At first glance, this seems like a sensible and obvious approach—to work with the foot, not against it. But it represents a fundamental break from the dominant philosophy of shoe design. For decades, the guiding principle of shoe design has been to compensate for the perceived deficiencies of the human foot. Since it hurts to strike your heel on the ground, nearly all shoes provide a structure to lift the heel. And because walking on hard surfaces can be painful, we wrap our feet in padding. Many people suffer from flat feet or fallen arches, so we wear shoes with built-in arch supports, to help hold our arches up...Admittedly, there’s something counterintuitive about the idea that less padding on your foot equals less shock on your body. But that’s only if we continue to think of our feet as lifeless blocks of flesh that hold us upright. The sole of your foot has over 200,000 nerve endings in it, one of the highest concentrations anywhere in the body. Our feet are designed to act as earthward antennae, helping us balance and transmitting information to us about the ground we’re walking on.
But (you might say) if you walk or run with no padding, it’s murder on your heels—which is precisely the point. Your heels hurt when you walk that way because you’re not supposed to walk that way. Wrapping your heels in padding so they don’t hurt is like stuffing a gag in someone’s mouth so they’ll stop screaming—you’re basically telling your heels to shut up.
And your heels aren’t just screaming; they’re trying to tell you something. In 2006, a group of rheumatologists at Chicago’s Rush Medical College studied the force of the “knee adduction moment”—basically, the force of torque on the medial chamber of the knee joint where arthritis occurs. For years, rheumatologists have advised patients with osteoarthritis of the knees to wear padded walking shoes, to reduce stress on their joints. As for the knee-adduction moment, they’ve attempted to address it with braces and orthotics that immobilize the knee, but with inconsistent results. So the researchers at Rush tried something different: They had people walk in their walking shoes, then barefoot, and each time measured the stress on their knees. They found, to their surprise, that the impact on the knees was 12 percent less when people walked barefoot than it was when people wore the padded shoes.
*****
Now, this is interesting!
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Shoes are bad for your feet? Vindicating the barefoot set!
Airstrip in a box: 1938
In December 1938, Popular Science featured this fantastic, gigantic 12-ton "landing strip in a box" for converting cow-pastures to airstrips.
Rolling swiftly down highways on ten oversize balloon tires, a revolutionary airport-in-miniature for use by passenger air lines and military air forces now provides quick and complete assistance to stranded airplanes.
This curious “twelve-ton tool box” is the invention of Kibbey W. Couse, of East Orange, N. J.
It is capable of turning any level cow pasture into an airport complete with machine shop, repair parts, floodlights, and radio.
Toppy Times Seven
The country that created the world's first cloned canine plans to put duplicated dogs on patrol to sniff out drugs and explosives.
The Korean Customs Service unveiled Thursday seven cloned Labrador retrievers being trained near Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. The dogs were born five to six months ago after being separately cloned from a skilled drug-sniffing canine in active service.
Due to the difficulties in finding dogs who are up to snuff for the critical jobs, officials said using clones could help reduce costs.
The cloning work was conducted by a team of Seoul National University scientists who in 2005 successfully created the world's first known dog clone, an Afghan hound named Snuppy.
The team is led by Professor Lee Byeong-chun, who was a key aide to disgraced scientist Hwang Woo-suk. Hwang's purported breakthroughs in stem cell research were revealed as false, but independent tests proved the team's dog cloning was genuine.
The seven new cloned male dogs are all healthy, though one was sent to a university laboratory a few days ago for a minor foot injury it received during training, according to training center head Lim Jae-ryoung. For now, the dogs all share the same name: "Toppy" - a combination of the words "tomorrow" and "puppy."
"They have a superior nature. They are active and excel in accepting the training," said Kim Nak-seung, a trainer at the Customs Service-affiliated dog training center.
In February, all seven dogs passed a behavior test aimed at finding whether they are genetically qualified to work as sniffing dogs. Only 10 percent to 15 percent of naturally born dogs typically pass the test.
If the cloned dogs succeed in other tests for physical strength, concentration and sniffing ability, they will be put to work by July next year at airports and harbors across South Korea, according to the training center.
The agency says the cloned dogs could also save money.
"We came up with the idea of dog cloning after thinking about how we can possess a superior breed at a cheaper cost," said agency head Hur Yong-suk.
Normally, only about three out every 10 naturally born dogs it trains - at a cost of about $40,140 each - ends up qualifying for the job.
Lee of Seoul National University said it cost approximately $100,000 to $150,000 to clone each of the seven golden Labrador retrievers.
He said the seven are the world's first cloned drug-sniffing dogs.
The university team did not ask for payment from the customs authorities because it created the clones for academic purposes with government funds, Lee said.
He said his team has so far cloned 20 dogs and five wolves.
On Thursday the dogs frolicked with trainer Kim, running together and chasing a red rubber ball he threw across a playground - a part of training aimed at bolstering their stamina.
"If I look at them very carefully, there are now some small differences in their facial features," said Kim, who has been training the dogs since they were born. "But it's still hard to tell."
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Daily Funny
"Wear whatever you like, darling. You look lovely in either."
Ten minutes later, she's back. "Should I wear my diamond earrings or the emerald and sapphire ones you bought me for my birthday?"
"Either one," I say with growing impatience.
Soon she's back, modeling shoes. "Should I wear these Gucci sandals or the Ferragamos?"
"Enough already!" I yelled. "If you don't get your act together right now, we're going to miss the Early Bird Special!"
12 things to avoid doing at the last minute.
Waiting until the last minute
In a nutshell: don't.
Bad situations to wait until the last minute:
- Catching a transcontinental flight
- Asking your secret crush to the prom
- Applying for a summer internship
- Setting customer expectations
- Studying for the SATs
- Saving for retirement
- Giving up smoking
- Asking for a raise
- Teaching ethical behavior to your kids
- Winning a primary
- Asking for directions
- Sharing an idea
This advertisement for an insurance company was put on the back of buses in Amsterdam
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Flower of Scotland
O Flower of Scotland,
When will we see
Your like again,
That fought and died for,
Your wee bit Hill and Glen,
And stood against him,
Proud Edward's Army,
And sent him homeward,
Tae think again.
The Hills are bare now,
And Autumn leaves
lie thick and still,
O'er land that is lost now,
Which those so dearly held,
That stood against him,
Proud Edward's Army,
And sent him homeward,
Tae think again.
Those days are past now,
And in the past
they must remain,
But we can still rise now,
And be the nation again,
That stood against him,
Proud Edward's Army,
And sent him homeward,
Tae think again.
0 Flower of Scotland,
When will we see
your like again,
That fought and died for,
Your wee bit Hill and Glen,
And stood against him,
Proud Edward's Army,
And sent him homeward,
Tae think again.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Priest Kicks FauxNews In The Nuts - Figuratively Unfortunately
But when I found this unedited interview with a priest I just had to post it.
A swift one to the gonads! Alright, way to go, Father.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Wingnut Shows True Colors
Public relations-officer for Southern Illinois University College Republicans sends misogynistic hate mail and is forced to resign
The Ether says;
I thought you'd like this story from Feminsting.comHere's the email sent by the now-ex-public relations officer for for Southern Illinois University College Republicans:Feministing recently received some really badly written hate mail, something which is not in itself unusual. This time, however, it was sent from a school address, and it turns out that it had come from the public relations officer of the Southern Illinois University College Republicans. That's right: a public relations officer. He's obviously not very good at his job.
