Russia classifies beer as alcoholic !!

Who'd have thought ?

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has signed a bill that officially classifies beer as alcoholic.

Until now anything containing less than 10% alcohol in Russia has been considered a foodstuff.

The move, signed into law on Wednesday, will allow ministers to control the sale of beer in the same way that spirits are controlled.

Russian alcohol consumption is already twice the critical level set by the World Health Organization.

Although vodka has long been the traditional tipple in Russia, beer has soared in popularity, being marketed as a healthier alternative to spirits.

Over the past decade, beer sales in Russia have risen more than 40% while vodka sales have fallen by nearly 30%.

Correspondents say it is common to see people swigging beer in the street and in parks as if they are drinking soft drinks.

It is not restricted to certain stores and is sold around the clock.

The government began their crackdown on beer last year, when they raised taxes on the beverage by 200 per cent.

UK farmer now growing world's hottest commercially-grown pepper

It is the hottest chilli you can buy in the high street. A commercially-grown chilli that has surpassed the powerfully potent Dorset Naga. Now thanks to a farmer in southern England, the local supermarkets will stock the Bhut Jolokia.

Tesco began stocking the Dorset Naga, which has a rating of 923,000 Scovilles in 2009, and such was the popularity of the hot pepper the supermarket giant asked UK farmer, Salvatore Genovese to produce more hot chillies after demand grew by over 200 percent. Mr Genovese, whose farm is in Blunham in the county of Bedfordshire, is the UK's largest chilli grower.

The Bhut Jolokia is difficult to grow but as Mr Genovese reveals, "[when eaten] It does hurt". On its website, Chillis Galore said the Bhut Jolokia measures in at over one million Scovilles, the unit used to measure chilli pepper heat.

The chilli pepper is referred to in the US as the ghost chili or ghost pepper. The Bhut Jolokia was replaced as the hottest known chili pepper by its cousin the Naga Viper pepper in December 2010.

In February this year the title for the "World's Hottest Chilli" went to the Infinity chilli, grown in Grantham, England. But just weeks later the title was returned to the Naga Viper.

Then more recently, a pepper that requires wearing protective gloves when handling, broke all the records at 1.4 million Scovilles - the Trinidad Scorpion Butch also can induce temporary blindness if exposed too close to the eyes.

BELIEVE IT OR DONT

'Sexsomnia' sufferer in Pembroke Dock cleared of rape

A man accused of raping a teenage girl has been cleared after successfully arguing he suffers from a condition which means he has sex whilst asleep.

Stephen Lee Davies, 43, of Pembroke Dock, claimed he was innocent because he suffered from sexsomnia.

He was accused of raping a 16-year-old girl staying at his home.

His wife and a former partner gave evidence at Swansea Crown Court on how they became used to being "groped" in the night while sleeping with him.

The jury took just over an hour to find him not guilty.

A sleep consultant gave evidence at the trial confirming that what Mr Davies said was probably true.

His wife, and a former partner, also gave evidence on how they became used to being "groped" in the night.

They said he would have sex with them in his sleep and remember nothing in the morning.

The court had heard the girl had gone to sleep on Mr Davies' bed in the early hours of 7 September 2009, because his room was cooler.

'Instinctive behaviour'

Mr Davies was already asleep in the bed and told the court he had no idea she was there.

The teenager told the court she had woken in the middle of the night to find Mr Davies having sex with her.

After his arrest he was asked if anything had happened and he replied: "Not that I know of".

Prosecutor Jim Davies said that it was "significant" that Mr Davies had gone downstairs after the incident and put the kettle on.

Dr Chris Idzikowski, head of Edinburgh Sleep School, gave expert evidence at the trial.

He said that sexsomnia was a sleep disorder which fell into the category of sleep walking - something that affects one in 25 people.

"It is an instinctive behaviour, they are not conscious at the time," he added.

WATCH YOUR ASS

Mom gets 5 years probation for spanking her child, and loses custody

Corpus Christi, Texas - Rosalina Gonzales lost custody of her three children and has been put on probation for five years. Her crime was spanking her almost two-year-old with her hand on the child's bottom.

The child's grandmother noticed red marks on the child's buttocks and took her to a hospital to be checked. The hospital called the Department of Family and Protective Services even though the little girl was found to be healthy and did not have any lasting injuries.

