The Internet

In a look at the Internet we debut a new series with that little padlock symbol you see on the bottom right-hand corner of those 'secure' pages you use ...

That little padlock symbol that means you're shopping or banking at a secure site?
It might not be the symbol of security you've been told it is.

Read more in the Washington Post.

'Immortal' jellyfish swarming across the world

An 'immortal' jellyfish is swarming through the world's oceans, according to scientists.

The Turritopsis Nutricula is able to revert back to a juvenile form once it mates after becoming sexually mature.

Marine biologists say the jellyfish numbers are rocketing because they need not die.

Dr Maria Miglietta of the Smithsonian Tropical Marine Institute said: "We are looking at a worldwide silent invasion."

The jellyfish are originally from the Caribbean but have spread all over the world.

Turritopsis Nutricula is technically known as a hydrozoan and is the only known animal that is capable of reverting completely to its younger self.

It does this through the cell development process of transdifferentiation.

Scientists believe the cycle can repeat indefinitely, rendering it potentially immortal.

While most members of the jellyfish family usually die after propagating, the Turritopsis nutricula has developed the unique ability to return to a polyp state.

Having stumbled upon the font of eternal youth, this tiny creature which is just 5mm long is the focus of many intricate studies by marine biologists and geneticists to see exactly how it manages to literally reverse its aging process.

Science News

A couple of stories from the world of Science:

Many damaging effects of climate change are already largely irreversible

Climate change leaves emperor penguins 'facing extinction'

Health News

In a round up of Health related stories:

Study finds that aspirin may prevent liver damage that afflicts millions

Fast-food diet cancels out benefits of breastfeeding in preventing asthma

Cutting salt isn't the only way to reduce blood pressure; study suggests boosting potassium is also effective

Ailing economy leads to rise in stress, drop in healthy habits

Common medication associated with cognitive decline in elderly

New survey results show huge burden of diabetes

Unmet medical needs are most common among vulnerable children

Study finds MRSA in Midwestern swine, workers

Also in a related piece to a previous post on Carolina Naturally ...

If you've been paying attention you already know that high fructose corn syrup is bad for you, but it's worse than you thought - it's loaded with mercury

Did you know ...

Banks that got the ongoing bailout billions have reduced their lending more than banks that didn't get diddley-squat.

Read more at Reuters.

While My Guitar Gently Weeps

Concert for George

Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and other musicians, including George Harrison's son Dhani, perform Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"at the "Concert For George" - a memorial to the ex-Beatle George Harrison on the first anniversary of his death - at the Royal Albert Hall in London on 29 November 2002.

Unemployment is now at 17%

If it's calculated the way they used to do math before political tinkering.

C-Span

Liars and Fools

For today's edition of Liars and Fools we have the following.

Wingnut heads explode because President Obama gives his first TV interview to Al-Arabiya
Maybe if enough of them explode we can be shed of the lot of them. We can hope.

Robert Reich calls Dimbulb, Handjob, 'Male'kin on their lies
But do you think they noticed?

Wing-nut fact-fudger William Kristol jumps from New York Times to Washington Post
Yeah, like that is going to make him a writer.

Lush Dimbulb is hot under the collar
And this is a bad thing, how?

King (r-Michigan) believes Khalid Sheikh Mohammed wants asylum and American citizenship
He also 'believes' in little green men and the moon is made of cheese - so this is news?

Faux News promotes anti-Obama book filled with "falsehoods and red herrings"
All right, is anyone surprised at this?

Wing-nuts run with absolute nonsense on Guantanamo issue
As if it would be any other way.

Parroting repugican talking points, Dimbulb resumes lying about ACORN
Telling the truth would literally kill the fat bastard ... his body couldn't take the traumatic shock!

Dick(head) Morris reiterates: Obama stimulus plan is a trojan horse filled with socialists
He sees a socialist every time he looks in a mirror, oh, wait vampires can't see their reflection, sorry -forgot there for a moment.

Handjob repeats false calculation of job creation cost
One added to one equals two or at least it does in the real world ... in Handjob's world, who knows?

On Meet the Press, Gregory lets Boehner (r-Ohio) lie repeatedly about terror linked to former Guantanamo prisoners
Boner (excuse me, Boehner) does know how to tie his shoes without a map drawn out for him to follow so why should anyone listen to the blowhard anyway?

Juan Williams: Michelle Obama is 'Stokely Carmichael in a designer dress'
And Juan is such a prize?

And I Quote

"So far so good for the Obamas. The family is settled in. Their only complaint
is they can still hear creepy organ music coming from Dick Cheney's dungeon."

~ David Letterman

Economic Meltdown Continues

You want more proof the shrub and the cabal screwed this country over.

Then read this:

The FBI was aware for years of "pervasive and growing" fraud in the mortgage industry that eventually contributed to America's financial meltdown, but did not take definitive action to stop it.

"It is clear that we had good intelligence on the mortgage-fraud schemes, the corrupt attorneys, the corrupt appraisers, the insider schemes," said a recently retired, high FBI official.

Another retired top FBI official confirmed that such intelligence went back to 2002.

Read more here

Better be thankful they're not in China

Peanut processor knowingly sold tainted products.

