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Post by Bonobo on Jan 27, 2013 2:15:51 GMT 1
Exclusive: Beyoncé lip-synched Star Spangled Banner at inauguration The First Lady of pop culture sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" to such perfection during Monday's inauguration celebration in Washington D.C. that it practically made us cry tears of red, white, and blue. It was absolutely flawless, as we knew it would be. Bey can do no wrong. Yet, Tuesday morning, it was reported that Queen B lip-synced her soul-stirring performance and suddenly, it felt like the color was drained from the sky, the grass ceased to grow, and the wind got just a bit colder. Beyoncé's spellbinding performance was a fake?
 www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/americas/article3664997.ecewww.hollywood.com/news/beyonce_lip_synced_national_anthem_inauguration/48660963 |
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Post by jeanne on Jan 27, 2013 3:09:16 GMT 1
Exclusive: Beyoncé lip-synched Star Spangled Banner at inauguration The First Lady of pop culture sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" to such perfection during Monday's inauguration celebration in Washington D.C. that it practically made us cry tears of red, white, and blue. It was absolutely flawless, as we knew it would be. Bey can do no wrong. Yet, Tuesday morning, it was reported that Queen B lip-synced her soul-stirring performance and suddenly, it felt like the color was drained from the sky, the grass ceased to grow, and the wind got just a bit colder. Beyoncé's spellbinding performance was a fake?
www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/americas/article3664997.ecewww.hollywood.com/news/beyonce_lip_synced_national_anthem_inauguration/48660963Why would anyone be surprised at that?? |
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Post by Bonobo on Jan 27, 2013 22:23:50 GMT 1
Why would anyone be surprised at that?? Such a renown singer should keep high standards. Lip synching is appropriate for beginners. |
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Post by jeanne on Jan 27, 2013 22:31:00 GMT 1
Why would anyone be surprised at that?? Such a renown singer should keep high standards. Lip synching is appropriate for beginners. Let's just say it happens a lot!! |
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Post by Bonobo on Jan 30, 2013 19:39:05 GMT 1
Let's just say it happens a lot!! The same with this: I cannot believe it: this guy is a compulsive liar: www.bet.com/news/celebrities/2013/01/22/source-lance-armstrong- lied-to-oprah-winfrey.html The disgraced athlete, who has been stripped of his seven Tour de France medals as well as his Olympic gold medals, recently had a one-on-one with Oprah Winfrey, during which he finally confessed to doping. But now an officer from the US Anti-Doping Agency, who investigated Armstrong over a number of months, claims the cyclist was dishonest with Winfrey about an alleged donation Armstrong offered to the agency.
abcnews.go.com/US/lance-armstrong-lied-oprah-cover-crimes-inves tigators/story?id=18245484
"That's the only thing in this whole report that upset me," Armstrong said during the interview. "The accusation and alleged proof that they said I doped [in 2009] is not true. The last time I crossed the line, that line was 2005."
"You did not do a blood transfusion in 2009?" Winfrey asked.
"No, 2009 and 2010 absolutely not," Armstrong said.
Investigators familiar with the case disagree. They said today that Armstrong's blood values at the 2009 race showed clear blood manipulation consistent with two transfusions. Armstrong's red blood cell count suddenly went up at these points, even though the number of baby red blood cells did not.  |
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Post by jeanne on Jan 30, 2013 22:28:51 GMT 1
Let's just say it happens a lot!! The same with this: I cannot believe it: this guy is a compulsive liar: www.bet.com/news/celebrities/2013/01/22/source-lance-armstrong- lied-to-oprah-winfrey.html The disgraced athlete, who has been stripped of his seven Tour de France medals as well as his Olympic gold medals, recently had a one-on-one with Oprah Winfrey, during which he finally confessed to doping. But now an officer from the US Anti-Doping Agency, who investigated Armstrong over a number of months, claims the cyclist was dishonest with Winfrey about an alleged donation Armstrong offered to the agency.
abcnews.go.com/US/lance-armstrong-lied-oprah-cover-crimes-inves tigators/story?id=18245484
"That's the only thing in this whole report that upset me," Armstrong said during the interview. "The accusation and alleged proof that they said I doped [in 2009] is not true. The last time I crossed the line, that line was 2005."
"You did not do a blood transfusion in 2009?" Winfrey asked.
"No, 2009 and 2010 absolutely not," Armstrong said.
