Half the repugicans You Know Are Insane

And the other half are lying about it!

by William Rivers Pitt

If I may, I would like to go over some figures with you regarding the current situation in America. I know numbers are boring and often perplexing in the main - I was an English Major, so if you put a pistol to my head and demanded I do long division, the pistol would have a better chance of coming up with the right answer before you painted the wall with my literature degree - but these numbers, I think, speak volumes, and have an unfortunately dramatic bearing on the state of modern American politics.
Public Policy Polling did a survey on the preponderance of belief in conspiracy theories among American voters, and the results are telling. For example, a question was posed about whether the respondents believe the Obama administration is coming to take their guns away, and 62% of repugicans answered "Yes." If you know five repugicans, that means three of them believe this, and a fourth has doubts. This, despite the fact that no gun legislation of any impact whatsoever has shadowed the president's desk since he took office.
When asked if they believe that Mr. Obama is secretly plotting to remain in office when his term expires, 44% of repugicans answered "Yes." If you know five repugicans, that means two of them believe this, and a third is halfway convinced. This, despite any supporting evidence whatsoever, and the fact that the man will be arrested and detained if he tries to enter the White House again after the inauguration in January of 2017.
When asked if Muslims are working to implement Sharia Law in America - the harshly medieval seventh-century Islamic code best represented by the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Wahabists in the ranks of al Qaeda and (shhhh) a significant portion of the rebels in Syria - 44% of repugicans said it was true. If you know five repugicans, once again, two of them believe this, and a third is halfway convinced. Um...how? Where? In what way? Because women can now get free contraception and gay people have the same rights as you do? You think the Taliban is down with that?
Is the US government secretly staging "false flag" mass shootings all across the country in order to blame others and distract the country from their gun-grabbing, office-staying, Sharia-implementing ways? A full 26% of repugicans believe this, so if you know five of them, one is convinced of this, and another is well on his way. I'm sure all the left-leaning folks who believe that 9/11 was a Cheney-orchestrated "inside job" are thrilled to know their gospel has been co-opted by people who think 26 children were massacred in Connecticut so Mr. Obama could give everyone's guns to the Syrians, because that makes sense, too, apparently. Or something.
In short, and not to put too fine a point on it: if you know five repugicans, two of them are around-the-bend crazy, and a third needs a stern talking-to. That's not a majority, but it is pretty much half the crowd, and is a definite majority every time the crazy two convince the third to go their way, you know, just in case.
The thing is, those two-and-a-half repugicans you know are energetic voters, and they throw enormous weight in American politics. Thanks to the repugican gerrymandering process of 2010  and the berserk anti-information "news" bubble dominated by the likes of Lush Dimbulb, Glenn Brick, Michelle Savage, WingNutDaily and the ceaseless gibberish machine that is Faux News, repugicans in general who even occasionally look to these outlets for information have been in an enforced state of flat-out derangement for years and years and years. The ones who go to the "liberal" news media for "information" are in a slightly leavened version of the same state, but vote repugican anyway out of habit and allegiance.
Why do these people swing so much weight in American politics? That's easy: maybe 55% of the voters in America turn out for presidential elections, and maybe 30% turn out for the midterm elections, y'know, the incredibly important elections where a third of the Senate and all 435 seats in the House are up for a vote. That means, come November of 2014, less than a third of the country will choose all 435 members of the House, and a sizeable percentage of those voters are flat-out loons in gerrymandered districts where their impact on Congress is amplified by orders of magnitude.
Make no mistake about it: these people will vote in 2014, because they always vote. If it is raining live, ravening, man-eating jaguars outside, they turn out with strong umbrellas and cast their ballots for the pro-gun anti-Sharia Jesus-and-fetuses candidate. Because guns, and Sharia, and they believe everything they've heard and read from their beloved bedlam news sources.
Why is the government shut down? Because a lot of people don't vote, but these people did in 2010, like they always do, and the crazy will elect the crazy every single time and twice on Sunday, amen.
That's why the government is shut down, and a disastrous default looms, in case you were wondering.

EFF: the NSA has endangered us all by sabotaging security

The Electronic Frontier Foundation's Cindy Cohn and Trevor Timm look at the NSA's Bullrun program, through which the US and UK governments have spent $250M/year sabotaging computer security. Cindy is the lawyer who argued the Bernstein case, which legalized civilian access to strong cryptography -- in other words, it's her work that gave us all the ability to communicate securely online. And so she's very well-situated to comment on what it means to learn that the NSA has deliberately weakened the security that ensures the integrity of the banking system, aviation control, embedded systems in everything from cars to implanted defibrillators, as well as network infrastructure, desktop computers, cloud servers, laptops, phones, tablets, TVs, and other devices.

Thankfully, the recent disclosures have led to at least some change. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the government agency in charge of one of the cryptographic standards the NSA has alleged to have secretly weakened, has reopened public comment on its standard and has even gone as far as to recommend people do not use it anymore.
And we’re beginning to see the international computer security community come to grips with this disturbing news.
But we must do more.

* We must rebuild the broad coalition that fought the first crypto wars, including investors, businesses, civil liberties groups, scientists and ordinary people. 
* We must expose the vulnerabilities that have been secreted into our technologies. We must expose them and we must demand that they be fixed.
* We must ask standards bodies, companies and individual developers to pledge, publicly and unequivocally, to reject efforts to build backdoors or insert known vulnerabilities into their products—and create transparency so that they can't secretly cooperate with these efforts in the future.
* We must build our own tools, and support the tools that already exist that are independently verifiable as secure (most prominently, open source tools). 
* We must support efforts in Congress to rein in the NSA and bring it back under the rule of law, and we must make sure those efforts ensure that our technologies are safe.
* And we must not succumb to privacy nihilism.