In the comments section the secretary of the organization (who seems like a very decent person) came in and apologized profusely, and even made the culprit do the same. He has resigned from his post.
Some people might argue that there's a right to privacy here, but when you send extremely hateful mail over the internet from your school address, and especially when you're a public relations officer, you pretty much give up that right.
The internet is full of real bastards who posts hateful things all the time, and seemingly takes pleasure in hurting people. It's nice to see this one get his comeuppance.
"Men are better than women look at the comparison in IQ men are scientifically proven to have a higher IQ by roughly 5 points, or 5% you cannot dispute science sorry and if you want a much better website than your shitty one you might want to go to [redacted]. I think you would gain a lot more knowledge from that website and you might learn about the truth that way you would not be so stupid and ignorant you stupid cunts."
*****Would that they all receive their comeuppance!
The wingnuts howl and bray at the moon, attacking and reviling everything and everyone who does not toe the dogmatic line - then whine that they are the 'victims' of 'attack' when someone stands up to them and says ... NO.
It has begun to change ... people are tired of the wingnuts and more and more are standing up to say ... NO and doing so in a very loud voice - too bad the wingnuts are deaf.
This is how the cabal treats our troops!
It wasn't until Hubbard petitioned his local congressman that he was able to restore some of his benefits.
Now that congressman, Rep. Devin Nunes, is leading an effort to pass a bill that would ensure basic benefits to all soldiers who are discharged under an Army policy governing sole surviving siblings and children of soldiers killed in combat. The rule is a holdover from World War II meant to protect the rights of service people who have lost a family member to war.
"I felt as if in some ways I was being punished for leaving even though it was under these difficult circumstances," Hubbard told The Associated Press. "The situation that happened to me is not a one-time thing. It's going to happen to other people, and to have a law in place is going to ease their tragedy in some way."
Hubbard, 33, and his youngest brother, Nathan, enlisted while they were still grieving for their brother, Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Hubbard, who was 22 when he was killed in a 2004 bomb explosion in Ramadi.
At their request, the pair were assigned to the same unit, the 3rd Brigade of the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii, and deployed to Iraq the next year.
In August, 21-year-old Cpl. Nathan died when his Black Hawk helicopter crashed near Kirkuk. Jason was part of the team assigned to remove his comrades' bodies from the wreckage.
Hubbard accompanied his little brother's body on a military aircraft to Kuwait, then on to California. He kept steady during Nathan's burial at Clovis Cemetery, standing in dress uniform between his younger brothers' graves as hundreds sobbed in the heat.
But Hubbard broke his silence when he found his wife, pregnant with their second child, had been cut off from the transitional health care the family needed to ease back to civilian life after he was discharged in October.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Quote of the Day
~ Crooks and Liars Blog
The Strip and Dip Specialist
The keen swimmer (pictured above) is preparing to spend the summer getting closer to nature by taking a dip in the nude in all of Scotland's major lochs. She will swim around ten metres in all the lochs – including Loch Lomond and Loch Ness – to raise around £3000 for breast cancer charities.
She will be photographed at each location for a series of pictures to go on sale when she completes the task.
Miss Brown, who lives in Barony Street, has already had a trial run for her intensive three-week charity swim in the summer by plunging into the freezing Duddingston Loch.
She got rid of her inhibitions and took the plunge, much to the surprise of a nature-lover who happened to be looking through his binoculars at the time.
But it was realising just how freezing Scottish waters are that gave the Australian the biggest shock. She said: "As with all good ideas, it was thought up in the pub. I left Edinburgh to go home for a while last year and I said my biggest regret was not skinny dipping in the lochs, so it all stemmed from there.
"Saturday was my first dip and it lasted a maximum of three minutes. When I got home, I spent the rest of the night in bed with a fever and I must admit I thought then 'What am I letting myself in for?'. But I'm not worried about it, I'm just really excited."
Miss Brown, originally from the Australian city of Perth, is going to seek the advice of her doctor before embarking on the potentially dangerous swimathon.
She said: "I'll be careful about it and make sure I'm eating right and that I have lots of blankets with me. I've had my injections and I won't be putting my head under the water." She will be starting her challenge in the Capital on July 7, then heading up north.
She estimates she will take in just over six lochs a day to complete the task in three weeks. She will be accompanied by her friend, amateur photographer Jenny Humberstone, who will be taking snaps at each location.
As well as raising sponsorship money through the swimathon, Miss Brown hopes the "artsy" photos will make some money when they go on sale. She plans to get a stall during the Edinburgh Festival to sell the photos.
Miss Brown, who teaches theatre skills in schools, welcomes supporters along the way but says she will only strip off at secluded parts of the lochs so as not to offend anyone.
She added: "The guy with the binoculars must have wondered what we were doing, but he never asked for an explanation and we never offered one. We just did what we came to do and left."
Miss Brown plans to split the money she raises between a number of breast cancer charities after she saw the illness strike some of her friends' mothers.
Angela Kilday, spokesperson for Cancer Research UK, said: "We invest some £27 million in Scotland annually. Without the support of individuals like Jackie, this vital cancer research work would not be able to continue."
*****
Want to check out more about Scots and Scotland go to Scotsman.com
Direct link to story above here.
Or find out all about the Scots and Scotland at Electric Scotland
Daily Funny
They panhandle on different areas of town, and although Carlos panhandles just as long as Jose he only collects 2 to 3 dollars every day.
Jose on the other hand, brings home a suitcase FULL of $10 dollar bills, drives a Mercedes, lives in a mortgage free house and has a lot of money to spend.
Carlos says to Jose 'Hey… I work just as long and hard as you do, so how do you bring home a suitcase full of $10 dollar bills every day?'
Jose says 'Look at your sign; what does it say?'
Carlos sign reads 'I have no work, a wife and 6 kids to support.'
Jose says 'No wonder you only get $2-3 dollars!'
Carlos says 'So what does your sign say?'
Jose shows Carlos his sign... It reads 'I only need another $10.00 dollars to move back to Mexico’
The RIAA's lawsuit against a homeless man isn't going according to plan!
In Warner v. Berry, where the RIAA was suing a man who lives in a homeless shelter, the Magistrate Judge -- Hon. Kevin Nathaniel Fox -- recommended that the plaintiffs' application for a default judgment be denied, and that the plaintiffs be ordered to show cause why they should not be sanctioned under Rule 11. The Judge agreed that the default judgment should be denied, but chose not to sanction plaintiffs' attorneys...We can only hope that this won't prejudice the court in the matter of Warner, Electra et al Versus Charitable Hospice for Dying, Helpless, Starving Children Who Rescue Puppies From Burning Buildings and Volunteer at the Old Folks Home.The Magistrate Judge found that "[b]y affixing the summons on April 9, 2007, the plaintiffs demonstrated they never intended to conduct 'a thorough address investigation ...' because they employed the 'affix and mail' method of service without exercising due diligence to effect personal service pursuant to CPLR s 308(1) and (2)." Magistrate Judge Fox concluded that Plaintiffs' representation to this Court to the effect that they intended to conduct an investigation to locate Defendant's current address implicated Fed.R.Civ.P. 11(b) because it was made for the improper purpose of unnecessary delay.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Surprised ... Yes and No.
The official says Chief Juan Muniz will be flown to Mexico City on Thursday to be questioned by organized crime investigators.
Muniz has been arrested by federal agents in Reynosa, across from McAllen, Texas, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to discuss the case.
