Video: "Gaythering Storm" - "Gathering Storm" parody

This first video is a very funny parody of a National Organization for Marriage Gathering Storm TV Ad. Watch the parody and then watch the original below it. In their words: "The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) is a nonprofit organization with a mission to protect marriage and the faith communities that sustain it."

Japanese scientists invent kissing transmission machine

Scientists in Japan have invented a "kissing machine" that electronically transmits a kiss. "If you take one device in your mouth and turn it with your tongue, the other device turns in the same way," researcher Nobuhiro Takahashi said. "If you turn it back the other way, then your partner's turns back the same way, so your partner's device turns whichever way your own device turns."

What kind of use can a device like this have? Takahashi: "For example, if you have a popular entertainer use this device and record it, that could be hugely popular if you offer it to fans," he said.

Hey girls, line up for your kiss with Justin Bieber!

One in four public soap dispensers are contaminated with bacteria and spread germs during hand washing

Image via Wikipedia

It's always been common wisdom that washing your hands with soap eliminates, or at least reduces the amount of bacteria on your hands. Didn't your mother always say: "Wash your hands".

Well hold on to your hand sanitizer. A new study provides some disturbing findings about soap dispensers and hand washing. This study, published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, has found that one in four public soap dispensers in public washrooms are contaminated with bacteria. It gets worse. That contamination is passed on to the hand washer, even after thoroughly washing the hands.

From the study:

"Bulk-soap-refillable dispensers are prone to extrinsic bacterial contamination, and recent studies demonstrated that approximately one in four dispensers in public restrooms are contaminated. ^"

^{"The purpose of hand washing is to remove soil and to reduce the level of potentially pathogenic transient microorganisms. This is the first study to quantitatively demonstrate that washing hands with contaminated liquid soap actually increases the number of Gram-negative bacteria on hands. Furthermore, the results directly demonstrate that bacteria from contaminated hands can be transferred to secondary surfaces. We therefore conclude that washing with contaminated soap not only defeats the purpose of hand washing but may contribute to the transmission of potentially harmful bacteria."}

Putting this real simply, if you use the public facilities and wash your hands, you have a one in four chance of having more bacteria on your hands than before you washed them. I suppose the moral of the story is don't use public facilities, or if you do, use your hand sanitizer. Look out Howie Mandel!

Related articles

• 5 Steps to Effective Hand-Washing (everydayhealth.com)
• Soap vs. Hand Sanitizer (fitsugar.com)

Dying man's last blog post – sad and inspiring – Derek Miller 's final post

Image via Wikipedia

Derek Miller died in Vancouver on May 3, 2011. Incredibly, the blogger left one last post on that day, that is both very sad and inspiring. It's sad for the obvious, but inspiring for his lack of fear and in the way he embraced life. Here are some quotes from the blog post:

"Here it is. I'm dead, and this is my last post to my blog. In advance, I asked that once my body finally shut down from the punishments of my cancer, then my family and friends publish this prepared message I wrote—the first part of the process of turning this from an active website to an archive." 

"If you knew me at all in real life, you probably heard the news already from another source, but however you found out, consider this a confirmation: I was born on June 30, 1969 in Vancouver, Canada, and I died in Burnaby on May 3, 2011, age 41, of complications from stage 4 metastatic colorectal cancer. We all knew this was coming.That includes my family and friends, and my parents Hilkka and Juergen Karl. My daughters Lauren, age 11, and Marina, who's 13, have known as much as we could tell them since I first found I had cancer. It's become part of their lives, alas."

"What is true is that I loved them. Lauren and Marina, as you mature and become yourselves over the years, know that I loved you and did my best to be a good father.Airdrie, you were my best friend and my closest connection. I don't know what we'd have been like without each other, but I think the world would be a poorer place. I loved you deeply, I loved you, I loved you, I loved you."

"I haven't gone to a better place, or a worse one. I haven't gone anyplace, because Derek doesn't exist anymore. As soon as my body stopped functioning, and the neurons in my brain ceased firing, I made a remarkable transformation: from a living organism to a corpse, like a flower or a mouse that didn't make it through a particularly frosty night. The evidence is clear that once I died, it was over."

"So I was unafraid of death—of the moment itself—and of what came afterwards, which was (and is) nothing. As I did all along, I remained somewhat afraid of the process of dying, of increasing weakness and fatigue, of pain, of becoming less and less of myself as I got there. I was lucky that my mental faculties were mostly unaffected over the months and years before the end, and there was no sign of cancer in my brain—as far as I or anyone else knew. "

"The world, indeed the whole universe, is a beautiful, astonishing, wondrous place. There is always more to find out. I don't look back and regret anything, and I hope my family can find a way to do the same."

