(Daily Motion link) 48-year-old Susan Boyle always dreamed of becoming a professional singer. When she walked out on the stage of the TV show Britain's Got Talent, no one expected her to do well.
Miss Boyle told presenters Ant and Dec that she lived alone with just her cat Pebbles for company. She said: ‘I’ve never had a boyfriend. I’ve never even been kissed.’
She then stomped across the stage and began clumsily gyrating her hips towards the judges, prompting laughter from the audience.
But you can't always depend on first impressions. Link
One of America's largest bra makers says that three years ago, the most common size in the country was 36C. Last year it was 36D. In 2009, Wacoal predicts that 36DD will be the size more women purchase than any other.
Theories abound as to why women’s cups seem to be (forgive the pun) spilling over. Some ascribe the difference to a confluence of health and beauty trends that have accelerated over time. A 2007 study of adult women by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that the prevalence of obesity — someone having a body mass index of 30 or more — has increased 2.1 percent since 2004, to 35.3 percent. Breast augmentation, too, is still a popular procedure, despite the recession. And age and hormones play havoc with baby boomers’ bust sizes, as well. But most manufacturers and lingerie shop owners say the phenomenon is due to the fact that more women are being fitted correctly. They call it the Oprah effect. Since 2005, when Oprah Winfrey devoted a show to how to buy the right size bra, the number of women seeking bra fittings has soared.
Great-grandmother Josephine Mandamin, an Anishinabe elder from Thunder Bay, Ontario has seen the decline of the Great Lakes due to pollution, and decided to do something to bring the world's attention to the problem. She began walking around the lakes six years ago, and has covered 17,000 kilometers so far.
In the Anishinabe tradition, women fetch the water. So, in 2003, when Mandamin was "moved by the spirits" to speak out for the Great Lakes, it was natural for her to pick up her copper pail and start walking. She decided to circle the lakes and tell people that "the water is sick ... and people need to really fight for that water, to speak for that water, to love that water."
Every spring since, Mandamin and a small band of followers have walked around one of the lakes. Next weekend they depart from the Katarokwi Native Friendship Centre here to walk up the St. Lawrence River. Their mission will end where the lakes' water pours into the Atlantic Ocean (bearing so much poison that a quarter of the male beluga whales in the Gulf of St. Lawrence have cancer).
At every tributary, Mandamin stops and talks directly to the water, offering prayers, tobacco and thanks. "I've heard so many times, `You're crazy...'" she says. "But we know it's not a crazy thing we're doing; we know it's for the betterment of the next generations."
The Great Lakes provide drinking water to 35 million people. Link to story. Link to Mother Earth Water Walk website. -via Nag on the Lake
When driving, always keep your eye on the road and NOT on the camera! Google Street View uploaded a scene near Pittsburgh of a bridge, then a closeup, then the camera goes wildly awry. The simplest explanation is that the Street View driver hit the concrete bridge. Gawker has a video of the process, recorded from Google Street View, plus a link to the original if you want to explore more. Link -via Unique Daily
Duckweed spreads like wildfire to cover ponds. Jay Cheng, a biological engineer at North Carolina State University says this tiny aquatic plant could be a way to clean up industrial farm waste AND provide fuel for our vehicles!
More than a decade ago, Cheng and fellow NC State forestry professor Anne-Marie Stomp wondered whether fast-growing duckweed, commonly seen in shallow ponds, might remediate animal waste. Excrement from the billions of animals raised every year in America's factory farms has fouled watersheds, especially in the South, and fed oxygen-gobbling algae blooms responsible for rapidly-spreading coastal dead zones.
Duckweed, they discovered, has an appetite for animal waste, quickly converting it to leafy starch that can then be converted into ethanol. The current source for most U.S. ethanol is industrial-scale corn farming, which requires large amounts of toxic pesticides and dead zone-feeding, fuel-intensive fertilizers. When the costs are added up, corn-based ethanol may prove little cleaner than gasoline.
No shots fired, no score, no colors. BallDroppings is just a fun little physics-based music game. Draw lines to catch the bouncing balls and enjoy the music they make. Bonus -no inertia! Link -via Buzzfeed
Who will win the office race -the digital camera, the mouse, the PDA, the remote control, the cell phone, or another hand held gadget? This is another of those creative Samsung ads that go viral about once a week. -via Bits and Pieces
Ana Rodarte was born with neurofibromatosis, which caused tumors to cover half her face. She was in her twenties when a team of doctors led by plastic surgeon Munish Batra performed a series of operations that transformed her life. A journalist followed the process and wrote about how Rodarte's affliction shaped her world. Her email correspondence is included.
"i don't want kids no, the risk is too high for me to have them be born with the same condition. . . . i wouldn't want them having to experience what i did, and i cannot work, no one will hire me so i gave up on that, and i don't plan on ever getting married, i don't believe in it."
Of course she claimed she didn't care. "Not all dreams come true," she wrote once, sounding more resigned than bitter.
In time I interpreted her rationalizations as a measure of how vulnerable she was to the truth: that she would never be married, never gaze upon her own child or be anything less than dependent on others for her livelihood, and all because of her face. I wondered if someday she would prove me wrong.
Link to part one. Link to part two. Link to photos. -via Digg
National Geographic is running a photo contest called Peeps in Places. Just take a picture of one or more marshmallow Peeps posing in some travel destination, add them to the Filckr pool, and tag them as "NGTpeeps." Due to enthusiastic response, the original deadline has been extended until Monday, April 13th. Winners get prizes from Nat Geo and Just Born (the maker of Peeps)! Link to contest information. Link to a slideshow of entries.
Today's Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss challenges you to remember the unusual way some celebrities spell their names. It's the first of a series of quizzes, today featuring female TV stars.
In this edition of Spellbound, you’ll have to key in the first names of each female TV star mentioned. Capital letters don’t matter, but spelling does - so be careful. And good luck!
I only scored 40% because I are a bad spellar. http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/24427
Who knew there were so many kinds of lobsters in the world? See 19 different species in this post at Bukisa. Shown is a blind furry lobster. Blind or not, I couldn't eat something that looks at me that way! Link -via the Presurfer
Retired arson investigator and state trooper Ken Borders has opened a doughnut shop in Kentucky and named it Police Doughnuts.
"Being in police work for 32 years, it's been a standing joke that cops and doughnuts, they go hand-in-hand," he said. "I just figured that it would be a catchy name."
Borders said Police Doughnuts is meant to recall a time when officers really did hang out at doughnut shops, whereas today's police "are all into this fitness crap."
And what do the police think?
"I have two words for it: hysterical and genius," said John Keeling, a metro police patrol officer who lives in Eastwood. "I wish I had thought of it."
Louisville Assistant Chief Troy Riggs said doughnut shops once were the only places open in the middle of the night, which is why officers hung out there, establishing the stereotype.
He thinks that's outdated now, but "if it helps them do business, good for them," he said.
