And another nice photo from UK MetroBoy's best friend is a 4.8-metre-long python
By Sally PeckLast Updated: 2:40am GMT 29/11/2007While many children might wish to curl up with a dog or cat, a young Cambodian boy prefers to spend his time with a 4.8-metre-long python.
In the village of Sit Tbow, 50 kilometres east of Phnom Penh, Sambath Uon, seven, reportedly refuses to go to sleep without the company of his pet, Chamreun, or Lucky, in Khmer.
Telegraph TV: Sambath and his pet are the same age The snake slithered into town in 2000, when Sambath was just a few months old.
While the boy's father tried to return the snake to the forest three times, the Burmese python loyally returned to her young master and has earned the acceptance of villagers, who think she brings good fortune.
Young Sambath said of his faithful companion: "I love the python like my sister."
The affection appears to be mutual, despite the fact that pythons are typically afraid of people and avoid humans if at all possible.
One of the world's largest snakes, the Burmese python, which is found throughout Southeast Asia, can grow up to 8 metres long and weigh up to 180 kg. Females like Lucky are typically longer than males.While its attractive skin patterns and colours have made the Burmese python popular with the fashion industry and reptile keepers, they make unpredictable pets.
The python's seemingly docile nature conceals the snake's true power; Lucky would be capable of inflicting fierce bites or easily killing a human by constriction.
The cardinal rule with British royals: Don’t speak unless spoken to. “An absolute no-no,” Higgins says. The first time you meet a royal on any given day, use the highest applicable official address: “Your Majesty” for the queen; “Your Royal Highness” for a prince. For a complete listing of royal and noble titles, consult Burke’s Peerage or DeBrett’s Peerage. The rest of the day, use “sir” or “ma’am” (which rhymes with ham, not hum). Women should curtsy; men can nod their heads. Royals proffer their hands first, and handshakes should be short and not too hard. Avoid turning your back on the queen unless it can’t be helped, as when you’re being introduced in a group setting or if you’re at one of the royals’ large garden parties.Now that I know, I should expect an invitation to dine at Buckingham Palace.
At a meal, the head royal begins to eat first unless there’s a visiting sovereign, which has led to some amusing confusion when the king of Country X waits for the queen to start while she’s waiting for him. Take a bit of each dish, and don’t ask for anything; what you see is what you get. When the head royal is done with her course, you’re done too. If you drop something, pretend nothing happened; servants will discreetly tend to it.
But as scholars can testify, what gives meaning to some is an anathema to others. Just ask the four young graduate students who gave a presentation at the American Academy of Religion on the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster grew out of a backlash against biblical creationists in Kansas who wanted intelligent design taught in public schools as an alternative to evolution. The movement's founder dashed off a letter to the state school board demanding his theory also be taught: that the world was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster.
Fueled by the Internet, the craze became a pop culture hit. Its followers are known as “Pastafarians.” Its icon is a spoof of Michelangelo's “Creation” portrait, with Adam reaching out to touch a noodle.
Spoof? Why is this faith any less valid than any of the others?
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I mowed the rest of the lawn after I returned home from work today.
Don't say you weren't warned!The Establishment
ZombiesAreComing.com is an online organization, established in 2007, for the purpose of promoting zombie awareness and preparation for the coming tides of darkness.
While outbreaks have been limited in the past to controllable levels, this trend is changing, and we must be proactive in defense of our homeland. Those in power have been able to contain and downplay any and all outbreaks, despite underground movements to inform the general public of pending danger. This site will help you take matters into your own hands and regain your options for self-defense against any ghoulish outbreak. Here, you are free to discuss with other survivalists about tactics, equipment, weapons, buildings, and any other methods to prepare for the days that the dead walk the face of the earth.
We have to take matters into our own hands, folks. It is us or them. This is our time to be prepared. This is our time to live.
And all the tracks are free.The KFC Hitmaker: Knowing Foul Cynicism
KFC is 'giving back' to its consumer fanbase by releasing an album. This is more than a gimmicky publicity stunt - it's downright dangerous
James Donaghy
November 16, 2007 4:00 PM
A Pizza Hut! A Pizza Hut! Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Pizza Hut! Photograph: Getty
We know how KFC likes to take the definition of soul food literally. Marlena Shaw wasn't complaining about the royalty cheque when they adopted California Soul in one of their adverts and they have aggressively targeted the black community in their recent campaigns. Their latest scheme should give everyone pause for thought, though.They have released an album, available for download here, that's a compilation of the best entrants from their Pride 360° competition, a scheme they ran in the summer to unearth musical talent as part of Black Music Month.
