Toadfish Monastery

So, after very hard three months on my new job, I have finally decided to take a few days off and have a little rest before Christmas. So I took a four-day vacation, from today till Christmas, with Christmas time bringing us some bank holidays I was looking forward to spending a nice ten day rest with my family (I went down to see my parents and spent Christmas with them).

Of course, everything was fine on Friday at work, and on Friday evening, when I packed my bags, had a nice dinner with my girlfriend and was looking forward to these few days.

But, I woke up in the morning, with a sore-throat and feeling like s***. I was ill. So instead of meeting with friends that I haven't seen for a while, I am spending my few days of vacation ill. I hate this.

I just hope it's a normal cold and not the flu.

Now, some people might ask, what is TED? Some people already know.

I have discovered TED a few months ago and I must say that I am impressed by what can be found there. TED is a "small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading". If you think this is interesting, just go to www.ted.com and see for yourself.

Anyway, on the above site, you can find hundreds of interesting talks and performances at divers TED conferences, or other occasions. They focus on innovative, interesting, creative ideas in technology, business, art, and all other scopes of today's life. These ideas should help us change the way we think, the way we see the world, the way we think. They can and should inspire changes.

Long story short, with this thread I wanted to introduce this website to you. If you know this site, you already know, how interesting it is and can be. I would like in this thread to make it possible for all of us to post their favourite videos from the site, or those that you have just found interesting, start discussions about some of these videos, or just purely entertain.


To start off with something not too heavy, but rather more entertaining and very creative, I would like to introduce one of my favourite videos. It's a video on a nice game, The Siftables.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/david_merrill_demos_siftables_the_smart_blocks.html

(Can someone maybe show how to embed this video, if it is acceptable of course, I would not like to overload some of my fellow sibling's machines?).

Enjoy! 

It comes a little late, but I like this idea and it might be something for next year:

http://www.newspiration.com/news/good_news_day/

Let's have a Good News Day!

I have seen "The Onion Movie" a few days ago and had a nice laugh.

Here is the trailer:

[youtube=425,350]oOUORYAPds0[/youtube]

For those who know the Onion newspaper, I think they will know what to expect.

(This movie is politically incorrect though)

... or how the advertising industry plays with us...

I've found this interesting German website that shows the difference between the product displayed on the package and the reality:

http://pundo3000.com/werbunggegenrealitaet3000.htm

Here's just a little example:

It's this time of year again...

The shops are fighting for our attention to spend the money we don't have on things we don't need...

And it's like that since mid-October...

I think it's time to fight this insanity...

It's wartime...........

The bunnies will help...




_{(gotten the idea from Chatty's post in the Interview cycle)}

Are you prepared for an attack from the undead?

When zombies attack

Who said a dogfight couln't be cute:

Doggie

I loved this video and had to post it here...

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omIrLgQO9O0[/youtube]

They're called the Young at Heart Chorus and they've been formed in an elderly housing project in Northampton, MA.

"None of the current performers of Y@H were part of the original group that formed in 1982, but they have kept alive the spirit of the early pioneers and continue to push the group into glorious new directions."

They certainly made my day. Especially their performance of "Road to Nowhere" by Talking Heads:

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6v8_BnZSBQo[/youtube]


I just hope that when I'm at their age I would be as vital as them.

More videos:
http://youtube.com/results?search_query=young+at+heart+chorus&search=Search

Quite an interesting article I've run across today about the hereditary capability of women to do the shopping better than men:

Why women are better at shopping than men

As women are better at gathering plants and men are better at hunting, women will easily remember where the good food, especially the food with more calories is placed in a supermarket.

QuoteThe research also shows that women have the same navigational skills as men, if there is sufficient motivation to get to a destination, such as a cream bun.

I thought we needed a place, where we could pay homage to the great people of our time, who aren't among the living anymore.

I had the idea, when two great directors died, Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni, both on the same day (July 30, 2007). Their genius has touched many.

They shall be missed, but they will live on in their works.

R.I.P.

This is a question that's been bothering me for a while now, I hope some the Christians or other people that know more about it than me around here could clarify that a little for me.

Isn't the praise of Jesus and the Saints, praying to them etc. against the ten commandments, more precisely against the following passage of the Bible:

3 you shall have no other gods before me.

4 You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me,
(Exodus 20:2-17).

You've probably all heard about this case...

Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor were held in jail in Libya since 1999 for infecting more than 400 of Libyan children with HIV, out of which 56 has already died. December 2006, all six are sentenced to death for intentional infection of the children as a part of an experiment to find a cure for AIDS (2001, two of the nurses, on whose confessions prosecutors based the charges, testify that their statements were extracted by torture. All six plead not guilty. 2005 a retrial took place after the original conviction sentencing them to death was overturned by appeal).

