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The place where the world comes together in honesty and mirth.
Windmills Tilted, Scared Cows Butchered, Lies Skewered on the Lance of Reality ... or something to that effect.


Sunday, November 15, 2009

What are the three fastest means of communication?

Internet - Telephone - Telawoman!

Jon Stewart on Sean Handjob's apology

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Italian police nab one of Sicily's top Mafia fugitives after 15 years on run

Police captured one of Sicily's top Mafia fugitives on Sunday, dealing a stiff blow to the island's Cosa Nostra crime syndicate, Italian officials said.

Full Story

Antarctic crew to drill for whiskey

A team of New Zealanders is preparing to drill in Antarctica in the New Year, and they hope to strike -- whiskey.

Antarctic crew to drill for whiskey

Good jobs that employers can't fill

Good jobs that employers can't fill

Despite high unemployment everywhere, many well-paid positions remain vacant.

Things the U.S. can learn from China

5 things the U.S. can learn from China

As President Obama visits, China's role as the world's rising power has never been stronger.

Medicare fraud is costing the U.S. billions

Medicare fraud is costing the U.S. billions

More than $47 billion in questionable claims were paid in '09, a report shows.

Ugliest buildings in the world

Ugliest buildings in the world

See an office shaped like a picnic basket and a gargoyle-studded palace.

Get the table you want at any restaurant

Get the table you want at any restaurant

Make dining out extra-special with these tips for snagging the best seat in the house.

Big money mistakes to look out for

7 big money mistakes to look out for

Avoid these goofs and you'll be on solid financial footing sooner than you think.

Recession intensifies GenX discontent

Recession intensifies GenX discontent

Gen Xers are worried about their careers amid evidence they're being taken for granted.

Stoogemania

The Stooges teach the Alphabet
The Curly Shuffle

Barstow, California sign stolen and replaced four times

Just how far is it to Barstow, California from Wilmington, North Carolina, anyway?

The North Carolina Department of Transportation says it will not replace a sign that has been stolen five times.

Full Story

Dang it, now we'll never know how far it is on Interstate 40!

How to shake the flakes

How to shake the flakes

A few simple steps should end your dandruff frustration and embarrassment.

The economy's weak spot

The economy's weak spot

Bad news for the owners of malls and apartments may damage the fragile U.S. recovery.

Cymatics Scientist Says Sound is a Bubble, Not a Wave

cymatics1 Cymatics Scientist Says Sound is a Bubble, Not a Wave

John Stuart Reid proposes that sound is not actually a wave, as has been thought for centuries, but a “bubble” and that this is what creates the amazing patterns we see captured with cymatics.
In his article, The Physics of Sound, Reid says that sound has previously been thought to travel as a wave because of the graphical, wave-based representation we have used to capture sound visibly in the past…

“The graphical representation of sound ‘waves’ in the past is why the term ’sound waves’ is used, causing the false impression that sound travels as a wave.”

…but that Cymatics allows us to realize that the true form of sound is actually spherical, or bubble-like, in nature.

Journal of Cymatics

Tuneups for the Brain

In a paper published last month in the journal Nature Reviews Neuroscience, Dr. J. Allan Hobson, a psychiatrist and longtime sleep researcher at Harvard, argues that the main function of rapid-eye-movement sleep, or REM, when most dreaming occurs, is physiological. The brain is warming its circuits, anticipating the sights and sounds and emotions of waking.

“It helps explain a lot of things, like why people forget so many dreams,” Dr. Hobson said in an interview. “It’s like jogging; the body doesn’t remember every step, but it knows it has exercised. It has been tuned up. It’s the same idea here: dreams are tuning the mind for conscious awareness.”

Drawing on work of his own and others, Dr. Hobson argues that dreaming is a parallel state of consciousness that is continually running but normally suppressed during waking. The idea is a prominent example of how neuroscience is altering assumptions about everyday (or every-night) brain functions.

A Dream Interpretation

I don't understand why the Wingnuts are so afraid of the justice system..ah, oh never mind.

Some critics say a civilian trial -- instead of a military tribunal -- for self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his accomplices could end up targeting the shrub cabal and its anti-terror policies.

The Obama administration, in deciding to try alleged Sept. 11 conspirators in a New York courtroom, has said it is setting its sights on convictions, but some critics say a civilian trial -- instead of a military tribunal -- could end up targeting the shrub cabal and its anti-terror policies.

One of those five defendants, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, has been at the center of the debate over those shrub-era polices, in particular the harsh interrogation techniques (read: Torture) used on Mohammed and others in an effort to obtain information on Al Qaeda and any additional attacks.

Obama Urges Congress To Put Off Fort Hood Probe

President Barack Obama on Saturday urged Congress to hold off on any investigation of the Fort Hood rampage until federal law enforcement and military authorities have completed their probes into the shootings at the Texas Army post, which left 13 people dead.

On an eight-day Asia trip, Obama turned his attention home and pleaded for lawmakers to "resist the temptation to turn this tragic event into the political theater." He said those who died on the nation's largest Army post deserve justice, not political stagecraft.

"The stakes are far too high," Obama said in a video and Internet address released by the White House while the president he was flying from Tokyo to Singapore, where Pacific Rim countries were meeting.

Unusual Holidays and Celebrations

Today is I Love To Write Day.

Daily Almanac

Today is Sunday, Nov. 15, the 319th day of 2009.

There are 46 days left in the year.

Today In History November 15

Our Readers

Some of our readers today have been in:

Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa
Ankara, Ankara, Turkey
London, England, United Kingdom
Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

as well as Poland, and the United States

Daily Horoscope

Today's horoscope says:

If anyone can sweet talk their way into an extended conversation, it's you -- and you're an expert at putting others at ease.
This skill will come in handy today when you meet a dark stranger, who maybe isn't such a stranger at all.
You're so intrigued, you can't believe you never made an effort to get to know this person before.
If this is someone you want to know even better, don't let the evening come to an end.
Exchange life stories.

Cool beans.