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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.


Saturday, May 29, 2010

The Daily Drift

The Daily Drift
Today's horoscope says:
You've been feeling conflicting emotions for quite a while now -- and you may want to completely let go of control, for once, even though you know you also need to keep things in order.
Your dilemma can only end with a big decision, and you've got to make it alone (this time).
If you don't completely trust whomever it is who might be taking charge of the steering wheel, grab the keys -- both figuratively and literally.
Some of our readers today have been in:
Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Windsor, Ontario, Canada
Paris, Ile-De-France, France
Milano, Lombardia, Italy
Bremen, Bremen, Germany
New Delhi, Delhi, India
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Oldenburg, Niedersachsen, Germany
Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
London, England, United Kingdom
Coffs Harbor, New South Wales, Australia
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Jakarta, Jakarta Raya, Indonesia
Strasbourg, Alsace, France
Boras, Vastra Gotaland, Sweden

as well as Chile, Singapore, Spain, Malta, and the United States in such cities as Kailua Kona, New Braunfels, New York, Loudon and more

Today is Saturday, May 29, the 149th day of 2010.
There are 216 days left in the year.

Today's unusual holidays or celebrations are:
International Jazz Day
and
Julia Pierpont Day

President Obama's Weekly Address

Remarks of President Barack Obama
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Weekly Address
Washington, DC
This weekend, as we celebrate Memorial Day, families across America will gather in backyards and front porches, fire up the barbeque, kick back with friends, and spend time with people they care about. That is as it should be. But I also hope that as you do so, you’ll take some time to reflect on what Memorial Day is all about; on why we set this day aside as a time of national remembrance.
It’s fitting every day to pay tribute to the men and women who wear the uniform of the United States of America. Still, there are certain days that have been set aside for all of us to do so. Veterans Day is one such day – when we are called to honor Americans who’ve fought under our country’s flag.
Our calling on Memorial Day is different. On this day, we honor not just those who’ve worn this country’s uniform, but the men and women who’ve died in its service; who’ve laid down their lives in defense of their fellow citizens; who’ve given their last full measure of devotion to protect the United States of America. These are the men and women I will be honoring this weekend, and I know many of you are doing the same.
There are any number of reasons America emerged from its humble beginnings as a cluster of colonies to become the most prosperous, most powerful nation on earth. There is the hard work, the resilience, and the character of our people. There is the ingenuity and enterprising spirit of our entrepreneurs and innovators. There are the ideals of opportunity, equality, and freedom that have not only inspired our people to perfect our own union, but inspired others to perfect theirs as well.
But from the very start, there was also something more. A steadfast commitment to serve, to fight, and if necessary, to die, to preserve America and advance the ideals we cherish. It’s a commitment witnessed at each defining moment along the journey of this country. It’s what led a rag-tag militia to face British soldiers at Lexington and Concord. It’s what led young men, in a country divided half slave and half free, to take up arms to save our union. It’s what led patriots in each generation to sacrifice their own lives to secure the life of our nation, from the trenches of World War I to the battles of World War II, from Inchon and Khe Sanh, from Mosul to Marjah.
That commitment – that willingness to lay down their lives so we might inherit the blessings of this nation – is what we honor today. But on this Memorial Day, as on every day, we are called to honor their ultimate sacrifice with more than words. We are called to honor them with deeds.
We are called to honor them by doing our part for the loved ones our fallen heroes have left behind and looking after our military families. By making sure the men and women serving this country around the world have the support they need to achieve their missions and come home safely. By making sure veterans have the care and assistance they need.  In short, by serving all those who have ever worn the uniform of this country – and their families – as well as they have served us.
On April 25, 1866, about a year after the Civil War ended, a group of women visited a cemetery in Columbus, Mississippi, to place flowers by the graves of Confederate soldiers who had fallen at Shiloh. As they did, they noticed other graves nearby, belonging to Union dead. But no one had come to visit those graves, or place a flower there. So they decided to lay a few stems for those men too, in recognition not of a fallen Confederate or a fallen Union soldier, but a fallen American.
A few years later, an organization of Civil War veterans established what became Memorial Day, selecting a date that coincided with the time when flowers were in bloom. So this weekend, as we commemorate Memorial Day, I ask you to hold all our fallen heroes in your hearts, and if you can, to lay a flower where they have come to rest.

