Russian grandpa makes it as porn star at 75
A 75-year-old grandad has become a porn star in Russia after wandering into a porn movie audition by mistake, Ananova said Wednesday.
Director Alexander Plahov said: “We were auditioning for a new film and had a number of couples simulating sex on stage when I saw this old guy standing at the back. I wandered over to ask him to leave, but then I saw this massive package straining against his trousers. I thought, “This could be an original idea”. And I was so right -- all the movies we’ve made with David have been huge successes.”
The pensioner’s biggest hits have been The Old Neighbor and The Handyman at Work. But Plahov added: “His female co-stars always complain because David believes in the beneficial power of garlic and insists on rubbing it on his erection before a scene, so it’s rather smelly.”
Friday, April 28, 2006
VAMPIRES LIVE
Chupacabra ('Goatsucker') seen in Central Russia
Reports of a beast that kills animals and sucks on their blood came from a village in Central Russia, when a farm had 32 turkeys killed overnight. The beast left the corpses bloodless, the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily said.
Then reports came from neighboring villages, where more than 30 sheep and goats fell victim to the vampire. Again, the blood had been drained from corpses but the flesh remained intact. All the slaughtered animals had similar puncture wounds on their necks, different from the marks that wolves, dogs or lynx leave on their victims.
Finally, eyewitness descriptions match the traditional description of the Chupacabra, said to resemble a kangaroo and a dog with huge teeth.
“I heard the sheep bleating loudly, and when I approached the barn I saw a black shadow, like a big dog standing on its hind legs. It leaped like a kangaroo — when it spotted me it ran away,” says Yerbulat Isbasov, 18, who guards sheep in the village of Gavrilovka.
Yerbulat saw the beast again in a few days’ time, and described it as a 1.2 metre high animal with a hump on its back.
[Another witness Alfia Makasheva reported seeing a whole pack in her yard: “One was a huge reddish thing, another was dark grey, and they were being followed by a pack of pups. In the middle of the yard the red one turned its head and got up on the hind legs, as if it was thinking.”]
LAUGH IT UP
President Bush Discusses Global War on Terror
Q Thank you, Mr. President. It's an honor to have you here. I'm a first-year student in South Asia studies. My question is in regards to private military contractors. Uniform Code of Military Justice does not apply to these contractors in Iraq. I asked your Secretary of Defense a couple months ago what law governs their actions.
THE PRESIDENT: I was going to ask him. Go ahead. (Laughter.) Help. (Laughter.)
Q I was hoping your answer might be a little more specific. (Laughter.) Mr. Rumsfeld answered that Iraq has its own domestic laws which he assumed applied to those private military contractors. However, Iraq is clearly not currently capable of enforcing its laws, much less against -- over our American military contractors. I would submit to you that in this case, this is one case that privatization is not a solution. And, Mr. President, how do you propose to bring private military contractors under a system of law?
THE PRESIDENT: I appreciate that very much. I wasn't kidding -- (laughter.) I was going to -- I pick up the phone and say, Mr. Secretary, I've got an interesting question. (Laughter.) This is what delegation -- I don't mean to be dodging the question, although it's kind of convenient in this case, but never -- (laughter.) I really will -- I'm going to call the Secretary and say you brought up a very valid question, and what are we doing about it? That's how I work. I'm -- thanks. (Laughter.)
Q Thank you, Mr. President. It's an honor to have you here. I'm a first-year student in South Asia studies. My question is in regards to private military contractors. Uniform Code of Military Justice does not apply to these contractors in Iraq. I asked your Secretary of Defense a couple months ago what law governs their actions.
THE PRESIDENT: I was going to ask him. Go ahead. (Laughter.) Help. (Laughter.)
Q I was hoping your answer might be a little more specific. (Laughter.) Mr. Rumsfeld answered that Iraq has its own domestic laws which he assumed applied to those private military contractors. However, Iraq is clearly not currently capable of enforcing its laws, much less against -- over our American military contractors. I would submit to you that in this case, this is one case that privatization is not a solution. And, Mr. President, how do you propose to bring private military contractors under a system of law?