Reynosa city officials have issued a news release saying Muniz was arrested Thursday afternoon. Muniz could not be immediately reach for comment and it was unclear if he had a lawyer.
The Gulf cartel is based in Tamaulipas state, where Reynosa is located.*****
And this surprises me, how?
Okay, the Mexicans actually arresting the chief does - the fact the chief was fronting for a drug cartel ... nope, not surprising at all.
He was "depressed".
Jesus "Jesse" Carrizales, a 17-year-old sophomore, died Wednesday of a single bullet to the chest, fired by a school resources officer, Junus Perry, whom police said Carrizales had ambushed in a crowded outdoor corridor of Roosevelt High School. Officers found a small knife protruding from Carrizales' pocket, police said.
Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer said Thursday that the 6-foot-tall, 250-pound teen sought out the violent confrontation, which he called "a case of suicide by cop."
It wasn't the first time Carrizales had a run-in with police. In 2005, while in middle school, the student was cited for concealing a small knife in his backpack, Dyer said. Relatives said the knife belonged to a friend.
The next year, however, Carrizales' 10 brothers and sisters noticed he had become withdrawn, and the family decided he would do better at an alternative school where he could pursue independent study. He was prescribed Lexapro and Geodon, drugs used to treat depression and bipolar disorder, and in January he transferred to Roosevelt High, said his sister Elisa Ortega.
"He was a boy who needed help," said Ortega, 27. "He was depressed and he was on medication and the school knew it, so maybe they could have treated things differently."
Carrizales' family said the officer didn't have to shoot the teen, and questioned authorities' version of events.
"He never said he wanted to die or anything close to that," Ortega said. "They didn't have to kill him. The Taser guns, the batons they have, that should have been enough to calm the situation down."
Dyer said after Carrizales surprised the officer from behind and struck him in the head with the 21-inch bat, Perry feared for his life.
The officer fell down dazed, and reached for the gun in his hip holster, but the clip fell out.
As the student came at him again, yelling obscenities and raising the bat above his head, Perry grabbed a semiautomatic handgun he carried as backup in an ankle holster. He fired one round, Dyer said.
"It is unfortunate that the officer was put in a position where he had to take a student's life," Dyer told reporters Thursday. "Had he not defended himself there could have been further tragedy."
At least five students and a probation officer on campus witnessed the incident, police said. No one else was injured.
Fresno Unified School District spokeswoman Susan Bedi said a confidentiality agreement kept her from commenting on Carrizales' history in local schools.
Acting Superintendent Ruth Quinto said in a statement that the district was proud of how staff and students handled the situation.
"They have shown great strength and maturity," Quinto said. "We are continuing and will continue for as long as necessary to support them in any way that we can."
Carrizales' siblings described him as a lighthearted aspiring chef who preferred to play video games with his young cousins rather than take part in adult conversations.
"He was more of a kid himself. He was a momma's boy," said another sister, Irene Ortega, 25, speaking outside her mother's modest Fresno home. "We just want to know what happened before that incident to see what made him do what police say he did."
Perry is recovering at home after being treated for a 2-inch gash on the right side of his head, Dyer said. He is on administrative leave while the department reviews his conduct in Fresno's fifth officer-involved shooting this year.
*****
Ok, I am no wingnut fundie but come on people sometime it is not the boogey-man and sometime it is, but the continuous stream of he was - depressed, sick, slow, retarded, high, drunk, etc., ad infinitum - (take your pick), is getting a bit thin.
Which is making legitimate cases of depression, illness, retardation, etc., fall to the wayside as when the boy cried wolf twice and the men came to kill the wolf carrying off the boy's sheep and there was no wolf, so when the boy cried wolf the third time the men ignored him and the wolf ate all the boy's sheep.
Tourists 1 Wildlife 0
Group of Gibraltar's Barbary apes to be killed
A renegade group of Gibraltar's Barbary apes has annoyed residents so much that authorities announced plans Thursday to kill them.
A cluster of 25 Barbary apes - a species of monkey usually weighing about 15-25 pounds - moved to a popular beach-side area some months ago where they have been stealing food, entering rooms through open windows and harassing tourists, officials said.
The territory's tourism minister, Ernest Britto, has decided to kill the beach dwelling group, government spokesman Francis Cantos said.
"I can confirm that tourism minister Britto has decided to issue a license for a cull," said Cantos.
"The decision was not taken lightly. It is a last resort," Britto told the Gibraltar Chronicle newspaper.
The newspaper said two monkeys have already been captured and given lethal injections.
The pack, part of the territory's population of around 200, invaded a sandy beach area called Catalan Bay where they remained because they were able to rummage for food. The area is popular with tourists and has a luxury hotel.
Britto said he determined that the monkeys posed a danger to public health.
The animals mainly inhabit the high ground of Gibraltar, a British colony off Spain's southern tip.
The British Army, which is responsible for their care, has in the past often had to replenish Gibraltar's population with monkeys from Africa. Barbary apes also live in Morocco and north Algeria.
Polygamist sect hearing in Texas descends into farce
The case - clearly one of the biggest, most convoluted child-custody hearings in U.S. history - presented an extraordinary tableau: big-city lawyers in suits and mothers in 19th-century, pioneer-style dresses, all packed into a courtroom and a nearby auditorium connected by video.
At issue was an attempt by the state of Texas to strip the parents of custody and place the children in foster homes because of evidence they were being physically and sexually abused by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a renegade Mormon splinter group suspected of forcing underage girls into marriage with older men.
As many feared, the proceedings turned into something of a circus - and a painfully slow one.
By midafternoon only two witnesses had testified, and both only to lay the foundation for documents to be admitted. One witness, a state trooper, was cross-examined by dozens of attorneys, each of them asking the same question of a behalf of a child or parent.
As the afternoon dragged on, no decisions had been made on any of the youngsters' fate.
Texas District Judge Barbara Walther struggled to maintain order as she faced 100 lawyers in her 80-year-old Tom Green County courtroom and several hundred more participating over a grainy video feed from an ornate City Hall auditorium two blocks away.
The hearing disintegrated quickly into a barrage of shouted objections and attempts to file motions, with lawyers for the children objecting to objections made by the parents' attorneys. When the judge sustained an objection to the prolonged questioning the state trooper, the lawyers cheered.
Upon another objection about the proper admission of medical records of the children, the judge threw up her hands.
"I assume most of you want to make the same objection. Can I have a universal, `Yes, Judge'?" she said.
In both buildings, the hundreds of lawyers stood and responded in unison: "Yes, Judge."
But she added to the chaos as well.
Walther refused to put medical records and other evidence in electronic form, which could be e-mailed among the lawyers, because it contained personal information. A courier had to run from the courthouse to the auditorium delivering one document at a time.
"We're going to handle this the best we can, one client at a time," Walther said.
Little evidence had been admitted by midafternoon. The first attempt to admit evidence resulted in an hourlong recess while all the lawyers examined it. The rest of the morning was spent in arguments about whether to admit the medical records of three girls, two 17-year-olds and one 18-year-old.
Department of Public Safety Sgt. Danny Crawford testified to DPS's discovery of a church bishop's records taken from a safe at the ranch that listed about 38 families, some of them polygamous and some that included wives 16 or 17 years old. But under repeated cross-examination, Crawford acknowledged the records contained no evidence of sexual abuse.
