Head Transplants: Spanish Doctor is a Pioneer

Dr. Luis De la Cruz, Pioneer in Head Transplantation

While medical researchers still struggle with devising successful brain transplants, Spanish physician, Dr. Luis De la Cruz, is on the cutting edge of head transplants.

De la Cruz has invented a procedure which can add up to 2 inches to a person’s height. De la Cruz claims he has successfully completed head transplants on 17 patients.

The procedures are performed in the doctor’s clinic in Madrid, Spain. The Clinica La Luz is the only clinic in the world where patients can undergo the 90-minute operation where a small incision is made on the side of the head allowing a silicon implant to be placed between the skull and the scalp. The average implant measures 1 inch while the maximum allowed is 2 inches with the need for 2 operations. The first procedure is needed to stretch the scalp.

De la Cruz says his procedure has helped patients who are small in stature achieve enough height to qualify for professions they would otherwise be excluded from, such as stewardesses and soldiers. Unfortunately those who have long, thin heads are advised that the silicon head transplant would likely make them look too “odd”.

Another “simple” silicon procedure is the new silicone “lip” transplant.

The London newspaper, The Sunday Times has reported that PermaLip, a permanent lip implant can be done in just fifteen minutes. The procedure according to cosmetic surgeons can be done under local anesthesia. According to the report the implants do not affect normal activities such as eating or kissing.

The material used is said to be “soft and malleable” to give a natural look. The procedure is aimed at two main groups, those whose lips have thinned due to First_Silicone_Lip_Implant_Done_ and persons wishing for fuller lips. The price ranges from £2,000 to £2,500 (approximately US$3,895 to US$4,869). Source – Carefair

Bet she feels dramatically better!

Silicon is now back in vogue for breast augmentation, a new type called “gummy bear” has been in use in Europe since 1995 and is currently going through clinical trials in the United States while Canada and Australia have approved the cohesive gel implants. Cohesive or gummy bear silicones are known for their ability to maintain their shape. Called “shape memory” the implants return to their original form lessening the chance of rippling or folding.

Read the rest of Dr. De La Cruz’s pioneering work in “head transplants” at “Spanish Physician Pioneers Head Transplants” at DBKP.com.

by LBG
Source: Spanish Physician Pioneers Head Transplants

Study: “Preposterous” That Immigration Benefits Britain

“Preposterous” To Claim Otherwise

A British parlimentary committee of experts came to the conclusion that many British subjects had already reached: there is no justification for mass immigration into the U.K.

And, there’s no benefits gained by the country from it.

The panel of experts’ report, called a “landmark study–the most authoritative carried out by a parliamentary committee”, demanded that a cap be instituted on new arrivals into the British Isles.

The report is sure to spread dismay among Euro-elites and multiculturalists worldwide. Among its blunt findings:

•Dismiss Ministers’ “preposterous” assertion that migrants boost the economy by £6billion a year;

•Reject Government claims that foreigners will help to defuse the pensions timebomb;

•Demolish the “fundamentally flawed” Downing Street argument that migrants fill vacancies in the economy;

•And warn that migrants will force up house prices by 10 per cent in the next two decades.

The House of Lords committee didn’t mince words.

The Lords economic affairs committee, which includes former Chancellors Nigel Lawson and Norman Lamont, economists and captains of industry, said immigration had “little or no positive impact” on the living standards of the existing population.

In fact, the big winners were the migrants themselves who earn higher wages than in their homeland and can also send money home.

Some British workers were even seeing their incomes fall, while up to 100,000 youngsters have been unable to find work.

And, by pushing up house prices, migrants will keep young families off the housing ladder, the committee found.

Britain has seen migration balloon its population by 190,00 per year and the Labour Party, like the Democrat Party and RINOs in the U.S., has been stressing the economic benefits of mass migration.

Euro-weenies like to cite the need to import workers to keep generous government pension systems financially solvent. But that argument, according to the peers, didn’t “hold up to scrutiny” because the immigrants will grow older and claim pensions of their own one day.

What did the House of Lords committee demand be done to counter this growing problem?

Read the rest of “British Study: Immigration Has no Benefits” at DBKP.com.

by Mondoreb
Source: British Study: Immigration Has no Benefits

Warning: Worldwide, These Signs Mean Business

Signs: Simple, short, succinct.

Oatman, Arizona

Harbingers of doom, warnings to beware, our life more simplified because of our hardworking little metal and wood friends, signs….

Karnataka, South India

Warning: if you want to see more warning signs like these, read the rest of “Warning: These Signs Mean Business” at DBKP.com.

by LBG
Source: Warning: These Signs Mean Business

Yemeni Playboy Says He’s Innocent in Death of Norwegian Beauty

Yemen Playboy Farooq Abdulhak (Center)

Yemen playboy, Farooq Abdulhak – son of one of Yemen’s richest businessmen, insists he’s innocent in the murder of Norwegian beauty, Martine Magnussen.

