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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.


Monday, February 28, 2011

The Daily Drift

The Daily Drift
Today's horoscope says:
If there is a person in your life you are getting a bit sick of ... or someone who seems to be outstaying their welcome, today is the day to (gently and diplomatically) tell them your feelings.
Let your compassion guide you through this potentially tricky conversation and listen to what they say.
Right now, you need to cut out whatever is holding you back in your life, and the added stress this person could be causing definitely qualifies.


Some of our readers today have been in:
Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
Quebec, Quebec, Canada
Rome, Lazio, Italy
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Red Deer. Alberta, Canada
Reutlingen, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany
Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands
Bursa, Bursa, Turkey
Athens, Attiki, Greece
London, England, United Kingdom
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Santander, Cantabria, Spain
Helsinki, Southern Finland, Finland
Paris, Ile-De-France, France
Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan, Malaysia
Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland


as well as Slovakia, Malta, Bulgaria, Israel, Finland, Austria, Norway, Georgia, Mexico, Peru, Kuwait, Serbia, Bangladesh, Latvia, Greece, Scotland, Hong Kong, Denmark, Wales, Iran, Singapore, Poland, Taiwan, Sweden, Afghanistan, Belgium, Tibet, Croatia, Pakistan, Romania, Paraguay, Sudan, Vietnam, Argentina, Cambodia, Egypt, France, Estonia, Puerto Rico, Maldives, Qatar, Brazil, New Zealand, United Arab Emirates, Slovenia, China, Iraq, Ecuador, Nigeria, Colombia, Chile, Honduras, Paupa New Guinea, Moldova, Venezuela, Germany, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Ireland, Czech Republic, Vietnam, Norway, Finland and in cities across the United States such as White Hall, Menlo Park, Midwood, Ashland and more.

Today is:
Today is Monday, February 28, the 59th day of 2011.
There are 306 days left in the year.


Today's unusual holiday or celebration is: 
Floral Design Day
National Tooth Fairy Day
and
Purim.


Don't forget to visit our sister blog!

Ain't it the truth ...

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Who really owns America?

The U.S. is in debt to one country for nearly as much as the economies of Illinois and Indiana combined.  
Also: 

Ziggy

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Secret flights out of Libya

Military planes from Germany and Britain land at remote desert airfields to evacuate civilians.
Also: 

How feelings have changed ...

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King Abdullah buying Facebook to quell unrest?

Spoof fools Middle Eastern media
While it might make sense in terms of trying to stem the Middle Eastern unrest, it really makes no sense in real-world terms. In addition, the last sentence in the article should have clued folks in that this was just a parody: (Sunday Humor article at Dawnwires.com are meant to humor our readers. They may or may not be the truth).

Saudi Arabia arrests their top blogger

Inspiring manifesto from China's Jasmine revolution

As Bruce Sterling notes, this manifesto of the Chinese Jasmine revolution (translated by Human Rights in China), "sounds almost identical to the gripes that the impoverished American populace might make to their own leaders. There's nothing specifically Chinese about these demands."
Every good and honest Chinese person, please think: So much public housing has been sold to individuals, so many state-owned enterprises and so much land have been sold, and nearly all state-owned property has been sold off. But where has all the money from these sales gone? It goes without saying that state-owned property belongs to the entire people. But what did the people get? Led by an authoritarian regime, the opaque process of privatization has made a small number of people rich, but what did the vast number of ordinary people get? Every good and honest Chinese person, please think: When Japan, Korea, and Taiwan were in the process of industrializing, they were able to make the overwhelming majority of their people prosperous. Why is it that during China's industrialization the ordinary people are becoming poorer? Why is it that in just the last few decades China has gone from being a country with the smallest gap between the rich and the poor to one with the largest? It is because the unfair system has made a small number of people incredibly wealthy, and the vast majority of people remain poor.

