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Today in History

1248		The city of Seville, France, surrenders to Ferdinand III of Castile after a two-year siege.
1785		John Hancock is elected president of the Continental Congress for the second time.
1863		Union forces win the Battle of Orchard Knob, Tennessee.
1863		The Battle of Chattanooga, one of the most decisive battles of the American Civil War, begins (also in Tennessee).
1903		Italian tenor Enrico Caruso makes his American debut in a Metropolitan Opera production of Verdi's Rigoletto.
1904		Russo-German talks break down because of Russia's insistence to consult France.
1909		The Wright brothers form a million-dollar corporation for the commercial manufacture of their airplanes.
1921		President Warren G. Harding signs the Willis Campell Act, better known as the anti-beer bill. It forbids doctors to prescribe beer or liquor for medicinal purposes.
1933		President Franklin D. Roosevelt recalls the American ambassador from Havana, Cuba, and urges stability in the island nation.
1934		The United States and Great Britain agree on a 5-5-3 naval ratio, with both countries allowed to build five million tons of naval ships while Japan can only build three. Japan will denounce the treaty.
1936		The United States abandons the American embassy in Madrid, Spain, which is engulfed by civil war.
1941		U.S. troops move into Dutch Guiana to guard the bauxite mines.
1942		The film Casablanca premieres in New York City.
1943		U.S. Marines declare the island of Tarawa secure.
1945		Wartime meat and butter rationing ends in the United States.
1953		North Korea signs 10-year aid pact with Peking.
1968		Four men hijack an American plane, with 87 passengers, from Miami to Cuba.
1980		In Europe's biggest earthquake since 1915, 3,000 people are killed in Italy.

Non Sequitur

Did you know ...

That the world agrees, inequality is a major problem

How to picket, fight, win

That capitalism takes democracy

That a man calls 911 because neighbors wouldn't drink with him

The repugican cabal is Unrepentantly Evil

And did you know that Larry Klayman slept with a succubus the night before his rally to overthrow the lawful and constitutionally elected president of the United States? It’s true.
And all these religio-wingnut men and women  have altars to Satan in their homes? Again, it’s true. They chant to the lord of lies nightly and engage in all sorts of heinous and diabolical rituals to summon the dark powers. Probably even eat babies. That’s why they don’t want any aborted. It’s true.
Now, it’s easy to sit here and make this stuff up, like I just did. And I do it to make a point about the absolutely hysterical nonsense coming out of the religio-wingnuts. It is as though any crazy thing they can come up with, they say. And they expect it to be believed.
Sadly, there are people who do actually believe it.
And when we tell the truth about them, use their own words, they accuse us of lying. They demand apologies for the truth while they continue to lie.

 

These people, if I can call them that (and I think I am being generous) are doing everything in their power to overthrow our Constitution, destroy our way of life, and strip us of our rights and freedoms under that Constitution. In pursuit of that goal, there is no low they will not sink to, no lie they will not tell, and no act they will not perpetrate.
They are the enemy. They are your enemy, they are my enemy, they are the enemy not only of liberalism and liberty, but they are the enemy of true conservatism. They are the enemy of every religion, including christianity. Because they are not christians themselves.
It is probably best and easiest to use their own terminology and refer to them as a heresy, because they have stripped certain words and ideas from an actual religion – christianity – to cloak their ideology in sanctity.

 

But there is nothing holy about them. They are unholy. If there is true evil in the world, if there are demons, these people – Ted Cruz, Rafael Cruz, Rick Santorum, Bryan Fischer, Pat Robertson, Larry Klayman, David Barton, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin, Ann Coulter, Phyllis Schlafly – all of them are evil.
Unrepentantly evil.
They are coming for your clean air and your clean water, for the environment, for our history and our memories, for our shared reality, and for the scientific underpinnings of our universe.
All of it will be gone. The tangible and intangible alike. They will leave superstition in its place.
We are left with the absurdity not only that individuals should be cured of homosexuality but the environment on which all life depends left to die, but that the individual can be cured of something they were born with but not the environment of something that has been done to it.

