Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton criticizes rival Barack Obamas record on abortion rights in a mailing sent to New Hampshire voters.

The mailer says that seven times during his time in the Illinois state Senate, Obama declined to take a position on abortion bills, while Clinton has been a defender of abortion rights.

During his eight years in the legislature, Obama cast a number of votes on abortion and received a 100 percent rating from the Illinois Planned Parenthood Council for his support of abortion rights, family planning services and health insurance coverage for female contraceptives. He voted against requiring medical care for aborted fetuses who survive, a vote that especially riled abortion opponents.

There is a word in English for "aborted fetuses who survive." They are called infants.

Clinton insisted that her support for the war resolution had been merely a vote to pressure the Iraqi dictator to allow weapons inspectors into Iraq. She quickly moved on to attack Obama:

Gordon Brown has thrown his weight behind a move to allow hospitals to take organs from dead patients without explicit consent.

But Mr Brown, who carries a donor card, has made it clear he backs an even more radical revamp of the system, which would lead to donation by "presumed consent". The approach is modelled on that of Spain, which has the highest proportion of organ donors in the world.

The taskforce report - to be released on Tuesday - calls for a senior doctor to be appointed in every hospital as a "champion" of donation, along with a lay person to spread the message about the importance of donation locally.

So much for the post-race horse race. The exit polls in New Hampshire were accurate for the Republicans and for the second-tier Democrats. The only miscalculation was the amount of support for Obama. That miscalculation is about race. Iowa caucus-goers stood by Barack, in part, because when voting with their bodies, in front of their neighbors, Iowans are held accountable. In the quiet, solitary space of the voting booth, some New Hampshire voters abandoned Barack.

Telecommuting may boost morale, and cut stress, but it can have the opposite effect on those left behind in the office, according to a new study.

When a number of their co-workers toil away from the office by using computers, cell-phones or other electronic equipment, those who do not telecommute are more likely to be dissatisfied with their job and leave the company, said Timothy Golden, a management professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Telecommuting has been a growing trend in the United States since about 2000. About 37 percent of U.S.-based and international companies now offer flexible work arrangements, with the number of those programs growing at a rate of 11 percent per year, according to the Society of Human Resource Management.

Bush delivers arms sale to Saudi Arabia

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - President Bush, on his first visit to this oil-rich kingdom, delivered a major arms sale Monday to a key ally in a region where the U.S. casts neighboring Iran as a menace to stability.

The leaders also agreed to cooperate on further joint military exercises.

Hamlet happens upon the burial of the mad jester, Yorick. "Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio." Soon thereafter, he learns of Ophelias death.

Hamlet ponders the age-old question.

In the end it comes down to swords and treachery in the form of poisoned drinks and daggers. Horatio alone will live to tell the tale.

At the compound, overlooking a forest on Jerusalems outskirts, Bush visited a memorial to the 1.5 million Jewish children killed in the Holocaust, featuring six candles reflected 1.5 million times in a hall of mirrors. At the sites Hall of Remembrance, he heard a cantor sing a Jewish prayer for the dead.

Shalev presented Bush with illustrations of the Bible drawn by the Jewish artist Carol Deutsch, who perished in the Holocaust.

Deutsch created the works while in hiding from the Nazis in Belgium. He was informed upon, and died in 1944 in the Buchenwald camp. After the war, his daughter Ingrid discovered that the Nazis had confiscated their furniture and valuables but had left behind a single item: a meticulously crafted wooden box adorned with a Star of David and a seven-branched menorah, containing a collection of 99 of the artists illustrations of biblical scenes.

The often sluggish French economy is now worth £70billion more than the UKs, following the dramatic fall of sterling against the euro.

It slips into fifth place behind the US, Japan, Germany and China - all had larger outputs than the UK in the final quarter of last year, according to new figures from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR).

Projections also suggest that Frances gross domestic product (GDP) will grow by 2 per cent in 2008, compared to 1.9 per cent in Britain.

Radical labour reforms proposed by President Nicolas Sarkozy to boost productivity are set to further challenge the UK economy as it struggles with the impact of the "credit crunch" sparked by the American subprime home loans crisis.

Drinking buddies: Piers Morgan and Gordon Brown share a pint and a joke at the Labour Party Conference in 2000

Ive enjoyed the company of the Browns, two people whom I have been proud to call friends for 12 years, and even more proud now to call Prime Minister and First Lady (even if Sarah cringes every time I call her that).

And few politicians have inspired quite as much character appraisal as Gordon Brown, or so polarised public opinion.

He is, depending on which day of the week it is, a genius or a halfwit; a visionary or a bottler; a financial wizard or a cunning stealth taxer. Hes a brooding, intense, psychologically flawed, over-serious, demented workaholic.

Overeating Could Be Due To Lack Of Brain Chemical Caused By Faulty Gene

Fibromyalgia is a real disease. Or so says Pfizer in a new television advertising campaign for Lyrica, the first medicine approved to treat the pain condition, whose very existence is questioned by some doctors.

For patient advocacy groups and doctors who specialize in fibromyalgia, the Lyrica approval is a milestone. They say they hope Lyrica and two other drugs that may be approved this year will legitimize fibromyalgia, just as Prozac brought depression into the mainstream.

But other doctors ? including the one who wrote the 1990 paper that defined fibromyalgia but who has since changed his mind ? say that the disease does not exist and that Lyrica and the other drugs will be taken by millions of people who do not need them.

Oscar Pistorius, AKA "Blade Runner" -- the South African sprinter who uses carbon fiber prosthetics in place of the lower legs amputated as a child -- has officially lost his bid to run in the 2008 Olympics. Hes going to give one last appeal to the International Association of Athletics Federations, but his chances of success are slim. The official reason, according to the BBC:

"...his prosthetic limbs give him an advantage over able-bodied opponents..."