But the public debate must start from a fundamental principle: The NSA has been making us less safe and it must stop.  Now.

The NSA is Making Us All Less Safe

Daily Comic Relief

Eat, sleep, and visit the mall ...

For tomorrow we die 

Survey-based sociology research in Israel and the United States finds a correlation between fear of death and impulsive shopping. The researchers behind these studies think that the connection represents people using materialism as a coping mechanism to deal with death anxiety. 

Believe it or not

Stone Lake, Turtles, Eating Bugs, Helium and a Walrus or two

Lake That Turns Animals to Stone? Not Quite

Lake Natron in Tanzania is one of the most serene lakes in Africa, but it's also the source of some phantasmagorical photographs.

Thousands of Turtles Killed By Longline Fishing

Sea turtles were the second most common catch on Costa Rican fishermen's longlines during the past decade. Sharks also suffered on the hooks. 

7 Insects You'll Be Eating in the Future

A growing number of experts claim that people will soon have no choice but to consume insects.

Something Congress Could Agree On: Helium

The House unanimously passed H.R. 527, the Helium Stewardship Act of 2013 -- one of its last acts before the gears of government ground to a halt.

10,000 Walruses Gather on Shore as Ice Retreats

Government scientists spy a massive walrus gathering in northwest Alaska. 

Hippo vs. Elephant

Giants Face Off

by Brian Handwerk

Back off, buddy! 

That’s no welcoming smile, but a hippopotamus leaving absolutely no doubt that an African elephant is an unwanted visitor to its home turf.

“There is an island on the middle of the Chobe River to which this elephant had crossed. The hippo was not happy about it and was apparently defending its territory,” said photographer Nicole Cambre, a 43-year-old lawyer from Brussels who captured this scene while visiting Botswana in August.
Cambre watched, and photographed, the partially submerged hippopotamus swim toward the elephant as the latter stood impassively near the shoreline. When the hippo emerged onto the island, it showed off massive teeth and jaws in a bellicose display meant to intimidate the trespassing pachyderm.
Face to face with the largest land animal on Earth, which had lowered its head for possible battle, the hippo showed no signs of backing down—but it eventually reconsidered when reinforcements arrived, Cambre reported. “When more elephants crossed the river to the island, the hippo backed off and went back into the river.”
And while the hippo didn’t pose a lethal threat to the giant ellie, the big mammals can back up such belligerence with most other species—including humans. In fact, hippos may be the most dangerous animal to encounter in all of Africa—unless you’re the size of a bull elephant.

Rare Giant Salamanders Bred in Captivity

by Tim Hornyak

Imagine an amphibian up to 5 feet (1.5 meters) long that can weigh 80 pounds (36 kilograms) and snap chunks off your finger in a split second.

The Japanese giant salamander is one of the largest of its kind in the world: a mottled, slimy, living fossil that has changed little in millions of years.

A captive Japanese giant salamander at the San Antonio Zoo. 

Being nocturnal and mostly aquatic, these super-salamanders are rarely seen. They lurk in cool streams in mountains and foothills. Though once caught for food, they’re now protected as a national treasure in Japan.
Hunting, pollution, and river damming brought their conservation status to “near threatened,” but now a nature center says it has made progress in breeding the giant salamanders.
“Although this is the second captive breeding in Japan, it’s the first in an indoor display tank,” said Akihiro Ito of the Hanzake Nature Museum of Mizuho in Shimane Prefecture. “It took us five years.”
Breeding Challenges
Hanzake, as the creatures are known locally, reproduce by external fertilization. A female lays hundreds of eggs that a male fertilizes after doing battle with other males. The male then guards the growing larval salamanders in his role as “den master.”
But giant salamanders often don’t thrive in captivity, so conditions had to be perfect. In consultation with the Hiroshima Asa Zoo, which has also managed to breed them, the nature museum used groundwater adjusted for acidity, and carefully controlled the temperature, light, and air in the salamanders’ environment.
Staff placed two males and three females in the tank, which had a single den, but things didn’t go well at first. A male occupying the den would attack the others; in one case, a female was viciously mauled.
After several different combinations of males and females in the tank, finally a male called Daigoro and a female called Sachiko managed to mix it up, and a clutch of some 500 eggs was fertilized.
“Knowing how giant salamanders go about breeding and what conditions are necessary for that to happen comes in useful when considering how best to protect them in the wild,” said Tim Johnson, a Tokyo-based salamander enthusiast who has observed these creatures in the mountains.
“The way rivers have been modified in recent decades has made it difficult, and sometimes impossible, for them to migrate upstream to breed.”
Congrats to the new parents; we’ll keep track of how they do with their baby giant salamanders.

Some animals really can predict the weather

Science finally came up with solid evidence that animal behavior can be a predictor of weather events. But it's not exactly the behavior (or the animals) you might expect. Instead of dogs barking, think beetles f#*$ing. Or, rather, beetles not copulating, as the drop in atmospheric pressure that precedes a storm seems to result in less sexual behavior among several species of insects. Particularly interesting were the curcurbit beetles, who might still mate in the face of an oncoming storm, but seem to dispense with all foreplay.

Amazing snail facts

This snail's shell is not green.
Instead, the shell is semi-transparent. It's the snail that's green.

