I'm using Particls to bring me a stream of information relevant to my business and personal interests... and although i use the "watch words" to constrain most of my selections as much as possible, two words that I rank highly are pretty generic... they are the town/city that my two sons reside in... so I capture a lot more than I need... but I get a pretty good idea of local happenings that I can ask/talk about when they call.

But what makes me go hmmm...  I'm finding that for news of my son living in Winnipeg Canada  the stories actually come to me by way of Australia..  Why for example would this post that I got the link to today be news in Australia but not, as far as I know, have made the newswires here in Canada at all (at least Google News only shows the story being carried in Australia and South Africa)? 

From "The Australian" 

Porno Pizza doing brisk business

 A NEW pizza restaurant in western Canada that delivers pornography with every pie has once again proven the adage: sex sells.

Porno Pizza in Winnipeg has been doing brisk business since opening last week, titillating the hungry with racy pictures at the bottom of every pizza box.

link

Can you pick your porno along with the toppings? 

I don't know the story doesn't say if you get to pick (I would suspect that you can though...as the selection ranges from“"softly-lit, lube-on-the-lens pictures like in Playboy, to raunchy, hardcore photos that would make (porn publisher) Larry Flynt blush,” pizzeria owner Corey Wildeman said).

But why is it news in Australia and not here at home?

(of couse thanks to the magic of the international dateline I'm reading tomorrow's news today... its the 3rd here and the story was posted July 4th in Australia... so perhaps it will be in our news tomorrow)

That makes sense.  A meat lovers/happy hardcore combo probably would be a best seller, as would the veggie/softcore version.

I love the way you mind works

It is truly warped, I know.  I have a fridge magnet that says "I always wanted to be normal, but lately I suspect this is a good as it gets."

vive la difference

Maybe a Hawaiian gets you some flesh and leighs....

The Real Transformation: Product Placement as Recruiting

Apparently the movie "Transformers" is quite a hit and has created a lot of 'buzz' ... but did you know it is being seen by the Pentagon as a way to make military service seem attractive to teenage boys?

Lt. Col. Paul Sinor (US Army) , who worked with the filmakers on behalf of the Pentagon, recently indicated "We're getting a positive military message out to hopefully millions of people.  You can't buy that kind of publicity and it's our demographic."

And how is the Pentagon contributing in kind to this recruitment effort? Well it turns out they approved the use of some pretty spectacular pieces of military equipment in the script because they liked the portrayal of the armed services valiantly battling the invaders. Some of the 'neat technology' shown in the movie:

• F-22 Raptor Jet
• Pave Low Helicopter
• Armoured bomb removal truck

Sinor also says the film will appeal both  to potential recruits and their parents, who are centres of influence for enlistment decisions.

hmmm. 

You'd have to be pretty suggestible to sign up on the basis of seeing the army kicking ass in a movie

In fact, you'd already have been recruited if you were that easy to convince 

Actually, I thought that the movie carried quite a bit of 'propaganda' in a sense..... it was waaaay too militaristic for my taste.

I was like - get these soldiers off and bring the robots on! grrrrrr

Top Gun was a similar recruitment tool when it came out in 1985.  Using movies as recruitment tools go way back to the WW2 movies with John Wayne.

trust me - top gun is still a military recruitment tool

seriously? People still watch Top Gun?

People still take it seriously?

It's pretty campy now.  Music is classic, though.

I don't think I could take any film with Mr Cruise in it seriously anymore..... I think Interview with the Vampire would be a comedy to me

Makes me wanna puke.

Sez the nut

I hate Tom Cruise.com

Things that make me go Hmmm: Songs I don't know the words to?

Lyrics to the tune: Things that make you go Hmmm

wow, that picture is amazing.

Hmmmmmm.....

Wow, I didn't know that was an actual song....I thought it was just some tune maccas made up

I wasn't familiar with the term "maccas" so I had to Google it.... imagine my suprise to find that Mickey D's had used the term as an advertising slogan in Australia!

I had no idea. when I set the title for the post..... it's well known over here but really hit peak of the urban slang  usage when adopted as a catch phrase by the stand up comedian Arsenio Hall in his USA TV talk show in the early 1990's.

Things that make you go hmm:

Why do we park in driveways and drive on parkways?

See, I never got that..... what in the world is a Parkway?

The only one I know is a shopping centre we used to go to when I was little

Not used  so much here on the west coast, but on the east coast  they are wide roads  with green belts that usually exclude truck/large vehicle traffic

ahhhhh

Not much greenery on the Don Valley Parkway in Toronto.  Just concrete and choking traffic.

Many Torontonians don't have a very deep appreciation of meanings... they just like the sound of some terms.... I'm suprised that Jane Jacobs had some success in fighting back the concrete jungle in any fashion there....

It's kinda green, I guess.

 headline in the morning paper:

Ethanol found in sixth bottle of Stella Artois Beer

WIth the millions of bottles  of Stella Artois beer sold this does seem like a rather remarkable discovery to me  - I couldn't help but jump to the thought --  Wow  and we Canadians think that some American beer is as weak as gnat's piss -- but at least they have grain alcohol - if only 6 bottles of  a Belgian Beer has alcohol at all what is the world coming to?

Well it turns out  that 6 bottles in two widely separated locations (5 bars or restaurants in Kamloops BC and one in Toronto Ontario) with alcohol levels of up to 95 % !!! (just a wee bit spiked) . As a representative from Labatt's (importers of the Belgian Beer) was heard to say "Beer is very iconic to Canadians and we're very disturbed by it and we just hope this guy or people are caught."

But how dumb does a headline writter has to be to come up with this headline?  Of course this once proud main stream paper became a tabloid years ago... so I guess the headline sensationlism is by now deeply ingrained -- or pehaps she/he thought this was the same as the diethylene glycol found in toothpatse ???

But from the headline -- imagine - horrors upon horrors - your beer might be found to have ethanol.

Naked photo shoot to draw attention to glacial shrinkage

the AP reports that famed photographer Spencer Tunick (takes pictures of  huge groups of naked people) is looking for volunteers for shoot on Swiss Glacier....

So do you suppose for this project only he'll restrict it to an all male shoot?

I am more scared about the beer to be honest

2 years ago, a friend of mine whose his relative was working at a hugh beverage company (I should not say the brand or i'll be sued. Black softdrink, famous one, all of you know it) told me that there was a worker in the production line. This guy got heartattacked and fell into a tank. No one knows where he was for 2 weeks. They just thought this guy might have some personal problem or on vacation. When they openned the tank for cleaning. They found HIM. The company hold the news. Not many people knew. And I stop drinking this famous softdrink for months! To make sure that the product containing ingredient of HIM has been sold out. ...hmmm

Is that Pepsi Cola or Coca Cola...

thats very disturbing...and I am drinking a rather dark sweet soft drink about now and feeling a little concerned about what other unknown tales there is..

