Video

Wish I was a kid again with time enough to make a movie about
balancing rocks. One of those concepts that doesn't sound interesting
but really is. [has sound]

Amish Amuck

Just when I thought it was safe to return outside:

Amish Teen Charged With Stealing Numbers
The Associated Press
Tuesday, July 26, 2005; 4:57 PM

HUNTSBURG, Ohio -- Callers complaining about loud music coming from a buggy led deputies to charge a 19-year-old Amish man with stealing house numbers and flower pots. David Byler was charged with theft and underage consumption of alcohol, both misdemeanors.

Callers to the Geauga County sheriff's office told dispatchers early Sunday about a buggy playing loud music and stealing items from outside houses in a rural area of northeast Ohio.

"When our officer caught up with him in the middle of the road, there were flower pots and house numbers in the buggy," sheriff's spokesman John Hiscox said.

Cool water

From ananova:

Thief 'drinks' work of art
An artist's latest work - a bottle of melted Antarctic ice - may have been stolen and drunk by a thirsty thief.

Artist Wayne Hill filled a two-litre clear plastic bottle with melted ice to highlight global warming.

But the artwork, valued at £42,500, went missing while on display at a literary festival, reports the Scotsman.

Entitled Weapon of Mass Destruction, it vanished halfway through the Ways with Words festival at Dartington Hall, Devon.

Sounds crazy, that the art world has come to this. On the other hand, it's
good to know I have about £ 250k worth of art sitting in the refrigerator door.

Dr. Vitruvian

making appointments... man it can be work sometimes
Beats being out in the sun though.

Quote

for today-

"That's it! You people have stood in my way long enough. I'm going to clown college!"
*Homer Simpson

oh, and this one too-

"If it weren't for Alcoholics Anonymous, I'd still be sucking the juice out of glowsticks."
*Barney

Why Rhetoric Matters

Who didn't expect that there was a link between the left's
inflammatory rhetoric and terror?

Senator Kennedy, captain of the swim team, and motivator for this man:

Coke Tux

"Yeah, I made my prom tux out of coke cans... because I'm just that cool..."

Detailed instructions on site.

Well darn, the kid became so popular that he's hit site traffic restrictions. Maybe the link will work tomorrow.
Looks like a cooler day today... though the weatherwoman says it will get
up to 97™. Well, not 97™....try 97¶, nope 97§, or 97º yeah 97º. whew, now I'm
exhausted. Looks like it will cool off later in the week. Down to a high of
82* on wednesday. Thanks be to goodness.

Fish Popsicles

Mmmmmm. Icy cold-blooded aquatic vertebrates.

Here Ya Go

So many people end up here after searching for the term "lumberjack," I thought
I should post at least one image. Here's what a real lumberjack looks like:

Spot's Lunch

From Athens

ATHENS, Greece - For years, tourists to the Acropolis have been frustrated to find
ancient monuments shrouded in scaffolding, thanks to a long and painstaking
restoration project. Shown here, beach volleyball isn't anything like restoring
ancient monuments.

WaHoo

Finally some good food research is being done. I've had it up to
here, or maybe even here, with those studies telling us that there's
grease in Mexican food. We *know* there's grease in it, that's why
we like it. Anyway, this is the best science news since that study
linking well, you know, and a lowered incidence of breast cancer.
(& btw, I'm pretty sure it's also good for your hair and usually improves
your gas mileage)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Dark chocolate can not only soothe your soul but can lower blood pressure too, researchers reported Monday.

The study, published by the American Heart Association, joins a growing body of research that show compounds found in chocolate called flavonoids can help the blood vessels work more smoothly, perhaps reducing the risk of heart disease.

Lanzillo

From Ann:
The only way a supreme court nominee could win the approval of NARAL and Planned Parenthood would be to actually perform an abortion during his confirmation hearing, live, on camera, and preferably a partial birth one.

My idea was to make up a name, Lanzillo Phadodah, or something like that. Then wait for
the attack.... "Frankly, we expected this president to nominate someone who could unite
this country, this Lanzillo Phadodah is an extremist slap in the face to the good people
who .... blah-blah-blah-blah-blah"
Ah well.

Happy Day

Hope today isn't as brutal as yesterday. I'll settle for less humid.
Thought I was going to fall right over for awhile there.

This is a cheerful picture anyway. On Yahoo it was right next
to a picture of a sumo wrestler getting a wedgie.

I'm sure I'll get one for Christmas

A combination lock for your soda? Who cares that much about their soda?
Now a pie-lock, or a cake strong box, sure, I'd pay good money for
something like that.

Yawn

I'm off to take the kid to camp -- several hours away so I'm up at this
insane hour. How do people function this early in the morning? I keep
walking into doors and forgetting to breathe. My hats off to you
you good people who do this *every* day.

Part of the Problem

Speaking Saturday, Tony Blair noted that we must struggle against the
"evil ideology" of al Qaeda for the hearts and minds of the people. Of course
we've been doing that from day one in Iraq, whether by building schools,
with visiting nurses programs, by passing out candy and toys -- We've been
doing it in ways too numerous to list.

