Bald Eagle egg ready to hatch

Officials at the Carolina Raptor Center in Huntersville, North Carolina said they are anxiously waiting as a bald eagle’s egg may hatch soon. And they said the mother, Savannah, is also getting anxious.

"[She’s] kind of getting up, standing, looking at the eggs, moving them around a lot more," Julia Raddatz of the Raptor Center said.

The eagle laid two eggs in late January. Late Thursday, however, Savannah discarded one of the eggs from the nest.

But Raddatz said there is still a chance the other egg will hatch.

The gestation period is about 35 days, which means that egg could hatch at any moment.

"It's a once-a-year event for us, and Carolina Raptor Center is the only organization in North Carolina that's had captive bred [and] born bald eagles," Raptor Center Vice-President Jim Warren said.

Officials said that means national attention if the remaining eagle survives, which could spell increased donations and increased memberships for the non-profit recently hit by the economy's downturn.

"The more people that are interested in the birds, they may want to come out and see the birds which would bring in admission," Warren said.

And that, he said, will help volunteers continue their work of rehabilitating and hopefully hatching birds of prey.

Raptor Center officials also said one of their golden eagles just laid an egg last Sunday, also a rare sight for a bird in captivity.

For more information about the bald eagle and the Carolina Raptor Center, click here.

Illegal ads costly for companies, politicians

More than a year after Charlotte city leaders adopted tougher penalties for unauthorized roadside signs, homebuilders, gym operators, and politicians have paid fines totaling tens of thousands of dollars.

The ordinance, which went into effect in January 2008, allows code enforcement officials to give citations to the person who posts the sign or the person or organization which benefits.

Repeat violators can be fined up to $1,000 for every sign placed within eleven feet of a public road.

“We definitely got people’s attention,” said Charlotte Mayor Pro Tem Susan Burgess, who helped draft the enhanced ordinance as chair of city council’s Housing and Neighborhood Development committee.

Burgess said she believes the tougher rules have led to a sharp decline in clutter at the city’s busiest intersections.

A database obtained Friday from Charlotte’s Neighborhood Development office shows 25 companies and individuals have appealed fines since the sign ordinance was first enforced last year.

Peak Fitness, originally fined $18,000, appealed to a Superior Court judge. The fine was later cut in half.

Another gym operator, King Fitness, paid $6,400 in fines after losing an appeal.

Homebuilder Portrait Homes was fined $23,000, but the amount was reduced to $7,000 on appeal.

Political signs, which must be removed in the days following an election, have also been the subject of fines in recent months.

Daniel Powers Roberts, a Charlotte attorney who made an unsuccessful bid for District Court Judge last fall, is appealing to Superior Court after he was fined $7,000 by the city, according to the code enforcement database.

City officials were not immediately able to provide the total number of violators cited or fines collected in the last year.

The majority of citations issued were paid without an appeal, officials have said.

Other companies and individuals who have appealed citations issued by code enforcement officials for alleged sign violations:

Homesavers/Justin Cross: Paid $7,000 after appeal

Dan Ramirez, former Mecklenburg commissioner: Paid $3,000 after appealing $3,200 fine

Nerdlink.net: Paid $3,000 after appeal

Adams Homes: Paid $1,000 after appealing $2,000 fine

Hal Jordan, former candidate for Mecklenburg commissioner: Paid $1,500 fine after appeal

Kimberly Best, District Court Judge, Paid $1,000 after appealing $1,500 fine

And I Quote

Good breeding consists of concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person.

~ Mark Twain

Since I am of good breeding that should tell you what I really think of repugicans, shouldn't it.

Are You Gonna Go My Way

Lenny Kravitz

Outrageous and reprehensible

Outrageous and reprehensible.

On his radio spew, Lush Dimbulb said President Obama's proposed health care revisions will be championed by "the liberal lion Teddy Kennedy."

"Before it's all over, it'll be called the Ted Kennedy Memorial Health Care bill," Dimbulb said.

Outrageous and reprehensible the only way to describe the fat pig!

Kennedy is battling brain cancer ... he is NOT dead so there is no need or call to have a bill in 'memorial' of him.

*****

Now, the Lush Dimbulb Memorial Pile of Shit has a nice ring to it, though.

Tokin' in Jersey, Mon

The New Jersey state Senate has passed a bill to legalize medical marijuana.

More in the Star-Ledger

Health News

In Health News today:

A protein that controls the stickiness of blood could help researchers develop new drugs to reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes:

Blood clotting 'on-off switch' discovered

Follow The Numbers

Also known as 'listing the facts'

Here's what Lush and O'Really are not telling you:

1. Listed credit derivatives stood at USD 548 trillion;
2. The Over-The-Counter (OTC) derivatives stood in notional or face value at USD 596 trillion and included:
1. Interest Rate Derivatives at about USD 393+ trillion;
2. Credit Default Swaps at about USD 58+ trillion;
3. Foreign Exchange Derivatives at about USD 56+ trillion;
4. Commodity Derivatives at about USD 9 trillion;
5. Equity Linked Derivatives at about USD 8.5 trillion; and
6. Unallocated Derivatives at about USD 71+ trillion.

