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They were always called "pop bottles" out in the Sandhills of Nebraska when I was growing up, but the liquid inside was always called "soda." I suppose it was one of those regional things, but whatever. It was a couple of "pop bottles" that nearly caused my demise the summer I was three years old. An older sister and I had come across them, and all agog and excited, we decided to turn them in to the neighborhood midget grocery store for candy. She, holding the bottles, ran across the street. I ran across the street following her, but alas...

Two cans of fizzy drink a day could cause long term liver damage, resulting in the need for a transplant, according to new research. Researchers are now urging parents to cut back on their children’s consumption of fizzy drinks as well as reducing fresh fruit juices substituting them for water. Liver damage is normally associated with alcohol abuse but the new study has found that non-alcoholic drinks with a high sugar content can cause a condition called fatty liver disease. Related Articles Artificial sweeteners 'do nothing to help weight loss' Scientists from Israel found that people who drank a litre...

NEW YORK — Ellie Greenwich, who co-wrote some of pop music's most enduring songs, including "Chapel of Love," "Be My Baby" and "Leader of the Pack," died Wednesday, according to her niece. She was 68. Greenwich died of a heart attack at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital, where she had been admitted a few days earlier for treatment of pneumonia, according to her niece, Jessica Weiner . . . . . . Greenwich also worked as an arranger and singer, a role that saw her working with artists including Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald. She is also credited with helping Neil...

Now that Michael Jackson is dead–or to quote one of his album titles, “HIStory”–an antidote is sorely needed to the gushing CNN and Fox News anchors I heard all last night and into this morning, eulogizing Jackson as if he had died on a cross instead of in his home of apparent cardiac arrest. No, what we need is someone as sober as a Lester Bangs, who when John Lennon died, declared, “I can’t mourn the man.”

Yet after selling more than 61 million albums in the U.S. and having a decade-long attraction open at Disney theme parks, the "King of Pop" died Thursday at age 50 reportedly awash in about $400 million in debt, on the cusp of a final comeback after well over a decade of scandal.

This bubble of government makes all other economic bubbles that have come before seem puny by comparison. Furthermore, this bubble is uniquely world wide. As liquidity is running out and credit is drying up, many nations are in a chain reaction realizing the hot air on which their financial and political systems stand. In any case the dreams of Obama, the RINOs, and the Democrats will become painfully deflated as the era of big government comes to a close. All bubbles come to an end when the liquidity is no longer available. After a certain point the bubble cannot be...

Former Russian president and apparent avid Abba-fan Vladimir Putin paid £20,000 ($29,000) to fly an Abba cover band from the UK to Russia to perform a private concert for him at a remote resort. "It was the most bizarre gig I have ever done," said Jennifer Robb of the Björn Again Abba-cover band to the Daily Telegraph newspaper. Plans for the concert, which took place on January 22nd at Lake Valdai resort, nine hours outside Moscow began taking shape sometime before Christmas when Björn Again founder Rod Stephens received a mysterious phone call. "The voice on the end of the...

Video at linkComments held to myself....

London, June 26 (PTI) A design defect in UK's nuclear weapons could cause warheads to detonate one after another in a chain reaction if they were accidentally dropped, according to Britain's nuclear-weapons safety manual. According to the declassified nuclear-weapons safety manual, drawn up by Britain's Ministry of Defence internal nuclear-weapons regulator, more than 1,700 warheads are affected by the problem, which would cause them set off a chain reaction known as "popcorning" if they were accidentally dropped, The Daily Telegraph said. The manual, seen by the New Scientist, says that warheads should be capable of resisting multiple simultaneous impacts which...

The "Musicians Who Turn 50", "Musicians Who Turn 60", "Favorite Drummer" and "Favorite Guitarist" were such hit threads on FR, I've decided to do this one. Who is your favorite SONGWRITING DUO? We all know that Lennon-McCartney were amazing together and possibly the best songwriting duo ever. They might be mentioned several times on this thread. If you choose John & Paul, be specific about which song and lyric(s).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Vinny Appice, Anita Baker, Jello Biafra, Andrea Bocelli, Simon LeBon, Kate Bush, Belinda Carlisle, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Shaun Cassidy, Darby Crash, Randy DeBarge, Bruce Dickinson, Thomas Dolby, Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, Siobhan Fahey, Neil Finn, Bela Fleck, Martin Fry, Lisa Germano, Grandmaster Flash, Jools Holland, Ice-T, Alan Jackson, Michael Jackson, Tony James, Joan Jett, Al Jourgensen, Nik Kershaw, Sammy Kershaw, Limahl, Madonna, Bird McIntyre, Mike Mills, Thurston Moore, Alannah Miles, Gary Numan, Michael Penn, Vicki Peterson, Prince, Stacey Q, Will Sergeant, Nikki Sixx, David Sylvian, Toyah, Tanya Tucker, Paul Weller, Jane Wiedlin, Jah Wobble.