For now, Pistorius artificial legs make him fast, but still human-fast (he came in second at a recent meet); although his prosthetics reduce his energy requirements by 25%, he has yet to hit the qualifying speed for the 400m race. Its entirely possible that, even had the IAAF accepted his bid, he wouldnt have made it to this Olympics.

But its also entirely possible that, in 2012, hed be breaking records right and left. And shortly thereafter, he wouldnt be alone in doing so.

George Dvorsky

Sentient Developments

Your gender is a constraint. This is an inalienable truism, regardless of whether you?re a man or a woman.

Nude blonde visits petrol station creating public disturbance (PHOTOS)

A quick-witted customer did, however, snap pictures of the woman believed to be about 30 years old as she walked back to a waiting Ferrari and climbed into the passenger seat. Several of those photos appeared in the German media on Monday.

Wine price determines our perception of its taste

What makes people buy an expensive bottle of wine rather than a cheap one?

If youre a migraine sufferer, sex may be the last thing on your mind -- especially when painful migraine symptoms force you to seek solitude in a dark, quiet room. Yet new findings suggest that sex may be linked to migraines and headache relief.

According to a study published in the journal Headache, young adult migraine sufferers (men and women) reported having 20% more sexual desire than other adults who had headaches (but not migraine headaches).

This study found that migraine headaches and sexual desire are at least partially affected by serotonin, a neurotransmitter in the body that has a "feel good," calming effect. With migraine headaches, there are lower levels of serotonin, yet serotonin is released in abundance during sexual activity that leads to orgasm.

FRIDAY, Dec. 28 (HealthDay News) -- For the first time, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) has come out in support of low-carbohydrate diets for people with diabetes who want to manage their weight.

The ADA voiced its support of low-calorie or low-carbohydrate diets in its newly published 2008 clinical practice recommendations.

The recommendations are intended to help physicians guide their patients in diabetes prevention and management.

The ADA estimates that more than 20 million children and adults are living with diabetes in the United States. However, about one-third of those people have the disease but have not yet been diagnosed, according to the association.

STEPHENVILLE, Texas - In this farming community where nightfall usually brings clear, starry skies, residents are abuzz over reported sightings of what many believe is a UFO.

Several dozen people ? including a pilot, county constable and business owners ? insist they have seen a large silent object with bright lights flying low and fast. Some reported seeing fighter jets chasing it.

While federal officials insist theres a logical explanation, locals swear that it was larger, quieter, faster and lower to the ground than an airplane. They also said the objects lights changed configuration, unlike those of a plane. People in several towns who reported seeing it over several weeks have offered similar descriptions of the object.

Sorrells said he has seen the object several times. He said he watched it through his rifles telescopic lens and described it as very large and without seams, nuts or bolts.

n 1493 Christopher Columbus made it back to Spain after his historic first voyage.

With him he brought news of lands across the Atlantic, a handful of native prisoners... and syphilis.

Columbus and his crew are thought to have introduced the potentially fatal sexually transmitted disease from the Americas to Europe.

In an era hundreds of years before the discovery of antibiotics, syphilis quickly spread and was soon the scourge of every major city.

The findings come from a study by Dr Kristin Harper of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, who looked at the genetic make up of 26 strains of bacteria in the syphilis family.

McClatchy, though, has gone a step further. About a year ago, it set up a blog exclusively for contributions from its Iraqi staff. "Inside Iraq," its called, and several times a week the Iraqi staff members post on it about their experiences and impressions (the blog can be found at washingtonbureau.typepad.com/iraq). "Its an opportunity for Iraqis to talk directly to an American audience," says Leila Fadel, the current bureau chief, whose father is from Lebanon and whose mother is from Michigan, who grew up in Saudi Arabia, and who is all of twenty-six years old.

U.S. intelligence officials are quietly confirming that China has deployed its newest long-range missile. The Chinese army now has up to 12 Dong Feng 31 (East Wind) missiles, which can deliver nuclear warheads against America.

"China now has approximately 36 intercontinental missiles that can hit the United States ? 24 older CSS-4 missiles and up to 12 new Dong Feng 31 missiles," said Col. Larry Wortzel, vice president of the Heritage Foundation.

The new Dong Feng 31 missile can be armed with a single H-bomb with a yield of over 3 million tons of TNT. A single DF-31 missile armed with the huge H-bomb could destroy any major U.S. city including Los Angeles, San Francisco or Seattle.

March 1, 2007 ? Researchers are using bluegills to detect industrial and agricultural spills in water supplies. Changes in the environment cause the fishes behavior and breathing patterns to change. Electrodes are placed inside the tanks that contain the fish and water from a nearby water supply, and they set off an alarm if conditions inside the tank change.

Do you know where your water comes from? Tap water comes from many different sources. Before it gets to the faucet, tater treatment plants clean up water from lakes, rivers and reservoirs, but it can still get contaminated by industrial and agricultural spills.

Lt. Col. Matt Schofield, an environmental scientist at the U.S. Army Center for Environmental Health Research in Fort Detrick, Md., says, "Everybody drinks water, and the question of whether or not theres a contaminant or a toxic substance in the water is very real."

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates ? President Bush on Sunday urged wary Persian Gulf allies to rally against Iran ?before it is too late,? even as the International Atomic Energy Agency announced that the country had agreed, yet again, to answer outstanding questions about its nuclear programs within four weeks.

