I guess at some time or another everyone has had a vision test. You stare at a boring picture of letters that get smaller and smaller all the way down and try to recognize the letters for the tester. Boring, boring, boring. Well, here is an eye test that is bound to get the guys interest and also will likely lead to a distinct improvement in vision amongst men generally.

Of course, there is another thought that should accompany this eye test and that is what your friends always told you - yes, you will go blind if you do that. You see, as she gets naked, she gets smaller and smaller and smaller.....you get to see less and less.... aghhhhhhh!

It's all over the Internet the last few days that a German airline has introduced nude flights for nudists. The mind boggles. Can anyone please explain to me why on earth you would want to be fly naked? I mean, they can only strip on board the plane and have to dress again before disembarking, alcoholic drinks will apparently not be served and they will have to sit on special seat throwaway seat covers. Sounds like fun and well worth paying a premium for - right???

I can understand nudism. No really, I can. It can feel great to swim naked, walk naked but don't you think that shopping in a supermarket naked and flying naked is pushing it a little far? What do people get out of this experience? Beats me....

On the shores of Coogee beach in Sydney, British fitness expert Rob Derbyshire gently reminds his British client Judith that gain is normally accompanied by pain.

Dashing up the beach together, they look like part of a "pom" invasion of Australia. And in many ways they are.

The number of British people emigrating to Australia has already increased from 8,749 in the year from 2001 to 2002 to 23,290 in 2005 to 2006.

And it has just become easier for Brits to make their homes Down Under.

Changes to the points system, which come into effect on 1 September, will award five valuable extra points for people who can pass a standard English language test, a Brit-friendly policy partly designed to lure more "poms" here.

'No looking back'

American Football was the top CNN story when I logged on this morning namely the Superbowl. Who cares? American Football is a bunch of overpaid, over exposed, macho men with silly degrees in landscaping and recreational studies who push each other up and down a field. It's also a spectacularly unsuccessful US export to a world that watches soccer - also football.

Recently, we were told that lipstick use is responsible for an increase in Average breast size amongst British Women and now apparently new research shows that high heels help improve a woman's sex life. And where does this news originate? Well, Italy of course. An Italian Urologist set out to research the effects of high heels and came to the conclusion that high heels improve the pelvic muscles and therefore assist in sexual performance. She also adores her high heels apparently.

If you liked this post, why not buy me a nice cold beer?

A traditional pancake race has fallen flat after it was cancelled due to health and safety regulations.

Every year, children and choristers take part in the Shrove Tuesday race in Ripon, North Yorkshire.

The event was revived 10 years ago and is usually started by the ringing of Ripon Cathedral's ancient Pancake Bell.

But this year's event has been shelved, with organisers blaming the mountain of risk assessments that must be carried out before children can take part.

Bernard Bateman, one of the organisers, said they were told they would have to pay £250 to Harrogate Borough Council to close Kirkgate Road, where the race takes place.

They would also have to hold insurance risk assessments and pay to have medical staff on hand in case of any injuries or accidents.

In the PR business it is said that no publicity is bad publicity. RyanAir appear to subscribe to this view anyway. Recently the company has been sued by French President and his wife/girlfriend for using their pictures without permission. They ran the ad only once but have gained massively from the media frenzy that surrounded the controversial advertisement. And what did it cost them to lose that case - just 60,000 Euros - probably less than they spent on the ad campaign itself. But it doesn't stop there, they were also heavily criticized for running an ad in the UK featuring a scantily clad schoolgirl.

Thai fast food sellers are enjoying a boom in rat sales, as people learn to love the taste of the rodent.

While rat has long been eaten in Thailand's poorer northern regions, a growing number of the country's roadside vendors are now serving it up.

The rats are drowned and sold uncooked or ready to eat, with happy customers purchasing rat meat for as much as 150 baht ($4.82; £2.30) a kilogram.

"It's better than chicken," one customer told the AP news agency.

Rest of story at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7230233.stm

A while ago I posted about snail caviar which was reported to be becoming popular in France and now we read on the BBC that Thai's are increasingly fond of fried Rat. Whatever next? It's the statement by a customer that Rat livers and hips are the best parts of the animal to eat though that makes me feel sick. I would bet that the Thai's then are a little disappointed that the 1-ton rodent described by scientists recently is extinct. Certainly would have produced more of that chicken tasting meat.

