Saturday, February 28, 2009

Do You See What I See?

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KC said...
In Mandarin, Owl is called 猫头鹰(mao tou ying), which is directly translated as:
cat(mao) head(tou) eagle(ying).
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Happy! Happy!

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Parrots teach man to speak again

A fireman who lost his power of speech in a traffic accident has been taught to speak again by parrots.
Brian Wilson, from Damascus, Maryland, suffered life-threatening injuries in the accidnet 14 years ago. He also lost his ability to speak.
But he now claims that the chatter of pet parrots confounded the bleak outlook of doctors, who were convinced that he would spend the rest of his life in bed at a nursing home.
"Two birds taught me to talk again," he said. "I had such a bad head injury I was never supposed to talk any more than a two-year-old."
But two of the birds that he had had as pets since he was a child "just kept talking to me and talking to me".
"Then all of a sudden, a word popped out, then two, then more."
To show his gratitude to the birds who helped him on the path to rehabilitation, Mr Wilson has devoted his life to feathered pets whose owners are no longer able or want to keep them.
He now shares his home with about 80 brightly plumed exotic birds, from snow-white cockatoos to scarlet or blue and green macaws to African grey parrots.
He has set up a foundation called the Wilson Parrot Foundation, which also offers the services of the birds to entertain at birthday parties and corporate events.
"You wonder why I rescue birds? They helped me to talk again, so now I take care of them," he said.

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Tattoo Jim said...
Cool story!
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Wrong Way

90-year-old in 8mph mobility scooter takes wrong turn and ends up on dual carriageway
All Stanley Murphy wanted when he popped out on his mobility scooter was to pick up a newspaper from his local shop.
But the 90-year-old took one wrong turning and ended up on a busy dual carriageway with cars and lorries thundering past him at speed.
Undaunted, Mr Murphy kept his "pedal to the metal" and continued trundling along in the centre of the slow lane at his top speed – 8mph.
He was eventually spotted by a truck driver who realised the pensioner was in imminent danger as he drove along the A27 in Shoreham, West Sussex.
James Dunne, the owner of a paving company, pulled over and put on his hazard lights to try to get the Mr Murphy to stop his mobility scooter during the incident on Thursday morning.
Mr Murphy, though, kept going.
Mr Dunne, 46, from Worthing, recalled: "The old chap looked confused and wasn't going to stop at first. He was about to overtake when he finally gave up.
"He didn't say much and looked pretty shell-shocked. He said he was trying to drive back to his home where he lives with his daughter.
"He wasn't even on the hard shoulder but right in the middle of the slow lane. He wouldn't have stood a chance had he been hit."
Police were called and officer arrived and drove Mr Murphy home. Mr Dunne put the Atlas mobility scooter on the back of his truck and returned it to Mr Murphy's bungalow, close to the Holmbush roundabout where he mistakenly got on the slip road to the A27.
Safely back home, Mr Murphy said: "I went out to get a paper and took a wrong turning. I don't know how I ended up on the A27 but I'm thankful to everyone who helped me."
Sussex Police thanked Mr Dunne for coming to the pensioner's aid.
PC Jim Lockwood, who drove Mr Murphy home, said: "I would like to thank the members of the public who stopped to help.
"I would also like to thank the driver who put his flashing lights on to prevent the incident worsening and who helped deliver the old gent's scooter to his home address."
A spokesman said it was unlikely police would take the matter further.
The spokesman said: "An electric mobility scooter is a mechanically propelled vehicle.
"As such it would need to have a number plate and tax disc before it could be legally driven on a main road like the A27.
"However, this gentleman was obviously confused and in the circumstances it is unlikely that we would take any further action."
A spokesman for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents said: "We are very pleased to hear that there was not an accident and the gentleman got home safely.
"We don't know what caused him to take a wrong turn but a slow-moving mobility scooter is obviously not suitable to be on a very busy three-lane A-road.
"The Highway Code contains an extensive section of advice for mobility scooter users and we would urge anyone who owns one to read it carefully."
MORE Pictures
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I bet that cod wondered what the ringing in his ears was!

Fisherman found my lost phone in the belly of a 25lb cod ...and it still works after a week in a fish
A man who lost his mobile phone on a beach was amazed when it turned up — in the belly of a massive cod.
Andrew Cheatle thought his Nokia handset had been lost at sea after it slipped from his pocket.
But a week later his girlfriend’s mobile rang and it was fisherman Glen Kerley saying he’d found the phone in a 25lb fish.
Andrew got the handset back, dried it out — and amazingly it still works.
Andrew, 45, said: "I was messing about with my dog and my phone must have fallen out and been swept out in the swell.
"I kept calling it but I gave up hope after a couple of days."
He was shopping for a new phone with girlfriend Rita Smith, 33, when her mobile went off.
She told him: "Your old mobile number is calling my phone."
Andrew continued: "She said some guy was going on about my phone and a cod so she handed it over to me and he told me where he had found it.
"I thought he was winding me up but he assured me he had caught a cod that morning and was gutting it for his fish stall and that my Nokia was inside it — a bit worse for wear.
I didn’t believe him but went to meet him and found it was my phone — a bit smelly and battered — but incredibly it still worked after I let it dry out."
Trawlerman Glen, 45, had tried to use the phone but it didn’t work. So he took out the SIM card and put it in his handset to try to trace the owner.
Glen, of Worthing, West Sussex, said: "Cod are greedy fish — they’ll eat anything. They have big heads and big mouths.
"I’ve found plastic cups, stones, teaspoons, batteries and I’ve also heard of someone finding false teeth in one.
"This fish was about 25lbs and about 4ft long — not unusual but bigger than average.
"I know what it’s like to lose your phone. It can be really frustrating. So I thought I may as well make a few calls to see if I could get it back to him.
"It was a bit smelly but I was glad to return it."
Andrew — who runs an online retail company — still uses it.
He said: "It was working but it kept playing up so I had to get the circuit board changed in the end. But now it’s fine. I know it sounds a fishy tale but it is 100 per cent true."

Did You Know - http & https

Difference between http & https

THIS IS NO JOKE!!!
Subject: Difference between http & https
I suppose I am the only one who didn't know this..................but just in case...

FIRST, MANY PEOPLE ARE UNAWARE OF**The main difference between http:// and https:// is It's all about keeping you secure**
HTTP stands for HyperText Transport Protocol, which is just a fancy way of saying it's a protocol
(a language, in a manner of speaking) for information to be passed back and forth between web servers and clients.
The important thing is the letter S which makes the difference between HTTP and HTTPS.
The S (big surprise) stands for "Secure". If you visit a website or webpage, and look at the address in the web browser, it will likely begin with the following: http://.
This means that the website is talking to your browser using the regular 'unsecure' language. In other words, it is possible for someone to "eavesdrop" on your computer's conversation with the website.. If you fill out a form on the website, someone might see the information you send to that site.
This is why you never ever enter your credit card number in an http website! But if the web address begins with https:// that basically means your computer is talking to the website in a secure code that no one can eavesdrop on.
You understand why this is so important, right?
If a website ever asks you to enter your credit card information, you should automatically look to see if the web address begins with https://. If it doesn't, there's no way you're going to enter sensitive information like a credit card number.
PASS IT ON (You may save someone a lot of grief).
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