I think this kind of unknown things happen everyday somewhere in the world but some how we are still alive. So it means there are so many things edible more that we thought.

My Korean boss eats dog and alive octopus and he said dog eyes are chewy.

Hey what doesn't kill us makes us stronger!

Do you server white or red wine with Dog?  I saw a bumper sticker in Savannah, GA that said "Possum: The Other, Other White Meat".

haha I have seen that bumper sticker in many forms main with raccoons though!

I would serve a nice Merlot with Raccoon.

that makes it all the more classie

My son is living across the river from a state where it is legal to pick up 'road kill' and take it home for dinner... he says to the best of his knowledge he's never had roadkill for dinner....

Nobody has a comment about the beer that contains alcohol?

Talking about raccoon, I have this clip to share with you guy about these poor raccoons (I'm not sure they are raccoons or not but they are poor, definitely).

Just click here 

It's too disturbing to embed it here.

And another one is about a Chinese very "creative" menu. 

Any comments?

Wow.... that clip is incredibly hard to watch

which one you mean?

The second one.... it takes for ever to load, and only does so a segment at a time

how about the first one, can you watch it?

no.... that page doesn't even load

thankfully

LOL!

haha thats funny

Sausage, Politics and Garlic

Otto von Bismark famously said: "Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made."

and perhaps we must, if this story on CNN is an indication, add preparation of Garlic to the list:

yeah stomping on garlic is a fast and easy way to prepare it not necessarily the most sanitary

Did you see the 'official' response from the health inspector? > The health department does not consider a person's shoe or boot a proper instrument to use in food preparation - there is no indication if he had anything to say about the appropriateness (or lack thereof) of the preparation taking place in the alley behind the restaurant among scraps and other garbage.

mmmm Garlic.

Garlic is good! Also detoxes your Trainers, too!

haha I have never used it for that before!

The good folks in Gilroy will tell you that Garlic is a universal elixr.... great for almost anything under the sun

While Gilroy is the heart of the Garlic country, my favourite town name in the region has to be Aromas, Ca.

haha nice bric

Hey, I couldn't make this up!  If you drive through the area around Gilroy, Aromas, San Jaun Bautista, and Hollister during harvest season (as I have on several occasions) the air smells sweet of light garlic.... not overpowering at all... just wonderful... and couple state roads over, if memory serves correctly, there is an area I stumbled across which smells of green peas.... some of my fondest memories of drives to nowhere in particular were just turning down what ever road took my fancy in this region!

Lovely!

Should we have a topic for things like this: "Things that make me go...Ewww" ?

Should fill up quick!

that is a great idea!  Anyone got something to start with besides the garlic?

"Computer mouses found in cyber cafes have been ranked as the second most bacteria-infested items in a list of commonly touched objects."

Anyone care to guess what the worst is?

Toilet door handles?

handles in buses?

Nope. According to the Korea Consumer Protection Board (which did the tests of commonly touched items in public areas) public toilet handles/door knobs was way down at fourth worst on the list (Typically, they contain an average of  about 340 colony forming units (CFU) of bacteria per 10 sq cm compared to 1,100 for the 'worst offender!)..

Next guess?

Bus hand straps were slightly worse (at 380 CFU) than the  public  toilet handles/door knobs

I think you'll be truly surprised at the answer  -- and go ewwwe when you consider its ramifications !

Next guess?

hmm mobile phones?

Peanuts!

Phones aren't on the published list....

In bars I mean

I almost slammed you in the other group for your anti apple dumpling comment by saying first peanuts now cooked apples.... but restrained my self... ow you say Peanut's here... I cannot resist... off to take you to task in the other group.

HAHAHAHA

Noooo... that was because I remember reading it somewhere.... that open food like that is a germ farm

Not sure if they serve peanuts in bars in Korea....  not on the list at anyrate.

And FYI, peanuts are good! Just not in the peanut butter mutation

Okay, next - steak knifes

I think here in BC you can  snacks like pretzels in bars but not peanuts because the eating style is different....

Not steak knifes...

Think shopping - commonly used item ...

Trolleys!

THis one I couldn't figure out... Train hand straps were at 86 CFU (rounding out the bad half dozen) and much less than the bus hand straps!

So to recap, to this point we have:

1.  ??? (1100)
2. internet cafe computer mouse (690 CFU per 10sq cm)
3. bus hand straps (380)
4. public toilet handles/door knobs (340)
5. ???(130)
6. Train hand straps (86)

hmmmm....Not trolleys?

Open fruit/vege displays?

hmmm I think you might have a different meaning for trolley than I thought ... wen you said trolley I thought train!

So perhaps describe for me a trolley as you see it???

<open fruit/veg displays weren't on the list  ...>

trolley - those things ppl push around. A cart

Ok just looked it up on the net...in a piece called "wombats and cents: cultural comparison - "Beware the Australian Trolley" it says the Australian Trolley is the American (and I would add Canadian and Korean) shopping Cart....

So you are right.... Shopping cart tops out the list at 1100 CFU vs the next worst of 690 for the computer mouse....

Imagine the impact of people touching the fruit for ripeness after having their mitts on the shopping cart!  evvvvv

Chuckle... just sent my message and then read yours.... "Trolley = shopping Cart" once more we are children separated by a common language"

For us trolley = street car or basket (on wheels/pulleys or whatever) moved via  overhead cable..

hahaha yeah, I laughed when I saw your message come up after mine

and - Ohhhhhh

For completeness:

5. Lift buttons (at 130)

heh... yeah, none of it is very surprising is it?

FYI - We call most things with wheel trolleys

eg:

The 'trolley' handle being so high was a surprise to me...(although in retospect I can see the reason clearly)  as was the difference in the bus hand strap and train hand strap.... I'm not sure why the two should be so very different.

Yeah, the bus and train discrepancy was the only surprise to me...

I remember watching something abt train seats here in Aust. Seems that they're filthy.

That is fascinatingly disgusting. And Ewwww...

Trolly vs Cart: A thought occurs, why do Australians, New Zealanders and Britons understand "American" English, and yet the reverse is rarely true where "American" English is used? I don't think it's entirely US cultural dominance, for the most part Australians  understand British English and Britons understand Australian English. The same applies with the Kiwis....

Off topic I know, sorry.

Have we got a linguistics group? I thought I saw one somewhere.

