We interrupt this blog

We interrupt this blog for the Celidh this evening (as if we hadn't already it started at 6, well noon if you must know) and for the Games over the next two days.

Updates will be erratic (hopefully rational but with we Scots and Celidhs who can tell) for the duration of the games.

There are only so many Cabers to turn and Stones to throw. Then again making the English wet their pants seeing so many Scots in their Clan Tartans and naked steel in their hands always fills the hours.

For those how aren't in the know ... a Celidh [said Kay-Lee] is one hell of a party and if you have never been to one you have never been to a party!

Cybercriminals' new trick: Smishing

Email spam is being blocked in record numbers, but scammers are now striking cell phones.

Smishing

Also:

• Spam wastes $3 billion in electricity
• Find more info on smishing

Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds

The Beatles in a scene from their film "Yellow Submarine".

Council uses cows to discourage bikers

A council has unveiled its new weapon in the battle against anti-social behavior - a herd of cows.

Full Story

Man arrested for DWI hours after DWI sentencing

Houston ... we have a problem.

A Texas man was arrested and booked with second-offense driving while intoxicated only hours after he left a court for sentencing for an earlier DWI conviction.

Full Story

Woman gets shot in head, but makes tea

Don't mess with our Southern Womenfolk!

They's is genteel, but they's tougher than nails!
Also she would have never heard the end of it, if she didn't offer her guests tea!

A Mississippi woman who was shot in the head not only survived but made herself tea and offered an astonished deputy something to drink, authorities said Friday.

Full Story

Stolen library book returned after 145 years

Play Video

A book pilfered by a union soldier during the War of Northern Aggression is back on the shelves.

Stolen library book returned after 145 years

Also:

• Search for other books returned after 100 years

Mystery behind big donations unsettles schools

At least 9 universities have received millions in anonymous donations — with a suspicious catch.

Mystery behind big donations

Also:

• 'Slumdog' team's big donation
• Cheap person's guide to financial aid

Paper or plastic?

Don't stress about these three classic "green" choices because they might not make much of a difference.

Answer might not matter

Also:

• Explore how going 'green' saves cash

Three new tactics to help land a job

Play Video

These creative approaches can pay off even when opportunities are hard to find.

Tactics to find a new job

Also:

• Free hot spots for skills training
• Quickest routes to a 6-figure job

Texas secession talk sparks uproar

Governor Rick Perry's comments about the idea of the state breaking away from the union have enraged some Democratic lawmakers. (and every true American as well)

Secession talk sparks uproar

Secret song by suddenly famous singer found

This decade-old recording by Susan Boyle may be even more impressive than her star-making rendition of "I Dream a Dream."

Secret song by suddenly famous singer found

Also:

• Star offers to give her first kiss

Hey Jude

The Beatles

Greenhouse gases hurt health

The ruling leaves environmental activists jubilant and industry leaders wary about future regulations.

EPA: Greenhouse gases hurt health

Food swaps could add years to your life

These simple switches may help you lose weight and live a long and healthy life.

8 food swaps could add years to your life

Also:

• Tips for eating out
• 4 foods that reduce stress

Canada's Boreal Caribou Herds are Dying Off

From Treehugger:

Reports Says Better Habitat Protection is Required

Environment Canada released a report (six months after it was finalized by scientists, thanks to the Conservative federal government): "The study concludes 29 of the 57 remaining herds of boreal caribou are not self-sustaining. Several are at risk in northern Alberta and Saskatchewan, where logging, mining and energy development has been booming in the last decade." Will the government do something? Probably not. It went to the trouble of adding a preface to the 254-page report saying it's not detailed enough to "identify critical habitat" to protect...

Article continues: Study Says Canada's Boreal Caribou Herds are Dying Off

Man assaulted by police during G20 died from internal bleeding, not heart-attack

Ian Tomlinson, the man shortly after an unprovoked attack by a police officer during London's G20 demonstration, did not die of a heart-attack, as was previously thought.

A new postmortem shows that Tomlinson died of abdominal bleeding after the attack by the police-officer.

Tomlinson was not a demonstrator -- he was a passer-by on the way home.

The Coroner's statement said the second post-mortem's conclusions were provisional.

