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Showing posts from September, 2009

Culture Shock: Beirut, I love you... I love you Not!

Beirut, I Love You (I Love You Not), a short film by "An Orange Dog Productions" about (fleeting) love & the little pleasures in life, all set and in relation with the very inspiring city of Beirut. A Beirut-ish tribute to Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Amelie Poulain.

Red cow sold for $1 million

LITCHFIELD, Conn. - Apple the Holstein was certainly the apple of someone's eye. The cow was sold for $1 million Monday at an auction in Litchfield, Connecticut. When the 4-year-old show-cow paraded in front of 800 onlookers down the runway at Arethusa Farm, bidding started at $200,000. A small group of partners from Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin placed the winning bid. The reason for the steep price tag is her genes, her breeding potential and her rare red color. "She has the ability now to make black and white daughters or red and white daughters that could sell. In fact we sold five daughters of her yesterday as well, separately," Terri Packard, manager of Arethusa Farm, said. The 5-month-old calves sold for as much as $160,000. "So her pedigree and her physical structure are what make her very marketable and the fact that she's red is the icing on the cake," Packard said. Apple heads to Wisconsin Wednesday to get back to work as a milking

7 Things I did not know last week.

The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets . (right) The word "nerd" was first coined by Dr. Seuss in "If I Ran the Zoo." There are twice as many kangaroos in Australia as there are people. The kangaroo population is estimated at about 40 million. According to suicide statistics, Monday is the favored day for self-destruction. There are 10 human body parts that are only 3 letters long: eye, hip, arm, leg, ear, toe, jaw, rib, lip, gum . The largest number of children born to one woman is recorded at 69. From 1725-1765, a Russian peasant woman gave birth to 16 sets of twins, 7 sets of triplets, and 4 sets of quadruplets. Flying from London to New York by Concord, due to the time zones crossed, you can arrive 2 hours before you leave.

Mind Soup Blocked in China

OK , that might have been a misleading title, but it caught your attention didn't it? It makes it look like I'm being targeted by the Chinese government. Well, I'm not the only one. Apparently, several blog platforms such as blogger (blogspot) are being blocked on-again off-again in China due to security measures when there are huge events occurring in China. The last time blogger was blocked in China was during the Olympic games which were held in Beijing last year. Anyway, this year, there is some sort of anniversary going on in China and blogger has been blocked since May (which explains why I haven't been getting any Chinese flags on the visitor counter). The block was supposed to be lifted by the beginning of September, but haven't been done yet, hopefully it would be lifted by beginning of October. Here's an article that explains a little more: ... It seems that any website on has been blocked in China. This blockage is causing huge

Funny Fail Photos


Funny US Street Signs

Human Ingredients

What is a human made of?

When I Group up...

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An Unequal Relationship

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20 Weird English Words

1. Erinaceous Like a hedgehog 2. Lamprophony Loudness and clarity of voice 3. Depone To testify under oath 4. Finnimbrun A trinket or knick-knack 5. floccinaucinihilipilification Estimation that something is valueless. Proper pronunciation based on Latin roots: flockə-nowsə-nəkələ-pələ-fək-ation. 6. Inaniloquent Pertaining to idle talk 7. Limerance An attempt at a scientific study into the nature of romantic love. 8. Mesonoxian Pertaining to midnight 9. Mungo A dumpster diver – one who extracts valuable things from trash 10. Nihilarian A person who deals with things lacking importance (pronounce the ‘h’ like a ‘k’). 11. Nudiustertian The day before yesterday 12. Phenakism Deception or trickery 13. Pronk A weak or foolish person 14. Pulveratricious Covered with dust 15. Rastaquouere A social climber 16. Scopperloit Rude or rough play 17. Selcouth Unfamiliar, rare, strange, marvelous, wonderful. For example: The List Unive

It happens only in China

Add the Mind Soup Badge to your blog or site.

Dear readers, You can show us your support and help us make our blog famous by adding the Mind Soup Badge to your blog or site. We appreciate all the help we can get. The badge looks like this: All you have to do is to copy the code below into your HTML editor on your blog/site and you will be set. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src=";innerBorder=ffffff&amp;barPosition=40&amp;leftFill=FF0000&amp;leftText=Mind&amp;leftTextColor=ffffff&amp;leftTextPosition=5&amp;rightFill=0099FF&amp;rightText=Soup&amp;rightTextColor=ffffff&amp;rightTextPosition=46" /></a> </div> <a href="

What's Your Coffee Personality ???

