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Wednesday, February 27, 2008
History Lesson: Past Debates
Although they were established just 40 years ago, presidential debates are now a major feature of the election season.
The two remaining Democratic candidates took the stage for one final debate before the March 4th primaries. People everywhere are talking about this race. Take a look back at the highlights (and lowlights) of every presidential and vice-presidential debate since 1960,here.
Last week’s Austin debate drew roughly 7.7 million viewers, while last month’s showdown in Hollywood was seen by 8.3 million. the largest debate audience came in 1980, when 80.6 million people watched Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter. Here’s the top ten:
1. Reagan-Carter, October 28, 1980 (80.6 million)
2. Clinton-Bush-Perot, October 15, 1992 (69.9 million)
3. Carter-Ford, September 23, 1976 (69.7 million)
4. Reagan-Mondale, October 21, 1984 (67.3 million)
(tie) Bush-Dukakis, October 13, 1988 (67.3 million)
6. Clinton-Bush-Perot, October 19, 1992 (66.9 million)
7. Kennedy-Nixon, September 26, 1960 (66.4 million*)
8. Reagan-Mondale, October 7, 1984 (65.1 million)
(tie) Bush-Dukakis, September 25, 1988 (65.1 million**)
10. Carter-Ford, October 6, 1976 (63.9 million)
19:15 Posted in Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: USA, politics, debates, news, Obama, Clinton, 2008 primaries
Born on the same day!
Next January will be an expensive month for Martin and Kim MacKriell. Three siblings share a birthday!!!
Their three children were all born on the same day, beating odds of one in 130,000 – so they won't just be tightening their belts after Christmas. Robin, now 14, arrived first - on 29 January, 1994. Rebecca arrived on the same day - two years later - and Ruby was born on 29 January this year.
'Everyone thinks it is really weird,' says 14-year-old Robin, who acts as spokesman because his parents are deaf.
More...
18:53 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: UK, London, news, weird, medicine, Birthdays, world
Slim Waterproof Mobile Phone
Fujitsu have launched a mobile phone, the F705i, which is reported to be the World’s slimmest waterproof mobile phone.
It is just 13.77mm thick, and is able to be plunged underwater for a maximum of 30 minutes without any damage to the phone.
It also has a 1.3 mega pixel camera which can be used as a videophone, and the battery will provide 170 minutes of talk-time of 100 on the videophone.
18:48 Posted in Shopping | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Mobile Phones, Fujitsu, technology, shopping, news, web, blog
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Michigan bar aims for big burger record! mmm Yummy
Where does a bar and grill go when it's looking to top its everyday fare of 6-pound hamburgers and sundaes the size of basketballs?
At Mallie's Sports Grill & Bar, the 240-person capacity establishment in Southgate, the answer is straight toward the record books. After 12 hours of preparation and baking, the 134-pound burger emerged Saturday
he “Absolutely Ridiculous Burger,” made with beef, bacon and cheese, was delivered on a 50-pound bun, The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press reported. It sells for $350, and orders require 24 hours’ notice.
Flipping the burger required three men using two steel sheets.Owner Steve Mallie told The News he wanted to show that he has the biggest and best burgers.
Authenticating Mallie’s claim could take a few weeks. His burger would outweigh the 123-pound burger made last year by Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub, of Clearfield, Pa.!
more...
17:20 Posted in Leisure | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: USA, Michigan, news, world, web, jopurnal, blog
Thursday, February 21, 2008
SteakHouse Grill
New electric grill that takes true grilling to the table. With SteakHouse Grill, food products cook without coming into contact with their fats as is true with traditional grilling. It leaves behind neither smoke nor smells in the kitchen.
In fact, its vertical position ensures that the fats drain into the special tray.
buy it here...
10:19 Posted in Shopping | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Steaks, grills, styeakgrill, shopping, USA, world, web
The proper use of the semicolon
It was nearly hidden on a New York City Transit public service placard exhorting subway riders not to leave their newspaper behind when they get off the train.
“Please put it in a trash can,” riders are reminded. After which Neil Neches, an erudite writer in the transit agency’s marketing and service information department, inserted a semicolon. The rest of the sentence reads, “that’s good news for everyone.”
Semicolon sightings in the city are unusual, period, much less in exhortations drafted by committees of civil servants. In literature and journalism, not to mention in advertising, the semicolon has been largely jettisoned as a pretentious anachronism.