The children were taken from their mother in December and placed in the grandmother's custody according to lifesitenews.com.

The Texas Attorney General's website states spanking is not illegal, "Texas law allows the use of force but not deadly force, against a child by the child's parent, guardian, or other person who is acting in loco parentis." A child can be spanked on the buttocks using an open hand, a brush or a belt if it doesn't leave a bruise, welt or swelling," it's likely OK states npr.org

In an agreement with prosecutors Gonzales plead guilty to the charges of Injury to a Child a felony. She will be on probation for five years, has to take parenting classes, follow Children's Protective Service's (CPS) guidelines and make a one time payment of $50 to the Children's Advocacy Center.

Attorney Kelly Shackelford of Liberty Institute said, "In this country, children are not children of the state. They're children of the parents and the parents do have a right to reasonable discipline including spanking. So this is a pretty clear abuse of authority and is something that people need to be aware of -- that government officials don't have the right to this kind of bullying of parents and families."

" I'd like a Flaky Fecal Fillet Sandwich please, and hold the mayo "

Sounds like a Southpark episode to me.

CAN A PERSON LICK THEIR OWN ELBOW ?

YES

Courtesy of QI, Series 8 .... Episode 3

NO ......... IT AINT ZORRO !

It seems that Mexico’s historical pattern is to have a war every one hundred years: first, the Independence struggle (1807-1821); then, the Mexican Revolution (1910-1929); and now the War on Drugs (2006-present). It is estimated that over 30,000 people have been murdered in Mexico since President Felipe Calderon declared a war on the drug cartels in 2006. Just to put things into perspective, the number of casualties in Mexico in 2010 alone were twice as many as the number of U.S. casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan combined in the 2003-2010 period.

This Z scratched into a hill alongside the highway to the Mexican city of Monterrey stakes out
territory of Zetas drug cartel.

Mexicans are not the only victims of this war. Central and South American undocumented migrants who are traveling through Mexico in route to the United States are easy targets for the drug cartels. The Human Rights Commission of Mexico stated 20,000 migrants are kidnapped each year while trying to cross the Mexico-US border. Last year, there was a massacre of 72 migrants near Matamoros by Los Zetas Drug Cartel.

DID YOU KNOW ................

Poor Man's Drycleaning

This is a home remedy for a common problem: Stinky clothes. We've all been there: You want to wear that shirt but it's got that not-so-fresh smell and you don't have time to get it dry cleaned.

All you have to do is put some vodka – yep, even the cheap stuff will do -- and a little bit of water in a spray bottle and spray the article of clothing with the mixture. Let it dry and voila ! The odor is gone. It's the poor man's drycleaning !

This is a trick used on Broadway, so they don't have to dryclean the clothes after every show. Joan Rivers swears by it. So does Madonna. And we have it from a good source that there's a spray bottle of vodka in the dressing room of the Lion King on Broadway right now. They spray their costumes down with it after every show. For the rest of us, we can wear that shirt, and if we're feeling a little not-so-fresh midday, a little spray under here, a little spray under there and we're good to go.

HAVE YOU SAID YOUR GOODBYE'S TO EVERYONE YET ?

Well, this is it folks ..... according to http://www.familyradio.com/index2.html,


we shall all go to meet our maker tomorrow ...... trains will be leaving Platform 5 at approximately 4.15 pm .......... for more info, visit the site.

And don't forget ..... UKTV Gold will be repeating this event on Tuesday 23th May 2011 ... Thank You.

At least The Queen got to visit Cork City before it all went Pete Tong !!

DID YOU KNOW ........

Two years ago, a New Hampshire retiree named Bart Centre decided to do something about this event. Centre, more commonly known by his nom-de-blog “The Atheist Camel,” cobbled together a nationwide network of 44 pet-loving nonbelievers to come to the rescue if and when the big day comes. For a nominal fee, he and his Rapture Rescuers will take in pets whose Christian masters have evaporated. Their enterprise, Eternal Earth-Bound Pets, has over 250 customers willing to pay $135 to give their fuzzy charges a chance of surviving the coming tribulations.

Bids For Princess Beatrice's Hat Reach 18K

An internet auction of Princess Beatrice's royal wedding hat has attracted bids of £18,400, with four days left to put in an offer.

Princess Beatrice's royal wedding hat has attracted a bid of £18,400.

