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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.


Friday, January 4, 2013

The Daily Drift

Obscenities

Some of our readers today have been in:
Rabat, Morocco
Waterloo, Canada
Kherson, Ukraine
Cape Town, South Africa
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Wroclaw, Poland
Jawa, Indonesia
Agadir, Morocco
Ankara, Turkey
Puchong, Malaysia
Istanbul, Turkey
Windsor, Canada
Colombo, Sri Lanka
Poznan, Poland
Kuching, Malaysia
Jakarta, Indonesia
Quetta, Pakistan
Shah Alam, Malaysia
Algiers, Algeria
Lahore, Pakistan
Gorzow Wielkopolski, Poland
Yerevan, Armenia
Kota Bahru, Malaysia
San Juan, Puerto Rico
Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
Santiago, Chile
Bangkok, Thailand
Subang Jaya, Malaysia
Aguadilla, Puerto Rico
Nanjing, China
London, England
Kathmandu, Nepal 

Today is Tom Thumb Day

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Today in History

Apparently absolutely nothing has happened on January 4th throughout history because our source for this post has tons of stuff happening on the 3rd and the 5th but not a bloody thing on the fourth.

Non Sequitur

http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ucomics.com/nq130104.gif

Telcos lobby North Carolina to make community Internet illegal, then abandon the state to second-worst Internet in the country


A lot of people were frustrated in 2011 when the North Carolina General Assembly passed a bill written by Time Warner Cable to revoke local authority to build community-owned networks. A new report from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and Common Cause explains how Time Warner Cable, AT&T, and CenturyLink bought their bill.
In the two years since, the big companies have refused to invest in better networks and AT&T just announced layoffs for some call center workers. Meanwhile, the state is tied with Mississippi for last place in the US in the number of households subscribing to at least a "basic broadband connection" according to the FCC. Perhaps these decisions should be made locally and not by corporate lobbyists?

Farm bill extension evidence of lost clout

FILE - This July 11, 2012 file photo shows dairy cows on Steve Niedbalski's farm in Nashville, Ill. A patchwork extension of federal farm programs passed as part of a larger "fiscal cliff" bill keeps the price of milk from rising but doesn't include many of the goodies that farm-state lawmakers are used to getting for their rural districts. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman, File)
A patchwork extension of federal farm programs passed as part of a larger "fiscal cliff" bill keeps the price of milk from rising but doesn't include many of the goodies that farm-state lawmakers are used to getting for their rural districts.
House and Senate Agriculture Committee leaders who spent more than a year working on a half-trillion-dollar, five-year farm bill that would keep subsidies flowing had to accept in the final hours a slimmed-down, nine-month extension of 2008 law with few extras for anyone.
With the new Congress opening Thursday, they'll have to start the farm bill process over again, most likely with even less money for agriculture programs this year and the recognition that farm interests have lost some of the political clout they once held.
"I think there's a lot of hurt feelings, that all of this time and energy was put into it and you've got nothing to show for it," said Roger Johnson, president of the National Farmers Union.
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., said it even more bluntly on the Senate floor just after she learned that the bare-bones extension would be part of the fiscal cliff deal.
"There is no way to explain this," she said angrily as the deal came together New Year's Eve. "None. There is absolutely no way to explain this other than agriculture is just not a priority."
After Congress failed to pass a farm bill earlier last year, the legislation became tangled in the end-of-the-year fiscal cliff talks as dairy subsidies were set to expire Jan. 1 and send the price of milk to $6 or $7 a gallon, double current prices. The White House and congressional leaders negotiating the fiscal cliff had agreed that the bill would somehow have to avert that "dairy cliff," but it was uncertain how.
Hoping to salvage some of their work, Stabenow and House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., crafted a last-minute extension of 2008 farm law to add to the fiscal cliff package, including help for their own state interests: fruit and vegetable growers plentiful in Michigan, and more than $600 million in emergency money for livestock producers who were affected by drought, a priority for Lucas. In addition to averting the milk price spike, their bill also contained an overhaul of dairy programs, a priority for House Agriculture's top Democrat, Collin Peterson of Minnesota.
The extension Stabenow and Lucas crafted cost around $1 billion — an amount too high and too risky for House and Senate leaders negotiating the broader fiscal cliff deal. According to aides familiar with the talks, the White House and congressional leaders wanted a farm bill extension with no major policy changes or new spending that could subject the entire fiscal cliff bill to opposition.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky added a bare-bones version of a farm bill extension that didn't include money for any of the agriculture leaders' top priorities and renewed other farm programs without any new funding.
The result, the aides said, was a farm bill extension that would keep major programs going but didn't spend any new money. Missing were dollars for some organic programs, environmental programs and several different energy programs for encouraging renewable fuels. Many of those programs were renewed, but without any money.
The reaction from farm-state lawmakers was swift. Stabenow went to the Senate floor called the new bill "absolutely outrageous." Peterson said farm-state leaders had been "disrespected." Stabenow, as well as Lucas, ended up voting for it, Peterson against.
The National Farmers Union issued a statement saying it was "left out in the cold." The long-powerful National Corn Growers Association's statement said the group is "tired of the endless excuses and lack of accountability."
Direct payments, a subsidy that costs $5 billion annually and is paid to farmers whether they farm or not, were retained in the agreement. Both a Senate bill passed in June and a House Agriculture Committee bill passed in July had cut those payments after a consensus in the farm community that those subsidies would be eliminated and redirected.
"That is amazing to me, I have to say. That is absolutely amazing to me. I want to hear someone justify that on the Senate floor," Stabenow said.