(NECN) - Maybe, just maybe, the oil speculators are cashing out. Oil prices fell sharply in New York on Tuesday, a fall sparked by declines in U.S. oil and gas consumption, and a rebound in the U.S. dollar. Light, sweet crude for July delivery fell $3.45 to settle at $124.31 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and dropped below $124 in after-hours electronic trading. Oil prices have fallen by 8 percent from their peak of $135 per barrel on May 22. Gasoline prices at the pumps, which often lag behind oil prices, have shown no sign of letting...

My Favorite: BUN E. CARLOS OF CHEAP TRICK! I LOVE YA, BUN!!!

Musicians Ozzy Osbourne, Stevie Nicks, Ted Nugent, Steve Winwood, Robert Plant, Kenny Loggins, Glenn Frey, Alice Cooper, Tony Iommi, Chris Squire, James Taylor, Todd Rundgren, Jackson Browne, Olivia Newton-John, Donna Summer, John Bonham (R.I.P.) & Rick James (R.I.P.)

Christ Our Hope A Look Back at Pope Benedict's 2008 Missionary Journey to the US Michael J. Matt Editor, The Remnant (Posted May 5, 2008 www.RemnantNewspaper.com) When Pope Benedict looks through the window of his papal apartment, over the Piazza San Pedro and out to the world beyond, consider what he sees… Christians and Muslims comprise half the world’s population. Half of that half, however, is suffering an identity crisis so severe that Islam recently replaced Catholicism as the world’s largest religion. The Vatican’s Monsignor Vittorio Formenti, compiler of the Annuario Pontificio, recently confirmed that “For the first time in...

A'Keiba Burrell - daughter of rapper MC Hammer. Landon Brown - eldest son of R&B singer Bobby Brown. Lara Johnston -daughter of Doobie Brothers' singer Tom Johnston. Chloe Lattanzi - daughter of Olivia Newton-John. Crosby Loggins - son of singer Kenny Loggins. Jesse Money -daughter of singer Eddie Money. Jesse Blaze Snider - son of Dee Snider. Albert J. Brown IV - son of R&B singer Al B. Sure. Lucy Walsh - daughter of legendary guitarist Joe Walsh.

A tangle with a cop and an achy heartBy Jeri Rowe Staff writer Tuesday, Apr. 1, 2008 3:00 am GREENSBORO — Alexander Kohanowich is a patriotic guy. His six grandchildren call him Pop. For at least five years, Pop has traveled around our city, showing his support for American troops overseas. He doesn't say much. He just holds his signs at busy intersections and busy events to get people's attention. Maybe you've seen him. He'll hang, say, on Westover Terrace, near Wendover. He'll face east in the morning, west in the afternoon, so drivers can see his signs clearly, without...

Saudi Arabia is to retrain its 40,000 prayer leaders - also known as imams - in an effort to counter militant Islam. Details of the plan were revealed in the influential Saudi newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat. The plan is part of a wider programme launched by the Saudi monarch a few years ago to encourage moderation and tolerance in Saudi society. The ministry of religious affairs and new centre for national dialogue will carry out the training, the paper said. The centre was created five years ago to disseminate a moderate interpretation of Islamic tradition. There is growing awareness in Saudi...

  Happy Father's Day Fathering a child is truly a blessing from God.. It answers a primal calling, as it memorializes a man as a virile instrument fulfilling his destiny by passing his unique genic bloodlines on to the next generation. Fatherhood thus, offers a man a level of respect, and is universally recognized as one of his most important achievements.  However, is it really that much a personal accomplishment? Proof of true masculinity however, is not to be found simply in the act of procreation, if you are looking for a title that carries some real weight, ...try being...

