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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.


Sunday, May 16, 2010

The Daily Drift

The Daily Drift
Today's horoscope says:
You've had quite a week, full of highs and lows -- and that's just not like you!
You like to see yourself as an emotional rock, never letting anything as trivial as a passing feeling get between you and your objectives.
Now that your emotions are surfacing, you're having quite a time getting used to them.
Fortunately, your mate or best friend is most definitely in the mood for helping out.
Some of our readers today have been in:
Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Quebec, Quebec, Canada
Oldenburg, Niedersachsen, Germany
Blagoevgrad, Sofiya, Bulgaria
Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan, Malaysia
Paris, Ile-De-France, France
Karlskrona, Blekinge Lan, Sweden
Brampton, Ontario, Canada
Hull, Quebec, Canada
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Ajax, Ontario, Canada
Annecy, Rhone-Alpes, France
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Bremen, Bremen, Germany
Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Bourges, Centre, France
Milano, Lombardia, Italy
Coffs Harbor, New South Wales, Australia
Dundalk, Louth, Ireland
London, England, United Kingdom

as well as Scotland, Hungary, and the United States in such cities as Citrus Heights, Belevedere Tiburon, Addison, Brooklyn and more

Today is Sunday, May 16, the 136th day of 2010.
There are 229 days left in the year.

Today's unusual holiday or celebration is:
National Sea Monkey Day

The kilt is the most popular of the world's traditional garments

The kilt has 
been rated as the most popular of the world's 
traditional garments
The kilt has been rated as the most popular of the world's traditional garments

Nomenclature

http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l1pbvrQI1g1qzduzfo1_500.jpg

Big Log

 
Robert Plant

As The World Turns

As The World Turns
Once bustling with visitors, Bangkok is now a "live fire zone," where protesters and police battle.  
Also: 

A Swedish artist whose drawing of the Prophet Muhammad with a dogs body angered Muslims said Sunday he doesn't feel safe in his home at night, after a week of attacks against him.

The Internet, not so bad for us after all?

Access to the Web leads people to feel better about their lives, a new study finds.
Also: 

It's Only The Environment After All

It's Only The Environment After All
http://www.bartcop.com/bp-dinosaurs.jpg

On The Job

On The Job
Some of the most stressful careers pay surprisingly little — and vice versa.
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It's The Economy Stupid

It's The Economy Stupid
Thousands of small nonprofits are on the cusp of losing their tax-exempt status and possibly closing.  
Also: 
Social Security is just one of the many sources you can tap to fund your retirement.
Also: 
Cutting out daily lattes is a good start, but you should really focus on these areas.  
Also: 
*****

Yet another beef recall

Just a note for those who have a working brain ... there's been no one leadingUSDA's Food Safety & Inspection Service since December 2008.
The repugicans have been holding up the nominee process.
Call your senators and tell them to grow up and get someone into that post ... post haste.
In the mean time - from the USDA:
Montclair Meat Co., Inc., a Montclair, Calif., establishment is recalling approximately 53,000 pounds of ground beef products that may be contaminated with e. coli O157:H7, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced today.
the products subject to recall include:
  • various pound packages of "montclair meat co. ground beef"

  • various pound packages of "montclair meat co. all beef patties"




  • How online hackers can steal your cash

    Americans lost $559 million to Internet thieves last year, and face attacks daily.  
    Also: 

    Secretive traders in spotlight after crash

    Investors that "pick up pennies" in the stock market may have sparked the recent historic drop.  
    Also: 

    Changing Political Attitudes

    People want Democrats to control Congress after this fall's elections
    Voters revise their views of Democrats, but what will that mean on Election Day?  
    Also: 

    Lunatic Fringe

    Lunatic Fringe
    Utah and Maine repugican conventions show a party coming unglued
    Future historians tracing the crackup of the repugican party may well look to May 8, 2010, as an inflection point.
    That was the day, as is now well known, that Robert Bennett, who took the wingnut position 84 percent of the time over his career, was deemed not wingnut enough by fellow Utah repugicans and kicked out of the primary.
    Less well known, but no less ominous, is what happened that same day, 2,500 miles east in Maine. There, the state repugican party tossed its platform -- a standard New England call for free-market economics -- and adopted a manifesto of insanity: abolishing the Federal Reserve, calling global warming a "myth," sealing the border, and, as a final plank, fighting "efforts to create a one world government."

    http://www.sensibleerection.com/images/entry_thumbnails/1272658436_

    And I Quote

     
    "If christ were here there is one thing he would not be - a christian."
    "A man is accepted into a church for what he believes and he is turned out for what he knows."
        ~  Mark Twain

    Very Rare Pink Katydid

    very rare pink katydid profile photo 
    Photo via Flickr
    What you are looking at is the very rare and very pink katydid. First discovered back in 1887, the pink katydid is so rare that they occur once out of every 500 individuals. You have a better chance of spotting a unicorn in the wild.
    Of course, the color pink alone isn't very common to the animal kingdom, flamingos aside. It's the result of a condition called erythrism, similar to the recessive gene that afflicts albino animals.
    Article continues: Photos of the Very Rare Pink Katydid

    "Nicotine Bees"

    bee hanging on photo
    Bee barely hangs on before collapsing. Photo by Operaticomnivore
    Following France and Germany, last year the Italian Agriculture Ministry suspended the use of a class of pesticides, nicotine-based neonicotinoids, as a "precautionary measure." The compelling results - restored bee populations - prompted the government to uphold the ban. Yesterday, copies of the film 'Nicotine Bees' were delivered to the US Congress explaining the pesticide's connection to Colony Collapse Disorder. Despite the evidence, why does CCD remain a 'mystery' in the US?
    Article continues: "Nicotine Bees" Population Restored With Neonicotinoids Ban

    WWF hails North Sea cod conservation program success

    From The Independent:
    North Sea cod, once on the brink as a result of decades of over-fishing, has now recovered to an extent that the public should start eating it again with enthusiasm, one of the world's biggest wildlife charities has said.