Americans, in particular, prefer shorter sentences without, as style books advise, that distinct division between statements that are closely related but require a separation more prolonged than a conjunction and more emphatic than a comma.
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10:07 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Punctuation, semicolon, NYC, USA, Blog, writting, grammar
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Astronomers discover distant solar system similar to our own
A host of amateur astronomers have helped researchers discover a distant solar system remarkably similar to our own, according to a study released Thursday by Science magazine.
Initial observations found two planets orbiting a star some 5,000 light years away which appear to be slightly smaller versions of our own Jupiter and Saturn.
Just 25 multi-planet solar systems have been mapped so far and this is the first one that really seems to resemble our own, said lead author Scott Gaudi of Ohio State University.
"It's like a scaled-down version of our solar system,"
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16:30 Posted in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Science, Space, USA, web, news, world, journal
Cauliflower cheese will never be the same again
The orange, purple and green cauliflowers that scientists claim could be healthier for you!
Scientists have developed amazing variants of vegetable where the traditional white florets have been changed to a garish orange, purple and green.
The "rainbow cauliflowers" are said to taste the same as the normal varieties, but add a splash of colour to the dinner table.
Some scientists have even claimed that they are healthier for you.
Andrew Coker, a spokesman for the plant company Syngenta - which is developing the plants in Europe - stressed that the colourful cauliflowers were not the result of genetic engineering, but came after decades of traditional selective breeding.
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16:30 Posted in Shopping | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Food, Cauliflower, Science, Shopping, Web, journal, blog
World's Biggest Bunny
Hopping into the record books, Humphrey the two-stone rabbit is king of the big bucks! Meet record-breaking rabbit Humphrey - a buck so large he has smashed the official mark for the world's biggest bunny.
The French lop-eared rabbit is 42in long and tips the scales at a mammoth two stone.
That's 3lb heavier than previous world record holder Dancing Star, a rabbit of the aptly named British Giant breed who weighs in at 25lb.
The French Lop's average weight is a comparatively tiny 10lb. And the 18-month-old, who is not yet fully matured, is still growing, fuelled by a diet of hay, carrots, asparagus - and his favourite, digestive biscuits.
Owner Colin Dunigan, from Cumbernauld, Lanarkshire, said: "When I first got him I could hold him in the palms of both my hands.
"Every day he just kept getting bigger and bigger. I thought he would stop, but he hasn't so far."
In a single day he will eat three whole carrots, half a broccoli, a couple of asparagus tips, some wholemeal bread and a handful of biscuits.
more...
16:28 Posted in news | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Bunny, rabbits, World, news, Guiness Records, UK, web
Machines 'to match man by 2029'
Machines will achieve human-level artificial intelligence by 2029, a leading US inventor has predicted.
Humanity is on the brink of advances that will see tiny robots implanted in people's brains to make them more intelligent, said Ray Kurzweil.
The engineer believes machines and humans will eventually merge through devices implanted in the body to boost intelligence and health.
"It's really part of our civilisation," Mr Kurzweil explained.
"But that's not going to be an alien invasion of intelligent machines to displace us."
Machines were already doing hundreds of things humans used to do, at human levels of intelligence or better, in many different areas, he said.
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16:24 Posted in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Human, computers, science, Future, USA, UK, world
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
To all my readers from around the world: Happy Valentine's!
MEET THE PIG WITH A LOVE HEART ON HER COAT
Pint-sized piglet Valentine is hoping that her heart-shaped patch will be a hit with the boars.
The dinky Gloucestershire Old Spot piglet from Byford's Farm in Taynton, near Newent, surprised farmer Eric Freeman when she popped out with unusual markings.
The piglet was around 10 days old when she was pictured in The Citizen.
Mr Freeman, 75, a founder member of Gloucestershire Old Spots Pig Breeders' Club, said Valentine's mum Mandi Lou was quite happy for her daughter to steal the show.
He said: "Some sows get really annoyed and squeal but Old Spots are known for being quiet. Mandi Lou was very good and didn't mind Valentine having her picture taken."