 

And they are coming for your rights. For your right to vote. For your right even to question, let alone demand answers.
And they will not stop until they have all of those things. Until they have sold our country out, to big business interests, to foreign business interests, to each other. They will reduce working class Americans to serfs, put our children to work, rape our wives, sisters, and daughters, and let us die when we get too sick to be of any further use for them.
That is the wingnut dream of America.
THAT is the truth.
The rest is only smoke and mirrors.
We won’t get any help from the mainstream media. They won’t tell you the truth. That is why I am telling you the truth.

 

But you do not have to rely on me. You can look at the evidence for yourself. Look at the laws they pass, at the laws they refuse to pass. Look at Wisconsin and at Michigan if you want to know what lies in store for you and for your state and your community.
We won’t get any help from anywhere. We will get only what we are willing to do ourselves to save our country, our rights, our liberties, our families – and ourselves.
The alternative is unacceptable.
In 2014 and in 2016, evil must be defeated. The obscene and unholy totalitarian alliance of corporatism and theocracy that is the repugican cabal must not have our country.
Now, are we willing to fight for it? We had better be.

Harry Reid Says Enough is Enough and Goes Nuclear On repugican Filibusters

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on the Senate floor that enough was enough, and he announced that he is going nuclear on repugican filibusters.
On the Senate floor, Reid said, “The need for change is so so obvious. It is clearly visible.” Sen. Reid pointed out that half of the nominees filibustered in history have occurred during the Obama administration. Majority Leader Reid called gridlock terrible, and said “it’s time to get the Senate working again.” He said it’s time to change the Senate before this institution becomes obsolete.
Sen. Reid accused McConnell of breaking his word on filibusters. Reid said repugicans are blocking nominees because they are trying to undercut the very government that they were elected to serve. Reid ran through all of the repugican promises to end their obstruction, and how they have broken them. He said repugicans have continued to obstruct like no agreement was ever reached.
Reid said, “Advise and consent has been turned into deny and obstruct.”
Sen. Reid said that repugicans simply don’t want President Obama to make any appointments to the D.C. circuit court. He said that more than half of the nation lives in parts of the country that have been declared a judicial emergency. Reid said the American people are fed up with the obstruction.
Reid then announced his proposed rules change to the Senate. He then went nuclear. He said that the rules change gives nominees a simple yes or no vote. Sen. Reid said that this isn’t about Democrats versus repugicans. It’s about making the Senate work.
Mitch McConnell came to the floor, and promptly talked about Obamacare. Sen. McConnell accused Democrats of using the nuclear option to distract from Obamacare, and pack the courts. McConnell threatened that if Democrats go nuclear, repugicans will use the rule to confirm Supreme Court justices by a majority vote if they ever become the majority again.
Sen. Reid is correct. The Senate is broken, and it is about time that it was fixed. The repugicans were never going to stick to any of the previous agreements that were made. It took Sen. Reid a long time to realize this, but the recent filibustering of the president’s judicial nominees appears to have pushed him over the edge.
The repugicans brought this on themselves. They could have been reasonable and ended the obstruction at any time. They didn’t, so expect President Obama’s nominees to be confirmed in a swift manner by a partisan vote.
It is a great day for democracy, and President Obama will finally get the full team that he needs behind him. None of this had to happen, but the repugican strategy to obstruct Obama is on the way to being dealt a major blow.

