Less Vacations for Americans

Bummer news: U.S. workers are either too afraid or too busy to take all of their vacation. Read more

The truth hurts

'In Cold Blood' murderers investigated in Florida

At the end of 1959, two families of four — one in Kansas, the other in Florida — were brutally murdered.

Two men were arrested, charged and executed in the Kansas case, and writer Truman Capote captured the horrific tale in his iconic true crime book, "In Cold Blood."

The Florida murder of two parents and two children was investigated by dozens of detectives over the years, but it remained unsolved. Now, a detective is trying to prove that the men who were executed in Kansas were also responsible for the Florida slayings.

"It's like putting together a jigsaw puzzle," said Sarasota County Sheriff's detective Kimberly McGath, who began re-investigating the murders of Cliff and Christine Walker and their two young children in 2007.

McGath said there is evidence that points to two men who are now in a Kansas cemetery for executed prisoners: Perry Smith and Richard Hickock.

DNA recovered from semen found on Christine Walker's underwear could be compared to the remains of Smith and Hickock, said McGath. She is working with Kansas authorities to petition a judge there to approve exhuming the bodies of the two men.

Linking long-dead killers to unsolved homicides is becoming more common.

In Chicago, the Cook County Sheriff's Department is trying to find out whether serial killer John Wayne Gacy could be responsible for any more deaths. Officials there are entering murderers' DNA profiles into a national database shared with other law-enforcement agencies. The move is based on an ironic legal distinction: The men were technically listed as homicide victims themselves because they were put to death by the state.

Authorities hope to find DNA matches from blood, semen, hair or skin under victims' fingernails that link the long-dead killers to the coldest of cold cases. And they want investigators in other states to follow suit and submit the DNA of their own executed inmates or from decades-old crime scenes.
Kansas officials said this week they have talked with Florida detectives and would continue to help if the Florida detectives file an exhumation petition in court.

Hickock and Smith are buried on a gently sloping hill at the Mount Muncie Cemetery in Lansing, Kan. The state of Kansas interred its executed criminals there when their families didn't claim the bodies. There are about 28,000 graves.

Cemetery manager Gene Kirby said the Hickock and Smith graves regularly draw visitors, particularly around the anniversary of the Clutter slayings or when "In Cold Blood" receives media attention.

"We have a fair amount of people come out and ask where they're buried, want to come down and actually see the graves," Kirby said. "If there's anything in the news that kind of piques the interest."

The possibility that the pair was involved in the Florida murderers has been considered since 1960, according to records released by the Sarasota Sheriff's Office.
After Smith and Hickock killed the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kan., on Nov. 15, 1959, they fled to Florida in a stolen car. They were spotted at least a dozen times from Tallahassee to Miami and points in between.

On Dec. 18, the two men checked into a Miami Beach motel and checked out the next day. That day, the Walker family was killed at their home on a ranch in the small community of Osprey about four hours northwest of Miami near Sarasota.

Cliff Walker was shot to death and his wife was beaten, raped and then shot. Three-year-old Jimmie was shot to death and his 2-year-old sister was shot and drowned in a bathtub. The gruesome scene days before Christmas shocked investigators. News stories at the time noted that there were gifts around the tree.

At some point on the same day, Smith and Hickock bought items at a Sarasota department store. On Dec. 21, witnesses say they spoke with Smith and Hickock in Tallahassee.
McGath said the Walkers had been considering buying a 1956 Chevy Bel Air, which was the kind of car Smith and Hickock had stolen and were driving through Florida. McGath thinks that somehow, the Walkers and the killers met because of the car.

The detective found witness statements — and talked to people who are still alive — who said they saw Smith and Hickock in the Sarasota area around the time of the Walker murders. One witness said the taller of the two men had a scratched-up face.

The pair was later arrested in Las Vegas and a polygraph test cleared them of the Walker murders. But in 1987, a polygraph expert said those tests in the early 1960s were worthless.
Authorities said the Walkers still have some living relatives both in and outside of Florida but declined to give names. McGath has been the one leading the effort to find their killers.

She hopes the DNA will prove that Smith and Hickock killed the Walker family so the community can have closure, and so the dozens of people falsely accused over the years as suspects in the case can finally have peace of mind.

Kirby said it's likely that only bones remain in the Kansas coffins.

"In this case, it's going to require a backhoe," he said. "Especially with the drought we had this year, the ground is going to be extremely hard."

Kirby hopes that if an exhumation occurs, officials will be able to get the material they need by simply opening the coffin on site, without full removal. He was also concerned about the timing of any exhumation, because relatives visit other graves and decorate them around Christmas.

Kazakh cowboys tour North Dakota, get cattle-tending tips

 
Mananbai Sadykov cuffed his stiff blue jeans over intricately stitched cowboy boots and tread mindfully though minefields of cattle manure at the Helbling Hereford Ranch in central North Dakota.

Sadykov, 48, is no citified dandy, having worked with livestock most of his life in Kazakhstan. But he tried to keep his new duds — a gift from some North Dakota ranchers — cowpie-free. Western wear is rare in the former Soviet republic. And, until recently, so were cows.

About 15 Kazakh cattlemen, Sadykov included, visited North Dakota ranches in November to inspect the state's beef herd and get a hands-on tutorial in tending cattle from veteran cowboys.

