Third of male fish in rivers are changing sex

A third of male fish in English rivers are changing sex due to 'gender-bending' pollution, alarming research shows.

Experts say female hormones from the contraceptive pill and HRT are being washed into our rivers and causing male fish to produce eggs.

The problem - which is country-wide - has raised fears that the pollutants could also be contaminating our drinking water - and even be affecting the fertility of men.

The Environment Agency study looked at the health of more than 1600 roach found in 51 rivers and streams around the country.

Overall, a third of the male fish were between sexes. However, in one waterway, near a particularly heavy discharge of treated sewage more than 80 per cent had female characteristics.

Tests showed the males developed female sex organs and were producing eggs. Such fish also produce less sperm and the sperm that is produced is of low quality. Females may also be affected, producing abnormal eggs..........

An Avatar Is Born-Say hello to easy home control in this high-tech palace.

What can you expect from an Electronic House Home of the Year grand prize winner? For starters, it has to be a great house—one whose occupants don't like leaving and always look forward to returning. It must have innovative home technology. In fact, it should have high-tech conveniences throughout, including great audio and video; a home theater or two; lighting, heating and ventilation control; and quite likely, a control system that allows for easy operation of anything by anyone from anywhere.

Of course, all that has to enhance the owners' lifestyle and not overwhelm the decor. The simpler and less obtrusive the better. Naturally, we received many Home of the Year entries detailing large homes—estates, really—with dozens of rooms and audio and video zones, hundreds of lighting fixtures and pages upon pages of electronics accoutrements. And these places were certainly impressive. Some even came with attendants who greet their occupants whenever they return to their sanctuaries.

We didn't pick one of those as our grand prize winner. Our first Home of the Year isn't some compound for the rich and famous. Our Home of the Year is a more modest 4,500 square feet in size. As far as we know, it does not sport a massive wine cellar or an entire entertainment wing or separate guest houses and pavilions and other over-the-top amenities. In many ways, you could say this house is much more average than some of the other homes we considered.

However, this home does have an attendant that will always greet you at the door. And this is what really separates this high-tech house from all the others. That's because its home attendant is electronic.

Cleopatra's Reign

When any member of this home's family of five returns to the three-story, Seattle-area contemporary house, they receive a warm greeting. That comes from Cleopatra, an attractive and articulate presence who is employed at the house as an avatar, or an electronic personality.

Cleopatra appears on a 42-inch Panasonic plasma screen that faces the front door (see page 114). She greets each resident by name and announces any events of interest that have occurred during the person's absence, such as visitors, phone calls, voice mails, emails and deliveries. Displayed next to Cleopatra is a summary of other information, including who else is at home, pictures of recent visitors at the front door, home activity and alerts, the local weather forecast, stock market changes, even the national security level.

Cleopatra isn't just a sentinel for the foyer, however. She can roam throughout the house, appearing on other screens and numerous wireless PC tablets. She announces visitors, provides information on any high winds in the area—the house sits on a bluff overlooking Puget Sound—and gives status reports on the home's electronic systems. Microphones built into the home's ceilings allow the family to interact with Cleopatra by requesting information and controlling any aspect of the house.

Cleopatra is the brainchild of homeowner Brian Conte, president of Fast Track, a company that produces "greeter" software for the home market. "I'm into technology, and with three kids, we wanted something easy to use and comfortable," Brian says. "We wanted to keep track of the kids and make it friendly for them." As the house was being built, a whole-house Motorola Premise home control system, a Russound audio distribution system, an HAI security system and an OnQ Home lighting system were put into place as well. There's also a home theater and some video distribution. Much of the wiring runs behind removable baseboards for easy access.

Brian's wife, Patti, needed some convincing to live in this high-tech residence. "I was a little skeptical about the whole notion of home automation," she says. "I wasn't sure what it could do for me that was truly useful, and I was worried that the ‘fuss factor' would outweigh the benefits. So far it's been pretty smooth because the focus has been to create useful, fuss-free features."

