OMG, the man hanged himself in front of webcam

I don't know what's in this one man's mind. He is desperate to kill her own life by hanging himself. Even more tragic, he's doing it in front webcam.Pria this is not to be identified nekatnya action during the middle to connect with other Internet users in chatrooms. "Police received a report from a chatroom users that there is a user who does not move with strange body position . But when police visited the scene, the man had been killed, "said the prosecutor, Tadeusz Halas, as quoted by Reuters on Wednesday (01/28/2009). A few moments earlier, this man was drinking with her friends to celebrate his birthday-27. According to his friends, the man showed signs of strange and looks depressed. He also said it had prepared a birthday surprise for tahunnya.Namun, apparently a surprise that it was meant to end his life by suicide diri.Ini not the first time, there are people desperate to end his life and broadcast via webcam. Some time ago in Telford, England also had a man who hanged himself in the middle of chatting

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Madrid's 'Air Tree' Will “Climatically Transform” Urban Architecture

The city of Madrid soon plans to add a striking new structure -Air Tree pavilion- that will “climatically transform” its urban architecture.  It also produces oxygenlike a tree, hence the name. The Air Tree pavilion is to be built from recycled materials and will be 100% energy self-sufficient. Using photovoltaic cells, the Air Tree produces a substantial amount of energy, which is then sold back to the local electric companies, and, of course oxygen - hence the name Air Tree. It's a completely unique idea and one that, unlike most out-of-the-box ideas, is actually being made a reality.
The surrounding environment near the air tree will be naturallyconditioned, reducing the heat island effect found in most citycenters. The air trees will be implemented city wide in the comingyears.
The structure is made from lightweight recycled materials. Dozens ofair trees can be installed in cities around major metropolitan areasduring summers. The trees will cool the surrounding environments and asa bonus generate clean electricity.

Architects: Ecosistema Urbano – blog – Belinda Tato, Jose Luis Vallejo, Diego García-Setién
Location: Pau de Vallecas, Vial C-91, Madrid, Spain
Collaborators: Ignacio Prieto, Maria Eugenia Lacarra, David Delgado, David Benito, Jaime Eizaguirre, Patricia Lucas, Ana López, Asier Barredo, Laura Casas, Fabricio Pepe, Michael Moradiellos
Client: Land and Housing Municipal Company, Madrid Council, Directorate of Residential Projects Innovation
Year: Phase I 2004-2005, Phase II 2006-2007
Structure: Tectum Ingeniería, S.L. (Constantino Hurtado)
Services: IP Ingeniería
Botany: Ignacio López
Construction Inspector: Belinda Tato, Jose Luiz Vallejo, Diego García-Setién
Contractor: Grupo Entorno, S.A.
Photographs: Emilio P. Doiztua y Roland Halbe

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Is 'Pride And Prejudice And Zombies' Doomed?

Clearly someone in Hollywood missed our memo on getting "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" into production before the end of 2011. Ever since Natalie Portman backed out of playing the film's lead character, the film has been sliding ever closer to the brink of production hell. Recently it was rumored that Anne Hathaway would be playing Elizabeth Bennett in the film, but, well, now she's Christopher Nolan's Catwoman for "The Dark Knight Rises," and we totally understand her desire to be in that above all else. Which brings us back to square one: no lead actress.

Actually, it brings us back to square zero, since now Deadline is reporting that director Mike White, the only person still attached to the film, is leaving the project.
Only two months ago, he was duking it out with directors Neil Marshall and Jeffrey Blitz to helm the project, and on November 8 it was announced that White had landed the gig. But casting never came together for him, and it seems like Hathaway's commitment to Nolan (and "Glee," I should add) was the final straw.
In a statement, White said, "I loved the project and looked forward to working with Lionsgate. Unfortunately, the timing could not be worked out. I wish them the best with the movie."
Deadline is reporting that Lionsgate is bringing "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" back to filmmakers to see if they can finally get the ball rolling. When the shortlist of directors was originally announced, White was one of our least favorite choices as it was, and I personally was kind of hoping documentary-turned-indie-turned-mockumentary director Blitz would be the man to helm the film. Barring his commitment to "The Office," which is about to go on hiatus, Blitz's schedule is clear, so here's hoping he is the man to ultimately end up with the job.

