SodaHead - A - LOOKING FORWARD TO THE FUTURE's Blog

ESCARGOT, ANYONE?

2010-03-08T20:35:14Z

+2 raves

The newest and weirdest entries in the Guinness Book of World Records 2010

The largest known land gastropod is the African giant snail (Achatina achatina, bottom); the largest recorded specimen measured 39.3 cm (15.5 in) in length, and weighed exactly 900 g (2 lb)

HATE TO SAY THIS - BUT THIS IS FROM MY HOMETOWN! OF COURSE, SO IS MADONNA : (

2010-03-08T20:24:50Z

A - LOOKING FORWARD TO THE FUTURE

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The newest and weirdest entries in the Guinness Book of World Records 2010

Jake Lonsway of Bay City, Michigan, USA, created the largest ball of cling film, which measured 351 cm (138 in) in circumference and weighed 127.7 kg (281 lb 8 oz), as of 14 June 2007

Guinness Book of World Records

2010-03-08T20:20:23Z

A - LOOKING FORWARD TO THE FUTURE

+1 raves

The newest and weirdest entries in the Guinness Book of World Records 2010

The crown for longest fingernails was held by Lee Redmond who had talons measuring 28ft 4.5in in total...

IRRELEVANT... BUT AMUSING FACTS

2010-03-08T20:02:11Z

A - LOOKING FORWARD TO THE FUTURE

+2 raves

IRRELEVANT... BUT AMUSING FACTS

AMUSING IRRELEVANT FACTS
<<~
Kotex was first manufactured as bandages, during WW I.
Einstein couldn't speak fluently when he was nine. His parents thought he might be retarded.
In Los Angeles, there are fewer people than there are automobiles.
In one town in California, there is a $600 fine for detonating a nuclear weapon inside city limits.
About a third of all Americans flush the toilet while they're still sitting on it.
You're more likely to get stung by a bee on a windy day that in any other weather.
An average person laughs about 15 times a day.

Research indicates that mosquitoes are attracted to people who have recently eaten bananas.
Penguins can jump as high as 6 feet in the air.
The average person is about a quarter of an inch taller at night.
A sneeze zooms out of your mouth at over 600 m.p.h.
The condom - made originally of linen - was invented in the early 1500s.
The first known contraceptive was crocodile dung, used by Egyptians in 2000 B.C.
The Neanderthal's brain was bigger than yours is.
Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn't wear pants.
The average bank teller loses about $250 every year.
In 1980, there was only one country in the world with no telephones - Bhutan.
Every person has a unique tongue print.
Your right lung takes in more air than your left one does.
Women's hearts beat faster than men's.
Pollsters say that 40% of dog and cat owners carry pictures of the pets in their wallets.
< Bubble gum contains rubber.
You can only smell 1/20th as well as a dog.
Only 55% of all Americans know that the sun is a star.
The sound of E.T. walking was made by someone squishing her hands in Jello.
Even if you cut off a cockroach's head, it can live for several weeks.
Most American car horns honk in the key of F.
The world population of chickens is about equal to the number of people.
Every time Beethoven sat down to write music, he poured ice water over his head.
In 75% of American households, women manage the money and pay the bills.
About 70% of Americans who go to college do it just to make more money. [The rest of us are avoiding reality for four more years.]
It's against the law to catch fish with your bare hands in Kansas.
Some toothpastes contain antifreeze.
Sigmund Freud had a morbid fear of ferns.
Millie the White House dog earned more than 4 times as much as Pres. Bush in 1991. And, rightfully so.
Bird droppings are the chief export of Nauru, an island nation in the western Pacific.
>
There are more plastic flamingos in America than real ones.
Most lipstick contains fish scales.
Lee Harvey Oswald's cadaver tag sold at an auction for $6,600 in 1992.
Mosquitoes have teeth.
Spotted skunks do handstands before they spray.
Hypnotism is banned by public schools in San Diego.
The three best-known western names in China: Jesus Christ, Richard Nixon, and Elvis Presley.
When snakes are born with two heads, they fight each other for food.
Most cows give more milk when they listen to music.
27% of U.S. male college students believe life is "a meaningless existential hell."
In 1980, a Las Vegas hospital suspended workers for betting on when patients would die.
Aztec emperor Montezuma had nephew, Cuitlahac, whose name meant "plenty of excrement."
Thomas Edison was afraid of the dark.
"Kemo Sabe" means "soggy shrub" in Navajo.
If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both frontlegs in the air, the person died in battle;
If the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle;
If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.

