Come on in and talk. Or drop off one of your random bursts of verbal energy -- poem, limerick, story, top ten list, clerihew, essay, alliterative poem, rant, Surrealist or or Dadaist poem, parody, cento, dirty joke, amusing syllepsis, haiku, dirty haiku . . . to share.
About pranks and hijinks,
musings and mutterings.
And the door is open all night.
Science Daily reports that "palaeontologists have discovered fossil remains in Scandinavia of parrots dating back 55 million years." Pinin for the FEE-ords no doubt.
Net denizens have been deliciously amused by the story of a substitute teacher who claims he was fired for "wizardry" in Florida for making a toothpick disappear. This is certainly the only interesting part of the story and I can see why "weird news" types limit their coverage to the sub's allegations, but it is his word against the supervisor's:
Assistant Superintendent Renalia DuBose denied the district ever used the word wizardry in its dealings with Piculas and said the magic trick was far down the list of reasons the sub is not being asked back.
The district said in a letter to Piculas that he was being let go because he did not follow lesson plans, allowed students to use computers despite being told not to by another teacher, and he left a student in charge during his fifth-period class. (c) UPI
http://view.break.com/502351 - Watch more free videos
Via Across-the-Board
Come on in and talk. Or drop off one of your random bursts of verbal energy -- poem, limerick, story, top ten list, clerihew, essay, alliterative poem, rant, Surrealist or or Dadaist poem, parody, cento, dirty joke, amusing syllepsis, haiku, dirty haiku . . . to share.
About pranks and hijinks,
musings and mutterings.
And the door is open all night.
The BBC reports on a bust of Julius Caesar, completed while he was still alive, and dropped in the Rhone after he was assassinated:
Divers in France have found the oldest known bust of Roman dictator Julius Caesar at the bottom of the River Rhone, officials have said.
The marble bust was found near Arles, which was founded by Caesar.
France's culture ministry said the bust was from 46BC, the date of the southern town's foundation. . . .
Luc Long, the archaeologist who directed the excavations, said all the busts of Caesar in Rome were posthumous.
A group of republican senators assassinated Caesar in 44BC.
"I suspect the bust was thrown in the river after he was assassinated because it would not have been good at that time to be considered a follower of his," said Mr Long.
Julius Caesar was called, by his opponents, the Queen of Bithynia, since he was believed to have lost his virginity to the King thereof. He was also said to be "a husband to every wife and a wife to every husband." But who knew he looked that much like Mickey Rourke?
Come on in and talk. Or drop off one of your random bursts of verbal energy -- poem, limerick, story, top ten list, clerihew, essay, alliterative poem, rant, Surrealist or or Dadaist poem, parody, cento, dirty joke, amusing syllepsis, haiku, dirty haiku . . . to share.
About pranks and hijinks,
musings and mutterings.
And the door is open all night.
Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States reports (via Gimcrack):
Throughout Indonesia, a majority of women regularly engage in a number of practices to "clean," "dry," "tighten," or "deodorize" their vaginas. These practices derive from longstanding traditions designed to achieve conformity with expectations about the appearance, function, and sexual performance of the vagina. These are rooted in a widespread belief that "tight sex" or "dry sex"-vaginal intercourse without any or with minimal lubrication in the vagina-is more pleasurable for men and gender norms that require women to "please" men. . . .
The traditional preparations are called jamu and are sold throughout the nation, either as raw products in the market, or in commercially manufactured packets sold in supermarkets or small shops. Jamu is a combination of herbs and roots in the form of fresh or dried leaves, seeds, roots, or bark, often crushed into powder and prepared with hot water, honey, and lime juice.
Among the Javanese and Sundanese, and many other ethnic groups, a bride is prepared for the nuptials by a professional wedding dresser ( tukang pais ). There is no standard way of preparation, but jamu is typically used to reduce vaginal odors and any "excessive" secretions. Occasionally, the dresser will advise the bride to undergo a special pre-wedding beauty treatment. At a beauty salon or spa, the bride might have her vagina "smoked," by sitting on a chair with a whole in the middle over a charcoal fire on which special herbs are placed to create a fragrant steam.
