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Raiders make off with bull semen: Posted 11/08/08 by FFSFAMILY

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/south_of_scotland/7715364.stm



Quote:

Bull semen worth about £12,000 has been stolen from a farm building in south west Scotland.

The incident happened near Brydekirk in Dumfries and Galloway some time between Sunday and Thursday.

The semen is stored in a purpose-built flask containing liquid nitrogen in order to keep it at a fixed temperature.

A police spokesman said the flask was the only item taken during the raid on the farm.

The specimens were stored in an outbuilding. It was noticed on Thursday that they had been taken.

The flask contained about 400 "straws" of semen.

A Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary spokesman said that some form of transport must have been used in the raid as the flask weighed more than 30kg.

"It was all that was taken and they have forced entry," he said.

"Due to the high value it will have a market - somebody will take it off their hands."

E-mail error ends up on road sign: Posted 11/01/08 by FFSFAMILY

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7702913.stm



Quote:
The English is clear enough to lorry drivers - but the Welsh reads "I am not in the office at the moment. Please send any work to be translated."

When officials asked for the Welsh translation of a road sign, they thought the reply was what they needed.

Unfortunately, the e-mail response to Swansea council said in Welsh: "I am not in the office at the moment. Please send any work to be translated".

So that was what went up under the English version which barred lorries from a road near a supermarket.

"When they're proofing signs, they should really use someone who speaks Welsh," said journalist Dylan Iorwerth.


It's good to see people trying to translate but they should really ask for expert help
Dylan Iorwerth, Golwg magazine
Swansea Council became lost in translation when it was looking to halt heavy goods vehicles using a road near an Asda store in the Morriston area

All official road signs in Wales are bilingual, so the local authority e-mailed its in-house translation service for the Welsh version of: "No entry for heavy goods vehicles. Residential site only".

The reply duly came back and officials set the wheels in motion to create the large sign in both languages.

The notice went up and all seemed well - until Welsh speakers began pointing out the embarrassing error.

Welsh-language magazine Golwg was promptly sent photographs of the offending sign by a number of its readers.
Site of wrongly translated sign
The sign was lost in translation - and is now missing from the roadside

Managing editor Mr Iorwerth said: "We've been running a series of these pictures over the past months.

"They're circulating among Welsh speakers because, unfortunately, it's all too common that things are not just badly translated, but are put together by people who have no idea about the language.

"It's good to see people trying to translate, but they should really ask for expert help.

"Everything these days seems to be written first in English and then translated.

"Ideally, they should be written separately in both languages."

A council spokeswoman said: "Our attention was drawn to the mistranslation of a sign at the junction of Clase Road and Pant-y-Blawd Road.

Other confusing signs

"We took it down as soon as we were made aware of it and a correct sign will be re-instated as soon as possible."

The blunder is not the only time Welsh has been translated incorrectly or put in the wrong place:

• Cyclists between Cardiff and Penarth in 2006 were left confused by a bilingual road sign telling them they had problems with an "inflamed bladder".

• In the same year, a sign for pedestrians in Cardiff reading 'Look Right' in English read 'Look Left' in Welsh.

• In 2006, a shared-faith school in Wrexham removed a sign which translated the Welsh for staff as "wooden stave".

• Football fans at a FA Cup tie between Oldham and Chasetown - two English teams - in 2005 were left scratching their heads after a Welsh-language hoarding was put up along the pitch. It should have gone to a match in Merthyr Tydfil.

• People living near an Aberdeenshire building site in 2006 were mystified when a sign apologising for the inconvenience was written in Welsh as well as English.

Death at show fuels US gun debate: Posted 10/28/08 by Cybmatt

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7694560.stm


Quote:
New questions have been raised about US gun laws after a boy aged eight shot himself in the head with a submachine gun at a Massachusetts weapons fair.

Christopher Bizilj died after losing control of a recoiling Uzi submachine gun as he fired it at a pumpkin.

Both the boy's father and an instructor were present when the accident happened on Sunday at the gun show in Westfield.

State legislators are now considering drafting a bill banning under-21s from firing automatic weapons, reports say.