Wingnuts rebel against Boehner

Wingnut opposition to John Boehner's reelection as speaker on Thursday was more determined than it originally seemed, as a small band of hard-liners either flat-out opposed the speaker or simply abstained from casting a ballot. There were some signs that wingnut resistance to Boehner was well-organized, at least by one member who has never been a big fan of the Ohio repugican.

Brotherhood official urges Egypt's Jews to return

A leading Muslim Brotherhood member and adviser to Islamist President Mohammed Morsi created a stir in Egypt when he called on Egyptian Jews in Israel to return home because Egypt is now a democracy and because the Jewish state won't survive.

Remains of Nazi Goering's Wife Identied

DNA analysis has shown that bones found 21 years ago are those of Carin Goering, first wife of Hitler's right-hand man. Read more
  Remains of Nazi Goering's Wife Identied

Awesome Pictures

 
The Great Smoky Mountains

Flipping finger at cops not worth arrest

A federal appeals court in New York has reinstated a lawsuit brought by a man who was arrested after giving the finger to a police officer and sued for what he calls a malicious prosecution.
A lower court judge in Albany had tossed out the claim after police maintained they stopped Swartz's car because they feared the finger gesture was a sign of a domestic dispute.
The appeals court says such a conclusion is unreasonable given "the nearly universal recognition that this gesture is an insult."

Leaded gasoline and the 20th-century crime wave

Scientists are amassing evidence that suggests exposure to tetraethyl lead — the additive once used in almost all the gasoline sold in the United States — could account for the dramatic increase in crime that happened in this country between the 1960s and 1980s. As leaded gasoline was phased out, they say, children were exposed to less lead, leading to the decline in crime that began to really kick in in the 1990s.This is the same curve of crime statistics that economist Steven Levitt, of Freakonomics fame, attributed to the legalization of abortion. Levitt's theory was that, after Roe v. Wade, there were fewer unwanted babies born into dire circumstances and, thus, fewer people to grow up on the path to criminal behavior. Levitt matched the rise in abortion rates to the decrease in crime, but frankly, there are a lot of things that you can correlate to the decrease in crime.
What makes the lead theory interesting is that correlations match not just at the national level, but at regional, and even neighborhood levels. Increases in lead relate to increases in crime — usually a couple of decades later. Likewise decreases in lead relate to later decreases in crime. What's more the same correlations exist in countries all over the world. Meanwhile, we know that lead has big impacts on growing bodies — it affects brain function, it's linked to hyperactivity, difficulty managing aggression, and lowered IQ.
Correlation isn't causation. But in this case they definitely seem to be winking suggestively at one another. Kevin Drum has an excellent piece on this at Mother Jones, working through a decade worth of research by multiple scientists that supports this disturbing conclusion. It really is possible that we, as a society, damaged a generation of children and caused a crime wave (not to mention the ongoing damage to kids that live in high-lead neighborhoods today).

Northern California Teens Slip Parents A Mickey To Get Around Internet Restriction


Police say two California teenagers used a prescription sleeping medication to spike the milkshakes of too-strict parents so they could log onto the Internet.

Beware Spice Abuse

Cinnamon and nutmeg can pose risks to kids seeking a quick thrill. Read more Beware Spice Abuse

Hairy Eyeball Caused by Rare Tumor

A rare tumor in a 19-year-old man caused hair to grow on his eyeball. Read more Hairy Eyeball Caused by Rare Tumor

Does Fat Help You Live Longer?

