WARNING: FDA recalls Brooklyn diet pill company's harmful over the counter supplements
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Monday, August 31, 2009
HBO: True Blood Season 2 Final Episode Preview Video
aceshowbiz.com
In 'Beyond Here Lies Nothin' ', Bill prepares for the final battle against Maryann and recruits an unlikely partner to aid him.
Season 2 Finale Preview of 'True Blood'
The time for "True Blood" to wrap up another season has arrived. A sneak peek to the season 2 finale episode called "Beyond Here Lies Nothin' " which will be airing in two weeks has been released to show how Bill takes desperate measures to save the people of Bon Temps.
Bon Temps reaches a fever pitch as Maryann prepares for her ultimate bestial sacrifice, conscripting Sookie to be Maid of Honor at the bloody nuptials. Deliberating on what may be his final move to save Sookie and the town, Sam places his trust, and his life, in a most unlikely ally. In the preview, Bill is kind of forcing Sam to follow him and later the vampire puts Sam as a bait when confronting Maryann.
In another story, Sophie-Anne warns Eric to keep the lid on Bill's inquisitiveness. There is a scene where they are engaged in a sexual endeavor which is something that Sophie-Ann makes a habit of when meeting her 'children'. Meanwhile, Jason leads Andy into the heroic abyss and Hoyt struggles with Maxine's endless stream of insults.
"Beyond Here Lies Nothin' ", which is also the title of theme song by Bob Dylan, will air on September 13. HBO has ordered a third season which is expected to air summer next year.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
10 Dumbest Taxes in History
No.10 - The Beard Tax
There's supposedly a goatee tax on the books in Massachusetts, but goofy, archaic state laws are often mere urban legends. Luckily, history has more than one beard tax up its sleeve, and for that we have Peter the Great to thank.
Peter gets called everything from "radical" to "absolutely nuts" depending on who you ask; his beard tax certainly seems to place him squarely in the latter column. As additional evidence that Peter just really, really didn't like beards, those of his subjects he taxed for their facial hair were also required to wear medals admitting that their beards were ridiculous.
No.9 - The Dealing-Illegal-Drugs Tax
It's hard enough to get law-abiding people to report under-the-table income on their tax returns, so it's a little mystifying when the Internal Revenue Service expects people to actually implicate themselves in crimes just for the warm feeling of satisfaction you get from filing a comprehensive tax return. The IRS tax income guidelines insist that "…illegal income, such as money from dealing illegal drugs, must be included in your income on Form 1040, line 21." This particular pain-in-the-ass tax deserves a spot on the list purely for the extreme unlikelihood that it will ever be paid by anyone, anywhere.
No.8 - The Slave Emancipation Tax
Ancient Rome employed a particularly mean little tax referred to as a manumission tax, which was essentially a tax on not being a slave anymore. In some cases, this applied to masters who'd chosen to free their own slaves, in which case the tax wasn't really all that bad (guys wealthy enough to own slaves could probably afford to pay a one-time tax on emancipating them). It only became an unceremonious pain-in-the-ass tax when the slave himself, having finally worked his way to his own freedom, had to scrounge up 10% of his former sticker price and hand it right over to Rome.
No.7 - The Disagreeing-With-The-King Tax
One of the time-honored measures taken by rulers who like it when things go completely awry is to tax the hell out of your enemies and hope they put up with it. Oliver Cromwell (though of course not actually a king) instituted one of the better-known such taxes in 1655, levied against the Royalists who were still hanging around England after he took over. As an added kick in the teeth, Cromwell used some of the money he took from the grumbling Royalists to fund a militia that fought against other Royalists. At least they knew where their money was going.
No.6 - The Existence Tax
The very concept of a poll tax is as straightforward and unwelcome as pain-in-the-ass taxes can get: Instead of being taxed on how much you make or what you buy, a poll tax is what you owe a government simply because you had the audacity to be alive. England levied a series of poll taxes in the 14th century that were particularly harsh and ill-advised (even by poll tax standards), culminating in a tax that tripled the rate of the first. Some protests broke out, some peasants revolted, and so began the appropriately named and hugely destructive Peasants' Revolt.
No.5 - The Nobel Prize Tax
Yes, Nobel Prizes are taxed by the IRS. It may seem especially villainous that an entity designed to take everyone's money even demands its fair share from those who, in the words of Alfred Nobel, "have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind," but hey, Pulitzers and other prizes are taxed as well. If it's any consolation, some prizewinners are exempt if they fit certain criteria -- all they have to do is give the entire prize away without touching it (either to a charity or the government and the IRS is willing to let you decide which).
No.4 - The Being-Foreign Tax
Taxes levied specifically against foreigners and immigrants are not all that unusual, even up through the 20th century. Canada started taxing Chinese immigrants in 1885 and didn't stop until 1923. Unfortunately, this pain-in-the-ass tax ended not because anyone had a change of heart, but because that's when the Chinese Immigration Act prohibited the Chinese from entering Canada at all.
No.3 - The Hearth Tax
When you're a monarch who's strapped for cash and you've already tried to tax property, goods and people, the only thing left to do is start picking random parts of structures and taxing those too.
The problem with England's 1660 hearth tax was that the lower class wound up overtaxed -- which somehow always seems to happen -- so people started concealing their chimneys, prompting inspectors to come rooting around everywhere to make sure nobody was hiding hearths. This continued right up until a 1684 fire that destroyed 20 houses and killed four people, thanks to a baker's attempts to discreetly make use of a neighboring house's chimney.
No.2 - The Danegeld
History is filled with instances of countries paying pain-in-the-ass taxes to other (scary and violent) countries, and it has its share of war-related taxes, but the Saxons pretty clearly knew what they were getting into when they began paying the Danegeld. It's right in the name. This was a tax on not being killed by Danes.
The ignominy of being the first to pay the Danegeld rests with poor King Ethelred "The Unready," who essentially spent his rule being kicked around by Danes, died and wound up saddled with an embarrassing nickname.
No.1 - The Salt Tax
Yes, salt. Harmless, innocuous salt.
Unlikely as it may seem, it turns out that taxing salt has been one of the most unthinkably problematic ideas in history. Salt taxes were partially responsible for the fall of the Chinese empire, the French salt tax (the gabelle) helped precipitate the French Revolution and Gandhi himself marched in an anti-salt tax protest in 1930. In doing so he galvanized a burgeoning Indian independence movement, and that specific march inspired the future philosophies of Martin Luther King, Jr.
So, if you're looking for a nice, quiet tax that won't rock any boats, taxing salt is probably not very wise.
resource: askmen.com
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
Oprah, Dr. Oz Sue to Block Diet Sites
News and Analysis by PC Magazine
Oprah Winfrey has once again teamed up with surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz, but this time they are not dispensing medical advice – they're suing more than three dozen companies that have allegedly been using the duo's image and likeness to hawk dietary supplements on the Internet. The companies, including FWM Laboratories, Inc. and CPX Interactive LLC, are accused of posting photos and videos of Oprah and Dr. Oz without permission, as well as crafting fake endorsements and testimonials from both TV personalities.
Dr. Oz has appeared in more than 55 episodes of The Oprah Winfrey Show since 1995, and will star in his own TV show starting in September. The suit, filed in District Court in New York, notes three particular episodes from 2005, 2008, and 2009 during which Dr. Oz discussed colon health, the acai berry, and resveratrol, respectively.
Immediately after the airing of these shows, the suit contends, the companies in question set up Web sites hawking products related to colon health, the acai berry, and resveratrol using photos, videos, and URLs that made it look like Dr. Oz was pushing these products.
The companies are also accused of using embedded meta-tags for search engine optimization purposes, purchasing keywords for sponsored links in search engine results, and placing banner ads via AOL with Oprah and Dr. Oz's images.
They also registered a number of domain names using Oprah and Dr. Oz's names, like drozresveratroltrial.com, (see below) and set up fake blogs and news sites that showed their products in a positive light.
The companies also used video services like YouTube to upload footage from the Oprah Winfrey Show featuring Dr. Oz, which lawyers claim is a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
"Had their permission been sought, plaintiffs would have flatly refused to consent to the use of plaintiffs' property in connection with the infringing products," the suit said.
In addition, the suit claims that consumers who did purchase items on these sites were often met with credit card scams and undelivered orders.
These Web sites have the potential to damage Dr. Oz's reputation as a surgeon at Columbia University as well as Oprah's credibility, and they pose health risks to consumers who believe the false information on the Web sites, according to the suit.
Oprah's company Harpo has already tried to address this issue via cease-and-desist letters, notices on Oprah.com, and through work with Internet service providers and search engines, but to no avail.
Among the charges are trademark infringement, trademark dilution, cybersquatting, unjust enrichment, and deceptive trade practices.
Lawyers for Dr. Oz and Oprah are requesting that the court shut down these Web sites, and hand down damages not limited to $150,000 per work infringed under the Copyright Act, and $100,000 per infringing domain name under the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act.
