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.
Turks defeat the Byzantine army under Emperor Romanus IV at Manikert, Eastern Turkey.
1429
Joan of Arc makes a triumphant entry into Paris.
1789
The Constituent Assembly in Versailles, France, approves the final version of the Declaration of Human Rights.
1862
Confederate General Thomas 'Stonewall'
Jackson encircles the Union Army under General John Pope at the Second
Battle of Bull Run.
1883
The Indonesian island of Krakatoa erupts
in the largest explosion recorded in history, heard 2,200 miles away in
Madagascar. The resulting destruction sends volcanic ash up 50 miles
into the atmosphere and kills almost 36,000 people–both on the island
itself and from the resulting 131-foot tidal waves that obliterate 163
villages on the shores of nearby Java and Sumatra.
1920
The 19th Amendment to the Constitution is officially ratified, giving women the right to vote.
1943
The United States recognizes the French Committee of National Liberation.
1957
Ford Motor Company reveals the Edsel, its latest luxury car.
Biologists using tools developed for a technique normally used to study
the evolution and spread of disease say that they have solved a
longstanding problem in archaeology: the origin of the Indo-European
family of languages. The family includes English and most other European
languages, as well as Persian, Hindi and many others.
English, Dutch, Spanish, Russian, Greek and Hindi might all sound very
different, but there are many commonalities, such as the Dutch moeder,
Spanish madre and Russian mat, all of which mean mother. On this basis,
researchers have concluded that more than a hundred languages across
Europe and the Middle East, from Iceland to Sri Lanka, stem from a
common ancestor.
Scientist have found decisive support for an Anatolian (the westernmost
protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of Turkey) origin. Both the
timing and the root of the tree of Indo-European languages fit with an agricultural expansion from Anatolia beginning 8,000 to 9,500 years ago.
So Faux News has decided to name the anonymous Navy SEAL who
authored an upcoming book about the rain on OBL. Up until now the names
have been kept secret out of fear for the lives of those SEALs. They
and their families would make perfect Al Qaeda targets now and in the
future. And now they are, thanks to Faux.
This of course is not long after Faux News - the same journalist who outed the SEAL, in fact - blasted President Obama
for discussing the Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama bin Laden - Faux
claimed at the time that leaking details of the raid like, oh I don't
know, maybe the names of the guys who did the raid, might endanger their
lives (Obama did not release their names).
Faux News is like the repugican cabal (like?) who will say anything on
any day as long as it's the opposite of what a Democrat said. And this
situation is very much like the Valerie Plame situation in which the shrub cabal outed an undercover CIA agent, ruining her career and
harming national security, in order to seek political retribution
against anyone not buttressing repugican cabal talking points, like the Navy SEAL
whose story could undercut repugican cabal talking points that America shouldn't not be proud of having killed Osama bin Laden.
So they outed him, broadcast his name to the world, including Al
Qaeda, in order to silence him, permanently in the case of how Al Qaeda
handles such things.
So the question today is why does Faux News want to risk endangering the life of a Navy SEAL who risked his life for his country?
Maybe because Rupert Murdoch did not grow up in the US, so he doesn't
understand our traditions, or care about the safety of military
personal? We've seen his birth certificate, and it's not red, white and
blue.
While most other media outlets chose not to out the author of the new book about the mission against bin Laden, Faux decided to publish his details and put him at risk.
Faux News today published the name of a U.S. Navy SEAL who
led the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan last year that
ended up in the al-Qaeda leader’s death. The SEAL under the pseudonym
Mark Owen is the author of a book set to be released on Sept. 11
detailing the events of the raid. The book’s publisher says Owen “was
one of the first men through the door on the third floor of the
terrorist leader’s hideout and was present at his death.”
Faux News said that “multiple sources” told the news outlet Owen’s real
name but Faux did not provide any details about its decision to publish
it. The book seemingly provides some clues as to the SEAL’s real
identity as, according to the New York Times, Owen “recalls his
childhood in Alaska.”
And here's Faux last year discussing how dastardly it is to put our servicemembers at risk by discussing the raid:
Members of Navy SEAL team 6, the Special Operations unit
responsible for killing Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan last
Sunday, have expressed concerns about their safety and the safety of
their families now that details of the mission have been made public.
