Headlines

Headlines for March 24, 2009.

• Bernanke says he was talked out of blocking AIG bonuses
• Obama now trying to temper public anger over AIG
• Alaska marks 20th anniversary of nation's worst oil spill
• More than $1 billion of Madoff's assets recovered so far
• Teens' brains get rid of childhood thoughts, study finds
• Octuplets mom fires free nannies for allegedly 'spying' on her
• DEA seeking people who grabbed cash on Calif. highway

What Does an Egyptian Pharaoh Smell Like

She may have ruled like a man, but Egyptian queen Hatshepsut still preferred to smell like a lady.

The world may be able to get a whiff of that ancient royal scent when researchers complete their investigation into the perfume worn by Hatshepsut, the powerful pharaoh-queen who ruled over ancient Egypt for 20 years beginning around 1479 B.C.

Read more at What Does an Egyptian Pharaoh Smell Like ?

Gregarious gangsters

A new fossil find suggests that young Triceratops dinosaurs were gregarious gangsters, not solitary types.

Mounted version of one of the juvenile Triceratops skulls from Hell Creek Formation in Montana.
Credit: enginestudio.org

Three juvenile Triceratops, a species thought to be solitary, died together in a flood and now have been found in a 66 million-year-old bone bed in Montana, lending more evidence to the idea that teen dinosaurs were gregarious gangsters.

Triceratops were ceratopsids, herbivorous dinosaurs that lived until the the very end of the Cretaceous Period. They have been found in enormous bone beds of multiple individuals, but all known Triceratops fossils up to now have been solitary individuals.

In fact, Triceratops is one of the best-known of all dinosaurs, with more than 50 total specimens discovered, so it looked pretty certain that they were anti-social and avoided hanging out with their own kind.

However, the new discovery of a jumble of at least three juveniles in the famous Hell Creek Formation suggests that the three-horned Triceratops were social, or at least the juveniles were, revealing something about their behavior — a feature that is notoriously hard to discern from fossils.

Read more at Gang of Juvenile Dinosaurs Discovered.

Blackboard Blogging

Seen this on several websites over the past week so I am adding it here.

From TreeHugger:

Image from AfriGadget

The “Daily News” is a blackboard on a major road in Monrovia, Liberia which is run by a fellow named Alfred Sirleaf. Everyday, he writes out the news in neat letters for those who can't afford newspapers, radio, or a generator to run a TV. Mr. Sirleaf might be considered an "analog blogger", and this is how he is changing the world one letter at a time.

Article continues: The Blackboard Blogger of Liberia

What is, or could be so funny about this, is his 'analog blogging' could very well be the future of blogging if anything were to ever happen to the technology the rest of us use. It is a all but forgotten art in this "techno-age".

IKEA Goes Dark For Earth Hour (But Not In The USA)

In a typical show of greed over everything else ...

From TreeHugger:

Some people are saying that Earth Hour is silly and doesn't save a watt; others say it has become too corporate. But in much of the world, corporations and individuals are taking it very seriously. In the UK, IKEA is turning off its signs, turning down its lighting and donating 10% of its revenue from CFL sales to the WWF. In Canada, IKEA is also turning down the lights, but also doing what some think is manifestly silly: Giving out 4,000 candles to all of its employees "so they can flick their lights off at home in safety."

Article continues: IKEA Goes Dark For Earth Hour (But Not In The USA)

Slate readers share their photographs of the economic crisis.

Readers over at Slate have submitted over 200 images thus far in a new project there: Photos about the recession.

You can see the photos by following the link below and find out how to submit your photos as well.

Great Shots of Tough Times

Home Atomic Energy Lab

The world of Science At Home from a by-gone era:

Nice piece on the Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Lab, from the early 1950s.

This was the most elaborate Atomic Energy educational set ever produced, but it was only only available from 1951 to 1952. Its relatively high price for the time ($50.00) and its sophistication were the explanation Gilbert gave for the set's short lifespan. Today, it is so highly prized by collectors that a complete set can go for more than 100 times the original price.

The set came with four types of uranium ore, a beta-alpha source (Pb-210), a pure beta source (Ru-106), a gamma source (Zn-65?), a spinthariscope, a cloud chamber with its own short-lived alpha source (Po-210), an electroscope, a geiger counter, a manual, a comic book (Dagwood Splits the Atom) and a government manual "Prospecting for Uranium."

Nothing like a little bit of self irradiation in the home, now is it?

And I Quote

Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn`t.

~ Erica Jong

Our Readers

Some of our readers today have been in:

Punta Cana, La Altagracia, Dominican Republic
Curitiba, Parana, Brazil
Yerevan, Yerevan, Armenia
Zagreb, Grad Zagreb, Croatia
Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey
Stenungsund, Vastra Gotland, Sweden
Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Atehns, Attiki, Greece
Warsaw, Mazowiekie, Poland
Caracas, Distrito Federal, Venezuela
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
London, England, United Kingdom
Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
New Delhi, Delhi, India

as well as Saudi Arabia, Grenada, China, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales, and all fifty states of the United States.

Daily Horoscope

Today's horoscope says:

You can turn heads with your beautiful words today, so use your impressive creative writing skills whenever possible.

Can do.

Crossfire

Stevie Ray Vaughan
(live)

Smoking bans

99% of the people polled agree that smoking should be banned in restaurants.

Salami, Salami, Baloney

A Romanian man eating a salami sausage was shocked to find a dead mouse inside.

Extra! Extra! Jimmy "The Mouse" Hoffa turns up in salami

Nelu Luca of Iasi said last week the vacuum-packed salami looked fine from the outside, according to Ananova. It wasn’t until he had eaten nearly half of the salami when he spotted the mouse in the middle.

Salami manufacture Tabco Campofrio Romani could face fines up to $1,500 for the dead rodent. Samples were taken from the salami and mouse to test for health risks.

Company manager Ovidiu Wencz claimed someone sabotaged the meat mixture by deliberately throwing in the mouse.

Wencz said screws and nuts also have been found in their salamis in the past, but the problem was solved when they installed magnets to retrieve the metal pieces from the salami mixture.

Officials ID woman found wandering mall in 1994

A mute elderly woman known only as "Jane Doe" since she was found wandering in a New Jersey mall 15 years ago has finally been identified.

Lt. Eduardo Ojeda of the New Jersey Department of Human Services police discovered recently that the woman is Elba Leonor Diaz Soccarras, who turns 75 on March 28.

She has Alzheimer's disease and has been bedridden in a New Jersey psychiatric hospital for years.

Her identity, partly obscured because she and her daughter had a falling out, was established thanks to tips from the public and Colombian officials.

Read the rest: NJ officials ID woman found wandering mall in 1994

World's Cheapest Car

India's Tata Motors launches the Nano, a no-frills vehicle which will cost only $2,000.

