Meet Clara Meadmore.  She's the world's oldest virgin

A BRITISH virgin who celebrated her 105th birthday this week said the secret to long life was celibacy, adding that she imagined sex was a "lot of hassle".

Clara Meadmore, who marked her birthday with a drop of wine at the Perran Bay nursing home in Cornwall, south-west England, also received a card from Queen Elizabeth II.

"People have asked me whether I am a homosexual and the answer is no," Ms Meadmore said.

"I have just never been interested in sex.

"I imagine there is a lot of hassle involved and I have always been busy doing other things."

Born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1903, Meadmore lived in Canada and New Zealand as a child before returning to Britain in her 20s to work as a secretary and housekeeper.

She served with the army in Egypt during World War II, and subsequently lived in London and New Zealand before retiring 40 years ago in Cornwall

I was doing a little Wiki-ing while listening to Phil and Friends when I suddenly realized I wasn't sure quite how extensive his 'Friends' part of the musical situation was.  So, I looked it up and here it is.  Pretty impressive!

US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama may be struggling to nudge ahead of his Republican rival in polls at home, but people across the world want him in the White House, a BBC poll said.

All 22 countries covered in the poll would prefer to see Senator Obama elected US president ahead of Republican John McCain.

In 17 of the 22 nations, people expect relations between the US and the rest of the world to improve if Senator Obama wins.

More than 22,000 people were questioned by pollster GlobeScan in countries ranging from Australia to India and across Africa, Europe and South America.

The margin in favour of Senator Obama ranged from 9 per cent in India to 82 per cent in Kenya, while an average of 49 per cent across the 22 countries preferred Senator Obama compared with 12 per cent preferring Senator McCain. Some four in 10 did not take a view.

"Large numbers of people around the world clearly like what Barack Obama represents," GlobeScan chairman Doug Miller said.

"Given how negative America's international image is at present, it is quite striking that only one in five think a McCain presidency would improve on the Bush administration's relations with the world."

In the United States, three polls taken since the Republican party convention ended on Thursday (local time) show Senator McCain with a lead of 1 to 4 percentage points - within the margin of error - and two others show the two neck-and-neck.

The countries most optimistic that an Obama presidency would improve relations were America's NATO allies, including Australia (62 per cent).

A similar BBC/Globescan poll conducted ahead of the 2004 U.S presidential election found that, of 35 countries polled, 30 would have preferred to see Democratic nominee John Kerry, rather than the incumbent George Bush, who was elected.

A total of 23,531 people in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, Lebanon, Mexico, Nigeria, Panama, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, Singapore, Turkey, the UAE, Britain and the United States were interviewed face-to-face or by telephone in July and August 2008 for the poll.

But remember, we are the ones that make the ultimate decission.  You got to get out and vote. Period.

So yummy!  Enjoy, and don't forget to vote prop 2 this fall!!

Instructions

    * 2 c. yellow cornmeal (get organic if you can find it)
    * 1-2 tbsp. salt (to taste)
    * 2 tsp. baking powder
    * 1/2 tsp. baking soda
    * 3 tbsp. maple syrup
    * 1 c. organic soy milk or rice milk
    * 2 tbsp. raw apple cider vinegar
    * 3/4 c. firm organic tofu
    * 1 tomato, finely diced
    * 4 fresh jalepenos, finely diced
    * 2 tbsp. applesauce

First combine all dry ingredients. Next combine all wet ingredients in a blender. Do not add tomatoes or jalepenos yet.

Blend wet ingredients. Add dry ingredients and blend until "just mixed." Give it a quick taste to make sure it is as sweet and as salty as you would like it to be. Adjust seasoning as needed.

Last, add tomatoes and jalepenos. Mix them in with a spoon.

Pour batter into a greased 10x10in pan. If the mixture will not pour, add more soy milk.

Bake at 425 for 25 min or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean and the top is golden.

Tips
Instead of soy milk and raw apple cider vinegar, you can use 1 c. buttermilk.

If you want, add some grated cheddar cheese.

To increase the heat from the jalepenos, add the seeds and the white part in the middle of the pepper. To decrease the heat, do not add those parts of the pepper. The capcaicin (the substance that makes the pepper spicy) is located in the seeds but it is also in the white parts because the seeds touch the white parts.

If you do not have tofu on hand, use 2 eggs instead.

Instead of maple syrup, you can use honey, sugar, or sucanat.

Corn and soy are often genetically modified in the US. If you wish to avoid GMO foods, get organic corn and soy products. (Other foods to buy organic so you avoid GMOs are papayas and canola.)

10. Offshore oil drilling won't impact gas prices today, and it won't have a significant impact on gas prices in the future.

9. This is nothing more than a money grab by the oil companies - who are already making record-breaking profits.

8. We burn 25% of the world's oil here in the U.S., but we have only 3% of the world's oil reserves. So even if all offshore oil magically came to market today, the vast majority of our oil would continue to be imported, and we wouldn't see price relief at the pump.

7. The current moratorium was put in place decades ago to protect us from the danger of oil spills along our coastlines and beaches.

6.  Burning fossil fuels like oil causes global warming, which causes stronger hurricanes, which will threaten the very offshore drilling rigs being proposed, which will contribute to even more global warming.

5. To avoid the worst impacts of global warming, we need to switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy within the next 10 years. The billions of dollars that would be spent on offshore oil drilling just postpones the inevitable transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

4. Oil exploration requires massive seismic testing - which threatens whales and dolphins.

3. Oil prices are set on the global oil market, so American oil is no cheaper than Saudi oil. We won't get a discount for oil drilled in the U.S.

2. We can't solve the world's energy problems with the same drilling that created them.

1. Renewable energy is available now, so it's time to walk away from fossil fuels and toward a clean energy future.

From Green Peace