Bodies that work with the Earth’s magnetic field to determine location. Female-only societies. Telling whether you’re a friend or a jerk there to make trouble with just one whiff. Homes so efficient they keep one steady temperature all the time. No, we’re not talking about new X-Men or other comic book characters, we’re talking about animals with skills we can only dream of.

These seven animals are way smarter than us — just another reason to pay some respect when we encounter them in the wild.

This is a must see humoreous Cartoon of President Obama and Helen Thomas

New York City From Above (66 pics)

Ray Beckerman, the New York lawyer famous for fighting the recording industry's many lawsuits against what it alleges are illegal downloaders, has exposed what he says is a major financial flaw in the RIAA's business plan. On his blog, Beckerman found that the actual damages paid back were well below the actual legal expenses. Between 2006 and 2008, over $64 million was spent tracking customers but only extracted $1.36 million in successful lawsuits or settlements.

For the first time in half a decade, rock legends Pink Floyd reunited for a Palestine awareness benefit concert in England to raise money for young Palestinians, MSNBC reported Tuesday.

Feuding PINK FLOYD stars DAVID GILMOUR and ROGER WATERS put their differences aside on Saturday (10Jul10) to perform together at a the Hoping Foundation awareness benefit in England.

The two rockers hit the stage at Kiddington Hall in Oxfordshire, England to the amazement of guests in attendance. It was the first time the duo had shared a stage since Pink Floyd’s Live 8 appearance in 2005.

The former bandmates, who were accompanied by Guy Pratt and Waters’ son Harry, among others, played Floyd favourites:

“Wish You Were Here”

“Comfortably Numb”

“Another Brick in the Wall”

Nima Shirazi

A coalition of nearly twenty American human rights and peace groups has joined the global justice community and numerous foreign governments in vowing to send more humanitarian aid ships to break the illegal Israeli blockade of Gaza this coming Fall. The coalition, united under the mantle US To Gaza, includes activist organizations such as CodePink, Jews Say No, Veterans For Peace, Voices for Creative Non-Violence, and Jewish Voice For Peace.

The RIAA's "business plan" is even worse than I'd guessed it was.

The RIAA paid Holmes Roberts & Owen $9,364,901 in 2008, Jenner & Block more than $7,000,000, and Cravath Swain & Moore $1.25 million, to pursue its "copyright infringement" claims, in order to recover a mere $391,000.

Gertner cites numerous cases where restaurants failed to pay up, used the music for commercial gain, and were then hauled to court. The Spring Mount Area Bavarian Resort in Pennsylvania, for instance, was sued over its lack of a performance license back in 2008. The cost of license would have been $3,725; when the resort was found liable, it had to pay damages of $6,750. Other awards in similar cases include $30,000, $34,500, and $16,000 judgments.

By contrast, juries decided that sharing 30 songs on the 'Net (with no pecuniary motivation) was worth $675,000 and that sharing 24 songs might be worth anywhere from $220,000 to $1.9 million (the two Jammie Thomas-Rasset trials in Minnesota).

A lofty new hotel concept is set to open in a remote village in northern Sweden, which aims to elevate the simple treehouse into a world-class destination for design-conscious travellers. Treehotel, located in Harads about 60 km south of the Arctic Circle, will consist of four rooms when it opens on July 17th: the Cabin, the Blue Cone, the Nest and the Mirrorcube. Two additional structures are scheduled to open in October - the UFO and A Room With a View

Futurama's New York City Takes Lego Form

Hurricane Alex churns through the Gulf of Mexico, towards the Mexico-Texas border, bypassing the massive BP oil spill

Israel agreed to sell South Africa nuclear weapons.

More than that, it makes any aid America gives Israel illegal. If Israel is nuclear, which is now official, and in violation of international treaties, just as with Iraq and Iran, then America has to demand inspections and disarmament. There is no choice. This is the law. Law for Iran, law for Iraq is also law for Israel. Israel has expected this day for years.