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10:53 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Love, Valentine's, world, news, blog, web, animals
World's Most Romantic Restaurants
Contrary to what your eighth-grade girlfriend may have told you, romance isn't all about flowers and heart-shaped candies. But the word "romantic" has become so sappy and overmarketed that it's often tough to remember its actual meaning. And sadly, many so-called romantic restaurants rely on the same clichéd formulas whether you're in Mexico or Manhattan: bland decor, food-as-afterthought, stuffy waiters, and the inescapable strolling violinist/guitarist/accordionist. So this year, we'll help you reclaim romance, one mesmerizing meal at a time. Our 12 restaurant picks from around the world have all the right elements—a seductive view, an unhurried atmosphere, terrific food—but never veer into sentimentality. Because style mixed with subtlety is a more potent aphrodisiac than straight saccharine.
Le Tobsil, Marrakesh, Morocco. The restaurant only seats 50 people, and tables are arranged around an open-air courtyard and its upper perimeter. Table 9, under an archway on the balcony, has the best position over the overall scene; downstairs, the "table de la cheminée" is snuggled into a dark nook by a fireplace.
Click here to find more restaurants...
10:45 Posted in Travel | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Romance, love, St.Valentine's, web, blog, news, travel
Pepsi RAW
Pepsi launch new drink made from 'all natural' ingredients!
It may not be as healthy as a freshly squeezed juice, but Pepsi claim their new drink is made from all natural ingredients. Pepsi Raw, which will initially only be launched in the UK, is the first drink the multi-national cola brand has added to its range in more than ten years.
Pepsi claims the new drink is made from natural ingredients and contains no artificial preservatives, colours, flavourings or sweeteners and that by replacing corn syrup with cane sugar, it has managed to reduce the calorie content of a 300ml bottle from around 120 calories to around 90 calories.
The drink apple extract, plain caramel colouring, coffee leaf, tantaric acid from grapes, gum arabic from acacia trees, cane sugar and sparkling water. It is paler in colour and less fizzy than other cola brands.
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10:37 Posted in Diet | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Coke, Pepsi, Drinks, Beverages, Web, blog, news
Dubai to Build World's Largest Arch Bridge!
Dubai is set to spend $817-million on building the world's largest arch bride, at 617-feet tall and 1-mile in length. Expect it to be in service by 2012.
more pictures here...
10:31 Posted in Travel | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Dubai, Bridges, Architecture, news, blog, journal, web
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Think Twice before giving chocolates for Valentine's!
Lab Tests Reveal More Than Just Sweets In Candy!
Investigation Finds Nasty Surprises In Boxed Chocolates. As Valentine's Day nears, many will stroll through groceries, retail stores or specialty shops and pick up some sweet treats for their sweetie.
But those looking to woo their beloved with chocolate may want to think twice.
A few weeks ago, CBS station KTVT-TV bought chocolates made all over the world. They went to the grocery store, to a Godiva store in a mall, and to a department store to conduct an investigation.
The sealed boxes were taken immediately to a local lab, where KTVT-TV paid to have the chocolates analyzed for foreign objects one would not expect to find in chocolate.
What the lab found was surprising. A microbiologist strained the chocolate, heated it and let it dry.Under a microscope, everything in the sweets came into focus.
"We don't live in a sterile environment, and the good Lord gave us a stomach that will take care of any of these little bitty things," said Karen Deiss, senior microbiologist with Armstrong Forensic Labs. The lab found a cat hair in the $44 box of Godiva chocolates. The findings also revealed small insect parts and clothing fibers.
Godiva said these are "common items that could have easily entered the product after it left our control."
Russell Stover and Whitman's candies share the same owner - and the same problems: insect parts and human hair were found in both boxes of chocolates.
The Food & Drug Administration's limit for insect fragments is less than 90 per sample. Rodent hair is limited to less than three per sample.
No rodent hair was found in any of the samples, but the "gross out" factor bothered some people.
As one manufacturer said, "It's really impossible to exclude hair, bugs and fibers from chocolate or any other natural food product."
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21:45 Posted in Shopping | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Chocolates, Chocolate, Valentine's, news, Science, web, journal
Sheep and a goat led to Lisa the GEEP!
Leaping into the air, she looks like something from the funny farm.
But this curious creature is making scientists do a double-take. Meet Lisa the geep... a cross between a goat and a sheep.
She was born after an unscheduled amorous encounter on the farm of Klaus Exsternbrink, in Schwerte, in northern Germany's Ruhr Valley. One of his young billy goats leapt over a fence and had a passionate liaison with a ewe.
he result a month ago was Lisa - resembling a lamb in shape and stature, but with the colouring and agile back legs of a goat.