Yes, really. But it's probably no reason to change those New Year weight-loss goals. Read more Does Fat Help You Live Longer?

Colder than the coldest cold


Absolute zero is supposed to be the coldest cold — 0 Kelvin, the point where atoms stop moving.
But researchers at the University of Munich say it's possible to get colder than that, an idea they've demonstrated experimentally. But what does it mean to be colder than cold? Here's the scientists' totally unhelpful explanation:
another way to look at these negative temperatures is to consider them hotter than infinity, researchers added.
Cool. Thanks, guys. Luckily, journalist Charles Q. Choi makes this strange idea make a whole lot more sense. Read his explanation at LiveScience.

ISS Astronaut Reports to Captain Kirk

During a magical Twitter conversation today, science fiction met science fact. Read more ISS Astronaut Reports to Captain Kirk: DNews Nugget

Mission to Mars Could Mess With Your Brain

Space exploration is really bad for our squidgy bodies, but you want to know the worst news? 
It's really, REALLY bad for our squidgy brains too. Read more Mission to Mars Could Mess With Your Brain

Remembering Mars Rover Spirit

9 Years Later

NASA's Spirit rover landed nine years ago today(January3rd), and its twin Opportunity followed three weeks later. Read more
9 Years Later: Remembering Mars Rover Spirit

Blue, Not Red: Did Ancient Mars Look Like This?

Try to imagine the red planet filled with oceans, a thick atmosphere... and a biosphere. Read more Blue, Not Red: Did Ancient Mars Look Like This?

Martian rock from Sahara desert unlike others

Scientists are abuzz about a coal-colored rock from Mars that landed in the Sahara desert: A yearlong analysis revealed it's quite different from other Martian meteorites.
Not only is it older than most, it also contains more water, tests showed. The baseball-size meteorite, estimated to be 2 billion years old, is strikingly similar to the volcanic rocks examined on the Martian surface by the NASA rovers Spirit and Opportunity, which found water-bearing minerals.
"Here we have a piece of Mars that I can hold in my hands. That's really exciting," said Carl Agee, director of the Institute of Meteoritics and curator at the University of New Mexico who led the study published online Thursday in the journal Science.
This image provided Carl Agee, University of New Mexico, shows a rock from Mars that landed in the Sahara Desert. An examination of the Martian meteorite known as NWA 7034 determined it is 2.1 billion years old and is water-rich. (AP Photo/University of New Mexico, Carl Agee)Most space rocks that fall to Earth as meteorites come from the asteroid belt, but a number can be traced to the moon and Mars.
Scientists believe an asteroid or some other large object struck Mars, dislodging rocks and sending them into space. Occasionally, some plummet through Earth's atmosphere.
Short of sending a spacecraft or astronaut to the red planet to haul back rocks, Martian meteorites are the next best thing for scientists seeking to better understand how Earth's neighbor transformed from a tropical environment to a frigid desert.
About 65 Martian rocks have been recovered on Earth, mostly in Antarctica or the Sahara. The oldest dates back 4.5 billion years to a time when Mars was warmer and wetter. About half a dozen Martian meteorites are 1.3 billion years old and the rest are 600 million years or younger.
The latest meteorite NWA 7034 — nicknamed "Black Beauty"— was donated to the University of New Mexico by an American who bought it from a Moroccan meteorite dealer last year.
Researchers performed a battery of tests on the meteorite and based on its chemical signature confirmed that it was blasted to Earth from Mars. At 2.1 billion years old, it's the second-oldest known Martian meteorite that formed from a volcanic eruption.
There's also evidence that it was altered by water. Though the amount released during heating was small — 6,000 parts per million — it was still much more than other Martian meteorites. Scientists said this suggested there was interaction with water near the surface during a time when the planet was mostly dry and dusty.
More tests are under way to determine how long the rock floated in space and how long it had been sitting in the Sahara.
University of Alberta meteorite expert Chris Herd said the find was welcome since most Martian rocks that rain on Earth tend to be younger. And the latest find does not appear to be too contaminated, he said.
"It's fairly fresh. It hasn't been subjected to a whole lot of weathering," said Herd, who had no role in the research.

