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The place where the world comes together in honesty and mirth.
Windmills Tilted, Scared Cows Butchered, Lies Skewered on the Lance of Reality ... or something to that effect.


Wednesday, March 11, 2009

And I Quote

It is possible to be below flattery as well as above it.

~ Thomas Babington Macaulay

Hooray for the Pendejos


They never learn do they?!
Cramer, et al., get it again from Jon Stewart for their idiocy.

I would like to point out that the clip equates the Spanish word 'pendejo' with the English word 'jackass', it actually means 'dick' in English (and not as in the nickname for Richard, either). But the intended connotation of the word is equatable.

Peking Man is older than we thought


Zhoukoudian (Dr. Gao Xing, Institute of Vertebrate Palaeotology and Palaeoanthropology)
The Zhoukoudian caves have yielded many fossils of Homo erectus

Iconic ancient human fossils from China are 200,000 years older than had previously been thought, a study shows.

The new dating analysis suggests the "Peking Man" fossils, unearthed in the caves of Zhoukoudian are some 750,000 years old.

The discovery should help define a more accurate timeline for early humans arriving in North-East Asia.

A US-Chinese team of researchers has published its findings in the prestigious journal Nature.

The cave system of Zhoukoudian, near Beijing, is one of the most important Palaeolithic sites in the world.

Between 1921 and 1966, archaeologists working at the site unearthed tens of thousands of stone tools and hundreds of fragmentary remains from about 40 early humans.

Palaeontologists later assigned these members of the human lineage to the species Homo erectus.

The pre-war Peking Man fossils vanished in 1941 whilst being transported to the US for safekeeping. Luckily, the palaeontologist Franz Weidenreich had made casts for researchers to study.

Read the rest here.

Dracula Fish

A miniature Burmese fish has developed extraordinary fangs made of bone, scientists report.
Found this interesting tidbit at BBC-News/Nature.

From AC to DC: Going green with supergrids

Power lines stretching across continents would allow us to ditch fossil fuels for good (Image: John Lund/The Image Bank/Getty)

Power lines stretching across continents would allow us to ditch fossil fuels for good – and prove Edison right about direct current in the process.

Going green with supergrids

Journey to the bottom of an ice sheet

Scientists have sent video cameras deep into the heart of Greenland's ice sheet (Image: Konrad Steffen, University of Colorado in Boulder)

Unprecedented video from deep inside Greenland's ice sheet reveals the internal plumbing of glaciers, and how it might help them move.

Witness a journey to the bottom of an ice sheet

Why are orangutans so like us?

Chimps are meant to be our nearest relative, yet from whistling for fun to coming top in the IQ stakes, orang-utans seem even more like humans (Image: F1 Online / Rex)
Chimps are meant to be our nearest relative, yet from whistling for fun to coming top in the IQ stakes, orangutans seem even more like humans.

Of the three great apes - orangutans, gorillas and chimpanzees - orangutans have always proved the most difficult to study in the wild. Reaching their habitat is arduous and dangerous because of the humidity and the heat, and the terrain they favor is often infested with leeches, mosquitoes, snakes, crocodiles, and in Sumatra, tigers.

A related editorial: We stand to lose that most human of apes

Science News

Today's Science News:

How to find the Sun's long-lost siblings

Mass hysteria breaks out in central America

Second Genesis: Life, but not as we know it

Bowel gene linked to a type of autism

Instant 'vaccine' zaps human cancers in mice

High-speed brains are in the genes

Global warming reaches the Antarctic abyss

Even water in the chilly depths of the Southern Ocean is getting warmer, according to results announced at the Copenhagen climate change congress.

Global warming reaches the Antarctic abyss

Clueless repugicans

We all say crazy shit when we’re high.
Rush Limbaugh is now the undisputed leader of the Republican Party.
It shows how clueless the Republicans are.
They went looking for the future and they found radio.

~ Bill Maher

And I Quote

We've got eight years of science to make up for.

~ Curt Civin,
of the University of Maryland Center for Stem Cell Biology,
on Obama's overturning the shrub's "Science is Evil" hooey.

Rose of Cimarron


Poco

Chicken lays an egg

This unusual egg emerged from a chicken kept at the home of Natalie Wiltshire of Willoughby, Northamptonshire, England.