Beachgoers in Spain discover 30-foot giant squid

Carcass found in Cantabria is that of the mysterious and fabled Architeuthis Dux; it remains unclear whether the deep-sea denizen 

by Pete Thomas

Note the size of the eye 

Beachgoers in the Spanish community of Cantabria were astonished Tuesday when they stumbled onto the carcass of a giant squid that had washed ashore almost fully intact.
The deep-sea denizen—the fabled and mysterious Architeuthis Dux—measured 30 feet and weighed nearly 400 pounds.
It was delivered to the Maritime Museum of Cantabria, where it was cleaned and frozen, while a decision is awaited between museum scientists and the government as to what will be done with the colossal cephalopod.

 

(According to El Diario Montanes, there has been some argument regarding ownership, and it remains unclear whether the squid will be put on display, eventually, or dissected in the name of science. According to some reports it was initially to be simply cremated.)

Regardless, the discovery was remarkable, considering that giant squid, although they’re the largest invertebrates on earth, are extremely elusive and, thus, difficult to study.
They generally reside at depths of between 1,000 and 3,000 feet, and most of what scientists have learned has come from carcasses that have washed ashore, and rarely are entire carcasses found.
However, scientists are persistent in their quest to learn more. In 2004, Japanese researchers captured the first known live images of giant squid. In 2006, a team of Japanese researchers brought to the surface a live female squid measuring 24 feet.
The mysterious creatures, meanwhile, remain steeped in lore.
In the times of ancient mariners, Architeuthis Dux, which resides in the lightless depths of all of the world’s oceans, is believed to have spawned tales of sea monsters, such as the legendary Kraken.
Architeuthis Dux was one of the vicious creatures in Jules Verne’s classic science fiction novel, “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.” (First published in 1870; made into a Disney movie in 1954.)
It was represented in other books, too, from Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick” to Ian Fleming’s “Dr. No,” to Peter Benchley’s “Beast” (later adapted as a film, “The Beast”).
To many, the mere mention of giant squid conjures images of the beasts waging vicious battles with deep-diving sperm whales, although in these battles the squid is the prey and the whales are the predators.
The giant squid that washed ashore in Cantabria was photographed by Enrique Talledo, who allowed the use of images accompanying this story.
“The animal died at sea and ocean currents brought it to the coast,” Talledo said via email. “The squid was in good condition except one [tentacle] had been broken.”
He remarked the eyes were gigantic and almost lifelike.
That’s no surprise because the giant squid, according to National Geographic, possess the largest eyes in the animal kingdom. They can measure 10 inches in diameter, almost the size of beach balls, and it’s believed the size helps the creatures detect objects in their dark habitat.
There are only a handful of museums that have a giant squid carcass on display. Hopefully, the public in Cantabria will soon be able to admire this remarkable specimen.

Animal News

New Species Found in 'Tropical Eden': Photos

A mountainous region of southeastern Suriname, which some believe has the world's most beautiful and pristine forest, is home to 60 new-found species.

Jellyfish Shut Down Swedish Nuclear Reactor

A giant swarm of jellyfish takes on a nuclear reactor in Sweden.

Animal Pictures

The Daily Drift

 

True that!

Carolina Naturally is read in 193 countries around the world daily.
 

Water ... !


Today is Inner American Water Day 

 

Don't forget to visit our sister blog: It Is What It Is

Some of our readers today have been in:

The Americas

Managua, Nicaragua

Byward Market, Montreal, Ottawa, Sioux, Lookout, Britannia, Thunder Bay, Mississauga and Toronto, Canada

San Juan, Puerto Rico

Puebla, Seymour, Helena, Boise, Sarver, Sparta, Hickory, Dallas, Gilroy and Auburn, United States

Jalapa Enriguez, Mexico

Lima, Peru

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Montevideo, Uruguay

Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

Europe

Barcelona, L'Olleria and Madrid, Spain

Reykjavik, Iceland

Bari, Milan and Bologna,  Italy

Sofia, Bulgaria

Dublin, Ireland

Oslo and Sandsli, Norway

Edinburgh and Saint Andrews, Scotland

Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Helsinki, Nokia and Espoo, Finland

Birmingham, Manchester, Rickmansworth, Bradford, London, Wakefield and Stockwell, England

Kiev, Ukraine

Zabki, Poland

Moscow and Chelyabinsk, Russia

Covilha, Portugal

Rouen, Lyon, Toulouse, Roubaix and Navenne, France

Riga, Latvia

Ankara, Turkey

Horsholm, Denmark

Zurich, Switzerland

Thessaloniki, Greece

Asia

Bogor, Jakarta and Garut, Indonesia

Delhi, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Bikaner, Pondicherry, Kolkata, Shillong, Kottayam, Mumbai and Hyderabad, India

Ahvaz, Tehran and Gorgan,  Iran

Subang, Kota Bharu, Kuching and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi, Pakistan

Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Nanashan, China

Amman, Jordan

Colombo, Sri Lanka

Africa

Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

Rabat, Morocco

Cape Town, South Africa

Tunis, Tunisia

Tripoli, Libya

Abuja, Nigeria

Pacific

Homebush, Sydney and Surry Hills, Australia

Cagayan De Oro, Philippines

Today in History

1762		The British fleet bombards and captures Spanish-held Manila in the Philippines.
1795		The day after he routed counterrevolutionaries in Paris, Napoleon Bonaparte accepts their formal surrender.
1813		U.S. victory at the Battle of the Thames, in Ontario, broke Britain's Indian allies with the death of Shawnee Chief Tecumseh, and made the Detroit frontier safe.
1821		Greek rebels capture Tripolitza, the main Turkish fort in the Peloponnese area of Greece.
1864		At the Battle of Allatoona, a small Union post is saved from Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood's army.
1877		Nez Perce Chief Joseph surrenders to Colonel Nelson Miles in Montana Territory, after a 1,700-mile trek to reach Canada falls 40 miles short.
1880		The first ball-point pen is patented on this day by Alonzo T. Cross.
1882		Outlaw Frank James surrenders in Missouri six months after brother Jesse's assassination.
1915		Germany issues an apology and promises for payment for the 128 American passengers killed in the sinking of the British ship Lusitania.
1915		Bulgaria enters World War I on the side of the Central Powers.
1921		The World Series is broadcast on radio for the first time.
1931		Clyde Pangborn and Hugh Herndon complete the first heavier than air nonstop flight over the Pacific. Their flight, begun October 3, lasted 41 hours, 31 minutes and covered 5,000 miles. They piloted their Bellanca CH-200 monoplane from Samushiro, 300 miles north of Tokyo, Japan, to Wenatchee, Washington.
1938		Germany invalidates Jews' passports.
1943		Imperial Japanese forces execute 98 American POWs on Wake Island.
1947		US President Harry S Truman delivers the first televised White House address.
1948		A magnitude 7.3 earthquake near Ashgabat in the USSR kills tens of thousands; estimates range from 110,000 to 176,000.
1955		The first James Bond film, Dr. No starring Sean Connery, debuts.
1965		U.S. forces in Saigon receive permission to use tear gas.
1966		A sodium cooling system malfunction causes a partial core meltdown at the Enrico Fermi demonstration breeder reactor near Detroit. Radiation is contained.
1968		Police attack civil rights demonstrators in Derry, Northern Ireland; the event is considered to be the beginning of "The Troubles."
1969		Monty Python's Flying Circus debuts on BBC One.
1970		The US Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is established.
1970		Members of the Quebec Liberation Front (QLF) kidnap British Trade Commissioner James Cross in Montreal, resulting in the October Crisis and Canada's first peacetime use of the War Measures Act.
1986		Britain's The Sunday Times newspaper publishes details of Israel's secret nuclear weapons development program.
1988		Brazil's Constituent Assembly authorizes the nation's new constitution.
2000		Slobodan Milosevic, president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, resigns in the wake of mass protest demonstrations.

Non Sequitur

Did you know ...

The repugican cabal committing Obamacare suicide?

Find out if your congress critter is withholding their own pay during the shut down

New food labels could help curb food wastage

Young viewers tune out faux news in record numbers

Obama Rips repugicans, ‘If you’re being disrespected it’s because of that attitude you got.’

President Obama ripped House repugicans for claiming that they are being disrespected in the government shutdown. Obama said, ‘If you’re being disrespected it’s because of that attitude you got.’
The president talked about the growth in the economy, and the damage that the government shutdown is doing. He talked about how people won’t get their next paycheck. President Obama repeated that there was one way out of this for repugicans. They have to pass a clean CR. Obama said that there are enough repugicans in the House to end the shutdown today. Obama said that Boehner could end this in the next 5 minutes, but he won’t let the bill get an up or down vote because he doesn’t want to anger the extremists in his cabal.
The president said that if repugicans want the shutdown to end, there is a simple way to prove it. They can let the Senate bill come up for a vote and the shutdown could end in the next half hour. The president, “My simple message is call a vote.” He said if you are for a shutdown you’ll vote against the Senate bill. If you are against a shutdown you’ll vote for the Senate bill.
Obama said that one faction is refusing to allow a vote unless they get some massive partisan concessions. The president said that repugicans, “got exactly what they want, and now they’re trying to get out of it.” President Obama quoted  Marlin Stutzman (r-IN), “We’re not going to be disrespected. We have to get something out of this. And I don’t know what that even is.”
The president replied, “Think about that. You have already gotten the opportunity to serve the American people. There’s no higher honor than that. You’ve already gotten the opportunity to help businesses like this one. Workers like these, so the American people aren’t in the mood to give you a goodie bag to go with it. What you get is our intelligence professionals being back on the job. What you get is our medical researchers back on the job. What you get is little kids back into Head Start. What you get are our national parks and monuments open again. What you get is the economy not stalling, but continuing to grow. What you get are workers continuing to be hired. That’s what you get. That’s what you should be asking for. Take a vote. Stop this farce, and end this shutdown right now. If you’re being disrespected it’s because of that attitude you got. That you deserve to get something for doing your job.” He said that if regular people did what the House repugicans are doing, they’d get fired.
The president said that this shutdown has nothing to do with deficits and defaults, and some of the things that repugicans are asking for would add to our deficits.
Obama, “This whole thing is about one thing. The repugican obsession with dismantling the Affordable Care Act.” He pointed out the flaw in the repugican plan. The government is shutdown, but the ACA is open for business. He noted that since repugicans have taken control of the House we have one of this crisis every three months.
Later, President Obama talked about the debt ceiling and repeated that, “There will be no negotiations over this.” He said once again that repugicans do not get to extract a ransom for doing their jobs.
President Obama continues to make it clear that repugicans aren’t going to get anything. This speech was all about putting the pressure on John Boehner to allow a vote on the clean CR. House repugicans are setting themselves up for ridicule with comments about being disrespected. Obama pounced on Stutzman’s comments because they reflect the attitude of the repugican cabal. This shutdown isn’t about doing what’s right for the American people. This is about their egos and defeating Obama.
House repugicans are desperate. They want a way out of this, but they don’t know what they want, and Democrats aren’t going to give them anything. Eventually, maybe some year, repugicans will realize that Obama and the Democrats aren’t playing. The repugicans wanted a shutdown. They’ve got their shutdown, and now they are going to have take their medicine if they want to get out of the mess that they’ve created.