In 2004-5, Mitch McConnell and repugicans Demanded Up and Down Votes on Nominees

As Harry Reid moved to change the filibuster rules, repugicans were already screaming about how unfair it all is. Back when they were in power, they were singing a different tune.
May 19, 2005: (Current Minority Leader) Majority Whip Mitch McConnell (r-KY) via the Washington Monthly: “Because of the unprecedented obstruction of our Democratic colleagues, the repugican conference intends to restore the principle that, regardless of party, any President’s judicial nominees, after full debate, deserve a simple up -or -down vote.”
March 26, 2004: (Current Minority Whip) John Cornyn (r-TX) in floor remarks: “I hope that by the end of this session of Congress, my colleagues will give the President’s qualified nominees what they, and all current and future nominees deserve: the opportunity to have a fair up-or-down vote on the floor of the Senate on their nomination. For the sake of the Senate, the nation, and our independent judiciary, I hope that these partisans will not launch more filibusters, but from what I’ve heard today, I won’t hold my breath.”
November 10, 2004: (Current Minority Whip) John Cornyn (r-TX) via the Baltimore Sun: “The bottom line has to be that the president has the right to get a vote, an up-or-down vote, on his nominees.”
May 23, 2005: (Current Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member) Chuck Grassley (r-IA) via Floor Remarks on C-SPAN: “Let’s debate the nominees and give our advice and consent. It is a simple ‘yea’ or ‘nay,’ when called to the altar to vote. Filibustering a nominee into oblivion is misguided warfare and the wrong way for a minority party to leverage influence in the Senate.”
May 24, 2005: Sen. Chambliss and Sen. Isakson (r-GA) via the Atlanta Journal Constitution: “The question is simple and our responsibility clear. Every judge nominated by this president or any president deserves an up-or-down vote. It’s the responsibility of the Senate. The Constitution requires it.”
While the media is already preparing the inaccurate false equivalency games harkening back to the days when Senator Harry Reid was against changing the filibuster rules, what they are leaving out is the unprecedented obstruction that’s take place since then.
As of December of 2012, repugicans had mounted 380 filibusters since Democrats took control of the Senate in 2006.
The People for the American Way determined that things are only getting worse this year. They created this graphic to demonstrate that “Republicans are now on pace to filibuster a full 45 nominees before the end of the Obama administration in January 2017″:

The repugicans have mounted unprecedented obstruction in the Senate as the minority party.
Harry Reid tried for too long to put an end to partisan gamesmanship by not changing the filibuster rules. It’s normal for both parties to grouse about obstruction when they are in the minority and for the minority to want to put a damper on the steam of the majority.
But what repugicans have been doing, especially since Obama took office, is not normal gamesmanship. They are trying to nullify a presidency, and hijack two elections by pretending as if the American people did pick their President.

Tom the Dancing Bug

Differences between life when you're poor and life when you're middle class

Beth Pratt writes, "Being poor is different than being middle class. Killer Martinis explains just how different in this post she calls 'Why I Make Terrible Decisions, or, poverty thoughts'. She begins by telling us that 'rest is a luxury for the rich' and goes on from there."

Convenience food is just that. And we are not allowed many conveniences. Especially since the Patriot Act passed, it's hard to get a bank account. But without one, you spend a lot of time figuring out where to cash a check and get money orders to pay bills. Most motels now have a no-credit-card-no-room policy. I wandered around SF for five hours in the rain once with nearly a thousand dollars on me and could not rent a room even if I gave them a $500 cash deposit and surrendered my cell phone to the desk to hold as surety.
Nobody gives enough thought to depression. You have to understand that we know that we will never not feel tired. We will never feel hopeful. We will never get a vacation. Ever. We know that the very act of being poor guarantees that we will never not be poor. It doesn't give us much reason to improve ourselves. We don't apply for jobs because we know we can't afford to look nice enough to hold them. I would make a super legal secretary, but I've been turned down more than once because I "don't fit the image of the firm," which is a nice way of saying "gtfo, pov." I am good enough to cook the food, hidden away in the kitchen, but my boss won't make me a server because I don't "fit the corporate image." I am not beautiful. I have missing teeth and skin that looks like it will when you live on b12 and coffee and nicotine and no sleep. Beauty is a thing you get when you can afford it, and that's how you get the job that you need in order to be beautiful. There isn't much point trying.

