12. If you’re not in the 31% who approve of his performance, that means you’re a terrorist-aiding Abu Ghraib candidate, and BUSH HATES YOU! 11. If you’re one of 30 million homosexuals in the US, then you have to stay single because BUSH HATES YOU! 10. If you support Thomas Jefferson’s recomendation to keep religion and government separate, BUSH HATES YOU!

Bush Makes Babies Cry

9. If you think stem cells should be used for research instead of thrown in the trash, BUSH HATES YOU! 8. A study has confirmed that most Bush voters are psycho, so if you aren’t nuts BUSH HATES YOU! 7. Maybe your son is fighting in Iraq and you want him home? BUSH HATES YOU! 6. If you’re homeless because of a natural disaster, watch out for the next Katrina because BUSH HATES YOU!

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5. If you have oil and want to discount it to the poor for the winter, BUSH HATES YOU! 4. If you want to improve the safety of steel skyscrapers by investigating the only three that ever collapsed due to fire, BUSH HATES YOU! 3. If you’re a scientist who won’t falsify global warming data, BUSH HATES YOU!

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2. If you want to resolve conflict through dialogue instead of the mass mutilation of other people’s children, BUSH HATES YOU! Last, but not least… 1. If you want all the votes to be counted, count on this: BUSH HATES YOU!

Read More: Bush, Iraq, war, Thomas Jefferson, stem cells, voting, Katrina, global warming, politics

RAF Sgt. Nicholas Alkemade jumped out of a plane without a parachute and survived a 3.4 mile fall into a snow-covered forest.

Tail gunner Alkemade was returning from a Berlin bombing run in a RAF Lancaster bomber, on March 25, 1944. The plane was hit, and fire prevented him from reaching his parachute. At 18,000 feet, he opened the door and jumped.

Later, Alkemade remembered falling backwards with the starry sky above his feet. Then he passed out due to thin oxygen at high altitude. When he woke up, he was lying in 18 inches of snow beneath the thick limbs of a fir forest. Sure, he suffered a few burns, some splinters, and an injured knee. But he was alive. The Germans found him smoking a cigarette.

Terminal Velocity

If you do happen to fall out of a plane, the wind is your friend. Spread your arms and legs to increase air resistance. That will keep your terminal velocity below 125 miles per hour.

If you see water, try to fly toward it. Try to enter feet first. It won’t feel good, but if it’s over 12 feet deep you’ve got a good chance of surviving. No body of water? No snow-clad forest? Then look for another target. Maybe a barn, or the roof of a car, or even a plowed-up muddy field. Anything will break your fall better than a sidewalk.

Relax

Bend your knees slightly and relax. This will loosen your muscles, transfer less shock to your internal organs, and help you bounce instead of break.

Speaking of bouncing, most freefallers do. So use your arms to protect your head before you smack the ground the second time.

Many others have survived falling out of a plane, and with a little luck…you will too.

Read More: Nicholas Alkemade, RAF, freefall, parachute, how to, terminal velocity, survival, WWII, Berlin, bomber

There’s so much bad news coming out of Iraq that it’s easy to overlook the good news.

Today that’s changing. Here’s a positive story from the occupation:

Unprecedented 10,000 Percent Business Growth

In 2002, before the United States arrived in Baghdad, the local morgue only averaged 15 victims of violence per month. Now, even a slow month nets 1,500 bodies.

That’s great news for coffin maker Abbas Hussein Mohammed.

Mohammed’s market has grown so much that he expanded his operation by opening a second shop. Even with the new store, he’s hard-pressed to meet the exploding demand.

The coffin business isn’t the only market reaping profits. The city morgue recently raised its capacity to handle 250 corpses a day. Consequently, local refrigerater sales are flourishing. Demand for doctors is on the rise, too.

Of course, nobody in Baghdad believes this amazing boom market can go on forever. But for now, Abbas Hussein Mohammed can enjoy his good fortune; there seems to be no end in sight.

Read More: Iraq, war, economy, deaths, morgue, coffins, Baghdad

A musical genius of Jay Greenberg’s caliber hasn’t made an appearance on the planet since before Edison invented the phonograph.

Sam Zyman, a teacher at Julliard for 19 years, says, “We are talking about a prodigy of the level of the greatest prodigies in history, when it comes to composition. “I am talking about the likes of Mozart, and Mendelssohn, and Saint-Sa�ns. This is an absolute fact. This is objective. This is not a subjective opinion. “Jay could be sitting here, and he could be composing right now. He could finish a piano sonata before our eyes in probably 25 minutes. And it would be a great piece.”

In 1991, Jay Greenberg was born in New Haven, Connecticut. When he was two, without anyone’s knowledge of him ever having seen a cello, Jay started drawing pictures of the instrument.

He also started writing the word “cello” and asking for a cello by name (all the reincarnation enthusiasts, say “oooohhhhh” and “aaaahhhh” here… ;-) ) So, his mother took him to a music store. When confronted with the smallest cello they had in stock, Jay put the bow to the strings and began playing. “I was like, ‘How do you know how to do this?’” his mom remembers. Some readers may recall that at seven, Mozart picked up a violin and played it like a professional, even though he�d never had a lesson. (Other readers will recall that the title of this post is The Next Mozart. Pretty clever, huh? Hehehahaaa heehehahehahaa…) Anyway, by the age of eleven, Jay was at Juilliard studying music theory with third-year college students. By thirteen, he completed his fifth symphony—more than many excellent composers complete in a lifetime.

Jay’s hearing is more sensitive than the average human, and he says compositions flow into his head, fully written, playing like an orchestra.

Sometimes, three channels of music are playing in his head simultaneously…sort of like when Elvis watched three football games on three networks in the TV room at Graceland. Currently, 14-year-old Jay’s Symphony No. 5, recorded at Abbey Road Studios by the London Symphony Orchestra, is available on Sony BMG Masterworks CD.

Oh, and be sure to check out Jay’s description of this symphony as it relates to mathematics, perpetual motion, and “the three facets of the human psyche according to Freudian theory.” You can read it in the “note from Jay” section here: www.jaygreenbergmusic.com.

If you’re like me (just a so-so average run-of-the-mill genius :-P), after reading his note, you’ll swear you’re an idiot and you’ll go have a beer and watch South Park reruns.

Read More: Jay Greenberg, Julliard, Mozart, cello, symphony, composition, orchestra, Abbey Road, Elvis, Graceland, South Park

This is a really cool example of live animation: Amazing Animation.