"It's not splitting atoms growing cows. But it is hard work," said Mark Archibald, who ranches near Hettinger in southwest North Dakota and hosted a contingent of the Kazakhs. "They haven't had the background to build upon so we're showing them our way of doing things."
Kazakhstan's beef herd was butchered and all but sold off following the downfall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Cattle numbers dropped from about 35 million to about 2 million. To help rebuild that industry, more than 5,000 Hereford and Angus cattle bred to withstand North Dakota's notoriously nasty winters have been sent since 2010 via jumbo jets from Fargo to Kazakhstan, and a shipment of 3,000 more is planned before year's end.
Sadykov has been overseeing several hundred of the relocated ruminants in Kazakhstan, whose climate and landscape are similar to North Dakota's.

"Very good, very tough cows," Sadykov said through an interpreter, while eyeing dozens of hardy Herefords with their thick, hairy coats. "Very good in cold."

North Dakota's cows also typically have more marbling and fatty tissue, which gives the state an advantage in cattle sales, agriculture officials said.

"There are some marketing opportunities there," said Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring, "It's going to take a long time for them to build up their inventory."

Dean Gorder, executive director of the North Dakota Trade Office, said the state has had a strong trade relationship with Kazakhstan and also exports farm machinery.

Gorder and Goehring both have made several visits to Kazakhstan, a million-square-mile landmass that stretches from central Asia to eastern Europe. The largely Muslim country's appetite for beef also is big, Goehring said.
"It's a country that consumes large amounts of meat," he said. "I watch those guys eat and I get a bellyache."
Daulet Chunkunov, a Kazakh trade representative, said the oil-rich nation currently buys the bulk of its processed beef from Europe and Australia but is prepared to spend billions building up its own cattle industry, which could take decades. The Kazakh government paid for the cattlemen's trip to North Dakota.
"We have oil money, a strong domestic market, support of the government and a labor force," Chunkunov said.
Cattle ranching also appeals to many young people in Kazakhstan, Chunkunov said. Several Kazakh cattlemen in their 20s were among those touring North Dakota ranches, getting tips on everything from bovine nutrition and branding to vaccinations and bull castrations.

"I like being a cowboy," said Viktor Kapinus, a tall, wiry 21-year-old who recently started working at a rural ranch well outside of his hometown of Astana in central Kazakhstan.

Kapinus, already comfortable around cows, fearlessly approached and petted a more than 2,000-pound Hereford bull grazing on hay, while of his less-bold sidekicks snapped pictures.

Fred Helbling, who owns the ranch with his brothers, Wayne and Jim, said the Kazakhs may not dress like typical North Dakota cowboys but many are master horsemen who have taken quickly to cows.

"You can't judge a book by its cover," said Fred Helbling, whose great-grandfather emigrated from Russia and homesteaded the sprawling ranch almost a century ago.

Jim Hebling added, "They do have a lot of passion."

Dauletgali Zhaitapov, 24, said his family owns hundreds of horses but only recently expanded into cows, many of which have come from North Dakota. Zhaitapov said he recently participated in a big cattle drive in his country, something he'd only seen before in "John Wayne movies."

"I was like the Marlboro man," he said.

For the love of Ginger

You too can be a loser at the game of social ostracism

Now you can play Cyberball — a computer game that psychology researchers use to study the effects of social ostracism and hurt feelings. Normally, the game is played by test subjects who are hooked up to some kind of brain scanning system and who are told that they are playing against other test subjects in other rooms. In reality, they (and now you!) are playing against a computer program that is designed to exclude you and make you feel unwelcome. Why would someone design such a thing? For science! Of course.

Negative Thoughts? Toss 'em

Physically throwing away negative thoughts helps rid them from the mind, finds research.  

Read more

 

A Royal Spotlight on a Rare Condition

Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, is pregnant with a child who will be in a direct line to inherit the throne of England. The news is not all good, as the Duchess has been hospitalized for treatment of hyperemesis gravidarum, or severe and debilitating morning sickness. The New York Times spoke with Dr. Marlena Fejzo, an obstetrics researcher and former H.G. sufferer, about the condition.

Q. What is hyperemesis gravidarum?
A. It’s severe, debilitating nausea and vomiting in pregnancy that generally leads to more than 5 percent weight loss and requires fluid treatment. Sometimes, in more extreme cases, it requires nutritional supplements.

Q. Are there treatments?
A. Doctors try to give IV and anti-nausea medication at first. About 20 percent of the women who contact the Hyperemesis Education and Research Foundation require tube feeding. It’s very serious. They have to have a tube inserted above their heart. Blood tests have to be done every day, or every other day, and the bag of nutrients has to be monitored to make sure it’s personalized for the woman’s needs. But I don’t think Kate Middleton (based on news reports) has it that bad. She’s just gone in for the IV fluids.

Fejzo also tells us about the prevalence, prognosis, and possible complications of H.G. More

Tapping citizen-scientists for a novel gut check

The bacterial zoo inside your gut could look very different if you're a vegetarian or an Atkins dieter, a couch potato or an athlete, fat or thin.

Now for a fee — $69 and up — and a stool sample, the curious can find out just what's living in their intestines and take part in one of the hottest new fields in science.

Wait a minute: How many average Joes really want to pay for the privilege of mailing such, er, intimate samples to scientists?

A lot, hope the researchers running two novel citizen-science projects.