"We should take swift action to provide some reasonable restrictions on this type of unreasonable practice," Congressman Michael Costello told the Boston Globe newspaper.

"It's almost indescribable that within a year of leaving a booster seat, an eight-year-old can be holding a submachine gun."

The boy's father, Charles Bizilj, said he was 10ft (3m) behind Christopher when the accident happened at the Machine Gun Shoot and Firearms Expo.

Mr Bizilj told the Globe he had allowed his son to shoot the Uzi - which can fire hundreds of rounds a minute - because it was considered to have little recoil.

He said Christopher had fired handguns and rifles before, but never an automatic weapon.

"This is a horrible event, a horrible travesty, and I really don't know why it happened," said Mr Bizilj, a hospital director from Ashford, Connecticut.

Police have described the incident as a "self-inflicted accidental shooting".

But they are continuing to investigate whether the fair's organisers and Westfield Sportsmen's Club - the private shooting club where the gun show was held - held the appropriate licences.

Massachusetts has strict gun laws that require parental consent and the presence of a certified and licensed instructor before a child is allowed to fire a weapon.

'Expensive' Placebos Work Better Than 'Cheap' Ones: Posted 10/24/08 by iv81



Odd Experiment Suggests a High Price Tag May Be a Formula for Pain Relief

The more expensive your pain medications are, the better the relief you get from taking them — even if they're fake.

A new study suggests the more expensive a treatment appears, the greater its placebo effect.
(Photodisc)That's according to a study published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which suggests that sugar pills labeled as expensive drugs relieve pain better than sugar pills labeled as discounted drugs.

Researchers often compare real drugs to sugar pills in medical studies to account for the placebo effect, in which the illusion of taking medicine alone can cause symptoms to disappear.

But Dan Ariely, a behavioral economist at Duke University in Durham, N.C., and a team of collaborators from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology compared the placebo effect of the marketing that people are asked to swallow along with their medicine.

In the study, 82 volunteers were subjected to a series of electric shocks — a standard research protocol for measuring pain thresholds. They were then given a placebo pill alongside a fake drug company brochure for the fictitious drug "Veladone-Rx," — ostensibly a new fast-acting painkiller made in China.

The only catch was that half of the test subjects received brochures showing that the drug had been marked down from the original price of $2.50 a pill to 10 cents a pill. These modified brochures also included circled fine print which suggested that the pills were manufactured in China.

After participants went through the shocks again, 85 percent in the full-price group reported pain relief from their sugar pill, while only 61 percent in the discount group reported pain relief.


Placebos Make Good Medicine
"In a way, placebo is a big part of medicine," said Ariely, who wrote an entire book on the subject called "Predictably Irrational."

The placebo effect goes beyond simple perception. In fact, people taking placebos for pain relief will secrete higher levels of the body's natural painkillers called endogenous opioids, said Ariely.

"But the interesting thing is, we can't close our eyes and say, 'please can I get some pain relief?'" said Ariely. "It's under our control, but not under our control consciously."

The placebo effect is so powerful, it can help 25-50 percent of patients with migraines, said Dr. Timothy A. Collins, associate clinical professor of neurology at Duke University Medical Center.

"It can even help with unexpected medical conditions such as with the skin disorder psoriasis, which has a 27 percent favorable placebo rate for patients, or a 16 percent placebo rate with Parkinson's disease."

But while many doctors are quite aware of the placebo effect, some may not be aware of all the elements that go into it — including the price of the pill, the drug ads on TV, or even the physician's attitude towards the drug, said Ariely.


Get What You Pay For, or Buyer Beware?
A common reason to go after a brand-name drug is the popular saying "you get what you pay for."

"It's true with cars, it's true with other consumables," said Dr. Nortin Hadler, professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "If you buy a lemon and drive it home, you're going to know in a hurry.

"But when it comes to health care issues, you don't know it in a hurry — you don't know," Hadler said.

Dr. Carmen Green, director of Pain Medicine Research at the University of Michigan Health System, has frequently experienced this phenomenon in her practice.

