BMD: Ballistic Missile Defense systems were all but deployed in New Mexico this week when a middle school was terrorized by a student.
Someone called authorities Thursday after seeing a boy carrying something long and wrapped into Marshall Junior High.
The drama ended two hours later when the suspicious item was identified as a 30-inch burrito filled with steak, guacamole, lettuce, salsa and jalapenos and wrapped inside tin foil and a white T-shirt.
"I didn't know whether to laugh or cry," school Principal Diana Russell said.
State police, Clovis police and the Curry County Sheriff's Department arrived at the school shortly after 8:30 a.m. They searched the premises and determined there was no immediate danger.
Passover is an eight-day religious celebration symbolizing the Jewish people's freedom from slavery and exile in Egypt in 1300 BCE. It is a celebration not just of a specific historical event, but of freedom itself. It is also a time of thanksgiving, spring renewal, and family and community solidarity.
Passover also is known as "Pesach," a Hebrew word pronounced "Pay-sock," which means "to pass over" or "to spare."
Annually, Passover starts at sundown on the 15th day of the first month of the Jewish lunar calendar, Nissan.
Posted by
abnu on Friday, April 29, 2005 @ 2:34 PM
[ + ]
Superbia, Invidia, Ira, Accidia, Avaritia, Gula and Luxuria might be company and product names from the lexicon of some naming and branding specialist in the Vatican.
But no, these are the Latin names of the seven deadly sins of Pride, Envy, Wrath, Sloth, Avarice, Gluttony and Lust. The first letters of these words form the medieval Latin word saligia, from which the verb saligiare (to commit a deadly sin) is taken.
These are sometimes called capital sins, or cardinal sins. But a cardinal sin is not to be confused with a mortal sin—or with Cardinal Sin, as in Cardinal Sin to miss papal elections.
Papabile (plural: Papabili) is an unofficial Italian term first coined by Vaticanologists and now used internationally in many languages to describe cardinals of whom it is thought likely or possible that they will be elected pope. A convenient English translation would be "popeable", "one worthy of the position of pope" or "possible (or likely) successor to the pope".
Cardinal Sin could have chosen the name Pope Saligia, if elected.
One book, two titles: It is called Ballyhoo, Buckaroo, and Spuds in the USA and Port Out, Starboard Home everywhere else. This is the book's description in the words of the author, Michael Quinion.
The cat’s pajamas, the bee’s knees, and the whole nine yards rolled into one, this true feast for word lovers skewers commonly accepted word-origin myths and etymological folk tales. Can it really be true that golf stands for “Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden”? Did the term computer bug really derive from an errant moth shorting out an early computer? Did the kangaroo really get its name through a misunderstanding between explorers and natives? The real story of the origin and evolution of a word or phrase is often much stranger than the commonly accepted one. The expressions that Michael Quinion reviews range throughout the English-speaking world, from cater-cornered to dinkum and from wet one’s whistle to happy as a clam. From the bawdy to the sublime, explanations and delightful asides truly prove that the proof is in the pudding. If you ever wondered about why we utter such oddities as raining cats and dogs, I could care less or twenty-three skidoo, this one’s for you. It’s a treasure trove of fiction and fact for anyone interested in language.
You can read a nice bit of it here, or go out to your favorite bookstore and read the whole thing there, or simply buy the book online.
Posted by
abnu on Tuesday, April 26, 2005 @ 11:56 PM
[ + ]
The personal hygiene of Delhi's taxi drivers is an unusual topic for ministerial-level discussion, but recently it has been central to a government debate over how to lure more tourists to India.
Convinced that the body odors of many of the capital's drivers were far from inviting, the tourism minister, Renuka Chowdhury, has started an advertising campaign aimed at persuading those who work in the tourism sector to clean up their act.
