forgetfoo.

The Spanish research involving more than 15,500 men and 26,000 women found large quantities of alcohol could be even more beneficial for men.

Female drinkers did not benefit to the same extent, the study in Heart found.

Experts are critical, warning heavy drinking can increase the risk of other diseases, with alcohol responsible for 1.8 million deaths globally per year.

The study was conducted in Spain, a country with relatively high rates of alcohol consumption and low rates of coronary heart disease.

The research involved men and women aged between 29 and 69, who were asked to document their lifetime drinking habits and followed for 10 years.

Crucially the research team claim to have eliminated the "sick abstainers" risk by differentiating between those who had never drunk and those whom ill-health had forced to quit. This has been used in the past to explain fewer heart-related deaths among drinkers on the basis that those who are unhealthy to start with are less likely to drink.

something most of us guys have known deep in our hearts for a very long time now, i'm sure... but here's just further proof that drinking is not just socially fun, but also good for you. heh.

so the next time your girlfriend or wife gets on your case about having a beer, you can simply point out the research... i mean, we need to protect our hearts afterall, right?

p.s. A meteor briefly illuminated parts of the sky in Utah to daylight-level... which probably scared the hell out of some people out, i'm sure.

News photos of U.S. President Barack Obama bowing to Japan's emperor have incensed American critics at home, who argued the US leader should stand tall when representing America overseas.

Obama had just wrapped up the Japan leg of his Asia trip and is now visiting China. But Washington's punditocracy was still weighing whether or not the US president had disgraced his country two days earlier by having taken a deep bow at the waist while meeting Japan's Emperor Akihito.

Political talk shows have played and replayed the moment from the second day of Obama's week-long Asia tour, which set the blogosphere on fire and chat show tongues wagging, according to an report from AFP.

"I don't know why President Obama thought that was appropriate. Maybe he thought it would play well in Japan. But it's not appropriate for an American president to bow to a foreign one," said conservative pundit William Kristol speaking on the Fox News Sunday program, adding that the gesture bespoke a United States that has become weak and overly-deferential under Obama.

Another conservative voice, Bill Bennett, said on CNN's "State of the Union" program: "It's ugly. I don't want to see it."

"We don't defer to emperors. We don't defer to kings," said Bennett. Some conservative critics juxtaposed the image of Obama with one of former US vice president Dick Cheney, who greeted the emperor in 2007 with a firm handshake but no bow.

i have to say, i'm not all that happy to see the President of the United States -- be it Obama or any other -- bending over to foreign leaders... period... first he practically bent over and spread his ass cheeks to the Saudi King, and now this? unbelievable.

A WOMAN with a medical condition that gives her 300 orgasms a day has found a man of her dreams after she wore out a string of boyfriends.

Michelle Thompson, who suffers from Persistent Sexual Arousal Syndrome, thought she was just too demanding for men and would never find the man of her dreams.

But she has been with her neighbour Andrew Carr, 32, for the past six months and he's as keen for sexual intercourse as she is and they make love 10 times a day.

"Andrew has changed my life. I'm no longer looking for a cure for my orgasms - I've found it," Michelle told The News of the World newspaper in the UK.

"Now I have a huge grin on my face all the time, and it's not just because of the orgasms."

Michelle's rare condition means she always craves sex and can climax at any time anywhere.

She even had to quit a job in a biscuit factory because the machines kept setting her off.

truly a picture worth a thousand words... *stares*

(hat tip: philip)

LOS ANGELES – Ryan Norwalk cleared his schedule.
Unlike his friends who had class or work, the 26-year-old California State University, Northridge college student was spending Tuesday gunning down foes and building his online notoriety in "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2," the highly anticipated, first-person shooter video game developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision Blizzard Inc.

"I want to get a head start before everyone gets it tomorrow," he said.

Late Monday night, Norwalk was among the fans lined up for the "Modern Warfare 2" launch outside the GameStop in West Hollywood, Calif., one of over 10,000 retail outlets deploying the game at midnight. In the first week, fans worldwide are expected to spend at least half a billion dollars on the follow-up to 2007's "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare."

"I'll start playing as soon as I get home," said Frederick Guese, a 24-year-old fan donning black paramilitary gear in line outside the Best Buy in West Los Angeles. "I think the servers will probably go down tonight because everyone will be trying to play multiplayer tonight, so I'll probably start with the single-player campaign before going online."

so i guess the real question here is -- how many of you haven't picked up your copy of Modern Warfare: 2 yet?

WASHINGTON – The mystery over whether the military knew Fort Hood shooting suspect Nidal Hasan was communicating with a radical Muslim imam lapsed into finger-pointing ahead of congressional investigations looking into the Army psychiatrist's contacts with any extremists.

