A wailing Chewbacca

Once upon a time in a galaxy far, far away ...

I wasn't aware that galaxy was in this guy's cabinet

Mercy

Duffy
(live)

Inmate accused anew of impersonating officer

From the "Something just ain't right about that boy" Department:

A Madison, Wisconsin man already serving time for impersonating an officer apparently hasn't learned his lesson.

Thirty-year-old Joshua D. Kay is charged with a new count of impersonating an officer. At an initial court appearance Friday he stood mute so the court entered a plea of not guilty.

Prosecutors say Kay has been telling other inmates he's actually a sheriff's deputy, working undercover to investigate other deputies.

Kay is serving an eight-month jail sentence for three misdemeanors. Among them was a 2007 conviction for turning on flashing red lights and a siren on his personal car to try to stop a speeder. The other car was being driven by an off-duty police officer.

Rare Jaguars Spotted in Arizona and Mexico

From LiveScience:

The once-common jaguar has become a rare sight in North America, thanks to hunting and habitat fragmentation.

Now two were spotted in exceedingly rare and unrelated events this month.

The Arizona Game and Fish Department caught and collared a wild jaguar in Arizona for the first time, officials said Thursday. While a handful of the big cats have been photographed by automatic cameras in recent years, the satellite tracking collar will now help biologists learn more about this animal's range.

Meanwhile, a jaguar was spotted in central Mexico for the first time in a century. Scientists photographed the cat with an automatic camera set alongside a trail thought to be frequented by the spotted felines.

Jaguars (Panthera onca) once ranged from southern South America to the southern United States. By the late 1900s, none were thought to exist north of Mexico, but two independent sightings in 1996 confirmed jaguars still reached as far north as Arizona and New Mexico. Remote cameras have also photographed jaguars in the Amazon.

The species has been protected outside of the United States under the Endangered Species Act since 1973. That protection was extended to jaguars in the United States in 1997, the year after their presence here was confirmed.

Read the rest here.

Largest collection of ice age fossils found beneath Los Angeles store

Find includes almost intact Colombian mammoth and a complete saber-tooth cat skeleton

Researchers have discovered the largest collection of ice age fossils beneath a demolished department store in central Los Angeles.

The find includes an almost intact Colombian mammoth, nicknamed Zed by researchers, a complete sabre-tooth cat skeleton, a giant ground sloth and a North American lion.

The discovery, close to the La Brea Tar Pits where the remains of 34 mammoths were uncovered almost a century ago, has excited palaeontologists because it gives them an unparalleled glimpse of life in the Los Angeles basin more than 10,000 years ago.

Unlike earlier excavations, workers were able to preserve intact smaller fossils, including turtles, clams, snails, fish and tree trunks. In previous discoveries, these items were discarded as the larger fossils were uncovered.

"This gives us the opportunity to get a detailed picture of what life was like 10,000 to 40,000 years ago" John Harris, chief curator at the Page Museum told the Los Angeles Times.

The smaller items have been saved because workers are using a different technique to remove the fossils. Prompted by the rush to clear the site, which is earmarked for an underground car park for the neighbouring LA County Museum of Art, researchers have removed entire chunks of soil. The remains have been stored in 23 wooden crates parked at the rear of the Page museum as palaeontologists prepare to sift through the remains.

Work has already started on Zed, the mammoth, who was 10 feet tall and 47-49 years old when he died. The skeleton is 80% complete and includes 10-feet long intact tusks. Zed is missing just one rear leg and the top of his skull, which was broken off during the excavation.

Welcome new Readers

Carolina Naturally would like to welcome our newest readers in

the Northern Mariana Islands

Our 162nd country!

Recipe: Cheesy Chili Popcorn

Given the previous post you'll be surprised to find that this recipe is actually good tasting while not being bad for you.

Do your kids love salty snacks? Give them this chili- and cheese-spiced popcorn. It's low in fat and calories and high in flavor.

