As is tradition, the tree with the red lights is up on December first.
Now the frenzied decorating for the Holidays can commence!
Now the frenzied decorating for the Holidays can commence!
Monday, December 1, 2008
Canadian opposition parties sign deal to oust Harper government
In a smart move ...
Canada's opposition parties signed an unprecedented agreement Monday to topple the Conservative government in a no-confidence vote next week and form a coalition government less than two months after national elections.
The three parties in the alliance, which together control a majority in Parliament, plan to vote against Prime Minister Stephen Harper's minority government December 8th, which would remove it from power.
If Harper loses the confidence vote, Governor General Michaelle Jean would either call another election or ask the opposition to form a government.
Constitutional experts say that Jean, who is the representative of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and whose position is mostly ceremonial, would likely allow the opposition to form a government since an election was held so recently.
Canada's opposition parties signed an unprecedented agreement Monday to topple the Conservative government in a no-confidence vote next week and form a coalition government less than two months after national elections.
The three parties in the alliance, which together control a majority in Parliament, plan to vote against Prime Minister Stephen Harper's minority government December 8th, which would remove it from power.
If Harper loses the confidence vote, Governor General Michaelle Jean would either call another election or ask the opposition to form a government.
Constitutional experts say that Jean, who is the representative of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and whose position is mostly ceremonial, would likely allow the opposition to form a government since an election was held so recently.
Interesting Fact:
The Chocolate Hills is an unusual geological formation in Bohol, Philippines. It is composed of around 1,268 perfectly cone-shaped hills of about the same size, spread over an area of more than 50 square kilometres (20 sq mi). They are covered in green grass that turns brown during the dry season, hence the name.
And I Quote
"Bush is bailing out CitiGroup, but not the auto companies.
That's not fair.
Our blue collar guys don't get the bailout.
But the white collar guys on Wall Street get the bailout.
I think they should work together.
I think the guys in Detroit should keep making the cars, and the guys on Wall Street should be making the license plates.
See what I'm saying?"
~ Jay Leno
That's not fair.
Our blue collar guys don't get the bailout.
But the white collar guys on Wall Street get the bailout.
I think they should work together.
I think the guys in Detroit should keep making the cars, and the guys on Wall Street should be making the license plates.
See what I'm saying?"
~ Jay Leno
Change.gov goes Creative Commons
Obama's Change.gov site has dropped its "All Rights Reserved" notice and switched to the Creative Commons Attribution license, the most liberal of the CC licenses. There's a mystery afoot, my dear Watson
In some parts of the US, there's been reports that trees aren't bearing acorns this year. "We're talking zero. Not a single acorn. It's really bizarre," said Greg Zell, a naturalist at Long Branch Nature Center in Arlington.
Then calls started coming in about crazy squirrels. Starving, skinny squirrels eating garbage, inhaling bird feed, greedily demolishing pumpkins. Squirrels boldly scampering into the road. And a lot more calls about squirrel roadkill.Simmons thinks the reason could be that the unusually heavy rainfall in the spring washed the pollen out of the air before it had time to pollinate the acorn blossoms. But Ed Zimmer, a regional forester for the Virginia Department of Forestry, doesn't think that's possible. So far, no one knows for sure what's going on.But [field botanist Rod] Simmons really got spooked when he was teaching a class on identifying oak and hickory trees late last month. For 2 1/2 miles, Simmons and other naturalists hiked through Northern Virginia oak and hickory forests. They sifted through leaves on the ground, dug in the dirt and peered into the tree canopies. Nothing.
Merriam-Webster's 2008 Word of the Year
Merriam-Webster (the dictionary people) have announced their 2008 "Word of the Year."
The winner?
"Bailout," which "received the highest intensity of lookups on Merriam-Webster Online over the shortest period of time."
And the next four in the Top Ten list:
The winner?
"Bailout," which "received the highest intensity of lookups on Merriam-Webster Online over the shortest period of time."
And the next four in the Top Ten list:
2. vet
3. socialism
4. maverick
5. bipartisan
US justice and prison systems are flawed
Now that Lord Conrad Black (former Daily Telegraph proprietor) is in prison, he has come to the conclusion that the US justice and prison systems (and the "war on drugs") are flawed.