Even as President Barack Obama remembered those killed at the Texas Army post and condemned what he described as "the twisted logic that led to this tragedy," federal agencies reacted to conflicting claims about whether a Defense Department terrorism investigator looked into Hasan's contacts months ago with Anwar al-Awlaki. Awlaki, an imam who was released from a Yemeni jail last year, has used his personal Web site to encourage Muslims across the world to kill U.S. troops in Iraq. A military official Tuesday denied knowing Hasan had such contacts.

Two government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case on the record, said the Washington-based joint terrorism task force overseen by the FBI was notified of communications between Hasan and the imam overseas, and the information was turned over to a Defense Criminal Investigative Service employee assigned to the task force. The communications were gathered by investigators beginning in December 2008 and continuing into early this year.

man, the more information that comes out about Maj. Nidal Hasan the more it looks like he really was terrorist in our midst... just seeing a little bit of what he wrote is chilling, not to mention the fact that we actually knew that he was in contact with Al-Queda terrorists? WTF?

i think some heads are gonna roll...

JARRATT, Va. – Sniper John Allen Muhammad refused to utter any last words as he was executed, taking to the grave answers about why and how he plotted the killings of 10 people that terrorized the Washington, D.C., area for three weeks in October 2002.

The 48-year-old died by injection at 9:11 p.m. Tuesday as relatives of the victims watched from behind glass, separated from the rest of the 27 witnesses at Greensville Correctional Center, south of Richmond.

Muhammad was executed for killing Dean Harold Meyers, who was shot in the head at a Manassas gas station during the spree across Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

He never testified or explained why he masterminded the shootings with the help of a teenage accomplice. That left questions unanswered about why he methodically hunted people going about their daily chores, why he chose his victims, including a middle schooler on his way to class, and how many victims there were.

Muhammad stepped into Virginia's death chamber and within seconds was lying on a gurney, tapping his left foot, his arms spread wide with a needle dug into each.

"Mr. Muhammad, do you have any last words?" the warden asked. Muhammad, looking calm and stoic, said nothing.

couple things here... first, it's been a loooooooooooong time since i remember even hearing about a prisoner on death row being executed here in virginia... secondly, while it sucks to see a guy sentenced to death, i can't really work up too much sympathy -- i remember all too well what it was like when that snipe'n bullshit was going on here around DC, and just how fucking nervous i was at the time... not to mention the daily news about it, or seeing another innocent person being shot in the head. *mutters*

finally, i can't believe that after all this time we still don't know why the hell he did it... unbelievable.

BERLIN (AP) — With prayers, music and pomp, Germany on Monday remembered the 20th anniversary of the day the Berlin Wall fell, sending East Germans flooding west and setting in motion events that soon led to the country's reunification.

Chancellor Angela Merkel — reunited Germany's first leader to grow up in the communist east — started the day with President Horst Koehler and other leaders at a prayer service at a former East Berlin church that was a rallying point for opposition activists in 1989.

"We remember the tears of joy, the faces of delight, the liberation," Lutheran Bishop Wolfgang Huber told the congregation at the Gethsemane Church.

East Germany's fortified border crumbled on the evening of Nov. 9, 1989, after 28 years holding in the country's citizens — a pivotal moment in the collapse of communism in Europe that followed a confused announcement by a senior official.

At the end of a plodding news conference, Politburo spokesman Guenter Schabowski offhandedly said East Germany was lifting restrictions on travel across its border with West Germany.

Pressed on when the regulation would take effect, he looked down at his notes and stammered: "As far as I know, this enters into force ... this is immediately, without delay."

pretty crazy to think it's been 20 years since the Berlin Wall came down... i was in germany as a young teenager when the wall came down, and remember quite vividly the celebrations that went on... man, i got so drunk i woke up pregnant... and i'm a guy.

p.s. wish i could be over there right now to celebrate again.

WASHINGTON – The glow from a health care triumph faded quickly for President Barack Obama on Sunday as Democrats realized the bill they fought so hard to pass in the House has nowhere to go in the Senate.

Speaking from the Rose Garden about 14 hours after the late Saturday vote, Obama urged senators to be like runners on a relay team and "take the baton and bring this effort to the finish line on behalf of the American people."

The problem is that the Senate won't run with it. The government health insurance plan included in the House bill is unacceptable to a few Democratic moderates who hold the balance of power in the Senate.

If a government plan is part of the deal, "as a matter of conscience, I will not allow this bill to come to a final vote," said Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Connecticut independent whose vote Democrats need to overcome GOP filibusters.