Senator Al Franken Donates His Salary to Second Harvest During the repugican Shutdown

 

Unlike some in Congress who claim they won’t be taking their salary, Senator Al Franken (D-MN) specified the charity to which his salary will be sent. Franken will be donating his salary during the GOP shutdown to Second Harvest Heartland, a hunger relief organization that works throughout Minnesota.
“Second Harvest Heartland is a great organization that works throughout Minnesota, providing vital assistance to families who would otherwise go hungry,” said Senator Franken in a statement. “Just as I was prepared to do in 2011 when we faced a possible shutdown, I won’t be taking my salary. I believe that while the government is shut down, donating my salary to charity is the right thing to do, and I’m going to make sure that money goes toward helping people who might be badly affected by the shut down.”
The Senator’s office explained that he chose this organization because “he said people who rely on the federal government’s safety net programs may need help making ends meet as a result of the shutdown.”
Members of Congress make $174,000 a year, with leadership making more. Speaker John Boehner (r-OH) makes $223,500 annually, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (r-KY) and the President pro tempore of the Senate make $193,400.
The Washington Post is keeping a running tally of which lawmakers have sworn to “refuse” their salaries. As of this writing, they’ve determined that at least 56 Republicans and 48 Democrats have claimed that they will refuse or donate their salaries.
However, under the Constitution, members of Congress and the president must be paid by law, so they can’t technically just refuse their salaries. Under the 27th amendment, lawmakers’ salaries can’t be altered until the start of a new term. Thus they will be donating money if they are really “refusing” it, and not just putting out a statement saying that they are “refusing” their salary.
A Boehner spokesperson told The Washington Post that the speaker “will not be paid for the duration of the shutdown.” Note the passive voice here — this could mean anything. How will he not be paid? He has to be paid per the law. Is he going to wait to collect his paycheck or is he really giving the money to charity or back to the government? Look for specificity in these promises or they are sort of meaningless.
In January, Senator Barbara Boxer introduced a bill designed to prevent lawmakers from getting paid if the government was shutdown. The Daily Beast noted, “A similar bill passed the Senate unanimously in 2011, but the House never voted on it.”
So, the repugican-led House blocked a bill to keep them from getting paid when they take the economy hostage.
Since repugicans are behind this shutdown (and no, they don’t get a break just because they are not part of the suicide caucus because as of this writing, they haven’t managed to stand up to the tea jihadists), including charging newbie Ted Cruz who specializes in adolescent hubris, their first order of business should have been to shut down their own perks and salaries. Not all of Congress, not their staffers, but their own. Jumping off the bridge because Ted said so isn’t good enough for highly paid alleged adults whose job it is to fund the government.
Personal accountability might help them grow up.

The Consequences of the Debt Ceiling Fight

I just saw on the news that 38% of the people think failing to pass an increase in the
national debt is a good idea, which means that 38% of the people are financially illiterate.

In round figures, the national debt is 16 Trillion, the interest on that debt is 400 billion or 2%.
The deficit this year is $600 billion. So, let's imagine that a default caused interest rates on
government debt to spike to 40% from 2%. That would make our deficit 8 trillion dollars,
or half the total output of the country. Try living on half the pay you have now and imagine
the country in the same shape. Could you avoid bankruptcy? Think 40% is too high?
That was the rate of Greece at the height of its crisis. Today Greece is at 10%, so we'd be
talking about only 2 trillion up from $400 billion. And if you think we have to do something
drastic now to avoid Greece's fate, the deficit is dropping now at the fastest pace in the last
60 years because tax revenues are increasing and the stimulus has ended. It is reaching sustainability.

No, refusing to raise the debt ceiling would destroy America as a prosperous country.
I can only hope that a majority of Congress is smarter than its constituents.

***

I agree - this is how stupid most people are.

It's so crazy for pundits to have such strong opinions on Obamacare when it's not started yet.

Shouldn't you SEE a movie before you write your review?

The truth be told

D.C. Businesses Respond to Government Shutdown

An estimated 800,000 federal employees are off work today without pay, as the U.S. government shutdown continues. In Washington, D.C., many local businesses are stepping up to help out the workers they depend on. The Washington Post published a list of places that are offering free food or discounts to federal workers. ABC News has such a list, too, with offers of other services in addition to food and drink, such as theaters and fitness centers and museums that are offering free admission to make up for the closing of the Smithsonian facilities. After all, furloughed workers have time to fill, and tourists cannot easily reschedule their trips. Some of the offers come with an exclusion:

Pork Barrel BBQ Pork Barrel BBQ is also offering free food for the duration of the shutdown to all government employees -- well, every government employee except for members of Congress. The BBQ joint is serving up free pulled pork sandwiches all day, limit one per day, in Alexandria, Va.

The Washington businesses are building goodwill with their customers by being so generous, but if the shutdown lasts a while, they, too, will suffer economically from the loss of cash business.

Park ranger 'apologizes' to repugican congressman for government shutdown

 

Despite, or perhaps because of nasty on-cam stunts like Rep. Randy Neugebauer's (r-Koch Sucker), it won't work: according to a CBS poll, not only do more Americans understand that the repugican cabal is to blame the shutdown, but more repugicans disapprove of their doing so to try and stop Obamacare.

WTF?