It's not an overstatement to say that Faux News has endangered the life of a Navy SEAL and his family, an American hero who led the successful raid to kill Osama bin Laden.
It's now a real problem, with serious life-or-death consequences.
From NBC News:
Users on several militant Islamic websites affiliated with
al-Qaida have posted the name and photo of a former Navy SEAL identified
as the author of an upcoming book on the commando raid that killed
Osama bin Laden. The posts called for his "destruction" in revenge for
the al-Qaida founder’s killing.
"We pray to Allah for his destruction sooner rather than later," said one of the posts.
"Oh Allah, make an example of him for the whole world and give him dark days ahead," read another.
Among the website publishing the death threats was the "Al-Fidaa" web
forum, which al-Qaida uses to distribute its media and public
communications, said Evan Kohlmann, an NBC News consultant and a
terrorism analyst at Flashpoint Partners, a global security firm.
And we have Faux News to thank for endangering this American heroes life:
Faux News on Thursday identified the author of the book,
which is titled "No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That
Killed Osama bin Laden," as a 36-year-old former SEAL from Wrangell,
Alaska. The Associated Press later said it had confirmed the author’s
identity. (NBC News is not identifying the former SEAL.)
Faux, which is a repugican cabal propaganda outfit, could have been motivated by a desire to help Mitt Romney (ya think?).
This time, Romney and the repugicans are mocking the killing of Osama bin Laden
and how President Obama handled it (apparently, killing OBL, a few
years into office, when the shrub couldn't pull it off (and basically gave up shortly after 9/11 - The shrub actually called off the hunt for bin Laden only six months after September 11) is a "bad" thing). Keep in mind that Mitt
Romney, following in the shrub's footsteps, said he would have never
ordered the successful raid against bin Laden in Pakistan.
The only problem? This Navy SEAL, who led the raid on bin Laden, was
writing a book about the raid that most likely would have shown the
world exactly how President Obama handled the raid (excellently, per the admiral who oversaw the operation).
So the Navy SEAL, this American hero, had to be stopped at all costs,
lest he undercut Mitt Romney's apparently embarrassment over the US -
over President Obama - having killed bin Laden when Romney said he would
have let bin Laden go.
So what happens next? Faux "magically" gets the name of the SEAL and
leaks it, knowing full well that Al Qaeda would threaten to kill this
man and his family. And voila, only 24 hours later, Al Qaeda has now
threatened him.
Mitt Romney made this happen. It was Romney's initial decision to let
bin Laden go, and it was Romney's decision to mock the commander in
chief, President Obama, for having caught bin Laden. And as a result,
the repugican cabal noise machine went into full gear to take down anyone who stood
in the way of Romney's smear on the commander in chief and our troops.
So now an American hero and his family are in danger because Mitt Romney didn't have the guts to order the raid on bin Laden.
"No one's ever asked to see my birth certificate,
they know this is the place we were born and raised." - Romney at
campaign event, via MSNBC.
They have asked,
however, for your tax returns that every other presidential candidate
for years has released but you odd continue to hide.
What are we supposed to do with this? Are we supposed to be as vulgar
as Romney and take the bait and talk about a lot of Americans believing
the Mormons are a cult, since Romney now wants this campaign to be about
slurs (and racist ones at that)?
How low will Mitt Romney go in order to avoid talking about Todd Akin's
anti-abortion nuttery that Paul Ryan agree with, and in order to avoid
talking about the fact that he may not have paid taxes for ten years and
that's why he's hiding his tax returns?
Sorry Mitt, we're sticking to the issues. Why do you continue to hide
your tax returns from the American people? Is it because you haven't
paid a dime in taxes in ten years?
Romney must be awfully scared about how his campaign is going if he's
making birther comments at campaign events. This kind of negative
campaigning is what you do when you're losing badly.
Barely three hours after he spoke, Mitt Romney's birther quip was the top campaign story on Google News with over 3,500 articles.
Rather than trying to walk back the comment, rnc communications director Sean Spicer went on the attack in an MSNBC interview: "Look, it's -- I mean, it's a light-hearted moment, he was stating a fact."
