Andrew Tobias: Crazy Drug Stories
In a world of limited resources, how do we get to a better balance of cost and results for our healthcare system? Does it make sense to spend a fortune on drugs that add little or nothing in terms of efficacy? That's the important question. And it leads to questions like: should Medicare be allowed to negotiate drug prices?
The Majestic Beauty of Quebec City's Ice Hotel (Geeks are Sexy)
I'll start the picture gallery by showing you photos of some of the hotel's beautiful specially-themed rooms, which makes the experience of sleeping there so magical for many visitors. Please note that these rooms are entirely made from ice and snow, nothing else… apart from the mattress and lighting, of course!
Robert T. Gonzalez: Stop Pretending You Enjoy Bad Sex (io9)
A newly published study on people's perceptions of sexual satisfaction in committed, heterosexual relationships reveals that men and women are both surprisingly good at estimating their partners' contentment (or lack thereof) with their sex life.
The Manx Rumpy, also called the Rumpless Game, is a breed of chicken which lacks a tail and rump. Unlike the Manx cat and tailless poultry that were common on the Isle of Man in 1871, the Manx Rumpy did not actually originate on the island, but was so named because of its resemblance to the Manx cat, which also lacks a tail. Manx Rumpies are a very old breed from the Persian Gulf - their first name in English was the Persian Rumpless - but they are rare in the West.
A relatively light-weight fowl, males weigh 5.5 pounds (2.5 kilos) and hens weigh 4.5 pounds (2 kilos). Manx Rumpy hens are good layers of brown eggs, and may also occasionally lay white, blue, or green eggs. They do have a tendency toward broodiness, but the breed's fertility is generally low.
Source
Marian was first, and correct, with:
chicken
Lois On The Green Acre Of Oregon said:
Well, dag nab it, we been keepin' chickens fer neigh on to
forty year now, AND subscribing to the Murry McMurry's
Hatchery catalog, and ain't never heard of no buttless birds
named Manx Rumpless a-fer! It seems these critters is born
without a Pope's Nose, if'n you can believe that! Ya'll know
what a Pope's nose it doncha? It's that protuberance right
above the aperture that all that shit comes outta, apologies
to Mr. Francis, who seems to be a right nice man. Anyways,
I'd better go pass out now, it's getten a might late.
P.S. to Joe: In your grandma's day eight kids wasn't a lot
'cause of attrition, what with the dinosaurs eating 'em and
what not. Ha ha! Old People Jokes!
Deborah wrote:
A Manx Rumpy is a chicken without a tail and rump. Very odd-looking bird.
Congrats on nearly 900 days of keeping the page fresh! You inspire me to be consistent.
Adam answered:
A taileds cat? No...a tailess chicken
Charlie replied:
My first guess was it must be a cat, but it seems it is a chicken.
I do love cats, but I'm not so much into chickens (and I don't eat them).
Lois, I think we agree on what Dr. Sagan's intentions were, but I still think The Ascent of Man was the better science series. Let's not let a minor disagreement on a couple of shows interfere with our enjoyment of the new one.
Jim from CA, retired to ID, responded:
The Manx Rumpy is a breed of chicken which lacks a tail and rump.
Sally said:
Although tailless, the "Rumpy Max" is a desired show cat!
I like cats and all, but this guy is butt-ass ugly... (As I'm sure lovely Lois would agree...)
PS: @Professor Charlie, I completely agree with you about the explosive population growth! My question is, why isn't anyone in office speaking out about the problem?
Hello? It's a matter of recourses, you know??
Dale of Springy Diamond Springs, answered:
Chicken. Here's a cock and a hen. Hmmmmm? More Cocks & Hens. See how the cocks are better looking than the hens! Yet all the cocks think about is getting some hen!
How about dat!
DJ Useo, responded:
Lemme think now. Don't rush me. I remember they're soft and furry.
They lap at milk, don't they? Ha! I got it! A goat!. No, wait... a cat!
I was raised with dogs, so I thought I preferred them, but my wife wanted cats,
and I've found them to be great companions. Very smart.
BttbBob said:
Cabin fever strikes! 50º today and I'm makin' an impromptu overnight road trip.
Be back tomorrow... unless I get captured by a college girl's hockey team...
(It's a fantasy of mine - It could happen, ya know!)