You may want to put that soda can down.A common preservative found in drinks such as Coca-Cola, Sprite, Dr. Pepper, Fanta and Diet Pepsi may cause serious cell damage, according to a report in Britain's The Independent.  Sodium benzoate has the ability to switch off vital parts of a person's DNA, according to research from a British university.  The problem is usually associated with aging and alcohol abuse, but new findings show that drinking soda with the preservative can eventually lead to of the liver and degenerative diseases such as .  Click here to read the full story in The...

Sweden's first museum dedicated to Abba has come a step closer to realization, after the group behind the plan found a location on the quayside in the heart of Stockholm. The new museum, due to open to visitors in spring 2009, will be housed in a former customs office, after a deal was reached with Stockholm City Council, which owns the building. The story of the Swedish band - the third most successfull musical act of all time, after the Beatles and Elvis - will be told through exhibitions on three floors. The museum promises to go easy on dusty...

<p>BELGRADE, Serbia: Revelers and politicians were preparing a hero's welcome Sunday for singer Marija Serifovic, who won the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest in Finland.</p> <p>"Thank you, Marija! Thank you!" read some of the headlines in the country, which has been craving recognition after years of pariah status brought about by Serbia's role in the 1990s Balkan wars.</p>

Teri Hatcher used her appearance on last night's "Idol Gives Back" to reveal her thrilling new Michael Jackson-inspired look! She's bad!

Initially I thought Indian Americans are mobilizing as armies of Fanjayas, voting in large numbers to keep the 17-year-old on the show. After all, most other barriers had been broken by the community. They were on Wall Street and on main street, in political parties and Silicon Valley, in government and in management, in hotels and motels, in medicine and in space. They were writers, analysts, advisers and policy makers. Perhaps the one last hurdle was for an Indian American to become a pop icon. When they saw Sanjaya, they felt he had a shot. But as weeks went by...

Record home price slump Fourth-quarter report from National Association of Realtors shows largest price drop on record as markets with price declines now outpace those with gains. By Chris Isidore, CNNMoney.com senior writer February 15 2007: 6:46 PM EST NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The slump in home prices was both deeper and more widespread than ever in the fourth quarter, according to a trade group report Thursday. Prices slumped 2.7 percent in the fourth quarter compared to the fourth quarter a year earlier, according to the report from the National Association of Realtors (NAR). That's the biggest year-over-year drop on...

Wall Street’s big bet on risky mortgages may be souring a lot faster than had been previously thought. The once booming market for home loans to people with weak credit — known as subprime mortgages and made largely to minorities, the poor and first-time buyers stretching to afford a home — is coming under greater pressure. The evidence can be seen in rising default rates, increasingly strained finances at mortgage lenders and growing doubts among investors. Now, Wall Street firms, which had helped fuel the growth in the market by bankrolling and investing in subprime mortgage lenders, have begun to...

A mature, modest and (almost) scandal-free George Michael took the stage in his first solo concert in 15 years. But the pop star couldn't resist making another controversial dig at George Bush. At the end of the first set Michael sang his 2002 controversial anti-Bush song "Shoot the Dog."

The man who shot and seriously wounded Pope John Paul II has warned Pope Benedict XVI not to visit Turkey after making comments that many Muslims deemed to have maligned Islam, the gunman's lawyer said Wednesday. "As a man who knows these things, I am saying that your life is in danger, don't come to Turkey. I can't welcome you because I'm in prison," lawyer Mustafa Demirbag quoted Mehmet Ali Agca as saying during a meeting Monday at the high-security Kartal prison in Istanbul. Agca speculated in a hand-written letter faxed to The Associated Press by his lawyer that the...

The celebrities will be on risers along the side of the hall, while the main floor, emptied of seats, will be given over to fans, to roam and hoot and jeer as they please. Which raises the question: What if some wild fan abandons his network-designated station and rushes toward the beautiful people? “He should be encouraged at all points to storm the stage and to create a television moment that people will talk about at the water cooler the next day,” said Hamish Hamilton, one of the producers. “Or even better, that people will download and put on...

If you spend any time in the cereal aisle, I don't have to tell you that the folks who make Pop-Tarts are always coming up with crazy new combinations of flavors. But you may not realize that for every new variety of toaster pastry that makes it to the greengrocer's shelves, there are dozens of experimental flavors that don't make the cut. Here are some concepts that were rejected, for one reason or another. THERE ARE MORE! Please see More rejected Pop-Tart flavors.