July 17, 2007, the Libyan Supreme Court uphold the Death peanalty, but it is commuted to life sentence, after the families get several millions from the EU and drop the demands for death sentence.

July 22, 2007, European Union commissioner for foreign affairs, Benita Ferrero-Waldner and French first lady Cecilia Sarkozy arrive in Libya to negotiate the medics' release.

July 24, 2007, all six arrive in Bulgarian custody and are pardonned by the Bulgaria's president...

here's a news article about it: here

There are a few points in all this that I really don't like:

1. EU pays a lot of money as compensation deal with the victim's families, the death sentence is changed into life in prison.
2. EU promises more money and cooperation with Libya, sign a few treaties ( EU assistance programs for Libyan trade and infrastructure, with visas, and in preserving Libya's rich archaeological heritage, and promise of continued medical support for the infected children) with the same, the six are allowed to be transferred to Bulgaria.
3. The Bulgarian president pardons six people that have probably killed 56 and more or less "sentenced" to death more than 400 innocent children.

I have no problem with the EU giving money to a third world country, which Libiya is (although I don't like Kaddafi, he has made a lot of effort lately to improve foreign realtions and to improve the life in his country), the victims' families deserve the money, and it's good that the EU tries to improve the lives of the needy.

But I find it worrying that a few bucks make everything go away... It's just not right.


(and honestly, I don't think the six should have been pardonned. Maybe they haven't infected the children, maybe they have... But I think it's a slap in the face to the families, whose children have been infected. I think all six of them should have remained in prison in Bulgaria, for at least a part of their life sentence...)

When life gives you lemons, ask for salt and tequilla.


Anyone got some good ones lying around?

I've been waiting for the 666th topic.

But I've missed it.

This is the replacement for it.

It's 666th +1...

I came across this one and it made me laugh:

Quote
My name is Tania Derveaux

I am the leading NEE party senate candidate in Belgium. And due to popular demand, I will give 40,000 blowjobs to anyone who requests one on this page.

It started with our response to incredible claims that were made by other parties in Belgium, several parties promised new job opportunities in ridiculous amounts. We responded with a parody campaign for which I posed naked and promised our voters 400.000 new jobs.

This national campaign resulted in international media attention and I received hundreds of e-mails asking for 400,000 blowjobs. If this would get us even more media attention, I'm willing to give 40,000 blowjobs to make the statement.

Link here: http://www.nee-antwerpen.be/index-eng.htm

I think we need more politicians like that...


(if someone finds this topic is not appropriate in this thread etc, please move or remove it)

Cadburry Eggs... Smaller?

For all those, who enjoy Cadburry Eggs (very rare in these parts of the world).

http://www.glumbert.com/media/peanutbutter

A couple of creationists explain, how evolution is disproved by the fact that there's no life in a jar of peanut butter. Wow. And they're actually very serious about it.


I wonder why I can't really take that seriously...

And the Fluffy bunnies got a new and very strong enemy... The North Korean government.

Article here: N Korean communists ate my giant rabbits

QuoteA rabbit breeder who sold 12 of his animals to North Korea so the communist country could start its own breeding programme fears they have been eaten by officials.

Now isn't that a great start for the Easter Bunny?

Happy easter my dear siblings! Maybe we are safe from the Fluffy Bunnies of Doom this year...

... and now he's one of the greatest stars of Germany. His mother rejected him 15 weeks ago, together with his brother (who died shortly afterwards), but he managed to survive, thanks to his handler, Thomas Doerflein, who raised him by hand since the rejection. His name is Knut and he's an irresistibly cute polar bear from the Berlin's zoo, who made his public debut on Friday (not counting photos that have appeared earlier, his own TV show and video podcast):



Now what strikes me as odd is, when animal activists insist that this cute little cub would be better off dead than raised by humans. Why should be an animal put down due to its captivity? Apparently it is against animal rights to feed an endangered species with the help of a bottle. The exact words the animal activist (his name is Frank Albrecht were:

"The zoo must kill the bear"
and
"Hand-rearing a polar bear is not appropriate and is a serious violation of animal rights"

Apparently the reason for this is that the bear won't be ever able to survive in the wild because of being handled by a human. The death of that polar bear would be according to nature's wishes.

Now can you imagine killing something cute like that? Especially when the species is endangered. I can't...


(for more info and a nice video looky here: http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/03/23/polar.bear.ap/index.html)

plus here are a few links:
Wiki article
Fox News article
Knut Media Center
Stephen Colbert commentary on animal activist's threats
MSNBC article