Showing posts with label Tidbits. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tidbits. Show all posts

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Starbucks Logo & The Egyptian National TV



Valerie O'Neil, a Starbucks spokeswoman, said that the logo is an image of a "twin-tailed siren" (the siren of Greek mythology). The logo has been significantly streamlined over the years. In the first version, which was based on a 16th century Norse woodcut, the Starbucks siren was topless and had a fully visible double fish tail. The image also had a rough visual texture. The siren has been likened to a Melusine. In the second version, which was used from 1987-92, her breasts were covered by her flowing hair, but her navel was still visible, and the fish tail was cropped slightly. In the current version, used since 1992, her navel and breasts are not visible at all, and only vestiges remain of the fish tails. The original "woodcut" logo can still be seen on the Starbucks store in Seattle's Pike Place Market, and on both the House Blend and Decaf House Blend packaging.

At the beginning of September 2006 and then again in early 2008, Starbucks temporarily reintroduced its original brown logo on paper hot drink cups. Starbucks has stated that this was done to show the company's heritage from the Pacific Northwest and to celebrate 35 years of business. The vintage logo sparked some controversy due in part to the siren's bare breasts, but the temporary switch garnered little attention from the media. Starbucks had drawn similar criticism when they reintroduced the vintage logo in 2006. The logo was altered when Starbucks entered the Saudi Arabian market in 2000 to remove the mermaid, leaving only her crown, as reported in a Pulitzer Prize-winning column by Colbert I. King in the Washington Post in 2002. The company announced 3 months later that it would be using the international logo in Saudi Arabia.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Shocked Russian surgeons open up man who thought he had a tumour... to find a Fir Tree inside his lung




A fir tree has been found growing inside a man's lung by surgeons who were operating on him for suspected cancer.

The tree, measuring 5cm, was discovered by Russian doctors when they opened up Artyom Sidorkin, 28, to remove what they thought was a tumour.
Medical staff believe that Mr Sidorkin somehow inhaled a seed, which later sprouted into a small fir tree inside his lung.

The patient had complained of extreme pain in his chest and had been coughing up blood. Doctors were convinced he had cancer.

'We were 100 per cent sure,' said surgeon Vladimir Kamashev from Izhevsk in the Urals. 'We did X-rays and found what looked exactly like a tumour. I had seen hundreds before, so we decided on surgery.'
Before removing the major part of the man's lung, the surgeon investigated the tissue taken in a biopsy.

'I thought I was hallucinating,' said Dr Kamashev. 'I asked my assistant to have a look: "Come and see this - we've got a fir tree here".

'He nodded in shock. I blinked three times as I was sure I was seeing things.'

They believed the coughing of blood was caused by the tiny pine needles piercing blood capillaries. 'It was very painful. But to be honest I did not feel any foreign object inside me,' said Mr Sidorkin. 'I'm so relieved it's not cancer.'

The report appeared in popular tabloid Komsomolskaya Gazeta, and was picked up by Russian news service Novosti.