And I Quote

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.

~ Albert Einstein

Don't I know it, Al!

Man accused of drunken horse riding in snowstorm

From the "There are some idiots out there" Department:

A man has been cited for public intoxication while riding a white horse during a snowstorm in the northern Wyoming town of Cody. Police said they cited 28-year-old Benjamin Daniels, of Cody, after they received a call at 4 p.m. Sunday from a motorist who was concerned that a man was creating a road hazard by riding his horse on a street in conditions with poor visibility.

Assistant Police Chief George Menig said officers noticed that Daniels was intoxicated after they stopped him to explain that drivers were having difficulty spotting his slow-moving white horse.

Menig said Thursday that Daniels was detained Sunday and released the following day. He will go before a municipal judge later.

A friend of Daniels' picked up the horse.

*****

Riding a white horse in the snow (more so while intoxicated) ... not one of your better ideas to be sure.

Let's call him 'swifty', shall we.

Harris Teeter to cut store openings

Harris Teeter is cutting the number of store openings and renovations planned for 2009 and beyond because of the weak economy, the Matthews-based grocer's parent company said in a filing Thursday.

Charlotte-based Ruddick Corp. said in a filing last summer that it planned to spend about $245 million in 2009 to build 19 new stores and complete eight major remodeling projects. By the fall, those numbers had declined to $241 million to open 17 new stores and finish four major remodeling projects.

The company now says it plans to spend $212 million on such projects in 2009, opening 16 new stores and remodeling three. It is also building a $100 million distribution center in Fredericksburg, Va., that would open in fiscal 2012 and serve its growing roster of stores in the Washington, D.C., area. The center would help save money on transportation, the company said.

Ruddick also announced Thursday that its quarterly earnings slipped 1.7 percent, as a sales drop at textile maker American & Efird offset gains at Harris Teeter. Ruddick, the parent of both, reported net income of $22.9 million, or 47 cents per diluted share, in its first quarter that ended Dec. 29. That's compared to $23.3 million, or 48 cents per diluted share, during the same period the year before.

Growth at Harris Teeter helped Ruddick sales increase 1.9 percent, to $995 million. The Matthews-based grocer's sales rose 3.6 percent, to $928.9 million. That, however, was due to new stores; sales at stores open a year or more, a key gauge of retail health, declined 2.1 percent.

The company attributed that decrease to the recession, noting that customers are buying fewer items per shopping visit. However, the company has been spending additional money on promotions and said its data suggests Harris Teeter is gaining market share and selling more store brand products. Harris Teeter's operating profit rose slightly because of cost-control measures, the company said in a news release.

Someday Never Comes

Creedence Clearwater Revival

Peanut plant problem forces fresh recall

Worried about salmonella, the Army said it is removing some peanut butter items from warehouses in Europe, the latest in an ever-growing list of recalled peanut products linked to a national salmonella outbreak.

Already more than 430 kinds of cakes, cookies and other goods in the civilian world have been pulled off store shelves in what the Food and Drug Administration is calling one of the largest product recalls in memory. The Army's recall does not affect Meals-Ready-to-Eat, but another kind of military grub called Unitized Group Rations-A, which provide a complete 50-person meal.

More than 500 people have gotten sick in the U.S. outbreak, and at least eight may have died as a result of salmonella infection.

At the center of the investigation is a Georgia peanut processing plant where federal inspectors reported finding roaches, mold, a leaking roof and other sanitary problems.

Managers at the Blakely, Ga., plant owned by Peanut Corp. of America continued shipping peanut products even after they were found to contain salmonella, the FDA said. The company shipped the food items after retesting them and getting negative results.

Peanut Corp. expanded its recall Wednesday to all peanut goods produced at the plant since Jan. 1, 2007. The company makes just 1 percent of the peanut products sold in the United States, but those products are ingredients in hundreds of other foods, from ice cream, to Asian-style sauces, to dog biscuits. Major national brands of peanut butter are not affected.

