A Chinese boy was left seriously ill after drinking gas to try and turn himself into a Transformer robot.
Owners of a Texas plant store were shocked to discover the bandit responsible for a recent string thefts at the nursery was a monkey.
Super-chapped lips or dark circles under your eyes could indicate health issues worth looking into.
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On Wednesday, the moon will pass in front of the sun, producing a total solar eclipse that will last longer than any other until 2132.
A girl born with half of her cerebral cortex missing sees perfectly because of a reorganisation of the brain circuits involved in vision
repugicans want Americans to go bankrupt over medical bills.
repugicans want American to suffer and die.
repugicans are putting politics over people.
repugicans are putting campaign contributions over country.
A private memo distributed by the repugican national committee calls for like-minded advocates to help defeat President Barack Obama's health care proposals by delaying its consideration.
..in an effort to slow down reform, the rnc advises its advocates to use a whole host of political tools, from organizing town halls, to writing letters to the editor, to booking surrogates on radio and television, to engaging in "street theater" protests outside democratic events. and in a bit of irony, the memo's authors encourage readers to frame the president as the one acting out of political motivations.Read the rest here
Astronomers are stunned after a man using his backyard telescope finds evidence that an object has hit the planet.
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A new black spot about as big as the Earth has been found on Jupiter – astronomers say it was caused by an impact, not by one of the planet's famous storms
The invasion of Erin Andrews' privacy could give aspiring female journalists pause.
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The national housing bust has created some outstanding opportunities for would-be home buyers — if you know where to look.
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Kelly Hildebrandt is in love with Kelly Hildebrandt, and soon they'll be married.
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Amid Japan's steep recession and political gridlock, Taro Aso calls for national elections next month.
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Find out which Apollo 11 astronaut has a hip hop single, and who may have flubbed a famous line.
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President Obama, calling the need for healthcare reform "urgent" and "indisputable," said today that it is not his own political fortune that is at stake, but rather the health of the nation's economy.
Explosive material recovered from the scene of two suicide bombings at hotels in the Indonesian capital is "identical" to that used by the Southeast Asian terrorist network Jemaah Islamiyah in earlier attacks, police said.
The court decision was immediately executed and all accused persons were shot dead. It is not clear where the execution took place and did the government hand over the bodies to their relatives or not? According to the official statistics, 184 people were killed last month in the unrest in Xinjiang-Uighur autonomous province of China last month, but unofficial figures showed more than 1000 people dead and nearly 2000 arrested. The Chinese officials didn’t rule out that the arrested people would be executed.
A U.N. tribunal convicted two Serb cousins Monday of having burned alive more than 100 Muslims in what the presiding judge called a part of the "wretched history of man's inhumanity to man."
Milan Lukic and Sredoje Lukic were convicted of crimes dating back to the early 1990s, during the bitter ethnic conflict that ravaged the former Yugoslavia.
The crimes include two incidents in which Muslim men, women and children were forced into homes that were then set on fire -- and some who tried to escape were shot.
Now what isn't there an iPhone app for?
Scientists are playing down astrologers' fears about this week's total solar eclipse.
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A 112-year-old Montana man appears to be the world's oldest, after the death of a British WWI vet.
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I recently came accross your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I dont know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.Thanks, Betty. We try to have a few interesting things at Carolina Naturally everyday.
Betty
Bosses at Knowsley Safari Park are warning motorists to beware of the baboons, after the animals learned how to open rooftop luggage and began stealing items such as underwear.
World War I veteran Henry Allingham piloted one of the first airplanes and leaves an amazing legacy.
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The strange dark goo stretching for miles near the coast has been identified, but residents are still uneasy.
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Identify your key triggers and take these simple steps to banish overeating.
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Despite efforts to stop their spread, scientists say it's only a matter of time before quagga mussels appear throughout the West's vast system of reservoirs and aqueducts, raising operation and maintenance costs by untold millions.
Water agencies and wildlife managers in California, Arizona, Nevada and Utah have put in place aggressive measures to try to prevent their spread, including mandatory decontamination or quarantine of boats traveling from infested areas or chlorinating some water inlets to try to kill off the mussels.
But as their counterparts in the northeast and Great Lakes region have found, eradicating the mussels is virtually impossible. The thumb-sized mollusks attach to almost anything and can clog drains and pipes, freeze up cooling systems, kill off native species and render power boats inoperable.
Read the rest here.
Ashley Markham, whose parents were shot in their home, says she plans to move into the house and raise the special-needs children.
