CAROLINA NATURALLY: Dec 4, 2012

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

The Daily Drift

Good Dog!

Some of our readers today have been in:

Pretoria, South Africa

Tbilisi, Gerogia

Zagreb, Croatia

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Bangkok, Thailand

Cape Town, South Africa

Valletta, Malta

Katowice, Poland

Manila, Philippines

Bayan Lepas, Malaysia

Durban, South Africa

Almaty, Kazakhstan

Khartoum, Sudan

Jakarta, Indonesia

Belgrade, Serbia

Waterloo, Canada

Maribor, Slovenia

Cukai, Malaysia

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Zawiercie, Poland

Bandar Labuan, Malaysia

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Tirana, Albania

Hanoi, Vietnam

Istanbul, Turkey

Marseilles, France

York, England

Kuwait, Kuwait

Dubai, United Arab, Emirates

Dhaka, Bangladesh

Nsawam, Ghana

Paris, France

Sampaloc, Philippines

Jawa Nusa, Indonesia

Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei

Today is Cookie Day, so eat a cookie.

Don't forget to visit our sister blog!

Russian Girl Becomes The Face Of the World Famous Game

This pretty lady is Anna Moleva. Since recently she has been Miss Mass Effect 3, and her face is on the cover of the world known game. The developers of the game liked her face so much so they offered her to sign a contract within the promotion campaign Bioshock Infinite and play a role of the main character Elizabeth in the live-action trailer of the game. More

The truth hurts

Mustache transplants on the rise

Turkish plastic surgeon Selahattin Tulunay is performing 50-60 mustache implants every month, helping Middle Eastern men achieve thick, full mustaches. The procedure costs about $7,000.

Pierre Bouhanna is a Paris-based surgeon who, for the past five years, has been performing increasing numbers of mustache implants. He says the majority of his patients come from the United Arab Emirates, Iran, Lebanon and Turkey, with men traveling to France to have the surgery performed.
"My impression is more and more they want to establish their male aspect," he said. "They want a strong mustache."

Mustache Transplants on the Rise in the Middle East

Today in History

771		With the death of his brother Carloman, Charlemagne becomes sole ruler of the Frankish Empire.
1861		The U.S. Senate, voting 36 to 0, expels Senator John C. Brekinridge of Kentucky because of his joining the Confederate Army.
1861		Queen Victoria of Britain forbids the export of gunpowder, firearms and all materials for their production.
1862		Winchester, Va., falls into Union hands, resulting in the capture of 145 Southern soldiers.
1863		Seven solid days of bombardment ends at Charleston, S.C. The Union fires some 1,307 rounds.
1872		The U.S. brigantine Marie Celeste is found adrift and deserted with its cargo intact, in the Atlantic Ocean between the Azores and Portugal.
1900		The French National Assembly, successor to the States-General, rejects Nationalist General Mercier's proposal to plan an invasion of England.
1914		The first Seaplane Unit formed by the German Navy officially comes into existence and begins operations from Zeebrugge, Belgium.
1918		France cancels trade treaties in order to compete in the postwar economic battles.
1941		Operation Taifun (Typhoon), which was launched by the German armies on October 2, 1941, as a prelude to taking Moscow, is halted because of freezing temperatures and lack of serviceable aircraft.
1942		U.S. planes make the first raids on Naples, Italy.
1947		Tennessee William's play A Streetcar Named Desire premieres on Broadway starring Marlon Brando and Jessica Tandy.
1950		The University of Tennessee defies court rulings by rejecting five Negro applicants.
1952		The Grumman XS2F-1 makes its first flight.
1959		Peking pardons Pu Yi, ex-emperor of China and of the Japanese puppet-state of Manchukuo.
1981		President Ronald Reagan broadens the power of the CIA by allowing spying in the United States.
1985		Robert McFarland resigns as National Security Advisor. Admiral John Poindexter is named to succeed.
1991		The last American hostages held in Lebanon are released.

Non Sequitur

http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ucomics.com/nq121204.gif

Heart-warming memories

Nostalgia can make you feel warmer

As the nights draw in and the temperature begins to drop, many of us will be thinking of ways to ...

The Park That Turns Into A Lake In Summer

Grüner See (Green Lake) is a lake in Styria, Austria near the town of Tragöß. The name 'Green Lake' originated because of its emerald green water. During the winter, the lake is not very deep and the surrounding area is used as a county park.