Farooq, safely ensconced in Yemen and out of the reach of the British authorities says he skipped out in his billionaire father’s private jet the day before the body of 21-year-old Martine Magnussen was found beneath some rubble in the same block of flats where Farooq had a rental.

Farooq, a business student known as “DP” or Dom Perignon to his friends, confirmed that he did leave the upscale London club Maddox Thursday night at 3 a.m. with Martine and took her to his flat but that she later left and, according to a friend of Farooq’s, a mysterious 3rd person is involved.

What did the Yemeni playboy have to say? Is it believable?

Martine Magnussen

Read the rest of “Yemen Playboy Says He’s Innocent in Norwegian Beauty’s Death” at DBKP.com.

By LBG
Source: Yemen Playboy Says He’s Innocent in Norwegian Beauty’s Death

Drew Curtis: Fark.com Past, Present, Future

DBKP Journeys to Center of the Weird News World

DBKP INTERVIEWS Fark founder, Drew Curtis, in which we find out about Fark past, present and future–and the squirrel.

Google “Weird News websites” and you get back over 1 million references. But veteran weird news junkies know they can always get their fix at FARK.com, the king of the off-beat news sites.

Drew Curtis is the pusher.

Founded in 1997, Fark.com churns out a never-ending stream of entertaining headlines about strange stories linked to an eclectic collection of sources: Reuters, CNN, ABC News, as well as blogs and local TV stations.

FAST FARK FACT:
It’s not Fark, It’s million of FARKers:
By January 2008, according to Curtis, the site received an estimated 52 million page views per month from 4 million unique visitors.

As an article in Rolling Stone put it:

When heavy rains flooded Dongting Lake in the Hunan province, CNN reported the event under the headline CHINA DESPERATE FOR BREAK IN THE WEATHER. But over at Fark.com, the best skewed news site on the Net, they ran the link with a different take: SWELLING DONGTING PRESSES AGAINST GROANING DIKE.

“For me, the tag line is more important than an article,” says Fark founder Drew Curtis. “If the tag line is funny, it trumps everything else.”

Just scanning those skewed headlines–prepared by Curtis and his crack team of smart-ass administrators–has the power to turn any reader into a conversational giant in most offices.

Okay, at least in our office.

A few headlines from the past week included:

RECENT FARK HEADLINES:
* “And the Daily Dumbass Award goes to: The drug-trafficking brothers who flagged down a police car by mistake, and are now on the run. On horseback. In Fiji”
–tagged “Dumbass” on YahooNews story

* “The intellectual path to atheism in a nutshell: “I rejected Christianity largely because it would not have allowed me to continue getting drunk and high every night while splitting time between four girlfriends.”
–tagged “Obvious” on a story from Townhall.com

* “Convicted child molester claims he was molested by Bigfoot as a kid”
–tagged “Unlikely”

* “Britney Spears linked to rise of foreclosures. LEAVE BRITNEY A LOAN”
–tagged as “Amusing” on LA Times story

Fark present

We’ve always had questions about FARK. Recently, DBKP’s Mondoreb and LBG had a chance to sit down (in the blogosphere sense of the word) with Drew, who provided some answers.

And Curtis was candid.

MONDOREB: Welcome to DBKP, Drew. We’ve been looking forward to this chat, so let’s do it.

DREW CURTIS: Cool. Sounds like fun.

MONDO: You would think everyone’s heard of FARK, but they haven’t. How would you descibe FARK to someone who is totally unaware of the website and how it operates?

DC: What if the Daily Show ran the Drudge Report?

We’re a news aggregator selecting for humor. If that doesn’t help anyone who is totally unaware of Fark, they need to get off the Internet.

MONDO: How many links does FARK get in an average day? Does it drive the administrators crazy? Does all the strange news links give them a skewed, jaded view of the world?

DC: 2500, and the reason it’s that low is because we reject duplicates. It doesn’t drive us crazy per se. I don’t have much of a jaded view either, I figure it’s not that the world is getting stupider, it’s that media coverage (of how stupid we already are) is better.

The thing that does drive me nuts though is when I pull up cnn.com or another “real” news site and see nothing but Fark articles. I feel the same way when I go to TGIFridays and try to find healthy food on the menu–there isn’t any.

LITTLE BABY GINN: What’s up with the super-masculine squirrel on the 404 page? Where’d he come from? It’s rumored that he was the only thing on FARK for a couple years. Is he like a member of the family?

DC: It was completely random.

The day I reserved the Fark.com domain name in 1997, a friend of mine sent me that pic. I’ve since talked to the actual photographer, it’s a real picture.

Fark mainstay

MONDO: Of all the entirely-strange and unusual stories on FARK over the years, what’s the strangest one you remember?