State officials asked the judge for permission to conduct genetic testing on the children and adults because of difficulty sorting out the sect's tangled family relationships and matching youngsters with their parents. The judge did not immediately rule.
Amid the shouting and chaos among the lawyers, who came from around Texas to represent the children and parents free of charge, dozens of mothers sat timidly in their long cotton dresses, long underwear even in the spring heat, and braided upswept hair.
In the satellite courtroom, about 175 people strained to see and hear a large projector set up on the auditorium's stage. But the feed was blurry and barely audible.
"I'm not in a position to advocate for anything," complained Susan Hays, the appointed attorney for a 2-year-old sect member.
Outside, where TV satellite trucks lined the street in front of the courthouse's columned facade, a man who said he was an FLDS father waved a photo of himself surrounded by his four children, ranging from a baby to a child of about 9.
"Look, look, look," the father said. "These children are all smiling, we're happy."
Walther signed an emergency order nearly two weeks ago giving the state custody of the children after a 16-year-old girl called an abuse hot line claiming her husband, a 50-year-old member of the sect, beat and raped her. The girl has yet to be identified.
Authorities raided their compound April 3 in the nearby town of Eldorado - a 1,700-acre ranch with a blindingly white limestone temple and log cabin-style houses - and began collecting documents and disk drives that might provide evidence of underage girls being married to adults.
The children, who are being kept in a domed coliseum in San Angelo, range in age from 6 months to 17 years in age. Roughly 100 of them are under 4.
FLDS members deny children were abused and say the state is persecuting them for their faith.
The judge must weigh the allegations of abuse and also decide whether it is in the children's best interest to be placed into mainstream society after they have been told all their lives that the outside world is hostile and immoral.
If the judge gives the state permanent custody of the children, the Texas child services agency will face the enormous task of finding suitable homes. It will also have to decipher brother-sister relationships so that it can try to preserve them.
Over the past two weeks, the agency has relied on volunteers to help feed the children, do their laundry and provide crafts and games for them.
Gov. Rick Perry would not say how much the case is costing the state, but said: "Does the state of Texas have the resources? Absolutely we do."
The sect came to West Texas in 2003, relocating some members from the church's traditional home along the Utah-Arizona state line. Its prophet and spiritual leader, Warren Jeffs, is in prison for forcing an underage girl into marriage in Utah.
*****
P.T. was right! This whole thing is a badly written TV movie (and you know it will be). Barnum wherever you are try not to laugh too hard.
Dangers of Bisphenol A (BPA) From canned food
From TreeHugger.com:
Dangers of Bisphenol A (BPA) From canned food
According to the FDA, 17% of the American diet comes out of cans, and many of those have an epoxy liner made with Bisphenol A, a chemical which can mimic human estrogen and which is linked to breast cancer and early puberty in women. While the leaching of BPA from Nalgene water bottles and other polycarbonate bottles is a concern, the danger from canned food may be greater. The Environmental Working Group tested canned food bought across America and found BPA in more than half of them, at levels they call "200 times the government's traditional safe level of exposure for industrial chemicals." There are no standards for BPA; it is allowed to be put in anything, and billions of pounds are produced each year. EWG found:
Of all foods tested, chicken soup, infant formula, and ravioli had BPA levels of highest concern. Just one to three servings of foods with these concentrations could expose a woman or child to BPA at levels that caused serious adverse effects in animal tests.
Lunar Moth
French aghast at new English incursion to their language
To the barricades! That's the message of language purists aghast that the lyrics of France's entry in a hugely popular European song contest are - mon Dieu! - in English.
Critics, including the French government, are adamant: Sebastien Tellier should not perform "Divine" at Eurovision - unless it is in French.
"A song represents the soul of a country," said Marc Favre d'Echallens, who heads a group dedicated to defending French against the growing use of English.
"It appears logical that a song representing France be a French song sung in French," he said, denouncing cultural "uniformity" and the "hegemony" of the English language in the world today.
It's the latest battle in a war France has waged for decades to defend French against the encroachment - some call it the invasion - of the English language.
The televised May 24 Eurovision contest, with entries from Andorra to Russia, drew some 100 million viewers last year - when France placed 22 out of 24 finalists, with 19 points.
Serbia's Marija Serifovic won with 268 points and a heart-wrenching rendition of the ballad "Molitva," or "The Prayer" - sung in her native language.
France's losing entry mixed English and French, with the lyrics "L'amour a la francaise let's do it again, again, again, again."
Wildly popular in Europe, Eurovision has lifted artists from obscurity to celebrity. ABBA won in 1974 with a song that spoke of another French defeat - "Waterloo." And Celine Dion's win in 1988, singing "Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi" (Don't Leave Without Me), helped launch her career.
This year's contest features performers from 43 countries. Eurovision bills itself as one of the longest-running television shows in the world, with the first contest in 1956. France has won 14 times.
France's entry, "Divine," - with only two lines in French - was chosen by France-3, the public television station.
France's minister for cooperation and Francophonie, or French speakers, issued a strongly worded statement Wednesday reflecting his disapproval.
"When one has the honor of being selected to represent France, one sings in French," Alain Joyandet said. He has urged Tellier and France-3 to consider changing the song.
Joyandet was scheduled to meet Thursday with an official of Tellier's RecordMakers label, Stephane Elfassi.
Tellier was not immediately available to comment on the uproar. However, his producer, Marc Teissier du Cros of RecordMakers, said the singer "is quite amused."
After writing the song in English, Tellier "tried to adapt it in French but it didn't work out," du Cros said.
"For me, this is yesterday's debate," he said. "Today an artist ... has the right to choose the language in which he wants to sing."
Still, Eurovision statistics show English holds sway in the contest, in which viewers pick the winner by phone and text message. English or mostly English songs have won 22 times.
More than half of this year's Eurovision contestants - 25 - will sing in English.
Lawmaker Francois-Michel Gonnot of President Nicolas Sarkozy's governing conservative UMP party, set the nation's indignation in motion, asserting that he has received mail from French-speakers as far away as Vietnam and Africa, urging him to take a stand.
"'Be careful,' they wrote. 'If you, the French, don't defend the French language, who will?'" Gonnot told Associated Press Television News. "France has the will to be a great power, and it relies on its history, a culture and a language that today is spoken by 175 million people across the world."
But, he added, French is a "threatened language."
Ironically, English, too, may be losing ground if the lyrics of Tellier's "electro" tune are any indication. Their meaning may test the linguistic mettle of even some native English-speakers: "Oh oh oh / I'm alone in life to say / I love the Chivers anyway / 'Cause Chivers look divine." The meaning of Chivers is unclear.
In 2006, then-President Jacques Chirac stormed out of a European Union summit when a French industrialist spoke in English - and called it "the language of business."
"We fight for our language. It is in our international interest," Chirac said.
For years, English words have crept into the French language: le look, le weekend, le hotdog. But these days, everything from the soundtracks for television commercials to the lyrics of French pop songs are in English.
In France, some words have now been legislated into French, like "logiciel" for "software."
Indeed, kings and emperors preceded staid lawmakers in deciding how the French should talk. In 1510, Louis XII ordered that legal investigations be written in French.
Favre d'Echallens said one possible riposte to the "Divine" song would be withholding public funding for France-3 television. He said the broadcaster, by picking an English song, was failing in its public service missions, which he said include an obligation to promote French.
"It is the French who pay (the taxes) ... Maybe the French want to hear a song in French," Favre d'Echallens said.
Maybe.