One, the American Gut Project, aims to enroll 10,000 people — and a bunch of their dogs and cats too — from around the country. The other, uBiome, separately aims to enroll nearly 2,000 people from anywhere in the world.

"We're finally enabling people to realize the power and value of bacteria in our lives," said microbiologist Jack Gilbert of the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory. He's one of a team of well-known scientists involved with the American Gut Project.
Don't be squeamish: Yes, we share our bodies with trillions of microbes, living communities called microbiomes. Many of the bugs, especially those in the intestinal tract, play indispensable roles in keeping us healthy, from good digestion to a robust immune system.
But which combinations of bacteria seem to keep us healthy? Which ones might encourage problems like obesity, diabetes or irritable bowel syndrome?
And do diet and lifestyle affect those microbes in ways that we might control someday?

Answering those questions will require studying vast numbers of people. Getting started with a grassroots movement makes sense, said National Institutes of Health microbiologist Lita Proctor, who isn't involved with the new projects but is watching closely.

After all, there was much interest in the taxpayer-funded Human Microbiome Project, which last summer provided the first glimpse of what makes up a healthy bacterial community in a few hundred volunteers.
Proctor, who coordinated that project, had worried "there would be a real ick factor. That has not been the case," she said. Many people "want to engage in improving their health."
Scott Jackisch, a computer consultant in Oakland, Calif., ran across American Gut while exploring the science behind different diets, and signed up last week. He's read with fascination earlier microbiome research: "Most of the genetic matter in what we consider ourselves is not human, and that's crazy. I wanted to learn about that."
Testing a single stool sample costs $99 in that project, but he picked a three-sample deal for $260 to compare his own bacterial makeup after eating various foods.
"I want to be extra, extra well," said Jackisch, 42. Differing gut microbes may be the reason "there's no one magic bullet of diet that people can eat and be healthy."

It's clear that people's gut bacteria can change over time. What this new research could accomplish is a first look at how different diets may play a role, "a much better understanding of what matters and what doesn't," said American Gut lead researcher Rob Knight of the University of Colorado, Boulder.

"We don't just want people that have a gut-ache. We want couch potatoes. We want babies. We want vegans. We want athletes. We want anybody and everybody because we need that complete diversity," added American Gut co-founder Jeff Leach, an anthropologist.
One challenge is making sure participants don't expect that a map of their gut bacteria can predict their future health, or suggest lifestyle changes, anytime soon.
"I understand I'm not going to be able to say, 'Oh, my gosh, I'll be susceptible to this,'" said Bradley Heinz, 26, a financial consultant in San Francisco. He is paying uBiome $119 to analyze both his gut and mouth microbiomes; just the gut is $69.
"The more people that participate, the more information comes out and the more that everybody benefits," he added.

Participants can sign up for either project via the social fundraising site Indiegogo.com over the next month. They also can send scrapings from the skin, mouth and other sites, to analyze that bacteria. Sign up enough family members or body sites, or be tracked over time, and the price can rise into the thousands. American Gut researchers plan some free testing for those who can't afford the fees, to increase the experiment's diversity.

Don't forget the pets: "We sleep with them, play with them, they often eat our food," Leach said. What bacteria we have in common is the next logical question.

Already, American Gut researchers are preparing to compare what they find in the typical U.S. gut with a few hundred people in rural Namibia, who eat what's described as hunter-gatherer fare. Also, Leach will spend three months living in Namibia next year, and is storing his own stool samples for before-and-after comparison.

But diet isn't the only factor. Your bacterial makeup starts at birth: Babies absorb different microbes when they're born vaginally than when they're born by C-section, a possible explanation for why cesareans raise the risk for certain infections. Taking antibiotics alters this teeming inner world, and it's not clear if there are lasting consequences, especially for young children.

Then there's your environment, such as the infections spread in hospitals. In February, a new University of Chicago hospital building opens and Gilbert will test the surfaces, the patients and their health workers to see how quickly bad bugs can move in and identify which bacteria are protective.

Whatever the findings, all the research marks "a huge teachable moment" about how we interact with microbes, Leach said.

Hey, Silicon Valley, meet Genome Valley

More than 100 biomedical and life science companies are clustered in Genome Valley, a research park in Hyderabad, India.

Greenland Ice Sheet Continues to Thin

The disappearing Greenland Ice Sheet continues to thin along its edges, and could soon open up in the north. Read more 

 

Voyager 1 Can 'Taste' the Interstellar Shore

The 35-year-old probe hasn't quite entered interstellar space, but has entered a "magnetic highway" before it breaks free of the heliosphere. Read more

Cosmic radio waves mimic chirping of 'alien birds'

Twin spacecraft have captured the clearest sounds yet from Earth's radiation belts — and they mimic the chirping of birds. NASA's Van Allen Probes have been exploring the hostile radiation belts surrounding Earth for just three months. But already, they've collected measurements of high-energy particles and radio waves in unprecedented detail.
Scientists said Tuesday these waves can provide an energy boost to radiation belt particles, somewhat like ocean waves can propel a surfer on Earth. What's more, these so-called chorus waves operate in the same frequency as human hearing so they can be heard.
University of Iowa physicist Craig Kletzing played a recording of these high-pitched radio waves at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco.
"Not only do you hear the chirps — the alien birds as my wife calls them — but you hear that sort of cricket-like thing in the background," Kletzing told reporters.
Before, those background sounds were inaudible.
"So this is really a fantastic new measurement," he said.
While the chorus has been audible even before the Space Age — ham radio operators could sometimes hear it in decades past — the clarity of these measurements is "really quite striking," Kletzing said.
Initial findings show the outer radiation belt to be much more dynamic and rapidly changing than anticipated, said the University of Colorado's Daniel Baker, principal investigator for the electron proton telescope on each probe.
The Van Allen probes — formerly known as the Radiation Belt Storm Probes — were launched from Cape Canaveral on Aug. 30. They were named after the late University of Iowa astrophysicist James Van Allen, who discovered the radiation belts that bear his name a half-century ago.

