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It's hard for his friends to hear this, but 13-year-old Scott MacMillan of Georgetown sometimes falls asleep with a vacuum cleaner in his arms. His mother, Barb, backs up his story. In fact, she says, when a tornado siren once sounded, Scott rounded up all his vacuum cleaners and hunkered down with them in the bathroom. That wasn't easy. Scott owns 150 vacuum cleaners. "I've been made fun of so much, it doesn't matter anymore," Scott says. "I collect vacuum cleaners. So what?" Scott is among 42 people - mostly adults - gathered at the Embassy Suites Central in North...

Senior Bishop Warns - Radical Islam is filling a ‘moral vacuum’ in Britain, a senior Church of England bishop has warned. The Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, has said that the decline of Christian values has meant that Britain is now gripped by the doctrine of ‘endless self-indulgence’ which had led to the destruction of family life. He warned that the ‘newfangled and insecurely founded doctrine of multiculturalism' has led to immigrants creating ‘segregated communities and parallel lives’. In an article published in the new political magazine Standpoint, Nazir-Ali claimed that the Church lost its influence over...

Cat Fleas' Journey Into The Vacuum Is A 'One-way Trip' ScienceDaily (Dec. 17, 2007) — Homeowners dogged by household fleas need look no farther than the broom closet to solve their problem. Scientists have determined that vacuuming kills fleas in all stages of their lives, with an average of 96 percent success in adult fleas and 100 percent destruction of younger fleas. In fact, the results were so surprisingly definitive that the lead scientist, an Ohio State University insect specialist, repeated the experiments several times to be sure the findings were correct. The studies were conducted on the cat flea,...

In an age when most things are disposable, cell phones swapped annually , cars traded every three years and homes put on the market ever so often, John Nordskog and his Super Dynamic vacuum cleaner appear to be from a bygone era. "This thing is almost as old as I am, and it's running better than I am," the 57-year-old Nordskog said of the dark blue canister machine his mother, Thelma, purchased in October 1952 from Ideal Vacuum Stores in Newark. At least once a week, Nordskog pulls out the Super Dynamic, shunning the more modern incarnations of the vacuum...

Los Angeles (AP) -- A hijacked big rig that police believed was carrying tons of potentially dangerous fertilizer was actually holding a less threatening cargo — vacuum cleaners, authorities said Monday. The truck was being driven from Texas to Northern California when it disappeared from an industrial area. The Los Angeles Police Department publicized the theft as a precaution because the truck at that time was believed to be hauling 10,000 pounds of fertilizer. Certain types of fertilizer can be used to make explosives. After further investigation, police said the missing goods were commercial-style vacuum cleaners, not fertilizer.

74-year-old vacuum cleaner still going strong Last Updated: 2:05am BST 18/05/2007 When Henry and May Waller decided to buy a vacuum cleaner in 1933, they wanted something that was going to last. So they spent £9 - or two weeks' wages for Henry Waller - on a brand-new Goblin model, which they bought from a door-to-door salesman at their home in Norwich. But the investment paid off because their son, Stanley, is still using the vacuum cleaner 74 years later. He and his wife Sylvia, both 82, store it in their home - and it is still in full working...

Ten days after Hurricane Katrina tore through town, the Oreck Corporation reopened the storm-damaged plant where it assembled its widely advertised vacuum cleaners. It hauled in generators to make electricity, imported trailers to house its workers and was hailed as a local hero for putting people back to work so fast. But now, 16 months later, Oreck — which had employed almost 500 people at the factory — is throwing in the towel and moving its manufacturing to Tennessee. The company says it cannot get enough insurance to cover its plant here, and cannot hire enough skilled workers to replace...

In scores of science fiction stories, hapless adventurers find themselves unwittingly introduced to the vacuum of space without proper protection. There is often an alarming cacophony of screams and gasps as the increasingly bloated humans writhe and spasm. Their exposed veins and eyeballs soon bulge in what is clearly a disagreeable manner. The ill-fated adventurers rapidly swell like over-inflated balloons, ultimately bursting in a gruesome spray of blood. As is true with many subjects, this representation in popular culture does not reflect the reality of exposure to outer space. Ever since humanity first began to probe outside of our protective...