Lets take another look at what Romney said:
"No one’s ever asked to see my birth certificate, they know that this is the place where both of us were born and raised."
What the rnc's Spicer said is literally true. Romney was stating a fact -- but he was not just stating a fact. He was also reminding his audience of the racist birther canard.
Lush Dimbulb believes that this is part of the Romney-Ryan game plan:
Dimbulb: Stay focused. Romney and Ryan in Michigan. Big,
big crowd. And here is Romney, I'm convinced, test-driving something. I
think this line is a test drive.
So Ryan's out
there talking about Obama and his bitter clinger quote. And Romney gets
up to the microphone. It's his turn to speak, and he test-drives that
line about nobody's ever had to ask to see his birth certificate.
I'm going to tell you what. You know, I'm gonna make a prediction for
you. It's going to be fascinating to watch. The Obama-bashing at the repugican cabal is going to be delicious. It's going to be
five-star-restaurant type stuff. I mean, you're going to love it.
So
according to Dimbulb, the repugican cabal conference strategy is to spend the week
calling Obama names and reminding everyone that he's black, and they're
not supposed to like blacks. So much for wanting to get away from negative campaigning to have a real debate on the issues.
People can make the case for this being a clever, planned move on
Romney's part, but I think they are wrong. The footage of the rally
looks to me as if Romney got jealous watching Ryan getting a big
reaction by throwing red meat to a willing crowd, so Romney decided to
get some of that applause for himself. And in so doing, Romney threw
away the chance to set the media agenda the weekend before his
convention -- rather than talking about the economy, which is supposedly
a plus for Romney, everyone is talking about whether Romney intended
his comments to be racist.
Romney really isn't a team player, he is a CEO who has to be the only star.
Before this story broke I was working on a post that began, "There is a
large, dangerous mass of wind headed for the Republican nominating
convention in Tampa. Unless tropical storm Issac forces the convention
to be cancelled of course, in which case Donald Trump will have to make
other plans."
Romney's gaffe probably means that Trump, the high priest of birtherism,
will be making different plans for the cabal this week. Assuming
Romney realizes the errors of his ways, and understands that his birther
joke wasn't a gotcha, it was a gaffe, we might be spared the 'hilarious' surprise video where Donald Trump fires an Obama impersonator.
Unless that is, Romney wants to double down on and go full birther.
Via Politico we learn why the Romney people don't like doing media - because their candidate is a little unhinged.
ARTICLE OF THE DAY -- JON WARD in Huffington magazine
(available today on iPad; article posts Monday), “The One-Termer?
Thinking Bold Thoughts With Team Romney”: “Matt Rhoades is guarded and
intense … [W]hen I met him in mid-July, in a bohemian coffee shop in
Boston’s North End, the 37-year-old manager of Mitt Romney’s campaign
was hesitant to speculate about what the Republican candidate would do
as president, and how. … But when I asked Rhoades … what Romney might do
with the budget and entitlement reform plans Ryan had already outlined,
Rhoades’ eyes lit up. He gave me a name: James Polk. … Rhoades and the
rest of the members of Romney’s inner circle think a Romney presidency
could look much like the White House tenure of the 11th U.S. president.
“Polk, who served from 1845 to 1849, presided over the expansion of the
U.S. into a coast-to-coast nation, annexing Texas and winning the
Mexican-American war for territories that also included New Mexico and
California. He reduced trade barriers and strengthened the Treasury
system. And he was a one-term president. Polk is an allegory for
Rhoades: He did great things, and then exited the scene, and few
remember him. That, Rhoades suggested, could be Romney’s legacy as well.
… Multiple senior Romney advisers assured me that they had had
conversations with the candidate in which he conveyed a depth of
conviction about the need to try to enact something like Ryan’s
controversial budget and entitlement reforms. Romney, they said, was willing to count the cost politically in order to achieve it.”
Would make a great photo opp, the repugican cabal candidate having a ball at a "shoot out" only four days after a shoot out.
Someone should ask Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan if they're attending the
NRA-sponsored "Shoot Out" - they actually called it that - at the repugican
cabal on Tuesday.*
More on the Ryan-Akin plan for women, plus a bonus point about the hostile takeover of the Republican Party. Mike Papantonio gets what Rachel Maddow gets, that the Ryan-Akin understanding of the female body is either cynical and dishonest or dreadfully "dumb."