Investigators familiar with the case disagree. They said today that Armstrong's blood values at the 2009 race showed clear blood manipulation consistent with two transfusions. Armstrong's red blood cell count suddenly went up at these points, even though the number of baby red blood cells did not. Yes, that guy is ridiculous!! Listening to things like this make me skeptical of all high-paid narcissistic athletes!! |
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Post by Bonobo on Jan 31, 2013 21:58:02 GMT 1
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Post by tufta on Jan 31, 2013 22:01:32 GMT 1
Koty to dranie...
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Post by jeanne on Jan 31, 2013 23:27:37 GMT 1
Cats that live in the wild or indoor pets allowed to roam outdoors kill from 1.4 billion to as many as 3.7 billion birds in the continental U.S. each year, says a new study that escalates a decades-old debate over the feline threat to native animals.
The estimates are much higher than the hundreds of millions of annual bird deaths previously attributed to cats. The study also says that from 6.9 billion to as many as 20.7 billion mammals — mainly mice, shrews, rabbits and voles — are killed by cats annually in the contiguous 48 states. The report is scheduled to be published Tuesday in Nature Communications.
ornithologist Peter Marra of the Smithsonian's Conservation Biology Institute. He and Smithsonian colleague Scott Loss, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Tom Will conducted the study.
As a bird-watcher and enthusiast, this is something that has bothered me for a long time. We live in a small, close neighborhood with only ten houses on our dead-end street. During the years when my daughters were growing up, there was a population of 11 cats on our short street, all of whom roamed free. They were constantly killing songbirds, particularly young ones. One summer we had a family of baby wild rabbits in our backyard. Much to my girls' delight, the mother rabbit would bring the little ones out in the evening and they would hide under squash and pumpkin vines growing in the backyard. They were quite tame and very cute. Wouldn't you know that they all ended up being killed by the neighborhood cats!  My daughters were so sad...and I was mad! For several years we didn't see any rabbits until just recently; they have just now started to come back. There are only about 4 cats roaming on our street now...they know to stay out of our yard, as my husband turns the hose on them! He wants to keep them away because they use his vegetable garden to relieve themselves. On their farm, my daughter and son-in-law have acquired two kittens who will hopefully keep the barn free of mice and rats when they are grown. Farm cats are not too interested in birds, since there is a ready source of food in the barn mice population. Plus, hanging around the barn has other benefits for the cats...they get to sample the fresh milk from the cows!! Cats are beneficial on the farm, but in a neighborhood like mine, there is no reason to have them roaming loose, killing birds and getting killed by cars themselves!! |
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Post by Bonobo on Feb 1, 2013 0:16:11 GMT 1
Interesting what you are saying. I suppose the same situation prevails in Poland, I have taken a lot of photos of free roaming cats.
As for mice and birds, I read a research article which claimed that cats are horizontal-oriented, so they focus on ground movement of various rodents, while they are less sensitive to vertical movement, so birds are only their catch-at-a straw food.
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Post by jeanne on Feb 1, 2013 0:24:43 GMT 1
As for mice and birds, I read a research article which claimed that cats are horizontal-oriented, so they focus on ground movement of various rodents, while they are less sensitive to vertical movement, so birds are only their catch-at-a straw food. There are many birds that are ground-feeders, and they are most vulnerable. Young robins, just out of the nest and learning to pluck worms out of the ground were mercilessly slaughtered by the cats in my neighborhood! |
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Post by tufta on Feb 1, 2013 10:33:32 GMT 1
Similar story happened to us. Blackbirds regularly had their nest and fed chicks in the thicket of honeysuckle's vines to delight of us all, watching them grow, coming next year to the same place, some even had names (Arnold  One year when our old brave dog died and was replaced by one equally nice but totally indifferent to the cats, their population around the house rose rapidly. You may remember a pic of a tri-colour cat with eyes of differing colour, it is still around half-wild/half-domesticated. So the tri-colour was just a harbinger of a mass immigration process. In effect, last year the cats ate lfreshely hatched blackbirds. The youngest kid (ours not blackbird's) almost cried. No more cats this year. Only tri-colour will be let close, for the rest I have already prepared  Must be good, it's made in Kraków! |
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Post by pjotr on Feb 1, 2013 23:31:27 GMT 1