Parisian Robert Tordjman, 73, said he just hopes Tellier wins for France.
"If it allows him to win the contest, then let him sing in English," Tordjman told APTN. "We'd accept it."
*****
File this under "Some need a life in a BAD way"!
Elephants thought extinct may have survived!
Something from the wild that is good news for a change:
Borneo's pygmy elephants may be descendants of an extinct Javan elephant race, saved by chance by an 18th century ruler, according to a new study released Thursday.
The study suggests that a small number of opposite-sex elephants can produce a thriving progeny of thousands if left undisturbed on an island, giving fresh hope to conservationists trying to protect nearly extinct species of large mammals.
"If proven, this fascinating story would demonstrate that very small populations of large mammals can be saved from the brink of extinction (simply by) moving a few individuals, from a seemingly doomed population, to a different and safer habitat," the study published in the Sarawak Museum Journal says.
Study co-author Junaidi Payne said the Sultan of Java in Indonesia in the 18th century likely sent some pygmy elephants as gifts to the Sultan of Sulu in the Philippines. The Sultan of Sulu at some point apparently shipped them to Borneo and abandoned them there for unknown reasons.
"There are a number of historical records of elephants shipped between various places in Asia by rulers as gifts to impress others," Payne told The Associated Press.
Borneo pygmy elephants, which are genetically distinct from other subspecies, grow less than about 8 feet compared to about 10 feet in height of Asian ale elephants.
They also have babyish faces, large ears and longer tails. They are more rotund and less aggressive.
The pygmy elephants in Java were extinct by the end of the 18th century, but the few that were brought to Borneo thrived, the study found.
Historically, Borneo never had any elephants and the origins of pygmy elephants - a distinct subspecies of its mainland Asian cousin - remained shrouded in mystery until now.
Borneo is a large island shared by Indonesia, Malaysia and the sultanate of Brunei. It is separated by at least 250 miles of sea from Java, the main island in Indonesia. Sulu is much farther to the east.
Payne said just one fertile female and one fertile male elephant, if left undisturbed in enough good habitat, could in theory end up as a population of 2,000 elephants within less than 300 years.
"And that may be what happened in practice here," said Payne, who works for the global conservation group World Wildlife Fund.
There are about 1,000 pygmy elephants in the wild in Borneo today, mostly in the Malaysian state of Sabah.
"If they came from Java, this fascinating story demonstrates the value of efforts to save even small populations of certain species, often thought to be doomed," said Christy Williams, coordinator of WWF's Asian elephant and rhino program.
Augustine Tuuga, assistant director of the Sabah Wildlife Department, said the study confirms what many conservationists have long believed - that a small number of animals can flourish into large herds even though they may have multiplied by inbreeding.
"My own feeling is that as long as there is no continous hunting and there is no problem about diseases their numbers will multiply," he said.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Science News
Scientists: Big Quake Likely in Calif.
California faces an almost certain risk of being rocked by a strong earthquake by 2037, scientists said in the first statewide temblor forecast.
New calculations reveal there is a 99.7 percent chance a magnitude 6.7 quake or larger will strike in the next 30 years. The odds of such an event are higher in Southern California than Northern California, 97 percent versus 93 percent.
"It basically guarantees it's going to happen," said Ned Field, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Pasadena and lead author of the report.
The 1994 Northridge earthquake under Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley was magnitude 6.7. It killed 72 people, injured more than 9,000 and caused $25 billion in damage in the metropolitan area.
The damage created by an earthquake depends greatly on where it hits. A 7.1 quake - much stronger than Northridge - hit the Mojave Desert in 1999 but caused only a few injuries and no deaths.
California is one of the world's most seismically active regions. More than 300 faults crisscross the state, which sits atop two of Earth's major tectonic plates, the Pacific and North American plates. About 10,000 quakes each year rattle Southern California alone, although most of them are too small to be felt.
The analysis is the first comprehensive effort by the USGS, Southern California Earthquake Center and California Geological Survey to calculate earthquake probabilities for the entire state using newly available data. Previous quake probabilities focused on specific regions and used various methodologies that made it difficult to compare.
For example, a 2003 report found the San Francisco Bay Area faced a 62 percent chance of being struck by a magnitude 6.7 quake by 2032. The new study increased the likelihood slightly to 63 percent by 2037. For the Los Angeles Basin, the probability is higher at 67 percent. There is no past comparison for the Los Angeles area.
Scientists still cannot predict exactly where in the state such a quake will occur or when. But they say the analysis should be a wake-up call for residents to prepare for a natural disaster in earthquake country.
Knowing the likelihood of a strong earthquake is the first step in allowing scientists to draw up hazard maps that show the potential severity of ground shaking in an area. The information can also help with updating building codes and emergency plans and setting earthquake insurance rates.
"A big earthquake can happen tomorrow or it can happen 10 years from now," said Tom Jordan, director of the earthquake center, which is headquartered at the University of Southern California.
Researchers also calculated the statewide probabilities for larger temblors over the same time period. Among their findings: There is a 94 percent chance of a magnitude 7 shock or larger; a 46 percent chance of a magnitude 7.5 and a 4.5 percent chance of a magnitude 8.
The odds are higher that a magnitude 7.5 quake will hit Southern California than Northern California - 37 percent versus 15 percent.
Of all the faults in the state, the southern San Andreas, which runs from Parkfield in central California southeast to the Salton Sea, appears most primed to break, scientists found. There is a 59 percent chance in the next three decades that a Northridge-size quake will occur on the fault compared to 21 percent for the northern section.
The northern San Andreas produced the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, but the southernmost segment has not popped in more than three centuries.
Scientists are also concerned about the Hayward and San Jacinto faults, which have a 31 percent chance of producing a Northridge-size temblor in the next 30 years. The Hayward fault runs through densely populated cities in the San Francisco Bay Area. The San Jacinto fault bisects the fast-growing city of San Bernardino east of Los Angeles.
___
If you are interested in more information and studies about California and the 'Big One' check out the following links.
On the Net:
U.S. Geological Survey: http://www.usgs.gov
Southern California Earthquake Center: http://www.scec.org
California Geological Survey: http://www.conservation.ca.gov/cgs/
"Normal" Life on Polygamous Church ranch.
Sect members say life 'normal' life on polygamous church ranch.
Members of the embattled polygamist sect said Wednesday life was relatively normal on their West Texas ranch at the center of one of the nation's largest child-custody cases.
The Yearning for Zion ranch is owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints that state authorities raided two weeks ago in search of a 16-year-old girl who claimed her husband beat and raped her.
Child welfare officials have removed all 416 children living there from the custody of their parents. The 16-year-old has yet to be found.
Members gave a few tours to show their lives - isolated from what they regard as a hostile and sinful outside world - center on family and faith.
A gleaming, white limestone temple is the center of the 1,700-acre ranch with large, log-style homes, a school, a dairy, a rock quarry and a community garden planted with vegetables, fruit trees and a grape arbor.
No one who lives here calls it a compound.
"All of us say the ranch. It's the ranch. It's home," said Rozie, a 23-year-old married member of the sect.
Each family begins and ends the day with prayer, said Dan, 24, whose wife remains housed in the San Angelo Colesium complex 45 miles to the north with their 4-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son.
"It is lifeless here without our kids around here" he said. Sect members won't allow their last names to be used because they worry about the effect on their children in state custody.