A senior lawmaker in Congress and Georgia's agriculture commissioner called for a criminal probe of the company, but the FDA said that would be premature while its own food safety investigation continues.

The company says it is fully cooperating with the government and has stopped all production at the plant. Peanut Corp. said in a statement it "categorically denies any allegations that the company sought favorable results from any lab in order to ship its products."

Stewart Parnell, the firm's president, said that the recall was expanded out of an abundance of caution.

"We have been devastated by this, and we have been working around the clock with the FDA to ensure any potentially unsafe products are removed from the market immediately," Parnell said.

Most of the older products in the expanded recall have probably been eaten already. Officials said they see no signs of any earlier outbreaks from those goods.

The recall covers peanut butter, peanut paste, peanut meal and granulated products, as well as all peanuts - dry and oil roasted - shipped from the factory. FDA officials could not quantify the amount of products being recalled.

Officials recommend that consumers check the FDA web site, which lists all the products being recalled, and toss out any that are named.

Salmonella had been found previously at least 12 times in products made at the plant, but production lines were never cleaned after internal tests indicated contamination, FDA inspectors said in a report. Products that initially tested positive were retested. When the company got a negative reading, it shipped the products out.

That happened as recently as September. A month later, health officials started picking up signals of the salmonella outbreak.

Michael Rogers, a senior FDA investigator, said it's possible for salmonella to hide in small pockets of a large batch of peanut butter. That means the same batch can yield both positive and negative results, he said. The products should have been discarded after they first tested positive.

Separately, senior congressional and state officials on Wednesday called for a federal probe of possible criminal violations at the plant.

The company's actions "can only be described as reprehensible and criminal," said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., who oversees FDA funding. "This behavior represents the worst of our current food safety regulatory system."

In Georgia, the state's top agriculture official joined DeLauro in asking the Justice Department to determine whether the case warrants criminal prosecution.

"They tried to hide it so they could sell it," said Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tommy Irvin. "Now they've caused a mammoth problem that could destroy their company - and it could destroy the peanut industry."

*****

Whether the case warrants criminal prosecution?

Without a question it does!

*****

More Information

• Video
  
• Video
  
• FDA's recall page
  
• FDA's outbreak page

Scientists Teleport Matter More Than Three Feet

From the "Remember today's Science Fiction is tomorrow's Science Fact" Department:

Scientists have come a bit closer to achieving the “Star Trek” feat of teleportation.

No one is galaxy-hopping, or even beaming people around, but for the first time, information has been teleported between two separate atoms across a distance of a meter — about a yard.

This is a significant milestone in a field known as quantum information processing, said Christopher Monroe of the Joint Quantum Institute at the University of Maryland, who led the effort.

Teleportation is one of nature’s most mysterious forms of transport: Quantum information, such as the spin of a particle or the polarization of a photon, is transferred from one place to another, without traveling through any physical medium.

It has previously been achieved between photons (a unit, or quantum, of electromagnetic radiation, such as light) over very large distances, between photons and ensembles of atoms, and between two nearby atoms through the intermediary action of a third.

Wind jobs outstrip the coal industry

Here’s a talking point in the green jobs debate:

The wind industry now employs more people than coal mining in the United States.

Wind industry jobs jumped to 85,000 in 2008, a 70% increase from the previous year, according to a report released Tuesday from the American Wind Energy Association. In contrast, the coal industry employs about 81,000 workers. (Those figures are from a 2007 U.S. Department of Energy report but coal employment has remained steady in recent years though it’s down by nearly 50% since 1986.) Wind industry employment includes 13,000 manufacturing jobs concentrated in regions of the country hard hit by the deindustrialization of the past two decades.

Full Story in Fortune

Statue Unveiled In Honor of Bush Shoe Throw

A sculpture of an enormous bronze-coloured shoe has been erected in Iraq to honour the journalist who threw his shoes at ex-US President George W Bush.