The system is based on the plea bargain: the barefaced exchange of incriminating testimony for immunity or a reduced sentence. It is intimidation and suborned or extorted perjury, an outright rape of any plausible definition of justice.The US is now a carceral state that imprisons eight to 12 times more people (2.5m) per capita than the UK, Canada, Australia, France, Germany or Japan. US justice has become a command economy based on the avarice of private prison companies, a gigantic prison service industry and politically influential correctional officers’ unions that agitate for an unlimited increase in the number of prosecutions and the length of sentences. The entire “war on drugs”, by contrast, is a classic illustration of supply-side economics: a trillion taxpayers’ dollars squandered and 1m small fry imprisoned at a cost of $50 billion a year; as supply of and demand for illegal drugs have increased, prices have fallen and product quality has improved.
Yep, it was cold!
November was the coldest it's been in 32 years.
This weekend's raw, chilly weather brought an end to one of the coldest Novembers in the area's weather history.
The average temperature in November was 46.6 degrees, 6.2 degrees below normal.
The last time November was colder was 32 years ago.
This November, in fact, was the fifth-coldest since records started being kept around these parts in October of 1878.
The low on November 22nd at the Airport was 13 degrees, the earliest it ever has been that cold here.
The Morons are still at it
Like a fly stuck to fly paper who knows it is dead but it keeps on trying to flap its wings the repugicans are still trying to say Obama is not a citizen of the United States and therefore cannot be president.
Wrong on every front or angle they trot out they even resort to calling Obama an usurper and will never be obeyed as president by 'honest Americans' in a document swirling the sewers around Chicago. (If you want you can see it here. Warning it is a PDF file.)
If anyone is the usurper it is the shrub who was never elected by popular or electoral vote to the office of president. Obama WAS elected both by popular and electoral vote and by the widest margin in history in both.
So the morons needs to get off the very, very dead horse of the 'Obama is not a citizen' crap. Not only is it patently wrong it is also stinking to high heaven about now.
Obama's mother WAS a citizen of the United States, born in the Heartland of America making any of her children regardless of their place of birth citizens as well.
Obama happened to be born in Hawaii which was a state before his birth and even if it was not a state it was a commonwealth territory before that and he would still be a citizen due to the fact his mother was a citizen despite it being a territory.
But what can we say a moron is a moron ...
Wrong on every front or angle they trot out they even resort to calling Obama an usurper and will never be obeyed as president by 'honest Americans' in a document swirling the sewers around Chicago. (If you want you can see it here. Warning it is a PDF file.)
If anyone is the usurper it is the shrub who was never elected by popular or electoral vote to the office of president. Obama WAS elected both by popular and electoral vote and by the widest margin in history in both.
So the morons needs to get off the very, very dead horse of the 'Obama is not a citizen' crap. Not only is it patently wrong it is also stinking to high heaven about now.
Obama's mother WAS a citizen of the United States, born in the Heartland of America making any of her children regardless of their place of birth citizens as well.
Obama happened to be born in Hawaii which was a state before his birth and even if it was not a state it was a commonwealth territory before that and he would still be a citizen due to the fact his mother was a citizen despite it being a territory.
But what can we say a moron is a moron ...
A Pirate Braggart
No way to stop us, pirate leader says ...
I don't know about that ... the last time a pirate from the African continent expressed similar sentiments, the United States Marines did just that - stopped them.
From CNN:
Somalis are so desperate to survive that attacks on merchant shipping in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean will not stop, a pirate leader promises."The pirates are living between life and death," said the pirate leader, identified by only one name, Boyah. "Who can stop them? Americans and British all put together cannot do anything."
The interview with the pirate was conducted in late August by journalists employed by the Somali news organization Garowe.
Recorded on grainy video, the interview took place in the Somali port city of Eyl, now a center of pirate operations. Eyl is on the east coast of Somalia in the autonomous territory of Puntland. It is a largely lawless zone, considered extremely dangerous for Westerners to enter.
The Puntland government said two unidentified Western journalists were taken hostage Wednesday as they attempted to report on pirate activity.