When I wrote my take on the German airline offering flights for nudists it was on the assumption that this was something of a first in the airline industry. Now, as we all know, it appears that just isn't accurate and the German airline was well and truly beaten to the plate by Air France whose female flight attendants have been performing stripteases for the pilots for many years it would seem. Shame that they didn't extend the courtesy for the passenger's because it would make up for the taste of airline food and general poor service.

Guess I am a little late with that announcement but oh well...A while ago, I wrote about a new audio advertising program that was being picked up rapidly by bloggers as a way to make some money from their sites - article here. Well, I'm wondering if anyone has actually heard one of these ads coming from their PC speakers as they browsed a website? I havn't. The program claims that more than 8 million websites have signed up already to deliver these infernal ads to you but that right now, they are still testing and only delivering 100,000 ads per day. Have you been lucky? Did you hear one yet?

If you are a blogger and belatedly interested in the program, then go here for more details. Meanwhile, the rest of us will turn off our PC speakers....

I suppose that there may be men out there that do think that their wives are goat like but there is now at least one man whose wife is actually a goat.

According to the BBC, a Sudanese man was forced to take a goat as his 'wife' after being caught having sex with the animal. The goat's owner received a nice dowry of $50 and has not seen his goat since. Man and goat are thought to be living together happily.

The goat's original owner said that he was woken by strange noises and found the goat being seduced by her suitor. In a fit if rage, he captured the man, tied him up and then marched him off to a council of elders meeting. The elders decided that since sexual relations had taken place, the goat was now officially the man's wife!

In the end, he goat what was coming to him (ugh!).

The British NHS is offering advice on sex as a part of its service. In an effort to reduce Britain's march to American size 'overweight', the NHS is telling couples that having sex is good exercise and will help in keeping weight down. They also say that sex can reduce the risk of heart attacks and help you live longer. But sex experts say that, while they are glad the NHS is promoting sexual well being, its not scientifically proven.

Meanwhile, Air France is ensuring the well being of its pilots by organizing stripteases in the cabin. Air France reports that the NHS is in fact correct and has extended its pilot's retirement age accordingly. And in an effort to ensure the success of its pilot's retention program, it has mandated high heels for all stewardesses based on recent Italian research that high heels enhance a woman's sexual performance.

Hmmmmm?

Only in America where lawyers run amok but guess what? It's a lawyer that's being sued - a female lawyer at that!

A female lawyer shook the hand of another lawyer so vigorously after a Florida court case that she nearly felled the other lawyer according to a BBC story. What an amazing handshake. I mean, we've all experienced that firm and vigorous squeeze haven't we? When you can feel your hand bones being ground one against the other. But, that firm handshake we are told is the correct way to do it. Not one of us would ever dream of suing the person that had delivered such a handshake - would we?

The Clinton campaign has replaced it's campaign manager and dipped into the Clinton's personal savings to the tune of $10 million. All this after a clean sweep for Obama this last weekend and it now appears that Obama has the momentum in the Democratic race. The problem with Clinton is two-fold: First, a lot of people (me included) can't stand the woman and second, why would the USA want more of the same? In a previous post I likened the Bush-Clinton era as US royalty. But the USA isn't a royalty and it fought a war of independence to rid itself of an absolute monarchy. A Clinton victory would establish a lineage of rule by two powerful, elite families and who knows if that wouldn't be continued 4 or 8 years later by Jeb or some other Bush family member. It is time for a change in US politics. It is time for the US to change it's global image and it couldn't do better with President Obama.....

A wheelchair user has been taken for a high-speed ride along a US highway after his handlebars became tangled up in the front grille of a lorry.

The back of Ben Carpenter's wheelchair was scooped up as he passed in front of a lorry leaving a petrol station.

The driver was completely unaware that he had a new passenger, kept in his wheelchair by a seatbelt.

Passing motorists told police, who found the man unhurt - but still attached to the front of the truck.

Police in the town of Paw Paw, Michigan, said Mr Carpenter had told them "it was quite a ride", but complained only that he had spilled his soda.

Rest of story at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6732003.stm

Dictators seem to adore the sound of their own rhetoric don't they? But it's in the way that they talk that you can tell them for what they are - tin pot dictators. Here are the five ways to recognize a tin pot dictator like Chavez of Venezuela, Ahmadinejad of Iran, ex Iraqi dictator Hussein, Kim Jong of North Korea and all of those other past, present and future nobodies;

1. Playing with fire
Tin pot dictators just love weapons of war, buy them by the billion dollars worth even as their own people starve or while their country has a GDP equivalent to the village of Withernsea in East Yorkshire, England. It doesn't stop there though, they love to play war mongering and deliver threats to their neighbors and even resort to using their amassed weaponry often on their own citizens;

2. Uniforms

Beer drinking can make you do some rather stupid things once you have had enough of the stuff. I already posted one good example of this feel good effect recently at Frying Tonight!. But recently, I was sent this very funny link. Hope you laugh as hard as I did?