"The House bill is dead on arrival in the Senate," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said dismissively.

i was kind of shocked to hear the news earlier that the House actually passed that 2,000 page health care bill... with only 5 votes no less (220 - 215)... but i'll be even more scared shitless shocked if it manages to pass in the Senate with the required 60 votes.

Fort Hood, Texas (CNN) -- A picture began to emerge Thursday of the suspect in the Fort Hood shootings as a mental health professional who worked to help others in high-stress situations.

The gunman was identified as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, a law enforcement source told CNN. Hasan's office at the base's Darnall Army Medical Center is about a mile from the shootings, where 13 people were killed and 30 were wounded.

Hasan had been telling his family since 2001 that he wanted to get out of the military, said a spokeswoman for his cousin, Nader Hasan. Hasan told his family he had been taunted after the September 11 attacks, the spokeswoman said.

"He was mortified by the idea of having to deploy," his cousin told the New York Times. "He had people telling him on a daily basis the horrors they saw over there."

An owner of a 7-Eleven at Fort Hood said Hasan -- whom he knows as "Major Nidal" -- came in for coffee and hash browns most mornings, including the morning of the shootings. Surveillance video from the store obtained by CNN shows a man who according to the store owner is Hasan at the cashier's counter at about 6:20 a.m. Thursday, about seven hours before the mass shooting. He was carrying a beverage and dressed in traditional Arab garb. Another surveillance video from Tuesday showed the man in scrubs.

"He looked normal," the owner said. "Came in had his hash browns and coffee as you see in the surveillance video."

so he went about his business as usual, going and getting his morning cup of coffee and whatnot... talking and smiling, before he turned around and went on a murder spree of his fellow soldiers.. there really is some sick fucking irony here, in that he didn't want to be deployed to Iraq so he turns around and starts killing everybody.

the whole thing is still kinda unreal... and yeah, it's all over the news over here — i wonder if the reports of him yelling out "Allah!" or "Allah Ackbar!" before shooting is true.

p.s. Peaceful preaching inside, violent message outside a New York mosque

A new wife was given a nasty wedding night surprise when she discovered she was allergic to her husband's sperm.

Mike and Julie Boyde had been going out for two years when they got married and decided to have unprotected sex for the first time that evening.

But almost immediately the bride was in unbearable pain - and eventually they discovered it was because of Mike's sperm.

Now they have been forced to abandon their plans of conceiving a baby as it seems her own body destroys the sperm.

Mike, 27, and Julie, 26, from Ambridge, Pennsylvania, started going out while at university and became engaged two years later, finally having a dream wedding in 2005.

But following the reception, as they enjoyed their first night as a married couple, things went badly wrong.

'Before we were always very careful and used protection - this time we didn't,' said Julie, 26.

'We figured, "we're married, if we get pregnant, we get pregnant".'

dude, i can't even imagine it... talk about a serious bummer -- wonder if that's grounds to get the marriage annulled?

FORT HOOD, Texas – An Army psychiatrist set to be shipped overseas opened fire at the Fort Hood Army post Thursday, authorites said, a rampage that killed 12 people and left 31 wounded in the worst mass shooting ever at a military base in the United States.

The gunman, first said to have been killed, was wounded but alive and in stable condition under military guard, said Lt. Gen. Bob Cone at Fort Hood. "I would say his death is not imminent," Cone said. Col. Ben Danner said the suspect was shot at least four times.

The man was identified as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a 39-year-old, eight-year veteran from Virginia.

President Barack Obama called the shooting at the Soldier Readiness Center, where soldiers who are about to be deployed or who are returning undergo medical screening, "a horrific outburst of violence."

"It's difficult enough when we lose these brave Americans in battles overseas," the commander in chief said. "It is horrifying that they should come under fire at an Army base on American soil."

There was no official word on motive. Hasan had transferred to Fort Hood in July from Walter Reed Medical Center, where he received a poor performance evaluation, according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly.

dude.... what. the. fuck.

(CNN) -- It was either mind-blowing or completely forgettable. Either way, Alice doesn't remember.

One August morning, Alice and her husband, Scott, had sex.

That's when things became confusing. Rather than appearing pleased, Alice, 59, seemed disoriented.

As they lay in bed, Scott (the couple asked that their last name not be used) flicked on the television, which was showing the Olympics. This perplexed Alice. "Is there an Olympics?" she asked. This was during the Michael Phelps mania, when the swimmer seemed to be everywhere.

"Are you sure there is an Olympics?" Alice asked again.

Scott recalled, "I saw that something was wrong, so I asked her, 'OK what day is it?' "

Alice appeared even more perplexed.

"Who's our president?" he quizzed.

"Bill Clinton," she answered. This was 2008.

wow, i guess it really is possible to fuck somebody's brains out... who would've guessed?