Lance Bass, band member of 'N Sync, says he's gay and in a "very stable" relationship with a reality show star. Bass, who formed 'N Sync with Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Joey Fatone and Chris Kirkpatrick, tells People magazine that he didn't earlier disclose his sexuality because he didn't want to affect the group's popularity. "I knew that I was in this popular band and I had four other guys' careers in my hand, and I knew that if I ever acted on it or even said (that I was gay), it would overpower everything," he tells the magazine. 'N...

Top of the Pops, one of the longest-running shows in British television history, will end its run after 42 years on July 30, the BBC announced Tuesday. With the show now attracting an audience of fewer than one million, "the time has come to bring the show to its natural conclusion," said the BBC's director of television Jana Bennett. During its lifetime, TOTP had featured virtually every major British musical group, and many American ones as well. Its first show, which aired on Jan. 1 1964, included a performance by The Rolling Stones, singing "I Wanna Be Your Man." At...

For new-home buyers, it's time to be wooed: - Up to seven months before first payments are due. - A mortgage-rate program promising to save "up to $83,000 over 30 years." - Up to $10,000 in free upgrades. - $20,000 off the price of a home. It's another sign of how residential real estate sales are slowing and inventories of unsold homes are mounting. After a half-dozen years of record growth and torrid levels of construction, builders are finding their orders dropping sharply. "National builders look to Chicago as a stable market. They look to Chicago for help to bolster...

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY No matter how you cut it, being a father, or what now constitutes a Father is getting a whole lot fuzzier, and a lot less difficult.. They, my 5 kids, and 5 grand kids call me, Dad, daddy, old man, pa, papa, pop, and even Father, when I am needed most in my role of family patriarch.. Dad, is the rank, position, title, no matter which you choose, they all are music to my ears.. Everything about being a dad has been the only truly redeeming factor of my existence thus far. However, apparently not everyone sees...

The United States is one of the few countries in the world that has an official day on which fathers are honored by their children. On the third Sunday in June, fathers all across the United States are given presents, treated to dinner or otherwise made to feel special. . The origin of Father's Day is not clear. Some say that it began with a church service in West Virginia in 1908. Others say the first Father's Day ceremony was held in Vancouver, Washington. Regardless of when the first true Father's Day occurred, the strongest promoter of the holiday was...

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NEW YORK - Britney Spears stumbled outside a Manhattan hotel, nearly dropping her 8-month-old son and further fueling the ever-growing media scrutiny of her parenting skills. In photos splashed across the front page and inside the New York Post on Friday, the 24-year-old pop star is shown exiting The Ritz-Carlton hotel with Sean Preston in one hand and a glass in the other. As her bodyguards walked Spears to her car, she stumbled — her long pants apparently getting tangled in her open-toed shoes — and bent low as Sean Preston's head flung backward, knocking off his orange hat.

FROM CRASHING LIGHT AIRCRAFT TO MADONNA'S 'BRITISH' ACCENT THERE's little doubt that the music industry has been responsible for many of the "highs" in our lives. Be it a seminal guitar solo, sublime vocal or lyric that summed up that first teen crush. Then there are the acts themselves - from working-class heroes to art rockers and raucous rappers who have enriched countless lives. But, sadly, there's also little doubt that over the years, the industry has a lot to answer for - including such delights as rock operas, jazz fusion and... Hear' Say. American music magazine Blender has compiled...

Effort to impeach Bush backfires on Newfane (pop 1,680) By Philip Sherwell in Vermont (Filed: 09/04/2006) After approving funds for pavement repairs and discussing new property tax assessments, the burghers of the New England community of Newfane (population 1,680) turned their attention to weightier political matters. Among the usual community affairs on the agenda at the annual town meeting was a motion of impeachment. And the target was not locally elected officials, but George W Bush, the President of the United States. Impeacher: Dan DeWalt with his tally of war dead As befits the traditionally liberal state of Vermont, the...