Do you still want "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" to be made? Are you disappointed Mike White isn't directing?

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Can DNA Tests Help You Change Your Life?

If a genetic test tells a patient that he or she is susceptible to lung cancer, will that person quit smoking? Dr. Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute in La Jolla, Calif., is looking for the answer to this and other similar questions.

If a genetic test tells a patient that he or she is susceptible to lung cancer, will that person quit smoking?
Dr. Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute in La Jolla, Calif., is looking for the answer to this and other similar questions.
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For now, little is understood about how patients adjust their lifestyle after they're tested--and if those changes matter. Until Topol's research sheds light on this, consumers are left with anecdotes and the Internet, which can lead them to any one of several companies peddling bogus genetic tests or to misleading information about what testing can achieve.
Before undergoing genetic tests of any kind, however, it's crucial that patients fully understand their promise--and their limitations.
The Options Genetic testing has been offered since the 1970s, but scientific knowledge about links between genes and certain diseases has increased significantly in recent years.
It's now possible to perform tests on more than 1,500 genes, according to Dr. Michael S. Watson, executive director of the American College of Medical Genetics. While this is only a fraction of the 20,000 to 25,000 genes contained in the human genome, the number of tested genes has doubled in the past decade.
The number of available tests has grown quickly as well. There are now 4,000 to 5,000 tests for heritable conditions (many of which are rare diseases), and separate tests for certain types of cancer and leukemia. Companies like 23andMe and Knome, based in Palto Alto, Calif. and Cambridge, Mass., respectively, also offer genomic testing, which gathers large swaths of information--think ancestry, inherited traits and health conditions--from a person.
The growth of online, direct-to-consumer companies has led to a transformation of the industry, according to Global Industry Analysts, Inc., a market-research company that released a comprehensive report on the subject in October. By analyzing sales figures for genetic tests in North America, the company determined that the market grew from $488 million in 2003 to $1.1 billion in 2008.
The size of the market means that consumers can obtain genetic and genomic tests from numerous sources, but aside from a requirement that tests be done in a federally certified lab, no regulatory body evaluates the claims of one test over another.
For example, a patient worried about breast cancer could purchase a test from the online company DNAdirect for a base price of $620. The customer is then sent a kit, which he or she returns with a blood or cheek-swab sample. Though the company offers pre-test education and access to genetic counselors, the experience is very different from testing in a clinical setting, where patients are closely monitored by a doctor and a geneticist who specializes in the disease.
What You Learn Unfortunately, there's a strong chance that some consumers aren't learning anything useful about their health when they pursue testing.
Only certain tests can conclusively tell a patient if he or she possesses a gene directly related to a disease. In the cancer field, these include genetic testing for stomach, colon, ovary and breast cancers. Many genetic--and most genomic--tests tell patients their probability of developing a disease at some point in the future, and not all tests are comparable.
"Most of the 'genomic' health-risk tests being sold directly to consumers have not been proven to be valid in the same way we study new drugs, for example," says Dr. Kenneth Offit, director of the Clinical Genetics Service at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.
For this reason, he believes that patients should pursue genetic testing under the supervision of a trained geneticist--and only if the patient plans to act on the result or if a test might resolve unanswered questions about family history and personal health.
Similarly, Dr. Watson urges consumers to seek out tests that have been thoroughly vetted for accuracy. The company offering the test should be able to tell a patient two key facts: the frequency of positive results and the number of people who test positive but never get the disease.
"These are very general concepts," says Watson, "but if someone can't tell you the answer to those, they're probably not ready for prime time.

