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Showing posts from January, 2009

This is awesome!

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart M - Th 11p / 10c Final Message From the White House Barack Obama Interview John McCain Interview Sarah Palin Video Funny Election Video

Parrot mimics owner's voice to boss around her other pets

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A parrot that learned to mimic his owner's voice is using the skill to issue orders to her other pets. BArney the African Grey Parrot: Parrot mimics owner's voice to boss around her other pets Margaret Sullivan: 'Barney's a really bossy parrot. He even chats back at me and swears when I'm talking sometimes ? he's so cheeky' Barney, an African Grey Parrot, calls Margaret Sullivan's three dogs – Harry, Tilly and Bluey – by name. The bird, 10, squawks out orders like "come here" and even offers praise to his favourites such as "good dog". Mrs Sullivan, 65, who lives in Tredworth, Gloucestershire, with partner Ken Kersey, 62, admitted that Barney has a "very high opinion of himself". She said: "Barney's a really bossy parrot. He even chats back at me and swears when I'm talking sometimes – he's so cheeky. "He's always tried to learn how to speak in my voice but he has got better and better at it ever si

Service-dog fiasco stirs family to act

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A teen who felt cheated after fundraising to help his brother starts a charity. By Felisa Cardona The Denver Post Image via Wikipedia Mark Rinkel, 13, of Aurora started Red Alert Dogs for Diabetics to train canines such as Lucy, the puppy he is holding, to be service dogs. (Karl Gehring, The Denver Post ) By selling his secret recipe of regular and sugar-free lemonade, 13-year-old Mark Rinkel raised enough money to get a service dog to help his little brother Jason cope with Type 1 diabetes. But Mark says the dog he worked so hard to get did not detect serious changes in his brother's blood sugar, as was promised, and the dog also bit Jason's hand when he tried to pet him. "It turned out to be a scam," said the boys' mother, Marisa Rinkel. "After he bit my son, we gave him back." The story of Mark's lemonade stand was featured in summer 2007 on ABC's "Good Morning America" and CNN, helping him raise $17,000, more than the $6,000 needed

Excellent article: "Broken Government: Social Security Disability Backlogs"

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Image by Getty Images via Daylife The number of backlogged disability claims at the Social Security Administration (SSA) more than doubled over the past decade, with those pending at the hearing level reaching 760,800 as of October 2008, according to an agency spokesman. The spike in applicants from an aging baby boomer generation, staff cuts, and management problems all contributed to a cumbersome operation; individual cases took an average of more than 500 days to process in 2007. In the meantime, hundreds of thousands of people pursuing disability claims have been forced to wait as long as three years, with some going into bankruptcy, losing their homes, or even dying while waiting for a result. As far back as 2001, the chairman of the Social Security Advisory Board acknowledged that “unless there’s fundamental change, we will soon see disruptions of service. The Social Security agency lacks the ability to handle existing workloads, and those workloads are bound to i

Woman repeatedly slashed after confronting gang 'as young as 13' who stabbed her dog to death

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Killed: The gang stabbed the woman's Yorkshire Terrier to death before turning on her A disabled woman was slashed repeatedly with a knife after confronting a gang who had stabbed her dog to death in her garden. The mother-of-three, who has not been named, discovered the mutilated body of her Yorkshire terrier Willow lying in a pool of blood outside her door. Seconds later she was confronted by four men who threatened her, forced her back into the house, in Knotty Ash, Liverpool, and then attacked her with a knife. The 38-year-old suffered 'numerous' cuts to her body and had to be treated in hospital. Police have arrested a 13-year-old boy on suspicion of carrying out the assault, which took place at around 2pm on Sunday. The woman, who has a disability which means she is unable to walk without crutches, is now staying at a relative's home with her three children, a girl aged 14 and boys 10 and nine. Police said she was still deeply shocked by the attack. Detective