Some interesting things being found in the world today...

[Mickey1953]

good posting of stories

Thank you!!!..... I enjoy the forum and sharing the news, though some are pretty sad stories...
Mickey

 

[Tenka]

It's Heavy Mental Music


http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/...256804,00.html

Updated: 09:45, Wednesday March 21, 2007

Many parents may regard it as a deafening din, but liking heavy metal may be a sign of intelligence in youngsters.
New research suggests clever teenagers listen to it as a way of coping with the pressures of being talented.
A study of 1000 of the country's brightest adolescents revealed "metal are often extremely bright........

As a person who attended school throughout the 90's and early 00's I can say that this is probably 85% true of all the people I knew.
Those who enjoyed Metal (overwhelmingly oldskool and obscure Finnish bands) were undoubtably the brightest. Although brightness does not necessarily equal academic performance, these kids preferred to seek challenges outside schooling such as computer technology.

As a piece of side trivia, did you know that the favorite band of actor Jim Carrey is Cannibal Corpse ?

 

[Mickey1953]

As a person who attended school throughout the 90's and early 00's I can say that this is probably 85% true of all the people I knew.
Those who enjoyed Metal (overwhelmingly oldskool and obscure Finnish bands) were undoubtably the brightest. Although brightness does not necessarily equal academic performance, these kids preferred to seek challenges outside schooling such as computer technology.

As a piece of side trivia, did you know that the favorite band of actor Jim Carrey is Cannibal Corpse ?

"Support came in the surprising form of actor Jim Carrey, who named Cannibal Corpse his favorite band, and the group appeared onstage next to Carrey in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective...."

Cannibal Corpse
Metal Blade
2006
I did not know that.....This is an older article.... and it agrees with what you said about Jim Carrey...
I work with children, young children that have in the past been fans of heavy metal, so because of this; it is interesting to me....
I am not familiar with this group, but the little I just discovered.... not for me. And sad to me for the young ones that are exposed and listen to them.
Mickey

 

[Mickey1953]

Democrats pass largest tax increase in US history


http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?id=8732

to read whole article see the web site above....

House Republican Whip lists who will experience a tax increase if the Democrats' scheme becomes law
Thursday, March 29, 2007
By Roy Blunt
Writing a budget is about setting priorities -- priorities like keeping the tax burden low, encouraging the creation of new, good-paying jobs, and making it easier for American families to plan for and invest in their future.
Unfortunately, the budget Democratic leadership narrowly passed this afternoon puts the quality of that future in serious risk. It extends our new obligations to unprecedented new levels. And it imposes a $400 billion tax increase -- the largest in American history -- in a short-sighted attempt to cover it.
Read through this budget from preface to postscript, and you'll find new taxes and an awful lot of new spending. You'll find faulty assumptions and misguided premises. You'll find a house of cards stacked on a bed of worms.

 

[Mickey1953]

I am not sure how the 'extra' got posted with my article... for that I apologize....
Mickey

 

[Mickey1953]

China building the "world's largest dragon"

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/news/2007-03-27-china-dragon_N.htm

for whole article go to above site


BEIJING, March 27, 2007 (AFP) — Investors in a central China city are building a giant $300 million sculpture of a dragon that they say will be the largest in the world, state media said on Tuesday.
The "Ancestral Dragon," whose partially completed head rises 30 feet above ground in Henan province, will be finished by 2009 to mark the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic's founding, the Beijing Morning Post said.

 

[burrow_owl]

I am not familiar with this group, but the little I just discovered.... not for me. And sad to me for the young ones that are exposed and listen to them.

Death metal is great housecleaning music. It's up there with NPR for best things to do dishes to. And did everyone know that minimalist composer Steve Reich is great to play boggle and scrabble to? It's true.

 

[Mickey1953]

Death metal is great housecleaning music. It's up there with NPR for best things to do dishes to. And did everyone know that minimalist composer Steve Reich is great to play boggle and scrabble to? It's true.

Many teachers at school use certain music for tests etc.

I am sure your beloved appreciates the house and dishes being cleaned....
My husband works many hours so it is very hard for him to help at home....