Indian flight delayed as man objects to woman pilot

A Mumbai-bound flight was delayed by one-and-a-half hours at Delhi airport on Friday morning - first by fog and then by a passenger who did not want to travel on a plane piloted by a woman. Passengers on board had a curious story to tell as to why Indigo flight 6E 179, supposed to depart at 8.10 a.m., could not take off before 9.40 a.m.

"First the flight was held up by a slight fog. Then, just when we were about to fly, the doors were opened again at around 9 as a middle-aged man seated a couple of seats away from me objected to a woman piloting the plane," co-passenger Partha Guha said. The man apparently turned jittery after the customary flight announcement was made, giving the pilot's name - it was a woman.


"The man first started grumbling to co-passengers, 'Marna hai kya? Ghar nahi sambhalta, plane kya sambhalegi?' (I don't want to die! She can't take care of the house, how will she take care of a plane?) He called the air hostesses and objected to the woman pilot. Ground staff were called and they took him out of the plane. This situation did not change for nearly 40 minutes even as other passengers became restless and upset."

The man relented only after he was told he would be taken off the plane - with his check in baggage. An airport official admitted that there was a "mentally unsound" man on board the plane.

Odds and Sods

Canadian arrested for Nazi salute
A 30-year-old Canadian tourist was arrested Saturday in Berlin for doing a Nazi salute in front of Germany's parliament.

Some people have way too much time on their hands. Way too much. And what do they do with that time? The start messing with perfectly good motorcycles and turn them into something they were never designed to be.

American Press ignoring Wisconsin protests

English language Russian TV explains that American press is ignoring the Wisconsin protests - even downplaying the importance of this war.

The turbulence in the Arab world has drawn the full attention of the American media. Riots and demonstrations in Libya and Bahrain are dominating the news channels' at primetime, and the newspaper front pages. As Lauren Lyster reports, while U.S. leaders fly the flag for popular uprisings thousands of miles away, it's a very different story at home.
Typical - our 'domestic' news sources are a joke.
The only reliable source(s) for anything resembling the news is/are foreign News Agencies.
Of course they still get it wrong in this story by saying Faux News is a news source

Crowds in Madison WI yesterday were some of biggest since Vietnam era

Why to go Reuters! 
Now if the Domestic Media would notice.

Protesters Stand Firm

Anonymous currently targeting Koch websites

And down goes Koch. The Teabagging site AmericansForProsperity.org is the first to go.

FAUX News chief, Ailes, to be indicted?

Oh, Happy Day ... if true.

This is why you don't shop at Home Depot

Home Depot Founder: Retailers Who Don't Support repugicans "Should Be Shot"

This is what Home Depot's founder Bernie Marcus said on a conference call yesterday:
"If a retailer has not gotten involved with this, if he has not spent money on this election, if he has not sent money to Norm Coleman and these other guys," Mr. Marcus said, apparently referring to repugican senators facing tough re-election fights, then those retailers "should be shot; should be thrown out of their goddamn jobs."
It's nice to know Home Depot supports the death penalty for not supporting their politics. The coming EFCA fight is going to be bloody.

Adolf would be so proud of his political party today.
Sieg Heil

Sarah Palin a 'froot loop'

So says Jamie Oliver, celebrity chef, about Palin criticizing Michelle Obama for urging the country to eat well.

Assassin maintains he can't remember shooting RFK

Sirhan may not remember much about the night of June 4, 1968, but the world remembers 

More than four decades after Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated, his convicted murderer wants to go free for a crime he says he can't remember.