The sofa-sized artwork was formally unveiled in Tikrit, hometown of late Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein.

Read the report from BBC News here.

According to Forbes Magazine, the incident has been a gold-mine for the Turkish shoemaker, Ramazan Baydan, who claims to have made the shoe thrown at the now ex-President, now renamed the Bush Shoe.

”People are calling from all over the world to order this shoe I designed a decade ago. We have so far 370,000 new orders from Europe, the Middle East and the United States compared to only 40,000 orders of this particular model in December last year,” Baydan told Forbes.com during a phone interview through an interpreter.

At least Bush sparked an economic recovery for somebody.

Read the full article in Forbes here.

UK fingerprints foreign six-year-old children at the border

If you bring a child to Britain from outside the EU, be prepared to have her fingerprinted, even if she's only six years old. That's because the British government now leads the world in undermining the civil liberties of children, beating the US-VISIT program by eight years (visitors to America are only fingerprinted if they're over 14). Most of the British government seems not to have realized that this was going on -- even though the UK's Members of European Parliament have been pushing to make this a requirement across the EU.

Remember when the head of Scotland Yard proposed taking DNA samples from five-year-olds who displayed criminal tendencies so that they could be rounded up for arrest later in life? Here again, we see the British government mistaking Nineteen Eighty-Four as a manual for statecraft.

In fact, no one has called the Borders Agency to account. Home Office officials I have talked to outside the agency were shocked that official government policy is now to fingerprint children.

When asked why (question 226407), the Home Office itself offers a much more solid defence: that the EU requires it. What it does not admit is that the British government is almost alone in pushing the EU to ensure that the age when fingerprinting can start is so low. Home Office officials pushed the EU to establish a standard age of six, despite opposition within other European governments. The next time you hear a government official support the EU, it is not just because it is a vehicle for "peace, prosperity and freedom", but also because it is a vehicle to push through policies that the UK government would prefer not to pursue through the legislature at home.

The Bush administration rejected the contemplation of fingerprinting children, even within the controversial US-VISIT program that fingerprints visitors to the United States. The Department of Homeland Security is prohibited from fingerprinting children under 14, though it may well consider lowering it.

Six-year-olds fingerprinted by Britain

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu creator dies

Helio Gracie, one of the main creators of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu that gained worldwide popularity, has died.
He was 95.

Gracie died this morning and was buried in this afternoon near his home in the mountain resort town of Petropolis near Rio de Janeiro, according to a short statement posted on the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy Web site.

The Agencia Estado news service said he died of pneumonia.

Gracie introduced a series of adaptations to traditional Japanese Jiu-Jitsu that emphasized leverage and position as a way to compensate for size differences among opponents.

Illinois governor unanimously convicted and tossed from office

Governor Rod Blagojevich was thrown out of office today without a single lawmaker coming to his defense.

He was brought down by a government-for-sale scandal that stretched from Chicago to Capitol Hill and turned the foul-mouthed politician into a national punchline.

Blagojevich, accused of trying to sell Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat, becomes the first U.S. governor in more than 20 years to be removed by impeachment.

After a four-day trial, the Illinois Senate voted 59-0 to convict him of abuse of power, automatically ousting the second-term governor.

In a second, identical vote, lawmakers further barred Blagojevich from ever holding public office in the state again.

*****

It should be noted that the accusation that garnered the lionshare of the attention - that of 'trying' to sell Obama's vacant Senate seat - did not play a role in the trial or conviction in that trail ... it was all the other 'abuses' of power he had committed over the years as governor (just as had his predecessor - it is an Illinois thing).

The new governor will be just the same - Illinoians won't have it any other way.

Unusual Holidays and Celebrations

Hope you have enjoyed
"Freethinkers Day"
so far today!

