Village Compound

In winter season, villagers gather woods to make fire in order to warm themselves. They are deprived of clothes. Fire is the only hope to warm them.

Village Fair

Rural Snapshot

Fish Aquarium

Im an amateur photographer. Here I publish some of my current picture. So I want to get comment from all my viewers which will encourage me lot.

"Star Trek's Creator's Ashes" Will Be Found In the Space

"Star Trek's Creator's Ashes" Will Be Found In the Space

"Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry and late wife Majel Barrett Roddenberry ashes will be shot into space in about a year and a half, in accordance with their wishes, memorial spaceflight company Celestis Inc said on Monday.

Majel Barrett Roddenberry, an actress who had roles in nearly every "Star Trek" television show and movie since the original, died on December 18 at age 76. She had been married to Gene Roddenberry for 22 years when he died in 1991, and she was often called "The First Lady of Star Trek."

Celestis sent a portion of Gene Roddenberry's cremated remains into space on a rocket flight in 1997, along with the remains of other individuals, including psychedelic drug advocate Timothy Leary. That flight was sent into orbit around the Earth and eventually disintegrated upon reentering the atmosphere.

But Celestis will launch both Roddenberrys' remains into deep space and the spacecraft will not fall back into Earth's orbit, said Susan Schonfeld, a spokeswoman for the company. The spacecraft will be loaded onto a commercial rocket and sent on a deep space trajectory once it breaches Earth's atmosphere, she said.

Majel Barrett Roddenberry said before her death that she wanted her remains launched into space with those of her late husband, Schonfeld said. The launch will not happen for a year and a half because Celestis needs time to prepare.

In the meantime, fans can send a tribute message for the Roddenberrys at Celestis.com, and those messages will be put into a digital file and sent into space along with the Roddenberrys' remains.

School Children Should Play More Than Work

School Children Should Play More Than Work

Researchers reported on Monday that a growing trend of curbing free time at school may lead to unruly classrooms and rob youngsters of needed exercise and an important chance to socialize.

A look at more than 10,000 children aged 8 and 9 found better classroom behavior among those who had at least a 15-minute break during the school day compared to those who did not, Dr. Romina Barros and colleagues at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York reported.

The behavior assessments were general in nature and not made at any particular time of the school day, their report said. "The available research suggests that recess may play an important role in the learning, social development, and health of children in elementary school," the research team said in a study published in Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

But today many children get less free time and fewer physical outlets at school "because many school districts responded to the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 by reducing time committed to recess, the creative arts, and even physical education in an effort to focus on reading and mathematics," they added. The researchers also found that children not getting recess were more likely to be black, from poor families and attending public schools in large cities.

"This raises concern in light of evidence that many children from disadvantaged backgrounds are not free to roam their neighborhoods or even their own yards unless they are accompanied by adults," the team said. "For many of these children, recess periods may be the only opportunity for them to practice their social skills with other children."

Barros told Reuters that previously published research indicates that poor children often are deprived of recess because "those schools are located in very violent neighborhoods, and there is the concern that children may get exposed to fights or gun shooting while in recess." In addition, she said, such schools are often overcrowded, with space designated for recess or physical activity turned into classrooms.

The study also said the growing problem of childhood obesity needs to be addressed by more activity, especially at school where children spend so much of their day. One earlier study found that free time has shrunk for U.S. children in and out of school since the 1970s, the report said. At the same time most elementary schools in Asia provide a 10-minute break after every 40 to 50 minutes of instruction, it added.

Neglectful Parents of Britain Should be Punished

Neglectful Parents of Britain Should be Punished

Parents in Britain who refuse to pay child maintenance could have their passports and driving licences confiscated without a court order under tough new laws aimed at cleaning up the welfare system.

The Welfare Reform bill, which will be debated by lawmakers on Tuesday, also seeks to nudge single parents and people with health problems into employment and to make the long-term unemployed work for their state benefits. "For those who choose not to support their own kids, we will not stand by and do nothing.

If a parent refuses to pay up then we will stop them travelling abroad or even using their car," said work and pensions minister James Purnell. The government has dubbed the changes the biggest shake-up of the welfare system for 60 years but it has also come under criticism for tabling the reforms at a time of soaring unemployment and slumping economic activity.

Pulitzer-winning author John Updike dies

Pulitzer-winning author John Updike dies

John Updike, a leading writer of his generation who chronicled the drama of small-town American life with flowing and vivid prose, wit and a frank eye for sex, died on Tuesday of lung cancer. He was 76.

"It is with great sadness that I report that John Updike died this morning," said Nicholas Latimer of Alfred A. Knopf, a unit of Random House. "He was one of our greatest writers, and he will be sorely missed." The Pulitzer Prize-winning author died in a hospice in Massachusetts, the state where he lived for more than half a century, prolific in his writing of novels, short stories, essays and criticism.

Updike's stories often focused on undercurrents of tension masked by the mundane surface of suburban America, which boomed in 1960s and 1970s as his career was taking off. Ripples of sexual tension were frequent. An early short story, "A&P," chronicled an adolescent boy's inner turmoil when three bikini-clad teenage girls appeared in the supermarket where he worked.

