tagged w/ When Real News = Onion News
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We all know that the hands are paramount when praying. Don't we?
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When a hurricane knocks out electrical power, emergency rooms expect a few cases of carbon monoxide poisoning -- sometimes fatal -- among residents who power up gasoline-fired generators.
Until now, doctors believed most of the victims were generating electricity to keep lights, air conditioners and refrigerators running. But now it appears that a substantial number were using the generators to power video games.When a hurricane knocks out electrical power, emergency rooms expect a few cases of... more
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Dell recommends calorie counting, finding recipes and watching cooking videos as ways for women to get the most from a laptop. http://stilettorevolt.com/?p=708Dell recommends calorie counting, finding recipes and watching cooking videos as ways... more
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An office worker cleaning a fridge full of rotten food created a smell so noxious that it sent seven co-workers to the hospital and made many others ill.
Firefighters had to evacuate the AT&T building in downtown San Jose on Tuesday, after the flagrant fumes prompted someone to call 911. A hazmat team was called in.
What they found was an unplugged refrigerator that had been crammed with moldy food.An office worker cleaning a fridge full of rotten food created a smell so noxious that... more
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AUSTIN — A North Texas legislator during House testimony on voter identification legislation said Asian-descent voters should adopt names that are “easier for Americans to deal with.”
The comments caused the Texas Democratic Party on Wednesday to demand an apology from state Rep. Betty Brown, R-Terrell. But a spokesman for Brown said her comments were only an attempt to overcome problems with identifying Asian names for voting purposes.
The exchange occurred late Tuesday as the House Elections Committee heard testimony from Ramey Ko, a representative of the Organization of Chinese Americans.
Ko told the committee that people of Chinese, Japanese and Korean descent often have problems voting and other forms of identification because they may have a legal transliterated name and then a common English name that is used on their driver’s license on school registrations.
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There are caucasian nationalities with much harder names to pronounce than Asian names!AUSTIN — A North Texas legislator during House testimony on voter identification... more
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Have you ever picked up a cold, frosty beer on a hot summer's day and thought that it simply couldn't get any better?
Well, you may have to think again.
A team of researchers at Rice University in Houston is working to create a beer that could fight cancer and heart disease. Taylor Stevenson, a member of the six-student research team and a junior at Rice, said the team is using genetic engineering to create a beer that includes resveratrol, the disease-fighting chemical that's been found in red wine.
Scientists at the University of Wisconsin in June had called resveratrol, which is a natural component of grapes, pomegranates and red wine, a key reason for the so-called French Paradox -- the observation that French people have lower rates of heart disease despite a cuisine known for its cream sauces and decadent cheeses, all loaded with heart-clogging saturated fats.
The Wisconsin researchers had noted that adding small doses of resveratrol to the diet of middle-aged mice significantly slows their aging and keeps their hearts healthy. And they added that giving high doses to invertebrates extends their life spans, and high doses also stave off premature death in mice fed a high-fat diet.
Stevenson said that the Rice research group, most of the members of which aren't old enough to legally drink alcoholic beverages, came up with the idea of adding resveratrol to beer during a casual conversation about potential projects to undertake. "The idea is that it may have greater effects [in beer than in wine]," he added. "The amount of red wine you'd need to drink to get the same results they get with rats in labs is about half a bottle a day."
He explained that the amount of resveratrol in wine varies from bottle to bottle, since it depends on growing conditions for the grapes and other variables. The researchers felt they could design a beer with higher and more consistent concentrations of the cancer-fighting chemical.
The students, using their own Dell, Lenovo ThinkPad and Gateway laptops, are now in the process of developing a genetically modified strain of yeast that will ferment beer and produce resveratrol at the same time. Stevenson said that as the research advances, the team will need to use one of Rice University's computer grids to run compute-heavy genetic models.
The Rice effort is the latest in a series of projects that use technology to find cures to major health concerns like cancer and heart disease.
In August, scientists at Stanford University announced that they have found a way to use nanotechnology to have chemotherapy drugs target only cancer cells, keeping healthy tissue safe from the treatment's toxic effects.
CONT'D::Have you ever picked up a cold, frosty beer on a hot summer's day and thought that it... more
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In an effort to shut down the red light district in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, the city is offering prostitutes "credits" for good behavior that can be used to buy designer clothes or furniture. The vouchers, which the Dutch media has mockingly dubbed "whore miles," will be awarded for every step sex workers take to get out of the lifestyle. Another plan in the works involves creating a fashion label designed by prostitutes, based on a similar program in Amsterdam. So far the plan is being lampooned in the media and the sex workers are not very enthusiastic about it. "This is fine if they actually want to move on to something else but some might not want to," said Metje Blaak from a Dutch Prostitutes' Union. "At the end of the day, this is a step towards making street prostitution illegal, and what will happen to the women then?" In an effort to shut down the red light district in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, the... more
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The US government's debts have ballooned so badly the National Debt Clock in New York has run out of digits to record the spiraling figure.
The digital counter marks the national debt level, but when that passed the $10 trillion point last month, the sign could not display the full amount.
