Dukey don't play dat.

I know, I know. I posted. End of the world. Kablooey.

Now that we're done being amazed and can wipe up the gooey, exploded pieces of our brains...



Luxembourg's Grand Duke Henri is set to have his powers trimmed by parliament in a row over euthanasia legislation.


Gee... That's... Nice of them.

'Luxembourg was plunged into a constitutional crisis on Tuesday after the sovereign, Grand Duke Henri, threatened to block a law legalizing euthanasia if it is passed by parliament.

Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker responded by saying the country would change its constitution to reduce the powers of the sovereign, who traditionally stays above the political fray.

"Because we wish to avoid a constitutional crisis, but at the same time respect the opinion of the Grand Duke, we are going to take out the term 'approve' from article 34 of the constitution and replace it with the word 'promulgate,'" said Juncker, a move which would scrap the sovereign's formal power to block laws.'

Oh! Dang! The Duke trying to use his power, better change the constitution!

The revision is expected to happen before the end of the year.

"That means he will only technically enact laws," said Mr. Juncker, quoted by Reuters news agency. "

A parliamentary source said that the 53-year-old Grand Duke, in power since 2000, had informed party leaders on Monday that he would not sign the law "for reasons of conscience," in a break from the sovereign's traditional political neutrality.

"I understand the Grand Duke's problems of conscience. But I believe that if the parliament votes in a law, it must be brought into force," Juncker said earlier, despite his own personal opposition to the bill.

So...

Anyone know the patron saint of Luxembourg?

Quotes from AFP and BBC News

Two things:

First of all... D: OMG-I'm-so-sorry-I-didn't-realize-how-blunt/rude-my-second-entry-was! I doooo want to come to dinner, I'm just annoyed my church scheduled the haunted forest on the same night. So... Can has forgiveness? :3


Number two: Xin Wuku, Urban Ninja

Totally awesome guy. If you've never heard of him, what you're missing out on is basically a modern ninja.

Xin Wuku [calls himself the "Son of Heaven"] is self taught martial artist. His family escaped from Cambodia and came to America, where he's lived most of his life. Interested in martial arts from a young age, Xin slowly learned by copying from old Kung Fu movies and Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles.

When he was about 15/16, Xin met his hero, Jackie Chan, at the local Walmart where Chan was signing his new autobiography. When Xin reached the head of the signing line, he greeted Chan with a "Nihao" and asked to join his stunt team. Jackie laughed and said, "Maybe when you're a little older."

From that day on, Xin trained his body and mind to be the best martial artist in the world. With a small fan base and a name in big shows like "American Gladiators", Xin's fame slowly rises to the top.

However, Xin may be most famous for his YouTube video, Urban Ninja.



Buakaw

Enjoy Summer Break when You Hate the Summer - wikiHow

I made a request for a guide on WikiHow and someone answered it! :D I'll actually follow this guide next summer, I swear!



Enjoy Summer Break when You Hate the Summer - wikiHow

How to Enjoy Summer Break when You Hate the Summer

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

How to enjoy Summer Break when you hate Summer.

Steps

1. Friends. At school, you see your friends (or atleast other kids) every single day without having to do anything - but during Summer Break, it's a bit harder. If you feel lonely, just remember that other students may be feeling the exact same way. To stop yourself getting lonely, try and organize days out, sleepovers or just meet-up times with your friends before the holidays begin.
   
   • If your friends have all gone on holiday, or you don't have many, try joining a club or group. You'll meet new people, and have something to occupy yourself with!
     
   
   
2. Things to do. Maybe the reason you dislike the Summer Break is because there is nothing to do. All that free time! Well, it may surprise you to hear that there is lots to do!
   
   • Go to the cinema
     
   • Take up a sport
     
   • Get a hobby, e.g. photography
     
   • Get a part time job, which will take up time, look good on your CV and give you some money
     
   • Become involved with a charity
     
   • Learn an instrument
     
   • Go out shopping
     
   • Read a book or watch the TV
     
   • Go to a nightclub
     
   • Go to the beach
     
   • Write
     
   • take up a videogame with friends. summer melts away.
     