In Canada we are  flooded by the USA media (tv esp,  but also films and  music of course).... but still retain a lot of the Brit words and spellings,  and have a few expressions of our own, but the Australian slang especially is WAY out there (from this Canadian's perspective at anyrate).

from a useful chart I just discovered on wikipedia "Lists of words having different meanings in British and American English"

Linguistics Group

easily found by checking out the "Knot of Science"

thought occurs, why do Australians, New Zealanders and Britons understand "American" English, and yet the reverse is rarely true where "English" English is used?

I often have the same thought - but with an edit ^^

And I hate how some people correct me when I don't use the same word/pronunciation as they do. Frustrates me to no end.... I am not saying it wrong!!! *pulling hair out*

@dek: I am not sure what you mean in your first point ???

Haikus show I.Q.s.

High I.Q.s like haikus. Low

I.Q.s - no haikus.

• Willard R. Espy

heh.. funny

hehehe Nice!

The Cinncinati Bengals have asked permission of city council to shoot pigeons  that are  "pooping on Bengals fans' heads."  City council thought that this was rather extreme and have instructed the football club to consider other options.

Always be willing to help, may I suggest:

This is always appropriate attire for fans of a team like Cinncinati and so is the proverbial '2 birds with one stone' type solution

hmmm... on reading the full story it turns out that there is a secondary problem .... the birds aim is such that they are often hitting the fans Beer.... NOW THAT IS A PROBLEM.

HAHAHAHAHA

Oh dear....too much time on their hands?

hahahaha I remember that ad!! So funny!

This was my favorite of the genre ... run during the 1997 Superbowl (this isn't a very high quality video- but you'll get the picture)

hahahahahah

That's simply excellent!!

trivia question: who does the voice of the Lead Pigeon (from long running USA sitcom)

I got nuttin

Who?

No, you don't get off that easy.

clue 2: main setting a bar

Cheers!

I'm guessing it's the guy who always sat there at the end of the bar. The beer nut

Truly obscure, Why on earth should or would we know Bric?

Kelsey Grammer?

Doesn't quite sound like Kelsey....

It's either Norm (i recalled his name!) or his moustachioed drinking buddy

(meanwhile, I've always thought Kelsey was a very strange (unique) name)

You Got it dekrazee1 ... it was the mailman...

JR> why should you know? Well the whole point is to come up with something just a tad difficult...

Yes!!!

I winz

hehehehe

Cheers is one of my fav shows. They used to play reruns on weekday afternoons in uni days. A genuinely funny comedy.

I used to want to find a bar like that in life!

Well the whole point is to come up with something just a tad difficult...

Oh OK.... I'll just sit in the corner for a bit.

hahahahah @ JR

I regret not visiting it during any of my trips to Boston.

HAHAHAHAHA That clip is so funny!!

There was a real bar Bric?

We have one here, on George Street in the city, but it doesn't look as inviting. I've been there once or twice to watch sports

John Ratzenberger played Cliff Clavin in Cheers.

And which toy did he play?

Toy?

Yes he played the role of the mail man and of a Toy, which toy? I was told that they had to be a tad difficult.

Good recovery JR!

dekrazee1: There was a bar that inspired the show (and was used for the exterior shots in the show)... now they play off the name Cheers

ohhhh

He played a toy in Cheers? Or are you referring to "Hamm the Piggy Bank" in the Toy Story animations?

Oh... of a Toy. From Toy Story?

hahaha you got it Bric!

I had no idea!

Yup Bric, spot on Hamm the piggy bank in Toy Story, now what is notable about Ratzenberger and the makers of that film?

I know it was made by Pixar... but what else is notable will take a little research.... I can't say off the top of my head.  I know he appeared in at least one other Pixar movie that I saw (Monsters Inc)... but there may have been more.

Ah.... close enough, It's not a quiz after all: he has appeared in every Pixar movie.

Jobs.. successful at Apple, then not, then initial success at Next, then not, Then sold Next for bundles and hit it out of the park with Pixar, then successful again with Apple... 

Ok ... got it ... Wikipedia really is amazing

He has been in every single major film from Pixar.... and it is said that the management have decreed that John should be in every one to be made!

So they are screwed when he shuffles off this mortal coil?

All of Pixar's feature films include Ratzenberger, who has become something of a "good luck charm" to the studio (and, according to Andrew Stanton, Pixar actually has a rule stating that Ratzenberger must be in all Pixar films). John has appeared in the following Pixar films:

• Hamm The Piggy Bank in Toy Story and Toy Story 2 (1995 and 1999)
• P.T. Flea, the Circus Ring Leader in A Bug's Life (1998)
• The Abominable Snowman in Monsters Inc. (2001)
• Schooley, leader of the School of Moonfish in Finding Nemo (2003)
• The Underminer in The Incredibles (2004)
• Mack the tractor-trailer in Cars (2006) (John reprises his Mack role for the Cars video game, created by THQ and Buena Vista Games.)
• Mustafa the Waiter in Ratatouille (2007)

JR@So they are screwed when he shuffles off this mortal coil?

Hey like with all management, they can imagine if there is a problem it will be after "their shift" is over!

(I had no idea of the number of animations he was in... only seen two of them Toy Story (1) and Monsters Inc.  (and those only due to too many hours in planes)

he has a great voice for it so good on him

Mustafa...sounds like a Star Wars name...

It's a pretty common, real, human name

I think it sounds like two Star Wars planet names joined together. I play Star Wars: Battlefront a lot.

I'm trying to figure out where the line between the 2 potential planet names is 

Mu & Stafa

Mus & Tafa

Must & Afa

Musta & Fa

Even Mustaf and Ustafa sound like they could be place/planet names, but M and A don'

There is a planet called Mustafar.

I think its a moon.

I think it's made up.

By writers, as always on Star Wars, with no imagination and precious little writing skill or talent.

Certainly makes me go ...hmmm

hehe, there are various "bodies" in the Solar System with every name under the Sun (pun intended)

The huge number of asteroids, meteors, comets etc. makes giving every one of them a name that sounds like something "proper" impossible.

They mostly seem to do them in themed groups, naming a bunch of them after Shakespearian heroines, or obscure Norse gods, then moving on to character names from cartoon series that NASA employees grew up with and any other source of names they can think of.

I think we should start again and  just number the lot. As we discover more and more extra-Solar planets, we are going to have to anyway.

http://www.galaxyzoo.org

Thanks pseud,  interesting site.

I was right, it is from Star Wars. Good old Wikipedia.

