"Irrigation of the land with seawater desalinated by fusion power is ancient. It's called 'rain'." - Michael McClary

***

*Canceled* Where is God in all these?...a Christian response to the Tsunami Tragedy

Maybe they were afraid I'd show up *g*


In other news:

"NUS Literary Society
Auditions for Evening of Poetry and Music

Description: We are looking for music groups to perform original or classical music at the Evening of Poetry and Music to be held in February."

Sounds like a ripoff of Ho Poh Fun's Afternoon of Poetry and Music. What's next? Morning of Poetry and Music?

***

Enming informs me that Re: Mysteries of the universe: What does it mean when in movie credits the crew have letters after their names?

Examples:

- Wayne Wahrman A.C.E (Editor)
- David Cohn CSA (Casting)
- Garry Ulmer CAS (Re-Recording Mixing Supervisor)
- Jeffrey L. Sandler MPSE (Supervising Sound Designer),

"this means they are members of that organization that they are titled after...
MPSE= Motion Picture Sound Engineers Association
CSA=Casting Society of America
CAS=Cinema Audio Society
ACE= American Cinema Editors

Cinematographers are the most varied:
ASC= American Society of Cinematography
ACS= Australian Cinematographers' Society
BSC= British Society of Cinematography"

***

Greeks vs. Italians

A Greek and an Italian were sitting down one day debating who had the superior culture.

The Greek says, "We have the Parthenon!"

The Italian says, "We have the Coliseum!"

The Greek says, "We had great Mathematicians!"

The Italian says, "We had the Roman Empire!"

And so on and so on until the the Greek says: "We invented sex."

The Italian nods, and says: "That is true, but it was the Italians who introduced it to women."

***

University offers UFOs course

Santiago University is offering a degree in UFOs

Director of the course, Ricardo Bermudez told Las Ultimas Noticias: "There is something happening out there and we don't know what it is."

"The graduates will learn how to use scientific tools to investigate phenomena and specific methods of investigation."

The course, called Unexplainable Air Phenomena is available to all local residents.

***

The flying shrimp of death suit

"Mix a piece of hot shrimp with an overzealous hibachi chef, and what do you get?

Believe it or not - a $10 million wrongful-death suit.

The family of a Long Island furrier has been allowed to continue its suit against Benihana - one of the more unusual claims you'll ever see.

Jerry Colaitis' bizarre death at age 47 came 10 months after he injured his neck on a family outing to the Munsey Park outlet of the famed Japanese steakhouse chain, noted for entertaining chefs who grill tableside.

"The chef who was assigned to their table starts tossing food," said lawyer Andre Ferenzo, who represents Colaitis' widow, Jacqueline.

"He tosses a piece of shrimp, and it hits one of the children. They tell him to stop, he doesn't. He does it a second time, and it strikes the brother-in-law."

Fearing for their safety, Ferenzo said, Colaitis who lived in Old Brookville, and his family asked the chef to stop throwing shrimp because it was hot.

The chef smiled, then tossed a third piece at Colaitis, who hurt his neck trying to avoid the flying crustacean, Ferenzo said.

That was in January 2001. By June, doctors were telling Colaitis he needed surgery to repair an injured vertebra or face possible paralysis.

After two operations, he was admitted to the hospital again on Nov. 20. Two days later, Colaitis, who owned a fur shop in Queens, was dead from a blood infection, respiratory failure and renal failure."

***

Narrator: How would you like to be an 'expert' whose views were respected by thousands? Publich books? Give lectures?

Boy: Great! How?

Narrator: By leaping on the exciting, fun bandwagon of creation science.

Boy: But I don't know any science. I have no qualifications.

Narrator: Hey, no problemo! There are dozens of mail-order diploma mills all over the USA, just send your check, SAE and a 1500 word essay as your 'dissertation' Extra honours if you spell right!