Daily Comic Relief

Hawaiian Corals Perishing in Polluted Paradise

The coral reefs around the Hawaiian islands Oahu and Kauai face an assault from a mysterious disease. Read more

 

The 10 Most Bizarre Cat Breeds on Earth

Did you know that the sphinx is just one of several hairless cat breeds? There are four, count 'em, four  hairless breeds in this list of ten from Environmental Graffiti. Shown here is the Elf cat, a new breed created by Karen Nelson and Kristen Leedom, that reminds one of a certain Jedi master. More

Grizzly managers look toward hunts in Rockies

With bear-human conflicts on the rise, wildlife managers in the Northern Rockies are laying the groundwork for trophy hunts for the animals in anticipation of the government lifting their threatened species status.

It's expected to be another two years before about 600 bears around Yellowstone National Park lose their federal protections, and possibly longer for about 1,000 bears in the region centered on Glacier National Park.

Yet already government officials say those populations have recovered to the point that limited hunting for small numbers of bears could occur after protections are lifted — and without harm to the species' decades-long recovery. That could include hunts in areas of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho where bear-human conflicts and livestock attacks are on the rise.

A federal-state committee that oversees grizzly bears will consider adopting a pro-hunting policy next week during a meeting in Missoula. Precise details on bear hunts have not been crafted.

It's taken decades for grizzlies to rebound from widespread extermination, and some wildlife advocates say it's too soon to talk about a hunt.

But state wildlife officials said hunting is a proven approach of wildlife management that could work for grizzlies just as it does for species such as elk, mountain lions and black bears.

"We have bears that are in conflict (with people), and certainly one of the ways that we could deal with that would be to reduce populations through hunting," said Jim Unsworth, deputy director for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.
"There's the additional benefit of providing probably one of the most sought-after opportunities in North America — the opportunity to hunt a grizzly bear," he added.
Hunting is not being considered for smaller populations of the bears in the Cabinet-Yaak, North Cascades and Selkirk areas of Idaho, Montana and Washington.
Hunting for grizzlies currently is allowed in Canada and Alaska, where hundreds are taken annually.
Grizzlies lost their threatened species status in 2007 in the Yellowstone region, but protections were restored two years later by a federal judge.

Based on that court ruling, the government is now conducting additional studies on a decline in an important food source for some bears — the cones of white bark pine trees. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to again seek to lift the animal's threatened status after the work is completed late next year.

Meanwhile, grizzlies already are dying regularly in the Northern Rockies as the slowly expanding population pushes out of wilderness strongholds and into areas with more people, ranches and croplands.

At least 51 bears have died so far this year in the Yellowstone area, according to the U.S. Geologic Survey. Most have died during run-ins with hunters, who sometimes shoot the animals in self-defense, and at the hands of wildlife agents who kill bears that cause repeated problems.
The bear population is closely tracked, and the government sets limits on the percentage of bears that can die in any given year for the population to remain healthy.

With such detailed accounting, grizzly managers could set hunting limits that the species could safely tolerate without risk to the overall population, said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grizzly coordinator Chris Servheen.

Dave Smith, a conservationist and author of a book on backcountry bear encounters, said there would be nothing to stop government officials from raising those overall mortality limits so more hunting could be accommodated.

"I think the plan is to delist grizzlies based on what we have now and then say, 'Whoa, we're changing everything,'" Smith said. "They can manipulate the numbers any way they want."

Wildlife officials said any hunts would be tightly controlled and highly conservative.

Servheen said they would differ significantly from wolf hunts now taking place in the Northern Rockies. For wolves, states have lifted quotas on the predators with the explicit aim of driving down their pack numbers through aggressive hunting and trapping.

By contrast, said Servheen, "you could probably count on one hand" the number of bears that could be legally killed in any given year if hunting is allowed, he said.

"Hunting is a tool, particularly to reduce populations in some areas on the periphery (of their range) where we may not want a lot of bears. We're trying to get it on the radar screen as we approach the management of healthy, recovered populations," he said.

Animal Pictures

The Daily Drift

Good Dog!

Some of our readers today have been in:

Pretoria, South Africa

Tbilisi, Gerogia

Zagreb, Croatia

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Bangkok, Thailand

Cape Town, South Africa

Valletta, Malta

Katowice, Poland

Manila, Philippines

Bayan Lepas, Malaysia

Durban, South Africa

Almaty, Kazakhstan

Khartoum, Sudan

Jakarta, Indonesia

Belgrade, Serbia

Waterloo, Canada

Maribor, Slovenia

Cukai, Malaysia

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Zawiercie, Poland

Bandar Labuan, Malaysia

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Tirana, Albania

Hanoi, Vietnam

Istanbul, Turkey

Marseilles, France

York, England

Kuwait, Kuwait

Dubai, United Arab, Emirates

Dhaka, Bangladesh

Nsawam, Ghana

Paris, France

Sampaloc, Philippines

Jawa Nusa, Indonesia

Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei


Today is Cookie Day, so eat a cookie.