"I really like the features that help with the kids," Patti adds. "Our 3- and 5-year-old daughters tend to go to sleep relatively early, while our 8-year-old son is a big reader. Lots of evenings, I fall asleep reading to the girls. I've come to depend on Cleopatra to tell our son that it's time to go to sleep if his light is still on at 9:45." As if that's not enough, during the morning rush, Cleopatra issues reminders about what time it is and lets the kids know they need to get in the car so they won't be late for school.

"In effect, Cleopatra provides a home personality and a friendly interface to the home's automation system," Brian says. The Premise system operates over a home's IP (Internet Protocol) network, much like a computer network used in office environments. That way, everything can operate off Microsoft Windows-based PCs. Motion sensors alert the system if someone is in a room or has approached the front door. Cleopatra even knows which family member has entered or departed by scanning tiny RFID (radio frequency identification) chips on their key fobs or other personal items as they pass the door.

The system monitors room occupancy, intelligently switching on and off the lights, music, and heating and ventilation systems when appropriate. It detects who is in bed and will turn off the lights, lower the shades, turn off the music and set the night alarm. The house will also wake up residents at requested times and provide them with weather forecasts and reminders of important appointments or events that day. "Patti's favorite part is when she wakes up in the morning and the fire is already going downstairs," Brian says.

"I especially like having the alarm system tied into it and it being so easy to use," says Patti. "At our previous house, we hardly ever used the security system because it was such a hassle to set down the kids and their stuff, turn it on, rush to get out in 60 seconds and all that rigmarole. Now I just swipe my key fob as I leave, and if I'm the last person out, the system is automatically armed."

Finger on the Music

If you think the home assistant and all that automation is cool, check out how the 18-zone whole-house audio system works. The kids don't have to type or press anything. All they do is place a finger on a scanner that reads who it is and then allows easy access to their personal playlists. "The system knows their preferences," Brian says.

The kids also have a common play area—with a real tree—and there's a clubhouse on top of their rooms that's accessible through trapdoors.

The entertainment systems throughout the house are fairly low-key, with a slew of in-wall SpeakerCraft speakers and a few hidden video projectors in the office and media room. "Everything we do is through the computer, even watching the DVDs [in the media room]," says Brian. In fact, the media room screen often doubles as a computer screen. A PC-based video server can record shows to a hard drive, record them to disc or play them through any of the other PCs in the home.

This futuristic house even has robots. There's a Roomba robotic vacuum, a Scooba robotic floor sweeper and a robotic lawn mower. (We'd especially like to get one of those!) Not everything in this tricked-out home has run smoothly, however. Sensor pads installed to detect who was sleeping didn't work reliably. So switches by the bed that Brian and Patti flick when they retire for the evening set the house to sleep mode. "And while we have had some luck with voice recognition software and querying and controlling the house with that, we are still working to improve the recognition rate, especially for the kids," Brian says.

Unfortunately, there's also a debate about the avatar's good looks. "Cleopatra reminds me of Angelina Jolie," Patti says. "I keep telling Brian that I would much rather have an avatar who brings Brad Pitt to mind. But he keeps telling me that is technically impossible."

Are there pets in heaven?

Millions of people have a special relationship with animals as pets. They say that pets teach us about being natural and unpretentious. They're loyal, affectionate, and in touch with their senses. They draw out of us the ability to nurture and instill an appreciation of our physical nature in an increasingly technological world. Their very presence encourages us to escape the narrow confines of our self-absorbed egos.

Pets are always there for us. They bring laughter and a playful spirit. Children are enthralled by pets and the aged prize them for their warm attachment when everyone else seems to turn away.

To some people animals are only inferior beings put on earth to serve us as sources of food, clothing, entertainment and transportation. But to many others, animals are worth more than simply what we want to do with them.

St. Francis of Assisi held animals in high regard as special creatures made by God -- even speaking to them at times as brothers and sisters.

The highly intellectual theologian Thomas Aquinas explained the diversity of animals on earth this way: "Because the divine goodness could not adequately be represented by one creature alone, God produced many and diverse creatures so that what was lacking in one as a representation of the divine goodness, might be supplied by another."

