Pub uses electronic cigarettes to beat the smoking ban
Pubs around the country have reported a decline in custom since the rules came in July last year, but landlord, Chris Giles of the Butler's Arms in Sutton Coldfield, near Birmingham believes he has found the solution.

The new E.cig smokes like a real cigarette and users get a shot of nicotine every time they inhale.

The device even produces a cloud of water vapour with every puff, though causes no harm to smokers.

Best prices from www.smokenotar.com / www.smokenotar.co.uk

Oh noes! Harry Potter spoilers!

My Harry Potter Spoiler of Doom is: Harry burns down Hogwarts, and everybody celebrates and rids the world of Daleks Get your Harry Potter Spoiler of Doom

Tags: harry potter, harry potter spoilers, spoilers

Autistic person translates from her language

This is truly one of the most beautiful and moving statements I've seen on language and communication. "In My Language" is a video in which a non-verbal person with autism "speaks in her own language" -- a combination of sounds and visual cues and gestures -- and then explains what this all means by means of a text-to-speech program.

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The Phantoms of the Opera (Almost Complete) - if not completely definitive, definitely the most spot-on article about the various Phantom films ever seen. It's not only laugh-out-loud funny, it's all true. How often do I find pieces on Phantom where I agree with just about everything the author says? Very rarely. Go enjoy.

Mercy Brown, "Fifteen Songs from Missing Children"

I've been meaning for a couple of weeks to write some kind of review of Mercy Brown's Fifteen Songs from Missing Children, but I am shit at describing music. I never even know what genre something is, let alone how to describe whatever I like about it (exception being musicals, which I have no difficulty reviewing). This is why when I do posts of song downloads, my descriptions and recommendations tend to be something like "This song is great. Listen to it, or else."

This band is great. Listen to them, or else. I think it I had to pick a genre description out of the air, I'd call it something like "melodic indie rock". With a wide dark streak.

There's always a risk, when buying a CD from someone you know, that you'll think it's a bit mediocre and will have to search for polite things to say, so I was glad I liked it from the first few bars of the first track. In fact the first few bars of quite a few of the songs already give me shivers. If I was any good at music reviews, I'd list various other artists whom I hear the influence of, but I'm not. Although I will say that they're varied... One of the keyboard lines on "Secret Phrases" reminds me a bit of The Doors, other songs send me off into a trancy state, just closing my eyes and nodding along. A couple of the tracks have already been added to my "favourite songs" mix. Which means that if my Last.fm plugin and iTunes would actually work at the same time, they'd be shooting up the rankings on my chart.

Oh, and the lead singer has quite the sexy voice.

Mercy Brown's Website
Mercy Brown on Last.fm

Tags: music, mercy brown, indie, independent, alternative, rock

How po-faced of someone on Wikipedia to want to delete the Mini Mammoth entry.

The multi-purpose Mini Mammoth also is suited to varying tasks such as house cleaning mammoth, seeing-eye mammoth, dental hygiene, and as a guard-mammoth. Potentially the greatest invention since the computer, the mini mammoth is set to be the leader in purchases, both commercially and domestically, once on the market, whenever that may be.

Traditionally, they have been a delicacy item. Due to a slump in sales of roast mini mammoth, the advertising slogan 'It's not just for Christmas, it's also for lunch' was coined. [citation needed] Indeed, it was this advertising slogan that caused their extinction in the first place.

While not a separate breed, mini mammoths have an above average birth rate of albinism. Albino mini mammoths are a preferred food production animal due to their "Self cooking" nature in the tropics. However due to spontaneous combustion, they have a tendency to be over cooked.