In February, referring to the sense of excitement among Democrats over her husband's candidacy, Michelle Obama said, "For the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country."
Said the state GOP: "The Tennessee Republican Party has always been proud of America."
Obama's warning to his wife's critics drew a harsh response from the McCain campaign, with aides pointing out that the DNC has repeatedly blasted Cindy McCain for not releasing her tax returns.
"I think Obama should get his party under control before he starts issuing edicts," said Jill Hazelbaker, a McCain spokeswoman.
"Instead of attacking John McCain today, maybe Obama ought to spend the day talking to Howard Dean about what is appropriate in this campaign."
If the spouse of a candidate speaks out, thereby taking an active roll in the campaign, they should definitely be ‘fair game.’
If Obama wants to insist on ‘laying off’ his wife, he should insist she stay out of the campaign.
Link
Most popular names for white girls
Most popular names for white boys
Most popular names for black girls
Most popular names for black boys
When things couldn't be looking worse for Sen. Hillary Clinton's bid for the presidency in 2008, as her rival Barack Obama closes in on gaining enough delegates to secure the nomination, the former first lady attended a church service in Bowling Green, Ky., Sunday featuring a sermon about lust and adultery.
Bill Clinton has had adulterous affairs with many women from White House interns to movie stars.
How many of the names below went through Hillary’s mind as she listened to the hour-long sermon about adultrey?
Gennifer Flowers, Paula Jones, Monica Lewinsky, Juanita Broaddrick, Kathleen Willey, Elizabeth Ward Gracen, Sally Perdue, Dolly Kyle Browning, Judy Gibbs, Deborah Mathis, Cristy Zercher and Elizabeth Ward.
This story was published in the November, 1936 issue of Popular Science magazine.
A man from Casper, Wyoming created a very strange stamp album.
Five girls worked for six weeks to plaster the machine with the 10,000-odd specimens, which are covered with a protective coat of varnish to shield them from the weather.
The large bugs arrived last week from Taiwan in a box whose contents were labeled as toys, gifts and jellies.
The postmaster suspected the package contained live organisms and notified authorities.
The package was sent to Philadelphia, where it was X-rayed and then opened.
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency spokesman said "They are highly destructive insect pests that can cause extensive damage to fruit and vegetable crops, trees, shrubs and turf grasses."
In all, authorities found 26 Hercules, rhinoceros and Goliath beetles. It is illegal to ship live beetles into the United States without a permit from the Department of Agriculture.
Seven of the beetles were in containers labeled by gender, which means they could have been intended for breeding.
She may be a soccer mom when her child is older but right now she is a Segway mom.
We wonder how many moms use the gyroscopically balanced Segway “people transporter” for pushing baby strollers.
George de Mestral, a Swiss engineer, returned from a walk one day in 1948 and found some cockleburs clinging to his cloth jacket. When de Mestral loosened them, he examined one under his microscope.
The principle was simple. The cocklebur is a maze of thin strands with burrs (or hooks) on the ends that cling to fabrics or animal fur.
By the accident of the cockleburs sticking to his jacket, George de Mestral recognized the potential for a practical new fastener. It took eight years to experiment, develop, and perfect the invention, which consists of two strips of nylon fabric. One strip contains thousands of small hooks. The other strip contains small loops.
When the two strips are pressed together, they form a strong bond. VELCRO, the name de Mestral gave his product, is the brand most of us know.
Velcro has joined Thermos, Band-Aid and others brand names as a verb. We tend to call all hook-and-loop fasteners Velcor no matter who makes them.
Velcro hook-and-loop fasteners are often used to replace buttons, laces, zippers and buckles.
Link to story here. The enlarged Velcro photo is here.
Brief history of the cellular phone: 
1992 - Nokia introduces its first GSM phone.
The term is said to have originated from slaves doing a dance called "cakewalking," a dance to somewhat imitate intricate ballroom dancing but made to look effortless. Slave owners would sometimes reward the best performer with a piece of hoecake.
He parallel parks in 7 seconds using stick shift and emergency brake. Don’t try this at home.
The U.S. tire industry is refusing to give American motorists the same warning given to car owners in Europe and Asia about the possible dangers of tires six years old or older.
More than 100 deaths in the U.S. have been attributed to aged tires which dried out and lost their treads, even though they appeared to be safe.
The only way for consumers to protect themselves is to learn how to read the cryptic code embedded on a tire's sidewall which reveals the year and week a tire was manufactured.
The code is at the end of a jumble of letters and numbers on the tire and, until recently, was on the inward side of the tire requiring motorists to climb under the car to read the number.
