Dowbrigade

Spent the weekend up in Down East. mainely with family. A family-friendly slideshow is available HERE

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India’s small Jewish community is up in arms against a home furnishing maker that has named its new line of bedspreads “NAZI” and used the swastika in its promotional brochure.

The furnishings dealer says the word “NAZI” stands for New Arrival Zone of India, but local Jewish leaders insisted the name [...]

Frog-deforming infections caused by tiny parasites are increasing because of North American farms’ nutrient-rich watershed, a new study shows.
The excess nitrogen and phosphorus found in farm runoff causes more algae to grow, which increases snail populations that host microscopic parasites called trematodes, said Pieter Johnson, a water scientist at the University of Colorado in Boulder.
Deformed [...]

WILLS POINT, Tex., Aug. 29 — Most spiders are solitary creatures. So the discovery of a vast web crawling with millions of spiders that is spreading across several acres of a North Texas park is causing a stir among scientists, and park visitors.
Sheets of web have encased several mature oak trees and are thick enough [...]

  It’s back-to-school time so load up with those pencils, notebooks, rulers and, of course, a bullet-deflecting backpack, if you buy the pitch of the security accessory’s Danvers inventors.
  Dads Mike Pelonzi, 43, and Joe Curran, 42, dreamed up the bullet-proof backpack, which also blunts knife attacks, to protect their own children after [...]

NEW YORK (CNN) — Passengers aboard Spirit Airlines Flight 180 from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to New York’s LaGuardia International Airport had an unexpected travel companion Tuesday: a small monkey.

A passenger who originally departed from Lima, Peru, and connected in Fort Lauderdale had been hiding the small monkey in his ponytail, under his [...]

Dogs Begetting Cats
A dog has become a local celebrity in a Chinese village after she reportedly gave birth to a kitten.

Hua Chengpeng, of Huayang village, Jiangyan city, told People’s Daily that the unlikely animal was the third ‘puppy’ in his pet’s litter.
“The first two puppies the dog produced were both normal, but when the third [...]

WASHINGTON –Fred Thompson’s expected entry into the tight Republican presidential race is drawing crucial strength from conservatives and older men, vaulting him into the thick of the nomination fight, an Associated Press-Ipsos poll says.
Thompson, who has sandwiched an acting career around a largely anonymous eight years as Tennessee senator, has not formally entered the race. [...]

Brookline - A 19-year-old who allegedly posted ads on the Internet for “erotic massage” was arrested last week and charged with prostitution at her mother’s Coolidge Corner day care facility.
Police made the bust May 6, after catching an ad on www.craigslist.com that promised the services for $175 for a half-hour or $225 for an hour.
Vibeke A. [...]

Comic of the Day

No, she’s NOT a beekeeper. This woman believes that her bizarre headgear can save her from the dangerous electrosmog all around us. Can she possibly be right?
Before knocking on Sarah Dacre’s door, I take the precaution of checking my mobile phone. It’s switched off, as she has requested.
Sarah, 51, is one of a growing band [...]

A duck who became famous after he was born with four legs has lost one of his extra limbs. Stumpy was born at Warrawee Duck Farm, Hampshire, in February, with an extra set of legs behind the two he moves on.
His owner Nicky Janaway, who was amazed Stumpy had thrived into adulthood, said he [...]