World's cheapest car debuts

Marijuana bales

Authorities in central North Carolina say they have found 2,893 pounds of marijuana stashed in a tractor-trailer that was left on a wooded property.

The Randolph County Sheriff's Office said Monday that deputies seized 80 bales of marijuana that were stashed in five wooden crates.

Officers said the driver of the tractor-trailer left it behind and no arrests have been made.

Authorities said the land owner said the trailer didn't belong on the property.

Bronze instead of Mackerel

A Greek fisherman must have been expecting a monster of a catch when he brought up his nets in the Aegean Sea last week.

Instead, Greek authorities say his haul was a section of a 2,200-year-old bronze statue of a horseman.

A Culture Ministry announcement said Monday the accidental find was made in waters between the eastern islands of Kos and Kalymnos. The fisherman handed over the corroded metal figure to authorities, who have started the cleaning process.

Dating to the late 2nd century B.C., the statue represented a male rider wearing ornate breast armor over a short tunic and armed with a sheathed sword. The trunk of the horseman and his raised right arm.

Opened before its time

A supernova seen in 2005 has been traced to a massive star that looked too young to explode.

Massive young star explodes 'before its time'

Cold Fusion

The pursuit of abundant, dirt-cheap energy via cold fusion is now being taken much more seriously, thanks to tell-tale evidence from a US lab.

Is room-temperature fusion in from the cold?

Science News

In Science News:

Venus' clouds 'might harbor life'

Coral colony as old as the pyramids

Health News

In Health News:

Exposure to insecticide may play role in obesity epidemic among some women

Steak and hot dogs linked to early death

Cat-Tails For Two

Speedy Gonzales

Cop News

In Cop News:

15-year-old tasered to death by police

Woman arrested for videotaping her son's arrest

Liars and Fools

Today's Liars and Fools are:

Boner (r-Ohio) lies saying that Obama allowed AIG bonuses by signing stimulus bill
Bonehead, his name is Bonehead, people - that should tell you something.

Jindal (r-Louisiana) wants "Intelligent Design" taught with evolution in science classes
Further proving what a pitiful, sad, pathetic cartoon character he really is.

repugicans complaining loudest about AIG bonuses opposed all forms of executive compensation limits
Mouth the words, vote the opposite - typical repugicans.

McPain (r-Arizona) says Obama's budget is a "risky, debt-ridden threat to the nation"
Like we're listening to McPain.

Celebrating six-year anniversary of attack on Iraq, Rice reiterates lie that the shrub/cabal junta never tried to link Saddam Hussein with 9/11
Oh, no, she didn't! How many links are there on the web to the fact that they did just that ... millions, tens of millions ...

Palin (r-Alaska) rejects stimulus funding for disadvantaged and special needs students
Typical repugican ... wanna bet there is a new jacuzzi in the Palin's back yard though.

Sanford (r) explains his rationale, wrongly, for rejecting $700-million in stimulus for South Carolina
This guy is a complete and total idiot, enough said.

Joe the Plumber (who's not a plumber) tells conservatives: "I'm horny"
You're also, dumb, ugly and ...

CNN's Whitfield advances false repugican claim that recovery bill created right for AIG to pay bonuses
Hey, Whitfield, your lobotomy results are in - and it doesn't look good.

On MSNBC, Carlson rewrites history to blame Frank for mortgage crisis
This is just too stupid for further comment.

CNBC's Cramer resurfaces and calls Comedy Central's Stewart naïve and misleading
This from a complete idiot - just who is misleading who, again?

CNBC's Haines says "you can't really... expect that these Wall Street companies are going to be run well by a bunch of people who don't make more than $250,000"
I can and I do, expect Wall Street companies to be run by someone making less than $250K.

L.A. Times' Malcolm falsely claims that press was barred from press award ceremony
maybe only Malcolm was barred - chew on that a while.

L.A. Times' Malcolm mocks the unemployed
This from someone who shall as he mocked shortly?!

Wall Street Journal's McGurn smears Michelle Obama
Beware the wrath, McGurn, beware the wrath.

Ingraham to immigration activist: "La-la-la-la-la I can't hear you"
The fingers in the ears shtick didn't work on the recess playground, either.

Dimbulb claims "not one repugican voted for the TARP bailout"
He's wrong of course, but what else is new?!

Dimbulb on response to AIG: "We now have mob rule the way it started in Nazi Germany"
No, we got rid of 'mob rule' when we elected a true president and he took office

Dimbulb says it's "popular myth that McCarthy falsely accused people of things"
No myth to it, McCarthy never truthfully accused anyone of anything everyone of his 'accusations' was a bold faced lie

Goldberg says dictionaries have a 'liberal' bias
Yes, just like the 'media' has a liberal bias - Reality, that is what has a 'liberal' bias.

Water On Fire

So much natural gas is leaking into a Fort Lupton, Colorado couple's water well that they can light it on fire as it flows from their bathroom sink.

From CBS4Denver.com:

The Colorado Oil and Gas Commission leaders say it's tried to find the origin of the leak. Director Dale Neslin says "We've looked at well compilation reports, taken gas samples to look for a match, done pressure testing and we've not been able to find the well that appears to be causing the problem."

The Ellsworths say they approached Noble Energy and Anadarko Petroleum - the two companies that operate the nearby wells - and begged for help. They say the companies initially refused to do anything. But, at the urging of the Oil and Gas Commission, they have now agreed to put in a water treatment system at the home.

Flammable Water Found In Ft. Lupton Home

Chilies are Hot

University of Washington ecologist Joshua Tewskbury spends much of his time on a quest for wild chili peppers. Fueled by coca leaves, he is seeking answers to questions about the evolution of the plants, specifically why wild chilis are hot. In central Bolivia, Tewksbury is exploring the natural function of capsaicin, the heat-generating chemical found in the plant. Smithsonian's Brendan Borrell recently went into the forest with him.

From Smithsonian (Wikimedia Commons photo):

Bolivia is believed to be the chili's motherland, home to dozens of wild species that may be the ancestors of all the world's chili varieties—from the mild bell pepper to the medium jalapeño to the rough-skinned naga jolokia, the hottest pepper ever tested. The heat-generating compound in chilies, capsaicin, has long been known to affect taste buds, nerve cells and nasal membranes (it puts the sting in pepper spray). But its function in wild chili plants has been mysterious.

Which is why Tewksbury and his colleagues have made multiple trips to Bolivia over the past four years. They're most interested in mild chilies, especially those growing near hot ones of the same species—the idea being that a wild chili lacking capsaicin might serve as a kind of exception that proves the rule, betraying the secret purpose of this curiously beloved spice...

