All the Stops on Oddity

Man dies on Animal Farm

Although sex with animals is not illegal in Washington state, Urquhart said that investigators were looking into whether the farm, located in Enumclaw, 40 miles southeast of Seattle, allowed sex with smaller animals that resulted in animal cruelty, which is a crime. “If you’re talking about sheep or goats, there could be some issues,” Urquhart said.

Does someone care to explain the difference in between molesting one animal from another as being a more serious offense? I'd think it would all be extremely serious with no step down into things like fines and straight into punishable offenses. I can't imagine someone that would prefer an animal to a human being...

Lucky Cat

A cat in Nevada is recovering from a foray atop a power pole that left it jolted, frizzled and dazed — and with a little less fur.

Kittens naturally born to Cloned parents

American scientists have pulled off a breeding first by producing two litters of African wildcat kittens from cloned parents.

Cat 'Reborn" as clone

Little Nicky, bought by a Texas woman identified only as 'Julie' because of fears that she would be targeted by anti-cloning groups, is genetically identical to the owner's previous cat, 'Nicky', a 17-year-old Maine Coone which died in September. The kitten is reported to resemble the previous cat in appearance, temperament and behaviour.

Apple's iTunes sold albums for 50 yen In an apparent "Lost in Translation moment, the Japanese accidently set some album prices in their Apple Music Store to 50 yen. Yes that's a lot less than $10 U.S. Pricing has been since corrected, but the sales that occured during the error are being honored. Lucky them.

VGCats & Video Game Politics - This is absolutely not right in the head of whomever dictated these e-mails. If you have difficulty comprehending outright idiocy or profanity- you probably shouldn't read the link.

Woman Looks to Profit on Mormon Belief

Retired bookstore owner Helen Schlie can see a higher purpose in selling her 1830 first-edition Book of Mormon one page at a time. Schlie said she believes it will be more of a “missionary tool” since the framed pages — priced at $2,500 to $4,500 apiece — can be handed down from generation to generation.

Missionary tools are better cheap. It makes them more 'accessible'... $2,500 dollars isn't 'accessible'. That's a computer.

Computer Software can detect Empathy

I developed theories of measurements [of empathy]. One measure of empathy is called mirroring. For example, I said: ‘right,’ and you said: ‘uh huh.’ Then there’s a measure of activity—how much they talk. And stress is how clearly delineated or how much emphasis there is. When people are depressed, they talk very flatly. Then there’s this engagement or interest thing which has to do with who’s dominating the conversation. Just from those four measurements activity, stress, engagement, and empathy we can tell a lot. You can imagine making call centers a lot happier places. You can predict who you ought to be connected to when you call up. There’s already been an investment from Google to make it real and out in the world.

Additional Excess of Verbage and Adjectives

Like vanilla? You probably only know vanilla flavoring.

But the vanilla that wearies us is rarely vanilla at all. Anywhere from 90 percent to 97 percent of vanilla-flavored products are made with vanillin, a substance found in small quantities in natural vanilla but made synthetically for processed commercial foods. Real vanilla...is as different from vanillin as sugar is from Equal; vanilla possesses subtlety and depth, while vanillin is loud, brassy, superficial. Food manufacturers thus have little incentive to choose real vanilla: Using pure vanilla extract costs...73 cents a gallon of ice cream, as opposed to 12 cents a gallon for...vanillin. In 2004, vanilla prices peaked at $500/kilo.

I'd pay more for real vanilla, and to also not have anything artificial at all in my ice cream! Its so unnecessary!

Boatsticks

The ice cream sticks used to make the ship were provided by Unilever’s ice cream maker OLA and by children who collected discarded sticks around the world.
McDonald is a 45-year-old from Jacksonville, Fla. whose Sea Heart Foundation helps provide leisure activities for children in hospitals, hopes to sail his Viking ship across the Atlantic next year. “That’s still the ultimate goal, to sail across the Atlantic in the Viking-style,” McDonald said.

Continued

The ship carried a crew of 20 on its maiden voyage. "It's a dream come true. It's truly worth all the hard work," said Mr McDonald, quoted by Reuters news agency. "I never want to look at glue again. I don't think I will be in a hurry to look at ice cream sticks again."

Luxury toilet paper Incredibly stupid, but probably being bought.

Game Boy Micro(Photos)

Nintendo said Thursday it will launch Game Boy Micro, a new mobile-phone-size game console, in Japan on Sept. 13 with a price tag of 12,000 yen-- just under $110--about a week before the U.S. launch.