However, during the spring, when the temperature rises and the snow melts, the basin of land below the mountains fills with water. The Green Lake reaches its maximum depth from mid-May to June and is claimed to look the most beautiful at this time.

University lays lawn in library

Staff at Cornell University in New York yesterday installed grass in the Olin Library.

The grass has apparently been trucked in from the Adirondack Mountains because the feel and sight of it has a 'cognitive relaxing effect.'

Word ...

Finland spends 30 percent less per student than the United States, yet 96 percent of Finns graduate high school and 66 percent go to college.
Find 26 amazing facts about Finland's school system: here

Were you aware ...

That corporations are currently making more as a percentage of the economy than they ever have since such records were kept. But at the same time, wages as a percentage of the economy are at an all-time low - More

But you probably won't hear that on the Faux Newsbubble.

Walmart eliminates health insurance for new hires

"Walmart is effectively shifting the costs of paying for its employees onto the federal government with this new plan"

Walmart, the nation’s largest private employer, plans to begin denying health insurance to newly hired employees who work fewer than 30 hours a week, according to a copy of the company’s policy obtained by The Huffington Post.
Under the policy, slated to take effect in January, Walmart also reserves the right to eliminate health care coverage for certain workers if their average workweek dips below 30 hours -- something that happens with regularity and at the direction of company managers.

Boehner: Lower tax rate for rich, cut Medicare

First, here’s repugican House Speaker Boehner’s letter to President Obama.Here’s how National Journal describes the proposal:

Boehner’s counter, based on a proposal that former Clinton administration official Erskine Bowles made before the super committee last year, attempts to use a top Democrat’s framework to yank the negotiations rightward and take the rhetorical high ground.
In addition to the $800 billion in revenue, Boehner’s counteroffer calls for $1.4 trillion in savings, including $600 billion in changes to health programs like Medicare and Medicaid; $300 billion in cuts to mandatory programs; $200 billion in revisions to the way the consumer price index is used by the federal government to set salaries and benefits; and $300 billion in further discretionary spending cuts. And, if measured by the same standards as Obama’s plan, Boehner’s counter would provide $4.6 trillion in deficit reduction, more than the $4 trillion offered by Obama, Republican aides say.
It does not, however, outline how to deal with a country fast approaching its debt limit or sequestration’s across-the-board spending cuts.

Some in town are calling it the worst of the Ryan budget plus the Romney tax plan.
As for Boehner calling this Bowles’ plan, Bowles is saying nuh-uh:

Erskine Bowles

Bowles Statement on Speaker Boehner’s Letter to the President
While I’m flattered the Speaker would call something “the Bowles plan,” the approach outlined in the letter Speaker Boehner sent to the President does not represent the Simpson-Bowles plan, nor is it the Bowles plan. In my testimony before the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, I simply took the mid-point of the public offers put forward during the negotiations to demonstrate where I thought a deal could be reached at that time.
The Joint Select Committee failed to reach a deal, and circumstances have changed since then. It is up to negotiators to figure out where the middle ground is today. Every offer put forward brings us closer to a deal, but to reach an agreement, it will be necessary for both sides to move beyond their opening positions and reach agreement on a comprehensive plan which avoids the fiscal cliff and puts the debt on a clear downward path relative to the economy.

And the White House isn’t thrilled either:

Statement from White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer:
“The repugican letter released today does not meet the test of balance. In fact, it actually promises to lower rates for the wealthy and sticks the middle class with the bill. Their plan includes nothing new and provides no details on which deductions they would eliminate, which loopholes they will close or which Medicare savings they would achieve. Independent analysts who have looked at plans like this one have concluded that middle class taxes will have to go up to pay for lower rates for millionaires and billionaires. While the President is willing to compromise to get a significant, balanced deal and believes that compromise is readily available to Congress, he is not willing to compromise on the principles of fairness and balance that include asking the wealthiest to pay higher rates. President Obama believes – and the American people agree – that the economy works best when it is grown from the middle out, not from the top down. Until the repugicans in Congress are willing to get serious about asking the wealthiest to pay slightly higher tax rates, we won’t be able to achieve a significant, balanced approach to reduce our deficit our nation needs.”