Mustafar is a volcanic planet in the Star Wars universe. It is portrayed in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, and was the last homebase of the Confederacy of Independent Systems. The planet is covered by hundreds of volcanic calderas, most of which are in a state of constant eruption. Like the real-world moon Io, which is similarly affected by the gas giant Jupiter, the volcanic activity is caused by gravitational stresses on the planet created by the two gas giants that affect its orbit. An automated energy and mineral collection facility on the planet is used by the Separatist Council as their last headquarters.

Conservation?

A few years ago it was determined that 168,000 bibles are sold or given away each day in  the USA . That is enough for everyone in the country to get a new copy every four years.  Now, to abuse the statistics just a tad, if every individual were to hang on to each copy they would have a lifetime collection of 17 copies.

This reminded me of an article that appeared in the Journal of Irreproducible Results many years ago which purported to show that we cold expect the earth to be thrown off its spin axis due to the collective weight of old copies of National Geographic magazines saved by people in the Untied States.

No wonder we are in danger of running out of trees.

Where are all the copies of the bibles going then?

some people stack slippers or shoes by their door, others perhaps take a different path:

That has to be in a church....

...right?

At the Montreal comedy festival Frank Skinner (stand up comic) made a gag about Paris Hilton discovering The Bible whilst in jail recently, he said with feigned indignant shock : "Her father owns a chain of hotels.....*pause for laughs*.....all she had to do was look in a drawer."

hahahahaah

Dekrazee1> as it happens you're right.... 170 bibles stacked by the door of a church that was moving to a new location.... so that's 10 individuals' lifetime supply accounted for....

Ah ha!

So then the question still stands... where are all those bibles?

God knows?

Certainly not I... that's why it makes me go hmmm

Breaking News... Ig Noble Awards Announced - Groundbreaking Hamster Study!

There is good news for Viagra-using hamsters..... they bounce back from the effects of Jet Lag faster than their hamster friends not on the drug.

The research team that discovered this was awarded one of this years 10 Ig Noble awards in a ceremony at Harvard:

"A team at Quilmes National University in Buenos Aires, Argentina, came up with the jet-lag study, which found that hamsters given the anti-impotence drug needed 50 percent less time to recover from a six-hour time zone change. They didn't fly rodents to Paris, incidentally -- they just turned the lights off and on at different times."

AP story on CNN

Was this study found (and used) by Team Tangler some time ago??? I haven't seen the Hamster notice for quite some time now!

Shhhh.... we don't let the hamsters fly

They didn't fly rodents to Paris, incidentally -- they just turned the lights off and on at different times.

My simple mind was actually picturing the hamsters in an economy seat before I read that

the beauty of tangler is that the most random out of context statements pop-up in your system tray over the course of the day

HAHAHAHA

How true!

this is how they give the rodents jet lag...

This is what happens to hamsters when they get jet lagged

HAHAHAH Love the Hamstercopter!

GAAAAH!!!! Earworm alert!!!

How could you pseudyx?!

hehehehe I liked that pic of the hamster in a Porsche

Scientific study on why knots happen

[Douglas Smith of the University of California, San Diego] and UCSD colleague Dorian Raymer ran a series of homespun experiments in which they dropped a string into a box and tumbled it for 10 seconds (one revolution per second). They repeated the string-dropping more than 3,000 times varying the length and stiffness of the string, box size and tumbling speed.

Conclusion: While there is no magical knot buster, Smith advised what all sailors, cowboys, electricians, sewers and knitters know: to avoid tangles, keep a cord or string tied in a coil so it can't move.

That image makes me 'double take' everytime

Keep seeing Tangler logos in it

I got another 'hmmmm' Bible story -

The one version missing form the Bible collection thus far?

Teh Holiez Bibul

Yes, Thai can be TOO spicy

I know... I could hardly believe it myself.... but a story out of London indicates that a portion of London's famous Soho district was shut down (road closures, evacuations, emergency response personnel rushed in) due to Bird's Eye Chili peppers!

Passers-by complained that a chemical emanating from a Thai restaurant was burning their throats... when the chemical response unit of the London Fire Brigade arrived, and smashed down the doors of the restaurant, they found the peppers "dry frying."

"No one was arrested," the police spokesman said, declining to give his name in line with force policy. "As far as I'm aware, it's not a criminal offense to cook very strong chili."

While I've eaten at perhaps a dozen different restaurants in this district, I don't recall eating here ... but I think I will try their "nam prik pao" sauce the next time I'm in town... according to the owner, Sue Wasboonma, its the spiciest thing on the menu at the "Thai Cottage" restaurant.

HAHAHAHAHA I can't believe they thought it was a chemical weapon!

WAHAHAHAHAAH

wow that really makes me go hmmmm!

Newspeak

When I started this topic, I really meant it to be a view of the "lighter side" but I just can't let today pass.

April 22, 1981 "Like the genocide of the Armenians before it, and the genocide of the Cambodians which followed it — and like too many other such persecutions of too many other peoples — the lessons of the Holocaust must never be forgotten." President Ronald Regan (Proclamation 4838 - Days of Remembrance of Victems of the Holocaust")

February, 2000 "The twentieth century was marred by wars of unimaginable brutality, mass murder and genocide. History records that the Armenians were the first people of the last century to have endured these cruelties. The Armenians were subjected to a genocidal campaign that defies comprehension and commands all decent people to remember and acknowledge the facts and lessons of an awful crime in a century of bloody crimes against humanity. If elected President, I would ensure that our nation properly recognizes the tragic suffering of the Armenian people." Governor George Bush (in a letter to Armenian Americans prior to the hotly contested Michigan Primary)

April 24, 2001 "Today marks the commemoration of one of the great tragedies of history: the forced exile and annihilation of approximately 1.5 million Armenians in the closing years of the Ottoman Empire. These infamous killings darkened the 20th century and continue to haunt us to this day." President George Bush (statement issued on the annual day of remembrance for the Armenian Genocide but no mention of genocide is made; this is in keeping with policy from the Clinton administration).

October 10, 2007 “We all deeply regret the tragic suffering of the Armenian people that began in 1915,” Mr. Bush said in remarks that, reflecting official American policy, carefully avoided the use of the word genocide. “This resolution is not the right response to these historic mass killings, and its passage would do great harm to our relations with a key ally in NATO and in the global war on terror.” President George Bush (statement made from White House lawn - pleading with subcommittee of congress not to pass a resolution calling the killings genocide).

October 10, 2007 "Undersecretary of State Nick Burns said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would call the Turkish leadership Thursday to express "deep disappointment" with the vote. 'We want to convey to the Turkish people and the Turkish government a message of respect and a message of support for them and the hope we can continue to work together with them,' Burns said.

Things like this really anger me. This is dishonesty in its most stupid, blatant form.

