Top Ten Mysteries of the World

Number 10: Rongorongo

Credit: Dreamstime

Rongorongo

Considered the other "Easter Island mystery," Rongorongo is the hieroglyphic script used by the region's early inhabitants. While no other neighboring oceanic people possessed a written language, Rongorongo appeared mysteriously in the 1700s. However, the language was lost--along with the best hopes for deciphering it--after early European colonizers banned it because of ties to the islanders' pagan roots.

See the rest of the Top Ten Mysteries of the World here.

Growing Acid Problem Thins Shells of Ocean Creatures

Scientists have started to see some of the expected effects of Earth's increasing carbon dioxide burden: The shells of microscopic animals in the ocean are becoming thinner thanks to the ocean's absorption of some of that excess carbon dioxide, a new study shows.

The shells of those creatures studies are about one-third lighter.

As carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels has accumulated in the atmosphere, some of it has been absorbed by the ocean. As the gas dissolves in the water, it forms a week acid (the same kind that's in bubbly soft drinks), causing the ocean itself to become gradually more acidic.

Read the rest at LiveScience.

Science again in forefront

President Obama's announcement Monday that he is overturning his predecessor's policies toward embryonic stem cells also will include a broad declaration that science — not political ideology — would guide his administration.

It is a wondrous thing to have integrity back in vogue. And 84% of Americans say the same thing.

Recession on track to be longest in postwar period

Factory jobs disappeared.
Inflation soared.
Unemployment climbed to alarming levels.
The hungry lined up at soup kitchens.

It wasn't the Great Depression.

It was the 1981-82 recession, widely considered America's worst since the depression.

That painful time was during ronnie raygun's insanity and is a grim marker of how bad things can get.

Yet the current recession could slice deeper into the U.S. economy.

If it lasts into April — and it surely will — this one will go on record as the longest in the postwar era.

Jon Stewart's take on the economic crisis

Jon Stewart on The Late Show with David Letterman

Lucky Man

Emerson, Lake and Palmer song performed live acoustically at the California Jam

New Rules

Real Time with Bill Maher from March 6, 2009

This week's comedy

RS Janes puts it rather well ...

"If This Were in a Book, You Wouldn’t Believe It: It’s been hilarious watching various members of the GOP hierarchy criticizing the Rush monster, and then scurrying hat in hand to apologize or ‘clarify’ their comments, the new Republican euphemism for kneeling at the ‘flabulous’ bloviator’s altar and seeking forgiveness. (Michael Steele’s ‘clarification’ – “Really, I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about!” – was worthy of a Monty Python skit.) Doubling the fun is watching some of the same humbugs deny the bleeding obvious — Limbaugh is the 500-pound elephant in the middle of the Republican Party’s leaky punchbowl and he’s calling the shots now. This is killing the GOP and there’s nothing they can do about it – welcome to your self-made hell, neocons."

*****

It has been exceedingly humorous and fun watching it, hasn't it?!

Is your cookware lead-free?

Lead in cookware and dishware has been found in ceramics from China, Mexico and India from varnish or glaze that gives the product a shiny finish.
If the temperatures used to “cure” or “seal” the varnish are high enough, the cookware will be safe and the metal will not leach into food or liquids.

Read more here

Welcome to Libby, Montana, the town that was poisoned.

Horrifying stories are emerging at a criminal trial where the corporate giant WR Grace, which owned the mine, is accused of knowingly allowing not only its miners but the entire town to breathe deadly asbestos dust.

Read more in the London Observer.

Scientists to issue stark warning over dramatic new sea level figures.

Rising sea levels pose a far bigger eco threat than previously thought. this week's climate change conference in Copenhagen will sound an alarm over new flooding - enough to swamp Bangladesh, Florida, the Norfolk broads and the Thames estuary.

Read more in the London Observer.

I wonder ...

Could it happen here?

The former president of one of the largest banks in the Dominican Republic was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison for fraud and ordered to pay damages.

More here

Our Readers

Some of our readers today have been in:

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
London, England, United Kingdom
Bonn, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
Stockholm, Stockholms Lan, Sweden
Moscow, Moskva, Russian Federation
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Foz Do Iguacu, Parana, Brazil
Drachten, Friesland, Netherlands
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Malmo, Skane Lan, Sweden
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Panama City, Panama, Panama
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

as well as the countries of Mexico and Saudi Arabia

Daily Horoscope

Today's horoscope says:

You've got plenty of ingenuity, flexibility and smarts to navigate any uncertainties with ease, grace and style.

Now, how do they do it?
I mean be correct all the time!