A 911 dispatcher laughed as man reported his girlfriend was on fire

Lalo Delgado's girlfriend caught fire in a freak accident on their way to Chiva Falls near Tucson, Arizona. But when he called for help, he says the way dispatcher handled the call was unprofessional. 911: 911 what is your emergency? Caller: My car just kinda caught on fire, my girlfriend caught on fire. Stuck in the middle of nowhere, Lalo couldn't believe what he heard next. "Her initial reaction was laugh and giggle in the background," said Delgado. "It was very disturbing."

911: Is your girlfriend still on fire? Caller: No. 911: No? (laughter in background) 911: Ok. (chuckles) Umm... Is your vehicle still on fire? Caller:It's hilarious huh? 911: Sir, is your vehicle still on fire? Caller: I just heard you smirk... Inaudible. 911: Ok, sir it wasn't regarding that ok. Caller: Yeah, I just heard you laugh. "You're calling for help, you shouldn't be laughed at," said Delgado. The Pima County Sheriff's Department admits their dispatcher messed up.

"We did not perform as I expect or the citizens of this county expect us to," said Capt. Jim Berry. "We're going to correct that. Certainly I can understand why he was upset. I would be too." But they call this an "isolated incident." County dispatchers receiver more than 400,000 911 calls. They dispatch approximately 130,000. "We're investigating what the laughter was about," said Berry. They started investigating before the complaint ever came in. And say despite the call taker's poor performance, response time wasn't affected. Lalo disagrees.

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"If she wasn't there playing around giggling and would have been right on it," said Delgado. "One minute, two minutes, every minute counts man." Lalo even called back. 911: 911, what is your emergency? Caller: Yeah. 911: Hello? Caller: Yeah I called in a few minutes ago and I just wanted to make sure you took me seriously.  By that time, help was already on the way. But his faith in 911, he says, already shaken. "Hopefully the next person that calls 911 doesn't get laughed at," said Delgado. The dispatcher is still working pending the outcome of the investigation. As far as Lalo's girlfriend, she is slowly recovering, but she has a long road ahead.

Fugitive caught when getaway paddle boat capsized

Police arrested a soggy fugitive after a paddle boat he tried using to evade capture capsized in Waterford Township, Michigan. Police say the incident happened just after 10am last Friday when agents with Michigan’s Department of Corrections attempted to locate fugitive Mark Steven Rood, Jr.

According to police, the 27-year-old Waterford Township man had several warrants for his arrest, including a felony fugitive warrant for absconding from probation. When officers and agents arrived on the scene, they saw Rood Jr. standing in the driveway with his 52-year-old father Mark Steven Rood Sr. As the officers approached the residence, Rood Jr. fled on foot.

Police say Rood Sr., who had previously been told of his son’s absconder warrant, continued to help his son avoid arrest and attempted to block the officers as they began pursuing his son. Rood Jr. was pursued on foot toward the nearby Lake Oakland, where police say he jumped in a neighbor's paddle boat to flee out onto the lake. Police say the boat eventually capsized and Rood Jr. fell into the water and was ordered to shore where he was taken into custody without further incident.

Rood Sr. was also taken into custody. Both father and son were transported to the Waterford Police Department where they were booked before being lodged at the Oakland County Jail. On Saturday, the duo were arraigned on one count each of felony obstructing. Rood Jr. was given a $25,000 cash bond on the new charge, while Rood Sr. was given a $20,000 cash bond. Both remain lodged at the Oakland County Jail.

Man with marijuana stuck to shirt arrested during traffic stop

When Jason Sprott got out of his car after being stopped by police in Waldo, Florida, on Sunday, he didn’t have to say a word about having drugs on him. It was right there on his shirt for the officer to see.

Sprott, 37, of Jacksonville, was stopped for speeding at around 1:22pm. When Sprott stepped out of his Chevy Astro van as ordered, Officer Kenneth Smith noticed a green leafy substance on the front of his shirt, according to a Waldo Police Department report. Smith also detected a strong smell of marijuana.

Sprott told the officer that he had been smoking pot and that he had some in his van. Smith found a clear plastic bin between the seats that contained several plastic bags of marijuana and a scale. Sprott also had $193 in cash in his pocket.

Sprott was arrested on charges of possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell, possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia, and keeping a vehicle for drug purposes. He is being held in the Alachua County jail on $17,500 bond.

Is a College Degree Worth It?

Hello, college graduates. It's October already, and you've been out of school for some months now. How's the job search going? Did you land that dream job yet? If they haven't already, your school loan repayment requests will start rolling in.
Artist Leon Reid IV doesn't think much of your college degree. In this art project, aptly titled "College Degree" (via Krause Gallery), he custom printed a roll of toilet paper.

For hundreds of thousands of newly-minted grads, Reid's sentiment is spot on. The Wall Street Journal reported a few months ago that 284,000 American college graduates with bachelor's degree and 37,000 holders of advanced degrees could only find jobs paying minimum wage in 2012. While that's down from the peak in 2010, it is still 70% higher than from a decade earlier.
It's no wonder that since the start of the Great Recession, more and more people have been beating the anti-college drumbeat. Venture capitalist and finance writer James Altucher said, as quoted in New York Magazine, "When [my daughters are] 18 years old, just hand them $200,000 to go off and have a fun time for four years? Why would I want to do that?" :

To Altucher, higher education is nothing less than an institutionalized scam—college graduates hire only college graduates, creating a closed system that permits schools to charge exorbitant ­prices and forces students to take on crippling debt. “The cost of college in the past 30 years has gone up tenfold. Health care has only gone up sixfold, and inflation has only gone up threefold. Not only is it a scam, but the college presidents know it. That’s why they keep raising tuition.”