Sure, the media can't get the word out on all the good things that are going
on in Iraq. I understand. Good works aren't NEWS. A US serviceman stepping out
of line is news but nobody wants to read about Marines building an outdoor
market.

But maybe it says something about the mind-set of the media when staffers
at Reuters are able to ask Zakaria Zubeidi, head of the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade,
to make a guest appearance in a spoof video made for a departing employee.
No, the spoof video isn't sinister; being able to ask a favor of a man
who claims to have caused 300 acts of terror *is*. Can you possibly expect
Reuters to act as an unbiased conduit for news if they number this man
as a friend?


From Ynet News:

"The video's theme was what Israel would be like in 10 years," said an Israeli government official who attended the party and viewed the video.

"All of a sudden, at the end, there is Zakaria Zubeidi, playing the head of Reuters. Zubeidi was sitting in Reuters' Jenin office, saying he was Reuters’ chief,” the official said.

'They thought video was hilarious'

The party included guests from the BBC, ITN, the Independent newspaper, and French journalists.

"They all thought the video was hilarious," the official said. He added that only a few individuals did not seem amused during the screening.

"They were laughing; they thought it was very funny, he said.”

Reuters spokeswoman Susan Allsopp said in a statement to Ynetnews that the film “was a spoof video put together for a departing member of staff by a few of his colleagues in Israel and the Palestinian territories. It was shown at a private farewell party and was meant to be humorous.

Good News

Maybe terror gets old after awhile. From a Pew research poll:

"There's declining support for terrorism in the Muslim countries and support for Osama bin Laden is declining. There's also less support for suicide bombings," said Pew Center director Andrew Kohut.

"This is good news, but still there are substantial numbers who support bin Laden in some of these countries," he told a news conference.

In Morocco, 26 percent of the public now say they have a lot or some confidence in bin Laden, down from 49 percent in a similar poll two years ago.

Barbarians?

From several months back:

Police in Berlin arrested three Muslim brothers in what appears to be the latest in a series of so-called "honor killings."

The slaying of a 23-year-old Turkish woman, Hatun Surucu, who died of multiple bullet wounds to the head and chest, bears all the marks of an honor killing, a police psychologist said, according to BBC News.

"In Islamic culture, the woman is the bearer of the family decency," explained Karl Mollenhauer. "She must maintain the honor of the family. Men must defend that honour."

It would be the sixth honor killing in as many months among Berlin's 200,000-member Turkish community and the 45th in the past eight years.

Surucu had taken her 5-year-old son and run away from her husband of eight years, a cousin with whom she was united in an arranged marriage.

The killing has prompted an unusually strong response, with Turkish women taking to the streets to protest, the BBC said.

"This tragedy has shaken us awake. We've been very surprised by the response," Eren Unsal from the Association of Secular Turks told BBC News.

Unsal noted that for the first time, political decision-makers and private groups in the community have been willing to sit down together to talk about addressing the problem.

The BBC reported, however, that just yards from the site of the killing, children on a school playground were heard praising it, saying the victim had lived like a German.

"Living like a German" is a reason for execution in the children's minds?
Despair for the future as well.

Mariah Carey

Poor Mariah Carey, seems her wardrobe went kerflooie.

But the red-faced superstar saw the funny side, quipping, "Someone bring me a jacket or the show's off, we all know how quickly these images can spread around the world."

Yeah, but did she provide a url? Nope. And so far the search engines
are showing zilch too, I mean, I imagine they are.

King of Fruits

More mmmmmm.

I need to go work.. but these searches....

More durian searches, and it just gets more interesting:

Jail for 'dangerous durian' owner

A man in Singapore has been sentenced to more than a year in jail after a bag of durian fruit dropped from his balcony, nearly killing a building worker below, it has been reported.
The angry building worker called the police, but the culprit, Lai Kok Hoong, managed to dash downstairs, retrieve the five durians and disappear, the Straits Times reports.

Unfortunately for Lai, he was arrested two weeks later when caught stealing goods worth some US$130 from a shop.

And he was subsequently identified as the man with the dangerous durians.

Tasty but smelly

Lai is the latest victim of Singapore's tough "killer litter" laws that heavily penalise residents who throw rubbish out of their windows.


High-rise blocks dominate the city's skyline

On Monday he was sentenced to 14 months in jail for acting negligently with the durians and for theft.

Durians - about the size of a football - are popular throughout south-east Asia for their rich flavour and creamy white flesh, notwithstanding their pungent smell and spikey surface.

The "killer litter" laws- introduced last September - are so called after a five-year-old girl was killed by a flower pot that plummeted from a balcony the previous April.

Nearly 90% of Singapore's 3.2 million people live in public-housing tower blocks on the island, which is famed for its obsession with cleanliness and rules against chewing gum.

Recalcitrant offenders

One person who lost her home last year was 47-year-old widow Wong Sook Ying, a repeat offender who was sentenced to three months jail in July for throwing two flower pots and two pieces of tile out of her high-rise apartment.