"It's one thing to have a girl in a bathing suit down on the beach," Updike wrote, "and another thing in the cool of the A&P, under the fluorescent lights, against all those stacked packages, with her feet paddling along naked over our checkerboard green-and-cream rubber-tile floor." Updike's frank focus on sex came before the profound changes in U.S. culture of the late 1960s lifted some of the taboo from the topic.

His publisher rewrote portions of his second novel, "Rabbit, Run," before its first printing out of fear of being charged with obscenity. That novel introduced the fictional hero Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom, the subject of four Updike novels and a novella over four decades, which won him two Pulitzer Prizes for fiction. 'AMONG THE VERY BEST' Updike was acclaimed nearly as much for his short stories, poetry and critical essays as for his 28 novels.

More than 800 Updike stories, reviews, poems and articles were published in The New Yorker magazine from 1954 through 2008. Many American readers strongly associated Updike with that publication. "Even though his literary career transcended any magazine -- he was obviously among the very best writers in the world -- he still loved writing for this weekly magazine, loved being part of an enterprise that he joined when he was so young," said David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker. "He was, for so long, the spirit of The New Yorker and it is very hard to imagine things without him."

William Pritchard, a professor of English at Amherst College who studied and knew Updike, said Updike stood out for his versatility -- writing fiction, nonfiction and verse. "He stands, for me, at the very top of the practice of being a man of letters," Pritchard said. "Each activity was carried on with great intelligence and wit and love." 'MAKE EVERYTHING COUNT' Born in Reading, Pennsylvania, Updike studied English at Harvard University, where he contributed to, and later edited, the satirical Harvard Lampoon magazine.

After a year studying at Oxford, Updike moved to New York where he worked for two years on the New Yorker's staff. In 1957 he moved his family to Ipswich, Massachusetts, a coastal town north of Boston, and later moved to nearby Beverly Farms. A New England flavor features in Updike's 1984 novel "The Witches of Eastwick," set in a fictional Rhode Island town, which was made into a commercially successful 1987 film starring Jack Nicholson and Cher.

In a Reuters interview in 2005, he said his view of himself as a writer had changed in recent years as he produced an increasing volume of art and literary criticism and struggled with the short-story medium. When asked which genre he preferred, he paused. "If I had been asked that 10 years ago I would have said short stories is where I feel most at home. I'm not sure I do feel totally at home any more, whether I have maybe written all my short stories," he said.

He was candid about the need to get writing published: "I've become much more of a book reviewer and an art reviewer for that matter than I ever planned to. At least there is a comfort when you sit down to write one of these that you'll be sure that it will get printed and you'll get paid for it. It's not the case with a short story."

2,000-year-old Brain Found in Britain

2,000-year-old Brain Found in Britain

Scientists find 2,000-year-old brain in Britain. British archaeologists have unearthed an ancient skull carrying a startling surprise ? an unusually well-preserved brain.

One expert unconnected with the find called it "a real freak of preservation."The skull was severed from its owner sometime before the Roman invasion of Britain and found in a muddy pit during a dig at the University of York in northern England this fall, according to Richard Hall, a director of York Archaeological Trust.

Finds officer Rachel Cubbitt realized the skull might contain a brain when she felt something move inside the cranium as she was cleaning it, Hall said. She looked through the skull's base and spotted an unusual yellow substance inside. Scans at York Hospital confirmed the presence of brain tissue.

Hall said it was unclear just how much of the brain had survived, saying the tissue had apparently contracted over the years. Parts of the brain have been tentatively identified, but more research was needed, he said.He said it was a mystery why the skull was buried separately from its body, suggesting human sacrifice and ritual burial as possible explanations.

The existence of a brain where no other soft tissues have survived is extremely rare, according to Sonia O'Connor, an archaeological researcher at the University of Bradford in northern England who helped authenticate the discovery."This brain is particularly exciting because it is very well preserved, even though it is the oldest recorded find of this type in the U.K., and one of the earliest worldwide," she said.

The old brain is unlikely to yield new neurological insights because human brains aren't thought to have changed much over the past 2,000 years, according to Chris Gosden, a professor of archaeology at Oxford University unconnected with the find.He confirmed it was the oldest brain found in Britain.

He noted that far older preserved brains, thought to be approximately 8,000 years old, were found in 1986 when dozens of intact human skulls were uncovered buried in a peat bog in Windover Farms in Florida."It's a real freak of preservation to have a brain and nothing else," Gosden said.

"The fact that there's any brain there at all is quite amazing."Hall said the brain found at York University was being kept in its skull in an environmentally controlled storage facility for further study.

26 Year Old Australian Boy Saved 3 People

26 Year Old Australian Boy Saved 3 People

Brett Perry, 26, was at Waitpinga beach with friends about 3.30pm yesterday when he heard four men screaming for help.


Without thinking of his own safety, Mr Perry grabbed his girlfriend's bodyboard and raced into the water to assist the men, who had been pulled about 100m offshore by a rip current.


He spent at least 15 minutes ferrying two teenage boys, 15 and 17, and their family friend, 34, to the shore.


"We weren't making much ground because the rip was so strong," Mr Perry says.
"I tried to tow them in but it was hard with the waves. As each wave came in they'd get knocked off the board."


Each time Mr Perry swam back out into the treacherous waves, the group was pulled further from the shore.


"The rip kept taking them out," he says.