Boyah said that the piracy began because traditional coastal fishing became difficult after foreign fishing trawlers depleted local fish stocks. Traditional fishermen started attacking the trawlers until the trawler crews fought back with heavy weapons. The fishermen then turned to softer targets.
"We went into the deep ocean and hijacked the unarmed cargo ships," Boyah said.
"For the past three years, we have not operated near the Somali coast. We have operated at least 80 miles [out], in international waters."
When merchant shipping started avoiding the Somali coast, Boyah said, "we went to ships traveling other routes."
Over the past year, the number of pirate attacks has increased dramatically. The International Maritime Bureau cites more than 90 pirate attacks off East Africa so far in 2008. When attacks are successful, the hijacked ships are taken to Somali waters, where the ships and crew are held until a ransom is paid.
Ships recently captured include a massive Saudi supertanker laden with crude oil valued at more than $100 million and a freighter carrying Russian-built tanks.
The hijackings have been profitable. Kenya's foreign minister, Moses Wetangula, estimates the pirates have been paid more than $150 million during the past year. One pirate gang wants $2 million dollars to release a Yemeni freighter and crew seized last week.
Facing increasing disruptions through one of the busiest sea lanes in the world, several countries have sent warships to patrol the area. There have been reports of skirmishes between pirates and naval forces, but the military presence does not concern pirate leader Boyah. He boasts the pirates literally sail in a vast ocean beneath the radar of the warships.
"No ship has the capability to see everything," he said. "A ship can see 80 miles or so [on radar]. It cannot see us at all. No one can do anything about it."
Boyah said it is unlikely the Puntland regional government would ever crack down on piracy because government officials are involved in financing the piracy and collect a cut of the ransoms.
"They motivate us. It's their money and their weapons," Boyah said. "Thirty percent belongs to them."
The Puntland foreign minister, Ali Abdi Aware, denied government involvement with the pirates, including taking bribes. The minister cited the arrest of six pirates earlier this year as evidence it is acting to stop piracy.
Pirate Boyah said he is unimpressed with the arrests by Puntland authorities.
"The pirates are at sea and Puntland does not approach them. The pirates are on land and Puntland does not approach them," Boyah said. "They arrest some small people and tell the world that they captured pirates, but they are liars."
While Boyah may have been outspoken about the government's ineffectiveness, he did not allow interviewers to show his face, an indication that even in this lawless country, pirates still have some fear.
That fear is that of the Marines will be coming to stop them so he didn't want to have his face known to them. Got a news flash for you there buddy - they already know
Historic center of Venice flooded
Meanwhile, we're in a drought ...
Water in Venice rose to its highest level in more than 20 years Monday, flooding much of the Italian city and forcing residents and tourists to wade through knee-high water.
City officials said the sea level topped 61 inches early Monday, well past the 40-inch flood mark, following heavy rains.
Alarms went off to alert citizens in the morning.
"There are very few streets that are water-free," said a city spokesman, Enzo Bon.
Among the spots affected was St. Mark's Square, the landmark piazza that is the lowest point in the city.
Workers were unable to install the raised wooden walkways used during flooding because the water rose too high and too quickly.
The floods forced many of the water taxis to suspend service, Bon said.
TV footage showed people rolling up their pants or wearing rubber boots as they walked through the water.
Some had plastic wrapped around their legs, while some tourists in St. Mark's walked on chairs left in the piazza.
The last time Venice registered such high waters was in 1986, city officials said. The all-time record was 76 inches in 1966.
... granted it is not as severe as it was but a drought is a drought.
Water in Venice rose to its highest level in more than 20 years Monday, flooding much of the Italian city and forcing residents and tourists to wade through knee-high water.
City officials said the sea level topped 61 inches early Monday, well past the 40-inch flood mark, following heavy rains.
Alarms went off to alert citizens in the morning.
"There are very few streets that are water-free," said a city spokesman, Enzo Bon.
Among the spots affected was St. Mark's Square, the landmark piazza that is the lowest point in the city.
Workers were unable to install the raised wooden walkways used during flooding because the water rose too high and too quickly.
The floods forced many of the water taxis to suspend service, Bon said.