"Capsaicin demonstrates the incredible elegance of evolution," says Tewksbury. The specialized chemical deters microbes—humans harness this ability when they use chilies to preserve food—but capsaicin doesn't deter birds from eating chili fruits and spreading seeds. "Once in a while, the complex, often conflicting demands that natural selection places on complex traits results in a truly elegant solution. This is one of those times."

What's So Hot About Chili Peppers?

Packed with guns, money, dope

Three vaults in Arizona are used store contraband nabbed by US port inspectors and customs agents on Arizona's 370-mile border with Mexico.

A reporter from the Arizona Republic visited one of them, in Nogales, where racks are packed with 27,000 pounds of marijuana, boxes of speed, coke, and guns.
A file cabinet holds half-a-million dollars in cash.

From the Arizona Republic:

The Nogales vault, the largest of three such facilities in Arizona, represents just one stop in the government's enormous disposal network. Security is tight at the facility, which is surrounded by fences topped with razor wire and signs warning, "Restricted Area."

There is a lock on the gate, two more on doors leading into the main room. All who pass through must sign successive log sheets as they enter and again when they leave.

A trio of port inspectors arrives from Lukeville with freshly seized marijuana. The men unload sealed boxes and remove tire-shaped bricks of marijuana, removed from the wheels of a pickup truck. The scales are tested for accuracy. Each curved block of pot is cross-checked with a shipment sheet showing the precise total weight: 59.4 kilograms.

At border, seizures an endless job

Wish You Were Here

Pink Floyd
(live)

New Zealand's copyright law is no more

New Zealand's copyright law that would cost you your Internet connection if you were accused of copyright infringement three times (without proof of any wrongdoing, I might add) is officially dead.

Massive, global interest in the law, as well as a series of savvy Internet protests convinced the government to back off the lunacy that American movie and music companies had led it into.

"Allowing section 92A to come into force in its current format would not be appropriate given the level of uncertainty around its operation," said Commerce Minister Simon Power in a statement. "These discussions have exposed some aspects of section 92A which require further consideration. While the government remains intent on tackling this problem, the legislation itself needs to be re-examined and reworked to address concerns held by stakeholders and the government..."

Users and ISPs were most concerned that the rules would apparently disconnect even huge businesses after a few employees downloaded illicit files. A high-profile judge raised concerns that the procedure could run afoul of contract law in New Zealand. ISPs weren't keen on disconnecting their own customers for the benefit of one set of industries, and they couldn't believe the law provided no indemnification from lawsuits; the ISP could be sued both by users and rightsholders if they didn't like the way it was handling the three strikes program. And users wanted some form of third-party or judicial arbitration before any Internet disconnection...

As for all those worries about false positives and the quality of evidence? RIANZ has never taken them too seriously, since (like the RIAA) it insists that its detection methodology is basically foolproof. In a recent interview posted on the RIANZ website, CEO Campbell Smith was asked if he would "eat his hat" if music industry copyright notifications turned out to contain numerous errors.

"3 strikes" strikes out in NZ as government yanks law

Alaskan volcano erupts five times

Mount Redoubt rumbles back to life, sending an ash plume more than 9 miles high into the air.

Alaska's Mount Redoubt volcano, which had been capricious for two months, erupted Sunday night at 10:38 p.m., sending an ash cloud 50,000 feet above sea level.
The Alaska Volcano Observatory recorded four more large explosions during the night.

Tina Neal, a geologist with the US Geological Survey, said that "so far the major population centers in south-central alaska have been spared any kind of dusting of ash." (Read more here).

The Alaska Volcano Observatory staff also warned authorities at the drift river oil terminal -- on the western shore of Cook Inlet downriver from the volcano -- that mud flows and flooding from melting glaciers might be headed their way. Cook Inlet Pipe Line company, which operates the terminal, said early this morning that it had begun shutting the facility down. (Read more here).

Alaskan volcano erupts five times

The really BIG 'O'

From Scientific American:

The Ogallala Aquifer, the vast underground reservoir that gives life to the fields of the Midwest, is disappearing.

In some places, the groundwater is already gone.

Scientists say it will take natural processes 6,000 years to refill the reservoir.

The Ogallala Aquifer: saving a vital u.s. water source.

A Wiemar Moment

This should scare the bejesus out of any true American.

The US is Facing a Weimar Moment

By Robert Freeman

March 16, 2009 “Commondreams” — — In early 1919, Germany put in place a new government to begin rebuilding the country after its crushing defeat in World War I. But the right-wing forces that had led the country into the War and lost the War conspired even before it was over to destroy the new government, the “Weimar Republic.” They succeeded.

The U.S. faces a similar “Weimar Moment.” The devastating collapse of the economy after eight years of Republican rule has left the leadership, policies, and ideology of the right utterly discredited. But, as was the case with Germany in 1919, Republicans do not intend to allow the new government to succeed. They will do everything they can to undermine it. If they are successful, the U.S. may yet go the way of Weimar Germany.

World War I left Germany utterly devastated. The landed aristocrats, industrial magnates, wealthy financiers, weapons makers, and the officer corps of the military that formed the locus of right wing power were completely discredited. Their failure in provoking and prosecuting the War was catastrophic, undeniable, and complete.

The economy was destroyed. Prices were at 800% of pre-war levels and rising quickly. Agriculture, pillaged for the War, lay in ruins. Social insurance payments for the War’s injured, to widows and orphans, and newly unemployed soldiers were astronomical. And all this was before the cost of rebuilding was even begun.

At the same time, Germany faced massive reparations payments to the Allied victors, France and England. But Germany’s foreign properties had been confiscated and its colonies turned over to the victors. The combination of these conditions, both domestic and international, made it extraordinarily difficult for the German economy to recover.

As a result of the failure of the right, the German people elected a moderately leftist government to lead the nation’s rebuilding. It was named the Weimar Republic for the city in which the new post-imperial constitution was written. The new government was led by Friedrich Ebert, head of the German Socialist Party.

But the country’s new parliamentary system had allowed dozens of parties to run, making it impossible for any one party to win an outright majority. Ebert’s party had achieved the highest portion of votes, 38%, in the first post-War elections, held in January 1919. Ebert would have to govern by coalition.

It was at this time that the right wing made its crucial decision. Despite its shocking, naked failure over the prior decade, despite the horrific devastation it had wrought on the German people, despite the discrediting of everything they had purported to stand for, they would fight Ebert, his new government, and its plans for recovery. They would do everything they could to make sure that the new government failed.

Their strategy was two-fold: first, stoke the resentment of the population about the calamitous state of its living conditions-no matter that those conditions had been created by the very right-wing oligarchs who now pretended to befriend the little guy. Rage is rage. It is glandular and unseeing. Once catalyzed it is easy to turn on any subject.

