`Computer technicans are threatening chaos at fast-food outlets, supermarkets, banks and airports unless they get a pay rise.
More than 100 staff from NCR – a company responsible for repairing computer breakdowns at KFC outlets, Aldi supermarkets and Sydney Airport’s baggage handling systems – are planning to to walk off the job on Monday morning.
“In terms of industrial action in the IT industry this is easily the most significant one we’ve had in Australia,” said Australian Services Union secretary Sally McManus. If the strike goes ahead, it might last up to a week, she said.’
`Coffee drinkers who have more than three cups a day could be dramatically increasing their risk of a heart attack, say researchers.
A study found people who were “slow metabolisers” were at greater risk because they could not process caffeine as quickly as others.
The research discovered that this type of coffee-drinker was up to 64 per cent more likely to suffer a cardiac arrest.’
`One of every five calories in the American diet is liquid. The nation’s single biggest “food” is soda, and nutrition experts have long demonized it.
Now they are escalating the fight.
In reports to be published in science journals this week, two groups of researchers hope to add evidence to the theory that soda and other sugar-sweetened drinks don’t just go hand-in-hand with obesity, but actually cause it. Not that these drinks are the only cause — genetics, exercise and other factors are involved — but that they are one cause, perhaps the leading cause.’
follow up to Soft drinks found to have high levels of cancer chemical.
`Traces of a carcinogenic chemical have been found in soft drinks at eight times the level permitted in drinking water, it was revealed last night.
Tests conducted on 230 drinks on sale in Britain and France have identified high levels of benzene, a compound known to cause cancer, according to the Food Standards Agency. There is a legal limit of one part per billion of benzene in British drinking water. The latest tests revealed levels of up to eight parts per billion in some soft drinks.’
`Maymont employees are mourning the death of the park’s two black bears, destroyed yesterday after one of them bit a 4-year-old boy last weekend. [..]
Both bears, ages 12 and 9, were euthanized because it was not known which one bit the boy, Maymont officials said. The child and at least one parent were apparently at the rear of the 2-acre bear exhibit Saturday when the child climbed a 4-foot wooden fence into a restricted area and approached the 10-foot chain-link fence that surrounds the bears.
“The child may have been eating an apple or had apple [scent] on his hands,” said Julia Dixon, spokeswoman for Game and Inland Fisheries. The child put his hand through the fence and was bitten.’
`The menu at Beijing’s latest venue for its growing army of gourmets is eye-watering rather than mouth-watering.
China’s cuisine is renowned for being “in your face” – from the skinned dogs displayed at food markets to the kebabbed scorpions sold on street stalls – and there is no polite way of describing Guo-li-zhuang.
Situated in an elegantly restored house beside Beijing’s West Lake, it is China’s first speciality penis restaurant.
Here, businessmen and government officials can sample the organs of yaks, donkeys, oxen and even seals. In fact, they have to, since they form part of every dish – except for those containing testicles’
`A family sitting down to dinner had to call police and an ambulance after a man allegedly bit off the nose of his girlfriend, authorities said.
Jody Bennett came out of a back room of a north Tulsa residence on Thursday with a napkin over her face and said her boyfriend, identified as Greg Hill, had bitten her nose.
Medics responding to the house saw that Bennett’s nose had been severed and called police.
“We looked around and tried to find a nose but couldn’t find it,” Cpl. Larry Edwards, a police spokesman, said. “I think he swallowed it.”‘
`DIRECTIONS:
1. In a slow cooker, combine nipples, onions, garlic, celery, carrots, green beans, mushrooms, and potatoes. Pour in the tomatoes and tomato sauce. Season with bay leaf, pepper, thyme, and marjoram. Stir together chicken broth and flour. Pour chicken broth mixture and beef consomme into slow cooker, and stir.
2. Cover, and cook on Low 6 to 10 hours. Remove bay leaf before serving.’
`Sperm whales in the Gulf of Alaska are likely using the sounds of fishing boat engines as underwater dinner bells to hone in on longlines hung with valuable sablefish, scientists said.
The engines make loud, erratic bubbling noises as fishermen maneuver their boats while winching up hundreds of bottom-dwelling sablefish.
“That’s the whales’ cue,” said Jan Straley, an assistant professor at the University of Alaska Southeast who since 2002 has helped lead an ongoing study of the whales’ behavior.
The study has helped researchers devise low-cost ways for fishermen to hoodwink the highly intelligent cetaceans.
