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Benadryl... a good recommendation.  I tend to prefer schnapps for drugging toddlers though.

Aavatar

[Thurnez Isa]

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/070803/odds/odd_germany_sex1_dc

BERLIN (Reuters) - German workaholics may be suffering from a lack of sex, according to a university study published Friday.

A survey of 32,000 men and women by researchers at the University of Goettingen found over 35 percent of those reporting unsatisfying sex lives tended to use hard work as a diversion.

Some 36 percent of men and 35 percent of women surveyed for the "Apotheken Umschau" newsletter said they were likely to put in extra time at the office and volunteer for extra assignments.

The hard work ethic was even more pronounced among those who reported having no sex -- 45 percent of men and 46 percent of women said they voluntarily took on more responsibilities.

"These findings are worrying," the leader of the study, Ragnar Beer, was quoted as saying.

[Suu]

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2007/aug/07/man-claims-have-magical-sword-during-heist-deputie/?news-breaking

[Cramulus]

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2007/aug/07/man-claims-have-magical-sword-during-heist-deputie/?news-breaking

It's too bad the guy didn't actually have a magic sword. And by the article, it doesn't look like he was actually even carrying a weapon, just claiming that he had "an Excalibur".

[Thurnez Isa]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070808/ap_on_re_eu/georgia_russia

maybe of interest to Cain or others who keep track of russia foreign policy

[Darth Cupcake]

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyid=2007-08-08T132631Z_01_L07870114_RTRUKOC_0_US-DUTCH-LEGO-ODD.xml

For those of us who enjoy Legos, and the Dutch.

[Thurnez Isa]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070808/ap_on_sc/human_evolution

Fossils challenge old evoluton theory

WASHINGTON - Surprising research based on two African fossils suggests our family tree is more like a wayward bush with stubby branches, challenging what had been common thinking on how early humans evolved.

The discovery by Meave Leakey, a member of a famous family of paleontologists, shows that two species of early human ancestors lived at the same time in Kenya. That pokes holes in the chief theory of man's early evolution — that one of those species evolved from the other.

And it further discredits that iconic illustration of human evolution that begins with a knuckle-dragging ape and ends with a briefcase-carrying man.

The old theory is that the first and oldest species in our family tree, Homo habilis, evolved into Homo erectus, which then became human, Homo sapiens. But Leakey's find suggests those two earlier species lived side-by-side about 1.5 million years ago in parts of Kenya for at least half a million years. She and her research colleagues report the discovery in a paper published in Thursday's journal Nature.

The paper is based on fossilized bones found in 2000. The complete skull of Homo erectus was found within walking distance of an upper jaw of Homo habilis, and both dated from the same general time period. That makes it unlikely that Homo erectus evolved from Homo habilis, researchers said.

It's the equivalent of finding that your grandmother and great-grandmother were sisters rather than mother-daughter, said study co-author Fred Spoor, a professor of evolutionary anatomy at the University College in London.

The two species lived near each other, but probably didn't interact, each having its own "ecological niche," Spoor said. Homo habilis was likely more vegetarian while Homo erectus ate some meat, he said. Like chimps and apes, "they'd just avoid each other, they don't feel comfortable in each other's company," he said.

There remains some still-undiscovered common ancestor that probably lived 2 million to 3 million years ago, a time that has not left much fossil record, Spoor said.

Overall what it paints for human evolution is a "chaotic kind of looking evolutionary tree rather than this heroic march that you see with the cartoons of an early ancestor evolving into some intermediate and eventually unto us," Spoor said in a phone interview from a field office of the Koobi Fora Research Project in northern Kenya.

That old evolutionary cartoon, while popular with the general public, is just too simple and keeps getting revised, said Bill Kimbel, who praised the latest findings. He is science director of the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University and wasn't part of the Leakey team.

"The more we know, the more complex the story gets," he said. Scientists used to think Homo sapiens evolved from Neanderthals, he said. But now we know that both species lived during the same time period and that we did not come from Neanderthals.

Now a similar discovery applies further back in time.

Susan Anton, a New York University anthropologist and co-author of the Leakey work, said she expects anti-evolution proponents to seize on the new research, but said it would be a mistake to try to use the new work to show flaws in evolution theory.

"This is not questioning the idea at all of evolution; it is refining some of the specific points," Anton said. "This is a great example of what science does and religion doesn't do. It's a continous self-testing process."

For the past few years there has been growing doubt and debate about whether Homo habilis evolved into Homo erectus. One of the major proponents of the more linear, or ladder-like evolution that this evidence weakens, called Leakey's findings important, but he wasn't ready to concede defeat.

Dr. Bernard Wood, a surgeon-turned-professor of human origins at George Washington University, said in an e-mail Wednesday that "this is only a skirmish in the protracted 'war' between the people who like a bushy interpretation and those who like a more ladder-like interpretation of early human evolution."

Leakey's team spent seven years analyzing the fossils before announcing it was time to redraw the family tree — and rethink other ideas about human evolutionary history. That's especially true of most immediate ancestor, Homo erectus.

Because the Homo erectus skull Leakey recovered was much smaller than others, scientists had to first prove that it was erectus and not another species nor a genetic freak. The jaw, probably from an 18- or 19-year-old female, was adult and showed no signs of malformation or genetic mutations, Spoor said. The scientists also know it isn't Homo habilis from several distinct features on the jaw.