A custody hearing to begin to decide whether the children, who range in age from six months to 17 years, will be in permanent state custody begins Thursday.
*****
Not too sure what "normal" is but there is more to this than is known and it is not all the "church's" doings either.
The thing that troubles me about the whole thing is the original complainant that precipitated the 'raid' and the goings on that have followed has been 'identified' (though not named) and has not been found by the state authorities.
Two things ... one - is not the identity of an anonymous caller, anonymous; two - if they can't find the 16 year old female who they know the identity of, does she even exist?
If the answer to the first question is ... yes, then there are some people who have a lot of explaining to do.
If the answer is ... no, then we're screwed as a nation (as if we weren't already).
If the answer to the second question is ... yes, she does not exist, then there are some people that have a hell of a lot of explaining to do.
If the answer to the second question is ... no, she exists, then we are totally fucked as a nation ... they can't find their own informant - bad sign, a very bad sign.
Something They Aren't Telling Us About
By Greg Mitchell
Published: April 16, 2008 2:00 PM ET
The rate of suicides among military personnel in Iraq, who are suffering from multiple tours of duty, has surged in the past two years. E&P has chronicled this phenomenon for much longer than that.
In the latest case, John Brewer of the St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press reports on the death of Spc. Jacob J. Fairbanks, 22, who hailed from that city, last week while serving in Iraq, six months into his second tour of duty there with the Army.
The military says only that it is under investigation -- and that's where the reporting generally stops -- but the family of Fairbanks, 22, said the Army told them their son died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
"Part of my soul and heart is gone," said his mother, Janette Fairbanks, in the Pioneer Press story. "Part of me will be sad forever. My baby's gone." He leaves behind a wife and child and three step-children.
Fairbanks, a field artilleryman assigned to the 1st Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, was on his second tour in Iraq and was stationed in Baghdad.
Another soldier with the 101st Airborne, Shane Penley, age 19, also died last week from wounds suffered while stationed at a guard post. That, too, is "under investigation."
Fairbanks was a member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. His wife told family she had spoken with her husband via webcam for three hours before his death, and it was a "positive" conversation.
His mother said to Brewer: "I don't want any soldier to get killed over there, but why did it happen to my son? I just don't think it should have been him. He had his whole life ahead of him."
*
Greg Mitchell probes the little-covered suicide surge in his new book "So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundit -- and the President -- Failed on Iraq."
*****
Thanks for the piece usmc1.
Alligator Antibiotics?
Many of these critters live in "sort of nasty places" that are polluted, and gators probably eat all kinds of sick animals, comments Paul Klein, a reptile infectious disease specialist at the University of Florida College of Medicine in Gainesville. Fierce battles with prey and other gators can leave gaping flesh wounds—but the animals are fairly hardy. These peptides provide a first line of defense—important in the lower vertebrates, who have a slower antibody response than humans, says Klein."It seems Mother Nature has built in a circulating system of antimicrobial factories that protect the animals while they are waiting to develop the cell-mediated response that we would develop quickly," he says.
Tax Stamp for Drug Dealers
This "Special Tax Stamp," issued by the IRS in 1951 to a "retail dealer in opium, coca leaves, etc.," is up for auction on eBay. Starting bid is $7.95.
Detached Ear
Like I said I never do anything half ass - have a csyt ... detach an ear.
Well the first two threads came out with ease then the third one said whoa there buddy and the ear seperated from the head a bit so no more thread removal ... at least until next Tuesday.
Doc says it will be fine but wanted to wait to remove the rest of the thread holding my ear on my head.
Most likely won't even be a scar (I heal extremely well - which knowing me is an extremely good thing, too).
What is funniest is that I detach and ear and begin to hear better!
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Daily Funny
He stopped dead in his tracks and listened. A minute went by and he heard nothing, so he started to move again. "Jesus is watching", came the voice in the dark.
His eyes were adjusting to the light and he noticed a cage in the corner containing a parrot. "Was that you talking, bird?"
The parrot said, "Yes."
"What's your name little bird?"
“‘Clarence’", the parrot said.
"‘Clarence‘? who would name a bird ‘Clarence’?" the burglar laughed.
The parrot said, "The same person who named the Rottweiler ‘Jesus’"!
Something is a bit off here ...
Something is a bit off here ... can't put my finger on it, but it's there somewhere.
1893 Laptop
Measuring 12 inches long by 6-1/2 inches wide by 2 inches deep, and weighing a mere 3 pounds, the World typewriter was roughly the same size as many of today's laptop computers. Instead of a keyboard, however, the World used a dial; users chose a character with the right hand, then used the left to operate a lever that pressed it into the paper. Yet another lever was used to make spaces between words. Even so, the World typewriter was said to be
8 Year-Old Suspended
Today, my wife showed me an article about an 8-year-old Colorado boy who is unlucky enough to attend a school run by morons. When he took a sniff of a Sharpie in class, the principal suspended him.
I agree the the principal sent a "clear message." The message is that this was a piss poor decision and his refusal to acknowledge it makes him unfit to be principal of a school.A teacher sent him to the principal when she noticed him smelling the marker and his clothing.
"It smelled good," [Eathan] Harris said. "They told me that's wrong."
Eathan shyly shook his head "no" when a reporter asked if he knew about "huffing."
[Principal Chris] Benisch stands by his decision to suspend Harris, saying it sends a clear message about substance abuse.
"This is really, really, seriously dangerous," Benisch said.
In his letter suspending the child, Benisch wrote that smelling the marker fumes could cause the boy to "become intoxicated."
A toxicologist with the Rocky Mountain Poison Control Center says that claim is nearly impossible.
Also, what about his clothing? What made the teacher 'notice' that? Judging from the idiocy displayed by the school I think he must have been wearing red on green day!
Monday, April 14, 2008
Daily Funny
When they arrived at the counselor's office, the counselor jumped right in and opened the floor for discussion. "What seems to be the problem?"
Immediately, the husband held his long face down without anything to say. In contrast, the wife began talking 90 miles an hour, describing all the wrongs within their marriage.
After 15 minutes of listening to the wife, the counselor went over to her, picked her up by her shoulders, kissed her passionately and sat her back down. Afterwards, the wife sat speechless.
The marriage counselor looked over at the husband, who stared in disbelief. The counselor said to the husband, "Your wife NEEDS that at least twice a week!"
The husband scratched his head and replied, "I can have her here on Tuesdays and Thursdays."
Something to think on ...
Naked Nomad leaves multi-million dollar estate
Victor Flanagan, also known as the “Naked Nomad”, was declared “presumed dead” in the Supreme Court in Perth last week – more than a decade after he last spoke to his sister.
The West Australian reported that a multi-million dollar beachfront property near Busselton would be left to his sister. Flanagan had inherited the property after their father’s death.
Mrs Jenkins told the court that she last spoke to Flanagan in 1996, while he was living in Papua New Guinea. He had relocated to PNG after years of wandering around outback Australia naked – except for a sarong he would wear when walking through towns and a pair of thongs for when there were too many prickles on the road.
Mrs Jenkins said loggers at a remote camp found a dying Caucasian man lying in a canoe – without any clothing – and that she believed it was her brother.
The man’s body had been buried in a mass grave in the PNG city of Lae, where other unidentified people were laid to rest, she said.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
What kind of Rocker are you?
You Are a Freedom Rocker!
You're stuck in the 70s - for better or worse
Crazy hair, pot soaked clothes, and tons of groupies
Your kind showed the world how to rock
Is that freedom rock?... Well turn it up man!