And it only takes 10 minutes!

Ingredients:
8 cups popped popcorn, plain
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Steps:
1. Place popcorn in a large bowl. In a small bowl stir together butter, chili powder, and garlic powder.
2. Drizzle over popcorn; toss to coat.
3. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese; toss to coat. Store in a tightly covered container at room temperature up to 3 days. Makes 10 servings (about 8 cups).

For the nutrition info buffs among you:

calories: 51, total fat: 3g, saturated fat: 2g, cholesterol: 7mg, sodium: 46mg, carbohydrate: 5g, fiber: 1g, protein: 1g, vitamin C: 0%, calcium: 2%, iron: 1%

And for the diabetics among you:

starch: .5 diabetic exchange, fat: .5 diabetic exchange.

Recipes that can make you fat

Eating at home can save you some cash, but beware the calorie cost.

Though restaurants often take the blame for portion distortion - the trend of serving up ever larger helpings - cookbook recipes have done some Supersizing of their own, a study published this week in the Annals of Internal Medicine found.

"There's so much attention that's been given to away-from-home eating and so much attention that's been focused on restaurants and the packaged food industry, it makes me wonder whether it's actually deflecting attention from the one place where we can make the most immediate change," says Cornell University marketing professor Brian Wansink, who directed the study.

The study, which looked at how classic recipes have changed during the past 70 years, found a nearly 40 percent increase in calories per serving for nearly every recipe reviewed, about an extra 77 calories.

The study identified the trend in numerous cookbooks, but it focused on American kitchen icon "Joy of Cooking," first published during the '30s and regularly updated with new editions since then, most recently in 2006.

Those editions gave researchers a continuity of recipes from which to draw their data, Wansink says.

Of the 18 recipes published in all seven editions, 17 increased in calories per serving. That can be attributed partly to a jump in total calories per recipe (about 567 calories), but also to larger portion sizes.

Only the chili con carne recipe remained unchanged through the years. The chicken gumbo, however, went from making 14 servings at 228 calories each in the 1936 edition, to making 10 servings at 576 calories each in the 2006 version.

Beth Wareham, editor of the latest edition, says the 2006 edition includes information about nutrition and healthy eating, and advocates the eating of good fats and whole foods.

She also says portion sizes are carefully determined using practices standard to the industry, and that since the first editions of the book much has changed about food, how it is produced and how it is consumed.

Most excess calories in the American diet still come from food eaten outside the home, says Marion Nestle, professor of nutrition and food studies at New York University. But she says the study is yet another illustration of how accustomed people are to eating ever increasing quantities of food.

And changes in "Joy of Cooking" have been going on for a while. Increases in overall calories per recipe have been gradual, but portion sizes tended to jump, first during the '40s, again during the '60s, and with the largest jump in the 2006 edition.

The first significant signs of restaurant portion inflation didn't show up until the late '70s, says Wansink.

Lisa Young, an adjunct nutrition professor at New York University, had similar findings in a 2002 study that compared the book's brownie recipe from the '60s and '70s editions to the recipe from the 1997 edition.

"Same recipe. Same pan. But in the '60s and '70s it yielded 30 brownies," she says. "In the 1997 edition it yielded 15."

She also was able to trace the trend to other recipe sources. For example, a popular chocolate chip cookie recipe that decades before produced 100 cookies, made only 60 during the '80s, though no ingredients had changed.

Wansink says he is more concerned by the increase in overall calories per recipe - what experts call caloric density - than in the portion size increases, which is a more easily recognized phenomenon.

"That (calorie increases) is more insidious because that's the sort if thing the average person wouldn't notice, wouldn't even think would have happened over the years," says Wansink, author of "Mindless Eating," an examination of why people overeat.

Much of the change can be attributed to money. Relative to household income, food is cheaper than during the '30s. So recipes once padded with less expensive (and lower calorie) ingredients like beans, now often have more meat, Wansink says.

