Among these was the 1999 fraud trial of five French Scientology officials who took up to 14,000 Euros each from various church members for donations and “purification”, then pretty much pocketed the money. According to news sources, even before this incident, Scientology was considered a “dangerous cult” in France. Read More:http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008...rance.religion 5. The Deniz Feneri Foundation Fraud The Deniz Feneri Foundation, an Islamic charity, faced backlash from the Muslim community in 2008 when Aykut Zahid Akman, lead organizer of charity, was convicted on fraud and embezzlement charges in Germany along with several members of his staff. The leaders of Deniz Ferari are reported to have stolen at least 16 million Euros in donations from benevolent Muslims, then used the money to not only supplant their own lifestyles, but also to buy a cruise boat, a TV station, and Turkish stocks. Aykut Zahid Akman was sentenced to 69 months in German prison while his staff received lighter sentences within maximum security prisons. Read More:http://www.expatica.com/de/news/local_news/Islamic-charity-bosses-jailed-for-fraud–.html 4. The Nigerian 419 E-Mail Scams Nndugu. This name and his many changing last names strikes fear into the heart of your average Internet user–or at least an eye roll. Millions of e-mails each year are sent by this assiduous Nigerian, and his jobs change more than The Pretender; one day he’ll be an ousted prince struggling to free his people, the next he’ll be a Nigerian charity president, then he’ll be the sweetest little boy trying to survive amidst African poverty. Nndugu always needs money, no matter how many people help him with his plight. First of all, Africa isn’t as poor as some would have you believe. Secondly, Nndugu doesn’t exist and he’s just the cover for one of the longest running and efficacious internet scams: the 419 Advance Fee Scam. 419 isn’t a Nigerian area code, it’s the penal code for which this crime falls under. The 419 scam may be the oldest mass-communications scam there is, as during the 1980’s it was done via fax machines, but due to the fact that the design of the 419 scam has been one of the most basic “confidence” tricks for centuries, we could consider the 419 scam to have existed long before the 1980’s. The most common variation of the 419 scam is the “fake lottery”, where a mark is informed that they have won the lottery but must send money to a third party (a lawyer, the lottery commission, etc.) in order to have the money transferred to them. The charity variation of the 419 scam is far simpler; the scammer either poses as a non-existent Nigerian relief foundation, or a dying person who is willing to give the mark an inheritance to donate to charity. As sending money directly to the source would alert the mark, it’s usually requested the fees be sent to the subject’s “lawyer” instead. Unmistakably, each and every person reading this article, regardless of where you live in the world, has had one of these e-mails fall into their box. This scam is best dealt with by never sending money to someone who requests it through e-mail. Never ever. Read more:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance-fee_fraud !!!!!! 3. ACORN !!!!!! Thought Enron was bad? ACORN, through so many breaches of business and charity ethics might just be America’s current epitome for organizational corruption within a country where there’s a new corporate scandal daily. Though to be fair, not all of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now is corrupt, in fact the majority of the organization strives to do good things within their community. Since 1970, ACORN has been a very active and positive force in providing housing for the poor, as well as improving public schools and going court for community issues when the people in the neighborhood can’t afford a lawyer. Having witnessed the effects of living poor, I wholeheartedly laud the concept and intent behind ACORN. Unfortunately, ACORN’s infrastructure might just be dirtier than a 4th grader on Sports Day; the non-profit, non-partisan organization has been implicated in everything from voter registration fraud to embezzlement. In 2008, brother of ACORN founder Wade Rathke, Dale Rathke, was ousted from ACORN for embezzling $948,000 from ACORN and related charities-except he stole the money between 1999 and 2000. Huh? As it turns out, the leadership of the company knew about Dale Rathke’s indiscretion, but swept it under the rug until a whistleblower alerted the press in 2008. It gets worse. According to the Washington Examiner which has given the story the most coverage, in the wake of the scandal, ACORN arranged for two members of the ACORN executive board to look into the financial scandal, but they barred these investigators from actually looking at the organization’s financial records. When these ACORN employees sued ACORN for the documents, ACORN tossed out the suit and the board members. Senator John McCain even suggested that ACORN was one of the groups responsible for America’s flailing economy, a sharp contrast to the fact that ACORN is supposed to be one of the saving graces