For example, the number 418 indicates the tire was manufactured in the 41st week of 1998 and is 10 years old.
A tire older than six years old, even if it's never been driven a mile, "is like a ticking time bomb. You don't know what's going on inside. That's what makes it so dangerous.”
Full story plus how to read the cryptic tire code here.
George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill:
I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend .... if you have one.
Churchill’s reply:
Can’t possibly attend your first night. Will attend the second night … if there is one
.
Calling all chocoholics: British researchers recruiting volunteers willing to eat a bar of chocolate daily for a year, guilt-free and all in the name of science.
British researchers recruiting volunteers willing to eat a bar of chocolate daily for a year, guilt-free and all in the name of science.
The trial starting in June will explore whether compounds called flavonoids found in chocolate and other foods can reduce the risk of heart disease for menopausal women with type 2 diabetes.
Previous studies have suggested dark chocolate is rich in the beneficial compounds linked with heart health but experts note the high sugar and fat content of most commercially available chocolate might cancel out some of the advantages.
"It is wonderful to be back in Oregon," Obama said. "Over the last 15 months, we’ve traveled to every corner of the United States. I’ve now been in 57 states? I think one left to go. Alaska and Hawaii, I was not allowed to go to even though I really wanted to visit, but my staff would not justify it."
The Times' conscientious Robin Abcarian thought she heard something different there. She checked her tape recorder. It had captured what he had actually said -- 57 states now. A new Louisiana Purchase that's gone unannounced so far? Was he channeling his inner John Kerry-Heinz 57 personality?
Barack Hussein Obama may have been referring to the 57 states of Islam. After all, there will be dancing in the streets of many Arab countries as soon as the junior Senator from Illinois is declared the winner of the Democratic primary.
However, just in case Obama actually doesn’t know how many states he is trying to be president of here in this country, there is a new flag lapel pin (pictured) showing a 57 state flag.
Of course, Obama won’t wear it since he has refused to wear a U.S. flag lapel pin since September 11, 2001.
Link here and here.
Some desperate car dealers and consumers are willing to lose thousands of dollars just to get rid of their SUVs.
The following sad story will be typical for people who drive gas guzzling SUV’s and pickups especially, if the vehicle has a loan with a high pay-off balance.
Last July, 20-year-old Sannan Nizami bought a 2007 Toyota 4Runner SUV for $32,000 when it cost about $65 to fill the tank.
Six months later, as a gallon of gas soared to $3.50 and more, and tank refills climbed over $80, Nizami put the vehicle up for sale. He posted it online for $27,000 but received no responses for months.
Frustrated and unable to afford prices at the pump, Nizami last month turned over the Toyota to a dealer who only sells vehicles from private owners.
Nizami is still paying the $450 loan but now is bumming rides to work with a cousin and worrying about making enough from the sale to cover the car loan.
Technorati currently states it is tracking over 112.8 million blogs, a number which obviously does not include all the 7o to 80 million Chinese blogs as counted by the China Internet Network Information Center.
Blog statistics often concern the English language blogosphere but we should not forget about the millions of other blogs that are not always included in estimations.
Many blogs are on AOL, MySpace and other platforms that really don’t attract the general viewing public. If you aren’t a member, chances are you won’t ever see one of those “out-of-the-way” blogs.
There are countless thousands of blogs that get almost no hits. Some get thousands of hits every day.
By clicking on the Site Meter button, you can usually see the number of hits.
One estimate to the total number of blogs can be found here.
Wall Drug earns much of its fame from self-promotion billboards. These signs advertising the store can be seen for hundreds of miles throughout South Dakota and nearby states. The early billboard, and some of the new ones, show the number of miles to Wall Drug.
There are also signs in various foreign countries around the world that also show the number of miles to Wall Drug.
By all reports, the closed-circuit TV network in the UK is an utter fiasco.
CCTV equipment worth billions has failed to cut crime because detectives do not know how to use the images, a senior police officer has said.
Britain has more security cameras than any other European country, with around one for every 14 people!
It was reported that only 3% of London's street robberies have been solved using CCTV images!
Link
When Saddam found out his U.S. military guards were also using his laundry line to dry clothes, he wrote that he demanded they stop, according to the excerpts.
Saddam feared sharing a laundry line could make him vulnerable to AIDS and other diseases.
"I explained to them that they are young and they could have young people's diseases," Saddam wrote. "My main concern was to not catch a venereal disease, an HIV disease, in this place." He said some soldiers ignored his request.
