Perhaps it was only destiny that something called Swine Flu would have a special love for extremely overweight people ... ...

Survey Finds Link Between Obesity and Flu Severity.

By David Brown and Robin Shulman, Washington Post Staff Writers.

A survey of people hospitalized because of swine flu in California has raised the possibility that obesity is as much of a risk factor for serious complications from the flu as diabetes, heart disease and pregnancy, all known to raise a person's risk.

In all, about two-thirds of the California patients had some underlying medical condition, according to a report yesterday in the weekly bulletin of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Nationwide, 47 states and the District have reported 5,469 cases and six deaths since the start of the outbreak in late April, according to the CDC's count. Yesterday, officials in Missouri reported a seventh U.S. death -- that of a 44-year-old man who had no underlying medical problems, wire services reported.

"We were surprised by the frequency of obesity among the severe cases that we've been tracking," said Anne Schuchat, one of the CDC epidemiologists managing the outbreak. She said scientists are "looking into" the possibility that obese people should be at the head of the line along with other high-risk groups if a swine flu vaccine becomes available.

Other studies have shown that pregnant women are also at higher risk for serious influenza infection, especially in the third trimester, when the fetus and womb compress the lower parts of the lungs. This makes it harder to breathe deeply and cough forcefully; it may also alter blood flow in the chest. A similar thing may be occurring in severely overweight people, some experts speculated.

Full story here

Oxford scientists waste £300,000 to discover that ducks like water. Still no cure for cancer ...

Oxford University [unsuccessfully] attempts to defend three years of ridiculously expensive research that resulted in the obvious!

By Steven Morris of The Guardian

The assumption has always been that rainy weather is good for ducks. Now a three-year study funded to the tune of £300,000 by the taxpayer has proved it.

Two scientists from the University of Oxford gave a lucky group of farm ducks access to a pond, a water trough and a shower. They discovered that the ducks spent an awful lot of time under the shower, sometimes just standing there, others drinking from it.

Perhaps inevitably, the revelation that ducks seem to enjoy water washing over them has not impressed everyone. Susie Squire of the Taxpayers' Alliance, called the research a "bonkers waste of money".

She said: "It is common sense that ducks like rain and water. The last thing the government should be allocating scarce resources to is this sort of nonsense."

The Devon chairman of the National Farmers Union, Anthony Rew, said the study proved that Defra, the government department that oversees the care of farm animals, was – wait for it – "quackers".

He said: "They need to get out of London and get on a farm to see how the countryside works, to put policies in place that are practical and well costed. If they asked a farmer, he would tell them ducks like water."

It would be wrong to suggest the criticism washed over the scientists and Defra like water off a duck's back – but they did defend it stoutly.

Marian Stamp Dawkins, professor of animal behaviour at Oxford, said many would have expected the ducks to spend most of their time swimming in the pond. In fact, they seemed to prefer the shower to the pond, suggesting they were not very bothered about swimming.

She said it was unfair to portray the study as finding out simply that ducks liked water. It had been carried out to find the best way of providing water to farmed ducks because ponds quickly became dirty, unhygienic and took up a lot of water, making them environmentally questionable.

Defra insisted that the study did go further than just establishing that rainy weather was good for ducks, arguing it was all about making sure that farmed birds were well cared for.

[Idiots!]

Bush cronies land jobs charging for advice on how not to get eaten by the monsters they created

From USA Today:

More than one in four members of President George W. Bush's Cabinet have landed jobs with consulting or lobbying firms in which they can help clients navigate the departments they once oversaw. Michael Chertoff, who served as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) until January, launched a consulting business two months ago to provide "risk-management advice" [advice on how not to get screwed by the DHS] to private companies and governments.

For the full story (it's worth reading), click here

After the 'Day of Reckoning' arrives, Orlando atheist will deliver messages to those left behind ... (LOL)

There are those who believe in the 'Rapture' prophesied in the Bible.

And there is Joshua Witter (above), an avowed atheist.

They need each other.

Well, at least those willing to pay Witter to be their post-apocalyptic postman, delivering cards and letters to their non-believing friends, relatives and neighbors who will be left behind when the 'Day of Reckoning' arrives.

About 70 people have already paid the Orlando man about $5 apiece to get their messages to those doomed to face the plagues, pestilence and darkness of Armageddon.

As sure as these 'True Believers' are that they will escape this earth when the 'Rapture' arrives, Witter is just as certain that he will be left behind to deliver their mail. He has even committed blasphemy to make sure.

"Anyway you look at it, I'm screwed. It's too late for me," said Witter, a 24-year-old computer software engineer who wears long sideburns and hip black-framed glasses.

Witter started his website - postrapturepost.com - as a joke; a satiric jab at those who see things like the swine flu, economic collapse and the election of a liberal president as sure signs that the end is near.

But then he started receiving orders for his merchandise. Since 2005, Witter said he has sold more than 200 items, most of them T-shirts and coffee mugs, and many of those to friends and fellow atheists.

Among the best sellers are the line of I-Told-You-So cards, which sell for $8. Some of those who ordered the cards - Witter suspects they are not true Christians - are willing to pay extra to have them sent early as Christmas cards.

Witter doesn't have a stack of cards or letters with Post-Rapture messages in a dresser drawer or safety deposit box. All the messages are stored in his computer, encrypted to protect their privacy and backed up by a fail-safe system. His website might be all in jest, but when it comes to his paying customers, Witter is a responsible entrepreneur. He doesn't share the contents of the messages with his friends over beers, or mock those who take this whole end-of-the-world business seriously.