Last Doughboy Frank Buckles, Dies at 110

The last U.S. World War I veteran, Frank Buckles, has died at the age of 110. Buckles, an ambulance driver during what was known as "The Great War", passed away Sunday morning according to his family.
Frank W. Buckles celebrated his 110th birthday on February first. He died peacefully at his home on Sunday morning. Buckles was one of 4,734,992 Americans who served in World War I. With his death, there are no more surviving US veterans.
Buckles, who served as a U.S. Army ambulance driver in Europe during what became known as the “Great War,” rose to the rank of corporal before the war ended. He came to prominence in recent years, in part because of the work of DeJonge, a Michigan portrait photographer who had undertaken a project to document the last surviving veterans of that war.
As the years continued, all but Buckles had passed away, leaving him the “last man standing” among U.S. troops who were called “The Doughboys.”
In recent years, Buckles became an advocate for a memorial in Washington to honor those who served in the “Great War”.

A boy who fibbed his way into uniform in 1917 went on to become an iconic symbol of the Great War.
Also: 

MLB legend passes away

The Hall of Famer hit over 400 home runs and led the Brooklyn Dodgers to their only World Series title.  
Also: 

Woman who thought she'd won lottery sues TV station for airing wrong numbers

A Fort Lee, New Jersey, woman who says she thought fortune had smiled on her with a $250,000 winner in a 2009 Mega Millions drawing is suing WABC-TV for allegedly broadcasting the wrong winning numbers and leaving her devastated when she discovered she had won nothing. Rakel Daniele is seeking $75,000 in damages from WABC-TV, American Broadcasting Co., the Walt Disney Co. and an unidentified "Jane Doe" in a lawsuit that was transferred to federal District Court in Newark last week from state Superior Court in Hackensack.

According to Daniele's lawsuit, WABC-TV, the ABC network station in New York, broadcast the winning numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, with the mega ball 12, for the multistate Mega Millions lottery on June 19, 2009. Daniele held a lottery ticket with the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, with the mega ball 6, the lawsuit says.


Despite the fact that the numbers WABC-TV broadcast were wrong, the suit asserts, it compounded Daniele's alleged pain by "negligently, carelessly, recklessly and/or intentionally" rebroadcasting the erroneous numbers the next day. The correct Mega Millions numbers for June 19, 2009, were 4, 9, 12, 16 and 46, with a mega ball of 44, according to the Mega Millions website.

Daniele was under the impression that she had won $250,000 as a result of the broadcast, the suit states, adding that she was "severely damaged" by relying on the "false and incorrect" lottery results. The company should have known the numbers were incorrect, the suit states. The broadcast and rebroadcast of the wrong Mega Millions numbers went "beyond all possible bounds of decency, and were atrocious, and utterly intolerable in a civilized community," it asserts.

Extreme Couponing

Good shoppers use coupons to save money. Extreme couponers have something a bit more in mind whenever they scour their Sunday circulars: they want stuff for free. That's right: Free, as in zilch, zip and zero dollar.
With a bit of knowledge and a lot of planning, the practitioner of "extreme couponing" can get a lot of stuff for free (or practically free). Billy Baker of The Boston Globe has the fascinating story of the couponing craze:
Spencer’s approach requires significant planning and effort, a willingness to stand up to hostile cashiers, and, some say, a lack of shame. But the reward she offers is too good for her thousands of devotees to pass up.
The goal is not simply a good deal, she says. “The goal is free.’’
On that seminal Sunday last month, a combination of factors collided to bring an entirely new pack of extreme couponers to the scene at once, unable to resist that first taste of “free.’’ After the Great Toilet Paper Rush, nothing would be the same.
“It was the day that sent a seismic wave through coupondom,’’ said Melanie Feehan, a veteran extreme couponer who arrived at a Rite Aid near her home in Plymouth shortly after it opened, only to discover the toilet paper had been cleared from the shelves by a man who bragged to a clerk that he had already emptied three other Rite Aids that morning.
“When a newbie couponer is birthed they are very much like baby vampires,’’ Feehan wrote on her popular blog, The Coupon Goddess. “They go on a couponing rampage that wreaks havoc at every store they descend upon . . . Carnage.’’