But he gets something more — there's a lot that's purely personal in the
war on woman, especially when it's coming from power-crazed, wealthy,
hyper-entitled males who now need Viagra and Cialis to "look good" for
the ladies.
Think about that in human terms — power-crazed and impotent, the
white-shoes Cialis crowd. Among people for whom power is a fetish, this
is deeply shameful. That must be driving them nuts.
This explains the leaders, as Papantonio points out below (starting 2:00
in the clip). Now add "stupid" (Papantonio says "dumbed-down") and you
see why their high-level water-boys, the Todd Akins of the party, act
and sound like they do. It's stupid doing the bidding of the impotent.
The Paul Ryan part starts at 5:00. Be sure not to miss (at 7:20
and following) Papantonio's claim that it was the "ten billionaires" who
decided that "Paul Ryan should be the VP," not the rest of the party.
I've heard Papantonio make this claim before — that the Koch crowd
forced Paul Ryan on Romney when all the party regulars wanted someone
who could actually help them win. I'll have more on that point below.
Back to that point about the
billionaire takeover of the Republican Party. You're watching history,
folks. Papantonio said it one way on his Ring of Fire radio show (sorry,
no public link, but the show was this one if you're a subscriber).
Mike goes less far than I do. This is entirely my own:
The Koch-like billionaires are running a coup on the
Republican Party, taking control away from party regulars. "Tea
Party"–branded politicians are their heavily financed foot soldiers.
Yes, there are Tea Party citizens in the world, with actual tea-bag beliefs.
But "Tea Party" politicians are a Koch Bros Joint, running a hostile
takeover against the Boehners and McConnells, the Romneys and McCains.
No party regular who just "wants to win the next election" will have a
place in the new Republican Party. They have to serve daddy first, the
party second.
"Daddy" has plans. Those "ten billionaires" are playing the long game, not the short one.
Why did the Koch crowd not care that they lost the Senate in 2010
by running Sharon Angle and Christine O'Donnell? Why do they not care
what Paul Ryan does to Mitt Romney's chances this year?
Because for now, the government isn't the prize. The Republican
Party is. It sure looks like they're taking it step by step,
consolidating each territory first before invading the next.
They'll take the government (Bob Rubin, watch out; your Midwest
billionaire brothers are acing you out of the game). But not quite yet;
they're getting their pieces in place, their ducks in a row.
This is exactly like their recent takeover of the already-slavish Cato Institute. The illusion of independence is meaningless to them — they now want direct control.
Which means they're preparing for a bigger move down the road. Trust me.
As to their "Tea Party" soldiers — these men are not just operatives; they're cruel human beings. Hate-the-ladies cruel. Alan Simpson cruel.
As operatives, they feel strong and effective, so long as they do
daddy's bidding. As humans though, they're an angry, powerless lot. An
irony on both fronts if you think about it.
The
anti-baldness medication Propecia (finasteride) has long been linked to
erectile dysfunction and other sexual disorders. Now a retrospective
study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry has found that 75%
of patients who experience side effects resulting from Propecia use
also suffer from depression.
The study was conducted by endocrinologist Dr. Michael S. Irwig of
George Washington University. Dr. Irwig studied the rate of depression
among 61 former patients who had reported experiencing side effects
resulting from Propecia for a minimum of three months. Dr. Irwig also
noted the rate of depression in a control group of participants who had
never taken Propecia and did not have psychiatric symptoms.
Some patients with Propecia side effects have suicidal thoughts
The study found that in the group of patients with side effect
resulting from Propecia, 75% reported that they suffered depression; 64%
said they suffered moderate to severe depression; 39% had suicidal
thoughts; and 5% agreed with the statement “I would like to kill
myself.”
In contrast, only 10% of the people in the control group experienced
symptoms of depression, and only one man had thoughts of suicide.
Does Propecia cause depression?
The study results indicate that men who have experienced side effects
resulting from Propecia are more likely to suffer depression than men
who have never taken Propecia. But correlation does not always mean
causation, and many questions remain: Did Propecia (finasteride) itself
cause the depression? Did these men experience sexual side effects from
Propecia and then become depressed because their sex lives had suffered?