?Iran?s actions threaten the security of nations everywhere,? he said. ?So the United States is strengthening our longstanding security commitments with our friends in the gulf and rallying friends around the world to confront this danger before it is too late.?

The announcement about Iran?s pledge of cooperation on its nuclear program, however, could undercut efforts to build international support against Tehran. It came after a visit to Iran this weekend by Mohamed ElBaradei, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations? nuclear monitoring agency, who met with Iran?s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

ScienceDaily (Jan. 15, 2008) ? Fish oil supplements may help some cardiac patients while harming others, suggests a new review of evidence compiled by St. Michaels Hospital and University of Toronto researchers.

In a systematic review of trials where patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators used fish oil supplements, Dr. David Jenkins and Dr. Paul Dorian found significant differences among the trials, indicating fish oil may be beneficial to some patients while having a negative impact on others.

"Fish oils can have complex and varied effects on the heart," says Jenkins, a U of T Professor of Medicine who runs the Clinical Nutrition and Risk Factor Modification Centre at St. Michaels Hospital. "These effects include blocking cardiac ion channels, reducing fibrosis in response to mechanical stress, decreasing blood coagulation, and possibly altering immune function."

Mysterious $100 Supernote Counterfeit Bills Pop Up Worldwide

The supernote appears to be made from the same cotton and linen mix that distinguishes U.S. currency from other currency. It even has watermarks visible from the other side of the bill, colored microfibers woven into the substrate of the banknote and an embedded strip, barely visible, that reads USA 100 and glows red under ultraviolet light.

The secret operation, stumping officials worldwide, could be the "most sophisticated counterfeiting operation in the world," former congressman James Kolbe told McClatchy Newspapers.

"We are not certain as to how this is being done or how its happening," Kolbe said.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 14 (UPI) -- A union for U.S. hotel, restaurant and kitchen workers has called on cooking oil manufacturers to stop using a toxic butter-flavoring additive called diacetyl.

"It could pose a serious health risk to commercial cooks and UNITE HERE is calling for fast action by the food industry to cease the use of diacetyl flavoring in commercial and home cooking products," the union said in a written statement.

Meanwhile, members of Congress have called for a federal investigation into the use of the flavor additive, including where and how its being used and whether workers are being harmed, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported Monday.

"It is urgent that we finally determine the national scope of exposure and illness related to diacetyl-containing food flavoring," said a letter from the House Committee on Education and Health delivered Friday to Dr. John Howard, director of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health.

ScienceDaily (Mar. 8, 2006) ? Hatchery-reared steelhead trout show increased growth of some parts of the brain when small stones are scattered on the bottom of their tank, according to a new study by researchers at UC Davis. The brains of those young fish were closer to those of salmon reared in the wild, and the fish also showed behavior closer to wild than to hatchery-reared fish.

"Theres an obvious difference between the hatchery and the wild fish," said graduate student Rebecca Kihslinger, who carried out the study with Gabrielle Nevitt, professor of neurobiology, physiology and behavior at UC Davis. "A simple change affected brain growth in a large-scale way."

The results could affect the design of hatcheries for breeding fish to restock wild populations, Kihslinger said. The study is published in the February 2006 issue of the Journal of Experimental Biology.

Robots can evolve to communicate with each other, to help, and even to deceive each other, according to Dario Floreano of the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.

To create the next generation of robots, Floreano recombined the genes of those that proved fittest?those that had managed to get the biggest charge out of the food source.

A NEW 6900 kilometre, $200 million undersea data cable from Sydney to Guam announced yesterday will mean cheaper and faster broadband for all Australians, its makers say.

Guam is one of the Pacifics two major exchanges that transfer data between Asia and the US. The optical cable of PIPE Network will be the fourth such link from Australia to the US ? and the first not owned by Telstra or Optus parent SingTel.

It will halve the cost of a data connection to the US ? meaning better internet access deals for Australians, said PIPE Networks Lloyd Ernst.

It also removes a speed bottleneck, allowing faster downloads from the US and making the Federal Governments planned national fibre-to-the-home optical network more worthwhile.

"Its no use buying a Ferrari and finding the speed limit is 15km/h," Mr Ernst said. "International connectivity is an important part of the equation."

He said there would be "quite a difference" in real download speeds, as congestion cleared on the international pipes.

Here are a list of ten of the most unique keyboards on the market, or soon to be on the market.

In no specific order are 10 very unique keyboards that are designed to either make computing easier, the keyboard more comfortable, or to eliminate the usual big sized keyboard.

The Tidy Tippist

The SafeType

The Optimus Maximus Keyboard

The Wearable Keyboard

The Evolution Keyboard

The AlphaGrip Keyboard

The ElekTex Fabric Keyboard

The FingerWorks TouchStream LP

The Virtual Keyboard

Solar Roadways Could Power The Entire United States

Roads would be paved with glass panels that could collect and distribute solar energy.

Imagine the entire US completely energy independent from fossil fuels and powered by the country?s roadway infrastructure. Sound far fetched? Not according to solar energy expert Dr. Nate Lewis of Caltech University. He has calculated that covering 1.7% of the land surface of the United States with 10 percent efficient solar energy converters could supply all our current national energy demand. As it happens, this is roughly the same amount of land that is devoted to the nation?s interstate highway system. It would even helps our roads stay ice free in the winter and glow at night. Here?s how it would work:

You can find out more on the Solar Roads project here.

Brain scans show that inflating the price of a bottle of wine enhances a persons experience of drinking it, US researchers have found.

They asked 21 volunteers to sample five different bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon and rate their taste preferences. The taste test was run 15 times, with the wines presented in random order.

They also passed off a 90-dollar bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon as a 10-dollar bottle, and presented a 5-dollar bottle as one worth 45 dollars.