Plethora: Demonstrated

The American Beverage Association wants beverage companies to provide elementary schools with only water and pure fruit juices and offer middle schools only "nutritious and/or lower calorie beverages" such as sports drinks, diet sodas and low-calorie juice drinks. In high schools, soft drinks would make up no more than half of the vending selections. "It's not to say that children can never drink these things," Wootan said. "The question is do they belong in schools."

I don't really think that this should take so much priority in school agendas. They do fund extra curricular activities and I know peronally, in my high school they monitored the soft drink machines to not be accessable until after lunch periods. There are many more important and crucial things that need to be addressesd in the education system.

Phantom Health and Shrinking Menus
You think people would catch on that the restaurants are interested in profit, not changing your habits. That includes the unhealthy habits that make them more money.

Some restaurants have found that the best way to sell healthful items is to make them seem nutritious even if they're not. Fried white meat chicken strips have become popular on many menus and are big sellers, including atop salads, in keeping with the general perception that chicken is a more healthful alternative to beef. But at Wendy's, the Homestyle Chicken Strips Salad, eaten with one pack of ranch dressing, packs 670 calories and 45 grams of fat.

McDonald's has won much praise for adding healthful menu items, but only a tiny fraction of customers order them. The fast-food giant promotes the fact that it has sold 400 million premium salads ... McDonald's serves 23 million people a day in the United States alone, or roughly 16.8 billion people in the past two years — meaning just 2.4 percent of customers have ordered salads since they were added to the menu.
"The most popular item on our menu continues to be the double cheeseburger, hands down," said company spokesman Bill Whitman.

Unfaithful by Card

Gallagher hit upon the idea a couple of years ago. “I’m thinking, ‘So how do these people communicate? It’s a secret love affair,’” Gallagher said. “So I thought, ‘Oh, my gosh, what better can you do than give someone your sentiments in a greeting card? How special is that?’”

Gallagher says she doesn’t talk about the social implications: “I’m neither a crusader nor an advocate for this lifestyle. I’m a businesswoman.”

Dr. Robert R. Butterworth, a psychologist in Los Angeles who specializes in reactions to traumatic stress, could only laugh when told about the Secret Lover Collection. “I can see trouble ahead,” he said. “This will be a boon for marriage therapists all across the nation, because [the cards] are going to wind up in the wrong hands.”

“The question for me then becomes does the promotion of such a Web site make adultery more acceptable,” said Dr. Trina E. Read, a Canadian sexologist and columnist. “I would guess not because even though a lot of people are doing it, there is still a huge negative societal connotation.”

--- Huge negative social connotation???? Imagine that, adultery NEGATIVE! >=(

Technology and Humans

17 people injured and 4 Hospitalizations when 2nd hand iBooks were put on sale in Henrico County, VA. $50 for a four year old notebook is a good deal, but apparently makes people even rationalize trying to run other buyers over with their car.

The news that everyone knew a month ago Microsoft Formally announces XBOX 360 will retail at a base price of $299. Tack on an extra $100 for and extra controller and doo-dads and your favorite boutique owner called the Premium Edition. Of course all the stuff for the Premium will be available seperately and costlier with less cowbell. Still no specific street date release.

A former America Online software engineer was sentenced Wednesday to a year and three months in prison for stealing 92 million screen names and e-mail addresses and selling them to spammers

“I know I’ve done something very wrong,” a soft-spoken and teary eyed Jason Smathers told U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein.

Really. A little late with that idea.

Scientists want to propose a U.S. Ecological History Park to re-introduce large animals similar to those that humans hunted to extinction long ago such as cheetahs, lions, camels and elephant. I recommending reading the WHOLE article to get the full idea of what these scientists are proposing. Its a little wild- but in an ecological way kind of makes sense. Round-a-bout, but makes a big point. I'm not sure how I feel about this idea.

Abundance of New(s)

Learn to hate Ice Cream, but strangely enough- not cookies. Apparently liking cookies runs deeper in our psyche than ice cream does.

A leading expert in false memories was able to convince up to 40 per cent of people that they had been ill after eating strawberry ice-cream when they were younger.

The researchers at California University were also able to do the same with crisps, but failed when they tried to put a group of students off chocolate chip cookies.

NYC wants less fat in their foods. Newspaper says city health department urges restaurants to stop serving food containing trans fats. About fricking time, and maybe that will help people with some of their diets when they indulge.