Secret Fracking Documents That Show Undisclosed Levels of Radiation In Drinking Water

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photo via Gasland
The New York Times has published an explosive article in its Sunday edition that features unreleased government documents that show levels of radiation in drinking water in some places are significantly higher than previously recognized due to drilling for natural gas. You know that the natural gas drilling technique, known as high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is under increased scrutiny, including in the Oscar-nominated GasLand, and citizens and regulators are increasingly concerned that fracking is extremely dangerous.
Article continues: New York Times Reveals Secret Fracking Documents That Show Undisclosed Levels of Radiation In Drinking Water

Construction of Belo Monte Dam Blocked by Judge

belo monte protesters photo  
After decades of protests against what would be the world's third largest hydroelectric facility, Brazilian officials finally approved construction on the controversial dam at Belo Monte just one month ago -- but hope is not lost for the communities and ecosystem the project threatens to destroy. Late last week, a federal judge blocked the plan, citing the need for further study to resolve some outstanding environmental concerns.

Bad Cops

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Child porn charges net fired Georgia police officer 25 years in prison

North Carolina cop is arrested for beating girlfriend

Florida correctional officer charged in domestic battery

Boston police officer is arrested on assault charges

Texas corrections officer jailed for attempting to sell drugs

Virginia police officer arrested for harassment

Mississippi cop gets 75 years for girl's rape

Great View

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Man urinated on $500 worth of chicken and ate ham

Police arrested a man who allegedly caused quite a disturbance earlier this week when he urinated on food inside a Kroger grocery store in North Little Rock, Ark.

The incident happened on Tuesday night and ended with Jerry Patterson, 58, of North Little Rock, in jail. Police say he was drunk at the time. Kroger managers told officers the man urinated on $500 worth of chicken and also ate a large package of ham, according to the incident report.


Patterson is charged with public intoxication, theft of property, and criminal mischief.

Patterson was reported by officers to have been unsteady on his feet, smelled of alcohol and had bloodshot eyes when they arrived on the scene.

Driver Plows Through Dozens of Cyclists in Brazil

driver hits cyclists porto alegre photo  
Photo: YouTube
On the last Friday of every month, hundreds of bike riding enthusiasts take to the streets for Critical Mass in Porto Alegre, Brazil to raise awareness of cycling in a city dominated by motor vehicles -- but at their most recent event, the unthinkable happened. As the lively group of cyclists pedaled together down the street, one disgruntled motorist decided to accelerate through the crowd, running down dozens of riders in a disturbing hit-and-run.
Article continues: Driver Plows Through Dozens of Cyclists in Brazil (Video)

Eight-year-old boy arrested for fifth time

The Orange County Sheriff's Office arrested an 8-year-old special ed. student on Tuesday, for battery on a school employee, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and disruption of an educational institute.

The deputies responded to a call at Riverside Elementary school on Tuesday because the boy has reportedly become increasingly violent and hostile towards teachers over the last few weeks, at one point throwing a pipe at behavioral specialist Tawny Chiuchiarelli. The report also states that the boy punched Chiuchiarelli repeatedly, although he didn't inflict any harm on her. The boy has now been arrested for a fifth time since November, mostly for violent attacks against students and school faculty.



The 85-pound, 4-foot 8-inch tall boy was arrested on November 10, while he reportedly screamed, "Take me to jail." He was then arrested on December 10th for breaking a school window with his bare hands along with kicking and punching school faculty. The boy was then arrested January 4, after he threw books and chairs at classmates and his 6-foot 1-inch special-education teacher David Chesmel Jr.

The boy appeared in court on Friday after being held in juvenile detention for three days, according to a report by ClickOrlando.com. The boy wasn't able to see his mother until his court appearance, which the judge chastised the mother for not following the courts recommendation of counseling for the boy. The judge reportedly told the mother, "He's your responsibility. We really don't want to be a part of his life." The mother claims the boy, "doesn't act this way at home." The child's name has not been released due to his age.

They walk among us ...