Storms Usher in The Holiday Weekend

And they were too!

Strong thunderstorms leave damage in their wake.

Scientific Minds Want To Know

Scientific Minds Want To Know
http://www.laszloalmasy.com/pictures/caveofswimmers/gilfkebir041fb.jpg


By wiping out North America's large mammals and their methane burps, early hunters may have brought on a global cool spell.

Speeding Snails

 Wikipedia Commons D D6 Water Snail Rex 2Biologists turned snails into tweakers to learn more about how crystal meth seems to improve memory in humans. According to the Washington State University and University of Calgary researchers, memories formed while on methamphetamine may be more durable. (They ran another snail study in 2006 using cocaine instead of meth.) Their work could someday provide a deeper understanding of addiction.

 From EurekAlert!:
 Wikipedia Commons 2 2D Crystal Meth...The team wondered whether meth could improve the snails' memories. First they immersed the snails in meth-laced pond water, then they moved them into regular de-oxygented pond water and gave them a training session that the snails should only recall for a few hours. In theory the snails should have forgotten their training 24 hours later, but would the meth improve the snails' memories so they remembered to keep their pneomostomes closed a day later? It did. A dose of meth prior to training had improved the snails' memories, allowing them to recall a lesson that they should have already forgotten. And when the team tested whether they could mask the meth memory with another memory, they found that the meth memory was much stronger and harder to mask

In Matters Of Health

In Matters Of Health
Failure to brush your teeth twice a day increases risk of heart disease
People who have poor oral hygiene have an increased risk of heart disease compared to those who brush their teeth twice a day. That's according to research published in the British Medical Journal. There has been increased interest in links between heart problems and gum disease over the past 20 years.

While it has been established that inflammation in the body (including mouth and gums) plays an important role in the build up of clogged arteries, this is the first study to investigate whether the number of times individuals brush their teeth has any bearing on the risk of developing heart disease, says the research. The authors, led by Professor Richard Watt from University College London, analyzed data from more than 11,000 adults who took part in the Scottish Healthy Survey. The research team analyzed data about lifestyle behaviors such as smoking, physical activity and oral health routines.

Individuals were asked how often they visited the dentist (at least once every six months, every one to two years, or rarely/never) and how often they brushed their teeth (twice a day, once a day or less than once a day). On a separate visit, nurses collected information on medical history and family history of heart disease, blood pressure and blood samples from consenting adults. The samples enabled the researchers to determine levels of inflammation that were present in the body.

The results demonstrate that oral health behaviors were generally good with six out of ten (62%) of participants saying they visit the dentist every six months and seven out ten (71%) reporting that they brush their teeth twice a day. Once the data were adjusted for established cardio risk factors such as social class, obesity, smoking and family history of heart disease, the researchers found that participants who reported less frequent toothbrushing had a 70% extra risk of heart disease compared to individuals who brushed their teeth twice a day, although the overall risk remained quite low. Professor Watt says:'Our results confirmed and further strengthened the suggested association between oral hygiene and the risk of cardiovascular disease - furthermore inflammatory markers were significantly associated with a very simple measure of poor oral health behavior.'

It's Only The Environment After All

It's Only The Environment After All
When the photos of oil-drenched wildlife start to hit the presses, politicians should become very nervous
Particularly repugicans.
An invisible but toxic swath discovered Thursday nears a crucial undersea canyon.
Also: 

Bank of America tries to take away another house

Documents? Who cares about documents. Seize the house! 
Who cares that the problem has happened once, twice, thrice or more, before? 
Bank of America is above the law. They are the law.
Nancy Willmes paid cash for her Tuolumne home in 2001. So she was quite surprised when Bank of America send her a notice of default on the property in February.