Dr Oz Resveratrol Research As Seen on Oprah - A Comprehensive Breakdown on This NEW Anti-Aging Tab!
By Rob R Carmichael
Recently on Oprah's show Dr Oz reported on the resveratrol research that red wine has undergone since extensive studies in to longevity were reported on by the National Geographic.
Here they highlighted the hot spots or "Blue Zones" as they are called, where in certain places around the globe being a centenarian is not at all unusual.
The most common source of resveratrol is red wine. Resv, an extract that comes from grapes, vines and other plants, has been found to possess certain properties that may be important in maintaining optimal health. Having isolated this nutrient from organic red grapes skin, a standardized extract has been manufactured to create one of the most useful nutrients in safeguarding ones health.
Chemists actually took wine apart years ago to find out what makes it tick. Basically, it contains a whole host of plant compounds. Unfortunately, resveratrol and some of the other beneficial components were put aside as toxic-ants, and nobody paid much notice to them until one scientist attempted to figure out why the French were able to eat so much fat and stay healthy.
The answer to this French paradox was discovered to be resveratrol found in red wine.
While red wine contains resv, the quantity varies wildly depending on the time of harvest, where the grapes are grown and other factors. After more than three years of painstaking research, a standardized resv extract is now available as a dietary supplement. This grape extract contains a multitude of polyphenols that are naturally contained in red wine such as flavonoids, proanthocyandins, anthocyanins, etc.
Another crucial aspect of resveratrol is that it can be paired with other phytofactors to potentially enhance its effectiveness. Resv naturally grows with other polyphenols such as quercetin in plants such as grapes. Quercetin may therefore enhance resv's bio-availability. The resveratrol used in the pharmaceutical product is extracted from organic grapes and is a natural recipe that includes many alternative polyphenols. Another European plant extract, indole-3-carbinol, or the I3C, may also work synergistically with resv.
Since resveratrol research began in the 1990s, it has been the subject of thousands of scientific papers, making it one of the most intensely debated studies regarding health supplements sold on the market today. Findings from published scientific literature indicates that it may be the most powerful plant extract for maintaining optimal health.
With such positive research, drinking wine in moderation therefore appears to be a healthy recommendation. However, drinking wine is obviously not the best way for getting a consistent amount of resv as it's concentration varies, depending on the growing conditions of the grapes and how the wine is made. If the wine isn't made with organic grapes, it may not contain any resveratrol.
Over the last three years, the Life Extension Foundation has been working with a European pharmaceutical manufacturer to produce a high-potency resv extract as a low cost dietary supplement. The result of this collaboration is a standardized grape formula containing resv in a specified amount suggested by medical studies to favorably impact the health of your body.
In order to make this promising nutrient as widely available as possible, resveratrol is now sold not only in the U.S but globally.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Warning: H1N1 Released Without Safety Testing - Mandatory for Senior | Unsafe for Children???
thedrudge.com
The US Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, has signed a decree granting vaccine makers total legal immunity from any lawsuits that result from any new "Swine Flu" vaccine. Moreover, the $7 billion US Government fast-track program to rush vaccines onto the market in time for the Autumn flu season is being done without even normal safety testing. Is there another agenda at work in the official WHO hysteria campaign to declare so-called H1N1 virus which has yet to be rigorously scientifically isolated, characterized and photographed with an electron microscopethe scientifically accepted procedurea global "pandemic" threat?
“Swine flu” vaccine has adjuvants that impair fertility
By JB birdflu666.wordpress.comThe “swine flu” vaccine contains ingredients that impair fertility.
Daniel Solis from the Czech Republic has researched the side-effects of the adjuvant, squalene, and discovered it is known to destroy fertility as well as causing other forms of damage.
A patent for a vaccine to impair fertility in animals contains squalene.
The plan to use this fertility-impairing adjuvant in the “swine flu” vaccine against a flu that has so far been far less irksome than the ordinary seasonal flu underscores concerns that this H1N1 mass vaccination programme mandated by WHO with the support of pharma companies such as Baxter is designed primarily to cause death and injury, and so significantly reduce the global population.
Is it any wonder that these “vaccines” are classified as bioweapons by the regulators?
www.cbsnews.comSome Say 'No' to H1N1 Vaccine for Kids
Parents Worry Vaccine Will Be Rushed to Market Without Adequate Safety Testing; Focus on Mercury-Containing Preservative
The United State is scrambling to prepare for a likely resurgence of the H1N1 (or swine flu) virus this fall. Some 159 million Americans are being urged to get the vaccine when it's ready - among them 78 million children.That has parents worried - not just about the virus, but also about giving their kids yet another vaccine, as CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook reports.
Kori Buro is giving her daughters the usual childhood immunizations. But if a vaccine against the new form of H1N1 becomes available, her girls will not be in line.
"I don't want to have that kind of vaccination in my child yet until I know it's safe - 100 percent safe," Buro said.
A backlash against vaccines has picked up steam in recent years. A vocal minority fears vaccines can cause autism, despite consensus among experts that they don't. Now warnings are cropping up on the Web that the new H1N1 vaccine could be rushed to market without enough proof that it's safe.
"Are parents going to be given complete, truthful information about swine flu vaccine risks and have the right to say "yes" or "no" before their children are lined up and vaccination in the school setting?" Barbara Loe Fisher of the National Vaccine Information Center asked in a video on YouTube.
The concerns include possibly using chemical additives - or "adjuvants" - to boost the effectiveness of the vaccine. They have never been used in flu vaccines in the U.S., but have safely been used in others such as tetanus.
Critics also worry that some forms of the vaccine will contain thimerosol, a mercury-containing preservative.
"Thimerosol has never been associated in any valid scientific way with any adverse affect to the fetus or to young people," said Dr. William Schaffner of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
The government says a thimerosol-free vaccine will be available. But moms like Kori Buro still aren't sold.
"I don't feel just because the government is telling me to get this flu shot for her, or my youngest that I should go and do that," Buro said, indicating one of her children.
Watch CBS Videos Online
But, "You would be heart-broken if you did not vaccinate your child and that child got sick with influenza and found that your child was in the hospital close to death," Schaffner said.
The challenge for health officials - convincing the public to heed their advice, instead of a mother's intuition.
This morning I was talking to a lady who's sister is a doctor. According to her and yes I know this is hearsay, this H1N1 will be mandatory for seniors and without safety testing a lot of them will become sick and possibly die. She said "The worst is yet to come and it's going to be bad, very bad."
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Woman pregnant with 12 babies
A Tunisian woman, in her thirties, has been told by doctors that she is carrying 12 babies.
According to a report by The Daily News of South Africa, the unnamed Tunisian woman is expecting six boys and six girls. Medical experts, across the world, have described the woman as a record breaker.
The South African newspaper reported that the woman went for fertility treatment after having two miscarriages in two years.
The report said it was unclear how many weeks she had been carrying the pregnancy, but added that ultrasound scans could work out a baby‘s sex only after about 16 weeks.
The newspaper quoted the woman as saying, ”All I want to do is be able to hug my babies and show them all my love.”
She told hospital workers in the town of Gafsa, about 400 kilometres south of the capital, Tunis that pregnancy would change her life positively.
Her husband, named only as Marwan, said, ”In the beginning, we thought that my wife would give birth to twins, but more foetuses were discovered. Our joy was increased with the growing number. The medical team told us that my wife would give birth naturally.”
A woman had in January given birth to eight children in Carlifonia in the United States. The single mother of six defied doctors‘ predictions when she gave birth to eight healthy babies.
At the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu, Ogun State, a woman, Ajoke Bello, was delivered of six children in February this year. The woman died a day after the delivery, while only three of the babies survived.
Reacting to the Tunisian woman‘s pregnancy, the Medical Director of St. Ives Hospital, Ikeja Lagos, Dr. Tunde Okewale and a consultant gynaecologist, Dr. Femi Oloyede, said that it was fraught with dangers.
Okewale said, ”Such a pregancy can only be possible with assisted reproduction. Many foetuses must have developed. In assisted reproduction, it is unethical for any doctor to permit such multiple pregnancies.”
According to him, the woman can give birth to the babies prematurely and the pregnancy will be stressful to the mother. To ensure the survival of the babies, he said that there must be a well-equipped intensive care unit.
Also, Oloyode stated that such pregnancy could not be achieved through natural conception. ”It is fraught with many problems. There will be complications for the mother and the babies,” he said.
In Britain, fertility experts also said that although it was possible to conceive 12 babies, such a pregnancy was fraught with risk.
A fellow of Britain‘s Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Peter Bowen-Simpkins, said, ”It is certainly possible to carry 12 babies, but not for long. The problem is the capacity of the uterus. This woman is going to be enormous by 20 weeks. And when the uterus goes into labour, there‘s nothing you can do about it.
”The youngest that babies have survived is at 22 to 23 weeks. They need intensive nursing and (most) have permanent neurological damage. You‘d need a very good intensive paediatric unit to cope with this.”