Read the full post here.

Nancy Pelosi can't make her mind up about Osama bin Laden

Image by TalkMediaNews via Flickr

We have gotten quite desensitized to politicians lying to us, recanting their words after having "mis-spoken" about something. That said, Nancy Pelosi is in desperate need of a continuity assistant, who can keep track of her opinions.

Here's what she had to say about Osama bin Laden at a press conference in 2006:

"Even if [Osama bin Laden] is caught tomorrow, it is five years too late. He has done more damage the longer he has been out there. But, in fact, the damage that he has done ... is done. And even to capture him now I don't think makes us any safer."

Now we'll fast forward to May 2, 2011:

"The death of Osama bin Laden marks the most significant development in our fight against al-Qaida. ... I salute President Obama, his national security team, Director Panetta, our men and women in the intelligence community and military, and other nations who supported this effort for their leadership in achieving this major accomplishment. ... The death of Osama bin Laden is historic...."

(from the Power Line)

I suppose it's no coincidence that George W. Bush was president in 2006 .....

Eating less salt does NOT cut risk of heart disease

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We have been told for years by doctors and government health departments that eating salt causes heart disease. Not so, a new study says. Reuters is reporting that people with higher salt intakes were not, I repeat, not, more likely to have high blood pressure or die of heart disease.

The findings "certainly do not support the current recommendation to lower salt intake in the general population," study author Dr. Jan Staessen, of the University of Leuven in Belgium, told Reuters.

The existing salt guidelines are based on data from short-term studies of people in a experiment where they were fed either a high or low sodium diet. U.S. guidelines currently recommend consuming less than 2,300 milligrams of salt daily and 1,500 mg in people who are more at risk for high blood pressure or heart disease. According to the new findings, making the leap from the small test groups, to the general population, hasn't held true.

In this new study, which used existing data from two different studies, the chance of getting heart and blood vessel diseases did not differ with salt intake levels. In fact, participants with the lowest salt intake had the highest rate of death from heart disease and people who ate the most salt had the lowest.

Pass the salt!

From the FBI files: The case of the master art forger

The FBI has recently revamped its website, allowing for easy access to its "vault",  a treasure trove of great case history. This one about an art scam in 2004 shows how a big time art dealer  pulled off a major series of art scams. It took money, skill, patience and of course a certain amount of chutzpah. The scammer wasn't quite that good – he was caught. Here's some of the case highlights:

1990: Buy the authentic Marc Chagall La Nappe Mauve for $312,000.1993: Have it copied by an expert forger and sell the forgery for $514,000.1998: Sell the authentic work of art for $340,000. GAIN OVER 8 YEARS: $854,000.

1996: Buy the authentic Gustave Moreau L'Enlevement de Ganymede for $285,000.1997: Have it copied by an expert forger and sell the forgery for a $55,000 loss—price tag $229,000.1999: Sell the authentic work of art for a bigger loss—$170,000.                   GAIN OVER 3 YEARS: $399,000

Other paintings involved in the scams include Chagall's Les Marie au Bouquet de Fleurs and Le Roi David Dans le Paysage Vert; Marie Laurencin's Jeune Fille a la Mandolin; Paul Gaugin's Vase de Fleurs (Lilas); and Paul Klee's Palaste, all pictured above. Read the complete FBI  file here.

Video: Watch the Earth age 750 million years in one minute

Hey buddy - have a minute to spare to watch the Earth's continents being formed? This very cool video is from the Visible Paleo-Earth project – an initiative by the Planetary Habitability Laboratory at the University of Puerto Rico to visualize the Earth’s changing appearance over the past 750 million years. See the rest of their collection at http://phl.upra.edu. Sit back an watch a bit of geological history unfold.

Twitter users hit back at the Donald

In one corner -  the ridiculous comb-over king Donald Trump.  In the other -  President Obama. It's not that I'm a huge Obama fan; I'm not and believe he's made his share of mis-steps running the country, but you have to take your hat off to him on offing Osama bin Laden in a most spectacular manner. Obama managed to swing back with humour at Trump in his speech at the Press Club dinner, but it looks like the Osama take-down in the knock out punch. Even the Donald has asked for a truce.  It's obviously getting a lot of twitter action, and here are a few of the most recent tweets:

"Bin Laden is dead. I didn't kill him. Please let me sleep now." – The man who live tweeted the Osama bin Laden raid

Sohaib Athar – aka twitter user@ReallyVirtual – was just a tech consultant hanging out, specifically Abbottabad, northern Pakistan. His twitter profile says he's "An IT consultant taking a break from the rat-race by hiding in the mountains with his laptops."