Read the rest of Fark’s Drew Curtis: DBKP Interview at DBKP.com

by Mondoreb

Sources:
* Fark’s Drew Curtis: DBKP Interview

Touching Story of Kindness: Meredith and Abbey

The author of this is unknown to me but what a neat story.

Thank God there are still people in this world that would take the time to do something like this.

This is one of the kindest things I’ve ever experienced. I have no way to know who sent it, but there is a beautiful soul working in the dead letter office of the US postal service.

[Also at DBKP.com: Kindness of a Stranger: Touching Story of Meredith and Abbey.

Our 14 year old dog, Abbey, died last month. The day after she died, my 4 year old daughter Meredith was crying and talking about how much she missed Abbey. She asked if we could write a letter to God so that when Abbey got to heaven, God would recognize her. I told her that I thought we could so she dictated these words:

Dear God,

Will you please take care of my dog? She died yesterday and is with you in heaven. I miss her very much. I am happy that you let me have her as my dog even though she got sick.

I hope you will play with her. She likes to play with balls and to swim. I am sending a picture of her so when you see her. You will know that she is my dog. I really miss her.

Love, Meredith.

We put the letter in an envelope with a picture of Abbey and Meredith and addressed it to God/Heaven. We put our return address on it. Then Meredith pasted several stamps on the front of the envelope because she said it would take lots of stamps to get the letter all the way to heaven. That afternoon she dropped it into the letter box at the post office. A few days later, she asked if God had gotten the letter yet. I told her that I thought He had.

Yesterday, there was a package wrapped in gold paper on our front porch addressed, “To Meredith , ” in an unfamiliar hand. Meredith opened it. Inside was a book by Mr. Rogers called, “When a Pet Dies.” Taped to the inside front cover was the letter we had written to God in its opened envelope. On the opposite page was the picture of Abbey & Meredith and this note:

Dear Meredith,

Abbey arrived safely in heaven.

Having the picture was a big help. I recognized Abbey right away.

Abbey isn’t sick anymore. Her spirit is here with me just like it stays in your heart. Abbey loved being your dog. Since we don’t need our bodies in heaven, I don’t have any pockets to keep your picture in, so I am sending it back to you in this little book for you to keep and have something to remember Abbey by.

Thank you for the beautiful letter and thank your mother for helping you write it and sending it to me. What a wonderful mother you have. I picked her especially for you.

I send my blessings every day and remember that I love you very much.

By the way, I’m easy to find, I am wherever there is love.

Love,
God

by RidesAPaleHorse
image: RAPH
Source: Kindness of a Stranger: Touching Story of Meredith and Abbey


Also posted at DBKP at Blogger.

Minnesota High School Cancels War Vets Appearance

AFRAID It Might Turn “Political”

Another f**king coward on the taxpayer dole.

This time from a Minneapolis area high school.

A national tour which featured decorated veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had to cancel its planned appearance at Forest Lake Area High School yesterday after school principal, Steve Massey, suddenly pulled the plug on the visit.

Massey, the school principal, said the decision to cancel was prompted by concerns that the event was becoming political rather than educational and therefore was not suitable for a public school.

Massey said the school had gotten a few phone calls from parents and others, and some of those callers indicated that they may stage a protest if the event took place.

So if a public school is handing out condoms and parents protest, the school is portrayed as “courageous” for standing behind the power of the state and telling parents to, basically “shut your piehole”.

But if a few non-parents call and threaten to demonstrate, pro-American events get canceled?

The principal’s explaination–caving in to a few at the expense of the majority–most probably was copied from a NEA (National Education Association) press release.

Most likely titled, “What to do when your school is threatened by patriotism”.

“The event was structured to be an academic classroom discussion around military service. We thought we’d provide an opportunity for kids to learn about service in the context of our history classes,” Massey said. “As the day progressed, it became clear that this was becoming a political event … which would be inappropriate in a public setting.
“We decided to cancel,” Massey said. Organizers of the National Heroes Tour then scrambled to relocate the event to the American Legion building in Forest Lake. The visit, which U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Stillwater, had been scheduled to attend, is sponsored by Vets for Freedom, a national organization run by Pete Hegseth, a 1999 graduate of Forest Lake Area High School who served with the 101st Airborne in Iraq in 2005-06.

“I think it’s extremely unfortunate that a school would bow to the political pressure of outside groups and not bring in a veterans organization,” Hegseth said. “Are we saying that patriotism and duty and honor have no place in our public schools?” So far, the tour has visited one school, albeit a private school.

The Forest Lake HS stop involved about 150 social studies students–and was closed to the public–and the media. The last-minute change left Hegseth wondering how many people would actually show up today.

Why did the 101st Airborne vet have to assure the principal “not to advocate about the progress made in Iraq and Afghanistan”?

