
This is the last you folks will hear from me this year. I'm off to Make a CD Disco Ball for tonight's shindig. I'm not sure my hosts will agree but I think that a disco theme will add a certain je ne sais quoi to tonight's festivities.
5. "I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some, uh, people out there in our nation don't have maps and, uh, I believe that our, uh, education like such as, uh, South Africa and, uh, the Iraq, everywhere like such as, and, I believe that they should, uh, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., uh, or, uh, should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future, for our children."
-- Lauren Caitlin Upton, Miss Teen South Carolina, in the Miss Teen USA pageant, airing live on NBC. The 18-year-old was asked why one-fifth of Americans can't locate the United States on a blank world map. She later said she was flustered by the question.
4. "In Iran, we don't have homosexuals like in your country."
-- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, during a question-and-answer session at Columbia University.
3. "That's some nappy-headed hos there."
-- Radio host Don Imus, describing his perception of the Rutgers women's basketball team.
2. "He has a wide stance."
-- Sgt. Dave Karsnia of the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport police, summarizing Idaho Sen. Larry Craig's explanation of their June 11 bathroom stall encounter.
1. "Whoop-de-damn-do."
-- Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, quoting his own reaction to being told the Senate had confirmed his nomination to the Supreme Court.
The work is made in Holland, France, Portugal, Belgium, Germany, Spain, Italy, Great Britain and Japan and will find its continuation around the world. Here Bert uses available light to photograph people in their kitchen, livingroom or bedroom. It is a search for a way of living that has been around for centuries and that is disappearing from society fast, due to architectual changes but also because of new regulations in the EU and other parts of the world.
The light that is being used is the same that was used by the great Dutch masters like Vermeer and Pieter de Hoogh in their paintings and the photographs of Bert have been related to the works these painters ever since.
Film lovers and travel fanatics take note! Each week we'll be featuring a globe-trotting, time-travel, experience - a recommended film shot in locations that have been irrevocably changed by time and the relentless march of progress.
"Our Christmas food traditions today reflect many centuries of change and evolution.
This selection of historic Christmas recipes will give you some idea of how cooks and housewives have adapted recipes over time, depending on their own beliefs and philosophies, as well as availability of ingredients."
News Flash: If your local supermarket is all out of boar you can find one here.
"What follows is by no means a complete list of the words that took our attention this year, but rather a sampling from the thousands that endured long enough to find a place in the national conversation."
"Paris is all understated chic (and no drunks), while the Chinese have taken kitsch consumerism to their hearts. From hymns and high water in Kinshasa to cricket and Christmas pud in Sydney, we take a whistle-stop tour of yuletide custom in nine very different countries"
1950's Siamese Cat TV Lamp 2 Cats Television Light "You will love this wonderful Cat lamp. Maybe you can take a cat nap beside it."
"Is it a marvel of yuletide convenience or a crass beacon of commercialism? Either way, the aluminum Christmas tree has come to Canada. The trees are shipped from the United States. They sell in Canadian department stores for between $5 and $20. In this clip, CBC Radio reporter Tom Robinson expresses a mixture of disdain and admiration for slot-together 'tannenbaums.'"
A Hasselhoff is medical shorthand for a patient who turns up in casualty 'with an injury with a bizarre explanation', according to the latest edition of the British Medical Journal.
A Jack Bauer is a doctor who is "still up and working after 24 hours on the job", while a Mini Me is a trainee or medical student who emulates their senior colleagues a bit too much but does not say a lot.
I recently had the privilege of speaking with Richard Pechner about the Grateful Dead's Wall of Sound and his role in creating what is considered to be one of the largest sound systems of all time. The Wall of Sound was built exclusively for the Grateful Dead and it was used on their tours from 1974 to 1976.
Via Linkfilter
The founders of Rome, the builders of Stonehenge, and ancient Egypt's 'female king' were among the stars of this year's most popular archaeology stories from National Geographic News.
A good graphic can tell a story, bring a lump to the throat, even change policies. Here are three of history's best.
Nightingale compared his numbers with her own on the deaths of soldiers to great effect. By showing that even in peacetime a soldier faced twice the risk of dying in a given year as a civilian, she campaigned successfully for better conditions in barracks. The pair were instrumental in setting up a royal commission of inquiry into sanitary conditions during the Crimean war.
Sunday Star-Times (New Zealand)
OUR STORY on the price of tomatoes last week misquoted Alistair Petrie, general manager of Turners and Growers. Discussing the price of tomatoes Petrie was talking about retail rate not retail rape. We apologise for the misunderstanding.