<<~
No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, and purple.
"Go." is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.
The most common name in the world is Mohammed.
The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin during World War II
killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.
In Kentucky, 50% of the people who get married for the first time are teenagers.
Sherlock Holmes never did say "Elementary, my dear Watson."
The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law which stated that you can't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.

Clyburn blasts Bauer's 'poor people = stray animals' analogy

2010-01-27T17:41:32Z

A - LOOKING FORWARD TO THE FUTURE

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Clyburn blasts Bauer's 'poor people = stray animals' analogy

Tue Jan 26, 2010 at 05:48:04 PM

As House Minority Whip James Clyburn of South Carolina says, most Americans are sick and tired of the kind of loaded language used by his state's Republican Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer, who last week compared helping poor people to "feeding stray animals."

Clyburn noted that Bauer rhetoric -- particularly his his reference to "breeding" -- was rooted in an era that most people in this country want to leave in the past.

It will be interesting to see see whether Bauer's backwards pronouncements will help him in his bid to win the GOP gubernatorial primary in South Carolina. Hopefully, South Carolina's Republican voters will reject Bauer's nonsense, but if they don't, this is the kind of thing that a strong Democratic candidate could build a campaign around.

You gotta love Fox. Or not.

2010-01-27T17:24:04Z

A - LOOKING FORWARD TO THE FUTURE

+2 raves

You gotta love Fox. Or not.

Wed Jan 27, 2010 at 07:20:03 AM PST

So Fox's latest hit on President Obama is -- I kid you not -- to promote an anti-Obama Facebook page from Indonesia.

Apparently, the creators of the Facebook page want the Indonesian government to remove a statue of Barack Obama. Fox's Chyron cheerfully describes this possibility as "TEARING HIM LIMB FROM LIMB." You know, like Saddam or something.

Nice.

And just in case you don't get it, Fox wants you think of President Obama's upcoming visit to Indonesia as a "homecoming."

To be fair and balanced, that's exactly the same way they'd talk about John McCain if he visited Panama, since McCain was born there. Right?

GLENN BECK, CONFUSED

2010-01-27T17:21:34Z

A - LOOKING FORWARD TO THE FUTURE

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Glenn Beck, confused

Wed Jan 27, 2010 at 08:06:03 AM PST

Glenn Beck says that "progressive historians" are "on a mission to make sure Nazis are right".

My first instinct was to ask, "what the fuck is he talking about?" Then I realized that wait, he had gotten "progressive historians" confused with Pat Buchanan.

But if Hitler was out to conquer the world — Britain, Africa, the Middle East, the United States, Canada, South America, India, Asia, Australia — why did he spend three years building that hugely expensive Siegfried Line to protect Germany from France? Why did he start the war with no surface fleet, no troop transports and only 29 oceangoing submarines? How do you conquer the world with a navy that can’t get out of the Baltic Sea?

If Hitler wanted the world, why did he not build strategic bombers, instead of two-engine Dorniers and Heinkels that could not even reach Britain from Germany?

Why did he let the British army go at Dunkirk?

Why did he offer the British peace, twice, after Poland fell, and again after France fell?

Why, when Paris fell, did Hitler not demand the French fleet, as the Allies demanded and got the Kaiser’s fleet? Why did he not demand bases in French-controlled Syria to attack Suez? Why did he beg Benito Mussolini not to attack Greece?

Because Hitler wanted to end the war in 1940, almost two years before the trains began to roll to the camps.

The only people defending Hitler from anything are right-wing KKK members, neo-Nazis, and Pat Buchanan. And yes, there's little distinction among all three of those groups. And heck, they're all big fans of Glenn Beck.