Rare Water-Rich Mars Meteorite Discovered

A rare Martian meteorite recently found in Morocco in contains minerals with 10 times more water than previously discovered Mars meteorites. Read more
Rare Water-Rich Mars Meteorite Discovered

Sun Celebrates 'Solar Max' New Year With Flare

While the world was popping off its collective fireworks to see in the New Year, not to be left out, the sun generated its own firework display. Read more Sun Celebrates 'Solar Max' New Year With Flare

Politics Is Key to Avoiding Global Warming Catastrophe

Delaying global action on climate change by 20 more years will put the goal of keeping the world relatively cool out of reach forever. Read more
  Politics Is Key to Avoiding Global Warming Catastrophe

El Nino And Global Warming

It's hard to pin down global warming as triggering more El Nino or La Nina events. Read more El Nino And Global Warming: Link Is Fuzzy

Climate Change May Increase Volcanic Eruptions

The rapid rise in sea levels could cause a dramatic increase in volcanic eruptions. Read more Climate Change May Increase Volcanic Eruptions

Kirghizian Mountain Wilderness

Low emerald grass is under the feet, endless blue sky is over the head. Somewhere afar, over the clouds, so close to space, a white dragon is sleeping - ancient as our world. We are at the Celestial Mountains of the country called Kirghizia located in the east of Central Asia. More

Deepest Corals in Great Barrier Reef Discovered

A new exploration by a remote-operated submersible has found the reef's deepest coral yet. Read more Deepest Corals in Great Barrier Reef Discovered

Shipping Makes Way for Whales

The International Maritime Organization recently announced it will adjust the shipping lanes leading into the ports of California. Read more
  Shipping Makes Way for Whales

Feds crack narwhal tusk-smuggling ring

FILE- In this August 2005 file photo provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a pod of narwhals surfaces in northern Canada. Officials say they have broken up a smuggling ring in which narwhal tusks from the Canadian Artic were brought to Maine in a trailer with a secret compartment and then illegally sold to American buyers. Andrew Zarauskus, of Union, N.J., and Jay Conrad, of Lakeland, Tenn., will be arraigned in Bangor, Maine, next week on federal smuggling and money laundering charges. (AP Photo/Kristin Laidre, NOAA, files)
A smuggling ring brought narwhal tusks from the Canadian Artic into Maine in a trailer with a secret compartment and then illegally sold them to American buyers, officials said.
Andrew Zarauskas, of Union, N.J., and Jay Conrad, of Lakeland, Tenn., will be arraigned in Bangor, Maine, next week on 29 federal smuggling and money laundering charges each.
For nearly a decade, two Canadians smuggled the whale tusks into Maine and shipped them via FedEx to Zarauskas, Conrad and other unnamed American buyers, according to an indictment.
Narwhals are known as the unicorns of the sea for their spiral, ivory tusks that can grow longer than 8 feet. The tusks can sell for thousands of dollars each, but it's illegal to import them into the U.S.
The court document doesn't specify how much money was involved, but it says the Canadian sellers received at least 150 payments from tusk buyers.
"The conspiracy we've alleged was over a period of 10 years, so there appears to have been enough of a market to support that length of conduct," said Todd Mikolop, who is prosecuting the case for the environmental crimes section of the Department of Justice.
Narwhals live in Arctic waters and are harvested by Inuit hunters for their meat, skin and tusks, said Calvin Kania, president of Furcanada in British Columbia, which sells tusks to buyers who want them for display purposes or to turn into jewelry.
The tusks range from 3 feet to more than 8 feet, and typically sell for $1,000 to $7,000 each, Kania said. He ships tusks worldwide, but not to countries that prohibit imports, including the U.S., the United Kingdom and Australia.
There is no defense attorney listed in court documents for Zarauskas. An attorney from the federal public defender's office is listed as Conrad's lawyer, but she was out of the office and not immediately available for comment. Phone messages were left for Zarauskas and at possible listing for Conrad.
The indictment filed last month says the two Canadians, whose names are redacted, would buy the tusks from retail stores in northern Canada and use the Internet and email to arrange sales to U.S. buyers. The pair faces charges in Canada, according to authorities there.
The Canadian sellers would bring the tusks into the U.S. at the Calais, Maine, border crossing in a vehicle modified to conceal the tusks or a trailer with a false bottom, according to the indictment. They would then drive to Bangor and ship them.
The only other narwhal tusk smuggling case Mikolop was aware of involved Nantucket, Mass., antiques dealer David Place, who was sentenced in 2011 to nearly three years in prison for importing and trafficking in sperm whale teeth and narwhal tusks worth up to $400,000.

Animal Pictures

mjcap:

Mnt Evans

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