'Maybe if I don't call that thing charging at me 'a train', it won't hit me.'

WTF man?!

I believe that 20 countries have called the events genocide... Turkey has threatened not to help the US military efforts in Iraq if the motion passes the congress (right now it could be held at the committee level and not even forwarded to the congress for a vote).

Countries officially recognizing the Armenian Genocide include:

• Argentina
• Armenia
• Austria 
• Belgium
• Canada
• Chile 
• Cyprus 
• France 
• Greece
• Italy
• Lebanon
• Lithuania
• Netherlands
• Poland
• Russia
• Slovakia
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• Uruguay
• Vatican City
• Venezuela

Other Political bodies recognizing the events as genocide include:

• Wales
• Ontario and Quebec (provinces - independently of the Canadian Federal government)
• State of New South Wales, Australia
• 40 of the 50 USA state governments

Only 1 in 3,400 you Say?

Yes, that is the estimated ratio of professional Elvis impersonators to the general population of the USA.

In addition, recordings of some of his more famous songs have been done in some rather unlikely languages - including Sumerian (dead for about 4000 years) and the more recent language of the Romans.  A couple of the songs recorded in Latin:

• Non Amare Non Possum
• Nunc  Hit Aut Numquam

But apparently it is an international phenomenon of sorts....

A group of Elvis Presley Tribute Artists, who are all members of (The Association of Professional Elvis Presley Tribute Artists) setting the world record for the most Elvis impersonators in one location. This was an official Guinness World record set at Selfridges department store Oxford Street London on April 17th 2005.

Photo From wikipedia story on the phenomenon

Yeah, this always makes me go hmmmm....

I'll never get it I'm afraid

Only 1 in 3,400 you Say? <redux>

Well, the first post of this topic didn't get heated debate so lets get going on  the part that made me go hmmmm.

COINCIDENCE or NOT? You be the judge....

1 in 3,400, besides being the ratio of Elvis impersonators to citizens in the US , ... is also:

The ratio of prostitutes to citizens in Sweden

hmmm...

and... Sweden is known for its promiscuity and legalized sex industry

its also a great fun way to make quick money

Which is? Impersonating Elvis or being in Sweden's sex industry?

Actually, in Sweden the sex industry is not quite legalized... they just switched the law on its head from what is most commonly done!

IN 1999 a legislation in Sweden was passed that a) criminalized the buying of sex, and b) decriminalized the selling of sex.

By comparison in Germany, where brothel-keepers were ordered to conform to national laws requiring business to have one apprentice for every 15 workers (at the time implemented this would have required creation of approximately 20,000 apprentice prostitutes - male and female) the number of citizens per prostitute was 266!  I haven't yet come across the ratio of Elvis impersonators to citizens for Germany...  if one could get the figures for both categories in all the countries it might make quite an interesting graph.

Trivia Question: Since we are talking about a whole lot of Elvis here... who can guess what the proper pluralization would be?

Elvises

Elvii
 

Elveses pronounced [Elves /es]. Its a proper noun, A mans name so just as any name it would be the standard pluralisation of a noun, es.

But Elvis' is the possessive noun thingy!!

yeah... thats why I edited

well thats as far as my English grammar does

hahahaha Ah yes, now it makes sense

I think Elvis actually derives from the Old English... so in the lack of any modern established rule that has replaced the Old practice you fall back to the practice of Latin.... assuming a third-declension Latin noun I think the plural would take the simple form "Elves" for which I have, of course, a picture:

An "Elvis" in  "elves' " costume.
 

Of course I could just be playing an elvish prank on you....

hmmmm that gives me an idea.....
 

HAHAHAHAHA

Man, that's funny and so apt!
 

Elveses pronounced [Elves /es]. Its a proper noun, A mans name so just as any name it would be the standard pluralisation of a noun, es.

But elveses sounds like gollum saying elves 

True... my precious

Elvis is said to be -possibly- a form of ELWIN, which in turn means "noble friend" or , from Old High German, "elf friend" (the elf historically being considered "noble'). Thus the plural of Elvis is often said to be "ELVES" as in the plural of elf.

its still a mans name... so I still think its plural would be as any other name.

I still prefer Elvii

The sun that shines down on me when i'm sunbathing... makes me go hmmm

Senator Obama is related to Vice President Cheney... hmmm

Reacting to  Lynne's statement (that while doing some genealogical research for her forthcoming book on her forthcoming book on her husband she has discovered a common ancestor 8 generations back) an Obama spokesman allowed that "Obviously, Dick Cheney is sort of the black sheep of the family."

Now why does this get high billing on the CNN (international) Top Story section?  Perhaps it is more interesting than this item  which gets similar billing:

Putin: Iran nuke plans 'peaceful'

With the growing friction between Bush's adminstration and Putin's administraion  (over Bush's plans for missile defense, including defensive anti missle systems in former soviet bloc countries and weakening of strategic arms limitation accords; and Putin's more outward looking and strident stance in the, perhaps, waining days of his administration) we appear to be heading back to the old days of very visible acting out of the Geopolitik...do I hear the whispers of Kissinger in the background????? hmmm

But no doubt the Obama/Cheney story will be the one  (If either) talked about at the office water-coolers tomorrow  --  Am I right or wrong? 

Oh ... perhaps I should mention that of the two stories, only the Obama/Cheney story is shown in the "Top Stories" section on CNN (US Edition) ... the Putin/Iran story doesn't make the cut (it didn't even make the headline summary in the "world" section on the US home page ).... so now am I right or wrong?  Oh the beauty of a press that panders to the trivial....

That's quite incredibly stupid. Every person on Earth is related in one way or another, and if they didn't know about the connection before then it's unlikely to mean anything. The international politics dealy is far more important.

As you say, pandering to the trivial (so that their readers' brains don't have to work too hard)

Every person on Earth is related in one way or another

I'd be pleased if you didn't try to convince Mrs Dent about that one.  She insists on sending all our relatives a Christmas card every year.

... big family hey

But is it possible to send aprox 6 Billion Christmas cards?

Well we're also related to all the animals (if we all started out in the same original puddle of glowing green goo).. given that the insects outnumber us by millions to one, that'd be a lot of cards to send

There would be no more trees left after that mailing might want to do ecards

Think of the power you would use to process all those ecards

ahh very true! either way ecological disaster!

I think I'll just close my eyes and think good will to everyone big or small, weak or strong, human or animal, vegetable or mineral.... all the best Gaia!

that works too

All that with somewhere around 10 watts of energy ! ... (assuming that not all the 25 watts is available for consumption in my thinking process and about 10¹⁶ synapse operations per second)

There's this thing in Hinduism where at the end of a any prayer they say SHANTI shanti shanti (where the last one is barely a whisper)

The idea behind that is that the first SHANTI (= peace) is for the universe, the second for those around you, the third for your soul
 

Peace Peace Peace

oh I like that Dek

Yeah, I like it too.