for people deeply affected by the U.S. recession. ACORN may be a legitimate organization that does far more damage than any purely fraudulent one. Read More:http://www.nola.com/politics/index.s...s_5_milli.html 2. The Katrina Internet Scams Between 2000 and present, two terrible things have occurred on American soils that have embedded themselves into our culture: 9-11 and Hurricane Katrina. In the case of Hurricane Katrina, if FEMA’s failure to respond and the American president’s ineptitude weren’t bad enough, there was no shortage of opportunistic leeches prepared to steal from the displaced and disadvantaged in order to make their own pockets a little fatter. The first scam of note was one located at Katrinafund.name and neworleanscharities.com which was geared towards raising money solely for Caucasian victims of Katrina. Shortly thereafter, A Brazil website solicited millions of e-mails where the scammer posed as a representative of the American Red Cross. ABC News described one of these websites as appearing very credible; the trick to this was when a “mark” clicked the donate button, their personal information was actually sent to the third party while the mark was redirected to American Red Cross website. The Federal Bureau of Investigation estimates that following Hurricane Katrina, over 4,600 websites popped up, most either claiming they could send money to Katrina relief efforts or claiming to actually be a Katrina relief effort. The Internet’s most devious truly used every trick in the book to bilk decent people out of desperately needed Katrina relief money through a combination of phishing and solicitous e-mail. Thankfully, the federal government was quicker in shutting these internet abominations down than they were in actually responding to the hurricane. Florida resident Gary Kraser was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison for posing as a relief effort pilot on his fraudulent website, AirKatrina.com. Kraser even went so far as to keep a “tearful” web diary of his imaginary journeys to Louisiana, in which he wrote “I saw dogs wrapped in electrical lines still alive and sparks flying from their bodies being electrocuted, as well as some people dead already.” Twenty-one months may not have been enough time. Read More: http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/fbi-warning-after-haiti-quake-follows-string-of-disaster-scams/19317353 http://www.prlog.org/10553451-chile-...ty-frauds.html 1. The 9-11 Charity Scams It’s hardly a stretch to say that the tragedies of 9-11 not only transformed the American culture and consciousness, but also changed the world. 9-11 may be the ultimate source of every US triumph and failure within this decade, domestic or abroad. The unspeakable crimes that took place on 9-11 caused royalty, elitists, politicians, even entertainment giants to waste no effort in financially curtailing the impact of the 9-11 attacks, and while America suffered through its darkest hour, fraudulent and opportunistic animals committed their darkest deeds. 9-11 set the criminal standard for using the internet to take advantage of a crisis; every internet based scam that has been included in this list was either used or originated from the 9-11 internet frauds. Through relief scams, false charities, variations of the 419 scam, cyber-hustlers literally used every trick in the book to dupe and steal from financial contributors worldwide. 9-11 charity fraud may be unique in that some cases may have involved individuals stealing from legitimate charities rather than donating to non-existent ones. A former Navy officer who was working at the Pentagon on 9-11 faced trial for allegedly faking a leg injury to collect $300,000 from a victim’s fund. When the case deadlocked, his wife was eventually tried, which also resulted in a hung jury. 9-11 may have set the standard for fraud and opportunism in the face of disaster, when people are the most emotionally vulnerable, but not everyone walks into the well-laid traps of these internet predators. 9-11, and the fraud that ensued, also awakened individuals to the dangerous world outside of American borders and within their own broadband. Read More:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...110302049.html By Luther Avery http://Akorra.com
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman Last edited by Boo; 04-25-10 at 08:07 AM.
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#218
04-26-10, 01:36 PM
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Tallest Man’s Bike
 World’s tallest man, that is living in Ukraine has got a present from an engineer. A new bike that can suit his needs. This guy is 8 feet 5.5 inch tall (2 m 57 cm), see how the regular things look when compared with him:    
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman
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#220
05-03-10, 09:30 AM
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__________________
"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman
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#221
05-04-10, 08:25 PM
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SEX ADDS YEARS TO YOUR LIFE . . .
