Music Trends: Rap Industry Takes A Hard Look At Itself

21% Sales Decline Spurs Self-Examination

After 30 years of growing popularity, Rap music has finally hit its tipping point. Though music sales are down overall, Rap sales have declined 21 percent from 2005 to 2006, and for the first time in 12 years, no Hip-Hop album was among the top 10 sellers of the year. Many have forecasted the death of Hip-Hop over the years, but it appears that the umpteenth drug-dealing anthem, chest-pounding boast, gun-play recount or soft-core, booty-bouncing music video, has, finally, gotten stale.


http://www.futuremusic.com/news/april2007/musictrends-hiphop.html

I love vinyl and album art ...

"WARM MARBLE"

I'm not into body-building personally, but this article about Bruce Lee is very interesting ...


"WARM MARBLE" The Lethal Physique of Bruce Lee

Is Bush An Idiot?

Decide for yourself!

Ever wanted a big list of all the airlines?

We search almost all airlines in Europe. But have a very comprehensive list of airlines and links from all around the world!

Hmmm ... sexy!

Sonos is the first wireless, multi-room digital music system that lets you play digital music all over your house—and control it all from the palm of your hand. With a wireless Sonos® Controller in hand, you'll have plug-and-play access to millions of songs—from music services, Internet radio, your personal digital music collection, or all of the above.



And, with Sonos® ZonePlayers in the rooms of your choice, you can play the same song in different rooms, or different songs in different rooms. To start listening, just grab the full-color Controller and simply pick a room, pick a song and hit play.

I want one for Xmas. Mum?

Trick Your Body Into Submission

1. If your throat tickles, scratch your ear!

“When the nerves in the ear are stimulated, it creates a reflex in the throat that can cause a muscle spasm,” says Scott Schaffer, M.D., president of an ear, nose, and throat specialty center in Gibbsboro, New Jersey. “This spasm relieves the tickle.”



2. Experience supersonic hearing!

If you're stuck chatting up a mumbler at a cocktail party, lean in with your right ear. It's better than your left at following the rapid rhythms of speech, according to researchers at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. If, on the other hand, you're trying to identify that song playing softly in the elevator, turn your left ear toward the sound. The left ear is better at picking up music tones.




3. Overcome your most primal urge!

Need to pee? No bathroom nearby? You are male? Then fantasize...

Thinking about sex preoccupies your brain, so you won't feel as much discomfort, says Larry Lipshultz, M.D., chief of male reproductive medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine.



4. Feel no pain!

German researchers have discovered that coughing during an injection can lessen the pain of the needle stick. According to Taras Usichenko, author of a study on the phenomenon, the trick causes a sudden, temporary rise in pressure in the chest and spinal canal, inhibiting the painconducting structures of the spinal cord.



5. Clear your stuffed nose!

The easiest, quickest, and cheapest way to relieve sinus pressure is to alternately thrust your tongue against the roof of your mouth, then press between your eyebrows with one finger. This causes the vomer bone, which runs through the nasal passages to the mouth, to rock back and forth, says Lisa DeStefano, D.O., an assistant professor at the Michigan State University college of osteopathic medicine. The motion loosens congestion; after 20 seconds, you'll feel your sinuses start to drain.




6. Fight fire without water!

Studies have shown that patients who sleep on their left sides are less likely to suffer from acid reflux. The esophagus and stomach connect at an angle.

When you sleep on your right, the stomach is higher than the esophagus, allowing food and stomach acid to slide up your throat. When you're on your left, the stomach is lower than the esophagus, so gravity's in your favor.



7. Cure your toothache without opening your mouth!

Just rub ice on the back of your hand, on the V-shaped webbed area between your thumb and index finger. A Canadian study found that this technique reduces toothache pain by as much as 50 percent compared with using no ice. The nerve pathways at the base of that V stimulate an area of the brain that blocks pain signals from the face and hands.



8. Make burns disappear!

When you accidentally singe your finger on the stove, clean the skin and apply light pressure with the finger pads of your unmarred hand. Ice will relieve your pain more quickly, Dr. DeStefano says, but since the natual method brings the burned skin back to a normal temperature, the skin is less likely to blister.