"Patients come in and say, I saw this on TV and this is what I want," said Green. "But often there are other drugs that are available that are cheaper, or should be tried first."

Besides occasionally annoying doctors, the drive towards more expensive drugs might have costs that go beyond the pockets of people watching drug ads.

"We're all paying for higher health care costs, whether you have government insurance or private insurance," said Green.

Yet, not all is doom and gloom. Ariely and Hadler believe doctors can turn the placebo effect around for the advantage of both the doctor and the patient.

Office Visit: Expanding Placebo
"It really puts a new twist on how we think about reality," said Ariely, who questioned how price and marketing affects the potency of drugs given out in free packets, drugs given in discount rates, or even drugs that come in boring bottles.

For Hadler, the study might convince doctors to develop their own positive marketing for a treatment.

In his own studies, Hadler has found that the way a physician describes a drug can change how much a patient will follow through with a treatment regimen.

"Compliance goes down when you go through all the side effects listed for the drug," said Hadler. "But if you say, 'This is the best thing ever, side effects are rare,' people will respond positively."

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MindMoodNews/Story?id=4386984&page=1

God gets off on a technicality: Posted 10/16/08 by FFSFAMILY

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7673591.stm



Quote:

Legal case against God dismissed
God on a cloud in a 18th century depiction
The plaintiff argued an omniscient God would know of the lawsuit

A US judge has thrown out a case against God, ruling that because the defendant has no address, legal papers cannot be served.

The suit was launched by Nebraska state senator Ernie Chambers, who said he might appeal against the ruling.

He sought a permanent injunction to prevent the "death, destruction and terrorisation" caused by God.

Judge Marlon Polk said in his ruling that a plaintiff must have access to the defendant for a case to proceed.

"Given that this court finds that there can never be service effectuated on the named defendant this action will be dismissed with prejudice," Judge Polk wrote in his ruling.

Mr Chambers cannot refile the suit but may appeal.

'God knows everything'

Mr Chambers sued God last year. He said God had threatened him and the people of Nebraska and had inflicted "widespread death, destruction and terrorisation of millions upon millions of the Earth's inhabitants".

He said he would carefully consider Judge Polk's ruling before deciding whether to appeal.

The court, Mr Chambers said, had acknowledged the existence of God and "a consequence of that acknowledgement is a recognition of God's omniscience".

"Since God knows everything," he reasoned, "God has notice of this lawsuit."

Mr Chambers, a state senator for 38 years, said he filed the suit to make the point that "anyone can sue anyone else, even God".

YouTube to McCain: You Made Your DMCA Bed, Lie in It: Posted 10/15/08 by iv81



YouTube on Tuesday rebuffed a request from John McCain's presidential campaign to examine fair-use issues more carefully before yanking campaign videos in response to DMCA takedown notices.

"Lawyers and judges constantly disagree about what does and does not constitute fair-use," YouTube's general counsel Zahavah Levine wrote in a letter Tuesday. "No number of lawyers could possibly determine with a reasonable level of certainty whether all the videos for which we receive disputed takedown notices qualify as fair-use."

"We hope that as a content uploader, you have gained a sense of some of the challenges we face everyday in operating YouTube," he added.

The McCain campaign on Monday fired off a letter to YouTube complaining that the company had acted too quickly to take down McCain's videos in response to copyright infringement notices. McCain campaign general counsel Trevor Potter argued that several of the removed ads, which had used excerpts of television footage, fall under the four-factor doctrine of fair-use, and shouldn't have been removed.

But citing the DMCA, a controversial copyright law that McCain voted to approve a decade ago, Levine pointed out that YouTube risks being sued itself if it doesn't respond promptly to takedown notices.

"If … service providers do not remove the content to such notice, they do so at their own risk because they lose their safe harbor,"he wrote.

Further, Levine argued, the fair-use analysis is complicated, and the creators of the videos are better equipped to perform it. The uploader can then issue a DMCA counter-notice if they believe they're on solid legal ground, and YouTube will restore the video.

