324 - Drive your eyes nuts

I found this looking for optical illusions. The first link takes you to a page full of moving illusions. The spinning girl is a hard one to visualize. (she has eye controls to help) And the table illusion will have you marking a piece of paper and holding it up to the screen so you can measure the two tables.
The second link takes you to the main page of the site. Under the 'content' section there are more detailed visual tests.

Link - Optical Illusions
Link - Main Page

323 - Here comes goofy

As if there's not enough controversy right now, 'Ralph the wrong' has to stick his nose out there again. Well at least if he screws up the Democratic nominee this time it will be McCain and not another Bush.

Link - Mike Peters
.

322 - Redneck tree swing

Sometimes I feel like doing something like this just to be contrary. Click on the picture to ge a better look.

321 - Medical mistakes (somebody pay attention)

Since 9/11 when 3,000 people died, a couple of hundred have died at the hands of terrorists but more than 600,000 people have died from medical mistakes. Here's a more up to date article about the hospital problems that cause close to 100,000 deaths a year.

Link - Medical mistakes
.

320 - Free Rice

So your sitting around your computer with nothing better to do than surf new and unknown sites? Make yourself useful. Go to Freerice.com and increase your vocabulary while feeding the world. No really. For every word you get right, 20 grains of rice get donated to the needy. Check it out on snopes. I usually try to get to 1000 grains just to have a goal.
Link - Free rice
.

319 - Waist to hip ratio

The last post got me thinking about something I read years back about the waist to hip ratio and attractiveness in women. The original article (which has been misinterpreted since) said that the optimal W-H ratio was .7. That was not circumference but rear profile. And it didn't matter the size of the female. Even Twiggy had a .7 W-H ratio. In the original article I remember the bell curve chart showing preferences starting at around .85, rising to .7 for a peak, and then dropping off dramatically at .68.

So I wondered if someone had put that information on Wikipedia. Well DUH! And it seems guys are included in the survey now. And there's a picture in the article for all the guys out there, AND the gals.

So if your going to do some measuring remember to do it across the profile of the backside at the narrowest point of the waist and the widest point of the rear end.

Link - Waist-hip ratio

318 - Smart curves

CURVIER women may have smart children because hip fat contains polyunsaturated fatty acids critical for the development of the fetus's brain.

Using data from the US National Center for Health Statistics, William Lassek at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania and Steven Gaulin of the University of California, Santa Barbara, found a child's performance in cognition tests was linked to their mother's waist-hip ratio, a proxy for how much fat she stores on her hips.

Children whose mothers had wide hips and a low waist-hip ratio scored highest, leading Lassek and Gaulin to suggest that fetuses benefit from a rich supply of useful fatty acids (Evolution and Human Behavior, DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2007.07.005)

Link - NewScientist

317 - Retarded grandparents

This is fairly new making the email rounds. I only got 1140 hits on google. Who knows if it's true.

-----------------------------------------------------

RETARDED GRANDPARENTS - (this was actually reported by a teacher)

After Christmas, a teacher asked her young pupils how they spent their holiday away from school. One child wrote the following:

We always used to spend the holidays with Grandma and Grandpa. They used to live in a big brick house but Grandpa got retarded and they moved to Florida . Now they live in a tin box and have rocks painted green to look like grass. They ride around on their bicycles and wear name tags because they don't know who they are anymore. They go to a building called a wreck center, but they must have got it fixed because it is all okay now, they do exercises there, but they don't do them very well. There is a swimming pool too, but they all jump up and down in it with hats on. At their gate, there is a doll house with a little old man sitting in it. He watches all day so nobody can escape. Sometimes they sneak out, and go cruising in their golf carts. Nobody there cooks, they just eat out. And, they eat the same thing every night --- early birds. Some of the people can't get out past the man in the doll house. The ones who do get out, bring food back to the wrecked center for pot luck. My Grandma says that Grandpa worked all his life to earn his retardment and says I should work hard so I can be retarded someday too. When I earn my retardment, I want to be the man in the doll house. Then I will let people out, so they can visit their grandchildren.

