[Thelomen Toblerone]

Woman fights off bear with courgette

[Tsundoku]

Check out the comments for the geekgasms

--------------------------------

hthttp://www.news.com.au/technology/doctors-discover-how-to-make-titanium-bones/story-e6frfro0-1225928889483

Doctors figure out how to make titanium bones

* By staff writers
* From: news.com.au
* September 24, 2010 1:10PM

* New sort of bone implant discovered
* Bone cells grow inside titanium mesh
* More: Technology news and reviews

IT worked for Wolverine, but that was in comic books and movies.

Now a team from Germany say they really have found a way to infuse bones with titanium and create a metal skeleton.

Peter Quadbeck of the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials Research in Dresden, Germany, says bones can be replaced with titanium implants.

That in itself isn't entirely new. Titanium implants are regularly used to strengthen bones.

But the problem with those implants is that the bone eventually starts to rely on the titanium to bear the load, and deteriorates as a result.

The implants can also loosen and require maintenance, or damage the bone they're strapped to.

The answer, says Dr Quadbeck, is replacing bad bones altogether. He says the secret to doing it is in his team's development of a "titanium foam".

The foam is made from polyurethane foam which is infused with titanium powder and binding agents.

When the polyurethane foam is dissolved, a titanium matrix remains, which is then hardened by heat.

The resulting titanium matrix can then — theoretically — replace a damaged bone. Remaining bone cells can be encouraged to grow in and around it.

While that might be great for deflecting blows from mutant adversaries, it's also good news for anyone who's struggled with bone disease or broken bones that fail to heal properly.

"The mechanical properties of titanium foams made this way closely approach those of the human bone," said Dr Quadbeck.

"This applies foremost to the balance between extreme durability and minimal rigidity."

The invention is yet to be approved for use in humans.

------------------------------------------

Yes yes the writers should have done some proper research and figured out titanium isn't adamantium.

But on the adamantium thing, it always stuck me as odd that I was sure I had seen it described as non-magnetic, but then Magneto rips it out of Wolverine? Whereupon Xavier (thats Zavier, NOT Eggs-zavier ) gets into Magnetos head and forces him to chuck that asteroid base he was using (Cable's Greymalkin?) way out into space. Thus proving the only thing stopping Xavier is Xavier's ethics, because he's all about the helping and the free will shit, right? Which makes him a sort of Jesus-wannabe?

[Loki]

The End is Nigh...Skynet is Coming!

[Satan]

I would have created a separate thread for this, but they've got a knack for closing down anything I put up. Sourcy.

Scientific American said:

Dear readers: I have come upon a secret treasure, a heretofore-unknown bounty of facts only recently unearthed by a team of evolutionary psychologists. A vital forewarning, though: although the data and information I am about to share oozes with the promise of dramatically improving virtually every aspect of your wellbeing, it can also be abused with tragic—even fatal—consequences. This is so much the case, in fact, that I debated the merits of popularizing this material and do so here only with great circumspection and caution. So please be wise in digesting this semen-related knowledge, and be wiser still in applying it to your own sex lives.

As with the origins of so many great scientific discoveries, this story begins with a serendipitous chain of events. "Our interest in the psychological properties of semen arose as a by-product of an initial interest in menstrual synchrony," explain co-discoverers Gordon Gallup and Rebecca Burch, evolutionary psychologists from the State University of New York system, in a 2006 chapter about human semen. In particular, Gallup and Burch had stumbled onto a set of intriguing data from the mid-1990s showing that, unlike heterosexually active women residing together, sexually involved lesbians failed to exhibit the well-known "McClintock effect," in which menstrual cycles in cohabitating women (as well those of females from many other species) are synchronized. Since subtle olfactory cues (called pheromones) are known to mediate menstrual synchrony, write the authors, "This struck us as peculiar..."

… because lesbians would be expected to be in closer, more intimate contact with one another on a daily basis than other females who live together. What is it about heterosexual females that promotes menstrual synchrony, or conversely what is it about lesbians that prevents menstrual synchrony? It occurred to us that one feature that distinguishes heterosexual women from lesbians is the presence or absence of semen in the female reproductive tract. Lesbians have semen-free sex.

