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Since last week the SP crew have been back at work in SPS.

To celebrate, here's a fantastic news story that's been doing the rounds of news sites for a few weeks. This BBC report is the best one I've read so far.

It has everything a news story needs (???) - ex-commie former East German, giant rabbits and commie depostic leader-Kim Il-Jong!!!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6320821.stm

The thread name should be changed to
'Unusual News Item O'de Day'.

So ... you're a highly trained very intelligent woman. Determined and ambitious, you work very, very hard and you become an Astronaut!

'Cept you aint happy. Some other biatch might steal your kinda man. What do you do? You decide to kidnap her!

Perhaps she wanted to transport her to Mars and leave her there... or drive over 1,000 miles wearing a nappy to avoid a toilet break?

Click below to find out which one of those two things is true. This is a movie just waiting to happen. A comedy, of course.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6333975.stm

Thank you for changing the name whomever did that!

Word o'de Day - ISLAMOPHOBIA. Ya wha???

However you feel about the French you've got to be rooting for these French guys in the magazine Charlie Hebdo. It's the same old, same old story of the so-called 'insulting' cartoons but a great deal is at stake - free speech. Vive La Resistance!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6337307.stm

Ciao bella Roma! I was in Rome for 5 days. Lucky, lucky me.

Looks like the mysterious persons, who have the unenviable task of choosing the (lame) q's to answer with (lame) a's, recently discovered Wikipedia.

Beware the person of one book, and/or have fun with this Onion funniness - http://www.theonion.com/content/node/50902

Anyhoo... Enya is one of the worst, most boring, unoriginal and perplexinlgy, one of the richest 'musicians' in the world. She rarely pokes her pretty nose outside of her castle (yes, she owns a bleedin castle!!!) but the other night she decided to grace the Grammys with her presence. She needed have bothered...

Enya's late late show

SHE is renowned as a recluse who shuns the celebrity limelight, so when Enya ventured to Los Angeles to accept her latest Grammy her fans tuned in en masse.

But when the time came for her to step up on stage on Sunday night, the Donegal-born singer was nowhere to be seen.

Showing her inexperience, on this her debut attendance at the Grammy ceremony, Enya apparently lingered too long on the red carpet and missed her cue.

With the winner a no-show, her gong for Best New Age Album had to be accepted on her behalf.

"I was actually on the red carpet," she explained after the ceremony. "But the news was wonderful when I heard it."

The notoriously private singer and composer won the award for her sixth studio album, 'Amarantine'.

She had waited six years and travelled thousands of miles to collect the honour, but a red carpet gridlocked with celebrity traffic deprived her of her moment in the sun.

This latest victory at the 49th Grammy Awards, held in the Staples Centre in LA, brings her Grammy haul to four and cements her status as the doyenne of New Age music.

She has won the same category in the past for 'Shepherd Moons' in 1992, 'The Memory of Trees' in 1996 and 'A Day Without Rain' in 2001.

But with a long line of honours in her wake - she has notched up six World Music Awards, a Los Angeles Film Critics Association award and been nominated for a host of Oscars and Golden Globes - missing out on personally receiving this latest gong was perhaps not such a blow.

And while the Killiney-based chanteuse was in celebratory mood following her win, Ireland's other two hopefuls, U2 and Snow Patrol, left empty-handed.

At least U2 and Snow Patrol weren't rewarded at the Grammys in 'The Bland leading The Bland' music category.

I usually drink three cups of green tea a day. I love the stuff. Now I know I'm doing myself some good, ciggies and red wine not withstanding....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/5281046.stm

Tea 'healthier' drink than water
Drinking three or more cups of tea a day is as good for you as drinking plenty of water and may even have extra health benefits, say researchers.

The work in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition dispels the common belief that tea dehydrates.

Tea not only rehydrates as well as water does, but it can also protect against heart disease and some cancers, UK nutritionists found.

Experts believe flavonoids are the key ingredient in tea that promote health.

These polyphenol antioxidants are found in many foods and plants, including tea leaves, and have been shown to help prevent cell damage.

Public health nutritionist Dr Carrie Ruxton, and colleagues at Kings College London, looked at published studies on the health effects of tea consumption.

