Red Mercury

Saudi police are investigating the origins of a hoax that had hundreds of people believing that old sewing machines may bring fortune because they contained an elusive, and probably mythical, substance known as red mercury.

Talk about stitched up.

(That's basically all I had on this story, a weak pun. So now I have to read on to see if there's any more insight I can add.)

Saudi published pictures of Saudis proudly posing next to old sewing machines awaiting prospective buyers at traditional markets.

Heck, with the way the stock markets have been performing, they're actually a good investment.

Some buyers were willing to pay up to 200,000 riyals ($50,000, that's about £3.50... probably) for an old Singer sewing machine proven to contain red mercury. They used mobile phones to prove the existence of the red mercury.

They say, if the line cuts off when the telephone is placed close to the needle that proves the existence of the substance.

Or you're on the 3 network, when it would just cut off anyway.

Popular belief in the Middle East has it that it can help uncover hidden gold treasures, though there are other theories which say it can be used to create a nuclear bomb.

The only problem is mercury is an element, so you don't get different types. It's just silver and runny, and that's it.

So those who tried to buy a sewing machine to cash in on the red mercury now find they have nothing but an old sewing machine.

It's the most useless singer since Will Young.

[Read more on the source story]

Gold!

Gold. That's where the money is these days.

In a time when all other investments are infamously struggling, a nice tangible investment like mental is coming into its own.

And through the Monex Deposit Company you can make those types of investments. Precious metals like gold and silver can be bought as investments in the form of ingots, but also you can use Monex as your coin dealer and buy gold and silver coins. That way the coin has its face value, and the metal has its value too. It has a price below which it will not fall because of the face value, and the investment can grow because of the price of the metal on the market.

It reminds us of the days when the gold standard was still in use, and if that was the still the case wouldn't we all feel safer?

Cyrus And The Chicken

Miley Cyrus has been praised for adopting a chicken.

Really? Doesn't that seem a little bit like a sub-standard Angelina?

The singer-and-actress has been honoured with a Compassionate Citizen Award by peta2 - the youth division of animal rights group PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) - after taking home the bird from the set of 'Hannah Montana: The Movie' because she "thought the bird was adorable and needed saving".

And when she gets older she might try to adopt a chicken from Malawi.

Last year, she and her dad, singer Billy Ray Cyrus, found a lost dog in her neighbourhood and stayed with the pooch until it was reunited with its owner.

That's really nice. Unless her dad started singing to in, when it would be a case for the RSPCA.

[Read more on the source story]

Ask The Family

A new survey says young women are putting babies before marriage.

Is this really a surprise? Surely we could've guessed that. We hear of teenage pregnancy but we don't hear about teenage marriage. It's bound to skew the figures.

The results say women are more likely to give birth before they turn 25 than get married.

That's because no one wakes up after a drunken night to find they're engaged, but knocked up is a different matter.

I'll tell you why this is happened, it's the ban of shotguns being sold. Simple as.

Learning Is Good

If you are interested in education, firstly I like you. I think people who are keen to learn are the best people around. And secondly, I have some information for you.

Have you heard of the Capella University? They are a uni where you can get a degree online, and they provide an education-related podcast. In the one you can get now they talk about state-approved reading and literacy programs.

There are different topics and the podcast is regularly updated. If you want to find out more you can have a look at www.capella.edu.

The podcasts include interviews with Capella students, they chat to faculty members and members of staff. These are the people who know about what it's like to be involved with the university, so they have useful information for you.


This blog post was based on information provided by Blogitive. For more information, please visit Blogitive.com.

Binge Breathing

Just as we get told off for our love of binge drinking (is there really any other type of drinking?) a new bar opens that gives us the perfect excuse.

It's a bar where the air is filled with a mist of alcohol. You just breathe it in and you get drunk. That's right, binge breathing!

Just 40 minutes inside the venue – which delivers an intoxicating vapour of gin and tonic – will leave you feeling slightly merry.

But what happens when you're drunk? Does the landlord say, "I think you've had enough. Stop breathing!"

The Alcoholic Architecture bar can be found in Ganton Street, the Newburgh Quarter, central London.

It's makes you feel sorry for the designated drivers. They have to hold their breathe all night.

[Read more on the source story]

Facebook Off!

Do you Twitter? Do you Facebook? Are you on MySpace? Basically, I'm asking, do you have lots of spare time?

But if you a Facebooker it seems that you are turning into good people. A new study says that Facebook users are now nicer than ever before.

The number of "c***s!" have really dropped off in recent times. It also seems that there are fewer "b*******" on the web now.

There are now almost no "p****s" on Facebook now. I'm thinking of starting a group, "save the p****s". Imagine life without p****s. The c***s wouldn't have such a fun time for a start. And wouldn't that just be a total b******?

The information comes from Facebook Lexicon, a tool launched a year ago that allows users to see how often words and phrases are used in public posts on the social network.

Maybe we're just getting more polite, or maybe there's a fashion in swear words. C*** and F*** are just so 90s.

I think we should spend more time making other words popular. It's like when some odd song gets in the Hit40 because of ironic downloads. I say we focus and make "You Total Remmy" get a place in the top 10 Facebook insults.