Perhaps you already see where this is leading. Gallup and Burch reasoned that certain chemicals in human semen, through vaginal absorption, affect female biology in such a way that women who have condomless sex literally start to smell different from those women who do not—or at least, their bodies emit the pheromones that "entrain" menstrual cycles among cohabitating women. (Their hunch was indeed borne out by reviewing the existing literature on menstrual synchrony.) But this happenstance discovery of asynchronous lesbians was just the tip of the semen iceberg for Gallup and Burch, who quickly discovered that, although much was known among biologists about basic semen chemistry, virtually nothing was known about precisely how these chemicals might influence female biology, behavior and psychology.

And that is a rather odd omission in the biological literature indeed, since there could hardly be anything more obvious in Darwinian terms than the fact that semen is, almost by definition, naturally designed to get into the chemically-absorptive vagina. Bear in mind that although they are often conflated in everyday parlance, along with many other less scientific terms, "semen" is not the same thing as "sperm." In fact, you may be surprised to learn that only about 1 to 5 percent of the average human ejaculate consists of sperm cells. The rest of the ejaculate, once drained of these famously flagellating gametes, is referred to as "seminal plasma." So in discussing the chemical composition of semen, it is the plasma itself, not the spermatozoa, that is at issue.

Now, medical professionals have known for a very long time that the vagina is an ideal route for drug delivery. The reason for this is that the vagina is surrounded by an impressive vascular network. Arteries, blood vessels, and lymphatic vessels abound, and—unlike some other routes of drug administration—chemicals that are absorbed through the vaginal walls have an almost direct line to the body's peripheral circulation system. So it makes infinite sense, argue Gallup and Burch, that like any artificially-derived chemical substance inserted into the vagina via medical pessary, semen might also have certain chemical properties that tweak female biology.

It turns out that this insight, so obvious as to be all but invisible, has been a theoretical gold mine for this hawkeyed pair of adaptation-minded thinkers. But before we jump into their rich vat of seminal theory, let's have a quick look at some of the key ingredients of human semen. In fact, semen has a very complicated chemical profile, containing over 50 different compounds (including hormones, neurotransmitters, endorphins and immunosupressants) each with a special function and occurring in different concentrations within the seminal plasma. Perhaps the most striking of these compounds is the bundle of mood-enhancing chemicals in semen. There is good in this goo. Such anxiolytic chemicals include, but are by no means limited to, cortisol (known to increase affection), estrone (which elevates mood), prolactin (a natural antidepressant), oxytocin (also elevates mood), thyrotropin-releasing hormone (another antidepressant), melatonin (a sleep-inducing agent) and even serotonin (perhaps the most well-known antidepressant neurotransmitter).

Given these ingredients—and this is just a small sample of the mind-altering "drugs" found in human semen—Gallup and Burch, along with psychologist Steven Platek, now at the University of Liverpool, hypothesized that women having unprotected sex should be less depressed than suitable control participants. To investigate whether semen has antidepressant effects, the authors rounded up 293 college females from the SUNY-Albany campus, who agreed to fill out an anonymous, written questionnaire about various aspects of their sexual behavior. Recent sexual activity without condoms was used as an indirect measure of seminal plasma circulating in the woman's body. Each participant also completed the Beck Depression Inventory, a commonly used clinical measure of depressive symptoms.

The most significant findings from this 2002 study, published with criminally modest fanfare in the Archives of Sexual Behavior , were these: even after adjusting for frequency of sexual intercourse, women who engaged in sex and "never" used condoms showed significantly fewer depressive symptoms than did those who "usually" or "always" used condoms. Importantly, these chronically condomless, sexually active women also evidenced fewer depressive symptoms than did those who abstained from sex altogether. By contrast, sexually active women, even really promiscuous ones, who used condoms were just as depressed as those practicing total abstinence. In other words, it's not just that women who are having sex are simply happier, but instead happiness appears to be a function of the ambient seminal fluid pulsing through one's veins.