No, Rush et al didn't mention any of that. But it's precisely that, not Obama budget, or those “tax and spend liberals,”
who are to blame for the worldwide systemic economic collapse we are experiencing. It's the residue of all that
Bernie Madoff, wink and nod, cash for trash, phony-baloney, air-asset faux capitalism that's collapsed on everyone.

By comparison Obama's $4 trillion looks downright under-achiever-ish.

Read the rest of the article here

Dimbulb belches

"A minor correction... it's the Fontainebleau hotel. I was calling it the Fontain-blow. I had something else on my mind."

~ the vulgar child molester, Lush Dimbulb

To which BartCop adds ...

Do they allow Dominican boys to check into a hotel by themselves?
Or does Rush pose as "their uncle" at registration?

Health Care is a 'Want' not a need...

These damned wing-nuts don't know when to shut-up!

Yesterday it was that repugican turd from Tennessee, Wamp saying healthcare is a 'privilege' and today on Faux News, Cad, er, card is saying healthcare is a 'want' ... both who have healthcare provided by the American taxpayer by the way ... and everyone sees the hypocriscy here expect their fellow mendicants and troglodytes so why not just shut-up.

Healthcare is a Right and a Need. Get over it!

For sale: One French Internet, slightly sarkoed

An eBay user nicknamed 'hadopi' put up the entire French Internet for sale on eBay (starting price: 0.01 Euro), in a humorous stunt protesting against the new Internet legislation project being debated in the French parliament.


This project is named by its acronym, HADOPI, and it contains the same types of provisions as the one defeated recently in New Zealand.

Réseau internet français contrôlé, idéal pour industrie, Mirror

(You gotta love some people sometime!)

A reader responds

In response to yesterday's Hooked On Facts post ...

Blue Mark said...

"Bonus Fact: Europe is the only continent without a desert."

That used to be true, but no longer in the era of climate change:

Sahara jumps Mediterranean into Europe

I stand corrected. Thanks for the heads up Blue Mark.

Dimbulb likened to Pimp

Ariana Huffington likened Lush Dimbulb to the owner/pimp of the Bunny Ranch in Nevada, Dennis Hoff, which is featured on the late night HBO "reality" show "Cathouse" on Monday night during the Rachel Maddow show.

Completely unscripted and unprompted she said:

"Yes. He also looks a little bit like the pimp, you know, in the Nevada brothel, you know, in his black shirt, you know… Dennis Hoff, you know, his black jacket."

... while the ladies were talking about one or another of Lush Dimbulb’s asinine antics.

*****

You know ... if the shoe fits! Also, we now know what Ariana watches on late night TV.
Of course, it is a loose fit ... Dimbulb prefers little boys, not adult women.

Hakuna Matata

Jimmy Cliff
(featuring Lebo-M)

Mystery sonic boom

Residents of California's Central Coast experienced a sonic boom Wednesday morning but nobody knows the source.

The Federal Aviation Administration reviewed their data and came back empty-handed. According to FAA spokesman Ian Gregor, it's possible their system may have missed a plane flying supersonic.

From the Santa Cruz Sentinel:

The mystery has spurred its share of conspiracy theories. On the Sentinel Web site, readers comments suggested the boom was E.T.'s return, an intercontinental missile that North Korea, or test runs of new, secret U.S. Navy jets.

"It was a chemtrail weather modification program jet making rain for you," a reader going by the handle "sameold" wrote.

"The easiest answer is probably right. I'm going with aliens," commenter "jarbee" wrote.

Sonic boom remains a mystery

'Vampire' discovered in mass grave

A skeleton exhumed from a grave in Venice is being claimed as the first known example of the "vampires" widely referred to in contemporary documents.

Matteo Borrini (who took the photos) of the University of Florence in Italy found the skeleton of a woman with a small brick in her mouth.

To stop the "vampires" supposedly chewing shrouds and spreading disease, grave-diggers put bricks in the mouths of plague victim(see right) while excavating mass graves of plague victims from the Middle Ages on Lazzaretto Nuovo Island in Venice.

At the time the woman died, many people believed that the plague was spread by "vampires" which, rather than drinking people's blood, spread disease by chewing on their shrouds after dying. Grave-diggers put bricks in the mouths of suspected vampires to stop them doing this, Borrini says.

The belief in vampires probably arose because blood is sometimes expelled from the mouths of the dead, causing the shroud to sink inwards and tear. Borrini, who presented his findings at a meeting of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences in Denver, Colorado, last week, claims this might be the first such vampire to have been forensically examined. The skeleton was removed from a mass grave of victims of the Venetian plague of 1576.