Bonobo, My family nor I have had pets. As a student I had a hamster for a short while, an albino hamster, which I called Bartje. Bartje looked like this  ( Bartje was my and my sisters pet, we shared a student apartment with a kitchen in Amsterdam) I knew that Bartje would be a delicious desert for Amsterdam neighbour cats, so I always was very careful that the housecat of my Polish landlord wouldn't enter the kitchen of my basement student appartment. Because I was sure that the cat would eat my hamster like a mouse. I always liked dogs and cats in my youth and liked to watch cats play and run around in the gardens, on the streets, lawns, roofs and parks of the town I grew up into. I remember the wild cat fights at night. Their loud yowls, grooming and screaming like a baby or a girl who is sexual assaulted. This cat fights and mating rituals fascinate me, because they have kept me awake at night or it was strange to watch the cats behavior involved in this. It's like watching the deer in the woods during the estrous cycle. I loved watching the cats of a (female) friend at my birthday, when she invited me to come eat at her place. Playing with cats is nice and it is nice to see how big their territory is and how they control and defend their territory against other cats, and how they respect the territory of other cats. It is nice to see their focus or concentration when they observe a bird, a mouse or something which is strange to them. Their body positions when they sit, lay and stare at an object or subject. Total focus, their look, body language and concentration of mind and body is totally directed at the subject their attention is directed too. If you observe (look) at a cat for a long while you see a little Lion, Tiger, cheeta, Puma, panther or Lynx in the cat you are watching. They may be pats, but they are stil wild animals, which kill birds, rabits, hamsters, mice, rats, frogs and other small animals. This exellent movie shows the real life of a cat: Her a cat who is released from a cat asylum by his new catowners |
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Post by jeanne on Feb 2, 2013 0:44:32 GMT 1
Must be good, it's made in Kraków! Tufta, I'm confused. This product looks (from the picture, since I can't read the label) like its purpose is to kill moles. Are you planning on poisoning cats with it?...or just poisoning the prey they come in search of, thus making your property undesirable for cats?? Or...have I totally missed your meaning?? |
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Post by tufta on Feb 2, 2013 7:34:41 GMT 1
Ooops, my fault Jeanne. It's a repelent, it smells bad for all animals and they are supposed to stop crossing the area where it is spilled. KRETY- moles, PSY - dogs, KOTY- cats |
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Post by jeanne on Feb 2, 2013 13:03:15 GMT 1
Ooops, my fault Jeanne. It's a repelent, it smells bad for all animals and they are supposed to stop crossing the area where it is spilled. KRETY- moles, PSY - dogs, KOTY- cats Thanks, Tufta! That makes sense now! We could use some of that, too; we have those dirt piles made by moles on our lawn! They are pesky creatures, as well as the cats! Our dog likes to dig down their tunnels in pursuit, but now that she is old, she's very rarely successful at capturing any...she still loves the chase, though! |
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Post by tufta on Feb 3, 2013 7:31:27 GMT 1
Jeanne, did you try the bottle trick to chase away the moles?
A bottle (glass) placed in the mole hill, some 20 degrees from vertical position 'catches' the wind by the mouth and emmits sounds which frighten the moles. It really works.., in windy weather!
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Post by Bonobo on Feb 3, 2013 9:47:28 GMT 1
Jeanne, did you try the bottle trick to chase away the moles? A bottle (glass) placed in the mole hill, some 20 degrees from vertical position 'catches' the wind by the mouth and emmits sounds which frighten the moles. It really works.., in windy weather! I heard it works but looks unesthaetic:  Better use electronic devices:  |
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Post by Bonobo on Feb 3, 2013 13:12:47 GMT 1
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Post by jeanne on Feb 10, 2013 14:30:59 GMT 1
Jeanne, did you try the bottle trick to chase away the moles? A bottle (glass) placed in the mole hill, some 20 degrees from vertical position 'catches' the wind by the mouth and emmits sounds which frighten the moles. It really works.., in windy weather! That's a clever idea...I'll mention it to my husband. But somehow I think he kind of enjoys the excitement of "the chase." ;D |
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Post by Bonobo on Feb 14, 2013 20:52:34 GMT 1
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Post by Bonobo on Feb 20, 2013 9:28:27 GMT 1
OMG, it really hurts so much that people can be so stupid. I just read an article about injecting special oil into your muscles to make them look bigger. Actually, the musculature seen in photos isn`t real muscle, it is oil and infection caused by it. Yuk! Unbelievable. Some guys should start mental treatment. Or first of all go and check if they have any brains at all....   facet.interia.pl/aktywnosc/zdrowie/news-synthol-olej-smierci,nId,934246 |
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Post by tufta on Feb 20, 2013 9:41:08 GMT 1
yes,but I see three thrilled girls next to the guy...
