Author: Admin

Wednesday, November 2, 2005File:Touched by His Noodly Appendage.jpg

Tempers are flaring in the U.S. state of Kansas, where a school board may be on the verge of passing a measure to require that Intelligent Design be taught in public school science classes.

Christian political activists such as Reverend Jerry Johnston of First Family Church in Overland Park Kansas are supporting the effort to shape Kansas science standards according to religious beliefs. Johnston said, “Getting intelligent design into school curricula is the worthiest cause of our time and the key to reversing the country’s moral decline.”

In an apparent attempt to make the inclusion of Intelligent Design into the curriculum seem foolish, “believers” in the Flying Spaghetti Monster are lobbying the Kansas school board, calling for it to require that creation by the Flying Spaghetti Monster be taught alongside Darwinism and Intelligent Design.

Bobby Henderson, the creator of “pastafarianism”, said “I think we can all look forward to the time when these three theories are given equal time in our science classrooms… One third time for Intelligent Design, one third time for Flying Spaghetti Monsterism, and one third time for logical conjecture based on overwhelming observable evidence.”

Several members of the Kansas Board of Education have already indicated that they might vote in favor of such an initiative. Board member Carol Rupe wrote, “The new version (of science standards) changes the very definition of science from ‘seeking natural explanations’ to ‘seeking logical explanations.’ That is why I think FSMism is able to be included. It is as ‘logical’ as any other theory.”

In 1999, Kansas also wrote Creationism, a precursor of Intelligent Design, into the public school curriculum. A later school board, however, overturned that directive.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Mainstream rock singer Brian Melo has been crowned winner of Canadian Idol 2007 (Season five). The 25-year old Hamilton, Ontario native sang in front of an audience at the Air Canada Place in Toronto, Ontario. The show was two-hours.

Seventeen year old Johnny Cash and Elvis-inspired country singer Jaydee Bixby of Drumheller, Alberta finished in second.

The Canadian Idol Top 10 started off the show last night singing Jon Bon Jovi’s “You Give Love a Bad Name”.

The top 10, and a duet with the top two, did several performances throughout the show.

Canadian-International pop-rock singer Avril Lavigne performed “Hot” and “When You’re Gone” from her third new album the “Best Damn Thing”.

Season four winner of Canadian Idol, Eva Avila performed her song “Fallin’ For You”. Melo and Bixby presented her with gold and platinum disk awards for her debut single “Meant To Fly” and her debut album “Somewhere Else”.

Country-rock singer Jon Bon Jovi, who mentored the singers for Monday’s performances, sang their new song “Lost Highway” and 2000 song “It’s My Life”.

Canadian Idol allowed auditioners, their top 22, and top 10 to perform with instruments this year. No other Idol shows have allowed this. Top ten competitors Greg Neufeld sang and performed with his guitar and Dwight d’Eon sang and performed with his electrical guitar, with the top 10 last night.

Canadian Idol’s official top 3 competitors, including top three’s eliminated Carly Rae Jepson from Mission, British Columbia, are set to have an “Idol Winner’s” tour across 15 Canadian cities this fall. The tour will start November 18, 2007 in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. They are expected to tour cities in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia. It finishes with a final show in Edmonton, Alberta on December 12, 2007.

It’s the first tour the show has ever done.

Melo, the winner, was a construction worker in Hamilton. He auditioned at the nearby Toronto auditions.

At the beginning of the season Bixby and Melo appeared as stiff performers but changed drastically throughout the weeks. Melo was in the bottom three, three times.

“Just remember that you are so privileged and enjoy every minute but you never know how long it’s going to last,” Avila said before the winner was announced by host Ben Mulroney.

An estimated five million votes were cast following Monday’s performances.

Local Hamiltonians gathered last night at Hamilton Place Theatre. Approximately 2,000 fans were there. Most people and fans from, or around, the town of Drumheller gathered in a local hockey rink to show their support for Bixby.

Melo’s new single “All I Ever Wanted” will be released on radio’s and online music stores through Sony BMG Music Canada at 12:00am on September 13, 2007. His debut album will be out this winter.

“I want to grow and get better with each album. I want to be an international star, I’m thinking of big things. I want to hit the American market, I want to hit the European market as much as I can,” Melo said.

Melo says he will go the full way and write songs for his album. He also said he has planned dates to meet with songwriters for some input on what he’ll write.

“But being in this process, there’s been so many songwriters, so many great musicians that haven’t gotten the credit . . . that they deserve. So hopefully I’ll be able to change that,” Melo said.

“‘Keep positive, keep on the positive side of things’,” Bixby said. “And you know, there’s nothing negative about coming in second in a national audition, so I’m very happy. I’m glad I made my parents proud.”