They found clear evidence that drinking three to four cups of tea a day can cut the chances of having a heart attack.

Some studies suggested tea consumption protected against cancer, although this effect was less clear-cut.

Other health benefits seen included protection against tooth plaque and potentially tooth decay, plus bone strengthening.

Dr Ruxton said: "Drinking tea is actually better for you than drinking water. Water is essentially replacing fluid. Tea replaces fluids and contains antioxidants so it's got two things going for it."

She said it was an urban myth that tea is dehydrating.

"Studies on caffeine have found very high doses dehydrate and everyone assumes that caffeine-containing beverages dehydrate. But even if you had a really, really strong cup of tea or coffee, which is quite hard to make, you would still have a net gain of fluid.

"Also, a cup of tea contains fluoride, which is good for the teeth," she added.

There was no evidence that tea consumption was harmful to health. However, research suggests that tea can impair the body's ability to absorb iron from food, meaning people at risk of anaemia should avoid drinking tea around mealtimes.

Dr Ruxton's team found average tea consumption was just under three cups per day.

She said the increasing popularity of soft drinks meant many people were not drinking as much tea as before.

"Tea drinking is most common in older people, the 40 plus age range. In older people, tea sometimes made up about 70% of fluid intake so it is a really important contributor," she said.

Claire Williamson of the British Nutrition Foundation said: "Studies in the laboratory have shown potential health benefits.

"The evidence in humans is not as strong and more studies need to be done. But there are definite potential health benefits from the polyphenols in terms of reducing the risk of diseases such as heart disease and cancers.

"In terms of fluid intake, we recommend 1.5-2 litres per day and that can include tea. Tea is not dehydrating. It is a healthy drink."

The Tea Council provided funding for the work. Dr Ruxton stressed that the work was independent.

If yer a kid, living in Britain - it's horrible. So says the UN. The result is of a survey of 21 developed countries. Best place for kids - The Netherlands. Who says that relaxed laws on drugs, gay marriage, porn and sex workers are bad for kids, eh???

Ireland was placed mid-table and second last...was????

THE USA! Better get yer relaxed drug, marriage and porn laws AWN, dudes!

http://society.guardian.co.uk/children/ ... 12,00.html

Excerpt:
UN puts UK bottom of 21 advanced nations

Children growing up in the United Kingdom suffer greater deprivation, worse relationships with their parents and are exposed to more risks from alcohol, drugs and unsafe sex than those in any other wealthy country in the world, according to a study from the United Nations.

The UK is bottom of the league of 21 economically advanced countries according to a "report card"' put together by Unicef on the wellbeing of children and adolescents, trailing the United States which comes second to last.

That doesn't surprise me in the least.

When you look at America's incarceration rate, infant mortality rate, number of deaths by violent crime and life expectancy, you'd think the United States was a third world country.

And I believe the number one culprit behind most of these statistics is a health care system that's ardently for-profit. We get drug companies paying pro athletes millions of dollars to plug boner pills during the Super Bowl instead of using those resources to provide health care to people who can't afford it.

There's one political party in Ireland called The Progressive Democrats (ha!) who are in power forming a majority with the main ruling party Fianna Fail. They are insane, mostly, cos they think things like a private health service in Ireland is a good idea. F*ckers.

Anyhoo....

Happy Birthday Kim Il-Jong!. 65 years ‘young’ today. In Ireland, he’d start receiving his state pension and his free public transport travel pass would be in the post. In North Korea, in celebration of the Dear Leader's birthday, the population may receive extra food! That’s only if there’s any money left over from spending on nuclear weapons and testing.

Vladimir Putin sent him Happy Birthday wishes. Jaysus.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070216/ap_ ... MJENis0NUE

Extract:
SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea marked the 65th birthday of leader Kim Jong Il on Friday amid progress in ending its nuclear programs and lingering speculation abroad over who will eventually succeed him.

Kim's birthday is one of North Korea's most important national holidays and one in which the personality cult he inherited from his father, the country's founder Kim Il Sung, is clearly visible.

North Koreans usually receive perks such as extra food, but it remains unclear whether the country can afford such largesse this year, given chronic food shortages and UN sanctions imposed over its Oct. 9 nuclear test.