"YouTube does not possess the requisite information about the content in user-uploaded videos to make a determination as to whether a particular takedown notice includes a valid claim of infringement," Levine wrote. "The claimant and the uploader, not YouTube, hold all of the relevant information in this regard, including the source of any content used, the ownership rights to the content, and any licensing arrangements in place between the parties."

"The real problem here is individuals and entities that abuse the DMCA takedown process," he added.

"We look forward to working with Senator (or President) McCain on ways to combat abuse of the DMCA takedown process on YouTube, including by way of example, strengthening the fair-use doctrine, so that intermediaries like us can rely on this important doctrine with a measure of business certainty."

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/10/youtube-to-mcca.html

haus majority gene found: Posted 10/07/08 by FFSFAMILY

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7657092.stm


Quote:
Premature ejaculation gene found
couple in bed
A third of men are believed to suffer from premature ejaculation

Men who suffer from premature ejaculation may be able to blame their genes, work suggests.

A study of nearly 200 Dutch men found those who climaxed too soon during intercourse had a version of a gene that controls the hormone serotonin.

Men with this version ejaculated twice as quickly as other men in the study.

Serotonin levels are what control the rapidity of ejaculation, say the Utrecht University researchers told the Journal of Sexual Medicine.

Not in the mind

The volunteers in Dr Marcel Waldinger's study were 89 men who had so-called primary premature ejaculation, meaning they had always suffered from it from their first sexual contact onwards.

For a month, their female partners were asked to use a stopwatch at home to measure the time until ejaculation each time they had intercourse.


Premature ejaculation is definitely not purely psychological
Paula Hall, a sexual psychotherapist for Relate

The results were compared with 92 men with no history of such problems.

In the men with premature ejaculation, serotonin appeared to be less active between the nerves in the section of the brain that controls ejaculation.

Dr Waldinger says this low activity of the hormone means nerve signals do not transfer in the normal way in these men.

"This contradicts the idea, which has been common for years, that the primary form of premature ejaculation is a psychological disorder," he said.

Fast reactors

The findings also mean it might be possible to treat the condition with gene therapy, he said.

Paula Hall, a sexual psychotherapist for Relate, said: "Premature ejaculation is definitely not purely psychological.

"But there can be a psychological element. The acid test is how much control they have on their own. If the problem only occurs with their partner then it is more likely to be psychological."

She said men with primary premature ejaculation tended to be fast reactors generally.

"These men have very quick reflexes. They may be excellent at playing tennis or computer games, for example."

She said there was good evidence that serotonin was linked ejaculation and that researchers were developing drugs for the condition that prolong this hormone's action.

Currently there is no medication for the condition on the market.

Treatments involve counselling and the use of anti-depressants - not for depression but for their unexpected yet wanted side effect of delaying ejaculation.

A third of men are believed to suffer from premature ejaculation.

Chicago Woman Wins House on eBay for $1.75: Posted 10/04/08 by BLooD ReDD



SAGINAW, Michigan — With a winning bid of just $1.75, a Chicago woman has won an auction for an abandoned home in Saginaw, Michigan.

Joanne Smith, 30, recently was the top bidder for the home during an auction on eBay, The Saginaw News reported. Her bid was one of eight for the home.

"I am going to try and sell it," she told the newspaper. "I don't have any plans to move to Saginaw."

Smith said she hasn't seen the property or visited Saginaw, which has been hard-hit by economic troubles in recent years.

There's a notice on the door of the home saying a foreclosure hearing is pending, the newspaper said. She must pay about $850 in back taxes and yard cleanup costs.

The Saginaw News said it could not reach the seller, Southern Investments LLC, for comment.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,431306,00.html

Boy fed zoo reptiles to crocodile: Posted 10/03/08 by NickJames?

Quote:


A seven-year-old boy has been filmed going on the rampage at a popular zoo in Australia, killing rare reptiles and feeding live ones to a crocodile.

Footage from the security cameras at Alice Springs Reptile Centre caught the child smiling as he killed a total of 13 animals.

During his 30-minute spree, he was seen hurling the animals over the security fence into the crocodile enclosure.