The idea behind it.
 

very cool

On Stupidity

Amidst all the furor about Jim Watson's recent remarks (he of the 1962 Nobel Prize for his role of the discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA) why is it that I find one of his earlier remarks all that more poignant:

For you see, in a  2003 British TV documentary Watson suggested stupidity was a genetic disease that should be treated.

hmmm I guess he could (with his own recent demonstration by example flying far and wide) now claim..... QED

hahahahaha

And what do we do about 'bias'?

I'm afraid that bias in the sciences is endemic.  As for the rest of the world, I hope that one day there we will learn our way past bias

Now the question of fundamentalist  tendencies showing up in the attitudes of the learned of society .... that is a real scare
 

^^ That's what I meant Bric.

Even if stupidity was a treatable disease, what of bias?
 

I'm reading a couple books right now that almost bring my blood to a boil... they are written by people who would seem to be able  leap over any hurdle on the raw intelligence side of things yet the biases they exhibit are so strong that they can't even begin to disguise them.  This despite the author's self-proclaimed righteousness and their arguments that their positions are built on pure logic and are sound to the core.

THAT is what really angers me. Using/abusing 'facts' and 'scientific' research to make a point they set out to prove in the first place.

Yep. They're called conspiracists. Marvelous they all are.

yeah, I would have to agree... the misuse of knowledge and research to secure ones point at the expense of right or righteous.

@HappyWanderer: Alluding to something else???

Conspiracists are great people. Usually they are wrong with their theories but these theories make great stories.

"the misuse of knowledge and research to secure ones point"... and while we're one this point, another thing that makes me go hmmm, is the use of quantitative data in a qualitative debate... Such as government election debates and the use of quantity statistics.

It is a fact that 78.5% of all statistics are made up.
 

The Man who Counts the Number of People at Public Gatherings

You've probably seen his headlines, "Two million flock to see Pope", "200 arrested as police find ounce of cannabis", "Britain #3 billion in debt." You probably wondered who was responsible for producing such well rounded-up figures. What you didn't know was that it was all the work of one man, Rounder-Up to the media, John Wheeler. But how is he able to go on turning out such spot-on statistics? How can he be so accurate all the time?

"We can't," admits Wheeler blithely. "Frankly, after the first million we stop counting, and round it up to the next million. I don't know if you've ever counted a papal flock, but, not only do they look a bit the same, they also don't keep still, what with all the bowing and crossing themselves."

"The only way you could do it accurately is by taking an aerial photograph of the crowd and handing it to the computer to work out. But then you'd get a headline saying, '1,678,163 [sic] flock to see Pope, not including 35,467 who couldn't see him,' and, believe me, nobody wants that sort of headline."

The art of big figures, avers Wheeler, lies in psychology, not statistics. The public like a figure it can admire. It likes millionaires, and million-sellers, and centuries at cricket, so Wheeler's international agency gives them the figures it wants, which involves not only rounding up but rounding down.

"In the old days people used to deal with crowds on the Isle of Wight principle--you know, they'd say that every day the population of the world increased by the number of people who could stand upright on the Isle of Wight, or the rain-forests were being decreased by an area the size of Rutland. This meant nothing. Most people had never been to the Isle of Wight for a start, and even if they had, they only had a vision of lots of Chinese standing in the grounds of the Cowes Yacht Club. And the Rutland comparison was so useless that they were driven to abolish Rutland to get rid of it.

"No, what people want is a few good millions. A hundred million, if possible. One of our inventions was street value, for instance. In the old days they used to say that police had discovered drugs in a quantity large enough to get all of Rutland stoned for a fortnight. *We* started saying that the drugs had a street value of #10 million. Absolutely meaningless, but people understand it better."

Sometimes they do get the figures spot on. "250,000 flock to see Royal two," was one of his recent headlines, and although the 250,000 was a rounded-up figure, the two was quite correct. In his palatial office he sits surrounded by relics of past headlines--a million-year-old fossil, a #500,000 Manet, a photograph of the Sultan of Brunei's #10,000,000 house--but pride of place goes to a pair of shoes framed on the wall.

"Why the shoes? Because they cost me #39.99. They serve as a reminder of mankind's other great urge, to have stupid odd figures. Strange, isn't it? They want mass demos of exactly half a million, but they also want their gramophone records to go round at thirty-three-and-a-third, forty-five and seventy-eight rpm. We have stayed in business by remembering that below a certain level people want oddity. They don't want a rocket costing #299 million and 99p, and they don't want a radio costing exactly #50."

How does he explain the times when the figures clash--when, for example, the organisers of a demo claim 250,000 but the police put it nearer 100,000?

"We provide both sets of figures; the figures the organisers want, and the figures the police want. The public believe both. If we gave the true figure, about 167,890, nobody would believe it because it doesn't sound believable."

John Wheeler's name has never become well-known, as he is a shy figure, but his firm has an annual turnover of #3 million and his eye for the right figure has made him a rich man. His greatest pleasure, however, comes from the people he meets in the counting game.

"Exactly two billion, to be precise."

(Miles Kington, writing in The Observer, November 3, 1986)

The missing penny on shop prices started as a way to force the cashier to make change, which meant they had to ring up the transaction to open the till, and so couldn't pocket the cash themselves... not out of some love of odd numbers, my penny jar will attest to the fact that I'm not a fan of the stupid odd numbers on everything.

(Or there is the theory that it makes things sound cheaper when you say "it's £39.99" instead of "it's £40, and it allows adverts to truthfully claim "less than £1000" when the thing costs £999.99.. otherwise they'd have to say "less than or equal to £1000")

not only do they look a bit the same, they also don't keep still, what with all the bowing and crossing themselves

ROFL!!! 

Love it bric

This isn't Rocket Science...

NASA has just admitted that they have ordered a private contractor to destroy all database and other information related to a study that was conducted on behalf of the aeronautics and space agency related to air travel safety.

NASA has also refused to release either the report or summary information on the basis of "pilot confidentiality" (at best this is a misstatement - other spokesmen for the agency have stated that the report itself has no references to airlines or specific pilots).  In public statements the Agency had indicated that they are afraid that air travelers would lose confidence in airlines or be scared if they they had the details from the study which indicates that near collisions and runway interference occur far more often than has previously be revealed by government agencies.