The scope of Wansink's study is limited. It measures the recipes only as written, not as eaten. Because people may eat more or less than the suggested serving, estimating the effect on the typical diet is challenging.

But a 40 percent increase is significant. A change of even 10 percent can affect weight, especially when dealing with high calorie foods, says Wansink. His solution? Don't let a full portion get anywhere near your plate.

"It's not enough to just be aware," Wansink says of the recipes once intended to serve nearly twice as many people are they do today. "Put half of it away as soon as it's cooked."

Scammer takes $27 million from Citibank

419 scammer impersonates the nation of Ethiopia, takes $27 million from Citibank

A Nigerian scammer is accused of posing as the central bank of Ethiopia and bilking Citibank out of $27,000,000:

To carry out the elaborate scheme, prosecutors in New York said on Friday, the man, identified as Paul Gabriel Amos, 37, a Nigerian citizen who lived in Singapore, worked with others to create official-looking documents that instructed Citibank to wire the money in two dozen transactions to accounts that Mr. Amos and the others controlled around the world.

The money came from a Citibank account in New York held by the National Bank of Ethiopia, that country’s central bank. Prosecutors said the conspirators, contacted by Citibank to verify the transactions, posed as Ethiopian bank officials and approved the transfers.

Nigerian Accused in Scheme to Swindle Citibank

Sure signs your kid is a brat

Why do some children act like brats, and what can be done to set them straight?

No child is born spoiled or a brat--it's only indulgent parenting can make them that way, radio host Rabbi Shmuley says. "Naturally, children are innocent and have a cuteness which makes people's hearts warm to them and helps bring out our best qualities," he says. "When we raise kids who are spoiled, we snuff out the child's natural attractiveness." If you are guilty of spoiling your children, Rabbi Shmuley says chances are, you have brats on your hands.

10 Signs Your Children Are Brats:

1. They resort to crying or yelling when they want something.
2. They throw themselves on floor and won't get up.
3. They constantly throw tantrums or even hit you when you punish them.
4. They ignore you when you ask a question.
5. They are rude to other adults and even to other children.
6. They refuse to share toys or treats with other children.
7. They are show-offs and are constantly trying to one-up their peers to be the center of attention.
8. They always want whatever everyone else has. Once they have it, they want something new.
9. They keep a messy room and never help out around the house despite your pleas for them to do so.
10. They refuse to go to bed.

What to Do if Your Children Are Brats:

• Reward good behavior and punish bad behavior.
• If your children yell when they want something, don't give it to them and take away something they like.
• If they won't get off the floor during a tantrum, pick them up and put them in their room until they calm down and apologize.
• If they ignore you when you tell them to do something, punish them immediately. Put them in a corner and don't let them out until they apologize.
• If they won't share, take away the toy or treat.
• Don't buy them whatever they want. Make them earn things.
• If they keep a messy room, don't let them out until it's clean.
• Enforce bedtimes. Continually put them back into their beds. After a while, they'll stop getting out. You must show there is no other option.
• Compliment your children profusely and give them rewards when they do the right thing.

Chile's Chaiten erupts again

More than 150 people who had returned to a Chilean town destroyed by a volcanic eruption last year were evacuated again last Thursday as the volcano roared back to life, spewing ash high into the air.

The explosion apparently rocked the dome of the Chaiten volcano and sent volcanic material down the mountain's slope, threatening to block a river and trigger flooding, said Paula Narvaez, a presidential delegate to the area in southern Chile.

Experts who flew over the volcano reported "large emanation of gas" on Thursday and said the situation is risky for the nearby seaside town of Chaiten because rains could trigger avalanches.

"The experts were unanimous in considering that no one must remain in Chaiten," Chile's Emergency Bureau said in a communique.

Narvaez said that as many as 160 people were evacuated from the vicinity of the 2,700-foot volcano.