And stoking resentment was easy to do. Just before the War ended, the military concocted its most sensational lie: the German army hadn’t actually been defeated. It had been “stabbed in the back” by communists, traitors, and Jews. It was an easy lie to sell. It entwined an attack on an alien political ideology - liberalism- with the latent, pervasive myth of German racial superiority.

The second strategy of the right was to prevent the new government from succeeding. To begin with, success of the left would conspicuously advertise the failure of the right. Moreover, success by the left would legitimize republican government, so hated by the oligarchs of the right. Much better for the people to be ruled by the self-aggrandizing right-wing autocracy that had governed Germany for centuries.

So the rightists set out to do everything they could to make it impossible for the leftists to govern. They would use parliamentary maneuver, shifting coalitions, domination of the new mass media, legislative obstruction, staged public relations spectacles, relentless pressure by narrow but powerful interests, judicial intimidation and, eventually, outright murder of their political opponents.

Contrition for their abject failure, humility for their destructive hubris, compassion for their crippled country-those had nothing to do with it. All they possessed was a blinding, visceral hatred of the left and a masturbatory lust for the return to power.

Eventually, they succeeded. Every setback in recovery - and there would inevitably be many - was met with hysterical demonizing of the left wing government. The lie was repeated relentlessly that the government was run by communists, traitors, and Jews-the same furtive cabal that had purportedly stabbed the country in the back at the end of the War. They steadily chipped away at the efficacy and, thereby, the legitimacy of successive republican governments.

By the time of the Great Depression, Adolph Hitler’s ironically named National Socialist Party had become the biggest vote getter in the nation. The Nazis had once been derided as the lunatic fringe of the far right. But the “respectable” right-wing power brokers who had started and lost the Great War anointed Hitler Chancellor in January, 1933.

He immediately suspended the constitution, abolishing most civil liberties. He outlawed opposition parties, began a massive military build-up and a relentless propaganda campaign, and set Germany and the world onto the path of the greatest destruction it would ever know.

America now faces its own “Weimar moment.”

The failure of right wing policy and leadership over the past eight years, especially in matters economic, is comparable to Germany’s right-wing failure in World War I. It is catastrophic, undeniable, and complete.

Consider:

According to the World Economic Forum, forty percent of the entire world’s wealth has been destroyed in the recent financial collapse. In the U.S. alone, between housing and the stock market, more than $18 trillion in wealth has already been destroyed.

The private mega-banks that anchor the financial systems of the western world are bankrupt. This makes it all but impossible to jump-start the western world’s economies which are heavily dependent on bank-system credit to operate.

More than 10,000 homes go into foreclosure every day. More than 20,000 people lose their job every day. And the collapse is accelerating, developing its own self-reinforcing dynamic. Job losses breed foreclosures, reducing demand, leading to more job losses and further degradation of the financial system. None of the stopgaps designed to stanch the bleeding have yet worked. There is no bottom in sight.

Meanwhile, debt has risen to astronomical levels. Reagan and Bush I quadrupled the national debt in only twelve years. Bush II doubled it again in only eight. It is now ten times higher than it was in 1980 when Reagan was elected. Total public and private debt exceeds 300% of GDP, half again higher than it was in 1929.

The government’s unfunded liabilities, promises it has made to the American people but for which no payment source can be identified, now exceed $60 trillion, a literally inconceivable sum that can never, will never, be paid. Federal Reserve economist Lawrence Kotlikoff has suggested that the U.S. government is “actuarially bankrupt.”

The full measure of the nation’s plight is revealed in Hillary Clinton’s first trip as Secretary of State. It was to China, to beg them to fund Obama’s new fiscal deficits. Without loans from China, the U.S. economy cannot be revived. The significance of this cannot be overstated: the U.S. no longer exercises sovereignty over its own economic affairs. That sovereignty now resides in the hands of China, the U.S.’s greatest long-term rival.

Thanks to Republican policies of massive debt and shipping jobs abroad, the U.S. has technically become a colony of China. It exports raw materials and imports finished goods, together with the capital to make up the difference. Should the Chinese decide not to lend the trillions of dollars the U.S. is begging for, the U.S. economy will implode, plummeting onto itself in a World Trade Center-like collapse that will leave dust clouds circling the planet for decades.

Notwithstanding the destruction inflicted on the economy by Republican policies, the most devastating breakdown is in the intellectual foundation on which right wing economic ideology itself is premised. Free market doctrine, the secular religion of right-wing America, is in utter, irretrievable shambles.

One of the most lofty tenets on which free markets are premised is their claim for themselves that they are “efficient,” that is, that market prices always reflect “fundamental values” of assets. But if that’s true, how could the world’s largest insurance company, AIG, have lost 99.5% of its market value in only 18 months? How could the world’s largest bank, Citibank, have lost 98% of its value over the same period?

How could the world’s largest brokerage company, Merrill Lynch, have gone bankrupt and need to be bought by Bank of America? How could the world’s largest car company, General Motors, have lost 95% of its value and stand on the threshold of extinction? How could the world’s largest industrial conglomerate, General Electric, have lost 85% of its value in only 18 months?

If the largest companies in the world, those at the very heart of the capitalist system itself, can lose virtually all of their value in only 18 months, what is the possible meaning of the phrases “efficient markets” and “fundamental value”?

The other core tenets of free market ideology are equally compromised. Major actors are clearly not rational - a breakdown of theological proportions admitted by no less an avatar of the cult than its pope himself, Alan Greenspan. Free markets clearly cannot, will not, regulate themselves. It is precisely their innate, irrepressible propensity for sociopathic greed and predatory fraud that has brought the whole of the world’s economy to the precipice of collapse.

Free markets clearly do not align risk and reward, allocating capital to its most productive uses, as its promoters advertise. They clearly do not automatically return to equilibrium, but must be bailed out with trillions of dollars of injections from the shrinking coffers of the public to the ever-bulging coffers of a private priesthood of pillage and plunder.

And in perhaps the greatest indictment of all, one going back to its primeval roots in Adam Smith’s eighteenth century opus, The Wealth of Nations, the unrestrained behavior of self-interested individuals clearly, manifestly, does not “coalesce as if by an Invisible Hand to the greatest good for the greatest number.”

These are not peripheral premises that have failed. They are not tangential tenets. Efficient markets. Rational actors. Market equilibrium. Risk and reward. Self interest. These are the essential sacraments on which the entire free market system is founded. They are in tatters. And it isn’t that any one of them has been discredited by the glaring, merciless force of events. All of them have been. All of them together. And all of them at the same time.

Free markets have long been the basis for a legitimate - though rightly debated - economic policy framework. But they have become little more than a robotically-recited cultural catechism, a mindless mantra mumbled to mask the looting of the nation’s resources that is the true purpose of Republican economic policy as demonstrated by the staggering upward transfers of wealth that inevitably occur under Republican regimes. A more complete, conspicuous, catastrophic, and irrefutable repudiation of right wing leaders, right wing policies, and right wing ideology could not possibly be contrived.