“We can‘t do it in (Britain), we don‘t have a unit with 12 intensive care cots.
”I don‘t like to dampen her enthusiasm, but the chances are she will deliver at 20 weeks. I wouldn‘t even give her a one in 100 chance of even one surviving. It‘s frightening.”
Meanwhile, security has been tightened around the woman while a lawyer has been hired to deal with the media.
The Echourouk newspaper in Tunisia reported that the woman, identified only by her initials of A.F, “is doing well and so are her future babies.”
According to her husband, “She is very happy and is anxiously waiting to see all 12 bouncing healthy babies in her hands.”
Health officials and social workers in Tunisia have already announced their intention to get involved in the case, the Essabah daily said.
Monday, August 17, 2009
86 Year Old Grandma Caught Stealin' Batteries...What she need those batteries for?
Judge on 86-year-old shoplifter: 'She's an actress'
Ella Orko wore a neck brace as she sat in a wheelchair Monday and clutched her purse — as though she were afraidsomeone might pinch it.
The 86-year-old woman could easily have been mistaken for a crime victim waiting to testify, as she sat in court at Belmont and Western while a gruff clerk barked out case numbers and a young guy got the boot because he refused to remove his hat.
Ella Orko wore a neck brace and sat in a wheelchair during court on Monday. The presiding judge raised questions if the woman -- who police say has been arrested 61 times -- was really hard of hearing.
But there was little sympathy for Orko, who police say has been arrested 61times, including on Aug. 2, when she was caught trying to shoplift anti-wrinkle cream, packets of salmon, coffee and batteries from the Dominick’s store at Fullerton and Clybourn. Police say Orko has used at least 50 aliases during a life of petty crime.
At court Monday, skeptical workers questioned whether she really needed the wheelchair and neck brace — she was using neither when arrested last week. And the judge even doubted whether she was really hard of hearing.
“I’ve been doing this for a lot of years,” Judge Marvin P. Luckman said after the hearing. “She’s an actress.”
Orko was originally charged with a felony, but prosecutors agreed to reduce the charge to a misdemeanor in exchange for her guilty plea. Luckman then sentenced her to two days in jail, time she’s already served.
“We felt this was the appropriate disposition, after consulting with the victim ... and also based on the fact that all of the merchandise was returned,” said Andy Conklin, a spokesman for the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.
While in Luckman’s courtroom, Orko claimed to be too deaf to hear the judge, even though he was shouting.
“I can’t hear too good,” she mumbled.
Luckman asked a man in the back row if he could hear, and the man replied, “Every word.”
“I don’t know if she’s playing a game or if she’s serious,” said Luckman, who wears two hearing aids.
All the same, Luckman agreed to step down from his bench and stand directly in front of Orko as he took her guilty plea.
“Do . . . you . . . have . . . any . . . questions?!” Luckman bellowed, enunciating every word.
“No,” Orko said, adding, “Very seldom would some judge [step off the bench]. Thank you so much.”
As Orko, who lives in the city but was born in Poland, was wheeled away from the courthouse, she waved off a reporter wanting to chat.
“You’ve done enough damage,” she said.
| Jokes.com | ||||
| Nick Swardson - Old People | ||||
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Thursday, August 13, 2009
Sarah Palin Getting a Divorce? Say it ain't so!
World Exclusive: Sarah Palin's Shattered Marriage
Sarah Palin's husband Todd smiled happily and stood lovingly by his wife's side last year during her vice presidential campaign. But behind the scenes, their marriage was in turmoil — and now they're on the brink of a shocking divorce!
In the Aug. 24 issue of Star, on sale today, we have world exclusive details about Alaska's former first couple and their disintegrating union: They're sleeping apart, arguing non-stop and losing control of their party-loving daughters!
"Sarah and Todd are fighting all the time," Mercede Johnston — sister of Levi Johnston, ex-boyfriend of Sarah's eldest daughter, Bristol — tells Star in an exclusive interview. "When they do, Todd often ends up sleeping on the couch at their home in Wasilla. Bristol used to tell Levi that her parents would argue and bicker over the littlest things, like who was supposed to take out the trash or wash the dishes."
Levi, the father of Bristol's 7-month-old son, Tripp, recently told RadarOnline.com that Sarah and Todd have had marital trouble "from day one," and that he believed their escalating problems were the reason behind her mysterious decision to resign as governor of Alaska last month with more than a year left in her term.
His sister Mercede predicts: "If they ended their marriage within the next year, I wouldn't be surprised at all. It really seems to me their marriage is just a sham for the cameras now!"
Another possibility, an Alaskan insider tells Star, is that with Sarah's multi-million-dollar book deal in place, "she might even come to some financial agreement for him to stay with her and give the impression of a loving husband, at least through her book tour next year. In that respect, they'd be like the Jon and Kate Gosselin of politics!"
And like the TLC reality stars, Todd and Sarah have their brood of children to worry about — and their worries keep growing with a new family scandal. Star has an eyewitness account of their 15-year-old daughter Willow drinking vodka and smoking pot at a wild house party! "Her eyes were getting more and more glazed as the night went on," says a source.
Pick up this week's issue to see a photo of Willow slamming back vodka and to read more about Sarah and Todd's shattered marriage. Plus: The shocking secret behind Sarah's missing wedding ring!
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Premature Baby Wakes Up from the Dead
Aug 10, 2009 msnbc.msn.com
ASUNCION, Paraguay - A baby boy born 16 weeks prematurely was declared dead by doctors at a hospital in Paraguay only to wake up in time for his funeral wake hours later.
Dr. Ernesto Weber, head of pediatric care at the state-run hospital in the capital of Asuncion, said the baby weighed just 500 grams when he was born.
"Initially, the baby didn't move, he practically didn't have any respiratory reflexes or did we hear a heartbeat and, as a result, we declared a premature fetus of 24 weeks dead," Weber told Reuters Television.
The family was given a death certificate and a cardboard box with the baby's name scribbled on the outside which served as a makeshift coffin.
But when the family took him from the hospital to prepare him for his funeral, the unbelievable happened.
"I opened the box and took the baby out and he cried. I got scared and I said "the baby's crying" ... and then he started moving his arms, his legs and I got scared, we got very scared," said one member of the family, Liliana Alvarenga.
Hours after the baby's death had been declared he was found to be alive. The hospital has begun an investigation and the baby is now in a stable condition in an incubator.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
One nation, seven sins
Las Vegas Sun
See Site for additional maps and larger versions
The question of evil and where it lurks has been largely ignored by the scientific community, which is why a recently released study titled “The Spatial Distribution of the Seven Deadly Sins Within Nevada” is groundbreaking: Never before has a state’s fall from grace been so precisely graphed and plotted.
Geographers from Kansas State University have used certain statistical measurements to quantify Nevada’s sins and come up with a county-by-county map purporting to show various degrees of lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride in the Silver State. By culling statistics from nationwide databanks of things like sexually transmitted disease infection rates (lust) or killings per capita (wrath), the researchers came up with a sin index. This is a precision party trick — rigorous mapping of ridiculous data.
Their findings were presented Tuesday at the Association of American Geographers’ annual meeting at the Riviera, where Kansas State geography research associate Thomas Vought fielded questions while standing next to a poster of his research. Seven maps of Nevada, in seven different colors, for seven different sins.
The darker a county, the more evil it is.
Greed was calculated by comparing average incomes with the total number of inhabitants living beneath the poverty line. On this map, done in yellow, Clark County is bile (see map on Page 2).
Envy was calculated using the total number of thefts — robbery, burglary, larceny and stolen cars. Rendered in green, of course, Clark County is emerald.
Wrath was calculated by comparing the total number of violent crimes — murder, assault and rape — reported to the FBI per capita. Vought and his colleagues used the color red to illustrate wrath, so Clark County looks like a fresh welt. Washoe is slightly statistically duller. Everywhere else is a friendly pork pink.
Lust was calculated by compiling the number of sexually transmitted diseases — HIV, AIDS, syphilis, chlamydia and gonorrhea — reported per capita. Here again, Clark and Washoe counties are worst. Carson City County is a close third.
Gluttony was calculated by counting the number of fast food restaurants per capita, and this is one category where Clark County is bested. First in deep fry goes to Carson City.
Sloth was calculated by comparing expenditures on arts, entertainment and recreation with the rate of employment. Here again Clark County is beat, scoring only average on the scale of sloth.
And pride, lastly, is most important. The root of all sins, in this study, is the aggregate of all data. Vought and his Kansas colleagues combined all data from the six other sins and averaged it into an overview of all evil. So pride, mapped in purple, shows the states two darkest bruises: counties Clark and Carson City.
Yet, in the grand scheme of things, maybe we’re not that bad. While Vought and his colleagues spent four weeks on the detailed Nevada study, they also ran the numbers on some 3,000 counties across the country, a nationwide survey of sin.