Her mother seems unfazed by her unusual offspring and has raised her happily so far.
more...
21:40 Posted in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Geep, Science, breeding, journal, web, news, Germany
Scientists create 'see-through' fish
Scientists have created ghostly transparent fish to make human biology clearer. The feat has been achieved with zebrafish are genetically similar to humans and are already in widespread use as models for human biology and disease.
The new see through fish allows scientists to directly view its internal organs, and observe processes like the spread of tumours and blood production after bone-marrow transplant in a living organism, say researchers at Children's Hospital Boston.
The fish, described in the journal Cell Stem Cell as created by Dr Richard White, with others in the laboratory of Prof Leonard Zon.
21:38 Posted in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Science, fish, news, blog, web, journal, medicine
Friday, February 08, 2008
Easy SATA HDD back up
2.5" and 3.5" SATA HDD Stage Rack is an easy way to back up your hard drives without opening your pc. cool stuff.
Buy it here!
11:13 Posted in Shopping | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Computers, web, blog, blogs, technology, shopping, news
Monday, February 04, 2008
Just two liters a day!
Man, 35, drank himself to death after consuming too much water! An inquest has heard today how a 35-year-old man literally drank himself to death after consuming too much water.
Shaun McNamara was found on the floor of his bathroom last September after downing a massive quantity of water.It was initially believed he had suffered a heart attack - but a post-mortem revealed that he had downed so much fluid rapidly that his brain had swollen.
This led to his bizarre death from water intoxication - a highly unusual cause which has very few recorded cases and is normally linked to marathon runners drinking too much water after a race.
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15:48 Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Water, news, sports, Uk, world, web, journal
'Watermarks' written in first artificial genome
he scientist attempting to create the first man-made organism scribbled his name in the first synthetic genome that he unveiled a few days ago.
A team at the J Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Maryland, announced recently how it has successfully created the largest man-made DNA structure, the circular genetic code - genome - of an artificial bacterium as a precursor to breeding a synthetic organism in the lab.Now a table in the online supplemental materials for the Science paper that announced the feat reveals it contained a secret message embedded in the DNA: the code carries the name of the head of the institute, Dr Craig Venter, that of his research institute and co-workers.
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15:42 Posted in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Science, genome, news, blog, web, journal
High heels 'improve sex life'
Wearing higher heels may improve women's sex life, according to an Italian doctor. Dr Maria Cerruto says 2ins high heels can help improve pelvic floor muscles, reports the BBC.
Dr Cerruto, a urologist and self-professed lover of high heels, set out to prove they were not as bad for women's health as some suggest. Her study of 66 women under 50 found those who held their foot at a 15 degree angle to the ground - the equivalent of a two inch heel - had as good posture as those who wore flat shoes.
And, crucially, they showed less electrical activity in their pelvic muscles suggesting they were at an optimum position, which could improve their strength and ability to contract.
Pelvic floor muscles assist sexual performance and satisfaction, and also provide vital support to the pelvic organs, which include the bladder, bowels and uterus.
But they often weaken after pregnancy and childbirth, and as women get older.
Dr Cerruto said: "Women often have difficulty in carrying out the right exercises for the pelvic zone and wearing heels could be the solution.
15:38 Posted in Shopping | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Shoes, women, Italy, news, health, blog, journal
Fly naked on nudist holiday flight
German nudists will be able to start their holidays early by stripping off on the plane if they take up a new offer from an eastern German travel firm.
Travel agency OssiUrlaub.de said it would start taking bookings from Friday for a trial nudist day trip from the eastern German town of Erfurt to the popular Baltic Sea resort of Usedom, planned for July 5 and costing 499 euros ($735).The 55 passengers will have to remain clothed until they board, and dress before disembarking, said Hess. The crew will remain clothed throughout the flight for safety reasons.Naturism, or "free body culture" (FKK) as it is known in Germany, was banned by the Nazis but blossomed again after the Second World War, particularly in eastern Germany.
"There are FKK hotels where you can go into the restaurants and shops naked, for example," Hess said. "For FKK fans -- not that I'm one of them -- it's nothing unusual."
"I don't want people to get the wrong idea. It's not that we're starting a swinger club in mid-air or something like that," he added. "We're a perfectly normal holiday company."
15:25 Posted in Travel | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Naked flight, news, Germany, blog, web, travel, vacation