The board was erected to highlight the $2.7 trillion level of debt in 1989.
The clock's owners say two more zeros will be added, allowing the clock to record a quadrillion dollars of debt.
Douglas Durst, son of the late Seymour Durst - the clock's inventor - hopes to replace the Manhattan clock with its lengthier replacement early next year.
For the time being, the Times Square counter's electronic dollar sign has been replaced with the extra digit required.
For its part, the digital dollar symbol has been supplanted by a cheaper version - perhaps a sign of the times for the American economy.
Some economists believe the $700bn bail-out plan for ailing US financial institutions could send the national debt level to $11 trillion. The US government's debts have ballooned so badly the National Debt Clock in New York... more
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excited about the sampling potential!
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regina
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added this
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1 year ago
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Google Earth is set to add a cool-sounding new feature, the ability to view undersea landscapes.
Apparently viewers will be able to check out the habitats of threatened underwater species by viewing video streams, photos and stories from marine protected areas all over the world.
Courtesy of Natural England, the UK alone has had 43 marine sites of interest added to the new project.
A spokesperson for Natural England said: "There needs to be a change in attitudes towards protecting our oceans. The diversity of marine wildlife around England's coastline is exceptional; we have everything from whales through to microscopic phytoplankton.
"But we need an enhanced marine protection system to help conserve our undersea environment." Google Earth is set to add a cool-sounding new feature, the ability to view undersea... more
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A Japanese sake house near Tokyo has hired a pair of macaque monkeys to serve drinks and hand out towels to patrons. The two moneys -- Yat-chan and Fuku-chan -- are both household pets, but are also certified by local authorities to work at the tavern.
The younger of the two -- Fuku-chan -- runs the first shift, where he hands out hot towels to help customers clean their hands before ordering drinks, as is the custom in Japan. The twelve-year-old Yat-chan goes further, and actually serves drinks as well.
"Yat-chan first learned by just watching me working in the restaurant. It all started when one day I gave him a hot towel out of curiosity and he brought the towel to the customer," the 63-year-old owner of the tavern, Kaoru Otsuka, told Reuters.
The two monkeys work for a maximum of two hours per day, and are paid in soya beans.
"The monkeys are actually better waiters than some really bad human ones," said a customer, Takayoshi Soeno.
The restaurateur is not stopping there, however, and has recently taken on three new baby monkeys who he hopes to train up to work in the tavern.
Fears that this will eventually lead to a Planet of the Apes style uprising are, at the time of publication, mostly unfounded.
------------------no more monkey biz at link...but:
Animal rights activists will, or should have a field day with this one. Also, equal employment opportunists! (: How would you like a monkey giving you a backrub??A Japanese sake house near Tokyo has hired a pair of macaque monkeys to serve drinks... more
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Two men from canton Uri discovered a giant crystal in the Plaggenstock mountain in Switzerland. It is bigger and more beautiful than the one discovered in 2005 on the same mountain, which was then called the discovery of the century.
The crystal-hunter Franz von Arx confirmed the discovery which was announced by several news media. The size, colours, purity and beauty of this crystal are amazing. It was found in a heretofore unexplored crevice.
Franz von Arx and his colleague Elio Müller found the giant crystal on September 19. It will be exposed in Flüelen, canton Uri, among other crystals.
In 2005, Franz von Arx had already discovered a giant crystal on that same mountain, at an altitude of 2,600 meters and at a depth of 32 meters. The size and purity of the smoked quartz crystal were then qualified as exceptional.Two men from canton Uri discovered a giant crystal in the Plaggenstock mountain in... more
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Unbelievably, this is not science fiction.
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vokred
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1 year ago
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I'm not sure what Chinese string this restaurateur fed to the translation software used to to generate the giant sign hanging over the entrance, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't: TRANSLATE SERVER ERROR.I'm not sure what Chinese string this restaurateur fed to the translation software... more
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"An Anderson, South Carolina man is being investigated for assault and potential hate crime charges after beating his son on two separate occasions following a pride parade on Sunday. Yes, this is in the same state that just ran out on its credit to an advertising agency after running thousands of “South Carolina is so gay” ads, leaving a pride group in the state to volunteer to pick up the check.
The 49-year-old man greeted his son in the street after the boy had returned from the Anderson pride parade, already in a fit of rage. He commenced striking his own son with a baseball bat while cursing, praying, and “casting the demon of homosexuality” out of his 18-year old.""An Anderson, South Carolina man is being investigated for assault and potential hate... more
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The Pentagon's Information Operations Roadmap is blunt about the fact that an internet, with the potential for free speech, is in direct opposition to their goals. The internet needs to be dealt with as if it were an enemy "weapons system".
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Read all about it at link.The Pentagon's Information Operations Roadmap is blunt about the fact that an... more
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John Renehan has been reunited with his father, John Delaney, after spotting him on television - five years after he thought he was cremated.