Turns out Nevada is unremarkable when compared with other states. Sure, we have a little discoloration around Washoe and Clark counties when it comes to wrath, and Southern Nevada as a whole stands out in the nationwide map of greed, but other than that, we’re almost colorless, boring even, when compared with Texas, which ranked high for gluttony, or wrath, which was concentrated in Florida and surrounding states.
Moreover, the Kansas geographers also compared the level of sin in 10 top casino markets, and while the Las Vegas Strip ranked first for greed, it could muster no better than third place for pride, the aggregate of all sins. It was the southern gambling cities — Lula, Miss.; Biloxi, Miss.; and Shreveport, La., that came out on top of the bottom. Why, exactly, remains to be seen. The Kansas geographers started this project, it seems pretty clear, for the erudite amusement; something to stand out at a 6,000-person convention consumed with the world’s heavy questions. But if Tuesday’s convention crowd was evidence, the sin study was interesting to other scholars as well. So Vought and colleagues plan to continue their national study of evil.
“It’s too much fun,” Vought said, smiling in a way that suggested, if not pride, then a good deal of pleasure.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Palin says Obama's health care plan is 'evil'
news.yahoo.com
ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin called President Barack Obama's health plan "downright evil" Friday in her first online comments since leaving office, saying in a Facebook posting that he would create a "death panel" that would deny care to the neediest Americans.
"Who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course," the former vice Republican presidential candidate wrote on her Facebook page, which has nearly 700,000 supporters.
Palin Pointing Fingers Again
"The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil," Palin wrote.
An e-mail sent to Palin's spokeswoman to confirm authorship was not immediately returned Friday.
Obama, a Democrat, campaigned on a promise of offering affordable health care to all Americans. He has proposed a system that would include government and private insurers.
Republicans say that private insurers would be unable to compete, leaving the country with only a government-run health program. They warn that could leave Americans with little control over their health care.
Republican criticism has included claims that the reform plans will lead to rationing, or the government determining which medical procedures a patient can have. However, millions of Americans already face rationing, as insurance companies rule on procedures they will cover.
Denying coverage for certain procedures might increase under proposals to have a government-appointed agency identify medicines and procedures best suited for various conditions.
In the posting, Palin encouraged her supporters to be engaged in the debate. "Nationalizing our health care system is a point of no return for government interference in the lives of its citizens. If we go down this path, there will be no turning back," Palin wrote.
"Let's stop and think and make our voices heard before it's too late," the posting said.
Palin resigned as Alaska governor on July 26 with nearly 18 months left in her term. She cited not only the numerous ethics complaints that had been filed against her also her wish not to be a lame duck after the first-term governor decided not to seek re-election next year.
Palin, popular with conservatives in the Republican party, has said she wants to build a right-of-center coalition, and there is speculation she will seek the presidency in 2012. In the two weeks since she resigned, Palin has made only one public appearance, giving a Second Amendment rights speech last Saturday before a gun owners group in Anchorage.
Palin also has been largely silent before Friday's post. She was a voracious user of the social networking site Twitter, and promised to keep her supporters updated with a new private account after she left office. But that hasn't happened, leaving some of her fans begging for updates in the past two weeks.
NO Twitter for NFL Players on Practice Field
Dolphins on a No Tweets Diet
The Dolphins don't want players, coaches, the media or the fans to use Twitter -- ever
By TODD WRIGHT nbcmiami.com
Updated 8:15 PM EDT, Wed, Aug 5, 2009
Bill Parcells has solidified his position as Chief of the No Fun Police. It’s one thing to stop your players from using Twitter or blogging about their training camp experience, but the Dolphins are doing a little fan outreach, too.
You can’t “tweet” about what you see either. That goes for you, too, media guy.
The Dolphins are at the forefront of an NFL clampdown on Twitter and other social media, with new restrictions imposed on players, reporters and even spectators. But at least they haven't fined a player for trash tweet talking the food like the Chargers.
Coach Tony Sparano claims this is his call, but the Stone Age rule has Parcells' anti-fun fingers all over it. Imagine if Shaq couldn't tweet while he was with the Heat. There would be all out mutiny in the locker room.
True, this may be a way to keep information from leaking about the latest Wildcat plays or a new defense that will scare the pants off Tom Brady and the Pats. Or this could be Parcells playing General Patten again and ruling his organization with an iron, no-controversy-equals-no-fun fist.
Dolphins players are so afraid to step out of line at this point, they wouldn't tweet much more than "OMG! Mr. Parcells looks like he lost some weight" or "That polo on Mr. Parcells is very slimming. SMH"
The Dolphins require the media to shut off all electronic gear -- computers, cell phones, cameras -- about 25 minutes into practice, when team drills begin. The Dolphins are also policing fans, a daunting challenge for a team that drew more than 3,100 spectators to the opening workout last week.
Along with the Broncos and Dolphins, Parcells disciple Bill Belichick in New England, the Buffalo Bills, Indianapolis Colts, New Orleans Saints and Detroit Lions don’t allow “tweeting” on the practice field.
We’re shocked Parcells doesn’t have metal detectors and armed guard standing at the gate at the Davie facility to enforce the policy. Pretty soon you will have to leave your handheld electronic devices with Dolphins personnel until you are ready to leave the practice facility.
NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said the league encourages players to tweet, and about 300 do so. As of Wednesday afternoon, the league had 772,473 followers on its Twitter site.
"We've been at the forefront as technology has changed," said McCarthy, who said he follows 600 Twitter accounts. "We have embraced Twitter. The commissioner tweeted from the draft. When done properly, it's a tremendous opportunity to talk with fans."
Can someone forward Parcells the memo?
Monday, August 3, 2009
Past Life Regression - A New Life And Future - Do You Believe?
Its an interest of many individuals with a desire to learn of their past lives. Many religions worldwide strongly believe in the existence of ones past life. Most people are curious and want to learn about their past lives and a fact that you can change your present life for the better by using past life experiences positively.
What entices most individuals to discover their past lives is because of its intriguing nature. Delving into your past lives is like participating in a science fiction movie. Out of the ordinary, unusual. Consider the benefits that Past Life Regression can bring to our present life.
Past Life Regression, according to research done, has had good results in treating individuals suffering emotional problems. There are no doubts, you can make positive changes in your present life when remembering bad experiences of a past life.
To start the process of learning of your past lives begins with an experienced hypnotist in Past Life Regression. Self-hypnosis is another way and there are other things for you to know to help you. Simple affirmations are beneficial to help in training your subconscious to begin to accept and to remember the memories of your past lives. However, it is normal for your mind to block these memories.
You need to understand a few things before you go ahead and use Past Life Regression.
Our present lives and our past lives are connected. We have our past life memories, but they are buried deep within our subconscious minds and need to be brought to the surface to our conscious minds.
Just having the knowledge of a past life will make life better for you. The information gleaned from these past life memories must be used for the benefits to effect our present life on a daily basis.
Learn from your mistakes in your previous life and keep from repeating them in your present life. Using the knowledge from the past life positively, in your life today, will enable you to live better.
Those who don't believe in Past Life Regression or reincarnation are still able to be helped to live a better life. Some may consider these memories to be the product of an overactive imagination and can still use this information to avoid past life mistakes in the present. For individuals who wish to change their present lives, this is a great tool.
There are two reason for using Past Life Regression even though you may or may not believe in it. The experts believe the following are two main reasons to do this.
*If you are making positive changes in you present life it is due to experiences in Past Life Regression and also the fact of your experiences of a past life memory.
*If you think your imagination was the cause of these memories, that's okay. It can still help you to positively change your life and your thoughts help to clear your mind, freeing you from anything that was holding you back.
What are the benefits of Past Life Regression?
*Helps heal emotional traumas of the past that are causing havoc in our daily lives in the present.
*Enabling you to make decisions and to think more clearly than before.
*Remembering if you have hurt someone or done something unethical and have suffered the consequences, you can change this kind of behavior. Remembering when you have done this will help you to look further at your actions in the present and not make the same mistakes again.
*By exploring your past lives you can bring out your hidden potential which is unrealized by you in the present. You may find skills and talents and other attributes that are hidden deep in your subconscious and discovering them may change your life in the present forever.
*Know and understand yourself better and discover why you do things that you do. You have a certain personality and characteristics and you will know why. It will no longer be a mystery to you.
Try using Past Life Regression yourself and see how it can change your life in a positive way. You may finally discover how to change your life to the life you have always dreamt of. A better life can be yours, try it.
What entices most individuals to discover their past lives is because of its intriguing nature. Delving into your past lives is like participating in a science fiction movie. Out of the ordinary, unusual. Consider the benefits that Past Life Regression can bring to our present life.
Past Life Regression, according to research done, has had good results in treating individuals suffering emotional problems. There are no doubts, you can make positive changes in your present life when remembering bad experiences of a past life.
To start the process of learning of your past lives begins with an experienced hypnotist in Past Life Regression. Self-hypnosis is another way and there are other things for you to know to help you. Simple affirmations are beneficial to help in training your subconscious to begin to accept and to remember the memories of your past lives. However, it is normal for your mind to block these memories.