He does concede, however, that delivering on his promise to hand-deliver the cards and letters entrusted to him may be difficult. Witter has read all the books of the popular "Left Behind" series, so he knows what to expect. Covered with boils, he will have to fight his way through perpetual darkness, clouds of insects, and meteors falling from the sky to deliver the mail.

"Your hope lies with me. I am your mailman," he vows. "I'll do my best, come Hell or high water, to deliver those letters."

On the other hand, should the so-called 'Rapture' not arrive in his lifetime, he gets to keep the money, which he promises to use to subsidize his sinful lifestyle.

And don't even think about asking him to forward a message from the future for free.

"I turn people away who ask for free letters," he said. "I'm not a charity."

[LMAO!!!]

By Jeff Kunerth | Sentinel Staff Writer (with a few grammar improvements by yours truly)

Cat amasses half a million Twitter followers ... (yet further proof that the human species is intrinsically stupid)

A grey cat with white markings named Sockington has just cruised past the 500,000 follower mark on Twitter. Known as Socks for short, the cat lives near Boston with his human, Jason Scott. Check out this account of the cat's triumph.

As of this morning, 502,110 (very stupid) people (with absolutely nothing better to do) were apparently spellbound by such Tweets from Sockington as:

"and so I slept and then I walked around and then I slept again and then I saw a cobweb..."

I can hardly wait for the next gripping installment!

At least the cat writes better English than most kids these days ... and leads a more exciting life, by the sounds of it! :)

Angry British people ...

According to a new poll, the British are the angriest people in Europe with most Brits losing their temper four times a day on average.

Queue-jumping gets them most worked up, followed by traffic jams.

Italians, the second most angry, lose their cool 3.5 times a day on average.

The French are third in the poll, while Scandinavians are the most placid.

The top 10 frustrations for the British are:

1 Queue-jumpers.

2 Traffic jams.

3 Rude service in shops.

4 Ill-mannered neighbours.

5 Foreign call centres.

6 Racist and bigoted behaviour.

7 Erratic driving.

8 Swearing in public.

9 Spitting in the street.

10 Badly functioning computers.

Courtesy of the Daily Express

Good News (and about time, too!): Germany to ban paintball in wake of high school shooting

The German government is to ban paintball in response to the school shooting in which 16 people were killed in March.

Experts from Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives and her Social Democrat (SPD) coalition partners have agreed to outlaw all games in which players shoot at each other with pellets.

The governing parties say paintball trivialises violence and risks lowering the threshold for committing violent acts.

Infringements to the new rules, which the cabinet hopes to pass before a general election in September, could incur fines of up to 5,000 euros (£4,400).

A 17-year-old shot dead 15 people in the southwestern town of Winnenden, before killing himself in March, stunning many Germans and leading politicians to call for tighter gun rules.

The teenager shot many of his victims in the head with his father's legally registered pistol. His father, a member of a shooting club, had 15 guns at home – fourteen were locked in a gun closet as required by law but the pistol was in the bedroom.

Germany toughened its gun laws in 2002 after Robert Steinhauser, 19, shot dead 16 people before turning the gun on himself at a high school in the eastern German city of Erfurt.

The changes raised the minimum age for gun ownership to 21 from 18 and required gun buyers under 25 to present a certificate of medical and psychological health. Gun laws already required applicants to pass rigorous exams that can take up to a year.

The new rules would also grant authorities more rights in conducting checks with people owning guns, the sources said.

Sources in the SPD said the parties were also moving towards on agreement on the creation of a nationwide weapons register and were considering setting up biometric security locks for weapons' stores.

Telegraph.co.uk

Something to think about ...

Click on image for larger view

Chuck Norris saves a bakery (LOL)

A bakery in Split, Croatia, has been broken into almost every week.

But not since the shop owners posted a life-sized photo of the toughest man in Hollywood - Chuck Norris - in the window.

The sign says: “This shop is under the protection of Chuck Norris.”

Now the bakery hasn't had a single burglary for more than a month.

Sales assistant Mirna Kovac said: "To be honest, we just started it as a joke, but it really has worked. Thieves haven't been anywhere near us for ages. People seem to respect him.

"Everyone around here has seen his films and he's quite a popular character, perhaps even among criminals, so they've decided to leave us alone."

She added though: "We have had a few customers come in and ask us whether they can get Chuck's autograph.

“They really believe he is sitting in our storeroom out the back ready to pounce on any burglars."

Quarantine for lonely Afghan pig

Afghanistan's only known pig has been quarantined because of fears over swine flu, officials from Kabul Zoo say.

The pig, a curiosity in a country where pork products are illegal, lives at the zoo, where he had previously enjoyed grazing next to deer and goats.

However visitors expressed fears that the animal could be carrying the H1N1 virus and he was moved into isolation.

The director of the zoo, Aziz Gul Saqib, says the pig, whose name is Khanzir, is strong and healthy.

Speaking to the BBC World Service, Mr Saqib says: "The only reason we moved him was because Afghan people don't have a lot of knowledge about swine flu, and so when they see a pig they get worried and think they will get ill."

The director says Khanzir, given to the zoo by China in 2002, has been moved to a large space with lots of windows and fresh air and that he hopes he will be quarantined for only a few days.

Acknowledging that being Afghanistan's only pig is a lonely existence, Mr Saqib says he hopes to find Khanzir a female companion soon.

However, he says, because of swine flu, "it is a dangerous and difficult time to get a new pig for our pig".

BBC