9. Stop the world from spinning!

One too many drinks left you dizzy? Put your hand on something stable. The part of your ear responsible for balance, the

cupula, floats in a fluid of the same density as blood.

“As alcohol dilutes blood in the cupula, the cupula becomes less dense and rises,” says Dr. Schaffer. This confuses your brain. The tactile input from a stable object gives the brain a second opinion, and you feel more in balance. Because the nerves in the hand are so sensitive, this works better than the conventional footonthefloor wisdom.



10. Unstitch your side!

If you're like most people, when you run, you exhale as your right foot hits the ground.

This puts downward pressure on your liver (which lives on your right side), which then tugs at the diaphragm and creates a side stitch, according to The Doctors Book of Home Remedies for Men. The fix: Exhale as your left foot strikes the ground.




11. Stanch blood with a single finger!

Pinching your nose and leaning back is a great way to stop a nosebleed if you don't mind choking on your own O positive. A more civil approach: Put some cotton on your upper gums just behind that small dent below your nose and press against it, hard.

“Most bleeds come from the front of the septum, the cartilage wall that divides the nose,” says Peter Desmarais, M.D., an ear, nose, and throat specialist at Entabeni Hospital, in Durban, South Africa. “Pressing here helps stop them.”



12. Make your heart stand still!

Trying to quell firstdate jitters? Blow on your thumb. The vagus nerve, which governs heart rate, can be controlled through breathing, says Ben Abo, an emergency medical services specialist at the University of Pittsburgh. It'll get your heart rate back to normal.



13. Thaw your brain!


Too much ice-cream too fast will freeze the brains of lesser men. As for you, press your tongue flat against the roof of your mouth, covering as much as you can. “Since the nerves in the roof of your mouth get extremely cold, your body thinks your brain is freezing, too,” says Abo. “In compensating, it overheats, causing an icecream headache.” The more pressure you apply to the roof of your mouth, the faster your headache will subside.



14. Prevent nearsightedness!

Poor distance vision is rarely caused by genetics, says Anne Barber, O.D., an optometrist in Tacoma, Washington. “It's usually caused by nearpoint stress.” In other words, staring at your computer screen for too long. So flex your way to 20/20 vision. Every few hours during the day, close your eyes, tense your body, take a deep breath, and, after a few seconds, release your breath and muscles at the same time. Tightening and releasing muscles such as the biceps and glutes can trick involuntary muscles like

the eyes into relaxing as well.




15. Wake the dead!

If your hand falls asleep while you're driving or sitting in an odd position, rock your head from side to side. It'll painlessly banish your pins and needles in less than a minute, says Dr. DeStefano. A tingly hand or arm is often the result of compression in the bundle of nerves in your neck; loosening your neck muscles releases the pressure. Compressed nerves lower in the body govern the feet, so don't let your sleeping dogs lie. Stand up and walk around.



16. Impress your friends!

Next time you're at a party, try this trick: Have a person hold one arm straight out to the side, palm down, and instruct him to maintain this position. Then place two fingers on his wrist and push down. He'll resist. Now have him put one foot on a surface that's a half inch higher (a few magazines) and repeat. This time his arm will cave like the French. By misaligning his hips, you've offset his spine, says Rachel Cosgrove, C.S.C.S., coowner of Results Fitness, in Santa Clarita, California. Your brain senses that the spine is vulnerable, so it shuts down the body's ability to resist.



17. Breathe underwater!

If you're dying to retrieve that quarter from the bottom of the pool, take several short breaths first essentially, hyperventilate. When you're underwater, it's not a lack of oxygen that makes you desperate for a breath; it's the buildup of carbon dioxide, which makes your blood acidic, which signals your brain that somethin' ain't right. “When you hyperventilate, the influx of oxygen lowers blood acidity,” says Jonathan Armbruster, Ph.D., an associate professor of biology at Auburn University. “This tricks your brain into thinking it has more oxygen.” It'll buy you up to 10 seconds.




18. Read minds!

Your own! “If you're giving a speech the next day, review it before falling asleep,” says Candi Heimgartner, an instructor of biological sciences at the University of Idaho. Since most memory consolidation happens during sleep, anything you read right before bed is more likely to be encoded as longterm memory.



Author: Kate Dailey

Bar 109 pix

Here's me at work at Bar 109, May 2007.