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The American Conservative Union asked FedEx for a check for $2 million to $3 million in return for the group's endorsement in a bitter legislative dispute, then flipped and sided with UPS after FedEx refused to pay.
A group of Senators have been working behind closed doors on compromise amendments to the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) ever since moderate Democrats pledged to vote against the “card check” provisions in the legislation. Word has leaked out that the chief sponsors of the bill have agreed to drop the card check provisions in order to gain enough votes to overcome an expected filibuster..
Ann Coulter on the Glenn Beck show on Friday, decided to spew out another new nutty idea.
| January | Full Wolf Moon | This full Moon appeared when wolves howled in hunger outside the villages. It is also known as the Old Moon. To some Native American tribes, this was the Snow Moon, but most applied that name to the next full Moon, in February. |
| February | Full Snow Moon | Usually the heaviest snows fall in February. Hunting becomes very difficult, and hence to some Native American tribes this was the Hunger Moon. |
| March | Full Worm Moon | At the time of this spring Moon, the ground begins to soften and earthworm casts reappear, inviting the return of robins. This is also known as the Sap Moon, as it marks the time when maple sap begins to flow and the annual tapping of maple trees begins. |
| April | Full Pink Moon | This full Moon heralded the appearance of the grass pink, or wild ground phlox—one of the first spring flowers. It is also known as the Sprouting Grass Moon, the Egg Moon, and the Fish Moon. |
| May | Full Flower Moon | Flowers spring forth in abundance this month. Some Algonquin tribes knew this full Moon as the Corn Planting Moon or the Milk Moon. |
| June | Full Strawberry Moon | The Algonquin tribes knew this Moon as a time to gather ripening strawberries. It is also known as the Rose Moon and the Hot Moon. |
| July | Full Buck Moon | Bucks begin to grow new antlers at this time. This full Moon was also known as the Thunder Moon, because thunderstorms are so frequent during this month. |
| August | Full Sturgeon Moon | Some Native American tribes knew that the sturgeon of the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain were most readily caught during this full Moon. Others called it the Green Corn Moon or the Grain Moon. |
| September | Full Corn Moon | This full Moon corresponds with the time of harvesting corn. It is also called the Barley Moon, because it is the time to harvest and thresh the ripened barley. The Harvest Moon is the full Moon nearest the autumnal equinox, which can occur in September or October and is bright enough to allow finishing all the harvest chores. |
| October | Full Harvest Moon | The Harvest Moon is the full Moon nearest the autumnal equinox and is bright enough to allow finishing all the harvest chores. |
| November | Full Beaver Moon | For both the colonists and the Algonquin tribes, this was the time to set beaver traps before the swamps froze, to ensure a supply of warm winter furs. This full Moon was also called the Frost Moon. |
| December | Full Cold Moon | This is the month when the winter cold fastens its grip and the nights become long and dark. This full Moon is also called the Long Nights Moon by some Native American tribes. |
Find out which new cars are eligible to be purchased under the trade-in program.
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The extreme measure is the latest in South Africa's escalating war against armed robbers who target banks and cash delivery vans. The number of cash machines blown up with explosives has risen from 54 in 2006 to 387 in 2007 and nearly 500 last year.The technology uses cameras to detect people tampering with the card slots. Another machine then ejects pepper spray to stun the culprit while police response teams race to the scene.
But the mechanism backfired in one incident last week when pepper spray was inadvertently inhaled by three technicians who required treatment from paramedics.
From the "I ain't so sure about this ..." Department:
Miles Johnson, 18, of Gurley AL, was playing Quarterback when he was knocked flat by an opposing player for the Hilltown Hogs.
He was knocked out for 30 minutes and he was unable to complete the game.
In celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Woodstock Music & Art Fair, New York's Laurence Miller Gallery is hosting an exhibition of Burk Uzzle's photographs of the event. The iconic images can also be seen online.Burk Uzzle shot the festival from the vantage point of a participant. In one particularly telling photograph, a sea of humanity as dense as a carpet of wildflowers in a meadow spills over a hillside; in another, a young hippie couple standing in a tender embrace under a grandmother’s quilt became the icon of a generation. Rather than document the music, Uzzle chose to focus on details of living, existence, and enjoyment over that three day period. In so doing, he captured the spirit of the festival and ultimately an era.
Yawning in response to someone else's yawn may may be due to a primitive instinct.
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Whether you have an "easy" baby or a fussy one may have nothing to do with your parenting skills.
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A spaceship captures first-ever images of the remnants of five early NASA missions.