Café Latte . This sharp coffee mixture of strong brewed espresso and frothy steamed milk is consistent and simple. To experience this drink you don't need to be a high risk taking individual, as you are not. Café lattés are dependable, and don't have a variety of flavors or versions. Similarly in different social settings and places, you stay generally the same. Like this genuine coffee with a rich flavor, you are one who can stand alone. No kick needs to be added to a latte because it is enticing and approachable because of its lack of surprises. Lattes are most enjoyable at a slower pace, taking it all in, and don't require a social atmosphere to be made complete. The bottom line is that you are hard working and consistent, slightly introverted and enjoy routine. Like a café latte you need not be extravagant or spicy, but are most satisfying in your solid, systematic, and simple existence. In a familiar and comfortable environment, everyone enjoys a warm, sensible,

7 Things I did not know last week.

1- Burj Dubai is the tallest skyscraper in the world, standing more that 800 meters tall. 2- US President Obama has read every Harry Potter book and collects Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comics. 3- The destruction of the Berlin Wall (right) began when private citizens began to demolish entire sections of the Wall without interference from government officials on November 9, 1989. 4- The tongue is the only muscle in the human body that is attached at only one end. 5- Natural gas does not have any odor. In order to detect a gas leak, some gas companies add a chemical that smells similar like rotten eggs. 6- There are mirrors on the moon . Astronauts left them so that laser beams could be bounced off of them from Earth. These beams help give us the distance to the moon give or take a few meters. 7- The average day is actually 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4.09 seconds (23.934 hours) . We have a leap year every four years to make up for this shortfall.

The World’s Largest Gummy Bear

P.S. This is the 200th post on Mind Soup. *dancing* I love gummy bears, and I actually stumbled upon this one: Over at Vat19 they are selling a five pound gummy bear. This goliath of a bear consists of 1,400 normal size gummy bears and contains an amazing 12,600 calories. They are available for $29.95 and in three different flavors: blue raspberry, red cherry, and green apple. As of right now they are sold out, but you can sign up for an email alert when more become available. As of right now, they are currently back in stock! This is a brief description from the site: The World's Largest Gummy Bear is the lion of the candy world. There is no candy more magnificent or more powerful. This five-pound beast is the equivalent of 1,400 regular sized gummy bears and packs a whopping 12,600 calories. Its monstrous size is only matched by its enormous taste. The World's Largest Gummy Bear tastes just as delicious as its pint-sized counterpart. Available in several flavors:

Boy urinates live winged beetles

Live flies are emerging out of a perforation in the lower part of the body of a 13-year-old boy in Bengal in a bizarre — but not unknown — phenomenon. Admitted in Burdwan Medical College Hospital since last Saturday, Chandan Goswami stunned doctors as the flies began to come out of a part of his crotch to take wing. Some of the flies were caught by the boy’s parents. “This is a condition called myiasis in which a human or animal body, dead or alive, is invaded by the larvae of particular types of flies,” said an excited Snehansu Pan, the surgeon taking care of Chandan. After nearly a week of Chandan’s admission, this afternoon Pan found out what was happening to his patient. “This is a very, very rare condition and we are trying to figure out how the fly invaded the boy’s body and then we will determine how to treat him,” he said. Myiasis is prevalent in central and southern America, but mostly in animals. Experts said the larvae invade the human bod

2 700 languages spoken in the world

The "invention" of language is not known except for references in the Bible. It is not known what language Adam and Eve spoke. The first mention of different languages is the reference to the tower of Babel when different tongues were bestowed. The invention of writing, however, is credited to the Sumerians of Mesopotamia in the 4th millennium BC. Their descendants, the Sumero-Babylonians, developed the time system that we use today: an hour divided into 60 minutes, which are divided into 60 seconds. Today, there are more than 2 700 different languages spoken in the world, with more than 7 000 dialects, most of which are catalogued by the Ethnologue language dictionary. In Indonesia alone, 365 different languages are spoken. More than 1,000 different languages are spoken in Africa. The most difficult language to learn is Basque, which is spoken in north-western Spain and south-western France. It is not related to any other language in the world. Mandarin is the most spoke