"I just kept telling them to hold on to the board and not to hold on to each other."


Mr Perry was visibly shaken as he spoke of the moment the teenage boy's father, 48, lost grip of the bodyboard.


"At one stage I thought I'd got them all in but then things deteriorated," he says.


"I was extremely frustrated. I just didn't feel that I could get them all in."


Mr Perry battled to hold the man's head above the water as the Westpac rescue helicopter came into view.


"It's very lucky that the surf life saving helicopter got there in the end because I wasn't going to get in," he said.


"I don't know how much longer I could have stayed out there with him. I was exhausted."


Tragically, the man was unable to be revived by emergency crews.


Mr Perry says he did not approach the family after the heroic rescue because he did not want to intrude as they were grieving.


"I don't think it's my place to be near them when they are in that condition," he says.


He brushed aside suggestions he was a hero and said anyone who had been in the same position would have helped the stricken group.


"I don't feel like a hero," he says.


"I'd feel a lot better if I had got all of them in."


Mr Perry urged people not to swim at the notorious beach, which is littered with warning signs to alert beachgoers to the strong currents, high waves and deep gutters.


"Just don't," he says.


"Don't go in if you can't handle the waves. Don't go in alone."


Surf Life Saving state manager Shane Daw says Waitpinga and nearby Parsons beach are not safe for swimming or surfing.


"These beaches are highly dangerous and are not suitable for recreational swimming," he says.


Neither Waitpinga or Parsons are patrolled by life savers, although they are included in the Westpac Rescue Helicopter's patrols on weekends and public holidays.


Mr Daw says because of this, help can be a long way away for swimmers who do get into trouble.


"When the gentleman drowned on Australia Day we were only 10 minutes away in the helicopter," he says.


"But that can be the difference between a successful rescue and a drowning death."


The Highbury man's death is the seventh coastal drowning this summer. Twelve people drowned at South Australian beaches last summer.

Conflict Between Boyfriend and Girlfriend

Conflict Between Boyfriend and Girlfriend

Modern days we find lot of trouble between girlfriend & boyfriend. China also faces same kind of problem.

A woman called police in China after her boyfriend refused to warm up her cold feet.
Police officer Xiao Deng, of Ningbo, said he received two consecutive calls, one from the woman complaining her boyfriend refused to warm her feet - the other from the man saying his girlfriend was too demanding.

Deng went out to the rental apartment, close to Ningbo University, to try to resolve the issue but found the couple still rowing, reports Modern Times.

He says the boyfriend told him: "Have you ever seen such a girlfriend? She put her cold legs on my belly, giving me stomach cramp.

"I asked her to take them away and she said she would only put them there for a short while. I agreed, but after 10 minutes she still had them there, saying it was very comfortable."

Deng says he eventually persuaded the boyfriend that it was a man's job to warm his girlfriend's feet but told the woman not to leave her feet there for too long.

The young couple put aside their differences and thanked him for coming out to solve their problem, he added.

Britain's Largest Pensioner

Britain's Largest Pensioner

A great-grandad has been named Britain's strongest pensioner - at the age of 75.
Ged Mullane, from Oldham in Lancashire, has beaten competitors up to 15 years his junior to become British Bench Press Champion in the over 60s category.

Ged will now represent Britain in the European Championships in the Czech Republic on 23 October - where he's hoping to win by bench pressing 16-and-a-half stone.

He told the Oldham Advertiser: "I've got 15 years on some of the other competitors, but I'm really looking forward to it all the same."

The father-of-four is certainly no stranger to hard training. In his younger days, the former electrician was a member of the Salford Harriers athletics team.

As part of his keep-fit regime, Ged would run a total of twelve miles to work and back every day - completing the journey quicker than if he took the bus.

"I used to have ten training sessions every week and would sometimes take detours to make up some more miles," he said. "especially if I was training for a race."

Star Wars Model Fetching Money

Star Wars Model Fetching Money

Star Wars is an epic space opera franchise initially conceived by George Lucas.

A spacecraft from the first Star Wars film is set to fetch £100,000 - even though it's just 18ins by 14ins.

The T.I.E fighter is the prize item at an auction of Hollywood movie props, reports The Sun.

It is the filming miniature of the craft which knocked Darth Vader's fighter out of the trench allowing Luke Skywalker to destroy the Death Star.

Rubber shoes worn by actor Anthony Daniels as robot C-3PO are among other Star Wars items for sale.

Film fans have the chance to snap up more than 1,000 original pieces of Hollywood history at the end of this month.

Jack Nicholson's axe from The Shining is expected to sell for £4,000, the tablets held by Charlton Heston in 1956 classic The Ten Commandments for up to £25,000 and a monster used in Alien 3 for around £20,000.

A pair of silver space suits worn by Dr Evil and Mini-Me in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me should go for around £15,000.

The mask worn by Tobey Maguire in Spider-Man is set to fetch a similar price.
The sale on 31 July and 1 August features a huge collection of super-hero costumes including a Superman outfit worn on screen by Christopher Reeve.

Joseph Maddelena, of Hollywood auction house Profiles In History, said the sale was "a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to acquire some of the most important visual effects pieces ever created for modern cinema".