Six Months in A Leaky Boat

Split Enz

White House Unbuttons Formal Dress Code

The capital flew into a bit of a tizzy when, on his first full day in the White House, President Obama was photographed in the Oval Office without his suit jacket. There was, however, a logical explanation: Mr. Obama, who hates the cold, had cranked up the thermostat.

Read the rest of the NY Times piece here.

It's a Blond thing ...

At a pharmacy, a blond asked to use the infant scale to weigh the baby she held in her arms.
The clerk explained that the device was out for repairs, but said that she would figure the infant's weight by weighing the blond and baby together on the adult scale, then weighing the mother alone and subtracting the second amount from the first.

"That won't work, I'm the aunt."

*****

In Vegas, a blond walks up to a Coke machine and puts in a coin.
Out pops a coke.
The blond looks amazed and runs away to get some more coins.

She returns and starts feeding the machine madly, and of course the machine keeps popping out the drinks.

Another person walks up behind the blond and watches her antics for a few minutes before stopping her and asking if someone else could get a drink. The blond spins around and shouts in her face: "Can't you see I'm winning!?"

*****

A blond and a redhead met in a bar after work for a drink and were watching the 6 o'clock news. A man was shown threatening to jump from the Brooklyn Bridge.
The blond bet the redhead $50 that he wouldn't jump, and the redhead replied, "I'll take that bet!"

Anyway, sure enough, he jumped, so the blond gave the redhead the $50.
The redhead said, "I can't take this, you're my friend."
The blond said, "No. A bet's a bet".

So the redhead said, "Listen, I have to admit, I saw this on the 5 o'clock news, so I can't take your money."

To which the blond replied, "Well, so did I, but I never thought he'd jump again!"

South American leaders head to anti-Davos gathering

Five South American leaders are headed to the steamy Amazon city of Belem, today to join 100,000 activists demanding an overhaul of capitalism they say is long overdue.

The presidents of Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Venezuela were expected to join activists of all stripes at an annual protest against the World Economic Forum held for the planet's rich and powerful at the Swiss ski resort of Davos.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said ahead of his arrival in Brazil that the World Social Forum will show the planet how to make "a better world, distinct from capitalism."

And Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will make his first social forum appearance in three years, bringing 13 government ministers with him instead of going to Switzerland.
Activists said they weren't angry at Silva for shunning the social forum in previous years, predicting he will receive a warm welcome.

Gladys Cisneros, a program officer for the American Center for International Labor Solidarity based in Washington, was encouraged by the VIP lineup - but hoped leaders want to do more than boost their popularity amid the world financial crisis."I would hope their coming here is a genuine reflection of their interest in engaging in civil society and not just a photo op," she said.

Tuscan city says 'basta' to ethnic food

It's the small things like this that ruin the world ...

If you are craving a kebab, tandoori chicken or Peking duck you may go hungry in the small Tuscan city of Lucca, which has just barred new ethnic restaurants from opening in its historic medieval center.

Officials say new rules passed last week by Lucca's conservative administration aim to protect local specialties from the rising popularity of "different" cuisines.
The measure also bans fast food restaurants and hopes to reduce littering within the city's ancient walls, a magnet for tourists.

"By ethnic cuisine we mean a different cuisine," city spokesman Massimo Di Grazia said.
"That means no new kebabs, Thai or Lebanese restaurants."
Di Grazia said ethnic restaurants opened before the measure was passed could stay in business.

The move has sparked accusations of gastronomic racism from opposition politicians and criticism from Italian chefs, who say modern cuisine relies on fusion, the combination of ingredients used in different food traditions.
"It's a discriminatory ban," councilman Alessandro Tambellini said. "It's a sign of closure toward different cultures."

"There is no dish on the face of the Earth that doesn't come from mixing techniques, products and tastes from cultures that have met and mingled over time," said Vittorio Castellani, a TV chef and cookbook author.
Castellani said the ban was also a blow to immigrant communities, whose members often make a living by selling ethnic food.

Downtown Lucca, 40 miles west of Florence, is a popular destination for thousands of visitors, who roam its intact walls, medieval churches and Renaissance palaces.