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Lights, tinsel and chocolate what??? (story only artificial, not true)

A few of my acquaintances have suggested that, as a heathen, I have no place celebrating Christmas and, probably because its expected of me, I usually ramble on about how the intrusion of religion into a long established orgy of consumption and consumerism does indeed threaten to water down its magic.

Be that as it may, we like Christmas round here and we always put decorations up. We're almost always late with this, and so a week or so before the big day I'll be dispatched to the attic with a flaming torch and a ball of string to ensure I can find my way back to collect the series of mouldering cardboard boxes in which we have stored a motley collection of tinsel and baubles collected over a period of a number of years. I'll also bring down the lights, and the tree. Its an artificial tree, by the way, we don't actually have pine plantation in the loft, though I have found ivy forcing its way inside in the past. Shame it wasn't holly really.

Those lights... oh how glad I am that LEDs have taken the place of those malicious little filament bulbs we used to have.  It was inevitable, wasn't it, that the first time I plugged in the string of 52,000 bulbs each year I'd be rewarded with... nothing.  One of the evil little buggers would have blown during the eleven and a half months during which they had absolutely nothing to do but sit there. Then I'd spend two hours searching for your spares - which always turned out to be at the back of a cutlery drawer which I'd already searched three times, lacerating myself badly in the process.  Finally, I'd spend what felt like a lifetime swapping each bulb in the string for a new one until I found the culprit before, with bleeding fingers and terminal cramp, I could move on to erecting the tree itself.

Our tree has a 'base' which despite its innocuous appearance, has clearly been constructed from a parts left over after an explosion in a garden shears and spring factory.  It has also, at some point, been gifted with a vicious personality, presumably by a disgruntled voodoo practitioner. One wrong move, one lapse in concentration, and I'm off to casualty with a bag full of fingers.

Finally, the tree's up, and the lights are on.  Now for the tinsel. Which would, in times past, be on the dog. Our tree is 5 feet tall and, unsurprisingly perhaps, green. Our dog is three feet tall, near enough, and yellow.  How the kids could mistake the one for the other, without fail, every year, is beyond me. But they managed. The thing is, the dog seemed to like being decorated and would quite strenuously resist any efforts to untangle him from his shiny accessories.

Finally, it would be bauble time.  Again, there is much to be thankful for now that these are made of plastic. Until recently these would be little balls of blown glass, one of which would invariably escape only to be trodden on almost immediately with predictable and painful consequences.

So there I'd sit, utterly exhausted, sadly trying to pick tiny shards of broken ornamental glass from the sole of my foot with my teeth - because my right hand would be a mass of bandages under which the fingers had been superglued back on by a nurse, and my left had swollen to twice it's size having been bitten by a disgruntled golden retriever.

Eventually, it'd all be done, and be time for my reward - a dip into the brightly coloured tin of chocolates that I brought home from the supermarket not two hours previously.  This is where I'd discover that the kids, immediately after their adventures in canine tinsel festoonery, had eaten every last bloody chocolate in the house, and the exciting rattle in the tin would be explained by the fact that they'd thrown all of the wrappers back in, along with a solitary half eaten coffee/butterscotch surprise, which would have been weighed, measured, licked and found wanting.

But this is all in the past.  The LED lights don't go out, except as a feature of the exciting electronic sequence they're programmed with. Age and familiarity has tamed the tree base to the point where I'm lucky to get it to grip the tree itself, and we have three dogs - too much trouble for the kids to decorate them, so they don't bother.  They still eat all of the sweets, though.

Except I think we may have found a solution to that last problem in the shape of one miraculous box of choccies given to Mrs Grumbler by her sister.  That's right - a collection of tasty soft centres; dark, milk and white chocolate, all lovingly filled with creamy ganache by a lady called Ann Summers, and totally impervious to the kids. The simple fact is that each of these delicate little treats is shaped like a little "meat and two veg". Yup, confectioners "wedding tackle". The embodiment of the "wife's best friend" in, er, "the wife's best friend".