You might have read about the dispute between Russia and the Ukraine over natural gas? Once again, the Russians are threatening to cut off gas supplies unless the Ukraine pays its gas bill. The problem here is that if gas is cut off, it affects more than just the Ukraine since Russian gas on its way to the UK and other parts of Europe have to pass through that country first.

You can read about the dispute on the BBC or any other news site but here is what you won't discover unless you dig a little deeper. Essentially, this is a dispute about an intra-company transfer of money. The company that owes the money is a Gazprom subsidiary. So, here we are about to face a gas shortage simply because one part of Gazprom owes another part of Gazprom money? That's like BP Exploration cutting off oil supplies to BP Refining so that it can't supply more gasoline because another part of BP didn't pay the other.

As everyone knows, or should, the Brits love curry. Curry has almost replaced fish and chips as the national dish and even fish and chips comes with curry sauce these days. But apparently there is a problem. According to the BBC, the Home Office has been asked to ease restrictions on workers coming from Bangladesh to stop a crisis in the curry business. It seems that there simply aren't enough workers available for curry houses these days.

According to the article, there are 9000 curry restaurants in the UK employing at least 50,000 people but kitchen staff are hard, if not impossible, to find and there are now thousands of vacancies.

Now, the Home Office will have to act decisively if it wants to avert a full-blown crisis. I mean, what will we do if we can't get a good curry to top off that English ale? The UK would suffer dire consequences without a good supply of curry. It's what keeps the Brit's morale up.

Lot's of submissions over the last few days from my fellow bloggers. I am not responsible for what they say but I hope you enjoy their stuff anyway...

Here goes.....

Holly Ord presents Moving Tip: Avoid Moving in an Ice Storm posted at Menstrual Poetry.

Avant News presents Nostalgic Bush Says FY09 Budget "Last Chance to Shaft the Poor" posted at Avant News.

Rob Moshe presents posted at Rob Schaumer, saying, "This is not necessarily a fitting post for your carnival. Once the project starts, each day I will recognize a fellow blogger that "Helped""

While all of the headlines are focused on the U.S. primaries few of you will know that the elections for the Czech President are also taking place at the moment.

The election is conducted according to some rules that can be viewed here for those interested. However, the parliament elects the President and the voting system seems something akin to how the Pope is elected by cardinals - albeit without the white smoke!

A British man is suing bookmaker William Hill for 2 million Pounds after they let him bet again. A self-confessed gambler, apparently he closed his accounts at most bookmakers including William Hill on a self-exclusion basis. Two-months later, he was able to re-open an account in his own name and lose an unimaginable amount of money betting on horses. He is now suing on the basis that he shouldn't have been able to open the account......

My comment.... speechless.

Sports Illustrated - the sports magazine with a penchant for semi-naked models has released its latest escapade into Penthouse territory with its painted swimsuit edition. Yes - the swimsuits worn by the models are body paint taking an average of 13-hours to prepare. You can find an on line preview of the edition here if you are curious.

I've never bought this magazine and don't have any respect for it. If the focus is sport then stay focused on sport but I guess they have a largely male readership and to keep that readership they have to introduce sex somehow - so they believe. Its this that aggravates me. Either you are a Penthouse wannabe or you are a sports magazine - which is it?

The City of New York has worked its "I love NY" slogan hard over the years but now one has to wonder if it shouldn't actually read "NY loves love". The City's health department yesterday (Valentine's Day) started to push a new and official New York condom complete with the words "Get Some" on the wrapper. The launch comes complete with TV commercials and condom give aways on the streets of New York.

“We want to give away as many condoms as people will use because we’re trying to make New York City an even safer place to have sex, and this is a powerful way to do it,” said Monica Sweeney, the Health Department’s assistant commissioner for HIV prevention and control.

© Photographer:Oni Adhi | Agency: Dreamstime.com

Regular readers will know that I live in the Czech Republic these days. Its a beautiful country and if you have never been here then what are you waiting for? If you want some more information on the country then I suggest you visit Discover the Czech republic for more information. The site is a source of information of the country that includes photographic 'walks' through parts of the Czech Republic like Brno and in the site's forum you'll find useful guides to staying there.