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From garlic to B1 vitamins, find out if popular home-grown mosquito repellents really work.
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From shower stalls to WiFi, airlines are making the skies just a little bit friendlier.
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Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama
Weekly Address
Saturday, July 18th, 2009
Right now in Washington, our Senate and House of Representatives are both debating proposals for health insurance reform. Today, I want to speak with you about the stakes of this debate, for our people and for the future of our nation.
This is an issue that affects the health and financial well-being of every single American and the stability of our entire economy.
It’s about every family unable to keep up with soaring out of pocket costs and premiums rising three times faster than wages. Every worker afraid of losing health insurance if they lose their job, or change jobs. Everyone who’s worried that they may not be able to get insurance or change insurance if someone in their family has a pre-existing condition.
It’s about a woman in Colorado who told us that when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, her insurance company – the one she’d paid over $700 a month to – refused to pay for her treatment. She had to use up her retirement funds to save her own life.
It’s about a man from Maryland who sent us his story – a middle class college graduate whose health insurance expired when he changed jobs. During that time, he needed emergency surgery, and woke up $10,000 in debt – debt that has left him unable to save, buy a home, or make a career change.
It’s about every business forced to shut their doors, or shed jobs, or ship them overseas. It’s about state governments overwhelmed by Medicaid, federal budgets consumed by Medicare, and deficits piling higher year after year.
This is the status quo. This is the system we have today. This is what the debate in Congress is all about: Whether we’ll keep talking and tinkering and letting this problem fester as more families and businesses go under, and more Americans lose their coverage. Or whether we’ll seize this opportunity – one we might not have again for generations – and finally pass health insurance reform this year, in 2009.
Now we know there are those who will oppose reform no matter what. We know the same special interests and their agents in Congress will make the same old arguments, and use the same scare tactics that have stopped reform before because they profit from this relentless escalation in health care costs. And I know that once you’ve seen enough ads and heard enough people yelling on TV, you might begin to wonder whether there’s a grain of truth to what they’re saying. So let me take a moment to answer a few of their arguments.
First, the same folks who controlled the White House and Congress for the past eight years as we ran up record deficits will argue – believe it or not – that health reform will lead to record deficits. That’s simply not true. Our proposals cut hundreds of billions of dollars in unnecessary spending and unwarranted giveaways to insurance companies in Medicare and Medicaid. They change incentives so providers will give patients the best care, not just the most expensive care, which will mean big savings over time. And we have urged Congress to include a proposal for a standing commission of doctors and medical experts to oversee cost-saving measures.
I want to be very clear: I will not sign on to any health plan that adds to our deficits over the next decade. And by helping improve quality and efficiency, the reforms we make will help bring our deficits under control in the long-term.
Those who oppose reform will also tell you that under our plan, you won’t get to choose your doctor – that some bureaucrat will choose for you. That’s also not true. Michelle and I don’t want anyone telling us who our family’s doctor should be – and no one should decide that for you either. Under our proposals, if you like your doctor, you keep your doctor. If you like your current insurance, you keep that insurance. Period, end of story.
Finally, opponents of health reform warn that this is all some big plot for socialized medicine or government-run health care with long lines and rationed care. That’s not true either. I don’t believe that government can or should run health care. But I also don’t think insurance companies should have free reign to do as they please.
That’s why any plan I sign must include an insurance exchange: a one-stop shopping marketplace where you can compare the benefits, cost and track records of a variety of plans – including a public option to increase competition and keep insurance companies honest – and choose what’s best for your family. And that’s why we’ll put an end to the worst practices of the insurance industry: no more yearly caps or lifetime caps; no more denying people care because of pre-existing conditions; and no more dropping people from a plan when they get too sick. No longer will you be without health insurance, even if you lose your job or change jobs.
The good news is that people who know the system best are rallying to the cause of change. Just this past week, the American Nurses Association, representing millions of nurses across America, and the American Medical Association, representing doctors across our nation, announced their support because they’ve seen first-hand the need for health insurance reform.
They know we cannot continue to cling to health industry practices that are bankrupting families, and undermining American businesses, large and small. They know we cannot let special interests and partisan politics stand in the way of reform – not this time around.
The opponents of health insurance reform would have us do nothing. But think about what doing nothing, in the face of ever increasing costs, will do to you and your family.
So today, I am urging the House and the Senate, Democrats and Republicans, to seize this opportunity, and vote for reform that gives the American people the best care at the lowest cost; that reins in insurance companies, strengthens businesses and finally gives families the choices they need and the security they deserve.
Thanks.