So, I can guarantee the availability of chocolate at all times next Christmas by the simple expedient of buying a box or two of chocolate Willies. They join Brussels Sprouts on the very small list of things my kids wont eat..

Thing is, though, neither will I...

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Dreams

• What Matters Most
• The Perfect Cinnamon Roll

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Jokes

• A Blonde In Church
• Rooster In Pants
• Fat Man's Prayer
• Three Kinds

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Health

• Kurang Tidur Pengaruhi Kesehatan
• Cegah kanker Dengan Terung Belanda

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Seagull

When I was at the beach over Thanksgiving, my Boyfriend and I enjoyed a morning of walking on and around Kuta Beach.  I ran into this very vain seagull there.  I love when impromptu photo shoots happen when you least expect it.  This is what happened with this guy.



He was pearched on a pole and everytime I got close to him, he would jump to the next pole about 3 feet away.  He was completely not scared and he had no desire to fly away.  So I just kept walking up to him and he kept jumping back and forth between poles.



I could only take one photo each time he jumped.  It was a crap shoot as to what I would get.  There was no time to frame the shot or to think at all.  I just kept clicking.



The very top shot is the money shot.  I love it so very much.  But I had to take many, many pictures to get that one shot.  But that was more than half of the fun.  I loved hanging with this very vain guy and the experience of trying to catch him in flight.



Looking through all of the outtakes was great fun.  I've posted a few of my favorites.  Sometimes the not so perfect pictures are pretty darn great too.



Below is my guy looking oh so very cool.  He was still there when I walked away.  I don't think he was ready to end the photo shoot.

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The Hammer People

 
There are many days that for one reason or another, I wake up somewhere in my sleep cycle where I am not meant to, and the result is a staggering, drooling idiot who can’t remember how to make coffee. S and I have a code name for these days: “Hammer People”. Implied in this phrase is the fact that, like elves or ninjas, there is a clandestine group of villains that visit us during the night and beat us with hammers. These are hammers of the mental variety, obviously, or else we would wake up during their attack. Duh.

I’m sure you have had a similar group visit you from time to time.

If the only outcome from being attacked by the hammer people was that we became temporarily dopey, that would be fine. Unfortunately though, sometimes the hammer people can set the tone for my day if I let them. In addition to the general anesthesia that they bring, they can also pump a ton of cranky into my veins which, believe me, is no good for me or anybody around me.

My less-than-optimal mental states, I have learned, have everything to do with projecting into the future or dwelling in the past, as we’ve spoken about many times here before. When I wake up from a hammer attack, I am particularly vulnerable (see drooling idiot sentence above). I’m both dopey and sort of neutral, which means my mind is free to push me around and start projecting images about how bad my day is going to be or how bad yesterday or a day ten years ago was. I am like a mental marionette, subject to the whims of my overactive imagination that dances me further and further from the present.

My only recourse is to take notice of my “strings” and cut them, one by one, by returning to my body, noticing my breath, and being mindful of all the sensations I’m feeling in the present. How does the floor feel under my feet? Am I warm or cold? Can I feel my breath rise and fall? What noises can I hear? Do I have any soreness or other sensations? By asking these questions, I bring my mind back, and back, and back to the body, until I’m in the present again and I have stopped projecting myself into false futures and distant pasts.

Most of you know that I have a morning routine that includes meditation on different things and a clarifying of my intentions for the day. The problem with days where, upon waking, I immediately get thrown into the spin cycle of time, is that they will often preoccupy me to the point where I will skip the rest of my routine and just fling myself into my day, having not prepared myself at all for engaging with anyone. I don’t think that I have to tell you that these days are never my best. Anytime I set myself up for that much vulnerability, and by that I mean the negative sort, I’m in trouble.