And it gets better. A smaller percentage (4.5 percent) of the sexually active women who "never" used condoms were less likely to have attempted suicide than were those who "sometimes" (7.4 percent) and "usually" (28.9 percent) and "always" (13.2 percent) used condoms.

Relax, settle down, take a deep breath—I know what you're thinking. This is a correlational study and there are scores of possible confounds, both those that the authors anticipated and controlled for in this study design (by all means read the actual article for more details—but please do note that these between-group differences in depression panned out even after controlling for the use of oral contraceptives, days since last sex, frequency of sex and duration of the relationship with the male partner) and probably some that you can come up with on your own. Even the authors urge some degree of scepticism:

It is important to acknowledge that these data are preliminary and correlational in nature, and as such are only suggestive. More definitive evidence for antidepressant effects of semen would require more direct manipulation of the presence of semen in the reproductive tract and, ideally, the measurement of seminal components in the recipient's blood.

Now I'm hedging here, because there are all sorts of equally fascinating directions I can go from this point. But one thing I do want to mention, with a helpful nod from the authors of this study, is that the antidepressant effects of seminal plasma may not be limited to vaginal absorption of its mood-brightening chemical properties. "It would be interesting to investigate," write Gallup and his coauthors, "the possible antidepressant effects of oral ingestion of semen, or semen applied through anal intercourse (or both) among both heterosexual couples as well as homosexual males."

So in my plumbing of the empirical literature for studies on unprotected anal sex among gay males, otherwise known as "barebacking," I came across a load of research on this very topic. Most of this work is couched, understandably so, in the HIV-prevention literature. One particularly telling study, though, comes from a 2005 report from the journal Nursing Inquiry , in which Canadian investigators Dave Holmes and Dan Warner interviewed barebacking gay males—not while they were engaged in the act, but through later introspection—about their motivations for preferring unprotected anal sex over condoms in light of the obvious dangers of infection. The most intriguing result to emerge from this study, in the context of Gallup and Burch's overall theoretical perspective regarding the psychobiology of semen, was that so many of the barebacking interview subjects viewed the exchange of semen through unprotected anal sex as providing them with a palpable sense of "connectedness" with their same-sex partners, one that happened only with the internally, unimpeded ejaculation.

Unfortunately, rather than investigate the possible psychobiological effects of semen exchange in this dynamic, Holmes and Warner leer through a fairly typical postmodernist lens to explore the symbolic nature of semen exchange in barebackers. Now, I ask you, which is the more informative paradigm for understanding why gay men would practice unsafe sex through unprotected anal intercourse: an evolutionary biological account taking into consideration the chemical composition of seminal plasma and its possible affects on attachment among gay men, or a symbolic, postmodernist perspective like the following one advanced by Holmes and Warner (in all fairness, this is just a snippet, but a good taste of their approach):

The body becomes the locus of never-ending fights, a carnal battlefield. The escape route (lines of flight) is intrinsic to the deterritorialization of the Body-without-Organs through which one becomes someone else. However, the lines of flight could have paradoxical effects. Indeed, they can be avenues of creative potential or, conversely, paths of great danger. Yet, it is 'always in a line of flight that we create' … 'that we must continue to experiment with such lines.' Lines of flight (nuclei of resistance of resingularization and heterogenesis) permit freedom to surge through a process of creative transformation and metamorphosis.

Trust me, even in context that paragraph reads like the authors were cobbling together a braille sentence using the random distribution of acne on someone's back. Sorry to sound a bit testy, but while such soupy postmodernist rhetoric may still have its place in certain scholarly circles, in dealing with something as clinically important as unprotected sex among vulnerable populations, a scientific understanding of these people's motivations is essential before any intervention of their high-risk behaviors can even begin to occur.