You need to understand a few things before you go ahead and use Past Life Regression.
Our present lives and our past lives are connected. We have our past life memories, but they are buried deep within our subconscious minds and need to be brought to the surface to our conscious minds.
Just having the knowledge of a past life will make life better for you. The information gleaned from these past life memories must be used for the benefits to effect our present life on a daily basis.
Learn from your mistakes in your previous life and keep from repeating them in your present life. Using the knowledge from the past life positively, in your life today, will enable you to live better.
Those who don't believe in Past Life Regression or reincarnation are still able to be helped to live a better life. Some may consider these memories to be the product of an overactive imagination and can still use this information to avoid past life mistakes in the present. For individuals who wish to change their present lives, this is a great tool.
There are two reason for using Past Life Regression even though you may or may not believe in it. The experts believe the following are two main reasons to do this.
*If you are making positive changes in you present life it is due to experiences in Past Life Regression and also the fact of your experiences of a past life memory.
*If you think your imagination was the cause of these memories, that's okay. It can still help you to positively change your life and your thoughts help to clear your mind, freeing you from anything that was holding you back.
What are the benefits of Past Life Regression?
*Helps heal emotional traumas of the past that are causing havoc in our daily lives in the present.
*Enabling you to make decisions and to think more clearly than before.
*Remembering if you have hurt someone or done something unethical and have suffered the consequences, you can change this kind of behavior. Remembering when you have done this will help you to look further at your actions in the present and not make the same mistakes again.
*By exploring your past lives you can bring out your hidden potential which is unrealized by you in the present. You may find skills and talents and other attributes that are hidden deep in your subconscious and discovering them may change your life in the present forever.
*Know and understand yourself better and discover why you do things that you do. You have a certain personality and characteristics and you will know why. It will no longer be a mystery to you.
Try using Past Life Regression yourself and see how it can change your life in a positive way. You may finally discover how to change your life to the life you have always dreamt of. A better life can be yours, try it.
About the Author:
Richard Frown is a writer for the popular http://www.past-lives-regression.com site. You can enjoy the incredible experience of past life regression and you can try it yourself when you get twenty nine Free past life regression Audios when you visit here.
420 Pieces of Useless Information -Unless Your Going to be on Jeopardy
discountflooringsuppliers.com
someone must of been really bored to do this...
1. Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) was born on and died on days when Halley’s Comet can be seen. During his life he predicted that he would die when it could be seen.
2. US Dollar bills are made out of cotton and linen.
3. The “57″ on the Heinz ketchup bottle represents the number of pickle types the company once had.
4. Americans are responsible for about 1/5 of the world’s garbage annually. On average, that’s 3 pounds a day per person.
5. Giraffes and rats can last longer without water than camels.
6. Your stomach produces a new layer of mucus every two weeks so that it doesn’t digest itself.
7. 98% of all murders and rapes are by a close family member or friend of the victim.
8. A B-25 bomber crashed into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building on July 28, 1945.
9. The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp (marijuana) paper.
10. The dot over the letter “i” is called a tittle.
11. A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top.
12. Benjamin Franklin was the fifth in a series of the youngest son of the youngest son.
13. Triskaidekaphobia means fear of the number 13. Paraskevidekatriaphobia means fear of Friday the 13th (which occurs one to three times a year). In Italy, 17 is considered an unlucky number. In Japan, 4 is considered an unlucky number.
14. A female ferret will die if it goes into heat and cannot find a mate.
15. All the chemicals in a human body combined are worth about 6.25 euro (if sold separately).
16. In ancient Rome, when a man testified in court he would swear on his testicles.
17. The ZIP in “ZIP code” means Zoning Improvement Plan.
18. Coca-Cola contained Coca (whose active ingredient is cocaine) from 1885 to 1903.
19. A “2 by 4″ is really 1 1/2 by 3 1/2.
20. It’s estimated that at any one time around 0.7% of the world’s population is drunk.
21. Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history: Spades = David ; Clubs = Alexander the Great ; Hearts = Charlemagne ; Diamonds = Caesar
22. 40% of McDonald’s profits come from the sales of Happy Meals.
23. Every person, including identical twins, has a unique eye and tongue print along with their finger print.
24. The “spot” on the 7-Up logo comes from its inventor who had red eyes. He was an albino.
25. 315 entries in Webster’s 1996 dictionary were misspelled.
26. The “save” icon in Microsoft Office programs shows a floppy disk with the shutter on backwards.
27. Albert Einstein and Charles Darwin both married their first cousins (Elsa Löwenthal and Emma Wedgewood respectively).
28. Camel’s have three eyelids.
29. On average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents every day.
30. John Wilkes Booth’s brother once saved the life of Abraham Lincoln’s son.
31. Warren Beatty and Shirley McLaine are brother and sister.
32. Chocolate can kill dogs; it directly affects their heart and nervous system.
33. Daniel Boone hated coonskin caps.
34. Playing cards were issued to British pilots in WWII. If captured, they could be soaked in water and unfolded to reveal a map for escape.
35. 55.1% of all US prisoners are in prison for drug offenses.
36. Most lipstick contains fish scales.
37. Orcas (killer whales) kill sharks by torpedoing up into the shark’s stomach from underneath, causing the shark to explode.
38. Dr. Seuss pronounced his name “soyce”.
39. Slugs have four noses.
40. Ketchup was sold in the 1830s as medicine.
41. The Three Wise Monkeys have names: Mizaru (See no evil), Mikazaru (Hear no evil), and Mazaru (Speak no evil).
42. India has a Bill of Rights for cows.
43. If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib. If you try to suppress a sneeze, you can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die. If you keep your eyes open by force, they can pop out. (DON’T TRY IT, DUMBASS)
44. During the California gold rush of 1849, miners sent their laundry to Honolulu for washing and pressing. Due to the extremely high costs in California during these boom years, it was deemed more feasible to send their shirts to Hawaii for servicing.
45. American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by taking out an olive from First Class salads.
46. About 200,000,000 M&Ms are sold each day in the United States.
47. Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.
48. Over a course of about eleven years, the sun’s magnetic poles switch places. This cycle is called “Solarmax”.
49. There are 318,979,564,000 possible combinations of the first four moves in Chess.
50. Upper and lower case letters are named “upper” and “lower” because in the time when all original print had to be set in individual letters, the upper case letters were stored in the case on top of the case that stored the lower case letters.
51. There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos.
52. The numbers “172″ can be found on the back of the US 5 dollar bill, in the bushes at the base of the Lincoln Memorial.
53. Coconuts kill about 150 people each year. That’s more than sharks.
54. Half of all bank robberies take place on a Friday.
55. The name Wendy was made up for the book Peter Pan. There was never a recorded Wendy before it.
56. The international telephone dialing code for Antarctica is 672.
57. The first bomb the Allies dropped on Berlin in WWII killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.
58. The average raindrop falls at 7 miles per hour.
59. It took Leonardo Da Vinci 10 years to paint Mona Lisa. He never signed or dated the painting. Leonardo and Mona had identical bone structures according to the painting. X-ray images have shown that there are 3 other versions under the original.
60. If you put a drop of liquor on a scorpion, it will instantly go mad and sting itself to death.
61. Bruce Lee was so fast that they had to slow the film down so you could see his moves.
62. The largest amount of money you can have without having change for a dollar is $1.19 (3 quarters, 4 dimes, and 4 pennies cannot be divided into a dollar).
63. The first CD pressed in the US was Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA”.
64. IBM’s motto is “Think”. Apple later made their motto “Think different”.
65. The mask used by Michael Myers in the original “Halloween” was actually a Captain Kirk mask painted white, due to low budget.
66. The original name for butterfly was flutterby.
67. The phrase “rule of thumb” is derived from an old English law, which stated that you couldn’t beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.
68. One in fourteen women in America is a natural blonde. Only one in sixteen men is.
69. The Olympic was the sister ship of the Titanic, and she provided twenty-five years of service.
70. When the Titanic sank, 2228 people were on it. Only 706 survived.
71. In America, someone is diagnosed with AIDS every 10 minutes. In South Africa, someone dies due to HIV or AIDS every 10 minutes.
72. Every day, 7% of the US eats at McDonald’s.
73. The first product Motorola started to develop was a record player for automobiles. At that time, the most known player on the market was Victrola, which Motorola got their name from.
74. In the US, about 127 million adults are overweight or obese; worldwide, 750 million are overweight and 300 million more are obese. In the US, 15% of children in elementary school are overweight; 20% are worldwide.
75. In Disney’s Fantasia, the Sorcerer to whom Mickey played an apprentice was named Yensid (Disney spelled backward).
76. During his entire life, Vincent Van Gogh sold exactly one painting, “Red Vineyard at Arles”.
77. By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you cannot sink into quicksand.
78. One in ten people live on an island.
79. It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with.
80. 28% of Africa is classified as wilderness. In North America, its 38%.
81. Charlie Chaplin once won third prize in a Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest.
82. Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.