Rare 'Marilyn Monroe' Picture

Rare 'Marilyn Monroe' Picture

Marilyn Monroe personified Hollywood glamour with an unparalleled glow and energy that enamored the world. Although she was an alluring beauty with voluptuous curves and a generous pout, Marilyn was more than a '50s sex goddess.


Her apparent vulnerability and innocence, in combination with an innate sensuality, has endeared her to the global consciousness. She dominated the age of movie stars to become, without question, the most famous woman of the 20th Century.


A movie fan called a press conference to unveil a previously unseen nude photo of Marilyn Monroe - only to be told it was Madonna.





Embarrassed Lawrence Nicastro, 73, had called newsmen to see his poster-size picture of Marilyn posing as a hitch-hiker.






He thought it was taken in 1960 as Marilyn made The Misfits, reports The Sun.
And his 'exclusive' was confirmed by Monroe expert Chris Harris who was sure the grainy snap of a naked girl smoking was authentic.






But, as Mr Nicastro revealed it in Las Vegas, one reporter realised it was an image of Madonna from her controversial 1992 book Sex.






Mr Nicastro looked again at the photo and had to admit: "You're right."






He had found the photo at his Las Vegas home and thought a customer had left it at the garage he used to keep.






He added: "If ever there was an embarrassing moment."

Laugh Time

Laugh Time

PHONE BILL

The phone bill was exceptionally high and the man of the house called a family meeting...

Dad: People this is unacceptable. You have to limit the use of the phone.I do not use this phone, I use the one at the office.

Mum: Same here, I hardly use this home telephone as I use my work telephone.

Son: Me too, I never use the home phone. I always use my company mobile.

Maid: So what is the problem? We all use our work telephones...

STYLE OF POLITICIAN

A member of the United States Senate, known for his hot temper and acid tongue, exploded one day in mid-session and began to shout, "Half of this Senate is made up of cowards and corrupt politicians!"

All the other Senators demanded that the angry member withdraw his statement, or be removed from the remainder of the session.

After a long pause, the angry member acquiesced. "OK," he said, "I withdraw what I said.

Half of this Senate is NOT made up of cowards and corrupt politicians!"

Jokes of the Day

Jokes of the Day

RULE OF HEAVEN'S

Three old friends pass away together in an accident and go to heaven.


When they arrive, St. Peter says, "We have only one rule here in Heaven... don't step on the ducks." So they enter heaven and, sure enough, there are ducks all over the place.


It is almost impossible not to step on a duck, and although they try their best to avoid them, one of the friends accidentally steps on one. Along comes St. Peter with the ugliest woman the man has ever seen.


St. Peter chains them together and says, "Your punishment for stepping on a duck is to spend eternity chained to this ugly woman!" The next day, the second friend accidentally steps on a duck and along comes St. Peter, who doesn't miss a thing, and with him is another extremely ugly woman.


He chains them together with the same admonishment as for the first friend. The third friend observes all this and not wanting to be chained for all eternity to an ugly woman, is very, VERY careful where he steps.


He manages to go months without stepping on any duck but one day St. Peter comes up to him with the most gorgeous woman he has ever laid eyes on... a very tall, tan, curvaceous, sexy blonde. St. Peter chains them together without saying a word.


The man asks, "I wonder what I did to deserve being chained to you for all eternity?"


The women replies, "I don't know about you, but I stepped on a duck."

Life Style

Life Style

1. If you're too open minded, your brains will fall out.

2. Age is a very high price to pay for maturity.

3. Going to a mosque doesn't make you a Muslim any more than going to a garage makes you a mechanic.

4. Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.

5. If you must choose between two evils, pick the one you've never tried before.

6. My idea of housework is to sweep the room with a glance.

7. Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious.

8. It is easier to get forgiveness than permission.

9. For every action, there is an equal and opposite government program.

10. If you look like your passport picture, you probably need the trip.

11. Bills travel faster through the mail than checks.

12. A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel so good.

13. Eat well, stay fit, die anyway.

14. Men are from earth. Women are from earth. Deal with it.

15. No husband has ever been shot while doing the dishes.

16. A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand.

17. Middle age is when broadness of the mind and narrowness of the waist change places.

18. Opportunities always look bigger going than coming.

19. Junk is something you've kept for years and throw away three weeks before you need it.

20. There is always one more imbecile than you counted on.

21. Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it.

22. By the time you can make ends meet, they move the ends.

23. Thou shalt not weigh more than thy refrigerator.

24. Someone who thinks logically provides a nice contrast to the real world.

25. Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves for they shall never cease to be amused.