Weirdest Chocolate News

A lovely and useful confectionary, chocolate, is rich with charms itself. Since the first time people discovered chocolate, it has become a hit among those who consider themselves as chocolate lovers or chocoholics. Nowadays, chocolate is more than food and superb desserts, human’s creativities bring to an idea of transforming chocolate into unusual things. 1. Chocolate Spa Hershey, American’s largest chocolate company, has created an exotic and sublime spa at THE HOTEL HERSHEY where you can unwind your tensions and enjoy chocolate without gaining more calories. The Chocolate Spa is located in Hershey, Pennsylvania and more than its beautiful view that attracts people, Hershey provides extraordinary therapies with ingredient for innovative spa treatments such as the Whipped Cocoa Bath, Cocoa Butter Scrub and Chocolate Fondue Wrap. All are worth indulgence. The sweet and bitter spa has made itself to perfection with several ways of chocolate treatments; Chocolate Foundue Wrap,

Couple get married at 7-year-old son’s funeral

Parents say boy, who died in a N.Y. crash, had been asking them to wed BUFFALO, N.Y. - The parents of a 7-year-old boy who died after an upstate New York car crash have fulfilled his wish that they get married, and they did it at the child's funeral. Amilcar Hill and Rahwa Ghirmatizion got married during Monday's funeral service in Buffalo for their son, Asa Hill. Asa died a day after his grandfather's car was involved a chain-reaction highway crash last week. Hundreds of people packed the church for Asa's funeral. The couple surprised attendees by getting married, which the parents say their son had been asking them to do. Amilcar Hill says Asa's organs were being donated to save other young lives.

USA Strange History Mystery

I got this fowarded e-mail from a friend about USA … This is really weird … read on about US History Mystery .. Have a history teacher explain this - if they can. Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846. John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946. Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860. John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960. Both were particularly concerned with civil rights. Both wives lost their children while living in the White House. Both Presidents were shot on a Friday. Both Presidents were shot in the head Now it gets really weird. Lincoln ’s secretary was named Kennedy. Kennedy’s Secretary was named Lincoln Both were assassinated by Southerners. Both were succeeded by Southerners named Johnson. Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln , was born in 1808. Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908. John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln , was born in 1839. Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kenn

Happy Autumn!

Today (September 22) marks the beginning of the Autumn season this year, and in Lebanon it has officially began a couple of days ago with the heavy rain we were witnessing. The first day of autumn arrives on varying dates in different years for two reasons: Our year is not exactly an even number of days; and Earth's slightly noncircular orbit, plus the gravitational tug of the other planets, constantly changes our planet's orientation to the sun from year to year. And weather-wise, Earth's seasons have shifted in the past 150 years or so, according to a study that came out earlier this year. The hottest and coldest days of the years now are occurring almost two days earlier. This year, fall starts Tuesday, because that is when the so-called autumnal equinox occurs (at 5:18 p.m. EDT). Equinoxes (which mark the onset of spring and autumn) and solstices (which mark when summer and winter begin) are points in time and space that mark a transition in our planet's ann

Why Chinese guards can stand so straight

New use for a chair!

It happens only in India

Muntazer al-Zaidi: Why I threw the shoe

I am free. But my country is still a prisoner of war. There has been a lot of talk about the action and about the person who took it, and about the hero and the heroic act, and the symbol and the symbolic act. But, simply, I answer: what compelled me to act is the injustice that befell my people, and how the occupation wanted to humiliate my homeland by putting it under its boot. Over recent years, more than a million martyrs have fallen by the bullets of the occupation and Iraq is now filled with more than five million orphans, a million widows and hundreds of thousands of maimed. Many millions are homeless inside and outside the country. We used to be a nation in which the Arab would share with the Turkman and the Kurd and the Assyrian and the Sabean and the Yazid his daily bread. And the Shia would pray with the Sunni in one line. And the Muslim would celebrate with the Christian the birthday of Christ. This despite the fact that we shared hunger under sanctions for more than a

Bidding farewell to the most beautiful month of all...

Ramadan 2009 around the world - Photo Gallery On August 21st, hundreds of millions of Muslims started fasting for a month. They started to abstain from eating or drinking from dawn to dusk. They stand for hours in prayers each night to remember their Lord and express their gratitude to Him, seek His forgiveness and aspire to come closer to Him.On September 20th, the month of Ramadan ended welcoming Eid el Fitr. Vendors selling food for breaking fast wait for their customers during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan in Jakarta August 31, 2009. Muslims around the world abstain from eating, drinking and sexual relations from sunrise to sunset during Ramadan, the holiest month in the Islamic calendar. (Reuters, Enny Nuraheni) A Muslim man rests inside a mosque as he wait for iftar (breaking fast) in Dhaka August 29, 2009. Muslims around the world abstain from eating, drinking and sexual relations from sunrise to sunset during Ramadan, the holiest month in the Islamic calendar. (Re