Now he's known as the guy that live tweeted the attack on the bin Laden mansion. It looks like the attention is taking its toll on him, however.

Here's his final tweet before going to bed after being hounded by media around the world:

Here are some of his tweets during the attack:

Google photos of Osama bin Laden

After a decade of a "Where's Waldo" chase, Osama bin Laden is finally dead. It would be a smart idea for the U.S. to show photos of his dead body to put the doubters to rest, as distasteful as this may be. Does this change the terrorism outlook?  Not a bit, but a bit of vengeance has been served. Here's the Wikipedia entry on the world's former number one terrorist, updated with his date of death:

"Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (Arabic: أسامة بن محمد بن عوض بن لادن‎, ʾUsāmah bin Muḥammad bin ʿAwaḍ bin Lādin; March 10, 1957 – May 2, 2011 was a member of the wealthy Saudi bin Laden family and the founder of the jihadist organization al-Qaeda, responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets. As a result of his dealings in and advocacy of violent extremist jihad, Osama bin Laden lost his Saudi citizenship and was disowned by his billionaire family."

Here's a look at the assortment of images that come up when you type in "Osama bin Laden" in Google photos.

Video: Man struck by lightening twice within one minute

In this video from a security camera, a man is struck by lightening twice within a minute and walks away. The jogger gets struck once and is knocked to the ground, gets up and is struck a second time and walks away. Is this real footage or a hoax? The chances of getting struck by lightening are about one in 700,000. The odds of getting struck twice in one minute are astronomical.  No one seems to know if this is real or not and there is no information with the YouTube video to help decide. Have a look and decide for yourself.

Here's the first strike:

And the second strike:

And now the video:

Video: iPad predicted in 1994

Everyone is a genius inventor in hindsight, but in this case former newspaper giant Knight-Ridder seems to have predicted in 1994 the device now known as the iPad. The newspaper chain was known for being an innovator and this is a great example of the forward thinking they were employing, even in the pre-wireless days. In Knight-Ridder it was the first newspaper publisher to experiment with videotex , launching its Viewtron system, which essentially put print content on the television screen. The company's flagship paper, the San Jose Mercury News, was the first newspaper to regularly post its full content online.

Not forward thinking enough, though. In 2006 the ailing company was sold to the McClatchy Company.

Donald Trump has his own skeletons to worry about

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Donald Trump latching on to the Obama birther issue and his demand see the President's academic records, is a tribute to the idiocy that politics can sink to. There are certainly important issues he could be challenging Obama on that have great importance, such as the economy or foreign affairs. But the most interesting part of Trump launching these attacks is that Trump is a man with a closet full of skeletons himself.

Lets start with Trump's ability to stay out of the draft during the Vietnam war. Trump claims his unusually high draft number was the reason he was never called to duty. That indeed is part of the reason, but the Donald left out something. The Smoking Gun reports that Selective Service records show received a series of student deferments while in college and then with a medical deferment after graduation.

During a TV interview Trump said, "I actually got lucky because I had a very high draft number. I’ll never forget, that was an amazing period of time in my life. I was going to the Wharton School of Finance, and I was watching as they did the draft numbers and I got a very, very high number and those numbers never got up to.” No mention of those helpful deferments and as well his time frame is somewhat out of whack.

From the Smoking Gun:

"By the time his number (356) was drawn during the December 1, 1969 draft lottery, Trump had already received four student deferments and a medical deferment, according to military records on file with the National Archives and Records Administration. An extract of Trump’s Selective Classification record, seen here, was provided in response to a TSG records request.


In fact, the December 1969 draft lottery occurred about 18 months after Trump graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied business at the Wharton School. So, while claiming that he would “never forget” being at Wharton watching the draft numbers being drawn, the 64-year-old Trump seems to have misremembered, as candidates are fond of saying."

Another Trump skeleton that has haunted the self-proclaimed billionaire is the question of his actual net worth. Forbes has annually ranked him among the 400 richest people in the country.

His wealth began with his father, Fred Trump,a Scottish immigrant was the largest apartment building owner in New York City. Atthe time of his death in 1999, Trump had amassed a $400 million estate fortune, left largely to his children,

Recently, Trump told CNN that his net worth is "many, many, many times Mitt Romney," apparently making him a better-suited presidential contender.
"Forbes says $2.7 billion. I can tell you that's a very low number. It's much more than that."