Check out Bar 109.

Google announces free in-home wireless broadband service

"Dark porcelain" project offers self-installed plumbing-based Internet access

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., April 1, 2007 - Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced the launch of Google TiSP (BETA)™, a free in-home wireless broadband service that delivers online connectivity via users' plumbing systems. The Toilet Internet Service Provider (TiSP) project is a self-installed, ad-supported online service that will be offered entirely free to any consumer with a WiFi-capable PC and a toilet connected to a local municipal sewage system.

"We've got that whole organizing-the-world's-information thing more or less under control," said Google Co-founder and President Larry Page, a longtime supporter of so-called "dark porcelain" research and development. "What's interesting, though, is how many different modalities there are for actually getting that information to you - not to mention from you."

For years, data carriers have confronted the "last hundred yards" problem for delivering data from local networks into individual homes. Now Google has successfully devised a "last hundred smelly yards" solution that takes advantage of preexisting plumbing and sewage systems and their related hydraulic data-transmission capabilities. "There's actually a thriving little underground community that's been studying this exact solution for a long time," says Page. "And today our Toilet ISP team is pleased to be leading the way through the sewers, up out of your toilet and - splat - right onto your PC."

Users who sign up online for the TiSP system will receive a full home self-installation kit, which includes a spindle of fiber-optic cable, a TiSP wireless router, installation CD and setup guide. Home installation is a simple matter of GFlushing™ the fiber-optic cable down to the nearest TiSP Access Node, then plugging the other end into the network port of your Google-provided TiSP wireless router. Within sixty minutes, the Access Node's crack team of Plumbing Hardware Dispatchers (PHDs) should have your internet connection up and running.

"I couldn't be more excited about, and am only slightly grossed out by, this remarkable new product," said Marissa Mayer, Google's Vice President of Search Products and User Experience. "I firmly believe TiSP will be a breakthrough product, particularly for those users who, like Larry himself, do much of their best thinking in the bathroom."

Interested consumers, contractually obligated partners and deeply skeptical and quietly competitive backbiters can learn more about TiSP at http://www.google.com/tisp/install.html.

Resilient Iraqis - the light at the end of the tunnel?

Marie Colvin

March 18, 2007 -- DESPITE sectarian slaughter, ethnic cleansing and suicide bombs, an opinion poll conducted on the eve of the fourth anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq has found a striking resilience and optimism among the inhabitants.


The poll, the biggest since coalition troops entered Iraq on March 20, 2003, shows that by a majority of two to one, Iraqis prefer the current leadership to Saddam Hussein's regime, regardless of the security crisis and a lack of public services.


The survey, published today, also reveals that contrary to the views of many western analysts, most Iraqis do not believe they are embroiled in a civil war.


Officials in Washington and London are likely to be buoyed by the poll conducted by Opinion Research Business (ORB), a respected British market research company that funded its own survey of 5,019 Iraqis over the age of 18.


The 400 interviewers who fanned out across Iraq last month found that the sense of security felt by Baghdad residents had significantly improved since polling carried out before the US announced in January that it was sending in a "surge" of more than 20,000 extra troops.


The poll highlights the impact the sectarian violence has had. Some 26% of Iraqis - 15% of Sunnis and 34% of Shi'ites - have suffered the murder of a family member. Kidnapping has also played a terrifying role: 14% have had a relative, friend or colleague abducted, rising to 33% in Baghdad.


Yet 49% of those questioned preferred life under Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister, to living under Saddam. Only 26% said things had been better in Saddam's era, while 16% said the two leaders were as bad as each other and the rest did not know or refused to answer.


Not surprisingly, the divisions in Iraqi society were reflected in statistics - Sunnis were more likely to back the previous Ba'athist regime (51%) while the Shi'ites (66%) preferred the Maliki government.


Maliki, who derives a significant element of his support from Moqtada al-Sadr, the hardline Shi'ite militant, and his Mahdi army, has begun trying to overcome criticism that his government favours the Shi'ites, going out of his way to be seen with Sunni tribal leaders. He is also under pressure from the US to include more Sunnis in an expected government reshuffle.


The poll suggests a significant increase in support for Maliki. A survey conducted by ORB in September last year found that only 29% of Iraqis had a favourable opinion of the prime minister.