I want ordinary, "decent", "intelligent" Americans to see the unprovoked murder of even one innocent person as an intolerable outrage; then I want them to understand that their country has murdered millions upon millions of innocent people, not just at one time and in one place but repeatedly, all over the world, for decades. And I want them to realize that their chant of "USA!! USA!!" is -- for the rest of the world -- the most obscene of non-violent gestures.

India's Bollywood cinema, known for its exuberant song-and-dance sequences and romantic plots, is to explore new territory with a satire on Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

The movie, "Tere bin Laden" (Without you, Laden), is a story set in Pakistan about a young reporter who seeks to migrate to the United States in search of fame and fortune.

The reporter, played by Pakistani actor-singer Ali Zafar, is denied entry and his visa rejected after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

Chris McVeigh captured these new images of wild chipmunks in hilarious situations with action figures from the Star Wars saga. The all-new series improves on Chris' previous creations using the rodents in his parents' garden and his old toys

Seven Days In May - Trailer,1964
...a Pentagon insider, United States Marine Corps Colonel Martin "Jiggs" Casey, becomes aware of a conspiracy among the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) led by his own superior officer, the charismatic Air Force General James Mattoon Scott. He uncovers a shocking secret: Scott and his JCS cohorts, Colonel Broderick, Colonel Murdock and Gen. Hardesty, along with allies in the United States Congress led by Sen. Frederick Prentice and influential media personality Harold McPherson, are plotting to stage a coup d'etat to remove President Lyman and his cabinet seven days hence.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Days_in_May

H/T to Author Gilad Atzmon

"As the rest of the world is becoming aware of Israel being an outlaw terrorist state, the Hasbara jokers in Tel Aviv are determined to save their doomed State by the means of ‘Jewish humour’.

Two weeks ago they circulated We Con the World , a ‘satire’ on the Mavi Marmara ‘terrorist clan’. It backfired immediately. Israel was quick to apologise. At the end of the day, the Mavi Marama was a peaceful humanitarian mission. It was attacked by murderous Kosher pirates in high seas.

At first glance, it looks like a giant child armed with a box of crayons has been set loose upon the landscape. Vivid stripes of purple, yellow, red, pink, orange and green make up a glorious technicolour patchwork. Yet far from being a child’s sketchbook, this is, in fact, the northern Netherlands in the middle of the tulip season.With more than 10,000 hectares devoted to the cultivation of these delicate flowers, the Dutch landscape in May is a kaleidoscope of giddy colours as the tulips burst into life. The bulbs were planted in late October and early November, and these colourful creations are now ready to be picked and sold as bunches of cut flowers in florists and supermarkets.

Google is not a conventional company. We do not intend to become one.” So began the “letter from the founders” penned by Sergey Brin and Larry Page in the company’s securities registration form in 2004. Despite ever-increasing commercial success since that date, Brin and Page have kept to their word.

H/T Lew Rockwell blog..... "In 1946, a movie was made in Hollywood about returning World War II veterans called The Best Years of Our Lives. It eventually went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Here’s an interesting scene from the movie where a man tells a wounded vet that the war was fought for a lie. Of course, in this scene, the man is considered “unpatriotic” and “evil.” (I guess the man telling the truth didn’t understand that billionaire banking families have to make a living too.)"

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) was injured by a mohair goat on Thursday during a press conference to highlight subsidies to the mohair industry.

Clever animals cross road in hidden tunnel to avoid being flattened by traffic

Amateur wildlife photographer Paul Bunyard captured the shots while driving on his way to work in Rugby, Warwickshire.

Iron Man spoof featuring baby girl becomes YouTube sensation
A video of a baby girl dressed as Iron Man has become an internet sensation after the child's filmmaker father posted the clip on YouTube.

The parody short film was directed by Margaret's father Patrick Boivin, who is a self-taught filmmaker and former comic book creator from Montreal.