(Creationism Comic)

***

http://xiaoanan.mypicgallery.com/astrocamplyra04/girl-hilk_large.jpg - Picture of an all-girl taupok. Everyone is probably tired of the whole thing, but the following comment is still amusing: "i happen to come from tt "premier junior college in the Bishan-Ang Moh Kio area" and i'm a j2. believe me, ME, a GIRL, has participated in a taupok-ing session when my og mates taupok-ed my ogl! haha! and i was near the bottom too! wth. nothing happened to me la! just tt my ogl got kinda squashed, but it was SOOOO FUN!!! i deeply believe, that taupok-ing is a personal and intimate activity, in which members share and express their innermost and heartfelt feelings for e taupok-ed person. isn't this romantic???"

BBC shows staff the door - "Staff at the British Broadcasting Corporation have been given instructions on how to walk through a door... "Follow these simple steps each time you use the doors," says the memo entitled Revolving Security Door User Instructions... Employees at BBC Radio Sheffield in the north of England had previously been instructed on how to get through the peril-laden task of boiling a kettle."

San Antonio Strippers to Wear Permits - "City Councilman Chip Haass pushed the measure, adopted unanimously by the 11-member council, as a way to make it easier for police to identify dancers."

City pulls plug on home in drawbridge - "The 36-year-old homeless man was evicted by police and city officials -- who were stunned to find he'd been living for at least three years in a little wooden village built into the beams and girders of the bridge's intricate underbelly... Dorsay tapped into the bridge's electricity to power a space heater, television, PlayStation video game and microwave. If he had to bathe, he might slip upstairs to the usually vacant -- and sometimes unlocked -- bridgetender's office and wash off in a sink."

Police say man sang, wielded hatchet during robbery attempt - "A Martinsburg man charged with breaking into a couple's home on New Year's Eve, holding them at gunpoint for more than an hour and making one of them play the piano remains in jail awaiting a court appearance"

Hamster-Powered Night Light - "Though Skippy the Hamster powers this night light by running on his excercise wheel, the same concepts and low-rpm alternator design could be applied to a school science project using different energy sources! A small wind or hydro turbine could easily power this alternator."

Bush Pushing for More Faith-Based Funds - "President Bush has succeeded in opening the checkbooks of five federal departments to religious organizations. Now he's setting his sights on money doled out by the states."
As Dr. Massimo Pigliucci observes: "As I believe Richard Dawkins once suggested, if Bush is so convinced that the US is God's chosen nation, why not save billions and start a faith-based missile defense initiative? Or, along similar lines, just pray that we find Osama bin Laden, rather than actually hunt for him? Of course, Bush's prayers to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq have not be answered by the Creator. Could it be that He favors the axis of evil instead?"

Police Not Probing 3 Gamblers Anymore - "Police said Monday they are no longer investigating three people who won $2.5 million playing roulette, possibly by using technology to outsmart the table... Police had investigated the possibility that the three used a laser scanner built into a mobile phone to help them win the cash. They wouldn't say on Monday whether they actually had found such a device. The device could have been used to measure the speed of the roulette ball when released by the croupier and the declining orbit of the wheel. A computer could, with such data, have calculated which section of numbers the ball would land on before sending this information back to the phone."
You can bet after the wheel has been spun, and they got enough data from imaging to improve their odds

RSC Public Activities: Culture competition - Pictures of mold-encrusted coffee cups

False prophets in Daniel in the Bible. Revived Roman Empire, Beast of the Apocalypse of Mark, and Antiochus the Selucid Greek - "The book of Daniel has become important to Christian theology because the gospel of Mark made constant reference to the book, calling Christ the son of man, and because Mark wrote an apocalypse borrowing the image of the Beast of Daniel's prophecy, which would appear again later in the Christian Apocalypse, the Book of Revelations. For this reason you often hear that Daniel predicted the rise of the Revived Roman empire, but an examination proves that the prophecy in the Book of Daniel can be dated to the time of Antiochus the Selucid Greek beast of Daniel's prophecy. The only reason there is a need to 'revive' someone is that prophecy turned out to be false in that the last few verses never came true."