Delaney went missing in 2000 and when a decomposed body matching his description was found in 2003 he was identified by a coroner. However, it has since emerged that Delaney had actually been put in a care home after being found wandering around the town with memory loss. Unable to identify himself, he was given the name "David Harrison" and placed in the care home where he stayed for eight years. His family reported him as missing but appeals failed to uncover information about his whereabouts.
The body of a man, which had similar clothes and historic wounds to Mr Delaney, was found in the grounds of Manchester Royal Infirmary in January 2003. It was identified as Mr Delaney and a funeral was held.
More than five years after the cremation service, Mr Renehan, from Didsbury, saw a television appeal about finding the family of the man in the care home, who he recognised as his father. He contacted the authorities and DNA tests confirmed their relationship.
In a statement, Greater Manchester Police said the identification mix-up was a matter for the coroner, who is no longer in the post. But a spokesperson said: "Greater Manchester Police accepts that mistakes were made and that Mr Delaney's family has been through a traumatic ordeal."
An investigation is under way to try to establish the identity of the man cremated in 2003.John Renehan has been reunited with his father, John Delaney, after spotting him on... more
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Should this world ever cease to exist, Stephen Colbert will live on. The comedian's DNA will be digitized and sent to the International Space Station, Comedy Central was to announce Monday. In October, video game designer Richard Garriott will travel to the station and deposit Colbert's genes for an "Immortality Drive."
"I am thrilled to have my DNA shot into space, as this brings me one step closer to my lifelong dream of being the baby at the end of 2001," Colbert said in a statement, referring to the 1968 landmark science fiction film "2001: A Space Odyssey."
Garriott, one of few private citizens to travel into space, is collecting material for a time capsule of human DNA, a history of humanity's greatest achievements and personal messages.
The host of "The Colbert Report" will essentially be preserved so that aliens can clone him.
"In the unlikely event that Earth and humanity are destroyed, mankind can be resurrected with Stephen Colbert's DNA," Garriott said in a statement. "Is there a better person for us to turn to for this high-level responsibility?"
Should this world ever cease to exist, Stephen Colbert will live on. The comedian's... more
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Moopak
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added this
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1 year ago
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Greek computer hackers have made a mockery of the security of the recently operational Large Hadron Collider, infiltrating and leaving warning messages in the system.Greek computer hackers have made a mockery of the security of the recently operational... more
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rwylie
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added this
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1 year ago
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A new study out of Yale University confirms what argumentative liberals have long-known: Offering reality-based rebuttals to conservative lies only makes conservatives cling to those lies even harder. In essence, schooling conservatives makes them more stupid. From the Washington Post article on the study, which came out yesterday:
Political scientists Brendan Nyhan and Jason Reifler provided two groups of volunteers with the Bush administration's prewar claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. One group was given a refutation -- the comprehensive 2004 Duelfer report that concluded that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction before the United States invaded in 2003. Thirty-four percent of conservatives told only about the Bush administration's claims thought Iraq had hidden or destroyed its weapons before the U.S. invasion, but 64 percent of conservatives who heard both claim and refutation thought that Iraq really did have the weapons. The refutation, in other words, made the misinformation worse.
A similar "backfire effect" also influenced conservatives told about Bush administration assertions that tax cuts increase federal revenue. One group was offered a refutation by prominent economists that included current and former Bush administration officials. About 35 percent of conservatives told about the Bush claim believed it; 67 percent of those provided with both assertion and refutation believed that tax cuts increase revenue.
In a paper approaching publication, Nyhan, a PhD student at Duke University, and Reifler, at Georgia State University, suggest that Republicans might be especially prone to the backfire effect because conservatives may have more rigid views than liberals: Upon hearing a refutation, conservatives might "argue back" against the refutation in their minds, thereby strengthening their belief in the misinformation. Nyhan and Reifler did not see the same "backfire effect" when liberals were given misinformation and a refutation about the Bush administration's stance on stem cell research.
If you've ever gotten in an argument with your conservative friends (assuming you haven't offered each other a mutual Carville-Matalin-style political ceasefire to preserve the friendship), you've probably seen this "backfire effect" in action. The more you try to tell people that Sarah Palin is lying when she says she was against the Bridge to Nowhere, the more they believe she was telling the truth. The more you try to explain how similar McCain's policies are to Bush's, the more they maintain he's "the original maverick."
The typical mantra of the left is that we don't need to sink to the Republicans' level because we have the truth on our side. But if the other side is utterly immune to the truth -- and indeed, the truth only makes them dig deeper into their fantasy world in which the economy is fundamentally strong and the War in Iraq is a staggering success -- what's a leftie to do?
I ain't got the answers, ace, except to say this: When arguing with conservatives in front of on-the-fence independents, remember that you're not trying to convince the conservative to actually buy into silly notions like facts and reason. You're highlighting the differences between left and right for the outside observer. If the other guy insists on political views that belong only in Disney World's Fantasyland, other folks will realize what's happening.
But if there is no third party, do yourself a favor and save your breath. As the study demonstrates, you're only making matters worse. Consider that aforementioned ceasefire. It is football season, after all. There's plenty of other things to argue about. Go Mizzou!A new study out of Yale University confirms what argumentative liberals have... more
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