THE PRESIDENT: I appreciate that very much. I wasn't kidding -- (laughter.) I was going to -- I pick up the phone and say, Mr. Secretary, I've got an interesting question. (Laughter.) This is what delegation -- I don't mean to be dodging the question, although it's kind of convenient in this case, but never -- (laughter.) I really will -- I'm going to call the Secretary and say you brought up a very valid question, and what are we doing about it? That's how I work. I'm -- thanks. (Laughter.)
FIRST CASUALTY
Truth is the first casualty of war
Australian prime minister John Howard has rejected claims by Private Jake Kovco's mother that the army and the government had covered up over the circumstances surrounding his death.
"I can give her an assurance that there will be no cover up," Mr Howard said.
The government initially said Pte Kovco died when his gun discharged as he was cleaning it.
It has since said the soldier was not cleaning the weapon when it accidentally discharged, but the details of exactly what happened remain unclear.
OUR NOBLE LEADERS
Donald Rumsfeld, left, and President George W. Bush
Bush's wisdom: 'God told me to say dumb stuff"
"I'm the decider, and I decide what is best. And what's best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the Secretary of Defense."
George W. Bush, Washington, D.C. April 18, 2006 (Watch video clip.) +more
The analogy between Iraq and Vietnam has proved to be most compelling to the generals who planned and conducted the invasion of Iraq. They kept to themselves their profound disquiet about the rapid rejection of the original plan for invasion that had taken 10 years to develop, the inadequate downsized force, the absence of preparation for the occupation, and the disastrous decision to disband the Iraqi military.
[Clinging to Rumsfeld as generals lead an unprecedented revolt, Bush reveals his weakness and his disdain for the lessons of history.]
Thursday, April 27, 2006
HE'S ALL STYLE
George W Bush was unwilling to let Hu bow out gracefully and insisted on more photos - dragging him unceremoniously back onto the dias by the sleeve of his jacket.Chinese President Hu Jintao visited the US this month and was treated to a new kind of hospitality.
The Chinese National Anthem was announced as that of "the Republic of China", another name for Taiwan, the island that rebelled and seceded from mainland China and has since sought US aid in keeping Hu Jintao from grabbing it back.
... but why does the Pope support Bush?
German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Vatican theologian who was elected Pope Benedict XVI, intervened in the 2004 US election campaign ordering bishops to deny communion to abortion rights supporters including presidential candidate John Kerry.
SWINGING THE LEAD
Order from chaos
The “pendulums” in a scientific simulation were loosely connected to each other, as oscillators also are in many natural situations.
A textbook example of such “coupled” oscillators is pendulums with springs linking their ends together.
The scientists found that the pendulums, when pushed by forces according to a regular rhythm, behaved chaotically and swung out of sync.
Yet when the researchers introduced disorder -- applying forces at random intervals to each oscillator -- they began to swing in synch. The “forces” were applied along the rods of the “pendulums” to make them swing.
“When you introduce disorder … the chaos that was present before disappears and there is order,” said Sebastian F. Brandt, a physics graduate student at Washington University in St. Louis and lead author of the study. The findings appeared in the January issue of the research journal Physical Review Letters.
[Other common cases are violin strings, which are connected by their sounding boards, and electrical filters used in communications.]
The “pendulums” in a scientific simulation were loosely connected to each other, as oscillators also are in many natural situations.
A textbook example of such “coupled” oscillators is pendulums with springs linking their ends together.
The scientists found that the pendulums, when pushed by forces according to a regular rhythm, behaved chaotically and swung out of sync.
Yet when the researchers introduced disorder -- applying forces at random intervals to each oscillator -- they began to swing in synch. The “forces” were applied along the rods of the “pendulums” to make them swing.
“When you introduce disorder … the chaos that was present before disappears and there is order,” said Sebastian F. Brandt, a physics graduate student at Washington University in St. Louis and lead author of the study. The findings appeared in the January issue of the research journal Physical Review Letters.
[Other common cases are violin strings, which are connected by their sounding boards, and electrical filters used in communications.]
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
TINFOIL HAT
Babs ... nutterClothing for the paranoid
TINFOIL hats may protect the brain from dangerous radio frequencies and mind-control rays. Or they may not, according to a group of students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who tested three standard designs with equipment costing $250,000.
They found the foil actually amplified some radio signals - especially those on frequencies used by the US government - by a factor of up to 100. In summing up, they say:
"It requires no stretch of the imagination to conclude that the current helmet craze is likely to have been propagated by the government, possibly with the involvement of the FCC [Federal Communications Commission].
