crypt notes

lived ones

Parrot

The six-year-old captive-bred African grey called N'kisi is one of the most advanced users of human language in the animal world. The bird uses words in context, with past, present and future verb tenses.
And, like small children, it resorts to creativity to describe new ideas - for instance saying "flied" for flew and inventing the phrase "pretty smell medicine" to indicate the aromatherapy oils used by his owner, a New York-based artist.
He can also associate photographs with the real person or object - when he first met primatologist Dr Jane Goodall, after seeing her in a picture with apes, his greeting was: "Got a chimp?"In an experiment witnessed on videotape by BBC Wildlife Magazine's contributor Eleanor O'Hanlon, N'kisi and his owner were put in separate rooms and filmed as the artist opened random envelopes containing picture cards.
On analysis, the parrot had used appropriate keywords three times more often than might result by chance, even though the researchers discounted responses such as "What ya doing on the phone?" when a card was drawn showing a man with a telephone and "Can I give you a hug?" after a card of a couple embracing.
-found on ananova

One Eye

Astounded residents of Durban's Folweni township couldn't believe their eyes. And they couldn't believe the eye of a baby goat born in the village at the weekend - there was only one - in the middle of the goat's forehead, just like the Cyclops of Greek mythology.
Even more astonishing was the fact that the single eye looked uncannily human.Some community members suggested the goat might have been the result of an act of bestiality. Said one: "We've never seen anything like this before. There are many immoral people who think nothing of raping toddlers, so why not a goat?"

wha?

FORMER Jethro Tull rock star David Palmer has become a woman called Dee.
The 66-year-old keyboard player with the legendary 70s group proudly revealed yesterday that he's had a sex-change.
With long blonde hair and wearing make-up and black leggings, she told of her transformation.
She said: "I want to be judged on my musical ability alone, and nothing else."

McDonalds Bad

Last February, Morgan Spurlock decided to become a gastronomical guinea pig.His mission: To eat three meals a day for 30 days at McDonald's and document the impact on his health.
Scores of cheeseburgers, hundreds of fries and dozens of chocolate shakes later, the formerly strapping 6-foot-2 New Yorker - who started out at a healthy 185 pounds - had packed on 25 pounds. Within a few days of beginning his drive-through diet, Spurlock, 33, was vomiting out the window of his car, and doctors who examined him were shocked at how rapidly Spurlock's entire body deteriorated. His liver became toxic, his cholesterol shot up from a low 165 to 230, his libido flagged and he suffered headaches and depression

Don't Look

sweet christmas, don't look

Magic Cone

found at- memepool

pulp

Churchill's Parrot

"She was at Winston Churchill's side during Britain's darkest hour. And now Charlie the parrot is 104 years old... and still cursing the Nazis. Her favorite sayings were 'Fuck Hitler' and 'Fuck the Nazis.' And even today, 39 years after the great man's death, she can still be coaxed into repeating them with that unmistakable Churchillian inflection... James Humes, an expert on the late PM, said: 'Churchill may no longer be with us but that spirit and those words of defiance and resolve continue.'"
found at- dailyrotten

The National Park Service recently ordered the return of plaques bearing biblical verses

And here at the Lincoln Memorial, an eight-minute film that shows historical events at the memorial, including demonstrations for civil rights, abortion rights and gay rights, is being revised by the Park Service to add four minutes of more politically neutral events.
While the Park Service says these are unrelated incidents, reflecting no overarching political policy, a national alliance of public environmental workers says the efforts are evidence of a new program of "faith-based parks" promoted by the Bush administration with the strong support of conservative groups.
found at- NY TIMES

A Japanese toy company says it's developed a gadget that will enable people to control their dreams.

Takara has come up with the Yumemi Kobo, or Dream Workshop, which it claims can put people in charge of their dreams.
To work the gadget, the owner has to stare at a photograph of what they would like to dream about and then record, in their own words, how the dream is supposed to pan out.
Once users are sleeping, the gadget goes to work by combining the voice recording, lights, music and aromas to stimulate sleepers whenever it detects rapid eye movement - a sign that someone is dreaming.
Eight hours later, users are gently awakened by soft lighting and music to ensure that pleasant memories of the night before are not instantly erased.

jesum crowe

A woman is to undergo an operation to remove a giant tumour that weighs almost twice her normal body weight.

The Discovery Channel agreed to foot the bill for the £250,000 cost of the operation in exchange for the film rights.
Ms Bunghez, whose normal body weight without the 12 stone tumour is just under seven stone, suffers from the rare genetic disease Von Recklinghausen's Disease.
The largest tumour ever removed by surgery weighed 14 stone and was taken from an American woman in an operation performed at a hospital in Chicago in 1998.

Fifa President Sepp Blatter says female soccer players should wear tighter shorts to promote "a more female aesthetic".