It estimates there are 90 male sperm whales feeding from longlines in the eastern Gulf of Alaska, part of the world’s largest sablefish fishery.’
`A sentimental husband in Denton, Greater Manchester, has celebrated his golden wedding anniversary by eating a 50-year-old can of chicken.
Les Lailey had been saving the tin of Buxted Whole Cooked Chicken in Jelly from a buffet he and his bride Beryl received as a wedding gift – in 1956. They kept hold of the tin through numerous house moves, explaining to the BBC: “I always said ‘on my 50th wedding anniversary I’m going to eat that chicken’ – so I did.”
He added: “It was all right. But I don’t like chicken.”’
‘The Moo Bella Ice Cream Vending Machine is not yer ordinary common or garden vending machine, oh no. It’s a Linux powered, wireless Internet connected, ‘make from scratch in 45 seconds’, patented techno marvel. No word on Penguin flavours, but the idea is that these machines will produce on-demand fresh, real ice cream just about anywhere. Instantly aerated, mixed, flavoured and frozed in less than a minute. With chocolate chip sprinkles too. Yowsers!’
Also a video: One sweet dream.
`McDonald’s french fries just got fatter – by nutritional measurement. The world’s largest restaurant chain said Wednesday its fries contain a third more trans fats than it previously knew, citing results of a new testing method it began using in December.
That means the level of potentially artery-clogging trans fat in a portion of large fries is eight grams, up from six, with total fat increasing to 30 grams from 25.
Often used by restaurants and in packaged foods, trans fats are thought to cause cholesterol problems and increase the risk of heart disease. The dietary guidelines for Americans that were issued by a government panel last year said people should consume as little trans fat as possible.’
`Authorities were seeking Thursday a burglar who allegedly took the time to make coffee, cook and eat meals, take showers, pick out a change of clothes, watch television and check his e-mail while inside three rural Washington County homes this month. [..]
Lori Menzel of the town of Kewaskum said the burglar left his Yahoo account open after checking his personal e-mail on the computer at her home.
“He never logged out,” she said, adding: “He made himself at home here. He spent some time in our bedroom trying on my husband’s clothes. I could tell he went through some of my clothes.”‘
`I made a Pancake and it has the image of Jesus on it!!!
See for yourself!’
One bid for $500 so far.
`A team of British scientists investigating whether a tiny tropical hookworm could provide a cure for asthma and hay fever have committed the ultimate act of bravery by infecting themselves with the parasite to observe the effects.
The experts wanted to see if there would be any unpleasant or dangerous side effects from the worm, Ancylostoma duodenale, so they made the bold decision to allow their own bodies to be infected. Each scientist had to stick some of the tiny hookworm larvae on to their skin with a plaster and wait for the larvae to wriggle through the skin into the lungs, through the bloodstream and into the intestine, where they would produce eggs. [..]’
`Many students, and other young people, have little in the way of cooking skills but can usually get their hands on a couple of mobile phones. So, this week, we show you how to use two mobile phones to cook an egg which will make a change from phoning out for a pizza. Please note that this will not work with cordless phones.
To do this you will need two mobile phones -they do not have to be on the same network but you will need to know the number of one of them.’
`A man running a counterfeit piracy operation, selling games, CDs and DVDs from his ice cream van has been convicted.
William Agnew from South Lanarkshire was sentenced at Hamilton Sheriff Court after admitting to the offences. 4,000 DVDs, CDs and games (PlayStation, Xbox and PC) were seized during a raid on the man’s business premises. The goods, if sold new, are estimated to be worth in the region of Ł100,000.’
`Tissue engineers like Vladimir Mironov of the Medical University of South Carolina, and Thomas Boland of Clemson University, have been printing biomaterials with modified ink-jet printers.
The cartridges are washed out and refilled with suspensions of living cells; the software that controls the characteristics of the ink is reprogrammed and you’re good to go. Boland and Mironov use layers of “thermo-reversable” gel to build up three-dimensional structures like tubes—capillaries, to use the medical term. When the tiny droplets, or clumps, of cells came together closely, they fused; the gel can be easily removed, leaving a tube of tissue.’
`A Catawba Island Township man has been convicted of attacking his girlfriend with a sack of potatoes.
Jeffrey B. Goehring, 27, has pleaded guilty in Ottawa County Common Pleas Court to aggravated assault and aggravated menacing. Charges of kidnapping and abduction were dismissed as part of a plea agreement.