Sexual Intercourse releases chemicals that activate this pathway as do other activities associated with continued survival such as seeking food, drink, shelter, and social bonding. Science now believes positive stimulation of your built in reward system can add many quality years to your life. Unfortunately there are other activities that stimulate our Reward System that feel equally good, but can be destructive to our quality of life as well as our survival. Drug and Alcohol addiction stimulate your Pleasure Pathway in much the same way, which is why substance abusers feel a "High" when they use them. Read on to discover how managing your built in "Reward System," influences the quality of your life. YOUR PLEASURE PATHWAY... Brain scientists have long known the human Brain is equipped with a system of pleasure centers, also known as reward pathways, but until recently this knowledge was mainly used in the study of addiction. Further study has led to the discovery that these pathways evolved over time to promote behaviors that increase our ability to survive, such as feeding and reproductive behaviors. In other words this reinforcement or Pleasure Pathway, evolved to promote activities that are essential to the survival of the human race. That's good news for those of us who grew up believing anything that felt or tasted good had to be bad for us. Science has now concluded our Pleasure Pathway plays a much greater role in our lives than just the survival of the species. It is now believed this Reward System has to be sufficiently stimulated as often as daily, if we are to feel, function and perform to our maximum potential. Could it be that depriving ourselves of pleasure has nothing to do with living a long and healthy life? If that's true it means disciplining ourselves to do what we don't want to do may not always be the right course of action. The truth is we have to get a certain amount of pleasure from our daily activities or we can create a pleasure deficit, known as a "Reward Deficiency," which can lead to poor performance and even anxiety and depression if we deprive ourselves too much. Being stuck in a job you hate may be causing you more harm than you think. We all know we perform better when we're doing something we enjoy, but if that's not possible, right now, at a minimum try to plug in some fun every day. You'll live longer and be more productive if you do. We don't have to become "Thrill Seekers" to stimulate our Reward System. Even the wise use of the basic necessities of life, such as eating, drinking and especially Sex, stimulate our "Pleasure Pathway." In fact, staying sexually active is one of the best activities we can engage in because it releases several positive hormones in the body, increases intimacy and also has other social and mental benefits. According to recent studies frequent orgasms, at least 100 per year, can increase Life Expectancy by 3 to 5 years. One study of men with a high frequency of orgasms concluded they may be able to reduce their mortality by as much as 50 percent. Sounds hard to believe, but even 10% improvement is a lot when you're having fun. The amount and kind of pleasure we need varies with the individual, but the evidence is clear boredom and lack of social contact not only cause us to perform poorly, we can even die if it goes on too long. Study after study has shown that people who are isolated socially die prematurely. It's important to remember our Reward System isn't optional equipment, it's built in and it is tied to our basic survival system, so we can't just let it run wild it has to be managed. There are healthy, positive pleasures, as well as destructive negative ones. Hard drugs belong in the latter category. Nothing illustrates the powerful role our Pleasure Pathway plays in governing our behavior more than Addiction, especially Drug Addiction. Remember it was through the study of addiction that the positive role our Reward System plays in our lives was discovered. But too much of anything can be harmful, even food. Eating normal amounts of nourishing food is pleasurable and life sustaining. Overeating, particularly Junk Food, can be harmful. The challenge we face is anything we associate with "Feeling Good" is capable of activating our Pleasure Pathway, so in a sense we have to train our Brain to like the right things. Nobody enjoys starting an exercise program after a long layoff, but if we stay with it the pleasure replaces the pain. Now that you know you have a built in "Reward System" don't give up before it kicks in. Exercise triggers positive chemicals in the body too! We want you to manage what is taking place inside your Brain's Reward System. We say "Manage" to remind you that healthy and unhealthy behavior can stimulate your Pleasure Pathway in similar ways. We used Sex as an example rather than Drug Addiction because we need positive images to stimulate positive behavior. But too much of anything can lead to addiction, so your goal should be balance. If you're more comfortable using exercise or something else as a "Positive Mental Image," be our guest, but don't just think about it - do it and claim your reward! The other reason we chose Sex as an example of the benefits you can receive by stimulating your Pleasure Pathway, is because it delivers so many benefits with one activity. Perhaps we should have used "Good Sex" to remind you that two people are benefiting from this one very special activity to encourage you to try a little harder to please your partner. The more you enjoy each other the more intimate you'll become and that's a good thing, especially if you have the right partner. Intimacy is a big part of the Sexual Formula we have in mind because the Life Expectancy Data we review indicates the longer you stay together the longer you are both going to live. So take care of each other because the evidence is equally clear that living your life alone can reduce your Life Expectancy. Your biggest enemy is boredom, so get out there and have some Fun!
