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Step Lightly, Like A Cat! - MUST SEE - MUST SEE - MUST SEE!!!

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 18:30:02 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: WOW!

Valued Exposure: 17 year old Bianca Passarge of Hamburg dresses up as a cat, complete with furry tail and dances on wine bottles, June 1958. Her performance was based on a dream and she practiced for eight hours every day in order to perfect her dance. Photo: Carlo Polito/BIPs/Getty Images

Tags: ballet, cat, balance, wine

1st Kiss = 1st Car = 84 years old & still driving his first car

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 19:29:22 GMT

clipped by: syncopath
clipper's remarks: salute !! .. ))

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Clarence Cleveland Curtiss, of Shelton, with his 1929 Ford Model A, which he bought in 1938.

Mr. Curtiss, 84, of Shelton, has followed the advice with the first car he ever owned, a 1929 Ford Model A; it has 200,000 miles on it and still runs.

Mr. Curtiss said he was 15 in 1938 when he bought the car, which sold for $400 when new, from a Derby man for $10. It was during the Depression.

Mr. Curtiss also has a strong emotional attachment to the car. He met his wife, Dorothy, shortly after he bought it, when he was 17 and she was 14; they had been married 56 years when she died in 1998. The initials they carved on the steering wheel as teenagers can still be seen. “She was the first and only girl I ever kissed in the car,” he said.

The Model A is one of about 25 cars that Mr. Curtiss owns, including a 1907 Sears Auto Buggy, a 1937 Rolls-Royce,

But it’s the Model A, which carries memories of that first kiss and won all those high school races, that tugs at his heart.

Tags: cars, kisses, and faithfulness :)

Saurn, the Sun, and Us

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 06:11:08 GMT

clipped by: CrazyRedHead

Clip Source: slightlywarped.com

The Cassini Probe sent us this mesmerizing and very rare picture of the planet Saturn backlit by the sun. Light diffuses through the rings and dust clouds that orbit the giant ringed planet showing us that it's ringed beauty is only a fraction of what the planet really has to offer.

While the beauty of this picture is a sight to behold in of itself, the true uniqueness of this image only shows itself on closer inspection. You see that pale blue dot visible through the rings? To paraphrase Carl Sagan: Everyone you've ever known, every belief you have, every nation at war, every point of view you've ever experienced, every hope, every dream, every good, and every evil resides on that small ordinary mote. Say hello to Earth seen from 930 million miles away.

the sun's harsh light could destroy Cassini's camera. However, in this instance when the sun was eclipsed by Saturn, NASA jumped on the opportunity to deliver this breathtaking shot.

Tags: astronomy, science, earth

Founding Fathers Planned Religious Openness

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 01:57:54 GMT

clipped by: clipmaureen
clipper's remarks: Jon Meacham commentary that founding fathers wanted no state religion; wanted freedom of religion. They refuted the "Old World" practice of state sponsored and dictated religion which caused so much bloodshed.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Thomas Jefferson said that his bill for religious liberty in Virginia was “meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and the Mahometan, the Hindu, and infidel of every denomination.” When George Washington was inaugurated in New York in April 1789, Gershom Seixas, the hazan of Shearith Israel, was listed among the city’s clergymen (there were 14 in New York at the time) — a sign of acceptance and respect. The next year, Washington wrote the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, R.I., saying, “happily the government of the United States ... gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance. ... Everyone shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.”

Tags: religious freedom, constitution

On Star Technology Can Stop Fleeing Vehicles

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 13:58:28 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Clip Source: freep.com

OnStar has announced a bold new technology that can activate at the request of law enforcement and bring a high speed chase to a rapid halt by disconnecting the accelerator of a stolen vehicle.

OnStar’s new Stolen Vehicle Slowdown is being hailed by police and emergency responders as a major safety tool that will help save lives. There are more than 30,000 high speed chases in the U.S. each year, resulting in some 300 fatalities. The technology will be introduced on 1.7 million GM models starting next year. I got a sneak peek at how it works at the General Motors Proving Grounds in Milford. Here’s a special edition of the Techcast that shows you how it works:

Tags: stolen, vehicle, slowdown

Great Volcano Pics

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 06:16:37 GMT

clipped by: CrazyRedHead

Clip Source: slightlywarped.com

In those few places in the Earth where the ground opens and rock flows like water, we find a sight so breathtaking in both its beauty and its danger that it holds us captivated at the raw unsurging power beneath our feet.

Tags: volcanoes, photography, nature, science

Canadians cut power to battle cannabis

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 15:58:19 GMT

clipped by: michellezm

Clip Source: www.news24.com

British Columbia - It's not hard for police to identify the pot growers in this western Canada town: They merely scan residents' utility bills to determine who is using a lot more power than the average homeowner.

Armed with that information, local authorities cut the power off to the home of the suspected offender, often leaving scores of pot growers without the artificial light and water needed to cultivate their home-grown cash crop.

British Columbia, with a population of four million, has about 20 000 inhabitants who raise a potent local marijuana known here as "BC Bud".

The plants, collectively worth nearly $7bn each year, account for a whopping six percent of this province's power consumption.

The labour-intensive crop is an energy sponge thanks in large part to the 1 000 watt halogen lights, fans, irrigation pumps and other equipment needed for their cultivation. As a result, the pot growers' energy bills are about three times that of the average consumer.

Tags: cannabis, dagga, marijuana, canada, plants, flora, herbs

Iranian Students Protest Against Ahmadinejad

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 07:42:28 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: www.timesonline.co.uk

Iranian students staged a noisy protest against President Ahmadinejad yesterday when he arrived at Tehran University to give a speech marking the start of the academic year.

In scenes rarely witnessed in Iran, scores of students chanted anti-Ahmadinejad slogans, clashed with pro-government militia and made public a highly critical letter addressed to the Iranian leader.

The authorities responded by firing teargas canisters into the campus, just as the Iranian leader was leaving.

Some made references to Mr Ahmadinejad’s speech last month at Columbia University in New York, where the Iranian leader said that people “should be free to speak their mind” at university.

Why only in Columbia? We have questions too!” read one banner.

In a university environment we must allow people to speak their mind, to allow everyone to talk so that the truth is eventually revealed by all.”
September 24, 2007, addressing Columbia University

Tags: iran, protest

Blood Vessels Grown From A Patient's Skin

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 11:36:29 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

From a snippet of a patient’s skin, researchers have grown blood vessels in a laboratory and then implanted them to restore blood flow around the patient’s damaged arteries and veins.

It is the first time blood vessels created entirely from a patient’s own tissues have been used for this purpose, the researchers report in the current issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.

Cytograft Tissue Engineering of Novato, Calif., made the vessels, in a process that takes six to nine months. Because they are derived from patients’ own cells, they eliminate the need for antirejection drugs. And because they are devoid of any synthetic materials or a scaffolding, they avoid complications from inflammatory reactions.

“This technique has a big potential in the vascular surgical field,” said Dr. Toshiharu Shinoka, who directs pediatric cardiovascular surgery at Yale and who plans to conduct studies with Cytograft on the new vessel.

Tags: medical, advancements