March 15 Birthdays - Celebrities Born March 15 | Famous Birthdays
MAM wrote:
Breed of chicken which lacks a tail and rump. named because of its resemblance to the Manx cat, which also lacks a tail. Manx Rumpies are
a very old breed from the Persian Gulf - their first name in English was the Persian Rumpless.
CBS begins the night with the FRESH'Summer Dreams', followed by '48 Hours'.
NBC opens the night with 'Dateline Saturday Night Mystery', followed by a RERUN'Believe'.
'SNL' is a RERUN, with Drake.
ABC starts the night with a RERUN'Castle', folloewd by 'Nightline Prime', then '20/20'.
The CW offers the Disney-sponsored-infomercial 'Best Vacations', followed by an old '2½ Men', then another old '2½ Men', followed by an old 'Family Guy'.
Faux has a RERUN'Cosmos', followed by a RERUN'The Following'.
MY has an old 'Burn Notice', followed by another old 'Burn Notice'.
A&E has 'Storage Wars', another 'Storage Wars', 'Flipping Vegas', another 'Flipping Vegas', followed by a FRESH'Flipping Vegas'.
AMC offers the movie 'Rocky II', followed by the movie 'Rocky III', then the movie 'Rocky IV'.
BBC -
[6:00AM] RAMSAY'S KITCHEN NIGHTMARES UK - Season 1 - Ep 4 - Moore Place
[7:00AM] RAMSAY'S KITCHEN NIGHTMARES UK - Season 4 - Ep 4 - The Fish and Anchor
[8:00AM] RAMSAY'S KITCHEN NIGHTMARES REVISITED US - Season 2 - Ep 1 - Revisited: Santa La Brea, Giuseppi's
[9:00AM] RAMSAY'S KITCHEN NIGHTMARES US - Season 3 - Ep 3 - Bazzini
[10:00AM] TOP GEAR - Season 13 - Episode 5
[11:00AM] TOP GEAR - Season 13 - Episode 6
[12:00PM] TOP GEAR - Season 21 - Episode 5
[1:00PM] DOCTOR WHO - Season 6 - Ep 12 - Closing Time
[2:00PM] DOCTOR WHO - Season 6 - Ep 13 - The Wedding of River Song
[3:00PM] DOCTOR WHO: THE DOCTOR, THE WIDOW AND THE WARDROBE
[4:00PM] DOCTOR WHO - Season 7 - Ep 1 - Aslyum of the Daleks
[5:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 5 - Ep 2 - Darmok
[6:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 5 - Ep 3 - Ensign Ro
[7:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 5 - Ep 4 - Silicon Avatar
[8:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 5 - Ep 5 - Disaster
[9:00PM] RIPPER STREET - Season 2 - Ep 4 - Dynamite and a WomanNEW
[10:15PM] BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA
[12:45AM] RIPPER STREET - Season 2 - Ep 4 - Dynamite and a Woman
[2:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 5 - Ep 2 - Darmok
[3:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 5 - Ep 3 - Ensign Ro
[4:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 5 - Ep 4 - Silicon Avatar
[5:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 5 - Ep 5 - Disaster (ALL TIMES EST)
Bravo has 'Real Housewives Of Atlanta', followed by the movie 'The Fast & The Furious'.
Comedy Central has the movie 'American Pie 2', followed by the movie 'Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World'.
FX has the movie 'Wanted', followed by the movie 'Taken', then the movie 'Underworld: Awakening'.