Or, conversely, did they suffer depression which in turn resulted in
sexual dysfunction? It’s a chicken-and-egg conundrum that will require
further study to unravel.
Finasteride does cross the blood brain-barrier, and it is possible
that it may affect the gamma-aminobutyric acid neurotransmitter, which
could cause depression and anxiety. If further study proves conclusively
that Propecia causes depression, then many more Propecia lawsuits against manufacturer Merck would certainly be filed in future.
Dr. Irwig has done a number of studies about the effects of Propecia.
His 2011 study found that 20% of men who suffered sexual side effects
from Propecia continued to have these side effects five years after
discontinuing the drug, leading Dr. Irwig to speculate that in these
cases, the side effects may be permanent.
Mexican authorities are trying to sort out why a U.S. Embassy vehicle
was shot up by federal police on a rural back road in mountains south
of the capital, leaving two U.S. government workers wounded.
Hand over the keys to that picnic table. You're in no condition to drive.
An Ontario man is facing charges after he and his buddies constructed a motorized picnic table and drove it around town.
Police
said they attached a lawnmower motor and four customized wheels to the
picnic table and took it for a spin on Sunday evening. [...]
When
officers found the table parked on a sidewalk, they charged a
46-year-old South Huron, Ont., man with having an open container of
liquor in a public place.
A woman has been charged with six counts of manslaughter after her
91-year-old mother died after she was left on the toilet for two days.
Sharon
Caslow, 65, of Cockeysville, Baltimore County, was indicted by a grand
jury after her mother Audrey's death was ruled a homicide.
Her mother was found by Baltimore County medical workers in the bathroom of the home she shared with her daughter on January 17.
Police say Sharon Caslow told officers she knew her mother had been in the bathroom for two days,
but that she did not call for help. Audrey Caslow died of acute renal
failure 10 days later after being transferred to a hospice. Sharon
Caslow has since been released on a $100,000 bond.
A German granny who smuggled a ton of cannabis into the country over
five years starts a jail sentence this weekend – despite her argument
that the trips to Holland and back were keeping her active in her old
age. The Düsseldorf judge who jailed the 76-year-old for two-and-half
years on Thursday rejected the image of her as a sick old lady, saying
she was robust, and should go to prison.
The woman confessed to
having a regular run, collecting cannabis in the Dutch border town of
Venlo, near North Rhine-Westphalia, and dropping it with dealers in
Düsseldorf and Dortmund. She delivered around 1,000 kilos over five
years in a drug smuggling career which she said started accidentally in
2006. Her car had broken down near Venlo and two men stopped and helped
her get up and running - before asking whether she would take some
washing powder containers over into Germany.
Initially
the men reimbursed her for fuel, but once the drug runs had become
regular, they paid her up to €700 per trip. She said she usually took
between two and three kilos of cannabis which had been hidden in boxes
and gym bags. “My client was acting under no criminal impetus,” the
woman's lawyer told the judge.
Not only had members of the drugs
ring put so much pressure on her to carry on making the journeys,
meaning she found it almost impossible to break free, but the driving kept her mobile in old age,
the lawyer argued. The judge dismissed this argument, saying the woman
was “a really robust pensioner,” who suffered from manageable
conditions. Due to the fact that she was knowingly smuggling drugs, the
idea of giving her a suspended sentence to spare her prison would give
“completely the wrong signal,” she said.
A 17 year old black teenager in London is tired of being busted for
walking while black. He says he's been stopped-and-searched without
cause fifty times since he was 14, and that on a number of
occasions this has included bullshit charges (later dropped), wild
accusations, strip searches, and detention in police cells. None of
these stops has led to a conviction -- his most recent one almost did.
PC John Lovegrove arrested the teenager during a stop-and-search,
alleging that he assaulted the cop during a stop-and-search. The case
went to court, but then collapsed when the footage showed that the
teenager "[lay] there like a dead fish" during the search, and did not
roll over or spit, as was alleged by the constable.
The Met won't comment on the case. The teenager will sue the London Metropolitan Police for harassment.
The youth had been stopped by police in Sidcup, south London, on 11
February this year, after reports on the police radio that a named white
suspect had threatened his father with a knife and had then run off.
