Friday, January 25, 2008

Tractor Square Dancing

Yee-ha!

Ducks can be funny

Ducks On Ice
That runway is slippery when frozen!


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Call Security!
The Ducks Got Loose!

OWN TV

Oprah Winfrey is getting her own TV network.
It’s going to be called Oprah Winfrey Network, or OWN.
The network will start small, then it will expand,
then it will get small again, then large, then small…
.
.
Oprah Winfrey Network to Debut in 2009
Tentative lineup:
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“Good Morning, Oprah,”
“Oprah Today,”
“Judge Oprah ,”
“Grand Ol' Oprah,”
“The Evening News With Oprah Winfrey,”
“Dancing With Oprah,”
“Good Night, Oprah,” and
“Oprah Test Pattern.”

Nations From A-Z

Bird hits target

Never look up while talking.

Australian girl switches blood type after liver transplant

SYDNEY (AFP) - An Australian girl spontaneously switched blood groups and adopted her donor’s immune system following a liver transplant in the first known case of its type, doctors treating her said Thursday.
Demi-Lee Brennan was aged nine and seriously ill with liver failure when she received the transplant, doctors at a top Sydney children’s hospital told AFP.
Nine months later it was discovered that she had changed blood types and her immune system had switched over to that of the donor after stem cells from the new liver migrated to her bone marrow.
She is now a healthy 15-year-old, Michael Stormon, a hepatologist treating her, told AFP. Stormon said he had given several presentations on the case around the world and had heard of none like it.
Full Article
In related news, Dracula isn’t picky about blood type.

Worlds Largest Swimming Pool

An aerial view of the swimming pool at the resort of San Alfonso del Mar in Algarrobo city on the southern coast of Chile, some 100 km (62 miles) west of Santiago, January 21, 2008. Acknowledged by the Guinness World Records as the world’s largest swimming pool, the lagoon measures 1,013 metres (3,323 ft) in length, covers an area of eight hectares (20 acres), contains 250,000 cubic meters of water and is navigable in small boats.

Lending a helping hand


In the News

2,240 police, 460 patrol cars and a helicopter mobilized for car chase in Osaka
Japanese police yesterday arrested a wanted man after a two-hour car chase that involved 2,240 officers, 460 police cars and one helicopter. Hirofumi Fukuda, 27, who had been wanted for assaulting police officers on Jan 21, was arrested after a chase through central Osaka. Around 11 a.m., police received an emergency call saying that a car was driving recklessly, ignoring traffic lights. When a patrol car approached the vehicle in question, it took off. Police were mobilized throughout the area and a helicopter called in. The chase ended when Fukuda's car crashed into a bridge column. He sustained light injuries but no one else was injured in the chase.

Australian landlord sues over dead man's broken lease
A landlord has been labeled heartless after he took a woman to court to get $600 from her father who broke the lease - by dying. The unrepentant landlord Anthony Lee has said he had no problems taking the case to a tribunal, saying: "A tenant has died. Is that my problem?" In a case that has sparked calls for a review of the state's tenancy laws, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal this week upheld Mr Lee's claim for almost one month's rent, to be paid from the estate of Michael James Ward, 64. Mr Ward died from a heart attack on December 6. He had another eight months to run on his 12-month lease. The law says that when a tenant dies, the tenant's representative must give 28 days' notice that the lease will be broken to terminate the lease. If, after advertising, the landlord cannot find a new tenant during that period, the landlord can make a claim against the dead tenant's estate for lost rent. It means the law holds grieving relatives liable for a landlord's lost rent.

Bark worse than the byte
dailymail.co.uk
Scientists develop computer that can 'translate' a dog's bark
What would a dog say if it could talk? "Stranger", "fight", "walk", "alone", "ball" and "play", according to scientists who have developed a computer program to translate dog barks.
The special program analyzed more than 6,000 barks from 14 Hungarian sheepdogs in six different situations.
In a series of tests the team of scientists, from Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary led by Csaba Molnár, discovered that a computer could recognize whether a dog was in a stranger, fight, walk, alone, ball or play scenario.

Parishioner's death doesn't stop Mass
Not even the death of a worshipper was enough to stop Mass in a small church in the northern Italian town of Trento. Pio Lieta, 86, suffered a fatal heart attack during an early-morning service at the Church of the White Madonna last Sunday. An ambulance was called, and Mr Lieta, whose name means "pious" in Italian, was pronounced dead at the scene. However, instead of halting the Mass, Father Mario Peron asked for the body to be covered with a white cloth and left Mr Lieta in the nave of the church while he finished the service. It is against Italian law to move a body without the authorization of a local magistrate. "What could I have done?" said Fr Peron afterwards. "The Holy Mass has to be celebrated. It is not right to make an exception for one individual. Only people who do not understand the point of Mass would not understand the logic of my decision. We could not stop. We were united together in church and we prayed for him."

Mother cow gives birth to rare triplets
QUASQUETON (AP) --- Keith Franck got an unexpected surprise when his cow gave birth to rare triplets.Franck's Fleckvieh cow began delivering the calves about 9 a.m. Wednesday. Two hours later, she was the proud mother of two bulls and a heifer.Franck said he was stunned to find the third calf. "She (the mother) was really big, but the first two calves were normal size, and I never thought there would be a third," he said. Each calf weighed about 80 pounds Franck said it's his first set of triplets in more than 30 years of raising cattle. Jim Slattery, a Winthrop veterinarian, said triplets occur about once in 100,000 births among cows.

Council orders fish and chip shops to put fewer holes in salt shakers
A generous sprinkling of salt is as much a part of the traditional fish-and-chips experience as a splash of vinegar. But in these health-conscious times, it was never going to be long before the nation's chippies came under pressure to change. To cut the amount added, Rochdale council has come up with a novel, and extremely simple, solution - cut the number of holes in the lids of salt shakers.