Don't forget to visit our sister blog! 

Russian Girl Becomes The Face Of the World Famous Game

This pretty lady is Anna Moleva. Since recently she has been Miss Mass Effect 3, and her face is on the cover of the world known game. The developers of the game liked her face so much so they offered her to sign a contract within the promotion campaign Bioshock Infinite and play a role of the main character Elizabeth in the live-action trailer of the game. More

The truth hurts

Mustache transplants on the rise

Turkish plastic surgeon Selahattin Tulunay is performing 50-60 mustache implants every month, helping Middle Eastern men achieve thick, full mustaches. The procedure costs about $7,000.

Pierre Bouhanna is a Paris-based surgeon who, for the past five years, has been performing increasing numbers of mustache implants. He says the majority of his patients come from the United Arab Emirates, Iran, Lebanon and Turkey, with men traveling to France to have the surgery performed.
"My impression is more and more they want to establish their male aspect," he said. "They want a strong mustache."

Mustache Transplants on the Rise in the Middle East 

Today in History

771		With the death of his brother Carloman, Charlemagne becomes sole ruler of the Frankish Empire.
1861		The U.S. Senate, voting 36 to 0, expels Senator John C. Brekinridge of Kentucky because of his joining the Confederate Army.
1861		Queen Victoria of Britain forbids the export of gunpowder, firearms and all materials for their production.
1862		Winchester, Va., falls into Union hands, resulting in the capture of 145 Southern soldiers.
1863		Seven solid days of bombardment ends at Charleston, S.C. The Union fires some 1,307 rounds.
1872		The U.S. brigantine Marie Celeste is found adrift and deserted with its cargo intact, in the Atlantic Ocean between the Azores and Portugal.
1900		The French National Assembly, successor to the States-General, rejects Nationalist General Mercier's proposal to plan an invasion of England.
1914		The first Seaplane Unit formed by the German Navy officially comes into existence and begins operations from Zeebrugge, Belgium.
1918		France cancels trade treaties in order to compete in the postwar economic battles.
1941		Operation Taifun (Typhoon), which was launched by the German armies on October 2, 1941, as a prelude to taking Moscow, is halted because of freezing temperatures and lack of serviceable aircraft.
1942		U.S. planes make the first raids on Naples, Italy.
1947		Tennessee William's play A Streetcar Named Desire premieres on Broadway starring Marlon Brando and Jessica Tandy.
1950		The University of Tennessee defies court rulings by rejecting five Negro applicants.
1952		The Grumman XS2F-1 makes its first flight.
1959		Peking pardons Pu Yi, ex-emperor of China and of the Japanese puppet-state of Manchukuo.
1981		President Ronald Reagan broadens the power of the CIA by allowing spying in the United States.
1985		Robert McFarland resigns as National Security Advisor. Admiral John Poindexter is named to succeed.
1991		The last American hostages held in Lebanon are released.

Non Sequitur

Heart-warming memories

Nostalgia can make you feel warmer

As the nights draw in and the temperature begins to drop, many of us will be thinking of ways to ...

Continue Reading 

The Park That Turns Into A Lake In Summer

Grüner See (Green Lake) is a lake in Styria, Austria near the town of Tragöß. The name 'Green Lake' originated because of its emerald green water. During the winter, the lake is not very deep and the surrounding area is used as a county park.

However, during the spring, when the temperature rises and the snow melts, the basin of land below the mountains fills with water. The Green Lake reaches its maximum depth from mid-May to June and is claimed to look the most beautiful at this time.

University lays lawn in library

Staff at Cornell University in New York yesterday installed grass in the Olin Library.

The grass has apparently been trucked in from the Adirondack Mountains because the feel and sight of it has a 'cognitive relaxing effect.'

Word ...

Finland spends 30 percent less per student than the United States, yet 96 percent of Finns graduate high school and 66 percent go to college.
Find 26 amazing facts about Finland's school system: here

Were you aware ...

That corporations are currently making more as a percentage of the economy than they ever have since such records were kept. But at the same time, wages as a percentage of the economy are at an all-time low - More

But you probably won't hear that on the Faux Newsbubble.

Walmart eliminates health insurance for new hires

"Walmart is effectively shifting the costs of paying for its employees onto the federal government with this new plan"

Walmart, the nation’s largest private employer, plans to begin denying health insurance to newly hired employees who work fewer than 30 hours a week, according to a copy of the company’s policy obtained by The Huffington Post.
Under the policy, slated to take effect in January, Walmart also reserves the right to eliminate health care coverage for certain workers if their average workweek dips below 30 hours -- something that happens with regularity and at the direction of company managers.