From the "Now, how do you spell I-D-I-O-T again?" Department:

Burglar Has Brilliant Idea: Post Photos of Himself on Victim's Facebook Page
Rodney Knight plead guilty to second degree burglary this past week in Washington, D.C. He was caught because he posted pictures of himself with his loot on his victim’s Facebook wall:
Knight broke in to the Northwest home of Washington Post writer Marc Fisher in December, police said. He helped himself to a number of items, including two laptop computers, a new winter coat and about $400 in cash.
Before leaving the scene of the crime, he put on the winter coat and posed with the cash for a photo he took of himself. He then posted his “loot” photo on Fisher’s son’s Facebook page, the writer said.

Out of the mouths of babes ...

A mother took her five-year-old son with her to the bank on a busy lunchtime. They got behind a very fat woman wearing a business suit complete with pager.

As they waited patiently, the little boy said loudly, 'Gee, she's fat!'

The mother bent down and whispered in the little boys ear to be quiet. A couple of minutes passed by and the little boy spread his hands as far as they would go and announced;

'I'll bet her butt is this wide!'

The fat woman turns around and glares at the little boy. The mother gave him a good telling off, and told him to be quiet. After a brief lull, the large woman reached the front of the line. Just then, her pager began to emit a beep, beep, beep

The little boy yells out,

'Run for your life, she's backing up!!'

Lawyers making $1,000+ an hour

Attorneys in some corporate practices are able to command four-figure hourly wages.  
Also: 

Yeah, Right!

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On The Job

You should ask at least two — but be careful not to give the wrong impression.  
Also: 

The truth be told

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US farmers hire movie stars to sell nuts in Asia


Chinese movie star Gao Yuan Yuan ambled in front of blooming almond trees, smelled the flowers, learned about pollination and even got stung by a bee - all while two Chinese television crews filmed her for a documentary and television series focused on California's almond country.

High Pump Prices Rattle Drivers And Businesses

There could be a shark swimming in the waters of economic recovery. 
High fuel prices are putting the squeeze on drivers just as they start to feel better about the economy.

Soaring Food Prices Hit Poor, Spur Farmers

A farmer harvests a corn crop near Monticello, Ill., last September.

The price of wheat and corn jumped 70 percent in the second half of 2010.

Non Sequitur

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Shuttle video taken from plane

A passenger on a commercial flight gets an unexpected view of Discovery's final liftoff.  
Also:

Christchurch Earthquake: Latest quake an aftershock or new event?


Shirley Boys High School has been badly damaged by liquefaction during the earthquake.

The Campbell-Stokes Sunshine Recorder

 

Before the dawn of the computer age, scientists who wished to record the amount of sunshine in any given place had to be inventive. A variety of sunshine recorders were invented, with the Campbell-Stokes Recorder quickly becoming the most popular. In fact many are still in use to this day.

It looks to modern eyes like a prop from the set of the latest Harry Potter film. It is quite easy to imagine Dumbledore fussing around the crystal ball at the center of the contraption. However, its roots are very much of this world - albeit the Victorian one.

J Henry Fair's Abstract Photographs Depict Destruction

crime pun photo
Photo: J Henry Fair
A good documentary photographer takes us to places that we never could imagine and teaches us something at the same time. Some do it by shooting stark realism, like Canadian Ed Burtynsky, or South African Pieter Hugo, but J. Henry Fair's work is more abstract.
His aerial photos look like a beautifully painted canvas that could hang over your sofa. Until you begin to unravel the subject matter: devastated landscapes and environmental pollution.

Ancient Body Clock Discovered That Helps Keep All Living Things On Time

The mechanism that controls the internal 24-hour clock of all forms of life from human cells to algae has been identified by scientists.

Not only does the research provide important insight into health-related problems linked to individuals with disrupted clocks - such as pilots and shift workers - it also indicates that the 24-hour circadian clock found in human cells is the same as that found in algae and dates back millions of years to early life on Earth.