Saddam wrote thousands of pages while in U.S.-supervised custody.
He wrote how hard it was to have to ask for things, saying it was a serious sacrifice from him to ask for things for the first time in his life.
Saddam was captured by American soldiers on Dec. 13, 2003, just over eight months after his regime was toppled by a U.S.-led invasion. An Iraqi tribunal convicted him of crimes against humanity and he was hanged at the end of 2006.
Eddy Arnold, whose mellow baritone on songs like “Make the World Go Away” made him one of the most successful country singers in history, died Thursday morning, days short of his 90th birthday.
Arnold died at a care facility near Nashville.
His wife of 66 years, Sally, had died in March, and in the same month, Arnold fell outside his home, injuring his hip.
Folksy yet sophisticated, he became a pioneer of “The Nashville Sound,” also called “countrypolitan,” a mixture of country and pop styles.
“I sing a little country, I sing a little pop and I sing a little folk, and it all goes together,” he said in 1970.
It's huge. It's gigantic. It's an unmatched ratings machine that other networks would kill for. So why won't the rumors subside? Could "American Idol" really be in trouble?
Katie Lachter started watching "American Idol" during her last year of law school, which was the mercurial Fox talent show's first season. Now in its seventh incarnation, the show's parade of crooning, wannabe pop stars is still appointment TV.
"It's a really fun and an upbeat thing to watch," said Lachter, now a lawyer in New York. Around her law firm, she said, "it's definitely water cooler talk."
Anne Charity hosts a weekly "Idol" party in her Williamsburg, Va., home.
"We're a regular group of six," said Charity, a linguistics professor. "We like [Idol contestant] David Cook, because he's got that rock thing going on."
Lachter, 29, and Charity, 32, are in the heart of a demographic that television executives and advertisers love to court. But these days, that sought-after group of Idol watchers is shrinking:
It's been widely reported that ratings for the Fox Network show are down this season, with a steeper decline among viewers age 18 to 49.
The ratings drop has both "Idol" fans and foes to ask the same question: Is the seven-year ratings juggernaut on its way out?
I watched most of one American Idol show and never went back. I had more interesting things to do such as rearrange my sock drawer and dust the pantry shelves.
I do, however, know better than to put auctions on eBay that close while American Idol is on TV.
It’s a mindless show but my guess is that Fox will keep it going for a few more years.
Link
1985 Blue Volkswagen.
Only driven 50 miles.
Only first gear and reverse ever used.
Never driven hard.
Original tires.
Original brakes.
Original fuel and oil.
Only 1 driver.
Owner wishing to sell due to employment lay-off.
Click here for a picture of the car.
There are 600 million-dollar properties built since 2004 on the market -- and many of them are considered outdated.
They blow up aging casinos in this town. Now, some are wondering what to do about yesterday's desert dream homes.
Take the foreclosed million-dollar house realty agent Michael Antos recently showed.
To the untrained eye, the four-bedroom, five-bath retreat may appear top-drawer, shimmering with granite and marble throughout, and with posh touches like a pool with a sandy beach entry.
But Antos pointed out that the house was showing its age. After all, it was built in 2000. In Vegas, that makes it as dated as a coin-operated slot machine.
Until the 43-year-old Canseco retired in 2001, he was one of the most flamboyant U.S. baseball players.Canseco was one of the first Major League Baseball players to admit using steroids in his tell-all 2005 book "Juiced."
His personal life has also been controversial with two divorces and several run-ins with the law for violence.
Canseco said a good portion of the money he earned in his heyday went to pay for his divorces. "I had a couple of divorces that cost me $7 or $8 million," he said.
Last Wednesday's results show, which saw Irish singer Carly Smithson booted, was the lowest-rated episode in five years, according to trade reports.
One cable news analyst pointed out after the last week's Pennsylvania primaries, the Hillary Clinton-Barack Obama race has gotten so exciting, "it's even beating 'American Idol.' "
That doesn’t say much for ‘Idol.’
In spite of decreased ratings, the Fox mega-hit, minus a little of it’s shine, will probably continue to ‘dumb down’ America for a few more years.
Link
In recent years, however, the Times has become editorially slanted to the liberal political left to the extent the paper has become the voice of the radical left-wing of the Democratic Party and as a result has lost much of its prestige. New York Times' news room is bracing for a bloodbath in the next 10 days.
The word from inside is that approximately 50 unionized journalists have accepted the buyout proposal, and only another 20 non-union editorial employees have gotten on board.
That means the ax could fall on as many as 30 editorial people in the company's first-ever mass firing of journalists in its 156-year history.