According to an article in the Business section of the International Herald Tribune, the "guest is god" branding initiative is the domestic counterpart to an international campaign, called Incredible India, aimed at changing perceptions of India in the mind of the global traveler, and is inspired by a line from Hindu scripture, Atithi devo bhavah, or "our guests are our gods."
Posted by
abnu on Monday, April 25, 2005 @ 10:55 AM
[ + ]
The Wall Street Journal has an article today about apparel firm David & Goliath and its “boys are stupid” clothing line. Apparently, sales are going through the roof for these products — despite their being dropped last year from various store chains after protests by parenting and tolerance groups.
What do you think of this type of clothing?
The founder of David & Goliath began this boy-bashing in 1999 with a “boys are smelly” t-shirt. Next came “boys have cooties” and now there are numerous negative sayings about boys on every type of clothing and accessory imaginable — including such things as underwear, sneakers, wind chimes, coaster sets, posters, wallets and calendars.
There’s even a book:
I’m just wondering how well a t-shirt saying “girls are stupid, throw rocks at them” would go over?
Death comes to all of us. It can take you anytime, and anywhere. Do you have feelings or secrets that you would like to tell? Maybe you should make special arrangements.
Final Partings provides to you, the ability to send your pre-written personal messages by email or postal mail after your death. You may send a message to a distant old friend or to a loved one close by. Imagine the emotional relief of knowing that your message will be shared in private to the right person at the right time. Unlike handwritten messages, you will also feel secure in knowing that those messages written using Final Partings will not be found by the wrong person or at the wrong time.
Which makes you think. What about your email? Who can get access to your email after you're gone? These are not casual concerns. Maybe you should consult a lawyer.
Should your ISP provide your family members with access to your emails? The answer has more than two sides, but ready ones that I can come up with are that your family members are going to go through your things anyway, so what's the difference between rummaging through your files and papers at home and rummaging through your email?
Which makes me think. What about my digital media collection? Maybe I should have a porn buddy.
"With adult DVD sales now topping 15 billion dollars, some men are afraid to leave behind too much of a legacy," said spokesman Scott Mabat, announcing Adult DVD Trader's launch. "The apex of trust in the 21st century is the Porn Buddy. In case of a man's death or incapacitation, his Porn Buddy's mission is to clear the house of all porn before his mother pays a bereaved visit. This modern day blood brother is entrusted with a house key and the secret location of the stash.
In the end, it's just good estate planning to give a porn buddy the email login and password combinations, and instructions to bowdlerise the computer.
Posted by
abnu on Saturday, April 23, 2005 @ 12:21 AM
[ + ]
We try really hard to write posts that will be enjoyable for our target audience to read. So, we were very interested to learn from the Juicy Studio readability tests that our writing meets the reading comprehension capabilities of the Wordlab readership.
Juicy Studio is an independent UK site, run by Gez Lemon. It's an unfortunate surname, but explains why the site is Juicy. The mission of the site is to promote best practice for web developers, and programmers in a fast moving industry. Whether you're a novice or a professional, there's something for you.
You can run these tests against our website address to see for yourself how we score, but here's the gist of it.
On the Gunning-Fog index, our writing makes sense to readers who are comfortable with Time or Newsweek. You don't have to be capable of reading publications like the Wall Street Journal, the Times, or the Guardian, but if you're more comfortable reading the Bible, TV Guide, and most popular novels, you might find Wordlab a bit of a challenge.
On the Flesch Reading Ease test, the result is an index number that rates the text on a 100-point scale. The higher the score, the easier it is to understand the document. Authors are encouraged to aim for a score of approximately 60 to 70. Wordlab scores a respectable 66.24.
The result of the Flesch-Kincaid grade level is a rough measure of how many years of schooling it would take someone to understand the content. Wordlab readers are expected to be nearing completion of grade seven, and doing well.
Posted by
abnu on Friday, April 22, 2005 @ 11:44 AM
[ + ]
Pope John Paul II will be canonized a saint, sooner or later. In the meantime, the city of Rome is giving the late pontiff its highest honor. They're naming a train station after him.