Instead, Altucher proposed 8 alternatives to college, including starting a business, writing a book and traveling the world.

On the other hand, consider the graph above by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For adults 25 years and older, the data is clear: college and advanced degrees correlate with higher earnings and lower unemployment rates. Those with a high school diploma earn, on average, only $652 a week and has over 8% unemployment rate in 2012. Those with bachelor's degrees earn almost double ($1,066 a week) with half the unemployment rate.

A Kiss from the Fairy Princess Revives the Knight

Once upon a time, a brave knight charged forward in a joust against a wicked prince, only to be unhorsed and thrown to the ground, defeated. He would have remained there, but for the healing kiss of a kindly fairy princess. Revived, he returned to battle and slew his foe.
Lydia snapped this beautiful photo of a knight and his daughter at a modern joust. She explains that the little girl healed everyone on the field with her magic wand, then kissed her daddy.

Climate debate - is it about science, or values?

We haven't written much about the new IPCC report, largely because it doesn't say much you don't already know: The Earth is getting warmer and human activities are to blame for a good chunk of that warming. So what are we still arguing about? Climate scientists who make the case that the debate is less about science and more about individual values that affect how different people want to tackle the problems that the science exposes. (And, even, how big different people think those problems really are.) While the fact of climate change is difficult to refute, there's plenty of room for legitimate disagreement (and reasonable discussion) about values and the political policies that they shape. 

Why Americans Love Guns

In the wake of Sandy Hook, many gun-rights advocates adopted a so-called 'Wild West mentality' and asserted that the solution was to put more guns in the hands of citizens, namely teachers. This particular mindset can explain everything from 'Stand Your Ground' laws to the psychology of Walter White.

But how safe were gun-wielding Americans on the frontier? And why are firearms so inextricably linked to American history, and hence, our psyche? Collectors Weekly decided to find out.

The science of "new baby smell"

There are studies that suggest new babies really do smell different, and seem to trigger special brain chemical pathways in women. But, simultaneously, the smells we more consciously associate with "new baby" — i.e., the new baby smell used in baby products and baby-fresh scents — varies widely by culture. Make of this what you will. 

Daily Comic Relief

What Happens If An Astronaut Floats Off In Space?

NASA requires spacewalking astronauts to use tethers (and sometimes additional anchors). But should those fail, you'd float off according to whatever forces were acting on you when you broke loose. You'd definitely be weightless. You'd possibly be spinning.

In the film Gravity, which opens this month, two astronauts are on a spacewalk when an accident hurtles them into the void. So what would actually happen if you went, in NASA's terminology, 'overboard?'

Scientists generate first map of clouds on an exoplanet

Scientists generate first map of clouds on an exoplanet

On the exoplanet Kepler 7b, the weather is highly predictable, an international team of scientists has found: On any given day, the exoplanet, which orbits a star nearly 1,000 light-years from Earth, is heavily overcast […]

New view of dengue fever

New view of dengue fever

Dengue fever, an infectious tropical disease found in more than 100 countries, has no cure and no vaccine. One reason why it has been difficult to develop new drugs for dengue fever is that there […]

Climate change pushing koalas to cooler trees

Climate change pushing koalas to cooler trees

Land management practices must change to protect vulnerable koala populations, according to new University of Sydney research published today in the international biodiversity and ecology journal, Ecography. In the first study of its kind a […]

Amazing Photos Of Animals Congregating

There's nothing quite like seeing hundreds, thousands and even millions of animals congregating. Whether these photographers have captured animal migrations or these animals have come together to form huge breeding colonies, one can't help but sit back in awe at the way Mother Nature works her magic.

Meet the fish that happily live in the lake that turns birds to stone

Perhaps you have recently heard about Tanzania's Lake Natron, a body of water that has become famous on the Internet over the last couple of days because of the work of artist Nick Brandt, who took some eerie, posed photos of the calcified corpses of birds that he found along the lake's shore.
Natron, the stuff for which the lake is named, should also sound a bit familiar to you. That's because it's the mineral salt the ancient Egyptians used as part of their mummification rituals. (In fact, they used to harvest it from dry lake beds — Lake Natron isn't the only lake in Africa that's home to large quantities of naturally occurring natron.) It's both a serious drying agent and anti-bacterial, so immersion in natron can suck all the moisture out of a dead body while simultaneously preserving it against the ravages of microorganisms. As far as I can tell, that's what you're seeing in Brandt's creepy photos — birds and bats that look like Tim Burton's garden statuary, but are actually just mummified (and then propped up for artistic purposes).
Which brings us back to the video above. If Lake Natron mummifies birds, how do the fish survive?
Here's the smart-ass answer: Evolution.
Turns out, Lake Natron is an amazing example of an extreme niche environment where most life forms can't survive — but where a precious few adapt and thrive. The Lake is extremely salty and extremely warm (water temperatures can push above 100 degrees F). Because it's located in an arid region, rainfall is erratic, and so Lake Natron is also very shallow and prone to shrinkage. It's fed by hot mineral springs that bubble out of the ground. What you're left with is hot, salty, very very soft water that can, purportedly, feel viscous to the touch.
But those same conditions turn out to be pretty nice for certain species of algae. And the algae make great food for a species of tilapia that's adapted to the heat and the salinity. Both the algae, and the fish that eat them, live along the Lake's shorelines, near the hot spring inlets where mineral content (and, thus, food for the algae) is highly concentrated. The algae feed the fish ... and they also feed flamingos.
Yes, flamingos. The lake that looks like a death trap in photographs is actually a major flamingo breeding ground, crucial to the birds' continued survival. That's because the flamingos use the Lake as a defense mechanism, building up muddy "nests" near the shore, surrounded by just enough of the gross-feeling, undrinkable, smelly Lake Natron water to be a turnoff to would-be predators.
All told, Lake Natron is an incredibly cool (and weird) ecosystem — and one that won't be around forever. This, and a couple of other alkaline, high-salinity lakes in the same region, is slowly disappearing. Eventually, it'll become a plain, where grasses grow out of the salty, mineral-rich soil, and a whole new ecosystem develops.