Celebrities Say The Darndest Quotes

Celebrities Say The Darndest Quotes

"There are only two reasons to sit in the back row of an airplane: Either you have diarrhea, or you're anxious to meet people who do." Henry Kissinger (former US Secretary of State)

"Women might be able to fake orgasms. But men can fake whole relationships." Sharon Stone

"My girlfriend always laughs during sex-no matter what she's reading." Steve Jobs (Founder: Apple Computers)

"My cousin just died. He was only 19. He got stung by a bee-the natural enemy of a tightrope walker." Dan Rather (News anchorman)

"I saw a woman wearing a sweatshirt with 'Guess' on it. I said, 'Thyroid problem?" Arnold Schwarzenegger

"Hockey is a sport for white men. Basketball is a sport for black men. Golf is a sport for white men dressed like black pimps." Tiger Woods

"I read somewhere that 77 per cent of all the mentally ill live in poverty. Actually, I'm more intrigued by the 23 per cent who are apparently doing quite well for themselves." Jerry Garcia (Grateful Dead)

"I discovered I scream the same way whether I'm about to be devoured by a Great White or if a piece of seaweed touches my foot." Axel Rose (Guns'n'Roses)

"Capital punishment turns the state into a murderer. But imprisonment turns the state into a CENSORED dungeon-master." Rev. Jesse Jackson

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-CENSORED." Jack Nicholson

"Clinton lied. A man might forget where he parks or where he lives, but he never forgets oral sex, no matter how bad it is." Barbara Bush (Former US First Lady)

"Ah, yes, divorce, from the Latin word meaning to rip out a man's genitals through his wallet." Robin Williams

"Women complain about premenstrual syndrome, but I think of it as the only time of the month that I can be myself." Roseanne

"There's a new medical crisis. Doctors are reporting that many men are having allergic reactions to latex condoms. They say they cause severe swelling. So what's the problem?" Dustin Hoffman

"Instead of getting married again, I'm going to find a woman I don't like and just give her a house." Rod Stewart

God the Parents

God the Parents

Whenever your kids are out of control, you can take comfort from the thought that even God's omnipotence did not extend to God's kids.


After creating heaven and earth, God created Adam and Eve. And the first thing He said to them was: "Don't." "Don't what?" Adam asked.


"Don't eat the Forbidden Fruit." God replied.


"Forbidden fruit? We got Forbidden Fruit? Hey, Eve..we got Forbidden Fruit!"


"No way!" "Where?" "Don't eat that fruit!" said God. "Why?"


"Because I am your Creator and I said so!" said God, wondering why he hadn't stopped after making the elephants. A few minutes later God saw the kids having an apple break and was angry.


"Didn't I tell you not to eat that fruit?" the 'First Parent' asked. "Uh huh," Adam replied.


"Then why did you?" "I dunno," Eve answered. "She started it!"


Adam said. "Did not!" "DID so!" "DID NOT!"


Having had it with the two of them, God's punishment was that Adam and Eve should have children of their own...thus the pattern was set, and it has never changed.

Life's Crazy Rules

Life's Crazy Rules

* Lerman's Law of Technology: Any technical problem can be overcome given enough time and money. Corollary: You are never given enough time or money.

* Murphy's First Law for Wives: If you ask your husband to pick up five items at the store and then you add one more as an afterthought, he will forget two of the first five.

* Law of the Search: The first place to look for anything is the last place you would expect to find it. Corollary: It will not be in the last place you expect to find it.

* Kauffman's Paradox of the Corporation: The less important you are to the corporation, the more your tardiness or absence is noticed.

Alcohol Quotes

Alcohol Quotes

I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day. --Frank Sinatra


Drinking provides a beautiful excuse to pursue the one activity that truly gives me pleasure, hooking up with fat hairy girls. --Timothy Walsh


A woman drove me to drink and I didn't even have the decency to thank her. --Anonymous


When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading. --Henny Youngman


24 hours in a day, 24 beers in a case. Coincidence? --Stephen Wright


When we drink, we get drunk. When we get drunk, we fall asleep. When we fall asleep, we commit no sin. When we commit no sin, we go to heaven. Sooooo, let's all get drunk, and go to heaven... --Brian O'Rourke


You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline... it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer. --Frank Zappa


Always remember that I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me. --Winston Churchill


Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza. --Dave Barry


The problem with the world is that everyone is a few drinks behind. --Humphrey


Bogart I would kill everyone in this room for a drop of sweet beer. --Homer Simpson

Jokes of the Day

Jokes of the Day

# A photographer for a national magazine was assigned to get photos of a great forest fire. Smoke at the scene was too thick to get any good shots, so he frantically called his home office to hire a plane.


"It will be waiting for you at the airport!" he was assured by his editor. As soon as he got to the small, rural airport, sure enough, a plane was warming up near the runway. He jumped in with his equipment and yelled, "Let's go! Let's go!" The pilot swung the plane into the wind and soon they were in the air.


"Fly over the north side of the fire," said the photographer, "and make three or four low level passes.""Why?" asked the pilot."Because I'm going to take pictures! I'm a photographer, and photographers take pictures!" said the photographer with great exasperation.After a long pause the pilot said, "You mean you're not the instructor?"







# When a visitor to a small town in Georgia came upon a wild dog attacking a young boy, he quickly grabbed the animal and throttled it with his two hands.


A reporter saw the incident, congratulated the man and told him the headline the following day would read, "Valiant Local Man Saves Child by Killing Vicious Animal."
The hero told the journalist that he wasn't from that town.


"Well, then," the reporter said, "the headline will probably say, 'Georgia Man Saves Child by Killing Dog'."


"Actually," the man said, "I'm from Connecticut."


"In that case," the reporter said in a huff, "the headline should read, 'Yankee Kills Family Pet'."

Million Dollar House in Raffle Draw

Million Dollar House in Raffle Draw

It was no ordinary raffle Friday for the 24,000 people who brought a $50 lottery ticket. They were playing for a chance to win a custom million-dollar home. The big drawing was held at Annapolis Mall. Karen McHale of Idaho Springs, Co., was the big winner.