IFC -
[6:00AM] Whitest Kids U'Know
[6:15AM] Enter the Dragon
[8:30AM] The Three Stooges-Rhythm & Weep
[8:55AM] The Three Stooges-Sing a Song of Six Pants
[9:20AM] The Three Stooges-Termites of 1938
[9:45AM] The Three Stooges-Three Little Pigskins
[10:10AM] The Three Stooges-Three Little Pirates
[10:35AM] The Three Stooges-Three Lone Wolves
[11:00AM] Portlandia-Celery
[11:30AM] Portlandia-Catnap
[12:00PM] Enter the Dragon
[2:15PM] The English Patient
[5:45PM] Company of Heroes
[8:00PM] No Country for Old Men
[10:45PM] No Country for Old Men
[1:30AM] Eyes Wide Shut
[5:00AM] Portlandia-Catnap
[5:30AM] Portlandia-Celery (ALL TIMES EST)
Sundance -
[6:00AM] Waiting for Guffman
[7:45AM] Brothers
[10:00AM] Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
[12:15PM] Synecdoche, New York
[3:00PM] Law & Order-Burned
[4:00PM] Law & Order-Ritual
[5:00PM] Law & Order-Under the Influence
[6:00PM] Law & Order-Expert
[7:00PM] Law & Order-Castoff
[8:00PM] Law & Order-Grief
[9:00PM] Martha Marcy May Marlene
[11:15PM] Hard Eight
[1:30AM] The People vs. Larry Flynt
[4:15AM] Cry Baby (ALL TIMES EST)
SyFy has the movie 'I, Robot', followed by the movie 'The Day After Tomorrow'.
This March 13, 2014 photo released by Starpix shows Sheila Nevins, left, Maria Shriver, center, and Gloria Steinem at the premiere of the documentary "Paycheck to Paycheck: The Life & Times of Katrina Gilbert," in New York. The film, executive produced by Shriver and Nevins, will air on March 17 at 9:00p.m. EST on HBO.
Photo by Dave Allocca
As Led Zeppelin once promised, the song remains the same - but this time they're throwing in a few extras. This summer, the group is reissuing their first three albums as deluxe editions packed with previously unreleased goodies.
It's the first installment in what the band describes as an "extensive reissue program" of its nine studio albums that have been remastered by guitarist and producer Jimmy Page. Moreover, each record will come out as a single-disc remastered album or as a "Deluxe Edition" with a bonus disc of previously unreleased studio and live tracks that the group recorded around the time of the album. The new versions of Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin II and Led Zeppelin III will all hit stores on June 3rd.
The albums will each be available in a variety of formats, including single CD, two-disc deluxe edition, single LP on 180-gram vinyl (with a sleeve that replicates the original Led Zeppelin III moving wheel), deluxe-edition vinyl and digital download. The group is also putting out a limited-edition "Super Deluxe Boxed Set" of each album that includes all of the audio on CD and vinyl, as well as a high-definition audio download card, a hard-bound book containing rare and previously unseen photos and memorabilia and a high-quality print of the album cover, the first 30,000 of which will be numbered. The Super Deluxe edition of Led Zeppelin will also contain a replica of the band's original Atlantic press kit.
The deluxe edition of the group's 1969 debut, Led Zeppelin, will feature a concert recording of the group's October 10th, 1969, gig at the Olympia in Paris. The nine-song set list included seven cuts from the album, along with two songs the band would put out on Led Zeppelin II later that month, "Heartbreaker" and "Moby Dick." The group performed a 15-minute version of "Dazed and Confused" at that concert.
Cast member Samuel L. Jackson takes a selfie at the premiere of "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" at El Capitan theatre in Hollywood, California March 13, 2014. The movie opens in the U.S. on April 4.
Photo by Mario Anzuoni
From the Golden Age Toro to Ultimate Human Torch, characters sprung from Marvel Entertainment are as varied as the people who read, watch, listen and even play them in video games.
The publisher of Marvel Comics is focusing on its panoply of characters, enlisting writers, artists, editors and historians to build a sprawling digital and interactive timeline that showcases the famous, the infamous and the obscure heroes, villains and others.
The endeavor is part of Marvel's celebration of its 75th anniversary, said editor-in-chief Axel Alonso, and to make people aware of more than marquee names like Captain America or Spider-Man.
The site, which goes live in April, features interactive timelines, interviews with classic writers and artists - including Stan Lee and Roy Thomas - along with contemporary ones like Dan Slott, Kelly Sue DeConnick and Brian Michael Bendis, among others.
TNT unveiled its summer slate on Friday, announcing that it would air 10 original series - which, the network claims, is a record for basic cable.
In addition to returning series "Rizzoli & Isles," "Dallas" and "Franklin & Bash," the network's summer slate will include the new crime drama, "Murder in the First," from executive producer Steven Bochco ("NYPD Blue," "Cop Rock"). The series will focus on one intense, complicated case across an entire season.
The summer lineup will kick off on June 9 at 9 p.m. with the Season 3 premiere of "Major Crimes."