Friday, April 11, 2008
Does this surprise anyone?
Taco Bell, Wal-Mart, NRA Hired 'Black Ops' Company that Targeted Environmental Groups
Dumpster-diving firm collected Social Security numbers of activists
A private security firm managed by former Secret Service officers spied on myriad environmental organizations throughout the 1990s and the year 2000, thieving documents, trying to plant undercover operations and collecting phone records of members, according to a new report.
Documents obtained by James Ridgeway, a Mother Jones correspondent formerly with the Village Voice, reveals the contractor collected confidential internal records -- donor lists, financial statements -- even Social Security numbers, for public relations outfits and "corporations involved in environmental controversies."
Beckett Brown International also offered "intelligence" services to the Carlyle Group, the controversial DC-based investment company; "protective services" for the National Rifle Association; "crisis management" for the Gallo wine company and for Pirelli; "information collection" for Wal-Mart.
"Also listed as clients in BBI records," Ridgeway reveals: "Halliburton and Monsanto."
Like other firms specializing in snooping, Beckett Brown turned to garbage swiping as a key tactic. BBI officials and contractors routinely conducted what the firm referred to as "D-line" operations, in which its operatives would seek access to the trash of a target, with the hope of finding useful documents. One midnight raid targeted Greenpeace. One BBI document lists the addresses of several other environmental groups as "possible sites" for operations: the National Environmental Trust, the Center for Food Safety, Environmental Media Services, the Environmental Working Group, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, and the Center for Health, Environment and Justice, an organization run by Lois Gibbs, famous for exposing the toxic dangers of New York's Love Canal. For its rubbish-rifling operations, BBI employed a police officer in the District of Columbia and a former member of the Maryland state police.
Taco Bell genetic corn fiasco
The documents reveal spy thriller-like absurdities: a spy job on groups that had discovered Kraft's Taco Bell was using genetically-engineered corn not approved for human consumption and planned to make a fuss. A former Secret Service agent working for the company emailed another man on the payroll -- an erstwhile Maryland police officer.
Received a call from Ketchum yesterday afternoon re three sites in DC. It seems Taco Bell turned out some product made from bioengineered corn. The chemicals used on the corn have not been approved for human consumption. Hence Taco Bell produced potential glow-in-the-dark tacos. Taco Bell is owned by Kraft. The Ketchum Office, New York, has the ball. They suspect the initiative is being generated from one of three places:
1. Center for Food Safety, 7th & Penn SE
2. Friends of the Earth, 1025 Vermont Ave (Between K & L Streets)
3. GE Food Alert, 1200 18th St NW (18th & M)
#1 is located on 3rd floor. Main entrance is key card. Alley is locked by iron gates. 7 dempsters [sic] in alley—take your pick.
#2 is in the same building as Chile Embassy. Armed guard in lobby & cameras everywhere. There is a dumpster in the alley behind the building. Don't know if it is tied to bldg. or a neighborhood property. Cameras everywhere.
#3 is doable but behind locked iron gates at rear of bldg.
Taco Bell has also raised the heckles of activists for the price it paid those who produced its tomatoes. After a protracted campaign by a Florida group, the firm agreed to pay an extra penny for each pound of tomatoes it buys from farm workers.
The company took three years to increase their payment per pound by a cent, which they did in 2005.
Taking out Greenpeace's trash
An eyewitness described a 'black op' on Greenpeace, one of the world's largest environmental activist groups.
"It was Mission Impossible-like," the witness remarked. The firm collected internal reports from Greenpeace's garbage. They attempted to crack the codes on the organization's front doors.
Technically, the firm has dissolved. But they're not down and out.
"As for BBI's principals," Ridgeway writes, "they are still operating. Tim Ward now runs a security firm called Chesapeake Strategies, which bills itself as 'a multinational security and investigative firm comprised of professionals with extensive security experience.' Jay Bly works there. Its website boasts that it maintains affiliated offices in Paris, Beijng, Tokyo, Qatar, and Kuwait and that 'many team members continue to hold Secret and Top Secret government security clearances.'
Just A Fact:
Interesting Fact:
Outside groups have contributed over 17 million dollars thus far as compared to around 9 million dollars for the same time period in the 2004 election.
Interesting, isn't it.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Bad News I'm Afraid
West Coast fisheries managers have voted to cancel all commercial salmon fishing off the California and Oregon coasts this year. The Pacific Fishery Management Council voted Thursday to allow limited recreational fishing of coho salmon on holiday weekends off the Oregon coast.
Scientists and government officials are expecting this year's West Coast salmon season to be one of the worst in history. Although commercial salmon fishing off the Washington coast is scheduled to begin May 1, fisheries managers do not predict a good season off either the north or south Pacific coasts.
The council's decision must be confirmed by the National Marine Fisheries Service.
Be Conservative - And stay out of college.
Or at least learning from the "American Government" textbook will.
A CIVICS LESSON: High school senior Matthew LaClair of Kearny, N.J., brought his concerns about political bias in a civics textbook to the attention of a think tank that promotes science. It issued a scathing report about the textbook.
HIS SUPPORT: Legal scholars and scientists say "American Government" by conservatives James Wilson and John Dilulio presents a skewed view of topics from global warming to separation of church and state.
NEXT STEP: The publisher now says it will review the book, as will the College Board, which oversees college-level Advanced Placement courses used in high schools.
The "Fifth" Fuel
So far, so good. Where it gets weird is in the reward Duke sought for being virtuous: a new fee (starting at $15 per customer per year) that would compensate the utility for the electricity it didn't sell because of decreased demand. That fee was based not only on program costs or unsold wattage, but also on the cost of the power plants the utility would have had to build if customers didn't conserve.
That's not how Duke Energy phrased it, of course: Duke Energy's spin was that they would be generously allowing consumers to save 10% of the cost of producing and supplying the energy they didn't use. But turn that around, and you see what's really going on: Duke essentially wanted to sell this "fifth fuel" - ghost power produced by ghost plants - for almost as much as they sold real power produced by real plants that they themselves built. That's a neat trick!
You would think that Duke Energy was trying to head off any attempt by the Utility Commission or the General Assembly to "decouple" electricity rates - that is, to set in place a system whereby utilities receive a set revenue even if demand decreases. This is usually done by promising to increase the profit the utility receives for each unit sold - provided that the utility actively promotes conservation and efficiency. Such increases almost never include the costs of building new plants, however, so you've got to hand it to Duke Energy for trying to widen the range of the debate.
NYC Cops face random Steroid Testing
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Wednesday that the testing is going to start this summer. Any officer who tests positive for steroids could be disciplined or fired.
The decision to give the tests follows an investigation of a pharmacy suspected of peddling steroids without prescriptions. The customers allegedly included police bodybuilders and six officers have been suspended or given desk duty after testing positive for steroids.
*****
I would submit that such testing be required for all government and public servant positions nationwide because abuse of steroids is not limited to athletes nor to NYC alone.
All it takes is one 'officer' under the influence of 'Roid Rage' with a gun ... and you get the idea.
It has already happened and has been 'smoothed over' on more than one occasion - so test'em and fire'em should they test positive the first time - no ifs ands or buts.
French Fashion Industry Against Anorexia
The document, backed by the Health Ministry, asks signatories to work toward "a diversity of body representations" and "not to show images of people that could help promote a model of extreme thinness."