Why I Make Terrible Decisions, or, poverty thoughts

Subtle Warning Signs of a Heart Attack

by Paige Fowler

By now, you’ve seen enough heart attack scenes that you could spot one from a mile away: There’s the gasping for air, the clasping of hands over the chest, and pain so severe the victim collapses to the floor.
It’s time to change that picture: This Hollywood-style heart attack isn’t so classic at all. In a study of nearly 900 heart attack patients, 65 percent experienced a slow onset of symptoms, according to researchers at Trinity College in Ireland. These included chest and left arm discomfort, shortness of breath, and fatigue. Only 35 percent suffered movie-worthy signs. (Cholesterol is so 2012. Meet today's artery enemy with The New Heart Threat.)
Problem is, the subtler signals of ticker trouble may postpone treatment—since it takes longer to realize what’s happening. In the study, patients who experienced slow-onset symptoms received medical treatment within 3.5 hours compared to 2 hours, on average, for those who exhibited more dramatic signals.
Most Ignored Heart Attack Symptoms
“When you suffer a heart attack, it’s most likely due to the abrupt closure of an artery and the heart muscle dies over the next three to six hours unless the artery is opened by an angioplasty or clot-busting medication,” says Men’s Health cardiology advisor Prediman K. Shah, M.D. “We have a saying that time is muscle and even a 90-minute delay could be disastrous.”  (Safeguard your body's most important organ: 100 Ways to Protect Your Heart.)
If you think your ticker is in danger, your first call should be to 911. But to help save your heart, pop an uncoated (321 milligrams) aspirin. “Chewing gets the aspirin to work faster than swallowing,” Dr. Shah says. “The medicine reduces the amount of blood clot forming in the heart artery.”
7 Hidden Heart Attack Symptoms in Women
And avoid disaster by watching out for these heart attack cues that could fly under the radar:

You clam up.

Your body perceives a heart attack as an acute stressor, which stimulates the fight-or-flight response and causes you to break out into a cold sweat. It can be difficult to distinguish heart attack clamming from the pre-presentation sweats, but if you have no reason to be sweating up a storm, it could be a red flag. (Know what symptoms warrant a trip to your doctor: Learn the 7 Pains You Shouldn’t Ignore.)

You feel nauseous.

Due to a parasympathetic nervous system in overdrive, nausea and vomiting can come on suddenly if a heart attack is imminent. The key here is that the signs come on suddenly—seemingly out of nowhere.

You have heartburn

During a heart attack, reduced blood flow to your arteries can simulate heartburn-like symptoms such as burning in the chest or throat and difficulty swallowing. It may look a lot like classic heartburn, but if it happens for the first time and you have risk factors for heart disease as well as nausea, weakness, or sweating, you could be having a heart attack.

Life in a world without antibiotics

In March 1938, writer Maryn McKenna's great uncle died, horribly, from an illness that began with just a couple of cuts and scrapes on his shoulder. He was only 30 when he died. If his injury and infection had happened just five years later, penicillin would likely have saved his life. McKenna uses this story to lead us into a piece about a post-antibiotic world ... what it would look like, and what's already happening to the people who come face-to-face with antibiotic resistance. It's a chilling read. And a necessary one.

Random Photos

Boeing's Biggest Plane Landed at Wrong Airport

The Boeing 747 LCF Dreamlifter is a modified airliner that can carry the most cargo by volume of any plane in the world. Boeing uses it to haul plane parts, particularly whole 787 Dreamliner fuselages. For takeoff, it officially requires a runway of 9,199 feet.
 
Last night, a Dreamlifter arrived in Wichita, which has several airports. The plane received clearance to land at McConnell Air Force Base, the intended destination. Instead, the plane landed at the much-smaller Col. James Jabara Airport nine miles away. Jabara has no control tower, and a 6,101-foot runway, which is almost a thousand feet short of the big plane's official landing requirements. However, the plane landed with no injuries or damage. But what do they do now? A much bigger runway is required for takeoff.

An update on the story this morning says that the plane will attempt to take off from Jabara airport.

Airport property was not damaged, said Brad Christopher of the Wichita Airport Authority early Thursday morning at Jabara. “Everything looks fine,” he said.

The plane, which has a wing span of 211.5 feet and is more than 235 feet long, is carrying cargo and is safe for a normal departure. Christopher said the Dreamlifter can take off from the airport, which is near 37th and North Webb Road.

An alternate flight crew is en route to Wichita, with plans for the Dreamlifter to take off from Jabara later this morning.

The Tallest, Fastest, Steepest Waterslide In The World

Schlitterbahn Kansas City Waterparks has a new upcoming attraction: Verrückt! (German for Insane). The 65mph attraction will plummet people a staggering 17 stories to the ground.

 

Vimeo link

The Republic of Madawaska

A Short-Lived Nation on the US-Canadian Border

Do you remember the Indian Stream Republic? It was a tiny, short-lived nation that formed in the Eighteenth Century on the ambiguous border between the United States and British Canada. It wasn't the only one.

