2009 Christmas Card Exchange

Well it’s that time again!

Do you guys want to do a Christmas cards exchange with other members on the site?

If there's enough interests we should have one set up.

Start a thread, those interested declare their participation and PM a designated person their mailing addresses.

Next... we can do this in several ways... each person on the list is to send an X amount of cards to members on the list. We will set the rule on this, depending on the number of people who want to participate. Each person can send 1 card to a member on the list, send cards all members on the list or an amount some where in between. Oversea members are encouraged to join as well. It’s lots of fun.

We should set a deadline... say by the end of November or something (keep in mind for oversea snail mail deliveries)....

Gang Killed People For Their Fat

Peruvian police: Gang killed people for their fat

By ANDREW WHALEN (AP)

LIMA, Peru — Police say a gang in the Peruvian jungle has been killing people and draining fat from the corpses to sell on the black market for use in cosmetics, although medical experts say they doubt a major market for fat exists.

Three suspects confessed to killing five people, but the gang may have been involved in dozens more, said Col. Jorge Mejia, chief of Peru's anti-kidnapping police. He said one suspect claimed the gang wasn't the only one doing such killings.

Mejia said two of the suspects were arrested carrying bottles of liquid human fat and told police it was worth $60,000 a gallon ($15,000 a liter). The fat was sold to intermediaries in Peru's capital, Lima, and police suspect it was then sold to cosmetic companies in Europe, Mejia said Thursday, but he could not confirm any sales.

Medical experts expressed doubt about an international black market for human fat, though it does have cosmetic applications. A dermatology professor at Yale University, Dr. Lisa Donofrio, speculated that a small market may exist for "human fat extracts" to keep skin supple, but she said that scientifically such treatments are "pure baloney."

At a news conference, police showed reporters two bottles of fat recovered from the suspects and a photo of the rotting head of a 27-year-old male victim. Suspect Elmer Segundo Castillejos, 29, led police to the head, recovered in a coca-growing valley last month, Mejia said.

Mejia said Castillejos recounted how the gang cut off its victims' heads, arms and legs, removed the organs, then suspended the torsos from hooks above candles that warmed the flesh as fat dripped into tubs below.

Six members of the gang remain at large, Mejia said. Among them was the band's alleged leader, Hilario Cudena, 56, who Castillejos told police has been killing people to extract human fat for more than three decades.

This year alone, at least 60 people are listed as missing in Huanuco province, where the gang allegedly operated, though the province is also home to drug-trafficking leftist rebels.

Mejia said police received a tip four months ago that human fat from the jungle was being sold in Lima. In August, he said, police infiltrated the band and later obtained some of the amber fluid, which a police lab confirmed as human fat.

On Nov. 3, police arrested Serapio Marcos Veramendi and Enedina Estela in a Lima bus station with a quart (a liter) of human fat in a soda bottle. Their testimony led to the arrest of Castillejos three days later at the same bus station.

The three are charged with homicide, criminal conspiracy, illegal firearms possession and drug trafficking, according to a statement from Lima Superior Court. Police said they were searching for the alleged buyer.

Police dubbed the gang the "Pishtacos" after a Peruvian myth dating to pre-Columbian times of men who killed to extract human fat, quartering their victims with machetes.

Medical authorities contacted by The Associated Press said human fat is used in anti-wrinkle treatments — but is always extracted from the patient who is being treated, usually from the stomach or buttocks.

"There would be a risk of immunological reaction that could lead to life-threatening consequences" if fat from someone else were used, said Dr. Neil Sadick, a professor of dermatology at Cornell Weill Medical College in New York.

Dr. Adam Katz, a professor of plastic surgery at the University of Virginia medical school, was incredulous when told about the Peruvian ring.

"I can't see why there would be a black market for fat," he said. "It doesn't make any sense at all, because in most countries we can get fat so readily and in such amounts from people who are willing and ready to donate that I don't see why there would ever be a black market for fat, of all tissues."


Linky

Silicon Led Tattoos

Silicon LED Tattoos or Interactive Skin Technology





Animated and programmable LED tattoos connected to your brain? You could show off your latest Flash animations, watch TV on your arm, or have a built-in PDA screen. The possibilities are endless. Perhaps more than simply a fashion statement, you could use such LED tattoos to display medical information about your body such as blood-sugar readings. A recent article in MIT Technology Review describes a new type of super-thin silicon transistor that can be embedded on a dis-solvable silk-based film and can do all of that.

The researchers summarized their experiments in a recent paper, “Silicon electronics on silk as a path to bioresorbable, implantable devices,” published in Applied Physics Letters. The silicon takes the form of nanomembranes built onto water soluble and biocompatible silk substrates. And while electronics must usually be encased to protect them from the body, these electronics don't need protection. The silk allows the electronics to match the contours of biological tissue. When wetted with saline, the devices conform to tissue surface. The silicon devices are about one millimeter long and 250 nanometers thick. They are manufactured on a stamp and then transferred to the surface of a thin film of silk. The silk holds each device in place, even after the array is implanted.