"I couldn't believe it. I thought it was a crank call," McHale laughed during a phone interview Friday night from her Colorado home. "I'm one of those people that never win anything."

But win she did.

The prize is Tom Walters' 6,000-square-foot dream home in Edgewater, Md. Walters decided to raffle the house off after 15 months of construction and hundreds of thousands of dollars in renovations. His dream went bust when the economy tanked.
The home's property value plummeted at the same time Walters' paycheck shrank.

When he could not find a buyer, Walters decided to raffle the house off. He sold 7,000 fewer tickets than he had hoped to. The tickets were sold online across the country and around the world.

Winner McHale is a married chemical engineer and volunteer firefighter with two grown children. She has no plans to move to Maryland but she does hope to keep the house.

"Use it as a vacation home or rent it out maybe," said McHale.

Silicon Valley Searching for Talented Poets

Silicon Valley Searching for Talented Poets

Computer geeks and poetry don't often go together, but the Silicon Valley is venturing to change that.

The Arts Council Silicon Valley is searching for its first ever poet laureate, according to the AP, "elevating high-tech to haiku."

Apparently, there is a vibrant poetry scene in Santa Clara County that doesn't get a lot of recognition, the council claims.

The poet program will seek to change that through community outreach and by highlighting local writers.

Applicants to the post must be published poets who have lived in Santa Clara County for five years. The chosen poet will get a $4,000 stipend.

Here's our entry, in the haiku style of five-, seven-, and five-syllabled lines:

Apples, flash and chipsCapital of tomorrowDo you know the way?

Splited Couple Married After 40 Years

Splited Couple Married After 40 Years

A couple who were split up by their parents more than 40 years ago are to finally marry.
Chester Locke was banned from seeing Christine Orchard, from Taunton when she became pregnant at 16. Her parents helped raise her daughter Tracy.


But Tracy decided to track down her natural father recently and her parents romance started again, reports the BBC.


Tracy said: "My intention at first was to get him to meet his grandchildren and the great grandchild that was on the way.


"It was never to get them back together. When they did I was shocked but it was lovely.
"It's nice to see them happy where they should probably have been 40 years ago."
Christine added: "Being an unmarried mother back in the 60s wasn't good.


"My parents decided they would bring the baby up and I had to sever all contact with Chester. That was part and parcel of them bringing up the baby."


The couple will marry later this year.

No God' Ads Banned in Bus

No God' Ads Banned in Bus

Italian atheists have lost a bid to run "no God" advertisements on city buses after strong opposition from conservative political parties, a member of the atheists group said on Saturday.

The ads reading "The bad news is that God doesn't exist. The good news is that you don't need him" were to have been put on buses in the northern city of Genoa, home to the Catholic cardinal who is head of the Italian Bishops Conference. The mock-up was ready and the contract was sent to the group for signing but the publicity agency changed its mind and said the ad could not run it because it violated an ethics in advertising code, according to Giorgio Villella of The Italian Union of Atheists and Rationalist Agnostics (UAAR).

"Right-wing politicians criticized us ferociously," Villella said by telephone from the group's base, adding that at least one bus driver in Genoa said he would refuse to drive a "no God" bus. "It's strange that in a country where ads depicting near-naked women wearing skimpy lingerie is permitted on buses that we can't run ads about atheism," Villella said.

Villella said the group's lawyers would likely file an appeal to a court to overturn the decision and that the group would try to run the ads in other Italian cities. Atheists in Barcelona, London and Washington have already run "no God" ads on city buses.

Japanese Learns English From Obama!

Japanese Learns English From Obama!

President-elect Barack Obama's speeches are proving a best-seller in Japan -- as an aid to learning English. An English-language textbook, "The Speeches of Barack Obama," has sold more than 400,000 copies in two months, a big hit in a country where few hit novels sell more than a million copies a year. Japanese have a fervor for learning English and many bookstores have a corner dedicated to dozens of journals in the language, many of them now featuring the new US leader's face.

"Speeches by presidents and presidential candidates are excellent as listening tools to learn English, because their contents are good and their words are easy to catch," said Yuzo Yamamoto of Asahi Press, which produced the best-selling text book. "Obama's is especially so. His speeches are so moving, and he also uses words such as 'yes, we can,' 'change' and 'hope' that even Japanese people can memorize," he said. Speeches by President George W. Bush and former nominee John Kerry's four years ago did not have the same appeal, however, and nor do those made by Japanese politicians, Yamamoto said.

"In Japan, we don't have politicians who have such a positive influence. That's why we have to turn to a foreign president for someone in whom to place our hopes." The 95-page paperback features Obama's speeches in English from the 2004 Democratic National Convention and during the Democratic Party primaries, in which he defeated Hillary Clinton. They are accompanied by Japanese translations. The 1,050 yen ($12) book, which includes a CD of the speeches, tops the bestseller list on bookseller Amazon's Japanese Website, www.amazon.co.jp/ "Readers have sent in postcards saying that when they heard the speeches, they were so moved and cried even though they don't understand English very well," Yamamoto said.