TV footage showed people rolling up their pants or wearing rubber boots as they walked through the water.
Some had plastic wrapped around their legs, while some tourists in St. Mark's walked on chairs left in the piazza.
The last time Venice registered such high waters was in 1986, city officials said. The all-time record was 76 inches in 1966.
... granted it is not as severe as it was but a drought is a drought.
Daily Horoscope
My daily horoscope for today says:
You are exceptionally cute and powerful this month, and getting even more so.
Yesterday's said:
You are especially cute now, so definitely ask for what you want.
Do you think they are trying to tell me something?!
You are exceptionally cute and powerful this month, and getting even more so.
Yesterday's said:
You are especially cute now, so definitely ask for what you want.
Do you think they are trying to tell me something?!
Treating Depression
Cognitive Therapy is as effective as anti-depressants in chronic depression
A study published today in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology concludes that Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy is as effective as anti-depressants in controlling long-term depression.
I've had personal experience with MBCT. About ten years ago, my personal life hit a very low point that left me more than sad -- I was paralyzed, weepy, unable to see the bright side of anything, listless, always tired. I recognized the symptoms of depression and spoke to a psychiatrist I knew. He recommended MBCT in the form of David D Burns's The Feeling Good Handbook. Despite its cheesy title, the book was just what I needed: a series of simple exercises that used empiricism (writing down what happened around you and how it made you feel, and what alternative explanations you could think of for others' behavior) to help change the habits of thought that led to the downward spiral. It wasn't long before the depression lifted, never to return (so far -- and if it does, I know what I'll do).
I've never spoken in public about this before, but I have quietly passed on the book to many of my friends when it seemed needed, always with good results. So I'm not surprised to hear that this research ("led by Professor Willem Kuyken at the Mood Disorders Centre, University of Exeter, in collaboration with colleagues at the Centre for Economics of Mental Health (CEMH) at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, Peninsula Medical School, Devon Primary Care Trust and the Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit") shows that MBCT works in cases of chronic, long-term depression. This is especially good news, since chronic depression (which runs in my family) is especially hard on the person experiencing it as well as those around her or him.
The holidays are prime-time for difficult emotions. If you or someone you know is experiencing depression, know that it's not a sign of weakness or personal inadequacy. Help is simple, widely available and effective.
Professor Willem Kuyken of the University of Exeter said: "Anti-depressants are widely used by people who suffer from depression and that's because they tend to work. But, while they're very effective in helping reduce the symptoms of depression, when people come off them they are particularly vulnerable to relapse. MBCT takes a different approach – it teaches people skills for life. What we have shown is that when people work at it, these skills for life help keep people well."Professor Kuyken continues: "Our results suggest MBCT may be a viable alternative for some of the 3.5 million people in the UK known to be suffering from this debilitating condition. People who suffer depression have long asked for psychological approaches to help them recover in the long-term and MBCT is a very promising approach. I think we have the basis for offering patients and GPs an alternative to long-term anti-depressant medication. We are planning to conduct a larger trial to put these results to the test and to examine how MBCT works."
It's December first ...
... and you know what that means.
It is only 30 days until 2009.
Oh, and Xmas is only 24 days away!
It is only 30 days until 2009.
Oh, and Xmas is only 24 days away!
Alien-like Squid With "Elbows" Filmed at Drilling Site
From National Geographic News
A mile and a half (two and a half kilometers) underwater, a remote control submersible's camera has captured an eerie surprise: an alien-like, long-armed, and—strangest of all—"elbowed" Magnapinna squid.
Police raid 79-year-old woman for pot ...
Police officers in Scotland were disappointed to learn that the people they intended to arrest for growing marijuana were growing an equally innocuous, but unfortunately legal, plant -- tomatoes.
Uniformed officers burst into Lulu Matheson's house in the village of Shieldaig, Wester Ross, kept her son Gus in his bedroom for two hours, handcuffed her grandson Stephen, and turned the house upside down.Naturally, the cops didn't apologize. They were just doing their job.The high-profile afternoon raid involved three squad cars, seven officers and sniffer dogs. They told the family they were looking for cannabis, but after searching for several hours had to concede the green plants visible in the window from the roadside were tomatoes.
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