Tattooing in the Western world has its origins in Polynesia –- the first recorded encounter with the Tahitian tatau occurred during the 1769 expedition of Captain James Cook, the famed British Naval explorer. The Polynesian practice quickly became popular among European sailors, before spreading more widely. Cook’s infamous first officer William Bligh led a subsequent expedition to Tahiti in 1789 in search of breadfruit. Of the 25 mutineers aboard Bligh’s boat, HMS Bounty, court records show that twenty one had tattoos from their time in Tahiti. A century later, the royal princes, Albert and George, would visit tattooists first in Japan, then Jerusalem, while serving in the Royal Navy. The staid Cook and Bligh likely disapproved of this exotic body ornamentation at the time. Nor could they -- or the royalty that later adopted the fashion -- possibly envision that it might one day result in photonic LED tattoos connected to the brain.








And by touching the area itself - It's a video by Phillips and I could not embed it - sorry -

Video

Link 1

Link 2

Sex With An Older Man

When George Burns was 97 years old he was interviewed by Oprah Winfrey, Oprah asked,' Mr. Burns, how do you carry so much energy with you? You are always working and at your age I think that is remarkable.'
Mr. Burns said, 'I just take good care of myself and enjoy what I do when I do it.'

Oprah said, 'I understand you still do the sex thing, even at your age.'


George said, 'Of course I still do the sex thing, and I am quite good at it.'

Oprah said, 'I have never been with an older man, would you do it with me?'

So they had sex and when they finished Oprah said, 'I just don't believe I have ever been so satisfied, you are a remarkable man.'

George said, 'The second time is even better than the first time."

Oprah said, 'You can really do it again at your age?'

George said, 'Just let me sleep for 1/2 hour. You hold my testicles in your left hand and my penis in your right hand and wake me up in thirty minutes.'

When she woke him up, they again had great sex, and Oprah was beside herself with joy.

She said, 'Oh Mr. Burns, I am astounded that you could do a repeat performance and have it be better than the first time.. At your age, Oh My, Oh My!!!'

George said that the third time would be even better. 'You just hold my testicles in your left hand and my penis in your right hand and wake me in thirty minutes.'

Oprah said, 'Does me holding you like that kind of recharge your batteries?'

George said, 'No, but the last time I had sex with a black woman she stole my wallet.'






Note:
I wanted to put a "racist joke against African Americans" disclaimer before you get a chance read joke... but I don't want to ruin the fun for everyone else. If you feel offended by the racist joke, please accept my most sincere apology. I am sorry.

Anyhow, I want to clarify that I am not a racist person; I am a minority myself. I don't have any thing against African Americans. I view at the joke as a twisted/disturbing 1 second type of entertainment. I already PM'ed Musha, one the few active African American hobbyist on the board that I know, that he should not read this joke because of its contents. Please feel free to do same to your African American friends on the board so they don't have to read this joke. Thanks and have a great weekend.

Male Vs. Female - Breeder's Mistakes - Fail To Deliver Quality Promised Protocol?

If the MODs feel that this topic should to be split up with each issues addressed separately, please feel free to do so.


What do you guys think of the following terms/conditions on buying small baby fish? I am just trying to provide a little more clarity in the FH fish transaction. The purpose is to provide the buyers/hobbyists some protections and also to eliminate as much buyer/seller/breeder issues/disappointments as possible.

When buying small baby fish, it's very hard to predict the sex and quality of the fish. Many of us rely on the seller/breeder's intimate knowledge of his fish to tell us the gender of the fish and the quality the fish will bring, etc. After all we buy the fish based on the seller/breeder's words, advertising, etc. We have no ideas of what the parent fish look like, in a worse case… we don't know whether the fish we buy actually came from the fish that seller claims to be the parents or siblings of.

The first question is this. If a breeder tells you that a FH is male, and it turns out to be female, is the breeder responsible for replacing it with a male? Who will be responsible for the expenses in getting the fish to the buyer/hobbyist?

About the mistake fish, does the hobbyist get to keep the mistake fish, regardless how nice the fish turns out to be, this fish is considered a free fish; since so much TLC has been given to the fish and this effort is considered priceless? It is important to keep in mind that the buyer/hobbyist takes a huge amount of risk in providing TLC and raising the fish. If the fish accidentally dies before the mistake is discovered, the hobbyist would be at a total loss - all claims voided. After all this is a breeder's mistake.


I would like to use the same principle towards fish that fail to meet certain quality that the breeder is responsible for, or simply put guarantee.

The second question is this. If a breeder tells you that a FH will have certain desired characteristics such as kok, tails, fins, color, etc. and fish grows up and turns out to be significantly different from what the seller claimed. Is the breeder responsible for replacing it with a fish with the promised quality? Who will be responsible for the expenses in getting the fish to the buyer/hobbyist?

Buyer/hobbyist gets to keep the mistake fish for free, using the same aforementioned reasons.

Keep in mind that when people pay for a certain item, they expect to get what they want, not something nicer in other people's view but still not the item that the buyer wants.

Please feel free to share your thoughts with every one else.