More than 4,000 people were initially evacuated after Chaiten erupted on May 2nd last year for the first time in approximately 9,000 years.

On Thursday, increased seismic activity was reported and ash fell 100 miles away in Futaleufu.

Borneo Monster 'Caught ...'

... on film that is!

The snake-like monster of Borneo in an allegedly real photograph of the river Baleh.

The creature is said to be 100 feet long.

From LiveScience:

Two recently released photographs of a huge snake-like creature allegedly taken in Borneo are causing locals to wonder if a local legend may have come alive.

But are the pictures real?

One photo, of a serpentine shape in the Baleh river, was said to be taken from a helicopter by a member of a disaster team monitoring flood conditions. Locals suggest that the animal may be a creature of folklore called Nabau, a dragon-like, shape-shifting sea serpent. Others aren't convinced.

Water serpent legends

Linking modern photographs and eyewitness reports to native stories and legends is a common mistake among cryptozoologists - those who look for evidence of mysterious or unknown creatures such as Bigfoot or lake monsters. With so little hard evidence to go on, it's tempting to do, but the problem is that legends and myths may not have any connection to real events. Just because a native culture has a name for a strange monster or creature doesn't mean that the beast ever actually existed.

Fairies, dragons, and leprechauns populate our modern storybooks and legends, but we don't assume they are real.

Stories and legends about "water horses" and kelpies have been told in the Scottish highlands for centuries, often incorrectly assumed to relate to the Loch Ness monster. Native Indian stories in British Columbia, Canada, tell of a fearsome water spirit named Naitaka said to dwell in Lake Okanagan, giving rise to reports of a monster there called Ogopogo. In Tibetan Buddhist beliefs there exist the nagas, snake-like creatures that live in rivers and streams.

Virtually every culture around the world has some version of a water-based spirit, creature, or monster in its folklore. So it's not surprising that some might turn to local myths in Borneo to "identify" the huge snake.

Suspicious photos

One of the first red flags to go up when considering any extraordinary photograph offered as evidence (of UFOs, Bigfoot, or lake monsters, for example) is an image submitted anonymously. The photographs were taken by an unnamed "member of a disaster team," at an unknown location and date.

Two photos were released; one was taken from a helicopter, the second one wasn't, suggesting that the creature was sighted on two separate occasions. That raises the question as to why there are only two photos; one might expect that a person seeing such an extraordinary creature might snap more than one picture each time.

There's also the interesting composition of the photos: The snake-like creature seems to be posing full-length for the camera. In the aerial photo, it is nicely centered in the middle of the river, and in the other photo it is just high enough above the rooftops in the foreground to see its full length.

Of course it's possible the photographer just got lucky, capturing the giant snake at its most photogenic both times, but that raises another question: If the huge beast spends its time in such high-visibility areas, why is this the first time it's been reported or photographed?

Furthermore, the reported size of the creature cannot be correct. The original estimate given was that the creature was 100 feet long, though the scale of the photos suggest it must be far larger. [Scientists recently found the fossil of a prehistoric snake said to be 43 feet long; it's been extinct for some 60 million years, though.]

Then there's the question of whether the photo was even taken at the Baleh river, since most photographs of its waters show it to be a cloudy river, not the clear, dark blue water seen in the aerial photo. If the photo was actually taken by a disaster team member checking on flooded regions, the flooding runoff would increase the suspended particulates in the water (silt, debris, etc.), creating even cloudier water than usual.

Of course, all these troubling questions vanish if the photographs are simply faked.

*****

Not to rain on the parade of the article's healthy skepticism but there are things out there we know nothing about and something had to have sparked the kernel of all those 'stories' about water-spirits that have been told over the entire world for thousands of years.

So, while the photo above does appear to be a 'little too good', I am withholding judgment ... for now.

President Obama's Weekly Address

SATURDAY, February 21, 2009
WEEKLY ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT
TO THE NATION

Earlier this week, I signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act -- the most sweeping economic recovery plan in history. Because of this plan, 3.5 million Americans will now go to work doing the work that America needs done.