*hyperlinks and video live at source*

Faith in religion or spiritual justice ends fear. When a human being declares a loving God who has command of Life, then there is literally nothing to fear. This is equally true if one declares karma is a law.

Therefore, growing in spiritual strength and eliminating fear go hand-in-hand.

Spiritual strength and embracing factual reality also go hand-in-hand in almost everyone’s vision. I understand the facts I present (among hundreds of writers) shine light upon fear-evoking reality of unlawful US wars and “leaders” who intentionally collapse our economy; conclusions self-evident from this academic paper, “Open proposal to higher education,” and my citizen paper, “Government by dicts.”

The Pixies band's decision to call off its Tel Aviv concert, which was scheduled to take place this Wednesday, has sparked a row in the local music industry. The British band followed in the footsteps of artists Santana and Elvis Costello, who canceled their gigs in Israel for political reasons as well.

Ever since the cancellation was announced Sunday morning, thousands of Israeli surfers have been posting angry messages on the band's Facebook page, saying that the group members "should be ashamed of themselves" and slamming the band for "supporting terror".

Cancellation comes on the heels of cancellations by Klaxons and Gorillaz Sound System in wake of Gaza flotilla raid.

German firm Medien Patent Verwaltung claims that in 2003, it revealed a new kind of anti-piracy technology to Warner Bros. that marks films with specific codes so pirated copies can be traced back to their theaters of origin. But like a great, hilariously-ironic DRM Ouroborus, the company claims that Warner began using the system throughout Europe in 2004 but hasn't actually paid a dime for it.

Igor Vovkovinskiy - 7'8.33" (234.5 cm)

Igor Vovkovinskiy (Igor Ladan). came to Rochester, Minnesota when he was 7 years old. At that time, in 1989 he was already about 6 feet tall and weighed 200 pounds.

Igor and his mother Svetlana Ladan arrived in America 3 weeks before the operation after she waged a world-wide letter writing campaign from her native city of Kiev to find a treatment for her son.

Igor Vovkovinskiy became well known as the world's biggest Obama supporter.

On 18 May 2010 he was measured at 7'8.33" (234.5 cm) and took the record for tallest man in the US.

The Playmobil hotel, theme park and factory in Germany

1. "Money couldn't buy friends, but you got a better class of enemy." —Spike Milligan

2. "I made $970,000 last year. How much you make? You see, pal, that's who I am, and you're nothing." —Alec Baldwin, Glengarry Glen Ross

3. "If you can actually count your money, then you are not really a rich man." —J. Paul Getty
4. "If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free. If our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed." —Edmund Burke

from the backfiring... dept

We see nearly identical stories every six months or so, but Chris Curvey has sent in the latest involving the various US collection societies -- ASCAP, BMI and SESAC threatening a little coffee shop into canceling all live music, after demanding a performance license, despite the fact that the coffee shop only has local, unsigned bands playing, with a promise that they won't play any cover songs.

It Is After Considerable Contemplation….

I have lately arrived at the decision that I must withdraw from the two performances scheduled in Israel on the 30th of June and the 1st of July.

One lives in hope that music is more than mere noise, filling up idle time, whether intending to elate or lament.

Then there are occasions when merely having your name added to a concert schedule may be interpreted as a political act that resonates more than anything that might be sung and it may be assumed that one has no mind for the suffering of the innocent.

Rima Fakih of Dearborn, Michigan, won the pageant at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip after strutting confidently in an orange and gold bikini, wearing a strapless white gown and saying health insurance should cover birth control pills.

While it is though Miss Fakih is the first Middle Eastern woman to take the title, pagent officials said historical records were not detailed enough to show whether Miss Fakih was the first Arab American, Muslim or immigrant to win the Miss USA title. The pageant started in 1952 as a local bathing suit competition in Long Beach, California.