People value their pets so much that they grieve when they die. Their death prompts quizzical concerns, such as, "Are there pets in heaven? Will I ever enjoy my pet's presence again?"

Peter Kreeft, professor at Boston College, gives an excellent insight to such questions in his book, "Heaven: The Heart's Deepest Longing."

He writes, "How much earth is in heaven? Well, remember that everything real and valuable on earth came from heaven to begin with. A cat is not merely evolved molecules in motion; it is a divine idea, a work of art, and a sign.

"It is a natural sign: it has something of what it signifies, and what it signifies is something heavenly; so there is something of heaven in a cat. And heaven does not die. God does not throw his artwork into the wastebasket; God does not make junk. All his work has eternal value. It passes through time and seems to pass away -- but it is in eternity."

For those who grieve for a recently deceased pet, I offer a prayer composed by Edward Hays:

"Lord God, to those who have never had a pet this prayer will sound strange. But to You, Lord of All Life and Creator of All Creatures, it will be understandable.

"My heart is heavy as I grieve the loss of my pet (pet's name here), who was so much a part of my life. This pet made my life more enjoyable and gave me cause to laugh and to find joy in (his/her) company. I remember (his/her) fidelity and loyalty.

"From (him/her) I learned many lessons such as the quality of naturalness and the unembarrassed request for affection. In caring for (his/her) daily needs I was taken up and out of my own self-needs, and thus learned to be of service to another.

"May the death of this creature of Yours remind me that death comes to all of us, animal and human, and that it is the natural passage for all life.

"May (pet's name here) sleep on in an eternal slumber in Your care, as all creation awaits the fullness of liberation. Amen."

They called me a child pornographer

I took some photos of my kids naked on a camping trip. A drugstore employee called the police -- and my family's life became a living hell.

As usual during the trip, we took several photos. Because I forgot my digital camera, I bought a disposable camera at a gas station on the way to the campground. I took pictures of the kids using sticks to beat on old bottles and cans and logs as musical instruments. I took a few of my youngest daughter, Eliza, then age 3, skinny dipping in the lake, and my son, Noah, then age 8, swimming in the lake in his underwear, and another of Noah naked, hamming it up while using a long stick to hold his underwear over the fire to dry. Finally, I took a photo of everyone, as was our camping tradition, peeing on the ashes of the fire to put it out for the last time. We also let the kids take photos of their own.

When we returned on Sunday, I forgot the throwaway camera and Rusty found it in his car. He gave it to his wife, who I'll call Janet, to get developed, and she dropped it off the next day with two other rolls of film at a local Eckerd drug store. On Tuesday, when she returned to pick up the film, she was approached by two officers from the Savannah Police Department. They told her they had been called by Eckerd due to "questionable photos."

One officer told Janet "there were pictures of little kids running around with no clothes on, pictures of minors drinking alcohol," she recounted for me in an email. "I asked to see the pictures and was told I couldn't. I explained there must be a mistake. I was kind of laughing, you know, 'Come on guys. There must be an explanation. This is crazy. Let me see the pictures.' The officer told me that he personally did not find [the photos] offensive and that he had camped himself as a kid and knows what goes on." But the officer also told Janet that "because Eckerd's had called them and that because there were pictures of children naked, genitalia and alcohol, they would have to investigate."

Janet asked the photo lab clerk what was on the photos and the clerk "replied very seriously that they were bad, that there was one that looked like a child's head had been cut off, one with children drinking beer and pictures of naked kids." As she drove to her house, Janet said, "I was in shock and felt sick to the pit of my stomach and was trying to process all of it." She called my wife, who was driving home, and explained what had happened. Sensing how bad this might become, my wife pulled her car to the side of the road and fought the urge to throw up.