The police description was later amended to black or mixed race male.
Although no weapon or drugs were found on the youth, he remained
handcuffed while the police forced him to the ground. He was then
strip-searched at the police station. He had cigarette papers in his
pocket and torn up cardboard that PC Lovegrove said could be used as a
filter when smoking cannabis. No drugs were found during the strip
search.
The youth said: "I can't think of any other reason why the police keep
doing this to me apart from racism. I've been stopped and searched so
many times I've lost count, I think it's about 50 times."
The Met police is 11 times more likely to stop and search black people
than white ones, according to Equalities and Human Rights Commission
research published earlier this year. It has accused the Met of racial
profiling.
When
she was shopping for a wedding gown, bride-to-be Kjerstin Gruys realized
how she was stressed over her body image. So the 29-year-old PhD student
in sociology decided to embark on an experiment of sorts: to go mirror-free
for an entire year to boost her self-esteem.
In her 20/20
interview, Kjerstin said:
"I thought I was going to find a dress that somehow fulfilled
every dream, and that I'd enjoy the process of shopping for dresses,
I'd feel my most beautiful. I'd find this perfect dress that complimented
my body."
But instead, Gruys says dress shopping was a source of stress.
"I saw myself in the mirror and was being critical," she
says. "I thought, Well, maybe I should lose a little weight before
the wedding, always a bad thing to focus on when you have a history
of an eating disorder.... I wasn't afraid of relapsing into my eating
disorder, but I felt like a hypocrite because of how far I'd come."
Then Gruys read a passage in the book "Birth of Venus," describing
an order of nuns in Renaissance Italy who had severe restrictions against
vanity. "They didn't have mirrors in their lives. They were forbidden
to look at each other when undressing. They were actually forbidden
to look at themselves while they undressed."
For the first time in her life, Gruys said she was tempted to follow
suit.
Kjerstin documented her experience on her blog Mirror, Mirror OFF the
Wall: here
Though she was initially upset following the brutal sexual assault
last month that left her pregnant, victim Martha Byars told reporters
she was relieved Sunday to learn from Rep. Todd Akin (r-MO) that her
ability to conceive her unwanted child proves she was not, in fact,
legitimately raped.
“Being violently coerced into having sex was the worst thing
that’s ever happened to me, so I take comfort in knowing it wasn’t
actually rape,” Byars said of the vicious encounter in which she was
accosted in an alleyway by a stranger, pinned to the ground, and
penetrated against her will for 25 minutes. More
Police in Peru have seized more than 16,000 dried seahorses which were to be exported illegally to Asian countries...
Police chief Victor Fernandez told the BBC the cargo could have fetched
up to $250,000 (£160,000) abroad. Seahorse fishing is illegal in Peru,
but the high prices paid
for seahorse powder abroad make it difficult for the authorities to
enforce the ban...
"They are sent to Asian countries and used as aphrodisiacs.
In China this product is also used to cure asthma," he told the BBC's
Mattia Cabitza in Lima.
The marine fish, which finds northern Peru's warmer waters a
perfect breeding ground, is protected by the Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species (Cites). But Mr Fernandez said that last year a total of 20 tonnes of
dried seahorses were seized across the world - half a tonne in Peru
alone.
Just like rhino horns, harvested for the sake of some pitiful penises somewhere. Sad just sad.
You've never seen the Venn Diagram like this before: a flowery diagram
for 11 sets of objects, made by Khalegh Mamakani and Frank Ruskey at the
University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada:
One of the sets is outlined in white, and the colours correspond to
the number of overlapping sets. The team called their creation Newroz,
Kurdish for "the new day". The name also sounds like "new
rose" in English, reflecting the diagram's flowery appearance.
To find the rose-like diagram, the pair had to comb through myriad
potential diagrams, represented as lists of numbers corresponding to
the way the curves cross. Sifting through all of the possibilities for
an 11-set diagram would be an impossible task even for the combined
might of Earth's computers, so the researchers narrowed the options
by restricting the search to diagrams with a property called crosscut
symmetry, meaning that a segment of each set crosses all the other sets
exactly once.