The border between New Hampshire and Quebec established by the 1783 Treaty of Paris was vague, but Maine had an even rougher time. Maine fit into these boundaries:

from the Northwest Angle of Nova Scotia, viz., that Angle which is formed by a Line drawn due North from the Source of St. Croix River to the Highlands; along the said Highlands which divide those Rivers that empty themselves into the river St. Lawrence, from those which fall into the Atlantic Ocean, to the northwesternmost Head of Connecticut River

Got that? Because if you do, you would have been a big help to diplomats on both sides of the border two centuries ago. One of the problems was that the "Highlands" that the treaty describe are geographically nebulous. The people of the District of Maine were especially sensitive about the issue, as half of their region was conquered and colonized by the British during the War of 1812.
In 1817, a group of American settlers moved into the area immediately north of the Saint John River. 10 years later, one of their leaders, John Baker, raised a flag designed by his wife and declared the founding of the Republic of Aroostook. A British official hauled it down. Neither, thankfully, resorted to violence.
In the meantime, specifically in 1820, Maine was admitted into the union as a state. The state government was committed to enforcing its interpretation of the treaty boundaries—which included John Baker’s settlement north of the Saint John River. This region became known as Madawaska.
Maine sent in a census official to count the inhabitants. British officials arrested him. Maine then called up its militia and marched in. British officials responded in kind.
At that point, to prevent Maine from doing anything rash, the United States government took control. General Winfield Scott of the US Army moved troops into the area and took personal command of the situation. The so-called Aroostook War was, as a result, a bloodless confrontation. The Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842 resolved the border dispute by dividing the area between the two nations.
In a legal or practical sense, Republic of Madawaska never existed. But it does live on in popular memory, especially in modern Madawaska County, which is the westernmost portion of New Brunswick. James L. Erwin writes:

In New Brunswick, each Mayor of Edmondston is recognized as the honorary President of the Republic, and a flag is hoisted to commemorate Madawaska during an annual Acadian festival. To the south, however, Maine residents fly the old Acadian flag. It is a sign of Madawaska’s complicated identity that Americans salute an Acadian flag while French Canadians salute a flag first hoisted by American separatists.

Flags flown in Edmundston, Canada. From left to right: the Republic of Madawaska, France*, New Brunswick and Canada.
*With a slight modification. Can you spot it?

Egyptian statue not cursed

A 3,800 year-old stone figure with a creepy propensity to move around slowly has disappointed investigators at Manchester Museum. It was merely vibrations causing the convex-based relic to spin, not an entertaining curse.

Meet the meat mummies

Among the belongings interred with dead Egyptian royalty for their long trip to the afterlife: Dinner. Some meat mummies — preserved cuts of animal carcass meant to be used as food — were dried with salt, like a kind of jerky. Others were preserved with balms and beeswax.

Ziggy

Australian Olympic Committee to allow alcohol but no staggering

The Australian Olympic Committee on Tuesday said that athletes will be allowed to consume alcohol at upcoming Games but swaying, staggering, and having rambling conversations will not be tolerated.

AOC president John Coates set out the new team rules in a position statement sent to all national governing bodies of Olympic sports, driven by a tumultuous period for swimming after the London Games in 2012, which were marred by ill-discipline, drug use and drunkenness.

"These restrictions have been implemented to ensure that Australia's Olympic athletes are given the opportunity to compete to the best of their ability and with distinction," Coates said. While team members will be allowed to consume alcohol responsibly, they are "expected to consider the needs of their fellow team members who are preparing for, or are in competition and not behave in a manner which may disrupt or negatively impact on the performance of others".

Under the new rules, athletes will be barred from the Olympic Village or other designated team locations if they are intoxicated and displaying inappropriate conduct. This includes being: "Argumentative; bad tempered, aggressive or using offensive language; swaying, staggering or falling down; speech which is loud and boisterous; having rambling conversations; having difficulty in paying attention or comprehending others, and annoying fellow team members".

Police officer caught 'giving advice' on video

A police officer in Perth, Australia, who swore at a man while apparently issuing a traffic infringement has admitted to his superiors that he acted inappropriately. In video footage, the man argumentatively asks what crime he has committed and tells the officer to go "stop some fucking criminals".