316 - Don't eat

They say that fasting purifies the mind. Now it seems it may keep the heart healthy too.
About three-quarters of the people of Utah are Mormans, and many of them fast for a day every month. Of those who fasted a certain percentage were more likly than non-fasters to have a heathy heart. Periodic withdrawal of food might resensitise the insulan producing beta cells.
Link - Fasting
.

315 - Letters

I did a spot on where our numbers came from in my post number 126. Recently I came across the origin of our letters. And following some links from that spot I found some info on the keyboard your typing on. Facinating reading for a snowy day.
Link - Letters
Link - Keyboards
.

314 - Ball size

... After a 2 year study, the National Science Foundation announced the following results on America's recreational preferences:

The sport of choice for unemployed or incarcerated people is: basketball.
The sport of choice for maintenance level employees is: bowling.
The sport of choice for blue-collar workers is: football.
The sport of choice for supervisors is: baseball.
The sport of choice for middle management is: tennis.
The sport of choice for corporate officers is: golf.

Conclusion: The higher you rise in the corporate structure, the smaller your balls become.
---------------------------------------------------
For more of this high level analysis go to -
Link - Sports jokes
.

313 - Fidel, come back!

Well Fidel Casto has resigned. So who's next in line? The press thinks it's his brother Raul. Dave Letterman had this to say about the situation.
"Some people say that Fidels' replacement will probably be his brother Raul. Others are saying it might be his idiot son Fidel W. Castro."

312 - Here come the nukes

You would think that a nuclear threat from one country to another would be widely reported. But I don't remember hearing about this.
Link - Russian nukes ready to launch

If you haven't looked at my links for a while (left column), check out the 'terroist map' link and see what's going on around the world that's not widely reported.

311 - Hu's on first?

And since Bilbo brought it up, here's the Bush/Rice version of Hu's on first.
Hu's on First?
.

310 - Who's on first?

I found a transcript of the old 'Who's on First' routine by Abbott and Costello. I don't think I've ever seen it written down. But if you've ever seen it, it's not hard to hear the routine in your head as you read it.

Link - Who's on First?

And that would have been the end of the post. But NO! I thought HEY, I wonder if the video is on YouTube. Well DUH. Here's three versions and there's more on the sidebar once you get to YouTube.
Who's on First?
Who's on First?
Who's on First?
.

309 - Judgement

Here's a qoute of the catch 22 variety.

Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement.

For more judgement quotes here's a link.
Link - judgement

308 - A meeting of the minds

Sometimes peoples minds work in unison and the same thought pops out on the same day. That happened yesterday. Check out the cartoon from Mike Peters and the blog from Bilbo.


Link - Mike Peters

307 - Top ten

Live science has groups of top ten lists for just about every subsection of their site but they're all in one spot on this link.
Link - Top ten

306 - How do you do that.

Here's a site that can answer that question. There's a lot of info on this site and it can be hard to dig out what your looking for. But when you do find it, it will be in a very simple step by step proceedure.
Link - How

305 - Ow Ow Ow!

Betcha' can't do this!


For a lot more --
Link - Twisting

304 - Don't sit up straight !

Here's the first part of this post ----

Your mother's advice to sit up straight in your chair could be a prescription for lower back pain. A new study using new imaging technology reveals that sitting upright with a straight back (90 degree) and thighs parallel to the floor increases the strain on the lumbar discs in the lower back.
In fact it's better to lean back a bit in a chair, even if looks like slouching. The best position is what you get in a La-Z-Boy, 135 degrees between back and thighs.

Link - 135 degrees

And here's the second part (on how I got the first part)----

I was missing our numbers girl so I did a search on google to see if she was anywhere else out there. Where is she?
I found a site that had a reference to her. Successful-blog.com
Which lead me back to her post about sitting. Sitting
Which lead me to the fact that it's been this many days since we've had a new statistic to absorb.