Neither my wife nor I, Rusty nor Janet has a criminal record of any sort. Yet over the next several weeks, the Savannah Police Department and the Department of Family and Child Services (DFCS) investigated us for "child pornography" and then "sexual exploitation of a minor." We suffered the embarrassment of having DFCS interview our family, friends, employers and our children's teachers, asking them whether we were suitable parents and what kind of relationship we had with our kids.

Sharing the roses

Life can be busy and hectic, but please remember to stop and smell the roses, like these cute orangutans are doing. ( via )

Trading a Paper Clip for a House

26-year-old Montreal man appears to have succeeded in his quest to barter a single, red paper-clip all the way up to a house.

Kyle MacDonald makes friends with Alice Cooper.

It took almost a year and 14 trades, but Kyle MacDonald has been offered a two-storey farmhouse in Kipling, Sask., for a paid role in a movie.

MacDonald began his quest last summer when he decided he wanted to live in a house. He didn't have a job, so instead of posting a resumé, he looked at a red paper-clip on his desk and decided to trade it on an internet website.

He got a response almost immediately — from a pair of young women in Vancouver who offered to trade him a pen that looks like a fish.

MacDonald then bartered the fish pen for a handmade doorknob from a potter in Seattle.

In Massachusetts, MacDonald traded the doorknob for a camp stove. He traded the stove to a U.S. marine sergeant in California for a 100-watt generator.

In Queens, N.Y., he exchanged the generator for the "instant party kit" — an empty keg and an illuminated Budweiser beer sign.

MacDonald then traded the keg and sign for a Bombardier snowmobile, courtesy of a Montreal radio host.

He bartered all the way up to an afternoon with rock star Alice Cooper, a KISS snow globe and finally a paid role in a Corbin Bernsen movie called Donna on Demand.

"Now, I'm sure the first question on your mind is, "Why would Corbin Bernsen trade a role in a film for a snow globe? A KISS snow globe," MacDonald said on his website "one red paper-clip."

"Well, Corbin happens to be arguably one of the biggest snow globe collectors on the planet."

Now, the town of Kipling, Sask., located about two hours east of Regina with a population of 1,100, has offered MacDonald a farmhouse in exchange for the role in the movie.

The paper-clip house. (CBC)

MacDonald and his girlfriend will fly to the town next Wednesday.

"We are going to show them the house, give them the keys to the house and give them the key to the town and just have some fun," said Pat Jackson, mayor of Kipling.

The town is going to hold a competition for the movie role.

MacDonald said: "There's people all over the world that are saying that they have paper-clips clipped to the top of their computer, or on their desk or on their shirt, and it proves that anything is possible and I think to a certain degree it's true."

MacDonald, who has attracted international media in his quest, said the journey has turned out to be more exciting than the goal.

"This is not the end. This may be the end of this segment of the story, but this story will go on.

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Ann de Gersem's Life Dress

Need a little privacy? No problem, just puff up your privacy skirt and you’ll be in your own little world soon enough …
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Survival instinct

A mouse rides on the back of a frog in floodwaters in the northern Indian city Lucknow June 30, 2006.

Dog praised for life-saving call

A US dog has won an award for saving her owner's life by dialling a phone number that alerted emergency services to her owner's diabetic seizure.

Belle the beagle triggered a call to an ambulance crew by biting on her owner, Kevin Weaver's, mobile phone.

The dog was trained to detect potential diabetic attacks by licking and sniffing Mr Weaver's nose to check his blood sugar levels and pawing him.

Belle resorted to dialling for help when Mr Weaver fell unconscious.

The dog used her teeth to press the number nine key, which the phone was programmed to interpret as a "911" call to emergency services.

Ambulance workers answered the phone and, hearing nothing but barking at the end of the line, rushed to the caller's house in the city of Ocoee in Florida state.

The dog is the first animal to receive the Vita Wireless Samaritan Award.

"I am convinced that if Belle wasn't with me that morning, I wouldn't be alive today," Mr Weaver said.

"Belle is more than just a life-saver. She's my best friend."

Rare "Rainbow" Spotted Over Idaho

June 19, 2006—It looks like a rainbow that's been set on fire, but this phenomenon is as cold as ice.