Authorities accused Goehring of detaining the 22-year-old woman at his home during an argument Nov. 1. He choked her with a belt, and hit her with the sack of potatoes.’
`Seven teenagers were hospitalized briefly Sunday after the group became sick from eating brownies laced with marijuana at a Montpelier home, Montpelier Police said. [..]
Police said when they arrived, there were no adults present and there had been an underage party. Authorities said they found no alcohol, but learned the seven teens made and ate the pot brownies.
Because police were initially unsure what was in the brownies, the seven teenagers were taken to Central Vermont Hospital, where they were treated and released to their parents, police said.’
`A former substitute teacher was sentenced to one year in jail and five years probation for encouraging several young boys to lick whipped cream off their toes as part a game he filmed.
Michael Codde, 44, will have to register as a sex offender and will no longer be able to teach as the result of Friday’s sentence handed down in Santa Cruz County Superior Court.
Codde admitted to felony child molestation and misdemeanor possession of child pornography. Even though no one alleged Codde touched the boys, Judge John Salazar said he clearly directed the game for sexual arousal.’
`Bulgarian customs stopped a 75-ton shipment of beef meat from Ireland that may have been frozen since 1984, local media reported on Monday.
The meat was sent for testing after officials at the Kulata border pass with Greece noticed that the meat had a bluish colour. Among the papers with the shipment was a 22-year-old health certificate.’
`Being that he’s been exiled to the garage and it’s winter, the lazy fuck absolutely refuses to leave the confines of the garage to do anything. This includes shitting. In fact, I think he actually pisses in his sleep and just lives with it. Maybe he likes that it keeps him a little warmer. Well, he does leave long enough to shit. And he shat all over the garage. Well, Kronix our roommate told my brother that he’d pay him $40 if he agreed to lick the cat shit in the garage. With $40 rounded up (thanks in part by Monkey and me pitching in) we were off to the garage to see the events as they unfolded.
Watch the video!’
I didn’t watch the video. The still pictures are disturbing enough.
`Maybe I’m childish, but Asse has got to be one of the worst and/or funniest names for chocolate candy that I have come across yet (though Crunky and “Must Be Sexy” are pretty funny too). Asse is a Japanese candy made by Morinaga. It comes in a pack of 18 pieces that are shaped like Andes mints only a little larger. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from the package because the picture on the package looks a bit like peanut butter in the center. It turns out it’s a nougat-like candy like a 3 Musketeers or Milky Way only a little drier. It’s got a faint flavor I can’t quite make out though – almost malty. The chocolate is a darker chocolate than most candies have so it’s just a little bitter (but tasty). I really liked the Asse a lot – it’s good stuff. My wife tried it too and didn’t like it at all. (Yeah, yeah – fill in your own joke here).’
`A prison inmate who shed 31 pounds so he could escape through a narrow hole in a wall has been recaptured after three days on the run in Sydney, the prison department said Sunday.
Robert Cole, 36, who was serving time for sex offenses and armed robbery, escaped from a hospital wing of Sydney’s Long Bay Jail on Wednesday through 6-inch wide hole he had chiseled in the brickwork beside a window frame. He had been undergoing treatment for a psychiatric illness. [..]
He was recaptured in a Sydney shopping mall Saturday disguised with a beard drawn on his face with a pen, The Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported.’
`Ever wonder what would happen if one of our favorite Food Network chefs created something they actually didn’t like? Well, we were lucky enough to witness such an event when Giada De Laurentiis of Everyday Italian attempted to make some sort of sorbet. She claimed on the air that her facial expressions of disgust and malaise were merely a reaction to the icy treat, but we know better. Behold the Great Giada Disaster of 2006.’
`She survived brutal Nazi and Communist regimes to ultimately be brought down by a banana.
Slovenian migrant Ivanka Perko died in hospital last week in bizarre circumstances – she suffered complications after she dropped a banana on her leg.
Comical to the end, the 73-year-old old quipped to friends and family while on her deathbed: “I can’t believe after all this time it was a bloody banana that killed me.”
A family friend told The Saturday Daily Telegraph yesterday that Ms Perko – who was treasured by her Blue Mountains community – had been ill for several months with a condition that made her skin delicate and fine.
“She had tried to open a banana and dropped it,” the friend said. “The pointy end scraped down her leg and she died from complications.”‘
`1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
1 cup whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
2/3 cup Guinness stout
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons molasses
4 egg yolks
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract’