THE TOILET SEAT

The 22-year-old royal listed the bizarre Philip Treacy creation on auction website eBay in order to make money for the Little Bee Initiative, a charitable organisation set up by the princess to raise money for Children in Crisis and Unicef and she is astonished by the response so far.

Bidding on the hat - which has been compared with pretzels, spaghetti and toilet seats in spoof internet videos - was started by British businessman Duncan Bannatyne, best known for his role on UK TV show 'Dragon's Den', who offered £5,000 within minutes of the listing going live.

Other high-profile bidders have included Australian children's group The Wiggles, who offered to pay £17,500 for the headwear.

Blue Wiggle Anthony Field said: "We wear some pretty crazy costumes on stage, but this hat beats them all - it could bring about an Australian republic all by itself!

"When we heard about the auction we knew we had to bid - we're ambassadors for Unicef and we think it's great that Princess Beatrice has chosen to support children in great need."

They also joked they would donate the accessory to the Australian cricket captain to use next time the team play England.

Anthony added: "We might give it to Michael Clarke to wear when he bats against the Poms next time - it would certainly distract the bowler."

Speaking about the auction - which closes in four days time - Beatrice has said: "I've been amazed by the amount of attention the hat has attracted.

"It's a wonderful opportunity to raise as much money as possible for two fantastic charities. I hope whoever wins the auction has as much fun with the hat as I have."

Marijuana Might Be Legal in Canada by July

The Toronto Star reported “an Ontario Superior Court judge has ruled that the federal medical marijuana program is unconstitutional, giving the government three months to fix the problem before pot is effectively legalized.”

Canadians have been fighting for marijuana reform since 1973, when the LeDain Commission called for an end to the criminalization of citizens who possess and cultivate marijuana. At the time, the medicinal effects of marijuana were being recorded and the criminality of marijuana possession was becoming scrutinized by the public and lawmakers alike.

To rational human beings, the idea a teenager would be branded a criminal for life for possessing a small amount of marijuana seems ludicrous. In Canada, this is one of the primary reasons for marijuana reform. (In the United States, harsh drug laws were designed to incarcerate generations of low-income and ethnic offenders, becoming the bedrock of it's prison culture.)

Canadian lawmakers have danced around the issue since 2001, when the legal regulation of medical marijuana use was introduced. However, many doctors believe there is no scientific evidence that marijuana has any medicinal effects whatsoever. Furthermore, Canadian doctors are uncomfortable with their role as “gatekeepers” to marijuana therapy. This is fair, as it is a societal, legal and cultural issue—not a medical one.

The creation of medical marijuana laws has cost the government its ability to criminalize marijuana use. If the Canadian government doesn’t appeal the court’s decision within three months pot will not only be decriminalized in Canada (such as getting a parking ticket) it will be legalized.

The ruling comes from a case where a 37-year-old man suffering from fibromyalgia, scoliosis and seizures took to growing his own pot because it was too complicated and time-consuming to work with doctors.

Chinese City Uses Human Pedal Power to Go Green

WEIZHONG - This city in Shaanxi Province, central China, is set to become the greenest city on Earth, according to Cheng Xialong, spokesperson for the mayor of Weizhong Municipal Government.

In a press release dated today, Weizhong city declared that it will source 100 percent of its electrical power from sustainable and renewable sources by 2012. Hydropower from the nearby Fundashen Dam will continue contributing 14.7 percent, wind energy from an experimental turbine farm will contribute 1.3 percent, while the remaining 84 percent will be derived from human pedal power.

The municipal government is building a Citizen Power Station, consisting of 50 gymnasium-sized halls which will house 2,000 stationary pedal-type electricity generators each. Each citizen of the city will be mandated to provided at least 90 minutes of cycle time per weekday, and 2 hours on weekends.

The Weizhong Citizen Power Station will generate approximately 200 megawatts. Chinese homes are smaller than Western homes and consume less electricity, and the Weizhong planners hope that in conjunction with stringent electricity saving measures, the power station will produce enough power for the entire city.

"If people are profligate in their use of power, we will increase the required quota to two or even three hours a day," said a municipal administration official who asked not to be identified. "This will encourage them to enthusiastically save electricity at home."

Citizens who cannot or do not want to contribute pedal power to the city's grid may allow substitute cyclists to take their place. A group of local businessmen have already set up a labor market for citizens who wish to hire non-resident laborers to cycle on their behalf.