I'm grateful to Congress, governors and mayors across the country, and to all of you whose support made this critical step possible.

Because of what we did together, there will now be shovels in the ground, cranes in the air, and workers rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, and repairing our faulty levees and dams.

Because of what we did, companies -- large and small -- that produce renewable energy can now apply for loan guarantees and tax credits and find ways to grow, instead of laying people off; and families can lower their energy bills by weatherizing their homes.

Because of what we did, our children can now graduate from 21st century schools and millions more can do what was unaffordable just last week -- and get their college degree.

Because of what we did, lives will be saved and health care costs will be cut with new computerized medical records.

Because of what we did, there will now be police on the beat, firefighters on the job, and teachers preparing lesson plans who thought they would not be able to continue pursuing their critical missions. And ensure that all of this is done with an unprecedented level of transparency and accountability, I have assigned a team of managers to make sure that precious tax dollars are invested wisely and well.

Because of what we did, 95 percent of all working families will get a tax cut -- in keeping with a promise I made on the campaign. And I'm pleased to announce that this morning, the Treasury Department began directing employers to reduce the amount of taxes withheld from paychecks -- meaning that by April 1st, a typical family will begin taking home at least $65 more every month. Never before in our history has a tax cut taken effect faster or gone to so many hardworking Americans.

But as important as it was that I was able to sign this plan into law, it is only a first step on the road to economic recovery. And we can't fail to complete the journey. That will require stemming the spread of foreclosures and falling home values, and doing all we can to help responsible homeowners stay in their homes, which is exactly what the housing plan I announced last week will help us do.

It will require stabilizing and repairing our banking system, and getting credit flowing again to families and businesses. It will require reforming the broken regulatory system that made this crisis possible, and recognizing that it's only by setting and enforcing 21st century rules of the road that we can build a thriving economy.

And it will require doing all we can to get exploding deficits under control as our economy begins to recover. That work begins on Monday, when I will convene a fiscal summit of independent experts and unions, advocacy groups and members of Congress, to discuss how we can cut the trillion-dollar deficit that we've inherited. On Tuesday, I will speak to the nation about our urgent national priorities. And on Thursday, I'll release a budget that's sober in its assessments, honest in its accounting, and lays out in detail my strategy for investing in what we need, cutting what we don't, and restoring fiscal discipline.

No single piece of this broad economic recovery can, by itself, meet the demands that have been placed on us. We can't help people find work or pay their bills unless we unlock credit for families and businesses. We can't solve our housing crisis unless we help people find work so that they can make payments on their homes. We can't produce shared prosperity without firm rules of the road, and we can't generate sustained growth without getting our deficits under control. In short, we cannot successfully address any of our problems without addressing them all. And that is exactly what the strategy we are pursuing is designed to do.

None of this will be easy. The road ahead will be long and full of hazards. But I am confident that we, as a people, have the strength and wisdom to carry out this strategy and overcome this crisis. And if we do, our economy -- and our country -- will be better and stronger for it.

Thank you.

Legalizing Pot more popular than repugicans

It's true.

Percentage of Americans who believe marijuana ought to be legalized: 41 percent.

Percentage of Americans who approve of the repugicans: 31 percent.

Other things that are less popular than legalizing weed, according to Open Left: Congress, the war in Iraq, privatizing Social Security, and John Boehner.

Our Readers

Some of our readers today have been in:

Glasgow and Elgin, Scotland
Malamo, Sweden
Paris, France
Padova, Italy
Santa Cruz De Tenerife, Spain
London and Bristol, England
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Delhi, India
Melbourne and Brisbane, Australia

As well as Havelock, Raleigh, Morganton, Durham, and Charlotte, North Carolina.

Daily Horoscope

Today's horoscope says:

Get creative with the things you do for fun.

Ok, if I have to.