He said lawmakers from Japan's main opposition Democratic Party had bought the book to study Obama's speeches. Following Obama's inauguration on Tuesday, Asahi Press plans to issue a sequel that includes his inaugural address, as well as President John F. Kennedy's 1961 inaugural speech. It will also feature a reading of President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg address of 1863.

Polynesian seafaring

Polynesian seafaring

A Polynesian voyaging canoe will set sail from Hawaii in March and head into the South Pacific, aiming to reach tiny Palmyra Atoll near Kiribati using only an ancient seafaring skill known as "wayfinding." The double hulled canoe, similar to the canoes that sailed across the Pacific thousands of years before European explorers voyaged to the world's largest ocean, will cover some 2,000 miles in the round trip.

The open ocean trip, using no modern navigational equipment, will be a training exercise for future voyages and is part of a renaissance in Polynesian voyaging that is helping to preserve and spread an ancient seafaring culture. "We sail because we believe that the voyaging canoes have a role in today's society ... keeping us connected to who we are today in the 21st century, by clearly knowing who we were and where we come from," says Hawaiian navigator Nainoa Thompson, who has sailed on 24 voyages across the Pacific.

"In the absence of that understanding we have no identity, we have no distinction and to be homogenized into the rest of the world, to me, would be a cultural failure," Thompson says in a video presentation that is part of the "Vaka Moana, Voyages of the Ancestors" exhibition at Sydney's National Maritime Museum. Vaka Moana means Ocean Canoe and traces the world's first blue-water sailors as they set out from Southeast Asia in sailing canoes to explore and settle the islands of the South Pacific. WAYFINDING NAVIGATION Using an open ocean navigation called "wayfinding," based on sea and sky observations, they crossed the vast Pacific some 2,500 years before Portuguese, Spaniards and other western seafarers made their first trans-ocean voyages.

"It was the major final push by humans to the most remote and inaccessible parts of the planet," New Zealand historian Kerry Howe, an expert on Polynesian voyaging, told Reuters. "Once the islands of the Pacific were discovered and settled that was the end of terrestrial exploration and settlement on earth. If we want to go further we have to leave the planet." By the time Western explorers such as Britain's Captain James Cook sailed to the Pacific, only a handful of islands had not been settled by these ancient mariners using "wayfinding." Wayfinding navigation involved an intricate knowledge of the stars, such as memorizing a 32-point star compass by Micronesian navigators, knowing where stars rose and fell over the horizon, reading ocean swells, cloud formations and bird flight patterns.

Charts were made of sticks that recorded ocean swells and attached sea shells depicted islands, allowing a navigator to judge the distance he had sailed. Islands were positioned using ancient Polynesian stories and "wayfinding" allowed a navigator to steer his canoe toward an island hundreds of kilometers away. Once ancient Polynesians discovered new islands, they would sail home in the east-west trade winds and return back in large canoes with people, food and livestock. "This was a remarkable intellectual feat. We are used to using modern devices, compasses and charts. The wayfinding techniques they used were memorized and handed down," said Howe.

But by the time Britain's Cook landed in Tahiti in the 18th century, these voyages of exploration and settlement had ceased, yet Cook said even the smaller inter-island canoes he encountered still outsailed his European ships. The arrival of Cook and other Western explorers marked the beginning of the demise of Polynesian voyaging. Within years many Polynesian chiefs had abandoned their canoes for European ships, and adopted compasses and paper charts.

VOYAGING RENAISSANCE

By the 20th century, the ancient navigation skills that enabled the Pacific to be explored and settled were virtually lost. Only a handful of "wayfinding" navigators were still alive in the remote Caroline Islands of Micronesia and they feared their skills would die with them. "None of the young kids wanted to learn how to navigate or go sailing, they wanted to have motorbikes, drink beer and play pool," explains Ben Finney, co-founder of the Polynesian Voyaging Society in Hawaii. In 1975, the Polynesian Voyaging Society built the first voyaging canoe in Hawaii for more than 600 years. In 1976, the 62 foot (20 meter) double-hulled "Hokule'a," using only "wayfinding" navigation, made an historic trip to Tahiti and back.

Micronesian navigator Mau Piailug was brought to Hawaii for the trip and to teach Hawaiians their lost seafaring skills. "The aim was to not make this a white man's adventure, but to make it a cultural revival and that has succeeded," said Finney. The Hokule'a has since sailed more than 125,000 nautical miles or five times around the world and fueled a renaissance in Polynesian voyaging. "People sail to experience and celebrate their ancestral achievements as the greatest seafarers in the world," said Finney in a telephone interview from Hawaii.

Despite the dangers of open ocean sailing and lack of modern technology, there has been only one voyaging death. Hawaiian big wave surfer Eddie Aikau was lost at sea in 1978 on the second Hokule'a trip, when the canoe capsized and he attempted to paddle a surfboard to a distant island to get help. Aikau's death has helped inspire a generation of Hawaiians to recapture their lost seafaring heritage, says Finney. Modern Polynesian voyaging canoes are now the centerpiece of cultural festivals throughout the Pacific.

Thousands of young Pacific islanders compete in canoe racing in New Zealand and there are several canoe building projects underway. "It's become not just an exercise in relearning the traditional arts, but it's become a centerpiece of Polynesian nationalism all around the Pacific," said Howe.