Trans fats, which are prominent in foods like cookies and French fries, are chemically modified ingredients that can be found in partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, the report said. The Times, citing health officials, said the fats increase the risk of heart disease and should not be part of any healthy diet.

TSA looks to upgrade shoe security procedures
New technologies could ditch need to remove shoes at airport checkpoints. That's good, don't have to wear sandals to the airport anymore. But buckles are probably still out. The odd device specifically targets the feet that looks like a wider version of store door alarms that you see in malls.

Korean game dead after 50 hrs straight. Anyone other than me see something disturbing about a guy who would quit his job to play more games, only to die after getting up to quit?

Caught in the act, a britan bigamist was wincing after all three wives come and see how he came out of his bypass surgery. He may have to go back under the knife when they get through with him.

All three of his spouses had turned up at the same time, despite his efforts to stagger their visits.

Media reports say that, upon realizing that something was amiss, the wives held a meeting in the parking lot, and learned that they were all married to the same man.

Women have a nose for being manipulated. Morale of the story, move to Utah.

First Edition Fitzgerald Found

WEST CHESTER, Pa. (AP) — A first-edition copy of F. Scott Fitzgerald's Jazz Age novel The Great Gatsby sat in a box of unsorted volumes at Baldwin's Book Barn for almost two months before it was noticed, and now the bookseller hopes it will bring more than $50,000.

And to think the guy was going to ebay for half that at first.

Black Holes and Stars

For those of you who didn't see this lately: Help John Mayer finish a song
Your eyes do not deceive you. This is for your pure amusement, especially since the man is a hack and sounds like other singers. He has no sound, no unique voice (I'm not talking about the way air is bent in his throat)- it could be anyone's song if anyone else sung it. They don't belong to him. Its Dave Matthews, its Coldplay, its Pete Yorn, it could even be Rob Thomas. So forgive me if I find AMUSEMENT in him outwardly admitting he's a hack in this manner.

Singer encourages fans to put music to his lyrics
John Mayer has writer’s block — and he wants your help.

The soft-voiced rocker is calling on fans to make a song out of some lyrics that didn’t make it onto his upcoming album.

“I’m inviting all aspiring songwriters to write their own chords and melodies around my lyrics,” Mayer writes in the September issue of Esquire, on newsstands Aug. 15. “You can tell people we wrote a song together.”

Secondly, there is an MSN article of B-List Actresses that should be A-list (Opinion Article mind). I don't agree with a lot of the sentiments, especially not the comment at the end dissing Ashton Kutcher. But four of the ladies I did appreciate.

Thora Birch,Sarah Polley,Anna Paquin, and Zoe Saldana.

I've liked Thora since I first saw her in Hocus Pocus. So sweet, soulfull, and mischievious. I'm glad she hasn't faded into the woodwork, and would love to see if any of the movies she's done since then tickle my fancy.

Sarah was mentioned because of her recent role in Dawn of the Dead- which isn't really my cup of tea. Go is more my speed. It goes crazy with some of the time-space relations, but all in all, its like Pulp Fiction just got brought up to date, and Ronna was a great role for her. I agree she needs to bust out a little of the 'tough girl' roles.

Saldana was the spicy pirate lady Anamarie who ended up with the other ship after the Black Pearl set sail. Jack Sparrow did owe her since he sunk hers. She was a positive spitfire character, and I wish she was in the movie longer than five minutes. Zoe is a fairly recent newcomer to movie roles.

Anna Paquin, or Rogue from the X-Men movies I should say. Ahh, you know who. She was also in Finding Forrester and Fly Away Home. She's grown a lot since those roles. I look for her to go places in the movies. I look forward to it.

Oddities and Humdrumbums

207,000 jobs in July

Hiring shifted into a higher gear in July, with the largest expansion of payrolls in five months. The unemployment rate held steady at 5 percent.

That's great that there are so many new jobs listings... but how many of those unemployed people are qualified to get them? Who knows, and the businesses sure don't care. To them, its not their problem. But its an untapped market, and the longer someone is without a job, the cheaper they are. Who doens't understand this logic?

Following, one of the craziest device/software combos I have ever seen. CardScan

CardScan Executive saves you hours by capturing business cards directly into your computer. Without typing, you build a database of your vital contacts, either in CardScan's address book, in Outlook, or in any other popular contact manager.

The person who saw the amusing demand for this has my full respect. Right along with everyone who sold their stock before TimeWarner bought AOL.