It seems to be the worst of times for the New York Times.
Because of her extreme partisan editorial stance, she will get little sympathy from Republicans and moderate Democrats.
Link
Mr. Blake had challenged the jury's award in the subsequent civil wrongful death lawsuit, claiming the trial court made procedural errors and jurors committed misconduct.The Second District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles found no jury misconduct and no reversible error by the trial court, but concluded that the $30 million in noneconomic damages awarded by the jury to Bakley's estate was excessive.
The court cut the judgement in half to $15 million.
The administrator of Bakley's estate may not consent to the reduction even though Blake filed for bankruptcy before the civil trial began.
Without consent by the Bakley estate to the reduction of the award to $15 million, the case will go back for a new trial on damages.
Blake is best known for his television role as a detective in "Baretta" and a convicted killer in the true crime film "In Cold Blood,"
Link
So what does a lazy fly at the ballpark have to do with a can of corn?
The Baralaba Multi Purpose Health Service will close for 24 hours starting Thursday morning so officials can fumigate the building to get rid of redback spiders (see photo) that have been found in large numbers in the main part of the hospital.
Redback spiders, common throughout most of the country, have a painful bite and a toxic venom, although an anti-venom is available.
The redback spider looks much like the black widow spider.
Link
Snips and snails and puppydog tails ... and cereal and bananas?
That could be what little boys are made of, according to surprising new research suggesting that what a woman eats before pregnancy influences the gender of her baby.
It is not proof, but it fits with evidence from test tube fertilization that male embryos thrive best with longer exposure to nutrient-rich lab cultures, said Dr. Tarun Jain. He is a fertility specialist at University of Illinois at Chicago who wasn't involved in the study.
It just might be that it takes more nutrients to build boys than girls, he said.
This is a very serious toy that even has an on-board chip to measure lap times and top speeds.
Link here and here.
Building a Toyota Prius causes more environmental damage than a Hummer that is on the road for three times longer than a Prius.
The Prius is partly driven by a battery which contains nickel. The nickel is mined and smelted at a plant in Sudbury, Ontario. This plant has caused so much environmental damage to the surrounding environment that NASA has used the ‘dead zone’ around the plant to test moon rovers. The area around the plant is devoid of any life for miles.
The plant is the source of all the nickel found in a Prius’ battery and Toyota purchases 1,000 tons annually. Dubbed the Superstack, the plague-factory has spread sulfur dioxide across northern Ontario, becoming every environmentalist’s nightmare.
Wait, I haven’t even got to the best part yet.
When you pool together all the combined energy it takes to drive and build a Toyota Prius, the flagship car of energy fanatics, it takes almost 50 percent more energy than a Hummer - the Prius’s arch nemesis.
The Prius costs an average of $3.25 per mile driven over a lifetime of 100,000 miles - the expected lifespan of the Hybrid.
The Hummer, on the other hand, costs a more fiscal $1.95 per mile to put on the road over an expected lifetime of 300,000 miles. That means the Hummer will last three times longer than a Prius and use less combined energy doing it.
So, if you are really an environmentalist - ditch the Prius. Instead, buy one of the most economical cars available - a Toyota Scion xB. The Scion only costs a paltry $0.48 per mile to put on the road. If you are still obsessed over gas mileage - buy a Chevy Aveo and fix that lead foot.
One last fun fact for you: it takes five years to offset the premium price of a Prius. Meaning, you have to wait 60 months to save any money over a non-hybrid car because of lower gas expenses.
Control this electronic device as you drive. It’s battery operated so there are no wires.
Single or multiple message options are available including smile faces, frown faces, polite words and some words that could get you in trouble.
Link
First comes the stink of diesel, then a metallic roar, and finally a tower of black smoke that tells you the "camello" (the camel) has reached your stop.
These hulking 18-wheeled beasts, iron mutants made of two Soviet-era buses welded together on a flatbed and pulled by a separate cab, have long been Havana's public transport nightmare — bumpy, hot and jammed with up to 400 passengers at a time.
Camellos have no shock absorbers, and every pothole sends a violent jolt through one's feet. At each stop more passengers crowd in — people carrying infants, backpacks, gardening tools and beer bottles stuffed with black market honey.
With no air conditioning, the tropical heat quickly becomes unbearable, and the stench sets in — fresh sweat and body odor, mixed with exhaust and rotting food. Those seated stick their heads out of the windows.
Valeta’s new jacket. When a quilter decides to make use of scraps, they sometimes make a coat of many colors … in this case, a coat of many patterns.
A picture of my cave
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