GWB: the Great Discriminator

In a recent trip to China, U.S. President Bush appealed to Beijing to improve religious freedom, but as usual his comments reveal favoritism.
His most cited quotes : 'May God bless the Christians in China' and 'My hope is that the government of China will not fear Christians who gather to worship openly'.
What about the other religions being clandestinely practiced in China? Is President Bush tacitly condoning the persecution of China's many Buddhists, muslims, followers of Falun Gong, and other non-Christian religions?
Most people are taught that God loves every creature, great or small. Every time the President of the world's superpower utters the phrase 'God bless America', the rest of the world feels excluded.

Respect to the single parent.

Since two weeks, my lovely wife has been hospitalized and last Thursday gave birth to two healthy boys, Leon & Just. Very exciting ofcourse , I can't wait until they can come home and we can be one big happy family again. For the last two weeks, I have been taking care of my other two kids, Arnout (nearly 5yrs) and Maurice (3yrs). The experience has been great but exhausting and I have gained a deeper insight in what it's like to be a single parent.
Most nights, I feel like something the cat dragged in; I am convinced it's tougher than being CEO of a big European bank because there is no delegating, outsourcing or outside consulting to do your work for you. There are no meetings which means you have to take the decisions yourself instead of 'per committee' and you can't go looking for a scapegoat when something goes wrong. The financial rewards are shite (zero actually) and there is no army of dedicated followers nodding yes to every remark you make , no matter how stupid. Parenthood is the least hyped activity one can do (it's not even considered to be 'work') and still it's the most important job you will ever do.

How many species live on or in the human body?

The short answer is about 200, including 80 in the mouth alone. The total number of bacteria excreted by the body every day ranges from 100 billion to 100 trillion. Every square centimetre of human bowel is home to around 10 billion microbes. Some 10 million organisms occupy every square centimetre of flesh. The most densely populated areas of the human body are the teeth, throat and alimentary tract, where the concentrations are increased by a thousand compared to bare skin. But while such figures seem huge, it has been calculated that the amount of bacteria on the skin of the average human would be the same size as a pea.

Dictionary of BS

This is taken from the 'Dictionary of BullShit' by Nick Webb. My kind of humour.

Customer service (np.)
With a few exceptions, companies lose interest after the sale. Nothing dramatises this more than the anguish of the telephone call you attempt to make after the newly acquired dishwasher or computer has gone wrong. The call will lead you to an automated voice management system designed to direct you with maximum speed to the right department. The phone will play you homogenised Mozart or - even worse - cover versions of rock 'n' roll. Every two minutes an automated voice will thank you for your patience and assure you that your call is important. You yell, but in voice management space there is nobody to hear you scream.
Public Relations/PR (np.)
Satan wasn't so bad; he just had a bad press. Corporations are similar. It's often easier to fix the perception of the problem than the problem itself.
Accountability (abstract n.)
A mysterious virtue that all politicians claim to possess until the time comes to demonstrate it.
Buy one, get one free (enduring sales pitch)
Buy twice as many as you want at a price that still gives the retailer a profit, if only because the supplier has been bullied into funding the promotion.
Designer (n. and adj.)
You can buy a pair of jeans in a supermarket for as little as £4, or you can pay 25 times that much for a "designer" pair. Both are made in factories in the Far East by nimble-fingered women and girls working long hours on minimal wages. Possibly they are made in the same factories. The difference between the jeans lies in the stitching over the pockets, possibly the weight of the cotton and certainly the boost to the self-esteem of those who can afford the expensive versions.
Instant classic (marketing hype)
An oxymoron. (in Dutch: 'pleonasme')
Grow as a person (v. phrase)
This is a good thing to do. Growing as something else would not be so good.

Does beheading hurt?

Yes, but it's over quickly.:)
A medical study in 1983 concluded that no matter how efficient the method of execution, a few seconds of pain is inevitable when losing one's head. The guillotine, considered one of the more "humane" methods, relies on severing the brain and spinal cord after cutting the surrounding tissues. Even so, at least two to three seconds of intense pain cannot be avoided. There are many accounts of the heads of executed people continuing to show movement or expression long after the final blow. One particularly gruesome experiment in 1905 involved a French physician who called out the name of the condemned man in the seconds after decapitation. The response was for the eyelids over the severed head to slowly lift up and then the pupils focused on the doctor before then slowly closing again. The doctor claimed that when he repeated the dead man's name, the same actions took place. It was only at the third attempt that the head gave no response. The exact of amount of pain of course relies on the proficiency of the executioner. When Mary Queen of Scots was beheaded in 1587, the axeman took three attempts to sever the head and even then had to finish the job with a knife.