You may also be beginning to realize the dangers that I alluded to at the start of this essay. For both men and women, heterosexual and homosexual, knowing that the penis is capable of dispensing a sort of natural Prozac—whether obtained vaginally, anally or orally—without also considering the viral arms race involving sexually transmitted infections, can lead to very tragic decisions indeed and many undocumented high-risk private bedroom "experiments." But here's just one reason to put the breaks on such plans: The HIV-virus, which evolved long after these adaptive antidepressant factors, has apparently come to pirate human semen, such that certain protein factors in seminal plasma, particularly a protein called prostatic acid phosphatase , make HIV up to 100,000 folds more potent than it is outside of the plasma.

In any event, Gallup and Burch's model reminded me also of those oft-cited Papau New Guinea tribes, such as the "Sambia," and their semen-ingestion rituals involving young boys. On the surface, there's a puzzling scenario here: such cultures have long histories of being embroiled in violent warfare and thus they tend to place extraordinarily high value on expressed masculinity. Yet ritualized homoerotic practices involving young boys fellating older males in order to ingest their semen are common. In a 2000 issue of the Archives of Sexual Behavior , Gilbert Herdt, a cultural anthropologist who studied the Sambia, along with his colleague Martha McClintock (the same McClintock named for the menstrual cycle synchrony effect discussed earlier), describe how "… by the age of 11–12 (Sambia) boys have become aggressive fellators who actively pursue semen to masculinize their bodies."

In the past, this semen ritual has been conceptualized by cultural anthropologists such as Herdt mostly in symbolic terms. Yet, just a hunch, but since testosterone from the seminal plasma could penetrate the oral mucosa, along with a surfeit of other hormones and chemicals having possible spin-off effects on male behavior, it is not inconceivable to me that there may be genuine psychobiological consequences of semen intake occurring in these young swallowing males that are not wholly out of line with the Sambia's own folk beliefs. It might not be a theory you want to run by your local pastor or should bring up at your next PTA meeting, but you get the idea.

But let's get back to non-hebephilic semen ingestion. In addition to their semen-as-antidepressant model, Gallup and Burch have worked out many other intricate, persuasive arguments about how the various chemicals in human semen served—and continue to serve—biologically adaptive functions for both sexes. For example, among the more curious ingredients in human semen are follicle-stimulating-hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH). The reason this is curious, point out Gallup and Burch, is because these are distinctively female hormones. "What are female hormones doing in human semen?" The authors speculate, and convincingly so, that the presence of FSH and LH in human semen is related to concealed ovulation in human females.

Unlike females of other primate species, women do not have breeding patterns governed by season or standardized cycles, and there are no obvious signals—such as a fire-engine red, swollen rear end—giving away their time of the month. So for a naïve human male, impregnating a woman as a consequence of sexual intercourse is much more a roll of the dice than it is for males of other species in their mating behaviors. Just as with any other species, though, getting the timing right so that release of semen coincides with the release of eggs is key. As a counterdefense against women's concealed ovulation, male evolution had a trick up its sleeve, which was the ability to manipulate the timing of a woman's ovulation to suit his own insemination schedule—that is to say, semen chemistry seems to give premature eggs a nice little nudging. Hence the conspicuous presence of FSH (which causes an egg in the ovary to ripen and mature) and LH (which triggers ovulation and release of that egg).

In support of this theoretical claim about semen chemistry and concealed ovulation in human females, consider that chimpanzee semen lacks the FSH hormone altogether and the presence of LH is rather negligible, which makes sense, of course, since chimpanzees are cyclical breeders and ovulating females display blinking Vegas-style marquees by way of swollen, multicolored anogenital regions. "Thus it would appear," reason Gallup and Burch:

…that the chemistry of human semen has been selected to mimic the hormonal conditions that control ovulation, and as such may account for instances of induced ovulation (ovulation triggered by copulation at points in the menstrual cycle when ovulation would otherwise be unlikely).