That caused researchers to re-examine the 30 other erectus skulls they have and the dozens of partial fossils. They realized that the females of that species are much smaller than the males — something different from modern man, but similar to other animals, said Anton. Scientists hadn't looked carefully enough before to see that there was a distinct difference in males and females.

Difference in size between males and females seem to be related to monogamy, the researchers said. Primates that have same-sized males and females, such as gibbons, tend to be more monogamous. Species that are not monogamous, such as gorillas and baboons, have much bigger males.

This suggests that our ancestor Homo erectus reproduced with multiple partners.

The Homo habilis jaw was dated at 1.44 million years ago. That is the youngest ever found from a species that scientists originally figured died off somewhere between 1.7 and 2 million years ago, Spoor said. It enabled scientists to say that Homo erectus and Homo habilis lived at the same time.

[Thurnez Isa]

http://www.thestar.com/News/article/246002

Toronto: A metaphor for a country in decline

Christopher Hume

Now that we've finished venting about councillors' refusal to cut their salaries, their perks and all the rest of that nonsense, let's all take a deep breath and remember who's to blame for the mess Toronto is in: we are.

That's right, it's us. We have no one to blame but ourselves.

We're the ones who vote – those of us who bother – for the Denzil Minnan-Wongs, the Dalton McGuintys, the Mike Harrises, the Stephen Harpers and the rest.

We're the ones who reward politicians who tell us the fantasies we want to hear, not the truths we need to hear. We're the ones who have made it impossible for leaders to talk about anything much more substantial than tax cuts.

Aided and abetted by the media, we ask the wrong questions and get angry when we don't hear the wrong answers.

We're the ones who vote for the Mel Lastmans and the David Millers because they promise they won't raise taxes. Then when the spit finally hits the fan, we turn around and scream bloody murder.

Democracy boasts many virtues, but it also has serious weaknesses, including the fact that it allows citizens to vote thoughtlessly and without regard to reality. Indeed, look at who gets elected to see just how irrational, even moronic, the process has become. How else does a George W. Bush end up the most powerful person on Earth?

One of the truths the politicians would like us to forget is that you get what you pay for. Civilization costs money. If the city's going to remove snow, pick up garbage, pay the province's social services bill, fill potholes and so on, it must be able to cover these costs.

Instead of voting for councillors who promise we can remain forever in dreamland, where taxes never go up and roads are free, we should think first and ask whether they are able to do the opposite, i.e., insist we return to the real world. It, of course, is not such a nice place.

Toronto, like all of Canada, is based largely on myths that border on lies. We like to think that the city is among the greatest and the country a respected world citizen. We may be a middling power, but always sensible and responsible.

In fact, we grow increasingly irrelevant. And although Canada still ranks among the most desirable places on the planet, by any measure – productivity, innovation, wealth creation, education, environmental integrity, tolerance – we are slipping. This was confirmed most recently by the Conference Board of Canada in a massive three-volume report that took three years to prepare.

Like all Canadian cities, Toronto is chronically and systemically underfunded. This is built into the very governance structure of the nation, which undervalues urban centres. We have set it up that way.

Toronto isn't just Canada's largest and most important city; it has become a metaphor for a country in decline. Our administratively burdened federation has reached a point of fragmentation where the premiers fail miserably when it comes to dealing with the most urgent issue facing us and the rest of the planet: global warming. This isn't just worrisome, it's immoral.

Because they fear reality, Canadians are terrified of change. The idea of reducing the role of the provinces and empowering cities isn't taken seriously. Yet it's something that must happen if we are to achieve the nimbleness we need to keep up with the wholesale transformation of Asia and Europe.

Instead, we grow slow and complacent, content to rely on resource exploitation rather than the value-added approach of leading economies.

In the meantime, we continue to demand European-style public services on American-level taxes.

As we Torontonians are finding out, it doesn't work that way.

[Richter]

CIA, Catholic Church, Fox News, etc, alter Wikipedia for their own ends:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/aug/15/wikipedia.corporateaccountability

[Thurnez Isa]

Democrat party

Somebody using a computer inside Democrat HQ edited a page on conservative American radio host Rush Limbaugh, calling him "idiotic", "ridiculous" and labelling his 20 million listeners as "legally retarded".

for some reason I approve of this

[AFK]

Whatever Happened To The Baby From NIRVANA's 'Nevermind'?

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=78907

Although Elden said he feels "pretty normal" about his famous photo, he did add that it occasionally helped him with girls, explaining, "I have to use stupid pickup lines like, 'You want to see my penis again.'"

[Suu]

I remember hearing about this guy a few months ago, actually.

I should write him a letter and tell him that his penis got the CD taken away from me in 3rd grade for bringing it in for Show and Tell.

[Cramulus]

That's pretty cool. I always wondered what happened to that baby. Sounds like he's enjoying his arbitrary notoriety.

[LMNO]

Third grade?


Third.




Grade.













Oh, fucking hell.









LMNO
-looking for his bifocals and walker.

[Suu]

*IS 25 YEARS OLD TODAY!*

:thankyou: