Until recently it was thought that only humans and their primate cousins displayed contagious yawning, but now it’s been shown that dogs display the behaviour as well.
Yawning, although sometimes a response to extreme stress, is more often a sign of tiredness; but the reason for why yawning is catching is not fully understood.
He pimped his wife to voters as a potential contestant in a local “beauty contest” that involves skimpy swimwear, topless parades and simulated sex acts – (edited to addwhich to be fair I’m sure he didn’t know was quite so “risque”, but it’s still totally objectifying his wife). (Video here of both McCain’s “quip” and a typical night’s entertainment in the contest) As I’m sure you’ll all
I caught this on Canadian Idol. Sebastian Pigott is the performer, Zack Werner the judge. (Pigott’s performance is here, if you’d like to see it.)
NOTE: Spoiler Free Zone for later episodes of the Doctor Who 2008 Season – Australia has only just seen the Sontaran Double Episodes 4.04 The Sontaran Stratagem and 4.05 The Poison Sky. Everything prior to that is fair game. Torchwood Season 2 is entirely off limits for spoilers here too, please (We can always have another fans attack edition later in the year) – we do have a thoroughly spoiled Season 4 Finale thread still open though – feel free.
So, it keeps on happening (the image below recurs in various adaptations all over the ihasatardis LJ community):
What’s been your most jarring WTF moments? Conversely, what’s only crept up on you later, upon reflection or reading someone else’s take? On the gripping hand, what fan-attacks have struck you as totally unwarranted?
So. Unless you’re living under a rock, you’ll know that Google StreetView has now indexed Australia. At first I thought it was only the cities – I idly looked up my place (feeling vaguely uncomfortable), and some places I lived growing up, and had a peek at the Perth CBD.
Then I realised they’ve also photographed a fair whack of the countryside, too. And not just the easy parts. They didn’t stint on crossing the Nullarbor:
So, is your house shown on Google Maps Streetview?
What about the directions to get to your place? Adequate, or rubbish? And did they have a clean lens round your way?
Inquiring minds etc
Remember when Jennifer Laycock of The Lactivist was stomped on by Big Pork for selling a T-shirt saying “The other white milk”?
“Your use of this slogan also tarnishes the good reputation of the National Pork Board’s mark, in light of your apparent attempt to promote the use of breastmilk beyond merely for infant consumption”,
the Pork Board whined, with a side serve of insinuation that The Lactivist was a sexual lactation fetish site. (Or were they really, truly freaked out that she is just fine with toddlers and preschoolers breastfeeding, not just infants – and thought that that any association with all that booby malarkey would reflect badly on an organisation that intensively tortures pigs before making them into bacon? We’ll never know.)
Xeni Jardin notes that it’s official: more than 1% of the US population is now in jail or prison. The stats one finds can be a little confusing because of that particular US distinction (between jail (a remand facility for those awaiting trial or convicted of misdemeanours) and prison (convicted criminals only)), but most studies find between 750 to 800 persons imprisoned per 100,000 US populace. Other nations treat jail/gaol and prison as synonyms, so their incarceration rates may well include those held on remand or for misdemeanours, making the difference in figures between the US and other countries even more striking.
Despite several attempts, the cremated remains of actor James Doohan (Scotty in Star Trek) have not yet made it out into space.
While the family understands that being on the cutting edge of technology can mean that things often do not go as planned, they’re not finding this easy. His son Ehrich writes:
Hoyden About Town 