The policeman then walks close to the man and says: "If you swear one more fucking time I will put you in the lockup for disorderly, just like last time. I will deny your bail and some big fella is going to play with your arsehole during the night. If that's what you want, say one more fucking swear word." When the man tells the officer to relax, he replies: "Pull your head in.

"Don't tell me to relax. You don't tell me what to do. You don't swear in public. Switch on." The Western Australia police minister, Liza Harvey, said that using foul language was inappropriate but she would leave the matter to police to investigate internally. WA police union president, George Tilbury, said officers were sometimes in "frustrating and stressful" situations when dealing with the public.

LiveLeak link. Alternative video link.

"As the full video has not been uploaded and the entirety of the circumstances are unknown, it is very difficult to comment on the actions of the officer," he said. "However, police officers should always do their utmost to portray a professional image. Our members need to be aware that in this modern age of technology their actions and interactions with the public will be filmed, often without their knowledge or permission."

Grocery store brawl included turkey-swinging, bacon-tipping and yogurt-throwing

A frozen turkey and other edible weapons were flying last week in a fracas in Woodman's Food Market, Madison, Wisconsin last week. According to police the fight was between two groups of women in the meat department and evidently erupted during an ongoing dispute over money.

A 62-year old man was on the phone with 911, trying to call the melee in, when someone chucked a full container of yogurt at his head. It just missed, and he ended up with dairy product on his baseball cap as the strawberry yogurt splattered on doors to the butcher's area, and onto the floor.

During the fracas, one combatant armed herself with a frozen turkey. That was swung and tossed. A palate holding eight large boxes of bacon was toppled. That happened after two women began exchanging punches. Both ended up rolling around on the same floor with the yogurt and bacon.

The fisticuffs were precipitated by one woman pulling out a canister of pepper spray. That ended up being shot into the eyes of two women. They were engaged in the faceoff with the four others. Police stopped those who were pepper sprayed as they were about to drive away. One was cited for disorderly conduct. The other food fighters were not immediately located.

McDonald's sorry over 'disgusting' music played at restaurant

McDonald's has issued a grovelling apology after 'pornographic' and explicit music featuring underage sex and violent rape was played in its Haverfordwest restaurant. Pub landlord Steve Davidson was eating breakfast with his 20-month-old grandson, Charlie, when the extremely explicit lyrics in a song by Rucka Rucka Ali called Only 17 (NSFW language, racist, misogynistic, homophobic, etc., etc. You've been warned!) began.
Rucka Rucka Ali is an American rapper, radio personality, singer, comedian, and satirist known for his song parodies which often cause controversy with vulgar lyrics and so-called humor. The lyrics played out across McDonald’s Haverfordwest at around 9.30am on Friday, November 15 include detailed references to extreme sex acts, rape and prison violence. The track is taken from a 2011 album called Probably Racist. McDonald’s has apologised to Mr Davidson, who runs the Three Crowns in Milford Haven, and said the ‘content and the lyrics were wholly inappropriate and had no place in McDonald’s’.

The incident was blamed on an employee leaving their personal music player connected to the restaurant sound system while on a night shift and not removing it before the dining area reopened the next morning. Mr Davidson said: “The bottom line is that it’s bordering on pornography. It certainly shouldn’t be playing in a restaurant where they sell Happy Meals to children. The lyrics are disgusting, they are very explicit - not just a bit risqué or a bit of swearing. It’s not what you want while you’re having your breakfast. You have to be over 18 to download it, for them to be playing it somewhere that attracts children is obviously a concern.”

A McDonald’s spokesman added that management had spoken to the employee in question and reminded all staff about company policies and the reasons for them. “McDonald’s is a family-friendly restaurant and we endeavor to provide a restaurant environment that is welcoming, comfortable and enjoyable for everybody. The vast majority of our restaurants, including Haverfordwest, have external music providers dedicated to creating playlists that have been thoroughly screened for appropriateness of language and content. We apologize to Mr Davidson for this isolated lapse in our rigorous standards,” she added.