Borrini says his study details the earliest grave to show archaeological "exorcism evidence against vampires".

Science News

Today's Science news:

Japanese pioneer developed first general anaesthetic

First 'resurrected' gene found in humans

Record-breaking algorithm really packs them in

Low birthrates spell doom for Javan rhinos

Time and space are running out for the Javan Rhinoceros — the most endangered mammal in the world.

There are fewer than 60 left in the wild — almost all in a single Indonesian national park — and numbers appear to be declining for the first time in decades because of low birthrates, said Christy Williams, the WWF's Asian Rhino Specialist.

"We need to take immediate, urgent action to try to move some of these rhinos to another suitable site, either on Java or Sumatra island," he said Friday. "If we don't act quickly, I think we could lose this population."

The Javan rhino weighs 5,000 pounds and measures more than 10 feet in length. Conservation groups say it is the world's most endangered mammal.

About 50 live in Ujung Kulon National Park, but it appears that only three of the females are breeding continuously, said Adhi Rachmat Hariyadi, who leads WWF-Indonesia's project in the park.

As a result, an average of one calf is born every year — near to the number of animals dying, and four times fewer than would be needed to sustain a healthy, growing rhino population, he and others say.

Williams said the park may have reached the maximum number of rhinos it can support and the animals may also be struggling to compete for scare resources with growing populations of wild cattle.

The government is working with conservation groups to find a suitable second site for the Java rhinos, which would help protect them from catastrophic events like disease or natural disasters, Williams said.

Researchers say a smaller population of Javan rhinos in Vietnam does not appear to be breeding anymore.

New Antarctic Fish Species Discovered

A Spanish researcher has discovered a new-found species of fish in an area of the Antarctic Ocean that has not been studied since 1904.

The fish, given the name Gosztonyia antarctica, was found at a depth of 2,000 feet in the Bellingshausen Sea, an area between two islands along the west side of the Antarctic Peninsula.

The area has been little explored by scientists because it is relatively inaccessible and the ocean floor beneath it has not been mapped, said the researcher who made the discovery, Jesús Matallanas of the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

Since the expedition of the boat Bélgica, which obtained two unique specimens of fish in 1904, no one has fished in the sea.

Matallanas collected four specimens of the new-found species — measuring between 10 to 12 inches — during Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO) campaigns in the southern hemisphere summers of 2003 and 2006. His findings were detailed in the January issue of the journal Polar Biology.

The fish is from the family Zoarcidae, a dominant group of fish on continental slopes that has some 240 species.

The discovery yielded some insight into the makeup of the fauna of the Bellingshausen Sea.

"One of the most significant results is that the ichthyofauna of the Bellingshausen Sea, contrary to what was previously believed, is more closely related to that of the Eastern Antarctic than the Western," Matallanas said.

Explosion of Sun Overdue

What to talk about Climate Change ...

Explosion of Sun Overdue

ACCORDING to calculations of astronomers, an explosion of the sun is some 600,000,000 years overdue, assuming that our private star has the same number of outbursts as the average star—which may not necessarily be correct. A definite number of star explosions occur in a definite area of space in a given period, and from these facts it is computed that the average star explodes once in 400,000,000 years.

If this article from Modern Mechanix from 1933 is correct?!
Then we are 600,000,076 years overdue now.
We might as well not worry about much then.

Swimming with a baby Blue whale

From National Geographic News:

This is too, cool!

For more about this video, read the accompanying article here.

Why Yes, Methane Bubbling Up From a Frozen Lake Can Be Lit on Fire

From TreeHugger:

Now that I've got your attention with scientists lighting methane bubbling up from a frozen lake (and very nearly themselves) on fire it's time to turn attention to the threat of, as Climate Feedback puts it, the sleeping giant of climate change. In case you're not aware of the danger of increasing methane levels in the atmosphere, here's the gist of it:

Article continues: Why Yes, Methane Bubbling Up From a Frozen Lake Can Be Lit on Fire

Unusual Holidays and Celebrations

March 6th happens to be:

Middle Name Pride Day

and

Sherlock Holmes Day

And I Quote

Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face.

~ Victor Hugo

Our Readers

Some of our readers today have been in:

Sandnes, Rogaland, Norway
Colima, Colima, Mexico
Frankfurt, Hessen, Germany
Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
London, England, United Kingdom
Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Comox, British Columbia, Canada
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina

and in the United States

BIloxi, Mississippi
Oxnard, California
Kingfisher, Oklahoma
Spicer, Minnesota
Totowa, New Jersey
Bismark, North Dakota
Reston, Virginia
Randallstown, Maryland
Clovis, New Mexico
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
El Dorado, Arkansas
Manchester, New Hampshire
Stamford, Connecticut
Boston, Massachusetts

as well as the countries of

Brazil, New Zealand, Italy, Trinidad and Tobago

Daily Horoscope

Today's horoscope says:

You need to make fun wherever and whenever you can.

I always do my friends, I always do.