"There is great affection this city has for the pope, and the choice of the train station is also symbolic," said Paolo Soldini, a press officer of the mayor.
This pope loved to travel, he was open to new people," he explained. "The station is a place for meeting between different ethnicities and cultures. So Termini is the place most suited to carrying his name."
Stazione Termini, located in central Rome, was long regarded as a slightly dirty, and somewhat dangerous, home to pickpockets and homeless people, similar to the Port Authority bus station in midtown New York. But the station underwent a massive face-lift in the late 1990s for the church's Jubilee, including installation of the underground mall that gave it a slightly more upmarket veneer.
But is it suited to carry the name of a pope?
Let's not underestimate the honor. In New York City it might be worth as much as a billion dollars to get your name on a prime piece of transportation infrastructure like that. But, for our money, we think that a pontiff really ought to have a bridge named after him.
Posted by
abnu on Thursday, April 21, 2005 @ 10:16 PM
[ + ]
am nbsp a href any moment i would allow td width a wordlab blockquote b tubular smells sway class categories tr td width hess dc writeln coffee to glen
cream flavors option a blockquote a href http byline b abnu b com photos n title knee diligence is up is sixtus vi papa sixtus pup like horseback riding triathlons a span a br div hess
WORDLAB DOT COM IN THA HOUSE WORDLAB DOT COM IN THA HOUSE WORDLAB DOT COM IN THA HOUSE WORDLAB DOT COM
Posted by
abnu on Wednesday, April 20, 2005 @ 6:12 PM
[ + ]
That's the Pope's regnal name, although it has been reported by Fox News that his Italian nickname is Papa Ratzo. He's also been called the "Rottweiler" Cardinal and the "Panzer" Cardinal. One dissenting blogger even called him his holiness, Pope Palpatine. All kidding aside, this pope is definitely not Hilarius.
Pope Benedict XVI is sixteenth in a long line of popes named Benedict. There has been a lot of speculation today about what his particular Benedictine brand might be all about. The best thinking seems to be that the pontiff took the moniker of Pope Saint Benedict, the second, if you're counting popes. A deeply spiritual man, Benedict II was pope for a year, 684-685, before he went off to pray and started the monastic movement in Europe. Today, Pope Saint Benedict is the patron saint of Europe; prescient, perhaps, of the brand of this papacy.
It's too bad, really, that Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger eschewed the good advice of the naming and branding experts who recommended the name Igor, which would have been a first. (Pope Igor could have signalled a reconciliation of the schism of the Church of Rome and the Eastern Othodox Catholics.) Instead he's taken the name Benedict XVI, which admitedly has a catchy ring with the Roman numeral, Sextus Decimus.
The name Abnu would not be any kind of a name for a pope, so if ever I'm elected by the cardinals in conclave to be the servant of the servants of God, (by the way, I have the minimal qualifications for the job) the name that might suit me best of those available from the list of traditional papal names is Sixtus VI, Papa Sixtus Sextus. Like most of the great names we think up around here, it's hard to believe that one's still available.
Posted by
abnu on Tuesday, April 19, 2005 @ 8:10 PM
[ + ]
Extra Omnes. The cardinals are now secreted away in conclave for the most solemn deliberations in the Papal Election.
Apparently, these cardinals are using for the first time ever a new system of balloting designed by Pope John Paul II, the first pope of the internet era.
And, while the cardinals are electing a new pontiff, naming and branding experts have already determined the best name for the next pope to take for himself, based on a proprietary taxonomy known as Name that Pope.
Posted by
abnu on Monday, April 18, 2005 @ 10:32 PM
[ + ]
This weekend we marked the two-year anniversary of the liberation of Baghdad. (Hoo-ah!) Coalition forces crossed more than 350 miles of desert to get there, pushing through dust storms and death squads. They reached the Iraqi capital in 21 days, and that achievement will be studied for generations as the fastest armored advance in military history. (Hoo-ah!)