“I didn’t think a year ago that I would be standing here. If it wasn’t for the fans, my friends, my family and everyone in the Hammer… (Hamilton) It’s been amazing,” said Melo.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

English actress Rachel Weisz thinks that Botox injections should be banned for all actors.

The 39-year-old actress, best known for her roles in the Mummy movie franchise and for her Academy Award-winning portrayal in The Constant Gardener, feels facial Botox injections leave actors less able to convey emotion and that it harms the acting industry as much as steroids harm athletes.

In an interview with UK’s Harper’s Bazaar, coming out next month, Weisz says, “It should be banned for actors, as steroids are for sportsmen,” she claims. “Acting is all about expression; why would you want to iron out a frown?”

Currently living in New York, she also mentions that English women are much less worried about their physical appearance than in the United States. “I love the way girls in London dress,” she claimed. “It’s so different to the American ‘blow-dry and immaculate grooming’ thing.”

Friday, January 12, 2007

The iPhone only made its appearance as a prototype and there have been controversies aroused.

The dispute has come up between the manufacturer of the iPhone (which was presented on Wednesday for the first time) — Apple Inc. — and a leader in network and communication systems, based in San Jose — Cisco. The company claims to possess the trademark for iPhone, and moreover, that it sells devices under the same brand through one of its divisions.

This became the reason for Cisco to file a lawsuit against Apple Inc. so that the latter would stop selling the device.

Cisco states that it has received the trademark in 2000, when the company overtook Infogear Technology Corp., which took place in 1996.

The Vice President and general counsel of the company, Mark Chandler, explained that there was no doubt about the excitement of the new device from Apple, but they should not use a trademark, which belongs to Cisco.

The iPhone developed by Cisco is a device which allows users to make phone calls over the voice over Internet protocol (VoIP).

Saturday, June 25, 2022

Media reported Wednesday that biologists from the Conservancy of Southwest Florida reported having captured a Burmese python (Python bivittatus) measuring nearly 18 feet (5 m) in length and 215 pounds (97 kg) in weight in the state’s Everglades wetlands.

It may be the largest member of its species ever found outside its natural range in Southeast Asia. Another Burmese python measuring 18 feet and 9 inches (5.7 m) was found in 2020, but it only weighed 104 pounds (47.2 kilograms).

In a search documented by National Geographic, the team captured the current snake in December 2021 by tagging a male “scout snake” named Dionysius with a GPS tracking device and releasing it into the western Everglades.

“How do you find the needle in the haystack? You could use a magnet, and in a similar way our male scout snakes are attracted to the biggest females around,” said wildlife expert Ian Bartoszek, the team’s project manager.

Pythons are an invasive species in Florida. Removing female snakes from the environment before they lay their eggs is the Conservancy’s preferred strategy for limiting python breeding. When the team saw that Dionysius was spending several weeks in one area, they concluded he’d found a sexually mature female and set off to retrieve him.

It took twenty minutes of wrestling and three adult humans to carry the snake to a vehicle, in which it was taken to a laboratory in Naples, Florida and euthanized. Upon necropsy, it was found to contain over 122 healthy but unfertilized egg follicles.

Pythons were introduced to Florida in the 1970s, probably by being sold as pets. While there is a history of individual pet owners illegally releasing exotic animals into the wild after they grow larger than expected, the destruction caused by Hurricane Andrew in 1992 also allowed animals from a serpent center to escape to the Everglades and other habitats, where they reproduced in great numbers.

Since then, they have disrupted the food chain by eating local animals, including endangered animals: the stomach of this snake contained the remains of a white-tailed deer.

The state of Florida considers Burmese pythons a threat to native wildlife and sponsors an annual python hunt with USD2,500 as first prize.

Thursday, October 13, 2005Clashes between gunmen and police have broken out in the capital of the southern Russian republic of Kabardino-Balkaria where Chechen rebels claimed responsibility for the insurgency.

The fighting in Nalchik started after a coordinated set of attacks were carried out against city security forces and police stations. The airport and government buildings were also targeted. The strike is believed to have come from anywhere between 60 to 500 insurgents. The insurgents used heavy arms fire, coupled with explosions at the outset, that lasted five hours. A police station has been captured and hostages taken.

According to reports from Russian press sources, 61 of the gunmen have been killed and 17 have been captured, and there may be dozens of civilian casualties. Seven policemen were also killed. Several government buildings throughout the city are on fire and some schools have been involved and evacuated accordingly.

Russian president Vladimir Putin has ordered the army to seal off the city and shoot any insurgent who tries to escape. Officials in the city are saying the situation is slowly returning to normal.