History of Ice Cream

History of Ice Cream

Ice cream or ice-cream (originally iced cream) is a frozen dessert usually made from dairy products, such as milk and cream, combined with fruits or other ingredients. Most varieties contain sugar, although some are made with other sweeteners.

The first recorded evidence of an ice/milk combination food, goes back to the fourth century B.C. More detailed evidence of ice and fruit toppings can be found in Nero's Roman history from the first century A.D. But the most solid evidence of all, is seventh century writings from China, which detail King Tang's personal recipe for ice and milk dishes.

The dessert likely made its way from China with European sailors, who took it home and started a boom that eventually produced sherbets, ices, ice milks and more. While some people tend to thing of it as a 19th century fad, it was actually served in the 1700s in America, by luminaries like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. In fact, the very first ice cream parlor in America, opened in New York City, in 1776.

Ice cream or ice-cream (originally iced cream) is a frozen dessert usually made from dairy products, such as milk and cream, combined with fruits or other ingredients. Most varieties contain sugar, although some are made with other sweeteners.

Of course, back then, making it was no treat, even if the outcome was. While there were various technique employed up to the mid 1800s, it was Nancy Johnson, who in 1846 created the same process that is used today, although with modernized equipment. Johnson didn't patent her hand-cranked freezer, but when William Young filed a patent two years later, he named it after her.

The business was up and running. Jacob Fussel of Baltimore built the first large-scale ice cream plant in 1851, and in 1897, Alfred L. Cralled patented the ice cream mold and "scooper", that half-ball shaped utensil for digging deep into the chocolate ripple.

History of The Nike Shoe

History of The Nike Shoe

Nike is a major publicly traded sportswear and equipment supplier based in the United States. The company is headquartered in Beaverton, near the Portland metropolitan area of Oregon. It is the world's leading supplier of athletic shoes.

Bill Bowerman was not only the brains behind the Nike shoe, he was an athlete in his own right, who took that knowledge and training with him when he turned to coaching.A star in track and field, as well as football, Bowerman returned from WWII to join the athletic staff of the University of Oregon, where he was known for his innovative ways of inspiring and improving the performance of his runners.

On a trip to New Zealand with his track stars in the 1960s, he saw townspeople who ran just for the fun of it. The idea stuck with him, and he returned to America to form the first running club, afterwards penning the book Jogging, about the fun and fitness of the sport.

Bowerman went on to an amazing record at the university, turning out four NCAA team championships, 19 Olympians, and 44 All-Americans. His talents brought him the honor of coaching the 1972 U.S. Olympic team. But even that, was not the highlight of his creative life.

One morning in 1971, he sat down to breakfast and stared at the waffles on his plate. As if he was seeing them for the first time, his eyes went over and in, and out of the ridges and recessed sections. He had just discovered a new way to increase traction on the outer soles of running shoes, one that would revolutionize athletic footwear. Before long, he was pouring rubber into his wife's waffle iron, still on his perennial quest to give his runners that extra edge. The rest, as they say, is history.

Famous Birthday on This Day

Famous Birthday on This Day

1715 - Claude Helvetius, French philosopher


1763 - Charles XIV, French marshall and king of Sweden & Norway (1818-44)


1826 - Julia Dent Grant, 1st lady


1831 - Writer Mary Dodge, (`Hans Brinker & the Silver Skates')


1880 - Gen Douglas MacArthur, he did return!


1904 - Sean MacBride, Irish statesman and minister (Nobel Peace Prize 1974)


1913 - Jimmy Van Heusen, songwriter


1918 - Nicolae Ceausescu, Rumanian president


1923 - Anne Jeffereys, in North Carolina


1925 - Joan Leslie, actress


1925 - Paul Newman, actor (Hud - Hombre - Hustler) and racer & popcorn mogul


1928 - Eartha Kitt, in South Carolina


1928 - Roger Vadim, Director


1929 - Jules Feiffer, cartoonist (Passionella)


1931 - Mary Murphy,


1935 - Bob Uecker, Sports personality


1944 - Angela Davis, black activist


1961 - Wayne Gretzky, Edmonton Oiler

What Happen on This Historical Day

What Happen on This Historical Day

1697 - Isaac Newton receives Jean Bernoulli's 6 month time limit - solves problem before going to bed that same night


1788 - 1st settlement established by English in Australia (Sydney)


1837 - Mich admitted as 26th US state


1841 - Hong Kong was proclaimed a sovereign territory of Britain


1861 - La becomes 6th state to secede from US


1871 - American income tax repealed


1885 - Gen Gordon & troops slain by Sudanese in Khartoum


1905 - World's largest diamond found Cullinan diamond


1946 - Indian Republic Day


1950 - India becomes a republic ceaseing to be a British dominion


1954 - Ground breaking begins on Disneyland


1961 - 1st woman `personal physician to President' - JG Travell


1976 - Israel opens "Good Fence" to Lebanon


1979 - Nelson Rockefeller former VP & 4 time governor of NY died


1980 - Islanders & Whalers had a penality free game


1982 - Islanders score 4 goals within 1:38 5 within 2:37 vs Penguins


1984 - Nordiques' Michel Goulet scored on 9th penalty shot against Islanders


1986 - Chicago Bears defeat Patriots 46-10 in Super Bowl 20