So what is the right wing response?

They have adopted the strategy and tactics of the failed right wing plotters in Weimar Germany. First, stoke the resentment of the population about the increasingly dire state of its living conditions-no matter that those conditions were created by the very right-wing oligarchs who now pretend to befriend the little guy. Rage is rage. It is glandular and unseeing. Once catalyzed it is easy to turn on any subject.

Second, prevent the new government from succeeding in any meaningful endeavor. The Republicans have set all their efforts to doing everything they can to make sure the Obama administration fails. Rush Limbaugh’s infamous, “I hope he fails” pronouncement is only the beginning of the fomenting of hatred from the right. As Limbaugh said, “Let’s be honest. Every Republican in America is hoping for Obama’s failure.”

The same malignant hope oozes unadulterated from all the other Dogpatch Demagogues that rent themselves out to the Republican party to foment resentment against anything liberal: Joe the “Plumber,” Rick Santelli, Glenn Beck, Michael Savage, Ann Coulter, and virtually every other wing-nut operative whose intellectual stock in trade has been vaporized by the collision of right-wing policies with objective reality.

Equally so for the “respectable” members of the party, the all-but-three Republican members of Congress who refused to sign on to Obama’s first stimulus package and continue to grandstand against every effort toward any form of progress. Contrition for their own abject failure, humility for their destructive hubris, compassion for their crippled country-those have nothing to do with it. All they possess is a blinding, visceral hatred of the left and a masturbatory lust for the return to power.

And what else can they do? Bereft of ideas, bankrupt in ideology, architects of collapse, obstruction is all they have. If Obama is successful, it will not only advertise the full extent of their failure, it will provide a model of liberal governance that would render Republicans irrelevant for decades, much as FDR’s success left them out in the political cold for an entire generation. Liberal failure is a matter of life and death for Republicans.

And it’s not at all clear that the liberals won’t fail. No one should underestimate the task at hand. Never before - not even during the Great Depression - has the country inherited such a daunting, intractable set of economic problems: a debt burden so crushing; inequality so vast; a loss of financial sovereignty so constricting; an intellectual edifice so bankrupt; a private economy so uncompetitive; or an opposition so callously self interested in its own recovery and so cavalierly disinterested in the nation’s.

The economy has been so damaged, successful rescue requires threading a series of policy needles, each of them so complex in their own right that none could be solved by any administration of the past 50 years. This includes rehabilitating and re-regulating the nation’s banking system, restructuring health care, reducing national dependence on oil, reviving manufacturing so as to reduce the trade deficit, rebuilding the nation’s crumbling infrastructure, dealing with a soaring national debt, trying to resuscitate a collapsing housing market, and all the while maintaining the safety net under 77 million baby boomers entering retirement with a net worth 60% what it was only 18 months ago.

Success will require much more than luck, hard work, brilliant policy, or soaring rhetoric. It will require cooperation and contribution from every American. It is those two offerings, cooperation and contribution, that Republicans are intent on withholding, the better to ensure Obama’s failure. Simply put, the Republicans hate Democrats more than they love America.

If they succeed in derailing Obama’s efforts, the cost will be incalculable.

After World War I, one of the consequences of the liberal government’s failure was Adolph Hitler. Hitler had a genius for exploiting the resentment of the German people for their condition. More than 80% of the Nazi party’s members were unemployed. It was these legions of idle thugs who made up the ranks of Hitler’s brownshirt militia, the SA. The right wing oligarchy that had set out from the beginning to destroy the Weimar Republic recognized the potency of resentment and Hitler’s genius at exploiting it. It was they who sponsored Hitler’s ascension to Chancellor in 1933.

Resentment and obstruction are all the right wing in America have to peddle. Their policies are utterly discredited. Their ideology - even by its own standards - is a sham. They are so bereft of leaders, their de facto leader is a former drug addicted, thrice-divorced radio talk show host. That is literally the best they can muster. But they have built a national franchise inciting the downwardly mobile to blame the government, not the right, for their problems, exactly as Hitler did in the 1920s.

The Republican propensity for fascism must not be underestimated. Witness their phony justifications for the war in Iraq, fanning the flames of nationalistic aggression, just as Hitler did with Austria, the Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia, and Poland in the 1930s. Consider their symbiotic embrace of corporate interests in the oil, weapons, telecommunications, pharmaceutical, finance, and other industries-the same type of corporate interests that sponsored Hitler’s ascent to power. Look at their efforts to dismantle civil liberties with the Patriot Act and the Military Commissions Act. Or their relentless, pervasive propaganda laundered through their corporate-owned right-wing media machine.

These are the classic hallmarks of fascism. The strategy is to obstruct recovery, facilitate collapse, and then incite the faux-populism of public resentment to re-install a corporatist oligarchy which has failed, but which will not abide a reduction of its privileges or a diminution of its control. It is a fetid, seditious agenda, awaiting only its own latter day mustachioed messiah for its final fulfillment.

World War I was a once-in-a-millennium upset in the architecture of global power. In four years, it shifted the center of that power from Europe to the United States. But failure now by the U.S. will shift that center once again, from the United States to China, out of the western world where it has resided for the past 500 years. The psychic shock to the billion-odd people living in western civilization, with its liberal democracies, capitalist economies, and Enlightenment ideals, will be incalculable, irretrievable.

This shift may be inevitable and only a matter of time. It is quite possible that the damage inflicted on the western world’s economy by rapacious Republicans is already beyond repair. But it will be tragedy beyond measure if such a shift is consummated by the very wrecking crew that took us down the road to ruin, all the while so unctuously proclaiming “patriotism” as its crowning ideal. They are not patriots and their goal is not the revival of American power. It is the revival of their own power, even at the expense of America’s. They represent a very dangerous threat to the nation’s future.

*****

We cannot allow the repugicans to destroy America. We will never allow them to form Amerikkka.
They truly hate America and all it stands for even as they are yelling that any who disagrees with them are the ones who hate America - the NAZIS did the same thing.

Unusual Holidays and Celebrations

Today happens to be
National Puppy Day,
Near Miss Day
and
World Meteorological Day
if you must know.

Fastest-ever flashgun captures image of light wave

However hard you stare, you would still miss it. Researchers have found a way to generate the shortest-ever flash of light - 80 attoseconds (billionths of a billionth of a second) long.

Such flashes have already been used to capture an image of a laser pulse too short to be "photographed" before.

The light pulses are produced by firing longer, but still very short laser pulses into a cloud of neon gas. The laser gives a kick of energy to the neon atoms, which then release this energy in the form of brief pulses of extreme ultraviolet light.