The Guardian
Australian cricketer Don Bradman was carried, not curried, off the field during the Ashes series in August 1938 (Heroic Hutton leads England to 903, page 12, the archive, November 6).
The Guardian
In They live by night, page 4, G2 August 27, we wrote about a man who beat bats to death with a dingy paddle; we meant dinghy paddle.
The Hindu
A report “From Bombay to Rajasthan” (“Newscape” page, January 8, 2007) stated that actor Elizabeth Hurley will wear “a 4,000-pound sari by designer Tarun Tahiliani” during her wedding in March. While one reader wondered how she would be able to lift the 1,800 kg sari, another reader said there are possible fears about the bride being reduced to pulp by its weight. It was an error. The word “pound” was used instead of the currency symbol for pound sterling (£).
Canadian shoppers are discarding their old shoes and clothes in mall parking lots in the Buffalo-Niagara Falls region. They wear their newly purchased clothes home to avoid paying a duty when they go through customs to re-enter Canada.
Managers at plazas in the area, including The Summit Mall, have placed collection bins near the exits where Canadian customers can deposit their unwanted items, rather than leaving them scattered across parking lots and in restrooms and dressing rooms.
Under his initial plan, Malvin Jeffery would always have been under the mistletoe.
But shaving the seasonal smooching plant into his hair proved tricky, so he settled for a head full of holly.
To read or to write, that is the question! In the Name of Almighty God-the All-Knowing, the Most Lovingly Compassionate
Since my last post on the blog, a few months have passed. But this doesn't mean that I have not been keeping my promise of spending fifteen minutes per week on it. As a matter of fact, I have spent more than the allocated time on the blog.
My business card is the red-yellow-and-green thimble-sized ball of putty I handed you along with this paper. Yeah, that's right. My business card is a ball of putty.
Ike Turner whose role as one of rock's critical architects was overshadowed by his ogrelike image as the man who brutally abused former wife Tina Turner, died Wednesday at his home in suburban San Diego. He was 76.
You may know the original title of Metallica's Kill 'Em All, but are you sure you can name the final retail cost of Tom Petty's 1981 album Hard Promises? Challenge yourself to four decades of the trickiest, weirdest and most off-the-wall trivia questions ever in our fifty-eight question quiz, and tabulate your own rock & roll IQ.
The Reality Diaries Program is a 6 week program that revolves around the lives of four real girls who share their personal self-esteem stories online. They record their journey online through the use of blogs and videos, allowing girls across the country to go behind-the-scenes on their real lives and understand the factors that impact their self-esteem. Each girl deals with a different self-esteem issue and the Diaries will reflect how the media influences their self-esteem.The program has loads of interactive stuff that will appeal to younger girls and hopefully get them talking about it with their friends.
"Kisses take on a number of figurative meanings in folklore, literature, and art, ranging from the betrayal — with Judas’ kiss — to the life-giving symbolism of movies such as The Little Mermaid."
The theme for 2008, “Dignity and justice for all of us,” reinforces the vision of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) as a commitment to universal dignity and justice. It is not a luxury or a wish-list. The UDHR and its core values, inherent human dignity, non-discrimination, equality, fairness and universality, apply to everyone, everywhere and always. The Declaration is universal, enduring and vibrant, and it concerns us all.
Polanoid was invented because the magic of Polaroid pictures, the thrilling Edwin Land story and the charme and touch of Polaroid cameras hit us like a sledge hammer. Hungry for real analog, good smelling pictures in a digital world, we decided to swim against the stream and to reset our focus and start the biggest, best and most instant online photo community ever. Stuffed with millions of Polaroids, collected and uploaded by Polaroid addicts all over the planet.
The 14 felines-in-residence at Tokyo's Cat Cafe Calico excel at their job of making customers purr with delight.Visitors to Calico pay 800 yen ($7) an hour or 2,000 yen for three hours in a big room where 14 well-brushed and shampooed cats hang out. After a thorough handwash, the visitor can play with the cats, read comics or just relax.
The clean, odorless cafe -- Calico has six air fresheners and the litter trays are out of sight -- gets about 70 visitors a day during the week and 150 a day at weekends.
Your Christmas is Most Like: How the Grinch Stole Christmas |
You can't really get into the Christmas spirit... But it usually gets to you by the end of the holiday. |
Surrounded by a panel of men, Agnes Macphail addresses a group of students gathered at University of Toronto's Convocation Hall on a subject close to her heart, 'Women in Parliament: Why aren't there more?' Macphail had made history on Dec. 6, 1921, when she became the first woman to be elected to the House of Commons in Canada.