Zoo officials described the boy's actions as "unbelievable".

They are considering suing the parents as the boy is too young to be prosecuted.

'Difficult to replace'

The attack happened on Wednesday morning after the boy entered the zoo by jumping over the security fence and evading sensor alarms.

Over the next half hour, he bludgeoned some of the animals to death with stones and hurled others over the two fences surrounding the crocodile enclosure.

At one point, he tried scaling the outer enclosure himself to get to "Terry", the 11ft (3.3m) saltwater crocodile.

A turtle, four Western blue-tongued lizards, two bearded dragons, two thorny devil lizards and the zoo's 20-year-old goanna were among those killed.

Zoo director Rex Neindorf said many of the animals were rare or mature and would be difficult to replace.

"The fact a seven-year-old can wreak so much havoc in such a short time, it's unbelievable," he told Reuters news agency.

Mr Neindorf said the boy had "clammed up" when questioned by police.

As children under the age of 10 cannot be held accountable for their actions in the Northern Territory, the zoo would be seeking to take action against the parents.

"We'll be looking at suing the parents, who were supposedly in control of him at the time," he said.



It's the reincarnated spirit of Steve Irwin. Stay tuned for new Animal Planet show staring this kid in the future.

Astlee, best act ever?: Posted 10/01/08 by FFSFAMILY

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7646807.stm

Quote:

Astley shortlisted for MTV award
Rick Astley
Rick Astley had a number one hit in 1987 with Never Gonna Give You Up

Eighties pop singer Rick Astley has become the surprise contender for best act ever at this year's MTV Europe Music Awards in Liverpool.

The star, who has never been nominated in the history of the event, is up against U2, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Green Day and Tokio Hotel.

The winner, chosen by fans online, will be unveiled at the show on 6 November.

Astley returned to prominence this year when internet users were "tricked" into watching the video of his biggest hit.

Sole nomination

A craze called "Rickrolling" saw web users unwittingly follow links to Astley's videos. It led to millions of plays of Astley's song Never Gonna Give You Up, which reached number one in the UK in 1987.

It went on to become a number one hit in 15 other countries.

"Rick's fans have obviously decided that he deserves recognition as a pop icon and no doubt they are determined to make sure he wins on the night," said the award show's producer Richard Godfrey.

Madonna is up for the video star category with 4 Minutes - the only nomination she has received this year.

The 50-year-old pop star will battle it out with 30 Seconds to Mars, Santogold, Weezer and Snoop Dogg, who is hosting the ceremony.


oh lawd...


also
Quote:
U2, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Green Day and Tokio Hotel.... contender for best act ever


is why i hate mtv. especially for tokio hotel, i havent even heard their music and have only heard of them from about a month ago so how the fuck are they up for best act ever....? mtv should be set on fire

Nobel judge: U.S. too ignorant to compete: Posted 10/01/08 by BLooD ReDD



STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) -- Bad news for American writers hoping for a Nobel Prize next week: the top member of the award jury believes the United States is too insular and ignorant to compete with Europe when it comes to great writing.

British author Doris Lessing holds the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature in London, England.

Counters the head of the U.S. National Book Foundation: "Put him in touch with me, and I'll send him a reading list."

As the Swedish Academy enters final deliberations for this year's award, permanent secretary Horace Engdahl said it's no coincidence that most winners are European.

"Of course there is powerful literature in all big cultures, but you can't get away from the fact that Europe still is the center of the literary world ... not the United States," he told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview Tuesday.

He said the 16-member award jury has not selected this year's winner, and dropped no hints about who was on the short list. Americans Philip Roth and Joyce Carol Oates usually figure in speculation, but Engdahl wouldn't comment on any names.

Speaking generally about American literature, however, he said U.S. writers are "too sensitive to trends in their own mass culture," dragging down the quality of their work.

"The U.S. is too isolated, too insular. They don't translate enough and don't really participate in the big dialogue of literature," Engdahl said. "That ignorance is restraining."

His comments were met with fierce reactions from literary officials across the Atlantic.