 

Sniffing a beaver's butt: a surprisingly pleasant experience

From a National Geographic story by Mollie Bloudoff-Indelicato, the quote of the week:

“I lift up the animal’s tail,” said Joanne Crawford, a wildlife ecologist at Southern Illinois University, “and I’m like, ‘Get down there, and stick your nose near its bum. People think I’m nuts,” she added. “I tell them, ‘Oh, but it’s beavers; it smells really good.’”

Crawford is talking about castoreum, a naturally occurring anal secretion found in beavers. The furry animals use it to mark their territory. We humans, however, have also found uses for castoreum. Most notably, as an ingredient in vanilla-flavored and vanilla-scented products.
Pictured: Hardened lumps of beaver anal secretions, as stored in the Deutsches Apothekenmuseum, Heidelberg Castle,

Boaters fined for harassing swimming moose

Two boaters have been fined a total of $2,500 for harassing a cow moose swimming in a lake in northwestern Ontario, Canada. Andrew Weiers of Dryden, Ontario, and Matthew Weiers of Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, both pleaded guilty to the offense in Ontario Court of Justice and the boat, owned and operated by Andrew Weiers, has been seized.
Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources said it received complaints about boaters harassing a swimming moose in Eagle Lake in Dryden on July 29. Court heard that conservation officers responded to the scene in Outlet Bay of Eagle Lake, where witnesses provided a video showing a boat circling a swimming moose. After circling the moose, the boat went to shore and then returned with three other adult passengers.

The boat repeatedly drove in tight circles around the swimming moose, preventing it from going to shore and then Matthew Weiers, a passenger, jumped out of the boat and onto the back of the swimming moose. Weiers was on the moose “a couple seconds” before the animal bolted into the woods, said Michael Prepp, an enforcement manager with the ministry. There’s no indication the moose was hurt, Prepp said. “We think that it got away and that it was fine,” he said.

Moose-related infractions are rare, he added. “When we were doing a search of our offense database looking for similar offenses for comparable penalties, there were very few,” he said. Moose will try to escape from predators, including humans, the ministry says, adding that a moose that cannot escape an attack can suffer extreme physical exhaustion and stress, including death. The boat will be returned to its owner once the fine is paid.

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Today in History

1777		At Germantown, Pa., British General Sir William Howe repels George Washington's last attempt to retake Philadelphia, compelling Washington to spend the winter at Valley Forge.
1795		General Napoleon Bonaparte leads the rout of counterrevolutionaries in the streets of Paris, beginning his rise to power.
1861		The Union ship USS South Carolina captures two Confederate blockade runners outside of New Orleans, La.
1874		Kiowa leader Satanta, known as "the Orator of the Plains," surrenders in Darlington, Texas. He is later sent to the state penitentiary, where he commits suicide October 11, 1878.
1905		Orville Wright pilots the first flight longer than 30 minutes. The flight lasted 33 minutes, 17 seconds and covered 21 miles.
1914		The first German Zeppelin raids London.
1917		Battle of Broodseinde near Ypres, Flanders, a part of the larger Battle of Passchendaele, between British 2nd and 5th armies and the defenders of German 4th Army; most successful Allied attack of the Passchendaele offensive.
1927		Gutzon Borglum begins sculpting the heads of 4 US presidents on Mount Rushmore.
1940		Germany's Adolf Hitler and Italy's Benito Mussolini meet at the Brenner Pass.
1941		Willie Gillis Jr., a fictional everyman created by illustrator Norman Rockwell, makes his first appearance, on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post; a series of illustrations on several magazines' covers would depict young Gillis throughout World War II.
1943		US captures the Solomon Islands in the Pacific.
1957		Sputnik 1, the first man-made satellite, is launched, beginning the "space race." The satellite, built by Valentin Glushko, weighed 184 pounds and was launched by a converted Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM). Sputnik orbited the earth every 96 minutes at a maximum height of 584 miles. In 1958, it reentered the earth's atmosphere and burned up.
1963		Hurricane Flora storms through the Caribbean, killing 6,000 in Cuba and Haiti.
1965		Pope Paul VI arrives in New York, the first Pope ever to visit the US and the Western hemisphere.
1968		Cambodia admits that the Viet Cong use their country for sanctuary.
1972		Judge John Sirca imposes a gag order on the Watergate break-in case.
1976		In Gregg v. Georgia, the U.S. Supreme Court lifts the ban on the death sentence in murder cases. This restores the legality of capital punishment, which had not been practiced since 1967. The first execution following this ruling was Gary Gilmore in 1977.
1985		Free Software Foundation founded to promote universal freedom to create, distribute and modify computer software.
1992		Mozambique's 16-year civil war ends with the Rome General Peace Accords.
1993		Russia's constitutional crisis over President Boris Yeltsin's attempts to dissolve the legislature: the army violently arrests civilian protesters occupying government buildings.
2004		SpaceShipOne, which had achieved the first privately funded human space flight on June 21, wins the Ansari X Prize for the first non-government organization to successfully launch a reusable manned spacecraft into space.

Non Sequitur

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