Want to send the principal an email letting him know what you think?

Read the rest of Minnesota High School Cancels War Vets Program at DBKP.

by RidesAPaleHorse & Mondoreb
image: RidesAPaleHorse
Source: Forest Lake event canceled; too political

There’s a Sucker Born Every Minute: Not P.T. Barnum

There’s a sucker still being born every minute apparently

In our recent article, “Illinois Shaped Cornflake Fetches $1350 on e-Bay“, we mentioned the phrase, ‘there’s a sucker born every minute’.

It was attributed to famed American showman, P.T. Barnum, one of the founders of the Barnum & Bailey Circus.

Then it was pointed out by DBKP’s own RidesAPaleHorse that this was an error: Barnum never said the phrase. He was completely right. In fact, it’s been pointed out that Barnum’s philosophy was more along the lines of “there’s a customer born every minute”.

RAPH sent along a link to an interesting history site, History Buff.com which had an article dedicated to the “sucker born every minute” phrase.

The article was so engaging, we decided to reference part of it–in the spirit of historical accuracy–below.

P. T. Barnum is most often associated with the circus sideshow and the display of freaks. While this is true, he is also the founding force behind one of America’s most famous circuses: Barnum & Bailey Circus. Barnum is also affiliated with the famous quote “There’s a sucker born every minute.” History, unfortunately, has misdirected this quotation. Barnum never did say it. Actually, it was said by his competitor. Here’s the incredible story.

Read the rest of There’s a Sucker Born Every Minute: PT Barnum Didn’t Say it at DBKP.com.

by Mondoreb
images:
* upload this
* DBKP poster files
Sources:
* There’s a Sucker Born Every Minute: PT Barnum Didn’t Say it
* P. T. Barnum Never Did Say “There’s a Sucker Born Every Minute”

YouTube: Hotbed of Terrorist “How-to” Videos Censors Geert Wilder’s What the West Needs to Know

YouTube, the Internet video channel that is famous for providing “how-to” videos for the aspiring terrorist on everything from making explosives to using radio-controlled cars to detonate bombs by remote control, has sometimes taken days to remove such material.

However, the Google-owned website wasted no such time in removing the video for Geert Wilder’s film, “Islam: What the West Needs to Know”.

That’s quite alright with us. It’s provided an urgent agenda for the day: finding the video and providing it outside the boundaries of YouTube.

In the meantime, we have a video trailer for the movie, which YouTube either overlooked or deigned “acceptable”.

Hopefully, we’ll have the video, or parts of it, later today.

Wilder’s work would perhaps have fared better on YouTube had he included instructions for blowing up a synagogue or accused Muslims of regularly engaging in gay sex.

by Mondoreb
images: DBKP
Source: YouTube, Fitna: Hotbed of Terrorist “How-to” Videos Censors Geert Wilder’s Fitna

Clinton Campaign: “Landslide” Predictions 3 months ago

3 1/2 Months Ago, Clinton Campaign Predicted “Landslide”

Hubris n. : Overbearing pride or presumption; arrogance.

Back on November 15–a mere 130 days ago–the Clinton campaign was of a very different mindset than the one exhibited today.

Cocky, brash–dare we say it?–arrogant and in the full throes of hubris, the campaign was more of a Clinton Early Inauguration Committee than a campaign braintrust.

This is what Clinton chief strategist Mark Penn told The Hill on November 15 2007.

Mark Penn, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) chief strategist, said Thursday that the Democratic front-runner would get 360 electoral votes if the election were held tomorrow and she faced former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R).

The Clinton campaign was totally convinced that they would roll over all comers, regardless of party or persuasion. Penn said as much in a campaign memo.

Republicans, at the time, were a bit more skeptical.

“It is good to see that the Clinton camp can maintain a sense of humor after the worst two weeks of their campaign,” said Danny Diaz, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee. “Before they start drafting memos on general election strategy, someone ought to write a plan to stop Hillary Clinton’s sinking poll numbers in the early states or figure out where their candidate stands on Social Security, tax reform, and driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants.”

We mention this only because an email from DBKP’s own RidesAPaleHorse was discovered this evening.

We wonder how many pundits would have taken his words seriously 130 days ago, but RAPH sounds positively like a political prophet now.

He supplied the picture below and wrote, “Do you suppose this is the landslide they’re talking about? Looks like she won in this one at least. “

This just proves one thing, which should be remembered some TV talking head issues a solemn prediction on a news talk show.

130 days is an eternity in the political campaign game.

by Mondoreb
images: photobucket; RidesAPaleHorse
Sources:
* Clinton Campaign Hubris: “Landslide” Was Prediction in November
* Clinton Campaign: Hillary would Win in a Landslide if Election were held Tomorrow
* Hubris