More

Boehner: Lower tax rate for rich, cut Medicare

First, here’s repugican House Speaker Boehner’s letter to President Obama.Here’s how National Journal describes the proposal:

Boehner’s counter, based on a proposal that former Clinton administration official Erskine Bowles made before the super committee last year, attempts to use a top Democrat’s framework to yank the negotiations rightward and take the rhetorical high ground.
In addition to the $800 billion in revenue, Boehner’s counteroffer calls for $1.4 trillion in savings, including $600 billion in changes to health programs like Medicare and Medicaid; $300 billion in cuts to mandatory programs; $200 billion in revisions to the way the consumer price index is used by the federal government to set salaries and benefits; and $300 billion in further discretionary spending cuts. And, if measured by the same standards as Obama’s plan, Boehner’s counter would provide $4.6 trillion in deficit reduction, more than the $4 trillion offered by Obama, Republican aides say.
It does not, however, outline how to deal with a country fast approaching its debt limit or sequestration’s across-the-board spending cuts.

Some in town are calling it the worst of the Ryan budget plus the Romney tax plan.
As for Boehner calling this Bowles’ plan, Bowles is saying nuh-uh:

Erskine Bowles

Bowles Statement on Speaker Boehner’s Letter to the President
While I’m flattered the Speaker would call something “the Bowles plan,” the approach outlined in the letter Speaker Boehner sent to the President does not represent the Simpson-Bowles plan, nor is it the Bowles plan. In my testimony before the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, I simply took the mid-point of the public offers put forward during the negotiations to demonstrate where I thought a deal could be reached at that time.
The Joint Select Committee failed to reach a deal, and circumstances have changed since then. It is up to negotiators to figure out where the middle ground is today. Every offer put forward brings us closer to a deal, but to reach an agreement, it will be necessary for both sides to move beyond their opening positions and reach agreement on a comprehensive plan which avoids the fiscal cliff and puts the debt on a clear downward path relative to the economy.

And the White House isn’t thrilled either:

Statement from White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer:
“The repugican letter released today does not meet the test of balance. In fact, it actually promises to lower rates for the wealthy and sticks the middle class with the bill. Their plan includes nothing new and provides no details on which deductions they would eliminate, which loopholes they will close or which Medicare savings they would achieve. Independent analysts who have looked at plans like this one have concluded that middle class taxes will have to go up to pay for lower rates for millionaires and billionaires. While the President is willing to compromise to get a significant, balanced deal and believes that compromise is readily available to Congress, he is not willing to compromise on the principles of fairness and balance that include asking the wealthiest to pay higher rates. President Obama believes – and the American people agree – that the economy works best when it is grown from the middle out, not from the top down. Until the repugicans in Congress are willing to get serious about asking the wealthiest to pay slightly higher tax rates, we won’t be able to achieve a significant, balanced approach to reduce our deficit our nation needs.”

Steve Benen digests the plan further:

John Boehner

So, what’s the pitch? Under this proposal, repugicans would keep all of the shrub-era tax rates, but accept $800 billion in new revenue. How? Through “through pro-growth tax reform that closes special-interest loopholes and deductions while lowering rates.”
From there, the repugican leaders want to cut $600 billion from Medicare and Medicaid; cut $300 billion from mandatory programs; cut $200 billion by changing the consumer price index; and then cut another $300 billion in further discretionary spending.
To call this a “counteroffer” is to strip the word of meaning. Under the repugican plan, repugicans get the more than $1 trillion in spending cuts Obama already gave them; repugicans get the entitlement cuts they want; repugicans get hundreds of billions of dollars in additional cuts to programs they haven’t identified; and repugicans get all of the shrub-era tax rates they’ve prioritized.
This isn’t a “counteroffer”; it’s a Christmas wish list written by kids without access to calculator.

Boehner has now responded to Pfeiffer:

“The repugicans have once again offered a responsible, balanced plan to avoid the fiscal cliff, and the White House has once again demonstrated how unreasonable it has become,” Boehner’s spokesman Brendan Buck said in a statement emailed to TPM. “If the President is rejecting this middle ground offer, it is now his obligation to present a plan that can pass both chambers of Congress.”

A wee bit of a logical fallacy there from Boehner: It’s not the President’s job to send Boehner the plan that the repugicans want, that’s not the way negotiations work. That’s the old Obama. He started fading out two years, and if there were any doubt as to his lingering presence, it seems pretty much gone now.
As for Boehner asking the President to present a proposal that can pass, well, including tax increases in the legislation is wildly popular with the American people.  So that’s a proposal that can pass, but only if the repugicans stop acting bat-shit crazy.
Not to mention, it’s a dangerous notion for Boehner to talk about legislation that can pass.  Because one thing that can pass if the bill that already passed the Senate, extending the middle class tax cuts. Even some repugicans agree that it’s the way to go:

And repugican Tom Cole urged colleagues in a private session Tuesday to vote to extend the shrub tax rates for all but the highest earners before the end of the year — and to battle over the rest later.
The Oklahoma repugican said in an interview with POLITICO that he believes such a vote would not violate Grover Norquist’s anti-tax pledge and that he’s not alone within repugican circles.

And even wingnut repugicans have said they think it would pass the House. From CNN:

In remarks at the White House, Obama urged Americans to call, e-mail and tweet their members of Congress to urge immediate passage of his proposal to extend tax cuts for most Americans while allowing rates on the wealthiest 2% to increase to 1990s levels.