People blame Republicans for America's problems

2010-01-27T17:18:25Z

A - LOOKING FORWARD TO THE FUTURE

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People blame Republicans for America's problems

Wed Jan 27, 2010 at 08:48:02 AM PST

Oh we all know the story about how Scott Brown won back the U.S. Senate for the Republican Party and how Republicans are now well on the way to retaking every single branch of government.

They are in great shape, more popular than ever. Right?

Um...not so much. When to the problems facing America, more people blame Republicans than any other group, according to the latest NBC/WSJ poll:

When it comes to dealing with the problems facing America, how much blame do you give [___] in not finding solutions to those problems--a great deal of blame, quite a bit of blame, just some blame, or very little blame? Blame Not Blame The Republicans in Congress 48% 50% The Democrats in Congress 41% 56% President Obama 27% 71% The challenge for Dems is making sure these people vote. This was a poll of all adults -- not just people likely to turn out in November. But if there's one thing that these numbers make clear, it's that the more they can get people fired up to head to the polls, the better Democrats will do next November.

Sarah Palin's Tea Party Dinner Disaster

2010-01-27T17:12:04Z

A - LOOKING FORWARD TO THE FUTURE

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Politics

Sarah Palin's Tea Party Dinner Disaster

Wed Jan. 27, 2010 6:20 AM PST

Will Sarah Palin's Tea Party dinner be a bust?

Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips likely assumed that scoring a dinner speech by the former Alaska governor and GOP vice presidential candidate would guarantee a huge turnout for his National Tea Party Convention, scheduled to start Feb. 4 at Nashville's Gaylord Opryland Hotel. But according to Tea Party insiders, the tickets for the Palin banquet aren't selling—and some conservative activists who have already paid to attend are now demanding refunds. With the controversial event shaping up to be a potential flop, some Tea Partiers are urging Palin to cancel her speech to avoid a humiliating public relations disaster.

The problems began after news broke that Phillips intended to profit from the convention—which costs $549 a person for access to both the conference and Palin’s banquet, or $349 for a ticket to the dinner alone. With one prominent conservative blogger charging that the event seemed "scammy," several key sponsors yanked their support, including the National Precinct Alliance, the American Liberty Alliance, American Majority, and the Federation for American Immigration Reform. As the rash of bad press continued, this week Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), announced that she’s considering pulling out as a convention speaker. And some Tea Party activists think Palin should join her. According to internal convention planning documents obtained by Mother Jones, Palin will be paid $115,000 to address the attendees—as they dine on steak or lobster. To some Tea Partiers, this lavish affair sounds suspiciously like an exclusive GOP fundraiser and a betrayal of their grassroots movement. (In mid-January, Palin told Fox News' Bill O'Reilly that she will not profit from her appearance at the convention, suggesting she would donate her speaking fee to Republican candidates. But she has not provided any details on that, and a Palin spokesperson did not respond to requests for clarification.)

Phillips has bragged publicly that the tickets covering both the convention and the speech have sold out. Yet Tea Party insiders say that's not the whole story. Anthony Shreeve is an activist in Dandridge, Tenn. who quit the convention organizing committee over the expensive ticket prices. He says he has it on good authority that most of the approximately 500 speech-only tickets have not been sold. Shreeve adds that Phillips "isn't going to sell any more," and says other would-be attendees have been demanding—and receiving—refunds. Late on Tuesday afternoon, I tested his claim by attempting to buy 10 tickets to the dinner. If I’d been prepared to shell out $3,587.10, that would apparently have been no problem. "I really hope that Sarah Palin doesn’t come to this event because it's going to be really embarrassing for her to walk into a half-empty room," says Shreeve.