"...chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp...."

Dear Colleague:   There is an inexpensive, low-hassle alternative to electric machines for surgical abortion.  Unfortunately, manual vacuum aspirators (MVAs) are becoming more common but have never been examined by the FDA for safety.  Whether you are here or abroad, please e-mail jad@pop.org with information about the safety or efficacy of MVAs.   Steven W. MosherPresident   PRI Weekly Briefing1 September 2006Vol. 8, No. 34 Abortion the Cheap and Easy WayBy Joseph A. D'Agostino When slightly knowledgeable people think of early-term abortion methods, they typically think of a vacuum cutterage machine that purees an unborn child like a strawberry fruit...

ANDERSON, S.C. -- An Anderson man is dead after being strangled with a vacuum cleaner hose, and his common-law wife is charged with his murder. Anderson County Sheriff's deputies said they received the call at about 9:30 p.m. Sunday. A spokesman for the sheriff's office said Evelyn Pressley admitted to killing Jerome Powers. Deputies said Pressley beat and strangled Powers with vacuum cleaner accessories. Deputies said the couple lived together on Bellhaven Road in Anderson for about eight years. Pressley is being held in the Anderson County detention center Monday. An autopsy was planned.

from the vacuums-don't-suck dept.williamw83 writes "Today, November 16, 2004 has been declared as the centennial of the birth of modern electronics by the American Vacuum Society. As the AIP Physics News Update reports, this marks 'British scientist John Ambrose Fleming's 1904 invention of the first practical electronic device. Known as the thermionic diode, this first simple vacuum tube, containing only two electrodes, could be used to convert an alternating current (AC) to a direct current (DC).' Today's celebration takes place as part of the AVS's 51st Annual Symposium & Exhibitionin Anaheim, CA. Being a guitar player myself, I've come to...

British trapped in Basra vacuum (Filed: 30/08/2004) Iraqis urge the Army to reclaim the streets from Shia rebels, reports Thomas Harding in the troubled city After three deaths in as many weeks the British Army has stopped patrolling the streets of Basra, choosing instead to remain in barracks under daily bombardment despite pleas from residents to take on the Iraqi insurgents. With troops now moving only in Warrior armoured vehicles on patrols not more than 100 yards from base, forces loyal to the rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr have stepped into the power vacuum, roaming the streets with rocket-propelled grenades and...

EDINBURGH, Scotland (Reuters) - Their relationships with two of the world's most famous men brought international scandals -- but Monica Lewinsky and Rebecca Loos both used the media onslaught to boost their bank balances. "You'd be an idiot not to get the money," said Lewinsky, the former White House intern whose affair with then-President Bill Clinton (news - web sites) nearly drove him from office. "Advertisers, television stations, news anchors -- everyone else is making money. Your story is a commodity," added Lewinsky, who received a reported $718,800 for an interview with Britain's Channel 4. Loos, whose alleged affair with...

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) - With vacuum cleaner in hand - and an extension cord for good measure - a thief made off with more than $12,800 in jewelry. Police in Kolding, Denmark, about 145 miles west of the capital, Copenhagen, said Wednesday that the thief drilled a small hole in the window of Lykke's Gold and Silver store, stuck in the tip of the vacuum's hose, and sucked out several items, including rings, necklaces and earrings. "We discovered it when we came to work in the morning," Kirsten Lykke Salling, the store's owner, said Friday. "It was terrible, but at...

The BigonAlbert Manque is a physicist of the old school. "Fifty years ago physicists could make experiments using material from the hardware store," says Manque, who works at the Centre de l'Etude des Choses Assez Minuscules in Paris. "I too prefer to work on a small scale." His penchant for tabletop research recently paid off. He and a colleague at the center have discovered an extraordinary new fundamental particle. Although the particle exists for just millionths of a second, it is the size of a bowling ball. Its existence, says Manque, could possibly explain a host of mysterious phenomena. Manque...