Buying and file sharing also turned out to go hand in hand. Music sharers ended up being just as likely to buy music as other people: 68% of file sharers also purchase music. File sharers buy as much music as non-file sharers. However, file sharers spend more money on merchandise and go to concerts significantly more frequently.

As for films, file sharers turn out to buy significantly more DVDs than nonfile sharers. On average, file sharers and non-file sharers go to the cinema equally often. Game sharers also buy games, and significantly more frequently too.

Wealthy men increase their likelihood of being overweight with every extra dollar they make, a new Canadian study has claimed.

The study, led by Nathalie Dumas, a graduate student at the University of Montreal Department of Sociology, presented the finding at the annual conference of the Association francophone pour le savoir (ACFAS).

"Women aren''t spared by this correlation, but results are ambiguous," says Dumas. "However, women from rich households are less likely to be obese than women of middle or lower income."

Digital Camera Photographer of the Year 2010: recent entries

It cannot be transferred from person to person.

Imagine, if you can stand to, a world in which the entire population has succumbed to Hannitization, and you'll capture the dystopian future depicted in the 2006 cult film Idiocracy.

The fictional future America (written and pronounced "Uhhmerica") of the year 2505 is inhabited by torpid, barely ambulatory imbeciles, in large measure because of a quasi-Malthusian population imbalance: Smart people, according to the film, reproduce arithmetically, but dimwits multiply like tribbles. The result is what Huxley's Brave New World would have been had it been populated exclusively by Epsilon-minus Semi-Morons.

If you do go ahead with this performance, please make sure that, when you sing in that stadium, you sing loud enough for the Gazans to hear you in their open air prison only 40 miles away.

Some of the Gazans may not even hear you no matter how loud you sing, because they have been made deaf and dumb as a result of Israel’s deadly ” Operation Cast Lead.”

The following letter was sent recorded delivery to Elton John via the following contacts:

Read More: http://mycatbirdseat.com/2010/05/dear-elton-john/

Spectacular Old New York Images (130 pics)

HEY ELTON Cancel Your Concert in Israel

by Canadian filmmaker John Greyson

Palestinian civil society has called on Elton John to respect their boycott
call and cancel his June 17th concert in Tel Aviv. If he does so, he’ll be
joining Santana and Gil-Scott Heron, who recently cancelled their spring
concerts in Israel. This video suggests six reasons why Elton should join
the BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) movement.

PLEASE WATCH HERE: http://mycatbirdseat.com/2010/05/john-greyson-hey-elton/

The AT&T USA Diving Grand Prix in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in pictures
Wu Shengping (left) and Zhu Jiaming (right) of China compete in the women's synchronised platform final at the AT&T USA Diving Grand Prix in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. They went on to win their competition

The AT&T USA Diving Grand Prix in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in pictures
Wu Shengping (left) and Zhu Jiaming (right) of China compete in the women's synchronised platform final at the AT&T USA Diving Grand Prix in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. They went on to win their competition

Racial strife is often exacerbated unnecessarily by globalists forces who, though seeking to integrate North America regionally, divide & conquer the population by playing upon ethnic tensions. For a violent film to use such a backdrop to glorify and potentially incite violent attacks on white Americans over the immigration issue is very dangerous, and Alex urges the film’s director to carefully consider the impact such an extreme statement could have. Though the movie screen is an escapist dimension where sex & violence are commonplace, ‘Machete‘ ties it into a racially motivated issue spurned by anti-illegal immigration rhetoric– and that may be taking things a bit too far.

Oz the snow monkey learns to swim
Oz the snow monkey was born 11 months ago at Central Park Zoo in New York
However, little Oz wasn't too sure of the wet stuff to begin with and needed a little gentle persuasion from mum to join in the watery fun

Iceland 2010 (100 Pics)

Gilad Atzmon reviews Elia Suleiman’s film, “The time that remains”, which depicts the struggle in Palestine between the Jewish colonial settler population and the indigenous Palestinians, contrasting the alienness of the colonists with the harmony between the indigenous population and the land.