We are off from school and I will be cleaning....
Housecleaning to Death metal..... I probably will pass.

and I found this on Steve Reich:

Steve Reich and Sonny Rollins winner of the Polar Music Prize
Jan 25, 2007

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=12373
[FONT=VERDANA,ARIAL][FONT=Garamond,Georgia,VERDANA,ARIAL]
The winners of the Polar Music Prize Award for 2007, were unveiled on Thursday the 25th of January at The Royal Swedish Academy of Music in Stockholm. The Chairman of the Board and Award Committee, Mr. Ake Holmquist, read the Award Committee's citations. [/FONT] [FONT=Garamond,Georgia,VERDANA,ARIAL]The Steve Reich Citation [/FONT]
[FONT=Garamond,Georgia,VERDANA,ARIAL]The 2007 Polar Music Prize is awarded to the American composer and musician Steve Reich. The award recognizes his unique ability to use repeats, canon technique and minimal variation of patterns to develop an entire universe of evocative music, endowed with immediate tonal beauty. Inspired by different musical traditions, Steve Reich has transferred questions of faith, society and philosophy into a hypnotic sounding music that has inspired musicians and composers of all genres....
More on the web site above...
[/FONT]
[FONT=Garamond,Georgia,VERDANA,ARIAL]

[/FONT]
[/FONT]
Mickey

 

[Tenka]

I did not know that.....This is an older article.... and it agrees with what you said about Jim Carrey...
I work with children, young children that have in the past been fans of heavy metal, so because of this; it is interesting to me....
I am not familiar with this group, but the little I just discovered.... not for me. And sad to me for the young ones that are exposed and listen to them.

I understand that Cannibal Corpse is a bit hardcore for most, a lot of metal bands are but in my experience the thing about being in the metal scene is that you are exposed to a huge range of tastes that most people never hear of. Take a look at Apocalyptica or Pain of Salvation, or Ed Alleyne-Johnson. This is some of the most beautiful music that I've heard which I would never have found if not through metal and the variety it encourages.

 

[Mickey1953]

I understand that Cannibal Corpse is a bit hardcore for most, a lot of metal bands are but in my experience the thing about being in the metal scene is that you are exposed to a huge range of tastes that most people never hear of. Take a look at Apocalyptica or Pain of Salvation, or Ed Alleyne-Johnson. This is some of the most beautiful music that I've heard which I would never have found if not through metal and the variety it encourages.

Thank you for sharing that, Tenka.... I will take a look at them....
I love and appreciate beautiful music...and sometimes it can come in uniuque forms....

When my mom was little and she is 82 now...her brothers would play accordians and a banjo; my mom would sing... on boat docks for pennies...
That would be beautiful music to me...though I never heard them play and sing together...not sure why but it just seemed like I should share that...

This is from Apocalyptica's site:

God bless
Mickey

http://www.newszoom.com/search/read/apocalyptica/042141900.1175308870/7/02/

2007 World Figure Skating Championships
Mar 25, 2007 Summary :
Finland's Susanna Poykio showed good speed and flow in her routine to One by Apocalyptica, landing a double Axel, a triple Lutz-double toeloop and a triple ...

 

[Mickey1953]

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2264899.html?menu=




Goat born with 'head of bulldog' A Croatian farmer claims a goat has been born with the head of a bulldog.

The animal died soon after birth but its owner Mladen Kurtovic, 57, froze the body and sent it to a local veterinary institute for further study.
Kurtovic, from Zaostrog in southern Croatia, said: "I've never come across anything so strange in all my life. I've sent the body off for tests."
.........vets say the goat simply had a bizarre mutation.

 

[Mickey1953]

I forgot to post the date of the story of
Goat born with ‘head of bulldog’.... March 30, 2007

I also found it on:


http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\03\31\story_31-3-2007_pg9_9

 

[Mickey1953]

Architect claims to solve pyramid secret

AP Photo: In this 3D computer image released by French company Dassault Systemes on Friday, March 30.......

By LAURENCE JOAN-GRANGE,
Associated Press Writer

PARIS - A French architect claimed Friday to have uncovered the mystery about how Egypt's Great Pyramid of Khufu was built — with use of a spiral ramp to hoist huge stone blocks into place.


The construction of the Great Pyramid 4,500 years ago by Khufu, a ruler also known as Cheops, has long befuddled scientists as to how its 3 million stone blocks weighing 2.5 tons each were lifted into place.
Ending eight years of study on the subject, architect Jean-Pierre Houdin released his findings and a computerized 3-D mockup showing how workers would have erected the pyramid at Giza outside Cairo.

 

[Mickey1953]

http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/content/blogcategory/18/124/

Taiwan Shuts Down Freeway for Butterfly Migration

Written by geri Saturday, 31 March 2007

Taiwan agreed to protect millions of butterflies during peak hours of their migration by temporarily shutting down a busy road April 3-5. Many thousands of the purple-spotted milkweed butterflies have been killed each spring on the highway since it was erected four years ago. Other protective measures include a net to force them to fly higher than the speeding cars and ultraviolet lights below the elevated road which experts say could lure the light-sensitive insects to fly safely underneath.

