Science...yawn. No really: Science - Yawn

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Why Do We Yawn?
No one knows why we yawn. There are lots of theories, some talk about it signalling tiredness or getting oxygen to the brain, others mention clearing out stale air from the lungs and reducing blood carbon dioxide levels. Most are baloney. But, one thing that is certain, yawns can be infectious. Catch sight of someone yawning and nine times out of ten, you will yawn yourself within a few seconds. Is such an infectious yawn a message to others in the group that it’s time for bed? Probably not, otherwise why yawn first thing on getting out of bed? Either way researchers have found that people with autism spectrum disorder don’t tend to succumb to an infectious yawn.


Not in Yellow Pages

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Vision 20/20 POM Offender Locator
There are 650,000 registered sex offenders in America – and that number grows by about 25,000 every year. Wouldn’t you like to know if any of them are living in your neighborhood?  Now you can!

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Via TechCrunch


Wang Dang Sweet Poontang

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Rolling Stone : Ted Nugent Threatens to Kill Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton During Vicious Onstage Rant
Renegade right-winger Ted Nugent recently went on a vicious onstage rant in which he threatened the lives of Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

Decked out in full-on camouflage hunting gear, Nugent wielded two machine guns while raging, “Obama, he’s a piece of shit. I told him to suck on my machine gun. Hey Hillary,” he continued. “You might want to ride one of these into the sunset, you worthless bitch.”

Nugent summed up his eloquent speech by screaming “freedom!”


A nice day for it

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Stuck in front of the computer reading blogs and online news all day you can be forgiven for believing that all is just shootings, stabbings and war out there.  Today was glorious up here in the north east of Scotland, with the temperature hitting 25 C this afternoon, so we decided to head up north on the coastal route and stop off at a few beaches and nature reserves.

It's only the humble North Sea but it looked wonderful today and the beaches were almost deserted. We had our packed lunch perched on a clifftop overlooking a bird sanctuary. Clear blue sky, a cooling breeze softening the effect of the hot sun, seagulls hovering on the air currents, why, you could almost forget all the nasty things going on in the world, for a short while, at least. It convinced me of one thing. While the good weather lasts we are going to take every opportunity to enjoy this wonderful, beautiful countryside.

Bugger Blogging!




No way!

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War analogy strikes nerve in Vietnam
HANOI, Vietnam - President Bush touched a nerve among Vietnamese when he invoked the Vietnam War in a speech warning that death and chaos will envelop Iraq if U.S. troops leave too quickly.  People in Vietnam, where opposition to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq is strong, said Thursday that Bush drew the wrong conclusions from the long, bloody Southeast Asian conflict. "Doesn't he realize that if the U.S. had stayed in Vietnam longer, they would have killed more people?" said Vu Huy Trieu of Hanoi, a veteran of the communist forces that fought American troops in Vietnam. "Nobody regrets that the Vietnam War wasn't prolonged except Bush." He said U.S. troops could never have prevailed here. "Does he think the U.S. could have won if they had stayed longer? No way," Trieu said.

Via Unqualified Offerings


Rum and Coke

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Alcohol And Cocaine – But Not Cannabis – Linked To Violent Behavior
Cannabis use is not independently associated with causing violence, according to the results of a multivariate analysis to be published in the journal Addictive Behaviors... Investigators concluded: "When analyses were conducted controlling for covariates, the frequency of alcohol and cocaine use was significantly related to violence, suggesting that pharmacological effects [of the drugs] may play a role in violence. Frequency of cannabis use, however, was not significantly related to violence when controlling for other factors."

The study’s conclusions are similar to the findings of a pair of recent government reports refuting allegations that cannabis use triggers violent behavior. The first, published by the Canadian Senate in 2002, determined: "Cannabis use does not induce users to commit other forms of crime. Cannabis use does not increase aggressiveness or anti-social behavior." The second review, published by the British Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, reported: "Cannabis differs from alcohol in one major respect. It does not seem to increase risk-taking behavior. This means that cannabis rarely contributes to violence either to others or to oneself, whereas alcohol use is a major factor in deliberate self-harm, domestic accidents and violence."