The study found that inflating the price of a bottle of wine enhanced a persons experience of drinking it, as shown by the neural activity.

Ikeda Attractor

KAM islands

Tinkerbell Attractor

Basin Pictures

Forced Damped Pendulum

Fractal Foam

Wada Basins

Coherent Structure

Chaotic Advection of Passive Scalar

Two Dimensional Turbulence

Dark energy is probably the most influential force in the cosmos, overwhelming the pull of dark matter, and absolutely dominating the meager impact of regular matter. And scientists have absolutely no idea what it is. But a new supercomputer simulation by cosmologists at Durham University might give astronomers a few places to look; to know how to measure this mysterious force.

When dark energy was discovered in 1998, it came as a complete surprise. By measuring the distance to supernovae, astronomers were hoping to calculate the rate at which the Universes expansion is slowing down. Instead of slowing down, though, they found that the expansion of the Universe is actually accelerating. Instead of coming together in a big crunch, it looks like dark energy will spread the Universe out faster and faster.

A La Mobile, based in San Ramon, Calif., a start-up dedicated to Linux-based "open" systems for mobile devices, says the demonstration proves that Android can deliver on its promise of making it easier for consumers to get access to all sorts of applications.

The open nature of Android means, "There can be a lot more customization, reducing the cost of devices as well as development time," says Pauline Lo Alker, A La Mobiles CEO.

Dozens in Texas Town Report Seeing UFO

Several dozen people ? including a pilot, county constable and business owners ? insist they have seen a large silent object with bright lights flying low and fast. Some reported seeing fighter jets chasing it.

"People wonder what in the world it is because this is the Bible Belt, and everyone is afraid its the end of times," said Steve Allen, a freight company owner and pilot who said the object he saw last week was a mile long and half a mile wide. "It was positively, absolutely nothing from these parts."

Cops say everywhere Monica turned, Guevara-Mejia was there: he followed her around, sat and waited in a car at the end of her street, drove by the house, took photos of her from a distance, grabbed her in shopping plazas, sent letters and cards in the mail and left gifts on her front lawn.

Monicas mother and father helped her secure a restraining order, but cops say Guevara-Mejia was relentless and continued to stalk Monica for an additional eight months.  To protect their daughter from this dangerous stalker, the family sold their home and moved to another city.  Monica changed schools and got a new car, cell phone and job.  Nearly a year passed and Monica was relieved that there were no sightings of or communication from Guevara-Mejia.  Monica began to relax and live a normal life until out of the blue, she was blindsided and gunned down by Guevara-Mejia on November 10, 2007, according to cops.

The victory of the No vote in the Venezuelan constitutional reform referendum in December is being treated by Washington as a major defeat for Chávez?s efforts to promote a socialism for the twenty-first century in Venezuela. But the opposition to the Bolivarian Revolution was so aware of its own weaknesses that it adopted as its final slogan ?Chávez, Yes; Reform, No.? The defeat of the constitutional reform was guaranteed by the fact that 44 percent of the population, many of whom had supported Chávez previously, chose not to vote. This may simply be due to the fact that the proposed constitutional reforms were enormously complex with changes in 69 articles. But it is also true that a propaganda campaign authored and choreographed by Washington and the CIA, and implemented by the Venezuelan elites who control the private media, had a considerable effect in blocking the reform effort.   | more |

A cough releases an explosive charge of air that moves at speeds up to 60 mph.

A fetus acquires fingerprints at the age of three months.

A person will die from total lack of sleep sooner than from starvation. Death will occur about 10 days without sleep, while starvation takes a few weeks.

A sneeze can exceed the speed of 100 mph.

Babies are born with 300 bones, but by adulthood we have only 206 in our bodies.

Every person has a unique tongue print.

If it were removed from the body, the small intestine would stretch to a length of 22 feet.

If you go blind in one eye, youll only lose about one-fifth of your vision (but all your depth perception.)

Some people never develop fingerprints at all. Two rare genetic defects, known as Naegeli syndrome and dermatopathia pigmentosa reticularis, can leave carriers without any identifying ridges on their skin.

The human brain is about 85% water.

The largest cell in the human body is the female reproductive cell, the ovum. The smallest is the male sperm.

Breach Worries Online Porn Industry

MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. -- When operators of sex-oriented Web sites gather at the Internext convention starting Sunday in Las Vegas, a major leak at a little New Jersey company is likely to be a big topic.

Freehold-based Too Much Media, which sells accounting software for adult Web sites, told its customers last month that a security breach on its computers allowed hackers to access various adult Web sites subscriber lists.

Keith Kimmel of Norman, Okla., who runs two Web sites that feature porn, said the breach has the potential to embarrass.

"Would you really want a record floating around the Internet that you subscribe to hardcore bondage?" he asked.

Red Rose - Passion
All roses say, I Love You, but each color has its own meaning:
Burgundy - Unconscious Beauty
Orange or Coral - Desire
Pink - Grace and gentility
Red & White Together - Unity
Red - Passion
Sweetheart Roses - Darling, Dear or Honey
White - Worthiness
White Rosebuds - Youre too young for love
Yellow - Joy

Rosemary - Remembrance
Sweet Pea - Delicate pleasures
Tulip - Love
Violet - Modesty, affection, faithfulness
Yellow Tulip - Hopeless love

Maps of the Imaginary

The Voyage of the Pequod

An Anciente Mappe of Fairyland

Click here to read full story

Preliminary studies indicate xanthohumol, a compound found in hops, inhibits a family of enzymes which trigger cancer, as well as help the body detoxify carcinogens.