The mystery of sleep

Doctors recommend 7 to 9 hours a night, but some people have gone weeks without it.
Also: 

    Awesome Pictures

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    Cameras catch rare species

    New jungle footage offers a "fantastic" glimpse of the "last real hope" for rare creatures.
    Also: 

    Turtles Use Earth's Magnetic Fields as a Navigational System

    Scientists Nathan Putman and Ken Lohmann have determined that turtles can navigate across entire oceans by using the earth’s magnetic fields to determine their longitude and latitude. To test this hypothesis, they used a special water tank that permitted them to alter the magnetic fields inside. They then placed the turtles in the tank to see how they would respond to simulations of different locations:
    Using his coil-surrounded tank, Lohmann could mimic the magnetic field at different parts of the Earth’s surface. If he simulated the field at the northern edge of the gyre, the hatchlings swam southwards. If he simulated the field at the gyre’s southern edge, the turtles swam west-northwest. These experiments showed that the turtles can use their magnetic sense to work out their latitude – their position on a north-south axis. Now, Putman has shown that they can also determine their longitude – their position on an east-west axis.
    He tweaked his magnetic tanks to simulate the fields in two positions with the same latitude at opposite ends of the Atlantic. If the field simulated the west Atlantic near Puerto Rico, the turtles swam northeast. If the field matched that on the east Atlantic near the Cape Verde Islands, the turtles swam southwest. In the wild, both headings would keep them within the safe, warm embrace of the North Atlantic gyre.

    Animal Pictures

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    Sunday, February 27, 2011

    The Daily Drift

    The Daily Drift
    Today's horoscope says:
    Today, just putting your new ideas to work is almost more important than the quality of the ideas themselves.
    It's all about newness and innovation right now; do not be afraid to take a few chances.
    No one is watching you, and there will be no evaluations given, so you have nothing to lose.
    You have free reign to feel your way around today and explore new places.
    Step out of your comfort zone -- it is much too small and shrinking.


    Some of our readers today have been in:
    Paris, Ile-De-France, France
    Annecy, Rhone-Alpes, France
    Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands
    Moscow, Moskva, Russia
    London, England, United Kingdom
    Lille, Nord-Pas-De-Calais, France
    Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
    Santander, Cantabria, Spain
    Quebec, Quebec, Canada
    Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
    Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan, Malaysia
    Montreal, Quebec, Canada
    Perth, Western Australia, Australia
    Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan
    Lisbon, Lisboa, Portugal
    Sheffield, England, United Kingdom

    as well as Slovakia, Malta, Bulgaria, Israel, Finland, Austria, Norway, Georgia, Mexico, Peru, Kuwait, Serbia, Bangladesh, Latvia, Greece, Scotland, Hong Kong, Denmark, Wales, Iran, Singapore, Poland, Taiwan, Sweden, Afghanistan, Belgium, Tibet, Croatia, Pakistan, Romania, Paraguay, Sudan, Vietnam, Argentina, Cambodia, Egypt, France, Estonia, Puerto Rico, Maldives, Qatar, Brazil, New Zealand, United Arab Emirates, Slovenia, China, Iraq, Ecuador, Nigeria, Colombia, Chile, Honduras, Paupa New Guinea, Moldova, Venezuela, Germany, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Ireland, Czech Republic, Vietnam, Norway, Finland and in cities across the United States such as Woodstock, Benton, Stockton, Hilo and more.

    Today is:
    Today is Sunday, February 27, the 58th day of 2011.
    There are 307 days left in the year.


    Today's unusual holiday or celebration is: 
    There isn't one.


    Don't forget to visit our sister blog!

    Norwegian Wood


    The Beatles

    Obama says Gadhafi's time is up as Libya's leader

    President Barack Obama dropped the careful condemnation, threats of consequences and the reminders to Moammar Gadhafi's regime about its responsibility to avoid violence.