In its statement, the Coroner's Court said that the inquest had looked at the first post-mortem carried out after Mr Tomlinson collapsed and died on the evening of 1 April.

That examination, carried out by Dr Freddy Patel, concluded that Mr Tomlinson had diseased heart and liver and a substantial amount of blood in the abdominal cavity.

"His provisional interpretation of his findings was that the cause of death was coronary artery disease," said the statement.

"A subsequent post-mortem examination was conducted by another consultant forensic pathologist, Dr Nat Cary, instructed by the IPCC and by solicitors acting for the family of the late Mr Tomlinson.

G20 death was not heart attack

By Definition ...

"Teabagging": the act of dragging your testicles across your partner's forehead. In the UK it is dipping your testicles in your partner's mouth.

Now you know what the wing-nuts are ranting about.

Can scavenger was a multi-millionaire

"Tin-Can" Curt Degerman, a well-know aluminum can scavenger in the Swedish town of Skellefteå, was apparently a multi-millionaire when he died last year. He was very thrifty and a very shrewd investor, to say the least.

From Sweden's The Local:

“He went to the library every day because he didn’t buy newspapers. There he read [Swedish business daily] Dagens Industri,” a cousin (of Degerman told the Expressen newspaper).

“He knew stocks inside and out.”

And Tin-Can Curt used that investing know-how to turn the modest deposits he collected from returning empty cans into mutual funds worth more than 8 million kronor.

In addition, he had purchased 124 gold bars currently valued at 2.6 million kronor and had nearly 47,000 kronor in the bank.

Tin-Can Curt also owned his own home, which was found to have 3,000 kronor in loose change, bringing the total value of his estate to 12,005,877 kronor.

Eccentric Swede turned empty cans into gold

The diagnosis? Fir on the lung

Here is a television news story about Artyom Sidorkin, the Russian gentleman who recently had a two-inch live Fir tree removed from his lung where it had taken root.

To find out more on his story, see The diagnosis? Fir on the lung.

Asteroids won't raise killer waves

New simulations suggest the monster waves created by an small asteroid impact would break before they reached land, but you still wouldn't want to be near one when it hit.

Asteroids won't raise killer waves - but mind the splash

Polar 'bugs' may explain how life survived snowball Earth

The secret to how life endured the period when glaciers reached the equator may be hidden in the bacteria living beneath an Antarctic glacier.

Polar 'bugs' may explain how life survived snowball Earth

The secret landscapes of stone

Check this out:

Richard Weston's dazzling images of crystals and minerals reveal the intricacies of their structures in unprecedented detail.

The secret landscapes of stone

Titanium reveals explosive origins of the solar system

The solar system was born out of a well-mixed blend of debris from two different types of stellar explosion, a new meteorite study suggests.

Titanium reveals explosive origins of the solar system

Could it be?

From BBC-Science:

On the Archaeology Front ...
Dig may reveal tomb of doomed lovers Anthony and Cleopatra

West Africa faces 'megadroughts'

From BBC-Science:

Droughts lasting centuries occur regularly in West Africa, scientists find - and another one is coming, climate change or not.

West Africa faces 'megadroughts'

Our Readers

Some of our readers today have been in:

Rennes, Bretagne, France
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Nelson, British Columbia, Canada
Metepec, Metepec, Mexico
London, England, United Kingdom
Kassel, Hessen, Germany
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Cenon, Aquitaine, France
Pune, Maharashtra, India
Saint Johns, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada
Manila, Manila, Pilippines
Quezon, Nueva Ecija, Philippines
Limassol, Limassol, Cyprus
New Delhi, Delhi, India
Horten, Vestfold, Norway
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Kristiansand, Vest-Agder, Norway
San Juan, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Geneva, Geneve, Switzerland
Kielce, Swietokrzyskie, Poland
Ozzane, Piemonte, Italy
Haifa, Hefa, Israel
Pretoria, Gautemg, South Africa
Penticton, British Columbia, Canada
Liverpool, England, United Kingdom
Swords, Dublin, Ireland
Gyor, Gyor, Hungary
Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria
Pabianice, Lodz, Poland
Laval, Quebec, Canada
Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia

as well as Singapore and the United States

Daily Horoscope

Today's horoscope says:

Hold on to your convictions and maintain your individuality.

Will do.