303 - Guns and other things

I ran across this link to CBS's "interactive" web page. It's one of those pages that can get you going from one page to another and you can't figure out how to get back to where you started. On this page the interactive drop down box is mostly about gun violence in the US but it can branch out to whole other subjects. It can keep you busy for a while.

What I found especilly interesting was the origin of the NRA.
-- Dissatisfied with their troops' marksmanship, two Union veterans found the National Rifle Association, to "promote and encourage rifle shooting on a scientific basis." --
So the NRA was formed to practice marksmanship, not to defend carrying guns around.
Link - cbsnews interactive

302 - The P race

I was watching Bill Moyers last night on PBS. One of his stories was about a born in America latino religious leader and how he thought the latino community was going to decide the presidential election. Then Charlie Rose had a bunch of pundits from both sides who thought ...... well, who cares. But one of them did say that McCain should pick Condi as a running mate. I saw this first on Bilbos' site so this guy was a little late with his suggestion.

That means if Obama gets the nomination he will have to pick a female latino/indian mix to out diversify McCain. If Hillary gets it she will have to go for a black gay male priest.

301 - Tragedy - humor

Guy goes off the deep end over zoning issues.
Link - six killed in St. Louis

On a lighter note here's some church lady jokes.

Thank God for church ladies with typewriters. These sentences appeared in church bulletins or were announced in church services (Summer, 2007 Release).
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The Fasting & Prayer Conference includes meals.
----------------------------------------------------------
The sermon this morning: "Jesus Walks on the Water." The sermon tonight: "Searching for Jesus."
----------------------------------------------------------
Our youth basketball team is back in action Wednesday at 8 PM in the recreation hall.
Come out and watch us kill Christ the King.
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Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale. It's a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Bring your husbands.
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The peacemaking meeting scheduled for today has been canceled due to a conflict.
----------------------------------------------------------
Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our community.
Smile at someone who is hard to love.
Say "Hell" to someone who doesn't care much about you.
---------------------------------------------------------
Don't let worry kill you off - let the Church help.
---------------------------------------------------------
Miss Charlene Mason sang "I will not pass this way again," giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.
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For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery downstairs.
----------------------------------------------------------
Next Thursday there will be tryouts for the choir. They need all the help they can get.
----------------------------------------------------------
The Rector will preach his farewell message, after which the choir will sing:
"Break Forth Into Joy."
---------------------------------------------------------
Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married on October 24 in the church.
So ends a friendship that began in their school days.
---------------------------------------------------------
At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be "What Is Hell?"
Come early and listen to our choir practice.
---------------------------------------------------------
Eight new choir robes are currently needed due to the addition of several new members and to the deterioration of some older ones.
---------------------------------------------------------
Scouts are saving aluminum cans, bottles and other items to be recycled.
Proceeds will be used to cripple children.
---------------------------------------------------------
Please place your donation in the envelope along with the deceased person you want remembered.
---------------------------------------------------------
The church will host an evening of fine dining, super entertainment and gracious hostility.
-------------------------------------------------
Potluck supper Sunday at 5:00 PM - prayer and medication to follow.
------------------------------------------------ ---------
The ladies of the Church have cast off clothing of every kind.
They may be seen in the basement on Friday afternoon.
----------------------------------- ------ -----------------
This evening at 7 PM there will be a hymn singing in the park across from the Church.
Bring a blanket and come prepared to sin.
---------------------------------------------------------
Ladies Bible Study will be held Thursday morning at 10 AM. All ladies are invited to lunch in the Fellowship Hall after the B.S. is done.
----------------------------------------------------------
The pastor would appreciate it if the ladies of the congregation would lend him their electric girdles for the pancake breakfast next Sunday.
--------------------------------------------
Low Self Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7 PM. Please use the back door.
---------------------------------------------------------
The eighth-graders will be presenting Shakespeare's Hamlet in the Church basement Friday at 7 PM. The congregation is invited to attend this tragedy.
----------------------------------------------------------
Weight Watchers will meet at 7 PM at the First Presbyterian Church.
Please use the large double door at the side entrance.
----------------------------------------------------------
The Associate Minister unveiled the church's new tithing campaign slogan last Sunday : "I Upped My Pledge - Up Yours".