    More:
    For the first time, the president drops his careful condemnation of the Libyan leader.
    Also: 

    U.N. imposes Libya sanctions

    The Security Council orders an arms embargo and asset freeze on Gadhafi and his regime.  
    Also: 

    It's All Over for Maummar

    Qaddafi’s Ukrainian Nurse Planning to Leave Libya

    One of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi’s personal nurses is planning to leave Tripoli and return to her hometown in Ukraine, Kiev-based newspaper Segodyna reported, citing the woman’s daughter.

    Galina Kolotnitskaya left home nine years ago to work in Libya, first at a hospital and then as part of Qaddafi’s personal staff, the newspaper reported.

    “Mom got in touch with me yesterday,” Tatyana Kolotnitskaya, her daughter, was cited as saying. “She said she’s in Tripoli now. There’s shooting, fighting, basically everything they’re showing on the news. She was speaking in a calm voice and asked me not to worry, and said that soon she’ll be home.”

    Tatyana Kolotnitskaya said she didn’t know whether her mother was still with Qaddafi, whose rule over the North African country is in doubt as units of his army defect to join protests.

    Qaddafi “has other Ukrainian nurses. My mom is one of them. For some reason, he doesn’t trust Libyan women,” Kolotnitskaya was cited as saying.

    Tunisian prime minister announces resignation

    Tunisian Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi announces a national unity government in Tunis.

    One killed in Oman protests as police fire tear gas, rubber bullets in clashes with protesters

    Omani security forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters demanding political reforms on Sunday, killing at least one person in the strategic Gulf country, police officials said.

    China's internet censors don't like the smell of "Jasmine"

    China's state Internet censors have ratcheted up web filters, and security officers are harassing and detaining bloggers and activists as an online appeal for a "Jasmine Revolution" spreads in China.
    jasmine.jpg The apparent crackdown came in advance of two top legislative meetings, the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, scheduled for March. Censors blocked the word "jasmine" after overseas dissident-run news website Boxun and Chinese Twitter users broadcast calls on February 19 to mobilize street protests modeled on recent unrest in the Middle East, according to international news reports. (Twitter is generally blocked in China but accessible to users of proxy networks based overseas.) Only a handful of protesters appeared, although calls continued for government protests characterized as "strolls" to continue every Sunday around China, according to The Associated Press.

    North Korea threatens to fire at South Korea


    North Korea's military threatened Sunday to fire at South Korea, as Seoul prepared to start annual joint drills with U.S. troops, maneuvers Pyongyang says are a rehearsal for an invasion.

    Due to budget cutbacks

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    Odds and Sods

    They soon found out that their would-be victim, age 62, used to be a professional boxer.

    A Little Village motorist was so drunk from celebrating his divorce that police were able to stop the car he was slowly driving by hand early Wednesday on the Southwest Side, police said


    Sarasota police say they have arrested a man for hacking a community theater's website

    We Need a New John Steinbeck

    grapes of wrath
    We need a new John Steinbeck in America.
    Read more here.

    Wisconsin Police join Protesters occupying statehouse




    Scott might want to consider getting out while he's behind.

    Also:
    Rallies were held across the country Saturday to support thousands of protesters holding steady at the Wisconsin Capitol in their fight against Republican-backed legislation aimed at weakening unions.

    And more ...
    Protesters out in force nationwide to oppose Wisconsin's anti-union bill
    Nearly two weeks into a political standoff, tens of thousands rallied in Madison and in dozens of cities around the nation to oppose a bill that would severely limit collective bargaining rights for most Wisconsin public employees.

    Distribution of Wealth

     

    We posted this graph a few days ago with the accompanying story. But the graph bears reposting to remind everyone just how fucked up it is for nearly every American except the 1%ers.

    Where does the federal government get its money ?

     
    Found at Mother Jones
    Just so you know how the government gets your money.

    Shared Sacrifices

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