So its official policy now: secrecy is more important than science in protecting the public ... best the public be kept in the dark rather than fret over the facts of life. This from the SCIENTIFIC agency which has the mandate to "conduct research for the solution of problems of flight within and outside the Earth's atmosphere" .  Silly me - I never would have thought that blacking out the results of research was part of the solution.

Idiots all.
 

That is ridiculous... I would rather know the statistics and make my own judgment, which would lead to flying or not. And if I were to travel on a plan that crashes (in America obviously) and I survived, I would sue the US government for withholding information pertaining to my potential safety, and the trauma caused through being kept in the dark about potential harm. (or I would try to sue )

Update:

caught in the act by AP release of the story... and reacting to US politicians speaking,  out it appears that NASA might do an about face.

NASA's administrator has now said he will review the decision and consider how much of the survey's findings may be made public.  In a public statement, now that the agency has been caught out, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin now says: "NASA should focus on how we can provide information to the public, not on how we can withhold it,"  He further allows that  the agency's research and data "should be widely available and subject to review and scrutiny."

Note that AP has stated they found out about the report from a NASA source who demanded anonymity as he/she was not authorized to discuss the report.  AP had sought to obtain the survey data  or at least the report over a 14 month period under provisions of the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. As I noted earlier,  they where denied time after time by NASA.

Now that AP reported this fact it seems NASA officials are red faced. Congress has ordered that no data should be destroyed by the private contract and so guess what? It is only now that NASA is publically caught that Griffin plays the 'science should be seen to be seen card'.

My words "idiots all"  in the original post are not strong enough....Malicious. Dishonest. Incompetent. Failure.  Disgrace to science. Disgrace to government.  These are only a few (of the polite enough for public consumption) words that come to my mind.

graphic source

NASA is a govt agency isn't it? ie a civil service??

I feel that since they use taxpayer funds to do whatever research it is they do, the information belongs to the public. They don't even have the option of not releasing such info.
 

Yes, that's what the freedom of information act is all about.... but agencies can still refuse for a number of reasons.. it appears that AP thought that the final letter they got citing reason that NASA could not release the report were riduculous.. but rather than go through the courts (the next legal step) AP went to the court of public opinion... only then does the pin head at the top see the light and allow  that their research should be widely available.

Its unfortunate, because he appeared to be one hope for breathing life into the agency and correcting some of the stupid actions of the last few administrators wrt allowing the current administration to play political games with science.

separated at birth? Michael Griffin (NASA Administrator)

...

Dek, some of the reasons that govt research is not freely available (and the most common used excuse) is national safety/security. (eg.) If research data in America pointed to a weakness in the aero-industry, they wouldn't wont it publically available for fear of exploit.

 

It would have been a much less interesting story if NASA had claimed that... but it fell back on the old chestnuts of Privacy (which was by their own statements not a valid objection) and we don't want anybody to be scared.  However, and this falls in the category...
hmmm this really makes me go hmmm:
A CNN poll of readers (not scientific as it is a self-selecting population):

Should NASA make public the results of a pilots' survey that found safety problems occur more frequently than was known?

Yes 90%

No 10%

but the type of information bric is talking about has more to do with the incident rate, and cause of incident. Which should be publically available and most certainly publically scrutinized.

"NASA should focus on how we can provide information to the public, not on how we can withhold it" - NASA should be focused on finding solutions to the findings of the report, not on how to brovide the information... "how we can provide information" - or 'Presentation of information' is just a more friendly way of saying picking what they do and don't make public.

Bric, in this circumstance I think your words a way too kind.
 

The second image seems to be lost from my "separated at birth" post, so here's another try:

LOL @Bric

I understand the whole 'nat security' b***c*** <-- and as that indicated, I'm very cynical about it too.

The initial reason given by NASA doesn't hold water at all
 

The next one will be humorous.... I promise

But for todays hmmm..... well how many chances does one get to use the word "eviscerated" in polite conversation???

The White House severely edited the prepared report that was to be part of the testimony given To Congress today by the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the impact of climate change on health.  In fact, the White House cut the document from its original length of 14 pages down to a mere 4 pages by removing specific scientific references to potential health risks, according to two sources familiar with the documents.

Some of the deletions:

• the number of people that might be affected by increased warming
• the scientific basis for the CDC's analysis
• what kinds of diseases might be spread in a warmer climate or with rising sea levels

Luckily some of the Senators where prepared with information they had received earlier from the CDC and asked specific questions which Dr. Julie Gerberding appeared to answer in an open manner.  When Sen. Barbara Boxe showed a CDC chart indicating just how broad the range of health problems that could emerge if there are significant changes, the good doctor responded:

"These are the potential things you can expect,  ... In some of these areas its not a question of if. It's a question of who, what, how and when."

And just what are some of these things you can expect.... well nothing really that disturbing at all, just:

• fatalities from heat stress and heart failure,
• increased injuries and deaths from severe weather such as hurricanes;
• more respiratory problems from drought-driven air pollution;
• increases in diseases including cholera, malaria and hantavirus;
• and mental health problems such as depression and post-traumatic stress

And my teaser about the word "eviscerated" above... well it comes from this quote:

"It was eviscerated," said a CDC "official" who had seen both the report as submitted to the White House for review and the approved skinny version sent to the senate hearing (and surprise, surprise, the "official" spoke on condition of anonymity because of the "sensitive" nature of the White House review process).

Note  this wasn't even testimony saying that global warming or climate change or increasing sea levels is imminent or even real... it was simply testimony about what the risk to health and well-being of the American populace might be if there is a change due to any of these factors.

But once again, in the world of politics,  we are considered better off not knowing what science might be able to tell us.

"The Iliou Persis can only truly be appreciated in times such as these."

"Ok... I've got the part 'drove my chevy to the levee but the levee was dry' down pat - what comes next?"

ps I do know that Nero playing his lyre and singing while the city burned was only rumor ... and that he apparently organized a relief effort including opening his palaces to provide shelter for the homeless, and arranged for food supplies to be delivered in order to prevent starvation among the survivors -- which he paid for from his own funds (He may not even have been in Rome at the time of the fire)... but then again blaming the Christians for the fire and throwing some to the dogs probably justifies the image that has come down to us of his stature as a leader....  but what will historians have to say about our anti-science fundamentalism and, more importantly, I had to follow my previous "Twins Separated at Birth?" couplet with another one didn't I?

From the archives.... an old story from the last session of congress I believe.. when another committee held hearings on "Crisis of Confidence: The Political Influence of the Bush Administration on Agency Science and Decision-Making."  This clip is the opening remarks by Chairman Nick Rahall of the The Natural Resources Committee. While interference with the reporting of scientists appears neither to be a purely republican nor democratic obsession, it does seem to be an affliction that hits the Executive Branch with distressing regularity.... and I do believe that the current administration has led the art form to a new level.