Zheng Fubei, a wiry 48-year-old migrant laborer from a rural village, who lost his job at an electronics factory in Guanzhou and has been jobless for eight months, said he looked forward to providing green pedal power to the city.

"It will be my honor to create sustainable and renewable energy for this city which will be the most environmentally advanced city in China and the world," Zheng told members of the press, in what seemed to be a rehearsed statement.

Cheng Xialong, the municipal spokesperson, stressed that most residents would be happy to serve as electricity generators.

"In today's world, obesity is an increasing health risk with many ill effects such as diabetes and hypertension," he explained. "Cycling an hour and a half a day will not only produce green electricity, but also lower health care costs in the city."

"They can also watch educational programs on television while cycling," he added.

The Citizen Power Station is scheduled to start producing power within two months from now.

BELIEVE IT OR DONT

Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Jackson and Marlon Brando 'drove across the U.S. in a rental car after 9/11, eating KFC'


A road trip across America stopping at every Kentucky Fried Chicken diner along the way does not sound like an A-list event.

But this particular car was carrying Marlon Brando, Dame Elizabeth Taylor and Michael Jackson.

The unlikely threesome began driving across America in a rental car after planes were grounded in the aftermath of the terror attacks on New York on September 11, 2001, according to Vanity Fair.

Brando, whose weight by this stage in his life had ballooned, was said to have irritated the other two by stopping at almost every Kentucky Fried Chicken and Burger King restaurant en route.

Vanity Fair reporter Sam Kashner writes: ‘Brando allegedly annoyed his travelling companions by insisting on stopping at nearly every KFC and Burger King they passed along the highway.

‘One can only imagine the shock their appearance caused at gas stations and rest stops across America.’

According to a former member of Jackson’s staff, the three friends travelled a total of 535 miles.

‘They actually got as far as Ohio – all three of them, in a car they drove themselves,’ he said.

None of the three, of course, is around to substantiate or dispute the bizarre story.

Brando died aged 80 in July 2004, Jackson in June 2009, aged 50, and Dame Elizabeth in March this year, aged 79.

One of Dame Elizabeth’s friends, however, disputed that she actually went on the trip. At the time, The Godfather star Brando was 77, Dame Elizabeth 69 and Jackson 43.

The trip is said to have come about after Jackson invited the other two to New York for his concerts on September 7 and September 10 at Madison Square Gardens.

However, in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist atrocity in which Al Qaeda flew two planes into the World Trade Center, flights in the U.S. were grounded, so the trio resorted to the road for their return to the west coast.

Facebook used in 90 percent of divorce cases

Divorce attorneys are becoming internet gurus. Because websites like Yahoo and Google cache images as soon as they're put online, Carin Constantine says she can find pictures from Facebook accounts that have been deactivated.

"Those pictures are still accessible by us, and we can still print them and we can still use them as evidence in your divorce case," Constantine said. And that printed piece of paper can be attached to a motion within the hour.

DID YOU KNOW ................

What could be simpler than taking a good crap ? Even babies are good at it. You might be surprised, then, to find out that even millions of us who can burp without throwing up get this wrong every single day.


Chances are the pooping facility nearest you is a sitting toilet, a relatively recent invention that flushed its way into mankind's heart with the advent of indoor plumbing in the 19th century. Indoor plumbing has turned out pretty well for the most part, but the pooping style that came with it definitely has not. Pooping on a modern sitting toilet is a big part of where hemorrhoids come from, and it can also cause diverticular disease, an age-related condition that pretty much only occurs in parts of the world where sitting toilets are used, and which can lead to a range of pleasantries up to and including colonic obstruction. And things aren't getting better: The last few decades have seen a rise in popularity of "comfort height" toilets that sit two to four inches higher off the ground than older models and that make our pooping predicament even worse.

So how the hell are we meant to do it?

Luckily, there's a relatively simple way to end this poop dilemma. A 2003 study observed 28 people pooping in three positions: sitting on a high toilet, sitting on a lower one and squatting like they were catchers at a baseball game (catcher's mitt optional, but encouraged). After initially being mistaken for a German porn company, the researchers found that pooping took about a minute less when done squatting and that participants rated the experience as "easier" (God, I hope they were getting paid).
In fact, toilets that require you to squat that way have been the standard for most of human history and are still widely used in the non-Western world.