The coalition assault was rapid, and it wasn't easy. The enemy hid in schools and hospitals. They used civilians as human shields. Yet our troops persevered. We protected civilian lives while destroying the Republican Guard's Medina Division, pushing through the Karbala Gap, capturing Saddam International Airport, and, on April 9th, we liberated the Iraqi capital. (Hoo-ah!)
I wasn't familiar with the term Hoo-ah, so I looked it up. I guess anybody who's been in the U.S. military knows about it. You can even buy a Hoo-Ah sticker.
If you're a fan of The Big Lebowski, you might recall the answer, "Yes, probably a vagrant slept in the car. Or maybe just used it as a toilet and moved on."
But even if you turned a deaf ear to that blasphemous film, you might have a nose for this sacrilegious product, His Essence Candles.
"It's the only one on the market and everyone tells us it's very unique and nothing like it," says Karen Tosterud. "We wanted people to be able to experience Christ in new ways and to be able to read a bible and have that scent and that candle as a reminder that he is with us all the time."
Posted by
abnu on Saturday, April 16, 2005 @ 4:18 PM
[ + ]
You just can't make this up, unless you're former Cornell University entomologists, who named three species of slime-mould beetles bushi, cheneyi and rumsfeldi after President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld, respectively.
Posted by
abnu on Thursday, April 14, 2005 @ 9:19 AM
[ + ]
I don't know about others, but when one enters into a relationship with another person, there is usually a period of shyness. One attempts to pretend that one never has a bowel movement. Or that burps are a thing that other people do. You place toilet paper around the bog bowl to lessen the sound of the tinkle when you pee. You dread so many things. My biggest fear was having Francesco recoil in horror when he discovered that his girlfriend was an every-other-day user of a coffee enema. I hid the bag in the fusuma cupboard. I stacked the cans of Cafe Colon down the side of the wardrobe. Plotting to take my enema without Francesco realising what I was doing, was almost akin to planning an incrediably tricky covert military operation. I'd wake up early in the morning and pretend to have things to do whilst all the while I'd be horizontal on the sitting room floor with a tube up my bottom. Usually, I'd let the coffee flow in gradually, but with the possibility that Francesco could walk into the room at any moment, I would allow the litre of lukewarm liquid to shoot into my colon at the speed of fright. I'd then lie there and pray for the 15 minutes to pass with rapidity before rushing to the toilet to release! Well, the other day, Francesco picked up an empty can of Cafe Colon and asked, 'Che cose'? Well, what could I say? I decided to tell him the truth. I told him that I used coffee to umm, keep my liver in tip top condition so as to help my body remain as clean and toxic-free as possible. For more information on this subject, the reader might wish to do a search under the words Gerson Therapy. Well, this morning I mentioned that I wanted to colonically irrigate and Francesco said, "Oh, I'll go and get you the can of coffee". Well, at that point I realised that Francesco hadn't realised that to colonically irrigate one must put the coffee up ones botty! But bless him, he was very understanding and well, we are still a couple absolutely head over heels in love. So I have it all. A super boyfriend and the freedom to keep my colon the cleanest colon this side of Persia. Ja ne!
That's according to a recent CNN poll of 254 Catholics, which won't be used by the next Pope to determine the late Pontiff's sainthood. Wait, it gets better. After a week-long "media spectacle" the Columbia Journalism Review has announced the winner of the MIPSY award for the Most Insane Pope Story.
Posted by
abnu on Saturday, April 09, 2005 @ 5:31 AM
[ + ]
Pope John Paul II is being reborn in a Colombian comic book as the Incredible Popeman, a superhero battling evil with an anti-Devil cape and special chastity pants.
The first episode of the "Incredible Popeman" is about to go on sale in Colombia and shows the late Polish pontiff meeting comic book legends such as Batman and Superman to learn how to use superpowers to battle Satan.