Steve Benen digests the plan further:

John Boehner

So, what’s the pitch? Under this proposal, repugicans would keep all of the shrub-era tax rates, but accept $800 billion in new revenue. How? Through “through pro-growth tax reform that closes special-interest loopholes and deductions while lowering rates.”
From there, the repugican leaders want to cut $600 billion from Medicare and Medicaid; cut $300 billion from mandatory programs; cut $200 billion by changing the consumer price index; and then cut another $300 billion in further discretionary spending.
To call this a “counteroffer” is to strip the word of meaning. Under the repugican plan, repugicans get the more than $1 trillion in spending cuts Obama already gave them; repugicans get the entitlement cuts they want; repugicans get hundreds of billions of dollars in additional cuts to programs they haven’t identified; and repugicans get all of the shrub-era tax rates they’ve prioritized.
This isn’t a “counteroffer”; it’s a Christmas wish list written by kids without access to calculator.

Boehner has now responded to Pfeiffer:

“The repugicans have once again offered a responsible, balanced plan to avoid the fiscal cliff, and the White House has once again demonstrated how unreasonable it has become,” Boehner’s spokesman Brendan Buck said in a statement emailed to TPM. “If the President is rejecting this middle ground offer, it is now his obligation to present a plan that can pass both chambers of Congress.”

A wee bit of a logical fallacy there from Boehner: It’s not the President’s job to send Boehner the plan that the repugicans want, that’s not the way negotiations work. That’s the old Obama. He started fading out two years, and if there were any doubt as to his lingering presence, it seems pretty much gone now.
As for Boehner asking the President to present a proposal that can pass, well, including tax increases in the legislation is wildly popular with the American people. So that’s a proposal that can pass, but only if the repugicans stop acting bat-shit crazy.
Not to mention, it’s a dangerous notion for Boehner to talk about legislation that can pass. Because one thing that can pass if the bill that already passed the Senate, extending the middle class tax cuts. Even some repugicans agree that it’s the way to go:

And repugican Tom Cole urged colleagues in a private session Tuesday to vote to extend the shrub tax rates for all but the highest earners before the end of the year — and to battle over the rest later.
The Oklahoma repugican said in an interview with POLITICO that he believes such a vote would not violate Grover Norquist’s anti-tax pledge and that he’s not alone within repugican circles.

And even wingnut repugicans have said they think it would pass the House. From CNN:

In remarks at the White House, Obama urged Americans to call, e-mail and tweet their members of Congress to urge immediate passage of his proposal to extend tax cuts for most Americans while allowing rates on the wealthiest 2% to increase to 1990s levels.

House Speaker John Boehner immediately shot down the call by veteran Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma for the chamber to approve the Senate measure, saying he disagreed with his colleague. House repugican aides insisted there was no plan to bring the proposal up for a vote.
However, the public call by Cole — which echoed similar statements from wingnuts in recent weeks — as well as his prediction that the Senate proposal would pass in the House showed an increasing desire among House repugicans to move beyond an issue that has harmed them.
wingnut Tim Scott of South Carolina also said he thought the Obama tax plan would pass the House, though he made clear to CNN he would oppose it.

The truth be told

Costas' gun control commentary gets notice

Bob Costas' "Sunday Night Football" halftime commentary supporting gun control sparked a Fox News Channel debate Monday on whether NBC should fire him and a Twitter storm involving Ted Nugent, Rosie O'Donnell, Herman Cain and many more.

The NBC sportscaster, who frequently delivers commentary at halftime of the weekly NFL showcase, addressed the weekend's murder-suicide involving Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher.
Costas said that the shooting has invoked the "mindless sports cliche" that "something like this really puts it all in perspective."

FILE - This Nov. 17, 2010 file photo shows sports commentator Bob Costas at the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights 2010 Ripple of Hope Awards Dinner at Pier Sixty in New York. Costas' “Sunday Night Football” halftime commentary supporting gun control sparked a Fox News Channel debate Monday, Dec. 3, 2012, on whether NBC should fire him. The NBC sportscaster, who frequently delivers commentary at halftime of the weekly NFL showcase, addressed the weekend's murder-suicide involving Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini, file)