Second news item cos it's kinda the weekend.

Whatever gods there may be on this earth, in the sky and the universe PLEASE, PUH-LEEZE spare us from counter productive charity and/or condescending raising-peoples-consciousnesses rock concerts.

This time it's global warming. F*ck's sake.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6367515.stm

Happy Chinese Year of the Pig Everyone! (Could that be the Year of Cartman???)

Man! What a bizarre story.

Two things before I start - I bet Britney had nits and if Rogan and Mencia are meant to be comedians why aren't they funny?

I wonder what this guy was watching when he died.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/02/17/death. ... index.html

Mummified body found in front of blaring TV
POSTED: 8:54 a.m. EST, February 18, 2007

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Police called to a Long Island man's house discovered the mummified remains of the resident, dead for more than a year, sitting in front of a blaring television set.

The 70-year-old Hampton Bays, New York, resident, identified as Vincenzo Ricardo, appeared to have died of natural causes. Police said on Saturday his body was discovered on Thursday when they went to the house to investigate a report of a burst water pipe.

"You could see his face. He still had hair on his head," Newsday quoted morgue assistant Jeff Bacchus as saying. The home's low humidity had preserved the body.

Officials could not explain why the electricity had not been turned off, considering Ricardo had not been heard from since December 2005.

Neighbors said when they had not seen Ricardo, who was diabetic and had been blind for years, they assumed he was in the hospital or a long-term care facility.

I bet his Social Security and any other income was automatically going into his bank accounts, and his utilities were set up to be automatically paid also. That's the only reason why everything was still going after a year.
My Aunt takes care of all my Grandmother's bills, but if that was the case here, I'm sure that someone would have checked on him in the last year.

Were his neighbors deaf? How could they hear a blaring TV and assume that he was in the hospital or a long-term care facility?

In response to the first unusual news item o'de day:


Aren't McDonalds trying to do the same to Americans?

And that last story was pretty cool, lawl.

Are we feeding rabbits to Americans now, or are we Americans gonna be food to someone else? Or are you just commenting on the obesity epidemic around here?

1- Only four nations on the planet have alower Infant Mortality Rate:
Japan
Hong Kong, SAR, PRC
Sweden
Singapore

2- The incarceration rate has more to do with the War on Poverty being stopped than the Health Care system.

3- Deaths by violent crime are serious problems, but not even the best doctor can save someone who has had their head blown off. Also, if someone has come to the ER with a gunshot wound or a stab wound, they can't turn you away. They don't ask you for money before rolling Timmy with three bullets in his chest into the ER. Laws state that emergency care must be provided to save a life. After the life is saved

4-1 Andorra 83.51 .
2 Macau 82.19
3 San Marino 81.71
4 Singapore 81.71
5 Hong Kong 81.59
6 Japan 81.25
7 Sweden 80.51
8 Switzerland 80.51
9 Australia 80.50
10 Guernsey 80.42
11 Iceland 80.31
12 Canada 80.22
13 Cayman Islands 80.07
14 Italy 79.81
15 Gibraltar 79.80
16 France 79.73
17 Monaco 79.69 2006
18 Liechtenstein 79.68
19 Spain 79.65
20 Norway 79.54
21 Israel 79.46
22 Jersey 79.38
23 Faroe Islands 79.35
24 Aruba 79.28
25 Greece 79.24
26 Austria 79.07
27 Virgin Islands 79.05
28 Malta 79.01
29 Netherlands 78.96
30 Luxembourg 78.89
31 Montserrat 78.85
32 New Zealand 78.81
33 Germany 78.80
34 Belgium 78.77
35 Saint Pierre and Miquelon 78.61
36 Guam 78.58
37 United Kingdom 78.54
38 Finland 78.50
39 Isle of Man 78.49
40 Jordan 78.40
41 Puerto Rico 78.40
42 European Union
43 Bosnia and Herzegovina
44 Bermuda 77.96
45 Saint Helena 77.93
46 United States 77.85


Between the US and Andorra, that is a 5 year, few months difference. Yeah, what a sign of a third world country.



5- Yes, I do agree our health care system is bad. However, it is far superior to a third world country and, a ssuch, comparing them is idiotic.