"You would think that the permanent secretary of an academy that pretends to wisdom but has historically overlooked Proust, Joyce, and Nabokov, to name just a few non-Nobelists, would spare us the categorical lectures," said David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker.

"And if he looked harder at the American scene that he dwells on, he would see the vitality in the generation of Roth, Updike, and DeLillo, as well as in many younger writers, some of them sons and daughters of immigrants writing in their adopted English. None of these poor souls, old or young, seem ravaged by the horrors of Coca-Cola."

Harold Augenbraum, executive director of the foundation which administers the National Book Awards, said he wanted to send Engdahl a reading list of U.S. literature.

"Such a comment makes me think that Mr. Engdahl has read little of American literature outside the mainstream and has a very narrow view of what constitutes literature in this age," he said.

"In the first place, one way the United States has embraced the concept of world culture is through immigration. Each generation, beginning in the late 19th century, has recreated the idea of American literature."

He added that this is something the English and French are discovering as immigrant groups begin to take their place in those traditions.

The most recent American to win the award was Toni Morrison in 1993. Other American winners include Saul Bellow, John Steinbeck and Ernest Hemingway.

As permanent secretary, Engdahl is a voting member of and spokesman for the secretive panel that selects the winners of what many consider the most prestigious award in literature.

The academy often picks obscure writers and hardly ever selects best-selling authors. It regularly faces accusations of snobbery, political bias and even poor taste.

Since Japanese writer Kenzaburo Oe won the award in 1994, the selections have had a distinct European flavor. Nine of the subsequent laureates were Europeans, including last year's winner, Doris Lessing of Britain (though Lessing often writes about her life in southern Africa). Of the other four, one was from Turkey and the others from South Africa, China and Trinidad. All had strong ties to Europe.

Engdahl said Europe draws literary exiles because it "respects the independence of literature" and can serve as a safe haven.

"Very many authors who have their roots in other countries work in Europe, because it is only here where you can be left alone and write, without being beaten to death," he said. "It is dangerous to be an author in big parts of Asia and Africa."

The Nobel Prize announcements start next week with the medicine award on Monday, followed by physics, chemistry, peace and economics. Next Thursday is a possible date for the literature prize, but the Swedish Academy by tradition only gives the date two days before.

Engdahl suggested the announcement date could be a few weeks away, saying "it could take some time" before the academy settles on a name.

Each Nobel Prize includes a $1.3 million purse, a gold medal and a diploma. The awards are handed out December 10, the anniversary of prize founder Alfred Nobel's death in 1896.


http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/books/09/30/nobel.literature.ap/index.html

NO MO BAILOUT: Posted 09/29/08 by FFSFAMILY

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7641733.stm

Quote:
The US House of Representatives has voted down a $700bn (£380bn) plan aimed at bailing out Wall Street.

The rescue plan, a result of tense talks between the government and lawmakers, was rejected by 228 to 205 votes in the House of Representatives.

About two-thirds of Republican lawmakers refused to back the rescue package, as well as 95 Democrats.

Wall Street shares plunged at the news; the benchmark index saw its biggest daily points fall ever, down 770.

A White House spokesman said that President George W Bush was "very disappointed" by the vote's result.

President Bush on the rejection of the bail-out plan

Mr Bush later met Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to discuss the way forward, and was also scheduled to hold talks with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

Speaking later on the White House lawn, Mr Paulson said the government's plan to address the crisis facing the US financial sector was much too important to be allowed to fail.

US regulators would use "all the tools available" to help the US economy, but their powers were "insufficient", he warned.

He added that he would be working with congressional leaders to get something done "as quickly as possible".

Monday's vote followed a day of turmoil in the financial sector.

* Wachovia, the fourth-largest US bank, was bought by larger rival Citigroup in a rescue deal backed by US authorities
* Benelux banking giant Fortis was partially nationalised by the Dutch, Belgian and Luxembourg governments to ensure its survival
* The UK government announced it was nationalising the Bradford & Bingley bank
* Global shares fell sharply - France's key index lost 5%, Germany's main market dropped 4% while US shares plunged after the vote result was announced.