From Metro:
Pineggggg 'It really is quite an extraordinary shape. All I need now is another nine pins and a round one for a bowling ball and we have the complete set,' she joked.

Fight Club uncovered at home for mentally disabled

From the "Where's the Cat-O-Nine Tails when you need it" Department:

Staff at Corpus Christi State School, a home for mentally disabled people, were suspended for organizing a "fight club" involving the folks who lived there. The workers will likely be charged with abuse.

From the Associated Press:
Corpus Christi Police Captain Tim Wilson says the fight clubs were uncovered when someone gave an off-duty police officer a cell phone containing videos of fights at the Corpus Christi State School.

Wilson says the videos show mentally disabled adult clients punching, shoving, and striking each other while the employees watch.

Those staff responsible should be tied to a pillory and whipped with a studded Cat-O-Nine Tails until their backs are shredded! Then we can talk about their punishment for their 'fight club'.

Another Gay-Hating Pedophile Goes Down

The repugican anti-gay activist Earl "Butch" Kimmerling was sentenced to 40 years in prison for molesting an 8-year old girl after he attempted to stop a gay couple from adopting her.

A man who gained notoriety for stopping a gay man from adopting a girl under his foster care was sentenced to 40 years in prison for molesting her.

Earl Kimmerling, pleaded guilty in January to four counts of molesting his foster daughter, now 9. He and his wife, Saundra, fought in 1998 to keep the girl from being adopted by Craig Peterson, a homosexual who had adopted the girl's three brothers.

At sentencing, Kimmerling tearfully apologized and pleaded for leniency. But Judge Frederick Spencer called Kimmerling's crime a betrayal of trust and ordered him to serve 40 years.

"It's hypocrisy at its highest level. He holds himself out to be a person of God, as a representative of the Christian community, and at the same time engaging in outrageous behavior," said Madison County Prosecutor Rodney Cummings.

During the adoption fight, the Kimmerlings gained support from political figures including Anderson Mayor Mark Lawler and repugican state Representatives Jack Lutz of Anderson and Woody Burton of Greenwood, whose proposal to ban gay adoptions failed in the Legislature.

The Kimmerlings eventually succeeded in adopting the girl, but in May 1998 Kimmerling was charged with 10 counts of sexual molestation after Saundra Kimmerling notified police.

And I Quote

Courage is grace under pressure.

~ Ernest Hemingway

Sunrise man cleared after elevator video shows he did not batter Fort Lauderdale officers

From the Sun-Sentinel:

Sunrise man had been accused of attacking officers

After a beat down in an elevator, Joshua Daniel Ortiz ended up with his nose broken and facing a charge of battering a Fort Lauderdale police officer.

The 22-year-old Sunrise man was surprised and delighted to learn Wednesday that Broward prosecutors were dropping the case against him after reviewing an elevator surveillance video showing three officers aggressively rush and beat Ortiz to the ground.

Once the Dec. 5 video surfaced, it altered the course of the case. It contradicted police reports that Ortiz provoked and attacked Officers Derek Lade, Stefan Silver and Steve Smith.

Repugican Traitors!

Open Letter to the Republican Traitors
(From a Former Republican)

By Frank Schaeffer
Dear Republican Leaders: The Republican Party has become the party dedicated to sabotaging the American future.
Read the rest of this wonderful letter here.

Liars and Fools

Liars and Fools for the day are:

More wing-nut stupidity: Victoria 'the shrew' Jackson
Somebody just hump her one good time and be done with it.

Arguing for California's Prop. 8, repugican blowhard Starr says any right can be taken
How about my Right to plant my foot in his stupid ass?

Walker: Texas Ranger claims thousands of right wing cell groups exist and will rebel against US government
Sedition pure and simple.

Faux's Brick says stem cell research will spawn search for "master race"
Spoken like a true NAZI.

After calling Democrats Bolsheviks, comrades, etc., CNBC's Cramer wants everyone to stop with ad hominem attacks
Don't like it when you're called for what you are, huh?

Let's take a look at Jim Cramer's recent disastrously-wrong predictions
How this fool could ever call himself 'right' is beyond any reason.

Jindal's bizarre response to Obama speech is further debunked
You have now entered the 'the Twilight Zone', excuse me, the Jindal Zone.

Bono (r-California) learns that fictitious mag-lev train from L.A. to Las Vegas isn't in stimulus plan
See what actually reading something can do for you!