According to proctologists, "We were not meant to sit on toilets, we were meant to squat in the field." When you're in a sitting or standing position, you're forming an angle between the where the poop is and where the poop's gotta come out. There's even a muscle that's purpose is to tighten things up when we're sitting or standing to prevent accidents. Squatting straightens out this angle and removes the chokehold.

If the thought of squatting awkwardly on top of your toilet seat isn't for you, you can produce a similar poop-enhancing angle by resting your feet on a footstool (or anything handy) and leaning the top half of your body forward.

Is Sexually Transmitted Gonorrhea Becoming a 'Superbug?'

USA: In 2009, nearly a quarter of strains tested in a nationwide surveillance project of gonorrhea were resistant to penicillin, tetracycline, fluoroquinolones, or a combination of these antibiotics that are typically used to treat the STD. And early data from 2010 indicate resistance to another type of antibiotic, cephalosporin, is emerging. That's concerning because cephalosporins are the only class of antibiotic left that doctors recommend to treat the disease.

If resistance to cephalosporins develops, gonorrhea could develop into a superbug, and have a catastrophic effect on our ability to control the disease in the country, researchers say. A superbug is a strain of bacteria that has become resistant to antibiotics and is very difficult to kill. Other examples of superbugs include methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA ) and some strains of tuberculosis.

More than 301,174 cases of gonorrhea were reported to the CDC in 2009, though the agency estimates more than 700,000 people become infected with the disease each year in the United States. It is the second most common infectious disease that is required to be reported to the U.S. government.

420

420, 4:20 or 4/20 (pronounced four-twenty) refers to consumption of cannabis and, by extension, a way to identify oneself with cannabis subculture. The notable day for these is April 20.

The term was allegedly coined by a group of teenagers in San Rafael, California in 1971. Calling themselves the Waldos, because "their chosen hang-out spot was a wall outside the school," the group first used the term in connection to a fall 1971 plan to search for an abandoned cannabis crop that they had learned about. The Waldos designated the Louis Pasteur statue on the grounds of San Rafael High School as their meeting place, and 4:20 p.m. as their meeting time. The Waldos referred to this plan with the phrase "4:20 Louis". Multiple failed attempts to find the crop eventually shortened their phrase to simply "4:20", which ultimately evolved into a codeword the teens used to mean pot-smoking in general.

April 20 (4/20 in U.S. date notation) has evolved into a counterculture holiday, where people gather to celebrate and consume cannabis.[1] Some events have a political nature to them, advocating for the decriminalization of non-medical cannabis in the United States.

DID YOU KNOW ..................

There is a persistent myth that that all the clocks in the movie Pulp Fiction are set to 4:20 (although, certainly all the clocks on the wall in the pawn shop are set to 4:20). However, in at least two scenes it is obvious that this is not the case. In the "Bonnie Situation" while Jimmy, Vince and Jules are drinking coffee in the kitchen, the clock clearly reads 8:15. Secondly, when Vince and Jules go to retrieve the briefcase, it is "7:22 in the a.m.". The significance of the time 4:20 is that it is slang for smoking marijuana.

DID YOU KNOW ................

'No tactical role', is an anagram of Carlo Ancelotti

CHP arrests man named Eric Estrada

The California Highway Patrol arrested a man named Eric Estrada for drunken driving through Lemon Grove on Thursday.

No, this Eric Estrada, whose middle name is Michael, is a 29-year-old Brawley resident and is not related to his famous namesake.

The Eric Estrada arrested Thursday briefly landed in a San Diego County jail on charges of drunken driving and having a blood-alcohol level over .08, according to jail records. CHP spokesman Brian Penning said the Estrada in question was arrested during a traffic stop on eastbound Highway 94 at Lemon Grove Avenue.

PATIENTS REQUIRED

"A former NHS director died after waiting for nine months for an operation--at her own hospital"

Margaret Hutchon, a former mayor, had been waiting since last June for a follow-up stomach operation at Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford, Essex.

But her appointments to go under the knife were cancelled four times and she barely regained consciousness after finally having surgery.

Her devastated husband, Jim, is now demanding answers from Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust--the organisation where his wife had served as a non-executive member of the board of directors.

He said: "I don't really know why she died. I did not get a reason from the hospital. We all want to know for closure. She got weaker and weaker as she waited and operations were put off."