Because of the common belief that sexual pleasure, especially men's sexual pleasure, relies on friction, married women are often anxious about having an "excessively moist" vagina. A large proportion of women wash the outer genitalia with a betel leaf solution, purported to clean and dry the vagina, when they practice the routine washing cebok . Betel leaf solution is now commercially packed in the form of moistened tissues or liquid soaps and shampoos. Many women have also started using Jamu Sari Rapat (literarily means the essence of tightness ) or other jamu products that promise to tighten and dry the vagina. . . .
The most recent innovation of jamu products is Tongkat Madura, a calcium carbonate rod about 15 cm in length and 3 cm wide that is inserted into the vagina to absorb fluid or vagina discharge and then rinsed and reused. This product is now available across Indonesia , and even in markets of neighboring countries. The advertisement for Tongkat Madura on an Internet site states that it "is made from traditional herbs and is especially formulated to deodorize, tighten and cleanse the vagina." Interviews with women who have used the device indicate that it is sometimes abrasive.
Here's how the tongkat madura is advertised:
The Jamu herbal stick has been widely used in Indonesian traditional medicine for more than three centuries. It is prescribed for the noble woman who faces intense competitive pressure among the courtesans to retain the favor of the head of the household. The formula is closely guarded and handed down from the family line. Today, it is an effective natural remedy for the many discomforts of the modern woman.
Kinda looks like a styptic pencil, doesn't it?
Arabic is being used less frequently in the Gulf, because of the increasing population of foreigners in these countries, and is in danger of vanishing, a sociology expert says.
In most Gulf countries today the majority of the population is made up of foreigners who have come there to seek employment and they do not speak Arabic.
In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), for example, fewer than 20 percent of the four-million-strong population are Emiratis, while the rest hail from other countries, with more than 1.5 million from India alone.
“There is a big concern in this country about the death of Arabic as a language and the death of Arabic culture,” says Muhammad Aboelenein, chairman of the sociology department at the UAE University.
Some argue that Arabic will never die because it is the language of the Quran, the holy book of Islam, and Muslims are very keen to preserve their Islamic traditions, he adds.
“However, others are concerned about the diversity of languages and cultures in the UAE, to the extent that Arabic might fade away and will be replaced by English, as the international language in which almost everybody can communicate,” he told The Media Line.
“There is real concern among politicians and educators about what will happen with the language over the next few years if the situation continues, with more people coming here speaking different languages.”
News reports suggest that restaurants in Dubai have been warned they must provide menus in Arabic as well as in English.
These noble Romans are the Severans. The father in the portrait is Septimius Severus, who ruled as emperor with his two sons, Caracalla and Geta -- the boy with no face. When Septimius died in 211 the fraternal sharing stopped. Caracalla had his brother murdered and his image officially removed from all public works of art -- a process called damnatio memoriae.
Come on in and talk. Or drop off one of your random bursts of verbal energy -- poem, limerick, story, top ten list, clerihew, essay, alliterative poem, rant, Surrealist or or Dadaist poem, parody, cento, dirty joke, amusing syllepsis, haiku, dirty haiku . . . to share.
About pranks and hijinks,
musings and mutterings.
And the door is open all night.
Come on in and talk. Or drop off one of your random bursts of verbal energy -- poem, limerick, story, top ten list, clerihew, essay, alliterative poem, rant, Surrealist or or Dadaist poem, parody, cento, dirty joke, amusing syllepsis, haiku, dirty haiku . . . to share.
About pranks and hijinks,
musings and mutterings.
And the door is open all night.
The Island Packet (Hilton Head SC) reports:
Sixteen people who fed, kissed and held a baby raccoon on Hilton Head Island now are being treated by a physician after the animal tested positive for rabies.
Twenty of their pets are under quarantine for 45 days, said Clair Boatwright, spokeswoman for the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control.
There also are seven more people who might need vaccines to prevent them from contracting the disease, she said.
Via Field Notes