Di Grazia, noting that other nearby towns had passed similar rules, said, the measure was not discriminatory.
He said it aimed to improve the city's image and protect Tuscan products, like wine and oil, as well as Lucca's cuisine, rich in soups, meat and pasta dishes.

It remains unclear how "different" a restaurant's menu would have to be to fall under the culinary ban.
Di Grazia said a French restaurant would be allowed to open, but he was not sure about a restaurant offering Sicilian dishes, which often include Middle Eastern ingredients.

*****

This is one town who will be loosing quite a bit of its tourist trade just as have other town that have gone down this road. I know I won't be visiting Lucca.

In environmental friendly news

In environmental friendly news ...

The Co-Op today became the first UK supermarket to ban the use of a group of pesticides implicated in billions of honeybee deaths worldwide.

It is prohibiting suppliers of its own-brand fresh produce from using eight pesticides that have been connected to honeybee colony collapse disorder and are already restricted in some parts of Europe.

Read the rest in The Guardian

Being Green: The Boy Scouts Aren't

In proof that 'image' isn't all it's cracked up to be ...

For nearly a century, the Boy Scouts have worn a self-adorned badge as campsite conservationists and good stewards of the land. makes

"The Boy Scouts were green before it was cool to be green," said the organization's national spokesman, Deron Smith.

But for decades, local Boy Scouts of America administrations across the country have clearcut or otherwise conducted high-impact logging on tens of thousands of acres of forestland, often for the love of a different kind of green: cash.

An investigation has found dozens of cases over the past 20 years of local Boy Scout councils logging or selling prime woodlands to big timber interests, developers or others, turning quick money and often doing so instead of seeking ways to preserve such lands.

Read more here

Your brain on fiction

In an upcoming journal article in Psychological Science reports on the research of scientists from the Dynamic Cognition Laboratory at Washington University in St. Louis into what brain activity takes place while we read narrative stories.
The study concludes that our brains simulate the action in the story, echoing it as we read.

Nicole Speer, lead author of this study, says findings demonstrate that reading is by no means a passive exercise. Rather, readers mentally simulate each new situation encountered in a narrative. Details about actions and sensation are captured from the text and integrated with personal knowledge from past experiences. These data are then run through mental simulations using brain regions that closely mirror those involved when people perform, imagine, or observe similar real-world activities.

"These results suggest that readers use perceptual and motor representations in the process of comprehending narrated activity, and these representations are dynamically updated at points where relevant aspects of the situation are changing," says Speer, now a research associate with The Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) Mental Health Program in Boulder, Colo. "Readers understand a story by simulating the events in the story world and updating their simulation when features of that world change."

Readers build vivid mental simulations of narrative situations, brain scans suggest

Aerial shots of London by night

Here is a gallery of magnificent aerial night-photos of London from Jason Hawkes, who notes, "I often shoot tethered to my MacBook Pro to check the sharpness of the images whilst I shoot."

More of London from above, at night

You Got It

Roy Orbison

New Zealand inmate's leisurely stroll stopped by pole

Don't you just love it when real life imitates a slapstick comedy gag!

It was less than a Great Escape.

Two New Zealand prisoners who were handcuffed together as they fled a courthouse foiled their own getaway when they ran to opposite sides of a light pole, slammed into each other and fell to the ground.

Jailers nabbed them as they struggled to their feet.
(laughing their arses off, I'm sure - the jailers that is)

Their escapade on Wednesday was captured by a CCTV camera at Hastings District Court on New Zealand's North Island.

The footage shows the two men trying to make a break for it - but apparently forgetting they were joined at the wrist.

*****

I can't wait for that footage to make it to the net ... it'll be better than any Keystone Kops or Three Stooges skit ever was, I just know it!

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Daily Horoscope

Today's horoscope says:

Although things are going pretty well, you still need to be careful.

I am always.