"We hope this report will encourage the paranoid community to develop improved helmet designs to avoid falling prey to these shortcomings."
[Of course the real problem with the classic tinfoil hat is that wearing one makes you look like a nut.]
OUR COSMOS
Another fundamental constant accused of changing
Cosmologists claim to have found evidence that yet another fundamental constant of nature, called mu, may have changed over the last 12 billion years. If confirmed, the result could force some physicists to radically rethink their theories. It would also provide support for string theory, which predicts extra spatial dimensions.
This is not the first time fundamental constants have been accused of changing over the lifetime of the universe. Most famously, there was controversy over the fine structure constant, alpha (?), which governs how light and electrons interact. Some physicists claimed it is changing while others said it was not (see Speed of light may have changed recently).
Cosmologists claim to have found evidence that yet another fundamental constant of nature, called mu, may have changed over the last 12 billion years. If confirmed, the result could force some physicists to radically rethink their theories. It would also provide support for string theory, which predicts extra spatial dimensions.
This is not the first time fundamental constants have been accused of changing over the lifetime of the universe. Most famously, there was controversy over the fine structure constant, alpha (?), which governs how light and electrons interact. Some physicists claimed it is changing while others said it was not (see Speed of light may have changed recently).
Monday, April 24, 2006
OUR NOBLE LEADERS
Cheney Gets Booed, Sheen Gets Applauded:
But the media reports it the opposite way around
Cheney threw the first pitch at a Washington Nationals baseball game.
Cheney was clearly booed by at least 80% of the attending fans at the RFK Memorial Stadium, yet the media reported a mixed reaction and the Washington Post went as far as to outright lie and claim the boos were a result of the bad pitch that bounced before the Nationals' Brian Schneider caught it, when in reality the cat-calls began as soon as Cheney's name was announced. The boos raged even though Cheney was accompanied by three injured US servicemen who had fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.
[Watch the video]
SEX EN LAÏCITÉ
Separation of Church and State
Laïcité is a prevailing conception of the separation of church and state and the absence of religious interference into government affairs (and vice versa). It implies free exercise of religion, but no special status for religion: religious activities should submit to the same set of laws as other activities and are not considered above the law. The government refrains from taking positions on religious doctrine and only considers religious subjects from their practical consequences on the inhabitants' lives.
The Réseau Voltaire (Voltaire Network) is an international non-profit organisation, based in Paris with offices in London and Lima, which states it aims at promoting liberty and laïcité (separation of church and state).
[The Voltaire Network was founded in the context of a campaign in favour of freedom of speech, which the founders thought was put into jeopardy by new laws enshrined in the French penal code.
After the campaign the association lived on, specialising in the study of far-right movements and religions.
It was vocal notably in preventing the French government from funding the religious part of the Pope's visit to France, and in initiating an investigation of the French Parliament regarding the French far-right militia group DPS. Since 1999, the Réseau Voltaire has dealt with international issues, notably by publishing daily news about the bombings of Serbia by NATO.]
Laïcité is a prevailing conception of the separation of church and state and the absence of religious interference into government affairs (and vice versa). It implies free exercise of religion, but no special status for religion: religious activities should submit to the same set of laws as other activities and are not considered above the law. The government refrains from taking positions on religious doctrine and only considers religious subjects from their practical consequences on the inhabitants' lives.
The Réseau Voltaire (Voltaire Network) is an international non-profit organisation, based in Paris with offices in London and Lima, which states it aims at promoting liberty and laïcité (separation of church and state).
[The Voltaire Network was founded in the context of a campaign in favour of freedom of speech, which the founders thought was put into jeopardy by new laws enshrined in the French penal code.
After the campaign the association lived on, specialising in the study of far-right movements and religions.
It was vocal notably in preventing the French government from funding the religious part of the Pope's visit to France, and in initiating an investigation of the French Parliament regarding the French far-right militia group DPS. Since 1999, the Réseau Voltaire has dealt with international issues, notably by publishing daily news about the bombings of Serbia by NATO.]
Saturday, April 22, 2006
Friday, April 21, 2006
WAR MONGERELS
The really real "long war"
Savvy players in the military-industrial racket know that the "War on Terror" is just short-end money: fat and sweet, sure, but it doesn't really have legs.