Known in the weather world as a circumhorizontal arc, this rare sight was caught on film on June 3 as it hung over northern Idaho near the Washington State border (map of Idaho).

The arc isn't a rainbow in the traditional sense—it is caused by light passing through wispy, high-altitude cirrus clouds. The sight occurs only when the sun is very high in the sky (more than 58° above the horizon). What's more, the hexagonal ice crystals that make up cirrus clouds must be shaped like thick plates with their faces parallel to the ground.

When light enters through a vertical side face of such an ice crystal and leaves from the bottom face, it refracts, or bends, in the same way that light passes through a prism. If a cirrus's crystals are aligned just right, the whole cloud lights up in a spectrum of colors.

This particular arc spanned several hundred square miles of sky and lasted for about an hour, according to the London Daily Mail.

What do butterflies do when it rains?

Imagine a monarch butterfly searching for nectar or a mate in a meadow on a humid afternoon in July. Suddenly, a fast-moving thunderstorm approaches, bringing gusty winds and large raindrops. For the monarch and other butterflies this is not a trivial matter. An average monarch weighs roughly 500 milligrams; large raindrops have a mass of 70 milligrams or more. A raindrop this size striking a monarch would be equivalent to you or I being pelted by water balloons with twice the mass of bowling balls.

Amateur and professional lepidopterists tell tales of butterflies darting into protective vegetation and scrambling beneath leaves when dark skies, strong breezes and the first raindrops signal an imminent storm. During heavy rains and wind, butterflies are rarely seen. Not only does rain pose a direct threat of injury or death, but the cool air associated with storms may also reduce temperatures below the thermal threshold for butterfly flight. In preparation for flight, these aerial acrobats expose their wings to direct sunlight, which rapidly warms their flight muscles. Overcast skies limit their ability to gather the solar radiation needed to take wing. A butterfly knocked from the air by raindrops thus faces the double threat of crashing in an inhospitable habitat where predators lay in wait and being unable to warm its body sufficiently to regain flight. Little wonder, then, that when skies darken, butterflies seek shelter in their nighttime homes.

Butterflies are quiescent when it is dark and take refuge in protected locations called roosts within one or two hours of sunset. Roosts may be tall grasses, perennial herbaceous plants, tangled thickets of woody shrubs, undersides of large leaves, caves or, in some cases, man-made objects such as fences or hanging baskets. Butterflies may also roost in the vegetation beneath overhanging trees. The leaves of the upper canopy intercept raindrops and reduce their impact on vegetation and butterflies below.

Several species of neotropical butterflies, such as the zebra butterfly, Heliconius charitonius, roost in the company of their peers. Perhaps as a result of the good company, Heliconius exhibits curious fidelity to roosts, often returning to the same location or individual plant for several nights. When rain threatens, zebra butterflies enter their nocturnal roosts much earlier than they would on clear days. And, like us humans, they demonstrate considerable lethargy on rainy mornings, delaying their usual early departure by as much as several hours. Unusually long stretches of rainy weather may even reduce the population of butterflies in a roosting group, because cool temperatures hinder their mobility and therefore their ability to escape from predators.

Ultimately, what butterflies do in the rain is avoid it. But with the return of sunshine following a summer shower, they often resume patrolling and courting within minutes. So the next time the sky darkens and thunder rumbles, take a cue from the butterflies. Find a safe roost out of the rain, but as soon as the sun returns, go out and enjoy.

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The photo of training activities at Thai Elephant Conservati


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Shower Monitor: Ruining Your Life in Eight Minutes or Less

The Waitek Shower Monitor is a timer that activates automatically when the water is turned on, and then after a predesignated time limit between five and eight minutes, it starts emanating an annoying honk that can be heard all over the house. The only way to turn off that beeper is to turn off the water for at least two minutes. It has an LED readout that shows you how much time you have left as well as the temperature of the water.

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Flickr Photo of the Day: Feed Me

Day 2, Brood 2, Nestbox #1 2006, originally uploaded by lucycat.