Math lovers celebrate today yesterday (3/14) as Pi Day, in honor of the irrational number pi.
Pi, or ?, is defined as the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. Pi is an irrational number, meaning it cannot be written as a simple fraction. Instead, it can be expressed as an infinite, nonrepeating decimal (3.14159…) or approximated as the fraction 22/7.
Here are some nerdy facts about the irrational number, to impress your friends as you celebrate Pi Day (which is also Albert Einstein's birthday).
The ancient Babylonians knew of pi's existence nearly 4,000 years ago. A Babylonian tablet from between 1900 and 1680 B.C. calculates pi as 3.125, and the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus of 1650 B.C., a famous Egyptian mathematical document, lists a value of 3.1605. The King James Bible (I Kings 7:23) gives an approximation of pi in cubits, an archaic unit of length corresponding to the length of the forearm from the elbow to the middle finger tip (estimated at about 18 inches). The Greek mathematician Archimedes (287-212 B.C.) approximated pi using the Pythagorean theorem, a geometric relationship between the length of a triangle's sides, and the area of polygons inside and outside of circles.
Literary nerds invented a dialect known as Pilish, in which the numbers of letters in successive words match the digits of pi. For example, Mike Keith wrote the book "Not a Wake" (Vinculum Press , 2010) entirely in Pilish:
A journalist on trial in Britain's phone hacking scandal testified Thursday that Princess Diana provided him with information on the royals, including a phone directory, as part of her feud with her estranged husband, Prince Charles.
Former News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman said Diana handed over the data after her separation from Charles, when she was going through a "very, very difficult time" and was looking for media support. Diana and Charles separated in 1992 and divorced four years later. She died in a Paris car crash in 1997.
"She told me she wanted me to see the scale of her husband's staff and household, compared with others," Goodman said. "She felt she was being swamped by people close to his household. She was looking for an ally to take him on - to show there were forces that would rage against him."
Goodman, 56, has been linked to the long-running phone hacking scandal since his first arrest in 2006 for suspected hacking into the voicemails of royal aides. He was briefly jailed in 2007. He is on trial now for two counts of alleged conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office, which he denies.
Director Diego Luna, right, and producer Pablo Cruz, pose on the Red Carpet at the Phoenix Premiere of "Cesar Chavez", on Thursday, March, 13, 2014, in Phoenix, Arizona.
Photo by Rick Scuteri
Saudi Arabia demanded that Qatar shut down Al-Jazeera and two think tanks during a recent meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council, a source close to someone who attended the talks told AFP Friday.
Riyadh demanded the closure of the pan-Arab broadcaster as well as the Brookings Doha Center and the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, the source said on condition of anonymity.
After the reportedly heated March 5 GCC meeting, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates recalled their ambassadors from fellow member Qatar, which they accuse of interfering in their internal affairs and supporting the Muslim Brotherhood.
The source said Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal had demanded three things of Doha -- "to close the (Qatari-owned) Al-Jazeera network, which stirs sedition; close the research centres in Doha, and turn over all outlaws" on its territory.
An Alaskan moose hunter, whose discovery of the corpse of a wanderer two decades ago helped lead to the 2007 movie "Into the Wild," has been shot and killed by police following a weekend chase through the city of Wasilla, Alaska State Troopers said.
Police said Gordon E. Samel, 52, who played a small but important role in author Jon Krakauer's book about wanderer Chris McCandless, which was made into a movie by Sean Penn, on Sunday fled police who had approached his vehicle in response to a report about possible drunken driving.
"As the state trooper knocked on the side of the pickup to contact the occupants, it drove off and circled around several small businesses in the area," an Alaska State Trooper report said.
It said Samel then led law-enforcement officers on a high-speed chase along the city's main thoroughfare, briefly against traffic, and at times into lightly populated residential areas before he was ultimately blocked at an intersection.
When a state trooper and a Wasilla police officer approached the truck on foot, Samel backed up the truck toward the officer, prompting both the officer and trooper to fire their handguns, the report said. Samel was declared dead at the scene.
Cast members Scarlett Johansson (L) and Cobie Smulders pose at the premiere of "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" at El Capitan theatre in Hollywood, California March 13, 2014. The movie opens in the U.S. on April 4.