The site also features an extensive and growing photograph gallery of parts of the Czech Republic taken by the blog's writer and owner along with useful places to search for a hotel or book your trip.

In the UK these days it seems you need a license to do anything but the latest idea touted by a think tank takes the biscuit. It seems that in order to purchase tobacco products you will need a license purchased for 10 GBP - at least that's the idea being floated at the moment. Next, I suppose you'll need a license to fart based on the idea that farting is a major source of global warming gases.

The UK under its perpetual Labor Government seems to be more and more like a police state on a daily basis as basic rights get eroded under the guise of global warming or some other such nonesense. Can you imagine James Bond - Licensed to ... smoke? It makes no sense and just created another layer of beaurocracy. What happened to personal choice and liberty - freedom of speech? Under the Labor Government, such things are being slowly but surely eroded - smoking today, what tomorrow? Using the bathroom?

These days travel is part of the job. You simply have to do it from time-to-time. But I have grown to detest traveling. First, you have to leave the people you want to be with and second, you have to leave your comfort zone making the travel stressful. Today, I am due to head to London for several days on a business trip. Here is what I am facing...

Arrive at the airport 2 hours before flight time. Line up with hundreds of others on the flight and wait, wait and wait for Ryanair to show up an start processing passengers. They will open the areas I am not lined up for and everyone will rush forward suddenly like a herd of cows headed for milking. When finally checked in, I will go through security - what a joy - and then wait, wait and wait again until we board. Boarding will also resemble milking time for the cows as we all scramble to find a reasonable seat. Then, I will wait, wait and wait again until we finally land.

How can anyone live in London? Everything is so expensive. But hotels here are outrageous prices. Being charged 9.95GBP for breakfast is outrageous too.

What I want to know is how do you Londoners put up with it? I'd love to know....

I never thought that anything related to the subject of Adolf Hitler could be funny but.... someone has started making cartoons in the vein of JibJab on the internet. Most are in German but check this out - it's an English version.

Seems like Hitler is the butt of jokes after all.

Regular readers will know I have no time for global warming but now comes news that ought to put global warming on the back seat for everyone though you'd never know it.

Are you worried about global warming? The media is full of it so I am not surprised. Worried what your grand children will think of you for destroying their planet with your CO2 emissions?

Forget it.

Start worrying about whether you will have food in 3-years time instead. Start worrying about the wars that a global food shortage will start. Start worrying about many of the world's species dying out before the end of the decade.

Think I am joking?

Well, for once I am deadly serious. Bees, yes - Bees, are dying off in amazing numbers in the US and Europe and it has scientists perplexed. The bees seem to forget their way back to the hive and die looking. No one is sure quite why but the numbers are staggering - up to 70% of Bees have already died off in some regions.

I found a quite cool and unique website today with a great topic - how US politicians died and where their graves are....!! The site is called The Political Graveyard and a good example of its content can be found at Lindemann to Lindquist. The site contains data on 138,150 Politicians, Judges and Diplomats and you can find out pretty much anything about them including where born, offices held, where died, how died and where buried.

It lists all kinds of people involved in US politics and goes back into the early 1800's. It also features many different ways to look at the information or to search for information. Want information on a long lost ancestor who may have been in politics? Just start at this site.
Want to know about the Clinton's or the Bush's family history - well this is the place to find it. Want to find out which politicians were born into slavery? It's all there at this amazing website.

If the UK Government continues with its policy of slapping new taxes on everything or requiring licenses for things like smoking then this gentleman(!) will certainly be in trouble. No doubt he will have to purchase carbon credits to perform his little show.

But my real question is how is this family viewing on TV? Watch and let me know....

Growing up in the UK I was pretty much paid to go to College. The UK Government paid my tuition and provided a grant each year for me to live on. It wasn't much but I managed thanks to some overdraft help from the bank. During my postgraduate period I was able to work as a lecturer too and make more money. But how things have changed!

I now have a son at a private college in the US. It's over $40,000 a year. Despite the fact that the College has awarded him a few grants, it is still an onerous stretch to pay. Each year, I take on new parental student loans and by the time he graduates I will have a second mortgage.

But as US interest rates decline now is a great time to consolidate my student loans - yours too.

I just got back from a quick business trip to Switzerland where the news continues to be on the Swiss soccer team FC Thun. Back in December 12 current and past players where arrested for having sex with a 15-year old girl. Apparently, this wasn't a one off event but repeated on a number of occasions. Since then, the news comes back periodically as individual players are tried and found guilty - this was the case this week when a second player was found guilty.