Family photo found implanted inside rescued chicken

A severely injured chicken found in a South Florida park is believed to be the victim of a Santeria ritual after a photo of a family and other items were discovered inside the animal's breast. Miami-Dade County Animal Services said the bird was found at Larry and Penny Thompson Park. The chicken, named Trooper, was then taken to Katha Sheehan's chicken sanctuary in Florida City. "The person who found him and I looked at him, and she said, 'That thing is protruding from his chest. It doesn't look like keel bone," said Sheehan.

Veterinarian Dr. Marc Kramer said the items found inside Trooper leads him to believe the chicken had been used in a Santeria ritual. Sheehan cut the makeshift stitches to remove what was inside approximately one inch deep into the animal's breast. She then found a 4 by 6 photo of three young adults, two women and a man, wrapped up and stuffed inside the 2-month-old chick, along with another piece of paper with a drawing of a skull.

Officials said, on the back of the photo was another drawing of a skull and several hand-written names. Miami-Dade College anthropology professor Mercedes Cros Sandoval explained, "This is a magical ritual of Cuban origin, probably, with the name 'Sarabanda,' which is a deity from the Congo area that was probably used to affect the relationship of these three young people. To me it is alien, the idea of casting your sins on innocent animals," said Sheehan.

YouTube link.

"The animal was probably manually restrained, struggling, and in a lot of pain. This is a living thing with a nervous system that feels pain like every other animal," said Veterinarian Dr. Marc Kramer. "It's not only an extremely cruel act to do this to any living thing, but it's also illegal." After two weeks of treatment, the bird is doing better but still has a long road ahead to fully recover. "It's in reasonable spirits, though looking somewhat pale and still dealing with a large infected wound," said Kramer. "It has a good appetite and the will to survive. Trooper is going to be a happy and productive member of society," said Sheehan. Trooper is being kept at the home of one of his rescuers.

Juju use suspected in Zimbabwean football

Caps United in Zimbabwe are calling foul after their rivals, How Mine, allegedly used "juju," or witchcraft, during a key match earlier this month. Caps United said its officials checked out the dressing room of its opponents 15 minutes after the match started and found suspicious objects, including lighted candles and bottles of liquid arrayed in an 11-man team formation. According to the sources, Caps United received a tip off that How Mine were using “supernatural powers” to influence the outcome of the game. Destroying what was in the dressing room looked the only way to go. As they were forcing their way into the visitors’ dressing room, an unnamed official ran to inform How Mine’s head coach Philani “Beefy” Ncube on the touchline that their “privacy” was being invaded and their manager advised his watchman to take police along, the sources said.

There have been persistent reports that How Mine’s coach uses juju, an allegation that he strongly denies. There have also been allegations that before his team’s competitive matches, Ncube goes to the match venues to conduct some rituals which affect his opponents’ performances, an accusation he refutes. Even after the break-in into their dressing room at the National Sports Stadium, Ncube denied that the candles were for juju but said they were for his team’s prayers. He took a dig at those who believe that he uses juju to get results at every club he coaches. Ncube, a former Premier League Coach of the Year winner with Njube Sundowns, said it was unfortunate that people credit his tactical ability in football to juju. The much travelled manager, who has led the now defunct Piggot Maskew, Railstars, Chicken Inn, Zimbabwe Saints and Quelaton, declared that he is a christian and was not bothered by what people say.

“Like I always say, I believe in myself and I like to face challenges. I don’t care what people say about me using juju because I know that only the Almighty knows that I use the head he gave me to think. It’s not a secret that ngingumpostoli and I go to cult koNgwenya. god is the one who gives me wisdom and strength to conquer. “I was not disturbed that they broke into our dressing room and messed around with our prayers because we knew that we were protected by the power of god who guided us to victory,” said Ncube. KoNgwenya is an apostolic sect based in Pumula South which was founded by Thabiso Ngwenya. Ngwenya, better known as “Mabomber”, is famous for his bottle act in which his congregants bring bottles filled with water which he shakes and smashes to the ground as a solution to problems. A number of prominent people have thronged Ngwenya’s shrine since 2006/7 as they seek his help for success in their marriages, businesses and cures for various ailments. How Mine’s assistant coach Simba Rusike, a proud member of AFM church, denied reports that it was juju that was found in their dressing room.