[Read more on the source story]

Baby Gifts

There are certain ages when things happen. I don't mean those awkward teenage years (I still think bank in horror) I mean you reache an age when everyone you know if buying a house, or everyone you know is getting married. I'm not at the age when a lot of people I know are having kids. Well, the people I know from university are having kids. The people I know who left school had about 15 kids by the time they were 18.

If all around you people have starting families you might need a place where you can buy buy baby gifts. Well, have a look at www.babynest.com and see what you think. Babynest.com helps you track down the perfect gift or tot-related purchase. So, that gets you out of a hole.

Madonna's Big Day

Madonna's expected to find out later today if she'll be allowed to adopt a second child from Malawi. You know, bulk buying.

No, I'm not going to have a pop at Madonna for this because I think it's amazing. She could just site there with all her money and keep her lifestyle to herself.

It's nice that she is willing to open her home and her life to these youngsters.

That last sentence could've been describing her and her new boyfriend.

No Peeking

Local authorities are to have their powers to snoop on us cut back.

Good. If they want to be able to watch people without them knowing they should have to pay the memberships on the websites I have to. Erm, I mean... oh, anyway.

Many authorities are using anti-terror laws to mount covert surveillance operations to track people committing minor offences. Some councils have admitted using the powers to tackle littering and dog fouling.

I don't think you can say dog fouling is a sign of terrorism. No one has tried to bring down the West with a dog poo. No on has thrown a couple of turds at tall buildings in New York.

In future use of spy cameras will have to be signed off by the council leader or chief executive.

Heck, they'll sign anything these days. They must do, how else did they get their expenses signed?

Bridesmaid Gifts

Do you have the big day coming up? The wedding?

There's a lot to do and a lot to plan. Just when you think you have it sorted, you've planned the photographer, you've booked the band, you remembered to date someone and get them to propose to you, you realise there's still something left to do, like get the bridesmaid gifts.

I know, you think, "They get to dress up all nice for a day, what more do they want?" But it's tradition and a wedding is all about tradition.

If you need wedding supplies have a look at The Knot Wedding Shop (the address is weddingshop.theknot.com). It has everything from wedding cameras to cake toppers. And their quick turnaround delivery means that even if something slipped your mind it wont' be too late.

Bank Robber Wants Money 'For People Who Deserve It'

In San Francisco, police investigators were looking for a man who walked into a bank and explained that he was fed up with corporate bailouts, and then mentioned he had a bomb.

Until that bomb part that was just someone filing a complaint.

He said he wanted money that 'would go to people who deserve it.'

Oh, I know who he means, the people who run GM?

The manager withdrew a large amount of cash from a vault and gave it to the suspect, who quickly departed on foot.

I like the sound of that, but I think they'd trace the money if I did it as I'd just pay it into my account. Heck, I deserve it just as much as the people who are getting the bailouts.

Swine Flu Deaths Spark Worldwide Health Alert

Swine flu might be upgraded to some sort of scary super flu. I didn't read the full story on this one, I'll admit that.

What gets me about all the swine flu coverage is the advice we keep hearing. We should use tissues and wash out hands.

Well, we should be doing that anyway. Don't only wash your hands when there's a media-genic flu on the go. A normal winter flu kills hundreds of old people each year and we spread it by wiping our kids snotty faces and not washing out hands. If you try and tell someone about that they think you're being emotionless and you don't understand because you don't have kids.

Really! I don't have grandparents now, but one thing I do remember is that you don't want them to get a nasty flu just because you don't want to wash your snotty kid.

Seriously. Tut.

Medical Shopping

Whether you are shopping for kinesio tape, diabetes test strips, an x2 vest weight vest or even a breast feeding pillow you might prefer to do it from home rather than go into a shop.

Lucky for you, there's a website that provides exactly what you need.

AllegroMedical.com has around 55,000 products available online. It makes them one of the largest online suppliers of these medical items.

They have expanded into slightly different markets too as you can now get fitness equipment and nutritional dietary supplements there too.

And you can get yourself a Free Allegro eCatalog to do your browsing in. The ecatalog also gives you some limited time specials and discounts, so you can make a saving too.

Britney Shears

Britney Spears has turned to gardening to keep her on the straight and narrow.

Finally, the people who vandalised the Blue Peter garden have another worthwhile target.

She has turned to a self-help programme called "flower therapy" which uses flower essences to 'balance physical and emotional disturbances'.

We're gonna need a bigger bucket!

Still, if getting into nature will help her it's a good thing. Besides, even if Britney does go off the rails in the garden and start flashing it'll be no more off putting than Charlie Dimmock was.

Big Brother Blogging

Have you been watching Big Brother? Not a lot of people have been but I have tried to stay on top of the stories.

So, I read a few of them on The Sun's website and because I have an account there I posted a few comments that were basically jokes about the stories. (The place I write jokes for doesn't want Big Brother ones this year so they're going spare.)

My comments appeared on The Sun site (like this) so blogged about the comments on my other blog. I linked to some of the pages where my comments appeared.

Then I noticed I got a bit more webtraffic coming from twitter.com/BigBrotherMad

It's Nasty Nick's Twitter page. He linked to my blog, bless.

So I thought I'd link to him on here.

Basically, I'm blogging about a Tweet about a blog I did about the comments I posted on a site about a TV show I'm not even watching.

The internet is great.