"Please," he said. "Those who need tragedies to continually recalibrate their sense of proportion about sports would seem to have little hope of ever truly achieving perspective."
He then paraphrased and quoted extensively from a piece by Fox Sports columnist Jason Whitlock.
After praising the column, Costas said: "In the coming days, Jovan Belcher's actions and their possible connection to football will be analyzed. Who knows? But here, wrote Jason Whitlock, is what I believe. If Jovan Belcher didn't possess a gun, he and Kasandra Perkins would both be alive today."
Belcher shot and killed Perkins, the mother of his 3-month-old daughter, on Saturday morning, then drove to Arrowhead Stadium and committed suicide in the parking lot of the team's practice facility.
Quickly, Costas' comments renewed one of society's most contentious debates, made more intense by people who believe that a football halftime show was not the right place for Costas to be speaking on the issue.
"You tune in for a football game and end up listening to Bob Costas spewing sanctimonious dreck," tweeted Herman Cain, the former repugican presidential candidate.
Above a headline "Advocacy Gone Awry?" the hosts of Faux's morning show "Faux & Friends" read letters from viewers criticizing Costas' stance. On Megyn Kelly's afternoon show, there was a debate on whether Costas should be fired.
Lame guitar player and gun nut Nugent was quick to criticize via Twitter: "Hey Bob Costas we all kno (sic) that obesity is a direct result of the proliferation of spoons and forks. Get a clue."
Former talk show host Rosie O'Donnell, however, tweeted "way to go, Bob Costas." His former NBC colleague, Keith Olbermann, observed that it was "amazing that all those ripping my friend Bob Costas would, had he taken opposing view, be defending him for using the 1st."
There was no immediate comment on Monday from NBC Sports or from Costas.
Before the Olympics this summer, Costas criticized the International Olympic Committee's decision not to hold a moment of silence to mark the deaths of 11 Israeli athletes and coaches killed by Palestinian gunmen in Munich in 1972. But he stopped short of repeating that criticism on the air.

Deep-fried gun fired inside restaurant

As a reminder that deep-fried anything can be a health hazard, a gunshot rang out at 9:30 pm on Sunday Nov. 25th after a gun was thrown into a deep fryer at the El Diamante Restaurant in Las Vegas. "It was discovered the gunshot was a result of a firearm being tossed into a deep fryer and exploding," a Las Vegas police report said. No one was hurt .

Although no one was arrested in connection with the shooting, 44-year-old Obdulio Gudiel was arrested and accused of attempted robbery with the use of a deadly weapon in connection with an incident shortly before the gun was fired. But the facts surrounding Gudiel's arrest are murky.

Gudiel told police that it was a misunderstanding and that he was only trying to obtain payment for three cars he sold his nephew, Victor Larios. Roberto Casprowitz told police that he and Larios went to the restaurant and were told it was closed. On the way out, Gudiel pointed a gun at them and told them in Spanish and English to pay him, the report said. The two then drove away.

Casprowitz called police who met him at the restaurant. The gunshot went off while police were evacuating the restaurant. The overcooked gun appeared to be a Beretta. An employee told police she saw Gudiel holding the gun earlier. She also said a man then asked her to hold the gun when police arrived, but she refused. It is unclear whether Gudiel is the man who asked her to hold the gun.

Ambulance given Denver boot during emergency response

New Orleans ambulance was booted by a convenience store worker for parking in their space while responding to a call. WWLTV also reports the gent responsible has been issued a ticket and lost his job. Apparently the flashing lights were in the wrong language.

Sidi Aleywa was fired for booting the ambulance, a worker at Mr. Quicky's told WWLTV. Others were still booting cars Monday morning. According to the police report, Aleywa didn't realize it was an ambulance that he booted, and added that he doesn't speak any English

Yahoo ordered to pay $2.7B in bizarre Mexico lawsuit

It's not often that Mexican yellow pages listings makes the headlines, but Yahoo has been ordered to fork over $2.7 billion in a legal dispute involving them.

The President of Uruguay, Jose Mujica has been dubbed by international media as 'THE POOREST PRESIDENT IN THE WORLD', to which he responded:

"I'm not a poor president. Poor people are those who want more and more. Those who never have enough of anything. Those are the poor because they live in a never ending cycle."

Jose Mujica's most valuable asset is a 1987 VW Beatle. He lives in a small farmhouse with his wife and a dog and donates 90% of his salary to charity.

UK home secretary says Britain needs more data retention, cites an example where a corrupt cop gave murdered victims' details to crime boss

The other morning saw the publication of an editorial in The Sun by Theresa May, the UK home secretary, defending her bulk Internet surveillance proposal, the Communications Data Bill, AKA the "Snooper's Charter."