   
   
3. Weather. Is that the problem? Just too hot? Well, that's easily fixed - holiday somewhere with a cooler climate! Iceland, anybody? If that's not possible, try to do indoor activities, where you'll atleast have some ventilation, and keep a cool drink with you at all times. The heat isn't really that bad, anyway. If it's tanning you're worried about, wear SPF50 or above when outside.
   

Tips

• Keep your friends contacts in a phonebook or stored on your computer, so you'll always be able to reach them!
  
• Keep an open mind to new activies - you never know what you might like!
  
• LAZE ABOUT A BIT! You don't have to fill every second of your holidays with activites. Have a rest, and return to school rejuvinated and ready to learn.
  
• go on wikis and contribute.
  

Warnings

• Asking the same people to go out and do things with you constantly can get a bit annoying...
  

Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Enjoy Summer Break when You Hate the Summer. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

And Russia was all, "MOTHERLAND!"

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Do yah know what this is? Do yah? DO YAH? No. No, you don't. I'll give you a hint. It's Russian. A Russian HOLE. A really, really DEEP one.

Over forty years ago, researchers in the Soviet Union began an ambitious drilling project whose goal was to penetrate the Earth's upper crust and sample the warm, mysterious area where the crust and mantle intermingle– the Mohorovičić discontinuity, or "Moho." So deep is this area that the Russian scientists had to invent new ways of drilling, and some of their new methods proved quite inventive. But despite the valiant effort which spanned several decades, the Russians never reached their goal, and many of the Earth's secrets were left undiscovered. The work done by the Soviets did, however, provide a plethora of information about what lies just beneath the surface, and it continues to be scientifically useful today. The project is known as the Kola Superdeep Borehole.

... "Superdeep Borehole." What.

Today, the deepest hole ever created by humankind lies beneath the tower enclosing Kola's drill. A number of boreholes split from the central branch, but the deepest is designated "SG-3," a hole about nine inches wide which snakes over 12.262 kilometers (7.5 miles) into the Earth's crust. The drill spent twenty-four years chewing its way to that depth, until its progress was finally halted in 1994, about 2.7 kilometers (1.7 miles) short of its 15,000-meter goal.

It's deep.

Despite the scientists' efforts to combat the heat by refrigerating the drilling mud before pumping it down, at twelve kilometers the drill began to approach its maximum heat tolerance. At that depth researchers had estimated that they would encounter rocks at 100°C (212°F), but the actual temperature was about 180°C (356°F)– much higher than anticipated. At that level of heat and pressure, the rocks began to act more like a plastic than a solid, and the hole had a tendency to flow closed whenever the drill bit was pulled out for replacement. Forward progress became impossible without some technological breakthroughs and major renovations of the equipment on hand, so drilling stopped on the SG-3 branch. If the hole had reached the initial goal of 15,000 meters, temperatures would have reached a projected 300°C (572°F).

It's hot.

Kola was not the first nor the last attempt at drilling a superdeep borehole, but it has been the most successful so far. In 1957 the United States embarked on a similar project dubbed Project Mohole, but that attempt to drill through the ocean floor was cancelled due to lack of funding. Today, the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program seeks to penetrate the much thinner crust of the ocean floor to probe the Earth's lower crust.

The Kola Superdeep Borehole is still a scientifically useful site, and research there is ongoing. The huge repository of core samples are housed at Zapolyarniy, about 10 kilometers south of the borehole. Today the site is managed by the State Scientific Enterprise on Superdeep Drilling and Complex Investigations in the Earth's Interior as the Deep Geolaboratory.

And America couldn't reproduce it. Russia, you are now in my Top 8 again.

[Found on Damn Interesting]


- z

Hark! I have heard tell of a wondrous thing!