The international fashion industry has drawn criticism for stressing the super-thin look. Concerns about anorexia have grown in France - and around the world - since the reportedly anorexia-related deaths of several South American models in 2006, including Brazilian Ana Carolina Reston.
Guidelines have been in place in France since the 1980s to regulate French modeling agencies, including mandatory medical visits for models under 16.
The nonbinding charter was signed by groups including the French Couture Federation, the French Federation for Women's Pret-a-Porter and the Union of Modeling Agencies, as well as some representatives of advertising and media.
Officials in other countries have taken much more dramatic measures to promote healthy body images. The Madrid fashion show bans women whose body mass-to-height ratio is below 18, while Milan bans models below 18.5.
However, another much tougher, and more contested, measure against eating disorders is to go before France's parliament this month.
Valerie Boyer, a lawmaker from President Nicolas Sarkozy's party, has proposed a bill to make it possible to convict people responsible for Web sites or fashion ads that promote anorexia, with penalties of up to two years in prison and over $47,000 in fines.
The bill is set to go before the National Assembly next week.
The French Health Ministry says about 30,000 to 40,000 people suffer from anorexia in France, the vast majority women.
*****
Don't know about you but this smacks a bit of the hypocritical.
While the idea is a good one and long overdue I do not see any industry self regulating itself out of mega profits ... which is what this could do if they actually did as the non-binding agreement states. To see how well an industry self-regulates one need not look further than the Oil Industry - and we know how they 'regulate' themselves now don't we?!
Truisms
laxative on the same night.
2. Don't worry about what people think, they don't do it very
often.
3. Going to church doesn't make you a Christian anymore than
standing in a garage makes you a car.
4. Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.
5. If you must choose between two evils, pick the one you've
never tried before.
6. My idea of housework is to sweep the room with a glance.
7. Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is
serious.
8. It is easier to get forgiveness than permission.
9. For every action, there is an equal and opposite government
program.
10. If you look like your passport picture, you are probably too
sick to travel.
11. Bills travel through the mail at twice the speed of cheques.
12. A conscience is what hurts when all of your other parts feel
so good.
13. Eat well, stay fit, DIE ANYWAY.
14. Men are from earth. Women are from earth. Deal with it.
15. No man has ever been shot while doing the dishes.
16. A balanced diet is a beer in each hand.
17. Middle age is when broadness of the mind and narrowness of
the waist change places.
18. Opportunities always look bigger going than coming.
19. Junk is something you've kept for years and throw away three
weeks
before you need it.
20. There is always one more imbecile than you counted on .
21. Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize
a mistake when you make it again.
22. By the time you can make ends meet, they move the ends.
23. Thou shalt not weigh more than thy refrigerator.
24. Someone who thinks logically provides a nice contrast to the
real world.
25. It ain't the jeans that make your bum look fat.
26. If you had to identify, in 1 word, the reason why the human
race has not achieved, & never will achieve, its full potential, that
word would be 'meetings.'
27. There is a very fine line between 'hobby' and 'mental
illness.'
28. People who want to share their religious views with you
almost never want you to share yours with them.
29. You should not confuse your career with your life.
30. Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.
31. Never lick a steak knife.
32.. The most destructive force in the universe is gossip.
33. You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely
suggests that you think she's pregnant unless you can see an actual
baby emerging from her at that moment.
34 . There comes a time when you should stop expecting other
people to make a big deal about your birthday. That time is age
eleven.
35. The one thing that unites all human beings, reg ardless of
age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that,
deep down inside, we ALL believe that we are above average drivers.
36. A person, who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not
a nice person. (This is very important. Pay attention. It never
fails.)
37. Your friends love you anyway.
38. Don't argue with an idiot; people watching may not be able
to tell the difference..
Alligator Stands On Hind Legs
The 80-centimeter-long male alligator was first spotted standing up about two years ago, when water that a keeper poured on plants in his cage splashed on him...
From this year, Daigoro, a three-year-old dwarf caiman alligator from South America, has been entertaining visitors by performing the stand-up show every noon when a keeper pours water on it.
Now, if that don't beat all!
Sad News
He was buried in a lightly greased coffin. Dozens of celebrities turned out to pay their respects, including Mrs. Butterworth, Hungry Jack, the California Raisins, Betty Crocker, the Hostess Twinkies, and Captain Crunch. The grave site was piled high with flours.
Aunt Jemima delivered the eulogy and lovingly described the Doughboy as a man who never knew how much he was kneaded. Doughboy rose quickly in show business, but his later life was filled with turnovers. He was not considered a very smart cookie, wasting much of his dough on half-baked schemes.
Despite being a little flaky at times, he was still a crusty old man and was considered a positive roll model for millions.
Doughboy is survived by his wife Play Dough, two children, John Dough and Jane Dough, plus they had one in the oven. He is also survived by his elderly father, Pop Tart.
The funeral was held at 350 for about 20 minutes.
How to make a Conservative.
1. Start with a cage containing five apes. In the cage, hang a banana on a string and put stairs under it. Before long, an ape will go to the stairs and start to climb for the banana.
2. As soon as the ape touches the stairs, spray all of the apes with cold water. After a while, another ape makes an attempt with the same result - all the apes are sprayed with cold water.
3. Turn off the cold water. If, later, another ape tries to climb the stairs, the other apes will prevent it even though no water sprays them.
4. Now, remove one ape from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new ape sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his horror, all of the apes attack him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.
5. Next, remove another of the original five apes and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The other newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm.
6. Again, replace a third original ape with a new one. The new one makes it to the stairs and is attacked as well. Two of the four apes that beat him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs, or why they are participating in the beating of the newest ape.
7. After replacing the fourth and fifth original apes, all the apes which have been sprayed with cold water have been replaced. Nevertheless, no ape ever again approaches the stairs.
Why not?
BECAUSE ... "that's the way it's always been done around here."
Viola, a Conservative is born.
Daily Quote
The intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, the sensible man hardly anything.
~ Johann von Goethe
Arid period
Life is like that sometime.
It's Always Sunny in Carolina
But ...
Actually there is no, but, but I thought a pregnant pause would get your attention.
How many of you participate in online forums discussions? And have you noticed a severe turn toward censorship of any opinion(s) not in the ’conservative’ vein on them - I have. This is bad, bad, bad, censorship of any kind is bad.
I am still working on setting up a forum somewhat akin to HipForums - in that they are an omibus type of forum for every topic imaginable only geared to a general audience and not just the twentysomethings as are HipForums. We will see if I can get them to work.
Friday, January 25, 2008
You may adress me as "Lord"
Or as we Scots say it "Laird"
Has a nice ring to it. Doesn't it.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Adventures In Chaos
I can get back to this blog as well as her sister blogs.
I have been spending a lot of time doing some of the things we had planned to do before the Mrs., went in the hospital and the months of recovery.
Also, I have a ton of friends on My Space so I have been on it a lot as well.
And to think I thought I'd retired, but with a farm and all the other stuff I seem to have gotten myself into resting and relaxing is out of the question.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Panthers Win with Testaverde
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
I'm Back
Opening the RenFaire this year was a chore but we did it.
It was bloody hot, too!
Ever tried wearing 16oz wool and velvet in 100 degree heat?!
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Today In History
Yesterday In History
For those who do not know who he was, you might remember his most famous quote:
Give me liberty or give me death!
A sentiment that rings true today among 'real' patriots and no those squatting in the White House and their sycophants and supporters are NOT real patriots!