New Scientist has the post (and the gallery of more sets of Venn Diagrams): here
The idea of a red sky at night used to invoke beautiful images of
vibrant sunsets, the product of warm sunlight bathing the sky near the
horizon. The adage of 'red sky at night, sailor's delight' refers to a
calm night ahead; a red sunset suggests a high-pressure system in the
west is bringing calm weather.
But red skies at night have taken on a new meaning in recent decades. As outdoor lighting become increasingly prominent, our night skies are gradually turning from black to red.
This is a nice lenticular cloud (lens-shaped) example, photographed at Mauna Kea, Hawaii. It is
presumably colored by the setting sun. From a gallery of cloud photos
at The Guardian
Two experiments demonstrate what wind power can do: a sailing trip
around the coast of Africa, and Kite Gen, who aim to supply the grid
with huge kites flying in the sky. More
The manticore is a composite beast from India, with a blood-colored
lion's body, the face of a man with blue eyes, and a tail resembling the
sting of a scorpion.
It can leap great distances and is very active. It eats human flesh.
Its voice is a whistle that sounds like a melody from pipes. Some say it
can shoot spines from its tail.
Pliny the Elder [1st century CE] (Natural History,
Book 8, 30): Pliny quotes Ctesias as saying that the mantichora has the
face and ears of a human being, grey eyes, a triple row of teeth that
meet like the teeth of a comb, a lion's body of a blood-red color, and a
voice like a pan-pipe blended with a trumpet. It stings with its tail
like a scorpion. It is very fast and has a special appetite for human
flesh.
Found in the East, fire stones are either male or female. As long as
they are kept apart, they are safe, but if a male and female stone are
brought together, they ignite a fire that burns everything.
Aberdeen Bestiary
[c. 1200 CE]: "On a certain mountain in the east, there are
fire-bearing stones which are called in Greek terrobolem; they are male
and female. When they are far from each other, the fire within them does
not ignite. But when by chance the female draws near to the male, the
fire is at once kindled, with the result that everything around the
mountain burns. For this reason, men of God, you who follow this way of
life, stay well clear of women, lest when you and they approach each
other, the twin flame be kindled in you both and consume the good that
Christ has bestowed upon you. For there are angels of Satan, always on
the offensive against the righteous; not only holy men but chaste women
too."
Each
Monarch butterfly is beautiful, but when they swarm by the millions,
it's an amazing sight! Learn some facts about these amazing butterflies,
and see wonderful photographs at Environmental Graffiti.
An underage mountain lion has been caught after trying to slip into a
casino in downtown Reno, Nev., ahead of the breakfast rush.Nevada
Department of Wildlife spokesman Chris Healy says the young male cat's
behavior was "almost the equivalent of being a stupid teenager."Healy
says coming-of-age cougars often end up where they shouldn't after being
... (more)
These insects look scary enough in daylight, then they glow in the dark!
This
remarkable species of South American cockroach, Lucihormetica luckae,
owes its fluorescence to bacteria. The spots on the dark brown area of
its carapace are pits inhabited by microbes that glow under fluorescent
light.
A recent analysis of these creatures’ bioluminescence
demonstrates that they and their cousin species glow at the same
wavelengths as a toxin-producing beetle that lives in their area,
suggesting that the roaches are mimicking a deadly neighbor to avoid
getting picked off by predators.
Hellbender salamanders are huge, slimy salamanders that have the
ability to breathe through their skin! They're also an endangered
species. When Nick Baker went searching for them in the Ozarks, he found
a few that were disturbingly mutated - check it out in this video.
The
anti-baldness medication Propecia (finasteride) has long been linked to
erectile dysfunction and other sexual disorders. Now a retrospective
study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry has found that 75%
of patients who experience side effects resulting from Propecia use
also suffer from depression.
When
she was shopping for a wedding gown, bride-to-be Kjerstin Gruys realized
how she was stressed over her body image. So the 29-year-old PhD student
in sociology decided to embark on an experiment of sorts: to go mirror-free
for an entire year to boost her self-esteem.
In her 
Each
Monarch butterfly is beautiful, but when they swarm by the millions,
it's an amazing sight! Learn some facts about these amazing butterflies,
and see wonderful photographs at 
These insects look scary enough in daylight, then they glow in the dark!