They are called "mix tapes" and intrigue me greatly. I have known of such an idea for sometime now... However! I had been unable to study them at great length till I heard of great invention restore the humble cassettes their former glory. Behold:



Okay, not ACTUALITY tapes but still. The website quotes as follows:

Remember the days before digital music and MP3 players? If you do, then you probably made mixed tapes of all your favorite music to share with your friends and school crushes on good old fashioned blank cassette tapes! If you miss the 80's and making mix tapes, this product will inspire you again!

Create your own unique mix tape

1. ADD YOUR OWN SOUNDS TO THE USB STICK.
2. PLACE THE STICK INSIDE THE TAPE STYLE GIFT PACK.
3. WRITE YOUR OWN MESSAGE AND PLAYLIST.
4. GIVE IT TO SOMEONE YOU LOVE.
64MB USB MEMORY STICK

Store your own mix on the USB stick by plugging into your PC or Mac, then add MP3 or any other files to the USB stick.

Stores up to 1 hour of high quality digital music - the same amount as you get on a C60 cassette tape. Perfect for creating your own unique compilation or mix 'tape'. When you have 60 minutes you have to think carefully about what you are going to put on there! Write your own title, messages and play list all over the retro gift pack.

FOR MAC AND PC

6 different designs to collect

Found at Perpetual Kid.

Urge to kill... Rising...

I'm a generally peaceful person. Mostly because I'm lazy, but still. I have a few things I care very deeply about, my own set of rules. However, I find it very hard not to take... physical action when people don't respect my few, easy rules.

http://www.youtube.com/user/fsmdude

You don't need to watch any of his videos, you don't even have to click the link. I'm going to explain what this link is.

This guy has taken 40 different Hosts and purposefully desecrated them, each in a different way. He records each desecration and posts them on YouTube for the purpose of ticking Catholics off.

Geez. I'm ticked. Good job.


...


Is that it? Surely you could of found a better way to waste your time, sir. You are in my prayers. But really. What was the point? To show off how much of a jerk you can be? To show that Catholics really DO care about the Host? How do you profit? By getting death threats from people who aren't good at controlling their anger?

Jesus did say to turn the other cheek. So, sorry, no threats from me. Not to say I don't WANT to do something. I just take my religion seriously. Sorry you don't feel the same way.

RIP: a Teenaged Suicide

On September 23, this Tuesday, Connor Wilkinson was found dead. He had committed suicide.

Connor was only 13 years old.

Tired of being pushed around and taunted, he tried to release himself from his living hell. Wilkinson had an abnormally high voice, which was target for mocking from his peers.

I never met Connor. I don't know his family or friends. I hardly know anything about him. It's probably not my business. But I think I know his story. Maybe it started as a joke, maybe it was serious. But somehow Connor became a game of "Pin the insults on the Dork." Maybe Connor laughed it off at first. But it's not human to pull up your insecurities and shove them in your face. Time after time, Wilkinson was bombarded with taunts and it wore away what little confidence he may of had till maybe he truly believe something was wrong with him. That he was a weirdo, a freak. Maybe they convinced him of more than that. Maybe he really thought he didn't deserve to live. Without a kind word to uplift his spirits, he powered through as long as he could. One day, he got pushed over the edge and sought to release himself from this personal hell.

Depressing.

Connor didn't deserve this, no one does. No one understands what it's like to be "that kid" unless you are at some point.

But through it all, some good has come. The school he went to was brought together through grief, they put aside their stupid differences and were equals to sadness and mourning.

I hope you remember Connor Wilkinson and what one kind word might of done to help him.

Q: When is the first day of fall for the year 2008?

A: The first day of fall occurs at the autumnal equinox: Monday, September 22, 2008, at 11:44:16 EDT (15:44:16 UCT). This is the astronomical definition of fall, and is generally used when we refer to "fall" or "autumn."