"Its very healthy," said Dr. Werner Back, a brewing technology expert at the Technical University of Munich. "I think the ingredients in the beer are very good."

Xanthohumol contains more powerful antioxidants than vitamin E and some studies indicate it helps reduce oxidation of bad cholesterol.

"Xanthohumol has been shown to be a very active substance against cancer," said Dr. Markus Herrmann, also of Munich. "It comes in small sticky beads, which you find within the hops."

But, dont start chugging down those beers just yet.

Ms. Edusie?s relatives used to be fishermen. But no more. These fish are no longer caught by Africans.

Fish is now the most traded animal commodity on the planet, with about 100 million tons of wild and farmed fish sold each year. Europe has suddenly become the world?s largest market for fish, worth more than 14 billion euros, or about $22 billion a year. Europe?s appetite has grown as its native fish stocks have shrunk so that Europe now needs to import 60 percent of fish sold in the region, according to the European Union.

?Fish and chips used to be a poor man?s treat, but with the prices, it?s becoming a delicacy,? said Mark Morris, a fishmonger for 20 years in London?s enormous Billingsgate market.

Tracing where the fish come from is nearly impossible, many experts say. Groups like Greenpeace and the Environmental Justice Foundation have documented a range of egregious and illegal fishing practices off West Africa.

Speaking from the West Bank town of Ramallah, Bush said that "painful political concessions" are needed for the peace process. And he said Israel must agree to adjust its borders back to the lines drawn before the Israeli victory in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.

Spencer, the director of Jihad Watch, says territorial acquisitions in war is nothing new. "The idea that after a successful war the victorious nation may occupy some land from the defeated nation in order to increase its national security and minimize the risk of a future attack -- that is something that is as old as warfare," he claims.

But Spencer says the problem is that President Bush does not seem to think Israel has that right. "When Israel does exactly the same thing when faced by an array of hostile states that have sworn its destruction," he continues, "then suddenly this becomes an unacceptable occupation of Arab land. Its really an unconscionable historical and moral lapse on the part of the president."

Professors examine sex trade economics

It could be the weirdest and most embarrassing prediction in the history of cosmology, if not science.

If true, it would mean that you yourself reading this article are more likely to be some momentary fluctuation in a field of matter and energy out in space than a person with a real past born through billions of years of evolution in an orderly star-spangled cosmos. Your memories and the world you think you see around you are illusions.

The Boltzmann brain problem arises from a string of logical conclusions that all spring from another deep and old question, namely why time seems to go in only one direction. Why can?t you unscramble an egg? The fundamental laws governing the atoms bouncing off one another in the egg look the same whether time goes forward or backward. In this universe, at least, the future and the past are different and you can?t remember who is going to win the Super Bowl next week.

Raising a wines price improves its taste, study suggests

WASHINGTON: Apparently, raising the price really does make the wine taste better.

At least that seems to be the result of a taste test. The part of the brain that reacts to a pleasant experience responded more strongly to pricey wines than cheap ones - even when tasters were given the same vintage in disguise.

Antonio Rangel and colleagues at California Institute of Technology thought the perception that higher price means higher quality could influence people, so they decided to test the idea.

A $90 wine was provided marked with its real price and again marked $10, while another was presented at its real price of $5 and also marked $45.

The testers brains showed more pleasure at the higher price than the lower one, even for the same wine, Rangel reports in the online edition this week of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

?When that person thinks about walking,? he said, ?walking happens.?

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible, without surrender,
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even to the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons;
they are vexatious to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain or bitter,
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

The majority of those sentenced to death by stoning are women, who suffer disproportionately from such punishment, Amnesty says.

I am not, by the way, an admirer of every aspect of America. But the old-fashioned courtesy Americans display in their social life, and the respect they extend to people they have only just met, are things which should command our admiration.

Wash-line Art

Proving that even the most pedestrian things?like clothes hanging on a wash-line?can be reinterpreted into something extraordinary is this art installation by Kaarina Kaikkonen as seen on the streets of Helsinki. Via deputy-dog. (Photo credit of ?Shadow?: Gari Baldi)

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - President Bush, on his first visit to this oil-rich kingdom, delivered a major arms sale Monday to a key ally in a region where the U.S. casts neighboring Iran as a menace to stability.

Bushs talks with Saudi King Abdullah, which began over dinner and were continuing with late-night meetings, also were expected to cover peace between Israelis and Palestinians and democracy in the Middle East.

Coinciding with Bushs trip, the Bush administration in Washington notified Congress on Monday that it will offer Saudi Arabia the chance to buy sophisticated Joint Direct Attack Munitions - or ``smart bomb - technology and related equipment, the State Department said. The administration envisions the transfer of 900 of the precision-guided bomb kits, worth $123 million, that would give the kingdoms armed forces highly accurate targeting abilities.

Official: Flaw IDd in bridge that collapsed

NTSB briefing to discuss investigation into Minneapolis disaster

WASHINGTON - Federal investigators have identified a design flaw as the cause of last years Interstate 35W Minneapolis bridge collapse that killed 13 people, a congressional official said Tuesday.

The official, who was briefed by the National Transportation Safety Board, said that investigators found a design flaw in the bridges gusset plates, which are the steel plates that tie steel beams together. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity so as not to pre-empt an update being provided later Tuesday by the NTSB chairman, Mark V. Rosenker.

The bridge was deemed "structurally deficient" by the federal government as far back as 1990.

Late last year, President Bush signed a massive spending bill which included $195 million to help replace the bridge. That came on top of the $178.5 million the federal government has already given Minnesota for the project.

Noreen Grice is a treasure.