Another surprise was that only 27% believed they were caught up in a civil war. Again, that number divided along religious lines, with 41% of Sunnis believing Iraq was in a civil war, compared with only 15% of Shi'ites.


The survey is a rare snapshot of Iraqi opinion because of the difficulty of working in the country, with the exception of Kurdish areas which are run as an essentially autonomous province.


Most international organisations have pulled out of Iraq and diplomats are mostly holed-up in the Green Zone. The unexpected degree of optimism may signal a groundswell of hope at signs the American "surge" is starting to take effect.


This weekend comments from Baghdad residents reflected the poll's findings. Many said they were starting to feel more secure on the streets, although horrific bombings have continued. "The Americans have checkpoints and the most important thing is they don't ask for ID, whether you are Sunni or Shi'ite," said one resident. "There are no more fake checkpoints so you don't need to be scared."


The inhabitants of a northern Baghdad district were heartened to see on the concrete blocks protecting an Iraqi army checkpoint the lettering: "Down, down with the militias, we are fighting for the sake of Iraq."


It would have been unthinkable just a few weeks ago. Residents said they noted that armed militias were off the streets.


One question showed the sharp divide in attitudes towards the continued presence of foreign troops in Iraq. Some 53% of Iraqis nationwide agree that the security situation will improve in the weeks after a withdrawal by international forces, while only 26% think it will get worse.


"We've been polling in Iraq since 2005 and the finding that most surprised us was how many Iraqis expressed support for the present government," said Johnny Heald, managing director of ORB. "Given the level of violence in Iraq, it shows an unexpected level of optimism."


Despite the sectarian divide, 64% of Iraqis still want to see a united Iraq under a central national government.


One statistic that bodes ill for Iraq's future is the number who have fled the country, many of them middle-class professionals. Baghdad has been hard hit by the brain drain - 35% said a family member had left the country.


Additional reporting: Ali Rifat
ORB interviewed a nationally representative sample of 5,019 Iraqi adults between February 10-22. The margin of error was +/- 1.4%.

What the devil???

Joe Bananas DJ, Alan Grimes, earns a few extra bucks moonlighting as a male stripper ... [more photos]

Full moon?

And what's that yellow thing lying on the ground? Looks very much like one of those battery powered sex toys that I didn't order off the internet ...

Joke for today

Q: Why are there no blind sky-divers?
A: Because it scares the shit out of the dogs!

Lee Burridge Interview - Hong Kong Entertainment Nightlife Clubbing Music Guide - HKClubbing.com

Lee Burridge Interview - HKClubbing.com

"Having started out his DJ career and triggered off the dance music scene in Hong Kong in the early nineties, Lee Burridge has gone all out! With two Global Underground compilations under his belt, countless residencies across the world and his own label, he’s back for one night to give Hong Kong a taster of where he stands now, musically. He takes time out to talk to hkclubbing about Hong Kong and where he is now!"

WeBeHigh.com - Marijuana Toolbar with Marijuana Prices & Information Around The World!

WeBeHigh's Unique Marijuana Toolbar

It's free, with no spyware or viruses, does not open pop-ups or hijack your searches, and no personal information is required.

Wherever your travels may take you, there are no worries when WeBeHigh's Toolbar is on your desktop. Pot or hash, whatever your pleasure, stay Safe and Stoned around the world with WeBeHigh's exclusive marijuana toolbar

What does the WeBeHigh toolbar let me do?

• Get instant access to useful marijuana related links
  
  
• Updated information about marijuana prices and spots around the world
  
  
• Chat with other WeBeHigh toolbar users online
  
  
• Get Marijuana news from all around the world
  
  
• Instant access to WeBeHigh's website from any site on the web
  
  
• Includes a cookie cleaner, a history cleaner, and a cache cleaner
  
  
• Get notified when you receive new e-mails to your POP3, Yahoo!, Gmail, or Hotmail accounts
  
  
• Search from anywhere on the web
  

Expert doubts widespread HIV risk

BBC NEWS | Health | Expert doubts widespread HIV risk

Don't make me laugh about Steve Irwin

Norm McDonald and his hilarious view about Steve Irwin. A non stop laugh.