83. Sherlock Holmes NEVER said “Elementary, my dear Watson”, Humphrey Bogart NEVER said “Play it again, Sam” in Casablanca, and they NEVER said “Beam me up, Scotty” on Star Trek.
84. An old law in Bellingham, Washington, made it illegal for a woman to take more than 3 steps backwards while dancing.
85. Sharon Stone was the first Star Search spokes model.
86. The sound you here when you put a seashell next to your ear is not the ocean, but blood flowing through your head.
87. More people are afraid of open spaces (kenophobia) than of tight spaces (claustrophobia).
88. The glue on Israeli postage is certified kosher.
89. There is a 1 in 4 chance that New York will have a white Christmas.
90. The Guinness Book of Records holds the record for being the book most often stolen from Public Libraries.
91. Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married.
92. Back in the mid to late ’80s, an IBM compatible computer wasn’t considered 100% compatible unless it could run Microsoft’s Flight Simulator.
93. $203,000,000 is spent on barbed wire each year in the U.S.
94. Every US president has worn glasses (just not always in public).
95. Bats always turn left when exiting a cave.
96. Jim Henson first coined the word “Muppet”. It is a combination of “marionette” and “puppet.”
97. The names of all the continents end with the same letter that they start with (not counting the words “North” and “South).
98. The Michelin man is known as Mr. Bib. His name was Bibendum in the company’s first ads in 1896.
99. About 20% of bird species have become extinct in the past 200 years, almost all of them because of human activity.
100. The word “lethologica” describes the state of not being able to remember the word you want.
101. About 14% of injecting drug users are HIV positive.
102. A word or sentence that is the same front and back (racecar, kayak) is called a “palindrome”.
103. A snail can sleep for 3 years.
104. People photocopying their buttocks are the cause of 23% of all photocopier faults worldwide.
105. China has more English speakers than the United States.
106. Finnish folklore says that when Santa comes to Finland to deliver gifts, he leaves his sleigh behind and rides on a goat named Ukko instead. According to French tradition, Santa Claus has a brother named Bells Nichols, who visits homes on New Year’s Eve after everyone is asleep, and if a plate is set out for him, he fills it with cookies and cakes.
107. One in every 9000 people is an albino.
108. The electric chair was invented by a dentist.
109. You share your birthday with at least 9 million other people in the world.
110. Everyday, more money is printed for Monopoly sets than for the U.S. Treasury.
111. Every year 4 people in the UK die putting their trousers on.
112. Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds; dogs only have about ten.
113. Our eyes are always the same size from birth but our nose and ears never stop growing.
114. In every episode of “Seinfeld” there is a Superman picture or reference somewhere.
115. If Barbie were life-size her measurements would be 39-23-33. She would stand seven feet two inches tall and have a neck twice the length of a normal human’s neck.
116. Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months, two rats could have over million descendants.
117. Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times.
118. Each year in America there are about 300,000 deaths that can be attributed to obesity.
119. About 55% of all movies are rated R.
120. About 500 movies are made in the US and 800 in India annually.
121. Arabic numerals are not really Arabic; they were created in India.
122. Title 14, Section 1211 of the Code of Federal Regulations (implemented on July 16, 1969) makes it illegal for U.S. citizens to have any contact with extraterrestrials or their vehicles.
123. The February of 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.
124. The Pentagon in Arlington Virginia has twice as many bathrooms as is necessary. When it was built in the 1940s the state of Virginia still had segregation laws requiring separate toilet facilities for blacks and whites.
125. There is actually no danger in swimming right after you eat, though it may feel uncomfortable.
126. The cruise liner Queen Elizabeth II moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.
127. More than 50% of the people in the world have never made or received a telephone call.
128. A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.
129. There are about 2 chickens for every human in the world.
130. The word “maverick” came into use after Samuel Maverick, a Texan refused to brand his cattle. Eventually any unbranded calf became known as a Maverick.
131. Two-thirds of the world’s eggplant is grown in New Jersey.
132. For every memorial statue with a person on a horse, if the horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died of battle wounds; if all four of the horse’s legs are on the ground, the person died of natural causes.
133. On a Canadian two-dollar bill, the American flag is flying over the Parliament Building.
134. An American urologist bought Napoleon’s penis for $40,000.
135. No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or purple.
136. Dreamt is the only English word that ends in the letters “MT”.
137. $283,200 is the absolute highest amount of money you can win on Jeopardy.
138. Almonds are members of the peach family.
139. Rats and horses can’t vomit.
140. The penguin is the only bird that can’t fly but can swim.
141. There are approximately 100 million acts of sexual intercourse each day.
142. Winston Churchill was born in a ladies room during a dance.
143. Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.
144. There are only four words in the English language that end in “-dous”: tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.
145. Americans on average eat 18 acres of pizza every day.
146. Every time you lick a stamp you consume 1/10 of a calorie.
147. “101 Dalmatians” and “Peter Pan” are the only Disney animations in which both of a character’s parents are present and don’t die during the movie.
148. You are more likely to be killed by a champagne cork than by a poisonous spider.
149. Hedenophobic means fear of pleasure.
150. Ancient Egyptian priests would pluck every hair from their bodies.
151. A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.
152. Half of all crimes are committed by people under the age of 18. 80% of burglaries are committed by people aged 13-21.
153. An ant always falls over on its right side when intoxicated.
154. All polar bears are left-handed.
155. The catfish has over 27000 taste buds (more than any other animal)
156. A cockroach will live nine days without its head before it starves to death.
157. Butterflies taste with their feet.
158. Elephants are the only mammals that cannot jump.
159. An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain.
160. Starfish have no brains.
161. 11% of the world is left-handed.
162. John Hancock and Charles Thomson were the only people to sign the Declaration of independence on July 4th, 1776. The last signature came five years later.
163. Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.
164. Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.
165. The national anthem of Greece has 158 verses.
166. There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.
167. A healthy (non-colorblind) human eye can distinguish between 500 shades of gray.
168. A pregnant goldfish is called a twit.
169. Lizards can self-amputate their tails for protection. It grows back after a few months.
170. Los Angeles’ full name is “El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula”. It can be abbreviated to 3.63% of its size: L.A.
171. A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.
172. A honeybee can fly at fifteen miles per hour.
173. Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.
174. A “jiffy” is the scientific name for 1/100th of a second.
175. The average child recognizes over 200 company logos by the time he enters first grade.
176. The youngest pope ever was 11 years old.
177. The first novel ever written on a typewriter is Tom Sawyer.
178. One out of every 43 prisoners escapes from jail. 94% are recaptured.
179. The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.
180. The average chocolate bar has 8 insects’ legs melted into it.
181. A rhinoceros horn is made of compacted hair.
182. The shortest war in history was between Zanzibar and England in 1896. Zanzibar surrendered after 38 minutes.
183. Elwood Edwards did the voice for the AOL sound files (i.e. “You’ve got Mail!”). He is heard about 27 million times a day. The recordings were done before Quantum changed its name to AOL and the program was known as “Q-Link.”
184. A polar bears skin is black. Its fur is actually clear, but like snow it appears white.
185. Elvis had a twin brother named Garon, who died at birth, which is why Elvis middle name was spelled Aron, in honor of his brother.
186. Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors.
187. Donkeys kill more people than plane crashes.
188. Shakespeare invented the words “assassination” and “bump.”
189. There are a million ants for every person on Earth.
190. If you keep a goldfish in the dark room, it will eventually turn white.
191. Women blink nearly twice as much as men.
192. The name Jeep comes from “GP”, the army abbreviation for General Purpose.
193. Right handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left handed people do.
194. There are two credit cards for every person in the United States.
195. Cats’ urine glows under a black light.
196. A “quidnunc” is a person who is eager to know the latest news and gossip.
197. The first US Patent was for manufacturing potassium carbonate (used in glass and gunpowder). It was issued to Samuel Hopkins on July 31, 1970.
198. Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors, the helicopter, and many other present day items.
199. In the last 4000 years no new animals have been domesticated.
200. 25% of a human’s bones are in its feet.
201. David Sarnoff received the Titanic’s distress signal and saved hundreds of passengers. He later became the head of the first radio network, the National Broadcasting Company (NBC).
202. On average, 100 people choke to death on ballpoint pens every year.
203. Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than every Nike factory worker in Malaysia combined.
204. One of the reasons marijuana is illegal today is because cotton growers in the ’30s lobbied against hemp farmers (they saw it as competition).
205. “Canada” is an Indian word meaning “Big Village”.
206. Only one in two billion people will live to be 116 or older.
207. If you yelled for 8 years 7 months and 6 days, you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee. If you fart consistently for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas is produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb.
208. Rape is reported every six minutes in the U.S.
209. The human heart creates enough pressure in the bloodstream to squirt blood 30 feet.
210. A jellyfish is 95% water.
211. Truck driving is the most dangerous occupation by accidental deaths (799 in 2001).
212. Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour.
