Yes, he went there

Had a fellow ask me if I wanted to hear a long political joke?!

I said, No thanks, I just heard one that was eight years in the telling!

Chatter

The chatter on the forums right now is the evolving fascist regime in Canada and the idiot that was governor of Illinois.

Canada is now suffering what we in the US have suffered for eight years.

And it is as usual in Illinois.
Political corruption is the very fabric and fiber of the state so it is no surprise that the news is a crooked politico tried to cash in on his position.

Bettie Page dies in LA at 85

Bettie Page, the 1950s secretary-turned-model whose controversial photographs in skimpy attire or none at all helped set the stage for the 1960s sexual revolution, died Thursday.
She was 85.

Page suffered a heart attack last week in Los Angeles and never regained consciousness, her agent Mark Roesler said.
Before the heart attack, Page had been hospitalized for three weeks with pneumonia.

"She captured the imagination of a generation of men and women with her free spirit and unabashed sensuality," Roesler said.
"She is the embodiment of beauty."

Page, who was also known as Betty, attracted national attention with magazine photographs of her sensuous figure in bikinis and see-through lingerie that were quickly tacked up on walls in military barracks, garages and elsewhere, where they remained for years.

Her photos included a centerfold in the January 1955 issue of then-fledgling Playboy magazine, as well as controversial sadomasochistic poses.

The latter helped contribute to her mysterious disappearance from the public eye, which lasted decades.

After resurfacing in the 1990s, she occasionally granted interviews.

The 21st century had people remembering her just as she was.
She became the subject of songs, biographies, Web sites, comic books, movies and documentaries.
A new generation of fans bought thousands of copies of her photos, and some feminists hailed her as a pioneer of women's liberation.

Gretchen Mol portrayed her in 2005's "The Notorious Bettie Page" and Paige Richards had the role in 2004's "Bettie Page: Dark Angel."
Page herself took part in the 1998 documentary "Betty Page: Pinup Queen."

Her career began one day in October 1950 when she took a respite from her job as a secretary in a New York office for a walk along the beach at Coney Island.
An amateur photographer named Jerry Tibbs admired the 27-year-old's firm, curvy body and asked her to pose.

Looking back on the career that followed, she told Playboy in 1998, "I never thought it was shameful. I felt normal.
It's just that it was much better than pounding a typewriter eight hours a day, which gets monotonous."

Nudity didn't bother her, she said, explaining: "God approves of nudity. Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, they were naked as jaybirds."

In 1951, Page fell under the influence of a photographer and his sister who specialized in S&M. They cut her hair into the dark bangs that became her signature and posed her in spiked heels and little else.
She was photographed with a whip in her hand, and in one session she was spread-eagled between two trees, her feet dangling.
"I thought my arms and legs would come out of their sockets," she said later.

Moralists denounced the photos as perversion, and Sen. Estes Kefauver of Tennessee, Page's home state, launched a congressional investigation.

Page quickly retreated from public view, later saying she was hounded by federal agents who waved her nude photos in her face.
She also said she believed that, at age 34, her days as "the girl with the perfect figure" were nearly over.

Born April 22, 1923, in Nashville, Tenn., Page said she grew up in a family so poor "we were lucky to get an orange in our Christmas stockings."

In her teens she acted in high school plays, going on to study drama in New York and win a screen test from 20th Century Fox before her modeling career took off.

Bettie Mae Page

Envy is a dog's life, study finds

From Reuters:

Dogs can sniff out unfair situations and show a simple emotion similar to envy or jealousy, Austrian researchers reported Monday.

Dogs sulked and refused to "shake" paws if other dogs got treats for tricks and they did not, said Friederike Range, an animal psychologist at the University of Vienna who led the study into canine emotions.

"It is a more complex feeling or emotion than what we would normally attribute to animals," said Range.

The study, which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, also showed dogs licked and scratched themselves and acted stressed when they were denied rewards given to other dogs.

Other studies have shown monkeys often express resentful behavior when a partner receives a greater reward for performing an identical task, staging strikes or ignoring what they view as inferior compensation.

It turns out dogs are able to show a similar, if less sensitive, response, said Range in a telephone interview.

In a series of experiments using different breeds of dogs, the researchers looked at how two animals sitting next to each other reacted to unequal rewards after handing a paw to a researcher.

Dogs not given a treat licked their mouths, yawned, scratched and showed other signs of stress and stopped performing the task, Range said.

To show this was not just because the animals were not getting food, the researchers then tested the dogs alone and found that in this situation the envious canines cooperated longer before stopping.

"It is really about the unequal distribution of the reward," Range said. "If it was only about frustration they would stop at the same time."

BIRTHDAY REMINDER

This week we celebrate a special birthday!

Monica Lewinsky turns 34.

Can you believe it?

It seems like only yesterday she was crawling around the White House on her hands and knees, and putting everything in her mouth.


They grow up so fast, don't they?

Recently a survey was conducted by the U.N. worldwide.

The question asked was,

"Would you please give your opinion about the food shortage in the rest of the world?"