It’s heartening to know that there’s a way to back out of crankiness, though. Even if I throw myself into my day without having an intention of mindfulness, I can usually pull myself back from the edge if I can diagnose the problem and begin treatment. It’s another one of those things that is so simple, but so hard to remember for some reason. Perhaps it’s because when I’m all wound up, my mind is rebelling against any kind of quiet or reflective activity. Once it starts racing, it doesn’t want to stop. Also, speed can be fun for awhile…until the wheels come off, that is.

Better a judicious application of the braking system that slows things down and brings me back to mindfulness, I think. Or else the hammer people are in danger of winning…and nobody wants that.

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Painting

I lament the loss of my income sometimes. Usually at the beginning of the month when most of our bills are due. And I think about not eating out. Or not getting the boots that I want. And then I pick up the wee one from school, and we leisurely paint and make sea serpants out of leftover holiday chocolates, and we giggle over her ridiculous rules (you can't put red and black markers together because they like each other!). And I take one million pictures. And I smile. Because I never had time to do this before. And it is worth more to me than those new boots.

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Dear santa

The girls wrote their letters to Santa this morning. The tweenager does not believe in him, of course. She just knows that if she says really sweet things about all his "hard work" and how much she "appreciates" him (and once again reminds him that the only thing she wants for Christmas is a cell phone) that maybe when she wakes up on the morning of the 25th, she'll find that elusive gift under the tree. The present that her parents have sworn she can't have. The only thing she wants.

The wee one is in full Santa mode. She's been dissecting the whole magic thing for about a week now. How does he know where everyone lives? He used to use Google Maps when he was first Santa, but now he's so powerful that he just knows. What does he do when he can't make a present? Why, he just buys it at the store. With the money that he keeps in his beard. (Apparently he keeps candy canes in there, too, in case you were wondering). Her Christmas letters each year thinly mask her unspoken apprehension about what it means for a man (with big, fat and jolly Ho Ho Hos) to come into our house in the middle of the night. However good his intentions might be, there is always a chance that he might break something. Or (gods forbid) wake the dogs. So she is always sure to warn him to be quiet. And careful.

I don't have much on my Christmas list this year. Santa already brought me the one thing I was pining for (a new camera!). But here is my letter.

Dear Santa:


Thank you for stopping by our peaceful and quiet house this holiday season. I appreciate that you got all of your shopping and wrapping done early and that most of the gifts that you are giving were made and purchased locally. Thank you for giving me two children that understand that, while presents are awesome, Christmas is a holiday to celebrate the people we love. Paid days off to sleep in and play and raise a glass to each other. Thank you for giving me a husband that believes in me, totally and unconditionally, and who proves to me, year after year, that I was lucky to find my soul mate so early in this life. Thank you for giving me a little sister who is an incredible addition to our Portland existence. Who has grown so, so much in the last year. And who I love to hang out with. Thank you for  bringing the in-laws to celebrate the season with us. And thank you for making them such lovely house guests. Thank you for my two ridiculous little dogs (please don't wake them up). And thank you for all of the amazing people, chosen family and blood relations, that serve to enrich our lives. Have a cookie. And please don't break anything.


Love,


Olive.

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At the pool

I laughed in sorrow and pleasure at the pool to see my friends go away from my house after we finished work and play.

We had pictures taken together, swim together, laugh together and all that is over.

See the sweat that has been out, and it was not made aware (you can feel it yourself).

and I smile, could leave my bad habits

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the perfect cinnamon roll

#9 on the list

I don't usually tackle baking when yeast is involved. I don't have the patience to roll and wait and roll and wait some more. Or to get up before dawn to make something for us to eat at 9:00 on a Sunday. But, once I decided that it was okay for us to have cinnamon roles for lunch today, I braved this fantastic recipe from smitten kitchen. Thanks, Jessica! I can honestly say that I have baked the perfect cinnamon roll.

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