A few years ago, she was running the planetarium show in a Boston planetarium when a group of blind kids came in to the theater. After the show was over, she asked them what they thought about it, and they said it "stunk".

Which is more of a threat to your health: Al Qaeda or the Department of Homeland Security?

An intriguing new study suggests the answer is not so clear-cut. Although it?s impossible to calculate the pain that terrorist attacks inflict on victims and society, when statisticians look at cold numbers, they have variously estimated the chances of the average person dying in America at the hands of international terrorists to be comparable to the risk of dying from eating peanuts, being struck by an asteroid or drowning in a toilet.

?I?ve regularly pointed out to the department that there are psychological consequences to the raising of the alert,? Dr. Silver said. ?Now we?re demonstrating that it may have physical consequences.?

Citing fallout from the WGA strike, Warner Bros. TV, CBS Paramount Network TV, Universal Media Studios and 20th Century Fox TV followed the lead of ABC Studios and began dropping writers and producers from their rosters. Since Friday, nearly 75 overalls have been dropped, costing scribes potentially tens of millions of dollars in lost paydays.

The WGA reacted strongly to the studios? moves, saying the AMPTP members were "alienating the very creative force that has made entertainment one of the most successful businesses in the country."

And it?s not over yet. Execs and agents are bracing for another round of terminations -- particularly if things aren?t settled in the coming month.

FAQs: What Are State Secrets

A survey of travel habits has revealed that the most environmentally conscious people are also the biggest polluters.

"Green" consumers have some of the biggest carbon footprints because they are still hooked on flying abroad or driving their cars while their adherence to the green cause is mostly limited to small gestures.

Identified as "eco-adopters", they are most likely to be members of an environmental organisation, buy green products such as detergents, recycle and have a keen interest in green issues.

Geoff Wicken, the author of the report, pointed to David Cameron, the Conservative leader, as a classic eco-adopter because despite styling himself as a green warrior he also takes flights in private helicopters and planes.

Varese, a town in Northern Italy, runs on 100% renewable power. The town uses a mix of wind, solar and small-scale hydropower. The town has reaped benefits from the energy network through added jobs, and an additional 350,000 euros [US $514,000] in revenues that are handed over to the council each year. Varese has also seen a six-fold increase in tourists in the last ten years, many coming just to see its renewable energy network.

Varese became the first municipality in Europe to get 100% of its power from renewable energy sources six years ago. It now generates three times more electricity than the people living in Varese need and there are plans in the pipeline for even more renewables.

The town has also launched initiatives to make Varese 100% sustainable. A total of 108 organic farms now supply 98 percent of the town?s food; water is purified using environmentally friendly technology, and waste has been significantly reduced.

The Five Rules of Design by Sir Michael Bichard

1. Great design can change the world and move people

2. If you think good design is expensive you should look at the real cost of bad design

3. Design, creativity and innovation are essential if we are to meet the global challenges of sustainable development

4. Design is not just about products and communications, its also increasingly in the services we receive or buy

5. To consume design is a creative act - and everyone can be creative!

"Dawton forecasts that in 2008, design education is going to become increasingly irrelevant to the needs of the design business" and that a "small number of good design graduates will send salaries spiralling unsustainably high.

We like how they get relatively high density and a lot of common space for gardens and play.

Editor - The Bush Justice Department, especially under Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, used the pretext of voter fraud as a political attempt to disenfranchise minorities who tended to vote Democratic.

Like other useful tools, such as the Defense of Marriage Act, this ideological fiction must be defended at all costs.

The Supreme Court is now considering the Indiana voter ID law to combat, by onerous conditions, a crime the legislature cannot show to exist.

Meanwhile, the FDA has approved a drug to treat the agony of fibromyalgia. But wait. There is no evidence that fibromyalgia is a real physical condition. Perhaps a psychosomatic symptom, but not a real world condition. Isnt this exactly like approving a voter ID law to combat voter fraud that isnt happening?

BOB HAYDEN

San Francisco

The Hunger Site was founded to focus the power of the Internet on a specific humanitarian need: the eradication of world hunger. Since its launch in June 1999, the site has established itself as a leader in online activism, helping to feed the worlds hungry. On average, over 220,000 individuals from around the world visit the site each day to click the yellow "Click Here to Give - its FREE" button. To date, more than 300 million visitors have given more than 500 million cups of staple food.

The staple food funded by clicks at The Hunger Site is paid for by site sponsors and distributed to those in need by Mercy Corps and Americas Second Harvest. 100% of sponsor advertising fees goes to our charitable partners. Funds are split between these organizations and go to the aid of hungry people in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and North America.

One of the most remarkable episodes in American history was the spontaneous and widespread opposition to Franklin Roosevelts obvious attempts to embroil the United States in the European war that broke out in 1939. That opposition was centered in the America First Committee. In modern accounts of the war period, the committee is either ignored or maligned as a pro-fascist, anti-Semitic organization. It was nothing of the kind.

The America First Committee had its origins at Yale University Law School in 1940, where R. Douglas Stuart Jr. and other students began circulating a petition with the intention of establishing a national organization of college students opposed to intervention in the European war.

January 15, 2008

NewsWithViews.com

For a musical polymath, only the wardrobe color stays the same

"I have a strange relationship to variety," the singer-songwriter Stephin Merritt said recently, as he sat at a West Village café meticulously tearing a croissant into little bits. He was discussing his wardrobe ? absolutely all of his clothing is in a white-to-brown color palette (more on that later) ? but also his career. In music, at least, "I like variety," Merritt said.