The survey was a complete failure.


In Africa they did not know what 'food' meant.

In Western Europe, they did not know what 'shortage' meant.

In Eastern Europe they did not know what 'opinion' meant.

In South America they did not know what 'please' meant.

And in the U.S. they did not know what 'the rest of the world' meant.

Mititary Wisdom

It is so comforting to know that we have professionals to do the dirty work ...

"A slipping gear could let your M203 grenade launcher fire when you least
expect it. That would make you quite unpopular in what's left of your
unit."
- Army's magazine of preventive maintenance.


"Aim towards the Enemy."
- Instruction printed on US Rocket Launcher


"When the pin is pulled, Mr. Grenade is not our friend.
- U.S. Marine Corps


"Cluster bombing from B-52s are very, very accurate. The bombs are
guaranteed to always hit the ground."
- USAF Ammo Troop


"If the enemy is in range, so are you." - Infantry Journal


"It is generally inadvisable to eject directly over the area you just
bombed."
- U.S. Air Force Manual


"Try to look unimportant; they may be low on ammo."
- Infantry Journal (special forces)


"You, you, and you ... Panic. The rest of you, come with me."
- U.S. Marine Corp Gunnery Sgt.


"Tracers work both ways."
- U.S. Army Ordnance


"Five second fuses only last three seconds."
- Infantry Journal

Science News

Prehistoric bronze hoard found off Greek beach

Authorities say a hoard of 4,500-year-old copper weapons recovered off a northern beach is the largest of its kind ever found in Greece.

A Culture Ministry statement says the discovery includes at least 110 ax and hammer heads, but several more should be extracted from compacted masses of corroded metal.
The ministry says they were probably buried at a time of unrest or war.

The hoard would have represented a fortune at the time.Thursday's statement says there were no traces of a shipwreck.
The site was probably a coastal area flooded by rising sea levels.

The tools were discovered near the village of Mesi, 500 miles (800 kilometers) northeast of Athens.
Archaeologists recovered it from a depth of 3 1/2 yards (meters).

German prosecutors mull case of former Nazi guard

Germany's highest criminal court handed the case against a former Nazi death camp guard to Munich prosecutors who may seek the suspect's extradition from the United States for trial.

Munich prosecutors' spokesman Anton Winkler says his office will decide whether there is enough evidence to charge John Demjanjuk in the deaths of 29,000 Jews at Sobibor.

He says prosecutors are awaiting files from Germany's federal office that pursues Nazi-era crimes.

Winkler did not say Thursday when a decision would be made. His office had asked the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe in late November to decide whether Munich had jurisdiction.

Demjanjuk emigrated to the U.S. state of Ohio in 1952. He denies involvement in war crimes.

Pakistan cracking down on militants

Pakistan has ordered the closure of all offices of a charity linked to the militant group suspected in the Mumbai attacks.

A government official said that authorities had been ordered to close the offices of Jemaat-u-Dawa.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.

The moves against Jemaat-u-Dawa come on the heels of pressure on Pakistan to crack down on anyone connected to the attacks that killed 171 people in India's financial capital of Mumbai last month.

The United Nations has declared the charity a terrorist group and subject to sanctions.

Pakistan's prime minister said the country would "honor its international obligations" following the U.N. decision.

Some of our readers

Some of today's readers hail from:

Uppsala, Sweden; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Dublin, Ireland; Mumbai, India; Johannesburg, South Africa; Istanbul, Turkey; Maputo, Mozambique; Ottawa, Canada; Auckland, New Zealand; Nantes, France ...

... as well as from Lompoc, Truckee, Palatine, Valhalla, Poughkeepsie, Boca Raton, Tracy, Pullman, Moncks Corner, and Saluda in the good ol' US of A.

And on our sister blog The Naked, The Nude and The Nekkid readers in:

Lahore, Pakistan; Cairo, Egypt; Liege Belgium; Reading, England; Helsinki, Finland; Vienna, Austria; Kuala Lumpur, Malyasia; Copenhagen, Denmark; Sao Palo, Brazil; Chilliwack, Canada ...

... as well as in Bedminister, Petal, Clio, Norcross, Alachula, Neenah, Owasso, Olathe, Plano , and Honolulu in the good ol' US of A ...

... dropped by today.

Man brings 11-inch knife to court in walking stick

From the "What an idiot!" Department:

Iowa City, Iowa police arrested a man who brought an 11-inch knife concealed in a walking cane to a court appointment.

Police said the man concealed the blade in a cobra-head walking stick when he was to report to the Johnson County Courthouse on charges of violating a domestic-abuse protective order on Tuesday.

Police say the man called his wife, who filed the domestic-abuse charges, and told her not to come to court on Tuesday.

An Iowa City police officer who was sent to arrest the man found the concealed blade.

The man was charged with going armed with a blade greater than 8 inches and violation of a domestic-abuse order.