 

[Mickey1953]

Crops -- and our wallets - may get stung by bee problems $14 billion worth of agricultural products at risk from mysterious bee disease

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/sto...x?guid={5258733D-F4CC-4FEC-B6A1-DD6464E272C5}


By Greg Presto, Medill News Service
Last Update: 4:19 PM ET Mar 30, 2007

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- It might make this summer's backyard barbecues a little more idyllic, but a mysterious disease affecting honey bees nationwide could seriously sting U.S. grocery shoppers' wallets and ultimately compromise national food supplies.
The disease, called Colony Collapse Disorder, causes insects that venture away from the hive not to return and eventually die. Some commercial beekeepers' populations have been cut as much as 90%. At a congressional hearing on the disease this week, Richard Adee of the American Honey Producers Association estimated the disease could reduce the national honey crop by as much as 20% -- that equates to 31 million pounds of honey with a retail value of $100 million.
But much worse than the loss of the bees' finished product could be the loss of what happens while making the sweet stuff: pollination.
About one-third of U.S. food depends on animal-borne pollination, and 80% of that is conducted by commercial honey bees.

Picture from:
http://www.pbrc.hawaii.edu/microangela/mbeeo.jpg

 

[Mickey1953]

I was searching out this story:
The U.S. Army would like to have a fleet of robotic flying saucers -- and it's given a British company a contract to try to build some UFO-like prototypes.

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/03/the_us_army_wou.html

and could not find anything written..... and came across this. It is from Jan. 2007


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6297149.stm

(To read full story see above web site)
US military unveils heat-ray gun

The gun uses a large dish mounted on a Humvee vehicle


The US military has given the first public display of what it says is a revolutionary heat-ray weapon to repel enemies or disperse hostile crowds. Called the Active Denial System, it projects an invisible high energy beam that produces a sudden burning feeling.
Military officials, who say the gun is harmless, believe it could be used as a non-lethal way of making enemies surrender their weapons.

 

[Mickey1953]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/6513259.stm


I searched this out..... just to be sure it was not posted somewhere else on the forum...did not see it.
I was not sure if it was an older story updated or a new story.... seemed like I read it about it somewhere or maybe it just reminded me of a story that happened to my son.

Saturday, 31 March 2007, 09:54 GMT 10:54 UK

Homes plea for three-legged dogs

Keisha was dumped after having surgery to remove her leg Unprecedented numbers of three-legged dogs are in desperate need of loving homes across Scotland, according to animal welfare charities. Better veterinary techniques mean that more dogs than ever are surviving traumatic amputations after accidents.
Many dogs who lost a limb may had in the past been put down but advances in surgery, anaesthetics and infection control have saved their lives.
Experts said a three-legged dog could cope as well as one with four legs.......

My son who lives in the country was watching and caring for a neighbors' dog while they were gone. A 'fluke' incident happened and somehow the dog got its leg caught in the fencing surrounding his pen area.... by the time my son got over to visit the dog that day...his leg was not repairable. My son felt very, very, bad.....

I had forgotten about the dog since it had happened last year but, the other day while on a bus run;
( One of my jobs is assisting special needs on a school bus) running at great speed was the 3 legged dog..... it had adjusted well.....

and thank goodness we missed him with the bus.

Mickey

 

[Mickey1953]

One more story to share then on with the day....
Mickey

Quite a miracle' Five-year-old falls nine storeys and survives; Soft, spring soil likely helped boy defy odds
PAUL LEGALL AND JOHN BURMAN

HAMILTON (Mar 29, 2007)

A five-year-old boy has survived a nine-storey fall off a balcony in Hamilton and was talking coherently and complaining only of a hurt leg when emergency crews arrived.
Yong Jin Kim was listed in serious but stable condition......

CATHIE COWARD, HAMILTON SPECTATOR Trace of a miracle: Impression left by Yong Jin Kim shows his weight was evenly distributed, which would have softened the impact.

 

[Mickey1953]

So sorry - I forgot to include the source for the last story:

http://www.therecord.com/home_page_main_story/home_page_main_story_999736.html

 

[Mickey1953]

Found another article with interest and thought I would share....not meant to post and offend.... I am interested in world affairs / the European Union

It is from earlier in the month.... typed in search and did not come up with anything on it.....
'Europe is increasingly fading away'

http://euobserver.com/onm/media/scaled/scaledUT2fPe.jpg

http://euobserver.com/9/23803/?rk=1


30.03.2007 - 08:44 CET | By Honor Mahony
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – The rest of the world will not wait for Europe while it bickers over institutional reform and external policy issues, says Joschka Fischer, ex-German foreign minister, warning that the risk of it becoming a "playground" for upcoming super powers grows by the day.

Tempered by his time in the US where politicians are already looking to China and India as the next powers to be, the former politician-turned-Princeton-professor has a very sober view of the European Union's position in the world as it dusts itself off from recent 50th birthday celebrations.........