213. Elephants only sleep for two hours each day.
214. On average people fear spiders more than they do death.
215. The strongest muscle in the human body is the tongue. (the heart is not a muscle)
216. In golf, a ‘Bo Derek’ is a score of 10.
217. In the U.S, Frisbees outsell footballs, baseballs and basketballs combined.
218. In most watch advertisements the time displayed on a watch is 10:10.
219. If you plant an apple seed, it is almost guaranteed to grow a tree of a different type of apple.
220. Al Capone’s business card said he was a used furniture dealer.
221. The only real person to be a PEZ head was Betsy Ross.
222. There are about 450 types of cheese in the world. 240 come from France.
223. When the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers plays football at home the stadium becomes Nebraska’s third largest city.
224. The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life”.
225. A dragonfly has a lifespan of 24 hours.
226. In Iceland, a Big Mac costs $5.50.
227. Broccoli and cauliflower are the only vegetables that are flowers.
228. Newborn babies have about 350 bones. They gradually merge and disappear until there are about 206 by age 5.
229. There is no solid proof of who built the Taj Mahal.
230. In a survey of 200000 ostriches over 80 years, not one tried to bury its head in the sand.
231. A dime has 118 ridges around the edge. A quarter has 119.
232. On an American one-dollar bill there is a tiny owl in the upper-left-hand corner of the upper-right-hand “1″ and a spider hidden in the front upper-right-hand corner.
233. Judy Scheindlin (”Judge Judy”) has a $25,000,000 salary, while Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg has a $190,100 salary.
234. The name for Oz in the Wizard of Oz was thought up when the creator Frank Baum looked at his filing cabinet and saw A-N and O-Z.
235. Andorra, a tiny country on the border between France and Spain, has the longest average lifespan: 83.49 years.
236. The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.
237. Mr. Rogers was an ordained Presbyterian minister.
238. In America you will see an average of 500 advertisements a day.
239. John Lennon’s first girlfriend was named Thelma Pickles.
240. You can lead a cow upstairs but not downstairs.
241. The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.
242. “The sixth sick sheik’s sixth sheep’s sick” is said to be the toughest tongue twister in English.
243. There are 336 dimples on a regulation US golf ball. In the UK its 330.
244. The Toltecs (a 7th century tribe) used wooden swords so they wouldn’t kill their enemies.
245. “Duff” is the decaying organic matter found on a forest floor.
246. The US has more personal computers than the next 7 countries combined.
247. There have been over 600 lawsuits against Alexander Grahm Bell over rights to the patent of the telephone, the most valuable patent in U.S. history.
248. Kuwait is about 60% male (highest in the world). Latvia is about 54% female (highest in the world).
249. The Hawaiian alphabet has only 12 letters.
250. In 10 minutes, a hurricane releases more energy than all the world’s nuclear weapons combined.
251. At the height of its power in 400 BC, the Greek city of Sparta had 25,000 citizens and 500,000 slaves.
252. Julius Caesar’s autograph is worth about $2,000,000.
253. The tool doctors wrap around a patient’s arm to measure blood pressure is called a sphygmomanometer.
254. People say “bless you” when you sneeze because your heart stops for a millisecond.
255. US gold coins used to say “In Gold We Trust”.
256. In “Silence of the Lambs”, Hannibal Lector (Anthony Hopkins) never blinks.
257. A shrimp’s heart is in its head.
258. In the 17th century, the value of pi was known to 35 decimal places. Today, to 1.2411 trillion.
259. The bestselling books of all time are The Bible (6billion+), Quotations from the Works of Mao Tse-tung (900million+), and The Lord of the Rings (100million+)
260. Pearls melt in vinegar.
261. “Lassie” was played by a group of male dogs; the main one was named Pal.
262. In 1863, Paul Hubert of Bordeaux, France, was sentenced to life in jail for murder. After 21 years, it was discovered that he was convicted of murdering himself.
263. Nepal is the only country that doesn’t have a rectangular flag. Switzerland is the only country with a square flag.
264. Gabriel, Michael, and Lucifer are the only angels named in the Bible.
265. Tiger Woods’ real first name is Eldrick. His father gave him the nickname “Tiger” in honor of a South Vietnamese soldier his father had fought alongside with during the Vietnam War.
266. Johnny Appleseed planted apples so that people could use apple cider to make alcohol.
267. Abraham Lincoln’s ghost is said to haunt the White House.
268. God is not mentioned once in the book of Esther.
269. The odds of being born male are about 51.2%, according to census.
270. Scotland has more redheads than any other part of the world.
271. There is an average of 61,000 people airborne over the US at any given moment.
272. Prince Charles and Prince William never travel on the same airplane in case there is a crash.
273. The most popular first name in the world is Muhammad. The most common name (of any type) in the world is Mohammed.
274. The surface of the Earth is about 60% water and 10% ice.
275. For every 230 cars that are made, 1 will be stolen.
276. Jimmy Carter was the first U.S. President to be born in a hospital.
277. Lightning strikes the earth about 8 million times a day.
278. Around 2,000 left-handed people die annually due to improper use of equipment designed only for right handed people.
279. The “if” and “then” parts of conditional (”if P then Q”) statement are called the protasis (P) and apodosis (Q).
280. Humans use a total of 72 different muscles in speech.
281. If you feed a seagull Alka-Seltzer, its stomach will explode.
282. Only female mosquitoes bite.
283. The U.S. Post Office handles 43 percent of the world’s mail.
284. Most household dust is made of dead skin cells.
285. One in about eight million people has progeria, a disease that causes people to grow faster than they age.
286. The male seahorse carries the eggs until they hatch instead of the female.
287. The “countdown” (counting down from 10 for an event such as New-Years Day) was first used in a 1929 German silent film called “Die Frau Im Monde” (The Girl in the Moon).
288. Negative emotions such as anxiety and depression can weaken your immune system.
289. There are seven suicides in the Bible: Abimelech. Samson, Saul, Saul’s armor-bearer, Ahithophel, Zimri, Judas.
290. A mongoose is not a goose but more like a meercat, which is not a cat but more like a prairie dog, which is not a dog but more like a ground squirrel.
291. Stephen Hawking was born exactly 300 years after Galileo died.
292. Mercury is the only planet whose orbit is coplanar with its equator. Venus and Uranus are the only planets that rotate opposite to the direction of their orbit.
293. John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Monroe died on July 4th. Adams and Jefferson died in the same year. Supposedly, Adams last words were “Thomas Jefferson survives.”
294. The Baby Ruth candy bar was named after Grover Cleveland’s baby daughter, Ruth, not Babe Ruth the baseball player.
295. Dolphins can look in different directions with each eye. They can sleep with one eye open.
296. The Falkland Isles (pop. about 2000) has over 700000 sheep (350 per person).
297. There are 41,806 different spoken languages in the world today.
298. While many treaties have been signed at or near Paris, France (including many after WWI and WWII), nine are actually known as the “Treaty of Paris”: Seven Years’ War (1763), American Revolutionary War (1783), French-Swede War (1810), France vs Sixth Coalition (1814), Battle of Waterloo (1815), Crimean War (1856), Spanish-American War (1898), union of Bessarabia and Romania (1920), establishment of European Coal and Steel Community (1951).
299. Robert Todd Lincoln (Abraham Lincoln’s oldest son) was in Washington DC during his father’s assassination as well as during President Garfield’s assassination, and he was in Buffalo NY when President McKinley was assassinated.
300. The city of Venice stands on about 120 small islands.
301. The past-tense of the English word “dare” is “durst”.
302. Don Mac Lean’s song “American Pie” was written about Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardson (The Big Bopper), who all died in the same plane crash.
303. The drummer for ZZ Top (the only one without a beard) is named Frank Beard.
304. Hummingbirds can’t walk.
305. When movie directors do not want their names to be seen in the credits, they use the pseudonym “Allen Smithee” instead. It has been used over 50 times, starting with “Death of a Gunfighter” (1969).
306. Four different people played the part of Darth Vader (body, face, voice, and breathing).
307. Pamela Lee-Anderson was the first to be born in Canada on the centennial anniversary of Canada’s independence (7/1/1967).
308. There is about 200 times more gold in the oceans than has been mined throughout history.
309. William Shatner is credited for being the first person on TV to say “hell” as well as to have the first inter-racial kiss (with Nichelle Nichols), both in episodes of Star Trek.
310. While the US government’s supply of gold is kept at Fort Knox, its supply of silver is kept at the Military Academy at West Point, NY.
311. Alexander Graham Bell’s wife and mother were both deaf.
312. Compact discs read from the inside to the outside edge, the reverse of how a record works.
313. In the ancient Greek city-state of Sparta, if a man was not married by age 30, he would not be allowed to vote or watch athletic events involving nude young men.
314. Attila the Hun (invader of Europe; 406-453), Felix Faure (French President; 1841-1899), Pope Leo VII (936-939), Pope John VII (955-964), Pope Leo VIII (963-965), Pope John XIII (965-72), Pope Paul II (1467-1471), Lord Palmerston (British Prime Minister, 1784-1865), Nelson Rockefeller (US Vice President, 1908-1979), and John Entwistle (The Who’s bassist, 1944-2002) all died while having sex.