Because many of Trumps companies are private and his finances are tangled in complicated licensing deals, his actual worth is difficult to determine.

Trump promised to release his income tax records if President Obama released his long form birth certificate. Obama released his certificate, but Trump has yet to make public his tax records.

In his book "TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald," Timothy O'Brien, a former reporter at the New York Times, pegged Trumps wealth at between $150 million and $250 million. He attributed the figures to people with direct knowledge of Trump's finances. "None of these people thought that he was remotely close to being a billionaire," O'Brien wrote.

Trump sued O'Brien and his publisher for libel and the case was dismissed. Trump has appealed and a decision is pending.

Here is a partical transcript of Trump sparing with O'Brien's lawyer Andrew Ceresney, during a deposition concerning his wealth:

Trump: My net worth fluctuates, and it goes up and down with the markets and with attitudes and with feelings, even my own feelings, but I try.


Ceresney: Let me just understand that a little. You said your net worth goes up and down based upon your own feelings?


Trump: Yes, even my own feelings, as to where the world is, where the world is going, and that can change rapidly from day to day ...


Ceresney: When you publicly state a net worth number, what do you base that number on?


Trump: I would say it's my general attitude at the time that the question may be asked. And as I say, it varies.


Ceresney:  Reading from O'Brien's book: "Donald owns 40 Wall Street, which he spent about $35 million to buy and refurbish in 1996. The building has about $145 million in debt attached to it, and New York City assessors value it at $90 million. Donald values it at $400 million."


Trump: "Anybody would understand that a city assessment is 15 and 20 percent the value of a building."


Questioned about the return on his investment from several golf courses, Trump said he 'does his own math.'


Ceresney: Have you ever done a projection as to how much you anticipate you will profit on these courses over time in light of the contributions that you're making in cash?


Trump: Yes, I've done mental projections.


Ceresney: Mental projections?


Trump: Yes.


Ceresney: These are projections that you've done in your head?


Trump: Yes.


(Read more on this case on Yahoo. )

I'm left wondering if the IRS would accept the  "mental projections" that the Donald alludes to. We do know that he makes a considerable sum fromhis reality TV shows. My advise to the Donald is this: Stick to reality TV,  because the reality is not sticking.

Related articles

• Trump: In his own words (money.cnn.com)
• Trump Misremembers Why He Didn't Serve In Vietnam (alan.com)
• Donald Trump: Draft Dodger (zwingliusredivivus.wordpress.com)
• Trump's worth hard to pin down (cnn.com)
• Trump: I'm worth whatever I feel (money.cnn.com)

How Americans perceive Islam and violence

Wikipedia

Religion and violence have long gone hand in hand, preaching peace from one side of the mouth and inciting violence from the other. Even a casual read of religious texts will show that god, in whatever form represented, is a violent and vengeful god, who encourages a good deal of violence to herd the sheep into the religious coral and to rid the would of unbelievers.

All that said, I have little fear of being blown up by a Christian or Jewish suicide bombers. That is simply the reality we face. Am I singling out Islam? The short answer is yes. I do not fear Muslims as a whole, nor do I find the religion any more offensive than other religions (which you have likely now realized I have little use for). But the fact is, Islam produces religious fanatics who want to blow up airplanes, building and subways – where I live.

Enough about my thoughts on this. Good.is has produced yet another excellent info-graphic that tracks Americans feelings about Islam and violence.

From Good.is:

"Historically, violence has pervaded religions all over the world—from Christianity in Ireland to Hinduism in India. Still, the post-9/11 Western world has come to associate Islam as a primary source of contemporary religious violence. Where exactly do Americans align themselves with the question, "Is Islam more likely than other religions to promote violence among its believers?"

The unofficial list of Royal family conspiracy theories

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

William and Kate are getting married as I pen this, and having absolutely no interest in their nuptials (yet is plays on my TV!) I thought this would be good time to look into some of those bothersome Royal family conspiracy theories. TruTV has put together an awesome list of the top eleven here.

Number one, of course, involves the 1997 car crash death of Princess Dianna. From TruTv: "Sources say that the real cause of the crash was actually the Royal Family and that the driver, Henri Paul, could have been drugged, and that bright flashing lights were used to impair the driver's vision of the dangerous, paparazzi-filled streets. " The culprit in this theory: The Royal family itself; namely the Queen, who allegedly offed the princess because she was an "inconvenient woman". I suppose that would be one way to handle an awkward situation of a having a daughter-in-law done astray. Mohamed al Fayed, father of Dodi Fayed, Dianna's boyfriend who also died in the fiery crash, never gave up trying to link the Royal's to the crash that killed the two lovers. 