“We are Wall Street. It’s our job to make money. Whether it’s a commodity, stock, bond, or some hypothetical piece of fake paper, it doesn’t matter. We would trade baseball cards if it were profitable.....

Go ahead and continue to take us down, but you’re only going to hurt yourselves. What’s going to happen when we can’t find jobs on the Street anymore? Guess what: We’re going to take yours. .... We eat what we kill, and when the only thing left to eat is on your dinner plates, we’ll eat that.

....Our money was your money. You spent it. When our money dries up, so does yours..... We aren’t dinosaurs. We are smarter and more vicious than that, and we are going to survive. The question is, now that Obama & his administration are making Joe Mainstreet our food supply…will he? and will they?”

Sheesh.

Royal Observatory, Greenwich, London

If getting out of the city really isn't an option, the wonder of the night sky can still be appreciated. The Peter Harrison Planetarium in Greenwich is one option, or you could also try the National Space Centre in Leicester.

1. Manure Inspector : In spite of the fact that this job entails inspecting mounds of manure, these men and women actually serve a purpose. Analyzing the feces of livestock helps to ensure that the food supply is free of disease and contaminants.

2. Crime Scene Cleaner : Whenever a grisly murder or suicide takes place, someone has to mop up the blood, bone fragments, and other human bits after the police have collected their evidence.

Fairies, Lifelike Sculptures
Extraordinary Measures: fairies, lifelike sculptures and tiny tourists at Belsay Hall in Northumberland
A new exhibition of contemporary artists called Extraordinary Measures will go on display to the public on May 1 at Belsay Hall, near Newcastle Upon Tyne. An artist who calls himself Slinkachu placed miniature figures around the grounds of Belsay, such as these tiny people under a bench..

Didn't know there was a category for hoax.

In the most lopsided home-video victory in recent memory, "Avatar" catapulted to the top of all three national video charts during its first week in stores.

The top-grossing theatrical film of all time sold 6.7 million units in its first four days of release, 2.7 million of them on Blu-ray Disc.

According to the Nielsen VideoScan First Alert sales chart, the next biggest-selling release of the week was "Crazy Heart," which sold just 5 percent as many copies as "Avatar," followed by "The Lovely Bones," which finished at No. 3 with 2.9 percent of "Avatar's" sales.
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The video that won the Acadamy Award (what was it called? something about hurt) was a no show.

This proves the Academy Awards is nothing but a biased crock of Bull Sh!t.

A clever look back at old video games.

A collaboration among the well-worth-your-browsing Chicago Public Radio Station This American Life, the entirely awesome journalism-the-way-it-oughta-be ProPublica and the NPR blog Planet Money.

Gilad Atzmon reviews Roman Polanski’s film, “The Ghost Writer”, noting the similarities between the fictional former British prime minister in the film, Adam Lang, and suspected war criminal Tony Blair, as well as some crucial differences, such as the absence of Zionists and Israel lobbyists in the film who in fact played a key role in Blair’s government.

High holiday: Marijuana smokers across the US and Canada light up to celebrate 4/20 Day
Marijuana smokers across the US and Canada lit up yesterday in public parks and outside statehouses to observe the movement's annual high holiday, known as 4/20

A demonstrator who shaved a marijuana leaf into his chest hair smokes a joint on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada

Pink Floyd’s sound and light shows in the 1960s defined psychedelia, but their later recordings combined rock, orchestral music, literature, and philosophy. Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall ignored pop music’s usual strictures to focus on themes of madness, despair, brutality, and alienation. Here, 16 scholars set delve into the heart of Pink Floyd by examining ideas, concepts, and problems usually encountered not in a rock band’s lyrics but in the pages of Heidegger, Foucault, and Sartre. These include the meaning of existence, the individual’s place in society, the contradictions of art and commerce, and the blurry line between genius and madness.