He wanted "Distortion" to sound like "Psychocandy," the abrasive 1985 debut album by the Scottish group the Jesus and Mary Chain. "I feel like Psychocandy is the last significant event in pop music production," Merritt said. "Its the last album that sounded shockingly new, to me anyway."

NASA will return to Mercury for the first time in almost 33 years tomorrow when a robotic probe makes its first fly-by of the Suns nearest neighbour.

The Messenger spacecraft is expected to make its closest approach to Mercury sometime after 6am (AEST) tomorrow, flying just 200km above the rocky surface.

The Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex, part of NASAs Deep Space Network, is tracking Messengers approach to the planet until about 9.30pm today (AEST).

January 15, 2008
Keeping a Rendezvous with Mercury

View a series of approach images as MESSENGER continues its planned flyby observations today.

It is already receiving the first images of Mercury on approach and according to complex spokesperson Glen Nagle will receive the first detailed images from the fly-by about 7.30am tomorrow (AEST).

Facebook - the CIA conspiracy

The second round of funding into Facebook ($US12.7 million) came from venture capital firm Accel Partners. Its manager James Breyer was formerly chairman of the National Venture Capital Association, and served on the board with Gilman Louie, CEO of In-Q-Tel, a venture capital firm established by the Central Intelligence Agency in 1999. One of the companys key areas of expertise are in "data mining technologies".

Breyer also served on the board of R&D firm BBN Technologies, which was one of those companies responsible for the rise of the internet.

Dr Anita Jones joined the firm, which included Gilman Louie. She had also served on the In-Q-Tels board, and had been director of Defence Research and Engineering for the US Department of Defence.

She was also an adviser to the Secretary of Defence and overseeing the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which is responsible for high-tech, high-end development.

The air car, also known as the Mini-CAT or City Cat, can be refueled in minutes from an air compressor at specially equipped gas stations and can go 200 km on a 1.5 euro fill-up -- roughly 125 miles for $3. The top speed will be almost 70 mph and the cost of the vehicle as low as $7000.

The car features a fibreglass body and a revolutionary electrical system and is completely computer-controlled. It is powered by the expansion of compressed air, using no combustion at all, and the exhaust is entirely clean and cool enough for use in the internal air conditioning system.

Tata Motors is known for its interest in innovation and has been selling compressed gas buses since 2000.

ODESSA, TX ? A local church has given $145,000 to the Odessa Police Department for the money to distributed among ?underpaid? officers, a church leader said.

The Rev. Don Caywood of Odessa Christian Faith Center handed the money over to police Chief Chris Pipes at a Sunday service. The department will distribute $1,000 checks to 145 employees.

?It became obvious our men and women in blue are underpaid,? Caywood told the congregation during the service.

The donation also reflected the community?s respect for police in the aftermath of the September deaths of three officers who were gunned down in the line of duty.

?We want their morale to soar,? Caywood said in a story for Monday editions of the Odessa American.

Pipes said he was amazed by the gift.

?The magnitude of thank you equal to the magnitude of the gift ? I don?t have those words,? Pipes said.

Incredibly, everything you see in this image can be found in the kitchen. Photographer Carl Warner has painstakingly captured all kinds of food in a series of still lifes.

In an average day, a four year old child will ask 437 questions.

The only words in the English language to contain two "U?s" back to back are: vacuum, residuum, and continuum.

The first non-human to win an Oscar was Mickey Mouse.

Pi has been calculated to over 2,260,321,363 digits.

The left leg of a chicken is more tender than the right one.

A novel with 50,000 words, non of which contained the letter ?E? waswritten by Ernest Wright.

Every year more people are killed by donkeys, than in aircraft crashes.

The only word in the English language to contain three back to back double letter combinations is; Bookkeeper.

Every year, the moon moves 1/2 an inch further from the earth.

Banging your head off a wall uses 150 calories an hour!(ouch)

2,500 left handers die each year using products designed for right handers.

The world?s most common non-contagious disease is tooth-decay

Despite a population of over a billion, China has only about 200 family names

4,000 people are injured by tea pots every year.

Waving at girls costs man his arm

CANBERRA (Reuters) - An Australian man who waved out of a car window at two young women was expected to lose his arm Monday after it was almost severed by another passing vehicle.

The 20-year-old was a passenger in a pick-up truck at Bunbury, in Western Australia state, when he waved at two women in a car wash.

But as he put his arm out the driver made a right hand turn and the mans limb was struck and almost torn off by an oncoming four-wheel-drive.

"His left arm was partially severed and doctors believe the limb may need to be amputated," police said.

ROME (Reuters) - Recording secret videos of sex with your partner is not illegal, Italys supreme court has ruled.

Romes highest appeals acquitted a 49-year-old man who, unbeknown to his girlfriend, had recorded and kept films of them having sex.

It overruled two previous verdicts which had given him a four-month jail sentence.

The woman had agreed to the man using a video camera to project live images of them having sex on to the bedroom wall, but did not know he was recording the action.

The court acquitted the man because he had not distributed the films to other people.

When the relationship ended the man gave the videos to his partner in a package accompanied by a note saying: "These are my last thought for you."

How much play will this get in the media (if any)? And how much flak is Pastor Leon Smith and Pentecostal Temple Church of God in Christ going to be facing for their clear violation of federal tax law? I think I can guess.

"I think its a privledge to call yourself a Scientologist," says Tom Cruise in what Gawker says is an "indoctrination video" that was previously removed from Google Video. Here, Cruise laughs talking about dealing with SPs (or suppressive persons).

During a stop in the United Arab Emirates on his Middle East tour on Sunday, Bush called Tehran a "sponsor of terror" and urged Arab allies to confront Iranian "extremism".