He said they should have a skimpier kit to increase the popularity of the game.
Blatter said: "Let the women play in more feminine clothes like they do in volleyball.
"They could, for example, have tighter shorts. Female players are pretty, if you excuse me for saying so, and they already have some different rules to men - such as playing with a lighter ball.
"That decision was taken to create a more female aesthetic, so why not do it in fashion?"
But Blatter's comments have outraged female footballers, reports The Guardian. Pauline Cope, the England and Charlton goalkeeper, said the comments were "typical of a bloke".
found on ananova

bus

Bush protesters blocked by buses and riot police during visit to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's grave.

-found over at Blah3

Pigs grown from fetuses into which human stem cells were injected have surprised scientists by having cells in which the DNA from the two species is mixed at the most intimate level.

It is the first time such fused cells have been seen in living creatures. The discovery could have serious implications for xenotransplantation - the use of animal tissue and organs in humans - and even the origin of diseases such as HIV.
The adult pigs that had received human stem cells as fetuses were found to have pig cells, human cells and the hybrid cells in their blood and organs.
"What we found was completely unexpected. We found that the human and pig cells had totally fused in the animals' bodies," said Jeffrey Platt, director of the Mayo Clinic Transplantation Biology Program.

Test

we surrender for fruit pies

Test

Test

KABLOG for Symbian beta

Muschi, a small cat that formed an unlikely friendship with a half-tonne bear called "mouse" in Berlin Zoo, has been reunited with her companion after p

Bush to announce manned mission to Mars

Government officials have confirmed that a new space initiative will be launched and the media has reported details of the plan contained in official documents. According to these, the Moon base would be constructed within the next 15 years, with missions to Mars or nearby asteroids beginning in the 2020s.

Space molecules point to organic origins

The most complex molecules yet found in space have shown astronomers how such organic matter is created. The evidence points to a rare type of star as the origin for life's building blocks.
Two hydrocarbon molecules called anthracene and pyrene occur in a nebula called the Red Rectangle, 1000 light years from Earth, according to results presented at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Atlanta, Georgia.There is evidence that huge quantities of PAHs exist in deep space, from the infrared light they emit, and amino acids have been found in meteorites landing on Earth. Organic molecules like these must have rained down on the early Earth, and may have helped life to begin.
But the source of these complex molecules has been uncertain, but Witt is now convinced that they originated in places like the Red Rectangle.

Pulp Of The Day

Pulp

We are so fucking doomed

Mars Rover Photo Blog

found on DiePunyHumans

A NASA rover called Spirit made a perfect landing in an ancient lakebed on Mars early on Sunday morning, after a suspenseful entry sequence that worked far beyond anyone's expectations.

Spirit is the first of two NASA rovers, with the second due to land in a few week's time. The success is a boost to those pursuing the exploration of Mars, following the failure to contact the European Space Agency's lander Beagle 2 and the generally poor record of Mars lander missions.
Mission controllers expect it to take about a week to get the rover fully deployed onto the surface to begin a planned three months of exploration and geological research.

For years, there have been rumors among the homeless downtown that a drifter in North Beach was sleeping in the gutter while he had all the money he needed in the

Kissing Hanks Ass: The Movie

The Daily Nation, released an image of one of the two suicide bombers who tried to assassinate President Musharraf. The force of the blast detached his fac

Steve Irwin sparked outrage yesterday when he held his baby son a metre from the mouth of a crocodile at his Queensland zoo.

Child advocates branded the Crocodile Hunter reckless for holding one-month-old Bob while feeding the giant crocodile a dead chicken. Irwin defended the stunt, saying the baby was never in danger.
"This kid has to grow up to be croc savvy,"

Football fan banned for penis stunt

A Dutch football club has banned one of its fans for posing for a photograph with the local mayor with his penis hanging out.Mayor Wim Deetman did not realise the ADO Den Haag fan was exposing himself when he agreed to have his picture taken with him.

He had just come from a meeting with club directors and gladly posed arm in arm with the fan who was clutching a bottle of beer.
It was only later, when the picture was circulated on the internet, that Mayor Deetman realised he had been set up.
He is now taking legal action against the supporter and is awaiting the judge's verdict, reports the Nu news website.
However, ADO Den Haag has now announced that the fan will no longer be welcome at its stadium.

Pulp

A NSW man has been identified as the rightful King of England by a leading historian.

Medieval scholar, Dr Michael Jones says he can prove Queen Elizabeth's claim to the throne is illegitimate and it should belong to Michael Abney-Hastings.He says King Edward IV, who reigned from 1461 to 1483, was not of royal blood; he was the illegitimate son of a French archer.Sitting in his home in Jerilderie, 640km southwest of Sydney, in a T-shirt and shorts with a can of beer after a hard day at the wheel of a forklift truck, is the man who it is claimed should by rights be King Michael I of England.

One tenth of the stars in our galaxy might provide the right conditions to support complex life

According to a new analysis by Australian researchers. And most of these stars are on average one billion years older than the Sun, allowing much more time, in theory, for any life to evolve.

my half assed idea of the night