In the article, May cites a submission by by Peter Davies (Chief Executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection center) as an example of why all Internet communications should be stored and made accessible to police without a warrant. Davies told the story of a murder that had been difficult to solve, and suggests that dragnet surveillance would have made the police's job simpler.
But as the Open Rights Group points out, the case in question is anything but a defense of bulk data-retention. Indeed, it involves a corrupt police officer who improperly used retained records to find information to pass on to a crime boss about a couple who were subsequently murdered. In other words, logging and storing information made it possible for a criminal and a corrupt cop to track people down.
It's nothing short of bizarre for Theresa May to cite this as a reason to retain more information, on more people, and to give access to that information to more agencies.
Tales of the Unexpected: the Communications Data Bill

Indian village bans women from using mobile phones

A village panchayat in Bihar has prohibited women from using mobile phones and imposed heavy fines on them if they violated the diktat. The self-styled social reformers of Sunderbadi village panchayat in Kochadham block of Kishanganj district issued the orders on Sunday, banning women from using mobiles.
"The villagers have issued an order to impose a fine of Rs 10,000 (£115, $185) if a girl is found using a mobile phone, while a married woman will have to pay a fine of Rs 2,000 if found talking on a mobile outside her house," the official said. A senior official at the police headquarters said it was the first such diktat issued by a village panchayat in Bihar.

"There is no precedent to such an order issued by a Bihar village panchayat," the official said. "The decision was taken in a meeting attended by panchayat members and village elders," Mohammad Manzoor Alam, who presided over the meeting, said.. Mr Alam said the villagers, mostly elders, favored imposing the ban.

"Mobile phone is the cause of all evils in our society, including increasing love affairs and the incidents of elopement," he claimed. Kishanganj is a Muslim-dominated district, and among the most backward districts in Bihar, with 60 percent of the population living below the poverty line.

Random Photo

Are Pesticides and Food Allergies Linked?

People exposed to higher amounts of chemicals used to kill crop pests are also more likely to suffer from food allergies.

Read more

Are Pesticides and Food Allergies Linked?

BP Oil Highly Toxic When Mixed with Dispersants

Here is something else you won't hear on the Faux Newsbubble

When the oil was combined with the dispersant, the mix became up to 52 times more toxic than the oil alone. Read more BP Oil Highly Toxic When Mixed with Dispersants

BP Oil Highly Toxic When Mixed with Dispersants

Global carbon emissions up 60% since 1990

Is it any wonder that the Arctic sea ice volume is collapsing?It doesn’t help that the same party that is beholden to a single person named Grover Norquist (rather than the overwhelming majority of the American people) when it comes to tax policy, also finds carbon emissions and climate change a big joke.
This is what happens when your party becomes the party of ignorance and stupidity, of anti-science, and lies. The problem is, far too many of their crazies are still in office, and they’re taking us all down with their irresponsible behavior.
We’ve already seeing a slight improvement in US CO2 emissions, per the article below, but we’re way beyond the point of “slight” being enough. It’s time to get serious.
Phys.org:

Global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are set to rise again in 2012, reaching a record high of 35.6 billion tonnes – according to new figures from the Global Carbon Project, co-led by researchers from the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of East Anglia (UEA).

The 2.6 per cent rise projected for 2012 means global emissions from burning fossil fuel are 58 per cent above 1990 levels, the baseline year for the Kyoto Protocol. This latest analysis by the Global Carbon Project is published today in the journal Nature Climate Change with full data released simultaneously by the journal Earth System Science Data Discussions.
It shows the biggest contributors to global emissions in 2011 were China (28 per cent), the United States (16 per cent), the European Union (11 per cent), and India (7 per cent). Emissions in China and India grew by 9.9 and 7.5 per cent in 2011, while those of the United States and the European Union decreased by 1.8 and 2.8 per cent. AP walks us through the impact of the ongoing increase in emissions:

Because emissions of the key greenhouse gas have been rising steadily and most carbon stays in the air for a century, it is not just unlikely but “rather optimistic” to think that the world can limit future temperature increases to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), said the study’s lead author, Glen Peters at the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research in Oslo, Norway.
Three years ago, nearly 200 nations set the 2-degree C temperature goal in a nonbinding agreement. Negotiators now at a conference under way in Doha, Qatar, are trying to find ways to reach that target.