The trigger pulses fired at the neon cloud are themselves only 2.5 femtoseconds, billionths of a millionth of a second, long, says team member Eleftherios Goulielmakis at the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Garching, Germany.

Read the rest: Fastest-ever flashgun captures image of light wave.

Space storm alert: 90 seconds from catastrophe

It is midnight on 22 September 2012 and the skies above Manhattan are filled with a flickering curtain of colorful light. Few New Yorkers have seen the aurora this far south but their fascination is short-lived. Within a few seconds, electric bulbs dim and flicker, then become unusually bright for a fleeting moment. Then all the lights in the state go out. Within 90 seconds, the entire eastern half of the US is without power.

A year later and millions of Americans are dead and the nation's infrastructure lies in tatters. The World Bank declares America a developing nation. Europe, Scandinavia, China and Japan are also struggling to recover from the same fateful event - a violent storm, 150 million kilometres away on the surface of the sun.

It sounds ridiculous. Surely the sun couldn't create so profound a disaster on Earth. Yet an extraordinary report funded by NASA and issued by the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in January this year claims it could do just that.

Over the last few decades, western civilizations have busily sown the seeds of their own destruction. Our modern way of life, with its reliance on technology, has unwittingly exposed us to an extraordinary danger: plasma balls spewed from the surface of the sun could wipe out our power grids, with catastrophic consequences.

Read the rest at New Scientist.

Also read We must heed the threat of solar storms

Tabasco Road

Speedy Gonzales

Our Readers

Some of our readers today have been in:

Port-Au-Prince, Quest, Haiti
Ballarat, Victoria, Australia
London, England, United Kingdom
Lisbon, Lisboa, Portugal
Linz, Oberosterreich, Austria
Birmingham, England, United Kingdom
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Kiev, Kyiyiv, Ukraine
Oslo, Oslo, Norway
Newquay, England, United Kingdom
Helsinki, Southern Finland, Finland
Beijing, Beijing, China
Zagreb, Grad Zagreb, Croatia
Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands

as well as Scotland, Spain, Greece, Wales, Northern Ireland and Germany

Daily Horoscope

Today's horoscope says:

You haven't gotten your flirt on in a while, and it's high time you made a few toes curl and giggles erupt from the people you meet every day. Flirting is fun. It doesn't have to lead to a marriage proposal. Just do it because you're good at it!

Oh, yeah, I'm good at it all right

Breathless

The Corrs
(This is one very good Brother and Sisters act.)

Hotel rooms in wine-casks

The Netherlands' Hotel de Vrouwe van Stavoren features rooms built inside giant, 14,500 liter wine-casks:

The rooms offer two single beds as well as an attached sitting room and bathroom. These rooms have been pretty popular with tourists in the sleepy village of Stavoren. If you get tired of the in-room television and radio, you can rent a bicycle and travel along one of the many popular bike paths to see the old growth forests and beach. There is even a famous statue of “Lady van Stavoren” to keep an eye on the harbor as well as an eccentric local story to go along with it.

The wine casks are a great reuse as hotel rooms because of their ability to seal tightly. Visitors have stayed in the hotels four special recycled rooms from all over the world. Prices for the rooms range from approximately $150 a night to about $40 a night depending on the length of your stay and the season you go in. How can you afford not to?

Gives a new meaning to the phrase Sleep it Off Inside a Wine Cask doesn't it?!

Clinton responds to Coulter

Late Show with David Letterman

Trends

Speaking of trends and such ...

Just when I post that our readers are trending to be the most on Wednesdays, they up and do it this past week on Monday. So much for that particular trend, then.

One trend that is going strong is the trend toward more readers - we are now just half a million places out of first place as the blog with the most authority on Technorati's list ... not too shabby for only being on their list for only three months, and started out over two million places out of first.

We want to thank our readers for making this possible for this little ol'blog.

The Best (and Worst) Fast-Food French Fries

Looking at these seven:
-Arby's Curly Fries
-Burger King's French Fries
-Carl's Jr.'s Natural-Cut Fries
-Dairy Queen's French Fries
-Jack in the Box's Natural Cut Fries
-McDonald's French Fries
-Wendy's French Fries

Notes: The numbers below are estimated reports by each restaurant's official website.

Calorie-wise:

The Best
Dairy Queen wins with 2.69 calories/gram
Jack in the Box is close behind with 2.71 calories/gram

The Worst
McDonald's it is, with 3.25 calories/gram

Those stats may sound like just a few calories' difference, but that's a 21% difference, which adds up since a large serving tends to be around 190 grams.

But there are other stats to look at...

Here's the zero trans fat team:
Burger King
Carl's Jr.
Dairy Queen
McDonald's
Wendy's

This one is the trans fattiest:
Jack in the Box

How about saturated fat?

The Best
Dairy Queen (0.018g saturated fat/gram of fries)

The Worst
Arby's (0.037g saturated fat/gram of fries)

Also remember that a good deal in dollars, doesn't translate to your diet, and a "large fries" means something different to everyone:

Large Fries Serving Sizes
McDonald's: 154g
Carl's Jr.: 184g
Wendy's: 184g
Dairy Queen: 186g
Arby's: 190g
Burger King: 194g
Jack in the Box: 236g

Just remember they are stil French FRIES and know what you're getting.

The Raven

Vincent Price recites Edgar Allen Poe's 'Raven'

Corn Syrup vs. Sugar

From TreeHugger:

In an article published Friday in the New York Times, Kim Severson reports on how food manufacturers are moving away from using low-priced but high calorie corn syrup to sugar. The reason: customer perception. What, did you expect health and nutrition?

Article continues: Corn Syrup vs. Sugar: Which is sweeter for your diet?

Land Degradation Endangers Quarter of World Population

From TreeHugger:

photo Josh Sommers

Land degradation is the decline in soil, water, and vegetation quality - the very things we depend on for life. For the first time scientists have used satellite pictures and GIS software to assess the degradation of land over the entire Earth. They found that from 1981-2003, 24% of the globes land surface has been degraded, often in productive areas.

"Degradation is primarily driven by land management and catastrophic natural phenomena." said Dr. David Dent, one of the authors.

Article continues: Land Degradation Endangers Quarter of World Population

Oil Spill Clean-Up May Be More Harmful to Fish than the Oil Spill

From TreeHugger:

Photo: ingrid taylar

Oil spills just got messier. According to a biologist at Queen's University, the detergents used to clean oil spills may be more harmful to fish than the oil that gets spilled. Biology professor Peter Hodson warns that the oil-dispersing detergents that do such a bang-up job of degrading and diluting oil in the long term increase the bioavailability and the toxicity of the oil to rainbow trout by 100-fold in the short term.