Tow driver demands 'drop fee' from assault victim

Neither a bloody face nor a deputy's plea could stop a tow-truck driver from doing what he's paid to do. The Clackamas County Sheriff's Office said a Wilsonville, Oregon woman fled her apartment Monday night after getting assaulted by her boyfriend. With blood running down her face, she got in her car and sped across the parking lot to her grandmother's place, where she called 911.

The 25-year-old provided a statement to the responding sheriff's deputy and then stepped outside to find her car getting towed. The tow driver would not leave the car without making the woman pay a "drop fee."

"I explained to the tow driver that the woman was the victim of domestic violence," Deputy Wes Hall told The Oregonian newspaper. "I told him there was no place to park, so she left the car with its four-way flashers going, because she was trying to get away."

The deputy's arguments failed to persuade.

The driver, who works on commissions, was completely within his rights to tow the car or charge a drop fee to leave it, said Charles White, general operations manager for Retriever Towing. The amount the woman paid has not been disclosed, but White said the fees run as high as $160.

White said Retriever is under contract to patrol the parking lots at the apartment complex, ensuing that fire lanes and emergency-access routes remain unobstructed. "The deputy has no right to tell him to drop the car without charging a fee," he said.

Deputies arrested the woman's boyfriend on an accusation of assault.

*****

Talk about a Cad! First the woman is assaulted by her boyfriend, then she is robbed by the tow truck driver!

No, it's not Santa

Burglar gets stuck in chimney

Santa aside, that trip down the chimney doesn't work so well after all. Police arrested a burglar early Wednesday who spent a harrowing three hours stuck inside the chimney of a St. Louis pawn shop.

Authorities were called to the location at 3 a.m., and found the man wedged in the chimney, unable to move. After about three hours, rescuers were able to knock away bricks and free him.

He was taken to a hospital for evaluation. The man's name has not been released.

Happy Valley man tackles masked robbery suspect

The Happy Valley southeast of Portland doesn't have much in common with the Happy Valley that's home to the Penn State Nittany Lions. But they both produce good linebackers.

Clackamas County authorities said a Happy Valley resident chased a masked robbery suspect through a bank parking lot Tuesday afternoon and then brought him down with an NFL-style tackle.

Sheriff's Detective Jim Strovink identified the money-saving tackler as 50-year-old William Roger Onstott.

The suspect allegedly lunged at a woman walking toward a Bank of America entrance and yanked a bank bag from her hand.

The woman was taken to a hospital with injuries to her nose, hand and chest.

Deer crashes into Michigan 4th-grade classroom

A fourth-grade class in Coopersville, Michigan learned firsthand about animal behavior when a deer crashed through a window and into its classroom.

The six-point buck sent chairs, desks, books and shards of glass flying. A boy suffered a small cut to his head, but there were no serious injuries.

Marty Alexander, the principal of Coopersville East Elementary School, says the unexpected guest dropped by Monday afternoon.

He says the teacher stayed cool, instructing her 23 startled students to drop to the floor as the deer bounded across the room. She then led the children into the hallway.

After a twitchy, 30-second visit, the buck jumped back through the window and ran away.

Heavy Rains and Flooding

From the "Like we need THIS" Department:

Wednesday's warm temperatures may come at a price – heavy rain and potential flooding Thursday.

The heavy rain Wednesday was south of Charlotte by 9 p.m., but it's likely to return late this morning and could create significant flooding, said Doug Outlaw, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Greer, S.C.

By Wednesday evening, the weather service had posted a flood watch for several Charlotte-area counties, including Mecklenburg, Union, Cabarrus, Gaston, Lincoln, Catawba and Iredell counties.

Outlaw said some spots could see as much as three inches of rain.

“That much rain will cause streams and creeks to rise rapidly and lead to potential flooding,” he said. “Folks in low-lying areas need to be very cautious of rising water on Thursday.”

The heaviest rain will be north of Charlotte, but parts of the city could receive up to three inches, particularly if storms line up and pass over the same area, he said.

The framework for the rain and storms is warm weather. Temperatures climbed from the 50s Tuesday evening into the lower and middle 60s by daybreak. It lingered in the 60s Wednesday and is expected to climb back into the low 60s today.

That's a big departure from the colder-than-normal temperatures in November and early December. Last month was the fifth-coldest November in Charlotte weather history. Until Wednesday, December had started as the coldest in eight years.

*****

To top it off it's supposed to dip back down Friday into the lower 40s. Can you say Cold and flu season!

Jerry Lewis to receive Oscar's humanitarian award

Jerry Lewis has never been nominated for an Oscar, but he's going to get one anyway.

The 82-year-old will receive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the Oscar ceremony in February.
The governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced their selection Wednesday.
The Hersholt Award recognizes humanitarian efforts that have brought credit to the film industry.

An actor, director, writer and producer, Lewis made his big-screen debut in 1949's "My Friend Irma."
He has been national chairman of the Muscular Dystrophy Association since 1952 and has raised more than $2 billion for the cause through his annual Labor Day telethon.

The Oscars will be presented February 22, 2009.