"I honestly felt like Bank of America was trying to steal my property," Willmes said.

She contacted Bank of America to try to find out why the bank believed it could foreclose on property she had purchased outright.

Willmes has chain-of-ownership records, which show Bank of America had sold the property to Fannie Mae years earlier. Fannie Mae foreclosed on the previous owner, and Willmes purchased the property with cash from Fannie Mae.

But Willmes said Bank of America did not care about the documentation.
*****

Please stop

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3RQG0pU4xRWAlqH-YN71B0gmBv4SIsS7YpTsAErk-ofcCNRg38ktWMDsaTScJd0rTgc8pEh5ObMRyr3ZBb5Z72A8yi-CeoKqfocj1oPWPS1F96kkK1ORLdUZcClDk_KKDIXeEJW69w8W2/s400/Squirrel.jpg
Even the squirrels have begun to plead with us not to compare the wingnuts to them - because 'them wingnuts is crazy'.

The vile piece of shit that he is ...

Glenn Beck smears Obama's 11 year old daughter
Media Matters has the entire ugly recording.

Lunatic Fringe

Lunatic Fringe
When dealing with wingnuts ... Remember the rule: 
If they accuse someone of something, then they're already guilty of it.
http://www.sensibleerection.com/images/entry_thumbnails/1272658436_
Greta Van Susteren's retaliation against a critical viewer becomes a public battle of smarts.
 You can bet it's not the viewer.
Also: 
typical ron 
paul supporter
Just in case you thought the mainstream right was too accepting of the “multicultural agenda” and StormFront is blocked at your place of work, Alternative Right has all the pro-white “analysis” you need.

Just to spice things up a bit ...

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/02/15/gallery/chilis_zoom.jpg
Chilies Rojo

Culinary DeLites

Culinary DeLites
Celebs like Lindsay Lohan and Kirsten Dunst are popularizing a strange organic brew.  
Also:

Pigeon held in India on suspicion of spying for Pakistan

A pigeon from Pakistan suspected to be on a "spying mission" was caught on Thursday near the Indo-Pak border, police said. The white pigeon carrying a Pakistani phone number and address on its body besides a rubber ring in its feet was found by border resident Harbans Lal Saini near his house and taken to a police station 40 kms from Amritsar.

SHO Police station Ramdas Jagjit Singh Chahal said that he has informed his superiors who have directed that nobody should be allowed to visit the pigeon and an update would be passed to the SSP office at least thrice in day.

Police suspect that the pigeon, which landed in Indian territory, may be on "special mission of spying" and might have been pushed by Pakistan intelligence agency ISI. The pigeon is being kept in an air conditioned room which is being guarded by policemen. A medical examination of the bird was carried out by the doctor from the state animal husbandry department.


Chahal said he has been asked by his seniors not to leave the police station or to proceed on leave until the fate of pigeon was decided. The number '303-6284620' was written in red on the pigeon's feathers along with a rubber stamp – Islamabad Wazirabad-Pakistan.

Chahal said they suspected that the pigeon must have landed on Indian soil from Pakistan with a message, which has not be traced so far. The SHO said that Pakistani pigeon are easily recognisable as they have a "different look".

"There are five to six families on Indo-Pak border village that have keen interest in keeping pigeons in their houses. They have told us about the difference between Indian and Pakistani birds," he said.

Interesting In General

Interesting In General
A bee on a flower
UK researchers have found that birds avoid bumblebees even when the insects do not have the classic black-and-yellow stripes.

Beehive Jacking More Lucrative Than Carjacking?

honey 004.JPG
photo: J. Novak
The UK Telegraph is reporting that German beekeepers are now using tracking systems to locate beehive bandits, that's right, beehive theft is on the rise. Gaede & Glauerdt, a Hamburg-based insurer specializing in apiculture, reported over 300 hive thefts last year, an 85 percent increase.

Odds and Sods

Odds and Sods
Holding Its Own: 100 Years Of Brassieres
It's time to acknowledge 100 years of support from an unsung hero.