315. Humans and dolphins are the only animals known to have sex for pleasure.
316. Pac-Man, Namco’s 1979 arcade game, was originally called “Puck Man”. The name was changed when they realized that vandals could easily scratch out part of the letter “P”.
317. Shakespeare and Cervantes died on the same day, April 23, 1616.
318. There are about 7.7 million millionaires in the world (more than 1/1000th of the population).
319. The youngest mother on record was a Peruvian girl named Lina Medina. She gave birth to a boy by caesarean section on May 14, 1939 (which happened to be Mother’s Day), at the age of five years, seven months and 21 days.
320. The “middle finger” gesture originates back to 423 BC in Aristophanes play “The Clouds”.
321. Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) was born on and died on days when Halley’s Comet can be seen. During his life he predicted that he would die when it could be seen.
322. US Dollar bills are made out of cotton and linen.
323. The “57″ on the Heinz ketchup bottle represents the number of pickle types the company once had.
324. Americans are responsible for about 1/5 of the world’s garbage annually. On average, that’s 3 pounds a day per person.
325. Giraffes and rats can last longer without water than camels.
326. Your stomach produces a new layer of mucus every two weeks so that it doesn’t digest itself.
327. 98% of all murders and rapes are by a close family member or friend of the victim.
328. A B-25 bomber crashed into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building on July 28, 1945.
329. The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp (marijuana) paper.
330. The dot over the letter “i” is called a tittle.
331. A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top.
332. Benjamin Franklin was the fifth in a series of the youngest son of the youngest son.
333. Triskaidekaphobia means fear of the number 13. Paraskevidekatriaphobia means fear of Friday the 13th (which occurs one to three times a year). In Italy, 17 is considered an unlucky number. In Japan, 4 is considered an unlucky number.
334. A female ferret will die if it goes into heat and cannot find a mate.
335. All the chemicals in a human body combined are worth about 6.25 euro (if sold separately).
336. In ancient Rome, when a man testified in court he would swear on his testicles.
337. The ZIP in “ZIP code” means Zoning Improvement Plan.
338. Coca-Cola contained Coca (whose active ingredient is cocaine) from 1885 to 1903.
339. A “2 by 4″ is really 1 1/2 by 3 1/2.
340. It’s estimated that at any one time around 0.7% of the world’s population is drunk.
341. Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history: Spades = David ; Clubs = Alexander the Great ; Hearts = Charlemagne ; Diamonds = Caesar
342. 40% of McDonald’s profits come from the sales of Happy Meals.
343. Every person, including identical twins, has a unique eye and tongue print along with their finger print.
344. The “spot” on the 7-Up logo comes from its inventor who had red eyes. He was an albino.
345. 315 entries in Webster’s 1996 dictionary were misspelled.
346. The “save” icon in Microsoft Office programs shows a floppy disk with the shutter on backwards.
347. Albert Einstein and Charles Darwin both married their first cousins (Elsa Löwenthal and Emma Wedgewood respectively).
348. Camel’s have three eyelids.
349. On average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents every day.
350. John Wilkes Booth’s brother once saved the life of Abraham Lincoln’s son.
351. Warren Beatty and Shirley McLaine are brother and sister.
352. Chocolate can kill dogs; it directly affects their heart and nervous system.
353. Daniel Boone hated coonskin caps.
354. Playing cards were issued to British pilots in WWII. If captured, they could be soaked in 355. 55.1% of all US prisoners are in prison for drug offenses.
356. Most lipstick contains fish scales.
357. Orcas (killer whales) kill sharks by torpedoing up into the shark’s stomach from underneath, causing the shark to explode.
358. Dr. Seuss pronounced his name “soyce”.
359. Slugs have four noses.
360. Ketchup was sold in the 1830s as medicine.
361. The Three Wise Monkeys have names: Mizaru (See no evil), Mikazaru (Hear no evil), and Mazaru (Speak no evil).
362. India has a Bill of Rights for cows.
363. If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib. If you try to suppress a sneeze, you can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die. If you keep your eyes open by force, they can pop out. (DON’T TRY IT, DUMBASS)
364. During the California gold rush of 1849, miners sent their laundry to Honolulu for washing and pressing. Due to the extremely high costs in California during these boom years, it was deemed more feasible to send their shirts to Hawaii for servicing.
365. American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by taking out an olive from First Class salads.
366. About 200,000,000 M&Ms are sold each day in the United States.
367. Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.
368. Over a course of about eleven years, the sun’s magnetic poles switch places. This cycle is called “Solarmax”.
369. There are 318,979,564,000 possible combinations of the first four moves in Chess.
370. Upper and lower case letters are named “upper” and “lower” because in the time when all original print had to be set in individual letters, the upper case letters were stored in the case on top of the case that stored the lower case letters.
371. There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos.
372. The numbers “172″ can be found on the back of the US 5 dollar bill, in the bushes at the base of the Lincoln Memorial.
373. Coconuts kill about 150 people each year. That’s more than sharks.
374. Half of all bank robberies take place on a Friday.
375. The name Wendy was made up for the book Peter Pan. There was never a recorded Wendy before it.
376. The international telephone dialing code for Antarctica is 672.
377. The first bomb the Allies dropped on Berlin in WWII killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.
378. The average raindrop falls at 7 miles per hour.
379. It took Leonardo Da Vinci 10 years to paint Mona Lisa. He never signed or dated the painting. Leonardo and Mona had identical bone structures according to the painting. X-ray images have shown that there are 3 other versions under the original.
380. If you put a drop of liquor on a scorpion, it will instantly go mad and sting itself to death.
381. Bruce Lee was so fast that they had to slow the film down so you could see his moves.
382. The largest amount of money you can have without having change for a dollar is $1.19 (3 quarters, 4 dimes, and 4 pennies cannot be divided into a dollar).
383. The first CD pressed in the US was Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA”.
384. IBM’s motto is “Think”. Apple later made their motto “Think different”.
385. The mask used by Michael Myers in the original “Halloween” was actually a Captain Kirk mask painted white, due to low budget.
386. The original name for butterfly was flutterby.
387. The phrase “rule of thumb” is derived from an old English law, which stated that you couldn’t beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.
388. One in fourteen women in America is a natural blonde. Only one in sixteen men is.
389. The Olympic was the sister ship of the Titanic, and she provided twenty-five years of service.
390. When the Titanic sank, 2228 people were on it. Only 706 survived.
391. In America, someone is diagnosed with AIDS every 10 minutes. In South Africa, someone dies due to HIV or AIDS every 10 minutes.
392. Every day, 7% of the US eats at McDonald’s.
393. The first product Motorola started to develop was a record player for automobiles. At that time, the most known player on the market was Victrola, which Motorola got their name from.
394. In the US, about 127 million adults are overweight or obese; worldwide, 750 million are overweight and 300 million more are obese. In the US, 15% of children in elementary school are overweight; 20% are worldwide.
395. In Disney’s Fantasia, the Sorcerer to whom Mickey played an apprentice was named Yensid (Disney spelled backward).
396. During his entire life, Vincent Van Gogh sold exactly one painting, “Red Vineyard at Arles”.
397. By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you cannot sink into quicksand.
398. One in ten people live on an island.
399. It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with.
400. 28% of Africa is classified as wilderness. In North America, its 38%.
401. Charlie Chaplin once won third prize in a Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest.
402. Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.
403. Sherlock Holmes NEVER said “Elementary, my dear Watson”, Humphrey Bogart NEVER said “Play it again, Sam” in Casablanca, and they NEVER said “Beam me up, Scotty” on Star Trek.
404. An old law in Bellingham, Washington, made it illegal for a woman to take more than 3 steps backwards while dancing.
405. Sharon Stone was the first Star Search spokes model.
406. The sound you here when you put a seashell next to your ear is not the ocean, but blood flowing through your head.
407. More people are afraid of open spaces (kenophobia) than of tight spaces (claustrophobia).
408. The glue on Israeli postage is certified kosher.
409. There is a 1 in 4 chance that New York will have a white Christmas.
410. The Guinness Book of Records holds the record for being the book most often stolen from Public Libraries.
411. Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married.
412. Back in the mid to late ’80s, an IBM compatible computer wasn’t considered 100% compatible unless it could run Microsoft’s Flight Simulator.
413. $203,000,000 is spent on barbed wire each year in the U.S.
414. Every US president has worn glasses (just not always in public).
415. Bats always turn left when exiting a cave.
416. Jim Henson first coined the word “Muppet”. It is a combination of “marionette” and “puppet.”
417. The names of all the continents end with the same letter that they start with (not counting the words “North” and “South).
418. The Michelin man is known as Mr. Bib. His name was Bibendum in the company’s first ads in 1896.
419. About 20% of bird species
420.In Oblong, Illinois, it's punishable by law to make love while hunting or fishing on your wedding day.
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