'Global contagion'

As news of the vote came through, traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange stood dumbfounded.

Analysts say that without a bail-out plan, the banks will be left to handle all their own bad mortgage debt as best they can and more of them will be in danger of going bust.


A trader rubs his face as he works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, 29 September 2008

Why did the bail-out bill fail?
Q&A: US $700bn bail-out plan
Dow Jones plummets

"There's a monster amount of fear out there," said Joe Saluzzi, a trading manager.

"This is global contagion. It's no longer just the United States," he told Reuters news agency.

Mr Bush had argued that the bail-out plan was a "bold" one which he was confident would restore strength and confidence to the US economy.

But after a several hours of impassioned debate, the bill's opponents - the majority of whom were from the Republican Party - got their way.

They had raised concerns about both the content of the plan and the speed with which they were being asked to pass it.

Some agreement on issues such as oversight, greater protection for taxpayers and curbs on executive bonuses had been reached in fraught weekend talks.

These concessions, however, ultimately failed to persuade enough lawmakers that the plan was in the best interests of the nation.

Blame game

The no vote plunged the world of Washington politics into turmoil, reports the BBC's Kevin Connolly from the US capital.

Pelosi urges bipartisan approach

So grave are the consequences of this decision, our correspondent says, that the speaker of the house paused for several long minutes after the vote was taken before declaring it official.

"The legislation has failed, the crisis has not gone away," said Nancy Pelosi, the house's Democratic speaker.

She said that 60% of Democrats had supported the bill, and urged both sides to try again to find a resolution.

"We must work in a bipartisan way in order to have another bite at the apple in terms of some legislation," she said.

Republican leaders, meanwhile, criticised a scathing speech by Ms Pelosi about the Bush administration's economic policies for injecting partisanship into the issue and scuttling the vote.

Republican house leader John Boehner said: "We could have gotten there today had it not been for the partisan speech that the speaker gave on the floor of the House".

The speaker's words, he said, "poisoned our conference, caused a number of members that we thought we could get, to go south".

Call for calm

Republican presidential hopeful John McCain accused Democrats of infusing the debate with an unhelpful partisan approach.

"Now is not the time to fix the blame, it's time to fix the problem," he added.

He urged members of Congress to go back to the drawing board "immediately" and work out a new deal.

His Democratic rival Barack Obama countered that it was an outrage that ordinary people were being asked to clean up Wall Street's mess.

HAVE YOUR SAY

I am glad the bailout bill failed. I work five days a week, save cash and pay my bills. I did not want to pay for Corporate America's greed

Lisa, Baltimore
Send us your comments

"If I am president I will review the entire plan on the day I take office to make sure that it is working to save our economy and (that) you get your money back," he said.

He added that he expected Congress to pass a bail-out bill in some form.

Lawmakers from both parties have called for further talks on new bail-out legislation.

Frantic steps will now be taken to get some kind of amended version of the bill through Congress, our correspondent says.

But, he adds, this vote would have shaken the confidence of the financial world and the ability of America's leaders to come up with convincing answers at a moment of crisis.

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he was disappointed by the vote's failure, adding that he was doing everything he could to protect the British economy.

Palin Claimed Dinosaurs And People Coexisted: Posted 09/29/08 by iv81



Soon after Sarah Palin was elected mayor of the foothill town of Wasilla, Alaska, she startled a local music teacher by insisting in casual conversation that men and dinosaurs coexisted on an Earth created 6,000 years ago -- about 65 million years after scientists say most dinosaurs became extinct -- the teacher said.

After conducting a college band and watching Palin deliver a commencement address to a small group of home-schooled students in June 1997, Wasilla resident Philip Munger said, he asked the young mayor about her religious beliefs.

Palin told him that "dinosaurs and humans walked the Earth at the same time," Munger said. When he asked her about prehistoric fossils and tracks dating back millions of years, Palin said "she had seen pictures of human footprints inside the tracks," recalled Munger, who teaches music at the University of Alaska in Anchorage and has regularly criticized Palin in recent years on his liberal political blog, called Progressive Alaska.