Article continues: Oil Spill Clean-Up May Be More Harmful to Fish than the Oil Spill

Elbonian Trip

Dilbert

How to Get Bruce Lee Like Strength Without Ever Going to a Gym

This should be of interest to some.

Bruce Lee was a paragon of cool and an icon of the ultimate bad-ass. Not only were his martial arts skills incredible, but he had such an impressive physique that even bodybuilders in the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger admired him.

How to Get Bruce Lee Like Strength Without Ever Going to a Gym

Wall Street's Economic Crimes Against Humanity

From Truthout:

By refusing to consider the consequences of their actions, those who created the financial crisis exemplify the banality of evil, writes Shoshana Zuboff.

The financiers at AIG were awarded millions in bonuses because their contracts were based on the transactions they completed, not the consequences of those transactions. A 32-year-old mortgage broker told me: "I figured my job was to get the transaction done ... Whatever came after the transaction - that was on him, not me." A long list of business executives have reaped sumptuous rewards even though they fractured the world's economy, destroyed trillions of dollars in value, and disfigured millions of lives.

Truthout

Unusual Holidays and Celebrations

Today has been International Goof-Off Day!

And I have been observing this celebration with gusto today - goofing off every chance I can get.

Healthy Cooking

Latin American recipes are full of ingredients that are medicinal (and taste good too).

Some things common in Latin cuisine are:

Chamomile (manzanilla): Used by adults to soothe an upset stomach, as a sleep aid and to treat irritated or red eyes.

Cinnamon tea (te de canela): Believed to help regulate blood sugar in diabetics, relieve cold symptoms and cure diarrhea.

Cactus (nopal): Cactus is thought to have beneficial effects on blood sugar levels in diabetics, to aid digestion and to help heal stomach ulcers.

Flaxseed (linaza): Scientifically proven to be a good source of omega-3 fatty acids, flaxseed is thought to clean the intestines and help prevent arteriosclerosis.

Chili Peppers (chilies): Offer relief from the common cold by promoting mucus drainage.

To find out more got to latinonutrition.org/.

Also, chilies help with blood flow by acting as blood thinners and making it easier for cholesterol to be reduced.

Super Duped

Johnny Bravo

The Weirdest laws in the world

In these countries, don't stroll around in your swimsuit, pay with pennies, or chew gum.

No Feeding Pigeons

Italy: Laws here are city-specific, and Venice takes issues with pigeons speckling their beloved buildings with pigeon poop. Likewise, officials don’t appreciate tourists adding to the crowd and mess in St. Marks Square by feeding said pigeons. They also don’t want visitors sitting around shirtless, climbing into fountains, or even sitting on the sidewalk eating a sandwich. In Rome, climbing into fountains to cool off causes similar stress.

Penalty: At first, just a warning; fines can reach up to $600, though probably no more than $50 or $60 if you pay quickly. “The local police are quite tolerant about tourists feeding pigeons just to take a picture,” says a Venice spokesman.

Stopping On the Autobahn

Germany: As though driving the autobahn in Germany weren’t daunting enough, the laws add other risks. Running out of gas on the legendary highway is illegal — and your troubles snowball from there. Say you do find the needle on “E” and have to pull over to hoof it, in pursuit of gas. Walking along the autobahn is illegal, too... not to mention terrifying.

Penalty: A little under $100 for endangering other drivers — once for running out of gas, and again for walking.

Driving Shirtless

Thailand: Don’t let the tropical weather tempt you to joy ride with your shirt off in Thailand. Police can (and do) hand out tickets if they spot you topless while driving a car or motorcycle.

Penalty: A mere slap on the wrist (or sun-burned shoulders). Tickets go for a few hundred baht (about $10).

Paying in Pennies

Canada: Canada’s Currency Act of 1985 sets out the guidelines for how coins should be used, including reasonable limits for the shelling out of endless coins. What’s reasonable? Don’t try using all coins to buy something that costs $10, or even using all one-dollar coins (sometimes called “loonies”) to pay for an item that costs more than $25. But then, what kind of loony wants to carry so many coins anyway?

Penalty: If the seller actually wants to take all your pennies, he can, but by law he can also tell you to scram.

No Kissing at Train Stations

France and England: By some accounts, April 5, 1910 was the day romance died on French railways: Kissing was reportedly banned to help deter lover-induced rail delays. But the law seems to be unheard of today. “Are you sure this isn’t a law in Great Britain?” a French spokeswoman at the consulate asked us. What a coincidence: It turns out that Virgin Trains has recently posted “No Kissing” signs at its station in Warrington Bank Quay, in northwest England.

Penalty: While there’s no penalty now for train-related kissing in France, the folks at Warrington Bank Quay will politely ask you to move your smooching to the designated “kissing zone” near the car park.

Driving a Dirty Car

Moscow: Some say this is just an excuse for Moscow police to over-ticket drivers, but you should still watch the filth factor on your rental car. How dirty is dirty? That’s unclear. A recent newspaper survey explored the idea of how to even define “dirty” — almost half said a car was too filthy if you couldn’t read the license plate, while 9 percent said the determining factor was if you couldn’t see the driver.

Penalty: You can get a ticket. Fines might be, shall we say, open to interpretation. Here is a case where you might politely offer to pay the officer up front — $100 should cover it — and be on your way.

Strolling in a Bathing Suit

Grenada: Visiting cruise-ship passengers have gotten under the skin of the local police in Grenada, who cringe at tourists walking off the beach during their shore excursions and into town wearing nothing but their swimsuits. The police chief instituted a fine, and supposedly has also expressed interest in fining folks who wear their jeans too low.

Penalty: In theory, a $270 ticket, though the tourist board assures us that they don’t think it has really been enforced.

Driving With Headlights Off

Denmark: Renting a car? You must always drive with headlights on, says the law in Denmark, to distinguish you from a parked car. Do the Danes really drive so slow that there’d be any confusion? Actually, studies have found that other drivers are more aware of surrounding vehicles when other cars’ lights are on, thus reducing accidents. The law may get adopted across the European Union.

Penalty: Driving without headlights will get you a fine of a little under $100.

Chewing Gum

Singapore: Feeding birds, spitting, and not flushing public toilets will also get you in trouble. Singapore’s most quirky-seeming laws stem from the government’s well-meaning desire to keep things tidy — and let’s face it, gum wads, pigeon droppings, and unflushed toilets aren’t pretty. The infamous gum law actually loosened up in 2004, and Nicorette is now legal (though you have to get it through a doctor and they take down names). Selling regular gum is more of a problem than just casually chewing it, a spokesman says. And more changes are on the way: Gambling will become legal later in 2009, and you can now legally dance on top of bars.

Penalty: About $100 a ticket, especially for leaving a toilet un-flushed; many public loos auto-flush, we learned, but it’s wise to double-check on your way out.

