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The anti-swine flu holy water dispenser

ROME (Reuters) – An Italian inventor has combined faith and ingenuity to come up with a way to keep church traditions alive for the faithful without the fear of contracting swine flu — an electronic holy water dispenser.

The terracotta dispenser, used in the northern town of Fornaci di Briosco, functions like an automatic soap dispenser in public washrooms — a churchgoer waves his or her hand under a sensor and the machine spurts out holy water.

“It has been a bit of a novelty. People initially were a bit shocked by this technological innovation but then they welcomed it with great enthusiasm and joy. The members of this parish have got used to it,” said Father Pierangelo Motta.

Catholics entering and leaving churches usually dip their hands into fonts full of holy water — which has been blessed by a priest — and make the sign of the cross.

But fear of contracting the H1N1 virus has led many in Italy — where some 15 people have died of swine flu — not to dip their hands in the communal water font.

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Seven Wonders of Russia

As a response to Europe’s “Seven Wonders of the World” list, which didn’t include any Russian sights, Russia organized a national contest to select the seven most beautiful destinations the country has to offer. Almost 26 million people went online and voted for their favorites since the contest started in autumn 2007.

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Queen Elizabeth’s Credit Crunch Christmas

It’s been a long, cold year for Queen Elizabeth II.

The British monarch has had to go cap-in-hand to the government she technically heads, asking Prime Minister Gordon Brown for extra cash to keep the royal palaces from crumbling, and public backlash over the royal family’s tax-payer-funded payroll and scandals involving questionable associations and real estate payments have added to her headache.

So, you might assume the Queen is looking forward to a bit of luxuriant rest and relaxation over the holidays – a time to kick back, enjoy good food and drink, and perhaps relish a nice gift or two. Think again.

The Queen, noting the mood of her many out-of-work subjects as Britain muddles through global economic malaise, has informed members of her family that this year is to be a “Credit Crunch Christmas”.

The Royals are not generally prone to extravagant Christmas gift-giving amongst themselves – often opting for “practical” items like bath soaps or a fancy face cloth for the Queen. Stocking contents have been known to include the traditional gift of fresh fruit.

For “Credit Crunch Christmas,” however, Her Majesty has made it known that she requires no gifts at all, and either does her husband, Prince Philip. Any gifts that her family may have had in mind, she asks they be donated to local charities and hospitals .

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Bag of Randomness

I enjoy watching The Office but Jim is starting to annoy me.
I thought WFAA did the strangest thing yesterday reporting about former Yankee and Texas Ranger Hall of Famer John Wetteland’s possible suicide attempt. As the anchor was reading the story, the images on TV was of Wetteland pitching as a Ranger. I know, there’s nothing wrong with that, but the video clip was of someone hitting a homerun off one of his pitches. You figured they would want to show a positive clip of a former local athlete with suicide problems.
For the heck of it I decided to check out his Wikipedia page to see if there was any mention of the suicide reports. As of this time, there was no mention, but it did mention he was a born-again Christian.
From my fortune cookie last night, “In this world it is not what we take up, but what we give up, that makes us rich.”
I wish the NFL would stop playing Thursday night football.
Rice and potatoes are my Achilles heel.
This weekend I plan on working out some numbers in regards to my health insurance. I had an idea that coverage was going to take a dip, just not this drastic. You’d think the largest human resources company in the world could negotiate better rates. Thanks to all of you that left comments yesterday leaving me your two cents. All of a sudden the whole health care debate has come very real to me.
I don’t think I would ever want to buy an electronic book device.
When you really think about it, the advancement of HDTV’s has really been amazing. When I first moved to DFW ten years ago I didn’t know one person that had one, now I don’t know of anyone that doesn’t have one. Heck, even WifeGeeding’s 92-year-old grandmother has one.
I guess you can say the same thing about cell phones.
Before the cell phone, I use to have a lot of phone numbers memorized. Now, I probably have no more then a handful memorized.
I’ve noticed that when I’m at home watching YouTube videos, it takes forever for the video to load – like it’s 1998 or something. I checked out Speedtest.net and my speed certainly seems sufficient enough.
I invited one of the new guys from work to come home with me yesterday. His name is Stan Still, and he’s a bit of an introvert, a very quiet fellow, so I decided to try to get him out of his shell.
Here’s a picture of us cruising around.
After spending all day working indoors, he wanted to spend some time outside, so we decided to walk the dogs.
He was even nice enough to help me rake up some leaves.
After dinner, we all decided to play a game of Monopoly.

After a few beers, he really starts to loosen up and cracks a few jokes. I didn’t want to break it to him, but we heard those jokes before, so we just gave him some courtesy laughter to build up his self-esteem.

You know, we think the more he drank the better he played. He really started to show his competitive side.
Grace