Photo by Mario Anzuoni
Evolution Segment Cut Out of Fox Affiliate Broadcast
'Cosmos'
During Sunday's telecast of Neil deGrasse Tyson's "Cosmos," Oklahoma City's Fox affiliate KOKH cut away from a segment discussing evolution to air a promo of the local news.
"We are newcomers to the Cosmos," Tyson started to explain in the clip. "Our own story only begins on the last night of the cosmic year. It's 9:45 on New Year's Eve…" At this point, KOKH cut from the program to a commercial for the evening news.
While the promo aired, viewers missed Tyson discussing how humans evolved.
After a "Cosmos" fan uploaded video on YouTube and pointed out the awkward edit, KOKH Fox 25 released a statement on Twitter, disputing any nefarious intentions."Sunday, during @COSMOSonTV, a local news promo was aired over a portion of COSMOS content. This was an operator error & we regret the error," KOKH tweeted Wednesday.
The for-profit college industry says it will vigorously oppose proposed regulations by the Obama administration designed to protect students at for-profit colleges from amassing huge debt they can't pay off.
The proposed regulations would penalize career oriented programs that produce graduates without the training needed to find a job with a salary that will allow them to pay off their debt. Schools, for-profit or not, that don't comply would lose access to the federal student aid programs.
In 2012, the for-profit colleges convinced a judge that similar regulations were too arbitrary. Steve Gunderson, president and CEO of the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities, said in a statement that the proposed regulations would "deny millions of students the opportunity for higher earnings." His association argues that the regulations would have a long-term impact on the nation's ability to address workforce demands and improve the economy, and he called the proposed regulations "discriminatory" and "punitive."
Education Department reports show for-profit programs account for about 13 percent of all college students but 46 percent of all loan defaults.
A local artist paints a two-metre-high Easter egg in the traditional naive art style in the northern Croatian town of Koprivnica March 13, 2014. The project, which started several years ago, involves painters decorating two-metre-tall polyester eggs, which are then sent to cities in the country and abroad to be displayed in public squares in time for Easter festivities. This year, three giant eggs will be painted and sent to Montenegro, Paris and Riga, the 2014 European Capital of Culture. Picture taken March 13, 2014.
Photo by Antonio Bronic
Web surfing through the Internet's main gateway now looks slightly different on personal computers, thanks to a few cosmetic changes to Google's search engine this week.
The tweaks to the way Google's search results appear on desktop and laptop computers mirror a makeover on smartphones and tablets introduced a few months ago.
The new presentation increases font sizes and removes the underlines below the blue links of each search result on PCs. Ads appearing along the top and the right-hand panel of the results page no longer are presented in boxes shaded in blue and yellow. The marketing pitches are now marked by small ad tags to distinguish them from the rest of the results.
Google's decision to transfer a design originally tailored for mobile devices to PCs also underscores the company's increasing emphasis on smartphones and tablets.
One of the most astounding archaeological discoveries of the 20th century is arguably the life-size terra-cotta army buried alongside China's first emperor. Now, scientists have figured out how the bronze triggers for the crossbows of the 8,000 terra-cotta warriors were manufactured.
Teams of craftspeople worked in small groups to produce the bronze pieces in batches for the tomb of ancient Emperor Qin Shi Huang, according to a new study detailed in the March issue of the journal Antiquity.
Historical documents suggest that soon after Emperor Qin Shi Huang ascended to the throne in 246 B.C., he began work on his tomb near Xi'an, China. When the tomb was first unearthed in the 1970s,it revealed thousands of lifelike terra-cotta statues of artisans, musicians, officials, horses and soldiers. The epic effort conscripted 700,000 laborers, many of whom were convicts or people who were in debt to the empire, said study co-author Xiuzhen Janice Li, an archaeologist who was at the University College London at the time of the new work and is now at the Emperor Qin Shi Huang's Mausoleum Site Museum in China.
To learn more about how the massive trove was built, Li and her colleagues visually inspected and measured about 216 of the five-part crossbow triggers from the mausoleum.
A bee sits on an almond blossom on the almond blossom panorama path in Gimmeldingen, western Germany, Friday, March 14, 2014. This weekend the Neustadt district of Gimmeldingen will greet the spring with the almond blossom festival.
Photo by Uwe Anspach
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