"Islamofacism" is too empty a concept to sustain the kind of decades-long looting of the public treasury that the dear old Cold War used to provide – the overwhelming majority of Muslims in the world just aren't interested in dressing up in Nazi drag and playing their assigned roles in the Pentagon-Neocon-Theocon war game.
I mean, Jesus Herbert Walker Christ, you can even walk your army right into the heartland of Islam and kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people, and they still won't take the bait. Not a single Muslim nation has gone jihad over Iraq; they haven't all turned into a nice, big monolithic evil empire set on the utter destruction of America.
It's like they're all just ordinary people or something, good, bad and indifferent, largely occupied with their own concerns – personal, economic, social, religious, national.
Savvy players in the military-industrial racket know that the "War on Terror" is just short-end money: fat and sweet, sure, but it doesn't really have legs.
"Islamofacism" is too empty a concept to sustain the kind of decades-long looting of the public treasury that the dear old Cold War used to provide – the overwhelming majority of Muslims in the world just aren't interested in dressing up in Nazi drag and playing their assigned roles in the Pentagon-Neocon-Theocon war game.
I mean, Jesus Herbert Walker Christ, you can even walk your army right into the heartland of Islam and kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people, and they still won't take the bait. Not a single Muslim nation has gone jihad over Iraq; they haven't all turned into a nice, big monolithic evil empire set on the utter destruction of America.
It's like they're all just ordinary people or something, good, bad and indifferent, largely occupied with their own concerns – personal, economic, social, religious, national.
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
BODY OF EVIDENCE
China selling prisoners' organs: report
A group of top British surgeons has accused China of unethically harvesting the bodies of executed convicts for transplant organs that are then sold to the highest bidder, according to a media report.
British Transplantation Society chairman Stephen Wigmore says there is growing evidence that convicts were being selected for execution to suit the needs of paying organ recipients, a report on the BBC website says.
Dr Wigmore is also reported as saying that thousands of organs are being collected without donors' prior consent.
[A huge lucrative black market for human organs has emerged in China as a result of a chronic shortage of donors.]
A group of top British surgeons has accused China of unethically harvesting the bodies of executed convicts for transplant organs that are then sold to the highest bidder, according to a media report.
British Transplantation Society chairman Stephen Wigmore says there is growing evidence that convicts were being selected for execution to suit the needs of paying organ recipients, a report on the BBC website says.
Dr Wigmore is also reported as saying that thousands of organs are being collected without donors' prior consent.
[A huge lucrative black market for human organs has emerged in China as a result of a chronic shortage of donors.]
Saturday, April 15, 2006
EASTER NEOCONS
Ancient text claims Judas was no traitor ...
An ancient manuscript dating from the third or fourth century, containing the only known surviving copy of the Gospel of Judas, has been conserved, authenticated and translated after being lost for nearly 1,700 years, scientists say.
In the Gospel of Judas, Jesus selects Judas from among the other disciples for a special task: “... you will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me.” Jesus would thus have been asking Judas to help him get rid of his physical flesh, to free the spiritual being within.
[Scholars said the 66-page manuscript contains not only the Gospel of Judas but also a text titled James, also known as First Apocalypse of James, a Letter of Peter to Philip, and a fragment of a fourth text provisionally called the Book of Allogenes.]
... and Satan isn't such a bad guy, either
According to Dr. Henry Ansgar Kelly's "Satan: A Biography", the Evil One feared by Christians is just an invention of the Roman church.
Satan is the same sort of celestial functionary we see in the Book of Job - appointed to govern the world, specifically to monitor and test human beings. A bit like an Attorney General.
And like some Attorneys General he is brutal and deceitful in his methods, and Jesus predicts that his rule will soon come to an end.
"Lucifer" -- Latin for "light bringer," or Venus the morning star -- is the result of a sloppy 4th Century Latin translation of a story about an Iraqi king. The whole tale of Lucifer being a beloved angel of God who does something bad and "falls" to Earth was entirely invented centuries later, supposedly from a verse in Isaiah about a plain old king being taunted by exiled Jews.
[IN OTHER NEWS: A new study suggests Jesus was strolling on a patch of floating ice, not walking on water.Yeah, right. That is even less believeable than the original story.]
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