It should be noted that meteorologists tend to refer to September, October and November as fall, which means fall starts on September 1.

In temperate and polar regions generally four seasons are recognized while in tropical or subtropical regions seasons are defined by wet, dry, and sometimes cool. These meteorological seasons are reckoned by temperature, with summer being the hottest quarter of the year and winter the coldest quarter of the year. The equinoxes and solstices mark the start of astronomical spring/autumn and summer/winter. The divisions are based on the rotation of the earth with respect to the angle of the earth. As the earth goes around the sun, picture it looking down on its orbit from above. summer solstice is when the earth's north pole is pointed most directly towards the sun (longest day) - warming the northern hemisphere. Winter solstice is when the earth's south pole is most directly pointed toward the sun warming the southern hemisphere and leaving the north cold (shortest day). The equinoxes are the midway points between the solstices with the sun halfway between its northmost and southmost points, so we have equal day and night.

- z monkey

[as found on WikiAnswers]

Just to be fair.

Before I forget...

New band to check out: Republic Tigers. They seem to be up-and-coming sort of band. Mom would like them.

:]

- Z

Throw Out IE!

Mozilla Firefox is the best browser I've ever tried. Period. You still using IE? Shame on you. *shaaaame*



Reasons Firefox is WAY Better:

1. Safety First!

The Mozilla team is constantly fixing little bugs to make Firefox "The Safest Web Browser."

More info:

http://en-us.www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/security/

2. I don't need a million windows

Okay, so the tab thing is old news. HOWEVER! Firefox has the simplest, neatest tab system I've seen. IE's tab system is big and blocky compared to the sleek package my favorite red panda gives. Not to mention I'm always accidentally opening new tabs with IE.

3. "Make Firefox Your Own"

Really, normal Firefox only has a handful of advantages. What really makes it superior is the add-ons. With the huge [and I mean HUGE] collection of add-ons, Firefox can be molded to your needs quite easily. Kinda' like a baby torn from his mother's bosom to be trained as a soulless killer. But I'm getting off track. Firefox's add-ons can make downloading videos of YouTube, listening to your music without leaving your current window, previewing a link before clicking it, etc. simple, even for the technologically impaired. Grammy can update her FaceBook while watching moving clips from her soaps, yeah.

4. All the COOL kids are doing it!

Ah, yes. I had to fit this in here. Peer pressure is awesome. :D Really, will you be allowed to sit at the cool table if you've got such a lame browser? I didn't think so.

5. It's free.

That's right, absolutely FREE! But wait, there's more! Call now and receive 4 lawn chairs, a 12 piece set of sushi knives, and some guy named Dave who's got this really cool trick with his elbows!*

* This is a complete lie, disregard it.



For more information, see their website or do your own research. D:

-------------------------

No, I'm not an expert. The point of this post was to make my mates get with the times. :]

- Z

Halloween

So, I need to get to work on my costume. >> Me and a bunch of folk I know are being the Mafia. I needs ma fedora. We need to get to the thrift store fast.

So, my CYO was going to have the haunted forest we host ON Halloween, which won't work because I trick-or-treat. STFU, I'm not too old. And a bunch of other people couldn't make it either, so we moved it to the previous Saturday. Turns out we have something that night. ARRRRGH. WHAT YOU SAY. So I was like, "Too bad, I'ma skippin' to be at the haunted forest." And the Mother was like, "Over my dead body." And I was like, "Well, $#!7."

So.

Yeah.

And I was gonna be a zombie @ el foresto too! "Haunted forest over, dinner w/ friends equals very yes? That's not a good prize!"

It ANNOYED me. Very much so. Note to self: Hire someone to replace me at dinner.

- Z

Good morning, Blogger!

I've been playing with the idea of a blog for a while but just realized the only way to get into it was to start.

I feel no need to introduce myself, I hope you'll figure out who I am, what I'm like, etc...

Good luck to myself... >>

- Z