Perhaps the most interesting and ludicrous theory, is the one claiming  the Royal family are lizards. Looking for a way to explain the longevity of the Royals, the nutters have come up with this , hummm, highly plausible explanation.  "Conspiracy master David Icke claims that the Royal Family are not humans but rather alien reptiles who have taken on human form in an effort to enslave humanity. Icke claims to have taped an interview with Christine Fitzgerald, a confidant of Princess Diana's, saying that Diana had told her that the Royal Family hasn't died in ages — they have "metamorphosised" by rebuilding flesh, much in the same manner that a lizard re-grows a tail. She went on to explain that the Queen Mother is "Chief Toad." The good news is that England is not alone. It appears that the lizard people have taken over governments world-wide.

Read TruTv's complete list. It's a royal hoot.

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Unemployed ninja will make video for you for a fiver

From the website Fiverr, where people offer there services for a cool $5, this out-of-work ninja warrior offers to make a video for you for that bargain price. From user Nitrohotfire:

"I will make a cool ninja video for $5 . I'm an unemployed ninja looking for work, so im willing to do stunts and fight scenes with my ninja buddies with your message in the video."

It doesn't stop there, Nitrohotfire has much more on offer:

I'm doubting there's a lot of work out there for ninjas but at $5 who knows. Have a look at Nitrohotfir's video. I wish him well.

Senator McCain: Arm Libyan rebels like the Afghans in the 1980s

Image via Wikipedia

McCain: Arm the rebels

Perhaps it's for the best that Senator McCain blundered in the presidential race and chose Sarah Palin as his running mate torpedoing his chance to become President of the United States.

Bad enough that the western powers are involved in a civil war in Libya by providing them with an air force, but AFP is reporting the McCain,who has already sung high praise of the Libyan rebels, believes we should be arming them as well.

He told AFP: "There is a possibility, if not a probability of a stalemate, and that should be of deep concern to us. The United States needs to recognise the TNC [Transitional National Council] as France and Italy have done. They need to get supplies and equipment into the liberation forces and we need to get American air power back into the fight."

But it gets better as McCain, a ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee continues: "I think we could do the same thing that we did in the Afghan struggle against the Russians. There are ways to get weapons in without direct US supplying."

McCain is referring to the U.S. arming Afghans, many of them Taliban, in the 1980s. With the luxury of hindsight, I would have guessed that Americans might look back at this as not having worked out so well for the western world. Arm the rebels, who then turn out to be the terrorists we fight. Maybe not such a great idea after all.

Related articles

• Sen. McCain Won't Endorse Trump But Congratulates Him For Getting So Much Attention (mediaite.com)

Video: Former Miss America tells how she was sexually molested by TSA

Air travel is becoming more and more difficult, mostly because of continually increased security. But Miss American groped? Susie Castillo, Miss America 2003, says a TSA “screener” fondled her vagina during a pat-down, after she refused to go through a full body scanner at the airport in Dallas, Texas. You can watch her spill her guts on this in the video below.

Even the tough guys are affected by this overly invasive action. Former Minnesota governor and ex-wrestler Jesse Ventura has launched a lawsuit against the TSA for subjecting him to pat-downs as he traveled while working. Ventura said that he would “no longer be forced by the TSA to prove he is not a criminal or terrorist.”

 Open your window and shout outside, " I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more." Now hope no one calls the police.

Two teachers from same school busted for having sex with students

They should call this school the School of Sex. Two teachers from Reeds High School in Sparks, Nevada have been arrested for having sex with students. Bethyl Shepherd, 34 and Marie Fisher, 21, who both worked in special education department, were arrested within weeks of each other.

Shepherd is accusing of having a threesome with two 17-year-old students in her car and Fisher is charged with having sexual relations with a 15-year-old student. After her arrest Shepherd claimed one of the teens forced her to have sex while the other watched. Police say this scenario doesn't match the evidence.

Washoe County schools police Chief Mike Mieras said, "Well, there are two sides to a story but what her allegations are at this time are not quite matching up to the accounts of what was reported to us."

School officials that teachers and staff  at the school will be given "extra training on appropriate behaviour and personal relationships with students."

Fisher (left) and Shepherd (right)        Credit:Washoe County Sherrif's Office