Expect his Popemobile to be overhauled with axles of evil, to ward off the evildoers, and a special navigation system by OnStar of Bethlehem. No word yet whether the new superhero will be assisted by an ambiguously gay acolyte. Hey, I don't make this crap up; it's just what's in the mainsteam news media and on broadcast television.
But, for late breaking news about the Pope we turn to The Pope Blog, which explains in this headline—Line to See Pope Shut Down—why millions weren't disappointed with their visit to the Vatican.
Posted by
abnu on Thursday, April 07, 2005 @ 6:30 AM
[ + ]
Even if you've been using a business name for years, it is unlikely that you truly know what the subliminal frequency of the name is all about. While many factors influence a business, problems involving cash flow, profit margin, calibur of clientele, growth rate, employee morale and image quality can often be tracked, at lease in part, to a hidden name imbalance or conflict. If a name is not ideally attuned to the purpose or function of a particular business, minor spelling adjustments or alterations in structure can get the name frequency aligned toward favorable balance.
Get your business name scamed for $10 today!
Posted by
abnu on Wednesday, April 06, 2005 @ 5:41 AM
[ + ]
Laura Ries is president of Ries & Ries, an Atlanta-based marketing strategy firm that she runs with her father Al Ries. You might know her to see her. She has a beautiful headshot and a bio on her business book blog:
In 2002, Business 2.0 named Laura a “management guru” and issued trading cards with her picture and statistics on them. Laura has appeared on the Fox News Channel, World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, CNBC, Bloomberg and makes regular appearances as a branding expert on CNN. She is a frequently quoted marketing expert in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Associated Press, Advertising Age, and other publications. In addition to her consulting, speaking and writing, Laura enjoys athletic activities like horseback riding, triathlons, body building and snow skiing.
I was really down on GoDaddy after its Super Bowl performance. While it got people talking about the racy ads, not too many people were discussing the service. I figured it was another start-up blowing its wad with no solid brand behind the madness.
But I was dead wrong. GoDaddy is a great brand that blew a wad of solid profits on a silly Super Bowl ad. All GoDaddy really needed was a PR campaign to get the word out on its brand. They have the story, the sales and the status.
Laura Ries isdead wrong. Sex sells. She knows it. We know it.
Posted by
abnu on Monday, April 04, 2005 @ 10:40 PM
[ + ]
This naming and branding press release missed its mark by a few days, don't you think?
Dotphoto.com Buys Naming Rights to Roman Coliseum Investment will Help Preserve and Renovate Picturesque Structure
dotPhoto, Inc. today announced that it has purchased the naming rights for the Roman Coliseum. The company's investment will help to preserve and renovate the historic structure.
West Trenton, NJ (PRWEB) April 3, 2005 -- dotPhoto, Inc. today announced that it has purchased the naming rights for the Roman Coliseum, an ancient entertainment venue in Italy. “The market for digital photography is booming,” said Glenn Paul, President and Co-Founder of dotPhoto, “and we’re giving something back by helping to preserve and renovate this picturesque structure.”
David Alecock, Vice President of Marketing, noted that, “Most of the major stadiums in the United States have been named, and we were inspired by Half.com’s offer to rename a town in Oregon. In addition, the Coliseum is one of the most photographed spots on earth, and both dotPhoto and the Coliseum will benefit from the relationship.” dotPhoto plans to upgrade the facility, which has not had a major improvement since the early nineteenth century.
dotPhoto.com now uploads more than one new photo every second of every day, and photos of the Coliseum can be found through dotPhoto’s search engine under various spellings including “coliseum”, “colloseum”, and “colosseum.”
With camera phones outselling digital cameras by four to one, dotPhoto is also pleased to announce that cellular reception has been improved to enable wireless photography inside the historic site. “We are pleased that our customers from around the world can send photos of the Coliseum directly to our secure servers in Sunnyvale, said Joseph Godcharles, dotPhoto CTO and Co-Founder.