House Speaker John Boehner immediately shot down the call by veteran Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma for the chamber to approve the Senate measure, saying he disagreed with his colleague. House repugican aides insisted there was no plan to bring the proposal up for a vote.
However, the public call by Cole — which echoed similar statements from wingnuts in recent weeks — as well as his prediction that the Senate proposal would pass in the House showed an increasing desire among House repugicans to move beyond an issue that has harmed them.
wingnut Tim Scott of South Carolina also said he thought the Obama tax plan would pass the House, though he made clear to CNN he would oppose it.

The truth be told

Costas' gun control commentary gets notice

Bob Costas' "Sunday Night Football" halftime commentary supporting gun control sparked a Fox News Channel debate Monday on whether NBC should fire him and a Twitter storm involving Ted Nugent, Rosie O'Donnell, Herman Cain and many more.

The NBC sportscaster, who frequently delivers commentary at halftime of the weekly NFL showcase, addressed the weekend's murder-suicide involving Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher.
Costas said that the shooting has invoked the "mindless sports cliche" that "something like this really puts it all in perspective."
"Please," he said. "Those who need tragedies to continually recalibrate their sense of proportion about sports would seem to have little hope of ever truly achieving perspective."
He then paraphrased and quoted extensively from a piece by Fox Sports columnist Jason Whitlock.
After praising the column, Costas said: "In the coming days, Jovan Belcher's actions and their possible connection to football will be analyzed. Who knows? But here, wrote Jason Whitlock, is what I believe. If Jovan Belcher didn't possess a gun, he and Kasandra Perkins would both be alive today."
Belcher shot and killed Perkins, the mother of his 3-month-old daughter, on Saturday morning, then drove to Arrowhead Stadium and committed suicide in the parking lot of the team's practice facility.
Quickly, Costas' comments renewed one of society's most contentious debates, made more intense by people who believe that a football halftime show was not the right place for Costas to be speaking on the issue.
"You tune in for a football game and end up listening to Bob Costas spewing sanctimonious dreck," tweeted Herman Cain, the former repugican presidential candidate.
Above a headline "Advocacy Gone Awry?" the hosts of Faux's morning show "Faux & Friends" read letters from viewers criticizing Costas' stance. On Megyn Kelly's afternoon show, there was a debate on whether Costas should be fired.
Lame guitar player and gun nut Nugent was quick to criticize via Twitter: "Hey Bob Costas we all kno (sic) that obesity is a direct result of the proliferation of spoons and forks. Get a clue."
Former talk show host Rosie O'Donnell, however, tweeted "way to go, Bob Costas." His former NBC colleague, Keith Olbermann, observed that it was "amazing that all those ripping my friend Bob Costas would, had he taken opposing view, be defending him for using the 1st."
There was no immediate comment on Monday from NBC Sports or from Costas.
Before the Olympics this summer, Costas criticized the International Olympic Committee's decision not to hold a moment of silence to mark the deaths of 11 Israeli athletes and coaches killed by Palestinian gunmen in Munich in 1972. But he stopped short of repeating that criticism on the air.

Deep-fried gun fired inside restaurant

As a reminder that deep-fried anything can be a health hazard, a gunshot rang out at 9:30 pm on Sunday Nov. 25th after a gun was thrown into a deep fryer at the El Diamante Restaurant in Las Vegas. "It was discovered the gunshot was a result of a firearm being tossed into a deep fryer and exploding," a Las Vegas police report said. No one was hurt .

Although no one was arrested in connection with the shooting, 44-year-old Obdulio Gudiel was arrested and accused of attempted robbery with the use of a deadly weapon in connection with an incident shortly before the gun was fired. But the facts surrounding Gudiel's arrest are murky.

Gudiel told police that it was a mis­understanding and that he was only trying to obtain payment for three cars he sold his nephew, Victor Larios. Roberto Casprowitz told police that he and Larios went to the restaurant and were told it was closed. On the way out, Gudiel pointed a gun at them and told them in Spanish and English to pay him, the report said. The two then drove away.

Casprowitz called police who met him at the restaurant. The gunshot went off while police were evacuating the restaurant. The overcooked gun appeared to be a Beretta. An employee told police she saw Gudiel holding the gun earlier. She also said a man then asked her to hold the gun when police arrived, but she refused. It is unclear whether Gudiel is the man who asked her to hold the gun.

Ambulance given Denver boot during emergency response

 

New Orleans ambulance was booted by a convenience store worker for parking in their space while responding to a call. WWLTV also reports the gent responsible has been issued a ticket and lost his job. Apparently the flashing lights were in the wrong language.

Sidi Aleywa was fired for booting the ambulance, a worker at Mr. Quicky's told WWLTV. Others were still booting cars Monday morning. According to the police report, Aleywa didn't realize it was an ambulance that he booted, and added that he doesn't speak any English

Yahoo ordered to pay $2.7B in bizarre Mexico lawsuit

It's not often that Mexican yellow pages listings makes the headlines, but Yahoo has been ordered to fork over $2.7 billion in a legal dispute involving them.

More

The Poorest President in the World

The President of Uruguay, Jose Mujica has been dubbed by international media as 'THE POOREST PRESIDENT IN THE WORLD', to which he responded:

"I'm not a poor president. Poor people are those who want more and more. Those who never have enough of anything. Those are the poor because they live in a never ending cycle."

Jose Mujica's most valuable asset is a 1987 VW Beatle. He lives in a small farmhouse with his wife and a dog and donates 90% of his salary to charity.

