The insanity of bottled water

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The ravages of aging: Sean Connery, 20 years ago vs Today

"It's like he hasn't changed at all!"

This is WHY you don't tease the crocs in Australia

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"What, no hello kiss for your friendly neighbourhood croc? Aww..."

How Retailers Trick You in to Buying Stuff You Don’t Need (and How to Fight Back)

Consumers shopping habits have been put under a microscope and analyzed by the retail industry in order to maximize sales.
Shoppers have been as thoroughly studied as lab rats and the research has resulted in scientifically proven approaches to influence shopper’s emotions, to heighten their insecurities and to trick them in to buying things they don’t need or want. Here's 10 of the most common retail tricks, along with tips for how to avoid being taken in. While some of these things may seem like common sense, each is a reaction to a specific tactic retailers use to get you to buy just one more thing.

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"Must...buy...buy...buy...goodbye!"

The Inkjet Refill Racket

At up to $8,000 per gallon, inkjet ink is among the most expensive liquids by volume one can buy.
Printers are sold using the razor blade business model—the printers are dirt cheap, but you have to keep buying ink for eternity. And wouldn’t you know, it turns out that printer ink, especially for photos, is probably the most expensive substance per volume you’ll ever buy—more expensive than gold, oil, perfume, even blood in most cases.
If you’re buying name-brand ink cartridges, which typically hold a few milliliters of ink, you’re shelling out the equivalent of between $3,000 and $5,000 per gallon. (Suddenly, spending $45 to fill your car’s gas tank doesn’t seem so extravagant, eh?) Just as an idea of how valuable this particular golden goose is, more than 40 percent of HP’s $2.63 billion operating profits from last quarter came from it’s imaging and printing group alone. In other words, ink keeps printer companies in the black.

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"It's about time for most everyone to switch to colour laser. Expensive initially, you almost get your money back right away when you don't have to buy the aforementioned printer ink."

Cat and child: T minus 5 seconds to ultraviolence, feline-style

Wonder if they cut hair with just paperclips and bubblegum?

Lights of Catania and Piano del Lago

Perched above the lighted city of Catania, Italy, Mount Etna hurls a fountain of fire skyward as rivers of lava spill down its flanks. In spite of its dazzling displays, Mount Etna is a relatively safe volcano with rare, compact eruptions and slow-flowing lava that gives people a chance to escape.

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The balloon tank

german panther, 2007, Luftballon/Luft/Kleber (balloon/air/glou), 960 x370 x 300cm

"Must find a pin....."

Pizza and beer now cost an arm and a leg

If you’re looking for a sure sign the economy is headed in the wrong direction, all you need to do is look at the skyrocketing price of “recession-proof” foods: pizza, hot dogs, bagels and beer.

For many people, the credit crunch and the mortgage mess have left their pocketbooks – and their cupboards – bare. These same consumers, many living paycheck to paycheck, have relied on these cheaper foods to keep their expenditures down. Not anymore.

In the past few months, the news has gone from bad to worse:

• Pizza makers have seen their cheese costs soar this year from $1.30 a pound to $1.76 a pound. Even worse, the flour used to make the dough has gone from $3-$7 dollars a bushel to $25 a bushel in less than a year.
• Beer makers have been forced to raise their prices because of the skyrocketing price of hops – one of the principle ingredients. The price of hops has gone from about $4 a pound in September to $40 a pound. The price of barley, beer’s other main ingredient, has nearly doubled.

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"Sheesh! Yup, everything 's getting more expensive!"

Skywalkers in Korea Cross Han Solo

They came from all over the world, poles in hand, and feet ready to inch more than half a mile across a high wire strung over the Han River in a spine-tingling battle of balance, speed and high anxiety.
As part of its annual city festival, the South Korean capital staged Thursday what was billed as the world's first high-wire championship, drawing 18 contestants from nine countries for three days of supreme feats of concentration.
Each acrobat must navigate the 1.2-inch-thick wire that spans the river, with the top prize of $15,000 going to the person crossing it fastest.

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"Either the headline writer is a Star Wars geek or this is the best unintentional headline ever...you know most people are thinking something totally different with that headline!"

I Want Real Change

Obsolete skills page

Perhaps you were the master butter churner in the 'day' or still remember dialing a rotary phone or rewinding VHS tapes? You now have an obsolete skill! Here's a list of some of the obsolete skills in todays world.

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"So you mean they no longer use carbon paper to make copies? Drat, there goes another skill obsolete!"

Guess Who Got Detention?

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Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition 2008

Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition Online. Do we really need to say more?

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"Hubba-hubba!"

Hapless robbers target biker meeting

On Wednesday night, two machete-wielding robbers, aged 20 and 16, attempted a heist at the Regents Park Sporting and Community Club in Sydney, Australia. Unfortunately for them, they picked the night that the tough Souther Cross Cruiser motorcycle club was having its monthly meeting. Apparently, the 50 bikers beat the hell out of them with tables, chairs, and fists.
From CNN: "These guys were absolutely dumb as bricks," Jerry Vancornewal, leader of the bikers, told CNN Thursday. "I can't believe they saw all the bikes parked up front and they were so stupid that they walked past in...."

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"Sometimes life is just comedy, isn't it?"

Scientists Predict When World Will End

Scientists have nailed down how and when the Earth will cease to exist.

The sun will slowly expand into a red giant, pushing the Earth farther out into space, but not far enough.

Our home planet will be snagged by the sun's outer atmosphere, gradually plunging to its doom inside the fiery stellar furnace.

"The drag caused by this low-density gas is enough to cause the Earth to drift inwards, and finally to be captured and vaporized by the sun," explains astronomer Robert Smith of the University of Sussex in southern England.

Previous projections had all figured that the Earth would avoid falling into the sun, even during our star's red-giant phase.

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"But on the bright side, we'll have one heck of a tan!"

Doomsday Seed Bank Opens This Week

The Arctic doomsday seed vault will open this week, according to the Press Association.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is the world's insurance policy on a host of threats that could destroy important crops, from global warming and war to natural disasters like drought, flood and wildfire.

The vault's initial repository will include 250,000 varieties (10 million seeds) from "virtually every country in the world," according to the Association.

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"It's kinda comforting and terrifying at the same time. Hopefully we will never use it, but at the same time if we it is necessary we have backup."

Sleep Jerk to Piss Shivers: 5 Body Mysteries Explained

The human body is one of the most incredible organisms in the known universe, but all that awesomeness carries some pretty weird and hard-to-explain baggage. We are here to help shed light on some of those body mysteries in the hopes you'll have something intelligent to say if you get stuck in an intense debate about the pee shakes or the white thing you just coughed up. Read on, get educated and help identify those unknown moments when it appears your body is rebelling against you. If you're lucky your questions will be answered here, if they aren't ... brain tumor.

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"It's not a tumour!!"