I've barely scratched the surface of the evolved semen literature. Here's a snapshot of other recent findings from Gallup's lab: semen-exposed women perform better on concentration and cognitive tasks; women's bodies can detect "foreign" semen that differs from their recurrent sexual partner's signature semen, an evolved system that, Gallup believes, often leads to unsuccessful pregnancies because it signals a disinvested male partner who is not as likely to provide for the offspring; women who had unprotected sex with their ex-partners—and therefore were getting regularly inseminated—experience more significant depression on breaking up than those who were not as regularly exposed to their ex's semen (and they also go on the "rebound" faster in seeking new sexual partners, which presumably would help fix their semen-deprived depression). And the list goes on.

Before I bid adieu, please accept, in all sincerity, my humblest apologies for what is likely to be a flood of bad, off-color jokes—men saying, "I'm not a medical doctor, but my testicles are licensed pharmaceutical suppliers" and so on—tracing its origins back to this innocent little article. Ladies, forgive me for what I have done.

Really?! Lesbians don't menstruate together?! That right there just blew my mind..

[worry]

They like to switch it up, in case they are using the blood in their postmodern art classes. Sweet article though. Well actually kinda bitter and salty, but you get used to it (??).

[Satan]

This subject also brought up all kinds of interesting discussions at the reading hall. Like how what you eat affect the taste of semen. Apparently, if you gurgle honey and milk your semen taste sweet.

[Tsundoku]

Pineapple juice - for the man who cares about good taste

This post has been edited by Sombra: 27 September 2010 - 11:38 AM

[Satan]

Hah! That should be Tropicana's new slogan. "Tropicana Pineapple juice- For the tasteful man"

[Tsundoku]

You read it here first:

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http://www.news.com....i-1225932578656

Brain injury turns binge-drinking lout into perfect man

* From: NewsCore
* September 30, 2010 11:23PM

* Man was abusive before injury
* Lost 70 per cent of his memory
* He now loves cross-stitching
* Girlfriend agreed to marry him

AN ABUSIVE, heavy-drinking man was transformed into a teetotal perfect husband after suffering a brain haemorrhage.

Ken Merryweather, 44, from Glossop in Derbyshire, central England, used to go out on all-night drink binges before returning home to argue with his girlfriend.

But his personality was completely transformed after he was struck down by the life-threatening condition.

The change was so striking that his girlfriend even agreed to marry him.

"There was no way I would've married him before but he has totally gone the other way," Tracey Merryweather said.

Mr Merryweather said that although the hemorrhage caused him several problems, he was glad it had made him "a nicer guy to be around”.

"I used to be so verbally abusive - especially after a few pints. When I used to work I used to go straight to the pub and not get in until 2am to 3am in the morning."

He added: "There are things I can't do now but there are other things I can - I can cross-stitch and I do an awful lot of sewing and cooking."

Mr Merryweather had been drinking heavily just hours before he suffered the haemorrhage. He was found the next morning collapsed on the floor.

"I lost 50 to 70 per cent of my memory, I had to learn to walk and talk again. I asked if it was down to the alcohol and the doctors said no. It was basically just a time bomb ticking. I don't touch a drop now. Tracey says it's turned me into a better person," he said.

---------------------------------------------

There's hope for Macros and Toby after all.

This post has been edited by Sombra: 01 October 2010 - 01:31 PM

[Hobbes]

Student punished for spaghetti beliefs

Quote

A student has been suspended from school in America for coming to class dressed as a pirate.

But the disciplinary action has provoked controversy – because the student says that the ban violates his rights, as the pirate costume is part of his religion.

Bryan Killian says that he follows the Pastafarian religion, and that as a crucial part of his faith, he must wear 'full pirate regalia' as prescribed in the holy texts of Pastafarianism.

The school, however, say that his pirate garb was disruptive.

Pastafarians follow the Flying Spaghetti Monster (pictured), and believe that the world was created by the touch of his noodly appendage. Furthermore, they acknowledge pirates as being 'absolute divine beings', and stress that the worldwide decline in the number of pirates has directly led to global warming.