But Middle East analysts say the US president is too late as key American allies in the Arab world have thrown their weight behind a growing rapprochement with Iran.

I was expecting a delivery from Amazon Yesterday, I thought the parcel was going to be small. I noticed they tend to just leave the parcels on the door step and I knew I was going to be at the office all day. So I put a note on the door saying:

Please leave any parcel under the matt and remove this note.

When I came home, the note was gone and the delivery man did indeed leave the parcel under the matt? look at the size of the parcel? I am sure he must have laughed a lot when he left!

The Nisshin Maru turning back to the whaling grounds

Posted by Irene onboard the Esperanza

The Japanese governments whaling factory ship has now turned south, seemingly heading back towards the whaling grounds. The fleet cant hunt without the Nisshin Maru. We intend to take non-violent action in order to prevent further hunt in the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary.

http://www.seashepherd.org/news/media_080115_1.html

{The Japanese harpoon vessel Yushin Maru No. 2 has taken two Sea Shepherd volunteer crew members hostage. Benjamin Potts 28, an Australian citizen and Giles Lane, 35, a citizen of Great Britain are being held hostage onboard the whaling vessel. Both men were assaulted and then tied to the railings of the whaler. They were then moved and tied to the radar mast by the whalers.}
http://www.seashepherd.org/news/media_080115_3.html

Meat and milk from cloned animals is as safe as that from their counterparts bred the old-fashioned way, the Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday - but sales still wont begin right away.

Sheets melting in an area once thought to be unaffected by global warming.

    Climatic changes appear to be destabilizing vast ice sheets of western Antarctica that had previously seemed relatively protected from global warming, researchers reported yesterday, raising the prospect of faster sea-level rise than current estimates.

    While the overall loss is a tiny fraction of the miles-deep ice that covers much of Antarctica, scientists said the new finding is important because the continent holds about 90 percent of Earths ice, and until now, large-scale ice loss there had been limited to the peninsula that juts out toward the tip of South America. In addition, researchers found that the rate of ice loss in the affected areas has accelerated over the past 10 years - as it has on most glaciers and ice sheets around the world.

"I am 77 years old and I have never seen this country in such a bad state. It is madness. What we are seeing is the fall of the Roman Empire, only now it is the fall of America, the glory of our Empire. This war is what Parthia was to Rome.

For Cheemuk, now 53, the past was buried for decades, through a lifetime of struggling with shame, anger and alcoholism. "I remember Mom asked me why there was blood on my underclothes," he said one recent frigid night in his cramped house in the Eskimo village. His sat alongside his wife, sometimes breaking into tears. "I was afraid to tell her what happened. I thought I might go to jail."

It is one of the darkest chapters of sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church. More than 110 children in Eskimo villages claim they were molested between 1959 and 1986, raped or assaulted by 12 priests and three church volunteers. Families and victims believe that another 22 people were sexually abused by clergy members but have since killed themselves. The Jesuit Oregon Province, which includes Alaska, has agreed to pay $50 million in damages. It is believed to be the largest settlement ever against a religious order.

The furry youngster was the first recorded in Australias history to have bright blue eyes.

Vets assessed that Frankies blue eyes are a result of some reduced pigmentation, but his vision is expected to remain perfect.

"It was just one of those little oddities of nature, because both his parents have the usual brown eyes," said Dreamworld supervisor, Michelle Barnes.

"I must say though that I could hardly believe my own eyes when I saw his," she added.

In news from Washington, the head of the nation?s spy agencies has revealed the government wants the authority to read all information crossing the Internet in the United States including personal email messages. The New Yorker Magazine reports National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell is drafting a plan to rewrite the rules about online surveillance. He told the magazine the debate on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act will ?be a walk in the park compared to this.?

Its one thing to dangle fuzzy dice from a rear view mirror, but decorating a trailer hitch with a large pair of rubber testicles might be a bit much in Virginia.

State Del. Lionel Spruill introduced a bill Tuesday to ban displaying replicas of human genitalia on vehicles, calling it a safety issue because it could distract other drivers.

Under his measure, displaying the ornamentation on a motor vehicle would be a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum fine of $250

know what to tell her," Spruill said the constituent told him before Spruill vowed to stop such displays.

Diabetics, watch out: A hot spot on your foot can signal an ulcer is brewing, a wound that could cost your limb. New research shows that using a special thermometer to measure the temperature of their soles can give patients enough early warning to avoid one of diabetes most intractable complications.

Ludwig Wittgenstein was well aware of how slippery the road of philosophy was. He even showed strong doubts about language as a suitable vehicle for making philosophical progress at all (why not gardening?) because the road of professional philosophy hardly served the needs of the common traffic of language. Now, as Wittgenstein was particularly sensitive to words spinning loose in nonsense or sliding away in confusion, it took strong discipline and very good traction control on his part just to stay on the road. The only way of doing so was by abstaining from arguments which like patches of oil lubricating an already wet and slick surface mainly tend to rocket thinking in the direction of the tangent where the road turns. Remarks are different. A Wittgensteinian remark has grip because it is the formulation of a thought forced back to the ground of the example that first triggered it, letting ultimately that same example speak for itself.

But the blue house at the corner of St. Claude Avenue and Egania Street is open for business, dispensing free health care to anyone in need.

The Lower 9th Ward Health Clinic is its official name now.

Below is a list of our upright congressmen presently under investigation.
Have you heard of any of them being found guilty or actually convicted? Laughable!

Posted Jan 14th 2008 4:21PM by Terrence OBrien
Filed under: Audio/Video, TV

Via BBC News:

A popular motivational speaker was entertaining his audience. Said
he: The best years of my life were spent in the arms of a woman

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