The idea of a "young Earth" -- that God created the Earth about 6,000 years ago, and dinosaurs and humans coexisted early on -- is a popular strain of creationism.

Though in her race for governor she called for faith-based "intelligent design" to be taught along with evolution in Alaska's schools, Gov. Palin has not sought to require it, state educators say.

In a widely-circulated interview, Matt Damon said of Palin, "I need to know if she really think that dinosaurs were here 4000 years ago. I want to know that, I really do. Because she's gonna have the nuclear codes."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/28/palin-claimed-dinosaurs-a_n_130012.html

Rotting teeth photos added to cigarette packs: Posted 09/28/08 by BLooD ReDD



LONDON (Reuters) - Gruesome pictures of rotting teeth and throat cancer tumours will appear on all tobacco products in Britain from next month as the government steps up its campaign to encourage the country's 10 million smokers to quit.

The images will be printed on the back of cigarette packs to illustrate written health warnings introduced in 2003, the Department of Health said on Saturday.

The photos also include a flaccid cigarette to depict male impotence and a comparison of healthy and tar-filled lungs. Smoking is Britain's single killer, causing the premature death each year of 87,000 people in England alone.

"These new stark picture warnings emphasise the harsh realities of continuing to smoke," said Liam Donaldson, the government's chief medical officer.

Anti-smoking charity ASH welcomed the move, which follows similar campaigns around the world.

"Sadly, smoking is so addictive that even with these grotesque warnings it won't be enough to stop everybody smoking overnight," said ASH Research Director Amanda Sandford.

"But for those who are motivated to quit it could be the final step they need."

The charity is lobbying the government to go further by putting the photos on the front of packs.

The Department of Health said its hands are tied by the rules of a 2001 European Union directive on tobacco health warnings, which also covers which pictures can be displayed.

But it said it had made representations to the European Commission seeking to increase the size of the pictures as well as placing them on pack fronts.

ASH also wants all commercial branding removed from packs, an initiative currently subject to a government consultation.

Research shows that young people presented with plain tobacco packets found them less attractive, the charity said.

Canada in 2001 was the first country to put photo warnings on cigarette packs.

In Europe, Belgium and Romania have already followed suit, but Britain will be the first in the European Union to put the images on all tobacco products, including hand-rolling tobacco and cigars.

Smoking has been banned in enclosed public spaces across Britain since July 2007.


http://uk.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUKTRE48Q01Z20080927

Church apologises to Charles Darwin over theory of evolution: Posted 09/15/08 by iv81



THE Church of England will make an official apology to naturalist Charles Darwin for criticising his famous theory of evolution

Coming 126 years after his death, the church's apology will focus on how wrong it was for senior bishops in the past to misunderstand and attack Darwin's theory about man being descended from apes.

Senior church officials will post the apology in the form of an article written by the Reverend Dr Malcolm Brown on the church's website tomorrow.

"Charles Darwin, 200 years from your birth (in 1809), the Church of England owes you an apology for misunderstanding you and, by getting our first reaction wrong, encouraging others to misunderstand you still,'' the article says, according to extracts printed by The Mail on Sunday newspaper.

"But the struggle for your reputation is not over yet, and the problem is not just your religious opponents but those who falsely claim you in support of their own interests.''

But the apology by Dr Brown, who is the director of mission and public affairs of the Archbishops' Council, has been dismissed as "pointless'' by Darwin's great great grandson Andrew Darwin.

"Why bother? he said.

"When an apology is made after 200 years, it's not so much to right a wrong, but to make the person or organisation making the apology feel better.''

But Dr Brown says everyone makes mistakes, the church included.

"When a big new idea emerges that changes the way people look at the world, it's easy to feel that every old idea, every certainty, is under attack and then to do battle against the new insights,'' he writes.

"The church made that mistake with Galileo's astronomy and has since realised its error.

"Some Church people did it again in the 1860s with Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection.

"So it is important to think again about Darwin's impact on religious thinking, then and now.''

Dr Brown said there was nothing incompatible between Darwin's scientific theories and Christian teaching.

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24345772-5016574,00.html
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