Pastafarianism gained wide attention when its key prophet, Bobby Henderson, wrote to the Kansas School Board during the height of the controversy over 'Intelligent Design' being taught in science classes. His letter, also published on his website, demanded equal time be given to the teachings of the Flying Spaghetti Monster as was given to ID and evolutionary theory.

Since then, the Flying Spaghetti Monster has gained countless followers worldwide, although there are those who remain spagnostic.

The school, in North Buncombe, North Carolina, remains adamant that their decision to suspend Killian for a day has nothing to do with his religion, and quite a lot to do with his repeated refusal to heed warnings against wearing pirate outfits.

[Tsundoku]

Sweden in the Indian Ocean?

-------------------------------------------------

http://www.news.com....009?area=travel

Plans for 'blonde-only island' in the Maldives

* by Staff Writers
* From: news.com.au
* October 05, 2010 8:00AM

Everyone from the resort staff to the pilots and flight crew will be blondes under the plan / screengrab

A LITHUANIAN company has revealed plans to set up a holiday island in the Maldives run entirely by blondes.

Olialia (pronounced "Ooh-la-la") hopes to lure tourists with its blonde staff and says it will even offer flights to the island with a blonde-only crew - including pilots, the BBC reported.

Olialia's managing director Giedre Pukiene says the resort will prove that blonde women are just as intelligent as everyone else.

"Our girls are very smart and they have degrees," Md Pukiene said.

"All of them want to do something with their lives. They have lots of business ideas."

However the resort, scheduled to open in 2015, has already come under fire.

"This is racist and should not be allowed in the Maldives," wrote one reader identified as Ablo on the Maldivian new website Minivan.

The company may find it difficult to employ only blondes, as legally resorts in the Maldives are required to hire at least 50 per cent local staff.

However Ms Pukiene says her company does not discriminate and welcomes all applicants, regardless of their gender, age, ethnicity or hair colour.

Olialia is a growing business making products from computer software to music and its advertisements feature blonde women.

A blonde festival was held in the Latvian capital Riga back in May.

-------------------------------------------------

Finally somewhere for Morgoth to blonde in. I mean blend in.

This post has been edited by Sombra: 05 October 2010 - 10:19 AM

[Satan]

Just have the locals dye their hair. Problem solved. Now give me cash! So I can buy blondes.

[Satan]

Most of you won't understand a bit of this, but it says that a group of people survived a mad axe man on a plane because there were two northern Norwegians on it. In the words of a professor in psychology, the northern Norwegians were able to take control of the situation because they, unlike people from the south, were brought up in a culture where people are used to taking care of themselves. Yup, that's right. Everybody should have a northern Norwegian at their side. It's for your own safety.

Quote

Det var en kamp på liv og død da en asylsøker gikk amok med øks om bord i Kato Air-flyet like før landing i Bodø 2004. I ettertid har professor i krisepsykiatri, Lars Weisæth, forsket på den dramatiske hendelsen.

Og konklusjonen er klar: Alle om bord overlevde fordi det befant seg nordlendinger om bord.

• Les også: Krever Kato Air for millioner

– Den enestående handlekraften kommer fra en nordnorsk kultur der folk var mer vant til å klare seg selv. Derfor unngikk de to nordlendingene å bli passive tilskuere til sin egen død, sier han.

Professoren har i flere år drevet forskning på vold, terror og menneskers reaksjoner i forbindelse med kapringsforsøk, og professoren skal gi retten faglig bistand i så måte.

Han tror heltedåden har vært til hjelp i terapiarbeidet etterpå.


Skrekkslagne vitner
Det var 29. september 2004 like før landing før landing i Bodø at en mann fra Algerie angrep pilotene med øks. Mens flyet stupte mot bakken tar daværende næringsråd og senere næringsminister Odd Eriksen og narvikmannen Trond Frantzen opp kampen mot gjerningsmannen. De andre passasjerene var skrekkslagne vitner til dramatikken inne i flyet.

• Les også: Vil nekte folk om bord i fly

De ni om bord var bare få meter fra en krasj som kunne sendt dem alle i døden.