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Post by Bonobo on Feb 20, 2013 9:51:15 GMT 1
yes,but I see three thrilled girls next to the guy... Taking a photo of you next to a freak like that may bring you desired 5 minute fame after all. |
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Post by pjotr on Feb 20, 2013 16:44:08 GMT 1
yes,but I see three thrilled girls next to the guy... Taking a photo of you next to a freak like that may bring you desired 5 minute fame after all. ;D ;D ;D   |
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Post by Bonobo on Mar 4, 2013 0:54:28 GMT 1
Polish comments are very harsh on Rodman: idiot, imbecile, moron.
Former basketball star Rodman calls North Korean leader "awesome kid"
(Reuters) - Former NBA basketball star Dennis Rodman emerged from four days in North Korea on Friday, calling the leader of the reclusive country "an awesome kid".
Rodman, known for his tattoos, body piercings and flamboyance, was in North Korea to film a sports documentary, and watched a basketball game alongside the country's leader, Kim Jong-un.
Kim "is like his grandfather and his father, who are great leaders, he is an awesome kid, very honest and loves his wife so much", Rodman told the Chinese government news agency Xinhua before leaving the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, on Friday.
Kim, 30, is the grandson of Kim Il-sung, who founded North Korea, and the son of Kim Jong-il. Both ruled the country with an iron fist.
Kim has maintained his father's drive to secure nuclear arms for his impoverished country, with North Korea last month conducting its third nuclear test, drawing the condemnation of world powers and the United Nations.
The U.S. State Department has disavowed any connection with Rodman's trip, and its deputy spokesman, Patrick Ventrell, told reporters in Washington on Friday that Kim had his priorities wrong.
"Clearly you've got the regime spending money to wine and dine foreign visitors, when they should be feeding their own people. So, this isn't really a time for business as usual at the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea)," Ventrell said, referring to North Korea's official name.
At Thursday's basketball game, Rodman and Kim laughed and conversed in English, and later had an "amicable" dinner, Xinhua quoted the former Chicago Bulls player as saying. Kim attended secondary school in Switzerland, but his language abilities remain a mystery.
North Korea routinely denounces U.S. "hostility" and no peace treaty was signed after a truce ended the 1950-53 Korean War. But Xinhua said Kim told Rodman over dinner that he hoped further sports exchanges would promote "mutual understanding between peoples of the two countries".
Asked how his visit might help, Rodman told the agency: "About the relationship, no one man can do anything. His country and his people love him. I love him, he is an awesome guy."
Ventrell rejected the notion that Kim's hosting of Rodman represented a meaningful gesture.
"What we're looking at, is for them to come in line with their international obligations, to stop their ballistic missile tests, to stop their nuclear programs," he said. "Absent those kind of fundamental changes, we're not going to read into this sort of theater one way or another."
Before meeting Kim, Rodman appeared to have mixed up the two Koreas, suggesting he might meet South Korean rapper Psy during his trip to the North.
Rodman came to North Korea to shoot footage for a show to air on the U.S. television network HBO, a producer travelling with the group said.
Arriving at Beijing's airport following his trip to North Korea, Rodman brushed past reporters without speaking.
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Post by Bonobo on Mar 9, 2013 22:57:44 GMT 1
Nearly a half of the Russians express a definitely positive opinion about Joseph Stalin and the role he played in history. Merely 22% express a negative one. These data are terrifying because in 1998 the proportions were totally different and 60% of the Russians spoke negatively about Stalin.
Even though for some people Stalin is a communist dictator and criminal responsible for the deaths of millions of people, more and more Russians are treating him like a national hero.
"Russia still has not developed a definite attitude to its history in the 20th century. Everyone assesses it depending on their social status and on the their family tradition. And our country ruled by Stalin did not consist only of the people sent to the Gulag and executed but also of those who sent and who executed. Those who executed survived in a better condition than those who were executed," explains historian and columnist, Nikolay Svanidze.
It turns out that in many milieus in the contemporary Russia Stalin's figure is mythicised. What causes it to a great extent is the official stand of the authorities which suggest that the past should not be defamed. It turns out that in comparison with the turn of the 1980s and 1990s the number of Stalin's supporters has greatly increased and within the last years a lot of effort has been made to ennoble Stalin's figure in the eyes of contemporary Russians. In the opinion of numerous historians, currently in Russia there is no chance for destalinisation.