Rusike said they were not ashamed of what Caps United found in their dressing room. “Let me tell you something, everyone is free to choose which church to belong to. My head coach is a mpostori and I belong to a pentecostal cult AFM and since we are protected by god, really, did they think that by messing around with the prayers they were going to beat us? “Our living god had already heard our prayers and we scored all our goals after they had broken into our dressing room,” said Rusike. When How Mine went for the break, they were a goal down but turned the tables around in the second half as they equalized through Warren Dube in the 54th minute before Menard Mupera scored what is arguably the tournament’s best goal three minutes later. Caps United went on to level the scores on the hour mark through Tawanda Nyamandwe forcing the game into a penalty shoot-out. The gold miners went on to beat United 4-2 on penalties to set up a date with Highlanders in an all-Bulawayo final. Rusike advised other coaches to spend their energy on planning and strategizing for the games as well as seeking divine intervention before their matches instead of “witch-hunting”. Cases of use of juju or magical powers in the Premiership are rife with Harare City’s coach Bigboy Mawiwi having been on the receiving end after being “baptised” with urine at some matches where fans believed that he had “barricaded” the goals.

Daily Comic Relief

NASA has a plan to just tow an asteroid around space like it's an old car

The crazy part about NASA's Asteroid Initiative isn't so much the part where we land human beings on an asteroid. That's cool and all, sure. But the bit that precedes it is actually a little bit more mind-blowing. To make that landing work, we'll first have to send out robotic spacecraft to essentially capture an asteroid and tow it into a stable orbit around the Moon. Yeah. Seriously. Welcome to living in the future, dudes.

The largest "structure" in the universe has been found!

Thanks to the behavior of gamma ray bursts, like the one pictured here, astronomers have identified an incredible amount energy over an incredibly large field of space.

The area is so big IT WOULD TAKE 10 BILLION LIGHT-YEARS TO CROSS!

In comparison, the previous record holder for largest structure, the Huge-LQG, or Large Quasar Group, was only 4 billion light-years in diameter.

Amazing Animals You Never Knew Existed

Some examples of the hundreds of amazing, bizarre, and often-overlooked animals in Ross Piper's new book, Animal Earth. They may be tiny or faceless and not too easy on the eyes, but Piper said they deserve our appreciation just as much as popular species like lions, tigers, and apes.

Mysterious fish with whip-like tail and cone-shaped snout identified as a long-nosed chimaera

Freakish-looking denizens live at great depths and are rarely encountered; this is only the second ever documented off Canada's Hudson Strait region

by Pete Thomas

A freakish-looking fish hauled recently from the chilly depths of northeastern Canada has been identified as a long-nosed chimaera.
The identity of the fish, which boasts a whip-like tail and an enlarged cone-shaped nose, remained a mystery for days after it was captured by Nunavut fishermen in the Hudson Strait.
That’s understandable because these denizens, although they exist in oceans around the world, inhabit depths of up to 6,000 feet and are rarely encountered.
Nigel Hussey, a researcher with the Ocean Tracking Network, solved the mystery and told Canada’s CBC News that it’s only the second time a long-nosed chimaera has been documented in the region between Canada and Greenland.
“Potentially, if we fish deeper, maybe between 1,000 and 2,000 meters, we could find that there’s actually quite a lot of them,” Hussey said. “We just don’t know.”

A photo of the mystery fish was widely circulated on the Internet before it was identified. Some had incorrectly identified the fish as a goblin shark.
(The accompanying video footage, captured by researchers with the Japan Agency for Marine Science and Technology, shows a live long-nosed chimaera swimming in an unidentified region of the Pacific.)
Long-nosed chimaeras, which have hideous-looking mouths loaded with sharp teeth, measure to about five feet. They probe the darkness with enlarged snouts that contain sensory nerve endings that aid in the search for prey.
Since these distant relatives of sharks and rays are rarely encountered and poorly understood, they’re known by several false names, including ghost shark and rat-tail.
Perhaps it’s good that these fish are rarely encountered, too, because a highly venomous spine can be found on their primary dorsal fin.
Definitely a creature fit for the abyss.

Animal Pictures