Odd Eriksen brakk ryggen
Odd Eriksen i sykesenga etter Kato Air-dramaet

Foto: NRK - Det var en sterk opplevelse som virker svært forskjellig på folk, sier Odd Eriksen.

– Vi som mennesker opplever samme situasjon ulikt. Noen bærer mer med seg etter en sånn hendelse enn andre. Det har jeg stor respekt for. Jeg skjønner at det kan oppleves urettferdig og skrekkelig vondt for noen.

• Les også: Amok med øks på fly

Odd Eriksen ble selv 20 prosent invalid etter at ryggen knakk i ulykken, og har fått erstatning for det.


Stor uenighet om erstatning
Øksa som ble brukt i dramaet.

NRK I dag møtte den kvinnelige førskolelæreren som var med på Kato Air flyet og la frem sitt krav om erstatning, som etter det NRK Nordland erfarer dreier seg om rundt to millioner kroner.

Kvinnen var ikke i arbeid, og hadde stønad fra det offentlige på det tidpunktet Kato Air-dramet skjedde. Kvinnen har som følge av dramaet i Kato Air-flyet, ikke senere kommet seg ut i arbeidslivet, og derfor krevd erstatning.

• Les også: Fylkesråd dagens helt

Advokat Finn Jakob Enger sier dette er et krav som Nordisk Flyforsikringsgruppe ikke kan godta.

Advokat Finn Jakob Enger.

Foto: Kjell Jakobsen/NRK - Vi har foretatt en vurdering av det korrekte erstatningsnivået og tilbudt det. Så må vi dessverre konstatere at vi ikke har nått fram til en løsning, og at saksøker har bedt retten må vurdere omfanget av kravet.

– Hvor mye har dere tilbudt?

– Det kan vi dessverre ikke si noe om.

Ofoten tingrett fortsetter sin behandling av saken i morgen med vitnehavør og medisinsk sakkyndigs vurdering av saken

[Tsundoku]

It's good to be the king.

--------------------------------

http://www.news.com....i-1225935261314

Erotic student calendar for Putin's birthday

* By Anna Malpas
* From: AFP
* October 07, 2010 8:35AM

* Russian students pose for erotic calendar
* Calendar a birthday gift for Prime Minister
* Vladimir Putin turning 58 today

LINGERIE-CLAD students from Moscow's most renowned university have posed in an erotic calendar proclaiming their love for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who turns 58 on Thursday.

The calendar, called "Vladimir Vladimirovich, We love you. Happy Birthday Mr Putin," features twelve women wearing only underwear and pouting at the camera with saucy slogans.

The women are all named as journalism students at the Moscow State University and a spokeswoman for the faculty confirmed that the models study there.

Clad in a black lace negligee, Miss March, Lena Gornostayeva, wishes Putin a happy birthday with the message: "You put out the forest fires, but I'm still burning."

Journalism faculty spokeswoman Larisa Bakulina slammed the calendar as a "work of erotic tastelessness."

"We are not happy that they used the brand of the journalism faculty," she said. "It is tactless on the part of the publishers."

One of the creators of the calendar, Maxim Perlin, 22, a producer at a patriotic Internet television channel, said that he put it together with a publisher, Vladimir Tabak.

The models posed for free, claiming the calendar had an empowering message.

"The idea of the calendar was to show girls who are not simply models who turn up for 100 dollars, but girls who have some political opinion, who have already achieved some success," he said.

Asked why the models were in underwear, he said: "In my opinion it's more beautiful and more interesting."

Fifty thousand copies of the calendar went on sale on Tuesday at Auchan hypermarkets, Perlin said. "We hope it will have some commercial success."

Perlin works for a pro-Kremlin channel called Russia.ru. Its creator Konstantin Rykov was behind a website called Zaputina.ru, or For Putin, which pushed for the leader to run for a third presidential term.

Perlin denied that he was a member of United Russia or any pro-Kremlin youth group and said that the calendar was funded from proceeds of publishing projects.