According to the internal Tea Party Nation documents, organizers were depending on Palin’s speech to lure a much larger crowd to the banquet in order to turn a profit. Based on cost estimates used by the organizers in the planning documents, if 1,100 people attend the banquet (600 of whom would also attend the convention), the event would cost the organizers about $401,200, including Palin's $115,000 speaking fee. If all the tickets are sold—both the $549 all-access tickets and the $349 dinner-only tickets—Phillips' group would net about $102,700. But if few of the banquet-only tickets are sold, the organizers are likely to end up seriously in the hole, depending on how much the group had to pay in advance to the hotel, which is charging $120 per person for the dinner. Shreeve observes, "It wouldn't surprise me if [Phillips] ends up filing for bankruptcy the day after." Tami Kilmarx, a nurse in Nashville who also resigned from the Tea Party Nation convention planning committee after falling out with Phillips, believes the convention may ultimately "completely disintegrate." She says that Phillips has been urged to give away remaining tickets to Palin’s speech to head off the embarrassment of having the former vice presidential candidate speaking to a half-empty room.

Given all the negative publicity, Shreeve is surprised Palin hasn’t pulled out already. "In her contract she is allowed to send a representative if she can't make it if she's sick or something. Maybe she’ll come down with the flu," he says with a laugh. He adds that Tea Partiers have written her letters pleading with her not to come because they believe that reports of a glitzy, high-priced dinner would hurt the real Tea Party movement, which prides itself on its thrifty, grassroots image. Meanwhile, Kilmarx reports that Nashville activists have contacted the Washington Speakers Bureau, which represents Palin, with concerns. And she says Tea Party activists in Tennessee have been trying to reach Palin through the media to let her know that Tea Party Nation does not represent the majority of Tea Party groups in the state. (Of the 42 Tennessee Tea Party groups, only one is officially supporting the convention.)

Robin Stublen, a Florida tea party leader who has been loudly denouncing Tea Party profiteers, believes that Palin "should not only pull out but pull out quickly." He says the same about Blackburn and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), who is also scheduled to be a convention participant. Stublen says he thinks all of these politicians were "duped" into speaking at the for-profit event, adding that several hundred people have contacted him and urged him to call on Palin to stay away from the convention.

Phillips didn’t return a call for comment. But so far, Palin's speech seems to be going ahead as planned.

And not all the critics are convinced that she should cancel. For all her qualms about the convention, Kilmarx isn't rooting for Palin to back out. She says she trusts Palin's judgment, and that too many unsuspecting people have paid large sums to attend. "I would not want to have any of the good people who have forked over good money to see her get hurt. It’s a sorry state of affairs," she says. But Stublen isn’t so charitable. "It is up to us as individuals to be an informed public. Maybe this will teach people that anytime somebody uses the name 'Tea Party' to check them out before giving them money."

Bill Hemrick might be inclined to agree. He is the Nashville businessman who loaned Phillips the initial $50,000 to pay Palin’s speaking fee, unaware that the event was designed to net Phillips a profit. "I wish I had known. I just thought the Tea Party movement was nonprofit. That’s my own stupid fault," he tells Mother Jones. Hemrick has since gotten his money back, but like many of the event's original enthusiasts, he has fallen out with its organizers, who have asked him not to attend Palin’s speech. Nonetheless, Hemrick thinks it would be tragic if Palin failed to show up. "If she pulled out it would do more detriment to the Tea Party movement than to any one person,” he says. “I sincerely hope that it’s a good deal for those people."

THEIR OPINIONS WON'T STICK

2010-01-27T16:19:44Z

A - LOOKING FORWARD TO THE FUTURE

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THEIR OPINIONS WON'T STICK

Rouse yourself, O Lord, and defend me; rise up my God, and plead my cause. (Psalm35:23)

It's just not fair. You help someone, but they denigrate you in return. You conscientiously do excellent work for someone and get blamed for problems that aren't your fault. The godly love you've attempted to express has resulted in your disparagment and discourgement.

Does anyone realize the injustice of it all?

Yes, God does. He sees everything you do and knows you're motivated by your love for Him, though the people you tried to assist have snubbed you. God won't allow their false claims against you to remain.

Their opinions won't stick - so honor Him and forgive them. Others will surely see His love flowing through you and will respect you even more.

God, it is difficult to forgive my detractors, but I will. Thank you for defending and loving me. It's an honor to serve you. AMEN