She may be 78, frail and confined to a wheelchair in public, but Dame Elizabeth Taylor may be heading down the aisle again soon - for the ninth time.

Hollywood was buzzing with speculation yesterday that the British-born screen legend has secretly become engaged to an American nearly 30 years her junior.

The latest man in Dame Elizabeth's life is talent manager Jason Winters, 49, of Sterling Winters Management, who recently added Janet Jackson to his client roster.

Sumo wrestlers perform at a ceremonial spring festival at the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo

Lev. 25:44 states that I may indeed possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can't I own Canadians?

Not for the faint of heart. Somewhat bent. Certainly will not appeal to all.

If you easily offended by something as tame as the Bugs Bunny Road Runner Hour, do NOT watch.
And don't complain when you do.

Pope on a Rope - by The Meat Men

BTW the poop gave this one a three thumbs up.

I turn on the television and look at the talking heads telling us what to think, what to wear, what to believe and what to say and and I see the pedicures, manicures, 200 dollar hair cuts, 1000 dollar suits, protected by body guards all the while trying to CONvince us they are like we are and I just want to choke the living shit out of the likes of Sean Hannity, Bill O'rielly, Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh on and on to what must be infinity and it really pisses me off, but I don't know.. I Must be Weird.

It is easy to discover, beneath the politically correct themes (an honest white guy siding with ecologically sound aborigines against the “military-industrial complex” of the imperialist invaders), an array of brutal racist motifs: a paraplegic outcast from earth is good enough to get the hand of abeautiful local princess, and to help the natives win the decisive battle. The film teaches us that the only choice the aborigines have is to be saved by the human beings or to be destroyed by them. In other words, they can choose either to be the victim of imperialist reality, or to play their allotted role in the white man’s fantasy.

OK, we have seen the evil side of the church. But that evil is everywhere ...

A company called Party City must be run by pedophiles.
Here are some of its costume options for girls:

(Judge for yourself. Would you send your daughter out in one of these costumes?)

Passengers on board a flight to the Caribbean were amazed to see this huge plume of ash shoot up into the sky below them.

The explosion of the Soufrière Hills volcano, on the island of Montserrat, sent a cloud bellowing up to 40,000ft.

The stunning spectacle was first spotted by the pilot of a plane travelling to the island of St Lucia.

He immediately alerted his passengers who dashed to the side of the 737 jet to catch a glimpse.

For 30 minutes every day a pair of the zoo's six Bengal and Siberian tigers take to the 50 foot pool for fun and games.

Aston Powell, who works with the animals, said the activities bring variation to their lives in captivity.

She said: "It might look crazy from the outside, but these tigers love what they are doing as it comes naturally.

"To be honest if a 47 stone tiger doesn't want to play like this, there's not much we could do to make him.

We talked at length about the subject of the “new media” and the growing influence and power of social media within society. See your Who Rules America, Web-based 2.0 transcript for more on that. Big news today across the country was that last week Facebook surpassed Google as the most visited website in the United States...

Candid pictures of John Lennon which have never been seen in public have been found after being kept hidden in a photographer's drawer for more than 40 years.

Avatar gives a really good look at the personalities and objectives of these Real Americans as well as the corporate interests that finance them. At some point, in the not too distant past, control of the American military shifted into the hands of the corporations. It’s obvious that neo-con Hollywood did not like what James Cameron was projecting about the American Way. So they got into a huddle somewhere over the last year and decided to press for support for The Hurt Locker which shows American soldiers doing a hard and necessary job, eliminating the citizens of foreign lands on whose soil they have no business being.

When I saw Avatar I said to myself, “Yeah, that’s how it is”. When I saw The Hurt Locker I must not have seen much of anything because I can’t remember it. Maybe I should have gone back and seen it again before I wrote this but I didn’t feel like it. Apparently The Hurt Locker only grossed 14,000,000 dollars. You can be sure it’s going to gross a lot more now.