A statement from Singapore's housing authority said "very serious or recalcitrant" offenders like Ms Wong would lose their apartments immediately and could not occupy public housing for the next five years.

Other offenders, including a woman who chucked out a microwave and a 65-year-old man who threw beer bottles out of his window after a drinking binge, were given six months to move.

They were banned for three years from public housing flats, except on the lowest floor of the building.

Numnum!

So I was searching for this:

Freeze dried and vacuum packed to seal in the flavour, this is the 100 gram pack, (3.5 oz.). The famous Monthong variety of durian fruit is grown only in Thailand and this fruit is from orchards in the Chanthaburi area, known for its almost perfect growing conditions. Durian is high in vitamin C*.....

Sounds good. But then I looked under "Customers who bought this also purchased" and saw:

Eating insects is common in much of Asia. They are known to be tasty and as a good source protein. These fried insects are ready to eat and go down well as a snack with a cold beer. The black scorpions are fried and canned. They are ready to eat out of the can.

Mmmmmm. Right out of the can? Maybe next time.

Why Do They Become Terrorists?

From PBS's Frontline faq:

Why are European Muslims becoming radicalized?

Only a small percentage of Muslims -- who represent the continent's largest and fastest growing religion -- resort to violent radicalism. For those that do, usually their feelings of cultural alienation and discrimination have left them vulnerable to extremist ideologies.

Some say initiatives like France's headscarf ban in public schools and the deportation of radical imams from a number of European countries serve to inflame the tensions and further alienate the Muslim community. Anthropology professor Paul Silverstein of Reed College has studied Algerian immigrants to France and says these state efforts are bound to fail, as they are "largely perceived by many French Muslims, if not Muslims worldwide, as attacks on Islam."

Sounds reasonable, ban our headscarfs? we must cut off your heads. But really, what was surprising was that Frontline didn't give "George Bush" as the answer to why European Muslims are becoming radicalized. The program wasn't nearly as bad as I'd expected. (given it's PBS origins)

London

What is there to say about the blasts in London this morning? All we
can do is to pray for those affected. On the up side, this *doesn't*
look like the devastating attack the terrorists wanted. Still it shows
who their targets are. It demonstrates clearly that they aren't
involved in a holy war. What religion teaches that killing innocents
is God's will?

Independence Day

From a Free Iraqi:

And allow me, one very grateful Iraqi on this day, the 4th of July to congratulate all Americans on their independence day that I truly celebrate with them. It's not just out of gratitude but also because I believe it's more than an Independence Day for America, for by being free and independent, the American people gave so many other nations their independence, and thus I see it as an independence day for all the free around the world. Happy 4th of July America and thank you for all your help and sacrifices, not just for us Iraqis but all free people that you helped them get their freedom, and thank you for being the symbol of freedom that gives hope to all oppressed people around the world.

In Africa

From the Washington Times,concerning the G8 wrestling again with how to
best help a struggling [again] Africa:

The example of Nigeria says it all. Figures released last month by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, as reported in the London Daily Telegraph, reveal that in the 45 years since Britain granted independence in 1960 a succession of despots squandered $387 billion (that's a "b," not an "m"), almost to the dollar the sum of all Western aid to all of Africa between 1960 and 1997. One of the despots, Gen. Sani Abacha, now safely dead, is believed to have looted Nigeria's vast oil reserves of more than $5 billion in just five years.
William Bellamy, the U.S. ambassador to neighboring Kenya, startled the guests at his Fourth of July garden party yesterday with just the kind of bluntness needed to keep African aid in realistic perspective. "Turning on the fire hose of international compassion and asking Kenya and other African nations to drink from it is not a serious strategy for promoting growth or ending poverty."
President Mwai Kibaki, the Kenyan president, was off at the African Union summit in Libya, helping other despots draw up their gimme list. In his absence, a deputy fired back at Ambassador Bellamy, complaining that Kenya had been singled out for criticism just because it doesn't take terrorism seriously. Aid for Africa, he told the ambassador, "should not get entangled with the politics of your dissatisfaction with a regime, unless you have decided on a regime change."

Regime change? Hmmmmmm... OK, I kid. I just couldn't resist. But seriously,
why shouldn't dissatisfaction with a regime be grounds for cutting off aid?
If history has shown anything, it's that aid money in Africa doesn't get past
whatever regime is currently in power.
*

High Tech

EAST LANSING, Mich. – Women living in remote areas who don’t have easy
access to health care will someday be able to have a potentially life-saving
breast exam thanks to robotic technology being developed at Michigan State University.

Physicians from MSU’s Department of Surgery are teaming with researchers
in the College of Engineering to develop a robotic device that can check
for lumps and other abnormalities in a woman’s breast and, at the same
time, get an ultrasound image.

Silly boffins. We've had a working robot for years.
And our machine is slightly less imposing.

100_1341, originally uploaded by lumberjack.

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Have a Happy Fourth

Go here to click the fireworks into being.