    In a rare wildlife conservation success story, the charity WWF said the fish renowned for its flaky white chunks was being caught sustainably off the shallow cold waters of north and eastern Britain for the first time in a decade. Stocks of the fish have risen by 52 per cent from their historic low four years ago because of a combination of cuts in landing quotas, and conservation techniques which have reduced the number tossed back dead into the sea.

    As a result, the EU has increased the British quota for North Sea cod by 16 per cent this year, from 11,216 tonnes to 13,000. Although stocks are still low by historic standards, the recovery could prompt British supermarkets to start stocking North Sea cod again. Most cod in grocery chains and fish and chip shops at present comes from Iceland and the Barents Sea.

    B.C.

    http://imgsrv.gocomics.com/dim/?fh=e15ce98997a9b6740814addf5c787bc7

    A turn of a phrase

    Heebie-jeebies

    Meaning: A feeling of anxiety, apprehension or illness.
    Origin: The sound of this term seems to hark back to earlier rhyming phrases, like hocus-pocus and mumbo-jumbo, with a touch of the jitters thrown in. The meaning is more like the British term - the screaming habdabs.
    Heebie and jeebie don't mean anything as independent words and heebie jeebies was coined at a time and place when there was a spate of new nonsense rhyming pairs, called rhyming reduplications, - the bee's knees, etc., i.e. 1920s USA.
    Billy de BeckThe term is widely attributed to William Morgan "Billy" de Beck. The first citation of it in print is certainly in a 1923 cartoon of his, in the 26th October edition of the New York American:
    "You dumb ox - why don't you get that stupid look offa your pan - you gimme the heeby jeebys!"
    Heebie jeebies caught on quickly and very soon began appearing in many newspapers and works of literature in the USA and, from 1927 onward, the UK. For example, here's an entry from the Van Nuys News, 6th November 1923, just a few days after de Beck's cartoon was published:
    "Bill Alton showed up poorly in center field. The boys seemed to have the heebie jeebies."
    The lack of any explanation in either of the above citations seems to imply that the term would have been known to the readership of both publications by the time of printing.
    The speed of take-up of heebie jeebies, in a similar way to another coinage that is attributed to de Beck - horse feathers, heebie jeebiesdoes suggest an origin in the media rather than street slang, which tends to spread more slowly.
    The term became part of the language quickly enough for it to begin appearing in advertisements from 1924 onwards, as in this illustration from the Mexia Daily News, October 1924, in an ad for a cold cure.

    Planet Earth

    Planet Earth
    Bride Satoko Inouye, 36, puts a ring on a finger of her groom Tomohiro Shibata 42, as I-Fairy, a four-foot tall seated robot, wearing a wreath of flowers, directs their wedding ceremony at a Tokyo restaurant Sunday, May 16, 2010. The wedding was the first time a marriage had been led by a robot, according to manufacturer Kokoro Co.

    In one of the most stupidest lines ever uttered ...

    "We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out."

          ~ Decca records, rejecting The Beatles 1962

    In Matters Of Health

    In Matters Of Health
    Find out why one doctor is advising people to spend time in the sun without sunscreen. 
    Also: 

    Upping the cute factor

    After 13 years dog returns to family - Possibly
    There are still doubts in Terry Horne's mind as to whether or not the dog that came limping into her yard, is the same dog that went missing 13 years ago. Simba was just 8 months old when the Horne's came home from church and their beloved puppy had vanished.

    Weeks spent searching turned into months. Simba turned into a cherished memory. But only a few weeks ago, an emaciated and flea-ridden red Siberian Husky came into the yard. Horne called her husband and asked could it be?


    The dog has been to the vet and cleaned up quite nicely. He sits in the same spots Simba used to sit in. He loves to give kisses. He's the most gentle dog you'd ever want to meet. But he's been missing 13 years. What happened? Where was he? Is it even him?

    All these questions are irrelevant when Terry looks over at the dog sprawled out in a shade-spot. "I think he looks happy, don't you?"

    There's a longer story with another video here.

    Culinary DeLites

    Culinary DeLites
    From portable tailgaters to large, free-standing models, these gas grills earn top marks.  
    Also: 

    The World I Know

     
    Collective Soul

    Ziggy

    http://imgsrv.gocomics.com/dim/?fh=9704a494e602ea4682a7a4bdca0bf0f4

    Principal's eat sh-- and die e-mail to parent sparks controversy

    An elementary school principal's potty-mouthed e-mail has ignited an uproar among some Coconut Grove parents who now want her replaced. Parents at Coconut Grove Elementary School are calling for the ouster of Principal Eva N. Ravelo this week after she told a parent in an e-mail to ``eat sh-- and die.''

    The controversy, which is now under review by the school district's central office, started on Monday. Abigail DuBearn, a member of the school's Educational Excellence School Advisory Committee, or EESAC, had asked Ravelo and other council members whether student representatives of the committee ``could be notified today and be invited to attend and participate'' at Monday's meeting.


    Ravelo, 45, then replied to DuBearn's e-mail with the message: ``Advise her to eat sh-- and die.'' Ravelo spelled the swear word like it appears here -- without the last two letters.

    Maria Orjeda, the school's reading coach, who spoke on behalf of Ravelo, said the principal meant to send the e-mail about DuBearn to her assistant principal, Ramón Dawkins, instead of DuBearn.

    Odds and Sods

    Odds and Sods
    'Yeild To Bikes' Street Signs Removed In Nevada
    Residents no longer have to shake their heads over two "Yeild to bikes" signs along a busy Nevada street.

    Headlines: