OTHER NEWS

FAWLTY TOWERS BECOMES BOUTIQUE HOTEL

LIANE KATZ GUARDIAN - Check into the Hotel Gleneagles in Torbay these
days and you will no longer be confronted with out-of-date kippers or
senile majors. For despite inspiring cult TV comedy series Fawlty
Towers, the property has undergone a £1m refurbishment and plans to
relaunch as a four-star boutique hotel. Under new ownership since
February, the hotel's luxury facelift has ushered in a new ground-floor
swimming pool and al fresco dining area, a luxurious lounge and a
conservatory. Ceilings have been raised and Italian chandeliers
installed, while over 40 skip-loads of rubbish have been removed.

The character of Basil Fawlty was inspired by a former manager at the
hotel; he gave John Cleese and the Monty Python team a frosty welcome
when they booked in 1971. The ferocious host berated them for not
holding their knives and forks correctly and threw one of their
briefcases over a wall believing it could be a time bomb.

http://travel.guardian.co.uk/hotels/story/0,,1819989,00.html

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MOVE TO VANUATU

TONY LONG, WIRED - Vanuatu. This South Pacific archipelago, stretching
between 15 and 20 degrees south and lying due west of Fiji and northeast
of New Caledonia, is, according to the Happy Planet Index, the happiest
country on Earth. . . The index, compiled by the progressive New
Economics Foundation (sort of an anti-Cato Institute), established its
criteria for ranking 178 countries using classic economics: the ratio of
benefits to costs. Nations were ranked by their general satisfaction
with life, life expectancy and their environmental footprint. The latter
refers to the amount of land required to sustain the population while
adequately handling the attendant energy consumption.

By that measuring stick, says the NEF, Vanuatu comes out on top. The
United States, leaving a size-16 environmental footprint wherever it
treads, ranked 150th. And La Belle France fared little better, coming in
at 129th. (Germany, interestingly enough, placed 81st). . .

Asked by Britain's Guardian newspaper why he thought Vanuatu is the
happiest country on Earth, Marke Lowen of Vanuatu Online said, "People
are generally happy here because they are very satisfied with very
little. This is not a consumer-driven society. Life here is about
community and family and goodwill to other people. It's a place where
you don't worry too much."

http://www.wired.com/news/columns/0,71379-0.html?tw=rss.index

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ANNALS OF IMPROBABLE RESEARCH - Flatulence filter seat cushion for
absorbing odor and providing sound attenuation from an anal discharge of
a seated individual The said cushions are typically used at home, in
office environments, for wheelchair patients, while traveling in the
car, train, plane, and sporting events or for that special gift-giving
occasion. That is the description of a patent (US patent #7,073,223)
issued today, July 11, 2006, to James P. Huza of Greenville, North
Carolina. Mr. Huza is famed, to the degree he is famed, for previously
inventing the "Wearable and regenerative flatus and genitalia odor
removal apparatus, method of making same and method of removing such
odors," for which he was granted US patent #20050182372.

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ANGUS REID GLOBAL SCAN - Many adults in the United States believe their
government should not become involved in the current dispute between
Israel and its neighbors, according to a poll by Survey USA. 55 per cent
of respondents think the U.S. should not attempt to negotiate a
ceasefire, and 84 per cent reject a military intervention

http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/index.cfm/fuseaction/viewItem/itemID/12567


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COUNTRIES THAT WON'T BE TAKING PART IN WORLD WAR III
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutral_country

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WONDERFUL JAPANESE TOILET TRAINING VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGbewHT7zKU

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WHY DO MAGICIANS SAY 'ABRACADABRA?'

ASK YAHOO - According to World Wide Words, the term first appeared
during the second century in the Latin medical poem "De medicina
praecepta." Apparently the poem's author, a physician named Quintus
Serenus Sammonicus, believed the word could heal the sick when inscribed
on an amulet and spoken in a particular way. Start with "abracadabra,"
then say "abracadabr," then "abracadab," and so on. . . As for how the
word went from medical to magical, The ES Press believes abracadabra may
have come from the Hebrew phrase "abreg ad habra," which means "strike
dead with thy lightning." Another theory argues the phrase comes from
the Aramaic phrase "avrah kedabra," which translates to "I will create
as I speak."

http://ask.yahoo.com/20060720.html

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ANATOLE FRANCE HAD JUDGE RYMER'S NUMBER

BILL BLUM - "The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well
as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal
bread."- Anatole France, 1844-1924. . . On April 14 a federal appeals
court ruled that the Los Angeles Police Department cannot arrest people
for sitting, lying or sleeping on public sidewalks on Skid Row, saying
such enforcement amounts to cruel and unusual punishment because there
are not enough shelter beds for the city's huge homeless population.
Judge Pamela A. Rymer issued a strong dissent against the majority
opinion. The Los Angeles code "does not punish people simply because
they are homeless," wrote Rymer. "It targets conduct -- sitting, lying
or sleeping on city sidewalks -- that can be committed by those with
homes as well as those without."

http://members.aol.com/bblum6/aer35.htm

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ELEVEN MILE BACKUP CAUSED BY TRAFFIC CENSUS

DAILY MAIL, UK - Caught in an 11-mile traffic jam during the hottest
July day on record sweltering motorists could only assume there had been
an accident. It was only, several hours later, as they finally
approached the trouble spot, that they discovered there was no crash.
Instead, council officers had chosen the day . . . to hold a traffic
census. And even when asked by police to call it off, they refused.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=
396813&in_page_id=1770

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MATHEMATICIAN FIGURES OUT HOW LONG IT WILL TAKE KIDS TO ASK "HOW LONG
BEFORE WE GET THERE?"

SCOTSMAN, A professsor of mathematics has worked out an equation to
calculate how long into a car journey it takes a child to ask: "Are we
nearly there yet?" . . . Professor Dwight Barkley, of the mathematics
department at the University of Warwick, uses a number of factors to
work out the equation, by calculating the time you finally get all the
kids in the car and eventually leave the house, the number of children
in the car and the on board activities to keep the youngsters occupied.
. . The mathematical explanation is that the time it takes for a child
to ask the question equals: one, plus the number of activities to do,
divided by the number of children in the car squared.
To get the final answer, that figure is then added to the time it took
the family to get into the car and set off on their journey.

http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=609&id=1061562006

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CULT NEWS: OPUS DEI

TIMES UK - Opus Dei, the conservative Catholic organization, has paid a
rare and fulsome tribute to Gianmario Roveraro, an Italian banker who
was found murdered last week, chopped into pieces beneath a motorway
bridge. The statement is as close as the group's secretive policy allows
to admitting that the pious financier was a member of the movement.

The kidnapping of Roveraro, whose remains were found on Friday after he
was cut up with a chainsaw, has intensified the scrutiny of Opus Dei and
echoed a scandal over the 1982 murder of Roberto Calvi, "God's Banker",
who was found dead under Blackfriars Bridge in London. Calvi had had
links to Opus Dei and was allegedly killed by the Sicilian mafia.

Opus Dei formally declined to confirm newspaper reports that he was a
"supernumerary" or member.

However, Giuseppe Corigliano, its spokesman, said that Roveraro had
"already received from God the reward for his many virtues". These
included "the courage to seek the truth, firmness in living the faith,
dedication to his family, friends and anyone he came into contact with".

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2281797,00.html