There being no takers on the above,  or perhaps its just  a slow night, but at any rate, it's back to the lighter stuff:

Do you kiss with your eyes close?

If so I'm betting you're a female !

I just read that a Canadian anthropologist's research has revealed (you see in Canada we let the research chips fall where they may):

• 97% of women kiss with their eyes closed
• 37%  of men kissed with their eyes closed

And then leaping from the sciences to the arts (and if the typical artist interpretation is accurate) I guessing frogs, like men, mostly kiss with they eyes open

hmmm...

Do frogs have eyelids?

a lot of fish don't

Yes, they have them but they don't work quite the same way ours do... they actually pull their eyes deeper into their sockets... and this has the effect of allowing the eyelids to move into place.

I wonder if the action of pushing them back out and momentarily distorts their vision...

You know I bet it does... our focus is based on us changing the shape of the eyeball (and our ability diminishes with age... hence increased problems with night time vision) so pushing them back out would probably result in a shape change that would have to be adjusted before the vision would return to normal.

I just raced off to the internet to see if I could find anything on that... no luck so far but I came across this bit:

Most species of frogs have a thin, partly clear inner eyelid attached to the bottom lid. This inner eyelid, called the nictitating membrane, can be moved upward when a frog's eyes are open. It protects the eyes without completely cutting off vision....

I never knew that.... but I wonder if it was an adaptation to overcome a problem that would happen in "zapping a bug" if the eye wasn't showing the meal to be where it actually was if the eye blinked as often as ours do....
 

Best I can come up with on short notice is that according to one source "A quiescent frog will close its eyelids synchronously every 0.5 to 5 minutes."  which is quite a long time  compared to  mammals  I think.... so  although I'm guessing, I bet that the slow blinking rate and nictitating membrane are somehow related to the eyes focus being impacted by the impact of blinking (it is known that the frog's are naturally nearsighted  -myoptic- and its thought that this is so background clutter is 'reduced' and the frog can get better characterization of objects moving in the foreground.).

but on another front, one famous frog would appear to be bereft of eyelids:

hmmm.

Random fact - I do a great rrrrribbit sound that kids love

@Bric - Love the clip! ROFL
 

You'll have to do a recording of it .... and embed it here!

Yes dek, that will have a great Hmmmmm factor.

Well its going on for 5am here... so this dreamer is off to bed....I'll look for it on my return!

hehehehe oh dear... how am I gonna record it? Okay, I'll think of something.

Nite nite Bric! (I was wondering how come you're still up!)
 

if you've got a simple mic plug it into your PC or Mac and windows has sound recorder: Start, run, sndrec32... if you have a Mac, then there are many applications that record sound

Nobody is this dumb are they?

I just visited a site following a link by Mick in "What's the Worse thing you've ever eaten" and came across another story that made me shake my head... to say nothing about the hmmm it invoked.

Seems the chap discovered the Domino's order your pizza online system and was impressed that you could place toppings on the whole pizza, "left side" only, or "right side only"  .... useful if, for example you want mushrooms, pepperoni, and black olives on one side while your spouse wants a more dainty choice of anchovies and garlic on her side...

But this guy decided to see if it really works by ordering a pizza with just pepperoni  on the left and mushrooms on the right.... and then complained bitterly when he got this:

In his exact words:

"Did the Domino's food synthesizer honor the options I was forced to choose? No.  The dividing line was exactly 90 degrees up the middle, but mushrooms were on the left! I realize it's all arbitrary and the options are presented for clarity, but if you're going to force me to make the choice, then that's what I think I should get."

So my questions: Is this as dumb as it gets?  Should this guy be prevented from knowing about global warming and airline safety issues by a protective "parental authority" government?

As the first  "initiator" here I'd like your advice:

And of course, it should go without saying,  that this topic is meant to be an open opportunity credulity  tester...please post your own hmmms and make it a fertile outpouring!

HAHAHAHAHA Awww man....

*Shaking head*
 

hmmm. I don't see any votes for "stop wasting my time"  but seeing the most recent post, perhaps I should have added a field to capture the qualitative expressions such as "Awww man" for those who don't like to follow rules (or perhaps they just don't like being pegged quantitatively as a "statistic")

ohhh... I should specify - above comments were aimed at the pizza genius

I picked mix 'n match
 

Put that in your stats!

Pizza dude needs to rotate his pizza, or die from terminal stupidity, whichever is quicker.

terminal stupidity...

I vote for terminal stupidity... I always through that people couldn't actually be that dumb. And things like the Darwin Awards had to be made up... Until I traveled over seas

Maybe if you had travelled on seas, it might have been better....

i think the pizza guy might have had a case if the dividing line was 90 degrees different to what came in the box.

his brain might have exploded if the topping line went from corner to corner! That's a 1 million dollar law suit right there for misrepresentation!

haha... overseas

How can a dissecting line of a circle (diameter) be 90 Degrees to the circumference???

I think he meant 90 degrees to the image?

"he dividing line was exactly 90 degrees up the middle, but mushrooms were on the left!" - This suggests to me he was talking about the actual cut line through the pizza.

agree with Pseudo ... exactly up the middle would have done. Mention of 90 degrees with respect to a circle implies quarters.

my question is: why would you order domino's pizza in the first place? obviously deranged.

Occasionally guilty of ordering the $5.95 pick up but never expect much as it is what it is.

An update to an earlier hmmm....:

Race row DNA scientist quits lab

They didn't fire him... hmmmm...
 

Apparently he's 79 years old.  About time the old boy retired anyway...

In the Spirit of Christmas

So with Christmas, for most Christians, safely out of the way, what better way to prepare for the Christmas Comings (of the Greek Orthodox and Armenian Church Church respectively on different days in January) than for a good 'ol fashioned religious battle-royal?

It seems that today,during the cleanup of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem  (the Basilica is built over the grotto that most Christians believe Christ was born and responsibility for its administration is shared by Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic authorities), some of the Orthodox faithful stepped into the Armenian Church's section.

This, of course, in the proper tradition, resulted in fighting (with brooms and stones being the weapons of choice) between about 50 on the Greek side and 30 on the Armenian side.  Cleaners and priests, from both sides, joined in the ruckus which left at least four with blood streaming from their faces.

So, what portion of Christ's message do you think they missed?

Oh, what the heck.... Merry Christmas all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant, oh,come ye, oh, come ye, to Bethlehem....
 

hehehehe That's weird funny

Worry not, the Flying Spaghetti Monster will rescue us!