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman Last edited by Boo; 05-04-10 at 08:28 PM.
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#222
05-06-10, 05:39 AM
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White Strawberries That Taste Like Pineapple
  Pineberries look like albino strawberries and taste like pineapples. Grown in glasshouses, pineberries start off green, gradually turning paler as they ripen. When the fruit is sweet and juicy enough to eat, the flesh is almost totally white but studded with red seeds - the reverse of the usual variety.
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman Last edited by Boo; 05-06-10 at 05:59 AM.
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#224
05-11-10, 10:33 AM
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8 Reasons the US has Become a Nation of Slaves
By Damien Hoffman Posted on April 05 2010. These days, the idea of retirement seems like either a bad joke or a utopian fantasy. I’ve already covered some main reasons the US economy is screwed, but here are 8 reasons why the US has become a nation of indentured servants: 1) Stagnant wages  Are you partying like it’s 1999? That’s because you’re earning money like it’s 1999. Over the past 11 years, the median household income has been flat as a corpse’s pulse. If everything gets more expensive over time but no one gets a raise, workers will afford less goods and services. This means people will either work the same amount for less stuff, or work harder for the same stuff. Either way, it’s a ****ty deal. 2) Dual-income Nation  We’re a country of family values, right? Wrong. We’ve built an economy that requires two incomes to attain middle class status. It has even become a luxury for one spouse to stay home to raise children! (But that’s more of an existential issue …) The graph above illustrates one of the most basic tenets of economics: if there is twice as much cash floating around the economy, the cost of things simply rises in direct proportion. In this case, adding an extra worker per household has increased household income. As a result, sellers of houses, child care, health insurance, cars, etc. have upped their prices to take more of our dollars. 3) Energy and Food Inflation  Remember $4 gas? Well, we’re back to $3 (double last year’s low). Every time a car ride costs more, that’s less money left over for things other than getting from point A to point B. As oil prices continue to rise with global demand (and diminishing supply), we will spend more hours working just to get to and fro. Food is the ultimate necessity. So, when prices rise, there’s not much to do if you don’t care for the taste of cat food. It’s harder to notice 20-30% food inflation when a $2 item jumps to $2.40. But when your average bill moves from $100 to $120, those $20 bills are no longer available for things beyond basic sustenance. 4) Skyrocketing costs for Health Care and Education  One of the biggest thieves of retirement has been the unconscionable rise of health care and education costs. With health insurance costs jumping 10-25% per year, a worker with stagnant paychecks is on the long road to bankruptcy. (See Health Insurance Companies Price Gouging the US Economy) Got a child or two? Do you want them to go to college? Well you better get rich, fast. The College Board’s study of college pricing trends shows costs have exploded 300% since 1980. That’s especially interesting since median household wages are up only 10-15% over the same time period. Maybe home schooling is better than the poor house. 5) Mauled Retirement Accounts  Have you seen those new John Hancock commercials where the boomer couples are instant messaging each other about either moving in with their children or fearing the longevity of their retirement account? Well, that’s a good reflection of how bad retirement accounts were hit after a decade of bubbles bursting. And without money for retirement, we work until we drop dead. 6) No Savings  The Employee Benefit Research Institute’s annual Retirement Confidence Survey shows that 43% of Workers have less than $10,000 saved for retirement. Really? Then the word retirement does not apply to these people because $10,000 is surely not enough to live off when even a generous 6% annuity would be paying only $600 a year before taxes. But the scariest stat from the survey is 54% of workers are “clueless” about saving for retirement. This stat is a direct indictment on how crappy our school systems have become — and I’m talking about colleges too. 7) Trillions in Debt  Can we dig ourselves out of a $12.7 Trillion hole? If we can, it’s going to take a backbreaking amount of labor … and that’s just to fill the hole. This debt is directly reflective of slavery. For every dollar of our debt, we owe a creditor who lent us the money. So, before we can use all our tax dollars to add value to our domestic economy and society, we have to skim a lot off the top to pay our masters their due. 8) Jobs Exported Overseas  If we are going to deal with all the costs above, we need to earn money. However, while we were drunk on credit card debt over the past 30 years, our Congressman and once domestic corporations shipped millions of middle class jobs to whichever country would do the job cheapest. Think only the middle market has been affected? Now some of the brightest and most ambitious minds are accepting jobs in hot markets like China and Singapore. These people aren’t dumb: if the jobs move, they realize they must too.
