Now The Pacman Wants to Sue Mayweather

In a comment to the article, Pacman Sues Mayweather, a reader who uses the pseudonym, Honeybadger, questions the Pacman’s intestinal fortitude.

Virgin Offers Cut-Rate Space Tourism

Richard Branson wouldn’t be where he is today if he was the type to let the grass grow under his feet. That much is patently clear. So it came as no surprise, a few weeks ago, when he announced the roll-out of the Virgin Galactic spaceliner in California’s Mojave desert, which will offer adventurous souls tours into space.

‘For a fraction of the cost of a seat on a NASA shuttle or Russian spaceship’, travellers will be able to experience, at firsthand, weightlessness and an angels-eye view of the Earth from space.

Can you imagine what that would be like?

The Inconvenient Truths Mr Gore and His Fanatical Friends DIDN’T Tell You About Climate Change

The previous post on this blog covered the furore surrounding the twisting of global warming data. But with more stories surfacing suggestive of duplicity by global warming interest groups, I want to cover the topic in a little more detail.

Scientist in Climate Change Cover-Up

With all the brouhaha about global warming we are bombarded with day in and day out — visuals screened with monotonous regularity of centuries-old glaciers shrinking; ice caps melting; polar bears stranded on ice floes, unable to swim the distance to the mainland, the entire bear population facing extinction because of melting sheet-ice, all of it a precurser to flooding of the world’s coastal cities — the future looks bleak indeed.

Are These the Bones of a Legendary Persian Army Lost in the Sahara 2,500 Years Ago?

The remains of a legendary 50,000-strong army which was swallowed up in a cataclysmic sandstorm in the Sahara Desert 2,500 years ago are believed to have been found.

This is an exciting find. The hundreds of human bones, bronze weapons and broken water pots seem indeed to point to the remains of that legendary lost army.

Change That Can’t be Experienced, Only Perceived Looking Back

Eight years ago, I was sitting in the living room of friends in Benoni. My cellphone rang. It was my (then) 13-year-old granddaughter in California.

‘Grandpa, where are you?’ she wanted to know.
‘Hi, Cayla, I’m in Benoni, what’s up?’
‘Grandpa, is there a television set where you are?’
‘Yes, but what’s going on?’
‘I can’t talk now. Get CNN, hurry. Hurry!’ and she hung up.

Turmeric in Curry Kills Cancer Cells

I once read somewhere that hidden away in the world’s rain forests must be plants whose medicinal properties contain the cure for every disease known to man, and that money needed to be made available for scientists to go out and find those plants.

Right now there is talk of a plant derivative closer to home which also is a magic essence. It’s a spice called turmeric, the ingredient in curry powder that gives the dish its yellow colour. Turmeric apparently kills cancer cells in the oesophagus.

The implications of this discovery are huge. Even by cancer standards oesophageal cancer is a nasty disease. Only about 20% of sufferers survive.

And all these years there’s been me mixing my own curry powder, from ingredients I get from the market, explicitly to keep out turmeric from my curry.

And what made me want to do that?

Well you see, I also read somewhere that people who traditionally eat lots of curry are vulnerable to stomach cancer, and that turmeric was found to be the culprit.

This is an oxymoronic situation.

Supposing both versions are correct, and turmeric kills cancer cells in the oesophagus while promoting them in the stomach, where does that leave us?

In a very not-so-lekker place, is all I can say.

The World’s Top Ten Best Countries to Live in

According to a survey by “the free-market think-tank the Legatum Institute”, the world’s top ten best countries to live in are: 1: Finland, 2: Switzerland, 3: Sweden, 4:Denmark, 5: Norway, 6: Australia, 7: Canada, 8: Netherlands, 9: United States, 10: New Zealand.

Britain is 12th behind Ireland

In coming to its conclusion the Legatum Institute considered data on “economic growth with ratings for democracy, social provision, happiness and quality of life”.

Interesting, is that this survey’s findings are at variance with the United Nation’s human development index which paints a completely different picture.

The top ten countries according to that list are: 1: Norway, 2: Australia, 3: Iceland, 4: Canada, 5: Ireland, 6: the Netherlands, 7: Sweden, 8: France, 9: Switzerland 10: Japan.

The United States is rated 13.

Which version do you think is correct? Or perhaps you can come up with a list different from the above two.

Rethinking the Benefits of Breast and Prostate Cancer Screening

There’s an interesting article in Time about the pros and cons of breast and prostate cancer screening.

Screening technology has come a long way since 1980. Doctors now detect cancer way earlier than ever before. They have diagnosed around twice as many Americans with cancer than they were able to in 1980.

This should mean twice as many successful treatments. Sadly it is not the case for prostate and breast cancer. Mortality rates are almost exactly the same as back then.

It has caused a rethink in the medical professional.

The main reason is that they are picking up benign tumours, or slow growing malignant tumours, which in the early stages would have slipped unnoticed past those early screening devices.

Often surgery and radiation follows — and sometimes even chemotherapy — where none was necessary.

The article is an eye-opener. But it also creates a dilemma. To screen or not to screen? That’s the big question. Either way you’re between a rock and a hard place.

The World Recession is Forcing Ex-Homeowners to Live in Their Cars

CLEVELAND — The first night after she surrendered her house to foreclosure, Sheri West endured the darkness in her Hyundai sedan. She parked in her old driveway, with her flower-print dresses and hats piled in boxes on the back seat, and three cherished houseplants on the floor. She used her backyard as a restroom.

Read this article and be very frightened.