"We chose girls from our acquaintances and friends. I am a journalist and my friends are journalists. We know the girls who study there very well. They are 90 per cent our friends."

----------------------------

My birthday is coming up in February, ladies ...

[Aptorian]

That Odd Eriksen guy who broke his back was he one of the pilots?

[Menandore]

@Bryn - does the article explain how the hell he got the axe past security without them noticing?!

@Somby - Do we even have 12 girls on here? Tell you what, if you can round up 11 volunteers, I'll make it happen

[Aptorian]

Didn't we have a calendar project on here years ago, like around 2006 when I joined?

I think it was Shiara and... uhm... some body else, who was trying to make a male calender.

I remember doing a campaign to get Tom Cruise day added to the calendar.

[Satan]

 Aptorian, on 07 October 2010 - 06:34 AM, said:

That Odd Eriksen guy who broke his back was he one of the pilots?

I suppose he's one of the northern Norwegians, but I really don't know.

 Menandore, on 07 October 2010 - 07:29 AM, said:

@Bryn - does the article explain how the hell he got the axe past security without them noticing?!

It was on a airline flying from a really small airport, where security is virtually non-existent. Basically, before this, us Norwegians figured we were too small and unimportant for any sort of terrorist act to happen here. It wasn't the Taliban, but security did get a little oomph after that happen.

[Tsundoku]

Not so much weird as fucking depressing and scary. If her career ever goes anywhere I expect all USAnians to shut the fuck up for eternity about anyone elses' stupidity, as this will be difficult to beat on the scale of 'dumbarse'.

--------------------------------------------------

http://www.news.com....i-1225945089906

Sarah Palin indicates White House bid

* By Andrew Gully in Washington
* From: AFP
* October 29, 2010 11:17AM

TEA Party favourite Sarah Palin gave the strongest indication yet that she is preparing a 2012 White House bid, saying she will run for president "if there is nobody else to do it".

The former Republican vice-presidential candidate, who was lampooned in the media for her political naivety in the hard-fought final weeks of the 2008 campaign, is now among the most popular conservative politicians in America.

Ms Palin, who left office midway through her first term in office as governor of Alaska, told Entertainment Tonight today it would take someone willing "to make the tough choices and not care what the critics are going to say about you".

"It's going to entail a discussion with my family (and) a real close look at the lay of the land, to consider whether there are those with that commonsense, conservative, pro-constitution passion, " she said.

"If there's nobody else to do it, then of course I would believe that we should do this," she told the TV show, a Hollywood publicity machine, in an interview from her home in Wasilla, Alaska.

The 45-year-old mother of five was little known nationally until she burst onto the political scene when Arizona senator John McCain chose her as his shock running mate in August 2008.

Ms Palin announced in July 2009 that she was resigning as Alaska governor, 18 months before completing her first term, providing a puzzling explanation that it was due to frivolous ethics complaints against her.

It is not too much of a stretch of the imagination to think that the potent figure in the burgeoning anti-Obama opposition movement simply wanted to dedicate herself completely to a 2012 presidential run.

After installing herself on the social networking site Facebook, she wrote a memoir, Going Rogue: An American Life, which shot to the top of Amazon's bestseller list several weeks ahead of its publication on November 17.

Even if she wins the Republican primary she would face an uphill fight in the general election, as she is not considered popular in the country at large and was found wanting on foreign policy experience during the McCain campaign.

That said, no clear Republican contender has emerged and Ms Palin has been buoyed by support from the Tea Party, a right-wing populist movement galvanised by opposition to taxes and rising government spending.

After ridiculing what she has termed the "lamestream" media, Ms Palin has shunned mainstream outlets and used her Facebook page and Twitter account to endorse candidates, often Tea Party favourites and often to stunning effect.

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I love that series of pics in the funny pics thread about 'what is the difference between your mouth and your vagina?'

[Aptorian]

For fucks sake, she is a bumbling fool who fled her government when she was about to get charged with nepotism and fraud. She should be tarred and feathered and then never spoken of again. Stupid politics.