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman
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#225
05-14-10, 08:20 AM
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MAYBE THIS ONE WILL GET A COMMENT!
Graphene is Next
The Substance Found in Pencils will Speed Up our Computers One Thousand Fold Written By: Valkyrie Ice  Image Courtesy of: condmat.physics.manchester.ac.uk/pictures/Graphene. If you’ve never heard about it, don’t worry, a lot of people haven’t, because it’s really only been “discovered” relatively recently, and most of the truly interesting news about it has been in the last year. The amazing thing is that we’ve actually been using it for centuries, in the form of the common pencil. Graphene is a form of carbon, much like carbon nanotubes and other fullerenes, with one major difference. While fullerenes are 3D structures of carbon atoms, graphene is a flat sheet. It’s a 2D lattice of carbon with bonds as strong as diamond. It’s this sheetlike nature that makes it so useful in a pencil. As you write, individual planes of graphite are sheared off the end and deposited on the paper. Those individual planes are pure graphene. By now, most of you are familiar with carbon nanotubes, a.k.a. CNTs, and their potential for computers. Graphene has equally amazing properties, including some that might make it far more readily usable than CNTs. First, like CNTs, graphene is capable of conducting electricity with much less resistance than copper. That alone makes it useful, but graphene has even more interesting properties. As New Scientist reports bending graphene creates strains between atoms that can create isolated pathways which then act as nanoribbons — wires — within the still connected sheet. In other words, the morphology of graphene affects its electrical properties: change the flat sheet by bending parts of it, and you change how electricity flows through it. But that isn’t all. The pattern of carbon bonds has effects as well. Graphene is a hexagonal grid of carbon, much like a roll of chicken wire. Remove one random atom from the pattern every so often, and graphene can exhibit magnetic behavior without needing the presence of magnetic metals. Adding hydrogen into the mix creates graphene’s non-conductive cousin, graphane. Taking precisely defined patterns of atoms out of the sheet can create well-defined circuits, creating wires that are almost superconducting.  Image Courtesy of: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphene That’s a jump of two or three orders of magnitude up the exponential curve, my friends, especially when you combine it with the advances in multi-core technology and parallel computing. We’re talking about that smartphone in your pocket having a thousand times the computing power of your desktop PC, but using no more power than it does right now. The resistance of graphene at room temperature is so much lower than copper and silicon that even though it’s running at 1000 times the speed, it’s not using any more current, or wasting any more energy as heat than an identical silicon device, and that’s without considering any other possible advances in the field of electronics design. We’re talking about that smartphone in your pocket having a thousand times the computing power of your desktop PC, but using no more power. That big a leap in processing speed will simplify a lot of extremely complex tasks that require extensive amounts of data. From SETI searches for extraterrestrial intelligence to the search for all the ways a protein can fold, scientists use millions of processors in parallel to speed up research. A thousand-fold increase in computer speed could cut months to years off the time needed for their projects. The same goes for DNA sequencing, data mining, and a host of other areas. And science will not be the sole benefactor. Most smartphones these days have the ability to use their cameras to create virtual overlays on the images that they see, a technique called Augmented Reality. AR has advanced to the point that it’s possible to create virtual characters in photos on your phone using nothing more than a 2D patterned target on the ground, or to create interactive “virtual assistants” in projected video that are capable of interacting with real world objects. Ultrafast computers will be essential for ushering in the age of Virtual Reality.  Image Courtesy of: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphene Graphene, that same single-atom-thick layer of carbon that is a part of every pencil mark, is going to make all of this possible. Not bad for the humble Number 2, huh?
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"Anything a man can do...I can fix!" ~ a woman Last edited by Boo; 05-14-10 at 08:23 AM.
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