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Meet my new pet, Mister Toadington!

Hi folks! I'm going to give you folks who have been nice enough to hang in there with me... GASP... a schedule! That's right, I'm going to give you two new Robot Stories each week... one on Tuesday, one on Friday. That includes journals, side art or photos, and a new "neil has fun" section at the bottom of the page, which will delve into the fun things I have found that I can do when I am not working. Having time where I am not working, of course, is a rare concept for me... bleh. Okay, so you folks can join a notification email list (ABOVE) and I will email you all when I update. As a thanks, I will be sending secret links to exclusive art and comic strips here and there. Yeah, it's free, and you can even get a full refund if you don't like getting emails from me (with the manager's permission, of course). Thanks for reading... enjoy!

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Candy or Donut ???

Artist's impression of the new Allianz Arena in Munich, set to be the venue for the opening game of World Cup 2006.

FOOTBALL STADIA

Sixteen cities put themselves forward as potential venues for matches during World Cup 2006. In April 2002, the LOC submitted twelve of these to FIFA for consideration.

The twelve cities named as host venues are Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Nuremburg, Leipzig, Cologne, Stuttgart, Dortmund, Gelsenkirchen and Kaiserslautern.

The criteria for selecting the twelve venues for the 2006 World Cup were very tough. The 141-pages catalogue of criteria "Stadium 2006" is the basis for evaluation.

Requirements for the 2006 World Cup stadiums included:

Capacity - At least 40,000 seats for first round and quarter-final matches; at least 60,000 seats for the opening match, semi-finals, the third place play-off and final.

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Mathmos Aduki Neon Lights that Smile at You

Mathmos Aduki is a portable and rechargable lamp for indoors and outdoors use. Aside from its unusual shape, it also transforms into mood-setting neon colors, and it has a tiny face on its underside. Who thinks these things up? The aduki retail for $49.99 at ThinkGeek
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The Lost Don

The Godfather: The Game crosses the Corleones and gets away with it.

The Godfather: The Game --gets almost everything about The Godfather, the movie, exactly wrong. And yet it's enjoyable and entertaining. That contradiction won't surprise anyone who's played any of the multitudes of games that have been adapted from well-known films, but it does illustrate something that often goes overlooked: The rules and the fiction that make up a game are distinct, if interdependent, elements. And more often than not, while the fiction can make a game more interesting, it's the rules—and the gameplay that emerges from them—that make a game fun.
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Mod Your T-shirts!

Nobody just wears a t-shirt these days. You've got to "mod" them. To get you started on your first t-shirt for the summer, artist Karyl Newman took a regular looking large crew neck t-shirt and created this cute halter tee. The complete step-by-step is up on Instructables.

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The cats eatin weird things

Flickr is almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing application in the world. Show off your favorite photos to the world, securely and ...
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101 Reasons Why Fingers Are Better