The Georgia peanut plant linked to a salmonella outbreak that has killed eight people and sickened 500 more across the country knowingly shipped out contaminated peanut butter 12 times in the past two years, federal officials said yesterday.

Read more in the Washington Post

The recent spat of such things in China resulted in the ones responsible attending a necktie party in their honor ... it was the last party they ever went to.
Hemp neckties tend to make lasting impressions on the honoree, you know.

Attenborough's response to creationists' hate mail

Sir David Attenborough gets a lot of hate mail because he doesn't give credit to God in his documentaries.

In an interview with this week's Radio Times about his latest documentary, on Charles Darwin and natural selection, the broadcaster said: "They tell me to burn in hell and good riddance."

Telling the magazine that he was asked why he did not give "credit" to God, Attenborough added: "They always mean beautiful things like hummingbirds. I always reply by saying that I think of a little child in east Africa with a worm burrowing through his eyeball. The worm cannot live in any other way, except by burrowing through eyeballs. I find that hard to reconcile with the notion of a divine and benevolent creator."

Attenborough's response to creationists' hate mail

You and me David, you and me.

Canada opposition reconsiders toppling government

Canada's main opposition party backed away from plans to topple the Conservative government, saying Wednesday the prime minister is "on probation" and must give periodic economic updates to Parliament.

The opposition Liberals had vowed to use a parliamentary confidence vote to take down Prime Minister Stephen Harper's minority government if his stimulus plan fell short.

But Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said he would support Harper's $32 billion plan if he agrees to give regular status reports on the economy to lawmakers.

"We are putting this government on probation," Ignatieff said.

"Should Mr. Harper fail to satisfy the expectations of Canadians we will be ready to defeat him."

*****

This is a huge mistake! You should oust the Harper n'er-do-wells' post haste and not let them further ruin your country.

Idaho's poor get donated fish, but not warning

An Idaho food bank last year gave away thousands of pounds of donated local fish without being aware of a state health department warning that eating too much of the mercury-contaminated fish could be dangerous for pregnant women and children.

The Bonner Community Food Bank in Sandpoint, along with as many as eight other groups around the region, received lake trout and whitefish caught from Lake Pend Oreille through an Idaho Department of Fish and Game program.

But since at least 2007, the Department of Health and Welfare has advised pregnant women and children to eat just one monthly meal of lake trout and four meals of whitefish caught from Lake Pend Oreille.

Food bank director Alice Wallace said she gave out 4,700 pounds of fish to the region's low-income people last year but was never told of the health advisory.

*****

Not being told is no excuse. It is part of your job to know and post these warnings, period!

Things in the News

Things in the news:

House Votes Today To Protect the Internet

Drum Major Suspended For Waving At Obama

Daily Reminder

A man dies and goes to Heaven.
After a couple days, St Peter asks the man what he thinks.
"I don't see any of my Christian friends", said the man.
St Peter responds, "They're on the other side of that big wall. They think that they're the only ones here".

Unusual Celebrations and Holidays

Today is one of the rare 'no celebration or holiday' days of the year (at least none that I can find).

Maybe we should designate it 'International No Celebration and Holiday Day'.

It's an idea.

And I Quote

All television is children's television.

~ Richard P. Adler

Burma faces food crisis because of cyclone

Burma faces food shortages in many parts of the country, largely because of last year's cyclone and a rat infestation that destroyed crops, according to a U.N. report released today.

About 185,000 tons of emergency food aid will be needed this year throughout the impoverished country, said the report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Program.

Cyclone Nargis, which left more than 130,000 people dead or missing in May last year, exacerbated the country's economic difficulties and raised the prospect of a humanitarian crisis.
"Access to food remains the critical challenge for the poorest people and for vulnerable populations in remote areas of Burma," said Chris Kaye, WFP's representative for Burma.
"For many of those affected by Cyclone Nargis, who are engaged in rebuilding their lives and livelihoods, the limited delta harvest means they will continue to rely on assistance to meet their food needs."

About 2 million acres of rice paddies were submerged by massive waves and 85 percent of seed stocks was destroyed.
Cheng Feng, an economist for the FAO, said rice production in the delta during the second half of 2008 fell 32.5 percent to 1.93 million tons from a year earlier.
A shortage of labor, higher fertilizer prices and lower rice prices may also have dissuaded some delta farmers from planting, according to the U.N. report.

"There are still problems that need to be fixed," Feng said.
"The farmers said they had to plant several times because the seeds they were given were not right for that area."
Rats - which multiplied because of the rare flowering of bamboo in 2007 - have damaged 1,693 acres of rice and 988 acres of maize in 121 villages in Chin state, the U.N. report said.

Citizens in Chin, Rakhine and other poor states are suffering "critical food insecurities" and "high levels" of malnutrition in children, the WFP said.
People have resorted to foraging the forest for food, it said.

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Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States
Zaporizhzhya, Zaporizka, Ukraine
Old Bridge, New Jersey, United States
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Maia, Porto, Portugal

Daily Horoscope

Today's horoscope says:

You are, or are about to be, involved in a new endeavor.

Oh, Really?! That's nice.