Here's a speech we would like to hear from an Academy Award winner: I thank you for this wonderful award. Receiving an Academy Award gives the recipient an almost unique opportunity to speak to hundreds of millions people around the world, so I would like take this once-in-a-lifetime moment to say this:

On a sun-scorched Saturday 18 months ago, hordes of people lined up for hours outside a sales trailer in a West Sacramento housing development called The Rivers. Their prize: stylish homes at $550,000 and up. Now they're lining up to sell. The homes that sold in July 2004 have just been completed, and some owners want out. On one small street, Woodhaven Place, five buyers have put their properties on the market. Three have already dropped their asking prices. ... Now, facing a $6,000 monthly payment on a vacant house, they've put it up for sale. But there are no...

Trial lawyers who made a fortune from lawsuits against tobacco companies are moving on to a new potential payday: Suing soft drink companies over the sale of sugary beverages in schools. Stephen Gardner, staff lawyer for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, and half a dozen other lawyers – several of them veterans of successful tobacco litigation – plan to file a lawsuit in the next few months seeking to ban sales of sugary beverages in schools.

The chill in the Manhattan residential real-estate market is blowing across the city's suburbs and outer boroughs. From Westchester County to Fairfield, Conn., to Bergen, N.J., the tri-state area is seeing prices and numbers of sales stalling or dropping, while inventories of properties are starting to pile up. "Sales are drying up at the top," said one northern New Jersey broker. "And now homes on the lower end [of the price scale] are sitting for weeks and months." * * * "In Brooklyn, residential prices went up more than 40 percent between June 2004 and June 2005. But they dropped...

A federal judge on Monday approved a lower bond for a Lodi man accused in a federal terrorism investigation, but gave prosecutors another chance to block his release.U.S. District Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. ruled that Umer Hayat could be freed on $1.2 million bail after he was unable to post the $1.5 million guarantee Burrell had previously approved.But he gave prosecutors three days to file objections to the members of Hayat's extended family who are ready to post their houses as bond.Burrell said in his 14-page order that he doubts the family members have a close enough relationship with...

Could all problems cause move by US to take aggressive action. Could problems justify such moves? Maybe.

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Sept 15 (Reuters) - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation on Thursday to ban carbonated soda in state high schools as part of an effort to stem teen obesity. "California is facing an obesity epidemic," said Schwarzenegger, a former Mr. Olympia and longtime health advocate. "Today we are taking some first steps in creating a healthy future for California." He signed the legislation at the start of a daylong summit on health and obesity in the California capital Sacramento. He said that one out of three children in California, the nation's most populous state, is obese. "Obesity-related health...

Police, on Camera, Help Selves to Drinks August 16, 2005 5:07 PM EDT RICHMOND, Calif. - It's a case, police say, where some officers apparently got caught with their hands in a cookie store. A security camera showed at least six Richmond police officers pouring cold beverages behind the counter of a closed cookie shop while searching for a gunman at a mall, the Contra Costa Times reported, citing unidentified police sources. The management of the Mrs. Fields Original Cookies store at Hilltop Mall reported the incident after a security camera captured officers on July 15 helping themselves to icy...

Norwegian homosexuals are set to launch their own soda brand, Homo light, at an upcoming gastronomic festival, in the hope that it will help promote tolerance, one of the authors of the project said today. "The goal is not for us to make money but to make us more visible and accepted," Oeystein Mauritzen said. Pear-flavoured and pink, Homo Light will go on sale as a one-time offer at a stand at a gastronomic festival in the southwestern town of Stavanger between July 27 and 30. Along with the soda, which will be sold in half-litre bottles for 20 kroner...

By MARK SCOLFORO Associated Press Writer Two high-security federal prisons in central Florida and five others will be getting fences that can kill prisoners who touch them, a $10 million project intended to allow the prisons to operate with fewer perimeter guards. The 12-foot-high "stun-lethal" fences, similar to ones already used at some state prisons, can be set to deliver electrical shocks to prisoners who touch them once and fatal shocks if they are touched a second time. The federal Bureau of Prisons expects to award contracts for the fences in late fall, bureau spokeswoman Traci Billingsley said. "This new...

Everybody's heard them: Dad's favorite sayings, phrases, words of wisdom, philosophies, etc. They're funny, wise, annoying, and sometimes just plain goofy, but they've stuck with us through the years, and remind us of the man who taught us how to be adults. So what's your favorite "dadism"? Here's a few of mine:Just do it. It'll keep your mom happy.Keep your eye on the ball.Always be willing to learn. No one can ever take knowledge away from you.THE BRAKE'S ON THE LEFT!!!!