Cuntler: NYT editors should have been 'executed for treason' for revealing shrub/cabal's illegal spying on Americans
No, they are American Heroes, it is her and her fellow troglodytes that should be facing a noose or a firing squad.

New York Times' billionaire columnist Thomas Friedman is frequently wrong
Quite frequently in fact.

Guest host for Disney's Savage suggests Obama kept Blackberry to communicate with "domestic terrorist" Bill Ayers
Fantasyland - what a wasteland of morons and imbeciles.

Recession spawns new buzzwords

Recession spawns new buzzwords
Brush up on the latest lingo for getting through the new economic climate.

New buzzwords

Bust the Myths That Keep You Fat!

Losing weight is far from simple. Yet the first words chronic dieters say are, "I know what I should do to lose weight - I just don't do it." These women believe diets are like baggy sweat pants - one size fits all - and that means either eating like a gnat or becoming an exercise addict to burn off every calorie.

True, this method can contribute to weight loss - but not for long. The pounds you lose will inevitably return - plus more - because you have barked up the wrong tree when it comes to shedding body fat.

Whether you want to lose 5 pounds or 50, you shouldn't think diet, denial or deprivation. DIETS DO NOT WORK. (If they did work, everyone who has ever been on a diet would be lean.) Denying or depriving yourself of your favorite foods also does not work.

Read the rest here.

Health News

Which foods battle belly fat

Headlines

Headlines for the day:

Religious groups in USA have lost ground

Huzzah! Some good news for a change:

In a survey just released, so many Americans claim no religion at all (15%, up from 8% in 1990), that this category now outranks every other major U.S. religious group except catholics and baptists.

In a nation that has long been thought by a few ill-informed people as mostly christian, “the challenge to christianity … does not come from other religions but from a rejection of all forms of organized religion,” the report concludes.

Beginning to see the light ... as it were ... are they. Finally!

Full Story

The call for patent and copyright abolition

Two economists at Washington University in St Louis have published a paper arguing that copyright and patent are a net drag on the economy and should be abolished.
"From a public policy view, we'd ideally like to eliminate patent and copyright laws altogether," says Levine, John H. Biggs Distinguished Professor of Economics. "There's plenty of protection for inventors and plenty of protection and opportunities to make money for creators. It's not that we see this as some sort of charitable act that people are going to invent and create things without earning money. Evidence shows very strongly there are lots of ways to make money without patents and copyright."

Levine and Boldrin point to students being sued for 'pirating' music on the internet and AIDS patients in Africa dying because they cannot afford expensive drugs produced by patent holders as examples of the failure of the current system. Boldrin, the Joseph Gibson Hoyt Distinguished Professor in Arts & Sciences and Chair of the economics department says, "Intellectual property is in fact an intellectual monopoly that hinders rather than helps the competitive free market regime that has delivered wealth and innovation to our doorsteps..."

They call on Congress to reverse the burden of the proof on patent seekers by granting patents only to those capable of proving that:

• their invention has social value

• a patent is not likely to block even more valuable innovations

• the innovation would not be cost-effective absent a patent

Only six days until ...

Saint Paddy's Day

Facts, Figures & Folklore About St. Patrick’s Day

Did you know that St. Patrick’s Day is the Roman Catholic feast honoring Ireland's patron saint, Saint Patrick ? The holiday is also an international celebration of Irish history and heritage.

Did you know that St. Patrick is believed to have died in Ireland on March 17, 461 C.E.? The anniversary of his death is now the day on which St. Patrick’s Day feast is celebrated.

Our Readers

Some of our readers today have been in:

Oslo, Oslo, Norway
London, England, United Kingdom
Blackpool, England, United Kingdom
Brussels, Brussels Hoofdstedelijk-Gewest, Belgium
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Kampala, Kampala, Uganda
Helsinki, Southern Finland, Finland
Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangledesh
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
Hannover, Niedersachsen, Germany
Liege, Liege, Belgium
Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
Tullinn, Harjumaa, Estonia
Paris, Ile-De-France, France

as well as Scotland, Wales, Sweden, Senegal and Denmark

Daily Horoscope

Today's horoscope says:

Connect with people on a different level and you will make yourself stand apart from everyone else even more than you already do.

Stand out more?!