300 - Three thoughts

No politics ain't over. It's just startin'.


Link - Blondie

I can actually see this happening.


Link - Zits

And finally, I've avoided the cell phone thing so far. But probably not much longer. I carried a pager most of my telephone company career so I know what it's like to have a "find you anywhere" device attached to your body.


Link - Grimmy
.

299 - The medical system

Monday was a fun day at the doctors office. I took my '20 something' son who was not feeling good to the doctors office around 10:30am. What's wrong? Not sure. Go to the emergency room so he can get checked out quicker. Right. We get to the emergency room around 11am. And sit. And sit. And sit. So around 4pm we get into an exam room. And sit. Around 5pm we see a doctor and get some tests. And sit. Around 6:30 we get an ultrasound. And sit. He has to be admitted. We get to a room around 9pm. This was one looooong day.

Tuesday around 11am they decide he can go home. And we sit. ........ Yes, he's home now.

298 - Double dippin'

I've seen this before but it was in several publications the last few days.

------------------------------------------------------

Keep an eye on the salsa this Super Bowl Sunday: A researcher inspired by a famous "Seinfeld" episode has concluded that double dipping is just plain gross. "That's like putting your whole mouth right in the dip!" George Costanza was admonished on the show after he dipped a chip twice at a wake. That's not too far off, said Clemson University professor Paul L. Dawson.
Last year the food microbiologist's undergraduate students examined the effects of double dipping using volunteers, wheat crackers and several sample dips. They found that three to six double dips transferred about 10,000 bacteria from an eater's mouth to the remaining dip sample.
"I was very surprised by the results," Dawson said in a telephone interview Thursday. "I thought there would be very minimal transfer. I didn't think we would be able to detect it." The professor said the students' research didn't get into the risk behind such a bacteria transfer, but they got the idea. "I like to say it's like kissing everybody at the party — if you're double dipping, you're putting some of your bacteria in that dip," Dawson said. The results of the research are scheduled to be published in the journal Food Safety within the next six months, he said.

297 - QSL cards

I'm sitting here looking at all the dots on my cluster map. Then I happened to remember the QSL cards from shortwave radio and thought, "that's what these dots are like". They're "I made contact with you" dots. So as times change, some things stay the same. They're just called by a different name.

Link - QSL cards

(of course wikipedia has info on them)
(I was going to get a first class radio licence but it never happened.)

296 - Go green - or not

Here's an article from this weeks Parade magazine.

--------------------------------------------------

Bright Lights, Bad Headache?

As energy-saving fluorescent lightbulbs become standard, new research suggests some dangers: Flickering bulbs have been reported to precipitate migraines or even seizures, though manufacturers say the new models have been improved. Fluorescent light also can aggravate skin rashes in people with lupus, eczema, dermatitis or porphyria. Perhaps most important, the bulbs contain mercury. If one breaks, don’t vacuum the debris—that can release toxic dust into the air. Leave the room for 15 minutes. Then, wearing gloves, place fragments into a plastic bag, seal it and take it to a recycling center.

--------------------------------------------------

I knew about the the headache thing. There are people that can actually see the 60 cycle flicker of fluorescent lights. They have to wear hats with wide brims so they can't directly see the fluorescent bulbs.
The link has a few more alerts.

Link - Medical alerts from Parade

295 - ClustrMaps

If you haven't noticed the map down the left hand column go take a look. It's where all the visitors to this web site have come from. I haven't had mine working for that long so I don't have as many dots as some other bloggers. And I just discovered that after you reach a certain level you can zoom in on a continent for a more detailed look. The first two links show what I'm talking about. And then the next two are from ClustrMaps main site.
Link - My site (can't zoom in)
Link - Bilbo's site (zoomed in on North America)
Link - clustrmaps main page
Link - clustrmaps main map (pick a continent to zoom in on)