You don't have to smile at them afterwards
You don't have to get out of bed to fetch them
They don't get tired before you do...
You always know where your fingers have been
For variety, you have ten to choose from
They are also useful *out* of bed
You can stop if you want to
Your fingers don't want to meet your family
Your fingers don't get jealous
Your fingers don't smell
Your fingers won't just fall asleep afterwards
Your fingers don't want you to meet *their* family
You don't get jealous of your fingers
Your fingers don't mind if you fall asleep afterwards
Your fingers won't let you down (Snowwhite)
Your fingers don't want to watch a football match instead
Your mother won't critisize your fingers
You can't get pregnant from your fingers
Your fingers don't need batteries
People aren't surprised to find you have them
Fingers don't need adaptors to covert American plugs to English ones (I've heard this can be a problem.)
They don't shrink afterwards (Snowwhite)
You always have them with you
You can chew on them when you are nervous (Snowwhite)
You can use more than 1 at a time
They are agile
They'll never leave you (Snowwhite)
You don't have to make your fingers coffee in the morning (Gideon)
You can also use them to clean the wax out of your ears (Gideon)
They want to when you want to
They don't take up half the bed at night
They are easy to clean
If the ones you are using get tired, you can switch to some of the others
They don't demand acrobatics in bed
They don't want to try out stuff they heard from friends
You can use them to try out stuff *you* heard from friends without worrying about it going horribly wrong
They don't look worried when *you* want acrobatics in bed
Your fingers don't give you bite-marks (Addition: unless you *like* bite-marks)
You can share them with a friend
Fingers don't cheat on you
Fingers don't have hidden wifes/girlfriends/husbands/boyfriends/children
Your fingers don't yelp when you give them bite marks
For variety you can paint them any colour you want?
It's not suspicious if you take them to the toilet with you
Since they come on 2 hands, you can use them on 2 places at the same time
They write your e-mail for you
You can use them for netsex when company is required
They're compatible with a wide range of leather goods and electrical appliances
No one ever fell in love with their fingers
They'll change the video channel for you
You can use them to write down your fantasy and share it with people
They won't ask: Am I the first?
You can type with them (although I'd rather like to see a man... *whistle*)
They won't be disgusted when you have your period
They don't snore, fart, burp or have smelly breath
They don't want you to swallow
They don't whistle after other, better-looking women or men
They don't care if your hair is a mess
You don't have to tell them how you'd like it
They don't brag how great they are
They don't cost you time, money or patience
They don't want to know where you were last eveing
Your friends don't criticise them
Their friends don't criticise you (fingers don't *have* friends)
Afterwards, they won't ask: 'Did you come?' (Eva T.)
They don't leave you to sleep in the wet spot (Eleni)
They don't mind if you scream 'oh yes, *METHOS*!!'
They're useful for scooping up nutella, chocolate, lube (take your pick) and smearing it in the appropriate places... (Claire)
Fingers don't ask who you are fantasizing about (Cher)
They don't have STDs (Mona)
Fingers are more sensitive to what you are feeling (LP)
Unlike zucchinis, you don't have to bring them to room temperature (tyree)
You won't be crushed underneath them in bed (Che & Wes)
They come in varing sizes - thumb to pinkie, or any combination thereof, it's up to you (Che & Wes)
There're extremely gentlemanly - they'll open doors for you, pull your chair out, and even cook you dinner! (Che & Wes)
They won't finish just before you reach orgasm (Eva T.)
You don't have to worry wether or not they wont come back after a goodnight (Jessy)

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Children for Sale

Would $36,000 convince you to have another kid?
Communism is officially dead in the Soviet Union, but the Marxist belief that men and women are essentially economic creatures is alive and well at the Kremlin. Earlier this month, Vladimir Putin, alarmed at Russia's declining population, which is falling thanks to short life expectancy and a plummeting birthrate (1.17 children per woman, down from about 2 in 1990), offered a bonus of 250,000 rubles (about $9,200) to women who would have a second child.
Meanwhile, at the other end of Europe, Portuguese Prime Minister José Sócrates is using the stick instead of the carrot to make babies. As part of a slate of reforms intended to simultaneously reform pension funding and reverse Portugal's declining birth rate (about 1.5 children per woman compared with 2.6 in the 1970s), Sócrates proposed tying tax rates for pensions to the number of children a worker has. Rates for those with two kids would remain constant, would fall for those with more than two, and would rise for those with fewer than two.
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Bending light to make object invisable

New materials that can change the way light and other forms of radiation bend around an object may provide a way to make objects invisible.

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In the footsteps of the " Slave of Buddha "

From an ordinary boy to a remarkable monk, Buddhadasa Bhikkhu left behind a legacy of teachings, writings and a sanctuary for others to continue on the path of dharma

In 1955 Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, founder of Suan Mokkh (Garden of Liberation), made a three-month pilgrimage to India, the birth place of Buddha. Throughout his life, the late reformist monk kept his vow to follow in his teacher's footsteps. But this path was not lined with the traditional gesture of a wai, or an offer of candles or incense sticks. His journey encompassed a deeper understanding and practice of the true teachings, or dharma, of the Lord Buddha.
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