UK home secretary says Britain needs more data retention, cites an example where a corrupt cop gave murdered victims' details to crime boss

The other morning saw the publication of an editorial in The Sun by Theresa May, the UK home secretary, defending her bulk Internet surveillance proposal, the Communications Data Bill, AKA the "Snooper's Charter."

In the article, May cites a submission by by Peter Davies (Chief Executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection center) as an example of why all Internet communications should be stored and made accessible to police without a warrant. Davies told the story of a murder that had been difficult to solve, and suggests that dragnet surveillance would have made the police's job simpler.
But as the Open Rights Group points out, the case in question is anything but a defense of bulk data-retention. Indeed, it involves a corrupt police officer who improperly used retained records to find information to pass on to a crime boss about a couple who were subsequently murdered. In other words, logging and storing information made it possible for a criminal and a corrupt cop to track people down.
It's nothing short of bizarre for Theresa May to cite this as a reason to retain more information, on more people, and to give access to that information to more agencies.
Tales of the Unexpected: the Communications Data Bill

Indian village bans women from using mobile phones

A village panchayat in Bihar has prohibited women from using mobile phones and imposed heavy fines on them if they violated the diktat. The self-styled social reformers of Sunderbadi village panchayat in Kochadham block of Kishanganj district issued the orders on Sunday, banning women from using mobiles.
"The villagers have issued an order to impose a fine of Rs 10,000 (£115, $185) if a girl is found using a mobile phone, while a married woman will have to pay a fine of Rs 2,000 if found talking on a mobile outside her house," the official said. A senior official at the police headquarters said it was the first such diktat issued by a village panchayat in Bihar.

"There is no precedent to such an order issued by a Bihar village panchayat," the official said. "The decision was taken in a meeting attended by panchayat members and village elders," Mohammad Manzoor Alam, who presided over the meeting, said.. Mr Alam said the villagers, mostly elders, favored imposing the ban.

"Mobile phone is the cause of all evils in our society, including increasing love affairs and the incidents of elopement," he claimed. Kishanganj is a Muslim-dominated district, and among the most backward districts in Bihar, with 60 percent of the population living below the poverty line.

Random Photo

Are Pesticides and Food Allergies Linked?

People exposed to higher amounts of chemicals used to kill crop pests are also more likely to suffer from food allergies.  

Read more

 

BP Oil Highly Toxic When Mixed with Dispersants

Here is something else you won't hear on the Faux Newsbubble

When the oil was combined with the dispersant, the mix became up to 52 times more toxic than the oil alone. Read more

Global carbon emissions up 60% since 1990

Is it any wonder that the Arctic sea ice volume is collapsing?It doesn’t help that the same party that is beholden to a single person named Grover Norquist (rather than the overwhelming majority of the American people) when it comes to tax policy, also finds carbon emissions and climate change a big joke.
This is what happens when your party becomes the party of ignorance and stupidity, of anti-science, and lies. The problem is, far too many of their crazies are still in office, and they’re taking us all down with their irresponsible behavior.
We’ve already  seeing a slight improvement in US CO2 emissions, per the article below, but we’re way beyond the point of “slight” being enough. It’s time to get serious.
Phys.org:

Global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are set to rise again in 2012, reaching a record high of 35.6 billion tonnes – according to new figures from the Global Carbon Project, co-led by researchers from the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of East Anglia (UEA).

The 2.6 per cent rise projected for 2012 means global emissions from burning fossil fuel are 58 per cent above 1990 levels, the baseline year for the Kyoto Protocol. This latest analysis by the Global Carbon Project is published today in the journal Nature Climate Change with full data released simultaneously by the journal Earth System Science Data Discussions.
It shows the biggest contributors to global emissions in 2011 were China (28 per cent), the United States (16 per cent), the European Union (11 per cent), and India (7 per cent). Emissions in China and India grew by 9.9 and 7.5 per cent in 2011, while those of the United States and the European Union decreased by 1.8 and 2.8 per cent. AP walks us through the impact of the ongoing increase in emissions:

Because emissions of the key greenhouse gas have been rising steadily and most carbon stays in the air for a century, it is not just unlikely but “rather optimistic” to think that the world can limit future temperature increases to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), said the study’s lead author, Glen Peters at the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research in Oslo, Norway.
Three years ago, nearly 200 nations set the 2-degree C temperature goal in a nonbinding agreement. Negotiators now at a conference under way in Doha, Qatar, are trying to find ways to reach that target.

Science News

Spaceship aims to be science lab

Richard Branson's passenger space-liner is also trying to position itself as a high-altitude science platform to study the Earth and beyond.

• Virgin to launch small satellites
• Branson launches desert spaceport

Gorilla Smiling - With Reason

Mountain gorilla populations have risen to 880, up by at least 100 since 2006.  

Read more

Chimp dudes choose their bros carefully

The ability of male chimpanzees to form coalitions with one another in order to direct aggression at other male chimpanzees ...

Continue Reading 

Guillemots

Guillemots fight ice withdrawal

A small colony of black guillemots living on a gravel spit off Point Barrow is providing a unique insight into the changing Arctic environment. BBC Nature

• The 'big melt' at the roof of the world
• Guillemots videos, news and facts

Animal Pictures

The Daily Drift

True, that ... 

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