Gallows humor to get you through the day

President Obama, in an interview that aired Sunday on CBS News' "60 Minutes," talked about the need to spend taxpayer money to save financial firms and the auto industry.

"I just want to say that the only thing less popular than putting money into banks is putting money into the auto industry," Obama said with a laugh.

Interviewer Steve Kroft asked how that laughter might be perceived, given the economy's troubles.

"There's got to be a little gallows humor to get you through the day," Obama said. "If you had said to us a year ago that the least of my problems would be Iraq, which is still a pretty serious problem, I don't think anybody would have believed it."

Protein From Yellow Peas May Lower Blood Pressure

This is interesting ...

Certain proteins found in the yellow garden pea appear to help lower blood pressure and delay, control or even prevent the onset of chronic kidney disease, at least in rats, a Canadian study has found.

"What we seem to have here is sort of a natural approach to treating this disease, as opposed to the normal pharmacological approach," said the study's lead author, Rotimi E. Aluko, an associate professor in the department of human nutritional sciences at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg. "We're talking about an edible product, not a drug, which can help to reduce blood pressure and, at the same time, reduce the severely negative impact of kidney disease."

Aluko and his colleagues were to present their findings Sunday at the American Chemical Society's national meeting in Salt Lake City. The study was underwritten by several Canadian government entities.

Kidney disease affects an estimated 13 percent of American adults, the authors noted, and is a notoriously difficult disease to treat, with most people eventually succumbing to cardiovascular complications from high blood pressure linked to kidney malfunction.

Because of this, the researchers focused on the potential effect on blood pressure that might come from peas, long-heralded as a cholesterol-free source of fiber and protein.

After purifying a mix of yellow garden pea proteins, collectively called "pea protein hydrolysate," the researchers spent eight weeks feeding the derivative to rats that had kidney disease.

They found that blood pressure dropped 20 percent in the rats treated with the pea protein mixture, compared with the blood pressure of untreated rats.

They also found that urine production, which can be severely curtailed by kidney function breakdown, improved by upwards of 30 percent among the treated rats.

Despite the positive findings, the researchers do not advocate the ad hoc consumption of yellow green peas. They explained that a complex protein purification process is needed to activate what is otherwise a dormant vegetable benefit.

The pea protein would need to be mixed with certain enzymes into a food additive or nutritional supplement in liquid or pill form. In that form, Aluko said, it might be easier to tolerate than blood pressure drugs, given the pea protein's natural sourcing. A natural treatment, he said, would also eliminate the risk for overdosing.

He said that human trials are underway and that, if successful, a pea-based therapy might be available in two to three years.

Dr. George Bakris, director of the hypertensive diseases unit at the University of Chicago, described the finding as "fascinating."

"This is not the first time that the secret to blood pressure control has been found in Mother Nature," Bakris noted. "Ten years ago, a substance was isolated in celery, for example, that also had a controlling effect. But here what they seem to have shown is that there is a substance in this pea, when cleaved, which works in a similar fashion to the ACE inhibitors that have been out for the last 25 years. So basically, they have a natural substance that works like standard drugs we know a lot about."

"Of course, we have to see what the human studies show, " Bakris cautioned. "But if the results are as compelling as they were in animals, then this would potentially be a very reassuring, exciting and positive development as it is certainly very difficult to control blood pressure in people with kidney disease."

I guess I better learn to eat peas then ... want to keep the blood pressure as low as I can and still be healthy.

Alert level raised for Alaska's Mount Redoubt volcano

Increased earthquake activity has prompted scientists to raise the alert level for Alaska's Mount Redoubt volcano.

Geologists at the Alaska Volcano Observatory said Sunday that seismic activity had increased over the past two days. On Sunday morning, 40 to 50 earthquakes were being recorded every hour.

Scientists said conditions may evolve rapidly and culminated in an eruption within days to weeks at the volcano roughly 100 miles southwest of Anchorage.

A steam plume rising about 1,000 feet above the mountain peak was observed Saturday.

The observatory issued a warning in late January that an eruption could occur at any time.

Bikers brawl through Australian airport;

Warring bikers brawled through Australia's largest airport Sunday, beating one suspected gang member to death and brandishing metal poles "like swords" as they rampaged through the main domestic terminal in front of terrified travelers.

Police said a group of suspected gang members was ambushed as they disembarked from an airplane.

"A fight ensued, the fight moved through various parts of the terminal," said Police Detective Inspector Peter Williams. He said 15 men were involved in the violence, which rampaged from the ground floor up one level to the departures hall before most of the men fled.

Williams said one man died in a hospital from head injuries after the brawl, which appeared to bear out warnings of an impending biker war in Sydney.

Bikers brawl through Australian airport; 1 dead

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Sungrazer
Credit: LASCO, SOHO Consortium, NRL, ESA, NASA

Algal blooms dump toxins

The neurotoxin in algal blooms that causes shellfish poisoning sinks to the ocean floor and could poison marine mammals, birds and humans.

Algal blooms dump toxins on the ocean floor

Frisbeetarianism

'Frisbeetarianism' is the belief that when you die, your soul goes up on the roof and gets stuck.

~ George Carlin

The 'God Particle'

Something that the fundies don't want to happen because it will upset their world dynamic (ok, ok, ok, so everything upsets their world dynamic).

The next set of results out of the Tevatron particle accelerator might just reveal a sighting of the elusive Higgs boson.

Search closes in on the 'God particle'

Lovelorn Leghorn

Foghorn Leghorn

Spelunking = Deadly?

A fungal infection called white nose syndrome is killing US bats, and cavers could be carriers.

Are cavers spreading lethal bat disease?

Crackdown on Big Pharma

Critics of the drugs industry hope that a case of prominent scientific fraud will spark a crackdown on the use of science for marketing ends by Big Pharma.

Drug data fraud may spark marketing crackdown

Jakobshavn and Rubber Ducks

Sometime, it is just that simple.

To keep track of climate change, scientists around the world employ some of the most sophisticated devices and machines found in the 21st century.
Still, sometimes scientists just need a rubber ducky.

Rubber ducks dropped into Greenland's Jakobshavn glacier to track ice flow.

Our Readers

Some of our readers today have been in:

Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Norwich, England, United Kingdom
Charleroi, Hainaut, Belgium
Mumbai, Maharashta, India
Chenni, Tamil Nadu, India
Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India
Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Bristol, England, United Kingdom
Skopje, Aracinovo, Macedonia
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Poznan, Wiekopolskie, Poland
Amsterdam, Noor-Holland, Netherlands
Bangkok, Krung Thep, Thailand
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

as well as Denmark, Norway, Ireland and Greece

Daily Horoscope

Today's horoscope says:

Words are your best weapon now, because your wit is sharp and your jokes are funny.

Damn! Those horoscope people are good!