Naming rights for the Coliseum will not necessarily confer the company a place in history. “We have basically negotiated signage and a few other rights, but we will not insist that the world refer to the Coliseum as ‘the dotPhoto Coliseum,’” said J.D. Gardner, dotPhoto’s Chief Operating Officer. “We are happy to help preserve and enhance this 2000 year old edifice.”
But, you say, this is no joke! Neither was this. These stories werehoaxes.
Posted by
abnu on Sunday, April 03, 2005 @ 4:10 AM
[ + ]
The Cannibal Flesh Donor Program is an organization modelled upon the organ donor program, the basics of which you are no doubt familiar with. However, this flesh donor program is designed with a much wider focus than saving individual human lives. As an organ donor, your sacrifice benefits only humans. But as a flesh donor, you would be reducing animal suffering, saving natural habitat from being cleared for agriculture, and saving human lives. Don't let relatives fight over your dead body. Be sure to sign the fresh donair flesh donor card on the back of your drivers license, today.
Posted by
abnu on Friday, April 01, 2005 @ 12:05 PM
[ + ]
Note the cool Fine Print: The content found on WordLab
is free to the world. Although we cannot guarantee that any of this
content is not already in use by someone, somewhere, on this planet
who may have seen it on this Web site or created it independently of
our Web site, we have made a reasonable effort to give you what we believe
to be original names and slogans and generally good stuff. Use what
you will of our content since it is here for the taking. However, if
you decide to use one of our names for a commercial activity, and since
we have no assurance that the name may not already be in use by someone
else as a trademark, domain name or otherwise, we strongly suggest that
you take appropriate legal precautions, such as seeing a lawyer. In
short, any necessary due diligence is up to you, but we at least make
no claims on your potential future dream name. We merely ask that if
you do decide to use any of our content, that you please send us an
email ["word at wordlab dot com"] about it for use in our
internal records and eplosive marketing campaigns. Thank you, and enjoy.
The enemy hid in schools and hospitals. They used civilians as human shields. Yet our troops persevered. We protected civilian lives while destroying the Republican Guard's Medina Division, pushing through the Karbala Gap, capturing Saddam International Airport, and, on April 9th, we liberated the Iraqi capital. (Hoo-ah!)
My biggest fear was having Francesco recoil in horror when he discovered that his girlfriend was an every-other-day user of a coffee enema. I hid the bag in the fusuma cupboard. I stacked the cans of Cafe Colon down the side of the wardrobe. Plotting to take my enema without Francesco realising what I was doing, was almost akin to planning an incrediably tricky covert military operation. I'd wake up early in the morning and pretend to have things to do whilst all the while I'd be horizontal on the sitting room floor with a tube up my bottom. Usually, I'd let the coffee flow in gradually, but with the possibility that Francesco could walk into the room at any moment, I would allow the litre of lukewarm liquid to shoot into my colon at the speed of fright. I'd then lie there and pray for the 15 minutes to pass with rapidity before rushing to the toilet to release! Well, the other day, Francesco picked up an empty can of Cafe Colon and asked, 'Che cose'? Well, what could I say? I decided to tell him the truth. I told him that I used coffee to umm, keep my liver in tip top condition so as to help my body remain as clean and toxic-free as possible. For more information on this subject, the reader might wish to do a search under the words Gerson Therapy. Well, this morning I mentioned that I wanted to colonically irrigate and Francesco said, "Oh, I'll go and get you the can of coffee". Well, at that point I realised that Francesco hadn't realised that to colonically irrigate one must put the coffee up ones botty! But bless him, he was very understanding and well, we are still a couple absolutely head over heels in love. So I have it all. A super boyfriend and the freedom to keep my colon the cleanest colon this side of Persia. Ja ne!
This is the spokesmodel for GoDaddy.com, who 