Intriguingly, the aspiring urban artists were instructed to record a song creatively incorporating the words "individual", "family", "community", "heritage" with KFC, the winner getting a recording opportunity and some publicity. Hip-hop blogger Byron Crawford comments on the irony of an album featuring "nothing but black people singing about fried chicken". He's got a point.
And it's got to be said that no matter what the winner D Mawl (who hails from Kentucky) does with the rest of his career he will forever be known as The Fried Chicken Guy. While it's a nice idea for KFC to throw a half-gnawed bone back to its black customer base, it's difficult see the exercise as anything other than a gimmicky publicity stunt, and I hope this doesn't set a precedent. Commercial sponsorship of the arts is inevitable - but there have got to be limits. And KFC don't got none.
Robert Cialdini, in his book Influence, identifies association as one of the most powerful and successful principles in advertising and compliance. Weaving those positive concepts ("individual", "family", "community", "heritage") with KFC is an act of breathtaking cynicism and you've almost got to admire the brass balls it takes to pull it off, all the while posing as a benefactor.
So apart from offering patronage to a crappy rapper who's sold out before he's even got a contract, what exactly is KFC promoting in the black community? The high fat, high cholesterol, high sodium KFC diet, of course.
Ebony magazine calls heart disease "the ultimate destroyer in the black community, killing more people than Aids and cancer combined". The American Heart Association concurs.
Hypertension, obesity, clogged arteries and an hour-long commercial masquerading as talent scouting is KFC's legacy to black America. You don't have to be Chuck D to ask "how low can you go?"
Historia Krzywego Domku
W sercu Trójmiasta tuż przy uroczym sopockim deptaku Monte Cassino znajduje się Krzywy Domek- najbardziej nietypowa nieruchomość w Polsce. Taka, której pozazdrościć nam może niejedno miasto. To tu mieszczą się restauracje, kafejki, sklepy i biura, wszystko wygląda jak z bajki. Inspiracją stały się rysunki Pera Dahlberga.
Man in India Marries Dog As Atonement
NEW DELHI (AP) — A man in southern India married a female dog in a traditional Hindu ceremony as an attempt to atone for stoning two other dogs to death — an act he believes cursed him — a newspaper reported Tuesday.
P. Selvakumar married the sari-draped former stray named Selvi, chosen by family members and then bathed and clothed for the ceremony Sunday at a Hindu temple in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, the Hindustan Times newspaper said.
Selvakumar, 33, told the paper he had been suffering since he stoned two dogs to death and hung their bodies from a tree 15 years ago.
"After that my legs and hands got paralyzed and I lost hearing in one ear," he said in the report.
The paper said an astrologer had told Selvakumar the wedding was the only way he could cure the maladies. It did not say whether his situation had improved.
Deeply superstitious people in rural India sometimes organize weddings to dogs and other animals, believing it can ward off certain curses.
The paper showed a picture of Selvakumar sitting next to the dog, which was wearing an orange sari and a flower garland.
The paper said the groom and his family then had a feast, while the dog got a bun.
Married ... P Selvakumar garlands his 'bride'.
Photo: AFP
LONDON (Reuters) - Wedginald, the English cheddar cheese that has become a star of the Internet as it matures live on screen, is up for auction with the proceeds going to charity.The 44 pound cheese that has attracted 1.65 million viewer hits on www.cheddarvision.tv since it first went on the web late last year has nearly completed its 12-month maturation and will be ready to eat by Christmas, the owners said.
"As a fitting end to the first year of Cheddarvision we at West Country Farmhouse Cheesemakers are going to auction Wedginald to the highest bidder and donate all the proceeds to BBC Children in Need," they wrote on the website.
Cheese lovers can get not just a slice of the action but the whole lot by placing their bids on ebay before November 19.
I like a well matured cheddar. The more mature the better, preferably aged 24 months - vintage.