"The state propaganda in Russia, which is focused on federal TV stations is prone to ennoble Stalin. Not really to idealise him but to improve his image: to say that it is true that there were certain drawbacks, brutality and abuses but look at what kind of empire he created, what a great country he built!" explains historian Nikolay Svanidze.
Source:
niezalezna.pl    My comment: Russians have always loved their cruel rulers, starting from first psychotic murderer Ivan the Terrible in 16 century to another one, Stalin, in 20 century. They have been respected and admired despite their crimes on condition they made Russia a powerful country. Sick??? Or wise???
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Post by tufta on Mar 10, 2013 11:53:21 GMT 1
Indeed 'it hurts so much'. Also because Stalin killed so many Russians... Is it simple ignorance, widespread lack of education, the effect of lack of true de-stalinisation, de-communisation or much more - I don't know.
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Post by pjotr on Mar 10, 2013 20:06:54 GMT 1
Maybe it has to do with the phenomenon of Sovetization, the creation of the "Homo Sovjeticus" in the SpovjetUnion. I heard from some Russians in Amsterdam (1990-1992) that they considered that the Sovjethuman, created by 70 years of Communist socialist collectivism. People who are obedient and servants of the state, in staid of the other way around, like it should be, and is the case in our countries. I agree with Bo. that the Russians were used to despotic cruel leaders from Ivan the Terrible until Stalin. They have a hard time today deciding for themselves.
Look at those people with the Stalin images. They don't look like independent, civilized, autonomous people with a free will, intelligence, entrepreneural spirit or any free mind. They look like people who are used to be oppressed, guided and ruled by brutal rulers for centuries. Simple peasents (offspring of the people who worked under serfdom conditions, and the collective farms), working class and old hard core communists of the Stalinist type, Brainwashed by decades of Sovjet propaganda. Propaganda in the school system, propaganda in their education by communist parents, propaganda at their youth movement, the Komsomol (The All-Union Leninist Young Communist League), the communist press (Pravda), communist television, and communist banners and posters everywhere. All what they saw were statues, paintings, photographs and posters of the Communist leadership. Lenin, Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev, Leonid Brezhnev and after them Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin. I don't mention Mikhail Gorbachev, because Gorbachev was another kind of leader.
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Post by tufta on Mar 11, 2013 7:06:31 GMT 1
Ok, Russians are used to authoritarian rules etc. etc etc. Now we have the Austrians... Tony Paterson Berlin Sunday 10 March 2013 As Austria prepares to mark the anniversary of its annexation by Nazi Germany, an opinion poll has shown that more than half of the population think it highly likely that the Nazis would be elected if they were readmitted as a party. A further 42 per cent agreed with the view that life “wasn’t all bad under the Nazis”, and 39 per cent said they thought a recurrence of anti-Semitic persecution was likely in Austria. The disturbing findings were contained in a poll conducted for the Vienna newspaper, “Der Standard” in advance of Tuesday’s 75th anniversary of Austria’s Nazi annexation - a date which still counts as one of the most shameful and controversial in the country’s history. Tens of thousands of Austrians gave Adolf Hitler and his troops a rapturous welcome when they invaded the country unopposed in March 1938. Austria fought World War II as part of Nazi Germany and many Austrians helped run Nazi death camps. Yet for decades, post-war Austria frequently perpetuated the myth that it was a victim of Nazi oppression. Der Standard said its poll was designed to show how today’s Austrians judged Nazi rule. Neighbouring Germany’s popular “Stern” magazine described the poll’s findings as shocking today.// www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/over-half-of-austrians-think-the-nazis-would-be-elected-if-the-party-was-readmitted-to-politics-8528218.html |
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My daughters were so sad...and I was mad!
One year when our old brave dog died and was replaced by one equally nice but totally indifferent to the cats, their population around the house rose rapidly. You may remember a pic of a tri-colour cat with eyes of differing colour, it is still around half-wild/half-domesticated. So the tri-colour was just a harbinger of a mass immigration process. In effect, last year the cats ate lfreshely hatched blackbirds. The youngest kid (ours not blackbird's) almost cried. No more cats this year. Only tri-colour will be let close, for the rest I have already prepared 
